The King’s Moment - Volume 1 Chapter 4

He Yu was sitting outside the student convenience store, sipping his soda while waiting for He Liang, when he suddenly noticed a large group of people emerging from the bustling shaded path and heading straight toward him. With the convenience store right behind him, he didn’t think much of it, but to his surprise, the group stopped directly in front of him, and everyone was staring at him.

“Is there something you need?” He Yu asked in confusion as he stood up, glancing around. The smiling girl in front of him seemed familiar, but before he could figure out why, a boy next to her spoke up.

“Hey, could you do us a favor?” It was Zhang Chenghao who spoke. Since he was the one who picked He Yu, he naturally took the lead in negotiating.

“What kind of favor?” He Yu asked, puzzled. He was just a new student who hadn’t even met his classmates or roommates yet. He couldn’t imagine what help he could offer.

“Do you know the mobile game Honor of Kings?” Zhang Chenghao asked.

He Yu froze. Honor of Kings? He didn’t just know it—he had been following the professional scene closely for five years, never missing a match, even watching the pre-season scrimmages, exhibition games, and charity matches. Honor of Kings was both familiar and foreign to him. It was familiar because he had followed the professional games for so long, but foreign because he had never actually played it himself. 

It wasn’t that he wasn’t curious; it was just that his parents had always been worried about He Liang’s involvement in esports. He couldn’t imagine how they would feel if they saw another child in the family becoming equally obsessed with the game. He didn’t want to cause them any more anxiety, so for five years, he focused on supporting He Liang and watching the KPL, but he never played the game himself.

Now, being asked this question out of the blue, He Yu didn’t know how to respond. After a brief hesitation, he finally nodded.

“Here’s the thing—we’re about to play a 3v3 match, but we’re short one person. Would you help us out?” Zhang Chenghao asked.

“Short one person?” He Yu looked around, even more confused. There were so many people here—more than enough to set up several 5v5 matches—so why did they need to come all the way over to him to make up the numbers?

“To be precise, we’re the ones short of a person. These people are all with them, so we had to find someone else to fill in,” explained the familiar-looking girl. The boy with glasses standing next to her nodded at He Yu when he looked over.

Zhang Chenghao, seeing this as a perfect opportunity to humiliate Gao Ge and vent his frustrations, quickly jumped in to persuade He Yu. “Come on, help us out! A match only takes a few minutes; it won’t take up too much of your time. That is, if you’re not in a hurry.”

“I… don’t have anything urgent,” He Yu said, feeling tempted. After five years of following something so closely, how could he not be curious or eager to try it himself? He had thought about trying the game many times but had always managed to hold back. Now, though, he wasn’t the one seeking it out—someone needed his help.

Why not give it a try?

The voice that had been suppressed for so long shouted in his heart. This situation, where he was being invited to help, awakened a long-buried desire in him. Almost against his own will, He Yu nodded.

“Thank you,” Gao Ge said, her smile bright as she turned to Zhang Chenghao. “Let’s get started.”

Something about Gao Ge’s demeanor made Zhang Chenghao uneasy, but before he could think about it further, He Yu spoke up. “Wait, I need to download the game first.”

Now it was Zhang Chenghao’s turn to grin. A person who didn’t even have Honor of Kings installed on their phone was clearly a novice—just what he had hoped for. Suddenly, everything about He Yu seemed pleasing to him, and his tone became much more amicable. “No rush; we’ll wait for you. Or we can lend you a phone with the game already installed.”

He Yu considered it and realized that borrowing a phone would be the cleanest solution. He could try the game once, return the phone, and go about his business. He wasn’t sure if he’d have the willpower to delete the game if he downloaded it to his own phone. So, he nodded to Zhang Chenghao. “Sure, I’ll borrow a phone.”

“Xiao Ji, let him use your account. You’ve got a good phone, and your heroes and inscriptions are pretty complete,” Zhang Chenghao said generously, turning to one of his companions.

“Okay,” Xiao Ji agreed, immediately handing his phone over to He Yu. He Yu accepted the phone, thanked him, and logged into the game, then looked at Gao Ge and Zhou Mo.

When Zhou Mo heard that He Yu didn’t even have the game installed on his phone, his resolve only strengthened. Gao Ge, however, began to doubt whether she had mistaken him for someone else.

She hadn’t known He Yu for long, but she had always been keen on identifying people who played Honor of Kings. She clearly remembered that this boy had been the one giving advice to the clueless Pan Ruiming in the Student Affairs Office. Though she had only overheard a few sentences, they had shown his deep familiarity with Honor of Kings. Plus, he was the younger brother of former KPL pro player He Liang.

So maybe he had just changed phones or had some other reason for not having the game installed? Gao Ge thought, unwilling to believe that the person who had guided Pan Ruiming so confidently wouldn’t know how to play Honor of Kings. She nodded to He Yu, and on the other side, Zhang Chenghao had already impatiently set up the 3v3 room and sent out the invitations.

Everyone joined the room. He Yu noticed that the three opponents all had the same team prefix in their usernames: “Dynasty.Chenghao,” “Dynasty.Mutong,” and “Dynasty.Kaihuai.”

