Let Me Sleep a Little Longer [Esports] - Chapter 04

Sun He set aside his initial nonchalance and once again headed toward the bot-side jungle. This time, however, he didn’t directly approach Su Heng but chose to focus on farming jungle camps. He didn’t want to push the lane and reveal his position, nor did he want his development to be hindered by her.

The girl in front of him seemed increasingly unfathomable—making it difficult for him to read her moves or act rashly. Even Zhou Lingxing had started to notice her uniqueness.

Su Heng remained steady in mid-lane, leisurely farming minions. Initially, she missed half the minions in each wave, but now she rarely missed more than one or two. Farming is a fundamental skill in this game, and at the start of this match, it was clear she was a complete novice—unable to farm, place wards, or manage the minion wave.

But in just ten minutes or so, she had made astonishing progress. Zhou Lingxing’s amber eyes gleamed slightly. He called this phenomenon **talent**.

Talent may seem mysterious, but in this game, it boils down to a few things: reaction speed, damage calculation, positioning, and game awareness. Although Su Heng’s positioning was yet to be fully tested without a direct duel, the speed at which she cast Zyra’s plants was impressive—demonstrating her fast hands. Her improved farming revealed her keen sense of damage calculation. And her ability to evade Sun He’s Rengar ganks showcased her excellent awareness.

Zhou Lingxing sighed inwardly. It was frustrating that a rookie who spent her days hanging out in internet cafés could display such talent, while his team’s jungler, despite all his hard work, still struggled to keep up. Life often feels unfair, and lamenting fate does little good.

After Su Heng continued to focus on farming and pushing mid-lane towers, Sun He cleared his own jungle and even invaded hers. When he was done and had enough gold to buy his Ghostblade, he returned to base.

Almost simultaneously, Su Heng pressed the recall button as well.

Zhou Lingxing, who had been watching her closely, raised his eyebrows. His instincts told him that this was no coincidence. But if it wasn’t, it felt oddly deliberate.

Upon returning to base, Su Heng bought an Athene’s Unholy Grail and headed straight back to mid-lane. With the enemy’s first mid tower destroyed, she no longer pushed deep but kept the minion wave near her own tower.

Sun He, having purchased his new item, saw Su Heng’s Zyra farming in mid-lane again. This time, he didn’t hesitate. Activating his Ghostblade, he dashed out of the base, becoming invisible as he sprinted toward her with incredible speed.

At that moment, Su Heng suddenly turned and headed toward the jungle, seemingly planning to take the blue buff.

While in Rengar’s ultimate state, Sun He could detect the closest enemy within 2,000 units. The moment Su Heng altered her course, the distance between them was less than that, making it easy for him to pursue her.

If she truly intended to take the blue buff, she was almost guaranteed to die.

However, she merely passed through the blue buff bush and ran into the brush near her second top-lane tower, planting a seed at the entrance.

With only two seconds left on his invisibility, Sun He tightened his grip on the mouse, advancing without hesitation. He believed that even if his ultimate expired, he could still take Su Heng down in a direct fight. As long as he could catch her, victory would be his.

A few seconds later, Sun He appeared near the seed Su Heng had planted. Knowing he’d been exposed, he dashed directly into the bush between the two towers and threw out his E, hoping to lock her down and finish her off.

But before he could check the bush, two crimson vines shot out from the fog of war, ensnaring him.

Stunned, Sun He regained control 1.5 seconds later and hurried toward the tower, only to see Zyra’s figure already retreating to safety.

Sun He stood still, quietly pressing recall. As he waited, he glanced at Su Heng across the map.

The usual indifference on her face was gone, replaced by intense focus, and her bright eyes sparkled. For a moment, Sun He felt as if he could see something radiant within her.

He attempted to gank her two more times, but both efforts failed.

Frustration washed over him as he watched her play with growing enthusiasm. In the end, he shrugged helplessly, admitting in defeat, “I give up. No matter what I try, I can’t gank you.”

Su Heng looked up, seemingly unsatisfied with his concession, as if disappointed by his surrender.

Seeing her expression, Sun He chuckled helplessly. “Mind telling me how you did it? I’ll pay for your advice.”

The liveliness that had just surfaced on her face quickly vanished, replaced by her usual cold demeanor. She shook her head. “No need for payment.”

Before Sun He could continue, Zhou Lingxing cut in, “Did you know Sun He was coming from the dragon-side jungle the first time he tried to gank you?”

Su Heng glanced at him and gave a slight nod. “I saw him hit level six at top lane and then recall. Based on the timing, I figured he’d try to gank me right around then.”

Zhou Lingxing silently thought, *Just as I suspected,* and asked again, “How did you calculate that?”

