Powerful Investment Chapter 5: Admiration and Hate

Chapter 5: Admiration and Hate

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

At this time, the entire MOE team was still in the game, unaware of what was happening on Weibo.

The match started off smoothly in their favor. Ji Jin’s chosen hero, Bai Yike, was relatively weak early on, and the first time coordinating with the team was likely not very smooth, so he obediently went to the wilderness to farm economy.

In this game, He Jia — also known as Best — played a strong marksman, so support Cilantro came early to help Ji Jin clear jungle monsters.

The opposing jungle was the early-game powerful Jue Ying, a burst damage hero. Since the enemy streamer was a skilled player, he confidently brought support to contest the wilderness and delay the other side’s development.

However, since MOE was a professional team, Cilantro kept placing wards in the river for vision. The moment the enemy arrived, they were already exposed.

Bai Yike had four skills in total:

• The first skill allowed him to dash in a specified direction, marking enemies on the path and dealing damage. 
• The second skill enhanced his basic attack and reduced the cooldown of the first skill. 
• The third skill was a backward dash that couldn’t be targeted. 
• The fourth skill passed through marked enemies in his attack range consecutively, was untargetable, and dealt percentage damage.

Though the skills were well-designed, because the numbers were low, he was known as the “scraping king” — his skills felt like scraping rather than hitting, unable to kill enemies in one combo.

But it all depended on whose hands he was in.

At this moment, Ji Jin had quickly cleared a small jungle camp and reached level two. With clear enemy vision, Ji Jin started with his first skill, charging at the enemy jungle and support, then used the second skill to enhance his attack. Support Cilantro flanked from behind, landing a slow that buried the enemy in the wilderness.

The enemy support didn’t even manage to use a single skill before being taken down.

“Nice!” Cilantro couldn’t help shouting.

Although MOE was a professional team, their performance wasn’t always satisfying due to the team’s downturn and less strict training. Sometimes winning high-level games didn’t feel particularly thrilling.

Especially now, with more and more skilled streamers in Legend Reappearance, many of their skill levels weren’t much lower than bottom-tier pros. This team fight had been exciting and smooth, so it was hard not to get a bit emotional.

The favorable start meant the match ended after about forty minutes.

They immediately started another game. The five team members didn’t check any news, unaware that the internet was already exploding.

Ji Jin’s comeback news quickly spread throughout the Legend Reappearance e-sports circle through live streams and Weibo. Though Ji Jin had left three years ago, the hype hadn’t lessened. Soon, fans came to watch.

Because it was summer break, a bunch of idle professional players also came to spectate.

Among them was… Lu Yao.

Actually, Lu Yao wasn’t that free; the idle ones were the newly crowned champions.

Especially Yu Huanhuan, who loved browsing Weibo gossip and was the first to see the trending topic.

“Damn! God Ji is being bullied!” Yu Huanhuan slammed her desk holding her phone. “Five people gang up on God Ji!”

It was still daily training time, and with summer break approaching, things were relatively relaxed. Coaches and captains often turned a blind eye to players slacking off.

But Yu Huanhuan was the only one bold enough to act like this.

When she caught Lu Yao’s warning glare, she immediately realized her mistake.

“Lu… Captain Lu,” Yu Huanhuan hurriedly put down her phone.

Lu Yao glanced at her, then stepped in front of her and snatched her phone away. Despite Yu Huanhuan’s reputation as the league’s beauty, Lu Yao showed no mercy as Yu Huanhuan grimaced in frustration.

Pouting, Yu Huanhuan suddenly remembered that the game allowed spectating, so she quickly launched the game to watch.

Lu Yao had confiscated Yu Huanhuan’s phone but logged into Weibo himself to check.

The hashtag #GodJiComebackLegendEnds had already reached the top of the trending list. Opening the topic, the top post was the latest spectator replay.

As if to ride the hot topic, MOE’s second match was against five hardcore IKW fans.

Legend Reappearance’s matchmaking system tended to match players of similar rank easily. For very high ranks, where there were fewer players, it was even possible to “design” matches to meet specific teams.

These five likely saw the trending topic and “designed” the match to face MOE’s team. Seeing the all-IKW related IDs, it was clear they had come to cause trouble.

When Ji Jin suddenly retired for no reason, the IKW team lost its core overnight. Although Lu Yao from the youth camp stepped up, the year Ji Jin left, IKW nearly missed the playoffs.

Fans could see IKW’s effort through matches and understood various technical issues, willing to wait for a new IKW to grow. But that didn’t mean they understood Ji Jin’s sudden retirement.

The more they once admired Ji Jin, the more they now hated him. Liking someone was difficult, but hating someone was far too easy. Especially when the god they worshipped abandoned them and left, only to return after their darkest days and the rise of a new god — now standing on the enemy’s side.

That was something they simply couldn’t accept.

When the game loaded, Ji Jin already sensed something was off on the opposing side. The rest of MOE also felt it.

“Cilantro, stick with God Ji and watch river vision closely,” Cheng Pian was the first to speak after entering the game. “Little Monster, keep an eye on mid-jungle coordination.”

