The King's Avatar

“Zhou Zekai is really driven today!” Like many others, Pan Lin could feel the unwavering determination and energy from Zhou Zekai.

“But I have to commend Mo Fan. It really isn’t easy for a rookie,” Li Yibo said.

It was a very important round, yet Happy had sent Mo Fan against Zhou Zekai. The pressure he was under wasn’t light. After the round began, although Deception’s movements weren’t fast or hurried, he wasn’t slow either. He was moving forward at a very ordinary pace.

His steady pace let everyone know that Mo Fan was calm right now. He wasn’t impatient, and he wasn’t afraid. As a rookie, on this grand stage, in this crucial match, it truly wasn’t easy. That was why Li Yibo commended him.

As the two characters gradually approached, Mo Fan’s Deception finally stopped. He moved closer to the canyon wall, and then used his ninjato to begin scaling the canyon. Soon, he found himself a foothold. Deception landed on it, and then curled up into a ball.

The broadcast and stadium screens quickly switched to a different camera angle, one that looked up from down below on the canyon floor.

Deception could faintly be seen from this angle. He wasn’t completely hidden. Moreover, this distance was within a Sharpshooter’s attack range. Cloud Piercer could easily reach him.

Deception looked around, checking his surroundings. Then, he suddenly stood up.

Mo Fan had been studying his position, but in the end, he wasn’t satisfied with it. After checking his left and right, Deception continued to climb.

This fight clearly wouldn’t be as direct as the previous fight. Mo Fan went with his usual strategy, searching for an ambush spot on this map. During the previous group arena rounds, he had noticed a few spots through his spectator view, but he wasn’t experienced enough to judge each spot thoroughly at just a glance. He needed to examine them further personally during the match. As it turned out, the first spot that he noticed was unsuitable.

Deception soon found a new foothold. This spot was lower than the previous one. This time, Mo Fan’s Deception didn’t even look down. He looked ahead, and then immediately left.

That spot was too low.

Next.

Deception continued to scale the walls. Even though he was moving nimbly, Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer was getting closer and closer. If Cloud Piercer arrived before Deception could find a suitable hiding place, then Mo Fan’s plans would be completely wasted.

Happy’s fans were anxious, hoping that Mo Fan could hurry up and find a good spot.

Samsara’s fans were anxious too, hoping that Zhou Zekai could hurry up and get there.

Through the direction Deception was moving in, the broadcast team was able to figure out which foothold Mo Fan would look for next.

The next foothold was rather high up. Ambushing from there would actually be a bit far. However, the height and the area of the protrusion made it appear as if it would be able to completely hide a character, unless the other side also climbed up there.

It would be inconvenient to attack from there, but at the same time, Mo Fan would be out of Zhou Zekai’s sights, and he could set up an ambush.

Who was faster?

One was moving forward, while the other was moving up.

Cloud Piercer appeared, but Deception was nowhere to be seen!

He made it in time…

The camera switched to Cloud Piercer’s perspective. The moment Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer reached the area, he immediately checked the walls surrounding him. But just like before, when he looked around, he didn’t find anyone.

Samsara’s fans were worried. They hoped that Zhou Zekai would instinctively sense that something was wrong. Happy’s fans were also scared and on edge. They hoped that Cloud Piercer would continue dashing forward, leaving his back open to Deception.

Suddenly, at this moment, a chance occurred.

The hidden NPC troops cropped up from on top of the canyon. Zhou Zekai immediately noticed them. In the next second, the NPCs fired all sorts of long-ranged attacks, straight towards a certain spot on the wall.

Deception!

The NPC hidden troops had attacked where Deception had been hiding. The spells and explosions obliterated that protruding rock. Deception quickly jumped away to dodge the assault.

Zhou Zekai had been completely prepared. He immediately looked all around him, looking for incoming attacks. But to his surprise, there was nothing.

The hidden troops on the two sides of the canyon had unexpectedly only aimed for Deception. They seemed to have completely ignored Cloud Piercer down below.

The situation was clear enough. The spot that Mo Fan had chosen had triggered the NPC troops hiding on top of the canyon.

This definitely came as a surprise. After all, this was a random map. No one except the developers knew the characteristics of this map. However, it could also be said that Mo Fan hadn’t thought about his plan carefully enough. He hadn’t considered that he would trigger attacks from the hidden troops.

It was a bit of an unfair criticism though, something an armchair expert might say. After all, the NPCs up above were quite patient from what they had observed up until then. It wasn’t until the NPCs started getting entangled did they begin throwing stones at someone who fell down a well. Mo Fan’s Deception had been climbing higher and higher, but he was still quite far from them. No one knew what the logic behind the AI was, and it was impossible to reach a conclusion.

