Chapter 58: Post-Game Analysis

At this moment, both Mirror and Yuan Ge had already passed their peak burst phase. Yet, the old master was growing fiercer with every blow! Though he now had barely a sliver of health left, his momentum only intensified as the fight went on.

Activating his second skill, Lin Hao practically ignored Yuan Ge’s dart attacks, relentlessly hammering Mirror three times and taking her down for the kill! With only Yuan Ge remaining, Lin Hao continued his pursuit.

Little Nan, now finally realized a crucial truth—an oft-repeated warning among Yuan Ge players: "Start with four, end with nothing!" As the top Yuan Ge in the nation, Little Nan was confident. In that moment, he decisively swapped positions and chained his second and third skills, believing that without the knock-up from swapping, only the second-third combo could instantly kill the old master.

He had slowed the old master with his third skill, who lacked any displacement abilities, so the next third skill should have been an assured hit. Yet, unexpectedly, the old master evaded the cross slash solely through positioning, not a single thread connected.

Little Nan hastily flashed to escape but was caught by Lin Hao in an instant. Lin Hao, now pressed for time, quickly secured Little Nan’s kill as well. After all, Yuan Ge’s late-game cooldowns for his second and third skills were fast; if he delayed to taunt further, he risked being counter-killed and made a fool.

“Double Kill!”
“Triple Kill!”

In the end, the old master’s health lingered at a thread, but he stood firm, unexchanged! One against three, three kills in a single wave!

“Everyone rise!” Lin Hao roared, not letting such a prime moment to harvest rage slip by. He immediately began taunting in front of the three corpses, repeatedly recalling home.

With his current health, he wouldn’t join the team fight in the bot lane. It was much more satisfying to harvest the opponents’ rage here.

“Rage +500 from Xinran.”
“Rage +600 from Little Nan.”
...

Lin Hao’s maneuver this round was impeccable. The three opponents’ rage was understandable, but more than that, they were deeply impressed, utterly in awe.

His positioning, map awareness, mechanical finesse—all were flawless. Among the three, perhaps only Little Nan’s combo had a flaw, but that was relative; if not for Lin Hao’s godlike positioning, how could Little Nan have slipped up?

Page (1/3)

“This is practically like cheating!”
“Wow, this level of play and attention to detail—it’s just like Yifan back in the day!”
“Far stronger than Yifan, honestly!”
“I declare, a new god of the old master is born!”
“Amazing, truly amazing!”

Lin Hao’s viewers instantly transformed into die-hard fans, showering him with praise from every angle.

Meanwhile, the bot lane minion wave finally pressed toward the enemy’s second tower. With the old master’s triple kill up top, only Marco Polo and Liu Chan remained below.

Pei and Shangguan Wan’er dove the tower as soon as they saw Marco Polo, who had already used his ultimate and was quickly slain. Li Yuanfang and Lian Po targeted Liu Chan, overpowering him with control and damage, killing him under the tower.

“Well done, teammates.”

Lin Hao had thought the game wouldn’t end in one push, but seeing Marco Polo cut down and Liu Chan tower-dived, a team wipe meant this was likely the final wave.

His teammates tore through the towers, advancing all the way to the base and striking the crystal. The earliest revived enemy, Xi Shi, couldn’t clear the minion wave; the crystal exploded.

The victory banner appeared on Lin Hao’s screen.

“Rage +500 from Xinran.”

That lost point and the ensuing defeat must have left Xinran fuming.

Lin Hao exited the match and entered the settlement screen.

“Play old master again next round! Haozi’s old master is unstoppable!”
“My verdict: better than Yifan.”
“That flash combo was so confident, like he had x-ray vision.”
“By the way, Xi Shi didn’t land a single pull on old master this game—he truly is a magician of positioning.”

Lin Hao scanned the barrage of comments in his stream and thought aloud, “I couldn’t comment in detail during the team fight; let’s review and I’ll explain how I sensed the enemy’s movements.”

He opened the match replay.

Commentary was secondary; the key was that, recalling the fight, Lin Hao realized his awareness in several moments was almost superhuman, like he had wallhack.

To prevent someone from stirring up drama in the chat, igniting a fierce quarrel between fans and trolls and polluting the stream, Lin Hao felt it necessary to break down the match and analyze the awareness he hadn’t had time to explain.

...

In Xinran’s stream, she stared blankly at the exploding crystal, speechless.

Page (2/3)

She was still replaying the scene where their three-on-one ended with them being triple killed.

Everything began when she was caught by that flash combo.

Every time, she’d concealed her vision, ready to ambush the old master.

At such moments, someone like Xinran, the top Xi Shi player in the region with full confidence in her skillshot accuracy, would predict the old master’s path and preemptively cast her first skill from the bush.

If she faced the old master directly, only then should she wait for him to use all his movement skills, slow him with her second skill, and then pull with her first.

So, Xinran believed her moves were flawless.

The problem was: how did the old master manage to flash-bind her?

Xinran stayed silent and began watching the replay on her own.

Fast-forwarding at sixteen times speed, she reached the team fight and switched to the old master’s perspective.

He was clearing waves normally, then suddenly, with a flash combo right in front of Mirror, bound Xi Shi hiding in the bush.

Absurd—truly absurd.

If Lin Hao weren’t streaming, Xinran would have directly submitted a report to the officials.

“You can’t see it, Haozi’s awareness is top-tier; he’s analyzing your movements live in his stream!”

“This isn’t cheating? Damn, no vision leaks, how could he flash combo so precisely?”

“If you’re unconvinced, just go check Hao Ran’s stream—he’s reviewing the match, schooling the haters.”

Is his awareness really that godlike?

Seeing the barrage about Hao Ran’s review, Xinran’s curiosity was piqued. She quietly logged into Shark Live on her phone and entered Hao Ran’s stream.

If Hao Ran were streaming on Tiger Tooth, Xinran could have checked directly. But on Shark Live, she had to leave her own stream running with the replay, and sneak in with her phone.

“This wave was the game’s turning point. Look, at the moment Xi Shi’s vision disappeared, she moved toward the top lane—that’s a clue.”

“Next, as I reached the lane, Mirror came out to clear minions. So I wondered, why would Mirror dare to come out and lane against me? I had flash and ultimate.”

“Yuan Ge? Impossible, he just showed in mid. If Yuan Ge and Mirror were coordinating, they’d need at least another ten seconds before Mirror would dare to reveal herself up top.”

“Considering Marco Polo appeared in bot lane, the only possibility is the enemy Xi Shi was already lying in wait.”

Page (3/3)