The King's Avatar

Yu Wenzhou had been in the scene for all these years, and his hand speed was on record. His hand speed wasn’t a secret any longer, everyone knew. As a rival, there was no way he wouldn’t have checked these statistics, so Ye Xiu’s question was clearly a taunt.

A hand speed of 200 was, in general, seen as the boundary between pros and casual players. Of course, this two hundred referred to effective APM, not button mashing.

Yu Wenzhou’s status as a hand cripple was judged according to pro player standards. Pro players nowadays could easily reach 300-400 on average. Yu Wenzhou could only get past 200 with great effort, and usually averaged below 200. It was no wonder no one thought he could last in the beginning. He was completely different from the pros around him with their terrifying hand speed.

However, normal players didn’t have any right to mock him for it.

Normal players’ effective APM generally drifted around 100. Those that went above 120, aiming for 200, were experts. Glory was a very complex game. There were plenty of fast people, but those who were able to fully utilize this speed ingame were rare.

Yu Wenzhou’s effective hand speed was usually approaching 200. In other words, his hand speed was the same as the experts among casual players. Yet, he managed to become a pro player with this speed, a member of the Golden Generation, an All-Star Player, Master Tactician, the captain of a powerhouse team like Blue Rain…

Yu Wenzhou was very inspirational. His achievements became proof for many players without much talent in hand speed that they could achieve as well. Unfortunately, it had to be said that they were sorely mistaken. They had been delighted, finding a common point between them and this God, but that point was a flaw. The flaw itself didn’t mean anything. Yu Wenzhou’s current heights was in no way related to his flaw, but instead because of the efforts he had placed into and the talents he had in other areas to make up for this flaw.

There were plenty of Glory players with this hand speed.

But amongst all these players, only Yu Wenzhou had made it here.

And now, Yu Wenzhou was doing something he hadn’t done in a long time.

He was playing in a 1v1 match, and in the playoffs, too, against the best 1v1 duelist of the season.

“Huh… This map…” It was only after chatting for all this time that Ye Xiu placed his attention on Blue Rain’s choice of map.

Misty Thicket.

A forest map, with little variation in terrain. It was long and narrow, stretching from north to south. The trait that differentiated this forest from normal forest was in its name, the forest was filled with mist.

With dense forestry and layers of evening mist, this map limited character vision greatly. It was good for ambushes, and hindered ranged fighters. Pan Lin and Li Yibo as well as countless spectators had all already started discussing this back while Ye Xiu was still mocking Yu Wenzhou’s hand speed.

Everyone was shocked that Yu Wenzhou was fighting a 1v1 match. However, they all instantly realized that Yu Wenzhou wouldn’t fight his opponent upfront and compete with mechanics, but used the terrain to execute tactics and tricks. But, Misty Thicket? Li Yibo had already pointed out in the TV broadcast that this map put ranged fighters at a disadvantage, and Warlocks were a ranged class.

What was Yu Wenzhou planning? After seeing Blue Rain’s map choice, everyone was even more confused. That was when everyone saw that Ye Xiu seemed to be about to comment on the map.

But all they got was, “Huh… this map…” and then, then nothing!

Both sides had started to move already. Ye Xiu was very direct and went straight down the middle, but in this map, even heading straight forward could result in an ambush attack. Since visibility was low, the two sides would pretty much be within range of each other when they could see the other. Lord Grim looked like he couldn’t be bothered to waste the brainpower on figuring out a roundabout route.

Yu Wenzhou, on the other hand, seemed to be treating this much more seriously. Swoksaar had spawned in the north corner of the map, and he had began heading south from the west while Ye Xiu was still talking. However, Swoksaar didn’t go too far west. On this map, if you went too far from your target, you wouldn’t even be able to find them when ambushing them.

However, this was only the current situation. The further south Swoksaar went, the more he swerved west. Slowly, his distance from the central axis of the map grew and he drew almost completely out of the visible areas of the map.

“This positioning… doesn’t this make Yu Wenzhou incapable of finding Lord Grim as well? Or did he predict that Ye Xiu would make Lord Grim come west as well?” Pan Lin wondered aloud.

“The problem is, Ye Xiu didn’t…” Li Yibo added.

Not long afterwards, the two characters approached the center of the map, slowing down. Then, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim suddenly began to fire shots.

Bang bang!

Bang bang!

The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s gun form was a rifle, so his normal attack consisted of two consecutive shots. Ye Xiu was currently just using normal attacks. It didn’t cost any mana. He fired shot after shot, randomly shooting into the air.

“He’s purposefully exposing his own position!” Pan Lin exclaimed. From Yu Wenzhou’s view, he couldn’t see Lord Grim, but every time a gunshot rang out, the gunfire could be seen through the layers of mist.

