Chapter 5: Master, I Want to Learn the Art of Sending!

"Holy shit! My Penta Kill!"

In the V5 team voice channel, Xiao Yan's voice rang out with a soul-shattering intensity.

His hand speed had been insanely fast.

The exact moment the Aphelios ultimate was thrown out, he flashed forward into a blue-gun Q ability. In the mind of every Aphelios player exists a fireworks extravaganza; the moment his blue gun perfectly impacted the crowd, he had already mentally rehearsed the whole scene: hitting five people with the ultimate, flashing to Q all five of them, and then claiming a Penta Kill by taking down each low-health target one by one.

As a result...

People indeed died in heaps within a split second.

Yet why?

Why were all three squishy champion kills credited to the Graves?!

Is precise kill-stealing some kind of mandatory passive skill for Graves players?!

"Shut your trap!"

Luo Ji rejected Xiao Yan's grievance and countered him with a set of psychological manipulation:

"Whose Penta Kill? That was clearly my Penta Kill. Think about it carefully, who generated the laning phase advantage in this match?"

"You."

"And whose strategic plan was it to fake a feint and actually take the Dragon?"

"Also you."

"Then the question arises: the advantage was created by me, the strategy was proposed by me, and you literally just threw out an ultimate ability—how on earth have the nerve to claim I stole your Penta Kill?"

"Well..."

Xiao Yan scratched his head. Thinking about it carefully, that seemed to actually be the case.

"Then tonight's midnight snack?"

"You—oh no, tonight's snack is on me."

"A child teachable indeed."

Luo Ji nodded with a look of gratification on his face, though internally, as he looked at the quadruple kill broadcast at the top of the screen, he felt deeply annoyed.

He hadn't expected it.

His toxic aura still wasn't concentrated enough. An opportunity like this, where a Penta Kill was practically gift-wrapped by timing an ultimate ability, had actually been sniped away by Xiao Yan in the AD carry position.

True to his title as Emperor Yan Xiao Yan, his kill-stealing technique was top-tier.

Following the execution of a textbook-perfect team fight, RA's morale was thoroughly shattered by the V5 members. As for the livestream bullet chats, needless to say, the brutal aesthetics of the Aphelios ultimate combined with the Graves ultimate were particularly effective at igniting the spectators' excitement.

Of course, the key point was this.

When the director started replaying the team fight, countless viewers stared with their own eyes as the Graves waited until after the Aphelios ultimate had landed before stepping in to cast his abilities.

Deep inside, that familiar sensation finally burst forth uncontrollably.

Right!

This was precisely the flavor!

[666666]

[What a steal, I can only say what a gorgeous steal.]

[Damn it, if not for the replay, I really wouldn't have noticed. You truly understand the art of kill-stealing.]

[I knew it! How can you play Graves without being toxic? All the malice bottled up for the entire game was hidden right here at the end.]

Hullbreaker!

The Hullbreaker that permeated the entire match!

In the early game, relying on Hullbreaker's stats and tower-destroying capability to draw attention to the top lane; in the mid-game, trading map resources through Hullbreaker split-pushing; and finally, relying on Hullbreaker's passive design to sneak the Baron and encircle RA—V5 had practically explored every conceivable application of this item.

Of course.

What drove the referees standing behind V5 utterly insane was...

From a dozen minutes into the match onward, Luo Ji constantly hummed his song "Flight Attendant Trap" whenever he had a spare moment. You could ask whether humming background music like this counted as cheating—of course it didn't. Yet you couldn't quite call it fair either, because this damn background music seemed to actually carry some ridiculous stat buffs.

The referees exchanged glances and ultimately decided to pretend they hadn't heard anything. After all, nobody ever smashed Qiao Feng's sound system when he fought battles in Jin Yong's novels.

What did this indicate?

It indicated that in military engagements, musicians are not executed; songs could be reasonably deployed as a cybernetic stimulant.

Ultimately.

Accompanied by V5's successful push against undefended structures,

2:1.

Little old RA, successfully defeated!

"Woohoo~"

"Two wins! We've already secured two wins before the New Year. Brothers, we've already achieved half of our success!"

"Hey, wait a minute, should we find the back exit when we leave later? I'm worried continuously pulling these weird monsters out round after round might get him cornered and beaten with a sack."

"Not a big problem, I brought my health insurance card when I went out."

"???"

No way!

What kind of divine being brings a health insurance card to a professional esports match?!

In contrast to the heated discussion over at V5, the RA camp was somewhat dazed and bewildered by this point—not stunned by sheer skill, but rather by V5's understanding of the game patch.

What was the general situation in the LPL previously?

It was that even when entering a new season, every team would still spend the first month playing the old version's meta, waiting until the Korean server updated its tactics.

Eh~

Your various major teams would then slightly borrow those strategies.

Although it would be the premiere appearance on the LPL stage, in reality, the major teams had already witnessed them in foreign regions, so they more or less had a psychological bottom line.

