88: Chapter 89 It was a mistake from the very beginning! Shen Mo's Illusionary-level ability!

Whoosh!

With all 8 contestants present, the match officially began!

Stage 1-1!

The moment the shop refreshed!

In the headset, Brother Chen's smiling voice rang out: "Kid, I can't guide you this round, but you can guide me."

"Brother Chen, you want me to turn this into a teaching session?"

"That's right."

"You're the teacher, I'm the student. This is your home turf. Don't you like giving outside guidance to others? This time, just treat it as if I invited you. You help me play, and teach me how this game should be played!"

Long Chen naturally had a deeper meaning in doing this, and Shen Mo didn't decline, smiling: "Then I won't be polite, will I?"

Long Chen waved his hand grandly: "Go ahead, prove your excellence!"

...

"Arno, what are you playing this round?" Hans frowned. Although he had just won a round against Shen Mo, the situation now seemed to have changed again, and he couldn't afford not to take it seriously!

"Me... Dimension, I suppose. This lineup is still quite strong." Arno from France thought for a moment and replied.

"Sure! Then I'll go Faerie. Even though we don't have 'lineup patterns,' the lineup can still be effective once formed! Plus, Faerie seems to have been buffed this patch; maybe we can beat that kid into the ground!"

"Alright, that's settled!"

The two discussed their strategy and then turned their gaze toward Shen Mo's side.

...

After the three waves of neutral monsters were defeated, Malphite popped with a bang, dropping three items: a Recurve Bow, a Recurve Bow, and a Needlessly Large Rod!

Long Chen asked: "The opponents are running Dimension + Faerie this round, what are you playing?"

"Dimension Ryze, I guess!"

Shen Mo smiled casually.

"That's true. After all, you have a 'Flame Sword' now, so Ryze has his first item!"

Long Chen's understanding of the game wasn't bad; he knew Ryze's skill effects, so he subconsciously assumed that since Shen Mo was playing Dimension Ryze, he would definitely combine a guinsoos rageblade for Ryze. Plus, this item could be used by Kassadin in the early game, making for a smooth transition.

"No, no, no. I'm not combining a guinsoos rageblade."

Not combining it?

Long Chen was stunned for a moment: "Aren't you playing Ryze? You don't want a guinsoos rageblade?"

"guinsoos rageblade" was Shen Mo's term; Long Chen couldn't be bothered to correct him, so he simply followed Shen Mo and called it a guinsoos rageblade.

"Correct!"

Shen Mo narrowed his eyes, having already entered the mindset of a teaching session. At this moment, his brain was spinning rapidly: "Brother Chen, haven't you always said I have a talent for exploring hidden lineups? Actually, let me tell you, that doesn't count for anything at all..."

"I don't know how you played this game back in the day."

"But for me, hidden lineups only guarantee the lower limit of this game. The true core of this game is combinations!"

"The skill mechanics between pieces are different, their damage is different, their positioning is different, and their items are different!"

"Every single combination can trigger different effects!"

Long Chen looked thoughtful: "You mean... using different pieces to trigger chain reactions between them?"

Shen Mo nodded with a smile: "That's right! The greatest joy of this game actually lies in piece Synergy. When different Synergies are combined, they can produce unexpected results! You should understand what I mean, Brother Chen."

However, Long Chen fell silent.

After a long while, he muttered: "Piece Synergy... that's a fresh term."

?

Shen Mo suddenly froze as well.

"Fresh? Brother Chen, have you never heard of piece Synergy? Aren't you a contestant from the first Gods Arena?"

"What does that have to do with me participating in the first one?" Long Chen was very confused.

This scene instead made Shen Mo's scalp tingle!

"Brother Chen... it's things like Faerie, Dimension, and Demon God... these are piece Synergies! You don't know about them?!"

"Oh, you mean hidden attributes? You have to explore to find those, right? Who could possibly see them directly!"

Long Chen thought Shen Mo was talking about something else; it turned out to be this after all that.

He waved his hand dismissively: "We couldn't see these things during our match either. But every country was exploring, and basically by the late stages of the tournament, these so-called Synergies of yours were mostly explored. That's normal."

This is not normal!!! Shen Mo's breathing quickened, and every hair on his body stood on end!!!

At this moment!

He seemed to have realized an extremely terrifying problem!!!

The first one... yes! During the first Gods Arena, Long Chen and his team ascended the Gods Ladder and eventually obtained a fragment of the gods arena because they played against the gods. And he had seen at Long Chen's place that the fragment in Long Chen's hand could display item descriptions...

This made Shen Mo subconsciously believe that the incompleteness of the Gods Arena was caused by Long Chen's actions back then!

For example, Hextech, piece Synergies, and the descriptions of all items and Staffs...

But now, a single sentence from Long Chen completely overturned Shen Mo's understanding, shocking him to the core!

They can't see! Long Chen and the others can't see! They didn't have piece Synergies in the first tournament either!

How is that possible?

How could this be?

Countless questions emerged in his mind. Shen Mo subconsciously squeezed his eyes shut, trying to clear the chaotic thoughts from his mind!

After a long while!

Shen Mo slowly opened his eyes... So, this Gods Arena has been problematic from the very beginning, right!

The root of everything hasn't been resolved; the Long Chen incident was just an interlude. The true core still exists: the source of the anomalies, the suddenly descending higher Dimensions, the cheating gods, the powerful alien races capable of possessing traits, and... that Second District of the All-Heavens Battlefield...!

Everything is so strange!

Everything seems so unreasonable!

There is something wrong with this world!

Shen Mo's back was soaked with sweat!

The world that had once been clear seemed to be covered in a layer of shadow once again.

His thoughts began to race wildly... from the moment he transmigrated, to meeting Long Chen, to every conversation they had, to standing on the arena right now, countless images flashed by quickly like a slideshow!

No! No! Still no!

Indeed, not a single person had ever brought up the word 'Synergy'!

Wrong!

He had been wrong from the very beginning!

Whoosh!

His thoughts snapped back!

Shen Mo opened his eyes and murmured as if in a dream.

"So."

"Then what about what I see?"

He had gotten used to it, but subconsciously ignored that the biggest anomaly was himself!

A pale blue light screen flickered.

One by one, illusory shadows appeared in Shen Mo's field of vision.

[Kassadin]

[Synergy: Portal Trait, Dimensional Warlock]

So that was it.

All the anomalies appeared right from the start.

It was just that he had subconsciously ignored them.

So... you all can't see the Synergies, right?

...

"Shen Mo, are you alright?"

Long Chen frowned and asked, somewhat worried about Shen Mo's state.

Shen Mo gave a bitter smile: "I'm fine, Brother Chen. I just... didn't understand some issues before, and suddenly I figured them out."

"Are you really okay?" Long Chen was suspicious.

"Really."

Shen Mo sighed. It was hard to tell Long Chen that the world had played a huge joke on him... Before, Shen Mo had always felt that people like Long Chen had special abilities, like 'Intuition'... which was just perverted!

And very enviable!

He had even sighed in the last two days, wishing that he had similar abilities too...

Who would have thought!

He actually did!

It's just that this ability... it's really hard to handle!

At this moment, cursing wasn't enough to describe Shen Mo's mood; it was simply a rollercoaster of life!

What is this?

Iridescent-tier Trait: Eye of Perspective?

Iridescent-tier Trait: Eye of Synergy?

This kind of ability to directly glimpse the hidden Synergies of pieces, if given to any country, would simply be heaven-defying, okay!

But when placed on Shen Mo... its presence is just too low!

Who would treat common sense as an ability!

Bastard!!!

After all, even without this ability, Shen Mo would still know about piece Synergies!