Chapter 4: Use your invincible brain to think of something!

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The spread of top-lane Smite Janna continued to grow in influence as time gave the trend room to ferment.

At first, nobody paid any attention to the stream.

Everyone assumed it was merely an ordinary educational stream showcasing a gimmick for low-ranked games. All the high-level players scoffed at their fans’ urging—until every one of them became entangled with this hellish strategy.

It was not just the various video creators.

Even the professional players from all the major teams were repeatedly brutalized by this shameless strategy in the preseason ranked ladder.

It did not matter whether they were playing on the Korean or Chinese server, nor how high or low their rank was. If there was one thing they all had in common, it was this:

Whenever Janna appeared on the opposing side, everyone on their team was disgusted beyond words.

Whenever she appeared on their own side, without exception, she successfully raised a godlike carry.

One could only say that the Orphan Yasuo Effect had struck again.

“Look at the mess you’ve created. Ranked games are full of support champions going top now. You just had to teach them, didn’t you? Every single one of them learned it without a word, and now my private messages are full of people asking how to send you gifts or take you out for a meal.”

“Well?”

“Should I give them your address, or set up a time?”

V5 Club.

The team’s players had all been caught in the splash damage of Luo Ji’s indiscriminate strategy. Rookie, a famously good-natured person, had been rather angry when the tactic first caused him trouble. But after seeing more and more players driven to the brink come looking for Luo Ji’s WeChat contact, he suddenly felt that perhaps he was not so angry anymore.

Indeed.

This was simply human nature.

When you were the only one who had fallen into a trap and suffered for it, you would be furious. But once you discovered that someone else had fallen into the same trap—and suffered even more badly—you would instantly calm down. You might even want to turn up the heat and watch more people suffer.

Of course, the reason this tactic had caused such a tremendous impact was not really Janna herself.

It was that Luo Ji had given everyone an idea of how to exploit the bounty system designed by the game developers.

Players on the Chinese server had exceptionally broad imaginations.

Often, all they needed was a single idea. After that, they would figure out for themselves how to make life miserable for everyone else.

It was just like that bridge-building game called He Shen Simulator. Unless you had seen it with your own eyes, who could have imagined that people’s minds could wander so far?

The entire top ten on the leaderboard were Chinese players.

“Can you really blame me?” Luo Ji said, his voice full of helplessness.

“I clearly made a gentleman’s agreement with the viewers at the time. We agreed that once they learned the strategy, they wouldn’t mention my name outside the stream. Who could have known they’d all turn out to be shameless bastards? Whenever someone asked, they practically recited my national ID number aloud.”

“I don’t care. You deal with it yourself.”

“How am I supposed to deal with it? I’m getting the full Uzi treatment in scrims now. Even after all that, they still won’t let me off?”

He was telling the truth.

As a professional rookie, this was genuinely the first time he had experienced such overwhelming enthusiasm from every LPL team.

Once they learned that he was the founder of the top-lane Smite Janna strategy that had tormented everyone, the scrims became something else entirely.

There were never fewer than four people in the top lane from beginning to end.

Calling them scrims was the polite version.

Put more bluntly, they were grudge matches.

“All right, all right. Everyone, take a break for now and turn your attention this way.”

As though he could sense Luo Ji’s suffering, Nofe arrived at exactly the right moment and called out to the group:

“Anyone who hasn’t started, hold on for a moment.”

“The schedule for the Spring Split was released just now. The arrangement isn’t particularly favorable. All I can say is that this Spring Split is going to put a lot of pressure on us.”

Nofe’s expression was somewhat peculiar.

Still, his words made all the players in the room instinctively look over.

The S12 Spring Split was divided into two stages: before and after the Lunar New Year.

They would play for three weeks before the holiday, then return home for the New Year. Afterward, they would come back and finish the matches that remained.

As for their opponents...

Luo Ji studied the schedule and discovered that their opponents before the holiday were WE, RA, TES, and WBG.

Judging by the current rosters and the teams’ actual strength, WE were unquestionably weak. RA were probably about evenly matched with them. TES needed no explanation, while the final opponent, WBG, was actually manageable as well.

Looking at it as a whole, the four teams they would face before the holiday were not quite hopeless. But for V5 in their current state, this schedule was still somewhat disadvantageous.

They not only needed to familiarize themselves with the current patch, but also had to build synergy as a team.

If they faced strong teams at the beginning, losing would not be a major issue. Every team allowed itself some margin for error when losing to a powerful opponent. As they lost a few games, they would become familiar with the patch and improve their coordination. Then, if they faced weaker opponents later, their playoff spot would be secure.

That was the ideal pattern: difficult at first, easier later.

But if the order was reversed—if their synergy was poor, they were unfamiliar with the patch, and they faced teams of equal or inferior strength—then one upset loss at the beginning might put them in a position where they could not beat the stronger teams later.

Wouldn’t the entire season be doomed?

If that really happened, they would be like a Kamen Rider who had just received a new toy, only to be hit by a jeep and disassembled before he had even finished enjoying it.

