Chapter 1404: Technique

Boom!

Falling Phoenix Slash’s knockdown priority was very high. Deception crashed down against the ground, even forming a small crater upon impact, but the flashing sword light had already caught up.

Falling Light Blade!

Almost as if flying on his sword, Troubling Rain and Ice Rain arrived in front of Deception in the blink of an eye.

Deception was rapidly forming hand seals with his hands.

Substitution Technique!

Huang Shaotian could predict this. This was one of the most disgusting things about fighting Ninjas. They had numerous escape techniques that could brutally murder their opponent’s attack combo.

Luckily, most Ninja techniques required hand seals, which was their form of casting. Even though a Ninja’s casting speed was decided by affective APM, it still gave their opponents the chance to interrupt.

His mechanics were very fast, but, it wasn’t fast enough!

Huang Shaotian’s calculations were very precise. He had executed his offensive with Mo Fan’s escape techniques in mind, aiming to make sure the other didn’t have a chance to use them. The time between the short stun after Deception crashed into the ground from Falling Phoenix Slash and Troubling Rain’s Falling Light Blade hitting wasn’t enough for Mo Fan to use the Substitution Technique. These detailed calculations were one of the many factors that differentiated top Gods from rookies. No matter how talented a rookie was, their lack of experience meant that they wouldn’t be able to make such detailed and accurate estimations.

Hit!

Ice Rain swung down, and Huang Shaotian already had his next moves all planned out.

But in that moment, he noticed the hand seals Deception was making.

This wasn’t the Substitution Technique!

Huang Shaotian’s eyes were sharp, able to capture the tiny and rapid hand movements Deception was making.

This… was the Underground Tunneling Technique!

Mo Fan had actually decided to choose to counterattack at a time like this. This was shocking to Huang Shaotian. He hadn’t predicted such a possibility because when they had been prepping for their battle against Happy, they had found two clear and fundamental traits to Mo Fan’s style.

Patience that wasn’t second to anyone’s, and an absolute aversion to risk-taking.

Considering this player’s background, it wasn’t hard to understand this style.

Thus, this Underground Tunneling Technique completely contradicted his style. This was a risky move, and Huang Shaotian hadn’t expected Mo Fan would consider such a decision at all.

But, he could probably interrupt it, right?

The hand seals required by the Underground Tunneling Technique were more complex than the Substitution Technique!

That’s what Huang Shaotian told himself, but he still had a bad feeling about this.

Different techniques had different complexities, but players also had different levels of familiarity and mastery for different techniques. For rookies, this was more evident. It was completely possible that the more complex Underground Tunneling Technique would be faster than the Substitution Technique.

Hit!

In the end, Falling Light Blade struck Deception, but had it interrupted the hand seals?

There was only a slight difference in timing, so miniscule that not even Huang Shaotian could make a judgement. All he saw was Deception thrown back by this Falling Light Blade and then suddenly disappearing into the ground.

He had completed the hand seals!

Huang Shaotian’s reaction was immediate. Troubling Rain, having just landed on the ground, once again jumped up without hesitation and slashed down.

But… it hit air.

Deception hadn’t jumped out to attack him. Now, he was once again displaying that disgusting patience of his.

What an annoying opponent!

Huang Shaotian cursed under his breath. Actually, god knows how many times his opponents had cursed him with the very same words. Partially because of his trash talking, partially because of his battle style. It was extraordinary, and extra annoying*.

Huang Shaotian didn’t know when Mo Fan planned on attacking. The moment he landed would be the most dangerous, so he accompanied his landing with another strike downwards.

Deception still hadn’t struck, and Huang Shaotian felt that it was quite the shame. Though his patience was admirable, but in Huang Shaotian’s eyes, the other’s decision wasn’t the best. The optimal moment to strike with Underground Tunneling Technique was the moment it was activated. In that moment, Huang Shaotian had been a bit of a mess. However, now, he had oriented himself and was prepared, quietly awaiting the moment the attack was launched. Did Mo Fan really think he could succeed in a sneak attack now? Not unless Huang Shaotian disconnected.

“What a shame!” Thus, Huang Shaotian began spamming the chat again. Even underground, Mo Fan could still see the chat channel.

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“You missed your best opportunity,” Huang Shaotian continued.

“Now I can even have my character easily walk out of your Underground Tunneling Technique’s range,” Huang Shaotian finally said.

Range?

After he typed down this word, Huang Shaotian startled.

And then Deception’s Underground Tunneling Technique activated.

Not under Troubling Rain’s feet, but in the farthest corner of the skill’s range from Troubling Rain. Just like that, Deception jumped out of the ground to face Troubling Rain.

Holy shit!

Huang Shaotian realized that he had made a mistake.

This Underground Tunneling Technique wasn’t about offense at all. In that moment, it was used as an escape skill. And now, hadn’t it successfully interrupted his offensive? The two of them, facing off directly? With Troubling Rain’s 10 percent health, a few skills exchanged was enough to kill him.

