Volume 1 Chapter 19 Shi Liu Ye’s POV

In order not to expose his own whereabouts, Shi Liu Ye intentionally evaded the enemy’s minion wave to stay out of sight and hid in the bush patiently.

1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds……

Shi Liu Ye waited for a long while but he could not see the whereabouts of the 3 marksmen on the enemy team. No one showed up even when the minion wave had marched to the enemy’s second turret on the top lane.

If the enemy did not show up, then it could be that they were setting up for an ambush? Were they trying to make use of the minion wave to lure me to show up?

Logically speaking, Shi Liu Ye’s thought process was sound. When a minion wave reached the turret, it would require someone to defend the turret and clear the minion wave, which provided an ideal opportunity for an ambush. However, the two enemies were Bronze ranked and did not have the awareness that Shi Liu Ye had. Hence, despite having a good opportunity to lure the enemies, he did not plan to utilize it. He was more worried that Ake was lured by the minion wave, so he let Ake wait deep in the jungle.

Shi Liu Ye totally had no idea about He Yu’s adept yet rookie-like awareness. He only knew that he should not continue ambushing. After observing his teammate, Arthur, that was about to reach the minions in lane, he emerged with an idea. When Arthur was clearing the minions in the lane, the three marksmen on the enemy team ought to be keen to attack him. With Arthur drawing the attention, it would be an excellent opportunity for him to ambush from the back.

He quickly maneuvered Ake to move towards the top lane as the train of thought appeared. However, two enemies suddenly showed up from the left the moment she stepped out of the bush.

Hou Yi?

Luban?

Why are they here??

If I had known this in advance, wouldn’t it have been amazing if I had camped in the bush for another second?

Shi Liu Ye regretted but he did not hesitate to apply his mechanics. He immediately activated Ake’s ultimate, “Phantom Dance”, and became invisible while she charged towards Hou Yi and Luban. He did not really regard them as a treat, because he had gotten a double kill on these rookies twice earlier.

Although Bronze ranked players did not have good mechanics and awareness, their courage was unmatched. Ake was the counter to squishy heroes? It was better to take another path during an encounter with Ake? They would not have learned this knowledge! The greater their wit, the less their courage. They had only encountered one Ake, after all, and they would not fear even if there were five Ake’s on the enemy team. There was only one word in their minds: fight.

“Burning Sun Arrow”!

The belligerent Bronze ranked players did not hide and play defensively, and Hou Yi immediately activated his ultimate ability in the duel. A phoenix flew out from Hou Yi’s bow and hit Ake who was charging towards them.

Ake’s invisibility was nullified and he was stunned. Luckily, Hou Yi’s ultimate which stunned the enemy had a duration which was proportional to the distance it traveled. The distance was short and the stun duration would end in a split second. But it was also in that split second that Ake’s health reduced significantly. Indeed, a collective attack by two marksmen was not to be underestimated. Shi Liu Ye lost his intention to kill the enemy and turned back while activating his second ability, “Untouchable”. He utilized the displacement effect of the ability to bolt into the bush in the river. As Hou Yi and Luban lost sight of Ake, they could not continue their attack. Nonetheless, they did not know how to manage the situation as they were only Bronze ranked players, and subconsciously decided to chase at the direction of the bush.

In a flash, Shi Liu Ye surfaced with the thought to fight back, but when he saw Ake’s health bar at half, her abilities on cooldown, and Luban and Hou Yi full of vim and vigor, Shi Liu Ye gave up and maneuvered Ake in the direction of the blue zone at the top side of the jungle. Shi Liu Ye choked with resentment as he was fought back by two Bronze ranked players. But he had to be blamed for his impertinence towards them. He thought his mechanics were swift and had thus directly charged into them without respecting their tenacity.

You two are also dead!

Shi Liu Ye pledged secretly, but he did not have the chance to type as Hou Yi and Luban were still busy chasing him.