The slender hand of the girl gripped the mouse, slowly exiting the game with deliberate calm. Her voice remained steady and devoid of emotion.

“He’s a professional player. There’s an 80% chance he’ll gank me from a path he doesn’t usually use. I’ve been in mid-lane the whole time, so the chance of him approaching from there is only 10%. The bottom lane? That’s 70%.”

Su Heng had been so immersed in this game that she now felt slightly exhausted. She clicked on a bottle of water in her shopping cart on the computer desktop before continuing.

“Coming from the bottom lane along the longest path, it’s about 18,700 units. Rengar’s base movement speed is 320. With the boots he bought, that adds 45 movement speed. Activating his ultimate further increases his speed by 40%, allowing him to sustain a speed of roughly 510 for 12 seconds—covering 6,120 units. That leaves a remaining distance that’ll take him around 34 seconds to close. Factoring in minor delays from jungle paths, his arrival time in mid-lane should fall between 31 and 46 seconds.”

Just as she finished speaking, the café staff knocked and handed over a bottle of mineral water. Su Heng took it, sipped a little, and added, “If I calculate the shortest possible time for him to recall, dodging him 10 seconds early should be safe.”

Sun He, stunned by what he had just heard, was left speechless. **Is this girl treating the game like a math problem?**

A mixture of disbelief and deep admiration swirled within him. In such a short time, she had farmed minions while calculating so much data, then identified the optimal strategy from it.

No wonder she said she didn’t need consulting fees—this method wasn’t something everyone could use, nor had Sun He ever considered the importance of timing before.

Even Zhou Lingxing was struck silent, momentarily unable to speak.

Sun He suddenly remembered his second missed ultimate and eagerly asked, “What about the second time? Even if you calculated the timing perfectly, there’s no way you could’ve escaped far enough in those few seconds for me to lose sight of you.”

Perhaps because Sun He sounded so confident, Su Heng almost wanted to laugh.

Zhou Lingxing glanced at Sun He and explained, “She flashed into the bushes the moment she left your vision and kept running.”

Sun He still struggled to wrap his head around it. “But how did you know when I’d show up? I was in the jungle the whole time, and you didn’t have any vision on me.”

Su Heng expected the man beside her to explain again, but instead, she slowly sipped her water in silence.

After a moment, she raised her eyes and saw both men staring at her, clearly waiting for her response.

“It’s still about timing,” she said calmly. “After you failed the first time, I caught up in farm. Unless you had at least a 70% chance of winning a direct fight with me, you were unlikely to engage. You’d need to level up and buy your first major item, which would take five or six minutes. My first item costs 400 gold less than yours, so our timings would align. The distance you had to cover and the duration of your stealth are fixed—same calculations as before.”

This time, Sun He grasped it quickly, exclaiming in surprise, “You timed my ultimate perfectly and escaped my vision the moment it ended? But knowing I’d chase, why did you recall between the towers?”

Su Heng nodded calmly. “I also considered recalling under the second tower or just running back to base.”

Hearing this, Zhou Lingxing looked up, and the girl’s soft, measured voice continued.

“But I figured your damage would be enough to tower-dive me. If I ran straight back to base, your movement speed from the jungle would outpace me, and things could go wrong. It was safer to lure you to the main lane, control you briefly, and then run. That way, even if you chased me down, you’d have to tank damage from at least two towers, giving me a good chance to kill you in return.”

Sun He remained lost in thought, still shocked by the meticulous planning and precise calculations of time, distance, and damage.

**What if… what if this level of skill were applied in competitive play? What kind of impact would it have?**

The most incredible thing wasn’t just her precision—it was how casually she conveyed these strategies, methods no one had ever thought to apply to the game before, methods that guaranteed victory.

Sometimes fate has a way of working perfectly. At that moment, Sun He had only one thought: he wanted this extraordinary girl to join them, even if she was just a beginner with minimal mechanical skill.

And so, without consulting anyone else, he extended his invitation to Su Heng without hesitation.

“Would you like to become a professional player?”

The air fell silent. Zhou Lingxing looked at Sun He in surprise, only to find that the usually composed man, even in the face of critical losses, now had a spark of excitement in his eyes that was impossible to contain.

Yes. Although they could always accept losses with equanimity, the desire for victory had long been burning deep within their hearts.

A new opportunity was now in front of them. There were risks, but for someone like Sun He, an older player with only a few years left in the competitive scene, how much more time did he have to waste?

Winning would be ideal. But even if they couldn’t, he would have no regrets about the battles he had fought over the years.

These thoughts raced through his mind. When Sun He looked back at Zhou Lingxing, he saw affirmation in his gaze.

If one is determined to pursue something, why fear the storms ahead?

—

**Author’s Note:**
① Zyra’s seeds provide vision around them.