Chapter Twenty-Four: The Devil’s Footwork

Instead, it was Zhang Fei who, when the Elder Master was displaying his might, charged fiercely into the fray to help deal some extra damage, only to end up being hit by Marco's true damage.

Bear in mind, Marco’s original intention was to use his first skill to sweep the Elder Master.

If he managed to land true damage, there might have been a sliver of hope.

Unfortunately, although the Elder Master did sustain true damage, out of the ten stacks triggered, only three were struck by Marco’s first skill.

The rest were all just regular attacks—

This is the difference that positioning makes!

Yao was also unable to escape death. In the end, Lin Hao’s team wiped out the entire opposition!

What’s interesting is that Lin Hao’s mid-lane minion wave was still intact and surging forward, now reaching the enemy’s mid-lane outer turret.

Meanwhile, Sun Shangxiang, who had barely survived and was originally planning to return to base to defend, quietly moved forward as well.

It seemed… this was the chance to end it in one go!

Lin Hao’s side pushed down the towers, with the marksman still alive, and Lin Hao himself playing the Elder Master, making the tower push absurdly fast.

At last, when the wave reached the enemy’s crystal, the earliest to die on the opposing side—Charlotte—had just respawned.

Yifan was focused, at full health, while the enemy side was all low on HP.

The Elder Master had just a fifth of his health left.

Zhang Fei was at a quarter.

And Sun Shangxiang had only a sliver—a single bar—of health remaining.

Yifan emerged from the fountain, fully restored except for lacking his flash.

“Kill them, kill them! They’re all low!”

“Take them all out and we win!”

His teammates shouted excitedly.

Yifan saw the Elder Master step into the crystal, not attacking the tower but walking straight toward him.

He just needed to get around the Elder Master, hold off the minion wave outside, and then take out the backline!

But what awaited Yifan was a direct ultimate from the Elder Master!

“Trying to outmaneuver me?”

Lin Hao chuckled, bound Yifan with his ultimate, then immediately turned around to attack the tower.

“Damn!”

Yifan shouted, a pentagram array rising from the ground and knocking the Elder Master into the air.

But the control lasted only a moment; once landed, Lin Hao didn’t even glance at Charlotte, turning straight back to press the attack on the crystal.

Whether Lin Hao pushed the tower or not didn’t really matter at this point, because behind him was the main tower destroyer—Sun Shangxiang!

As long as Charlotte was kept outside and couldn’t break through to the group, and the minion wave was held at bay, destroying the crystal was only a matter of seconds!

In the end, Lin Hao’s team needed just three seconds to shatter the enemy crystal!

VICTORY!

Rage points gained from Yifan: +900!

Rage points gained from Lee Ji-eun: +300!

What a rush!

For Lin Hao, winning or losing wasn’t the main thing. The important part was that he’d harvested a hefty amount of rage points from these two streamers!

And both of them were quite well-known, granting a triple rage bonus!

This match alone was worth a whole night’s haul!

“The Elder Master’s play in that last team fight was godlike!”

“Hao’s movement is simply unreal!”

“I saw that Marco Polo’s cleanse prediction—hilarious, he predicted nothing!”

“What’s even crazier is that Hao actually stopped to recall and taunted him—twice.”

“I came here from Yifan’s stream, is it always this entertaining here?”

“The streamer is constantly taunting, but the opponents just can’t do anything about it—so satisfying!”

After Lin Hao clinched the match, the stream’s chat exploded, messages flooding in so fast that anyone not paying close attention could only see a blur of blocky text scrolling past.

At that moment, the chat’s activity rivaled that of major streamers during special events!

Lin Hao’s channel viewership shot past a million, reaching 1.2 million.

In fact, a large portion of Lin Hao’s audience now came from Yifan’s and Lee Ji-eun’s streams, coming over out of curiosity.

And since Yifan streamed on TigerTooth Live, and had just faced Lin Hao twice in a row, even more of Yifan’s viewers became interested in Lin Hao’s stream.

A streamer who can taunt with recall and still maintain high-level play—isn’t that just the best entertainment?

The chat was on fire, but the overall popularity wasn’t as high as it could be, probably because many viewers had just registered new accounts after coming from Yifan’s stream, which didn’t carry much weight.

VIP numbers—those contributing money to Shark Platform—were still relatively low in Lin Hao’s channel.

———

In Yifan’s stream.

“This Elder Master moves like a demon. In that last round, he saw through my positioning and ulted me directly,” Yifan said through gritted teeth. “What a pity, if I’d picked Elder Master this game, I’d definitely have crushed him.”

Two losses in a row, both with a disadvantage in lane.

The disadvantage wasn’t just in minions, gold, or the health of the side towers.

For a solo laner—especially for Yifan—side lane dueling is all about skill, micro, and the smallest details!

Players who pick Guan Yu or Ma Chao often ignore the lane altogether, refusing to duel and instead roam to support other lanes, leaving the side lane to the jungler to clear.

Yifan had nothing but disdain for such side laners.

Yet today, in his two matches against Haoran on the side lane—first Yuange versus Ma Chao, then Elder Master versus Charlotte—

Even though Yifan didn’t get Elder Master, he still had a mechanically superior hero.

But in both games, he’d gained no advantage whatsoever.

“Yifan, maybe you should just stick to Elder Master. Your other heroes don’t seem up to par!”

“Getting smacked around twice by Haoran, and then he taunts you with recall—I can’t watch anymore!”

“Guys, I’m heading over to Haoran’s stream. It must be wild over there!”

“Yifan, I don’t think your Elder Master is that refined either—your rage management, your stacking of the passive, they’re not top-tier. How come you’re being toyed with so easily?”

Yifan’s chat was full of negativity.

It was only to be expected.

Being beaten down twice in a row, and then ruthlessly taunted by the opponent—Yifan’s fans felt as if they themselves were being mocked, their pride wounded.

Some haters took the opportunity to stir up the chat.

Yifan was seasoned in handling such situations and ignored the obvious instigators—the more you respond, the more they act out.

However, when one of his old loyal fans—the Earl—asked about the apparent lack of finesse in the opposing Elder Master’s play, that was something he could answer.

“All I can say is, while Haoran may not have completely mastered Elder Master, his movement is on a godly level. It’s precisely this movement that covers up all his other shortcomings!”