novelODS 005 The Silent Sang-hyeok
005 The Silent Sang-hyeok
"Neo killed Hide on bush!"
Lee Sang-hyeok sat in the dark room, staring at the gray computer screen, his palms sweating profusely.
The pressure is too much...
It's always like this when laning against this guy. Even though our skills are about the same, I just inexplicably can't beat him in the end.
If dying under the tower before was just a significant loss of energy, leaving room for maneuver, then dying under the tower this time is truly like being half-buried in the ground.
How can we play like this?
Lee Sang-hyeok returned to the game in a daze after being resurrected.
But little did he know that his hard times were far from over.
He had just reached the foot of the tower when a flash of golden light appeared, and a Spartan warrior wielding a spear and shield emerged from the F4 camp in the red zone next door, knocking him unconscious with a thud!
The attack happened suddenly, and it struck right in his face, leaving even him with little time to react.
Syndra unleashed a full QEW combo, followed by Pantheon finishing with a Q. The two high-burst champions dealt massive damage, instantly depleting Zed's health bar once again!
Well, now the other half is buried too, and the coffin lid is nailed shut.
"Thump!"
In his frustration, Lee Sang-hyeok slammed a heavy hammer on the computer desk.
Table HP-3.
Lee Sang-hyeok is usually very stable when playing games and rarely gets angry, but he has a hard time controlling himself when facing Neo.
Damn it, this guy is absolutely disgusting when he plays games!
I died twice in a row, and I didn't get a single last hit in two or three minutes. How am I supposed to play like this?!
I'm going to be just a background character again!
Lee Sang-hyeok knew that this match would appear on Neo's video homepage at the latest the day after tomorrow.
He could even imagine the title of this video.
This episode is a must-watch! He's back to second place nationwide! We'll teach you how to win with your brains!
This guy's headlines are always so rude!
They'll just target him and yell at him!
......
At that moment, Li Zhixing heard Jin Hekui's voice.
"Wow, Zhixing's amazing!" Kim Hyuk-kyu exclaimed with delight. "He really knows how to kill!"
Because he didn't get the AD position this game, Kim Hyuk-kyu could only pick Pantheon and coordinate with Lee Ji-hyung in the mid and jungle.
Playing mid-jungle with Li Zhixing is a piece of cake; just focus on farming and follow his commands. There's no way you can lose.
But Li Zhixing did not pick up where Jin Hekui left off, but calmly said:
"Hekkui, your operation just now was seriously flawed."
"Zed clearly doesn't have Flash, and his W isn't within the range of your abilities. You should have started with Q first, and then used W after he used his ultimate. Aren't you afraid he'll react to your ultimate by using W directly like that?"
The old version of Pantheon's passive could block turret damage and could be refreshed by using four abilities or W.
With proper execution, it's even possible to withstand three tower attacks without losing health.
Kim Hyuk-kyu thought for a moment, then said, "He probably won't be able to react at this close range. Besides, I'm worried the enemy jungler might come, so I want to end this quickly..."
"Don't underestimate the other side! If I were this Zed, you'd be dead."
Li Zhixing interrupted, "Moreover, it's precisely because we're afraid the enemy jungler will come that we have to do this, because this way you'll be at full health after diving the tower!"
"You're out of your tower with half health, and you're still in the enemy jungle. The reason you're not dead isn't because you're good, but because the enemy jungler is an idiot!"
Li Zhixing won his last three championships as a coach, but this does not diminish the value of those three titles.
Because all the viewers understood that he, as the coach, deserved the most credit for these three championships.
He trained the players himself, determined the playing style, and even in critical moments, the head coach would step in to turn the tide.
Therefore, even the players who had won three championships along the way dared not show the slightest dissatisfaction when facing Li Zhixing's guidance.
He is always right.
Upon hearing Li Zhixing's words, Kim Hyuk-kyu immediately turned around.
Sure enough, the enemy Lee Sin's "Sonic Wave" effect flew out from the enemy jungle, just missing him.
If he had been a second slower, he would have been dead.
Li Zhixing seemed to have anticipated this scene, saying, "Don't think about what you should do, think about what the other side will do. That's how you become a master."
Kim Hyuk-kyu breathed a sigh of relief, then said thankfully, "I understand, Zhixing-hyung..."
Return to base to resupply; the game continues.
When the two-headed Syndra went out again, she already had a Deathfire Grasp in her inventory.
This is the current version of a mage artifact. The equipment has 120 ability power, and its active effect can directly deal magic damage equal to 15% of the target's current maximum health. It also increases the magic damage the target receives by an additional 20%.
