Chapter 428 – Sweeping the Field
“Is there anything else that I can help you two with?” Tang Rou asked.
One of them had glanced at Tang Rou’s screen on the front desk and smiled: “Miss, do you also play Glory?”
“Yes……”
“Is there an expert in this Internet Cafe?” the same person asked.
“Glory expert?” Tang Rou stared blankly.
“Yeah!”
“What would be considered as an expert?” Tang Rou asked.
“Hmm…….you’d probably have to fight him in order to know.” This person smiled.
“Fight with who? You?” Tang Rou asked.
“Any of us!”
“You two are?”
“We came from Grand Internet Cafe.” the other person said.
“Oh, understood.” Tang Rou nodded her head. Even though she hadn’t been playing Glory for too long, she had been in Happy Internet Cafe for quite a while. She knew about some of the things going on between the Internet Cafes.
Glory was currently an incredibly popular game. If you looked in any Internet Cafe, over half of their customers would be playing Glory. Every Internet Cafe would naturally borrow Glory to do some events and pull in customers. For example, the Cafe could hold Glory tournaments or broadcast pro matches like what Chen Guo was doing. These were all done to win the favor of Glory players.
Many of these customers went to the Internet Cafe that they were familiar with and were also quite loyal to it. Just like pro teams or in-game guilds, Glory players also formed their own group for their favorite Internet Cafe. There was a sort of competitiveness between the Internet Cafes. The managers would sometimes lead Glory players from different Internet Cafes to fight each other in Glory from time to time.
The two fellows in front of her had come up claiming they were from a certain Internet Cafe, seeking a Glory expert. These kinds of occurrences had happened quite a few times during her stay at Happy Internet Cafe. Chen Guo and other Glory players called this type of activity Sweeping the Field.
In Sweeping the Field, the majority of the time, players wanted to show off their skill and earn a bit of glory for themselves. It wasn’t rare for the owner of an Internet Cafe to help add fuel to the fire though. It was hard to say if this helped the business or not, but one’s own Internet Cafe winning versus another one was kind of like beating a competitor; it felt quite good.
Tang Rou knew about the Grand Internet Cafe that the two claimed to be from. It wasn’t too far from Happy Internet Cafe and was quite a good Cafe as well. The owner of Grand Internet Cafe also knew Chen Guo, so Tang Rou had seen the owner before. It had been very obvious that the owner was very envious of Happy’s location.
Happy was right next to Club Excellent Era. This location made it a huge attraction to Glory players. The owner of Grand didn’t have as good of a location as Happy, so he had always wanted to beat Happy Internet Cafe in Glory skill to let others know that the Internet Cafe next to Excellent Era was nothing special.
Unfortunately, the owner never got what he hoped for during his several years of fighting. Chen Guo’s business strategy had helped her lure quite a few Excellent Era fans. Players who were fans of a team were undoubtedly big fans of Glory. Their skill level wouldn’t be bad either. Even though no earth-shattering expert had ever appeared, Grand Internet Cafe was the same. None of their customers were exceptionally skilled, so dropping by to play Sweeping the Field would just be laughed at.
As a result, even though Grand Internet Cafe was fighting, they never used such an intense method like Sweeping the Field. Grand usually held tournaments and invited Happy to play. The tournaments had solo, King of Fighting, and team tournaments, making it seem very official. However, after many years of battling, neither side had been able to beat the other. However, if they used a point system like in the pro scene, Happy would have a slight advantage, which made the owner of Grand quite sad.
Grand Internet Cafe sending people to try Sweeping the Field was a first.
Sweeping the Field was a double-edged sword. A successful sweep would give you boundless glory. But if you lost, then it would be very shameful. As a result, anyone who dared to try Sweeping the Field was either very arrogant or had the skill to back it up. Tang Rou was currently sizing up the two of them, when he heard another person say: “Ha ha ha, where’s your boss Chen? I don’t see her anywhere.”
Tang Rou turned his head to look and recognized him as the owner of Grand.
“Boss Ma, it’s good to see you!” Tang Rou greeted. Boss Ma’s full name was Ma Chenyi and he was also a big fan of Glory like Chen Guo. His Internet Cafe and Happy Internet Cafe competed in Glory skill, which sometimes made it difficult to tell if they were business competitors or Glory competitors.
“Oh, it’s Little Tang! Where’s Old Chen?” Ma Chenyi said loudly on purpose and intentionally called Chen Guo ‘Old Chen’. Women were usually more sensitive to age than men. The bad blood between Ma Chenyi and Chen Guo had already spread to every aspect of their lives.
“She’s upstairs. Would you like me to call her over?” Tang Rou said.
“Call her. Of course you have to call her! Hurry up and call her to come down. There will be a good show to see.” Ma Chenyi looked to be in a very good mood today.
