The King's Avatar

“We won! 5 to 3!!!” Chen Guo was excited. Although the match wasn’t over yet, they had a 2 point lead going into the team competition. It was an incredible result, especially since this was Samsara’s home stadium. Samsara had clearly practiced with the map, Dripstone Cave, and put it to good use, yet Happy had still been able to win 5 to 3. It was definitely worthy of being happy about.

Everyone knew the importance of this two point lead. The fans in the away team seats started cheering loudly, while the home stadium Samsara fans were disappointed. Today’s group arena had been vexing. Their captain, Zhou Zekai, lost in the first round, putting everyone in low spirits. Jiang Botao was able to bring things back, but Lu Boyuan lost disastrously. Du Ming’s exceptional playing made them overjoyed, but their spirits were immediately dampened by the dirty Fang Rui.

Then, Samsara only had Sun Xiang left. Their hopes of winning the group arena were rather low at this point, but Sun Xiang’s confidence made them think again. But the result…

Everyone had been hopeful, but in the end, Sun Xiang wasn’t able to beat even a single opponent. Samsara’s fans weren’t at all pleased with Sun Xiang’s performance. When the group arena ended and the players came down from the stage, there were even boos towards Sun Xiang from the crowd.

Sun Xiang lowered his head, silent and embarrassed. His teammates sympathized with him though because his loss hadn’t been as bad Lu Boyuan’s. In contrast, Sun Xiang had his glimmering moments. Unfortunately, Fang Rui wiped it all away.

Fang Rui…

He had essentially done a 1v2, successfully earning Happy a two point lead. It was a result worthy of him being the highest paid player and having their strongest character. Fang Rui was satisfied, and the booing towards Sun Xiang was just heaven to his ears. Fang Rui wasn’t polite. He grinned as he waved his hands towards the crowd as if they were cheering for him.

Samsara’s fans weren’t happy with Sun Xiang, but they weren’t going to just let the opposing team laugh at them. The look on Fang Rui’s face made them stop booing towards Sun Xiang. Then, they started sending their boos towards Fang Rui. The players on Samsara, including Sun Xiang, couldn’t help but look towards Fang Rui. Their gazes were filled with gratitude. Nice job pulling that aggro!

But Fang Rui didn’t care about that. When he returned to his team, he was in high spirits.

“What do you think? Just say it! How’d I do!” Fang Rui asked Ye Xiu.

“Good job, good job,” Ye Xiu clapped his hands in praise.

“I appreciate your honesty!” Fang Rui said. The gloom that he had been holding in throughout the playoffs was finally let out today. Fang Rui felt like he was playing great, his Golden Right Hand was on fire. He couldn’t wait for the team competition to begin. He couldn’t help but look towards Samsara, but they noticed him and immediately looked at him with hostility.

“Where’s that cup of water? Hand it over to him to cool off,” Ye Xiu called out.

Fang Rui had asked Su Mucheng for the water when he went to the stage. After Su Mucheng got back, she really did get him a cup of water. After Fang Rui got it, it seemed that he had forgotten about what he had asked for because he immediately gulped it down in one go.

“The water’s still hot!” Fang Rui yelled, “Have you guys heard the story ‘Warm Wine, the Killing of Hua Xiong*?’”

“We’ve heard of it. Let’s talk about the match,” Ye Xiu quickly replied.

“Okay okay, the match,” Fang Rui calmed himself down. He didn’t let the joy get to his head. He was the master of playing dirty, an expert at switching up the pace, no?

The two teams didn’t return to their prep rooms. They stayed at their seats, discussing the upcoming team competition.

A while later, the referee called for the two teams. The lineup for the team competition had been decided beforehand, which the large screen in the stadium displayed for the audience to see.

Team Happy: Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Qiao Yifan, An Wenyi, Steamed Bun.

Team Samsara: Zhou Zekai, Jiang Botao, Sun Xiang, Lu Boyuan, Fang Minghua, Du Ming.

There were some small adjustments to the lineup compared to their first game.

On Happy’s side, Tang Rou wasn’t playing in the team competition. Qiao Yifan took her place. On Samsara’s side, their Assassin Wu Qi was on the bench, while Du Ming was the sixth player.

Every player hoped to be a part of the participating lineup especially on a grand stage like the finals. Du Ming’s position in Samsara wasn’t as stable as a core player’s. Being able to play in the team competition in the finals was a rare opportunity.

Even so, Du Ming couldn’t help but hope for a bit more, but after seeing that Happy’s lineup didn’t include Tang Rou, his hopes were immediately extinguished.

How unlucky!

