Chapter 966: On Stage for the First Time
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Owing to Excellent Era’s leadership, why did Ye Qiu change his name to Ye Xiu? Although this question wasn’t asked, it already wasn’t the main point of the interview. During the whole interview, she couldn’t help but wish that she would hear simple answers like "Excellent Era is a piece of sh*t. This senior is going to destroy it."
Except, Chen Guo also knew that everything Ye Xiu said was true. Revenge? In reality this was just something Chen Guo thought of every day. Ye Xiu had never revealed such thoughts.He only wanted to defeat Excellent Era because the two sides had encountered one another in the Challenger League, and only one could survive in the end. It was that simple.
It was a pity that saying this truth in an interview sounded like empty and polite words anyone would say in the situation. When the Friday news report came out, Chen Guo immediately went online to search. Sure enough, people were mocking Ye Xiu’s hypocrisy and false politeness. However, Chen Guo had learned her lesson from last time. This time, she didn’t dare go to fight with those guys again. Returning to the team, she also didn’t dare tell them the news, afraid that it would affect everyone’s moods for the match that evening. She could only smother her anger and endure.
Eight o’clock, the second round of the offline portion of the Challenger League began. Team Happy’s opponent was Team Ten Steps One Kill.
Through the first round of the competition, they had gathered some information about Ten Steps One Kill. Before the match, Ye Xiu had created a few targeted plans.
A normal player team didn’t have the qualifications and balance of a professional team. The strength of the players within these teams often varied greatly. Ten Steps One Kill had a total of seven players, in order to avoid forcing a healer to fight during the individual part of the match. However, their seventh member served more as a placeholder. With his skill level, which was close to that of any regular player, he would have trouble beating even Chen Guo. In addition, among the remaining three players, there were three that were clearly at a level far above the others. In the past, the tactics employed by Ten Steps One Kill relied heavily on these three winning in the group arena, earning two points. During the team competition, these three would also lead, usually being able to win and get the five points. As for the individual competition, they would let the other three non-healers fight. If one of them managed to earn a point, well, a point was a point.
From the previous round, it was obvious that this kind of arrangement had already become habit for them. During the individual competition, the three weakest members didn’t earn a single point between them. This kind of opening would usually mean very low morale. However, because the players in Ten Steps One Kill were all very used to this kind of situation, they weren’t affected one bit during the group arena, having three experts who could steadily take two points. Only, during the later team competition, Team Trader displayed a much more harmonious team strength and coordination. Ten Steps One Kill finally lost a team competition, only obtaining two points against the others team’s eight points in Round 1.
The group placements were determined through total accumulated points. Every point could potentially affect a team’s final standing, and so every point should be fiercely fought for. Team Ten Steps One Kill, using their present arrangement, was left in a helpless situation.
On Happy’s side, if speaking about individual strength, there were also large disparities. However, at least every member was above the level of a normal player. Outside of Chen Guo, no one was merely serving as a placeholder. Thus, they didn’t have to use this kind of sacrificial strategy**. They would vigorously strive for every point.
However, outside of fighting for points, Ye Xiu also hoped to let every player (especially the newcomers) experience the atmosphere of an official match. Therefore, in the space for the final individual round, Ye Xiu wrote in Luo Ji’s name.
By this point, Luo Ji had played Glory for more than a year already. Having trained under the guidance of Ye Xiu, he had also greatly improved his skill. At his current level, beating Chen Guo wouldn’t be a problem. This made Chen Guo feel both gratified and depressed. After all, she was also a veteran player of Glory! In the end, she had still helplessly watched as Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, Luo Ji… One by one, all these new players that had started from scratch quickly left her behind in a cloud of dust.
Chen Guo couldn’t just not accept this. Happy’s various training methods, she had obviously tried them all herself. While she had indeed gotten better, she was still far behind these new players, who had improved like lightning. Tang Rou and Steamed Bun were both extremely gifted from the start. With only on their hand speed, both had already been at a higher level than Chen Guo, so she didn’t feel too strongly. However, Luo Ji had truly started from nothing, steadily improving until Chen Guo was far behind him. Throughout this entire process, every minute, every second, Chen Guo had vividly felt it all. She really was a bit envious, of these guys’ youth, of them having so much room to improve, whereas she was entirely lacking. This, she knew well now after receiving so much high-level training. She knew exactly what her limits were now. It was like that whack-a-mole game 1 Ye Xiu had given her. At a certain level, no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn’t be able to pass.
Therefore, after reaching the offline tournament, Chen Guo never again made a fuss about going on stage to play a round. She knew that her days as a player had since passed. Here was the stage, and it belonged to the ones who truly had the ability to stand atop it.
The individual competition would be fought by Wei Chen, Luo Ji, and Tang Rou.
The group arena consisted of Steamed Bun, Qiao Yifan, and Ye Xiu himself.
In the team competition, Tang Rou, Luo Ji, Qiao Yifan, Ye Xiu, and An Wenyi would fight, with Wei Chen as the substitute.
Young people really had so many opportunities. Except one guy. Although Mo Fan had come together with them, he still maintained a completely indifferent attitude. As a result, Ye Xiu continued his old method of ignoring the guy.
During the match that night, when their opponent’s first player went on stage, Ye Xiu was dumbstruck. Team Ten Steps One Kill, which had always given up the Individual rounds in the past, had actually sent out one of their three experts this time!
