I can defeat you with just one hand!

Again? Haven’t you figured out your own level yet?

“Again? Forget it! Your reflexes are good, but you don’t understand the game at all. You think you’re invincible just because you’re fast. Against average players, sure, you’re a handful, but against someone like me, I could beat you with one hand.” Morning Breeze wasn’t planning to keep humiliating her; he’d just wanted her to help clean his villa for a month.

“Chen Morning Breeze, you were clearly using both hands just now! And you say you can beat Sister Ye Xin with one hand!” blurted out the somewhat simple-minded Lin Shanshan. She didn’t realize that by saying this, she made Ye Xin feel even more inadequate. In Ye Xin’s world, even Zhang Xinting, who was a professional player, could be beaten by her, so she thought this game wasn’t much different. What she didn’t know was that hunter versus hunter was all about reflexes and skill. Besides, Zhang Xinting hadn’t had as many abilities as she did at the time.

“Let me give you a fair defeat! This time I’ll use one hand—do you want me to use my right or left?” Morning Breeze was truly starting to look down on her.

Ye Xin knew a bit—most player abilities rely on the main hand, the berserker is the same, though they also have an off-hand skill called Gale Strike.

Seeing Ye Xin silent, Morning Breeze felt it was boring. “Do you know how to handle a warrior? Think it’s easy? You think you can just keep eight meters distance and kite endlessly? If you’re still that naïve, don’t waste my precious game time.”

Naïve!

Ye Xin had been treasured since childhood, never called naïve by anyone. Now, this random guy who’d shown up at her villa had called her that. But she had no grounds to refute him; her usual confidence had already been shattered. Unless she could defeat this man, she truly had nothing to say.

“How do you think a hunter should fight a warrior?” Zhang Xinting, also a hunter, was intrigued. She and Cheng Shuang wanted someone to push Ye Xin, to make her focus on the game instead of treating it as just a pastime.

“You’re asking me? Figure it out yourself!” Morning Breeze was a warrior—why would he teach them how to counter his own class?

The duel began again. Morning Breeze charged at Ye Xin’s leopard pet, used Bloodthirst but didn’t trigger the free Gale Strike, so followed up with a Heroic Strike. The leopard managed to escape.

Eight meters!

Both the leopard and Ye Xin were within eight meters of Morning Breeze, but not in the same spot. Clearly, Ye Xin was forcing Morning Breeze to choose a target. He sidestepped Ye Xin’s Concussive Shot, leapt back, then immediately intercepted, stunning her pet. He dodged Ye Xin’s arrows, then quickly counterattacked.

The leopard, already weakened by Bloodthirst and Heroic Strike, had only half its health left. Morning Breeze, attacking with only his right hand, had reduced damage, but once his two skills were off cooldown, he killed the leopard. In the process, he took three arrows from Ye Xin, totaling just over 300 damage—no big deal for him.

Stealth!

Skill failed!

Morning Breeze kept dodging Ye Xin’s attacks, waiting for Charge and Intercept to come off cooldown before going on the offensive. Without those two abilities, catching up to Ye Xin would be hard, since hunters have a Cheetah Stance that boosts speed by 30%, and can lay traps—he’d be in trouble if he just ran in. But as soon as Charge was ready and he moved in, Ye Xin vanished.

Interesting.

She anticipated his Charge and instantly activated Stealth. Not many players could pull off such timing, even pros. For a pro to predict his Charge and make him miss was rare.

Jump back!

Skill failed!

After Morning Breeze’s failed attack, Ye Xin fired two arrows at him, then leapt back to put thirty meters between them. Obviously, Ye Xin knew Intercept’s range was eight to twenty-five meters; Charge, eight to forty. With Charge on cooldown, Morning Breeze could only use Intercept. As he tried, Ye Xin leapt out of range, making him miss again.

-144

“How about this?” Morning Breeze flipped and landed beside Ye Xin, dealing 144 damage, then instantly turned to use Bloodthirst.

Free Gale Strike triggered! But Morning Breeze had promised to fight one-handed, so he just kept up the relentless assault.

Frost Trap!

The hunter’s trap finally triggered, slowing Morning Breeze by 70% for twelve seconds. He’d expected to step into her trap, but wasn’t worried—he’d already slashed the tendons behind Ye Xin’s right knee.

Hamstring: Slow effect. Cripples the enemy, reducing movement speed by 50% for fifteen seconds. Cooldown: none. Rage cost: 10.

Hamstring isn’t effective just by hitting the enemy—it has to specifically cut the legs, and the more precise the strike, the greater the slow and duration. Usually it lands with 70% completion, slowing for 30% over six seconds. But Morning Breeze’s strike to the back of Ye Xin’s knee—difficult and precise—achieved 100% completion.

