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Lose? Win?

Samsara’s fans were in a daze. Happy’s fans were in a daze. Unlike the pro players, they hadn’t fully grasped what had just happened. Their judgement had been very simple: whoever had more health was winning.

Of course, this sort of judgement wasn’t wrong. Yes, whoever had more health was winning. The end outcome of the battle could be considered a reversal from Ye Xiu. It was just that the reversal had been too quick. In the previous second, the two characters seemed to be evenly matched. Suddenly, Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer was pinned to a stalagmite, seemingly powerless. Then, just when he was finally able to escape, a silver blade went in and a red blade came out, marking the end of the battle.

How could it be?

How could it be?

Samsara’s fans were at a loss. Happy’s fans were also at a loss. They had thought that they would lose this fight. Getting Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer down to such a low amount of health was still an acceptable result though.

This sort of thought was just them comforting themselves. Whether it was the confrontation between the current and former number one, or Ye Xiu’s legendary 1v1 win streak, none of Happy’s fans wanted to see Ye Xiu lose. As for whether it was good or bad for the group arena as a whole, this sort of rational reasoning wasn’t something that fans gave consideration to.

But contrary to their expectations, they had won.

Just like they had hoped, Ye Xiu had won. Just before, they had been constructing mental barriers, coming up with a reason to comfort themselves. All of a sudden, everything was flipped on top of their heads. Everyone was in a daze for a long time, all the way until Zhou Zekai left the player booth. Reality finally sunk in. The fans gathered at the away team seats began to cheer.

How did he win?

They didn’t know, but it wasn’t important. Ye Xiu had won, so let’s celebrate first! They could always go back and slowly analyze it at a later time.

The audience could take on this mentality, but the commentators, Pan Lin and Li Yibo, couldn’t. There was no later in a live broadcast. The two had to discuss the sudden reversal from Ye Xiu.

As a result, the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella during that reversal became the focus of the discussion.

“The Dragon Tooth had closed the distance beforehand, so when Colliding Stab was used, it came out at point blank range.”

“The greatsword form of the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella is truly gigantic. The area covered by Colliding Stab is quite large, making it quite difficult to dodge!”

“Look, the moment Colliding Stab came out, Lord Grim pulled out the tachi from his umbrella’s handle. This small movement misled Zhou Zekai into misjudging the attack.

“Yes, yes. What an elaborate scheme!”

The two spoke back and forth, not at all stingy with their praise. The two were even thinking of the future. Whenever Ye Xiu was in a 1v1, they should just immediately start out by declaring Ye Xiu’s victory. Then, wouldn’t anything they said after that be untouchable?

Through this evaluation, the two were able to move past the reversal. But for the pro players, while this feint was very important, it wasn’t as simple as that.

Ye Xiu. Zhou Zekai. The two players with the title of number one were very similar to each other in many ways. Just take how they played. Compared to normal players who cared strongly about hand speed, the deepest impression that these two players gave wasn’t speed but precision.

The two were exceptionally precise. Because of this precision, the two frequently made plays with little room for error. Zhou Zekai was able to perform such an impressive display of Gun Fu because of this precision. Ye Xiu dared to rush down Zhou Zekai despite only having 5% of his health remaining because of this precision.

Apart from precision, their decision-making and intuition were similar. When either of them took control, it was extremely difficult for the opponent to find an opening to counterattack.

At the end of the battle, Lord Grim had pinned Cloud Piercer against a stalagmite and fought at close combat. Was there no such opportunity before? No!

He had intentionally saved this move for the very end at the deciding moment. Everyone was shocked at his decision to rush down Zhou Zekai with only 5% health remaining on Lord Grim. But in reality, Ye Xiu hadn’t been looking at his own health, but rather Cloud Piercer’s 14%. As they traded blows, he knew that Zhou Zekai was waiting for an opportunity to finish him off in one combo. He was the same.

But his Lord Grim could also heal. The three instant cast heals could be added onto his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. However, during this entire battle, he had never used any of them. It was hard to not be suspicious. The spectating pro players had been certain that he was saving these heals for a final explosive burst. They thought that he had chosen not to use these heals before because he had been waiting for the right opportunity. When their health dropped low enough, he would heal, and Zhou Zekai wouldn’t be able to react in time.

The pro players had been partially correct. Ye Xiu had been waiting for the right opportunity. However, he wasn’t waiting for an opportunity to heal. Instead, he had been waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, waiting until Cloud Piercer’s health was low enough for him to kill him in one combo. He had also been waiting for Zhou Zekai to rush him down.

When performing a rush, attacking the opponent would be the priority, while defense would be secondary. Ye Xiu had been watching Cloud Piercer’s health carefully. He seized the moment Zhou Zekai decided to rush at him and counter-rushed him.

