The King's Avatar

Tech skill practice made something as bothersome as fighting for bosses seem like vacation. The players at Happy followed this routine day after day. Apart from Steamed Bun occasionally crying out, no one else complained. As for Steamed Bun, no one took his crying to heart.

In the blink of an eye, a week passed. Besides basic tech skill practice, Ye Xiu and Wei Chen was able to complete the class-specific practice for each individual. Class-specific practice demanded more detailed work. Not only did the contents of the practice routine differ for each class, the player’s strength and weaknesses needed to be considered too.

This was result of continuous improvement in Glory’s professional scene over the years. In the early years, let alone detailed specialized practice, the pro players didn’t even practice basic tech skill. At the very start, everyone just practiced by fighting in the Arena. Now, that sort of practice was considered unorthodox. Unorthodox didn’t necessarily mean bad. Whether or not it was bad depended on the individual.　

Ye Xiu and Wei Chen finished the class-specific practice routines for each individual and explained it to them. It wasn’t something that could be completed in a short time though. Adjustments needed to be made according to their progress.

Rumors of transfers continued to fly around this week. But after this week ended, the actual transfer market was silent. This stillness didn’t mean that there weren’t any movements whatsoever, but there were simply too many astonishing transfers this summer, so most players were too lazy to care about transfers of less famous players.

As time continued to elapse day by day, teams were beginning to finalize their team roster and prepare for the new season. Summer break for the competitive scene wasn’t the same as summer break for students. Matches started September 1st, which meant everyone had to return by September 1st. Many teams had changed over the summer. Team Tyranny now had two new famous generals. Team Hundred Blossoms completely rebuilt the team. Team Wind Howl had invited the rising star Tang Hao as their core; Last seaon’s Best Rookie Zhao Yuzhe would also be part of the main roster next season. In addition, Team Blue Rain lost Yu Feng. Team Tiny Herb lost two All Star players, one due to retirement, another due to a transfer.

New players to new teams required time to adapt to each other. It would require time.

As a result, even though the new season started on September 1st, no team’s vacation period would end on September 1st. Vacation usually ended in the middle of August. The Clubs would send out orders for players to return and begin practicing for the new season. Even for teams without many changes, after taking a break for so long, the player still needed to get back into form! After all, only a few would continue practicing during the long break.

On 8/15, midway through August, the various Club guilds let out a sigh of relief. On this day, Team Tyranny’s two players, who caused their harvest to sharply drop, finally stopped showing up in the game. Around this day, Team Blue Rain’s Lu Hanwen, Team Tiny Herb’s Liu Xiaobie, Team Wind Howl’s Zhao Yuzhe, etc. also departed from the game. No one looked forward to their leave as much as Zhang Xinjie’s or Lin Jingyan’s departure though.

The balance in the game had finally returned to normal.

The various guild leaders felt a bit of emotion well up. After all, it wasn’t their first time experiencing this type of occurrence. This sort of tossing and turning usually happened every summer. This year’s was truly special though. The transfer market was especially lively. The game was just as crazy. A God like Zhang Xinjie helping the guild monopolize materials had never happened before. This year’s summer left them with a deep impression.

Vacation for players had ended, but the transfer window hadn’t closed yet. The Club managers were still busy, using these last two three weeks to improve the team, especially with practice starting again. They could receive feedback from their teams and make some final adjustments while they still could.

Those with experience waited expectantly because in the past, there would often be large important transfers during this ending period. These transfers were usually unexpected high price transfers too! After all, there wasn’t much time left!

Everyone waited and waited. Another ”quiet” week passed. There weren’t any attention-grabbing transfers.

This was in the eyes of most people. However, at Happy, a piece of good news came to them.

Team Excellent Era’s Guo Yang had transferred to Team Wind Howl for 2.6 million.　　

In the end, Team Excellent Era, which refused to become a supermarket, still lost a player. If a Club couldn’t persuade a player to stay, they couldn’t force the player to stay. It would be a loss to both sides if they did.