In any case, for Mo Fan, for Happy, it couldn’t get any worse than this.

In the first round of the group arena, Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf ended up being attacked by the NPCs, while Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim rested easy up on the wall. But in order to avoid aggroing the NPCs, he didn’t make any attacks. The NPCs weren’t enough to stop Sun Xiang, which was why the whole series of events afterwards happened. If Ye Xiu had instead attacked One Autumn Leaf along with the NPCs, Sun Xiang would have been in major trouble.

Mo Fan was in the same sort of crisis. His situation was different than Sun Xiang’s. The hidden troops on the two ends of the canyon were only throwing long-ranged attacks at him. They didn’t seem to have any intentions of approaching any closer. Right now, if Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer attacked, he wouldn’t need to worry about the NPCs unless his marksmanship somehow turned extremely poor.

Zhou Zekai instantly grasped the main points. For him, it was as if an opportunity had fallen right into his lap. Zhou Zekai wasn’t polite. He kindly accepted the gift. Gunshots echoed throughout the canyon, bullets shooting towards Deception.

Despite having such an enormous advantage, Zhou Zekai didn’t act carelessly. His first attacks were aimed to prevent Deception from continuing to climb up because he noticed that Mo Fan wanted to rush to the top of the canyon.

However, with Zhou Zekai’s impediment, Mo Fan didn’t succeed. Climbing the mountain wall wasn’t as easy as moving on flat ground.

Mo Fan was forced into helplessness. He could only have Deception land back onto the ground.

Did the NPCs stop attacking?

This was what Happy’s fans hoped for, but they knew that it was unlikely, very unlikely…

As expected!

The attacks didn’t stop. The hidden troops on opposite ends of the canyon continued to attack. Cloud Piercer would sometimes be implicated in the attacks, but he clearly wasn’t the main target.

Head shakes and sighs…

The more neutral pro players shook their heads and sighed. It was impossible to predict these sorts of surprises before the match, and it just had to happen in such an important match.

This one point was practically a free gift. Given these circumstances, if Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer lost even a single drop of health, it would be considered his loss.

And he didn’t!

Zhou Zekai didn’t relax at all even with this enormous advantage. In fact, he became even more vigilant. Cloud Piercer kept an appropriate distance from Deception at all times. Mo Fan tried to close in several times, but failed every time.

Zhou Zekai had been bravely charging forward the entire time. Even when he was facing Su Mucheng’s explosive firing line, his Cloud Piercer didn’t back down a single step. But now, he was no longer showing the same determination and bravery. He was playing very carefully because he knew that in this situation, in these circumstances, this sort of playstyle would better strangle Happy’s morale.

The turning point was lost just like this.

In this critical confrontation, Mo Fan was utterly defeated. He wasn’t even able to land a single blow on his opponent.

What could be more cruel, more painful than this sort of defeat?

What was even more frustrating was that everything, whether it was his strategy, his execution, his playing, had come crashing down because of one single bout of bad luck.

1v3. Zhou Zekai had done it. The third round’s victory had practically been gifted to him.

But that alone wasn’t all because this round told everyone that it wasn’t just technique, decision-making, knowledge, intuition, energy, even luck was standing by Zhou Zekai’s and Samsara’s side.

How could this sort of team be beaten? What weakness did this sort of opponent have?

When Mo Fan walked down from the stage, the away team crowd was dead silent. Samsara’s fans weren’t too enthusiastic either. They were showing how relaxed they were as if victory was already within their grasp.

Zhou Zekai, Cloud Piercer, 45% health left. Behind him were three Samsara players, while Happy only had two players left.

He was fighting like his life was on the line, relying on his own strength to take down Happy in these dire straits. This was Zhou Zekai, the Zhou Zekai who had led Team Samsara to two back-to-back championship wins.

No weakness could be found on him. Even the illusory Lady Luck was on his side.

This… was this the new King of Glory?

Samsara’s fans filled the stadium with cheers for Zhou Zekai. The moment Mo Fan returned to Happy’s seats, it was as if the match had been decided.

Tang Rou looked at Ye Xiu. Others might be thinking that Happy had already lost, but her fighting spirit hadn’t diminished at all.

Ye Xiu was just about to give her the nod, when someone suddenly stood up, cutting off their line of sight.

Pu!

Fang Rui lifted his Golden Right Hand to his mouth, spat on it, combed his hair, and said: “Looks like you guys are hopeless without me!”