ARML CH56

The [Black Wolf King] is the assassin jungler with the strongest dash ability, and Chi Shuo actually really liked this hero.

This hero has two playstyles.

The first is starting in human form, pouncing and biting the opponent from a distance to enter the hunting mode where every attack is a critical hit, transforming into wolf form after killing the enemy, and utilizing excellent jumping ability to continue chasing other low-health targets. The second playstyle can be reversed: entering the fight in wolf form, launching a close-range ambush, landing a critical hit to kill the opponent, and then transforming into human form to either pursue or escape.

It seems this hero is hard to control with all the transformations, but the mechanism triggered by this “harvest-type jungler” actually requires teammate assistance—theoretically, once teammates can lower the enemies’ health bars across the board, the [Black Wolf King] can find the right moment to enter the fight, relying on its flexible skill characteristics to rapidly secure a pentakill.

Unfortunately, the black and white wolf and fox duo is too difficult to coordinate.

The [Black Wolf King]’s entry timing is hard to grasp; entering too early or too late easily results in being counter-killed. The White Fox’s mechanics require a massive amount of detail, and during a team fight, one might become overwhelmed, turning into a punching bag.

There are players in the league who know how to play these two heroes, but finding a jungler and mid-laner on the same team who can each play the Black Wolf and White Fox, and form a tacit synergy, is truly a rare sight.

Therefore, after a brief flash of brilliance, this duo was eliminated from the professional league.

The reason was simple: they weren’t stable enough.

Just like the Flying duo, they were prone to crashing and burning suddenly.

Coach Lin having them practice such a highly difficult duo was also a huge test of their synergy.

Ye Shaoyang opened the hero data panel and began to seriously study the [White Fox King]’s skills.

The difficulty of a summoner-type mage lies in multi-unit control.

The player must locate their pets immediately and command them to go where they need to go. The speed must be fast, the mechanics must be precise, and dynamic visual capture ability must also be sharp enough.

Taking 4 little foxes to attack a training dummy is very easy.

But what about a 5v5 team fight?

When 10 players unleash a chaotic mess of skills, making the screen colorful and dazzling, with allied teammates and enemy opponents standing in a cluster, most players would probably lose track of even their own little foxes.

Ye Shaoyang’s anti-interference dynamic vision test resulted in an S rating. For him, finding his pets in a chaotic crowd and commanding them to act was not difficult.

He opened the training camp software on his desktop and began practicing the mechanics of the [White Fox King] hero.

When he first started practicing, it was indeed somewhat chaotic. The foxes kept running around aimlessly, ignoring commands, or they would just stand still in a daze. Ye Shaoyang adapted for a few games before finding the trick to controlling the little foxes.

The [White Fox King] is actually a very flexible hero. The 4 little foxes can simultaneously bite one person, or they can split up and bite 4 people. Paired with the jungler [Black Wolf King], they have decent synergy in both ganking and team fighting.

Moreover, the [White Fox King]’s ultimate AoE fear after transforming into a human is a powerful 2-second crowd control. It can be used to assist the Black Wolf’s entry or coordinate with its own attack skills to lower enemy health bars.

Ye Shaoyang’s speed in picking up new heroes was extremely fast. This was his first time practicing a summoner-type mage, and after practicing for an afternoon, he had already grasped the playstyle and routines of this hero.

During dinnertime, Ye Shaoyang proactively called out to Chi Shuo: “Captain Chi, I’ve practiced enough. Let’s duel for two games so I can also familiarize myself with your Black Wolf’s tempo?”

Chi Shuo replied: “Alright.”

The two opened a room and dueled for half an hour, allowing Ye Shaoyang to also figure out the Black Wolf’s attack patterns.

On the way to eat, Ye Shaoyang asked curiously: “This harvest-type jungler, Black Wolf, has very high critical hits, and I saw Captain Chi’s mechanics were extremely proficient just now. How come I’ve never seen you use it in past matches?”

“This hero is hard to coordinate with teammates.” Chi Shuo explained: “During S6, we originally planned to practice this duo, but my master found the [White Fox King]’s mechanics too troublesome, so we didn’t continue practicing. The synergy between the black and white wolf and fox is relatively complex, and you should know that the more complex a composition is, the easier it is to make mistakes on the stage.”