As for his two teammates, their usernames had the prefix “Wave7”: “Wave7.GaoGe” and “Wave7.ZhouMo.” But since He Yu was using a borrowed account, his username also had the “Dynasty” prefix, reading “Dynasty.XiaoJi.”

“Are we ready to start?” He Yu asked, feeling an unusual excitement that made his voice tremble slightly. After five years of watching and waiting, he finally had a chance to play. Even though this wasn’t the familiar Summoner’s Rift but the less popular Battle of Changping, it was enough for him. The thought of summoning his own hero, fighting under the turrets, in the lanes, and across the jungle—scenes he had only seen in his dreams—was now about to become reality. Whether it was on Summoner’s Rift or in the Changping mode didn’t matter.

“No rush. Let’s discuss strategy first,” Gao Ge said, then looked at Zhang Chenghao and his team. “Shouldn’t we keep some distance?”

“Sure,” Zhang Chenghao agreed. He didn’t want his team’s communication and coordination to be overheard, so he quickly moved away with his two teammates, ensuring a distance where neither side could eavesdrop on the other.

“What hero do you want to use?” Gao Ge asked He Yu.

Li Bai!

He Yu almost blurted it out. That was his brother He Liang’s best hero, whose swordplay in Summoner’s Rift had always been He Yu’s greatest admiration. If he had only one chance to play the game, Li Bai would be his top choice. 

But just as the words were about to leave his mouth, he held back. Li Bai was the hero he wanted to play, but the team’s needs should take precedence based on his teammates’ and opponents’ choices. Hero selection should be about winning, not personal preference.

“What do you need me to play?” He Yu asked, suppressing his desire to pick Li Bai.

“I’ll use Zhuge Liang, and Zhou Mo will use Su Lie. What do you think would work best?” Gao Ge asked.

“With damage and crowd control covered, for the Battle of Changping, how about I go with Huang Zhong?” He Yu suggested.

“Oh? You know this mode well?” Gao Ge was surprised. Familiarity with this map wasn’t about skill level but simply about it being less popular, with few players bothering to study it.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve studied it, but I know a bit,” He Yu replied. The KPL professional scene didn’t feature the Changping mode, but He Yu’s attention to professional play wasn’t limited to official matches. He had seen the Changping Battle in exhibition matches, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with the map, having picked up some knowledge from those non-competitive games.

“So, what’s the key to this map?” Gao Ge asked. Zhou Mo looked surprised. Considering team composition and understanding the Changping map, it was clear that He Yu wasn’t a novice. The fact that his phone didn’t have Honor of Kings installed must have been due to some other reason. Curious, Zhou Mo also focused on the conversation, eager to learn the key to this map.

“The jungle economy,” He Yu said.

“Isn’t that always the case?” Zhou Mo couldn’t help but comment. He had expected some secret he didn’t know, but the jungle economy? That was just common sense. In the 5v5 Summoner’s Rift map, the jungle was always a focus—this was no different.

“Be more specific,” Gao Ge said patiently, pushing for more detail. Zhou Mo was a bit taken aback by Gao Ge’s special attitude toward this newcomer.

“Unlike Summoner’s Rift, the Changping Battle only has one lane, but the jungle is divided into two sections, upper and lower. There are a lot of monsters—nine in the upper jungle, and fifteen in the lower jungle, including the Tyrant. They respawn faster too. Some special monsters respawn between 1 to 2 minutes, but there are sixteen regular monsters that respawn every 35 seconds, which is half the time it takes for regular jungle monsters to respawn in Summoner’s Rift,” He Yu explained.

“I see,” Gao Ge and Zhou Mo, both Grandmaster-ranked players, immediately grasped the significance of the jungle economy on this map after hearing such a clear explanation. No further explanation was needed. Once the three were ready, they signaled Zhang Chenghao’s team, who had been eager to start and immediately launched the match. Each player selected their heroes based on the plan they had discussed, and soon the loading screen appeared, showing the opponents had chosen Yang Jian, Luna, and Sun Shangxiang.

“Luna, huh…” He Yu sighed as he saw their lineup.

“Is there a problem?” Gao Ge asked.

“This map doesn’t have a blue buff,” He Yu replied, feeling a bit sorry for their opponents.

“Looks like the Dynasty team members are quite unfamiliar with the Changping Battle!” Gao Ge remarked. The blue buff, officially known as the Power of the Blue Sentinel, is obtained by killing the Blue Sentinel in the jungle. It reduces cooldown times by 20% and provides 2% mana regeneration per second for 70 seconds. 

Many heroes are heavily reliant on the blue buff, and Zhang Chenghao’s choice of Luna was a prime example. Without the blue buff, Luna’s skill chaining and mana management would be severely hampered. On this map, it was as if the blue buff had been banned altogether.

The match quickly loaded, and the heroes appeared in their respective spawn points. For He Yu, this was the first time he faced the game as a Summoner, and the excitement that had been building inside him suddenly calmed down.

“Leave the lane to us; you focus on the upper jungle,” Gao Ge instructed.

“Got it,” He Yu nodded, somewhat clumsily controlling his Huang Zhong, taking his first steps in Honor of Kings.