Damn it, was it just an illusion?

[???]

[You couldn't time it better if you tried. Look at that flank, Cube is completely cooked.]

[A true master doesn't necessarily rely on lightning-fast reflexes and pixel-perfect skillshots; he simply does the right thing at the exact right moment.]

[How on earth does this V5 top laner do it? His playstyle feels utterly toxic and selfish, yet whenever he is needed, he always manages to materialize precisely where he needs to be.]

He was baffled.

Not just the RA players, but even the spectators felt a deep sense of disorientation.

When the Graves first started moving toward the jungle, everyone genuinely thought he was just heading to a side lane to pick up farm, treating the jungle camps merely as a little extra snack along the way. But the moment Graves successfully executed his flank on RA, perfectly splitting their frontline from the backline in one swift motion—

An overwhelming sense of awe was left echoing in everyone's minds.

Why?

Why on earth did you happen to be standing in this exact spot?

On stage.

Lu Ji didn't push RA's dual-carry threat too aggressively. If he had focused solely on chasing down a single target, he probably could have hunted one of them down. Even if he couldn't secure the kill, the bonus resistances from Hullbreaker once he created a 1400-unit distance from his teammates would have guaranteed he couldn't be turned on and soloed during the chase.

Instead, he didn't do that. He simply planted himself firmly in the chokepoint between RA's backline carries and the rest of the main battlefield.

This positioning was absolute torture for RA.

Step forward, and you eat two shotgun shells to the face.

There was no other choice.

They were forced into a scenario where the two proud prodigies of a righteous orthodox sect were desperately trying to battle the demonic Graves patriarch on the opposite side.

But damn it, this Graves was practically unkillable!

Lu Ji kept one simple principle firmly in mind.

Maintain distance while blocking their path forward, and focus solely on dodging Zoe’s E. As long as Zoe’s sleepy bubble missed, then even if he carried the weight of the heavens on his shoulders and held Summoner's Rift up with a single hand, his Graves would remain invincible across the mortal realm!

Iboy: "Wait, why is this guy simultaneously so tanky and dealing this much damage?"

Strive: "Cube, take a look at the father you raised!"

Cube: "Already dead, don't ping me."

Without the bonus damage amplified by the sleep state, Zoe and Jinx's combined output was completely disregarded by Lu Ji. Conversely, the moment the enemy gave him the slightest opening, he would dash in with his E and comfortably chunk them down to half health instantly.

Don't even ask.

If you ask, the answer is simple: how could your decade of grueling training in the laning phase possibly compare to my three-lane gold funnel?

Obstructed by this tyrannical Graves, RA could only watch helplessly as their top laner and support were beaten to death, their jungler's Viego was locked down relentlessly by Jarvan IV, while they themselves were forced to endure utter humiliation.

The pain, it hurt so much~

"Let's go! Meng, you absolute beast, are you seriously scripting or something?"

In the team comms, PPGOD and Xiaoyan's exhilaration poured out endlessly.

The exact moment Kennen suddenly appeared, their absolute first reaction was that the sky was falling. At this critical juncture, if the enemy initiated a flawless teamfight while Graves was completely absent, paired with the Rift Herald RA had just secured, the enemy could potentially march straight down mid all the way to the inhibitor turret—and if they played it even more aggressively, ending the game right there wasn't entirely out of the question.

RNG during the S8 and S9 eras were the masters of executing this exact script.

A quiet and uneventful early game, a sudden decisive teamfight win in the mid game, and then a relentless push straight from the tier-two outer tower all the way to the main nexus. Scenes like that were practically a dime a dozen during those two years.

"Don't get too excited, the job isn't even finished yet. We've only killed two."

"Holy shit! Those two are already more than enough! They can't drop their Herald now, and there's no way they contest the upcoming dragon."

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Save the champagne for after we actually win. You guys don't want to end up pulling a FNC, do you?"

The complete reversal of this pivotal teamfight practically cemented V5's overwhelming advantage.