"What? They changed their strategy?" Ye Xiu scratched his head.
The player from Team Ten Steps One Kill appeared very confident in this tactical move, taking sure and measured steps onto the stage. Seeing that Happy had sent out a raggedly old coot, one who had only tossed his cigarette after being berated by the referee, he silently laughed harder. Wei Chen, this name really did sound ancient. Although the online newspapers had given him an introduction once before, they had only mentioned him in once. There hadn’t been any buzz at all. After all, there were very few people who would watch the Challenger League that closely.
Soon afterwards, both sides took a seat and loaded their characters from their account cards. The player from Ten Steps One Kill took a look at this Windward Formation’s equipment.
Silver Letters, no description available.
Silver Letters, no description available.
Silver Letters, no description available . . .
The player from Ten Steps One Kill moved his mouse quickly, seeing that there was indeed only a silver name for each piece of equipment.
Silver equipment . . .
Eight…
The player felt numb. He really wanted to kneel . . . eight pieces of Silver equipment, what level was this character at? At the same time, the stadium was in uproar. By watching from this player’s viewpoint, everyone was able to see that Windward Formation had actually been equipped with eight pieces of Silver equipment! The commotion didn’t just come from the spectators. The competitors were in uproar as well, including those from Excellent Era.
A character with eight pieces of Silver equipment wouldn’t be considered weak even in the Alliance.
The first match quickly began. Ten Steps One Kill’s player was already entertaining thoughts of directly kneeling in surrender. The battle came to an end without suspense, with Wei Chen seizing the point. Afterwards, as Wei Chen walked off the stage in an exceedingly lofty manner, he turned to the audience and waved, drawing a lot of boos from the crowd. A majority of those who came to watch would be fans of Excellent Era, and in the eyes of Excellent Era’s fans, Happy could only be called demonic.
"How about it? Seeing me suddenly come out with eight pieces of Silver equipment, I bet the opponent directly wet his pants in fear, right?" Returning to the player’s preparation area, Wei Chen continued to brag.
"Amazing." Ye Xiu said halfheartedly. At this moment, the second pair of fighters had already begun to walk on stage. Ten Steps One Kill had sent out another of their three great experts, against Happy’s Luo Ji.
Although this expert’s level was a bit higher than Luo Ji’s, he had clearly been affected by last round’s conclusion. He looked a bit panicked. On the other hand, Luo Ji’s Concealed Light was equipped with two pieces of Silver equipment. This, along with a full set of Orange equipment, including the Orange Tiger Seal, gave him a stunning aura. The opponent was nearly trembling with fear. Yet, he quickly gained the upper hand, because in reality Luo Ji was was even more nervous than he was.
This kind of competition stage was completely new to Luo Ji. He was so nervous that his entire body was stiff, from his fingers to his facial expression. His mechanics were a mess. He made mistakes everywhere. His movements were choppy and not at all fluid. His opponent had practically no difficulty at all in annihilating him.
Victory?
This match had been won far too easily. The player from Ten Steps One Kill couldn’t believe it, stepping off stage with a blank look on his face.
Luo Ji also had an upset expression. Although, as a high IQ math major, he was well aware of why he had lost, it was unlikely that this one defeat would destroy his confidence. After all, Luo Ji had grown together with Team Happy. When the team members compared notes with one another in the arena, even Chen Guo had been able to suppress him easily in the beginning. To think that Luo Ji would be affected by one loss was completely unfair. Who knew how many times he had lost in the past year?
"How was it? It’s quite different from normally fighting online, isn’t it?" Ye Xiu smiled.
"It’s really very different." Luo Ji sighed regretfully, "For a second there, I even forgot where I was....
"It’s good that you’re getting used to it." Ye Xiu didn’t say more. He let Luo Ji go onstage in order to help him adapt to this kind of atmosphere. Losing points because of this was to be expected.
After Luo Ji, Tang Rou was up. Ten Steps One Kill sent out their third expert. After a crushing defeat and a decisive victory, it was obvious that this player was at a complete loss. However, seeing Soft Mist’s name, immediately his mentality was shaken. Soft Mist was currently Happy’s most famous character after Lord Grim. Pretty much everyone knew that this person was a very powerful expert.
The match proved this point. In the third round, although the fight wasn’t entirely one-sided, Tang Rou still won directly and efficiently, not giving her opponent the least bit of hope.
And so, the other side’s three great experts had only obtained one point in total. These last minute tactics appeared as if they hadn’t helped at all.
Yet in the later group arena, there would be no suspense about who would come out to fight. Ten Steps One Kill only had seven people total, so it could only be two weaklings and a placeholder.
From Team Happy, Steamed Bun was the first to go up, completing a magnificent 1v3. As he came offstage, he brandished his arm, showing off his biceps.
"Do you see this? Study this point well!" After coming down, Steamed Bun actually had an excuse to lecture his "little brother" Luo Ji.
The team competition afterwards ended with even less suspense. With Ye Xiu personally watching over, a win was basically guaranteed, so it was more about hoping everyone could adapt to the competitive atmosphere.
This match was also the debut of An Wenyi, who appeared completely unflustered and performed steadily. Even Luo Ji, who had been helpless during the individual match, returned to his normal self under the support of his team members.
In the team competition, they won another five points.