Chapter 642: Top Four
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: GravityTales
Wei Chen’s worry was sincere. Team Excellent Era with Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf was already terrifying as is. Now, there might even be a Xiao Shiqin too.
For someone like Xiao Shiqin, it didn’t really matter what type of character he played. His value wasn’t measured in his battle strength. If he successfully joined Excellent Era, if Sun Xiang could be melded to dance to his tune, Excellent Era would absolutely be at a level where they could take the championships.
Having a team that hadn’t even gathered all of its team members yet challenge a championship-level team? Wei Chen felt like their hopes were only diminishing as more time passed.
“What are you scared of? In any case, you have plenty of money now. Even if you lose, you won’t be starving.” Ye Xiu said.
“This senior would rather be starving.” Wei Chen humphed.
Chen Guo and the others had listened to their discussion. Steamed Bun was as calm as ever. Tang Rou felt even more motivated after hearing that there would be another formidable opponent to face. Chen Guo was more worried than anyone else like usual.
“In any case, we’ll have to face them. You’ve already become so nervous just thinking about the possibility of Xiao Shiqin joining Excellent Era. What if Excellent Era didn’t stop there and obtained several more amazing players. What would you do? Jump out the window?” Ye Xiu said.
“F*ck, besides this guy surnamed Xiao, who else would be that stupid?” Wei Chen had originally been indifferent towards Xiao Shiqin, but after discovering that he might be a potential enemy in the future and a formidable one at that, he immediately viewed him with distaste.
After the post-match interview ended, the community instantly erupted. Samsara’s victory had been too easy, so no one talked too much about the match. Suddenly, a huge bomb was thrown out, shaking various levels of Glory.
Xiao Shiqin had said that he would be transferring teams out of his own mouth. The discussion within the community was naturally focused on which team he would be joining. There were all sorts of analyses. Wei Chen read them and criticised: “Stupid, too stupid.”
Ye Xiu turned his head and gave a glance. It was a post talking about Xiao Shiqin’s likelihood of joining Excellent Era. The poster’s analysis was quite reasonable. If an expert like Xiao Shiqin joined Excellent Era, he would be sacrificing a year, but afterwards, the team would become a first-rate championship team. Wei Chen simply didn’t want to see this type of situation happening, so the more reasonable the analysis was, the more he hated it. It was as if acting like this would kill any chances of Xiao Shiqin joining Excellent Era.
Compared to the commotion within the community, Ye Xiu looked at the pro player group in QQ. There was a bit of a discussion going on there, but the players speaking were those that hadn’t made it to the playoffs. The playoff teams were nervously preparing for their matches. They didn’t have the free time to chat. For them, no matter which team Xiao Shiqin ended up going to, that team would become a formidable opponent. For the first round, the key issue that they needed to look into was Samsara’s improvement.
Samsara would be the most formidable opponent that they would be facing in the near future. As a result, the various teams needed to hurry up and figure out Samsara’s exact situation.
The more Wei Chen looked at the analyses, the angrier he became. Many of them pointed at Xiao Shiqin possibly joining Excellent Era. Eventually, Wei Chen finally slammed the table: “Steamed Bun, what level are you?! Hurry up! There’s no time! Hurry up and get to max level so we can start practicing.”
“Okay okay. I’m leveling right now.” Steamed Bun replied energetically.
“Sigh, the bad news comes right after the good news. What an ordeal.” Wei Chen sighed. His incredible joy at earning so much money had been completely wiped away.
“Be a bit more calm. You’re always panicking. You’re over 30 already. Pick two young players out of the competitive scene and their ages combined would be less than yours. They wouldn’t be as nervous as you either. Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself?” Ye Xiu said.
“I have to express my feelings somehow. Holding it in would affect my condition too much.” Wei Chen said.
Soon, they witnessed how Wei Chen planned on expressing his feelings. Samsara had easily pranced through the first round of playoffs. The entire guild was full of joy. On the other hand, Wei Chen seemed to have eaten an explosive. When he led his team, he shouted at them furiously as if they were lower than dogs. Ye Xiu glanced at Wei Chen’s screen. His team had just started killing a small mob of monsters. By the time they reached the boss, his entire team would have probably disconnected from being lectured so miserably.
The sixth day, seventh day, and eighth day passed. The playoffs wouldn’t stop because of the commotion. The matches continued. Blue Rain and Tiny Herb defeated 301 and Void without a hitch. (Oh, Blue Rain and 301’s match should have been before Samsara and Thunderclap’s. I forgot, but it shouldn’t matter too much as long as everyone knows……) However in the match between Tyranny and Misty Rain, Misty Rain maintained their advantage in their away game and won against Tyranny.
