Chapter 793: A Player Switch
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Li Rui lost again!
The studio fell silent. Everyone seemed to be staring at their own screens, but they couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Li Rui.
Li Rui’s expression was even uglier than before. His heart was filled with resentment, but he could not help but admit that his opponent was not as simple as he had anticipated. Anyone with a bit of skill could see that. Someone without any skill could still tell from the final health points on each character.
When Li Rui’s Silent Night fell, Soft Mist had hit red blood. She had less than ten percent of her health left.
These two players were roughly evenly matched. Who won or lost each confrontation wouldn’t be a surprising result. It just depended on who performed better at that time.
Li Rui had originally been playing well, but unfortunately, he was thinking about too many things. Mid-match, he saw everyone cheering his name and his train of thought flew too far. If he couldn’t focus, how could he hope to beat an equally skilled opponent? Li Rui understood this point, so the regret in his heart couldn’t easily be described with words. He stood up fiercely and stepped towards Chen Yehui. His face was red with embarrassment: "Give me another Battle Mage!"
Of course he would be embarrassed. He lost two matches and exchanged two accounts. Now he was asking for a third. He knew that his thoughts had been seen through, but in order to prove himself and seize this perfect opportunity, the ambitious Li Rui had to throw aside his dignity. He had seen the cheers and support from the fans earlier. If he could beat Soft Mist, he would certainly win a substantial amount of attention.
Chen Yehui’s heart was filled with disdain towards Li Rui, but he couldn’t show it on his face. He was just about to laugh out loud, when he saw the screen. He smiled: "Wait first. Qiu Fei is already up."
Li Rui was surprised. He checked his screen. Sure enough, Qiu Fei had taken Demon Fighter and stood at the competitor seat.
"Why is it this guy again?" The spectators didn’t know that this account was being exchanged back and forth. Seeing the loser Demon Fighter jump out again, they were both puzzled and scornful. To the spectators, this Demon Fighter was overestimating his own abilities.
Why was Demon Fight being looked at with contempt? Wasn’t it because Li Rui fought in such a disgusting manner? When Li Rui saw the public opinion towards Demon Fighter, his face burned white-hot. Aren’t they talking about me? Right now, Qiu Fei had taken Demon Fighter and was being criticized for it. Li Rui turned his head to take a look at him. Qiu Fei, who had his character standing on the competitor seat, acted the same as during practice. Qiu Fei sat upright in his chair. His eyes were focused only on the screen. His left hand rested on the keyboard and his right hand gripped his mouse tightly as if it would never let go.
"Watch Qiu Fei first and then we’ll see." Chen Yehui said plainly and ignored Li Rui. Even though he didn’t like Qiu Fei, he couldn’t bear Li Rui’s cockiness. He was looking forward to seeing Qiu Fei give Li Rui a slap to the face.
Tang Rou didn’t refuse the match. She didn’t care if that Demon Fighter returned. Chen Guo was furious though. Didn’t they say that the match would be played according to the official competition ruleset? It’s fine if we don’t need to switch out if we win, but when could you ever try again after losing?
Chen Guo despised how unreasonable the opponents were being, but it wasn’t reason enough to argue. The purpose of this exhibition wasn’t to follow the official competition rules.
The two Battle Mages were sent to the field. After the countdown, another match began.
Tang Rou’s victory over Li Rui had not been easy. The exhaustion felt from battling against an evenly-matched opponent could not compare to the exhaustion felt from bullying normal players. Even so, when the match began, Tang Rou was the first to act.
Her opening move was the same as the previous match. As soon as she found the perfect distance, she sent over a Dragon Tooth.
This time, Demon Fighter did not wait foolishly to be hit. When the Dragon Tooth came, he stepped slightly to the side, just barely dodging it. At the same time, his spear stabbed back with Dragon Tooth.
Soft Mist turned her body to avoid the attack. She switched up her offense and her spear swept in a horizontal arc: Tyrant’s Destruction!
Demon Fighter did not change skills. He seemed to insist on using Dragon Tooth, but his body had started moving according to the direction of Tyrant’s Destruction.
A character’s movement speed couldn’t compare to the speed of a weapon. Even if Demon Fighter rotated, he would still be hit by Tyrant’s Destruction. However, just this slight movement was able to win him just enough time for Dragon Tooth to hit.
This tiny time difference was too subtle. Spectators who weren’t matching the fight closely might not even have noticed Demon Fighter’s slight rotation. Only true experts would know that without this rotation, Demon Fighter would not have gotten this result.
Dragon Tooth, hit!