But you, V5!

You guys actually bloody understand the current patch!

"What do you say?"

Leyan glanced at his surrounding teammates and spoke up:

"Should we leave a bit later and wait for the V5 guys?"

"Wait for V5? No way, you're not actually thinking about jumping him with a sack, are you?"

The RA players looked at Leyan with eyes full of admiration. Back when Leyan dared to use a bug to instantly clear neutral camps, they already thought he was extremely bold. Now it seemed, how could ordinary bravery possibly explain this?

This guy was planning to take the hostility offline!

"Where is your mind wandering?"

Leyan glared fiercely at his teammates, feeling a mix of exasperation and disappointment:

"We don't do illegal things! My point is, since V5 is so capable at researching patches, we definitely need to schedule more practice scrims with them. Even if we just steal a trick or two, won't that be enough for us to disgust the other teams in our region?"

"!!!"

That makes sense!

The eyes of the RA members lit up. They were well aware of how difficult it was to schedule scrims with V5 right now. The only difference was that previously, it was hard because everyone wanted to exact revenge on Luo Ji for his top lane Smite Janna, treating it as a grudge match. And now?

They were this close to standing teary-eyed in front of Luo Ji, cosplaying Mitsui Hisashi, and shouting:

"Master, I want to learn techniques!"

After the match.

This time, it was Luo Ji's turn to participate in the post-match interview.

When it was confirmed that V5 was sending Luo Ji instead of any other player, the first to be moved to tears weren't Luo Ji himself, but rather the official staff members who had continuously tried to invite him to the interview stage.

It hasn't been easy!

Other rookies racked their brains trying to show off flashy plays and steal kills; whether they won or lost didn't matter as long as their KDA looked good, making it easy to put them on a post-match interview.

Only this buddy managed to keep his KDA so abysmal that he never gave them a single chance.

This time.

The post-match interviewer was no longer Rookie's girlfriend Xiaoyu, but had been replaced by the rookie female host of this era, Xiaian. Luo Ji was extremely polite. Upon meeting the host, he strictly followed the teachings of his grandmaster:

[When looking at a girl, look at her eyes first; if you notice she isn't looking at you, you may look at her legs] — Tong Jincheng

Though post-match interviews felt somewhat boring, getting to look at legs at least helped pass the time.

Thus.

While accepting the scripted interview Q&A,

Luo Ji was simultaneously and stealthily using his peripheral vision to peek at Xiaian's legs.

There was no help for it.

There was nothing else to look at.

He surely couldn't stare at the two-hundred-pound camera operator behind the lens (anyone who has ever carried a broadcast camera knows that is purely heavy physical labor).

Luo Ji, who fancied his peripheral sniper-rifle aiming technique to be flawless, completely failed to realize that under the scrutiny of the camera lens, his every subtle movement was infinitely magnified—especially during this pandemic period, where wearing a face mask was mandatory even for interviews.

Once that mask was on, didn't it leave only his eyes visible?

They stood out like a sore thumb.

His stoic expert persona had already collapsed halfway during the Voice Comms segment, and now, watching this post-match interview, oh boy, the other half collapsed right along with it.

[Confirmed, this Mobius has an abundance of human nature.]

[Those little glances, you can tell he's practiced this; he managed to keep Xiaian completely oblivious the whole time.]

[Then the question is, why only look down and not up? Is it because there's nothing up there?]

[Don't expose people so harshly; she's already poor enough up top, and you're still gossiping about her.]

Watching Luo Ji's performance, everyone was amused.

However...

Quickly, when the interview reached its final question, the host's core interview focus finally arrived:

"Then I'd like to ask player Luo Ji, we all know about the several strategies that have recently emerged in Summoner's Rift, such as top lane Smite Janna and top lane full-tank Tahm Kench, all of which originated from your development. Many viewers are also very curious about how you developed these strategies, as well as your mental journey while creating them."

This was so blunt

it was practically pointing at his nose and scolding him for inventing so many malignant, brain-rotting atrocities.

Luo Ji twitched the corner of his mouth. He had still underestimated the impact of the top lane Smite strategy. However, after a brief moment of thought, he quickly took the microphone and replied:

"How were the strategies developed?"

"Actually, it's just playing more, watching more, and practicing more. Of course, the most important thing is stealing more. One person's wisdom is short, the collective wisdom is long. Some strategies I encountered in ranked queue myself, found them interesting, so I followed along and tried them out, then made symbolic modifications before bringing them out."

"For example, that top lane Janna—actually, I wasn't the original creator. I am merely a transporter of strategies."

"As for the mental journey while developing strategies..."

"Well, games, as everyone knows, are meant to be played with a smile."

Livestream viewers: ???

After the match.

Following the Smite Janna and stat-monster Tahm Kench, Luo Ji's latest strategy—Hullbreaker Graves—successfully made a name for itself. Players of this era were right in the midst of exploring new patch strategies, and everyone was eagerly refreshing video feeds waiting for new tactics to drop.