It's safe to say that any AP champion with this item can easily one-shot someone.
Having broken through in the middle lane, Li Zhixing didn't linger there too long, but instead began to roam between the top and bottom lanes.
In this version, the dragon only provides economic benefits and has little significance in the overall game; all it needs to do is kill.
A level 7 crocodile only needs to start with Deathfire Touch, then hit with WE push ball, followed by a QR combo, and he can easily kill the enemy!
The bot lane AD is 3-0, not bad, very fed. Pantheon stunned him with a W, and I used WQE to kill him instantly!
Within minutes, the opposing team was routed on all three lanes, and the kill difference easily exceeded double digits!
The rest was predictable; the opposing team was completely overwhelmed and the gap between them widened.
However, a minor hiccup occurred around the 20-minute mark.
The enemy Zed was poorly developed, with less than two items, but he seized the opportunity when Pantheon was not around, using his multiple dashes to maneuver and forcefully kill Li Zhixing's AD!
Of course, this move did not help the situation at all.
Li Zhixing's Syndra dominated the subsequent team fights, easily achieving a 1-for-5 trade with her explosive AOE, and then pushing down the enemy base.
But after watching the game replay, Li Zhixing still gave this second place an even higher rating.
Hide on bush, that guy's skills are really amazing, he's definitely a genius.
He just posted the tutorial on the main body of the game at noon today, and this person can immediately learn it as if it were an extension of his own limb.
If it weren't for his existence as a time traveler, this person would probably have ruled this era, right?
This further strengthened Li Zhixing's determination to bring it under his control.
Of course, the primary issue now is how to contact this person.
Hide on bush didn't accept his friend request...
Li Zhixing shook his head helplessly, saved the recording, and then started the next ranked match.
The two played until 10 p.m., achieving a record of five wins and one loss. Li Zhixing's account climbed all the way to 2800 points, raising the score record once again.
Kim Hyuk-kyu's account also made great progress, jumping from fifth to third place, and is now less than 100 points away from second place Hide on bush.
It's just around the corner!
Kim Hyuk-kyu excitedly rubbed his hands together and said in the voice message, "Thank you, Zhixing-ge!"
For Kim Hyuk-kyu, the biggest gain tonight wasn't the hundred or so points, but Lee Ji-hyung's guidance.
Kim Hyuk-kyu learns a lot every time he plays duo queue with Lee Ji-hyun.
Regardless of mechanics, there are plenty of people who can reach the top ranks in the Korean server with this skill. What's worth learning is how to use those mechanics in the right way.
Li Zhixing didn't seem to think anything of it and calmly said, "Get some rest, He Kui. See you tomorrow."
"Okay, see you tomorrow!"
After seeing his younger brother off, Li Zhixing finally had time to deal with the new messages popping up in his friend list.
Li Zhixing's account actually doesn't have many friends; they are mostly experts who catch his eye.
The person who sent the message is named Mata. If I remember correctly, he plays support and has excellent understanding and mechanics. He is also a top ten player in the Korean server.
In this day and age, anyone who can master the support role must be quite intelligent.
Li Zhixing vaguely remembered that this person wanted to recruit him to form a team.
That's normal, given his reputation. Anyone who wants to make a name for themselves in the League of Legends scene would inevitably consider him.
"Brother, have you thought about what we discussed last time?"
Mata's words carried a hint of humility; he immediately addressed her as "brother."
Li Zhixing typed rapidly: "I'm not sure about your level yet, so it's impossible for me to grant your request."
That's why esports is still so unregulated these days.
They didn't even have a trial period before recruiting people to join.
Aren't you afraid that Li Zhixing is a high-scoring but low-ability individual?
There were far too many people like this in my past life.
"You can try out this time."
The other side quickly replied, "We have a practice match tomorrow afternoon against a professional team. I think you're in Seoul, right? You can come and give it a try! I also arranged to duo queue with Deft, maybe you two can play on the same team!"
Li Zhixing looked at the message, raised an eyebrow, and typed: "Okay, send me the address, but can I bring one more person? It's Deft, the one I'm duoing with."
He didn't want to join any team, but perhaps he could take this opportunity to see the level of professional teams.
I'll also help my younger brother get used to the pace of the game in advance.
The number one player in the entire server brought the number three player to try out for him. Mata had never seen anything like this before in his life, so he naturally agreed very quickly.
"Sure! You two can come together tomorrow. The address is Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul..."
Having agreed on the time and place, Li Zhixing yawned and forwarded the message to Jin Hekui.
After receiving an excited reply from the other party, he continued with his work.
For a high school student, 10 o'clock should be the time to prepare for bed. But for Li Zhixing, his work has just begun.