Ake walked a few steps forward and entered the blue area, with the realization that the blue sentinel that had just respawned was gone. In the very moment a bad hunch surfaced from the bottom of his heart, a “Hundred Beast Trap” appeared under Ake’s feet. Genghis Khan jumped out of the bush of the blue camp riding a wolf, as if an angel had descended from heaven. Genghis Khan followed up with two consecutive shots with his ultimate and basic attack, inflicting three chunks of damage on Ake as the trap exploded. A huge, bright red figure appeared on top of Ake, signifying a critical hit. Ake was instantly assassinated.

Shi Liu Ye finally had the time to process the whole situation as he looked at Ake’s fallen body.

Luban and Hou Yi did not ambush his character but had recalled to base right away.

Genghis Khan also did not ambush her and was clearing the blue area of his jungle.

So it was only him alone camping at bottom and waiting for the cooldown of his ultimate. It was a pointless motive. In the end, he had encountered Hou Yi and Luban that had already gone back to base and replenished their health, and received the enemy’s ultimate in the face as he activated his ultimate to gain invisibility, which forced him to back off and run away. It was only at this moment that Genghis Khan set up to ambush her. The “Hundred Beast Trap” had already entered into the state of invisibility, which meant that it had been laid more than 2 seconds ago.

How did it turn out like this?

Shi Liu Ye opened the information tab and realized that his gold had declined from leading one thousand above everyone to falling behind one thousand from Genghis Khan.

The numbers continued to increase as Genghis Khan grouped with Hou Yi and Luban to attack the second turret. Arthur did not learn from the previous lesson and became a live target once more. The three marksmen opened fire on Arthur, killing him and destroying the second turret in succession.

The high ground might be lost too!

Shi Liu Ye looked at the respawn timer and the speed of the three marksmen destroying the turret and figured that they might not be able to defend the base turret. It was even worse if the turret at the high ground went down since the nexus would become the next target. He would have respawned by that time, but among the three marksmen, aside from Genghis Khan having lower health, the other two marksmen were very healthy. Can I accomplish a triple kill by myself?

If Genghis Khan was a Bronze ranked rookie, Shi Liu Ye would have the confidence to reset his ultimate’s passive on Genghis Khan. The problem was that Genghis Khan was obviously skilled, and it was definitely a player playing on his smurf account to stomp people. As a Diamond player, Shi Liu Ye should be an expert that carried the whole game in Bronze ranked matches. But in the ranked system of The King’s Glory, he merely reached the passing mark of being proficient at the game. Could it be that the enemy is Master rank, or even in Legend?

Then, what about the other people?

At this moment, he finally remembered that this was not a one-man game. He had teammates playing with him. He glanced at the map and saw Angela in a difficult position in the middle lane. If mages were effective in pushing and destroying turrets, the first turret in the middle lane would have been taken down early. Nonetheless, it seemed that the turret was going down very soon. Though, there was still an opportunity on the top lane. His team’s Luban and Hou Yi seemed like they were playing single-player game mode as no one bothered about them. The two of them pushed alongside the minion wave and had already destroyed the enemy’s second turret. It looked like they had the tempo to destroy the enemy’s base turret and might be even faster than the enemy’s siege on theirs.

No one’s going to defend the turret?

Shi Liu Ye maneuvered his vision to his turret at the high ground and noticed that Genghis Khan was missing in action.

Now this is how it should have been!

These Bronze ranked players only cared about the immediate things in front of them. How would a pro like Genghis Khan not notice his own top lane was more jeopardized?

If only these two rookies were left……

Shi Liu Ye began to sharpen his blade. Ake immediately rushed out of the fountain after he respawned. Since Genghis Khan was not taking part to attack the turret, the efficiency to siege the turret slowed down. The turret was still alive when Shi Liu Ye’s Ake sprinted at the enemy and he felt more at ease. He did not hesitate to activate her ultimate, “Phantom Dance” to gain invisibility, but in the next second, he heard an eagle’s cry.

