Chapter 1343: The True Gunner God
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
Ye Xiu versus Tian Sen. Ye Xiu still won in the end, but Tian Sen's loss wasn't ugly at all. He unleashed the style of Glory's number one Exorcist Peaceful Hermit to the fullest. After the final attack, Ye Xiu put away his battle mindset to genuinely express his feelings.
Even though he didn't know where the familiar person had gone, the familiar character was still here, and a player who had inherited the spirit was still here. This sort of feeling was enough of a comfort.
"You played well," Ye Xiu said in the chat. Whether opponent or teammate, he wouldn't be stingy with his praise. "You played well" - the words were simple, but they were sincere to the fullest.
The two left their competitor booths at about the same time, and the stadium was already filled with thunderous applause. It was for Tian Sen, and for Ye Xiu as well. Perhaps it was because Royal Style already didn't need anything else from this season, and so the fans were more accepting, sending applause to the opponent both before and after the match. This opponent was worthy of respect, and the 28-consecutive individual win record was worthy of this applause.
Happy earned a point first. Next up was Luo Ji, Luo Ji again.
Royal Style didn't have any feelings toward this player, so of course they didn't have much of a reaction. After experiencing last round's battle, Luo Ji was finally less nervous. During this week, he had watched the recording of the previous match over and over again. That was his first battle of his professional career, not diluted in the slightest, a true you-die-I-live death match on the professional stage.
Luo Ji analyzed many conclusions from that match. His online documents and the paper notebook at his side were dense with notes. It was just a 1v1 that had lasted only a few minutes. How many little details had he noticed, in order to write so many things?
But this was just Luo Ji's method, so no one disturbed him. He drew what he needed from this, and when he came across something he didn't understand, he would ask his seniors for help without hesitation.
How much could he improve in one week? Luo Ji didn't know either. But he was standing on this stage, so he would simply do his best.
As it turned out, Luo Ji's opponent this match happened to be the Summoner player in Royal Style's roster, named He Weitang.
In the end, Luo Ji still lost, but he wasn't discouraged.
One week of effort still wasn't enough. He just told himself this. Now, he had one more recording which he could study.
And then, in the third individual round, Happy's Su Mucheng earned a point.
Next, Happy sent Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, and Fang Rui in the group arena, but, unexpectedly, they lost. Royal Style's players were very relaxed as they played, with no pressure at all. Perhaps it was this attitude that allowed their performance to peak, and they ultimately won the two points of the group arena.
In the team competition, Happy sent out Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Steamed Bun, An Wenyi, and Mo Fan.
The lineup had a bit of rotation, but Happy played the team round very carefully. Royal Style could relax, but they couldn't. Ultimately, Happy won this team round, defeating Royal Style 7 to 3.
"Please work even harder in the playoffs." As they exchanged greetings after the match, Tian Sen didn't hold back with his words, sending Happy into the playoffs nine rounds early.
"Alright. Want to come with us?" Ye Xiu laughed.
"No need. Sooner or later, we'll return to that stage as well," Tian Sen said. Even though their scores had been poor for several years running now, he didn't lose the pride of being a member of Royal Style. As long as they were still here, anything was possible. Tian Sen believed this deeply.
"Keep it up!" Ye Xiu shook his hand firmly. Thus, the curtain fell on Happy's away game against Royal Style. In another stadium, the live televised match between 301 and Misty Rain also ended at this time. Ultimately, the recently-strong 301 turned out to be fiercer. Their loss to Wind Howl hadn't stopped their good condition, and in this home game, they defeated Misty Rain 8-2. However, their main competitors right now, Wind Howl, had done better this round. They had their away game against a team that was already viewed as relegated, Seaside, and didn't hold back in winning a 10-0.
With this, Wind Howl now surpassed 301 by two points, slightly expanding the lead they had just won last round.
301 was in ninth place, followed by Void. Void defeated Heavenly Swords 8-2 in their away game, continuing to maintain their chance at the top 8. They just had to wait for someone to mess up. However, with their current 11 point difference from eighth place, one mistake wasn't enough. The other team would have to make consecutive mistakes, and they would need to seize consecutive opportunities, if they were to have their shot.
Because of this, their chance was very uncertain, and Void's supporters were all extremely nervous. As for Misty Rain, after once again losing to their direct competitor, they now had a 26 point difference from the top 8. At this point, continuing to bite down on the theoretical possibility was no more than self-delusion. Misty Rain could be considered yet another team that had to say farewell to this season. This was the first time in recent years that this team had dropped out of the playoffs.
In reality, Misty Rain's greatest point of criticism was still how they tended to crumble at crucial points. But there really wasn't any fault to be found on their technical or tactical aspects, and their scores had always been fairly stable. In order to try and improve, Misty Rain had made adjustments, but it now looked like their adjustments had only given them a rather failed season. People were already beginning to discuss what move Misty Rain would make next.
