Original and most updated translations are from volare. Please don"t read elsewhere and stop supporting theft.

TL: Zhao

Editing: Krisaia

Li Yiming arrived at his second tower in the middle lane, choosing to a.s.sess the situation from afar first rather than jumping into the fray right away with his new equipment. He could not afford to make another mistake, especially having died twice already.

He observed as Chen Quan relentlessly attacked the enemy minions at every given opportunity. As soon as the monkey would try to attack a friendly minion, Chen Quan would reposition himself while shooting one of his venomous darts and retreat to his tower right away. He would repeat this process over and over, causing great annoyance to the monkey.

"He"s playing around… Not bad, I suppose all these years spent dealing with dead people did help."

Noticing Li Yiming"s arrival, Chen Quan signaled discreetly toward a bush on the left side. Li Yiming immediately understood the message and showed a broad smile.

"Come on, I can barely wait any longer…" Li Yiming crouched down and dove into the bush, hoping to use its cover until he could arrive behind his target.

Li Yiming crossed his two weapons in front of him and moved furtively, without making any noise. As the clas.h.i.+ng of metal became more and more audible, he knew that he

Dong!

Li Yiming was suddenly hit in the forehead with a golden staff, disorienting him.

As Li Yiming struggled to recover from the blow, another staff came down striking him.

"Really? There are two of them in the bush?" Li Yiming"s confidence was obliterated by the successive blows he had just suffered. He reached for the magical hourgla.s.s he had bought from the shop, and he transformed into a golden statue, granting him invulnerability for a few seconds.

"I messed up…" Li Yiming thought as he looked at the two monkeys through the golden barrier which surrounded him, his thoughts racing for a solution to get himself out of this predicament.

A ray of light suddenly came from the side, illuminating the area around which the monkeys stood. The two monkeys" movement visibly slowed down as they became enveloped by a layer of shadow.

"Light Binding!" A crescent of light flew by and enveloped the two monkeys, preventing them from moving despite their struggles.

"Final Spark!" A thin line of red light appeared, turning into a giant white cylinder a moment later and causing the rings of light which bound the monkeys to explode violently.

As the light finally subsided, the two monkeys had suffered heavy damage and quickly started their retreat toward their tower. Li Yiming came out of his golden state just in time to attack his two enemies, encouraged by the knowledge that Shao Xian was there to support him.

Poof! Poof!

Yet again, he had only managed to hit the clones.

"You"re not getting away!" Chen Quan appeared out of nowhere and put down another blue lantern. He shot a silver dart out of his bamboo stick and struck one of the monkeys down. It writhed painfully as the poison quickly spread to its entire body.

Li Yiming let out a long cry and leaped at the other monkey, who had been revealed by the lantern, decapitating its head cleanly.

"Chen Quan has slain an enemy. a.s.sist awarded to Li Yiming and Shao Xian."

"Li Yiming has slain an enemy. a.s.sist awarded to Chen Quan and Shao Xian."

"There"s one more!" Li Yiming said with a sinister tone, as blood ran down his sword, emitting a dark crimson glow.

"You can"t run!" Chen Quan said with excitement as he ran off to chase the monkey.

The three monkeys had planned to ambush Li Yiming together. However, two of them were taken care of. The last monkey was not foolish enough to fight a lost battle and instead attempted to retreat.

Boom!

A giant mushroom exploded under the feet of the monkey, incapacitating it. The monkey glanced back at Chen Quan in anger.

Li Yiming"s eyes lit up at the opportunity. He rushed forward, brandis.h.i.+ng his sword. At the same time, Chen Quan shot out a silver dart which hit in the monkey right in the forehead, causing another puff of black smoke to appear.

"Light Binding!" Another crescent of light flew by and immobilized the last monkey.

Li Yiming put his two swords to his chest and started spinning around

"Li Yiming has slain an enemy. a.s.sist awarded to Chen Quan and Shao Xian."

The robotic voice was heard once again as Li Yiming looked at the headless corpse on the ground with blood still dripping from his sword.

"Go for the tower!" Shao Xian yelled at Li Yiming and turned her magical attacks towards the wooden dolls.

Li Yiming jumped high into the air and aimed at the tower, smas.h.i.+ng against it like a meteor. The tower shook violently and a shower of light fell down from the crystal the giant stone statue held.

