Hu Die Lan
Chapter 436 Mastermind
He put the phone back on the table, casually dragged the recording back to the beginning, and then began to ponder.
Chen Yehui and the others exchanged glances, saying nothing. After a while, the door opened, and they turned to see He Ming and Wang Ze from the team walking in. They nodded to Chen Yehui as a greeting, then gathered around.
"Take a look at this match," Liu Hao said to the two who had just entered.
"Is it Steamed Bun Invasion's?" He Ming asked hastily.
"Watch first," Liu Hao said, restarting the recording of the match.
The room was silent. Liu Hao didn't wear headphones himself, so there was only video and no sound during the match. Everyone watched quietly. At a certain point, He Ming and Wang Ze, who had just come in, had subtle changes in their expressions. Chen Yehui and the others knew they couldn't understand much from watching the match, so they weren't as focused as the three professional players, occasionally glancing at the expressions of the three. They quickly caught this change. In the match, the Swordsman suddenly revealed a flaw and was killed by the Launcher in one go.
The match ended. Liu Hao turned his head, first exchanged glances with He Ming and Wang Ze, then looked at the other three and asked, "Who played this match?"
"Me…" the Swordsman player responded.
"Do you know where the problem was?" Liu Hao asked.
Everyone easily understood what he meant because there was a clear break in the middle of this match. At the beginning, it looked like the two were evenly matched, in a battle of attrition. Who knew there would be such a turn of events in the middle? The problem, of course, referred to that turning point.
However, the Swordsman player who played the match shook his head, indicating he wasn't sure.
"The initial balance was just an illusion, and the seemingly wimpy attrition style isn't that either. It's a kenzhi (牽制) style. When he finds an opportunity, he goes for a one-hit kill. If you still don't understand, you know Huang Shaotian, right? He's a representative figure of the kenzhi style. Of course, it's a bit of an overstatement to compare him to Huang Shaotian. Huang Shaotian's skills are much more sophisticated," Liu Hao said.
The player was a Swordsman, so even if he didn't like Huang Shaotian, he wouldn't be unfamiliar with him. Any Swordsman who wanted to become a master would refer to and learn from Huang Shaotian. When he heard Liu Hao mention this god-level player, he immediately understood. A player of his level wasn't completely clueless about tactics and styles. He couldn't figure it out himself, but when a master pointed it out, he could see some things by following the pattern.
"Which match is the Launcher's other one?" Liu Hao asked.
The other match was naturally the one against the Sharpshooter. That player quickly came forward, looked at the recordings, and pointed out the file. Liu Hao opened it, and everyone watched quietly again. Chen Yehui and the others continued to pay attention to the expressions of the three, as they couldn't understand much information from the match, but they could glean a lot from the changes in their expressions.
This match was even faster than the last one. After watching it quickly, the three professional players exchanged glances again. This time, Liu Hao didn't rush to speak but looked at Wang Ze, seemingly waiting for him to speak first.
Wang Ze himself was a Sharpshooter player, and after seeing Liu Hao's signal, he immediately said, "Compared to the last match, the skills in this one seem to be even more sophisticated."
Chen Yehui and the others didn't dare to interrupt, listening intently.
"In the last match, the grasp of opportunities mainly seemed to be waiting, but this match looks more like he's actively creating them," Wang Ze said.
"It also has to do with the opponent," He Ming added. "In the last match, the opponent was a Swordsman who mainly focused on close combat. The Launcher has the advantage of attack range, so if they maintain distance and wear each other down, the Swordsman will definitely be more anxious. Waiting is a good choice. But this match is against a Sharpshooter. Although no profession can compare to a Launcher in terms of range, the Sharpshooter is only slightly inferior. That small difference is hard to control. So if he relies on waiting again, he'll be putting himself in a passive position. Therefore, this time, in order to take the initiative, he adopted a strategy of creating his own opportunities. It's a very correct decision."
"That's right," Liu Hao nodded after listening to the two's analysis. "But the problem is, there's a clear difference in strength between the two sides. Do you think he needs to be so meticulous and formulate different strategies based on different professions?"
"This… perhaps it's just out of caution, or a certain attitude," He Ming said.
Liu Hao didn't speak, nor did he select another match recording. Instead, he went online and quickly searched for the match between Steamed Bun Invasion and Cloud Grasping Dragon back then.
"In this match, Ye Qiu was the dai da (代打, account booster) for Steamed Bun Invasion," Chen Yehui said.
