Chapter Seventeen: Jungler, What on Earth Are You Doing?

“In an ideal situation, coordinating well in team fights is extremely powerful; this is to train your teamwork skills.”

Listening to Xiao Tie’s reasoned explanation, Lin Ruo’s expression grew complicated. ‘You know that’s only under ideal circumstances.’

When conditions aren’t ideal, you get beaten so badly you’re left scrambling, and you have to fight another day.

So, right from the start, they crank up the intensity to torture their own people, huh?

“It’s about to start, focus,” Nofe said finally, leading Xiao Tie out to the next room to watch the match on the computer.

The vast training hall was deathly silent, filled only with the cold hum of the system loading.

“Come on, brothers.”

On the other side of Shanghai, in the IG training room by the Huangpu River—

Sixteen-year-old Yu Wenbo stood like a lackey behind his teammates, acting as the cheer squad.

This was already his second year of just watching the water cooler.

He had joined IG last year but was too young to meet the criteria for official matches, so he had to sit on the bench, idle.

Watching the new AD, Marge, jump straight into games, A Shui felt a pang of envy.

“Wenbo, no talking once you enter the game,” Rookie kindly reminded him.

A Shui nodded obediently and shuffled behind Marge, folding his arms. “I know, I’m just here to watch the bottom lane play and learn some techniques.”

Marge glanced back with a hint of suspicion.

Both of them were AD carries—was this guy really just here to learn, or was he spying?

“Hey, who’s EDG’s new AD? Never heard of him,” A Shui scratched his head, curious.

For the AD position on EDG, he only knew about the second team’s iboy. The two often crossed paths in high-level ranked games and, due to similar age restrictions, shared a bit of camaraderie.

After thinking it over, A Shui guessed that EDG couldn’t find a suitable player and temporarily brought in a newcomer as a stopgap.

A few days ago, iboy had told him that as long as he kept his form and reached the age limit by summer, management might promote him to the first team to try starting him.

That wouldn’t be bad.

But this new EDG AD was probably pretty weak.

If Marge played too well and secured the starting spot, would there still be a place for him on IG next year?

Tui, tui…

A Shui pushed these thoughts away forcefully.

In esports, strength speaks for itself.

The key was to work hard to improve one’s own skills.

Worrying about useless things only bred anxiety and harmed both self and others—it was simply unnecessary.

---

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard of him either,” Rookie replied with a smile.

[Welcome to League of Legends.]

As the prompt signaled the descent into the Summoner’s Rift, A Shui immediately fell silent, focusing intently on the screen, ready to observe the upcoming battle.

“Lil’ Loli, don’t you dare feed,” Lin Ruo teased with a grin as soon as the game started.

Tian Ye shot a death glare: “We’re all on the same team; don’t start messing with his morale right away.”

Lin Ruo pouted. He wasn’t trying to mess with anyone’s mindset; he just saw Lil’ Loli was too tense and wanted to lighten the mood.

Lil’ Loli caught on immediately, his previously suppressed expression bursting with renewed fighting spirit: “Just wait, Guo Ba, I’m only playing ranked casually. You don’t really think I have that level of skill, do you?”

“Keep it up, keep it up,” cheerful veteran Ah Guang encouraged as always.

Silent and reserved Scout quietly maintained his silence.

Forming a long “snake” formation and going online, Lil’ Loli crouched in the top river bush, silently contemplating whether to attempt a level-two gank.

Since watching Lin Ruo’s stream last time, he had discovered a new world—the level-two gank strategy had impressed him greatly.

“The enemy’s bottom lane will be aggressive in contesting level one; they’ll definitely push the wave. Too bad I’m playing Mantis, and without crowd control, ganking might be tricky.”

Lil’ Loli muttered as he pondered, not yet deciding when suddenly the top laner Ah Guang shouted frantically nearby.

“Zhao Zhiming, what are you doing? Blue Buff is about to spawn, and you’re just crouching there. What’s going on?”

Startled, Lil’ Loli realized time had flown and hurried back, trying to cover with, “My bad, I was just worried about an enemy invade.”

Hearing this, Ah Guang was dumbfounded.

Good heavens, what right did a level-one Excavator have to invade Mantis’s jungle?

And as far as he remembered, the Excavator had placed a ward at the river entrance right from the start.

The enemy was guarding against your invasion, yet you’re worried about them invading…

“The jungler’s world is just too complicated; it’s normal if I don’t get it,” Ah Guang muttered to himself, desperately masking another thought.

Zhao Zhiming, please don’t have any issues in that regard.

At 1:40, the Blue Buff roared into existence, and Lil’ Loli immediately had Mantis start the clear.

After hitting the Blue Buff a few times, Ah Guang slowly headed back online.

Upon reaching level two, Lil’ Loli continued to clear the toad camp, glancing at the bottom lane through the screen.

Both sides were clearing from top to bottom, making the bottom lane’s situation especially important.

The bottom lanes were already locked in a fierce battle over the level-two buffs.

Switching back to the main view, after clearing the toad camp and approaching the three wolves, Lil’ Loli couldn’t help but peek again at the bottom lane.

---

That glimpse caused his brow to furrow tightly.

Their bottom lane had successfully secured the level-two buff and even pushed the wave forward early.

Lil’ Loli was dumbfounded, unable to understand: “What the hell, is the enemy bottom lane really that bad? Logically, at level one, we should be at a disadvantage.”

In the IG training room, Marge's face was slightly sweaty.

Bao Lan’s expression was no longer calm either.

Even before the wave arrived, both sides had started skirmishing. Against Zyra’s plant passive, IG’s bottom duo inevitably suffered some slight losses in a straight fight.

But that was the plan—to sacrifice a little health to wear down Zyra’s plant passive, preventing the EDG duo from using it to contest the wave.

Once Zyra lost her plant passive, it took time to regrow. When the wave arrived, IG’s double AD, with their fast waveclear, could easily contest the level-two buff and push the wave.

But in reality, they hadn’t pushed the wave at level one, which was unacceptable for the Varus and Graves double AD combo.

The enemy was playing too aggressively.

Tian Ye had planted five seeds. The passive damage was shockingly high.

Meanwhile, both had been hit by two of Jhin’s Q shots.

One in the minion skirmish, the other while pushing the wave, nearly halving their health.

Zyra used Ignite early to force a retreat, and the duo had no choice but to fall back.

This retreat meant they were at a disadvantage in lane and destined to be pressured.

“Hold steady, bottom lane.”

The ripple effect slowed down Kid, who was heading to their jungle.

Originally, after hitting level three, he could have used mid lane push priority to invade the enemy’s lower jungle, but now he had to reconsider the feasibility.

Invading the enemy’s red side was too risky because Zyra could plant seeds in the tri-bush and river, and any mistake would reveal their position.

Even if he tunneled in, it wouldn’t be easy.

After some thought, Kid, freshly level three and having just cleared Blue Buff, lingered by the river before deciding to secure the safer F6 camp first and then plan his next move.

Crossing the river to F6, he was stunned to find no sign of the expected Mantis.

“Red Buff is intact as well—where is he?”

Before Kid could process this, reports came from the top lane—Champion Maokai had fallen swiftly.