National Fortune Golden Shovel: I Can See Hidden Bonds!

137: Chapter 138 Shen Mo, Who Doesn’t Play by the Rules!”Gwen!!!”

With a swish, the shop refreshed!

The avatar of Gwen, The Hallowed Seamstress, suddenly appeared in Shen Mo’s field of vision. Alongside her were Rakan, Karma, and Nasus... Although they were completely unrelated with no Synergy to speak of, Shen Mo still bought them without hesitation!

He threw the Sugarcraft Emblem to Nasus and placed him in the front row to tank.

Rakan and Gwen were also placed in the front row, with Karma bringing up the rear. At Stage 2-1 with 4 population, Soraka was benched by Shen Mo, leaving only four 4-cost champions. Nasus carried the emblem, putting the 2 Sugarcraft Synergy in place.

As for items.

Malphite dropped a total of 4 components for Shen Mo. Aside from the one used to craft the emblem, there were 3 left. Buried Treasures gave 1 component per round, and the starting rounds plus the 3 waves of Malphite gave 4 items in total!

Adding the 2 components from the Pandoras Items Hextech, Shen Mo had a total of 9 components on his side!

”9 components + 1 emblem... Under the 2 Sugarcraft Synergy, the sugar added per round is: 20 stacks!”

Shen Mo’s eyes lit up.

Never underestimate these 20 stacks of sugar. Normally, in a standard game, one would only exceed this stack count by Stage 3. For Stage 2, 20 stacks of sugar was already incredibly high!

[Stage 2-1, the match begins!]

[Shen Mo vs Hans!]

The moment the lineups refreshed, many in the audience began to gasp.

”Holy crap! Why is Shen Mo’s board full of 4-cost champions? It’s only Stage 2-1, and he already has 4-costs?”

”How do you even play against this? Isn’t this a complete stomp?”

The big red-nosed Hans was also stunned. ”Wait, 4-costs?”

”Isn’t this just ridiculous?”

”What, is cheating not even being hidden from people anymore?!”

Hans’s current board was: 2-star Nomsy + 1-star Shyvana + 1-star Jayce + 1-star Blitzcrank, activating the 2 Dragon and 2 Shapeshifter Synergy. The 2-star Nomsy was from Birthday Present. The fact that he knew to field Shyvana showed that Germany still had some tricks up its sleeve.

Although they couldn’t field any major Synergies, Germany had specifically researched using minor individual Synergies to strengthen their units.

The boards refreshed.

Hans stared at the match with a grim expression. Unsurprisingly... he was utterly crushed by Shen Mo!

Of course.

Although a 4-population board with a 2-star Nomsy and three frontliners was usually enough, you had to look at who he was facing!

Shen Mo had Rakan, Gwen, and Nasus—three frontliners, two of whom were fighters. Most importantly, after Pandoras Items transformed them, Shen Mo threw all 9 component items onto these champions. Their damage in the early game was simply invincible.

With Nasus holding Gargoyle Stoneplate and Warmogs Armor, Nomsy in the back row was spitting fire until her throat went dry to no avail.

Gwen was even more ridiculous. Armed with Bloodthirster and jeweled gauntlet, a single snip would shred everything from your main artery to the base of your thigh. Health was gushing out rapidly, completely unstoppable.

”Bullshit!”

Hans grit his teeth. Even at 1-star, the strength of 4-cost champions was not something his current board could handle.

The opponent was clearly like a father beating his son—just pure bullying!

[Stage 2-1, the match ends!]

[Shen Mo vs Hans! Shen Mo wins!]

The match ended.

Hans was about to raise his hand. It was absolutely impossible for 4-cost champions to appear at this stage. He felt that Shen Mo must have cheated this time!

”Cough, Hans, don’t report him. Shen Mo didn’t cheat,” the voice of France’s Arnaud rang out somewhat awkwardly in the earpiece. He had a good private relationship with Hans.

As soon as Hans raised his hand, Arnaud knew what he wanted to do.

”Why?” Hans was puzzled.

Arnaud pointed at the Hextech, looking excited. ”Shen Mo has those 4-cost champions because of this Hextech. It allows him to refresh a 4-cost shop at the start, which is entirely filled with 4-cost champions!”

Arnaud had also taken Subscription Service, so he knew what was going on with Shen Mo’s side.

However, since Subscription Service was a new Hextech in Set 12, Arnaud thought it only worked at the start of the game. But that didn’t matter. Once Arnaud said this, Hans understood what he meant, though his brow immediately furrowed.

”Then this is going to be difficult. Shen Mo’s early-game board is so strong, we can’t beat him at all!”

Hans’s words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly dousing Arnaud’s excitement.

That’s right!

Arnaud froze.

Wasn’t their strategy to make Shen Mo lose as much health as possible in the early-to-mid game, and try to eliminate him before he could level up? But now that the opponent started with 4-costs, weren’t they completely screwed?

The [Fast Kill] item card had already taken effect.

Shen Mo and Hans’s match had ended. In theory, Hans should have lost at most 4 health at Stage 2-1, as there was a damage reduction mechanism during the arena stage. But what was the situation now?

Hans directly took 6 damage from Shen Mo!

His health dropped to 94!

Losing that much health made Hans’s face twitch. It hurt!

The voice call fell dead silent!

This guy Shen Mo really wasn’t playing by the rules!

The few of them were all a bit dazed.

Looking at the first two games, Shen Mo had basically been losing health early on to get items, and had even open-forted in one game. Naturally, these people assumed Shen Mo would do the same this game.

But the situation now was clearly different!

Shen Mo... was playing for tempo and board strength!

Hans already wanted to curse. The Fast Kill card couldn’t be recalled once used. Shen Mo’s hand of 4-cost champions and pile of items had caught them completely off guard. Now they were in a real dilemma, unable to back down.

And as if to confirm Hans’s fears, over the next few rounds, Shen Mo went straight into win-streak mode.

Stage 2-2, Shen Mo vs Arnaud!

In the same 4-cost showdown, Arnaud’s board strength was clearly not as high as Shen Mo’s. He only had a single Tahm Kench tanking in the front, while his backline consisted of Karma, Nami, and Ryze.

But it was useless.

Setting aside the issue of damage output, just in terms of item strength, Shen Mo’s side was completely overwhelming.

Nasus roared and grew in size. With the percentage bonus health from Warmogs Armor, his health bar, which was originally only half-full, was forcefully boosted by a massive chunk. Arnaud was in despair.

And behind him, Gwen was pumping out crazy damage, outputting numbers that were simply mind-boggling.

The match ended.

Arnaud took 6 damage.

Stage 2-3, Old Mike stepped up to fight. 15 seconds later, Old Mike limped back from the battlefield.

Stage 2-4 carousel ended.

Xu Shijun snorted angrily and forcefully leveled up his board to level 5, attempting to defeat Shen Mo with numbers. However, facts proved that in the face of absolute quality and items, having one extra unit was useless.

It was merely a matter of surviving a few seconds longer.

Xu Shijun lost, surviving only three seconds longer than Arnaud. With this, Shen Mo secured a 4-win streak at the start. His brutal methods left the live audience completely stunned.

”Huh? That’s it? A four-game losing streak? This is the so-called four-nation alliance?”

”Pfft—I’m literally dying of laughter. They’re just clowns. All four of them got slapped in the face one by one. Look at the expressions on the four of them on stage. I can’t, I’m losing it.”

”Sob, is it too late for me to get a refund on my ticket?”

”...”