As the friendly minions continued to walk forward and turned into dust and cinder, Li Yiming and his two friends used the opportunity to continue damaging the tower.

"Li Yiming has destroyed a tower."

The giant stone statue soon crumbled under Li Yiming"s dual sword a.s.sault.

"Thanks for the timely help…" Li Yiming said as he looked at Shao Xian. The three proceeded to walk back down the lane, returning to their tower while Chen Quan placed down two more mushrooms.

"This guy... I was going to tell him that the monkeys were waiting in the bush…" Chen Quan wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

"The two monkeys I was fighting suddenly disappeared, so I thought that they might have come over here." Shao Xian looked at Li Yiming in admiration, having only witnessed the part where he fought valiantly.

"Great combo. Exactly what I expected from a challenger level player." Li Yiming had finally recovered his confidence.

"Thank you." Shao Xian smiled. "So, what character are you playing as?"

"Me?" Li Yiming looked at. He looked at his armor. "Uh… Garen!"

"Garen?" Shao Xian looked at Li Yiming"s attire bemusedly, not understanding the choices Li Yiming had made at all. She knew right away that Li Yiming had geared up for the wrong enemy, choosing an armor that would not protect him. For a moment, it did not occur to her that Li Yiming purchased items that he should not have been able to afford.

"Let"s go join up with the others and take down another tower." Shao Xian had played the game enough to understand that questioning her teammates" judgment and infighting were the least productive things to do.

"Let"s go!" Li Yiming rushed head first into the river.

In the tower of the bottom lane, Yu Runkai and Fang Shui"er looked ahead with severity.

"There"s something wrong here…" Yu Runkai took out a bottle of red potion and gulped it down before taking a long sip of wine from his barrel.

"Something"s changed. It started when Li Yiming got his first kill." Fang Shui"er shot another volley of ice arrows and said while scrutinizing the monkeys.

Their enemies remained the same in appearance. However, instead of being playful and arrogant, they became cold and machine-like. Even looking at their red pupils made Fang Shui"er feel deeply uneasy.

"Why would they become stronger now after we"ve slain them? We already did that before, but nothing changed then. Do they somehow have better equipment now?" Yu Runkai picked up his barrel again after his shoulder wound recovered.

The monkeys did not just simply look stronger, their strength levels had definitely increased. Until now, Yu Runkai had been able to endure some blows from the monkeys, but he had to use his flash to dodge the latest attack in fear of losing his life.

A crescent of light suddenly came out of the bush and immobilized the two monkeys. Fang Shui"er reacted almost instantly, shooting out a giant crystal arrow from her bow just like before.

Yu Runkai roared in anger and threw his wine barrel towards the two monkeys, while Li Yiming began his trademark spin attack, both leading the attack.

Two roars were heard as the two monkeys suddenly jumped up, splitting into three, and then nine, until there were eighteen clones.

Crack!

Just as the monkeys leaped up, a lightning bolt split the sky, illuminating the mountains and the valleys. However, instead of slowly fading away, the lightning strike had turned everything it shone upon discolored and dull. The gra.s.s in the valley quickly withered as fissures appeared in the earth and the sky turned crimson.

"This…" Shao Xian looked at the monkeys in terror. "Doom bots?"

I thought this was a five versus five game, how?" Li Yiming wondered after being beaten back by the monkeys. When he looked at his enemies again, he saw Yu Runkai being torn to shreds by the tornadoes of spinning golden staffs.

"Run!" As soon as Yu Runkai died, Shao Xian shrieked in terror.

Three more roars were heard as the three monkeys that Li Yiming had beaten earlier appeared behind the gang. They used the same technique and suddenly created up to fifty clones. The entire valley became a monkey circus as they spun around.

"Yu Runkai has been slain by the enemy!"

"Chen Quan has been slain by the enemy!"

"Fang Shui"er has been slain by the enemy!"

"Shao Xian has been slain by the enemy!"

"Li Yiming has been slain by the enemy!"

"Ace!"

The robotic announcer"s voice seemed to be unusually cold and cruel this time around.

As the monkey clones achieved their purpose, they turned into puffs of smoke. The remaining five monkeys looked around at the corpses which littered the floor.

"I"m waiting for you!" One of the monkeys said before leading the others into the river.

"The dragon has been slain. The enemy has acquired a permanent boost to their strength."

Li Yiming and his friends" corpses vanished slowly as the dragon emitted its last roar.