“Hold on.” Tang Rou smiled. This boss had personally come to try Sweeping the Field, which meant that this time, he was very confident. Tang Rou knew Chen Guo cared a lot about this. Tang Rou wasn’t worried though. Right now, Happy Internet Cafe housed a God! Who could be more skilled than Ye Xiu? Anyone who could actually match Ye Xiu would be among the Gods in the pro scene. He’d have immediately gathered a huge amount of attention as soon as he walked in. There was no way he’d just be standing there so peacefully.
Upstairs, Chen Guo had just started playing when she received Tang Rou’s text message. Seeing that Ma Chenyi was here to try Sweeping the Field, she immediately became overjoyed.
If this was in the past, Chen Guo would have been quite nervous if Ma Chenyi had personally come to try Sweeping the Field. But now, with Ye Xiu, who could beat him?
“What are you so happy for?” Ye Xiu had been alarmed at Chen Guo’s sudden laugh.
“Someone’s here to try Sweeping the Field.” Chen Guo said.
“Huh?”
“Downstairs.” Chen Guo said.
“Oh, you’re talking about the Internet Cafe!” Ye Xiu had experienced everything there was to experience in Glory. He wasn’t a stranger to Sweeping the Field and quickly understood why Chen Guo had suddenly laughed. With him, trying to sweep away Happy would be like trying to sweep away a mountain.
“Why don’t you come down with me?” Chen Guo said. She clearly wasn’t going to hide anything. She wanted to directly bring in the bullet. She was looking forward to seeing Ma Chenyi’s expression after the two “experts” he had brought were crushed.
“Sweeping the Field……. I haven’t seen it in the two months I’ve been here. Who’s come?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Someone I know well. If you go a bit farther than where you usually buy cigarettes, you might see it. It’s right around the corner over there. It’s called Grand Internet Cafe. Do you know about it?” Chen Guo said.
Ye Xiu was helpless: “Of course I know. I’ve only stayed here for two months, but I’ve been in this area for many years. I’m just as familiar with it as you are.”
“Oh…… I forgot.” Chen Guo said, “That Internet Cafe has come to try Sweeping the Field. I don’t know what type of expert he picked up to have the courage to do it.”
“Has he come here before?”
“Never. At most, he’s held tournaments between us.” Chen Guo said.
“So it’s like that…… This….. It might be interesting!” Ye Xiu said.
Downstairs, after Tang Rou sent the text message, she was starting to question herself when she saw that there was no reply or sign of Chen Guo! May Chenyi wasn’t in a hurry though. He looked as if he had a card up his sleeve and chuckled: “What’s wrong? Did Old Chen get scared after hearing that I had personally come?”
“Yeah, I’m very scared!” Chen Guo answered Ma Chenyi as she walked down the stairs.
“Old Chen!” Ma Chenyi immediately greeted, “Long time, no see! How was your break? Sigh. Another year has passed in the blink of an eye and you’ve grown older a year again. We’re now in our thirties. Have you gotten a boyfriend yet? Would you like this brother to introduce one for you?”
Ma Chenyi mocked her, though this wasn’t anything unusual between him and Chen Guo. Chen Guo’s resistance to it had gone up just like her resistance to Ye Xiu’s words. The two of them had been like this for many years. Chen Guo’s resistance to his words had already become strong. This bit of trash talk wouldn’t faze her anymore.
“How boring! Do you know how many times you’ve used this script?” She wouldn’t be angry, but she was still going to bite back.
“Ha ha, I’m just here to send you my blessings. Don’t you like Sweeping the Field?” Ma Chenyi laughed. He intentionally stressed the words ‘Sweeping the Field’. He said the words so loudly that even the customers on the second floor could hear them. Many of the customers took off their headphones and had been startled by it.
Those who came to the Internet Cafe often knew what “Sweeping the Field” meant. As soon as they heard this, they raised their heads to look in their direction. When they saw the extremely arrogant Ma Chenyi, they first felt a sense of displeasure and then immediately expected that the Sweeping the Field was a joke.
“How do you want to sweep?” Chen Guo asked calmly.
“It’s simple. As soon as someone beats these two, we’ll leave immediately.” Ma Chenyi loudly shouted.
As soon as these words came out, the Internet Cafe immediately went into an uproar. Sweeping the Field was Sweeping the Field, but there were many ways to sweep. Usually, they arranged a few matches and then looked at the outcome after playing them out. But this guy actually challenged the entire Happy Internet Cafe. This meant that the two that arrived might actually have some real skill. Only someone with such confidence in the two of them wouldn’t be afraid to wage war with everyone in the Cafe.
“Leave immediately? I don’t think we ever talked about coming and leaving.” Chen Guo said.
“Oh? Then what do you want to wager?” Ma Chenyi asked.