Chapter 124: The National Server Luna

The Yuan Ge player felt incredibly aggrieved. He knew he should have retreated toward Han Han’s position, but in the heat of the moment, the sheer pressure from Guan Yu had been so overwhelming that his mind had gone blank. It wasn't until now that he realized his mistake.

He looked at the situation in the bottom lane. His team was down three against four—Li Yuanfang, Niu Mo, and Mozi simply lacked the damage output. Once the fight broke out in the top lane and their positions were revealed, the enemy immediately pounced on the bottom lane. By now, his team’s backline had been completely wiped out, leaving only a lone Niu Mo being chased down by Di Renjie, looking like he wouldn't last another two seconds. The aggressive initiation from Huo Wu and Su Lie was relentless; without Purify, there was no way to fight back once caught. The Yuan Ge player silently muted his teammates, staring at the screen in despair as he waited for the inevitable end.

On the other side, Han Han, whose health was far from ideal, could only attempt to recall to base. The distance from his current spot to his base was like the span from a side lane’s first turret to the high ground. If he could teleport back and recover, perhaps… just perhaps, a miracle could happen? The opponents had prioritized kills over the minion wave, but now that they had dealt with Niu Mo, they were pushing the high ground.

Suddenly, at the edge of his vision, Guan Yu came charging back. Han Han felt a sharp headache. Seeing Guan Yu rushing straight at him, he transformed into tiger form and leaped to the side, intending to kill this Guan Yu just to vent his frustration. If he was going to be interrupted and lose his chance at a miracle, he at least wanted the satisfaction of taking Guan Yu down with him.

But the scene Han Han imagined—Guan Yu lunging with a blade to interrupt his recall—never happened. Guan Yu merely entered the range where he could have landed a strike, then suddenly turned around… and left! Pei Qinhu’s pounce missed completely.

"Damn it!" Han Han felt utterly crushed, both in terms of gameplay and intelligence. Was he just putting on a show? We're about to win, and you won't even let me have one kill?

In the end, Han Han had to retreat to his base in bitter resentment. Guan Yu didn't try to stop him along the way. However, by the time he reached the high ground, the four opponents were already attacking the base crystal. Guan Yu skirted through the mid-lane, used his second skill to jump into the high ground ahead of them, and began his recall just a short distance away from him.

Once again, that tranquil bamboo forest animation appeared…

"Boom!" The crystal shattered.

Han Han stared blankly at the screen, feeling truly pathetic.
"Anger points from Han Han +1000."

Meanwhile, in Han Han's stream, many viewers who hadn't watched Lin Hao before became curious about the Guan Yu player.
"Such a strong laner, and he's a streamer? I've never heard of him. Shocking!"
"A-Wei, playing video games again? You're so bad, why don't you take a break?"
"Go find Wei Liang to boost your account; you'll never climb on your own!"
"That tiger of yours is honestly garbage."
"The second-in-command was fine this game; this loss was entirely on Yuan Ge's feeding. But honestly, that enemy Guan Yu is legit. Where does he stream?"
"Search 'Haoran' on Shark."
"It's normal you haven't heard of Haoran. This guy hadn't even found his groove last month; he was still hovering around 2000 points."

Back in Lin Hao's stream, because he had crushed Han Han, his viewership had surged significantly, effectively drawing in a new audience. Lin Hao was naturally delighted; he had gained both popularity and a massive influx of anger points. He checked his Peak Tournament ranking; he had reached fifth place with a score of 2492. The top spot remained unchanged at 2615.

He had to keep going. Lin Hao calculated that he needed at least ten more net wins to surpass the leader, Wei Liang. The road ahead was long and arduous. Fortunately, Lin Hao was now extremely confident in his own skills. He dove back into the Peak Tournament. His stream’s viewership had quietly climbed toward 3 million, and he had jumped to second place on the Shark King of Glory 24-hour popularity leaderboard, trailing only Shao Bai.

At midnight, after finishing his matches, Lin Hao logged off as usual. It wasn't the weekend, so he didn't feel like "overtime" grinding. He checked his accumulated anger points. Because of the high-stakes nature of the top-tier matches, he frequently bumped into five or six streamers per game—whether they were teammates or enemies was out of his control. But if they were on the opposing side, Lin Hao made sure to harvest as much anger as possible. By the end of the night, his total had just crossed 100,000 points.

Time to pull!

After two days of getting nothing, the unrepentant Lin Hao decided to gamble again. He dumped all 100,000 points into the system. Amidst the sea of blue light, a flash of purple finally appeared.
"Congratulations to the host for obtaining: National-level Luna Skill Points!"

Luna! Lin Hao was ecstatic. She was widely recognized by King of Glory players as the hero with the highest skill ceiling. Back when the AI "Jue Wu" was released, the AI-controlled Luna showed players what a true master looked like. She danced around three people, her skill combos so perfect and silky-smooth that Dove chocolate would have wanted to sponsor her. In just two seconds, she landed seven or eight ultimate casts, instantly killing three streamers who were among the top 100 in the Peak Tournament!

Human reaction times are limited by neural connections, and there is always a delay between thought and action. Lin Hao carefully sensed the newly acquired Luna points. They didn't transcend human limits, remaining squarely at a "National-level" standard. However, when combined with his existing personal ability points, a new transformation occurred. While his Luna might not be as terrifying as the AI, he could now rival any human "National-level" Luna player. Furthermore, with his top-tier game sense backing him up, his potential was even higher! What excited him even more was that this was for a jungler; it meant he had finally broken his streak of having no jungler hero pool!

The latest King of Glory report was out:
"The top of the Peak Leaderboard remains largely unchanged. Wei Liang holds his position at 2615 with absolute skill and dominance. No one else has reached 2600. He’s having trouble finding matches, so he’s even started boosting an alt account into the top ten."
"Among the 2500-point tier, Yi Fan’s Old Master is in a league of his own, holding steady at 2590. Meanwhile, jungler kings like Xia Tong and Bei Mu are in hot pursuit."
"Notably, a player with the ID 'Shared Heartbeat' is climbing at a rate of 50-100 points a day and has reached fourth place with 2538 points. Our editors investigated and found it is the rising Shark streamer, Haoran."