King's Moment

Chapter Two: The Boy Who Guided the Game

Autumn comes and goes, and a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

Gazing at the falling leaves outside the window, He Liang felt a pang of melancholy. Today was the start of the KPL Autumn Season. For the past five years, this day had always been a time of anticipation, marking the beginning of a new journey. No matter how busy he became, his heart was always filled with excitement and anticipation. But now…

"He Liang, is the seating chart for tomorrow's opening ceremony ready?" A man burst into the office and shouted.

He Liang's thoughts returned to the computer in front of him with the shout, and he replied without turning his head, "I'm working on it."

Now, He Liang is a graduate student working in the Student Affairs Office at Dongjiang University. Although his work isn't much less demanding than when he was a professional gamer, he's lost the same sense of anticipation and passion he once had. What will the future hold? He Liang himself has no answer; he can only focus on doing his best in the present.

"Hurry up, you need to get to the playground and draw the lines before dark. We're just waiting for your sequence diagram." The urging voice continued from behind.

"Don't go, it'll be done soon." He Liang said, and his hands continued to work. The sound of the keyboard and mouse filled the air, and the locations of the various departments of the school were quickly outlined on the screen.

"Your hand speed is really fast, no wonder you're a former professional player!" The person standing behind him exclaimed in admiration as he watched his rapid movements.

“That’s a mobile game,” He Liang said.

"Different methods, same result."

Amidst the visitors' exclamations, He Liang quickly completed the seating arrangement diagram, which was already nearing its end, and casually sent the file directly to the visitors' mobile phones.

"Okay, I'll go now and be right back," the person said.

"Why come back?" He Liang asked.

"Take me to rank up!" The man, a seven-foot tall fellow, said this while giving He Liang a flirtatious wink, making He Liang feel nauseous.

"I'm busy today," He Liang said irritably. Ranked matches are one of the most important gameplay modes in Honor of Kings. Points are awarded and penalized based on the wins and losses of player battles, resulting in seven tiers from Bronze to King, representing the most direct reflection of a player's skill. However, for professional players, ranked rank is no longer sufficient to verify their skill; they are already top-tier masters who have transcended to another level.

He Liang, once a highly regarded KPL star jungler, is now relegated to being a mere tool for ranking up in the eyes of his colleagues, which leaves him feeling somewhat disillusioned. He had originally planned to give up gaming after retiring, but after meeting this colleague named Pan Ruiming, he couldn't resist Pan Ruiming's persistent nagging and picked up the game again, with Pan Ruiming carrying him to higher ranks every few days. The ranked season has just started, and Pan Ruiming has been nagging He Liang about ranked matches for days. However, today He Liang refused with unusual firmness, not giving Pan Ruiming a chance to continue his nagging, and grabbed his coat to head out.

"Hey, where are you going?" Pan Ruiming was quite surprised by He Liang's resolute attitude today, as he was usually easygoing and easy to talk to. He couldn't help but ask.

"My brother is starting work today, I'm going to pick him up." He Liang walked away without looking back.

"Your brother? A freshman? Which department? Hey! Can I use your computer?" Pan Ruiming asked a few more questions, but He Liang had already disappeared. Pan Ruiming ignored him, sat down at He Liang's computer, forwarded several copies of the seating chart he had just made, made a phone call and gave a few instructions, and then leisurely opened the game "Honor of Kings" on his phone.

"Saves me the trouble of running around." He muttered to himself as he started a solo ranked game.

When He Liang coached him, victory was almost guaranteed. The problem was, he played far more games on his own than He Liang had. He Liang could help him reach the King rank today, and he could lose back to Diamond rank in two days. Without He Liang's guidance, Pan Ruiming's ranked match record was always a double-digit losing streak, along with countless complaints and penalties in his system message box.

Last season was the most outrageous. He Liang carried him to the King rank and then ignored him, causing Pan Ruiming to plummet back to the Gold rank in just one week. It's no exaggeration to say that if it weren't for the Bronze rank's point protection and lack of a star-dropping mechanism, Pan Ruiming would have easily fallen back to the beginner-level Bronze I. This clearly demonstrates Pan Ruiming's gaming talent and skill level. However, he never acknowledges this, insisting that his teammates are unreliable. To compensate for this, as soon as he entered this Gold ranked game, Pan Ruiming confidently typed, "Pro, filling role."