After Happy finished this round, they prepared to rest overnight in City B. Heavenly Swords was also in City B, and had just played a home game. After the match, they contacted Happy to get together. Heavenly Swords right now was like Royal Style, right in the middle, with no more goals for this season. Losing a match would still be saddening, but the sadness would disperse relatively quickly. At least, when Happy's members met the Heavenly Swords team, they couldn't tell from their faces that they had just lost 2-8 in a home game.
Once Heavenly Swords' players arrived, they pulled Happy for a late-night snack. Every week, this day right after playing a match was indeed the most relaxed day of the week for pro players. As long as they were in the mood, hanging out during this weekend was fairly common. However, by the time they finished the match and the interviews, it wasn't very early, and both teams' players had the self-restraint not to stay out too late. When they were about to disperse, Lou Guanning wanted to extend the friendship of a host, and invited Happy to stay an extra day the next day. But Ye Xiu made a polite but clear refusal for himself, and Su Mucheng followed suit.
"Tomorrow is A Qingming Festival 1 ," someone from Heavenly Swords quietly reminded Lou Guanning, giving him pause. He didn't know if this was Ye Xiu's reason, but of course he couldn't ask. If someone was observing Qingming Festival, there was nothing cheerful about that.
"Then I won't hold you guys up. We can get together next time, we have plenty of opportunities." Lou Guanning let the whole team of Happy go.
"Next time," Ye Xiu smiled. The two teams said their farewells. The next day, Luo Ji returned by himself to City T, while the rest boarded a plane back to City H.
Qingming Festival…
Chen Guo of course didn't forget this holiday. Yesterday, even if Ye Xiu hadn't backed out, she herself would have. Now, it looked like Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng had the same intent as her?"
"Want to head over together in a bit?" Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu while they were on the plane.
"Alright!" Ye Xiu nodded.
After the plane landed in City H, Happy's members split into two groups. Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Chen Guo went one way, and the others gathered together.
"Where are they going?" The three of them hadn't really said anything, so after they left, everyone else began discussing out of curiosity.
"Probably to sweep the tombs!" Tang Rou had been at Happy the longest and had known Chen Guo's background for a while. Even though she hadn't heard Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng's story directly from them, she knew a little from what Chen Guo had said.
The players also knew that Chen Guo's father had passed, but they didn't really know about Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng's situation, and so they asked.
"It's Su Mucheng's older brother," Tang Rou told everyone and then looked at Wei Chen. She knew that the young man who had passed was also a Glory expert in the past, and Wei Chen was an old player from those days, so maybe he knew this person.
After hearing Tang Rou's introduction, Wei Chen did reveal a somewhat stunned expression. "So that's what it was."
"Old Wei, you know him?" Fang Rui asked.
"Of course you brats wouldn't know," Wei Chen said, beginning to reflect on his memories. "At that time, there was no Heavenly Domain, and Glory only had one server at the start, only later opening the second server. At the time, all of us spent our time in the first server. We were probably the first batch of Glory players! And at the time in our first server, the Battle Mage One Autumn Leaf was already extremely famous. But there was another guy often with him, very famous, and no less skilled than One Autumn Leaf."
No less skilled than Ye Xiu!
This could be considered the highest praise in the Glory circle. With Wei Chen's shamelessness, for him to give this sort of praise to anyone other than himself was extremely rare to see.
"What was his name?" Fang Rui quickly asked.
" Autumn Tree 2 ," said Wei Chen.
Fang Rui shook his head to show that he'd never heard of that name before. That era was too far in the past, and this was just a character in the game. Very few such stories could be passed on for that long.
"Of course, how would you little brats have heard of him?" Wei Chen said disdainfully. In his eyes, Fang Rui was just another little brat.
"So this person was Su Mucheng's older brother!" Wei Chen continued under his breath.
"Autumn Tree, 'Qiu Mu Su'… Su Muqiu?" Fang Rui realized, after slowly voicing the characters aloud.
"Yes." Tang Rou had heard this name from Chen Guo, and nodded her head.
"Oh, so it was his real name in reverse," Wei Chen realized. "But at that time there was no Su Mucheng. No one would make that connection. By the time Su Mucheng entered the Alliance and became famous, this name had probably long been forgotten!"
"Yeah…" Even though Fang Rui hadn't experienced that era, who would pass on the legend of a mere in-game expert? By the time Su Mucheng entered the Alliance, it was already Season 4. Three years was long enough to forget a name.
"This Autumn Tree, what class was he?" Fang Rui asked.
"He was a gunner god," Wei Chen said. "A true gunner god 3 ."