Seeing Deception’s emotionless avatar face, Huang Shaotian felt like he was looking directly at Mo Fan’s expression. While he was rambling away, the other was probably emotionless like this, not even sparing his words a glance!

Deception turned, and escaped, once again using the environment to hide himself. His opponent only had 10 percent health left, yet he didn’t directly attack.

However, this time, he was very active. While hiding, he would often throw a shuriken or something to harass Troubling Rain, baiting his opponent into coming closer.

Huang Shaotian didn’t know if he should cry or laugh. He, a God, was now… being played around with by a rookie?

However, he didn’t have any way to deal with. This rookie was no joke, and his own character only had 10 percent of his health left, and so he was set in a very awkward circumstance.

After patiently tormenting him for a good while, Mo Fan finally found an opening he was satisfied with. Deception charged out, unhesitantly showing an air of ‘yes, that’s right, I’m taking advantage of the fact that you barely have any health left’.

What a damn bastard!

When Troubling Rain finally fell, Huang Shaotian was so angry he couldn’t even type anything anymore, only slam the desk and curse.

Mo Fan won!

Though everyone had expected this result when 50 percent of Troubling Rain’s health was smashed by a tree, when the victory actually occurred, it still sent the audience into an uproar.

Counterattack of the grassroots?

This was it!

This wasn’t the first time Mo Fan had achieved something like this before. Last time, he had defeated Sun Xiang in the regular season, no?

However, that time, he had the clear advantage from the beginning of the match. This time, 100 percent versus 80 percent, rookie versus God, how many people would even consider that 20 percent advantage? From the beginning, everyone was expecting Huang Shaotian to win.

Though this match included a hilarious catastrophe of getting 50 percent of his health smashed by a tree, making Huang Shaotian’s situation look like an unfortunate accident, this situation was artificially created, and they couldn’t neglect to consider the role Mo Fan’s skill played. Plus, in their head on exchanges, Mo Fan hadn’t been completely suppressed by Huang Shaotian. Compared to the last round where Ye Xiu had 30 percent of his health knocked off in one go by Huang Shaotian, Mo Fan had yet to fall into such an ugly situation. On the contrary, he had started off with a successful ambush, taking out 20 percent of Troubling Rain’s health in one.

“What a glorious victory!” Pan Lin exclaimed in the live broadcast, purposefully reminding everyone to not overlook this victory because of that lost 50 percent.

“After all, it was Huang Shaotian who cut down that tree…” Saying this, Pan Lin had to stifle his laughter. No matter how he described it, it would sound hilarious.

Huang Shaotian left the stage amidst laughter; some were mocking, some sympathetic, some just cheerful, all sorts of different emotions accompanied by applause and people yelling “Huang Shao, Huang Shao”. He didn’t know how to feel.

After returning to Blue Rain’s player bench, his teammates all came up to shake his hand, or pat his shoulder and whatnot to comfort him.

“What the hell? What the hell you think you’re all doing, huh??? If you want to laugh, just laugh!!” Huang Shaotian exploded. These assholes! He could tell they wanted to laugh, but all came over pretending to comfort him. They were terrible actors, none of them seemed sincere at all.

“True, it’s too hard not to laugh!” Song Xiao was the first to burst into laughter.

“We’re already lagging way behind! Be more serious!” Huang Shaotian warned everyone with a serious expression. In the group arena, three of Blue Rain’s players had been beaten already, including their ace player Huang Shaotian, while Happy was only at their second player. Plus, Deception still had 64 percent of his health left.

“Yes. We’re at a huge disadvantage. We need to be more cautious.” Captain Yu Wenzhou directed his words at the next player in line.

“Yes sir!” Li Yuan saluted his captain.

Li Yuan was a season eight debutee, playing a Summoner. Unlike other newbies who were usually careful and docile upon joining the team, Li Yuan was very lively, enthusiastic no matter who he was faced with, and quickly became familiar with Blue Rain’s players and other staff.

Though Li Yuan had amicable relationships with other people, Li Yuan wasn’t the kind of rookie who made waves. He hadn’t appeared at all in the Season Eight Best Rookie nominations because he hadn’t had many chances to play that season. Then, in Season Nine, Lu Hanwen, the youngest player in history, debuted in Blue Rain, directly taking over the position Yu Feng had left and completely outshining their second year player Li Yuan.

However, Li Yuan hadn’t let this bring him down, andhe wasn’t at all jealous of this rookie that had outshone him so much. He treated Lu Hanwen like everyone else, taking care of the other. Finally, in the past year, Li Yuan gained more chances to play and cemented his position in the team.

Then in this season, Thief player Lin Feng transferred to Wind Howl and Li Yuan stepped forward once more, becoming a permanent core member of the team and gaining more chances to perform in the individual competition, group arenas and team competitions. His performance was admirable. Now, on the final stage of the playoffs, he was fielded.