Chapter 713 - Excellent Era Card Shuffle
White Stream felt very embarrassed after being called out by Ye Xiu and hearing Loulan Slash’s honesty. After thinking it through, there was no reason that the others would only look for Radiant. Acting dumb was just naive and childish.
“Ahem…….” White Stream wasn’t sure what to say at this moment.
“The reason I added you guys to this chat was to remind you to endure this ordeal!” Ye Xiu said. He didn’t seem to mind White Stream’s misconduct.
“What are your thoughts?” Loulan Slash asked.
“Nothing really.” Ye Xiu smiled, “This is a good indicator that they are fearful of our Alliance. They don’t have any effective method to deal with us yet, so they resorted to seeking their own alliances. For these guilds, sharing the profits is certainly very painful for them. If they’ve chosen to walk this path, then they must not have any other path to walk.”
“Thus, we cannot renounce our current advantageous position.” Loulan Slash clearly stood on Ye Xiu’s side.
“However, our future will definitely become more grim. After all, apart from us, there are other Club guilds for them to choose from. It’s possible that two competitive guilds will ally together, so I need to confirm whether or not everyone has the confidence to continue cooperating. If any of you have the intention of accepting another guild’s invitation, please say it now. What’s the point in hiding it? You’ll be exposed the next time a boss spawns anyways. Speak out now and we can still part on good terms!” Ye Xiu said.
“I have no intention of leaving the Alliance.” Loulan Slash expressed.
“I’m satisfied with our current circumstances.” Conquering Cloud’s Yue Ziqin confirmed.
“Let’s keep working hard together.” Parade’s Martial Awareness said.
“Sigh…… it’d be too embarrassing to say otherwise…..” White Stream also decided to stay. Ye Xiu never called him out on his speech, but he had still “hidden” the matter already, so it was a bit of a slap to the face. The slap was justified though, so he couldn’t complain about it.
“I want everyone to recognize this cause and effect relationship. The guilds are looking to do something as painful as making alliances because of our existence. If our alliance breaks up, their most formidable competitor will have disappeared and everything will return to normal. If that happens, they won’t bother looking for an alliance anymore.” Ye Xiu said.
“You’re right.” This time, Yue Ziqin responded the fastest, “This is probably the scheme that the other guilds have come up with. It’s only by staying together that we can prevent such a disaster from unfolding. If we fight amongst ourselves, at best, we’ll only be able to pick up the scraps.”
The other three, including White Stream, agreed as well. Ye Xiu’s reasoning was very clear. As Club guild leaders, if they couldn’t understand this cause and effect relationship, their capabilities would be questioned.
“Ha ha, as long as no one has any doubts, that’s good. Let’s keep up the good work in this upcoming week.” Ye Xiu said.
The chat group immediately fell silent. The crisis had been resolved. No matter how the other guilds tried, the four guild alliance wouldn’t budge. Even White Stream, who had wavered the most in the beginning, didn’t make a mistake a second time.
The alliance held together. The remainder of the day went well for them. When they had nothing to do, they would stare foolishly in joy at their harvests from this week. They had never seen such bountiful harvests before! Yue Ziqin, White Stream, and Martial Awareness had done exceptionally too. Their Clubs were surprised at their accomplishments. After asking how they achieved it, they realized what these three guilds had done. The three guild leaders received praise from their respective Clubs and their next paycheck would naturally reflect it.
As for Loulan Slash, he was the owner, so his guild’s success and failure depended on him, which saved him a lot of trouble.
While some were happy, there would naturally be others that were unhappy.
For example, Howling Heights had tragic results last week. They actually failed to get a single boss. Speaking of which, Howling Heights had never been considered first-class in terms of strength. When they competed for bosses, they usually didn’t hold an advantage. On their first day this week, they had gained the assistance of a pro player and managed to crush even Tyrannical Ambition. However, after that battle, Zhao Yuzhe never came back to help them.
When West Riding Wind left Zhao Yuzhe that day, he felt like it shouldn’t be like this, but he felt too embarrassed to ask for his support. This week’s work was over, but he still saw no signs of Zhao Yuzhe appearing. West Riding Wind thought to himself: did he also go on vacation? But when he checked the pro player residential area, Zhao Yuzhe was clearly still there.
He was still there, but he hadn’t logged on in the past few days. Had that guy pretended to be okay that day, when he was actually depressed? West Riding Wind immediately thought of this possibility.
West Riding Wind knocked a few times on the door of Zhao Yuzhe’s room. When he pushed open the door to have a look, he saw Zhao Yuzhe in front of his computer, focused on practicing.
Correct, practice!
Zhao Yuzhe wasn’t depressed. After suffering a defeat in the game, he felt like he wasn’t skilled enough. Being beat by God Ye Qiu was fine, but that Brawler, Steamed Bun, and that Battle Mage were nobodies, yet they proved to be troublesome for him.
Was it because his opponents were strong? Or because he was too weak?
Zhao Yuzhe had these kinds of thoughts in the beginning, but he had already discarded them. It didn’t matter if his opponents were strong or if he was weak, the only path was to improve. It wasn’t like he could pray that his opponents would suddenly become weaker, right?
