Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Was this a smokescreen of Happy’s or not? The players were curious and the debate raged on. However, apart from Blue Rain, the other teams didn’t concern themselves with it. What tricks did Happy have up their sleeve? Either way, Blue Rain was their lab rat. Once they fought with Blue Rain, then everything would be revealed. It wasn’t like the other teams were gonna meet Happy first round, so why should they care?
All the teams were working hard to prepare to take down their respective opponents. On the dawn of the war, everything was quiet. There was no more news or rumors flying about, just each team silently preparing for that fateful moment.
June 14th, the opening match of much anticipated playoffs began.
City K, at Hundred Blossom’s home stadium, Hundred Blossom’s captain Yu Feng had arrived, alone and too early. He stood in the middle of the field. Here, was exactly here the projections would be, where the characters would tear at one another for victory.
Yu Feng looked up, gazing at the high end projection technology.
Here he was, once more…
Yu Feng looked around the venue.
It had been two years since he had came to Hundred Blossoms, and this was the second time he had stood on the stage of Hundred Blossoms’ playoffs journey. Last year, their opponent had been Tyranny and he had personally seen the attitude Hundred Blossoms’ fans had towards Zhang Jiale. It looked like hate, but was this hate not born from love? In the end, it was because Zhang Jiale was important to them. Yu Feng hoped to gain such importance, so he always did his best at Hundred Blossoms, and he hoped to bring Hundred Blossoms something they had never had before.
The championship!
Yu Feng had won the championships before, and this made him far more fortunate than many of the other players in their circle. However, that championship bore too many marks from other people. He wasn’t primary in that championship. Yu Feng hoped to have a championship that, when people thought of it, they would immediately think of his name.
That was why he stood here, and mercilessly abandoned the team he once loved so deeply, Blue Rain. Because of that, that brainless fan of Blue Rain’s, Zuo Chenrui, had dragged his name through the mud and stomped on it, but Yu Feng merely smiled and dismissed it.
In the face of what he pursued, none of this was important. The world was fair. If he wanted to gain something, then he would have to lose something. This was, more or less, the basis of the principle of equivalent exchange. This was what he had done, and wasn’t this also what Hundred Blossoms’ ex-captain Zhang Jiale had done?
Of course, him and Blue Rain weren’t like Zhang Jiale and Hundred Blossoms, and this was one of the reasons he had come to Hundred Blossoms. Yu Feng had even, embarrassingly enough, had a dream where after he left Blue Rain and joined Hundred Blossoms, Blue Rains fans treated him the same way Hundred Blossoms had treated Zhang Jiale. That wasn’t any sort of great situation to be in, and Zhang Jiale’s pain was plain to see, but Yu Feng envied him. That was exactly what he sought, after all: to be seen as important!
He knew that his position in their hearts couldn’t compare to Zhang Jiale, and probably even fell short of their previous Berserker Sun Zheping, but Yu Feng had confidence because he was already completely a part of Hundred Blossoms. He believed that his efforts would be seen by Hundred Blossoms’ fans, and now, what he had to do, was charge through this first stage.
Samsara!
The strongest team, in the eyes of countless. In this matchup, the online polls had 81 percent of people with their bets on Samsara, an overwhelming advantage.
But what was funny was, that in the regular season when the two teams faced off, Hundred Blossoms had won 7 to 3 once, and then lost 4 to 6 last time. If you added the scores, Hundred Blossoms was in the lead 11 to 9! From this, it could be seen that sometimes, statistics really meant nothing. Who would think that they were stronger than Samsara just from the advantage from these two matches between them? None, practically none at all. The 19 percent support that Hundred Blossoms had probably wasn’t because anyone thought them stronger, but just that they could win.
Strong and weak, victory and defeat, there was never any certainty in it. Being stronger would increase your chances, but it was never 100 percent. And so long as it wasn’t 100 percent, then there would always be a chance for a different ending. Even if it was one in a million, it was still a possibility.
Right now, it seemed, that the general populace believed that Hundred Blossoms only had a 19 percent of victory.
Then let this 19 percent become reality! Yu Feng took a deep breath and glanced at the time. It was still early, nowhere near 8:30 PM. After taking a walk across the competition stage, he decided to leave, but that was when he saw Zou Yuan. This teammate of his had also come to the stadium and was ascending the stairs to the stage.
“You came, too?” Yu Feng asked. Though the two were rather far away from each other, there was no one in the stadium, making it completely silent. Yu Feng barely had to raise his voice to hear it echo throughout the stadium.
“Yeah, I came to get a feel for the atmosphere ahead of time,” Zou Yuan replied.
“Get a feel? How?” Yu Feng looked behind him. There was not a single person in the stadium. It was dead silent.
“I’m going to put my imagination to the test, as exaggerated as possible. That way, when the time comes, I’ll just think to myself ‘Ha, so that’s it?’ Then, I won’t feel the pressure anymore,” Zou Yuan said.
Yu Feng laughed. The pressure the team had suddenly piled on top of his teammate had nearly driven his teammate crazy. He was probably thinking of that time as a way to alleviate the match pressure!
