Chapter Thirty-Nine: You Make Me Look Like a Fool

"Beautiful! A preemptive E prediction; Mouse is caught."

"Poppy Q-flashes to slow him down, and Condi secures First Blood smoothly."

"Condi is just too incredible!" Guan Zeyuan raved with unrestrained enthusiasm.

A wave of thunderous cheers erupted in the arena, and the previously silent "60E" fans were suddenly revitalized, waving flags and shouting at the top of their lungs.

"With First Blood in the bag, the early tempo is set. Wow, Condi always manages to pull off the unexpected—if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!" Hao Kai exclaimed, visibly excited.

In the EDG player booth, Mouse ran his fingers through his hair, feeling utterly speechless. The Elise hadn't touched his river crab, hadn't farmed his Raptors, and had come to gank him even without Flash—it was pure "fasting-style" jungling. Could he please learn something from SoFM’s spirit? Sigh, every time Condi was mentioned from now on, he would be dragged out and metaphorically whipped. Your highlights are my nightmares.

"Zhaozhiming, come help! Didn't you say you'd protect me?"

"Stay calm, I'm already on my way."

"Avoidless," who had just returned to base and headed to the top jungle, casually cleared the river crab that Condi had left behind. He then placed a dummy ward in the enemy's top tri-bush and retreated to place a Control Ward in his own top river bush, ensuring his defensive vision was perfectly positioned. Only then did he exhale in relief.

Who could have imagined that in just four minutes, the enemy jungler had already made two major plays, while he had merely gone "window shopping" for two river crabs? It made him look so incompetent. If the mid-laner hadn't miraculously survived, Avoidless could already imagine the toxic atmosphere of fans roasting him in the chat. Condi was out to ruin his career. He absolutely could not let that guy keep making plays. If he kept this up, he would never be able to hold his own in the scene.

"I’ve set up the vision; watch yourself back there," Avoidless instructed carefully before heading back to the blue buff area to farm.

Mouse nodded. Seeing Avoidless leave after placing the Control Ward for him, he finally felt a bit more at ease and wiped the thin beads of sweat from his forehead. "Only died once, it’s fine. As long as I don't die a second time, it'll be okay."

Teleporting back to lane, Mouse cleared the slow-pushing wave and assessed the situation. Poppy must have recalled. "If I just go and place a dummy ward in the bush near their tower, I’ll be able to spot the Elise no matter which direction she comes from." Keeping the wave stable and not pushing, he thought, Mom won't have to worry about me getting ganked anymore.

Confident in his plan, Mouse moved into the middle lane bush and cast his Q to probe the enemy bush. He intended to place his ward if it was empty. But to his horror, the moment he cast his ability, a red sweeper ward appeared at his feet.

Mouse froze. Immediately after, a white spiderweb hit his face, sealing his lips. Poppy emerged from the bush, activated her W, and delivered a loving wall-slam. The Yordle dwarf and the spider widow hungrily pinned the noble councilman against the wall and ravaged him. Jayce was filled with grief and indignation.

[WE, 957 killed EDG, Mouse.]

Guan Zeyuan watched, exclaiming, "That’s it, it’s blown wide open. Condi helped push the wave in; Jayce misses out on all that farm, and dying a second time is even more painful."

"Condi is so cunning this game. He went back to finish his Krugs and immediately circled around the tower to counter-gank. Mouse was actually on guard, but he truly couldn't have imagined the opponent would be this ruthless," Hao Kai remarked, feeling a sense of empathy for the situation.

Seeing the kill notification on the screen, Avoidless, who was busy farming Gromp, suddenly felt his jungle camp lose its flavor. *How can I save you, my Jayce? Forget it, I should save myself first.*

Avoidless could already visualize the fans’ scripts for after the match: "Elise ganks mid, Kha'Zix is farming... Elise ganks top, Kha'Zix is farming... Elise ganks top again, Kha'Zix is still farming... When the game ends, the 'Miracle Walker' Avoidless is still farming!"