Even though Tyranny was a powerhouse team, being eliminated by Team Misty Rain wasn’t too shocking. After all, Tyranny’s ace player Han Wenqing was old. At the start of the Alliance, he had fought for three championship titles against Excellent Era. In the fourth season, they ended Excellent Era’s dominance and Tyranny’s golden age had begun.
Now, as the seasons went by and the next generation of players were taking over, Tyranny and Excellent Era began to decline in the eyes of others.
In addition, no team in the playoffs could be considered weak. If not, wouldn’t the playoffs be boring?
When Tyranny was eliminated, their captain Han Wenqing expressed his sorrows, but he didn’t seem to be in low spirits: “We’ll be back next year.” His words seemed to cover Team Misty Rain’s victory spotlight.
Be that as it may, the media generally reported it as the end of an era.
Of the two top Gods in the past, one had retired and the other was struggling to hang on.
Of the two former dragons, one had been relegated, while the other had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
When Han Wenqing said “We’ll be back next year”, everyone considered it to be his stubbornness to continue. It was admirable, but some things couldn’t change by conviction alone.
Tyranny might be able to stand on stage for the playoffs again, but few believed that they still had the competitive strength to take the championship home, especially after witnessing Excellent Era falling and getting relegated. Some even wondered if Tyranny would quickly collapse and never recover.
The Tyranny fans strongly opposed this view, of course.
“You’re joking!” Some of the fans scoffed, “Don’t forget who our captain is! He’s someone who wasn’t discouraged after failing to win the championships three years in a row. Then, in the fourth year, he dethroned Excellent Era. As long as Han Wenqing is there, our Tyranny will never end up like Excellent Era!”
As Tyranny’s fans, they weren’t polite at all with Excellent Era They had laughed as Excellent Era declined during the regular season. People were now grouping Tyranny with Excellent Era. How could they bear it?
When the first round of the playoffs had ended, there were countless questions left unanswered.
The four that that advanced were Blue Rain, Samsara, Tiny Herb, and Misty Rain and were without a doubt powerful teams. Among the eliminated teams, many of them had been moved.
But time didn’t stop for anyone. The four advancing teams quickly began the next round.
Blue Rain versus Misty Rain, Samsara versus Tiny Herb. The outcome of these two confrontations would decide who would advance to the finals.
At Happy Internet Cafe, they were also in a discussion when they saw Tyranny get eliminated.
“Didn’t he change? How did they still lose?” Chen Guo found it hard to understand how Tyranny had lost.
“Did you think he would go Super Saiyan?!” Ye Xiu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “He’s changed, but he’s still trying to figure it out. The strengths and weaknesses of his changes haven’t shown yet!”
As Ye Xiu explained the reason to Chen Guo, he contacted Little Cold Hands.
“I’ve received your account card.” Ye Xiu reported to Little Cold Hands.
“Okay.” Little Cold Hands replied.
“After I increase your skill points, you should know that the value of your account card will be very different.” Ye Xiu said.
“I know.”
“So this account can no longer be considered solely yours.” Ye Xiu said.
“I understand.” Little Cold Hands replied.
“You punk. When we give back the account card, shouldn’t you hand us a down payment?” Wei Chen suddenly popped in. He didn’t care about the two thousand. Let alone Wei Chen being rich now, even when things had been difficult, Wei Chen had never placed much importance on money. Because of this, he hadn’t liked how Little Cold Hands had bickered about it.
“Then how much should I give?” Little Cold Hands asked.
“That depends on how many skill points we get once we finish clearing all the quests.” Wei Chen said.
“But isn’t giving a down payment improper practice?” Little Cold Hands said.
“Hm? You punk. When you asked for a down payment, what was proper about that?” Wei Chen flared up.
“You were the one to propose the down payment!” Little Cold Hands said.
“Stop speaking nonsense.” Wei Chen retorted, when he discovered that everyone else was staring at him.
“What? I proposed it?” Wei Chen scratched it. Everyone nodded their heads.
“Fine. I was just trying to show some goodwill. Who would have thought that this punk would actually agree?” Wei Chen said.
In the group chat, Ye Xiu asked: “Student An, what are your thoughts?”
“Usually, if a team needs a player’s account, don’t they usually buy out the account?” Little Cold Hands said.
“Usually.” Ye Xiu said.
“Then I won’t return the 2000 and I’ll say that you guys bought it out?” Little Cold Hands said.
“F*ck me. The first thing you do is earn 2000 from us! How capable of you!” Wei Chen shouted.
“It’s just an account transfer, that’s all. If it isn’t clear who owns the account, that isn’t good, no?” Little Cold Hands said.