He looked towards Zou Yuan, who stood at the edge of the stage staring at the empty spectator seats. Suddenly, Zou Yuan shut his eyes and opened his arms, focusing on his method of relieving the pressure he felt. Yu Feng didn’t utter a sound. He simply watched him quietly, not even taking a step.
A short while later, he saw Zou Yuan retract his arms, open his eyes, look at him, and chuckle.
“Done?”
“Done. Would you like to try?” Zou Yuan asked.
“Me? Nah! It doesn’t suit me. If the crowd isn’t is as spirited as I imagine, I’d probably be disappointed,” Yu Feng said.
“哈哈,说得是,你和我不一样啊!”邹远感慨道.
“Haha, true. You’re different than me!” Zou Yuan sighed.
Yes, the two were different, not alike in the slightest.
The pressure that Zou Yuan had nearly gone mad from was exactly what Yu Feng had always hoped to have.
Zou Yuan feared that pressure, but Yu Feng enjoyed it.
When Yu Feng came to Hundred Blossoms, Zou Yuan didn’t hesitate to hand over his responsibilities as the core player and the captain to Yu Feng. After the pressure onto him lessened, Zou Yuan worked hard to learn those responsibilities, to seize the good fortune that had been forced onto him. His efforts gradually paid off, but he didn’t regret his decision of giving up his core position. In the end, he couldn’t change his personality. The roles with the most pressure, captain and core player, were far more suited for Yu Feng, who would certainly do better at them than he could.
How fun!
Zou Yuan couldn’t help but think to himself sometimes. The two of them were opposites, yet they had ended up becoming teammates and partners. Was it because they were different that it was easy for them to complement each other? In this season’s evaluations for Best Partners, the two had earned high marks.
Is it the revival of Blood and Blossoms?
Zou Yuan remembered the target the Club had initially given the two of them. Now it looked like they would just have to make do. Blood and Blossoms required a quick connected playstyle. It wasn’t as simple as just having the technical portions down. The personalities of the players mattered too. Unfortunately, Yu Feng was no Sun Zheping, and he was no Zhang Jiale. The two were unable to recreate the former Blood and Blossoms. In the end, they created a style that belonged to only them, a different partnership between Berserker and Spitfire.
This was the so-called passing of time.
The past wast the past. Trying to force a recreation would always lack a certain flavor. What people reminisced wasn’t really Blood and Blossoms, but rather the feelings they first felt seeing Blood and Blossoms. Those feelings could never be replicated because a first was a first. The next time would never be the first, but the second.
Our own style!
Zou Yuan thought to himself. In the beginning, when Zhang Jiale’s Dazzling Blossoms had been left with him, he had been terrified. The team called for him to succeed Zhang Jiale’s position, so he studied Zhang Jiale like his life depended on it to the point that he had almost started copying Zhang Jiale’s habits. But what was the result? He wasn’t able to do it as well as the real Zhang Jiale. He couldn’t bear the pressure. That season, Hundred Blossoms had relied on the rising Tang Hao to carry them, while he as the core studied and copied Zhang Jiale, throwing the team out of the season.
Afterwards, he knew that he couldn’t continue on like this. He needed to find a path that would let him survive. As a result, he was very grateful the moment Yu Feng joined the team. Yu Feng had taken that burden off his shoulders, letting him find his own path without any pressure.
Sure enough, they were a good pair! Zou Yuan recalled the idea of being complementary that he had just thought of.
Then next on the list is winning together!
Zou Yuan was just about to say something, when he heard a loud commotion. He and Yu Feng turned their heads towards the other side of the stadium, where a group of people were pouring into the stadium.
Samsara!
It was Team Samsara!
Team Samsara’s members were all present. As soon as they entered, they saw Yu Feng and Zou Yuan standing on the stage. Their footsteps didn’t stop because of this though as they walked onto the stage. Yu Feng checked the time and knew that Samsara was here to warm up too. The away team would often come ahead of time to familiarize themselves with the new environment. It was the playoffs right now. Samsara definitely wasn’t going to miss even the slightest detail that could give them an advantage.
“It’s Hundred Blossom’s two leaders!” As everyone knew, Samsara’s captain Zhou Zekai rarely took the initiative to greet others. The one to greet Yu Feng and Zou Yuan was Samsara’s vice-captain, Jiang Botao.
‘Yup, you guys are here to warm up?” Yu Feng responded. He wasn’t a stranger to Jiang Botao. Their generation of players had an intimacy from growing up as rookies together. Team Samsara had been formed from Season 5, Season 6, and Season 7 players. Many of them were of the same generation as Yu Feng. For example, the All-Stars Jiang Botao and Lu Boyuan had debuted in Season 6 just like him. Yu Feng had undoubtedly been the most eye-catching. That season, he had won both the title Best Rookie and the championship title with Team Blue Rain. Yu Feng’s rookie season had been perfect. The only other one to have garnered such achievements in his first year in the Alliance was Team Tyranny’s Zhang Xinjie.
Even so, it didn’t change one point: their group of Season 6 rookies had all played supporting roles in their respective teams.
The one to break through that fate was Yu Feng. He had joined Blue Rain and came to Hundred Blossoms, becoming the first among the Season 6 rookies to assume a core position.