Chapter 5 — Middle Road Rules

Exactly six o'clock the next evening.

When Bảo Châu and four members of HD E-sports entered the computer room, they almost mistakenly thought they were going into the school's physics laboratory.

All bottles and trash had disappeared. The floor was cleaned cleanly. The air smells faintly of lemongrass instead of the smell of sour and spicy instant noodles that had stuck around for the past two years. But what shocked them the most was that the five sets of computer mice and keyboards on the table had all been replaced with brand new ones. The LED lights from the mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse radiate breathtaking professionalism.

Hải Đăng sat in the central computer position, still wearing a black hoodie over his head, his eyes glued to the screen displaying countless tactical charts.

"Pay the money," Đăng said coldly, not bothering to turn around.

"What money, sir?" Hùng 'Gaur' scratched his head.

"Equipment money. I paid for these five sets of mice and keys in advance. Except for that poor manager, the four of you divided them up and paid them back to me. E-sports is a sport that burns money. If you don't have decent equipment, don't even dream of competing."

Châu's face turned red because the story of "being poor" was exposed, but deep down she was secretly grateful. She knew clearly that the club's operating budget had been cut off by the school a long time ago. Although Đăng has a cruel tongue, his actions are extremely decisive. He's really serious about this.

After the money issue was resolved smoothly thanks to Hùng's slush fund, the whole team sat down in position. Everyone was eager to play a ranked match to try out new gear.

"Okay, go into the game. Create a Custom room, 1vs0 practice mode," Đăng ordered.

Four bewildered faces turned to look at him.

"1vs0? There's no opponent? So why fight, boss?" Kiên '3G' wondered, his hand ready to press the search button.

"Exactly. No opponent," Đăng tapped his fingers on the keyboard, his eyes starting to become sharp. "Today's lesson plan: Practice Last-hit (killing soldiers). Each person chooses a general of their own. Do not bring support gems, do not bring magic tables, and absolutely do not buy any equipment."

"What?!" All four people exclaimed in unison.

In MOBA, Last-hit is the skill to deliver a finishing blow to a soldier to receive gold. Wearing runes and equipment will increase damage, making Last-hit easier. Without equipment, the basic damage is extremely weak, and timing the right moment when a soldier's health is depleted to attack requires precise calculation down to the millisecond. This is a basic exercise but extremely dry and psychologically tortured.

"Within thirty minutes," Đăng continued, his voice as steady as a metronome. "The goal is to reach 100 minion count at 10 minutes. If you miss more than three minions in one wave, start over."

"This is so boring!" Hùng 'Gaur' slammed his hand on the table, his expression gloomy. "I'm a top lane Gladiator, my mission is to rush in and cut down the enemy, not stand and knock on the heads of these nonsense soldiers!"

Đăng turned his chair around, crossed his arms and looked at Hùng. The atmosphere immediately froze.

"Charging into the enemy? With what? With your 1/8/2 KDA from yesterday's match?" Đăng asked back, each word piercing straight into the pride of the big male student. "Do you know why you always lose lane even when you're playing a champion? Because you lack items. Why lack items? Because your minion farming skills are zero. One cannon minion is worth one quarter of a champion kill. Three waves of minions are worth one kill. You're so busy rushing up and slashing people that you miss your minions, so the opponent just needs to farm even and have enough money to buy equipment to smash your bull's head."

Hùng was speechless and his face turned red. He had high self-esteem and was scolded to his face in front of his brothers, so he couldn't swallow this anger.

"Okay! If you say I'm bad, then go solo 1vs1 with me! If you win, I'll worship you, and I'll do whatever you tell me. If I win, stop this nonsense training!" Hùng shouted, challenging.

Châu panicked and tried to stop him, but Đăng raised his hand to stop her.

"Okay," Đăng smirked. He returned to the screen and opened the room creation interface. "You choose your champion. Any one you want."

Hùng coldly snorted, immediately locked on "Ares" - God of War, a top lane Gladiator with high health and extremely high hand damage.

