The King's Avatar
chapter-1601

For both Lu Boyuan and Su Mucheng, distance was their advantage. Distance would be what decided the win.

Seeing Chaotic Cloudy Mountain getting blown farther and farther away from Dancing Rain, all of the Samsara fans felt their hearts sink.

Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain set up a Mounted Gun again. She had used this Level 75 Launcher skill to great effect countless times in the playoffs.

This skill restricted her character’s movements but greatly increased her attack power. It represented a powerful assault with the intent to fight a bloody battle with the opponent.

X-1 Extruder’s final landing position was at the perfect firing line distance for Su Mucheng. When the X-1 Extruder exploded, the artillery barrage from Mounted Gun arrived. Launchers were most threatening when their targets were at their firing line, and it had already been shown that Su Mucheng’s firing line was very flexible. It wasn’t just a single dot or a line. It encompassed an area. Whether you moved forward, backward, left, or right, you would still be inside.

Chaotic Cloudy Mountain was engulfed by the artillery fire. His zero-distance close-ranged character wasn’t able to counterattack. He could only run away and dodge.

But where should he run to? Should he go forward or backwards?

This was the trickiest part about Su Mucheng’s firing line.

You could go forward, but you wouldn’t know if you could get close to her under such a heavy barrage without dying. You could go backwards, but you wouldn’t know if you could actually retreat far away enough to a safe place.

Long distance was the domain of Launchers. It wasn’t something that Grapplers could touch.

He was trapped inside Su Mucheng’s desired firing line.

Lu Boyuan didn’t get discouraged.

Advance? Retreat? He found a third option, an option that was only possible in this map.

Sprint, jump, roll.

It was hard to move around amidst the barrage of artillery shells, but he was still moving. He wasn’t locked into place by Dancing Rain’s assault. The stalagmite up ahead was his goal. He wanted to run over there and take cover. Once he was able to catch his breath, there would be more opportunities laying in wait.

Lu Boyuan acted on his plans. Chaotic Cloudy Mountain rushed towards that stalgamite.

Su Mucheng quickly saw what Lu Boyuan intended. It seemed like Dancing Rain would need to make adjustments to keep up pressure after Chaotic Cloudy Mountain reached the stalagmite.

But Su Mucheng didn’t make any.

Dancing Rain continued to use her Mounted Gun and the buffs it provided.

Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s health dropped rapidly, but he wouldn’t die before he reached that stalagmite. Did Su Mucheng have a way to burst him down?

It was hard not to think of this question. Even though Su Mucheng was a high DPS class, she didn’t brute force things. She would often set up subtle traps that were only understood after being caught inside.

Pan Lin and Li Yibo looked at one another. They wanted to say something, but were too afraid to say it, fearing that their faces would get slapped. They didn’t dare make any predictions for any of the players today, let alone someone like Su Mucheng who was so close to Ye Xiu. Just this relationship alone scared them.

“Let’s wait and see.” The two called for everyone not to ask them and instead wait to see it for themselves.

And so everyone watched.

The Samsara fans were worried and anxious. The Happy fans were filled with energy and hope.

90%…

80%…

70%…

60%…

Because Lu Boyuan had held the upper hand at the start of the fight, Dancing Rain hadn’t been able to deal much damage to him. As a result, most of the damage had been dealt starting from this moment. Starting from around 90%, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s health dropped in chunks as he approached the stalagmite.

Not enough, no?

That was what everyone was thinking.

However, Su Mucheng had only now retracted her Mounted Gun. No, to be more precise, her Mounted Gun’s duration was up. She hadn’t cancelled it. Dancing Rain moved and began chasing Chaotic Cloudy Mountain.

But because she had been attacking from a fixed spot previously, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain had moved away from the center of her firing line. Even though she could still reach him, her attack rate couldn’t compare to before and she couldn’t restrict his movements. As a result, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain began moving much faster than before. Soon, he was next to the stalagmite. Then, he circled around behind it. If Dancing Rain wanted to attack him, she would need to go around in a huge circle to get to a different angle.

That… was it?

The people who had been worried about Lu Boyuan felt like their worries had been for nothing. As for the people who had their hopes up for Su Mucheng, their hopes were destroyed.

“This… this…” Pan Lin and Li Yibo stuttered. They had been too afraid to make any statements when she set up a Mounted Gun. Now that they saw that nothing ended up happening with it, they were still too afraid to say anything. Everything else seemed to be a profound mystery, and the two didn’t know where to start.