Ji Jin heard Cheng Pian’s voice in his earpiece and glanced at him. Cheng Pian was only seventeen this year but had surprisingly sharp game sense.

This game, the enemy picked highly mobile heroes, good for quick rotations and support. With their all-IKW IDs, it was very likely they were going to focus on hunting Ji Jin.

Ji Jin let out a low chuckle. He had picked Bai Yike again—an old favorite he hadn’t played for a long time—so it was time to get some practice.

Sure enough, the five enemies didn’t bother with farming and immediately came together into the wilderness to kill Ji Jin. Although Cheng Pian had already warned them, no one expected all five to come at once.

Support stuck closely, the mage rushed over to assist, but Cheng Pian’s top lane was too far away to arrive in time. Ji Jin was outnumbered three versus five, at a huge disadvantage, and in the end barely managed a three-for-two trade.

The game had just started, so respawn times were short. In the blink of an eye, all three of them had revived.

“You don’t have to follow me, just play your own game. I’ll handle them,” Ji Jin said with a light laugh, confident and calm, as if the five enemies were already in his grasp.

Through Cheng Pian’s earpiece, the first thing he heard was Ji Jin’s breathy chuckle. The tone flashed by quickly, full of disdain—but it didn’t feel like contempt for the enemies.

Ji Jin’s voice was extremely pleasant. Although he knew God Ji was an Alpha, that single breathy sound was enough to make some less composed Alphas stiffen in admiration.

Cheng Pian glanced at Ji Jin sitting beside him, hesitated briefly, then immediately trusted Ji Jin and returned to his own lane.

During the first ten minutes, the enemies repeatedly forced ambushes on Ji Jin’s Bai Yike in various spots. MOE stuck to their plan, pushing down top, mid, and bottom towers quickly. The marksman and fighter returned to lanes, leaving only jungle and support to roam and camp Ji Jin.

At this point, the enemy still held an economy advantage, and Ji Jin had died three times.

By the fifteenth minute, the situation began to turn.

When the enemy jungle and support camped a bush, Ji Jin spotted them. Although Bai Yike’s economy was slightly lower, his multiple skills being untargetable gave him an edge, and he quickly took down both opponents.

[Double Kill!]

Cheng Pian looked up at Ji Jin. His long fingers in a white sleeve danced on the keyboard like dragonflies skimming water or butterflies fluttering—so light and graceful they hardly seemed like hands at all.

For a moment, Cheng Pian was stunned and didn’t even react to assist.

Seeing their jungle and support killed, the remaining three enemies regrouped, trying to camp vision spots again.

But Bai Yike, now with two kills, had slowly caught up economically.

The enemy marksman stayed under turret, while the mage and fighter hid in a nearby bush.

Ji Jin started with his first skill, instantly dashing into the tower, marking the marksman. Then he used his third skill to quickly reposition backward, marking the mage and fighter.

His hand speed was lightning fast. Before the enemy could react, they were all marked. He then used his second skill to enhance a basic attack, and followed up with his first skill to mark again.

Though complicated to watch, it all happened in a split second. The mage and marksman barely saw a glimpse of Ji Jin before their screens went dark.

[Triple Kill!]

[Quadra Kill!]

The Quadra Kill sound effect had just finished when the fighter, with thick health, charged out of the bush, trying to finish off Bai Yike.

Both were low on health, but the enemy fighter had slightly more.

At this moment, Ji Jin’s skills were all on cooldown.

The fighter raised his greatsword—

But the low-health Bai YiKe vanished without a trace!

[Penta Kill!]

It was the fighter who fell.

At the crucial moment, Bai Yike used the summoner spell Flash! Immediately after flashing, Bai Yike’s second skill had already cooled down. Activating it to empower his next basic attack, he struck—securing the Penta Kill!

Ji Jin’s economy instantly surged ahead of the enemy jungle by nearly a thousand gold, firmly establishing his advantage.

Winning this game was only a matter of time now.

[All Chat] IKW . Wind and Moon:
God Ji, why did you come back? Why didn’t you return to IKW?

[All Chat] IKW is Champion:
We never cared about the online hate, we always believed you’d come back to IKW. How could you join MOE? Won’t you feel guilty when you face IKW in future matches?!

[All Chat] IKW . Wind and Moon:
I am the King of the world. There is a King, so there is… IKW…

In that instant, everyone in the training room fell silent.

Although Cheng Pian and the others were MOE team members, they all grew up watching God Ji’s gameplay videos.

To them, Ji Jin and IKW.King were inseparable—he was their faith, their dream to keep going.

Countless people had practiced endlessly, just to have the chance to play a match against Ji Jin.

Now… their dream was shattered.

This was also the question Cheng Pian and the others wanted to ask.

The question every fan who had followed Ji Jin’s rise wanted answered:

Why didn’t he go back to IKW?

That was where the god had started—it should have been the place for his rebirth.

“Because IKW… doesn’t need me anymore…”

Ji Jin’s voice floated softly, but his words felt like a weight of a thousand pounds—

Pressing down, inescapable, eternal.

 

Author’s Note:

MOE: Recruiting the old God Ji, breaking the God Ji, the God Ji who kills and doesn’t listen.

 

 

 

 

 

This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.