As a high school student, it's virtually impossible to maintain your top ranking in Hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) while simultaneously running an online store and managing your social media presence.
Any one of these is enough to exhaust a person's energy.
The main reason Li Zhixing is able to do all of this is because he is currently very strong.
His dominance in top-ranked Korean servers not only allowed him to easily maintain his number one position while attending classes, but also provided him with a wealth of video material.
In his past life, League of Legends bloggers would spend a whole day creating a single good video. Li Zhixing's life was much simpler; just one match in Hide on Bush was enough to produce a video...
The showdown between the top two is inherently captivating, not to mention it's genuinely entertaining.
After all, both sides are absolute masters of skill, and every time they clash, the various maneuvers are dazzling.
In the first game today, even though the opponent suffered a crushing defeat, there were still moments of a low-health triple kill and a desperate solo kill on the AD carry.
These are all wonderful scenes that can be spread across various forums.
He imported the recording of the first game into Premiere Pro, skillfully inserted the polished intro and outro, and then began his passionate commentary.
"In today's episode, our opponent is still our old friend..."
"..."
Two hours later.
In a certain place in Seoul, a boy who had lost several games was still awake, watching YouTube one by one the videos of a certain tutorial blogger.
As the second-best student in the country, he still had to watch instructional videos, a truly contradictory situation, yet the boy watched them with complete absorption.
But as the screen refreshed, a freshly made video came into view.
This episode is a must-watch! He's back to second place nationwide! We'll teach you how to win with your brains!
"Thump!"
...
Early morning, Mapo Middle School.
Li Zhixing walked into the classroom with seaweed rice rolls and soy milk, and saw his deskmate sleeping soundly with his hair in a mess.
Lee Ji-haeng casually asked, "What's wrong, Sang-hyeok? Didn't you sleep well last night?"
He edited videos until midnight yesterday and still couldn't get it to this level. How could this person stay up even later than him?
Lee Sang-hyeok, expressionless, took out bread and milk from his bag. "I stayed up too late reading last night."
Li Zhixing glanced at them sideways, not believing what they said...
Lee Sang-hyeok's academic performance is quite good; he ranks among the top students in his class at this prestigious high school, which is much better than what I, who gave up on my studies long ago to pursue e-sports, have achieved.
But Li Zhixing simply didn't believe that this person would stay up all night reading.
This is trust in a good friend!
But he didn't ask any further questions; he simply sat down and quickly finished his breakfast.
At this moment, the students in front started discussing again.
"Neo released another episode last night, did you watch it?"
"Huh? I didn't see it! Neo's so prolific these days? He's posting two episodes a day!"
"Because the opponent is Hide on Bush again! This guy is really awesome, he keeps providing Neo with material, hahaha."
Li Zhixing, who was listening to the conversation from behind, couldn't hold back for a moment.
At that moment, no one noticed that the boy with the messy hair next to them had crushed the bread in his hand.
Two students ahead were still chattering away.
"So what champion is it this time? Is it Zed again?"
"This time it's not, it's Syndra ganking! Hehe, a forehand and backhand tutorial!"
"And Neo started duo-queuing with Deft again, carrying him from fifth to third in one night!"
"Huh? These two aren't trying to monopolize first and second place, are they? Are they really going to lose second place even after Hide on Bush? That would be too tragic!"
Behind the two, Lee Sang-hyeok munched on a flatbread, a cold smile playing on his lips.
Ha ha.
What a joke.
I can only beat Neo, how could I be unable to beat anyone else?
Just then, the student in front of me turned around again.
"Sang-hyeok!" the classmate drawled, "I messaged you yesterday, asking you to duo queue together, why didn't you reply!"
Lee Sang-hyeok was silent for two seconds before saying, "I didn't play games yesterday. I read a book when I got home and went to bed early."
Li Zhixing couldn't help but glance sideways at him again...
Weren't you staying up late to read?
"Is that so?"
My classmate looked at me with suspicion: "Just tell us your ID, it doesn't matter if your score is low, we can play matchmaking together!"
The boy with the messy hair seemed determined not to answer and fell silent again.
The student, unable to see the answer, could only give up regretfully.
Li Zhixing observed this scene and seemed to be deep in thought.
Why is Lee Sang-hyeok keeping quiet about his game ID?
If your skill level is too low, it's normal to be embarrassed to say it.
But Lee Sang-hyeok said yesterday after school that he would help him rank up. If he wasn't good at the game, he wouldn't have made such a bold statement.
Thinking of this, Li Zhixing was suddenly startled and had a bold conjecture.