Spicy AD, huh? Always right in the enemy backline's face.
Wasn't that the classic move of using a machine gun to whittle down their health, then switching to melee and going in with the knife? Haven't you guys ever played Biohazard Nasus?
A one-for-four trade.
Even though Angel landed a great ultimate and maxed out the damage, while the others followed up with their crowd control, the immediate consequence of the ADC being knocked away was that WBG had no sustained damage left to enter and clean up the fight. WBG fell apart.
The remaining four immediately turned toward Baron Nashor. Once the three-Poke Flow heavy artillery comp gained an advantage and marched forward with Baron BUFF-enhanced minions, the enemy not only couldn't withstand the Poke damage, but also couldn't push back the buffed wave.
What were they waiting for, then?
"Though the people's army is scattered, it can still shake a tree."
"Gather the people of the world and forge an army of the common folk."
"I, the humble Daoist Zhang Liang, invite you all to your deaths!"
"Charge!"
Under Luo Zhen's intensely otaku-like words, the V5 group unleashed their damage across the battlefield as though they had all been pumped full of adrenaline.
When the heavy artillery comp became a swarm comp, and the AWP became the Dongfeng series, WBG finally failed to withstand V5's offensive. Amid round after round of roaring bombardment, they slowly turned into scattered dust across Summoner's Rift.
2–1.
V5's entire roster stepped up and successfully claimed victory in this series.
At the instant WBG's Nexus was completely destroyed, Theshy stared blankly at the gray screen before him and the ID marked V5's Rookie on it. A trace of reminiscence and daze surfaced in his eyes. He had once thought they would play professionally together in IG until they could no longer play—but he had never expected that the former three Cs would ultimately lose to reality and be forced to go their separate ways.
But...
Thinking that he could meet up with Rookie again after the match, Theshy couldn't help quietly chuckling.
What?
The match?
Was that thing more important than his teammate?
Of course not.
Because Luo Zhen had performed quite well in this BO3, while everyone else was rushing back to the base for soup, Luo Zhen was unexpectedly stopped by the event's interview crew.
"Do I really have to do an interview?"
"Yes, it's part of the process. I'll ask you about a few things that happened in the match later. Just answer as you see fit." This time, even the interviewer noticed how anxious Luo Zhen was to leave. Wanting to save time, she simply got straight into it and couldn't be bothered going over a script.
And so...
Q1: Player AK, we noticed that across these three games, the coach gave you more scaling-oriented Bot Lane Matchup compositions, and you successfully endured that pressure. But we're curious—what were you thinking when the coach picked those compositions for you?
A1: I was just tanking. As everyone knows, tanking is the mother of giving up, giving up is the mother of failure, and failure is the mother of success. Therefore, tanking equals success. Once I understood that, I knew I just had to hold on without collapsing and wait for my teammates to carry.
Little change from the interview crew:?
Q2: In Game Three, we saw that EZ ultimate ability aimed directly at the WBG fountain. Had you calculated that ultimate in advance?
A2: Oh, I just guessed. You know how the game's gacha pool rates have already gone up to 65,000 now. I figured the odds of randomly tossing out an ultimate had to be a little better than that, right? What if it hit? So I threw it.
Little change from the interview crew:???
Q3: Then in that final dragon teamfight, when you jumped onto the enemy ADC...
A3: There was a whole Battle of Gods happening on the main battlefield with all those Warriors. I figured a little ADC like me would just get instantly deleted if I went in, so I bullied the equally squishy ADC off to the side instead. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Little change from the interview crew:??????
Those three follow-up questions instantly shattered the interview girl's mental defenses. The Bullet Comments in the livestream went completely insane. In the past, Luo Zhen had always given extremely formulaic answers, so there generally hadn't been much Show Effect.
No one had expected that, in his anxiety to return to the club, he would lose his mind and start "opening the floodgates."
The Show Effect was absolutely explosive.
Barely half an hour later, when the next Regular Season match for another pair of teams began, the entire V5 roster had already returned to their club and happily started digging into their nourishing soup.
With so many ingredients in the pot, the nourishment enthusiasts said:
"One spoon to Qing, two spoons to Tang, three spoons back to Qin Shi Huang."
"Four spoons to Shang, five spoons to Xia, six spoons back to Shennongjia."
