Once a decision had been made, big sister Ling handled the matters swiftly and decisively. They would wait until Qiao Jing Jing's filming wrapped up in Hengdian and then the team would immediately return to Shanghai and start the special training for King of Glory.
She prepared very thoroughly: a new online account, a dedicated mobile phone for the exhibition game, and even a coach who was her husband A Guo, had been found.
Big sister Ling and her husband were childhood sweethearts who got married. Initially, A Guo also had a pretty good job, but with big sister Ling flying around and not able to take care of the children, A Guo had no choice but to sacrifice his career and return to take care of the family. He used the extra time to play game, ranking pretty high and was the strongest King (highest rank in the game).
"Once bitten twice shy, so the less people who know about it this time, the better. Thus I got A Guo to be your coach. If you're at his rank, you should not look too bad in the exhibition game."
While talking, big sister Ling pushed open the door of a small meeting room in the studio, where A Guo was already waiting inside. When he saw them coming in, he quickly stood up and greeted them.
"In the future, practice here. Xiao Zhu, you also follow to see and learn. Later, after Jing Jing knows a little, call Dan Dan along, since she also plays this game. Plus me, the five of us are just right to form a team to train together."
After big sister Ling finished the briefing, she went to get busy with her work. A Guo began to teach Qiao Jing Jing and Xiao Zhu, but before that, he set their mind at ease.
"This game is actually not difficult, just concentrate on mastering a few heroes in this one month time. You can definitely do well, otherwise other players would have all run away."
Qiao Jing jing listened very excitedly.
"I'll tell you some basic stuff first." He opened the game interface, "Do you know about casual match and ranked match? Casual match is where everyone plays casually, but if you want to have placing, you have to go through ranked match, ascending one star at a time."
Of course she knew this, so Qiao Jing Jing nodded.
"For casual match, there are 1v1, 3v3, 5v5 modes, but most are playing 5v5. For ranked match, only 5v5 is available."
"For diamond rank and below, the ranked and casual match are about the same, randomly and blindly picking a hero, but you certainly cannot be the same as your teammates. For placing above diamond rank, the game would be in Ban and Pick Phase. The difference is that at the beginning of Ban and Pick Phase, both sides can ban two heroes. Then both sides take turns to pick heroes, but you cannot pick the one chosen by the other side. Later, when you participate in the exhibition match, it will certainly also be like this. In the professional tournament, the ban is three heroes, as for your exhibition match, I reckon it is the same."
A Guo drank a mouthful of water, "But no matter how the game mode changes, it is also using this Antaris Battlefield map."
A Guo clicked open the training camp, to let both of them look at the map.
"Jing Jing, you've played before. Look at this map, dividing into top, middle (mid) and bottom (bot) lanes. The common playing method is the mage (a hero whose damage is based on their abilities rather than attacking) taking the middle lane, the marksman (a ranged hero focused around dealing damage with their physical attacks at a distance) with the support (a hero focused on healing or preventing damage rather than dealing it) taking the bottom lane, and warrior (a hero focused on dealing damage with physical melee attacks) or tank (a hero with high health or defense whose focus is absorbing damage in place of their teammates) taking the top lane. Jungling is slaying the monsters at the jungle area." Source: Samurai Gamers
After all, Qiao Jing Jing was the ambassador of this game, so she actually understood a lot of things. But she did not interrupt A Guo and continued to listen to him.
"A Ling told me about the intention of the gaming company. They are going to randomly pick five people from the players who signed up, plus Jing Jing, a total of six people. They will be divided into two teams, so that each side has three people. Then each team can freely choose two professional players to form a five-person team to compete."
"No matter how strong the players are, they also cannot be stronger than the professional players. Hence the two professional players will definitely want to take C (Carry – a hero who has the ability to take over games) positions, so Jing Jing only needs to practice as support or tank."
Qiao Jing Jing raised her hand to ask: "I understand about the C position, is there also a C position in the game?"
