Chapter 112: I Can't Understand It!
Seventeen minutes later, the match ended.
Zou Zhuo stared in disbelief at his screen, where his Death Knight had already fallen. Helplessly, he typed "gg."
(GG stands for "good game," typically typed by the loser at the end of a match to praise the opponent's play. It's a polite gesture, with no intended mockery.)
On the match summary screen, Zou Zhuo scratched his head in confusion. He still hadn't quite figured out how he'd lost. It just felt like he'd been outclassed in every aspect?
His opponent hadn't done anything special—just the standard Blademaster harassment. But the feeling it gave Zou Zhuo was completely different from other Orc players. The entire match was incredibly stifling; he was basically on edge every single second.
And on top of that, he kept losing little bits here and there. Bit by bit, until he couldn't fight anymore.
Zou Zhuo had thought the game had been going on for over twenty minutes, but when he checked, it had only been seventeen minutes? And it was already over?
The onlookers were equally baffled.
"What happened? Little Fatty lost?"
"This... this is only seventeen minutes, man!"
"How did he win? I didn't even see the Orc player do anything. It was just constant harassment, and then one decisive battle, and Little Fatty's units were all eaten up."
"Man, this is like gods fighting. I can't understand it!"
Chen Mo asked, "Want another round?"
Zou Zhuo scratched his head. "I wasn't quite used to it just now. One more round!"
Chen Mo nodded. "Okay."
They started another match.
This time, Zou Zhuo was much more careful. He played cautiously, with intense focus. But when his Peasant scouted... damn, Chen Mo had gotten the Night Elves this time!
"Stay steady, stay steady. He can't be this good with every race, can he?"
Zou Zhuo continued to farm creeps steadily, but then Chen Mo's Demon Hunter showed up. This guy, while he couldn't turn invisible like the Blademaster, could burn mana. The moment he appeared, he'd cast Mana Burn, then run away. The Death Knight couldn't catch him, and could only glare in frustration.
After this Demon Hunter circled around a few times, the Death Knight's mana was completely drained. He couldn't even heal one of his Crypt Fiends.
Zou Zhuo was incredibly annoyed. He couldn't level up comfortably either. The Demon Hunter was elusive—either sneaking behind to slash at a Crypt Fiend a couple of times, or sneaking into his base to kill an Acolyte. It was infuriating.
Twenty minutes later, Zou Zhuo typed "gg."
Same as before. There was no special strategy, just normal play, normal tech and unit production. But Zou Zhuo still lost inexplicably.
He just couldn't win!
"Want to keep going?" Chen Mo asked.
Zou Zhuo shook his head vigorously. "No, no more! We're not on the same level at all. You... what's your rating?"
Chen Mo said, "Me? I haven't even finished my placement matches yet."
Zou Zhuo laughed. "Come on, don't kid me. You're this good and you haven't finished your placements? You're playing on a smurf account, right?"
Chen Mo thought about it. That explanation wasn't entirely wrong.
Zou Zhuo said, "Let's add each other as friends. I'll come to you for advice later."
Chen Mo nodded. "Sure."
The two added each other as friends in the game. Zou Zhuo said, "Oh, by the way, I'm in a Warcraft III player group. Want to join? There are some good players in there. I can't compete with you, but maybe you'll find some worthy opponents."
Chen Mo thought for a moment. "Nah, too much trouble. Maybe later."
Zou Zhuo didn't push it. He knew that top players often kept to themselves, so it was normal for them not to be interested.
"Alright, I'm going to continue my placement matches." Chen Mo said goodbye to Zou Zhuo and went back to playing ranked.
There was no helping it. Chen Mo hadn't intended to play too seriously, but this Zou Zhuo was just too easy to beat. Others might think Chen Mo was trying hard, but he really wasn't. He was just using the most basic, standard strategies. It was purely a matter of superior game sense and mechanics.
He hadn't even pulled out any of the classic strategies from his past life yet—like the Mass Expansion, Tower Rush, Wind Rider, Raider Kiting, Frost Armor Spider, or Sky Flow!
Chen Mo felt it was getting a bit boring. Constantly stomping noobs wasn't much fun. Maybe he should give the RTS players of this world a little inspiration?
Ah, forget it. He'd finish his placement matches first.
Chen Mo started another placement match.
In the player group, Zou Zhuo uploaded the replay files of his matches against Chen Mo.
ZZZ (Zou Zhuo): "Just met a god at the internet cafe. Got crushed without any chance to fight back..."
There were quite a few skilled players in this group. Zou Zhuo was roughly mid-to-upper tier, so this message didn't attract much attention. Instead, everyone was teasing him.
"Wow, the Z God got stomped in an internet cafe match? How bad was it?"
"Yeah, ZZZ, don't you call yourself the 'Warcraft Newbie Killer' of Zhiyuan Internet Cafe? What, did you run into a tough nut this time?"
"Haha, I've gotta watch the video of the Z God getting wrecked."
Zou Zhuo was speechless. What a bunch of jerks! They were just gloating!
You guys try it! It's not that I'm too weak, it's that the other guy is just too insane!
Zou Zhuo scrolled through the group and found Kaiser, who was usually lurking.
"@Kaiser, K God, can you take a look at these two replays? I've watched them a bunch and still can't figure out how I lost. It feels like pure mechanical outplay. But I thought my mechanics were decent? Is the gap really that big?"
No reply.
Zou Zhuo was a bit frustrated. There was nothing he could do. Kaiser was the type who was hard to pin down, rarely spoke in the group, and it wasn't his streaming time, so he was probably offline.
Soon, some people finished watching the replays of Zou Zhuo's matches against Chen Mo.
"Holy crap, I just watched ZZZ's match video. Did you play with 80% health? @ZZZ"
Zou Zhuo was speechless. "No, it was 100% health."
"Then why do your Crypt Fiends look like they're made of paper? That Blademaster was one-shotting them."
Zou Zhuo: "I don't know either, man!"
"So, the first replay is Undead vs. Orc, and the second is vs. Night Elf? Are these two different people?"
Zou Zhuo: "It's the same person! He played random race against me for both matches!"
"Man, are you kidding me? Were you even trying? This is so one-sided, it's a total beatdown."
Zou Zhuo: "Not trying? I was giving it my absolute all!"
"...Then I really don't know."
A few more people watched Zou Zhuo's match videos, but they couldn't figure out the secret either. Both sides used standard strategies, just a straightforward head-on clash, and then Zou Zhuo got crushed.
Match replays aren't like first-person perspectives. Average noobs can't tell the difference in APM or multi-tasking. Many people in the group were even worse than Zou Zhuo. What could they see?
All they saw was: Zou Zhuo built units! Zou Zhuo attacked! Zou Zhuo had a big advantage! Zou Zhuo typed "gg."
Zou Zhuo was speechless. The real pros in the group were all lurking. How many top players were there among the regular chatter?
Oh well. He'd just wait and see when K God would reply.
Meanwhile, Chen Mo continued his placement matches.
At first, a few people stood behind him to watch. After two matches, most of them had drifted away.
Why? They couldn't understand it!
Chen Mo's current reaction time and APM were freakish. His multi-tasking and screen-switching were so fast it looked like a glitched security camera feed. The people watching his first-person perspective all got dizzy.
When did that Blademaster appear? When did that Blademaster get here? When did that Blademaster steal an item?
How did the enemy hero get surrounded? How did the enemy hero die? How did the enemy just leave the game?
Bro, I can't understand it!