Chapter Thirty-One: Pushed Sideways at Ninety Degrees

After killing Shen Mengxi and seeing that no one was around, Lin Hao immediately stopped attacking and pressed the recall button.

“Rage value from Shen Mengxi +400.”

Heh, another wave of rage points earned!

Shen Mengxi was caught off guard, killed instantly by just two abilities, and though he might have taken it in stride, seeing Lin Hao’s Guan Yu swagger back to base and taunt him lit his fury like dry tinder.

Wasn’t this Guan Yu just tower-diving a moment ago? How did he suddenly show up to kill me?

A cat about to solo-kill Jin Chan was abruptly taken down by a slick combo from Guan Yu. And to make matters worse, Guan Yu had the audacity to taunt him mercilessly.

“I’ll remember this grudge!” the player behind Shen Mengxi gritted his teeth, vowing not to forget this Guan Yu who feigned a limp, only to recall and mock him.

“Hahaha, Hao is shameless! I love it though!”

“He baited out a pile of abilities from the enemy duo, then doubled back to finish off the bomb cat. That’s satisfying!”

“I suddenly want to drop into a low-rank game and troll some opponents with my mechanics.”

“That last guy reminded me—usually, people play like this when they’re smurfing, but Hao is just that good. Do you think his skill level is already far above the players in this bracket?”

“You’re overthinking it. This is top-tier matchmaking. If this streamer was really that strong, why have we never seen him at the top of the leaderboards? It’s just his streaming style, that’s all.”

The chat was buzzing with heated discussion.

On the bot lane, Yu Ji landed two shots on the tower before retreating rationally with Niu Mo. The turret barely lost any health, still holding about two-thirds.

However, Lin Hao’s top lane tower had already fallen with a crash.

This play only netted a kill on the mid-laner Shen Mengxi, and the bot lane didn’t manage to chunk the enemy marksman-support duo. The next wave wouldn’t be any easier to push. All in all, Lin Hao’s rotation from top to mid and support play was a loss.

“Can you just focus on your own lane first?”

Mid-laner Jin Chan glanced at the top lane while recalling. With Lin Hao absent, Li Bai and Bai Qi leisurely pushed the tower, and by now, Lin Hao had already abandoned his lane four times.

“There was no way I could have held the tower that time. I wasn’t even level four—there’s no way to defend it,” Lin Hao explained to his viewers.

“I feel like Hao just wanted to give up the tower there.”

“Yeah, if he really wanted to defend, he’d have waited behind the tower for an opportunity, not rotated to bot at level three… Even if he did kill the cat in the process.”

Truthfully, with his level of mastery over Guan Yu, he could have tried to defend—there was some risk, but it was possible.

But he had no intention of letting the enemy Li Bai, who was actually Jiutianhu, get a kill and avenge himself, boosting his satisfaction meter or whatever.

And besides, it was safer for him after the top tower was gone!

Once the tower fell, Lin Hao resumed laning against Bai Qi. Bai Qi is a solo lane hero; because his ultimate’s control duration scales with his tankiness, he needs gold and farm. So every wave, Bai Qi would stick to lane and farm, never letting Li Bai take over or leaving to join team fights.

Watching Bai Qi clear the wave, Lin Hao kept himself busy taunting from a distance by recalling in place again and again.

“My taunting isn’t just for show. There’s a concept in psychology called reinforcement training. Taunt someone once or twice, they might ignore it, but if you keep doing it, the opponent will definitely get angry, lose patience, act rashly, and eventually hand you a free kill!” Lin Hao joked with the viewers.

He wasn’t just making this up; after all, he was watching the rage points steadily accumulate in his system.

“Rage value from Bai Qi +100.”

“Rage value from Bai Qi +200.”

“Rage value from Bai Qi +300.”

He kept up the taunts through several waves.

Lin Hao didn’t roam anywhere else; he just stayed top, watching Bai Qi farm and taunting him.

“This streamer is such a troll, hahahaha!”

“I’ve discovered a secret—he loves messing with his opponents’ mentality! Before, he said Guan Yu should roam and even abandon towers to pressure the enemy, but now he’s just glued to his lane.”

“Haha, you must be new. His ID, ‘Shared Heartbeat,’ isn’t random. Hao always plays like this—whenever he has downtime, he’ll recall and taunt his lane opponent!”

Another wave, Lin Hao watched Bai Qi clear the minions and taunted him again, edging further up as he did.

Inside, the Bai Qi player was fuming: “You, a Guan Yu, want to play this dismount-and-recall game with me? And you just keep doing it? Are you looking for trouble?”

Bai Qi prided himself on staying calm; he opened the gold tab to check the numbers. Guan Yu was in fourth place, while Bai Qi was second on the team, with over a thousand gold difference between them.

He glanced at the minimap: there was a fight breaking out bot lane, a four-on-four, and both teams had lost vision elsewhere. No one was lurking to ambush Guan Yu.

So what was this Guan Yu so cocky for?

Time to teach him a lesson!

Seizing a moment when Lin Hao let his guard down, Bai Qi leapt at him with his ultimate.

Ultimate taunt!

At the same time, he cast his second skill behind Guan Yu, charging his first skill for maximum effect.

This time, Lin Hao couldn’t dodge Bai Qi’s control with fancy footwork.

Despite the post-rework changes, Bai Qi’s ultimate still had a lightning-fast windup. Dodging it might take one of those reaction-based actives from the system shop.

But Lin Hao had wanted Bai Qi to taunt him all along.

“No matter what, the fish finally bit the hook!”

Immediately, Lin Hao activated his second ability, then his ultimate, and then popped sprint!

Guan Yu, like a lion awakening from sleep, went from endlessly recalling to being crowd-controlled, to breaking free in an instant and charging forward at full speed!

“What, you think you can kick me back under your tower?” the Bai Qi player sneered.

He knew Guan Yu had his second skill ready, and as a tanky bruiser, Bai Qi couldn’t kill him anyway. He just wanted to put Guan Yu in his place—watching him act high and mighty was just too annoying.

“I’m not some low-ranked player—I can dodge too, you know?”

What Bai Qi didn’t know was that, against Lin Hao, trying to outmaneuver him was hopelessly naive.

Bai Qi used Smite, and since he had built the yellow jungle knife, his movement speed spiked, and for a split second, his model actually outpaced Guan Yu!

Faced with such hardcore moves, Lin Hao’s expression turned serious.

Bai Qi’s hook from his second skill was coming from behind, closing in fast.

And with the movement speed buff, if Lin Hao tried to do a full 180-degree knockback, it wouldn’t work. Their models would just brush past each other, and Guan Yu would have his horse tripped up by Bai Qi’s hook.

So, if a full 180 wasn’t possible, he’d go for a 90-degree side push first!