Chapter 1599: Extremely Far versus Extremely Close

 Nomyummi  Editor: Nomyummi

Lu Boyuan had once given an amazing performance in the Season 8 finals between Samsara and Blue Rain. He had been a huge reason for Samsara’s first championship trophy. After that year’s finals, Lu Boyuan’s fame soared. In the All-Star voting the next year, he placed thirteenth, replacing the previous All-Star Grappler player, Li Yihui, a former Tiny Herb and current Team 301 player. From then on, Lu Boyuan stood at the peak of his class. As for Li Yihui, he had once been an All-Star as well, but because of the transfer, he quickly disappeared from everyone’s sights. The title of number one Grappler became uncontested.

This season, Lu Boyuan had successfully entered the All-Stars again. Although it wasn’t high, only 22nd, anyone who made it into All-Stars was one of Glory’s most popular players. Moreover, Samsara had invited another top player, Sun Xiang, into the team, along with a legendary character like One Autumn Leaf to accompany him. As a result, there was a lot of competition within Samsara’s fan base for who got the votes. Lu Boyuan squeezing into the ranks of the 24 All-Stars wasn’t easy. If he was less skilled or less popular, the other stars on Samsara might have taken away the spotlight from him.

Zhou Zekai, Sun Xiang, Jiang Botao. These three Samsara players placed above tenth on the All-Star rankings. Their 4th All-Star, the 22nd Lu Boyuan, was put as Samsara’s third player in the group arena.

The crowd cheered and clapped, showing how popular he was. The players on Samsara were making their existence known one after the other to let everyone understand that they weren’t just a one-man team.

The match began amidst the applause. Because of Su Mucheng’s perfect victory in the last fight, both sides were at full health. Dancing Rain had used up a bit of mana, but it was more than enough to last another 1v1 fight. There was practically no difference in their conditions going into the fight. On the other hand, their classes were as different as they could be.

This main difference was their range.

Launchers had the longest range out of any class. As for Grapplers? Even among the Fighter classes, Grapplers had 2/3 the attack range of Strikers, who specialized in close combat. Not only did they need to land a hit on their opponent, they needed to grab their opponent. In order to deal damage to their opponents, they needed to be at point blank range.

The atmosphere in the stadium was quite good. On the other hand, the commentators, Pan Lin and Li Yibo, were in a not so good mood. Their faces had been slapped too hard. They still talked about the battle between the longest range and shortest range classes, cleverly shifting the topic to a discussion between classes rather than a discussion between players. That way, there would be no way for their faces to get slapped. It was a safe plan.

Soon, the two characters met at the center of the cave.

Su Mucheng didn’t hesitate. Dancing Rain immediately fired at him. Lu Boyuan didn’t hesitate either and dodged.

Facing heavy gunfire from a Launcher, it would be hard for him to force his way through. However, Lu Boyuan didn’t plan on doing that. After locating Dancing Rain, he began to survey his surroundings. When Dancing Rain started shooting at him, he had already planned out a route in his head. His Chaotic Cloudy Mountain quickly hid behind a stalagmite.

Stalactites and stalagmites were scattered around Dripstone Cave. In the previous fight, even though Jiang Botao was finished off by Su Mucheng with one combo, he had showed a deep understanding of the map. If not for Su Mucheng’s “Electronic Eye”, it was hard to say how that fight would have turned out.

Jiang Botao had utilized the map well, and Lu Boyuan wouldn’t be any less familiar with it than him. However, compared to Jiang Botao, he knew about Su Mucheng’s “Electronic Eye”, so he was naturally on guard against it. “Electronic Eye” was a small robot about the size of a ping pong ball. If it just floated in the air the entire time, it wouldn’t be too hard to notice, but in the last match, Su Mucheng had the Electronic Eye drop down to a certain spot, making it much harder to see.

The broadcast also knew that Su Mucheng had this skill up her sleeve, so they kept a close watch by displaying her point of view as the main viewpoint. Before, they had only given a smaller screen in the corner. As a result, they hadn’t noticed the Electronic Eye interface until the replay.

This time, the broadcast was mindful of it. However, Su Mucheng hadn’t used Electronic Eye, even when Lu Boyuan hid behind the stalagmite. She didn’t hurry and send out the Electronic Eye to scout around. Instead, Dancing Rain moved to the side to see if she could find Chaotic Cloudy Mountain from a different angle.

