Chapter 1183: That Familiar Feeling
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
After this genuinely warm-hearted greeting, Happy and Heavenly Swords began their match.
This was Heavenly Swords' home game. Although they were a very distinctive team, just from the number of seats filled, it could seen that they weren't a particularly popular team right now. Even after one year in the Alliance, they weren't any better than Happy. In the end, strength was the most important thing in competition, and Heavenly Swords' strength was only about mid- to low-tier. Additionally, Heavenly Swords wasn't the only professional team in their home city. For many years now, City B was home to Tiny Herb, which was a team that was much more famous and had long established themselves as this city's symbol of Glory. Heavenly Swords was both a weaker and a later team, so it was very difficult for them to establish themselves here.
While they were preparing for this, they had billed themselves as a grassroots team, which made a lot of noise in game. But now everyone knew the truth. The only thing "grassroots" about Heavenly Swords was their strength. The five players were all from extremely rich families. Not a single hair on their heads was "grassroots."
Heavenly Swords wasn't too successful commercially, but no matter how senior or professional a Glory commentator was, they wouldn't casually try to judge the operations of a team like Heavenly Swords, which was formed by some people who played Glory themselves and invested their own money to form a team, even acquiring a stadium. Their beginnings were different, so it wasn't suitable to apply conventional logic to them.
But no matter what kind of background or what kind of business operations, when a team stood here, victory was everything. The players of both teams returned to their respective player areas, until only the first two players in the individual competition remained onstage.
Ye Xiu.
Sun Zheping.
"Not bad." Sun Zheping was very pleased with this matchup, and a fire ignited in his eyes.
He'd retired for many years, and then returned to this stage. This was all familiar to him, and yet foreign at the same time.
What was familiar was that, no matter what updates and upgrades there were, this was still Glory's battlefield, it was still the same 24 classes to slaughter.
What was foreign was that many people he had known in the past were no longer here. With every round of battle this season, all Sun Zheping saw were unfamiliar faces, including the people currently standing by his side. None of them were the Alliance of his memory, the teammates of his memory.
Characters as strong as iron, players like flowing water.
It's all in the past…
This wasn't the first time this sigh had crossed Sun Zheping's mind. But now, in this moment, the one who stood before him on the battlefield - Ye Xiu!
Sun Zheping felt as though he were suddenly transported to those earliest seasons, with familiar people, familiar characters, familiar settings, familiar feelings.
"Let's begin!" Sun Zheping clenched his right hand into a fist, lifted it to his mouth, and blew inside.
In the past, this motion had been his habit, but many fans had now forgotten it. Even Sun Zheping himself hadn't revived this habit after his return. But now, after suddenly rediscovering this feeling of familiarity, this trademark motion naturally reappeared.
"Don't push yourself." Ye Xiu saw everything. He smiled, and entered the competitor booth.
The battle began.
Berserker Another Summer of Sleep, unspecialized Lord Grim, appeared at the two corners of the map.
When the map loaded, the audience was stunned.
This was Heavenly Swords' home game, they had the right to choose the map. For the individual battles, the maps were of course chosen by the battling player. And the map that Sun Zheping chose was the Arena, the map that was limited in size, with no obstacles or changing features. It was the same map that Ye Xiu had chosen in the match against Tyranny, when he completely defeated Zhang Jiale.
And now, Sun Zheping chose this same map to welcome Ye Xiu in a battle. Of course, he hadn't known beforehand that his opponent would be Ye Xiu, but the choice of this map still seemed like it was sending some message to Happy.
"What a…"
Once they entered the map, Ye Xiu was about to send a message, but he'd only typed out two words before Sun Zheping's Another Summer of Sleep had already sprinted several steps forward, sending a Collapsing Mountain his way.
It was a very normal opening for a Berserker, but when Sun Zheping displayed this skill, something felt different about its momentum.
Why was that?
For someone like Ye Xiu, with many years of Glory experience, this wasn't enough to cause a doubt.
It was rhythm, Sun Zheping's rhythm, revealing this fierce and aggressive momentum. Ye Xiu had only typed two words before the light of the blade was already falling.
