Chapter 7: The Trial Grounds! The Man Destined to Become the King of the Canyon! [Please Support with Votes!]

The moment the Nexus exploded, a crisp chime rang out behind Ye Bo’s head!

"Woo-hoo!"

Akali’s terrifying burst damage poured into the enemy’s focused dual carries, claiming two heads. Ye Bo clapped his belly like a happy seal.

Completing the challenge right at the buzzer felt like finishing the last question just before a proctor collects the exam papers, completing a civil engineering project on the final day of inspection, or a web novelist hitting the "publish" button at 11:59 PM to maintain their perfect attendance streak...

Satisfying!

"Let me check if I'm in the top ten now... Wait, how am I still seven points short? Who! Who stole my rank!"

"Whatever, no worries. Your streamer said it, tonight I'm definitely hitting the top ten!"

"Hold on a second, boys, there are a lot of mosquitoes here. Let me light some mosquito coils."

Ye Bo opened the ranked ladder leaderboard and discovered that the spot he should have reached with just one more win had been snatched away by a random player who was exactly seven points ahead.

But it was clearly of no consequence. Given the high hidden MMR of his account, which boasted a 78% win rate, he would gain 27 points for a win and only lose about 12 for a loss. He would definitely make it tonight.

As a non-professional "super account"—or rather, an ordinary account that had achieved this hidden MMR entirely through his own efforts, climbing from a fresh account with a high win streak over the past week—he was confident.

He turned off his webcam and microphone, using the mosquito coil as an excuse to hide his dazed expression from the audience. Only then did Ye Bo begin to scrutinize the text appearing before his eyes.

【Temporary Task: Hunt (Perfectly Completed!)】
【Congratulations on obtaining: 443 Counterattack Points】
...
【Ding! Accumulated Counterattack Points exceed 500, "AI Trial Grounds" unlocked!】

Ye Bo curiously looked at the introduction of the new feature popped up by the system.

The description was simple and direct. The so-called AI Trial Grounds was essentially a "virtual match simulator."

As long as Ye Bo spent "Counterattack Points" to redeem usage time, he could enter the trial grounds to conduct simulated matches. The strength of the simulated opponents would be based on the teammates and opponents from his recent ranked history.

There were three key points:
1. Matches played in the Trial Grounds would grant the same {Hero Proficiency} experience as normal ranked mode.
2. The time flow in the Trial Grounds was 1/3 of reality.
3. During the trial, the system would automatically replenish the user's mental energy, but it could not be used for more than 10 consecutive hours of real-world time.

Filled with curiosity, Ye Bo couldn't wait to enter the interface and study it for a bit.

He discovered that in these simulated matches, he could even adjust the heroes used by his AI teammates, allowing him to practice team compositions. While he couldn't specify the opponents' heroes, they would be randomly selected based on data from the current ranked environment.

Clearly, this feature would be the perfect "sparring partner"!

However, the real highlight was obviously the second point!

"The time flow in the Trial Grounds is one-third of reality!?"

"Holy cow! Za Warudo!"

Ye Bo was pleasantly surprised. This meant that for every three hours he spent in the Trial Grounds, only one hour passed in the real world!

Of course, the system specifically emphasized that "void simulation" was impossible.

【The host must be in a conscious state, requiring full mental immersion. The simulation takes place within the host's own mind.】

This meant that even though only one hour passed in the real world, Ye Bo’s actual experience... would be a solid three hours!

The cost for the Trial Grounds was: {Trial Time / 5 Counterattack Points per hour}.

Ye Bo did some quick mental math.

Based on his previous estimate, assuming it took 1,000 games of progress to master a Level 7 "signature" hero, and counting each game at half an hour, it would take at least 500 hours.

In reality, that was clearly impractical. Even if he did nothing else and practiced for 10 hours a day, it would take nearly two months to master one hero.

But in the Trial Grounds, he could achieve the same results in just half a month!

The most critical part was: {The Trial Grounds allowed him to utilize his "rest time"!}

After all, in reality, after playing 10 hours of high-intensity ranked matches, even if one could keep going, it would be impossible to maintain peak competitive form.

This would undoubtedly drastically increase the speed at which Ye Bo could practice heroes!

Of course, the consumption of Counterattack Points was not insignificant. The base cost to train a Level 7 hero would be at least 2,500 points.

But for Ye Bo... it was enough! It was truly enough!

One had to realize that Akali, the hero he had specialized in for five years of gaming, was only at Level 6.5 proficiency.

Something that originally required five years of accumulation could now be achieved in just a month and a half by pushing himself to the limit.

What more could he ask for!

Ye Bo was an easy person to satisfy; as long as he could see hope in a situation, he was willing to put in the effort. And this speed was an unexpected delight!

"I'm back, I'm back!"

Returning to the stream, Ye Bo sounded noticeably happy, and a new match had just been found.

【Did the streamer put something in that mosquito coil? Why are you so excited just from lighting it?】
【How old is the streamer? Take care of your health, smoking is bad for you!】
【True, if you really want to go pro later, it's best not to smoke, otherwise it's easy to get sleepy and start feeding when you don't have a smoke...】
【Report!! Matched against Coin-bro again!!】
【Haha! Akali was banned by Coin-bro, that’s full respect right there!】

"What are you guys talking about? I don't smoke. I'm a man determined to become the King of the Canyon!"

"Let them ban her, no big deal!"

"Besides, it's not like I only play Akali~"

【Streamer, streamer, who is the King of the Canyon?】
【I'm the messenger, Coin-bro said he's going to teach you a lesson this game! Let you know how high the sky is and how deep the earth goes!】

In Doinb’s stream next door.

Although he knew he would likely be mocked by his own chat, he firmly banned Akali.

Because he had just checked the opponent's match history and found that they basically picked Akali whenever available, only switching when banned. Even he had to admit that in the previous game, Akali's performance was flawless.

"I'm not afraid of him, it's just that these one-trick ponies usually turn into silver-tier players the moment their main is banned!"

"Mom! Just watch, watch how I educate him this game!"

Doinb made his threat publicly.

Unfortunately, Doinb’s luck in this game wasn't very good.

On the red side, Ye Bo picked LeBlanc on the fifth pick. Facing Doinb’s Yone, he had a slight laning advantage.

LeBlanc was the second of Ye Bo's three signature heroes. She was also at Level 6, just a notch below his initial Akali.

However, the mid-lane was unusually calm in this match, with no major skirmishes, and Doinb never found an opportunity to strike.

Moreover, Doinb’s teammates in this game were significantly worse, and their collapse was even faster than the previous game!

That was the downside of the Chinese server; the matchmaking system was unstable, and even in top-tier lobbies, it was possible to get uneven matches.

Of course, this also had to do with the environment of the Chinese server.

The matchmaking system was actually quite helpless!

After all, even among Challenger-tier players, there were always things like "Strange Top Laner," which were hard to distinguish from real people.

Ye Bo had successfully matched against that "Canyon Nightmare" on the enemy team, and he had also matched again with the random player who had played Camille for him in the previous game.

With Ye Bo's roaming assistance, the top lane was pushed to 0-9-1 by the 14-minute mark. The match clearly had no suspense left.

And just as the match ended, the familiar small text reappeared before Ye Bo’s eyes!