Chapter 1344: There Are No Ifs
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
"Gunner god? A Sharpshooter 1 …" Happy's members began to imagine a Sharpshooter called Autumn Tree running through the game, but unexpectedly, Wei Chen shook his head.
"No, not Sharpshooter. All of the Gunner subclasses."
"All of the Gunner subclasses?"
"Sharpshooter, Spitfire, Mechanic, Launcher," said Wei Chen.
"Another expert like that!" Fang Rui exclaimed. Everyone understood this "another." Wasn't their Ye Xiu an even more ridiculous all-class expert, aking's avatar 2 ?
"Actually, at that time, there were many people like that. Who didn't have main and side accounts? But very few could play every class to the limit like they did," said Wei Chen.
"Then what happened later?" Fang Rui asked.
"Later, wasn't it like Little Tang said, he died…" Wei Chen said.
"Car accident, I'm not too sure about the details," Tang Rou said.
And then everyone looked at Wei Chen.
"I don't know too much either, but after the Alliance was established and everyone was making teams to participate, he never appeared again. Probably someone asked Ye Xiu out of curiosity, and then the news spread that he had passed away. But the fact that he was Su Mucheng's older brother, no one knew that…" Wei Chen, the shameless old man, actually let out a sigh when he reached the end, with a face full of regret and pity.
"How skilled was this person?" Fang Rui asked.
"I'll say this. Whenever I fought against him, I didn't even have the chance to cast any curses," said Wei Chen, a profound respect in his voice.
The members of Happy exchanged looks, but after a few moments, Wei Chen didn't see the expressions of shock that he was hoping for.
"That's… not that impressive, is it?" Fang Rui finally said.
"You bastard!" Wei Chen instantly knew what Fang Rui was implying. "This was over ten years ago! Back in those days, I was still a godlike youth!"
"Damn!" Fang Rui looked like he couldn't listen to any more.
"In any case, he was incredibly skilled!" Wei Chen said.
"Compared to Ye Xiu, who was better?" Tang Rou always tended to care about the question of who was stronger.
"This… They always fought side-by-side. We were all curious as to who was stronger between the two of them, but sadly there was never an answer. Not back then, and definitely not now. There never will be…" Wei Chen's expression was once again filled with melancholy.
Everyone fell silent. For Fang Rui, Qiao Yifan, and the others, this was the first time they'd heard of this person, and so they couldn't truly empathize so quickly. But seeing the extremely shameless Wei Chen suddenly show such emotion, they could feel how tragic this was, the story of a young genius meeting a premature end.
"If he had joined Excellent Era with Ye Xiu…" Even just thinking about this scenario, Wei Chen couldn't help but shiver.
"If he were still here, what would things be like?" Tang Rou was also thinking about this.
If only…
Who wouldn't think about these sort of "ifs"? But such was the nature of "if," to refer to the impossible.
"What kind of flowers are these now?" In front of Su Muqiu's grave, Ye Xiu watched as Su Mucheng placed down a bouquet.
" Hyacinths 3 ."
"Is there anyone else like you, changing the type of flower every year?" Ye Xiu asked.
"There needs to be innovation," said Su Mucheng.
"Innovation?" Ye Xiu laughed. "So you use every type of flower to express this meaning in the flower language?"
"He would like this kind of method," Su Mucheng said.
"Yes." Ye Xiu nodded. The person who had imagined the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella and brought it into reality, was there anyone in Glory more innovative than him?
And the things left behind from his innovation were still sparkling on the Glory battlefield.
28 consecutive victories.
Ye Xiu's hand reached into his pocket, where Lord Grim's account card was quietly lying. This record would be firmly bound to this character. And it hadn't finished yet, it was still being updated.
I'll let this record last forever. But from the very start, I left out one match, to leave you a chance to surpass me.
Ye Xiu stretched out his hands to touch the gravestone. These were the hands currently controlling Lord Grim to write miracles in Glory.
"If it wasn't me here right now, and it was my brother, what would things be like now?" Su Mucheng suddenly asked this question.
"Oh?" Ye Xiu gave it serious thought, but he couldn't think of an answer.
"Would it just always be, championship championship championship championship championship like that?" Su Mucheng asked.
"Maybe so!" Ye Xiu said.
"And Dancing Rain would definitely be more famous than now."
"Not necessarily," said Ye Xiu. "Some guy with a female account is much much worse than a beautiful female player."
"Haha," Su Mucheng laughed, and touched the gravestone with her hands as well.
"Well, those things aren't really important," Su Mucheng said. "If only he could be here, that would be best."
Ye Xiu didn't say anything, because… there were no ifs.
This time, Chen Guo spent a longer time in front of her father's gravestone, because there were just too many things that had happened in this past year. She said many, many things, but she still couldn't finish it all.
Their team winning the Challenger League.
The difficulties they'd faced at the start of the season.