Ye Xiu could only switch his attention to controlling his character. Complain about the map choice? Sadly, Sun Zheping didn't give him this time.
When the Collapsing Mountain fell, Lord Grim had already rolled to the side. Without waiting, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella opened to become a spear, slashing up with a Sky Strike. It seemed that this skill was a bit hasty, since Sky Strike had lesser priority than Collapsing Mountain. If these two skills met, Collapsing Mountain would shatter the Sky Strike.
But experienced Glory players could quickly realize that the timing of Lord Grim's Sky Strike was impeccable. It would hit the opponent exactly when Another Summer of Sleep's Collapsing Mountain hit the ground and ended, completely avoiding the system's determination of priority.
Unfortunately, Sun Zheping was one of these experienced Glory Players. The Collapsing Mountain, about to hit the ground, was suddenly twisted to the side.
Such a small twist didn't change the time difference between these skills, but it allowed the shockwaves from Collapsing Mountain head closer toward Lord Grim…
The skill had reached its ending sounds, and Ye Xiu noticed this change, but there was no time to change his controls.
Collapsing Mountain hit the ground, and in this moment the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella lifted up in a Sky Strike.
Hit!
Another Summer of Sleep was sent to the air, but at the same time, Lord Grim was blown back.
Lord Grim was unable to dodge the shockwaves of Collapsing Mountain.
This was just two low-level skills, but they encompassed such a rich, exciting confrontation, completed in a rise and fall. Those with weaker eyes, whose skills weren't high enough, didn't even notice the precise timing of the Sky Strike or the urgent adjustment of Collapsing Mountain. Those who just treated this as a direct clash of two skills were, as the saying went, burning a piano for fuel and cooking a crane for meat.
Boom!
At this moment, there was another explosion between the two characters as they were pushed away. Lord Grim, knocked away by the shockwaves of Collapsing Mountain, shifted his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella into gun form and sent an attack toward Another Summer of Sleep. But Another Summer of Sleep immediately used a Blade Master's Guard, parrying the fired bullets with his sword.
"Your reaction's not bad!" This time, Ye Xiu had time to type out a message. This was a change of skill that only an unspecialized could manage, but Sun Zheping still managed to react in time.
"Don't push yourself." Sun Zheping didn't care if the time wasn't exactly right, he just shoved Ye Xiu's exact words from before the match right back at him.
"Not at all." Ye Xiu still sent a reply. As soon as Lord Grim hit the ground after the shockwave, he lifted a cold light and swept toward Another Summer of Sleep.
Assassin skill, Shining Cut!
In an instant, the distance that seemed to be growing between the two characters was suddenly shrunk again. And in this moment, Another Summer of Sleep was still rolling on the ground, a Quick Recover after being hit by Sky Strike.
Destruction Slash!
As Another Summer of Sleep stood up, he unleashed this Destruction Slash.
The Berserker was a wild and aggressive class, and the skills of this classes often had one characteristic: high priority.
The sub-level 20 skills of an unspecialized had no way of competing with the priority of a Destruction Slash. Lord Grim's rushed approach with a Shining Cut seemed more like he was delivering himself into the jaws of a tiger.
The Destruction Slash, carrying the Berserker's intent to kill, surged toward Lord Grim.
But Lord Grim's body vibrated, and a strong aura seemed to envelop his body.
Reinforced Iron Bones!
Lord Grim used this Striker skill now, meaning that he intended to take this Destruction Slash head-on.
The damage of a Destruction Slash wasn't very high, as it was more of an effect-inducing attack. Targets hit by a Destruction Slash would have a large reduction in defense, this was the so-called "destruction." So, taking a Destruction Slash wasn't just sacrificing some health, it also meant that in the next five seconds, the character's defense would be reduced by up to 70%. Classes with naturally high defenses were especially affected by this skill, which was why it was called a nightmare for high-defense classes.
Lord Grim's equipment was a chaotic mess, with no bonus effects from class armor, and the defense granted was all over the place, not following the logic of a single level. And now that he activated Reinforced Iron Bones, which raised his defense not by percent but by points. This, plus the chaotic defense of the character Lord Grim himself, and then reduced 70%, the question of what his defense would ultimately be after all of that was a complicated calculation…
The audience didn't need to calculate, because once this attack hit, they could directly see the changes of the character's stats. And the pro players? With their practiced calculation ability, they could instantly grasp the effect on Lord Grim's defense after a points increase and a percentage decrease.