Du Ming really wanted to let out a sigh, but he suddenly noticed that his teammates were looking at him and hastily swallowed his sigh.

It’s just not right!

It was a rare opportunity for him to play, but he was still a bit sad about it.

Du Ming thought to himself as he collected his emotions. With his head held high, he marched forward, the first one to head towards the stage.

“How unfortunate, Tang Rou isn’t playing,” Behind him, Jiang Botao and Fang Minghua stood close to each other, whispering.

“Yeah, we miscalculated,” Fang Minghua said.

“But then again, Du Ming’s playing really well today,” Jiang Botao said.

“Like I said, the power of love,” Fang Minghua said.

“But his love’s not even on stage!” Jiang Botao retorted.

“But his love’s watching him off stage!” Fang Minghua said.

“If we knew, we should have put someone else as the sixth player,” Jiang Botao said.

“We can make adjustments during the match!” Fang Minghua said.

Soon afterwards, the players on the two teams lined up at the center of the stage, giving their pre-match greetings to each other.

Zhou Zekai wasn’t a talkative person. He pretty much just smiled to the players on Happy as a greeting. The first to say something from Samsara was their vice-captain, Jiang Botao.

“You guys played amazing in the group arena,” Jiang Botao shook Ye Xiu’s hands.

“You’re about to see something even more amazing,” Ye Xiu smiled.

“I hope you won’t be as scary,” Jiang Botao said.

“You scared?” Ye Xiu said.

“A bit, but I still have to play even if I’m afraid!” Jiang Botao replied.

“Why force yourself?” Ye Xiu grinned.

“You two… are you done chatting?” Su Mucheng couldn’t help but interrupt them. The pre-match greeting was just a formality. Usually, the two teams would line up and then shake hands, starting from the captain. But instead, Ye Xiu had just gotten to Samsara’s second player, Jiang Botao, and the two were chatting up a storm. The two of them were holding up the line. The others behind them were looking at each other.

“Ha, Sis Su, don’t be anxious,” Jiang Botao could chat with anyone. After letting go of Ye Xiu, he immediately started making small talk with Su Mucheng.

Every match had its formalities. No one really cared what happened during them. Soon, the two sides finished their greetings, and under directions from the referee, each side went to their respective player booths.

Cheers erupted from the crowd.

Although Samsara had lost in the group arena, the outcome of this match depended on the team competition. It was very common to see a team win a team competition by more than two points. As a result, neither Team Samsara nor their fans were too worried.

Who cares if we’re losing by two points? As long as we gain it back in the team competition, it’s fine. If we gain the points back, we win today’s match and the finals. We’ll be the champion’s! It’ll be the start of a new reign!

A historic moment could happen today, giving Samsara’s players and their fans endless motivation. It allowed them to keep calm despite being behind.

As for Happy, they were facing a match that they could not lose. Even if they had a two point lead from the group arena, it wasn’t enough. They had to win the team competition, so they could get another chance for a third game tie-breaker. If not, their journey this season would be over. No one on Happy wanted to see this outcome.

“Good luck!” The players on the two teams gave each other one last round of encouragement before heading into their player booths.

The referee looked at the time.

For this potentially historic match, everything needed to be handled perfectly.

Time was ticking. At 21:25, the referee announced the start of the team competition!

The map and characters loaded. The loading bar seemed to be carrying killing intent, a battle between the two sides.

Lord Grim finished loading.

Cloud Piercer finished loading.

Dancing Rain finished loading.

Empty Waves finished loading.

…

At the end, the map finished loading, and the team competition was officially underway.

The map was Selkie City Warehouse.

The map was a city map, but because of the enormous size of the warehouse, the map had a large indoor area. As a result, it didn’t feel like there were many layers to this map compared to maps in the wilderness. There were all sorts of commodities piled up inside the warehouse, creating a maze. Some of these commodities could be used in battle too. Teams that weren’t familiar with the map would probably have a hard time utilizing it well.

Pan Lin and Li Yibo introduced the map to the audience, while the two teams spawned at the east and west side of the map.

This map was an actual part of a city in the Heavenly Domain. The Selkie City Warehouse was asymmetric. There were areas that could be utilized on both the east and west sides of the map. However, as the away team, Happy needed some time to observe the map. On the other hand, Samsara immediately set out as soon as they spawned. Instead of heading straight for the center, Samsara moved in the southwest direction.

At the top of the warehouse in the southwest area, there was a tall chimney, which was the highest point in the map.

Samsara was heading towards it. However, the chimney was actually closer to Happy’s spawn point, and it was quite conspicuous too. Happy quickly noticed it.