In short, they would be catastrophically unlucky.

And so, the moment the schedule was released, the pressure to win immediately rose.

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“Well, there are only four matches before the holiday. As long as we win all of them, there shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Among the group, Luo Ji was perhaps the only one who did not think the situation was particularly serious.

As a time traveler, he knew how disastrous TES had been during the first half of the Spring Split. By the time they met again, TES might even be easier to handle than they had been during the Demacia Cup. Of the other three teams, the only one that truly required serious attention was probably WBG.

“Don’t underestimate them. In terms of roster strength, we can’t compete with a superteam. In terms of teamwork, we can’t compete with teams that have already built their synergy. We’re stuck in an awkward place.”

As Zero spoke, he displayed the player information for their first Spring Split opponent: WE.

The S12 WE roster was relatively even across the board.

Top laner BIUBIU was one of Grand Scholar Guan’s four dark kings, a bottom-ranked top laner in the LPL. He was so poor that people questioned why he was even qualified to play professionally. Yet, unfortunately for WE, they could not afford a top laner better than him, while every top laner they could afford was even worse.

They were stuck with him.

Jungler Beishang was in quarantine.

His substitute was View, formerly the jungler for SN. He had once attempted to take over the position left behind by Vietnam’s richest man, SofM, but failed to catch it.

Mid laner Shanks favored a style built around scaling carries in the mid and late game. He was a promising mid laner, with the notable achievement of repeatedly humiliating Rookie in the mid-lane AD carry meta.

The bottom lane duo of STAY and KEDAYA were not especially famous. The only noteworthy fact about them was that STAY was the first AD carry in the LPL to play Twisted Fate in the bottom lane.

On paper, Luo Ji felt that defeating WE should be as easy as raising a hand.

Anyone who watched the games had heard the saying: the city where WE played was a place where you could arrive, claim victory, and leave.

They were that absurd every time.

WE had been searching for internal traitors ever since the team was founded, trying every possible lineup combination. They were even more obsessed than S12 TES, and had nearly resorted to checking everyone’s housing-fund records.

Do not assume that trick would not work. Back in the day, two undercover agents in Hong Kong were exposed precisely because of their social-security contributions. They eventually confronted each other on a rooftop, and the whole incident became such a major scandal that it was even broadcast on television.

“Coach, then what tactics are we using for the opening match?” Karsa asked Nofe after coming to his senses.

“No tactics. At the beginning of a new patch, everyone is still experimenting. During this period, if you have any strategies or champions you think might work, feel free to suggest them and give them a try. The only requirement is that no matter how wildly you play in the early game, you must stabilize by mid game. If we lose the first game, then we play the second and third games seriously, with all guns blazing.”

On this particular point, coaches from all the major teams always gave off the same impression as Ash, the reverse-type master from Pokemon.

They might regain their common sense and properly assess the strength of both teams when facing a powerful opponent.

But when they were bullying a weak team?

Ahem.

They would instantly turn into a rookie from Pallet Town, completely unable to understand why a match required tactics or type advantages. They all believed that as long as they did not make any major mistakes, they could simply charge forward and win—like stat monsters who always assumed they had mechanical skill.

In reality, they were winning entirely through overwhelming numbers.

While the V5 players discussed which champions they could use in the opening match, WE were suffering from a massive headache.

In the eyes of WE’s coach, V5 at least had Rookie and Karsa holding down the fort. Judging from their performance in the Demacia Cup, their rookies possessed both strong potential and impressive immediate impact.

By comparison, WE’s own lineup was nowhere near as reassuring.

If Beishang could play, things would have been fine.

But Beishang was still in quarantine. How could they possibly withstand the might of V5 with only Shanks?

Helpless, the coach could only seek help from another carry in a desperate attempt to find a solution.

“Shanks, use that invincible brain of yours and think of something!”

Coach Assassin was suffering from a truly enormous headache.

He had considered the strategy of pitting the weak against the strong, but his own players were like the cast of a television adaptation of Battle Through the Heavens: their horses simply could not run as fast as the opponent’s.

He had also considered the mad-dog boxing strategy, but before they could even begin, it had collapsed under the color of their health codes. At present, they could not even leave the club.

So what else could they do?

They could not simply surrender.

Shanks scratched his head.

It was the middle of the day, and he actually wanted to suggest that they order lunch first. If they waited any longer, many restaurants would stop accepting delivery orders. But judging from the way his coach was acting, ordinary words probably would not get through to him.

With that thought, Shanks moved closer to the coach and lowered his voice.

“Coach, if we can’t beat them by fighting openly and honestly, why don’t we learn from the enemy and use their own methods against them?”

“Let’s use the most popular strategy right now.”

“When it goes live on the tournament server, we should be able to copy it to some extent.”

After hearing this, the light in Assassin’s eyes—which had just brightened—instantly faded again. He looked at Shanks as though he were an idiot.

“You mean...”

“We take something they invented and use it against them, while assuming they won’t have a counter-strategy of their own?”