"Yes, you mentioned it. But, in fact, no one can be sure that Ye Qiu was actually sitting behind the computer manipulating Steamed Bun Invasion, right?" Liu Hao said.
"That's…" Chen Yehui nodded.
This match proceeded even faster. After a few exchanges, Cloud Grasping Dragon was killed. However, after hearing about the kenzhi tactics Liu Hao had mentioned earlier, everyone immediately felt that this match was also a classic example of kenzhi tactics. It's just that opportunities appeared too often in this match. Steamed Bun Invasion didn't drag it out to wait, nor did he create opportunities through kenzhi. He simply captured the battle opportunities that flashed in the first few exchanges.
"How does the skill in this match compare to those two matches?" Liu Hao said.
"More precise. Every step can be said to have reached the pinnacle of skill." The professional players had already discussed the Launcher's skills in this match.
"Ye Qiu is no stranger to the Launcher's kenzhi style. Don't forget, Su Mucheng was trained by him. Su Mucheng's style is also a typical kenzhi style. However, she focuses more on teamwork and cooperation. She's usually not the leader on the field, so this style isn't as obvious when she's playing solo," Liu Hao said.
"You mean, these matches are all Ye Qiu?" He Ming said.
"No… I mean, this style of Launcher is the type represented by Ye Qiu," Liu Hao said. "There must be another operator behind Steamed Bun Invasion besides Ye Qiu. Have you forgotten that day?"
That day, of course, referred to when the three professional players confidently went to the Heavenly Domain to chase and kill, only to be scared off by their duo and even suspect that Su Mucheng was the one operating the Launcher.
"Now there are many operators behind this Steamed Bun Invasion," Liu Hao said. "The true owner of this character, who has always been in the Jia Dynasty guild and participated in activities at the All-Stars, is just an ordinary player."
"Yes, this is the boss of Happy, we've found out." The two people said busily. Steamed Bun Invasion was Chen Guo's account, which wasn't difficult to find out. The two hadn't even gone to Happy Internet Cafe; they had heard Ma Chenyi mention it at Hongtai.
"Of course, we don't need to talk about the main person. We want to know who else is the dai da besides him. Of course, this match may be Ye Qiu…" Liu Hao pointed to the video on the screen and said, "But there may be others."
"Yes… we saw those people too!" The two people who were investigating immediately said.
"What kind of people?" Liu Hao asked.
The two were speechless. It was impossible to describe because they were just very ordinary, very ordinary people with no special appearance or aura.
"Let's watch the others first!" Liu Hao felt that this question wasn't that important. He closed the online video and randomly opened a match recording.
This match was between an Assassin and a Swordsman, a brutal duel with every move hitting flesh and every blade drawing blood. However, after ten seconds, the three professional players had already changed their minds because after ten seconds, it wasn't a duel but a massacre.
"This is… the shameless style, right!" He Ming's tone was uncertain, and there was also some hatred.
Of course, everyone present knew the shameless style. It was often adopted by high-defense, high-HP classes. The logic was simple: I have high defense and a lot of health, so I'll trade one hit for two hits and just kill you this way. Obviously, an Elementalist like He Ming, whose life was thinner than paper, wasn't suitable for the shameless style at all, and he also hated this style.
He Ming's uncertainty at this time was only because the character fighting so desperately on the screen was an Assassin. Assassins were also low-defense, low-HP classes, so the shameless style was definitely not suitable for this class.
"How many matches is this for you guys?" Liu Hao turned back and asked the two.
"My second match. Oh no, for me, it's the third match, but the first match was against an ordinary person in that internet cafe. I recorded it, but it's worthless, so I didn't upload it," the Swordsman player said.
"This match, I don't think we can say it's the shameless style. It's just that he was sure of his strength, so he relied on his strength to resist and simply and crudely won this match," Liu Hao said.
"Does this person have another match?" Liu Hao basically understood. They said there were four people, so that meant these two guys each played a match, for a total of eight matches.
The Sharpshooter player pointed out his match. Everyone opened it and watched. It was really quite brutal! The Assassin completely ignored the Sharpshooter's attacks and went straight in despite the damage. He was absolutely confident that he could defeat his opponent as long as he got close. He didn't worry about the Sharpshooter's close-range combat ability, nor did he worry about the opponent's ability to escape.
"This person's true strength… is hard to gauge. There's no opponent of equal strength to use as a reference…" Liu Hao said.
"Let's just hope the other two aren't playing like this…" He Ming said.