The King's Avatar

He Ming, having defeated Fang Rui, let out a breath of relief. It wasn’t just relief for this matchup, but the overall situation of the group arena.

Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, the three All-Star level players had all come up already. That meant that the rest of the group arena only consisted of the rookies they had picked up.

He Ming wasn’t underestimating these rookies, but he definitely doubted that they would be harder to deal with than those three All-Stars. He had sent off Fang Rui with quite the lead. With only two rookies left for Happy, Miracle was already on their way to victory, right?

Just as he was basking in his triumph, the opponent’s character had appeared on screen.

Deception… that Ninja that got a red card?

This was the deepest impression Mo Fan had left on people after eight rounds. Apart from that, he hadn’t won a single match, so, naturally, people wouldn’t pay that much attention to him.

As for He Ming, he had met Deception quite long ago. In the online game, when they were fighting Ye Xiu, Deception had been one of Ye Xiu’s helpers.

Yes, helper, that’s what He Ming thought. He didn’t know all the specifics of what had happened between Deception and Happy.

He remembered this guy. He Ming’s impression of Deception stopped there though.

Apart from that, he knew that getting a red card meant he didn’t understand the rules of pro matches. Glory wasn’t football or basketball. It was very, very rare that someone would manage to violate the rules, never mind get a red card. He had yet to win a match too, so he wasn’t all that strong.

A helper of Ye Xiu’s who didn’t know the rules very well and was average in strength.

That was He Ming’s full understanding of Mo Fan, and in this week of preparations, Mo Fan wasn’t their main focus. If he had to be categorized into important and unimportant, then he’d be thrown to the unimportant side.

Now, this unimportant guy was coming onstage.

He Ming readied himself with his spirits high. From a basic overview, he could tell that Mo Fan was a very patient player, who often relied on ambushes.

Yes… That’s Happy for you.

He Ming couldn’t help but think.

The match soon began. The map was still Wuchuan Path. There was no point in comparing his speed to a Ninja’s, it would definitely be Deception who got there first. This time, He Ming decided not to bother rushing. His Rullo walked over slowly. Wasn’t his opponent a very patient player? Then let him wait some more! He Ming was very relaxed.

But soon enough, when he still had some distance to go from the winery in the center of Wuchuan Path, He Ming saw Deception.

What on earth?

He Ming was surprised for a moment. Shouldn’t this person have stashed himself in a corner of the winery to observe in silence and wait for a chance to ambush? That’s what he had always done before, so how come he’s changed his strategy today?

So what if he did?

He Ming didn’t look too much into it. Mo Fan truly wasn’t a name that could make him feel pressured.

Deception charged and Rullo met him.

Electric Ring.

He Ming first had Rullo put this skill on himself. Ninjas were very likely to close in with a skill like Shadow Clone. The presence of this skill was often worrying. Afterwards, Rullo fired off a Fireball. Starting with low level skills was practically a universal traditional starting strategy.

Deception quickly changed directions, dodging the Fireball, and his hands then began rapidly moving in front of his chest, forming hand seals. He Ming was stunned for a moment and couldn’t help but think of the last match. A Ninja’s hand seals were a very exposed way of activating skills because every Ninja skill was triggered through a different set of hand seals. One could figure out the skill through looking at the hand seals. However, since the speed of the hand seals was directly related to mechanical skill and hand speed, if a player was fast enough, then the hand seals would be nothing more than a blur. It’d be impossible to tell if they had bent one finger or two and therefore impossible to accurately determine the skill. They could only guess from there.

With a pro player’s hand speed, they could all reach that standard. Mo Fan’s mechanics were pretty good too. His hands blurred, leaving a few afterimages, then the seals were completed. Instantly, over ten copies of Deception appeared.

Ninjutsu: Shadow Dance.

His first move was a level 70 skill. If this were the All-Star level player Li Hua, He Ming would feel surprised, but this player was just a rookie who not only failed to earn a single victory in the past eight rounds, he also didn’t even know the rules clearly. To He Ming, there was only one way to describe this: childish.

A bunch of shadow clones charged at Rullo. He Ming didn’t give ground, and elemental power immediately gathered in Rullo’s mind with an Absolute Focus, before instantly casting the level 70 high-level skill: Heavenly Lightning Earthen Fire.

The bunch of Deceptions were immediately enveloped in an array of lightning and fire. He Ming let go and went wild, directly having Rullo use a high-level skill to neutralize Deception’s high-level skill.

The shadow clones were destroyed one by one under Heavenly Lightning Earthen Fire, disappearing into smoke.

Five, four, three...

He Ming silently counted. Shadow Dance wasn’t like Shadow Steps with real and fake forms. It could be said that they were all real forms. When the skill ended or when the shadow clones were killed one by one, the last one left would be the Ninja’s real body.

One!

