The King's Avatar

”Hey hey, you, you’re just completely ignoring us!” Ye Xiu, extremely dissatisfied, said to Zhang Xinjie.

”This is Tyranny,” Zhang Xinjie said.

This is Tyranny.

There was a pause, but everyone quickly understood Zhang Xinjie’s meaning. Even he might not necessarily enjoy this sort of showy battle, but this was Tyranny, this year’s All-Stars was hosted by Tyranny, and as Tyranny’s players, Zhang Xinjie and Han Wenqing could not undermine their own stage. They would have to do what they could to make this year’s All-Stars brilliant and exciting. Ye Xiu and the others made their plan just to save effort, which the Tyranny players of course would not support.

”If only I were in Team A…” Ye Xiu sighed. Everyone cast him sidelong glances. Aren’t you being too honest with your feelings? Are you purposely trying to undermine Tyranny?

No one was talking anymore. With the home team’s players here, they had to give them face! But Ye Xiu? Would this guy let Tyranny save face? It’d be good enough if he didn’t intentionally tear down this stage!

As they were all thinking this, Ye Xiu had already opened his mouth again. ”Well, since that’s the case, how about we have a more... tyrannical arrangement?”

Everyone continued to look at him. After he finished speaking, they all revealed expressions of excitement.

”So you did come here to tear down the stage,” said Wang Jiexi.

”It’s on purpose!” said Chu Yunxiu.

”This wouldn’t be too good, would it?” Yu Feng was still doubtful.

”Have some confidence! What are you scared of!” said Ye Xiu.

Scared?

Of the entire Glory circle, these people here would be the last people scared of a stage like this! Everyone again fell silent and looked at Han Wenqing, looked at Zhang Xinjie. Would they agree with this plan of Ye Xiu’s?”

”So be it!” Tyranny’s Captain Han Wenqing slapped the table, closing the discussion.

All-Stars was just a show, so there weren’t any strict time regulations. The judge came to Team A and Team B’s preparation areas to confirm that both teams had made appropriate preparations. Then, with the passionate announcement of the live host, the All-Star Competition began.

”Now, we have the first battle of the individual competition. Will the first two players please come on stage?” As the host shouted, he was also looking to the left and right. The roster order of the two teams wouldn’t be revealed beforehand so the suspense would last all the way to the end. Even the host could only wait for the results.

Team A, Lu Boyuan, Samsara’s Grappler Lu Boyuan walked onstage. This meant that Samsara’s four All-Star players would not all be working together in the team competition.

Team B? Yang Cong, 301’s captain and an old general, would be taking the lead for Team B.

Lu Boyuan’s account was Chaotic Cloudy Mountain, who, after Samsara obtained the character Flying Drops from Tiny Herb and taken all his equipment, was now the number one Grappler in Glory.

The original number one Grappler Flying Drops no longer existed. What about Flying Drop’s original player, Li Yihui? After that summer’s transfers, he had gone to the team that Yang Cong now led, 301 Degrees.

It was only after the host explained all this backstory that everyone realized that there was also this gimmick hiding in Team B. Yang Cong and Tiny Herb’s Xu Bin were former teammates reunited!

In 301, Xu Bin had only been Yang Cong’s assistant, but after transferring to Tiny Herb, thanks to the team’s influence, his popularity was now even higher than Yang Cong’s. In the All-Star voting, Yang Cong was at 24th, barely making it in, while Xu Bin was at 16th, a very stable position.

Yang Cong was a player from Season 3 and was now growing old, entering the twilight years of his career. He wouldn’t have any new upgrades, and his professional career would probably just stop at his time in 301. But Xu Bin was a player from Season 6. He’d earned some attention and then entered the powerhouse Tiny Herb; he had nothing but a bright future ahead of him.

Even as the audience compared these two players and sighed, the battle onstage had already begun.

Victory or loss didn’t matter too much at All-Stars. The battle also opened voice channel, available to players from both sides, so that even opponents could communicate.

But Lu Boyuan and Yang Cong evidently didn’t have much to talk about. The two simply greeted each other, and then began to fight.

Lu Boyuan was also a player from Season 6, now at the pinnacle of his professional career. Originally smothered by the shining aura of Samsara’s Zhou Zekai, he was able to earn a high amount of attention for himself after Samsara’s first championship victory and his performance in those finals. From then on, he walked on the road to All-Stars.

But from the way things currently were, his position didn’t seem to be that stable, especially after Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf’s joining Samsara this season. Lu Boyuan, an All-Star level player, could only be considered the fourth player in the team.

Former Blue Rain player Yu Feng had chosen to leave for Hundred Blossoms in hopes of obtaining a higher position in the team. But Lu Boyuan? His position seemed to be even more awkward than Yu Feng’s had been. What were his thoughts?

He didn’t have any thoughts.