In the tense atmosphere of the arena, a player’s reaction time is measured in 0.1 seconds.

Compare a hero that only requires pressing QWR to kill someone versus one that requires pressing QQQ, clicking the mouse, and chaining WR in a complex combo to kill someone. Which one is more prone to errors? It’s easy to imagine.

The more complex the mechanics, the easier it is to collapse from a slight mistake by the player. This is also why the black and white duo, despite being theoretically strong, had a very low win rate in actual combat and was eliminated by the professional league.

“That’s true, the black and white duo isn’t very stable and is prone to crashing.” Ye Shaoyang turned to look at Chi Shuo, saying earnestly: “But I believe that human effort can achieve anything. As long as we practice a lot, build our tacit understanding, and create the best entry opportunities for you, with your mechanics and game sense, you will definitely be able to achieve a harvesting effect with the Black Wolf.”

Chi Shuo had never brought out the [Black Wolf King] in the arena. It wasn’t that Chi Shuo didn’t dare, but that he couldn’t.

If his teammates couldn’t keep up with his tempo, he would easily become a lone wolf delivering kills a thousand miles away.

Gradually, Chi Shuo also learned to slow his pace to coordinate with the team’s tempo.

But why shouldn’t teammates accelerate their pace to coordinate with him?

Ye Shaoyang was the only one willing to accelerate his pace for Chi Shuo.

He would repeatedly practice highly difficult heroes, he would try desperately to keep up with Chi Shuo’s speed. Therefore, only he could stand by Chi Shuo’s side and recreate the sharpness of their mid-jungle synergy.

Chi Shuo was silent for a moment, his gaze turning increasingly gentle as he looked at Ye Shaoyang: “These past few days… it’s been hard on you. You had to absorb knowledge about a large number of new heroes in a short time, and also practice various high-difficulty combinations with me.”

“The hard work now is so we can win a few more games and get scolded a bit less in future matches!” Ye Shaoyang took out his phone, pulled up the SMS message “Your bank card has received a remittance of 5 million yuan,” showed it to Chi Shuo, and waved his phone with a smile: “I have to be worthy of the signing fee you guys gave me, right? And it’s even after-tax. That’s too conscientious.”

Seeing the SMS, Chi Shuo also smiled: “Has it already arrived?”

Ye Shaoyang: “Yes, Tianhuan’s finance department is quite efficient.”

The two walked side-by-side to the cafeteria for dinner, returned to the dorm to feed the cat, rested for a moment, and then went back to the training room to start their evening training.

Sitting in front of his computer, Chi Shuo opened the game and asked: “Can your [White Fox King] play ranked now?”

Ye Shaoyang replied: “Pretty much. I practiced all afternoon today, and it feels alright.”

Chi Shuo: “Continuing on the international server?”

Ye Shaoyang nodded: “Yes, wait for me to log in to my account.”

At 8:00 PM exactly, on the international server, Supreme King tier low-star match.

Sunshine and Moonlight logged on once again.

The two queued up in the ranked room and quickly matched into a game. Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang were in slots 4 and 5.

Chi Shuo proactively typed in the chat channel: “4L Jug, 5L Mid, thanks.”

Players who frequently play on the international server can understand the English abbreviations for the five roles.

Chi Shuo typing this prompt was also to avoid their roles being taken by other teammates, which would make coordination difficult.

Mid-jungle duo-queue is the most common combination, not to mention their names looked very much like a couple. The three international friends consciously chose other roles, leaving the jungler and mid-lane positions open.

When it was slot 4 and 5’s turn, Chi Shuo and Ye Shaoyang instantly locked in the [Black Wolf King] and [White Fox King].

Teammates: “???”

Holy crap? This couple isn’t a pair of trolls, are they!

The hearts of the three international friends skipped a beat, feeling an ominous premonition.

After the match loaded, the teammates noticed that the skins the two were using were commemorative skins from the S3 season. Although they weren’t explicitly couple skins, their original splash art really made them look like a pair. What was even more terrifying was—these were fucking two white slate heroes, 100 proficiency!

White slate heroes obviously meant their proficiency was grinded out by playing a few bot matches.

