Chapter Forty-Seven: Perspective-Level Consciousness

If it weren’t for Lin Hao’s decisive flash and the critical damage he delivered, both Jing and the Elder Master on the front lines might have fallen. At this moment, Jing still had a Blade of Immortality and just a sliver of health remaining.

Han Xin’s plan was to escape the battlefield immediately, leaving a Jing who had triggered his Blade of Immortality in the fray, hoping his teammates would finish the job. Yet, as a result, he didn’t even manage to kill Jing.

Lin Hao’s ultimate in this wave utterly silenced the enemy’s main damage dealers. In the brief two seconds it took for Luban No. 7 to be knocked into Resurrection Armor, Marco Polo was invincible! Seizing the moment, Marco Polo dashed forward and eliminated Zhou Yu in two and a half attacks. He then repositioned, waited for Luban No. 7 to revive, and unleashed a barrage of bullets upon him.

Luban tried to flash for a kill on Marco Polo, but Marco Polo deftly dodged. Luban could only redirect his damage onto Lin Hao’s Golden Cicada. But in the next instant, Liu Chan closed in, knocked him up, and stunned him! Marco Polo followed up with more damage, finishing off Luban right there.

The last remaining Zhang Fei, barely hanging on, stood no chance. After resisting a few more attacks, he too was slain.

A total wipeout!

The mid-lane minion wave had converged, and the enemy’s Storm Dragon minions had just arrived at the second tower. The mid-lane minions from both sides met first; the front lines had fallen, only two siege carts remained, clashing.

Lin Hao’s side still had Liu Chan, Golden Cicada, Marco Polo, and a barely alive Jing. Quickly assessing the situation, a single thought flashed through Lin Hao’s mind.

They could finish it in one push down mid!

The dragon pit was conveniently close to mid-lane. Marco Polo charged ahead, clearing the way for the minions. What followed was straightforward: the four of them transformed into players who had never tasted victory, charging forward, swapping to attack speed boots...

Before the enemy could respawn, they dismantled the crystal.

“We won!”

“Hao Ran is incredible!”

“That last flash-ultimate was too stylish, knocked out two at once!”

“Golden Cicada carried so hard!”

This time, Lin Hao didn’t let his ego get the better of him; he didn’t run to the enemy fountain to recall and taunt. For him, gathering rage points was usually more important than fleeting victory, but he couldn’t let the pursuit of rage points cost him the win right before his eyes.

At the very least, he had to guard against letting the opponent gain pleasure points.

“It’s just basic ops, nothing fancy,” Lin Hao waved his hand dismissively.

Golden Cicada’s flash-ultimate is so rare that it might not come up even once in ten matches. Unlike Gan Jiang’s second and third skills after his ultimate, which have a travel time—if Gan Jiang flashes then casts his skills, the enemy has a chance to react and dodge with instinctive movement. That's why Gan Jiang often needs to flash first then cast his flying swords to deliver instant burst damage and catch opponents off guard.

But Golden Cicada is different. His ultimate is instantaneous; whether you flash then ult or ult then flash, the effect is nearly the same.

Herein lies the problem: the position Lin Hao was in just now, if he had flashed then ulted, given his sensitivity to movement, it would have been impossible to catch Han Xin, Luban No. 7, and Zhou Yu all lined up in a single spot.

This kind of awareness is incredibly complex, even involving a bit of innate talent, and Lin Hao didn’t intend to explain it to his viewers.

Just enjoy the spectacle!

Lin Hao remarked that, if he were to do tutorials, he’d rather teach viewers about strategic concepts, like early roaming, counter-ganking, and so on.

Or, perhaps, how to elegantly pull off those infuriating maneuvers...

Incidentally, during the team fight, from Han Xin’s death to their relentless push, Lin Hao received quite a few rage points from Han Xin. Han Xin must have watched them push towers in silent frustration from his death screen.

But with the tower-pushing so urgent, Lin Hao hadn’t had the leisure to recall and taunt.

Truth be told, when Golden Cicada does the recall taunt, it’s even more aggravating than other heroes.

Lin Hao’s stream was awash with joy.

Meanwhile, in Ji Ran’s stream...

“These teammates are truly useless!” Ji Ran shook his head angrily. “I even secured the dragon for us, and you can’t win a single teamfight?”

Many viewers in the stream began to flame Ji Ran’s last play.

“Jing already triggered his Blade of Immortality—couldn’t you just auto a few more times to finish him?”

“You tried to run, but Marco Polo finished you off anyway. Cowards never prosper.”

“What’s the point of the earlier kills? Even if you got Jing, with teammates collapsing like this, Ji Ran would be next to die.”

“That’s Hao Ran on the other side! He just crushed the top lane king not long ago!”

“Hao Ran? I’ve heard of him.”

“His playstyle—once you see it, it’s impossible to forget.”

The post-match discussion shifted from criticizing Ji Ran’s teamfight decisions to talking about Golden Cicada—Hao Ran himself.

To be honest, everyone did their part this round.

Ji Ran secured the Storm Dragon King, forced out the enemy jungler’s Resurrection Armor and Blade of Immortality—he genuinely did his best.

Luban No. 7 stood shooting, Zhou Yu stayed close to protect him, dealing solid positional damage—no issues there.

Zhang Fei provided vision in the dragon pit during the fight and popped his ultimate at the critical moment to block enemies—also correct.

Ma Chao flanked from the side—nothing wrong with that.

So where did it all go wrong?

The Elder Master’s flash-ultimate got close to Luban No. 7, Jing’s desperate fight in Blade of Immortality state—these weren’t the deciding factors.

The true turning point was Golden Cicada.

A binding spell locked down Ma Chao, then a full-power ultimate struck all three of Ji Ran’s backline at once!

That was the moment that changed everything.

Tonight, Lin Hao had run into several streamers, but Ji Ran was by far the biggest name.

This was tied to Lin Hao’s peak ranking: 2200 points isn’t top-tier, but it’s enough to be mid-tier in the highest-level games and high-tier in lower-level 2000-point matches.

After ending the stream, Lin Hao tallied up his rage points.

57,000 rage points!

Should he draw from the lottery? That was the question.

After some thought, Lin Hao gritted his teeth and decided.

Draw!

Lin Hao was not someone who liked to hoard.

Besides, he thought, if he were to stockpile rage points, it should only be when the skill pool was nearly exhausted, with very little left to draw and only then consider saving up for exchanges.

On his first draw, golden light flashed before his eyes!

“Congratulations, host, you have acquired Awareness at the X-ray Level!”

He was stunned for a moment.

Then elated.

This was a personal skill!

Having already experienced the thrill of Script-Level Movement, Lin Hao had long awaited a golden personal ability skill.