"Seven and eight spoons to the Jurassic, nine spoons to splitting heaven and earth."
That was some authentic stuff~
As they ate, everyone listened to Coach Homme's tactical review.
In such a comfortable environment, Luo Zhen felt endlessly fortunate that he had transmigrated into a Parallel World—and thank fucking god it was a Parallel World.
As everyone knew, Transmigrator was the profession with the highest mortality rate in novels. Especially in Chinese transmigration novels: many people thought they could become mighty rulers after transmigrating, but in reality... the consequences of recklessly transmigrating might look like this:
"In the Xth year after the viral outbreak, the population has fallen to 10%." You might be part of that 90%.
"During the ancient primordial war, living beings were devastated, and humanity declined." You might be one of the devastated.
"With a wave of xxx's hand, a streak of light flew from his sleeve and struck xx continent, turning countless living beings into bloody mist, which xxx absorbed into his body."
"The seal/passage/entrance has been completely shattered, connecting the real world to the XX realm. Countless cities have become cities of the dead."
Compared to all that, wasn't his current life far more comfortable?
Of course, while eating and listening to the coach's review, he hadn't forgotten to train his fundamentals. Those Xuanhuan Novels all said it: to strengthen oneself, one had to integrate every technique into every aspect of daily life.
And so...
A backstep canceled the recovery animation of putting food into his mouth, while shaking his head canceled the recovery animation of chewing.
He raised his head to apply the heat resistance Buff, his chopsticks drifting across the dining table as he looked for a chance to engage.
This was it.
This was the daily training routine of a top-tier ADC.
Chapter 28: I Examine Myself Thrice Daily
After several rounds of outstanding performances, Luo Zhen's fame grew more and more intense alongside the Spring Split. Of course, that wasn't what stoked the flames most. Rather, Rookie posted a late-night photo of IG's three Cs having a midnight meal together, and countless onlookers sharply spotted Luo Zhen in the corner, fiercely attacking a hotpot.
The direct result of that discovery was that he hadn't gone looking for fame—fame had come looking for him instead.
It was actually quite simple.
After Theshy and Rookie finished playing, they arranged a midnight meal after reviewing the match. TES's match happened to be after theirs, so JKL could join them as soon as he finished. Rookie thought it over, then simply brought Luo Zhen along too.
On one hand, he thought their ADC was so skinny that he needed to eat more and build himself up. If the ADC was not fat, his teammates honestly wouldn't feel safe.
On the other hand... he also wanted to see whether JKL could give Luo Zhen some Specialized Training like LWX had.
As for whether he wanted to show off his new ADC in front of the other two...
Well, who knew?
And so, the four gathered together. Luo Zhen had deliberately tried to avoid the camera when the photo was taken. The Incheon Three Cs were reuniting, and it was already strange enough for him to be there. He needed to pay attention to public opinion and all that. Unfortunately, he had just spotted a slice of beef tripe that had been cooking in the pot for ages and wanted to fish it out. At that exact moment, Rookie took the photo, catching half of Luo Zhen's face in it as well.
In just one night, the entire internet's discourse exploded!
What the hell was going on???
I could understand a celebration dinner. I could understand the Incheon Three Cs. But an unrelated ADC mixing into the Incheon Three Cs was something I couldn't understand.
Wait, why did this V5 new ADC give me the feeling of some peerless genius being favored by all the old monsters of the Jianghu, each wanting to teach him martial arts and have him inherit their legacy? Was that just my imagination?
Fuck, now that you put it that way, I kind of feel it too.
@XiangxiangQAQ, hurry up or your disciple will be gone!
So the question was, what was Luo Zhen doing after that midnight meal?
Well, he really was receiving Specialized Training from JKL. Since he had nothing better to do, playing ranked games could keep his hands warm, and stomping rookies could also keep his hands warm—so why not stomp a rookie?
JKL happily accepted, though he made one small request.
He would lane with V5's support PPGOD, while Luo Zhen would lane with TES's support Zhuo. Then the four of them would set up a custom game and play a Bot Lane Matchup directly.
As for the results...
By the time Rookie and the others learned what had happened, Luo Zhen had already applied to Coach Homme for a psychologist and locked himself in his room to sulk for an entire morning.
"What happened?"