The end result: 7% reduction.
7% decrease in defense, ten times less than 70%. The effect of this Destruction Slash was basically negated by this Reinforced Iron Bones. But the Reinforced Iron Bones wasn't as simple as just increasing defense. In the 20 seconds of Super Armor after activating this skill, it also guaranteed that the character could unleash unreasonably strong attacks.
The Destruction Slash slammed down.
Lord Grim's body swayed slightly, but under Super Armor, this swaying was basically the extent of the effect of Destruction Slash's priority.
Lord Grim swung his fists, which clenched the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, already shifted into two tonfas.
Straight Punch, Knee Attack, Uppercut, Qi Bullet…
The combo attack was already unleashed, landing like raindrops upon the body of Another Summer of Sleep. Lord Grim's strengthened state exuded an intense madness, hardly below that of a Berserker…
That's right… If he weren't like this, how could he have broken our Blood and Blossoms combination all by himself back then?
As he watched Another Summer of Sleep suffer this succession of attacks, Sun Zheping rediscovered another familiar feeling of days gone by.
Chapter 1184: That Terrible Feeling
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Lord Grim practically only used Grappler close combat skills. In their match versus Tyranny, Zhang Jiale's Dazzling Hundred Blossoms was directly blown out under this howling whirlwind of attacks. What about Zhang Jiale's former partner of Blood and Blossoms, Sun Zheping?
There weren't many in the crowd with such old memories of the past, but for these two players, this match was a battle that had continued from the past until today. Sun Zheping seemed to have never left, and Ye Xiu seemed like that past Battle God.
"It won't be so easy!"
Sun Zheping roared in the chat. Another Summer of Sleep seized an opening, an aura of blood erupted from his body.
Berserk?
No, this was even stronger than Berserk. It was an Awakening skill learned at Level 50: Bloodthirsty Frenzy.
Bloodthirsty Frenzy could not be stacked with Berserk. Only one status effect could exist at one time. Bloodthirsty Frenzy increased offensive stats by 25% more than Berserk, and also gave the user Super Armor and a Bloodthirsty effect, which can be split into two opposing effects. Bloodthirsty gave the user 10% Life-Steal for all attacks, but Bloodthirsty also traded health with each attack, consuming one's own life to deal more damage to the opponent.
When this skill was activated, it was very rare for Berserkers to continue being on the defensive. Just the Super Armor effect that was stronger than Reinforced Iron Bones could let the Berserker avoid the effects of most skills.
However, grabs were a special case. As soon as Ye Xiu saw Sun Zheping activate his awakening skill, he immediately dashed forward to try Fling him. However, Bloodthirsty Berserkers were even more ferocious than Berserk Berserkers. The heavy greatsword was almost like a lightsaber as it cut through the air. Lord Grim's hand had yet to extend when Another Summer of Sleep's greatsword arrived. Ye Xiu realized that if they had to compete in speed, Lord Grim would be at the disadvantage.
Guard!
The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella transformed into a sword. Lord Grim raised the sword horizontally and blocked the attack with a clang. This Guard had been executed tightly, but the Bloodthirsty Another Summer of Sleep had extraordinary strength. Although this attack had been blocked, Lord Grim had actually been knocked back, his two feet sliding over the ground.
This wasn't outside of Ye Xiu's expectations though. Lord Grim borrowed the momentum and leaped back. His sword returned to its sheath, and the umbrella turned into a gun, shooting the ground with Aerial Fire to quickly pull the distance between the two of them. However, Another Summer of Sleep's greatsword had already arrived.
This guy!!
Sun Zheping's speed had exceeded Ye Xiu's imagination.
This attack wasn't a skill. It was just a normal attack, which had little starting and ending lag. The greatsword sliced through the air in an arc to try catch the Aerial-Fire retreating Lord Grim. Aerial Fire worked, but Lord Grim was still caught by the tip of Another Summer of Sleep's greatsword.
