"Welcome to Honor of Kings! The enemy will arrive on the battlefield in five seconds. Get ready, all troops, attack!"
With the familiar game intro, the one-on-one solo tournament officially began.
Lin Ying upgraded her first skill, bought a cloth armor, and left the fountain. While traveling, she checked Su Hang's Lady Sun's basic attributes. "I really underestimated him. He actually brought a standard build with critical strike runes for a one-on-one fight."
It's important to understand that the critical strike chance increase from critical strike runes in the early game is negligible. Before acquiring items Zongshi's Power and Infinity Edge, whether you can land a critical strike is entirely based on luck.
The minion waves converge at the central circular arena.
Lin Ying controlled Lady Sun, using her first skill to roll out of the turret, shouldering her gun and cannon, and precisely locking onto the backline minions with her basic attacks, bullets pouring out as she methodically cleared the minion wave.
At the same time, Exalted Emperor Lady Sun rolled over. Instead of clearing the minion wave, he precisely locked onto Jueying Lady Sun with basic attacks and started firing.
"I'm using tank runes, you can't even scratch me." Lin Ying ignored him and sped up to clear the lane. Once she reached level two, she would enter Lady Sun's strong early game phase.
At that time, he can use his level and skill advantage to drive Exalted Emperor Lady Sun back to the tower, and then block the lane to expand his economic advantage.
Something seems off.
Lin Ying's expression changed slightly, her eyes showing disbelief. Exalted Emperor Lady Sun's normal attacks had an absurdly high critical hit rate, triggering a critical hit damage on average every two normal attacks.
The drop rate is a staggering 50%!
"A partner of justice, a nemesis of rampages."
Exalted Emperor Lady Sun rolls forward with her first skill, unleashing an enhanced basic attack with the green machine guns she wields, followed by long-range bursts of fire, with two red critical hit numbers flashing on the screen.
What's going on?
Lin Ying's expression changed drastically, her eyes widening. Just now, the opponent's powerful shot had landed a critical hit, and the subsequent burst of fire dealt another critical hit, bringing the critical hit rate to 100%!
What does a 100% critical hit rate mean? It's equivalent to buying five Infinity Edge in your equipment slots and instantly maxing out your critical hit chance.
The only equipment slot for Lady Sun, the Exalted Emperor Chong, is an iron sword. Her critical hit rate comes entirely from the critical hit runes she carries – 10 Calamity Source providing a 16% critical hit rate.
We need to retreat!
Lin Ying's Lady Sun's health dropped to half. He quickly cleared the back row minions, leveled up his second skill, and quickly used his first skill to roll away and create distance. At the same time, he used his second skill to throw a bomb, slowing down and breaking the opponent's armor, and then followed up with a powerful basic attack.
After using half a set of skills, Exalted Emperor Lady Sun's health dropped by one-third instantly. If she was equipped with critical strike runes, she could even take away half of the opponent's health.
"Still chasing?"
Lin Ying's pupils dilated in shock, but she saw that Exalted Emperor, who had gained the upper hand, did not choose to turn back and clear the line, but instead picked up the green machine gun and chased after them.
"Level 1 is chasing me while Level 2 is attacking?"
Lin Ying's face turned pale and then red. Her disheveled escape had been seen by hundreds of millions of netizens across the country, which was utterly humiliating. The only way to save face was to fight back immediately.
Can!
The critical strike rate of Exalted Emperor Lady Sun is terrifyingly high. While others might get a 50% critical strike rate with incredible luck, it's a piece of cake for him, a basic operation. He can even achieve a 100% critical strike rate with just the critical strike rune bonus.
This isn't a critical hit at the cost of lifespan; it's a critical hit at the cost of life itself!
"Don't retaliate. A moment of patience brings calm, and taking a step back opens up a vast expanse."
Lin Ying made up her mind and fled back into the defensive tower.
Compared to winning or losing a one-on-one match, what does losing face matter?
To his utter surprise, Exalted Emperor Lady Sun used her first skill to roll over the tower, followed by a powerful basic attack that allowed her to fire two critical hits, resulting in a 100% critical hit rate.
"What the hell is the difference between this and cheating?"
Lin Ying's heart trembled with fear. She hurriedly pressed the Weaken button to save her life. The good news was that Exalted Emperor's subsequent normal attacks did not crit. The bad news was that her Lady Sun only had a sliver of health left!
"He's only low on health; he probably won't give chase."