They hadn’t even played a single ranked match?

So, this couple intentionally picked the Black and White Wolf and Fox Kings to show off their affection and troll their teammates, right?

Among the three international friends, those with a good mentality silently prepared to press surrender later.

Those with a bad mentality started flaming in the team channel. Of course, Ye Shaoyang couldn’t understand what they were flaming about. An irritable teammate spammed a few strings of English. Ye Shaoyang couldn’t be bothered to find an online translator, so he replied with a symbol.

Chi Shuo glanced at Ye Shaoyang and proactively translated: “This teammate is saying, two idiots running to the international server to show off their affection, why don’t you go home and watch a romance movie. Why pick a long-eliminated composition like the Black and White duo to troll teammates? Are you guys brain-dead.”

Ye Shaoyang: “Oh, and then I replied with a smiley face, so he must be even angrier now.”

Chi Shuo: “…”

You sure know how to reply.

Chi Shuo helplessly rubbed his temples. Could they disable Shaoyang’s input method? Stop him from typing emojis?

Ye Shaoyang said: “Don’t worry, we’ll carry him to victory this game.”

The teammate who was just cursing was the bottom lane marksman player, picking the common [Machine Gun Hunter].

Ye Shaoyang returned to the mid-lane to clear the wave.

When clearing the wave, the [White Fox King] could choose to release just one little fox; one little fox’s damage was enough for last-hitting. If you released all four and they were killed by an opponent’s ultimate, summoning four again would be very troublesome. This hero wasn’t just difficult in mechanics; knowing when and how many pets to summon also required a clear judgment of the situation from the player.

The mid-laner Ye Shaoyang encountered this game was the familiar [Frost Goddess].

His positioning was very wretched, moving randomly in S-shapes, making it impossible for the [Frost Goddess] to freeze him. But what the opposing player didn’t expect was that his little fox also moved randomly and couldn’t be frozen either?!

Dual-control mechanics, simultaneously controlling the movement of himself and the little fox, required incredibly fast hand speed.

After laning against Ye Shaoyang for a few minutes, the [Frost Goddess] player realized he was an expert and obediently stopped trying to freeze him, focusing solely on wave clear.

The two farmed safely, not interfering with each other.

But right at the moment the [White Fox King] reached level 6, the 4 little foxes suddenly dashed in front of her like a white wind. Before she could react, her health was bitten down to a sliver. The [Frost Goddess] instinctively wanted to use Flash to escape, but the [White Fox King] suddenly transformed into a human. The handsome guy with fluffy ears and a big tail used a fear skill to root her in place.

Nearby, the human-form Black Wolf pounced from a distance and bit her to death in one strike.

—First Blood!

Chi Shuo took first blood.

Ye Shaoyang praised: “Beautiful!”

During that moment of coordination just now, the two actually didn’t communicate via voice chat; it was entirely based on tacit understanding.

Seeing Chi Shuo flank from the jungle and squat behind him to his right, Ye Shaoyang acted decisively. He first released the little foxes to bite the opponent down to low health. The instant the opponent reacted and tried to run, he transformed into human form, using fear to root her, setting up a convenient entry for Chi Shuo to harvest. Chi Shuo also saw Ye Shaoyang transform and immediately pounced from a distance in human form.

The hunting mode triggered a critical hit, taking the opponent’s head in one strike.

The seamless connection of their skills showed that the Black and White Wolf and Fox combo had a pretty good ganking effect.

After killing the enemy mid-laner, the two invaded the jungle together. The enemy jungler was fighting the red buff. At this moment, the Black Wolf had already transformed into wolf form, jumped over the wall, used Smite to steal the red buff, and launched a close-range ambush to take the enemy’s head.

Ye Shaoyang said: “I found that the most flexible part of this duo is the shift in attack range.”

Chi Shuo replied: “Yes, they can be ranged or melee, and the wolf form can also jump over walls.”

Ye Shaoyang continued: “However, the Black Wolf’s transformation skill has a very long cooldown and only refreshes immediately upon killing an opponent, rather than transforming at will. This requires extremely high mastery of timing. If a teammate doesn’t coordinate well and steals your kill, you won’t be able to transform and harvest.”

