The King's Avatar

For his job, Guan Rongfei was just an ordinary member of Excellent Era’s R&D team. However, if you were considering his importance, he was the true core member of the research and development team. He was passionate about researching all sorts of Silver weapons, and this passion didn’t lose to the passion that all pro player had for victory. Hearing the words ”Myriad Manifestations Umbrella”, Guan Rongfei immediately became impatient to leave, making Ye Xiu uncertain if he should laugh or cry as he said, ”Wait a moment!”

As he said this, he saw Su Mucheng coming out of her room, carrying a large suitcase. The reason they came back this time was mostly because she had to pack up.

”Rongfei is coming with us, too,” Ye Xiu told her.

”Really?” Su Mucheng gazed at Guan Rongfei cheerfully. ”You’re in luck then, there’s a lot of stuff for you to do there.”

”Can we go now?” If any Excellent Era members saw Guan Rongfei’s impatience, they would probably be absolutely heartbroken. He had worked at Excellent Era for so long already, but he didn’t seem to have any feelings for it at all. This had coincided with Excellent Era’s members disbanding, but considering this guy’s response, even when Excellent Era was all well, he would have probably been immediately lured away with a ”Hey, we’re researching the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, you coming?”

It had been rather early on when Lord Grim’s Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had been reported back to the club by the guild department. Excellent Era’s R&D department had also done some research and that was when Guan Rongfei was first introduced to this prodigious creation. However, since this weapon was only useful for unspecialized, it didn’t have much value to Excellent Era, so they didn’t look into it too deeply. This wouldn’t stop Guan Rongfei looking into it in his spare time to try and figure out how this thing was created.

”You’re just leaving like that? Is there nothing you want to take with you?” Ye Xiu looked at Guan Rongfei, a little lost for words.

”Oh yeah!” Guan Rongfei smacked his own forehead and then ran off.

Yet it wasn’t long before he was back, his hands empty and apparently having not packed anything, but his expression was relieved as he said, ”It’s all good now.”

”What… did you pack?” Su Mucheng asked.

”The research and data I’ve done on the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. I almost forgot it.” Guan Rongfei took out an external hard drive from his pocket, waving it in front of the two for a bit before putting it back into his pocket. He looked at the two with eagerness, his face clearly asking: why aren’t we leaving yet?

”Let’s go,” Ye Xiu decided and took Su Mucheng’s luggage for her. The three left together, but bumped into Tao Xuan, who was just leaving the training room, on their way out.

Seeing Guan Rongfei with the two, Tao Xuan seemed to understand and didn’t say anything, just nodding in greetings. It was Guan Rongfei, who didn’t even glance at the boss that had given him his paycheck all these years, already leaving.

”So about Dancing Rain. Why don’t you name a price?” Ye Xiu said to Tao Xuan.

Tao Xuan was puzzled for a moment before remembering the promise he had made when he had first gone to Happy to find Ye Xiu. At the time, he had thought Ye Xiu would ask for One Autumn Leaf, but never expected that it would be Dancing Rain instead.

”How about 450,000?” Tao Xuan suggested.

Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng exchanged a glance.

This price obviously wasn’t Dancing Rain’s true value. As the Number One Launcher character, Dancing Rain was extremely valuable. Even ten million wouldn’t be unexpected.

450,000! If any passerby heard this, they’d probably think they were hallucinating, but Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng knew where this price came from. 450,000 was the price Tao Xuan had originally bought out this character for in Excellent Era’s name.

During the very beginnings of the Alliance, the characters were all brought into the club by the players. These were all characters that the pro players had slowly built up themselves. Back then, the club management had already realized that strong characters would be an important asset of the club, so they arranged for the ownership of these characters to be removed from the players and given to the club early on. That’s how the system today was created: the ownership of characters all belonged to the club, and there were rarely any characters that belonged to the individual. Then, after that short period of time in the beginning, these resources were able to be utilized. If any new players joined, the club would provide characters directly. These characters would usually be far stronger than the characters that the players originally used in the game.

Su Mucheng joined the Alliance in season four. By then, it was rare for powerful characters to be brought into the club by the player. However, there would be special circumstances where players would continue using their online characters. Because the characters that the players had brought with them wouldn’t be that strong, the clubs wouldn’t buy them for an exceptionally high price. They treated it as giving that the player a small money bonus for signing the contract.

Dancing Rain was bought by Excellent Era under these circumstances. 450,000 wasn’t a price that any random character in the online game had. It was because Ye Xiu had already put some effort into strengthening this character that it was worth more. But for a completely unknown character, that was the most it could be sold for.

The Dancing Rain back then couldn’t be compared to the Dancing Rain today.

Apart from powerful equipment, the current Dancing Rain also had the accumulation of all the effort put into her all these years as well as the halo of the title of Number One Launcher. This sort of character wouldn’t just increase the strength of a team, but also how influential they were.

Situations like during last the summer, when Team Samsara had bought the Tiny Herb Grappler Flying Drops and dismantled him into equipment, were extremely rare. In the end, it was because Flying Drop’s influence wasn’t enough. He wasn’t like Hundred Dazzling Blossoms who could send his player into the All-Stars purely through the nostalgia fans held of him.

