Chapter Sixty-Two: Master of Support and Lane Rotation!

“No problem!”

Lin Hao’s keen awareness told him that the enemy wouldn’t be coming this time. The bot lane had already initiated a play: Liu Chan had charged forward, only to be caught and controlled by Fire Dancer’s combo, and then Kyosuke followed up with enough damage to finish him off.

All this information was displayed on the mini-map, and with Lin Hao’s extraordinary game sense, a mere glance was enough for him to process and memorize everything.

So, he cleared the wave in his lane with satisfaction, leveled up to four, and then chose to recall to base to recover.

Once Ma Chao reaches level four, he enters his power spike, which lasts until around the 11th or 13th minute, after which he begins to lose momentum.

···

Inside Shang Jie’s live stream.

“This Xi Shi has no honor, damn! When did she sneak over here?”

Shang Jie hadn’t anticipated Xi Shi’s arrival at all. The only reason he managed to react in time and avoid being directly pulled in was his reflexes.

He caught a glimpse of Xi Shi’s icon appear on the mini-map and, at the moment she closed in, quickly responded and made a decision.

This was already the limit of what a Yuange player’s reflexes could achieve.

Many Yuange players, as they grow, experience this scenario: their puppet is operating at the front line, while their real body, outside of vision, is caught and killed.

Because of this, even when controlling the puppet, Yuange players pay extra attention to the mini-map.

But without Lin Hao’s almost supernatural awareness, Shang Jie couldn’t keep up with all the information during the tense and intricate tower dive, especially the possibility that Xi Shi had disappeared from mid and might be heading top.

The chat in Shang Jie’s stream was lively as well.

“Hahaha!”

“Jie, why didn’t you swap your puppet just now?”

“Is this that Yuange bug again? Damn it, why hasn’t the dev fixed this yet?”

Shang Jie glanced at the chat after dying and saw that comment.

He knew exactly which bug they meant: when you swap positions with Yuange’s 2-1 combo too quickly, sometimes the command to recall the puppet doesn’t register, and the next command you input for the puppet’s third skill gets executed instead, making it look clumsy.

In reality, it’s not a bug. Swapping positions with Yuange takes time, and the farther apart the real body and puppet are, the longer it takes.

In this game, you can’t interrupt one skill’s casting with another. For example, if you rapidly tap the second and third skills, the system will always process the second skill first: four darts are thrown, then there’s a long post-cast delay before you can use the third.

So, if you swap too fast and immediately press the third skill, the recall command might get overridden, resulting in the second phase of the third skill being used.

But Shang Jie knew that this time was different.

He could feel it: Xi Shi’s first skill timed perfectly, hitting his puppet right after his swap but before he had recalled it—right where he’d just been.

This was, in a way, a fortunate accident. After all, Xinran’s only goal was to pull Yuange’s main body with her first skill.

In the end, Shang Jie dodged Xi Shi’s skill—but not completely. Being controlled at that moment interrupted his crucial combo, leading to this blunder.

“But that’s not a problem!” Shang Jie waved his hand, full of confidence. “Remember this: if Yuange doesn’t get an advantage over Ma Chao by level three, we play for the mid and late game!”

“My greatest strength is supporting and rotating!”

“Ma Chao’s power spike at this stage is too strong. We should support our teammates, not just stay in lane.”

That’s how Shang Jie played Yuange. When facing opponents who become unbeatable after level four—like Rock Iron or Hua Mulan, those heavily armored fighters—there’s no need to face them head-on.

Against Ma Chao, it depends on individual skill. But after level four, if both sides are equally farmed, Yuange needs to be significantly better just to take Ma Chao down.

···

After returning to lane, Lin Hao saw only the two waves of minions clashing quietly.

“Is Yuange camping for me in the bush?” Lin Hao wondered. At this point, Yuange knew he had recalled and should’ve cleared the top wave immediately.

Could it be that, after being killed twice, Yuange was unwilling to let it go and was lying in wait?

But Ma Chao can’t afford to let Yuange get the first strike from a bush. If Yuange starts the fight, he can knock up with the 2-1 combo and burst Ma Chao down.

Some heroes can counterattack—like Hua Mulan, who can instantly switch to heavy sword form and knock back the puppet, or Lu Bu, who can leap with his ult to avoid the full combo.

Ma Chao, however, even with his ult active, still needs time to retrieve and throw his spears.

Lin Hao frowned, considering, then opened the gold scoreboard.

“Look, everyone, the front minion is about to be killed by the wave. Let’s not go up yet. We’ll see if Yuange’s gold changes after the front minion dies.”

“Alright! The gold is increasing slowly, without any jumps. Yuange isn’t in the top lane—damn, I scared myself for nothing.”

Watching as the frontline minion died and Yuange’s gold kept increasing at the steady, automatic rate, Lin Hao realized Yuange hadn’t earned gold from the minions.

That meant Yuange wasn’t hiding in the top lane bush, so it was safe to clear the wave.

“Brilliant move!”

“You have to respect this kind of detail.”

“I never even considered whether Yuange might be camping for me. If it were me, I would’ve charged in already.”

“Even if the outcome’s the same, it’s always better to be careful. I don’t want to see Yuange spamming ‘sorry’ over Haozi’s corpse.”

So, where was Yuange?

Lin Hao pondered this as he cleared the wave.

Was he on the left side of mid?

That didn’t make sense. The mid wave had long converged, and both mid laners were missing. Camping there would be pointless; he should clear mid first, then think about returning top or supporting bot.

If he tried to cross through river, there wouldn’t be enough time, and he’d be spotted for sure.

So there was only one real possibility.

After respawning, Yuange must have headed straight for the bot lane!

They were planning to make a play there!

Realizing this, Lin Hao quickly pinged bot lane and spoke up on voice chat: “Bot lane, be careful—Yuange should be coming your way!”

“Through river?” Xinran’s voice was puzzled. “Didn’t he care about his lane?”

Crossing the river would be a long trek—Yuange’s hunched little steps would take ages.

“The inner path to bot lane!” Lin Hao replied with certainty.

Because when he moved his map to bot lane, he could already see Fire Dancer darting out from the river, clearly ready to initiate a fight!