Chapter Seventy-Eight: Yuan Ge Has Another Trick Up His Sleeve?
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Lin Hao glanced at Shang Jie’s positioning and couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t expected such a simple trick to fool Shang Jie.
“After I take the health pack behind the tower, my HP should recover to about half. With this health bar, if I ambush him, I can kill Shang Jie. So, as long as I take the health pack, he’ll likely deduce I’m not returning to base to heal, but lying in wait for him.”
“That’s exactly why I used a bit of reverse psychology—grab the health pack, then head back, creating a false impression for him!”
Lin Hao spoke with evident satisfaction.
Of course, Shang Jie considered the possibility that Lin Hao was deceiving him by taking the health pack, but he didn’t dare to gamble. If Lin Hao ambushed him from the bushes, given he wasn’t yet level four and lacked his fourth skill, he’d be doomed.
The moment Lin Hao reappeared on the lane, he gained Shang Jie’s rage points.
“Rage from Shang Jie +400.”
Hahaha, this is the importance of vision!
They continued laning.
Shang Jie clung tightly to his puppet, knowing his economy and experience were lagging behind.
Meanwhile, without Shang Jie using his puppet swap, Lin Hao didn’t dare risk diving the tower.
Thus, both sides were locked in stalemate for a while.
Naturally, as Shang Jie played more defensively, Lin Hao could take more farm.
The river crab and priority for clearing waves all belonged to Lin Hao.
During this period, both Lin Hao and Shang Jie were up to their tricks: Lin Hao kept returning to base, while Shang Jie repeatedly sent apologies in chat.
It was a mutual exchange of courtesy.
Both continued to harass each other with their secondary and tertiary skills.
From the exchanges, Lin Hao maintained more HP, meaning he had the upper hand.
Both used their cross slash on minions, catching the opponent in the side sweep, but Lin Hao’s movement was clearly superior, and sometimes Shang Jie’s side sweep failed to reach him.
“It’s about time. Black Cleaver is ready. I’ll seize this moment to fight!”
Shang Jie said in his livestream.
If he kept turtling, the snowball effect would only worsen, widening the economic gap. Besides, Yuange lacks sustain, so with continued exchanges, Shang Jie could be tower-dived and killed due to low HP.
This timing was optimal: both sides had finished Black Cleaver. Lin Hao was saving for Blade of the Ruined King, so his damage would be slightly higher than Shang Jie’s pure Black Cleaver, but not by much.
As for defensive items, Shang Jie glanced at Lin Hao’s build and saw he had no intention of buying them, so Shang Jie skipped them as well.
Without hesitation, Shang Jie initiated with a flash combo!
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Lin Hao was caught completely off guard, his HP dropping drastically in an instant!
Immediately, Shang Jie opened with his first skill, and almost simultaneously released his fourth skill backwards!
This was a preemptive move, anticipating Lin Hao’s second skill counterattack.
Facing Shang Jie’s fierce assault, Lin Hao chose to retreat first.
Lin Hao activated his fourth skill, but cast it forward, while his first skill was cast backward.
The effect was that Lin Hao’s main body appeared right in front of where Shang Jie’s puppet had just been sent, and his first skill’s path knocked up Shang Jie’s puppet.
It was only a brief control, but Shang Jie pressed on, dashing forward with his fourth skill!
Lin Hao’s actions were more peculiar: after deploying his puppet, he didn’t follow up with any other moves, instead simply controlling the puppet to retreat.
What was he planning?
Witnessing this, neither the viewers in both livestreams nor Shang Jie himself understood what was happening.
But with the opponent’s main body right there, Shang Jie didn’t attack either, choosing instead to use his puppet to chase after Lin Hao’s retreating puppet.
Perhaps, having been caught off guard, Lin Hao felt in poor shape and wanted to withdraw?
After all, if he retreated first and healed with the health pack under the tower, Shang Jie’s flash would be wasted, making Lin Hao profit greatly.
As for using the puppet’s auto-attack on the exposed main body, only Yuange players below provincial rank would do such a thing.
Shang Jie wasn’t foolish; if the opponent swapped positions and used triple skill, his puppet would be controlled, ending the fight.
On the contrary, the opponent’s puppet position was likely where he intended to swap his main body to escape!
Meanwhile, Lin Hao watched the four units before him with calm.
Between his main body and puppet, a thin thread stretched—the line for position swap.
He calculated, and the distance was just right.
Lin Hao clicked the position swap, then instantly chained triple skill!
In a blink, Lin Hao’s main body and puppet swapped positions!
However...
The main body swapped to where the puppet had been, but the puppet swapped to the middle of the path—right where Shang Jie’s puppet was!
Lin Hao’s hands were fast; he instantly chained triple skill, directly controlling Shang Jie’s puppet!
“What the...”
Shang Jie was shocked, but quickly realized what had happened.
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This was a move he once considered flashy when he first learned Yuange, but after reaching the peak in ranked matches, such showy tricks became impractical, and faded from memory.
Only now, seeing Lin Hao’s maneuver, did he recall Yuange had this kind of mechanism...
“Rage detected from Shang Jie +700!”
Next came Lin Hao’s moment of performance!
With the puppet bound, pressing the fourth skill freed Lin Hao’s main body, who immediately dashed forward with fourth skill, closing in on Shang Jie’s puppet!
Then came a close-range second skill, hitting both puppet and Shang Jie’s main body!
Not finished yet, Lin Hao stepped forward, unleashing cross slash!
The cross slash struck Shang Jie’s puppet, killing it, while its trailing edge hit Shang Jie’s stunned main body.
Moreover, the retreat effect from Lin Hao’s cross slash actually moved him backward toward Shang Jie!
It was a close-range counter side slash!
Shang Jie’s main body was stunned for two seconds. Lin Hao took full advantage, landing several auto-attacks on Shang Jie!
Earlier, through mutual exchanges, Lin Hao had already shaved off nearly half of Shang Jie’s HP; now, after consecutive second and third skills, Shang Jie’s HP was dangerously low, and a few more auto-attacks would finish him!
Shang Jie was clearly seeing red. Now, Lin Hao had no skills left, but Shang Jie still had a cross slash. If he landed it, he still had a chance to turn the tables!
Shang Jie used his fourth skill to dodge one of Lin Hao’s auto-attacks, then aimed carefully, and released the cross slash!
Whoosh!
Lin Hao anticipated it, dodging with a deft move that made Shang Jie’s cross slash miss completely—not even the side sweep hit!
“What the... How did I miss that?”
Shang Jie was incredulous!
He had carefully predicted while aiming, and with the two so close together, the cross slash should have formed a narrow shape. Yet, the gap in the middle was perfectly exploited by Lin Hao’s movement, evading all damage from Shang Jie’s two threads!