Chapter 49

Not mentioning his age would have been fine, but as soon as he said it, everyone present, including Uzi, fell silent.

They all played Old Man Cup together, and they had always subconsciously thought Su Xing was their peer; after he said that, they realized his age was actually not that great. 'Time is a butcher's knife.'

Uzi sighed: 'Seriously, you're only 22—do you really want to consider going back to the LPL?'

In terms of age, 22 is practically the golden age across the whole professional scene—haven't you seen that there's still a bunch of old timers active on the LPL stage?

Noob, little tiger etc. not worth mentioning— the sole true god of the neighboring region has been playing for 11 years and still makes finals every year! As for strength, there's no point talking about yesterday's match against Zi Tai and Xiaocaobao lacking gold content, but today he actually gave doinb a thorough beating!

I wouldn't dare say this state is much stronger than those top-tier mids, but playing in the LPL should still be easy pickings, especially letting him recover and train for half a month to return to peak form isn't impossible.

'I'm already playing Old Man Cup—you want me to go back and play the LPL?'

Su Xing looked puzzled, buddy—you retired but can still make a comeback, right?

'A comeback—what's the big deal?'

Uzi said carelessly: 'It's no big deal; as long as you have that intention, I dare say many LPL teams will come looking for you.'

'Indeed, Gou Ye has plenty of experience in that.'

AJ gave a sharp comment, and the voice chat instantly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

It was only then that Su Xing learned via the barrage that, after the S9 season ended, Uzi had indeed chosen to comeback after resting—and not just once.

That's just how it turned out—hard to put into words.

Soon both sides entered the valley fountain; during that time Su Xing used Prophet Replay to capture some details and habits of doinb's lane, while he didn't deliberately seek information about others.

Because there was no need for that,

The opposing side were basically active LPL players, while ours were all old-timers; the gap couldn't be filled just by having enough information, because if you can't win, you can't win.

All he needs to do now is gain as much advantage as possible in the shortest time,

Put simply, as long as he kills faster than his teammates, their disadvantages cease to be disadvantages.

As for Xiao Pao's proficiency, with the help of practice matches he also got a huge boost—although doing over thirty one-key sweeps won't turn him into Xiao Pao the god, it's enough to face a retired player like doinb! Not long after the minion wave appeared, both sides' players showed up in lane as usual.

The early laning phase was rather dull; top lane needs no explanation—level and experience pressure are inevitable; as for jungling, there wasn't much difference early on, at most Little Le Yan's jungle clear speed was a bit faster.

Mid lane currently looks even; after all, Xiao Pao as a solo laner hardly has any chance to secure kills early on, the only thing worth celebrating is that Su Xing managed to gain lane priority.

With doinb picking Ka Er Ma, if he wants to contest lane priority against Su Xing he can't use skills to push the wave; conversely, if he wants to push, he can't use skills to harass Su Xing.

It's not surprising that the bot lane ended up at a slight disadvantage; although Uzi's strength isn't far behind Zhang Wuji's, bot lane is a two‑person affair, especially in the laning phase where you basically follow the support's lead.

When the supports on both sides have a clear gap, even if you're Uzi you can't rely on yourself to create an advantage.

But the turning point came quickly,

Little Le Yan's leopard woman jungle clear speed really had something—by the time he had cleared six monster groups and reached level four, Bei Shang's Moonstone was still hitting the red buff.

After killing the top lane River Crab, Little Le Yan pinged mid lane, intending to control both river crabs, and he also knew that at this point Bei Shang's Moonstone would surely have realized the top lane River Crab was gone, so in that situation Moonstone would definitely come to the lower jungle.

If a 2v2 erupts in mid‑jungle, our side's combat power would be noticeably weaker.

The combined burst of Xiao Pao and Moonstone is more than enough to instantly kill Le Yan's leopard woman or doinb's Ka Er Ma, so his plan is simple: when passing mid lane, he'll whittle down Xiao Pao's HP.

That way, the 2v2 in the lower half can't be fought, and he can naturally take both river crabs.

But he didn't expect Su Xing to have already seen through his plan, directly calling Bei Shang—who had just finished the Stone Man and wanted to head straight to the lower half—over.

'Wait here, the leopard woman will come over to chip away at my HP.'

Su Xing pinged the river entrance next to F6, signaling Bei Shang's Moonstone to come wait here. 'Here.'

Normally Bei Shang might hesitate a bit, but this time his opponent is an actual active LPL player, so he feels considerable pressure and even seems at a loss; thus Su Xing speaking up to direct is like giving him a reassurance pill.

'3, 2, 1'

After the mental countdown finished, a humanoid leopard woman indeed appeared in the bush.

Le Yan was extremely confident in himself; after a brief observation he felt he had grasped Su Xing's movement pattern, and he decisively unleashed his Q ability.

But it missed.

Le Yan: '? No, buddy, isn't your habit to go left?' 'Ah?'

Doinb also froze; he had even prepared to give himself a speed boost and then, seizing the chance, move in to throw an RQ to drain its HP.

The result: 'As if I never came.'

Little Le Yan gave an embarrassed smile, but just as he was about to leave, an arc‑shaped skill effect appeared in a blind spot on the flank.

Moonstone's Q ability, Crescent Strike! 'Oh no.'

Little Le Yan's heart skipped a beat—he also hadn't expected Bei Shang's Moonstone to be waiting for him here!

The next second Moonstone used its E to leap beside him, while at the same time Su Xing's Xiao Pao, with WE pressed together, jumped onto his face; their combined output was tremendous! 'RIP!'

Le Yan lifted both hands from the keyboard—he wasn't so foolish as to still have to flash out at this point.

Because besides Moonstone still having one E for repositioning, Xiao Pao can also trigger its E explosion via a basic attack to refresh W, granting another W jump.

First Blood!

In the blink of an eye Su Xing's Xiao Pao secured first blood; as for doinb, seeing this he didn't even turn his head back, retreating to keep a certain distance from the opposing mid and jungle.

'This is a bit awkward.'

Doinb had no way to deal with that scene—he did everything he could, but the burst from Moonstone plus Xiao Pao was indeed exaggerated.

'It's fine; that's just how we play the leopard woman.'

Le Yan spoke self‑deprecatingly: 'See a person and you just Q—whether it hits or not, you consider whether to jump in; unlike you mid laners, who have a lot more to think about.'

I've always been reading everyone's comments, and regarding the places the crowd complains about, I'm actually thinking of ways to improve.

For example, Gao Wen appearing at the start,

When I was planning the story I didn't realize I'd been away from this circle too long; many of my ideas are out of date, but the main point is to listen to advice—I've already made revisions as much as possible without affecting later content.

Also, there's the issue of the protagonist's support teaching—this too was poorly considered and I didn't timely flesh out the setting, but this hook is important, so I've made some additions in chapter one; later plot will play a rather important role.

Furthermore, readers pointed out that the pacing in the section about Zi Tai was too slow, affecting their ability to keep up; I thought long and hard but didn't see where the problem lay—thanks to reader 【Feng Qiong Ren】 for the reminder.

Indeed, it's also because I was too eager to dump all the ideas I wanted to write at once, thereby neglecting the story's pacing.

Still that same line: I have been away from this circle for far too long, many online novels' mindset is still stuck in the 2018 era, and during this time I have been studying the strengths of the currently popular books on the ranking list, hoping I can synthesize them and give everyone a better reading experience.

Thank you all.

2024.6.4, Pu Jie, the author, respectfully.

(End of chapter)