Bullets shot straight at Another Summer of Sleep's chest. Blood splattered everywhere, but Another Summer of Sleep didn't even flinch. He raised his greatsword in the air. Sword shadows from Wild Blood Strike spread through the air and hacked at Lord Grim, dragging along a bloody mist.
With just one attack, Lord Grim's health slid down. Even the crowd felt worried.
Knights had exceptional defense. It wasn't just because of the plate armor worn by them, but rather their Plate Armor Proficiency that took the health and defensive capabilities of plate armor to the next step. However, just the existence of Plate Armor Proficiency wouldn't make an Elementalist want to choose Plate Armor for better survivability because they couldn't give up the Intelligence and Cast Speed from Cloth Armor.
Every class obtained huge improvements in combat capabilities from Armor Proficiency, but the unspecialized didn't have these. Lord Grim could only rely on the original stats of the armor to strengthen himself. However, he effectiveness of the armor on Lord Grim was weak. It couldn't compare to his transforming Myriad Manifestations Umbrella.
Wild Blood Strike struck Lord Grim to the ground. Ye Xiu had Lord Grim try to roll away, but Sun Zheping's Another Summer of Sleep was already in pursuit. With an Earth-Shattering Slash and the offensive buffs from Bloodthirsty, it was almost like he teleported. His figure flickered. He suddenly appeared in front of Lord Grim and slashed downwards with his greatsword.
Lord Grim dodged again. However, Earth-Shattering Slash dealt AoE damage, and Lord Grim was unable to completely get out of its range. Under the intense swaying from the earthquake, Lord Grim wasn't able to stand up stably. Another Summer of Sleep slashed twice, horizontally and vertically, completing a Gore Cross.
Hit, hit, consecutive hits!
Sun Zheping bravely activated Bloodthirsty Frenzy, letting him forcefully interrupt Lord Grim's continuous attacks and also giving him the initiative.
This bravery and boldness did not let down his former title as the Number One Berserker. No, even now, no one had this same confidence and this same valor to employ such a brute-force method to take back the initiative. To many people, this type of choice might be unwise. If Lord Grim's grab had been just a bit faster, he might have been able to throw Another Summer of Sleep away before his frenzy of attacks.
However, Sun Zheping had done it. This wasn't his first time either. In his professional career, who knew how many times his risky and imprudent brute-force transformed into the deciding point. This was not just luck. Behind this brute force hid precise observation and judgement. After that was his determination and resolve to put everything into one move. This was what many lacked, but Sun Zheping possessed.
To others, the always advancing Han Wenqing was more fierce, while Sun Zheping was more wild. It was a wildness that disregarded everything else!
"It won't be so easy!"
In the public chat, Sun Zheping's words from before his Bloodthirsty Frenzy activation had yet to disappear. These same words suddenly popped up again. These two seemed to like to return each other's words in today's match. However, did just saying it won't be so easy make it easy?
Lord Grim suddenly trembled. This unspecialized also turned scarlet red. A dense aura of blood seemed to be emanating from his skin.
Bloodthirsty Frenzy?
No, that wasn't possible.
Those who understood the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella knew that while a skill could be added to each transformation, awakening skills such as Bloodthirsty Frenzy were exceptions. Level 50 awakening skills as well as Level 20 class advancement skills were every class's most distinct skills. They were skills that could not be used by any other class. An unspecialized was no exception.
Lord Grim wasn't using Bloodthirsty Frenzy, which meant the only other possibility was Berserk.
Berserk was very different from Bloodthirsty Frenzy, but it was generally viewed as a lower-leveled Bloodthirsty Frenzy. In fact, according to Glory's narrative, Berserkers learned Bloodthirsty Frenzy through their understanding and control over Berserk. Bloodthirsty Frenzy could be considered an upgraded version of Berserk.
At this moment, Lord Grim activated Berserk. Did he want to want to use the budget "Bloodthirsty Frenzy" to fight with the real Bloodthirsty Frenzy? And because it was a skill placed on his weapon, it would only have one skill point in it. This Berserk was far from the Berserk that Berserkers always maxed out. It was like trying to break a stone with an egg!
Everyone was thinking this, but Another Summer of Sleep's next attack unexpectedly missed.