With a turn, she was able to see half of Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s body. Dancing Rain immediately started shooting. Lu Boyuan had been paying attention to her though. He shrunk back and retreated. Dancing Rain continued to fire as she pulled away. Chaotic Cloudy Mountain had retreated quickly, but Dancing Rain had promptly followed after him. Soon, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain circled halfway around the stalagmite. On the other hand, for Dancing Rain to circle around that far, she would have to cover much more distance. If the two decided to spin around this stalagmite, Dancing Rain’s radius would be ten times that of Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s. How was she going to keep up?

As a result, Dancing Rain stopped. She aimed away from Chaotic Cloudy Mountain and fired.

The flames from the explosion burst forth in front of the stalagmite. Su Mucheng wanted to use the AoE from Launcher attacks to hit him. Even though her attacks wouldn’t directly hit Chaotic Cloudy Mountain, they would still deal some damage. Unless Lu Boyuan wanted to just sit there and take damage, he would certainly expose himself sooner or later.

Su Mucheng’s plan was quite good, but it had been within Lu Boyuan’s expectations. Chaotic Cloudy Mountain didn’t stick close to the stalagmite. He was using it more as a way to block Su Mucheng’s line of sight rather than to block her attacks.

How much of Su Mucheng’s vision was blocked depended on the distance between them. Lu Boyuan had a good grasp of this dead angle for Dancing Rain’s previous position. He was using the dead angle to hide and move. Amidst the explosions, Chaotic Cloudy Mountain had used the dead angle to get behind a different stalagmite.

However, the viewers noticed that Su Mucheng had finally used Electronic Eye. She didn’t use it to scout ahead but to circle around that stalagmite. That stalagmite blocking Su Mucheng’s vision was also blocking Lu Boyuan’s vision. She took advantage of that fact and quietly advanced as she attacked.

Soon, the Electronic Eye got behind the stalagmite. Chaotic Cloudy Mountain had already left. The Electronic Eye circled around two times, locating the next stalagmite that Chaotic Cloudy Mountain was hiding behind.

Dancing Rain continued to move silently, but her movements had clearly quickened. This time, when she sent out the Electronic Eye, she didn’t have it scout ahead. Instead, she had it take a different path than Dancing Rain to get a more comprehensive view of her surroundings. As a result, the stalagmites no longer blocked her vision. Su Mucheng had a complete grasp of Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s location.

Lu Boyuan once again tried to use Dancing Rain’s dead angle to get to another stalagmite. A crosshair lit up at his feet. By the time he noticed it, it was too late. A Heat-Seeking Missile crashed to the ground, and the ensuing mushroom cloud engulfed him. Dancing Rain came out from behind the stalagmite, her cannon aimed at the mushroom cloud, ready to shoot. Suddenly, a formless power grasped onto her, and she was sucked into the mushroom cloud.

Cloud Grasping Fist!

Su Mucheng had figured out what it was.

The mushroom cloud dispersed. Qi was swirling around the palms of Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s palms. From his stance, wasn’t that the Qi Master’s “Cloud Grasping Fist”?

In the previous fight, Jiang Botao’s plans had been ruined by Su Mucheng’s Electronic Eye. In this fight, Su Mucheng’s plans were ruined by Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s Cloud Grasping Fist.

The crowd erupted into cheers. Samsara’s fans had been worried for Lu Boyuan because they thought that Su Mucheng had complete control over the situation. They hadn’t expected a sudden reversal. How did he do it?

The stadium’s electronic screen did a replay, showing what Lu Boyuan had done.

When the Heat-Seeking Missile descended, Lu Boyuan had no intentions of dodging. He immediately activated Reinforced Iron Bones. Even though this Heat-Seeking Missile dealt heavy damage to him, because of his Super Armor, he wasn’t sent flying away. Chaotic Cloudy Mountain used the explosion as cover for his Cloud Grasping Fist. No matter how many eyes Su Mucheng had, she couldn’t have known about Chaotic Cloudy Mounatain’s counterattack. Lu Boyuan had predicted that Su Mucheng’s Dancing Rain would expose herself in order to make follow-up attacks. Sure enough, Dancing Rain came out from hiding. He immediately grabbed her, and in the blink of an eye, Dancing Rain was pulled in front of Chaotic Cloudy Mountain. The distance between the two sides was now zero!

Spinning Throw!

Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s movements were incomparably fluid. After pulling Dancing Rain in front of him, he grasped onto her firmly, twisted his body, and threw her into the air. At the same time, he also jumped into the air upside down. His legs wrapped around Dancing Rain’s neck.

Aerial Twist!

Chaotic Cloudy Mountain flipped around, sending Dancing Rain crashing to the ground. The Grapplers’ relentless tossing had just begun.