Chapter 80: It's Unwise to Demean Others

Both sides returned to the lane, and by now Lin Hao had already established an economic lead. Shang Jie had already lost an outer turret, and now he dared not confront Lin Hao head-on. He patiently waited under his turret for Lin Hao to clear the minion wave.

However, seeing Shang Jie’s cautious playstyle, Lin Hao considered for a moment and made a decision: tower dive.

There was certainly risk involved, but wasn’t this exactly the kind of play the audience loved to see? More importantly, if he succeeded, there would be no need for any taunting recall—Shang Jie’s rage meter would surely hit its peak.

Though it was called a friendly solo match, both players were now taking it very seriously. Shang Jie had his own confidence—specifically, the confidence of being the national server's top Yuan Ge player. In the previous solo games, he had been beaten by other heroes, which could be attributed to hero matchup issues. But now, with Yuan Ge facing Yuan Ge, if he was still outplayed, the problem was clearly technical.

The minion wave reached the tower, and Lin Hao followed it in. Shang Jie didn’t attack the minions; his first move was a basic attack on Lin Hao. Lin Hao closed the distance between them. Finally, at the perfect spot, Lin Hao unleashed his second and first abilities in quick succession!

At that moment, they were just within optimal range for the first ability to knock each other up!

Shang Jie didn’t evade. He also activated his second and first abilities at the same time—a head-on clash!

Fans of both players held their breath, eyes fixed on the screen. Although Shang Jie was at an economic disadvantage, this was still his home ground! With the turret backing him up, his counterattack should have been solid.

Both started with the same combo, both released their puppets behind the opponent, but since both were in a super armor state after releasing the puppet, neither puppet managed to control or knock up the other!

At this point, Shang Jie chose to swap positions quickly. Fighting under the turret, control was crucial. As long as his hands were fast enough to unleash all his control and burst in an instant, Lin Hao’s puppet—or his main body—could well be finished on the spot! After all, Shang Jie had not only his own damage but the turret’s as well.

Lin Hao, however, made a different choice; he immediately yanked his puppet downwards with his fourth ability!

In a flash, Shang Jie swapped successfully, but Lin Hao also used his fourth skill to pull his puppet away at the same time, positioning it just outside the range of Shang Jie’s second turret in the red zone!

Neither side managed to control the other!

Next, Shang Jie closed in, ready to use his second and third abilities to strike Lin Hao’s main body. Lin Hao swapped positions, then instantly immobilized Shang Jie’s main body with three consecutive third abilities!

The puppet extended its body, rooting Shang Jie’s main body in place!

Rooted—could this be a kill?

Many players unfamiliar with Yuan Ge tensed up, because Lin Hao’s sequence was overwhelmingly oppressive.

Yet Shang Jie wasn’t flustered at all. Although Lin Hao had rooted his main body, he no longer had skills left to return control to the main body! In puppet state, Lin Hao’s fourth ability had just been used to dive under the turret, and the swap had already been spent immobilizing Shang Jie.

So Shang Jie simply stood rooted, waiting it out. His plan was simple: after the root ended, he’d instantly unleash his cross slash, finish off the puppet, then pull back and wait for his second skill’s cooldown before hunting down Lin Hao’s main body!

Because during the tower dive, Lin Hao’s main body had been inside the turret. The main body had auto-attacked Shang Jie once, drawing two turret strikes and leaving his health in a precarious state.

Three seconds later, as the root ended, Lin Hao quickly recalled his puppet!

Shang Jie’s cross slash landed instantly on where the puppet had been, but struck nothing but air!

He recalled it that quickly? Not even greedy for an auto attack?

Realizing his cross slash had whiffed, Shang Jie sensed something was wrong.

Lin Hao kept up the pressure, immediately using his fourth ability to leap back into the enemy turret, right in front of Shang Jie!

But this time, the turret’s aggro wasn’t on him, since he had already left turret range moments ago.

Jumping in with his fourth skill—was he courting death?

Shang Jie landed a basic attack, then, seeing Lin Hao’s initiation, hurriedly cast his own fourth skill to the side!

If he got hit by the cross slash, he would likely die under the turret!

But Lin Hao never used his cross slash; from start to finish, he simply chased Shang Jie with basic attacks.

At last, the turret’s damage caught up, and Lin Hao’s health plummeted rapidly!

In the final instant, as his health emptied, Lin Hao finally unleashed his cross slash!

As Lin Hao’s form collapsed, the cross slash flashed brilliantly across Shang Jie’s Yuan Ge!

Another clean, unimpeded hit!

Shang Jie fell as well!

Mutual destruction!

“GG!”

Shang Jie sighed and quickly hit surrender.

Lin Hao had already reached the three-kill victory condition; even if he went down trading, victory was his.

In Lin Hao’s stream, his fans were all fired up.

Many newcomers who had wandered in became fans after witnessing this play.

“That cross slash was just too precise!”

“Honestly, I’ve never seen Haozi miss a cross slash!”

“Shang Jie’s the one who keeps missing!”

“No need to compare, both are amazing—Haozi just barely edged out the win!”

“That tower dive, who else could pull that off? Who?”

“Today we’ve witnessed the birth of a new Yuan Ge god!”

The word “Victory” appeared on Lin Hao’s screen. Glancing at the barrage of comments, he smiled and said, “Come on now, soloing is just a sideshow—the real test is performing well in team matches.”

He was well aware that this victory hadn’t been as easy as it looked.

Shang Jie’s skill was already on par with the system’s national server level Yuan Ge.

The skill points granted by the system weren’t quite top-tier for the national server, but they were enough to guarantee a stable spot at the top, making Lin Hao’s Yuan Ge easily among the top five nationally.

What truly set Lin Hao apart from Shang Jie was his positioning.

With movement akin to a script, Lin Hao’s unpredictable footwork not only left Shang Jie guessing—causing him to miss cross slashes again and again—but also enabled Lin Hao to read the opponent’s movement, ensuring his own cross slashes were almost always on target.

That was the real difference between them.

As the game ended, Shang Jie pulled Lin Hao into a private chat.

“Hao Ran, your Yuan Ge is really top-notch!”

The moment he entered, Lin Hao was met with Shang Jie’s praise.

Though Lin Hao had received bursts of rage from Shang Jie throughout the match, most of it stemmed from Shang Jie’s frustration at missing his cross slashes.

In other words, what Shang Jie saw as his own mistakes weren’t really his fault—the problem was that Lin Hao’s footwork was simply too exceptional. Yet, because movement doesn’t have a clear metric, it’s often overlooked.