At the same time.

It also allowed a wider audience to catch a glimpse of the tactical shadow hidden beneath his playstyle.

"Is he seriously Prison Graves?"

"He really is Prison Graves! Talent monsters appear every single year, but someone who plays with this level of slimy cunning? He's the only one since Season 6."

Unlike the perspective of most casual viewers, in the eyes of the major esports clubs, Lu Ji's Graves play came with a special filter. Even though there were no actual visual effects or filters in reality, in their eyes, this Graves was wielding something akin to a "Gun-Susanoo," leaving the psychological imprint of Prison Graves everywhere he went.

Rather than chasing personal highlight reels, he prioritized winning the game above all else.

It was quite bizarre.

Human beings are simply creatures of stereotype, after all.

Anyone who has played League of Legends for a few years knows that the Rift has its infamous "Four Great Outlaws": Eastern Heretic Wang Mubad, Western Venom Zhang Jiawen, Southern Disciple Tian Huitai, and Northern Beggar Bounty Hunter. Because of their legendary efforts, the entire player base of Summoner's Rift holds a uniquely entrenched stereotype toward anyone who mains a specific champion.

Take Graves, for example.

Everyone universally assumes that anyone playing Graves is a absolute rat.

Yet in this specific match, this Graves was playing out the game in a completely different manner.

Connecting the dots and remembering that he came straight out of the EDG talent pipeline, more and more teams slowly began to reflect: while OMG provided plenty of raw top lane prospects, it seemed that if you wanted a prospect pre-installed with a built-in discipline buffer, you really had to go raid the EDG training camp.

A flawless teamfight initiation yielding zero rewards was an undeniably devastating blow to RA's morale. Of course, the solution to this was simple: whoever put them in this miserable state was the person they would desperately hunt down to return the favor.

This argument is also historically documented within [Hypnotic X Guide].

And so.

RA's members rolled up their sleeves and eagerly awaited Graves' side-lane split push. If they couldn't handle his entire team, dealing with one measly Graves shouldn't be difficult at all, right?

Even if they had to sacrifice their nexus tower!

However...

The moment they laid eyes on Graves once again, it wasn't a solo-lane Graves standing before them. Instead, it was the entire V5 army marching forward with a massive horde of brethren right behind him!

What the—?

Don't you care about your Hullbreaker passive anymore?!

Wait.

It seemed they actually didn't need it. The entire V5 team's gold and item builds had already fully caught up. At this stage, they no longer needed to rely on Graves' individual split-pushing to create stretching space for their carries to farm.

To RA, a fully coordinated V5 was an insurmountable force.

They could only watch helplessly as V5 grouped up to secure dragons, invaded the jungle as a unit, squeezed their vision lines, and choked out their farming territory. It wasn't until the entire jungle was thoroughly blanketed in vision that Lu Ji finally piloted Graves back to his loyal side lane.

The 1400-unit range of Hullbreaker.

It might sound far, but in reality, it was roughly the width of a single screen. In other words, if Graves was split-pushing in the enemy top tier-two tower, that distance roughly meant his teammates were loitering near the dragon pit. Provided the vision was properly set up, if Graves was engaged on, the rest of V5 had more than enough time to collapse and provide backup.

After all...

Hullbreaker during this era granted 20 to 60 bonus mixed resistances scaling with level. Yes, Graves counted as a melee champion, fully enjoying the higher resistance bonuses exclusive to melee characters. Combined with his level advantage and the health and omnivamp provided by his three core items, it actually made him even more durable against incoming damage than Karsa's Jarvan IV.

At this moment.

Inside V5's team voice comms, Lu Ji was in the middle of bidding a dramatic farewell to his teammates.

"Should I head out then?"

"Go on."

"No, seriously, I'm going now?"

"Go already, we'll miss you."

"Wait... are you guys sure I should go?"

"Get lost, you damn idiot! Are you walking or not?!"