The fight suddenly stopped.

Chaotic Cloudy Mountain, now hiding behind the stalagmite, had 42% of his health left. He had taken tons of damage escaping from Su Mucheng’s firing line. After all, Dancing Rain had set up a Mounted Gun. All of her attacks had been drastically buffed.

But he was able to escape. He had won an opportunity to turn things around. He likely would not have had as good of an outcome if he had advanced or retreated. Lu Boyuan was thankful for choosing the third option.

As for Su Mucheng?

From the eyes of the viewers, she had simply been trying to deal as much damage as possible. It didn’t seem as if she had any intentions of stopping him from reaching the stalagmite nor did it seem like she had any ideas for what would come afterwards. This shouldn’t be a mistake that a pro player made. People who liked conspiracy theories suspected that she was intentionally sandbagging. But thinking of Su Mucheng’s relationship with Ye Xiu and how she had practically volunteered to join a grassroots team like Happy, sandbagging didn’t make any sense.

What is she thinking?

Whether it was the fans who supported Samsara or the fans who supported Lu Boyuan, they all felt a little bit suspicious. Anyone with a bit of Glory knowledge would have given up on a bit of damage from Mounted Gun to chase after Lu Boyuan’s Chaotic Cloudy Mountain, no?

The camera focused on Dancing Rain. In this situation, Pan Lin and Li Yibo had to say something.

“Uh, Lu Boyuan has successfully escaped from Su Mucheng’s firing line!” Pan Lin summarized what had happened.

“Su Mucheng’s offense was very powerful because she didn’t stop using her Mounted Gun,” Li Yibo wasn’t going to fall behind.

“But why didn’t she stop using her Mounted Gun?” Pan Lin asked.

“Yes, why didn’t she?” Li Yibo said.

“YOU TWO!!” Someone from behind them shouted at them. People would usually be more respectful of Li Yibo since he was a guest commentator, but right now, Li Yibo was being yelled at along with Pan Lin. The director’s patience was reaching its limits.

“If Su Mucheng had given up on her Mounted Gun earlier and chased after Chaotic Cloudy Mountain, do you think she would be in a better spot, Coach Li?” Pan Lin could only move on to a different topic.

“On the surface, yes,” Li Yibo said.

“Okay!” Pan Lin nodded his head.

“But for some reason, she didn’t do that,” Li Yibo said.

“Yes yes,” Pan Lin nodded his head again. What was this reason? Everyone wanted to know what this reason was!

“We’ll see,” Li Yibo said.

Pan Lin wanted to cry. To think Li Yibo would still use his trademark escape tactic at this crucial moment. Pan Lin was wondering whether “We’ll see” would become a trending meme tomorrow. Would people use that to make fun of their incompetence?

In any case, the words had been said. Li Yibo couldn’t say it again. Pan Lin didn’t want to bring trouble onto himself, so he might as well just let it be.

The camera focused on Dancing Rain. Nothing unexpected that was worthy of a “let’s wait and see” happened. Su Mucheng just calmly packed up her Mounted Gun and then started moving horizontally to get to a different angle.

Everything was calm as if none of the previous crazy attacks had happened. It was as if the match had reset back to when the two came across each other the first time. Chaotic Cloudy Mountain had taken cover behind a stalagmite, while Su Mucheng started searching for him bit by bit.

Everything was the same as before.

The only difference was that Chaotic Cloudy Mountain was at 42% health, while Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain was at 87% health.

42% versus 87%. There was a difference in health between the two compared to before.Chaotic Cloudy Mountain was losing, and right now, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain was far away from Dancing Rain. The situation seemed to favor Su Mucheng.

Pan Lin and Li Yibo were at least able to make this sort of analysis. At the end, Li Yibo suddenly blanked out. A thought suddenly sprung into his mind as he watched Dancing Rain’s calm movements.

Could it be… Su Mucheng knew that even now, she held the advantage. There had been no need to use that opportunity before to kill off Chaotic Cloudy Mountain in one go. That was why she hadn’t cancelled her Mounted Gun, instead dealing as much damage as she could. She could still be calm now because she had a huge lead. There was no need to be nervous or worried. It was Lu Boyuan who would be feeling those emotions. The Lu Boyuan, who was still rejoicing that he had escaped from Su Mucheng’s firing line.

He would probably soon realize it. Escaping wasn’t anything worth celebrating. Su Mucheng wouldn’t let him easily recover from the lead that she had gotten. Su Mucheng was confidence in this, and this confidence was her true assault.