Different heroes in the game have their own preferred positions, and choosing the right heroes to match the team is a very important part of the game. Pan Ruiming's statement shows a very responsible and reliable attitude – letting teammates choose their preferred heroes and positions first, and then he can fill in the gaps in the team.

Whether or not his four teammates noticed what he said, they all quickly selected their heroes. Pan Ruiming looked at the game and saw that there were four positions available: top lane, mid lane, marksman, and support, but no jungler. He immediately chose the assassin hero Lanling King.

"I'll jungle, I'll carry the team," Pan Ruiming said confidently once again.

The match started quickly. Pan Ruiming, who had reached the King rank with He Liang, completely disregarded the Gold rank match, humming a tune as he headed straight for his team's blue buff area. The jungler gains experience and gold by hunting jungle monsters, usually being the fastest-developing player on the team, thus leading the team's pace. Pan Ruiming hummed a tune as he fought monsters, already planning how to appear out of nowhere and dominate the battlefield, when suddenly two enemy heroes appeared from the pass above, charging straight at him.

Pan Ruiming hastily retreated, only to have the two enemy heroes effortlessly kill the blue buff he was halfway through attacking, stealing the crucial blue buff for junglers at the start of the game. Enraged, Pan Ruiming immediately switched to voice chat: "Why didn't the top laner check it for me?!"

"The vision is there. The enemy marksman and support haven't shown themselves. They're either attacking the red buff or trying to steal the blue buff."

Pan Ruiming's teammates in the game didn't respond, but a voice suddenly rang out behind him, startling him so much that he almost threw his phone away. Turning around, he saw a student-looking boy standing behind him, his gaze fixed on his phone screen.

“But even if you have Smite on the enemy, you still have a good chance of getting it, so why run?” the boy continued. Smite is a Summoner Spell, usually only used by junglers. This skill can deal high true damage to jungle monsters, providing a significant advantage in last-hitting. However, Pan Ruiming didn't take advantage of this to try and secure the blue buff; he simply retreated.

"Who are you?" Pan Ruiming looked the boy who was instructing him on how to play the game up and down.

"Oh, I'm looking for He Liang. Isn't this his office?" the young man said, finally taking his gaze off Pan Ruiming's phone.

"He's gone out, he's not here." Pan Ruiming said, then turned back to continue his game. The jungler, having lost his blue buff, was a bit behind. Lanling King pitifully cleared the remaining jungle monsters and stole a wave of minions from his teammates, finally reaching level 4. He immediately activated Lanling King's ultimate skill—Secret Technique: Stealth Strike—entering stealth and stealthily making his way towards the enemy's blue buff area.

"The enemy jungler started with the red buff. If you want to invade their jungle, you should go to the red buff area now." A voice suddenly came from behind.

"You haven't left yet?" Pan Ruiming exclaimed, startled again, but his attention quickly returned to the game: "How did you know he started with the red buff?"

"He passed by when you were checking the mid lane vision just now. Didn't you notice the buff on him?" the boy said.

"Of course I noticed, but who told you to go catch him? I'm going to steal the enemy's blue buff. Can't you see I'm almost out of mana?" Pan Ruiming didn't change his Lanling King's route.

"The enemy team started with red buff, and their blue buff won't respawn for at least 60 seconds. Why don't you go take your own blue buff? It should be ready soon then," the boy said.

“What do you know? I’m going to ambush him and take down both the blue buff and his kill!” Pan Ruiming said.

"Ambush for 60 seconds?" The boy was quite puzzled. Let alone the crucial early stages of the game, even in the mid-to-late game, spending 60 seconds to ambush in the bushes is a huge waste. How could such a tactic be possible?

But before he could finish speaking, Pan Ruiming's Lanling King encountered the enemy jungler Li Bai in the river.

"See that?" Pan Ruiming said smugly, and Lanling Wang immediately pressed towards Li Bai.

"Li Bai has a powerful move!" The boy saw the eerie light emanating from the longsword in Li Bai's hand and hurriedly reminded Pan Ruiming. However, Pan Ruiming's Lanling King had already launched his attack. The Shadow Dagger flew towards Li Bai, followed by his first skill, Secret Technique: Clone. Lanling King summoned a shadow clone, which swung its fist blades at Li Bai.

