Chapter 5: A Hair’s Breadth, A Thousand Miles Apart
After dinner, in private room 808.
Jiang Yuan settled into his seat, wiping down the keyboard and mouse with a wet tissue.
Su Wanwan sat right next to him, flexing her wrists.
The other girls gathered behind them to watch the show, all with the attitude of people ready to enjoy some drama.
Only their support, Zhao Xiaomeng, was lying back in her chair airing out her feet, looking like she was about to fall asleep. With sweaty feet in cotton socks, she had no choice but to air them out.
The custom room was opened.
Mid lane 1v1, rules: first blood, first tower, or 100 CS.
Su Wanwan instantly locked in LeBlanc, the Deceiver—that was her signature champion.
The screen flickered as Jiang Yuan locked in his champion. Also LeBlanc!
“Whoa…”
The spectators let out soft exclamations of surprise.
Mirror matches tested mechanics the most.
This was going to be interesting…
Su Wanwan’s lips curled into a smirk as she snorted softly: “Asking for it.”
The game loaded.
The minion waves met.
Su Wanwan played aggressively, her intention to hit level 2 first was obvious.
The moment she leveled up!
She struck with lightning speed!
But Jiang Yuan pulled back with a counter-move, turning to land two more hits on her.
Su Wanwan’s brow furrowed slightly.
She hadn’t achieved the expected pressure, and felt slightly irritated.
She played even more aggressively, constantly looking for opportunities to trade!
Both of their health bars gradually dropped.
“Someone’s about to get solo killed,” Lin Yuanyuan whispered.
It looked like there might be a kill opportunity, but it was actually quite forced.
But Su Wanwan couldn’t hold back anymore, her killing intent was clear!
She caught the moment when Jiang Yuan went to last-hit a cannon minion, starting with Distortion, quick as lightning, her combo almost pressed simultaneously!
In that split second!
Jiang Yuan remained calm, lightly pressing Flash to create distance, then countered with a small combo of his own!
It was actually Su Wanwan who died first—
The screen went black and white!
“FIRST BLOOD!”
The kill sound effect rang out, victory and defeat decided.
“Hiss—”
The sound of Ji Shiyun gasping filled the room.
She covered her mouth, shock still lingering in her eyes, her heart beating so fast it felt like it might burst out.
That’s how rookies were—seeing a low-health counter-kill made them think it was amazing.
But Jiang Ruoxi only narrowed her eyes slightly. With her game knowledge, she could see more details.
The top laner and ADC exchanged glances, curiosity flashing in their eyes.
The support continued airing her feet.
Su Wanwan sat frozen in place, her fingers stiff on the keyboard, biting her lip hard.
She had clearly controlled the entire rhythm, calculated the health perfectly, it should have been a guaranteed kill! How could she have been counter-killed?
This was impossible!
Looking at Su Wanwan’s devastated expression, Jiang Yuan’s thoughts involuntarily drifted back several years.
When he had just turned sixteen, he climbed to Master in solo queue, full of confidence and looking down on everyone.
Arriving at the training base, he directly challenged the main team’s mid laner.
He picked his most confident champion, LeBlanc.
He played with maximum mechanics, pulling off flashy plays.
In the final moment, he was about to solo kill his opponent, just needing one more auto attack!
But he was counter-killed at the last second.
Back then, he was just as unwilling as Su Wanwan, thinking it was just bad luck, that he was just a little bit short.
Later, after leaving the base in disgrace, he slowly came to understand.
It wasn’t a little bit short—it was a million miles short.
Awareness, experience, mentality, champion understanding, damage calculation, even the grasp of each skill’s animation timing… an all-round gap.
A hair’s breadth difference, a thousand miles apart.
This was an insurmountable chasm, a matter of talent, an extremely difficult gulf to cross.
Back in the internet cafe.
Su Wanwan finally snapped back to reality, her pink fists clenched tight, knuckles white, her cheeks flushed red with anger.