A Guo: "There are usually five positions in the game, jungler, solo mid, marksman, side lanes (top or bottom lanes), support. The first three positions can be considered C position."
Qiao Jing Jing who is used to the C position: "Can't I be in the C position?"
A Guo did not expect his own student wanted to become a C position hog before even learning how to play the game well. Hard to explain in a few words, he glanced at Qiao Jing Jing: "Do you want to win?"
Qiao Jing Jing nodded.
A Guo said in a very authoritative manner: "Then you be the support."
A Guo continued to introduce the commonly used heroes, standard positioning, heroes abilities, and so on. He concluded, "Among the many heroes, support is relatively simpler and is less likely to make mistakes that will end up being blamed. Jing Jing, you practice using Zhang Fei (military general under Liu Bei, his blood brother in Romance of the Three Kingdoms – tank/support) first. This hero's abilities are quite simple, mainly using his 2nd skill to shield teammates and his 3rd ultimate skill to blow away the enemy.
Qiao Jing Jing nodded confidently.
All the heroes had already been bought in the account. Qiao Jing Jing held the new mobile phone and entered into the game. She selected Zhang Fei and followed behind A Guo's marksman.
A Guo nodded: "Yes, Zhang Fei mainly follows behind the marksman."
He explained to her while playing: "The 2nd skill gives me extra shield, put all that skill on me. . . correct . . ."
Both of them smoothly advanced to level four very quickly. In King of Glory, the hero will have ultimate ability at level 4.
"Can you see a red line above your head? When this line is full, Zhang Fei's ultimate ability can be used." While A Guo was pursuing and attacking the other team's low-HP (Hit Points is the amount of health a hero has) solo top player, he was also teaching Qiao Jing Jing.
"Oh, oh." Qiao Jing Jing replied, and then clicked once.
Suddenly, on the screen, Zhang Fei expanded and became larger and with a loud roar, blew away the opposing team's solo top player. Some of the enemy remaining who still had a bit of HP left seemed stunned for a moment, and then dashed back to their tower.
A Guo was also stunned: "He was almost dying, why did you blow him away?"
Qiao Jing Jing: "... I only clicked to take a look."
A Guo: "... don't use the ultimate ability so easily."
After a while.
A Guo: "Use ultimate ability to blow him away at this time, when I am low on HP later, don't blow him ...... to my side ......"
When he was uttering the last three words, A Guo was already killed.
After three games like this, A Guo wiped his sweat, "This hero is probably not suitable for you. We'll change and try another hero. How about Sun Bin (military strategist during Warring States period – support) who is also commonly used?"
Another three games later. . .
"Try Bull Demon (Niu Mo is the master of the "Mountain of Fire" in Journey to the West – tank/support), the blood is thicker!"
After two days of hard work in a row and trying out all the commonly used support heroes, Qiao Jing Jing was still alright but A Guo felt lacking in both qi and blood (two basic bodily fluids of Chinese medicine, i.e. he is exhausted).
"At least Cai Wenji and Zhuang Zhou (an influential Chinese philosopher during the Warring States period – tank/support). . .are okay, la." A Guo was able, though barely, to force himself to keep his spirits up. "Although they're not commonly used in high-end games, the players that will be randomly selected may not necessarily all be king-level players. Let's do this. Rest for a day tomorrow, while I go back and think through again on how best to teach you."
"I also will not be able to practice tomorrow as I've to shoot an ad." Big sister Ling pushed open the door and came in, "Let's stop here for today. Jing Jing, go back and sleep earlier."
"I'll practice with my own mobile phone at night because I feel that this new mobile phone does not feel right."
Big sister Ling was surprised: "Don't let people record it again, which will be troublesome."
Qiao Jing Jing had played the game for two days and did not master the heroes well, but instead she was very familiar with minor details of the game. She glanced disdainfully at her: "Firstly, the game can be set to prohibit the viewing of the match. Secondly, can't I just use an alternate account?"