A sudden attack while invisible is indeed difficult to defend against, but when Li Bai was hit by the Shadow Dagger, he immediately used his second skill, Divine Stroke, transforming his longsword into a Azure Lotus Sword Formation, protecting him from being hit by Lanling King and his clone. He then unleashed his ultimate skill, Azure Lotus Sword Song, transforming into sword energy and unleashing a rapid barrage of slashes at Lanling King.

"Damn it!" Pan Ruiming exclaimed in surprise after taking two skills in a row, but his clone failed to deal any damage. Lanling King used his ultimate skill Shadow Strike again, leaving the boy behind him speechless.

When Shadow Strike is first activated, Lanling King will enter a stealth state for 30 seconds after 1.5 seconds. If activated again during this period, Lanling King will launch a surprise attack in the indicated direction. However, the problem is that Li Bai is still casting his ultimate skill, Azure Lotus Sword Song, during this time. Just like when casting Divine Strike, Li Bai is untargetable and cannot be attacked. If Lanling King's Shadow Strike is activated again at this time, it is no different from missing.

Of the three attack skills, Lanling King missed two, only managing to slow Li Bai down slightly with his Shadow Dagger. However, Li Bai's first skill, "Drinking Alone Under the Moon," has a built-in displacement effect, allowing him to relentlessly pursue the fleeing Lanling King. Pan Ruiming was caught off guard and finally fell to the ground with a single sword strike.

"Damn it!" Pan Ruiming was extremely annoyed, but this time it was all his own fault, so he couldn't blame his teammates. He immediately turned his resentful gaze toward the boy behind him.

"What's all the noise about? Just wait and see!" Pan Ruiming said fiercely.

"We should wait until Li Bai's ultimate skill is debuffed before going in," the boy said. Li Bai's ultimate skill, Azure Lotus Sword Song, is usually in a debuffed state. Only when the fourth basic attack within 3 seconds hits the target and triggers the passive skill, Wanderer's Journey, will Azure Lotus Sword Song be debuffed. However, this time is only 5 seconds, after which Azure Lotus Sword Song will return to the debuffed state.

"How am I supposed to know if his ultimate skill is restricted?" Pan Ruiming said irritably.

"The sword glows when the restrictions are lifted!" The boy was surprised that Pan Ruiming would ask such a question.

"Who would care about such a detail? Who are you anyway?" Pan Ruiming was startled. He had played nearly a thousand games, yet he still didn't know that Li Bai's ultimate skill had such a detail. He silently memorized it while still trying to deny it. However, he finally began to feel a little curious about this young man.

"My name is He Yu, and I'm here to see my brother, He Liang," the boy said.

"Ah? You're He Liang's younger brother! No wonder!" Upon hearing He Yu introduce himself, Pan Ruiming immediately understood. He immediately took it for granted that He Yu could offer him so much in-game advice. After all, he was the younger brother of a professional player; of course he knew a lot about the game.

"He Liang said he was going to pick you up, didn't you run into him?" Pan Ruiming asked after realizing what was happening.

"Really?" He Yu took out his phone and glanced at it, and sure enough, he saw an unread WeChat message from He Liang.

"Excuse me!" He Yu hurriedly turned around and went out, but almost bumped into a girl outside the door.

"I'm sorry," He Yu quickly apologized to the other party.

"It's okay." The girl looked at him, but the smile on her face made He Yu feel a little strange. However, he didn't have time to think about it at the moment, so he nodded and hurriedly left. Pan Ruiming wanted to say a few more words to He Yu, but he hadn't finished his game yet. He got up and went out while still playing, only to see He Yu's figure disappear at the top of the stairs. The girl standing at the door was still watching He Yu's back, looking thoughtful.

"Who are you looking for?" Pan Ruiming looked at the girl and found her to be quite pretty, which immediately made him more enthusiastic.

"Don't bother looking for anyone, Jialan will be refreshed soon, go get it quickly," the girl said.

"What?" Pan Ruiming was stunned. He looked down and saw that the blue monster in his jungle was indeed respawning.

"How did you know?" Pan Ruiming asked, looking up in surprise, only to see that the other person had already left.

"Because I get emotionally invested in games." The girl didn't turn around; she just said that and disappeared at the bottom of the stairs.