Lin Ying's heart was pounding wildly, and she was panting heavily. Exalted Emperor Lady Sun had taken two tower attacks while leaping over the tower, leaving her in a severely weakened state.
But the next second, a horrifying scene unfolded.
After leaving the tower, Exalted Emperor Lady Sun circled around twice, waiting for her skill cooldown to end, before using her first skill again to roll over the tower.
"Again?"
Lin Ying was shocked, but quickly calmed down. Exalted Emperor Lady Sun was severely injured. As long as he was skilled and daring, he could face her head-on and fight her. Even if she could Purify herself and remove the tower damage, she would still die.
Even in the worst-case scenario, if they switch places, the first blood will definitely be his!
"Bring it on! Who's afraid of who!"
Lin Ying made a firm decision, controlling Lady Sun, using her first skill to roll forward, her second skill to throw out the Red Lotus Bomb, and her enhanced basic attack to unleash a thunderous roar.
As Exalted Emperor Lady Sun turned her head to dodge the two attacks, she subtly adjusted her positioning within the tower, causing the tower's damage to overlap with the enemy's enhanced normal damage. With a crisp whoosh, her body emitted azure light.
The turret's damage and the enemy's enhanced basic attack damage clashed instantly.
Something flashed by; that was the artillery fire that hit you.
Exalted Emperor Lady Sun unleashed a powerful basic attack, the critical hit numbers flashed, and Lin Ying Lady Sun, with only a sliver of health remaining, died instantly!
The canyon echoed with exhilarating kill announcements.
"First Blood!"
" Exalted Emperor's Lady Sun a 1% chance of a desperate counterattack!"
"My God, the Exalted Emperor's Ultimate Purify removes tower damage and physical damage!"
In the commentary booth, Pingzi exclaimed in shock, "This was a double Purify from damage! With only one percent health remaining, she could have easily turned the tables and killed the Jueying Lady Sun!"
That's really exaggerated.
Tianyun covered her mouth with both hands, her beautiful eyes filled with shock, and said, "At the start, they gave up on pushing the lane and focused all their attacks on Jueying Lady Sun. Even after she reached level two, they still relentlessly pursued her and attacked all the way."
" Jueying thought that retreating to the defensive tower would put him at ease, but he didn't expect Exalted Emperor to fight to the death and forcefully dive the tower twice. In the end, he even performed a double Purify to remove damage and completed the kill on his lane!"
The live stream chat was flooded with comments.
"Damn it, I can accept Jueying being killed, but I can't accept Jueying being killed so pathetically, being completely dominated from beginning to end? This is definitely not the Jueying I know!"
"We strongly urge the referee to intervene. This Exalted Emperor Chong must be cheating; how can he get so many critical hits?"
"The number of critical hits is absolutely outrageous! Two basic attacks result in a critical hit, and the first skill's strong basic attack and single shot are guaranteed to be critical hits. It's even more outrageous than the Monkey King who is born with a critical hit!"
In the live stream, Imperial Crown fans suspected that Exalted Emperor was cheating.
Li Jiu stepped forward to directly confront the slanderous accusations that Exalted Emperor had cheated, stating, "All the phones used by the players are special editions for the tournament, equipped with anti-cheat hardware and software, so there is absolutely no possibility of cheating."
The Imperial Crown fans were relentless in their criticism.
"How do you explain the absurd number of critical hits by the Exalted Emperor?"
Li Jiu said with intonation, "As we all know, critical hits are a gift to the brave. Since Exalted Emperor had the courage to use a critical hit build in a one-on-one fight, it's only reasonable that the critical hit build rewards his courage with more critical hits."
Imperial Crown's fans were speechless for a moment, but soon they turned their anger towards Li Jiu, launching insults and personal attacks.
"Alright, everyone here and watching on TV, Imperial Crown fans," Pingzi quickly smoothed things over, "The rules for a one-on-one duel are three kills or one tower, Jueying still has a great chance to turn the tide."
"Yes, yes." Tianyun nodded like a chick pecking at rice, favoring Imperial Crown, "Although Exalted Emperor got the first blood, his gold lead is only 100, so the gap between the two isn't that big."
"Don't underestimate this hundred yuan," Li Jiu said with a knowing smile. "Believe it or not, Exalted Emperor can use this hundred yuan of economic advantage to crush Jueying."
Pingzi and Tianyun's mouths twitched violently. They thought to themselves, "Ninth Brother, I don't know if Exalted Emperor can crush Jueying, but you're about to be cursed to death by Imperial Crown's fans."
"Since no one believes it, let's wait and see."