Chapter 30: E-Flash: The Shockwave from the Dump Truck Barrel

Jiang Ming sensed something unusual in Ruofeng's card positioning.

"Is someone coming?"

Back in the S3 era, when players—whether casual or pro—loved raw, fist-to-fist fights and would jump into battle at the slightest provocation, they were straightforward and endearing.

This is worlds apart from the later era where every single minion lane position, vision placement, or jungle spawn timing could reveal your jungler's location—all veteran players, all old coins.

He decided to play along.

He clicked the ground with his mouse, feigning an aggressive barrel roll to appear as if he was about to initiate with E for a solo kill, then moved closer to the right river brush, creating distance to lure Ruofeng's card into using W to cut in with the yellow card, or to tempt some blind monk in the shadows to initiate with Heavenly Sound Wave.

"The goddess of luck is smiling!"

"I can smell his stench."

When Ruofeng and Ming Kai actually moved in, the barrel's positioning from the purple side's view was a perfect opportunity for an early gank.

【Heavenly Sound Wave】【Card Pick—Yellow】

Two skills flew simultaneously toward the blue barrel; as both projectiles were mid-air, Jiang Ming instantly pressed W, drank a sip of 1982 vintage liquor, gained 【Drunk Fury】 damage reduction, tanked the damage, and immediately fired Q behind the card.

"Brother Ming, don't panic—I'm coming to save you!"

Seeing the blind monk's position, the imperial prince stepped forward with spear raised, terrified that a single delayed move might cost his boss his life—Shi Zhenyu instantly flashed EQ.

The blind monk and card were launched into the air.

"Damn, we got ambushed."

The WE jungler and mid laner turned pale: "Still, good—we've got the blind monk blocking the front; the barrel's E won't hit me."

Ruofeng reassured himself with this thought.

Once the knock-up ended, he'd just use Flash to retreat under tower—worst case, he'd lose only the blind monk's Flash, a jungler Flash traded for Flash… acceptable.

But Jiang Ming's target from the start was never the jungler blind monk; a healthy blind monk with Flash still available was too hard to lock down.

Watching the card instinctively dash toward his own tower in a right-angle path, Jiang Ming moved—the barrel preemptively E'd toward the upper right.

"???"

Did he give up Flash to chase the card, trying to catch me instead?

The young man Ming Kai smirked slyly: "Kid, you probably don't know my nickname."

Trying to catch me? You've got years to go.

Boom!

A white flash lit up the battlefield—but it wasn't the blind monk's Flash.

The Gargantuan, riding his meaty charge through the air, vanished—then reappeared behind the blind monk.

His belly slammed hard into the Bilgewater gambler.

Ruofeng:???

Shi Zhenyu:???

Audience:!!!!

…

On screen, the barrel's bulky body traced a physically impossible zigzag path, instantly flashing from the side minion line to face the card—E skill triggered, damage popped as the barrel's body blocked the card, landing a basic attack; combined with the Q skill that had rolled to its endpoint and exploded moments earlier, Jiang Ming added Ignite + basic attack, instantly securing the kill on Master Yi.

FirstBlood!

The first blood announcement echoed.

Yet beyond the players in-game, all external audience attention was fixed on the barrel's recent maneuver.

【!!!】

【What the hell was that?!】

【Did the barrel use E then Flash? Did I just hallucinate?】

【???? Can you even combo E with Flash??】

【Cheating! Report! This guy's movement has a bend?! He just skipped right over the blind monk!】

【I screenshoted Ruofeng's face right before he got launched—pupil earthquake, hahaha!】

【Is the streamer playing barrel or a dump truck???】

【Coach, I wanna learn this!!!】

【S1 Master says he didn't see this play—streamer, please explain!】

【Everyone, type "Meat Bomb Scallion Chicken" on chat!!!】

The chat in every player's livestream exploded, and many third-party OB viewers screamed in shock.

What was that move?

(Everyone) Clearlove: "JM, was that a bug? Can you use Flash mid-E with the barrel?"

Jiang Ming, who had already anticipated this reaction after using E-Flash, typed a reply while explaining in the livestream: "It's not a bug—I call this maneuver E-Flash."

"As the name suggests, it's using Flash mid-traveling skill to extend or alter the skill's direction—a very practical technique."

"But because Riot hasn't optimized skill interactions well for some champions, pressing Flash mid-cast often interrupts the skill, making it look like a bug."

Here, Jiang Ming blinked at the camera: "Riot game designers—if you're watching my stream today, could you consider improving hero skill interaction mechanics in future updates?"

"By the way, in my private tests, I found many champions can use skill + Flash combos—just with low success rates."

Whoa!

The livestream audience erupted.

What did JM just say?

It's not a bug—it's a technique you can practice?

Barrel E-Flash… and other champions can do this too?

Many casual players felt thunderclaps roll through their minds—then Jiang Ming's follow-up sent them all reeling.

Holy crap, are you out here yelling at the game designers? Hero skill interaction mechanics?

What the hell is that?

Many found it cool, many saw it as a treasure, but plenty more sneered, thinking the streamer was just trying to shock and attract attention.

Yet many of Jiang Ming's fans expressed support, because over the past half year, his numerous tutorial videos had proven him to be a true master of the game.

If it weren't real, there'd be no point shouting at the designers from afar.

At that moment, Jiang Ming's livestream exploded in popularity, with concurrent viewers surging past all previous records; #BarrelEFlash# and #LOLHighRankPlayerYellsAtDesignersFromAfar# instantly topped Weibo's trending list.

On Baidu Tieba, threads like "Rational Discussion: Does This E-Flash Mean Barrel Will Dominate the Mid Lane?" and "Waiting for JM's Update—Are There Other Heroes He Mentioned That Can Combine Skills with Flash? Is It Real?" surged like waves.

……

To be honest, Jiang Ming himself hadn't anticipated the audience's reaction.

He had underestimated the impact of introducing a gameplay mechanic far beyond this era.

It made sense—Blind Monk had become the most beloved jungler on the Chinese server. Why would Tencent dare sell a Dragon's Eye Blind Monk with no visual effects for over a thousand yuan? Wasn't it precisely because Blind Monk's moves looked stunning, and everyone wanted to show off their spinning kick and R-Flash to make others gasp in awe?