Why?

Because enjoying the benefits first is genuinely satisfying. If you don't follow along to enjoy the early perks, you can only suffer, and reality continuously teaches us that suffering first doesn't necessarily mean tasting sweetness later.

And tasting sweetness first—that was truly sweet to the core.

After the match.

The proactive approach from the RA members also caught the V5 players quite off guard. During the interaction, Luo Ji even pulled out his health insurance card, preparing to find an opportunity to lie flat on the ground, cry out that his "back hurts" and "legs hurt," and then pull a classic碰瓷 (scam).

As a result...

The opponents had simply come over to foster goodwill, hoping to exchange contact information and deepen the connection between the teams. After figuring out what was going on, Luo Ji's excited gaze instantly lost its luster.

That... that was it?

He had gotten excited over nothing; he thought he was about to make his first pot of gold in life.

"Why does he look kind of weird?"

Luo Ji's strange behavior naturally didn't escape the notice of the RA contingent.

Leyan paused for a moment.

He asked Rookie next to him with curiosity.

"Never mind him, you know how it is—researching too many strategies causes brain overload, and occasionally he glitches out like this. Once the overload clears, he'll be fine."

Rookie's mouth twitched.

As an old veteran of the competitive scene, he actually really wanted to show off his team's potential rookie in front of other veterans, much like parents with a newborn baby love showing off their child. The problem was that while Luo Ji was mature beyond his years when normal, once his condition acted up, he was genuinely impossible to take out in public.

"Well then, we won't disturb you guys anymore. It's a deal, let's play more scrims together."

"Definitely, definitely."

Having successfully harvested what they wanted, the RA squad officially took their leave.

Normally, this would be the point where the V5 members headed back to the club and began reviewing the day's matches. However, before Nofe could even open his mouth, Luo Ji proactively approached him and submitted a request to delay the match review.

"Why?"

Nofe asked with curiosity.

From the Demacia Cup until now, this was the first time he had heard Luo Ji make such a request.

"To climb the ladder!"

"Climb the ladder?"

Hearing something he cared about, not just coach Nofe, but even the other players on the team gathered around. Professional players had strict rank requirements; every month they had quotas demanding they reach a certain tier, and nowadays players above Master tier couldn't duo queue. Solo climbing could only rely on individual skill and dog-tier luck.

Though they didn't know what kind of scheme regarding "climbing" he was cooking up,

based on everyone's understanding of Luo Ji's "brain-rotting" tendencies, anything coming out of his mouth was bound to be something inhumane yet exceptionally effective.

"Yeah, climb the ladder."

Seeing his teammates crowd around, Luo Ji didn't hold back or keep secrets. He spoke up: "Didn't I just debut the top lane Hullbreaker Graves today?"

"I've researched it."

"Previously when I pulled out Smite Janna, it took the netizens a whole day before they started copying it. Later when I brought out Tahm Kench, within about half a day there were tons of Tahms in ranked queue. And now, I've figured out Hullbreaker Graves."

"You understand."

"I can't wait to play Fiora and Tryndamere to harvest LP off all these Hullbreaker Graves players."

Nofe: ???

The rest of the V5 teammates: !!!

The staff members who hadn't left yet: ...

You deserve to have a high rank.

You bloody genius!

That night.

Riding the wave of Hullbreaker Graves's momentum, the V5 members swept all the way through ranked queues, ferociously capitalizing on the esports traffic they had generated themselves.

At the same time, online uploads of the team voice communications with RA were synchronously released.

This time.

The shock brought by the match voice comms was honestly no less than the heat surrounding his Demacia Cup voice comms. They were used to hearing trash-talk voice comms, and they were quite accustomed to hearing bleeped-out profanities, but match voice comms where someone just starts singing midway through?

To be fair, they had genuinely never seen that before.

[Good grief, I call that a pure good grief.]

[Doing crosstalk sketches a while ago, singing DJ tracks this round—I simply dare not imagine what he's going to do next.]

[Isn't Xiao Yan right next to him? Why didn't they harmonize?]

[No wonder RA lost. How are you supposed to play when the opponent has a whole sound system advantage?]

Hilarious.

People were truly amused this time.

Especially RA—losing a match was just losing a match, as there were no permanent victors on the competitive stage. But getting dumpstered while the opponent was singing a song?

How is that

any different from using the forbidden technique [Ceasefire] during a fight?

Many people didn't know what [Ceasefire] was; it was a fatal killer move on the battlefield, usually unleashed only when the enemy was completely unable to resist, with its greatest potency lying in inflicting extreme humiliation and trampling upon the adversary.

Also known as a leaping face-slap!

The only undeniable fact was that, fueled by this continuous wave of hype,

as a rookie playing only his second match of the Spring Split, Luo Ji officially debuted in front of all LPL viewers with astonishing momentum.