Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Golden Cicada Technique

In reality, Guan Yu’s flanking maneuver only caught them off guard for a moment—after all, the advantage in numbers and equipment was clear on the battlefield.

But the most crucial factor was that single strike.

With one blow, three backliners were severely wounded!

At this point, Nine-tailed Fox was tempted to smash his own phone.

"Damn it, why did I suddenly have the urge to rush at Guan Yu?"

After charging in and being forced to use his revival armor, even Nine-tailed Fox found it hard to forgive himself. It was nothing short of a reckless blunder.

"Honestly, if I had managed to stun Guan Yu even a split second sooner and stopped that strike, the victory would have been ours," he said with deep regret.

The chat was alive with all sorts of commentary. Some berated Nine-tailed Fox for his poor play, others—his loyal fans—defended him, and a few, envious of his popularity, took the opportunity to stir up drama. The discussion had devolved into an all-out brawl.

"I really don’t get what the streamer was doing with that first skill—does this guy really deserve the title of the number one Li Bai on the server?"

"To be fair, this one’s definitely on Nine-tailed Fox."

"People who have no idea what’s going on are using hindsight to mock our Fox—maybe check your own rank before you talk?"

"It’s normal for the streamer to get outplayed by Haoran; even Yifan got crushed by Haoran before."

"Yeah, I came here from Haoran’s stream. All I can say is, Fox, don’t get upset—start another game and you’ll see how much better the world is without Haoran in it."

"If only they hadn’t bought revival armor first—if Di Renjie and Li Bai had bought the Immortal Blade instead, they wouldn’t have fallen for the trap, and after killing Guan Yu, there might’ve even been a chance for a comeback."

"The angle of that strike from Guan Yu was just too good—nothing to be done. Even pros would have lost in that situation. Stop stirring up drama in chat."

"Who’s Haoran? Is that the Guan Yu from the other team? Never heard of him—is he a streamer?"

"Probably a top server Guan Yu. That was some sick gameplay."

Nine-tailed Fox was an experienced, veteran streamer. He’d seen far worse drama than this; a few harsh comments after a costly mistake weren’t enough to unsettle him. If anything, the real mistake would be to argue with the chat or, worse, let it get under his skin.

Still, a certain name caught his eye.

"Haoran?" he murmured. "Are they talking about the Guan Yu on the other team?"

"Never heard of that name before—I'll have to look it up after the stream."

"To be fair, pulling off taunt tactics at this level, playing almost flawlessly and still performing so well—besides him, only my buddy Jie could manage it..."

...

In matches of this caliber, even Lin Hao couldn’t maintain such a peak state all night long.

Tonight’s teammates hadn’t been particularly helpful either. That much was clear from the game against Nine-tailed Fox. If it hadn’t been for Lin Hao’s brilliant flanking move and that game-saving strike, his team might well have lost.

Over the course of the night, Lin Hao only managed to climb about fifty points.

"I’ll keep pushing for twenty-three hundred tomorrow, guys. I’m logging off for now."

After bidding farewell to his viewers, Lin Hao quickly ended the stream.

He still needed to visit the system and try his luck with the lottery!

Tonight’s haul wasn’t bad—thanks to his high hidden rank, Lin Hao was often matched into top-tier games. Besides Nine-tailed Fox, he’d faced a few minor streamers. Based on their popularity, the anger points he earned from them weren’t triple rewards, but it was still a decent gain.

He opened the system interface.

Tonight, Lin Hao had netted a total of 64,000 anger points—a clear improvement over the previous day.

However, looking at the skill points in the system shop that cost upwards of a million anger points each, Lin Hao still found that goal depressingly out of reach.

So...

"System, use all anger points for the lottery!"

With a wave of his hand, Lin Hao made his decision.

The thrill of the lottery was unmatched!

One streak of blue light after another flashed before his eyes—disappointingly, none of them were what he hoped for.

But finally, with the last spin, a purple light shone!

"Congratulations, host, you have obtained: Top Server Jin Chan Skill!"

Lin Hao grinned with satisfaction.

The lottery really did have the best value!

It was just a bit unexpected that the final prize was a Jin Chan skill point.

If memory served, Jin Chan was a mid-lane hero—a utility mage, to be precise.

...

In this meta, mid-laners of this kind were quite popular—heroes like Xishi and Zhang Liang focused on crowd control rather than dealing damage. The standard strategy was to give the mid lane farm to teammates after reaching level four, then head directly to the marksman lane to "shadow" the marksman.

By supporting their own marksman—using skills to pressure the enemy marksman’s health, or by providing vision from the river to prevent ambushes—the marksman could play much more aggressively.

Another tactic was to hide in the inner brush, waiting for the enemy marksman to come clear the wave and ambush them unexpectedly.

More and more mid-laners were adopting these kinds of tactics—Zhou Yu and Ying Zheng focused on lane pressure and tower sieging; Wan’er and Fire Dance would hide in the brush for a surprise dive; and Mozi specialized in river harassment...

The core of Jin Chan’s skill set was the Golden Band, which allowed him to shadow the marksman from early on, repeatedly ensnaring the enemy marksman and suppressing their health.

That was Lin Hao’s understanding of Jin Chan’s role.

Not exactly a flashy, showy hero.

More often than not, he was just a utility player.

At first, Lin Hao was a bit disappointed.

But after acquiring the top server Jin Chan skill, he couldn’t help but snap his fingers in anticipation.

If nothing else, this hero was perfect for getting under the enemy’s skin!

With the top server skill point in hand, Lin Hao immediately thought of countless ways to use Jin Chan to infuriate his opponents.

...

Even though it was after work hours, Wang Zhaoyi, a diligent employee at Elephant, was still watching Lin Hao’s stream.

"Once Haoran finishes his stream, I’ll let him know about the exact time and method for the feature, and I need to ask him about the cover art we promised and a few other details as well."

Leaning back on her bed, Wang Zhaoyi watched Lin Hao’s stream in high spirits.

For any corporate drone, unwinding with a phone in bed was the sweetest interlude in a busy day.

As the staff member responsible for connecting with Lin Hao, Wang Zhaoyi’s current focus was all about him—so, technically, watching his stream still counted as work!

"No wonder he’s considered a promising streamer—he’s entertaining and highly skilled!"

When Wang Zhaoyi watched the match between Lin Hao and Nine-tailed Fox:

"This is definitely a great way to gain followers. Two streamers facing off in-game is essentially a battle for audiences. If one gets crushed or outplayed, viewers with lower loyalty might switch to the other’s stream."

"In that match against Nine-tailed Fox, although he played well, Haoran’s performance could only be described as extraordinary. So it’s perfectly natural for him to attract some of Nine-tailed Fox’s fans."

Before she knew it, Wang Zhaoyi had watched Lin Hao end his stream.