Chapter 19: A Flick of the Hair, the Game Is On! (2/5)

Chapter 19: A Flick of the Hair, Let the Game Begin! (25)

“Did he pick wrong…” Tongxi’s lips parted slightly, disbelief washing over her.

“No, it seems he didn’t misclick. None of the IG players signaled the referee… What’s going on here?” Guan Zeyuan, a seasoned commentator who had witnessed countless innovative tactics over the years, was just as baffled.

A Darius support… this was truly unprecedented.

Not only were the commentators and players collectively stunned, but the live chat exploded with outrage, an unrelenting barrage of criticism flooding the screen.

A Darius support? Forget about professional matches—even in casual games, bringing out something like that would earn you endless curses from your teammates.

And this was happening during the highly anticipated S11 ticket qualifier.

“A Darius support? You’ve really caught me off guard, I’m wide-eyed now.”

“Wide-eyed? More like acting! What else is there to say? Just pretending to play.”

“Is Mazi losing it?”

A massive broad axe sliced through the fog of war!

The razor-sharp blade swept horizontally across the wall’s vision, pulling the half-health blue buff right out of Karsa’s sight.

“Holy shit!!” Karsa shouted.

D key: Smite.

Come on.

“This damn Darius didn’t go bot lane at level one but instead circled around the ward spot and went straight for my blue buff. He even took the E skill to hook my blue buff away,” Karsa said, laughing in disbelief. “What the hell is he thinking? My blue buff was still half full. When he hooked it away, the buff’s aggro dropped, so it just started healing and came back. You’re level one with Smite—you can’t just steal a half-health blue buff from me! What’s the point? At best, you’re just annoying me.”

In truth, Cheng Xuan could somewhat guess the reactions flooding the chat.

But if he disgusted himself, Wink’s bottom lane wouldn’t stand a chance.

In the end, he quietly opened the system interface to confirm.

Darius support, huh?

“Offline rematch, it seems.”

Blue buff, red buff, Rift Scuttler—just enough for level three—perfect for ganking bot lane.

Unfortunately, the system at level three hadn’t unlocked the status refresh function yet, so he had to make do.

[S-Tier Talent — Throwing the Game]

The others were still behaving relatively normally.

The next second,

He didn’t even intend to move, just pressed S to stay put.

A minor matter—just wait for the buff to regenerate. At worst, it would delay the pace a bit.

Even Nofe almost dropped the little notebook he was holding.

Looking at the options, the first choice was undoubtedly more normal and easier to accomplish.

Cheng Xuan: “…”

“Wow, IG’s coach is really a cultured warrior. If you haven’t played the literature, just bring out the martial arts.”

Alright, it’s you then!

A flick of the hair, let this game begin!

Once the game started, both teams stepped out and began positioning.

“Cheng Xuan, are you sure this is the champion you want to play?”

If he were watching the match now, he would definitely rage at the keyboard.

…

This Darius play wasn’t just irritating the chat.

But considering his own ‘throwing’ status this round…

He glanced past the blue buff pit.

After a week of research, the conclusion was this: the player had picked Darius support, with Smite and Barrier—two summoner spells utterly useless for Darius.

“Is he really throwing?” The support player Zhuo asked cautiously.

“No support from 5L, just feeding, huh.”

But upon seeing Darius’s summoner spells,

Task 2: Use Darius’s ultimate to kill enemy champions 10 times (Difficulty: A)

Several TES players pressed Tab to check the enemy summoner spells.

As a veteran jungler with multiple world championship appearances,

Karsa had never encountered this kind of buff.

With confirmation in hand, Nofe closed the BP notebook with a complicated expression and, following protocol, fist-bumped the opposing coach before leaving the stage.

Where on earth does such a ridiculous buff even exist…

Only then did they notice that during positioning, the Darius suddenly rushed to mid lane turret and gave the first blood away.

Except.

There wasn’t even a trace of the buff.

“You’re still young. If I were him, I’d wait for the jungler’s buff to nearly expire, then smite it away. Haha, young and naïve.” Karsa smirked disdainfully.

“What on earth is this weird strategy…” Karsa’s twitching mouth betrayed his confusion.

…

One second.

JKL: “…I take back what I said. He really might be throwing…”

“This is bad, guys. Wink this round is like FanFan—gonna get locked up for a while.”

Darius support seemed even more terrible.

“Alright, I’m flashing in!”

They had spent a week prior to the match thoroughly analyzing Shaqima.

Five seconds passed.

Task 1: Win a game as Blitzcrank (Difficulty: B)

Despite the buff being S-tier, it felt even more unreliable than the previous buff called “Toxic Milk.”

Their expressions grew both rich and complicated.

Two seconds.

The game entered the loading screen.

No one expected someone to play like this in a match, so the first blood taken by the turret, though not hugely impactful, created an awkward scene.

“I’ll smash your dog head today!”

Before Karsa’s thought concluded, as he was fighting over the blue buff with the Devourer at half health,

Three seconds.

[Effect: When you act as if you don’t want to win this match, the game’s tide will shift to lead you to victory (valid for this match).]

Level one Smite can’t instantly kill a half-health blue buff, and even with Smite on Darius, stealing the blue buff from Karsa was impossible.

Wow, this system must be from the Golden Wheel Universe or something.

“Getting desperate, huh? The chicken giblets are rattling.”

“Mazi? You suck!”

The chat erupted with teasing again.

This was the first time he was relying purely on his own skill to play a match—it was uncertain how far he could go.

Suddenly, the system notification sounded.

Karsa finally felt something was off.

As for why he picked Darius:

“No way. What are you thinking? This is the S11 ticket qualifier—there’s no way he’s really throwing. I bet he has a trick up his sleeve, it won’t be this simple! Everyone, stay alert!” JKL’s words had just fallen when

[IG-Shaqima has been slain by the turret!]

His blue buff was stolen and had yet to return.

[Description: Because you don’t want to win, you actually want to win.]

Time continued to pass.

The minion waves slowly marched forward. Karsa, on the blue side, knew this game was clearly targeting bot lane, so he prepared to start at blue buff.

Everyone focused their attention.

“If you covered the IDs, I’d believe this was just a casual game with a throw.”

But he was uneasy, still pondering how Darius support could possibly work, nearly punching the white crescent moon emblem on his chest.

F key: Barrier.

Cheng Xuan seemed somewhat unsettled.

“Check that damn Mazi guy’s phone messages! Maybe he just got a mysterious seven-figure transfer.”

The angrier he looked, the more absurd it seemed.

Karsa was only slightly startled before calming down.

“Alright, forget him. Let’s focus on our own game first. We’ll see what happens later.”

His trembling hand adjusted his glasses and asked in a confirming tone.

Suddenly, a ward was placed squarely on the blue buff spot.

The jungle was empty—no blue buff, no red buff.

“What’s going on?” Mid laner Knight (Left Hand) asked repeatedly.

“This game’s lost; I’m gonna dig up your ancestors’ graves!”

Because the system had reached level three, an extra daily task option had appeared.

Devourer stood alone in the jungle, looking somewhat lost.

Today, the jungle felt especially vast. The echo of the Ancient Golem’s form seemed to still linger before his eyes.

Usually composed, Karsa finally cracked.

“Fuck!! Guys, there’s a thief!!!”

(End of chapter)