“Shanks, even if we part ways in the future, you absolutely must not delete me from your friends list.”

“When you’re old, I’ll definitely come find you and sell you health supplements.”

......

January 16.

The first week of the LPL Spring Split finally began.

As the champions of the Demacia Cup and one of the LPL’s semi-transparent teams, V5 did not appear near the front of the opening-day schedule. Instead, they were assigned to the final day of the first week.

Looking at the venue, which they did not even need to leave the club to reach, Luo Ji could not help staring at the empty entrance and sighing.

“This is the place. What memories. The year before last, I came here alone—without a team, without equipment, without filing the proper paperwork, without family, and without coming at all.”

“Nonsense. You came last year, and it was at the end of the year.”

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Karsa ruthlessly mussed Luo Ji’s hair.

After nearly two months of training together, the V5 players were already thoroughly familiar with one another. They also knew that, as a newcomer, Luo Ji was excellent in every respect—except that every so often, something utterly inexplicable would leap out of his mouth.

But it was fine.

He was a fellow anime fan.

Before Luo Ji joined, Karsa had been the only anime fan on the team, and it had been suffocating. After Luo Ji arrived, he gradually gained someone with whom he could share common interests. Unlike the others, who would immediately launch into insults and criticism whenever he mentioned Japan, Luo Ji could actually hold a neutral conversation.

Only truly neutral people understood.

In most circumstances, there were four things about Japan that one could refrain from criticizing:

Manga, music, animation, and live-action films.

“For this first game, we’ll play normally. I watched the matches from the past few days, and it’s clear that everyone is still exploring the patch. So we’ll follow their lead during the draft and see how it goes.”

“First, let’s get a feel for things.”

Inside the room, all the players nodded seriously.

It did not matter what level their opponent was. For V5, this was their first official match in the truest sense since the team had been rebuilt. Experimenting with unusual strategies could wait.

For now—

They would secure the team’s first victory of the new season before worrying about anything else.

And so...

For the first game, following Coach Nofe’s spiritual guidance, Karsa worked tirelessly for just ten minutes before completely achieving the team’s strategic objectives: balancing every lane, guiding the bottom lane into steady development and a virtuous cycle, further optimizing the jungle’s renewable resources, fully reducing his own jungle pressure, and essentially ensuring that every player reached the stage of carrying a control ward.

In the mid game, Karsa emphasized:

“As the ambassador of the jungle, we must repeatedly engage the opposing jungler in ‘friendly’ communication and exchange regarding the sharing of jungle resources!”

He steadfastly upheld the policy that not a blade of grass should survive wherever he went.

After the match, Comrade Nofe adopted a Four No’s, Two Straight approach to ganking, inspecting the top, middle, and bottom lanes’ efforts in donating kills. He then established the tone for the next game: maintain a positive attitude at all times, strengthen communication, reduce the likelihood of accidental clashes, and ensure the grand objective of a victorious opening was completed.

At that point, the score on the stage had become 1–0 in V5’s favor.

“1–0! The black-boned chicken is speaking now!”

“White-feathered chicken, don’t get excited. Wasn’t this game just the poor boy finally showing his strength? How many times have you flashed into the wall beside the chicken coop?”

“Brother Ka’s in good form. He occasionally moonlights as a pizza deliveryman, but I’ve always believed he’s a Tier 0 jungler.”

“Why is the top laner so quiet in the first game? Make some noise, Mebius!”

Once the LPL Spring Split began, the live chat visibly grew denser. Many viewers had not watched the Demacia Cup and only vaguely knew that V5 had won it.

As for this reborn V5, many people had come with the mindset of watching a spectacle.

Of course...

Aside from that, even more viewers had come to see what the person who had invented Smite Janna actually looked like.

In the lounge, Luo Ji did not care in the slightest whether he became famous. He had already become famous enough lately. He would much rather keep a low profile and let this wave of attention pass.

“In the next game, WE either unveils whatever research成果 they have prepared for the new season, or they lose.”

“Of course, there is a third possibility.”

As he spoke, Nofe suddenly turned his gaze toward Luo Ji.

If even Shanks had thought of it, then naturally a professional coach could think of it too. The teams that had played earlier had mostly prepared against the strategy. Either they saved their top-lane pick for later in the draft, or they simply wasted a ban on Janna.

It was obvious that nobody wanted to be tormented.

Even so, Nofe continued asking:

“If they play your strategy, can you successfully counter it?”

“Counter it? Isn’t that as easy as raising a hand?”

Luo Ji paused for a moment before replying decisively.

“Really?”

“Really. Didn’t you see that I’ve already reached my hand toward Brother Ka?”

“What?”

“What does this have to do with me?”

Karsa looked completely bewildered.

They had been discussing a strategy. How had the conversation somehow turned toward him?

“It’s very simple.” Luo Ji blinked. “Because a pizza usually has either six or eight slices. Therefore, the language of pizza is—there are no seven slices.”

The rest of V5: ...