The King's Avatar

The Void fans in the audience booed Wei Chen for a very long time. But when they looked at the screen displaying the current score, they felt another wave of despondence.

1 to 2, they’d already lost 2 points. Void was already far away from the top 8, and after losing these two points, their future was becoming increasingly bleak.

Next was the group arena. Happy sent Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, and Fang Rui, while Void sent Ge Zhaolan, Yang Haoxuan, and Wu Yuce.

There were still fans who refused to give up now, and they persevered in cheering Void on. But Tang Rou’s performance when she came on was extraordinarily strong, nearly a 1v2. After Steamed Bun came one, he used 17% of his health to take care of Void’s second player, Yang Haoxuan, who’d already been beaten bloody by Tang Rou.

Wu Yuce came out, facing a near 1v2 situation. The crowd was quiet; they couldn’t bear to cheer. It looked like Void’s season was ending here just like this. There was no need to increase the pressure on any one person at this time. A season’s failure wasn’t any one person’s fault.

Even the audience members were pessimistic, but Wu Yuce hadn’t given up. He was a pro player, someone who understood the difficulty of matches better than ordinary people did. But at this time, even more so than the audience, he anticipated a miracle. He believed he could create a miracle.

Wu Yuce came onstage, and Carved Ghost cleanly took care of Steamed Bun Invasion.

Fang Rui came onstage, facing a Carved Ghost at half health.

The map was another street map that Void was used to. For the dirty-playing Fang Rui, he could also take to this map like a fish to water.

“This time, I won’t lose to you again,” Fang Rui said after entering the match. During the previous Happy vs Void, Fang Rui had indeed lost to Wu Yuce, but back then he had already fought one person earlier. For the group arena, the fact that he had still managed to knock away half of Carved Ghost’s health was already considered a success.

And this time, his Boundless Sea had the health lead, and his Qi Master style had undergone a season’s worth of testing and was now solidified.

“Give it a try.” Wu Yuce generally wasn’t inclined to chat, but he actually said this tough sentence in the chat. He knew Fang Rui’s strength, especially since they were from the same season. Compared to everyone else, he had gotten to know Fang Rui’s dirty Qi Master style earlier than everyone else. Last time after fighting Happy, Fang Rui had called him to spar for many matches. In the end, it was unclear who had gotten more wins, but Wu Yuce knew for sure: Fang Rui’s new unique playstyle was definitely viable.

The reality confirmed this point. Fang Rui indeed walked a new path with his Qi Master, even though traditional Qi Master players all looked down upon his style. But with Zhao Yang’s retirement, there was no longer one leading Qi Master. This season’s All-Stars, there had been no Qi Master, but what about next year? Next year, given Happy’s strong results and Fang Rui’s performance, this guy could actually enter the All-Stars with the identity of a Qi Master. That would really show everyone who looked down upon this dirty Qi Master style!

You look down upon my playstyle, but I am the number one Qi Master.

When he thought about this, Wu Yuce felt that it was really quite interesting, and he very much wanted to see this happen. However, even so, he did not want to become Fang Rui’s stepping stone. For the sake of Void’s victory, he would not hesitate to block Fang Rui’s way.

I will not lose!

Void’s season is not yet over!

With a roar, with the Phantom God’s power flashing around him, Wu Yuce fought even more fiercely than he had last round.

He… won?

In the instant that the results came out, even the live audience couldn’t believe their eyes.

Wu Yuce’s Carved Ghost remained standing at the very end, with four percent health remaining.

“You…” Fang Rui left this final message in the chat. Dirty players like him could really be helpless against an opponent like this. This kind of guy, bold and decisive, wouldn’t play those psychological games with you dirty players. He would simply use his swordlight to slash through everything.

Void won the group arena. Those Void fans who had already given up suddenly all awakened once more. The crowd exploded like a volcano that had slept dormant for many years, releasing all of their enthusiasm in one instant, powerful enough to burn through everything. When Happy’s three players returned to their player area, they could only shout to communicate with each other. The noise of the stadium was simply too loud.

3-2, now Void was in the lead. If they won the team round, a final result of 8-2, maybe there was still hope?

Wu Yuce’s strong performance didn’t just win two points, it ignited everyone’s hopes for Void.

But, it ends here…

Wu Yuce sighed as he rotated his camera view, seeing his fallen comrades around him.

Blue Exorcist, Soul Defender, Ghost Lantern, Translucent.

“It’s just the two of us left!” Wu Yuce was never one for melancholy, but this time, their season, Void’s season, was ending here.

“Yeah,” said Li Xuan. Standing behind Carved Ghost, back-to-back, was his Crying Devil.

Void’s Ghost Duo. On Void’s side, only these two remained. Even though they were an experienced partnership, expecting them to pull off a 2v5 was simply too much.

