Chapter Ninety-Eight: Sun Ce, Driving Drunk?

The viewers in the livestream had not even caught what Lin Hao had said before, in the very next instant, he triggered his ultimate.

Then he pressed the button beside Sun Ce’s ultimate, the one tucked above the quick-chat icons.

“Board the ship. Set sail!”

Sun Ce called out to Pei Qinhu, who was still in mid lane.

That message system for Sun Ce could only be used while casting his ultimate; it was mainly meant to remind teammates to get on board. By the way, after Da Qiao casts her ultimate, there is a similar button as well. Pressing it makes her say, “The Whirlpool Gate is open,” to remind teammates to teleport.

Pei Qinhu had originally been heading top to assist, so seeing this, he immediately chose to board.

The audience was still a little confused.

Hadn’t Lin Hao just said he would sneak up quietly and then use his ultimate, so the enemy would have no time to react? Why had he opened with it so directly now?

Lin Hao gave no explanation, because there was no time left.

If he did not get the ship moving now and the enemy unleashed their burst damage first, then by the time they arrived, it would already be pointless.

Switching to Dai Zi’s livestream.

His Sun Shangxiang was not hiding in the inner brush or on the lane at all, but waiting in the river.

“Wait for Zhou Yu to come out and clear the wave, then burst him first. Our lineup has very high damage.”

Unlike Lin Hao’s quiet team voice chat, Dai Zi’s side had someone speaking the whole time.

It was just that Dai Zi himself spoke less often and spent most of his focus on the game.

At that moment, Zhou Yu had appeared, but slightly closer to the inner brush.

Luban No. 7 and Sun Bin had not shown themselves, so they were likely near that inner bush.

The enemy was still playing very cautiously. Their soft support, Sun Bin, did not go check river vision before seeing Dai Zi’s team reveal themselves; instead, he first secured the vision on the inner path.

At this position, forcing a fight carried some risk, because if Xi Shi was hiding in the brush, her first skill would not be able to pull Zhou Yu from that distance. She would have to step out a little.

And the only one who could ambush from the brush, Master Luban, would have to begin with a flash engage.

But the aftereffects of that were too obvious. Either Zhou Yu’s second skill into ultimate could stun him, or Sun Bin’s ultimate could silence him, and both would punish it very well.

Just as Dai Zi and the others were hesitating over whether to take the fight, the sound of a ship’s anchor suddenly rang in their ears.

Sun Ce’s figure appeared in mid lane as well.

He had set sail.

Dai Zi hurriedly said, “Ambush Sun Ce!”

A very smart decision.

At this spot, if Sun Ce was coming to support, he would have to charge in through the river. Dai Zi’s side had four people, all of them with burst damage and control. As long as they locked Sun Ce down and prevented him from stacking armor through his skills, he would still be easy to kill.

Whoosh.

The sound of the ship drew closer and closer, and Sun Ce’s silhouette emerged in the river.

Get ready to move!

Dai Zi and the others were all excited.

Master Luban also knew that blocking Sun Ce’s ship was his job, and it should be him who did it.

Just as he was about to step forward, he suddenly felt that Sun Ce’s movement was a little strange.

For some reason, with the road so wide, Sun Ce kept steering slightly to the right as he sailed, looking as if he might crash into the wall of the nearby dragon pit.

Drunk driving?

Master Luban did not care that much. Seizing the chance, he sprang out of the brush, planning to stop Sun Ce’s ship with his body so his teammates could unleash their damage.

He also fired his ultimate, ready to contest control with Sun Ce.

If they could instantly delete Sun Ce and the tiger rider in the back seat, or even leave one of them behind, this team fight would become extremely easy.

Then, even if Sun Bin, Luban No. 7, and Zhou Yu came to reinforce, it would not matter. With the numbers advantage from the opening move, they could even turn around and take another fight.

And yet, at that very moment, under the gaze of the eight eyes hidden in the brush, Sun Ce actually curved in front of Master Luban, made a sharp turn, and ran off.

What?

Master Luban’s ultimate locked onto empty space.

“Master Luban’s rage increased by 500.”

The people on Dai Zi’s side were stunned.

Not only were the opponents stunned, even the tiger rider sitting in the back was completely bewildered.

Pei Qinhu had actually expected that the enemy would likely be lying in wait in the river for this play, though probably not in great numbers. If the two of them simply charged in and ran into someone, Sun Ce would immediately unleash his control, and then he would leap out with a fierce pounce and deal massive burst damage.

The key was to wait for Sun Ce to control first. If he jumped off the ship in a hurry to force damage, he could very well become the one focused down.

So he obediently stayed in the back seat, waiting for Sun Ce to make his move.

And yet Sun Ce had simply turned around and left?

Whether the sailing was any good or not was one thing. The real question was: what kind of bizarre move was that?

Lin Hao’s expression did not change. After making that turn, he took Pei Qinhu around the dragon pit and headed toward the enemy’s red-side jungle.

This angle was not good for an entry.

If this had been an ordinary top-tier Sun Ce, he would never have thought so much. By the time he got here, he would be riding the ship with the right to initiate, roughly judge the situation, and if he hit someone, he would simply jump down and fight. In any case, the team fight would have started, and the control would already be used.

What? Teammates couldn’t keep up? Marksman clearing waves in lane?

That was their problem.

But Lin Hao had extraordinary awareness, and he would consider all of it.

The marksman definitely could not keep up. Besides, Lin Hao only had a rough sense of the enemy’s positions; he still had no idea how they were actually arranged, or where the key target, Sun Shangxiang, was standing.

So when the ship reached the front line and he still did not see Sun Shangxiang, Lin Hao decisively turned it around, feinting a strike.

This river U-turn still used the maneuver he had explained not long ago for improving Sun Ce’s steering with the ship: keeping the left-hand turning angle as small as possible.

That made the controls more responsive, but also much harder to handle, much like mouse sensitivity. Turning it up does make movement faster, but the trade-off is that it becomes harder to click accurately on a specific point.

How to steer a ship without running it aground required extensive practice, and Lin Hao, with the skill of a top-tier Sun Ce, was unquestionably first-rate in this regard.

While Lin Hao was circling through the red-side jungle, the seemingly balanced top lane had already started to move.

First, from the spot where Master Luban had just landed, Sun Shangxiang fired off her second and first skills in quick succession.

She was preempting the skill chain that would follow if Master Luban pulled Sun Ce with his engage.

Meanwhile, Sun Bin had long since seen the support rotation from the side lane and the jungler. Seeing that, he also cast his ultimate into the river.

After a brief pause, Xi Shi threw out her first skill and finally pulled in Sun Bin, who had stepped too far forward.

Luban No. 7 and Zhou Yu hurried over.

On the other side, Master Luban quickly linked his chain to Sun Shangxiang, then swung his weapon around to trade shots head-on with Luban No. 7 and the others.

A team fight, provoked by one sudden turn from Lin Hao, had actually begun right there.