Their team's crazy win streak.
So many 10-0s.
Every team member's improvements.
The expanding guild.
The developing account characters.
And now, advancing toward the playoffs, the rhythm of sprinting toward the championship.
There was really too much…
Chen Guo actually grew tired from all the talking, and all that was just an overview. There were still many details, many other things she wanted to add!
Chen Guo was in a bit of a daze, not really knowing whether she should continue. Because of the fullness of this year, her tomb-sweeping method now became a bit unsuitable. There were too many things, she couldn't finish them all!
"Boss, want to drink some water?" Right then, Chen Guo heard someone speak. When she turned her head, she saw Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng smiling as they stood by her side.
Tomb-sweeping was a rather sad event. But Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng both knew that this year, to Chen Guo, was very happy, and for this year's tomb-sweeping, she wanted to bring this happiness here.
"Oh oh, thank you." Chen Guo took the bottle of water and gulped down some mouthfuls.
"You two are done?" she asked.
"Yeah." The two of them nodded.
"Alright, then let's go!"
"You're done talking? It didn't seem like it?" Ye Xiu said. It looked like they'd been listening to the side for a while.
"That's enough for today, I can come back and continue later. No one said that I can only come here on Qingming!" Chen Guo waved her hand, and took the lead in heading down the mountain.
When they returned to Happy Internet Cafe, everyone was gathered in the training room. They'd all been huddled together and whispering to each other, but when the three entered, they all instantly returned to their seats, they all sat upright and attentive.
"Went to sweep tombs?" Wei Chen asked with a cough.
"Yeah."
"Autumn Tree?" Wei Chen asked.
"Right," Ye Xiu nodded. It was no surprise that the experienced Wei Chen knew this name.
"It's a real pity," Wei Chen said.
"No one said it wasn't!" Ye Xiu smiled, and took his seat as well.
The room was quiet; no one dared to say anything else. For this sort of topic, it didn't feel right to ask the person in question to find out more. Everyone only knew that there was once a monstrously skilled Glory expert, but he left before he had the chance to strive for any glory. Compared to that, everyone here, whether strong or weak, whether new rookies or old veterans, they were still working hard to strive for everything. There was no greater fortune than that.
Click click click click…
The room was filled with nothing but the sounds of the computer mice and keyboards. Everyone was working hard for their own goals, but at the same time, everyone thought of the other burdens that they were carrying upon themselves.
Wei Chen thought of his teammates from back when he was on Blue Rain. They had already left the Glory Alliance, left this battlefield. Some people he might still be able to meet in life, but others had already disappeared without a trace to unknown places. The championship was what they had pursued back then, but in the end they had all departed with regret. And now, Wei Chen again returned to this stage, with his old skills completely insufficient in coping with the intensity of today's matches. But even though this was the case, he could still carry his burdens, couldn't he? If he really could win the championship, then when his old brothers heard and saw it, wouldn't they feel that he had fulfilled for them their strings of conviction?
This kind of feeling wasn't bad at all!
"Hey!" After thinking to here, Wei Chen suddenly gave a rough shout.
"Hey who?" Ye Xiu asked.
"You!"
"What's up?"
"Next match, I want to play," Wei Chen said.
"Oh? Ready to blaze a fire?" Ye Xiu laughed.
"Did you really think that I only came to watch?" Wei Chen said.
"Not many rounds left, is it enough?" Ye Xiu asked.
"It's enough," Wei Chen grinned arrogantly. "I understand matches much better than these noobs here."
"Hmph…" The training room was instantly filled with boos.
"I say, in terms of real Pro League experience, aren't you worse than me?" Fang Rui spoke up. He was a Season 5 player, and had now played for over five and a half years. And Wei Chen? His professional career had been only two seasons, two years. Plus, there had been fewer pro teams at the time and skill levels were all over the place. The competition format was entirely different from what it was today.
"Pro League?" Wei Chen sneered. "Why do I call you noobs? This battlefield is called Glory. The Pro League is no more than a part of it."
"So you're saying you're about to go to Heavenly Domain and get some materials for us?" Fang Rui said.
"You look like you need to be taught a lesson! 1v1, let's go!" Wei Chen shouted.
"Who's scared of you! Make the room," Fang Rui yelled.
And thus the two went to compete in shamelessness and dirty playing. To the side, everyone else was listening and laughing, but they were all sprinting forward with more active, more positive, more hardworking attitudes.
The past could only be turned into ifs and remembered in the heart. Only the present could truly be grasped, and only by grasping the present could they take control of the future.
Nine rounds remaining.
Everyone looked at the leaderboard in the training room. There were still nine full rounds remaining. Play these nine rounds well, then they would enter the playoffs, and step upon an even more brutal journey. Everything had to be grasped tightly, starting from now.