Everyone looked in confusion at PPGOD, who was standing nearby in a daze. This guy seemed fine, so why had one member of the bot lane duo inexplicably gone crazy after just one night?
PPGOD's expression became somewhat strange. After a brief hesitation, he slowly held up one finger toward his teammates.
"What does that mean? He only won one game? Was the gap really that huge?"
"No, he didn't win a single game. He got stomped all night long. He's probably questioning his entire life right now."
"???"
Seriously.
If they hadn't swapped supports and focused solely on laning, Luo Zhen would never have imagined that there was such an enormous gap between himself and JKL. That suffocating tempo, packed to the brim with aggression—even just staying alert during last hits to avoid being zoned and harassed by the enemy took all his focus. Not to mention the support beside JKL, constantly looking for opportunities.
And Brother Zhuo...
All he could say was that precisely because he had worked with Brother Zhuo, he increasingly felt that JKL deserved to be among the top ADCs in the world.
He was fucking incredible. He could even carry this!
When Luo Zhen came out of his room again, even PPGOD, who knew him best, could sense the change erupting from him. The stubborn, hot-blooded momentum unique to a rookie had not weakened at all. Instead, it burned even fiercer.
"I've figured it out." Luo Zhen looked at his teammates and spoke in a deep voice.
"From today onward, I shall examine myself thrice daily: am I more? Am I accurate? Am I big?"
"If the gap is too wide, the density isn't enough, the range isn't enough, or the coverage isn't even enough, then I'll fucking modify it directly!" By the time he said this, Luo Zhen was practically gritting his teeth.
If he had won even one game last night, he wouldn't have ended up without a single win. Right now, he was like someone who had spent all night at an internet café only to lose every match, with nothing in his mind except finding a chance to claim that first victory back.
Only after seeing that defiant expression on his face did the V5 members finally let out sighs of relief.
It was fine. As long as his mentality hadn't exploded.
To put it bluntly, a large part of why he couldn't beat them yet was simply because he had been playing for too little time. His talent had not yet fully translated into strength. All he lacked was time.
If his Dao heart had been shattered, that would have been truly troublesome.
JKL's Specialized Training had only been a minor interlude, but even that interlude taught Luo Zhen a great deal.
If what he had learned from LWX was how to quickly become a qualified LPL professional player, then JKL had undoubtedly sent Luo Zhen farther and farther down the path of a Tower ADC—and even forcefully knocked down the mentality that had just begun to swell.
And so...
Just as the entire world was frantically searching for Luo Zhen and trying to find out what exactly had happened, Luo Zhen's Weibo suddenly updated: "From today onward, there are no women in my heart, and my hand speed shall naturally become divine. I'm sorry, but I'm temporarily not interested in ordinary humans, so please stop bothering me. However, if any of you are aliens, future people, people from another world, or espers, then feel free to come find me."
That post instantly left countless spectators dumbfounded.
???
An ancient dead meme suddenly attacked me. What year was this?
That style of speaking—Karsa, was this you again?
Damn it, it was one thing for champion ADCs to fight over making AK their final disciple, but now even an old jungler like you was joining in?
Luo Zhen's account had long since become a different kind of weather vane.
It wasn't that he often posted anything he shouldn't on his personal account. Rather, fans following his Weibo would notice that as they scrolled, a few female Bodhisattvas would appear in his follow list. Then as they kept scrolling, a few more female Bodhisattvas would appear. Gradually, Luo Zhen's account became the Old Driver weather vane of the Esports Circle.
Everyone had gradually come to understand this new generation ADC who did not play little games, only big games; who did not watch big movies, only little movies.
But now... why had he suddenly defected to otaku culture?
Chapter 29: This Is What a Prestigious School Is
Over the next week, Luo Zhen practically pushed his training hours to the limit.
Although his Playstyle was increasingly drifting toward that of a Tower ADC, that was only his early- and mid-game playstyle. As an ADC, especially in the current version where the main Tempo Point was still Mid-Jungle, his Playstyle was actually the most suitable for competitive drafting.
Of course, he also knew he couldn't keep playing like this just because it felt comfortable. He still needed to practice privately.
Since the basic AK combat power couldn't keep up with those champion ADCs, then he might as well go even crazier.
Straight to a 6.8 caliber. To hell with recoil!
Before you continue