“Does he intend to draw Yu Wenzhou into attacking and then use that to figure out where Yu Wenzhou is?” Li Yibo said, “But…”

He wanted to say that Warlock skills were hard to see through this sort of of mist. The lighting caused by Warlock skills were relatively dark, not nearly as eye-catching as an explosion elemental light. For Warlock skills, if there was any elemental damage, it would be dark element.

However, Li Yibo was terrified that with Ye Xiu’s experience and observation skills, he would be able to easily catch the light of Warlock skills even under the current circumstances, so he didn’t dare continue.

What about Yu Wenzhou? Perhaps he had the same thought as Li Yibo, since he didn’t attack when he saw Ye Xiu expose Lord Grim’s position, having Swoksaar approach slowly instead.

Lord Grim continued to shoot randomly, two shots at a time, switching up his directions. A few bullets were sent west, brushing past Swoksaar’s shoulder. The spectator’s with their omniscient view felt their heart leap into their throats with every shot, but Swoksaar stayed immobile.

“What precise judgement,” Li Yibo exclaimed.

It was because Yu Wenzhou’s judgement was so precise that he had Swoksaar stay immobile, otherwise, if one couldn’t be certain, then they would have their character dodge.

“From this angle, how far can he see?” Pan Lin mumbled, but there was no data on something like that, and there was no way of figuring out with their omniscient view.

Bang bang, bang bang.

Lord Grim continued to shoot and Swoksaar had stopped in his tracks. Yu Wenzhou was carefully observing the shots that Lord Grim was firing.

The audience had a much clearer view of this than Swoksaar, and seeing Lord Grim’s actions, everyone only had one thought: what a tricky bastard!

Lord Grim, holding up the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella in gun form, had the muzzle directed behind him, which meant that all his shots were aimed behind him…

Yu Wenzhou was currently carefully observing. If he wouldn’t figure this out and waited for the line of fire to turn, then launched a sneak attack while Lord Grim “had his back turned”, then unfortunately, he’d be charging right into Lord Grim’s line of sight.

How sly! How despicable!

The spectating Blue Rain fans all cursed, led by those dead loyal high ranking members of the Blue Brook Guild. These guys had gone up against Ye Xiu in game and they had plenty of personal experience with his tricks and schemes, leaving unimaginable pain in their hearts.

However, this commotion wouldn’t have any influence on the match itself. Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim continued to cunningly shoot behind him.

Yu Wenzhou stayed motionless, carefully observing for a full half a minute.

Ye Xiu continued to turn and shoot for a full half a minute.

On the thirty-fifth second, Yu Wenzhou finally acted.

Swoksaar began to cast, directly going for a Chaotic Rain.

There was a roar of applause.

Since this skill summoned acidic clouds in the sky to create rain, it didn’t matter where the character was casting from, the attack would still come from above. It would be impossible to figure out the character’s position using this.

And so, thick, dark clouds began to gather above Lord Grim’s head.

The applause grew in volume, everyone eager to see Lord Grim being splashed! But that was when, with a whoosh, Lord Grim’s Myriad Manifestations Umbrella opened up above his head.

“Fuck!” Quite a few people cursed aloud at this.

If this was actually a Knight’s shield, then it might not be possible for it to block all the Chaotic Rain by holding it above a character’s head like that. However, this Myriad Manifestations Umbrella was an umbrella when opened. It was the best at blocking the rain.

“Drift inside! Drift inside!” Someone suddenly started to yell and others soon followed suit. They were hoping that there would be some wind that would blow the rain off course and under the umbrella.

But it was like Ye Xiu had heard the Blue Rain fans’ words. Lord Grim suddenly squatted down.

Squatting with an umbrella over his head really covered all his bases. Now even wind wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Blue Rain’s fans all blew up in rage. Fuck, can’t you play seriously!? You pretending to be a mushroom or something, squatting there?

But it was then that above Lord Grim’s head, amidst the dark clouds, light flashed. There seemed to be six spots of light…

Hexagram Prison!

The players who were familiar with the Warlock class recognized it immediately.

“Brilliant!” Those who managed to react fastest yelled.

This Hexagram Prison was a flawless sneak attack!

Yu Wenzhou had predicted that Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim would open up the umbrella to block Chaotic Rain. No other method was safe enough. After all, he hadn’t seen it being casted. By the time he noticed, the clouds were already gathering and ready to spill.

Then, with the umbrella open, Ye Xiu had completely blocked off his own view of the sky above. Thus, when a Hexagram Prison fell silently from the heavens, he wouldn’t notice it.

“Die!” Blue Rain’s fans n the stands cheered in excitement.

As expected of their captain. This technique was absolutely brilliant, absolutely spectacular!

Hexagram Prison descended!