Chapter 425 – A Difficult Start
Excellent Era’s three players could truly be said to have come in high spirits and returned disappointed. They had originally thought that it would be an absolutely safe and easy battle, but the sudden appearance of another character made them return empty-handed.
The information they received gave them no way of deducing how skilled Chasing Haze really was. For pro players, an opponent they didn’t understand was a very scary thing, especially if the opponent was also at a pro level. They couldn’t be careless. Even though they didn’t care if the characters they were borrowing died a billion times, the problem was, dying again and again with no results would hurt their pride. Unless it was their only option left, they preferred not to shamefully die in order to figure out how skilled their mysterious opponent was.
“I think…….” Wang Ze, who had been too afraid to say anything, saw that the two had completely stopped talking, so he started up the conversation again: “That Chasing Haze might not be that skilled.”
“Oh?” Liu Hao and He Ming both looked at Wang Ze.
“If she really was as good as Su Mucheng, they wouldn’t have needed to run away in the beginning. If they directly contended against us, we might not have the advantage, no?” Wang Ze said.
After Liu Hao heard this, he nodded his head: “You’re right. From what you said, it wasn’t our mistake in thinking that she wasn’t Su Mucheng. But the thing is…… it’s still hard to say how skilled she is. If she didn’t dare to directly confront us, then it means that she’s not as good as Su Mucheng. However, Su Mucheng needs Ye Qiu next to her in order to perform at her greatest potential. Her ability to deal with close-ranged situations isn’t bad, but it’s still one of her weak areas. After all, it’s not the style she’s used to using.”
Wang Ze stared dumbly. On the other side, He Ming followed: “So you’re saying that if you compare this Chasing Haze with Su Mucheng, Chasing Haze definitely has a good synergy with Ye Qiu, but it’s still hard to say how good she is as an individual?”
“Right.” Liu Hao nodded his head.
“But how are we supposed to figure out her skill and have the guild deal with it?” He Ming said.
“We’re being too impatient. The fact that Lord Grim is Ye Qiu is something everyone in the pro scene knows right now. Everyone also knows he’s planning on creating his own team to make his come back to the Pro Alliance. I highly doubt the only ones who are worried about this issue is our Excellent Era. Are the other guilds really just going to sit still and do nothing? I’ll go ask Chen Yehui to switch our accounts with three new ones and look for opportunities. For now, we won’t attack and just observe them.” Liu Hao said.
“If that’s the case, it’d be better if we had more alternate characters to switch to at any time. That way, it won’t be as suspicious.” He Ming suggested.
“As for Su Mucheng, pay attention to her from time to time. In the tenth server, she created a low-leveled account to help Ye Qiu. Who knows what she’ll in the Heavenly Domain.” Liu Hao said.
“Should we use our team’s rules to restrict her?” He Ming made another suggestion.
‘It won’t work. Those rules were always seen with one eye open and the other eye closed. Unless she becomes completely hostile to us, those rules are useless. As for Su Mucheng, I doubt that the Club is willing to cause trouble with her. We can’t offend her!” Liu Hao ground his teeth.
Su Mucheng didn’t have any background support her, but she treated everyone warmly and had good relations with everyone in the Club from top to bottom. After Ye Qiu’s retirement, her relationship with the Club had turned a bit stiff, but she was still a pro player and showed the attitude a pro should have. Whether it be the matches or the Club’s activities, she would still do her best. This wasn’t the reason for her protective umbrella though. Su Mucheng’s protective umbrella was her commercial value.
All of the financial benefits that came out of her such as being a spokesman for their advertisements or being the poster model for their team attire and products were all a large reason for the Club’s wealth. In this area, the three of them combined couldn’t compare to Su Mucheng. The Pro Alliance was being commercialized more and more these days and Su Mucheng was a walking money tree. Unless there was no other choice, what Club would give her up?
Ye Qiu having no commercial was his fatal wound.
“Just take note of Su Mucheng and that’ll be good. First, we need to figure out what exactly is up with Chasing Haze. The guild Ye Qiu created in the tenth server is called Happy. You guys should know that Happy is the name of that Internet Cafe next to our Club. Ye Qiu is currently over there as well. For the guild to be name Happy means that he has a very deep relationship with the Internet Cafe’s people. This Chasing Haze might be one of the Internet Cafe’s people. I’ll get Chen Yehui to send someone over to take a look.” Liu Hao said to the two of them, while thinking about the next steps to take. After pondering for awhile, he felt like he had been a bit too impatient. Right after knowing that Lord Grim had entered the Heavenly Domain, they immediately went to try and kill him. It had been too reckless. How could pro players charge in without knowing the situation?
