Chapter 7 – After All, He Taught Him Personally
One minute later, the match officially began.
Their team’s support had picked Grass God, sticking closely behind Frigga as the two rapidly cleared the minion wave.
Grass God was a healing-type roamer, the premier support healer in ACR. His Q skill had a stun effect, making him the perfect partner for Frigga when contesting lane priority.
The enemy mid laner had probably seen Ghost playing Frigga, so they picked Jormungandr Serpent Maiden to suppress him. However, Serpent Maiden was weak at contesting early waves, so the enemy roamer headed straight to the gold lane instead.
Monster’s ADC played aggressively, and without support by his side, he quickly traded damage with the enemy until his health bar was nearly depleted.
The support shifted vision control, helped Frigga secure the Deer Spirit (river crab), then rushed toward the gold lane. Unfortunately, he arrived too late—the enemy had already claimed [First Blood.]
The support let out a frustrated, “Damn,” and was about to complain when he realized the Frigga controlled by Qi Qiao was no longer beside Grass God.
Just moments ago, he had seen Frigga place a ward and follow him toward bot lane. But when he glanced at the minimap, Frigg had somehow already moved into the brush near the low-health Mermaid (Red Buff) in the upper jungle.
The enemy had chosen Odin, and junglers usually started blue buff, meaning he had probably just finished clearing it by now.
The vision Frigga had placed earlier was a fake—the enemy mid laner was already rotating toward bot lane.
“Huh? Why’s Green Hair heading top? There are still two minions in gold lane. Farm them, don’t waste it,” Jiang Jiang said regretfully, but as he looked up, he suddenly realized something was off. “Wait… he’s not planning to pull the same trick again, is he?”
Pei Ming asked, “What trick?”
Jiang Jiang replied, “I ran into him once in a high-rank game before. He was also playing Frigg, and he camped the enemy jungler like, ten times that match. But that was because the enemy jungler was a complete asshole who flamed everyone—”
Before Jiang Jiang could finish speaking, Frigga stopped in the brush and, without hesitation, chained W + Q toward the upper-left corner.
Boom—
A fireball exploded, landing perfectly on Odin just as he reached the Red Buff mermaid. His HP bar vanished in an instant.
“Holy shit. Blind prediction with no vision,” Jiang Jiang said in shock.
Actually, Qi Qiao could have waited until Odin fully arrived before using his skills, which would have given him a higher hit rate.
But instead, he deliberately chose to cast without vision.
That meant his timing calculation for how long Odin would take to clear the lower jungle had to be incredibly precise.
The tall, skinny guy hadn’t expected it either. He froze for a second, then instinctively blurted out, “F*ck,” before staring at Qi Qiao in disbelief.
The boy’s mint-green messy hair fell lazily over his forehead. He curled his lips upward at him, revealing a tiny fang.
Ten seconds later, Odin respawned.
Fifteen seconds after leaving base, he turned into the jungle—only to be killed once again by hellfire erupting from the brush.
The third time was in the mid-lane brush.
The fourth time was near dragon pit.
The fifth time…
The sixth time…
The randomly selected map for this match was Forest of Secrets, where the amount of available brush for hiding was practically doubled.
Not to mention Ghost’s predictions were so precise it felt like he was using cheats—every single ambush landed without fail.
Finally, after Odin had been killed twelve times, the game came to an end.
The players on the opposing side, aside from Wink, who showed a hint of curiosity in his gaze, all looked unhappy.
It wasn’t just because their jungler had been relentlessly targeted — the rest of them were also being suppressed so hard that the entire game felt miserable.
Jiang Jiang looked at the dark expression on their academy team jungler’s face and clicked his tongue twice.
“No, seriously… what did our jungler do to piss him off? Why’s he playing so aggressively against him?”
Bang, on the other hand, looked thoroughly entertained.
“Ghost really is impressive. He’s got talent.”
Jiang Jiang replied, “Sure, he’s talented, but I still think targeting the jungler the entire match is way too ruthless!”
“Captain… don’t you think so?”
As he spoke, Jiang Jiang turned toward Pei Ming, seeking his opinion.
“Esports is simple. Winning is all that matters,” Pei Ming said calmly.
The corner of Jiang Jiang’s mouth twitched.
“No way… Brother, whose side are you even on? Aren’t we supposed to be Faith here?”
Bang covered his mouth with a laugh.
“Devil, I didn’t expect you to be this forgiving. Honestly, I’m guessing Ghost targeted the jungler so hard mainly because he picked Odin. After all… Ghost is your anti-fan.”
Jiang Jiang suddenly understood.
“Oh right! Ghost is your hater, bro, so of course he had to crush Odin. Which basically means he was crushing you, right?”
Pei Ming didn’t answer.
“Watch the match.”
…
On the other side, since they had completely crushed Faith Youth Training Team, everyone on Monster Youth Training Team was in a great mood.