Shit!

Shi Liu Ye felt devastated.

An eagle flew across Ake, and Genghis Khan entered Ake’s line of vision. Ake who lost her invisibility and got exposed automatically became the crossfire target by Hou Yi and Luban. This was exactly the same proceeding as what had happened when he camped in the middle lane.

The combined attack of the three marksmen had a high lethal tempo. Moreover, Genghis Khan was leagues above him in gold and could disregard the drawback of the absence of bushes in the enemy base to allow him to reset his passive. An ultimate skill and a basic attack were enough to take away a huge chunk of Ake’s health. If Shi Liu Ye maneuvered Ake to back off instantly now, there might still be hope to live on. Nonetheless, he had gotten played like a fool continuously by Genghis Khan. His pride of peaking in Master in ranked games could not take it anymore.

Luban?

Hou Yi?

They were non-existent. Shi Liu Ye only had Genghis Khan in his eyes. Instead of backing off, Ake charged in. He wanted to take down Genghis Khan even though he would die.

But Genghis Khan retreated when she charged in. Genghis Khan immediately backed off without hesitation when he saw Ake charging towards the front line.

“Don’t be a coward!” Shi Liu Ye yelled grudgingly. He was on the verge of tears. At this moment, she was stuck in Hou Yi and Luban’s rain of arrows, and her ability, “Untouchable”, was not enough to get her to Genghis Khan. He knew he could not kill Genghis Khan anymore.

Then Genghis Khan stopped being a coward and turned around, shooting two arrows on her. Ake died again.

Fuck!

Shi Liu Ye fell in despair. He opened the information tab. He was leading one thousand gold above everyone just before, but now, he had the least gold in the match. Even the simple-minded Angela that stayed in the middle lane had surpassed him in gold.

Could his economy be any worse?

What had he accomplished in the past few minutes?

He had always marked Genghis Khan as his prey and ran around the map only to die. From his death in the middle lane until now, his only income was the red area’s cardinal, and the lizard in the river. [T/N Not a typo. Cardinal is a bird-type jungle monster that appears in the red area]

What was the meaning of tempo control?

The term would be mentioned frequently from Diamond ranked matches all the way till peak KPL professional matches. Shi Liu Ye had heard of it plenty of times, but if someone were to ask him to explain the meaning of the term, he could not really explain it in detail.

But in today’s match, he could unquestionably say that his tempo was controlled.

Unbearable! Disgusting!

If Shi Liu Ye was given a second chance, he swore he would not allow Genghis Khan to lead him by the nose.

But was there a second chance now?

Shi Liu Ye looked at the opponent’s top lane. He could not figure out if his team’s Luban and Hou Yi could give his team a winning chance. From the looks of it, it could even be possible if they managed to take down the nexus. It was probably too late if Genghis Khan was to recall back to his base now.

Genghis Khan did not recall, and neither did Luban and Hou Yi from Ake’s team. They proceeded to take down the high ground’s turret and marched towards the enemy’s nexus. At the same time, Luban and Hou Yi of the enemy team started attacking his team’s nexus.

At this crucial moment, someone walked out of the fountain wobbly.

Lady Zhen!

Is she here to defend the base?

He Yu was in doubt. When his team’s Lady Zhen recalled to base, her mana bar was empty, so it was probably her recalling to the fountain to replenish her mana. No matter what, she got back in time. First skill, second skill, third skill……she cleared all the enemy minions that had entered the base after she walked out from the fountain.

What about Shi Liu Ye’s team?

Arthur sprinted out from the fountain.

The brave Arthur also used his first, second, and third skill.

Shi Liu Ye looked up and released a long-drawn sigh. He initiated a surrender vote, but it frustrated him more when his teammates refused to surrender one-by-one!

Why would they not even allow for a straightforward ending? Shi Liu Ye was too heartbroken for tears, and he had to watch silently as Arthur got taken down again, followed by the fountain exploding.