“Among the three of them, the Elementalist has went offline.” In the game, Ye Xiu and Chen Guo had left their original leveling areas. Chen Guo searched for the three characters’ names and quickly found out that the Elementalist had logged off.
“What’s the point in looking them up? For them, one person having several accounts wouldn’t be unusual. You have no way of knowing if that’s really them playing or not. Don’t bother with it.” Ye XIu said.
“That’s troublesome. Then any character we see might be them?” Chen Guo said.
“It really is troublesome, which is why we have to hurry and level!” Ye Xiu said.
“Right now? Still leveling? Aren’t you afraid that they’ll call more players to look for us? This time, if our opponents send even more pro players, will your previous method work?” Chen Guo said.
Along the way, Ye Xiu explained to Chen Guo why he had done what he had done. Ye Xiu had been making preparations in order to intentionally lure the other side into having a misunderstanding. If it really was a true 1v3, with a 20 level disadvantage, beating three pro players would be a miracle. Chen Guo’s help would honestly be useless. It was like if two grown men were in a fight; a little baby on the side couldn’t be considered as a helper.
Playing on two accounts wasn’t easy for Ye Xiu either. There was no way he could have done it for the entire fight. He had just used Lord Grim to create an opportunity and then have Chasing Haze seize the opportunity to make it seem like Chasing Haze was some sort of expert.
Whether or not they believed that Chasing Haze was Su Mucheng wasn’t a misunderstanding Ye Xiu required. Su Mucheng was someone who was always around Excellent Era’s players. Such a misunderstanding that would easily be seen through. It didn’t have any value. They might be mistaken for a short moment, but Ye Xiu knew that they would quickly see through it. Having the three pro players think that Chen Guo was an expert was enough. Three versus one was something they didn’t need to fear at all. Three versus two, with one opponent being a feared top-tier God and the other being an opponent they knew nothing about. In this type of situation, pro players wouldn’t go out and attack recklessly. No one knew these habits better than Ye Xiu did.
“Then where should we go level?” Chen Guo asked.
“Just follow me.” Ye Xiu clearly had a plan already.
“Excellent Era’s players have already put out their hand. What about the other guilds? If they do the same, then how are you supposed to level?” Chen Guo was thinking about this issue. If all of the Club’s guilds allied together to fight against Ye Xiu, their strength in the Heavenly Domain was far more terrifying than their strength in the tenth server. An issue like not having enough players like in Thousand Waves Lake wouldn’t happen. Here, the Clubs had the strength to topple the mountains and turn the seas to drown Lord Grim with numbers.
Even if Ye Xiu was unequalled, he would still make a mistake eventually after a few tries. A single mistake cost 20% of a character’s experience in the Heavenly Domain. With such an environment, how long would it take him to level?
Chen Guo was extremely worried, but she couldn’t think of any ideas. She could only control her character to follow behind Lord Grim. She turned her head to glance at Ye Xiu. His face was as calm as ever, which made Chen Guo relax quite a bit.
After thinking about it for a bit, Chen Guo thought up a countermeasure: “Right now, you’re really famous. Why not use this opportunity to create your guild in the Heavenly Domain? The Clubs care about their image. With a guild behind you, they at least wouldn’t act openly.”
Ye Xiu heard this and laughed: “They were never going to act openly. In the Heavenly Domain, the top guilds have been operating for a long time. How could they not have many open accounts? Even if they acted secretly, they still have more than enough strength, so the guilds really wouldn’t care. If we ignored that and created one, it would be very difficult for it to remain. I’m only Level 50. I can’t even do Level 55 dungeons and even if I could, who would be interested in playing with a Level 55? I might be skilled, but my current strength isn’t enough to give others any benefit. If they can’t get any benefit with me, why would they go to our guild? Join our guild and also get killed?”
“I’m talking about your identity! You have a lot of fans. They won’t care about that.” Chen Guo said.
Ye Xiu laughed: “You can say that, but who would believe me?”
Chen Guo stared dumbly. That was true. One of the features of the Glory eSports scene was that no matter how amazing a pro character was, they would still have to rely on Glory’s continent. As a result, pro players couldn’t completely escape from the game. Due to this, there have been many who pretended they were a pro player saying things like “I’m Ye Qiu! I’m creating a guild, follow me!” To put it plainly, this wasn’t the first time such a thing was done. Players had already become numb to these types of words. No one would believe a pro player would come do this type of thing. Later, the Pro Alliance directly set up a rule prohibiting any pro player from doing this.
Ye Qiu might be retired pro player and wouldn’t be restricted by these rules, but no one would be convinced with a casual “I’m Ye Qiu.”
“Then have people with status prove it?” Chen Guo said.