“The doctor said before that this injury has a high recurrence rate. It’s already a blessing that he lasted four years,” Yang An said, a flicker of pain crossing his face. No one understood the difficulty of leaving the competitive scene more than him, as he himself had once been a professional player.

“What does he want to do?”

“He plans to retire after the national competition!”

Yang An immediately cursed, clenching his fists tightly, then gritted his teeth and said, “This time, the global championship must belong to LPL, it must belong to ST!” He had originally planned to give the players a long break after the Fall competition since it was close to the New Year, but now, he dismissed that idea. “Forget a break! Everyone, get back to training!”

Zhang Qinan patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Let’s focus on getting through today’s tough match first.”

—

“Ah, ST’s jungler made a mistake, his ultimate was misused, and the dragon was stolen,” the commentator said. The audience immediately reacted with boos.

Mu Wan nervously grabbed Kuang Xingran’s hand. Her expression grew more serious. She wasn’t mistaken—Kuang Ye’s injury had definitely flared up. He had never made a mistake like that before.

ST lost the game.

Commentator A: “It’s really unfortunate. ST was ahead in the first half of the game, but WQ’s jungler managed to steal the dragon and even killed ST’s jungler, causing the game to turn around and WQ to take the lead.”

Commentator B: “Was there an equipment malfunction? With the skill level of professional players, there’s no way he should have missed such a big target like the dragon.”

In the game, the closer an enemy is to a skill, the more damage they take. If Kuang Ye hadn’t misused his ultimate, the dragon should have been killed.

The HW professional league is a best-of-five series. Now, ST and WQ are tied 1-1. As the third match began, the camera swept across the player preparation area. When the audience saw a newcomer sitting in the jungler position for ST, they immediately erupted into chaos.

“Damn, is ST crazy? This is the final, and they’re putting a rookie in for the jungler?”

“Ahh, what are they doing? The coach is insane, even if Kuang Ye made a mistake in the last game, they shouldn’t have pulled him out!”

“ST’s idiots! They’ve forgotten who brought all their trophies. Now they’re throwing away Kuang Ye to support a rookie!”

“Withdraw, withdraw!”

The audience loudly shouted for O Lan to leave the competition. Although O Lan was wearing headphones, he could still hear the noise from the crowd. His nerves, already on edge, were now even more strained. Not just him—ST’s regular members were also in shock.

At this moment, the internal voice channel was still active, and Shen Lele directly called the coach.

“Coach, it was just a small mistake from the captain. Does it really require him to be banned from the match?”

Yang An replied, “What the hell do you know? The opponent has figured out all our strategies, so swapping players to catch them off guard was the plan. Didn’t you practice this before? Just play well.”

Shen Lele: “This is too risky.”

O Lan had performed well during team training, and he had been promoted from the second team to the first team substitute. Because he played the jungler position, his counterpart in the main team was Kuang Ye. Everyone had joked before that the company was wasting money finding a substitute for Kuang Ye, who could still play for a hundred years. Who would have thought that the substitute would be used so soon? The jungler and captain positions were both extremely important in the team. Changing players recklessly in the finals was indeed a risky move.

Yang An didn’t answer him but said, “Shixi, you take over the command this round.”

Jiang Shixi: “Okay!”

Shen Lele, being younger and carefree, didn’t doubt Yang An’s decision. However, the others exchanged glances and could see the worry in each other’s eyes. In normal circumstances, it would be impossible to swap players in such a crucial match, unless—there was no choice but to do so!

—

In the rest area, the physiotherapist was applying ice treatment to Kuang Ye’s right hand. It was shaking uncontrollably, and large beads of sweat were dripping from his forehead.

In the third match, ST lost. O Lan had come in midway, and taking over for Kuang Ye put an enormous amount of pressure on him. He was maliciously targeted by the opponent, his mentality was unstable, and he made frequent mistakes, leading to a situation where it was effectively four versus five. The jungler fell behind in development, output was halved, and defeat was inevitable.

ST’s fans became even more agitated.

“Fuck, refund my money! What kind of garbage play is this?!”

“Is the new jungler for ST the sponsor’s son? How could they let him play when he’s so bad? Fuck!”

“Swap players, swap players!”

Kuang Xingran, influenced by the fans’ words, also thought her brother was being unfairly treated. She rolled up her sleeves and was about to rush backstage.

Mu Wan quickly stopped her, her expression more serious than ever.

“Xingran, don’t disturb him at this time!”

She knew about Kuang Ye’s hand injury, and she also understood the feelings Yang An and Zhang Qinan had for ST. If Kuang Ye wasn’t on the field, there must be a reason for it.

—

The fourth match began. In the preparation area, O Lan was still in the jungler position for ST. The audience was filled with boos, and many excited fans started rushing towards the backstage.

Suddenly, Mu Wan grabbed a loudspeaker from a fan behind her who was shouting for a player change, and shouted toward the preparation area.

“ST must win!”
“ST O Lan, you can do it!”

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted. The situation was already set in stone, and at this point, attacking the rookie player wouldn’t benefit ST at all. They were fans of Kuang Ye, but more importantly, they were fans of ST.

In an instant, all the ST fans in the stadium started chanting loudly.

“ST must win!”
“ST O Lan, you can do it!”

O Lan, stunned, felt his tense heart gradually begin to relax. He realized that the voice in the loudspeaker was Mu Wan’s. Yes. Mu Wan was here to watch today’s match. He was lucky to have her help to even be here, and he had promised to repay her with a victory.

Taking a deep breath, he told himself: Don’t be nervous, just like in training. His strength had already been recognized by everyone in ST, and he wasn’t worse than anyone else. He could win!