The King's Avatar

The three hiding in the audience carefully spectating the match were three members of Team Tiny Herb, Xu Bin, Liu Xiaobie, and Gao Yingjie.

Although Liulisong Sports Arena wasn’t Tiny Herb’s home stadium, City B was Team Tiny Herb’s turf. Hearing so many people cheering with such excitement for another team on their own turf made Liu Xiaobie, who was born and raised in City B feel extremely uncomfortable.

”Happy didn’t take out too much of their opponent’s health. The next few rounds will be rather hard on them.” Xu Bin was the one whose focus was constantly on the match. After all, he had only transferred to Team Tiny Herb for a year now and he wasn’t a local either, so in regards to emotions, he wasn’t as involved as Liu Xiaobie.

”Yeah, I would never have expected…” Liu Xiaobie turned his attention back to the match, also expressing his surprise. Who in the pro circle had gotten to know Soft Mist earlier than them? Back then, it was still when the tenth server had just opened and everyone had been playing on level twenty something smurfs when they had first met this young lady.

The Soft Mist was a complete newbie back then, and now? In under a year… It was because of this sort of history that Tiny Herb’s players didn’t dare to underestimate her. In reality, if Tang Rou wasn’t an irregularity among Glory players, she would probably be Liu Xiaobie and co’s teammate by now - which Glory player would reject an invitation from a champion team like Tiny Herb?

”Who do you think will go next for Happy?” Xu Bin wondered. They weren’t unfamiliar with Happy’s players at all. In the previous battle for the newer bosses, the pro players had rotated in teams to fight off Happy’s players, and gotten to understand them. One should remember, if two teams didn’t enter the playoffs, they only crossed swords twice a year. Against Happy, they probably fought once a week during the battle for bosses.

”Yifan probably won’t appear in the group arena, right?” Liu Xiaobie said after glancing at Gao Yingjie. He knew that these two young men were special to each other, and knew that the reason Gao Yingjie had decided to come today was to support Qiao Yifan.

”With the current situation in Happy, they just might have him play,” Xu Bin said. When he joined, Qiao Yifan had already left the team, so they didn’t have much interaction. However, after Happy rose to infamy, this name was often mentioned in Team Tiny Herb and Xu Bin knew who he was now.

”It’s not Qiao Yifan…” It was then that Gao Yingjie shook his head, because he had already seen that the member of Happy that stood up to go onstage wasn’t Qiao Yifan.

Mo Fan After his match against Mysterious Fantasy, this was the second official match of his since coming to Happy.

”How is it? How do you feel in this sort of competitive atmosphere?” Ye Xiu looked at Mo Fan, who stood up in preparation to go onstage.

Mo Fan originally planned to ignore everyone and head off to the player booth. Upon hearing Ye Xiu’s words, he hesitated, but still stopped. He didn’t even turn his head, just standing there and thinking for a good while before replying, ”Noisy.” After that, he walked towards the booth.

By then, Tang Rou had returned from the booth and when they brushed past each other, they didn’t interact much. Tang Rou said, ”Good luck” and Mo Fan simply nodded in response.

Tang Rou, having returned to the bench, wore an expression of disappointment. Chen Guo hesitated and didn’t manage to say any words of comfort in the end. This match’s situation really was rather ugly. Considering Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher’s remaining life, Tang Rou had been crushed. It didn’t even count as a morale victory, which made things very hard for Chen Guo.

”How do you feel?” She heard Ye Xiu ask directly and simply as she hesitated.

”Disappointed,” Tang Rou replied.

”Heh, don’t worry about it. No one in the entire pro circle would dare say for certain that they can win against a player of Xiao Shqin’s caliber. You win some, you lose some,” Ye Xiu said.

”I know that.” Tang Rou nodded. She wasn’t naive enough to believe that there really was such a thing as being invincible. Walking next to the river, whose shoes wouldn’t get wet? That was the way competition was.

”But I was helpless against him,” Tang Rou said. This was the point she was truly disappointed about. Throughout the entire match, she couldn’t grasp any sort of advantage, being led around by the nose. This sort of helplessness was a terrible feeling.

”If this was something that could be solved with just a few words, then I would’ve told you them before you even went up. The person you were up against is one of the best in Glory. If he had any fatal flaws that just anyone could exploit, then he wouldn’t be where he is now. Work on improving yourself, in all aspects. There’ll be no more shortcuts from here,” Ye Xiu said.