Sensing the increasingly exasperated tones of his teammates, Lu Ji's face darkened as he resumed walking toward the top lane. His departing silhouette somehow managed to exude the tragic aura of a warrior crossing the Yi River never to return.

Yes.

This time, his mission was to perform a cosplay gig in the upper reaches of the Rift, acting primarily as an Ezreal-esque "bait" to lure out the entire enemy team.

Suddenly.

As if remembering something, Lu Ji spoke up abruptly:

"I've got an idea."

"Here is the plan, step by step... what do you guys think?"

The other four members of V5: !!!

For the next minute or so.

V5 began engaging in a psychological tug-of-war with RA, resembling a battle of wits between rival dorm strategists. Fake Baron setups alternating with real ambushes, wave after wave of tactical feints, systematically sweeping away every speck of vision belonging to RA until both teams were practically depleted of resources in the staring contest.

The jungle territory was now fundamentally under V5's ironclad control.

At that exact moment.

Lu Ji finally commanded Graves to head up toward the top lane.

Yet for the members of RA at this very second, the fog-shrouded jungle whose vision had been entirely wiped clean inexplicably carried an aura of deep mystery and dread.

The support needed time to recall and stock up on control wards.

Yet the V5 squad had suddenly retreated and vanished into thin air. To make matters infinitely worse amidst the frantic back-and-forth repositioning, the AD carry's Farsight Alteration trinket was currently on cooldown.

"Are they doing Nashor?"

"It looks like it, but Graves is still top. Could they be setting up an ambush in the jungle?"

"I know this trick. Look at Graves' passive: if the [Hullbreaker] buff is active, it means they're hitting the Baron; if it's not, it means they're hiding in the bushes."

"Holy shit, Cube, you're an absolute bloody genius!"

Cube's brilliant deduction successfully saved the team from falling into panic. Everyone locked their eyes intently on Graves as he approached their top tier-two turret. Even though watching someone else auto-attack your own tower always felt like the ultimate betrayal, for the sake of the Nashor, this minor sacrifice was deemed entirely acceptable.

This argument is also historically documented within [Sunflower].

Until Graves unleashed a basic attack, and combined with the damage from the minion wave, the health bar of their top tier-two tower didn't drop quite as fast as they had imagined.

Instantly.

That lingering, uneasy dread in their hearts was washed away.

Sure enough, the [Hullbreaker] passive wasn't triggered! This proved that Graves had allied champions within the 1400-unit threshold!

Cube felt a surge of wild elation.

Young players will always be young players. Even though his every move carried the lingering aura of Prison Graves, he ultimately slipped up on the details and exposed an opening. He probably didn't even realize himself that the [Hullbreaker] passive would inadvertently betray the positioning of his lurking teammates~

To be able to spot a detail like that—I really am a goddamn genius!

Cube thought to himself.

With their confidence restored, RA's members finally felt comfortable letting their support recall to base to replenish their vision items.

As long as they didn't fall for the trap this time around.

Once the support finished restocking vision, they could group up and push back out. By that time, the enemy support would lack vision while theirs would have it, allowing them to reclaim their territorial control over the jungle inch by inch.

A counter-offensive was right around the corner!

"Will they actually fall for it?"

Hovering right at the absolute outer edge of the Hullbreaker active range, PPGOD asked with a hint of nervousness. If the enemy team decided to group up and march straight down the middle toward Baron at this exact moment, their positioning would become exceptionally awkward. It wasn't that they couldn't win a fight, but rather that it would hand the enemy a golden ticket to stage a comeback.

"Don't worry, guaranteed success. Look, they didn't even realize it."

Lu Ji curved the corner of his lips into a smirk, glancing over at his teammates lingering near the Nashor pit. Bolstered by the attack speed granted by Jarvan's E, Aphelios's Baron-melting speed was quite ideal.

Yes.

Right from the very beginning, their entire dance of positioning was designed precisely to bait out the enemy's Farsight Alteration trinkets.