100% completion! Enemy movement speed reduced by 70% for fifteen seconds. At 100%, it triggers a hidden effect: an extra 20% slow.

Now both of them moved at a turtle’s pace—Morning Breeze was used to this, but Ye Xin wasn’t. It was her first time being slowed by 70%, and she wasn’t used to moving in slow motion. With a hunter slowed and in melee range of a warrior, the outcome was clear.

She fell. There was no doubt—Morning Breeze killed Ye Xin.

“Told you I could beat you with one hand!” Morning Breeze hadn’t relied on his superior abilities to crush Ye Xin; if he’d gone all out, she wouldn’t have lasted this long. And if he’d truly tried, Charge and Intercept wouldn’t have missed so easily.

Cheng Shuang was dumbfounded. She hadn’t expected Morning Breeze to be so strong. Usually, a short-legged warrior versus a hunter meant disaster for the warrior, but with Morning Breeze, it was the opposite. Even against Ye Xin’s amazing reflexes, Morning Breeze could execute his skills with over 90% completion—definitely a top-tier player. If Cheng Shuang had faced Ye Xin, she’d never have caught her and would have been kited to death.

Lin Shanshan’s eyes widened. She’d never imagined her idol Ye Xin could be defeated so easily by Morning Breeze. Now she understood his true strength—he was definitely no ordinary player, quite possibly a professional.

Having spent time among professional players, Zhang Xinting knew that only the gods among pros could reach Morning Breeze’s level. She even suspected only the legendary psychic players could defeat him. How could someone like that appear in a small studio like this?

“Again!” Ye Xin could feel she was close to beating Morning Breeze; if not for that Hamstring, the outcome would have been different.

“Lady, give it a rest! Didn’t you notice I was going easy on you?” Morning Breeze looked at Ye Xin, sensing she still didn’t understand. “You don’t realize the gap between us!”

“How big is the gap, really?” Ye Xin genuinely didn’t know; she hadn’t played this game long.

“For starters, you don’t realize how important your pet is. You let me kill it right at the start. How much advantage did you gain from sacrificing it? From this alone, you have no sense of professional awareness.”

He paused, then continued: “Normally, the warriors you encounter only have Charge, right? High-level warriors have Heroic Leap and Intercept as well, though Intercept is rare. As a hunter, how do you handle those three skills?”

“Didn’t I just handle Charge and Intercept?” Ye Xin managed to reply.

“That’s because I treated you as a novice. If I treated you as a pro, you’d have no time to react. For skills like Charge, you should use Stealth or Feign Death at the start, and have your pet enter stealth as well, so I’d be forced to walk over. Keeping the eight-meter distance isn’t so easy—no one can kite me to death at eight meters. You can’t rely on kiting alone.”

“Then what should I do?” Ye Xin was growing more interested in the game, determined to defeat the man before her. If she could win Olympic gold in shooting, she believed besting Morning Breeze was only a matter of time.

“First, memorize the ranges and cooldowns for my Charge, Intercept, and Heroic Leap. Also, track when the enemy uses their skills. For example, once I use Charge, it’s unavailable for the next twenty seconds—you can jump to over twenty-five meters and kite me, and I can’t reach you with Intercept since its range is eight to twenty-five meters. If you make me miss skills like you did just now, that’s pure luck. At that point, I’d have to use Heroic Leap to get close. You could then use a Frost Trap to freeze me, open a twenty-five meter gap, and continue kiting. If you can’t manage all that, you can use your pet to block me.”

“If I can stop you from getting close with those methods, what would you do to counter?” Ye Xin was quick; she knew that if Morning Breeze could tell her these techniques, he must have a solution.

“Of course! You think I don’t have Stealth? I also have my Divine Descent ultimate, which ignores immobilizing and slowing effects. Catching up to you then would be easy!” Morning Breeze certainly had ways to close the gap—otherwise, short-legged warriors would be doomed.

“Also, if you get a chance to enter the Trial Tower, you can use talent points to learn new skills. I think you should choose the Hidden Dragon skill, which reduces your Jump Back cooldown by ten seconds and makes escaping easier.” Players get one talent point every ten levels, and can choose skills in the Trial Tower. The tower offers a variety of class skills for you to select, as long as you have enough points. The hunter’s Hidden Dragon passive only costs one point, while the warrior’s Wind of Renewal costs three—few choose it. Without extra points, you get only five by level fifty, and spending three on a single skill leaves few for others.

The Trial Tower isn’t open to everyone—you need your class mentor’s approval or to complete certain tasks for a chance to enter. Without that, you can only enter at level fifty, when you get one chance after reaching max level. Morning Breeze had one chance from changing classes before, but hadn’t entered yet due to lacking enough talent points.