Zhao Yuzhe was so focused on practicing that he didn’t notice West Riding Wind enter his room. West Riding Wind stood at the entrance and took a few glances. After seeing how Zhao Yuzhe was in the middle of practice, he didn’t bother him. He quietly closed the door and left.
No Club guild would sit around being idle. Facing this week’s struggle for bosses, they had to figure out a way to answer back. They couldn’t just do the same thing as this week and continue to watch Ye Qiu take away their resources with his alliance. That would be sitting and waiting for their own death.
This week wasn’t over yet.
The new week just happened to be on the first day of a new month —— July.
That morning, Ye Xiu followed his usual sleep schedule. When he went downstairs to eat breakfast, he saw Chen Guo holding a bowl and standing at the Internet Cafe entrance, looking at something outside.
“What are you looking at so early in the morning?” Ye Xiu wasn’t in a hurry to finish his breakfast. He lit a cigarette and walked over.
Chen Guo didn’t say anything. She grabbed her chopsticks and pointed. Ye Xiu looked in that direction and saw Club Excellent Era. Numerous fans had gathered there, and quite a few were holding banners up high. Ye Xiu read the words and understood. The fans of Excellent Era had gathered around the Club to welcome Xiao Shiqin. July 1st was the first official day that the transfer window for the Glory Alliance. Xiao Shiqin’s transfer to the Club had already been announced, it was only natural that he be transferred today.
“He really did come.” Chen Guo sighed. They were probably the only people who didn’t welcome Xiao Shiqin in all of City H. Xiao Shiqin could change Excellent Era back into a Championship team, which Ye Xiu might not even be able to recognize anymore.
Club Excellent Era.
Tao Xuan rushed over to the Club early that morning and confirmed everything with the reporters that had gathered around. Xiao Shiqin’s transfer wasn’t a small matter, especially with Excellent Era having just been relegated. This All Star player actually chose to sacrifice a year of his life and invest his time in Excellent Era, which naturally gave Tao Xuan a very good impression of him.
Tao Xuan stood by the window of his office. When he saw all of the fans gathered outside the Club, he felt like the move he made was incredibly beautiful. He hadn’t seen so many fans looking forward to their future in a long while. Last season, fans usually gathered outside the Club to shout angrily at their team’s performance, throwing trash and protesting. It was much better now. The season had ended. Tao Xuan was in an exceptional mood right now.
At the same time, the players living on the first floor, such as Liu Hao and He Ming stood by the window too, looking outside at the fans crowded around the entrance. They were gnashing their teeth in anger though.
The three days prior, Liu Hao was both conflicted and looking forward to Xiao Shiqin’s arrival.
At the end of the last season, when Excellent Era’s win record was in shambles, Liu Hao had already started thinking of leaving the team. After their relegation from the Alliance had been confirmed, he was even more sure of his decision. However, he didn’t think that the Club would announce Sun Xiang remaining on the team and Xiao Shiqin joining. This made Liu Hao waver in his decision.
Any player hoped to win the championships one day. Liu Hao was no exception. With Xiao Shiqin, even though Team Excellent Era was still a relegated team, on paper, their strength immediately became a contestant for the championships. Although they would need to play in the Challenger League for a year, once that year passed, they would aim for the championship cup once more. It didn’t sound too bad.
The Club’s secret but exciting plan made Liu Hao waver. He didn’t really want to leave Excellent Era, in fact. He was currently Excellent Era’s vice-captain. His seniority on the team was quite high. If he switched to another team, what type of status would he have there?
However, if Xiao Shiqin came….. Liu Hao felt like his position as vice-captain wouldn’t be safe. Xiao Shiqin was clearly more suitable for the position. He even had the qualifications to replace Sun Xiang as the captain. How would the Club arrange everything? Liu Hao tried to search for answers from the manager Cui Li, but he didn’t get a satisfying response.
After thinking about it over and over again, Liu Hao still decided to stay because he had received information from the internal department. Not only was Xiao Shiqin transferring, his Mechanic, Life Extinguisher, was also transferring over.
An All Star player and an All Star Character. Despite Excellent Era getting relegated, the team’s strength had increased by a lot. Liu Hao couldn’t ignore it. He decided that he would sacrifice a year too and continue playing with Excellent Era. Next year, they would return to the Alliance and aim for the championship cup.
He believed that he would win more glory than he could ever achieve before with the current Excellent Era. Even though Xiao Shiqin was a danger to his position as vice-captain, he wouldn’t be stripped of his seniority and foundation in Excellent Era. With the team’s current situation, Liu Hao felt like he would still be a senior within the practice room.
The day Xiao Shiqin arrived soon came for the conflicted yet expectant Liu Hao, but three days prior to Xiao Shiqin’s arrival, in a team conference, the Club unexpectedly sent ice-cold notifications to both Liu Hao and his best friend, He Ming.
The two of them had been the bargaining chips for Xiao Shiqin’s trade and had been transferred to Team Thunderclap. They had three days to pack their belongings and leave on the first of July.