Flying Drops wasn’t so grand, so what if he was dismantled? If it was a God-level account, never mind the fans objecting, even Samsara themselves would never bear the thought of dismantling it.

Dancing Rain had only been bought for 450,000. After so many years, even if Dancing Rain’s strength hadn’t been raised at all, just through sheer renown, the character’s price would definitely be higher.

The 450,000 Tao Xuan had given today was undoubtedly a friends rate.

”Okay, that’s settled then!” Ye Xiu nodded and didn’t say much more.

He could tell that everything ended here. This 450,000 RMB transaction would probably be the last interaction they had that bore any sort of emotional investment. After that, they would go their separate ways. They wouldn’t know if they would ever interact again, but the past would never repeat itself again.

”Good luck.” Tao Xuan offered his right hand to Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu glanced at it before finally stretching out his hand to shake.

”I never need luck.” After that, he turned and left.

Guan Rongfei didn’t let up with the impatient looks at all as they left, forcing Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng to hurry. Getting to the ground floor, the entrance of the training center, they saw two people walking in from the front door.

”Ms. Su Mucheng… Ye Qiu… I mean, God Ye Xiu.” The person on the left slowed down upon seeing the three and greeted them. Then he looked at Guan Rongfei and, not recognizing him, didn’t greet him.

Ye Xiu looked at Su Mucheng, feeling a little lost. Though he was a God as well, he was so discreet all these years that he wasn’t at all used to this sort of celebrity situation where others recognized him and he didn’t recognize them. It was Su Mucheng who smiled at the newcomer and greeted him with a hello.

The person didn’t introduce himself, just starting a conversation with Su Mucheng, ”I hear you’re joining Team Happy?”

”Yes.”

”What a shame. I really hoped that we would get a chance to cooperate.” The other replied.

Su Mucheng simply smiled.

”Then… I wish you three a good day. Excuse me.” The person didn’t have the intentions to chat for too long and left with that.

”That person from Tiny Herb is probably here to negotiate some sort of transaction…” Su Mucheng didn’t wait for Ye Xiu to ask before explaining. Since Ye Xiu was so lowkey in the past, he mostly only knew pro players in their circle. Apart from that, he would keep his interactions with other members as low as possible. This was one person he had never seen before.

”Oh…” Hearing Su Mucheng’s explanation, Ye Xiu nodded.

”It’s probably… about Qiu Fei’s transfer?” Su Mucheng guessed. Team Tiny Herb had never hid their interest in Qiu Fei. They had expressed interest during the Challenger League. It was evident that it didn’t matter if Excellent Era was eliminated or not, Qiu Fei was someone they would be interested in transferring over regardless. However, Tiny Herb probably felt that they had more of a chance with Excellent Era’s current situation!

Thinking of that figure still in the training room, Ye Xiu realized that Qiu Fei did have that sort of ’I won’t give up even if the world is ending’ demeanor to him. Tiny Herb… Would he join them?

As they were thinking of this, the door was opened once more and someone else entered. This person wasn’t just someone Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng recognized, even Guan Rongfei recognized him. In the past year, this was the person who took the position of Excellent Era’s vice captain. With his eyes set on the future, he was like coal in the harsh winter for Excellent Era. Yet the coal hadn’t even flickered to life yet before they had all frozen to death together. Xiao Shiqin’s figure seemed to hold that sort of desolation. It hadn’t even been a month since the end of the Challenger League Finals and this guy seemed to have already gotten thinner.

The two sides met at the door and spent a long time in silence, enough so that Guan Rongfei began to look impatient again.

”You haven’t left yet?” Ye Xiu asked.

”Yeah.” Xiao Shiqin nodded.

”What are your plans?” Ye Xiu asked.

”I don’t know.” Xiao Shiqin shook his head. He had sacrificed a year and made a resolute decision. However, he had completely failed. The defeat at the Challenger League wasn’t a small blow for Xiao Shiqin.

”How about you come to Happy?” Ye Xiu suggested. Xiao Shiqin’s contract was only a year long. That meant, he was the same as Su Mucheng. His contract ended at the end of June and he could transfer for free. Happy was willing to try and get a player that didn’t require a transfer fee.

”Happy?” Xiao Shiqin thought for a moment before smiling bitterly and shaking his head, ”What can I do in Happy? Happy doesn’t need me.”

Ye Xiu didn’t know how to react to that. Xiao Shiqin’s talent was tactics, but Happy had Ye Xiu. The loss in the Challenger League, in reality, was also Xiao Shiqin’s loss to Ye Xiu in tactics. This loss had killed his confidence in Ye Xiu’s presence. It was clear that he didn’t think he would be of any value in Happy.

”I still have something to do. Excuse me.” Xiao Shiqin didn’t seem to want to speak with Ye Xiu further and quickly excused himself and left.

”What a shame.” Ye Xiu gazed at Xiao Shiqin’s retreating figure with disappointment.

”Are we leaving or not!” Guan Rongfei wouldn’t hold in his impatience any longer.

”Alright alright alright, let’s go.” Ye Xiu didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, leaving Excellent Era with this guy. After walking out of the doors, he couldn’t help but glance back.

This place… he’d probably never come back again.