The meaning of that was that, for this sort of thing about which Yu Feng cared greatly, he didn’t care at all.

It might seem like he didn’t have much of a strong heart, but perhaps this was simply the personality of a natural-born Samsara player.

Lu Boyuan became a pro in Season 6. His teammate Zhou Zekai was only one year earlier, but at that time, the title of Great Gunner was already resounding throughout the Alliance. This player, who was silent offstage and yet performed explosively strong onstage, quickly sent Samsara from a mediocre, mid-tier team into the ranks of the strong teams.

Back then, they were already calling Samsara a one-man team. Back then, Zhou Zekai’s light was already obscuring the entire team. And so Samsara’s players like Lu Boyuan, from then until now, were very used to being outshone by this sort of light. Now that a Sun Xiang had appeared, pushing Lu Boyuan further down to fourth…

The fourth player, this was what the outside world said. But Lu Boyuan didn’t have this thought in his heart, nor did any of the other players in Samsara. To the outside world, Samsara was Zhou Zekai and everyone else.

Correct. Aside from Zhou Zekai, the others were just ”everyone else” even the newly-transferred Sun Xiang.

This sort of environment seemed like it’d invite disharmony. That unique character so easily crowded all of the others into that ”everyone else.”

But Samsara continued to walk along harmoniously. Because Samsara’s unique person was Zhou Zekai, that quiet person. No matter how brilliantly the Great Gunner shone onstage, offstage Zhou Zekai was still such a humble, unassuming person. No matter how his position had changed in just these few years, no matter how many activities the sponsors or the team had him participate in, his personality was still just like this.

As teammates that had gotten along with each other for so many years, Lu Boyuan and the others understood Zhou Zekai’s personality better than anyone else. Although he didn’t speak much, he was a very easy-going person. Although he was the number one in Glory, he wasn’t someone who very much liked receiving attention. Too much attention would only make him nervous and shy. Yet despite this personality, he’d become a star that thousands were watching, and even after he’d been a star for so many years, he still just had this kind of personality.

Regarding this point, Samsara’s players admired him very much.

They often thought, if one day Zhou Zekai faced the camera and was able to suddenly make a complaint or crack a joke or something, what kind of earth-shaking moment would that be?

Samsara’s internal affairs were just that harmonious. Zhou Zekai as the unique number one and the others as ”everyone else” was only how the outside world understood it. But to Team Samsara themselves? They understood the true Zhou Zekai, and wouldn’t be fooled by that onstage Great Gunner. Zhou Zekai hadn’t pulled apart from them, and so, in their eyes, Zhou Zekai was also a part of that ”everyone else” and Samsara didn’t have any special members.

So, the fourth player in the team?

Lu Boyuan truly did not have that feeling.

Weren’t they all the same? He always had that kind of feeling. This was the feeling that Samsara brought to every team member.

So even as the outside world analyzed what problems Sun Xiang’s addition would incite within the team, Samsara was all peaceful winds and calm waves. In this harmonious team environment, their tolerance was really very high. If a newcomer really had some dissatisfaction, when they saw how even Zhou Zekai was so low-profile and silent, what kind of person would feel they had the status in this team to be cocky?

Samsara was very fortunate that they had a player like Zhou Zekai. Not just because of his strength, but because of his personality. And so they ultimately constructed the strongest team in the Alliance, of which Lu Boyuan was a member.

But in this match, he ultimately lost.

On one hand, this was All-Stars, Lu Boyuan fought quite casually. But more importantly, it was because Yang Cong played too intensely!

Up until now, Yang Cong had always attacked directly. Despite being an Assassin, he was an Assassin that walked in the light, on the straight road. But this time, he used Life-Risking Strike. This skill was one his Scene Killer had learned and added points to, but it had always just been a skill held in reserve as a surprise. Yet this time, he actually used it.

Life-Risking Strike, one-hit kill!

As soon as the Assassin used this skill, that meant that if you didn’t die, I would…

”Captain Yang, you were too ruthless…” When Life-Risking Strike hit Chaotic Cloudy Mountain from the side, Lu Boyuan said this in surprise.

”Hehe…” Yang Cong chuckled. This was perhaps already his final performance on this All-Star stage. Let him end on a beautiful note! For Assassins, what people enjoyed the most was this kind of one-hit kill, right?

Chaotic Cloudy Mountain fell, Scene Killer emerged victorious.

The audience was in a daze, and then erupted into cheers.

One-hit kill, the audience loved it! Even neutral parties felt that this one attack was incredibly fulfilling. Plus, most of the audience, as Tyranny fans, were biased toward the Team B player Yang Cong, as their Han Wenqing and Zhang Xinjie were also in Team B.

But Team B also had a Ye Xiu…

”One bad apple really spoils the whole bunch!” some Tyranny fans thought, indignant. Far below on the floor of the stadium, Ye Xiu was strolling about in boredom.