The two were fighting at close-range, and a Sharpshooter couldn’t compare to an unspecialized in close combat. And this time, Ye Xiu wasn’t going to give him any opportunity to trade. He would wipe out that 14% in one go.

Everyone saw what happened afterwards. Lord Grim completely suppressed Cloud Piercer. Apart from taking some damage when forcing the Colliding Stab, Cloud Piercer was unable to do anything. An opening had appeared because Lord Grim wasn’t able to continue his combo, but Ye Xiu had been ready. Cloud Piercer was only hit away from death. With a teleport, Lord Grim gave the final fatal strike.

What the pro players saw wasn’t just technical prowess, but their control over the pace of the fight.

Ye Xiu had won, a very close win, but if you considered how he had taken such a massive amount of damage from the Thunder Snipe at the start and then made a comeback from a disadvantageous position, he had been the one with a stronger grasp over the pace of the fight.

Of course, Lord Grim’s class as an unspecialized and his transforming Myriad Manifestations Umbrella contributed greatly towards this achievement. If he wasn’t an unspecialized, without the possibility of healing, Zhou Zekai wouldn’t have waited until Lord Grim only had 5% health before trying to rush him down. If Lord Grim couldn’t heal, Zhou Zekai would have likely rushed him down to decide the fight when Lord Grim had over 10% of his health left.

In the online game, in PvP, if the winner relied on a class advantage or an equipment advantage to win, the loser would often spite the winner for having an unfair advantage.

But on the pro stage, everyone would exploit the slightest of advantages to win. Ye Xiu was no different. His unspecialized and his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella gave other pro players a huge headache. They really wanted to be like the in-game players: if you didn’t have that stupid umbrella or if you weren’t playing a broken class, I would have won.

But then again, when Ye Xiu had been using a Battle Mage, hadn’t they been getting slapped left and right as well?

The pro players applauded. It had been a spectacular fight. The winner showed terrifying skill, but the loser did as well. When watching a match, they often pretended as if they were the ones playing. Their expressions were grave. Clearly, none of them dared to say that it might have gone differently if they had been the ones playing.

Game two of the finals. The first round of the group arena had ended. In Samsara’s home stadium, Happy had won the first round. Ye Xiu continued his legendary win streak, and this time, he had defeated Zhou Zekai, the number one player. With this win, he shut up the haters, who argued that his win streak was because he was avoiding those ace players in the group arena.

Even Zhou Zekai had lost against him. If that wasn’t enough to legitimize his win streak, did he need to play 1v2s?

The Samsara fans in the crowd were silent. Their ace, the god in their eyes, had lost? He had come out specifically to play against Ye Xiu, coming out full force, yet he had lost?

Samsara’s fans weren’t used to this. For a moment, they were having trouble accepting reality to the point of even forgetting to give a consolation applause to the loser. In their eyes, there were only cheers and praise for Zhou Zekai. Consoling him as the loser didn’t feel right…

“Then, it’s my turn.” At Samsara’s bench, Jiang Botao got up and went to welcome Zhou Zekai back.

“Mm.” Zhou Zekai nodded his head. He was always quiet, so it was hard to tell what he was feeling.

“4% health, huh. He’s probably going to heal now…” Jiang Botao muttered as he walked towards the stage.

The atmosphere in the stadium was heavy. Samsara had forgotten to console Zhou Zekai, who had lost. They had also forgotten to cheer to give their Jiang Botao encouragement. They were still trying to take in the fact that Zhou Zekai had lost.

But Jiang Botao didn’t appear to be concerned.

4%.

Lord Grim only had a few drops of health left. From the perspective of the group arena as a whole, Zhou Zekai’s loss wasn’t bad. It was just that because of how important the fight had been to the audience, because Zhou Zekai had gone first to play against Ye Xiu, because it was a challenge that Zhou Zekai had taken the initiative to put out.

In the end, he lost.

It made Samsara’s fans feel embarrassed and ashamed…

Zhou Zekai had never given them these feelings before. There were even a few girls out in the audience who burst out into tears.

But Zhou Zekai’s teammate, Samsara’s vice-captain Jiang Botao, wasn’t affected by the atmosphere. He walked calmly onto the stage and into the player booth.

The characters loaded. The map loaded. The match began.

“Hello, senior! I’m coming!” Zhou Zekai had been silent, but as soon as Jiang Botao went onto the stage, he greeted Ye Xiu enthusiastically.

“Coming to surrender?” Ye Xiu replied.

“No way,” said Jiang Botao, “I’m here to experience how fearsome you seniors are.”