On the contrary, Đăng scrolled through his familiar Assassin champions, and stopped at an icon that made the whole computer room roar. He chose "Lumina" - a Support champion who specializes in buffing health and creating shields, has the lowest basic damage in the game, and has no escape skills.

"Are... are you insulting me?" Hùng roared, pounding the keyboard. "Use a Support to go solo with the Fighter?"

"I'm teaching you the first lesson: Personal skills and minion control are more important than general quality," Đăng replied coldly. "Let's get started."

The match began. Unlike the humorous solo match with Bảo Châu, this time Đăng played extremely seriously, even though he only held a weak Support champion.

Hùng, with his aggressive nature, right from level 1 rushed forward to chop Đăng. But Đăng moved extremely gracefully. He kept perfect distance (spacing), took advantage of Lumina's long range to continuously poke Hùng's health with normal attacks, and at the same time accurately finished off soldiers without missing a single one.

Every time Hùng wanted to rush in, Đăng retreated. When Hùng turned to fight the soldiers, Đăng stepped forward to lick the blood. The psychological manipulation game made Hùng mad. He couldn't farm soldiers for fear of being stabbed, but he also couldn't get close to Đăng.

By the 5th minute, Hùng only had 15 minion count and his health had dropped to an alarming level. Meanwhile, Đăng had 45 minion count, earned an outstanding amount of gold, and was able to buy basic equipment.

"Die!" Hùng ran out of patience, used Flash and rushed straight at Đăng, unleashing all his skills.

But Đăng accurately calculated the amount of damage. He turned on Lumina's shield, used the slow skill to hit Hùng, then leisurely ran and hit (hit and run). Hùng was kited to death before he could touch Lumina's shirt.

The screen displays the words "FIRST BLOOD". This time it was a truly convincing first victory, demonstrating a superior level of personal skills and tactical thinking.

Hùng sat stunned, his large hands hanging off the keyboard. He had just been beaten to a pulp by a Support champion right at his forte. The arrogance of a "boy 1 champ" (someone who only knows how to play one champion) has been completely crushed.

"Do you understand the problem?" Đăng took off his headphones, his voice contained no gloating, only the severity of a teacher. "If you can master the distance and pace of minion farming, you can use a Support to kill a blind Fighter. Fight E-sports with your head, not your fists. Now... let's create a 1vs0 room. Practice Last-hit. Immediately!"

"Clear...clear, Captain!" Hùng replied softly, his overbearing attitude had completely disappeared. The other members also followed suit, no one dared to say a word. They have truly admired the skills and thinking of the guy sitting in the Mid lane position.

Bảo Châu stood in the corner of the room, watching the whole team diligently practice typing, the corners of her lips could not hide a happy smile. The once worn-out team was truly changing.

Châu gingerly walked closer to Đăng, gently placed a box of strawberry milk and a triangle of bread on his table. She knew Đăng had skipped dinner to come here to train them all.

Đăng glanced at the cheesy pink strawberry milk box, frowned slightly, but in the end still reached out and inserted the straw.

"Don't think that bribing food will make me forgive you guys. Next week we have a practice match (Scrim) with Le Hong Phong school. Prepare yourself to eat," Đăng muttered, his eyes still not leaving the screen.

Châu burst out giggling. Their captain had a foul mouth, but perhaps, his heart was not as cold as it appeared. The plan to revive HD E-sports, under the leadership of Shadow, had truly begun.

At ten o'clock at night, when Châu returned home, she could still hear the sound of tapping keys in her head. She opened the strategy notebook and wrote down every detail Đăng had just taught: how to time last-hits, how to choose counter champions instead of familiar champions, how a Gunner needed to keep his distance to survive. Less than a week ago, she couldn't even tell the Fighter champion from the Mage champion. Now those terms began to make sense, like a new language she was slowly learning by heart.

Her phone lit up. A text message from Đăng, short and curt as always: "Bring a stopwatch tomorrow. I need to accurately measure each child's reaction time."

Châu looked at the message and smiled softly in the darkness. A week ago, that lazy deskmate didn't even lift his head when she called his name. Now, even through just a few dry lines, she could feel the fire of enthusiasm silently burning again in the person who was once known as the genius of the school E-sports village.