"Bro, play it safe," Avoidless pleaded, near tears.

"I want to play it safe, but I can't!" Mouse, completely demoralized, felt his soul leaving his body. He just wanted to curl up in a corner and curse the enemy jungler to never have offspring. "I said we shouldn't pick Jayce, but you insisted. It would have been so much better to just pick a Maokai or Nautilus."

Poppy had one kill and one assist—she’d be coming back with Plated Steelcaps. There was no way he could pressure the lane now. Besides, the moment he tried, the Elise would show up. It was truly unplayable. Opening the scoreboard and seeing that the Elise had returned with Boots of Mobility, Mouse’s mental state completely shattered. They were really trying to put him in the grave.

The live chat was already a landslide of abuse:
[If you love playing Jayce, can you at least play half as well as Condi's Elise?]
[With ganks like these, how dare a mediocre player pick Jayce?]
[Kill EDG, I’m a WE fan from now on.]
[It's fine, Jayce is done, the bottom lane EZ will carry.]
[Haha, in the late game, even if 957 lets the EZ stand there and auto-attack, he won't be able to scratch him.]
[EDG without their former glory is worse than dogs.]
[Jungle diff.]

[FF at 15, EDG, don't waste the audience's time.]

"Don't worry. Just play as we planned; I'll step up in the late game," Lin Ruo, who was idling in the bush near the second-tier tower, finally took a moment to comfort his two teammates.

The Elise with Boots of Mobility arrived at the bottom lane at lightning speed and joined Ryze to invade the red buff. Lin Ruo was forced to retreat to the second-tier tower with Tian Ye and use his ultimate to clear the wave. Lin Ruo remained calm throughout; this was simply what an Ezreal had to endure in the early game.

After helping Scout secure the blue buff, Avoidless finally arrived in the bottom jungle to drive them out, working with Zyra to re-establish vision. Lin Ruo returned to the lane to farm, and the Elise came to harass him once more. Having crippled the top lane, Condi intended to shift his focus back to the bottom, but after two and a half minutes, he still hadn't found a single opening. Ezreal’s mobility was too high; he hid in the distance, clearing waves with Q, giving absolutely no openings, and Condi eventually had to leave in frustration.

Once the Elise left, EDG began to push the lane. Thresh was completely ineffective in the bottom lane matchup. Ezreal’s E allowed him to easily dodge the hooks, and Zyra was his absolute nemesis; every time he got close, she would poke him, and the forest of plants around her made landing a hook impossible. A frustrated Zero could only pace back and forth in the bush, repeatedly swatting at the newly sprouted plants. He couldn't leave the lane; if he did, his AD carry would be in trouble.

The opposing Zyra pushed the wave too quickly. If a champion like Caitlyn didn't get a good start in the early game, she would fall into a prolonged period of weakness in the mid-game. Transitioning to late-game power was too time-consuming and difficult.

"Can we fight?" Seeing his early-game champion's advantage slipping away, Mystic wanted to force a play to salvage the situation. Even forcing a summoner spell so the Elise could gank would be enough.

"I'll try to find an opening," Zero said, but he knew deep down that an opportunity was hard to come by. The best-case scenario was to wait—wait for Ryze to finish his laning phase against Cassiopeia and set up a powerful four-man dive.

As he continued to hover at the edge of the bush, Zero didn't know why—did Zyra think there was no vision in the bush? She was actually walking closer and closer to him. Swinging his hook, Zero took a step to the side and flicked his hook at an unexpected angle. If Zyra failed to react, they would surely get something out of this.

"He's taken the bait," Tian Ye thought in the EDG voice comms. He had expected this all along. He instantly cast his E, *Grasping Roots*, blocking the hook while simultaneously trapping the immobile Thresh. Twisted vines and countless thorns erupted from the ground, knocking Thresh into the air.

Lin Ruo jumped in, and combined with Zyra's explosive damage, they brought Thresh to near-death in an instant.

"It's a trap," Zero finally realized, but it was too late—the opponents had been baiting him the whole time.