Shame, unwillingness, disbelief… all these emotions intertwined, finally turning into fury as she glared at Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan looked at her bristling appearance, unhurried:
“Want to go again?”
Su Wanwan’s fingertips almost dug into her palms.
Those large eyes that usually carried pride and provocation were now covered with a layer of mist:
“Again!”
Her voice carried a barely detectable tremor, but remained stubborn.
“Alright.”
Jiang Yuan’s lips curved slightly upward, agreeing readily.
The two entered the custom room again.
Champions locked in.
Still the mirror match of LeBlanc, the Deceiver.
“She… still picked LeBlanc?” Lin Yuanyuan was a bit surprised.
“Stubborn mule,” Qin Shu said concisely.
Jiang Ruoxi watched seriously, learning frame by frame.
She keenly felt that the moment they entered the game, Jiang Yuan’s aura had changed.
The minion waves clashed.
His playstyle suddenly shifted!
No longer the reactive approach from the previous game, but from level 1, he displayed suffocating pressure!
Positioning aggressively forward, cutting off Su Wanwan’s last-hitting positions.
His Q skill [Sigil of Malice] was precisely timed, always landing just as Su Wanwan raised her hand to last-hit.
His auto attacks flowed smoothly, not greedy for damage, hitting and backing off, maintaining constant harassment.
Su Wanwan was struggling to keep up.
When she tried to fight back, using W [Distortion] to engage, Jiang Yuan immediately mirrored with his own W to disengage, maintaining perfect distance so her chains couldn’t even connect.
When she returned with her W, Jiang Yuan pressed forward again to continue harassing.
The rhythm was completely under his control!
Su Wanwan was like a mouse being toyed with, every attempt at resistance was futile, only costing her more health and mana.
The minion wave was frozen right in front of Jiang Yuan’s tower, she couldn’t even get full experience, let alone last-hits—she was being completely zoned.
“This… she can’t fight back at all…” Zhao Xiaomeng muttered quietly.
Even Ji Shiyun could tell that Jiang Yuan hadn’t given Su Wanwan any opportunities, dominating from start to finish.
Su Wanwan’s health was constantly whittled down, her health potions depleted.
Missing most of her last-hits under tower, her mentality became increasingly frantic.
She stared intently at the screen, her breathing becoming heavy.
Just then, in front of Jiang Yuan’s eyes, a system panel that others couldn’t see quietly popped up with a notification:
[Detected that player ‘Su Wanwan’ has triggered talent: Emotional Overload (D-rank)! Operational stability severely decreased!]
Here it comes.
Jiang Yuan’s gaze sharpened.
He was curious to see how this talent would manifest.
Su Wanwan’s fingers tensed up, her palms sweating, and from the corner of her eye she seemed to catch shadows moving at the edge of the screen!
Was the jungler coming? She had to dodge!
Her mind was in chaos, she just wanted to create distance immediately!
Her fingers panicked, pressing hard on the keyboard!
“Whoosh—!”
A blinding golden light flashed!
Everyone froze!
Su Wanwan’s LeBlanc, with no threat whatsoever present, suddenly used Flash!
And the direction… was straight into Jiang Yuan’s face!
As if she was voluntarily feeding him a kill!
Jiang Yuan casually landed a combo, triggering Electrocute.
Su Wanwan’s health bar instantly emptied!
The screen—
Turned black and white for the second time!
“…”
The death notification sound echoed in the room.
Su Wanwan stared blankly at the gray screen, as if all her strength had been drained away.
Her eyes were vacant, fingertips trembling, lips moving but unable to make any sound.
This wasn’t a close defeat.
This wasn’t a mechanical error.
This was… a complete collapse!
Her mentality had exploded, and she had personally thrown away the match!
Jiang Yuan looked at the dejected pink-haired figure in front of the screen, then glanced at the system notification about [Emotional Overload], his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.
This negative talent… was more troublesome than he had imagined.
The S+ potential was real, but this terrible mentality was also real—she was basically a walking time bomb.
He needed to find a way to help her train it, couldn’t let her become another Xiaozao.