Chapter Seventy-Five: A Solo Performance with the Original Skin Melody

During a break in the fifth round, Lin Hao added Shang Jie’s WeChat on his computer and roughly agreed on a time with him. After logging off, Lin Hao began preparing for today’s system lottery.

He’d worked overtime for more than three hours today, so his rage points were accumulated far more than usual. Lin Hao was feeling a little hopeful. Maybe tonight he could gain some new skills!

Let’s start the lottery!

Five minutes later.

Lin Hao stared, dumbfounded, as the last streak of blue light flashed past.

“System, is there something wrong with today’s prize pool? You didn’t put any purple or gold skills in, did you?”

Nearly seventy thousand rage points, all spent on the lottery, and not a single splash—every result was just a blue light and a polite ‘Thank you for participating!’

“Host, the lottery does not have a guaranteed mechanism. The probability of drawing purple or gold skills is very low. If you want to reliably acquire skills, I recommend exchanging rage points in the shop instead,” the system advised kindly.

Exchange? Are you kidding me!

Lin Hao felt frustrated. The rage points needed to exchange skill points in the shop were ridiculously high… Actually, it wasn’t that bad; he could get them in about a week to a month. But compared to the lottery, where he could reliably gain more than one skill every day, the lottery was definitely more profitable.

He thought it over and let it go. If he could win skill points every day, what would be the point of the shop? Maybe he had just been unusually lucky recently.

Lin Hao decided to stick with the lottery for a few more days. If nothing came up, he’d consider saving rage points for the shop.

······

Today, Shang Jie’s stream was far more popular than usual, even surpassing his good friend Ting An next door at times.

Because right now, Shang Jie was hosting a SOLO event!

Not only that, he wasn’t limiting hero selection. As long as you were a national server champion or even the best in your lane, you could add Shang Jie as a friend and SOLO with him.

Lose, and there’s no penalty; win, and you get 500 coupons straight away!

Many top players were tempted.

Because Shang Jie only played Yuan Ge, while they could use any other lane hero!

They knew Yuan Ge was essentially an assassin. While he was hard to counter, that mostly applied to enemy marksmen and mages.

If you were to face Yuan Ge in the lane, and didn’t want to rely solely on mechanical skill, you could just equip Thorn Gauntlet and Guardian Armor—one piece if necessary, two if needed, three if that wasn’t enough. Worst case, just build tank items first!

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Yuan Ge’s early skill cooldowns were so long even the dogs would shake their heads. If his combo couldn’t kill, with his fragile frame, pressuring the lane or tower-diving him afterwards was effortless!

So, national server Iron Man, Li Xin, Hua Mulan, even Meng Tian—all these heavy warriors eagerly added Shang Jie as a friend.

Shang Jie himself welcomed all top lane players to challenge him, so he refused no one, SOLOing them one by one.

The result? Shang Jie was thoroughly beaten.

“Damn, my combo does zero damage to Meng Tian? Wait, he’s tower-diving me too? Argh!”

“No wonder it’s the national server Hua Mulan; dodging my control with heavy sword is so precise. But I’m even better, four skills to pull away… Wait, how did my puppet get pushed?”

“Wow, all my second and third skills landed on Iron Man, and I couldn’t even break his ultimate shield? I give up!”

After a night of SOLOs, Shang Jie only won against one national server Old Master; everyone else dominated him.

He thoroughly demonstrated Yuan Ge’s laning strength!

“After watching Shang Jie’s Yuan Ge, I’m giving up on playing Yuan Ge myself!”

“Brother Jie is already impressive, but these lane heroes—even if they just stand there, you can’t scratch them!”

“Yuan Ge against other heroes is pointless, it’s not even fair!”

“Shang Jie tonight became a philanthropist, how much money did he give away?”

“Brother Jie, I think Yuan Ge can only SOLO Yuan Ge. Why not play against Ting An?”

“Exactly, Yuan Ge SOLOs are the best!”

Shang Jie’s viewers were lively in discussion.

Actually, in a normal match, Yuan Ge wouldn’t be so helpless.

After all, even if your opponent is Hua Mulan or Li Xin, in a real game they have to consider other enemies and team fights, not just countering Yuan Ge and building specifically against him.

For example, those warriors’ builds would include magic resistance and some damage items to deal with other positions.

But in a Yuan Ge SOLO, you can just stack armor and health without a care, throw in a Black Cleaver, and that’s enough to kill Yuan Ge.

Yuan Ge’s build, meanwhile, is awkward. The first five items—cooldown, damage, armor penetration—are all critical. If you swap any for a tank item, your damage won’t be enough.

Shang Jie didn’t mention any of this.

After all, this was just a fun SOLO event. If he kept winning and never gave out rewards, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose?

“Not SOLOing Ting An tonight. Last match, let’s play against a top player I met in the peak tournament!”

Shang Jie said mysteriously.

Some fans had already guessed.

“It’s Haoran, right?”

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“Yesterday Shang Jie said he’d play against him, but we haven’t seen it yet.”

“Haoran’s Ma Chao is amazing—Shang Jie is about to get crushed again.”

“You didn’t pay attention to the stream, Haoran said he’d use Yuan Ge for the match.”

“Well, this should be good—Yuan Ge versus Yuan Ge is the most exciting… Does Haoran even play Yuan Ge?”

The audience was buzzing with excitement, while Shang Jie had already pulled Lin Hao into the room.

“Brother Jie, how did tonight’s matches go?” Lin Hao asked with a smile as soon as he entered.

“Don’t ask, I only won once with Old Master. I’ve become a kingly philanthropist,” Shang Jie replied with a bitter face.

“Haha, it’s okay, it’s okay. SOLO with me, this match…” Lin Hao paused. “Brother Jie, you’re still going to lose!”

“Oh, when it comes to Yuan Ge, I’m pretty confident. Come on, you pick the map—1V1 or 5V5?”

“Let’s play 5V5, the lane matchup is more realistic.”

“Alright, let’s do 5V5. You know the rules, right? Two towers or three kills, no jungle monsters, river crab is allowed.”

“Got it, got it!”

“OK, I’ll invite you!”

Shang Jie exited the room, chose the 5V5 map, invited Lin Hao, and hit start.

“Yuan Ge versus Yuan Ge, our rune setup matters. For example, bring a bit of Harmony for sustain!”

Shang Jie carefully selected his runes, then clicked start and entered the game.

But as soon as the loading screen appeared, he froze.

“What the hell is this?”

The opposing Yuan Ge was actually the original skin!

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