Chapter 114: The Age of the Archmage Has Passed

"Damn it!"

"Anger points from Xiao Jue +1000."

He truly could not take it anymore. Why was this Nuwa always able to ruin his plans at the most critical moments?

In the final team fight of this match, his sniping accuracy had even begun to slip. When the opposing Kai charged the high ground with Sun Bin, he had no choice but to abandon his sniping and switch to basic attacks on Kai to supplement Gongsun Li’s damage.

Of course, what infuriated him most was the final moment. Seeing that the situation was lost, he spotted the cannon minion under the tower that hadn't been cleared yet. He tried to Flash forward to finish it off in a final act of desperation, only for Lin Hao to use a Flash-push to send him back!

The cubes bloomed, and Kai followed up with a slash, instantly killing the Shouyue.

In that sequence, Shouyue hadn't even managed to trigger a movement skill.

It was over.

"That Flash-push was slick!"

"Haoran really loves his minions like his own children!"

"Amazing, brothers, just amazing!"

Lin Hao shook his head with a smile. "There was another wave of minions coming; even if that one was gone, there was still a chance to end it."

In truth, this play was clearly a tactical error on Xiao Jue's part. If he had retreated immediately to wait for the next wave, he could have fought Lin Hao and his team again, and if his aim remained sharp, he might have had a chance.

After all, Lin Hao’s side was not in great health, and they lacked a dedicated marksman.

That was why Lin Hao had used his Flash-push; the underlying reason was his prediction of the distance Xiao Jue would Flash backward, intending to lock him down.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Jue had a momentary lapse in judgment at the last second, thinking he could kill the final minion, which accidentally played right into Lin Hao’s hands. He was pushed back and couldn't even get that last attack off.

In the end, Kai died while tanking the tower, leaving only Sun Bin, Nuwa, and a relatively healthy Lu Bu remaining.

As the second wave of minions in the top lane arrived, Lin Hao’s team pushed the tower and clicked the crystal.

After a dozen minutes, the opponents' respawn times were over twenty seconds. Fighting on the high ground, pushing the opponent's crystal was more than enough.

"VICTORY!"

In Coach Ge’s livestream, he watched the opposing crystal explode and clapped his hands hard. "NICE!"

They had secured another point, bringing the teams to a two-to-two tie.

"If I had to give out an MVP for this match, I’d give it to Nuwa," Coach Ge chatted with the audience after the game ended and before the teams reconnected to the voice channel.

"Haoran has pushed Nuwa to the absolute limit. Whether it's skill accuracy or team-fight support, he has reached a level of perfection."

"And have you noticed? His movement is bizarre. Even Xiao Jue, the 'Sniper God' of the KPL, didn't manage to hit him many times this game, did he?"

***

The coaches reconnected on the voice channel.

"Coach Ge, your Haoran is too strong, isn't he? Damn, we wanted to use Mid-lane Shouyue to suppress Yuan Ge, but we never expected him to pull out such a terrifying weapon as Nuwa!"

"Haha, to be honest, I didn't even know he could play Nuwa at first. It was his own strong request to pick her," Coach Ge waved his hand proudly.

"Haha, well, let's continue then. It's two-to-two now. Good luck, good luck."

The chat with Tommy ended. Coach Ge suddenly frowned as he looked at the roster, deep in thought.

In the chat, people were still spamming: "Let Haoran play the next one!"

"Haven't you noticed they won both games Haoran played?"

"Coach Ge, I strongly suggest letting Haoran continue. Let him play top lane if you have to!"

"Exactly, Haoran is the kind of guy who can create hype even in top-tier peak matches."

Coach Ge felt a headache coming on.

In fact, the roster for the seven matches had been arranged long ago. Every player on the list was required to play at least twice.

Coach Ge had a relatively high number of mid-laners and top-laners. Moreover, he was highly competitive. In his view, for professional matches, the tactical execution of professional players was surely higher than that of streamers, not to mention their hero pools.

Therefore, he had only slated Lin Hao for two games—these third and fourth matches—playing as Mid-lane Yuan Ge, or filling in as a mage for the jungler or top laner.

As for playing Yuan Ge in the side lane?

Coming from the KPL, Coach Ge naturally brought a KPL perspective: side lanes needed heroes capable of soaking damage. Yuan Ge’s role was more like an assassin; playing him in the side lane often left the team lacking a frontline tank during late-game team fights.

Ultimately, Coach Ge could only bid a helpless farewell to Lin Hao.

Lin Hao didn't mind. If he could get another game to collect anger points, that was great, but if not, it didn't matter; he had already gathered plenty of anger over these past few games.

***

That night, it was time to count his anger points again.

Lin Hao had earned nearly 100,000 anger points today. He rubbed his hands together, preparing to dump them all into the draws.

Suddenly, the system notification chimed.

"System prompt: This system will upgrade to Level 2 when the host reaches the top of the national peak ranking. At that time, activities beneficial to the host and more card-draw possibilities will be unlocked."

Lin Hao raised an eyebrow.

He immediately understood what the system meant.

His current peak score had reached 2481, placing him fifth in the national peak rankings.

With his current skill, hitting rank one was only a matter of time. The system mentioning this now was clearly a heads-up that there would be more rewards after the upgrade, suggesting it would be more cost-effective to save his anger points until then.

However, Lin Hao still held to the philosophy of "enjoy today while you can." Drawing hero skills early could provide more possibilities for his livestreams, which in turn would help him collect even more anger points.

Besides, Lin Hao felt the pull rates in the card pool were genuinely high.

However, ten minutes later...

Lin Hao was devastated. He had dumped nearly 100,000 anger points into the draws, and he hadn't pulled a single thing!

How could this happen?

***

"Coach, honestly, don't you think this Nuwa's movement and prediction are eerie?"

In the Luda VC training room, 726 said to the coach, Du Yu. "This isn't just about being strong anymore. His understanding of movement and prediction has reached a pinnacle!"

"I think we need to invite him for a tryout."

726 was referring to Haoran.

Although he had only played one match against Lin Hao, his keen intuition as a professional support allowed him to feel the pressure from the opposing Nuwa. Perhaps it was because he had spent the early and mid-game protecting his own mid-laner, Baili Shouyue, while watching Nuwa’s operations the entire time.

After the games ended tonight, 726 had reviewed Nuwa's perspective several times.

After watching carefully, he felt he had grasped many details, gaining new insights into how to dodge skills through movement and how to predict hits more accurately.

Sometimes, watching a master’s performance doesn't require the master to stand by your side and explain the details. As long as you watch with focus, you can feel the nuances of the gameplay and learn things that seem impossible to verbalize, yet tangibly improve one's skills.

Watch enough, and those details become your own habits.