Happy had already surrounded them completely, but they weren’t rushing to attack. Crying Devil didn’t have much mana left, so he couldn’t maintain the defense of Ghost Boundaries. They just had to wait until the Ghost Boundaries ran out, and then they could calmly attack them.

“Last one,” Li Xuan said. Crying Devil’s blade surged with the power of the Phantom God as he casted a final Ghost Boundary.

Boom!

But at this moment, Dancing Rain opened fire. Li Xuan was forced to interrupt the cast as he moved to dodge.

“Tsk, our last one’s gone too,” Li Xuan said. Crying Devil’s mana was used up for good.

“So it ends like this!”

“Yeah, it’s over…”

The Ghost Boundaries faded, leaving openings, and Happy’s characters charged forward. Long-range, short-range, they all began their attacks, and Void’s Ghost Duo finally fell upon the ground they had so tightly defended with their Ghost Boundaries for so long.

In the end, Happy won their Round 33 match with a score of 7-3. Void, having only achieved 3 points, could consider themselves finished for the season. Even if their competitors had abysmal performances in the upcoming rounds, with only five rounds left to close such a large point gap, there was no point in imagining what was theoretically possible. Only those who were especially stubborn in refusing to give up would still hope for that extremely unlikely possibility, hope that those competitors wouldn’t earn a single point in the next rounds and that Void would surpass them.

But, would that happen?

The moment that the Void vs Happy match ended, there were already people frantically checking for news from the other matches this round.

Hundred Blossoms, 9-1, a huge home victory against Misty Rain. The gap between them and Void was pulled from 23 to 29 points.

301, a 10-0 perfect victory against Miracle, which pulled their gap with Void from 28 to 35 points.

There was still one match in progress!

It was the match that had received the most attention this round, Thunderclap against Wind Howl.

After Thunderclap lagged behind in the individual matches, 1-4, the two teams were now engaged in a fierce team battle.

Wind Howl’s recent team performance was quite fierce. Their strategy of tearing apart and playing one-on-one had shaken a number of strong teams. Maybe they would win again in this match? If they won 9-1, Thunderclap would have only won one point, and maybe they would just continue to lose and lose, and Void would win and win, and eventually surpass them?

The stubborn Void fans who refused to despair carried these sort of dreams as they studied the details of this match. But in the end, even they had to let go of their last strands of hope.

Thunderclap had taken teamwork to the peak. Individually, their players weren’t all that strong. But they were all team players. They understood strategy well and their cooperative awareness was strong. Once they were together, their strength didn’t lose to that of any team. And Wind Howl? Their new playstyle was the antithesis of Thunderclap’s. Their “cooperation” was to not cooperate. Their method was to turn the team battle into individual battles.

By this point, they had already chopped apart many strong teams, but they finally met their match in Thunderclap. The most cooperative, cohesive team in the entire Alliance wouldn’t be broken apart so easily. Wind Howl messed up, and with their playstyle, one mess-up meant defeat. They had played their best to last this long, but unfortunately for them, Thunderclap still won in the end.

6 to 4.

With the conclusion of this battle, the results of all the teams who were currently fighting for a spot in the playoffs were known.

Void was out for good, but Hundred Blossoms had caught up once again. They were tied with Wind Howl in terms of points, 208, but because they lost to Wind Howl in terms of their head-to-head point scores, they were in ninth place for now.

All of the current rankings were only temporary. The points differences between the teams was worth more attention. Smaller differences could be flipped in the course of one round. After the end of this round, the fifth place team Happy had 219 points, while the eighth and ninth place Wind Howl and Hundred Blossoms had 208 points. This was a difference of only 11 points from fifth to ninth. Happy was directly going against three of these direct competitors in upcoming battles, so this current 11 point lead really wasn’t much.

This round was only one hurdle they’d had to make it through. Void had dropped out, but no team had made it to safety.

The upcoming Round 34 was, for a Happy, a good chance to grab points. Their opponent was Lightly, a weaker team that had no more prospects for this season. Chen Guo wanted to directly add these ten points to Happy’s total.

But Happy’s roster for this round once again gave Chen Guo something to worry about.

“You’re not going in the team competition?” Chen Guo looked at Ye Xiu in shock. In the team round’s roster, Ye Xiu and Lord Grim’s names were absent.

“Yes. For these upcoming rounds, I will try to rest as much as possible,” said Ye Xiu.

Chen Guo hesitated. She had worried time and time again about Ye Xiu’s professional life expectancy; she had worried about whether he was working himself too hard. From in-game to the Pro League, from management to strategy, from training to equipment, Ye Xiu was involved in it all. Was he really not tired?

Chen Guo had had these doubts before.

And now, Ye Xiu, using this method, was telling her clearly: he, too, was tired. He, too, needed to rest.