No way?
Everyone was shocked.
It was just a level one Berserk. The buffs given to Lord Grim couldn't be that much, yet just this slight boost made it so that Sun Zheping was unable to react in time?
Yes, he couldn't react in time...
Another attack whiffed. Sun Zheping couldn't help but laugh bitterly.
It had been so many years from his injury to retirement to his return, yet his habits hadn't changed. And Ye Xiu still remembered. As a result, in this match, Sun Zheping searched for the feel from that year and burst forth. Ye Xiu's choice to fight measure for measure suddenly suppressed Sun Zheping's momentum.
The change was because of that Berserk.
Although it was only at level one and the buffs were minimal… Sun Zheping was unable to keep up with this tiny change. This had nothing to do with speed, but rather rhythm. Sun Zheping always pushed his rhythm to the highest. Switch the beat, switch the speed? No. There was no such concept in Sun Zheping's mind. He got to his rhythm in one step and that one step reached the limit. As a result, when Ye Xiu's Lord Grim activated Berserk and his offensive stats increased, Sun Zheping's attack rhythm seemed to have reached a bottleneck, unable to reach the next step. This was because he had already been at his limits. Sun Zheping had always competed at his limits.
Sun Zheping needed to adjust his rhythm, but he wasn't good at it and he felt disgusted doing it. Moreover, he also knew very well that Ye Xiu wanted to stop him there. The instant he changed up his rhythm, Ye Xiu would take back the initiative once again. At their skill level, just this change up in tempo could be the deciding factor of this match.
The difficulties of subtleties within this fight was not able to be understood by even pro players, let alone the average viewer, if they did not understand these two well enough. They would be astonished just like the viewers: it was just a level one Berserk, why can't Sun Zheping keep up?
"How disgusting!" Having his surging offense get cut off like this by Ye Xiu made Sun Zheping feel as sick as if he had eaten a fly. It hadn't been easy for him to find back that familiar feeling from the past. Why did this terrible feeling have to come back too? This opponent is just as annoying as before!
A sense of rhythm… what was that? I'll probably never understand in this lifetime… Against this guy, I'm probably not even doing as well as Zhang Jiale.
In the end, Another Summer of Sleep fell.
The sense of rhythm was an extremely fatal flaw for this first-generation God. Compared to what a pro-level player should possess, his sense of rhythm could be described as a complete mess.
As a result, facing an opponent who knew him well, his weakness was quickly drawn out and he met a crushing defeat.
"Not bad. To think you could still get out that type of offense. You scared me." After the match, Ye Xiu specifically went to call out to him.
"Stop with the nonsense. I still lost." Sun Zheping was annoyed.
"How could you beat me alone?" Ye Xiu laughed.
Chapter 1185: An Opponent Thoroughly Understood
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
In Happy's away game, with Ye Xiu's victory, Happy led 1 to 0. However, for those who supported Happy, this sort of opening was unable to excite them. Recently, Happy had this kind of tempo; their openings were good, but then they started dropping points, especially in the team competition. Up until now, their only team competition victory was against Team Hundred Blossoms.
What about today?
In the current climate, it was still rather rare for Happy's fans to come to their away games. However, Happy had fought in City B in the Challenger League finals. It was the place where they beat Excellent Era. Seven Fields and his group of guild buddies were all residents of this city. In the Challenger League finals, they had formed a small group and came to cheer them on. Guild Happy was flourishing at the moment, and Seven Fields and his guild buddies were core guild members. Team Happy was coming to their city to play a match, so how could they not organize guild members ahead of time to cheer for Happy?
The Pro League's seating arrangements weren't as casual as the Challenger League's. Away team fans would usually be grouped together in one area to avoid being mixed in with home team fans, so if any disagreements arose, there wouldn't be any conflicts. Seven Field's group sat at Happy's away team seats. Quite a few people had come. After Happy won the first round of the individual competition, all of them were cheering loudly. In a stadium usually filled with home team fans, it was quite a spectacle to see.
The second round of the individual competition took place under this type of atmosphere.
Team Happy, Qiao Yifan. Ghostblade, One Inch Ash.