Once those blue trinkets were gone, the enemy lost real-time tabs on the status of Baron Nashor, forcing them to rely entirely on the Hullbreaker passive to deduce V5's movements.

Of course.

If it failed, it was no big deal; they could just transition into a standard teamfight.

But if it succeeded?

That was the intellectual beauty of scoring a completely free Nashor for zero cost~

Clearly, his plan had succeeded.

On the caster desk.

PYL, the former support turned analyst, was slowly beginning to piece together Lu Ji's grand scheme. It wasn't because his game knowledge had suddenly skyrocketed overnight, but rather because RA kept frantically pinging Graves' location on the mini-map without actually sending anyone to apprehend him, which triggered a chain reaction of deductions in his mind.

"I get it!"

"It's [Hullbreaker]! V5's positioning dance for the past minute was entirely about creating the window for this Hullbreaker timing. Graves doesn't have the Hullbreaker buff, so RA assumes V5 is lying in wait inside the jungle, but V5 is actually hitting the Baron! Can RA react in time?!"

"It doesn't look like it. PPGOD's positioning is extremely sneaky—wait, PPGOD is starting to walk toward Baron?!"

"The Hullbreaker buff just triggered! RA is finally realizing something is wrong, but it's way too late for them now!!!"

Did RA genuinely realize something was amiss?

Not really.

They simply noticed the Hullbreaker buff activate, assumed V5's main force might have finally moved away, or perhaps took a desperate gamble that V5 was taking down Nashor—just as their support happened to finish stocking up on wards and stepped back out of the fountain.

Well then, they could smoothly push out the wave and re-establish vision around the Baron pit.

Leyan and the others thought to themselves.

However...

The exact microsecond they were about to step into the river, a mournful, agonizing shriek echoed from the upper reaches of the canyon.

The Baron had been slain?!

How was that even possible?!

They were clearly just lying in wait in the jungle...

As if realization suddenly struck them, the eyes of all five RA players turned wide with sheer terror. But what was even more horrifying was that at this exact moment of hesitation and bewilderment, springing forth from the shadows of the brush came one of the notorious Bush Brothers—Jarvan IV!

"Our mission is to fight to our last breath!"

"Demacia!"

R — [Cataclysm]!

Since it was a grand strategy, naturally it couldn't be limited to merely taking a paltry Nashor. The moment RA confirmed they had fallen for the first layer of the trap, the successive chain of strategies rolled out seamlessly. They had intentionally kept the Baron's health managed right at the threshold, waiting for RA's sluggish arrival, waiting for Jarvan to lock in his positioning.

And then—

The final killing blow of a dual-sided pincer movement!

R — [Moonfall]!

R — [Collateral Damage]!

Two ultimate abilities, unleashed back-to-back, bloomed fiercely right in the middle of RA's clustered ranks. The jungle terrain was already claustrophobic and congested to begin with, and Jarvan's ultimate trapped them so tightly they couldn't even budge an inch. Facing the sudden, devastating pincer attack from front and back, RA's players hadn't even finished processing the situation before streaks of blue magical fireworks danced wildly through their ranks.

Like a dazzling display of brilliant pyrotechnics.

Triggering ripple after brilliant ripple.

And the very next moment.

A Graves flashed directly into the fray, pivoting against the wall to execute an instantaneous, point-blank Quickdraw and End of the Line combo.

Amidst the billowing clouds of gunsmoke.

The booming announcement of a Triple Kill echoed triumphantly across the arena.

The squishy Zoe, Kennen, and Jinx were instantly obliterated into grey screens, leaving only the battered remnants of Viego and Leona sitting at scraps of health. On the RA player stage, five pairs of eyes stared blankly and vacantly at the unfolding carnage.

They simply couldn't wrap their heads around it.

Why?

One second ago, they were brimming with confident mastery over the game state.

The next second, the entire board inverted like a reflection in shattered water.

Damn it, was this all just an illusion?