Tang Rou gazed at the replay shown by the projector of the match just now. However, there really wasn’t anything to see in the last match. The opportunity Tang Rou had created for herself at the beginning of the match might count as interesting, but considering the results of the match, it was much less impactful.

”Glory… Really is hard…” Tang Rou sighed, gazing at the powerful yet helpless figure of Soft Mist.

”That’s precisely why it’s fun, no?” Ye Xiu asked.

”Yeah.” Tang Rou nodded, her gaze already turning to watch the second match that was about to start. Her defeat had been devastating, but it would also provoke her determination to pursue this. She was already focused on the next match, ready to learn what she could from it.

As the hologram was projected, the second match officially began. The map wouldn’t change in the group arena, but the spawn point would change randomly, but would usually stay in opposing corners.

”Deception, huh…” Xiao Shiqin gazed at the second player on Happy’s side. Since this was only his second official match, the amount of info they had on Mo Fan was pitiful. However, just that one match had fully displayed Mo Fan’s style.

Xiao Shqin had studied that match in depth, but he still didn’t dare to let his guard down.

The last match was against Tang Rou, an opponent that appeared so often that there was a surplus of data for him to research. From Xiao Shiqin’s view, Tang Rou’s playstyle didn’t have any strategic element to it. It used a simple and crude method to destroy an opponent’s rhythm and build up a new one herself. In this, if she ever managed to succeed, her opponent would lose the initiative. Speaking mechanically, her ability didn’t lose to any pro player.

Xiao Shiqin had thought he managed to fully understand Tang Rou’s style, but who would’ve thought that in the match against Tang Rou, his rhythm had still been destroyed by her. That unreasonable and extremely offensive play style displayed a persistence that Xiao Shiqin had not expected at all. It was a good thing that he wasn’t some random player, but a veteran. After having his rhythm destroyed by Tang Rou, the one who built a new one up wasn’t Tang Rou, but himself.

With this prior experience, Xiao Shiqin had to revise his prior judgement. Did he hold back too much on his estimation of Happy’s strength?

If this was true for Tang Rou, who they had a lot of data on and had done a lot of research into, then could Mo Fan, who they only had one match worth of data on, be hiding some huge potential?

”Okay, now the match has started. Xiao Shiqin is still choosing to move strategically. As for his opponent, Team Happy’s Mo Fan, has only played one match in the offline matches, or rather, the entire Challenger League. Coach Li, did you watch that match?” Pan Lin began the discussion as the match began.

”Of course, that match left quite a lasting impression on me. It can be seen that this participant, Mo Fan, has extreme patience, and has an accurate understanding of when to attack and when to retreat,” Li Yibo said.

”Heh, actually, this character’s name, Deception, I believe many know, belongs to the infamous scrap-picker of the Heavenly Domain. Coach Li, do you think his playstyle and habits were developed through his scrap-picking?” Pan Li asked.

”I think that it’s very likely,” Li Yibo said confidently. ”Patience, timing, being able to execute a full retreat, these are all very important skills a scrap-picker should have.

”However, I think we shouldn’t spend too much time on this topic,” Pan Lin said.

”Yes, let’s watch the match.” Li Yibo didn’t continue to speak about it either. After all, scrap-picking wasn’t an honorable activity. Talking about the art in scrap-picking here wasn’t a good idea.

Both sides had decided to move strategically, moving in a roundabout method towards the center of the map.

The place where the two characters should meet was currently devoid of life. As for Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher? He had stopped a little ways away from this area. His character didn’t reveal himself, but instead sent out an Electron Eye, that drifted along the wall and over.

The range view of the Electron Eye wasn’t as wide as the characters. In the limited shot, Xiao Shiqin looked around carefully. Then suddenly, snowflakes appeared in the shot and his view turned back to normal. Electron Eye’s view had disappeared.

”As expected of an observant scrap-picker!!” Pan Lin cried out in astonishment.

”Yeah, he spotted even such a tiny Electron Eye. What terrifying observation skills,” Li Yibo agreed.

”And from such a distance, such a small target, his shuriken was extremely precise!” Pan Lin added.

”This match seems to be a game of cat and mouse, but who the cat is and who the mouse is hasn’t been decided just yet!” Li Yibo exclaimed.