Especially Monster’s jungler.
Because Qi Qiao had ganked the enemy jungler countless times, this match had gone incredibly smoothly for him, whether it was farming or setting up kills.
“Ghost, thanks for this match.”
The jungler gave him a thumbs-up, only to notice that Qi Qiao had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Qi Qiao stayed silent for a moment, thinking.
Then suddenly, he said, “Um… can I switch with you for the next game?”
The jungler didn’t process it at first and pointed at his own chair. “Ah… you mean switch seats?”
Qi Qiao shook his head. “No. I mean, I’ll jungle this round, and you play mid lane. Is that okay?”
“Huh?” The jungler was completely stunned.
And it wasn’t just him.
Pretty much everyone on Monster Youth Training Team had the same bewildered expression.
Normally, this was a scrim match.
That meant everyone naturally played their strongest role — otherwise, if someone ended up becoming the team’s biggest weak point, it would be downright embarrassing.
While everyone was still trying to process what had just happened, the next match had already begun.
“Don’t worry. In mid lane, all you need to do is farm and defend your tower.”
Qi Qiao looked at him and added: “This game, I’ll carry. Okay?”
The jungler still looked doubtful.
But when he met Qi Qiao’s dark, unreadable eyes, he stiffly nodded anyway.
For some reason…
he had the strange feeling that if he refused, Ghost might assassinate him tonight.
…
During the ban/pick phase, the opposing side quickly sent Frigga straight to the ban list.
After the brutal lesson of being mercilessly hunted down by Ghost in the previous game, every member of Faith Youth Training Team unanimously gave the final pick position to the tall, skinny player.
The tall, skinny player stared fixedly at Ghost’s ID on the opposing side, preparing to pick a jungler specifically meant to counter whatever hero Ghost selected and win back his dignity.
“Tsk… Ghost is definitely going to switch lanes this round. After how aggressively he played last game, everyone on our side is obviously waiting to shut him down,” Jiang Jiang said, shaking his head as he prepared to continue.
Suddenly, Pei Ming spoke.
“He won’t.”
The moment Pei Ming finished speaking, Ghost’s selection slot instantly locked in with a click.
Jiang Jiang was still wondering why Pei Ming seemed to understand that little brat so well when he looked up—
—and saw the bright jungle role marker displayed on Ghost’s slot.
The hero selected underneath it was none other than Odin.
“Holy shit?!”
Jiang Jiang practically jumped.
“No way—I-I-I’m not seeing this wrong, am I? He’s playing jungle???”
Even Bang was completely stunned.
“If my eyes are still working properly, then no, you’re definitely not seeing things. He really is jungling… and he picked Odin?!”
Pei Ming fell silent, his expression thoughtful.
…
On the opposite side, Faith Youth Training Team clearly hadn’t expected this situation either.
They had originally planned to collectively counter Ghost’s mid-lane pick, but now…
“Uh… Brother Xiang, he picked Odin, this is…” Faith’s support said hesitantly.
If last round had simply been Monster’s strategy of targeting the enemy jungler, that would have been one thing.
But this round, Ghost himself was playing jungle—
—and he had picked Odin.
His intentions were painfully obvious.
He was specifically targeting Brother Xiang.
Wang Xiang’s expression darkened as well.
“It’s fine. Just pick normally. I’ll choose a jungler that can counter him.”
With that, Wang Xiang locked in Farbauti.
Odin was a hero with an extremely high mechanical difficulty ceiling.
His W skill allowed him to throw chains that could immobilize enemy heroes.
However, the hitbox for that skill was incredibly narrow.
If the player’s mechanics weren’t good enough, the hero was basically useless.
Still, because Odin had an attractive character design and incredibly flashy combo mechanics when mastered, he had always been a favorite among jungle players.
That was why there had always been a saying circulating among ranked players in ACR: “Out of ten Odin players, nine are dead weight.”
The Farbauti Wang Xiang selected this match had an E skill that could directly negate enemy abilities.
In other words—
if Wang Xiang activated E at the exact moment Qi Qiao threw Odin’s chains at him—
the chains would instantly disappear.
And once Odin failed to land his chains…
the hero was basically crippled.
…
Seeing Farbauti on the enemy side, Monster’s team immediately felt nervous.
The support selected a hero with strong roaming ability and asked worriedly, “Ghost… do you want me to follow you this round?”
Qi Qiao shook his head.
“It’s okay. Just stick with the ADC like usual.”
The support wanted to say more.
But seeing Qi Qiao’s calm expression, he swallowed his words and stayed silent. Qi Qiao skillfully switched his rune page. Back when he streamed, he rarely played jungle.
On the rare occasions he did, it was usually because he had no choice but to fill the role.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t good at it.
On the contrary—when it came to jungling, Qi Qiao was even more familiar with it than mid lane.
Or more precisely…
he was more familiar with Odin.
After all…
he had taught him personally, step by step.