Before nine o'clock at night, Qiao Jing Jing had already washed the face, rinsed the mouth and climbed into bed. She sat on the bed and started to set up a new alternate account.
Then use what name to register?
Qiao Jing Jing thought for a moment, found a QQ account that she seldom used, logged in first, and then, linking the account, went into the game.
Her username was Hand Can Pick Stars, which she tried to use in the game but as expected, it had really been registered by someone else. Hence she chose a similar id— Hand Can Pick Cotton.
Strangely, no one had registered that id, so she got it without a hitch.
Because it was a new account, she has to endure a long training session for newbie, which she also cannot skip over. Qiao Jing Jing patiently clicked for a long time, before entering normal interface.
When she was just about to enter into "battle mode", her fingers suddenly halted in mid-air.
Her gaze fell on the friends list on the far left side of the screen. Surprisingly, there was already an avatar. This seemingly familiar avatar was an endless starry sky. She hesitated, clicked open and saw the id of that person' —
– Yu Tu Dao Yao (Yu Tu – Jade Rabbit is a homophone of Yu Tu's name. It is a pet rabbit of the moon goddess Chang'e.)
Yu Tu. . .
All of a sudden, Qiao Jing Jing only then remembered why she initially set up this alternate account, which was for Yu Tu.
However, currently Qiao Jing Jing has no mood to reflect on a long ago young girl's thoughts. She quickly clicked enter to do battle to begin her practice. In battle mode, there is actual match with real players, and also man-machine practice with the computer. Being alone, she did not have the courage to go into actual match with others, so she chose man-machine mode and began to practice on Cai Wenji (a poet and musician during Eastern Han dynasty – support/mage). After the match finished, she exited. Suddenly a game invite notification popped up.
Jade Rabbit Pounds Medicine (from QQ friend)
Eternal Diamond Ⅲ (Rank)
Invite you to form a team. Casual Match 5V5 Grand Battle (Antaris Battlefield)
[Accept/Reject]
Yu Tu. . .
To her surprise, he invited her?
Because Qiao Jing Jing was stumped for words, she raised her eyebrows and clicked to go in.
As a result, she entered a room and was greeted by a series of question marks.
School Is Starting I'm So Panicked (Yao Kai Xuele Hao Huang):Yu Tu, who did you invite?
Jade Rabbit Pounds Medicine: I clicked wrongly, from QQ.
School Is Starting I'm So Panicked: Beginner? Don't even have rank?
In King of Glory, one must have six heroes before one can start ranked match and only then the rank will be displayed, the lowest rank is Bronze 3. Qiao Jing Jing has just started to play with the alternate account, of course, no rank.
Qiao Jing Jing held the mobile phone and did not say a word, but feeling very pleased. She thought after ten years Yu Tu can still give her trouble, so it was justifiable for her to drag him down in the game later.
Slime Package (Shi Lai Mu Bao): Open.
Dragon King 2001 (Long Wang 2001): Open.
The battle began.
Qiao Jing Jing chose Cai Wenji. These two days she had been taught a lot of general knowledge, so she understood that Cai Wenji must follow after the marksman.
It just so happened that Yu Tu was a marksman.
Consequently Cai Wenji, who had a Lolita-style voice, hobbled along behind Jade Rabbit Pounds Medicine. Very laid-back, very frustratingly useless, if she had a skill then she would press the skill, no skill then be killed for a glorious cause, no strategy at all, no awareness, and also no positioning.
Qiao Jing Jing felt that Yu Tu will surely be dragged down by her and get killed.
Therefore even though she died seven or eight times, when she conquered the crystal at the enemy's core base in only ten minutes for the very first time in her life, Qiao Jing Jing was like dreaming a fantasy, and her mood was so hyped she was like a whipping wind. This immense happiness washed away her rationality and reserved self-restraint, as she quickly typed in four words before the end of the match —Please take me along!
Added ten thousand exclamation marks behind!