Team Heavenly Swords, Zou Yunhai. Elementalist, Ocean Ahead.
Heavenly Swords' characters had been created when these friends first started playing the game. Now that they were in the pro circle, they switched out their equipment for new ones. After much effort from Lou Guanning and them, they replaced their old equipment for better ones. From this point, Heavenly Swords had pretty good equipment because their efforts were focused! The good things were all piled on their five core characters. Even if the other characters were butt-naked, they wouldn't care. With such a concentration of resources, their characters naturally became a lot stronger, albeit at the cost of their non-core characters.
Happy and Heavenly Swords used to play with each other constantly in the game, so they were all familiar with each other. After Qiao Yifan and Zou Yunhai entered the stage, they even chatted a bit in the chat. After the countdown started and the two began fighting, Qiao Yifan won in the end. His performance was always consistent. Even though he never had any overwhelming advantage over Zhou Yunhai, he always had control over the situation. When Zou Yunhai came down, his expression looked a bit ugly. He was clearly unhappy with being stuffed out in this fight.
Friendship first, competition second?
These were oftentimes just words. As long as one was on stage, who wouldn't want to win? Bad blood appearing because of a bad match wouldn't be anything new. Quarrels occasionally arose even when teammates practiced against each other, let alone an official match where victory or defeat mattered.
Of course, Zou Yunhai was just gloomy. He wasn't at the point where he would quarrel with Happy. It was just that after two consecutive losses, Heavenly Swords wasn't nearly as relaxed as before. Just because the two teams were good friends with each other, hoping for a peaceful ending was too sweet.
For Happy, their third player was Su Mucheng.
For Heavenly Swords, Lou Guanning had originally planned on saying a few words to their third player, but when he saw that their opponent was an All-Star, he ended up not saying anything. He simply patted their player's shoulder and sent him up.
Lou Guanning admitted that he was still a distance away from an All-Star. If he had to face an All-Star, whether he won depended on luck and how he performed that day, so he wasn't able to point out any crucial win conditions.
Heavenly Sword's player was called Li Weiyi. He was the one that Heavenly Swords had signed to meet the minimum requirements. The individual competition and group arena required six players to compete in, but Lou Guanning and his friends were five people. Among them, Zhong Yeli was a Cleric and could only come out in the team competition. Thus, there were only four remaining; two others were needed.
They didn't try to recruit any famed generals to meet this quota. The positions of the five friends were untouchable. What famed general would be willing to just be someone to meet the quota?
In the end, Lou Guanning found two people from who knew where. They had some skill, but there would be some objection to call them truly skilled. In the third round, Su Mucheng easily won. Happy had a 3 to 0 lead, sweeping the individual competition. Lou Guanning didn't say anything to the returning Li Weiyi. Asking a stopgap cheerleader to win over an All-Star was asking too much.
Team Heavenly Swords' roster was extremely abnormal. It wasn't like they didn't have the resources to change that, but rather they weren't willing to. Their original aspiration was to give the five of them an opportunity to fight on the pro stage. They weren't done yet, so they didn't plan on giving up on this opportunity to other pro players.
A short break followed after the individual competition. The two teams could talk and do some preparation for the group arena during this break. With the individual competition over, it was obvious who would be playing in the group arena.
However, the roster for the group arena was set before the match began and could not be changed at this time. The Alliance had considered letting teams make adjustments mid-match, but in the end, they hoped that the players would focus their attention on the match itself and not waste too much of their efforts on benefiting from making adjustments.
Because of their good relationship with each other, it was hard to avoid the two teams mingling together during this break time. The Alliance didn't forbid two teams from talking to each other during this break, but whenever there was any contact between two teams, the referee would always be watching over very strictly in case the players were violating the integrity of the competition. There was someone in Happy who had made a bet. With Happy's opponents being their friends, all sorts of rumors had flown around long ago. The staff members of the Alliance were watching the communication between the two teams very tightly.
But it wasn't Happy taking the initiative to go over and talk, but rather Heavenly Swords who had just gotten swept in the individual competition. Lou Guanning looked like he was at a funeral. He walked around Happy in a circle before finally saying to Ye Xiu: "God, you're too fierce. What you guys are doing is saving up your strength and then taking out the knife to start the operation!"