The brief stun interrupted Soft Mist’s Tyrant’s Destruction. Although Dragon Tooth was a low-level skill, it was very useful. How could Qiu Fei not be proficient at utilizing the brief stun induced by Dragon Tooth? He flicked his mouse and followed up with Tyrant’s Destruction, Sky Strike, Falling Flower Palm, and various Chasers. He weaved low-level skills with high-level skills, following a standard flowchart for his combo. In an instant, Soft Mist was completely suppressed.
This time, the spectators were dumbstruck. How did Soft Mist suddenly end up in this state? In the first match, Soft Mist’s fight with Silent Night hadn’t even been this dominant.
No, not just Silent Night. Everyone had come to this room to watch the PvP exhibition every day and had never seen Soft Mist be at such a disadvantage. Demon Fighter had created history. But the problem was that everyone’s memory of his sluggishness was still fresh in their minds. How did he suddenly become so incredible?
The spectator chat suddenly stopped moving. The players didn’t know what to say.
Tang Rou wasn’t like Li Rui, whose brain crashed and died in one combo. In the midst of the combo pressure, she quickly found an opportunity to escape and pulled the match back to the starting point. But from their health bars, she was already on the losing side. For the spectators, this was unprecedented. After a long pause, someone finally typed: "A player switch?"
Such a dramatic difference made the crowd think of this possibility, which happened to be the truth. But the truth behind the truth was that Li Rui’s Demon Fighter shouldn’t have lost in such an ugly fashion. If he had found an opportunity, he would have also been able to snatch the first glory and combo Soft Mist. Unfortunately, he played so sluggishly that even he wanted to switch accounts to pretend he was a new player.
Qiu Fei didn’t care at all. He took the considered stupid character and gave everyone a shock. The halo of stupidity left by Li Rui didn’t affect him at all. He was the expert in the crowd’s eyes. They would not mistake him for that idiot from before.
Li Rui naturally felt embarrassed. As he sat foolishly at his seat, his face changed from red to white. The opportunity that he had been waiting for was going to be taken by Qiu Fei? After the spectators recovered from their shock, they had begun cheering for Qiu Fei. This time, Qiu Fei’s Demon Fighter held the advantage. The crowd’s excitement and cheers for Qiu Fei were naturally more intense than when Li Rui used Silent Night.
Li Rui tightened his fist. His fingers dug into his hand, but he didn’t feel pain, only jealousy and resentment. Why did he fail to grab at that opportunity? Why did Qiu Fei take it instead?
If Qiu Fei took this match, it would break Team Happy’s perfect win streak. Li Rui knew very well what type of attention such an outcome would bring. If not, he wouldn’t have cared to go first. Unfortunately, his dreamed moment was gradually floating farther away!
Lose! Why aren’t you losing! If you lose, this chance will still be mine!
Li Rui became a supporter of Happy. He wanted to see Happy win this fight more than anyone else. He prayed for Soft Mist to suddenly gain momentum and for Qiu Fei to make a mistake.
Reality failed to meet his prayers.
Qiu Fei fought steadily. He didn’t relax because of his advantage nor did he underestimate his opponent for being from an Internet cafe team. He didn’t think about the future like Li Rui had. In his eyes, this was a match. The purpose of a match was to beat his opponent and win, nothing more.
Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart!
Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart!
The two Battle Mages actually chose to use the same move. The two spears whistled through the air and clashed. It looked as if they came out at the same time.
That was just for normal players though. For skilled players, they could see that Soft Mist had started up the skill earlier! That was a contest of hand speed.
In that instant, Li Rui felt overjoyed. This Soft Mist was really tenacious. If this strike hit, the tides might shift. By riding on this momentum, she could gain a lead.
"Beautiful!" Li Rui couldn’t control himself because he was waiting for this moment to happen. It was only after he shouted it out did he realize that his words were inappropriate. Even if he didn’t Qiu Fei, it wasn’t a suitable time. It was a problem with his integrity!
But who would have thought that at this moment, the one to be hit by Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart was actually Soft Mist. Both players saw the same opportunity, but the one to seize it was Qiu Fei.
Li Rui, who let out a slip of the tongue, was stunned, but the others were all looking at him with admiration. He couldn’t help but blush with shame. He knew everyone had misunderstood. They probably also thought that Soft Mist would win the exchange. However, Qiu Fei actually struck first. His "Beautiful!" made it seem like his eyes were exceptionally perceptive.
"It looks like today’s opponent has some background." At Happy, Wei Chen was watching the battle too and gave a sigh towards Ye Xiu. But he didn’t think he wouldn’t get a response. When he turned his head, he unexpectedly saw Ye Xiu staring dumbly at his screen!