He Ming locked onto the last Deception and stopped controlling the Heavenly Lightning Earthen Fire. He was preparing to follow up with some new skills, throwing forth a new wave of attacks. Who would have expected that before Rullo even finished casting, the last Deception would be killed just like that too.

How!

He Ming was really shocked this time. If this one was killed too, then that meant there were still clones present. Where were they? Why didn’t he see them?

Rullo whirled around, turning his head. After looking at his surroundings, he didn’t see anything.

He Ming then realized something, but, too late...

Underground Tunneling Technique!

Deception shot right out of the ground, his ninjato striking Rullo’s chin, yet very unrealistically it did not cut his face off, but threw him into the air.

Ninjutsu: Bird Fall!

Deception curled up in midair, darting higher. When he stretched out his legs again, he directly kicked off of Rullo’s shoulders. After using the jump, he then executed a Neck Bind. The rope attached to the hilt of the ninjato had already wrapped itself around Rullo’s neck. Deception landed lightly, his arms crossed in front of his chest, binding Rullo behind him and dragging him to the ground.

He Ming, who hadn’t thought much of Deception, panicked. These three skills, like a falcon swooping on a rising hare, didn’t leave any openings whatsoever. In the previous second he was being ambushed and in the next, he had been bound and thrown to the ground. His character hadn’t been killed yet, but the abruptness of the Ninja’s assassin-like skills made He Ming’s heart leap into his throat.

After falling to the ground, he turned his head and saw Deception rapidly forming hand seals. He didn’t have the time to look closely, hurriedly having Rullo roll sideways to a stand. Several streams of water shot out, a Hundred Streams just missing He Ming.

He Ming was just starting to feel relieved when Deception struck with a Flame Cut, ninjato ablaze.

Jump back, back, back!

A skill like Teleportation required too many inputs, so He Ming could only jump backwards. The Flame Cut swept down, almost striking. Rullo jumped thrice before finally stopping.

”How excessive,” Ye Xiu exclaimed from the sidelines. To dodge that skill, one jump was enough. He Ming had panicked and made unnecessary actions. The extra two jumps didn’t do anything to get him to a safer distance. On the contrary, because of the excessive nature of these actions, he was unable to dodge the next attack.

By the time the extra two jumps were over, Deception’s Storm Shuriken had already arrived in front of him. No matter how fast he jumped, he couldn’t beat the speed of a skill.

It was too late for He Ming to take back those two jumps. Rullo was sent flying by the Storm Shuriken. Deception charged forwards in pursuit, and threw another Shuriken before using Shadow Clone technique, sending his real body right next to Rullo. Then came a Cicada Shell Double Slash, the force of the two karate chops successively struck Rullo. Rullo hadn’t even flown the full distance he was meant to when he got struck down by Deception halfway.

What is going on?

He Ming was rather confused. Against Fang Rui, he had met a style Fang Rui had never used; against Mo Fan, he also met a fury that had never been displayed by this player in the past eight rounds. Wasn’t this person meant to be a player who played dirty, hiding in the shadows, waiting for a chance to strike? How come he had become so fierce when it came to him?

Rullo was once again knocked flat on his back. He hurriedly rolled to a stand, but Deception’s attack came once again.

Teleport!

He Ming didn’t think too much, getting his character to pull away first. However, Teleportation didn’t actually take the user very far. Just as Rullo landed, he turned to look and saw Deception’s hand seals forming constantly, taking one step out and somehow managing to immediately close their distance.

Ninjutsu: Ground Shrinking Technique!

Ninjutsu: Moon-Slaying Sakura!

With one step forward, before even entering attack range, Deception activated the Level 75 high-level skill Moon-Slaying Sakura. Deception’s ninjato transformed into broken cherry blossoms, swirling forth. He Ming didn’t know what to do. Run? Not possible. Dodge? He had just used his dodge skill.

Ice Wall!

Seeing that the other still had some distance to go, He Ming hurriedly summoned a wall of ice in front of himself. Deception had already arrived by then, and the thin petals imbedded themselves into the wall. Instantly, a crack could be heard, and a hole was made in the Ice Wall.

Though it was just a hole, the Ice Wall counted as having been broken through by the system. Deception didn’t avoid it, directly charging forward and shattering the rest of the Ice Wall. His ninjato had stabbed Rullo already and broken cherry blossoms flew by, slashing open flowers of blood. In that moment, it seemed that Rullo was being torn apart.

What on earth was this?

He Ming really, truly, didn’t understand. How come, when it came to him, none of the opponents were like what he researched? Against Fang Rui, he was in the lead, he had the advantage, then since Fang Rui didn’t use all those new tricks at first, He Ming won.

This time, Mo Fan was different from the very start. Fiercely attacking, relentlessly attacking, not giving a single chance for retaliation. He Ming was an Elementalist. What Elementalists were most afraid of was someone closing in and not giving them any chance to pull away. This time, he couldn’t shake the other off at all. What suspense was there left?

Mo Fan finally gained a win. A complete and straightforward win.