"Haha," Ye Xiu laughed, "It's undeniable, our understanding of you guys is the most comprehensive."
Lou Guanning was speechless. He was most scared of God Ye Xiu's calm and righteousness that was completely reasonable and irrefutable.
"But then again, you guys can't keep doing this long-term!" Ye Xiu said. "Even if you guys are constantly improving, if your team is always just you five, you lack variance. You'll quickly be completely grasped by others."
"I feel like… it's fine…" Lou Guanning said.
"That's because there aren't any teams who feel threatened by you guys, right?" Ye Xiu said.
"God…" Lou Guanning cried. Could you not be so honest? For their matches this season, Lou Guanning had felt quite satisfied with Heavenly Swords' performance. No matter who their opponents were, they always won a few points. In their fourth round, they even beat Royal Style 7 to 3.
That was Royal Style! Even though they were no longer frequent visitors of the playoffs, for good or bad, they had an All-Star and were a very experienced team. Taking them down gave Heavenly Swords a huge boost in confidence. All of them felt like they had grown and improved after a year in the Alliance. But to God Ye Xiu, they were just opponents "who weren't worthy of being studied."
This couldn't be considered as others looking down on them though. A team had 19 opponents in the Alliance. Everyone's time was limited, so teams needed to choose who to focus and who not to focus on. If a team tried to grab them all, it was very possible that the team would end up not grabbing any. And among these teams, Heavenly Swords belonged to the category of who not to focus on. Lou Guanning had no choice to concede on this point, which was why God Ye Xiu's words made him tearful.
"You'll be going up in the Group Arena, right? Hurry up and get ready. We'll let you guys see just how disastrous it is to be completely understood by your opponents," Ye Xiu said.
How disastrous it is to be completely understood by your opponents?
Lou Guanning and the others knew very well by the end of this match.
Facing Hundred Blossoms, they had won 2 points. Facing Blue Rain, they had won 1 point. Facing Royal Style, they had won 7 points. And facing Royal Style, who had beaten Happy, they had won 6 points. This season, they had utilized their home game advantage well. Both of their victories were their home games.
But this time, in their home game versus Happy, Heavenly Swords ended up with 0 points.
10 to 0!
Team Heavenly Swords was swept clean by a team that had only won one match so far.
Happy didn't give them any mercy. Of course, Heavenly Swords also maintained proper sportsmanship. In the group arena, after Tang Rou beat one of their players, she lost to their second player, Wen Kebei's Battle Mage.
1v3? Four rounds had passed, and Tang Rou had yet to achieve even a 1v2.
Her chance with Heavenly Swords ended with failure. Her only chance left was against Tiny Herb. A 1v3 against Tiny Herb?
What a joke.
In the post-match press conference, Ruan Cheng had snatched a good spot. He trusted that even though Happy had a perfect win today, their mood probably wasn't too good. From a long-term perspective, Tang Rou failing a 1v3 and leaving the team was an enormous loss to them, whether that was in strength or in popularity. This beautiful girl really did have some fans right now. Ruan Cheng had received no small amount of hate for his attacks on her.
"Did Tang Rou not come? What a pity. There's probably a lot of pressure on her, right?" Seeing that Tang Rou was missing from Happy's seats in the press conference, Ruan Cheng didn't even say any polite congratulatory words for their win today. He directly brought out the bet that he had been banking on this entire time.
"Everyone in the team from top to bottom is confident in Tang Rou," Ye Xiu said calmly.
"There's still one round left. We can't be too hasty with our words, so we'll just have to wait and see!" Ruan Cheng's words weren't said too early, but his confident look as if he had planned this in advance was truly loathsome. He might as well have just displayed the schadenfreude at the bottom of his heart out in the open. It would have looked more sincere and natural!
"Little Tang is too pure! I say, she only said what she would do if she didn't keep her promise. But if she succeeds? Don't you think you should do something?" Fang Rui said to Ruan Cheng.
"I'll send her my heartfelt blessings, really." Ruan Cheng put on an honest face. He wasn't about to be provoked!
"Grab me a bucket!" Fang Rui shouted. "I'm going to puke!"