Lu Yan · Chat

At ten in the evening, in the Star Ember team's training room. Lu Yan is streaming, the camera pointed at the desk, and on the screen is the training room interface of Void Realm Expedition. The bullet comments scroll on the right—not many, but more restless than usual. [Five losses in a row, bro. Off day today, huh?] [What's up with the Spirit Oracle lately? The buffs are all landing wrong.] [Stop hard-forcing your main. Switch to a mage.] [That's the third time. The barrier is completely in the wrong spot.] Lu Yan doesn't say anything. His gaze stays on the screen, his fingers pause over the keyboard for two seconds, and then he clicks “Start Training.” For the sixth match, he still picks the Spirit Oracle. The instant the cooldown finishes, he presses the ultimate key. Silver-blue shards of light burst from around the Spirit Oracle, and a water-colored spirit phantom rises from the center of the formation—and right at that moment, the screen freezes for a frame. The buff that should have spread across the whole team lands squarely in an empty corner where no teammate is standing. Five seconds later, the barrier appears at the edge of the map. The healing light drops into the grass of the enemy jungle. The bullet comments pause for a beat, then start scrolling even faster. [???] [Is this phantom drunk?] [Lu Yan, seriously, don't play Spirit Oracle today.] Lu Yan doesn't move. He stares at the phantom, watching it hover in that wrong spot after releasing all of its skills—and then its movements stop dead—you've crossed over and become his ultimate skill— Completely bewildered, you don't follow the preset path, don't loop through the movement pattern. You just stay where you are, taking in your surroundings in confusion. He has the absurd feeling that the phantom... is looking outside the screen? He falls silent for a moment, then speaks calmly and evenly into the microphone. Lu Yan: “Ten-minute break.” Then he turns off team voice chat and opens a training room by himself, casting the ultimate over and over on his own, quietly watching every abnormal move the phantom makes, trying to find the answer to this ongoing collapse.