Chi Shuo added: “If it could be triggered at will, this hero would be ridiculously overpowered.”

Ye Shaoyang smiled and nodded: “True.”

The two chatted while playing the game, and soon, their teammates discovered…

It seemed they were getting carried to victory?

The marksman player who was cursing at the beginning saw the Black and White Fox Kings appear in the bottom lane with their underlings. 4 little white wolves and a fierce black wolf pounced on the opponent almost simultaneously, and then, the Black Wolf directly secured a double kill with a flurry of mechanics?!

One moment a wolf, the next a human—they couldn’t even understand these constant transformations!

Moreover, wherever the [White Fox King] went, he was followed by 4 underlings, like having 4 bodyguards, looking very prestigious?!

The match ended quickly. The opposing players were chased around by a pack of wolves, nearly developing psychological trauma from being bitten.

[Mickey]: sorry, I didn’t know you were experts.

The player who was cursing earlier proactively apologized.

Chi Shuo turned to look at Ye Shaoyang. Sometimes, this guy’s smiling appearance really made one want to beat him up. Whether he was being cursed or praised, he always wore this expression, completely unbothered, conquering the international server with an omnipotent smiley face symbol.

Chi Shuo withdrew his gaze and asked softly: “Continue?”

Ye Shaoyang: “Yes. In that wave just now, I released my skills too early, we almost crashed.”

Chi Shuo: “Next time my ultimate is ready, I’ll remind you.”

Ye Shaoyang rubbed his fingers. The [White Fox King] required a massive amount of mechanics and was much more exhausting to play than ordinary mages. For most mages, you only need to press Q, W, E, and R, but the [White Fox King] required summoning pets, clicking on pets with the mouse, controlling pet movement… the coordinated operation of both hands was very troublesome.

No wonder few people used it in matches. Such a mechanically troublesome hero required constant focus, and its demands on reaction and hand speed were exceptionally high. Hand-handicapped players simply couldn’t play it.

The two continued to play ranked until 12:00 AM.

In 4 hours, they played a total of 8 games, winning 5 and losing 3.

Among the 3 losses, one was due to a disconnected teammate, likely caused by a poor network connection. The remaining 2 games were lost because teammates didn’t coordinate well, frantically stealing Chi Shuo’s kills during team fights, preventing his ultimate from refreshing.

The Black Wolf couldn’t snowball and was instantly killed, and the teammates who stole the kills couldn’t turn the situation around, resulting in lost team fights.

It’s normal for this to happen in public matches. Randoms rarely proactively yield kills to you, since everyone is strangers after all. Also, some randoms didn’t understand the Black Wolf’s skill mechanics, as this hero was too obscure and rarely appeared in ranked matches.

Chi Shuo glanced at Ye Shaoyang, his voice gentle: “Tired?”

Ye Shaoyang rubbed his fingers and said: “Let’s play one more game before sleeping.”

Chi Shuo pressed the queue button again.

At the same time, in the Huowen team base, Zhou Jiawen also pressed the queue button.

Zhou Jiawen made a name for himself on the international server as the S8 season international server pubstomper. He was signed back to his home country by the Huowen team for a high price and took over as the Huowen captain in S9. Currently only 19 years old, he was the youngest captain in the China region.

He was accustomed to playing on the international server, knew many experts there, and had multiple alt accounts on the international server.

The alt account he logged into today was “ZZ7878,” ranked Supreme King x 10 stars.

The person duo-queueing with him, ID “JinJin666,” was Kim Min-jun from the Korean region, the captain of the TIP team, playing the jungler role, also ranked Supreme King x 10 stars.

As soon as the match started, Zhou Jiawen politely typed in chat.

[ZZ7878]: 4L Jug, 5L Mid, thanks

[Moonlight]: 2L Mid, 3L Jug, thanks

The two messages popped up almost simultaneously.

The Player 1 in the lobby was trembling—4/5 slot mid-jungle duo, 2/3 slot mid-jungle duo. What should I pick!

Seeing this, Zhou Jiawen couldn’t help but smile and call out: “Coach, I ran into that Sun and Moon duo.”

The coach rushed over in a hurry: “Holy crap?”