Chapter 159 You are looking down on me!

The chubby guy walked over, and Coach Zhou Yu very considerately offered his seat to Zhe, allowing Zhe and Lin Hao to sit face-to-face.

A solo match against a professional player?

The first thing that crossed Lin Hao's mind was...

"System, can I still accumulate rage points if I do a solo match against a professional player without livestreaming?" Lin Hao asked the system silently in his mind.

"When offline, the collection of rage points will be subject to a 50% reduction in multiplier."

Half?

Even though this particular opponent wasn't extremely well-known, that would still be half of the base fivefold multiplier, which came out to 2.5x—equivalent to encountering a popular streamer in peak matches.

Not bad at all.

"Haoran, I'm flexible with any hero. Which heroes are you best at?"

For a Clash Lane solo match, using the exact same hero wasn't strictly necessary.

While picking the same hero was certainly fairer, in actual tournament play—barring a tiebreaker showdown—you would never encounter an identical hero on the opposing side.

The micro-play and details honed in solo matches ultimately had to serve official tournament matches or high-Elo ranked games to improve one's overall prowess.

Of course, choosing the same hero was an option too. For instance, two Old Masters or two Yunge matchups tested a player's mastery of fine details to the absolute limit.

Yet, picking identical heroes for certain matchups held little reference value. Take Guan Yu mirroring Guan Yu, for instance; while it provided great entertainment value, it lacked practical meaning.

Lin Hao spoke frankly without holding back, "My Clash Lane picks are quite decent. I mainly play warrior-type side-laners, such as Guan Yu, Ma Chao, Yunge, Old Master, and Meng Tian."

Zhe pondered for a moment before saying, "People always say Ma Chao struggles against Old Master, but I have quite a bit of experience with Ma Chao. Since Old Master and Ma Chao frequently cross paths in professional matches and peak tiers, why don't we have a Ma Chao versus Old Master duel? I'll play Ma Chao, and you take Old Master."

Wouldn't I just utterly crush you then?

Lin Hao almost burst out laughing. Old Master was a hero who seamlessly integrated individual mechanics and positioning into his gameplay. Coupled with his own national-server-level mastery of the hero, he had never feared anyone in lane.

If he had to play Yunge against Ma Chao, there might be a slight chance of an upset. After all, as long as a professional player played safely and purchased a defensive component like the Thorn Mail early on, Yunge's execution threshold wouldn't be enough. If he dumped all his damage and failed to secure the kill, even Lin Hao would be helpless.

On second thought, the opponent had probably never encountered a Yunge side-laner once in his entire professional career, making it truly meaningless.

So, Old Master versus Ma Chao it is!

Both parties quickly reached a consensus, created the custom room, selected their heroes, and entered the game.

For this match, Lin Hao chose the Interference spell as his Summoner skill.

He quite decisively conceded a Summoner skill advantage to Zhe right from the start.

During the loading screen, upon noticing this spell choice, Zhe couldn't help but look up and cast a glance at Lin Hao.

"Detected that the opposing Ma Chao is Zhe, a professional player for Chengdu AC. The host will receive a fivefold bonus when accumulating rage points from him."

"Detected that the host is currently not livestreaming. The accumulated rage points will suffer a twofold multiplier reduction during final settlement."

"Rage points from Zhe +300."

Lin Hao offered a subtle, imperceptible smile.

Meanwhile, Zhe's internal monologue was remarkably eventful.

While Ma Chao versus Old Master favored Old Master roughly on a sixty-forty basis, individual player mechanics still played a massive role in the outcome.

Surely it wasn't to the extent where one could afford to handicap themselves with an inferior Summoner skill, was it?

You are looking down on me!

Friendly sparring match or not, Zhe silently resolved within himself that he was going to kite this Old Master into oblivion!

Both players arrived in their lanes.

At the very beginning, Lin Hao walked straight into the brush at the edge of the lane, waiting until the minion waves were about to clash before stepping out.

Across from him, Zhe charged in from the river area, already in his sprinting state.

This positioning indicated an intent to contest the minion wave immediately.

Lin Hao decisively activated his second skill.

Then, he walked straight toward Ma Chao.

Ma Chao thrust his javelin into the minion wave, intending to poke the minions twice first, but Lin Hao seized the opportunity to close in and relentlessly beat him down.

Bam, bam!

Ma Chao landed two spear thrusts on the minions, but because Old Master was right in his face, Ma Chao's two basic attacks ended up hitting Old Master's active second skill entirely.

Old Master's second skill possessed a distinct property: when an enemy hero's basic attack struck it, the attack was reflected back, dealing an equivalent amount of physical damage to the attacker and inflicting a 50% movement speed slow that lasted for two seconds.

Sure enough, after Ma Chao dashed back and forth, a quarter of his health bar vanished instantly.

He hurriedly retreated, while Lin Hao chased him down, landing a few more heavy blows.

Zhe quickly created distance, and Lin Hao stopped pursuing, shifting his focus to clearing the backline minions.

In this initial exchange, Old Master had already gained the upper hand.

This Ma Chao was clearly lacking a bit of composure.

Lin Hao could already sense it.

In that last exchange, Lin Hao popped his second skill first and then closed the distance. Normally, upon seeing Old Master activate his second skill, a Ma Chao would choose to back off momentarily. However, contesting the minion wave at level one was different; Ma Chao arrived in his sprinting state, which only lasted for four seconds. There was no time for him to kite; he had to thrust forward immediately to secure the lane.

Consequently, he got countered by Old Master's second skill and chased down for extra damage.

As Lin Hao continued to auto-attack the backline minions, Ma Chao re-engaged. This time, his second skill was ready again. He tossed it at the minion wave, retrieved his spear, decisively popped his Sprint spell, and lunged toward Lin Hao's position with a thrust!

While clearing minions, Lin Hao subtly tilted his head to the side.

Ma Chao's spear thrust brushed right past Old Master's body!

He missed!

Of course, Ma Chao's primary goal with that thrust was to hit level two and clear the wave, with harassing Old Master being merely secondary.

Upon reaching level two, Ma Chao instantly learned his first skill and stepped up, preparing for a head-on clash with Old Master.

A level-two Ma Chao, even after taking several beatings, still retained a window to eliminate Old Master.

In reality, Ma Chao only held the advantage against Old Master before the completion of two core items. Once Old Master completed items like the Ominous Pledge or other tank items—especially once he finished the Stormbreaker—Ma Chao stood zero chance in a straight-up, full-health one-on-one duel.

As Ma Chao closed in to unleash his damage, Lin Hao performed a stutter-step, suddenly twitching his movement upward!

Ma Chao's spear thrust immediately followed, carrying a hint of prediction, but it was precisely timed and dodged by Lin Hao!

With a whoosh, the first skill was unleashed, casting the Lengwei spear far away toward the river.