Now it was David Bolton's turn to beam with a bright smile. Someone who didn’t even have Honor of Kings installed on their phone obviously wouldn’t know how to play the game—just as he had hoped. For a moment, he found Adam Bennett much more pleasing to the eye, and his tone became twice as friendly: “No rush, we’ll wait for you. Or we can lend you a phone from our side if you’d like.”

Adam Bennett thought this was actually quite straightforward. He could try once, then return the phone and go about his own business. If he really downloaded Honor of Kings onto his own phone, Adam Bennett doubted he’d be willing to delete it. So he nodded to David Bolton and said, “Then lend me one.”

“Little Jack, let this classmate use your account for a bit. Your phone’s good, and you have most of the heroes and emblems unlocked.” David Bolton turned to a companion beside him and said magnanimously.

“Oh.” The classmate called Little Jack immediately handed his phone to Adam Bennett. After thanking him, Adam Bennett logged into the game and looked over at Ethan Harris and Emily Carter.

Hearing that Adam Bennett didn’t even have the game on his phone, Emily Carter’s expression only grew more resolute. On the other hand, Ethan Harris started to look doubtful, wondering if she might have mistaken him for someone else.

But she hadn’t seen Adam Bennett at the student office for long, and she always paid close attention to people who could play Honor of Kings. She clearly remembered that it was this very boy who had given pointers to the rookie Eric Foster in the student office. She’d only overheard a few sentences, but they all showed his deep familiarity with Honor of Kings. Besides, he was the younger brother of former KPL pro player Brian Bennett.

So, maybe he just got a new phone or had some other reason for not having Honor of Kings installed? That’s what Ethan Harris thought, and she simply couldn’t believe that someone who had so expertly guided Eric Foster wouldn’t know how to play. She nodded at Adam Bennett, and over there, David Bolton had already impatiently set up a 3v3 match room and sent them invitations.

Everyone entered the room one after another. Adam Bennett saw that the three opponents all had IDs prefixed with the same team name: 皇朝.承浩, 皇朝.木同, 皇朝.开怀.

As for his own two teammates, their team name was 浪7, and their IDs were 浪7.Ethan Harris and 浪7.Emily Carter. As for Adam Bennett, since he was borrowing the other side’s account, his ID also had the 皇朝 prefix: 皇朝.Little Jack.

“Can we start?” Adam Bennett asked, a bit impatient, his voice even trembling slightly. After five years of watching and waiting, he finally had a chance like this. Even though it wasn’t the usual King’s Canyon map, but rather the less popular Changping Siege, it was enough for him. To summon his own hero, to walk and fight under the turrets, on the lanes, in the jungle… Scenes like these had only ever appeared in Adam Bennett’s dreams, but now they were about to become reality. Whether it was King’s Canyon or Changping Siege didn’t matter anymore.

“No rush, let’s discuss first,” Ethan Harris said, looking over at David Bolton and his team. “Shouldn’t we keep a bit of distance?”

“Alright.” David Bolton nodded. He didn’t want their team’s commands and communication to be overheard by the other side either, so he and his two teammates walked away, and both sides kept a distance where they wouldn’t disturb each other.

“What hero will you use?” Ethan Harris asked Adam Bennett.

Li Bai!

Adam Bennett almost blurted it out instinctively. That was his brother Brian Bennett’s best hero, and the figure who dominated King’s Canyon with his sword was the one Adam Bennett had always admired most. If he only had one chance to play, Li Bai was the hero he most wanted to try. But he held back at the last moment. Li Bai was just his personal preference, but what the team needed depended on his teammates’ and opponents’ hero choices. Picking a hero was about winning, not just personal likes.

“What do you need me to play?” Suppressing his urge to pick Li Bai, Adam Bennett asked in return.

“I’ll play Zhuge Liang, he’ll play Su Lie. What do you think you should pick?” Ethan Harris asked.

“We have a finisher and crowd control. For Changping Siege, how about I go with Huang Zhong?” Adam Bennett suggested.

“Oh? You’ve studied Changping Siege too?” Ethan Harris was a bit surprised. Familiarity with this map had nothing to do with skill level; it just wasn’t popular, and few players studied it in depth.

“Not really studied, just know a bit,” Adam Bennett replied. There were no Changping Siege matches in the KPL pro league, but Adam Bennett’s attention to pro play wasn’t limited to official matches—he’d seen Changping Siege in some exhibition games, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with the map and had picked up some knowledge from those informal matches.

“So what’s the key to this map?” Ethan Harris asked. Beside her, Emily Carter already looked surprised. Someone who considered team composition and knew about Changping Siege—there was no way this guy was a newbie. No Honor of Kings on his phone? Must be some other reason, Emily Carter quickly decided. So what was the key to this map? Emily Carter started paying attention too, since he was actually unfamiliar with Changping Siege.

“Jungle economy,” Adam Bennett said.

“That… isn’t that always the case?” Emily Carter couldn’t help but say. He’d thought there was some special trick he didn’t know. But jungle economy?? That was always important in 5v5 King’s Canyon too—wasn’t that just the norm?