Although Team Excellent Era had invited Xiao Shiqin and his Life Extinguisher, a player still needed to waste a year in the Challenger League. Not everyone could wait for that future to come and sacrifice this year.

Guo Yang had been on Team Excellent Era’s main roster, a Qi Master. His departure would certainly hurt Team Excellent Era, so for Team Happy, this was good news. The damage would be limited though. On paper, Team Excellent Era still possessed Sun Xiang, Xiao Shiqin, and Su Mucheng, three All Stars. No one in the Alliance had that right now.

Team Tyranny had four, but among those four, three were already near the end of their career. On the other hand, the three on Team Excellent Era were at the peaks of their career. And because of their youth, they still had room to go up unlike Team Tyranny’s three old generals.

Such a monstrous team attracted quite a lot of attention. No one doubted that Team Excellent Era would make it through the Challenger League with ease. As for the other pro teams which would be participating such as the teams which got relegated the same season, the previous season, or even the previous previous season hadn’t yet dissolved the team. After all, only a single team could pass through the Challenger League. There would always be a team, which would be left behind.

Team Duskfire was one such tragic example.

They were relegated in season six, but failed to make it back in season seven and season eight. After being relegated, they would be treated as a supermarket. After failing to get through the Challenger, they would face a disbandment. Team Duskfire stayed strong. They failed the first time and tried again, but failed that too. Last season, they failed once more.

The only person who still remained from Team Duskfire’s original roster was their team captain. The others, who had the ability to compete at a pro level, had left long ago. The team could only find players from other eliminated teams or players who couldn’t find a team. Last season was their third attempt at the Challenger League and perhaps their last. After being in the unprofitable Challenger League for three years, the team probably couldn’t last much longer. The team captain, Hu Zheyi, couldn’t get the same salary as he did back in the pro scene, and the team had no chance at professionalization. This time would be their last chance, but how could they have known a powerhouse with three All Stars like Team Excellent Era would actually get relegated? When Xiao Shiqin announced that he would join Excellent Era, three of the members from Team Duskfire expressed their departure from the team to find other work. They felt that they had no hope.

Team Duskfire obviously wasn’t the only one. Team Mysterious Fantasy, which had dropped out along with Team Excellent Era, felt their hopes dim as well. If they wanted to make it through the Challenger League, they would need to beat Team Excellent Era. Who wouldn’t feel nervous?

These teams were the same as Team Happy. They watched Team Excellent Era closely. Team Excellent Era had a slight loss, but it was only one person. Plus, who knew if Excellent Era had been the one to force him out! After all, the team had switched out their vice-captain. They were rebuilding the team too.

But no matter how they felt, they still needed to register for the Challenger League. On Team Happy’s side, Chen Guo registered using everyone’s ID cards and characters. The initial period of the Challenger League wasn’t very strict. There wasn’t much of an audit. There were a lot of fine details to the registration, which should still be followed though. For example, players who weren’t of age yet could use their guardian’s ID card to register. However, in future investigations, the guardian would need to be present to vouch for the player.

Team Happy had quite a few young people, but all of them were adults. Chen Guo took their ID cards and registered. She was a bit stuck on Mo Fan though. Mo Fan had been in Happy Internet Cafe for half a month already. He still never spoke a word to anyone just like when he came on the first day. Was he in or not?

Chen Guo had no clue. She didn’t know what Ye Xiu was planning. She needed to register the team members though, so she could only ask.

”Are you going to register?” Chen Guo went straight to the point. She didn’t give any explanation to Mo Fan. Everyone talked about it everyday. Even if Mo Fan never said anything, he still had ears. There was no way he wouldn’t know what Chen Guo was talking about.

”Not interested.” Mo Fan spoke two words.

”Just do it!” Ye Xiu saw Chen Guo talking to Mo Fan and took notice of it. He heard Mo Fan’s words and interjected, ”Registering doesn’t mean anything. When the time comes and you don’t want to play, you just don’t play.”

Mo Fan was silent. He refused to comment. But after half a month together, everyone was getting used to him. Silence usually meant that he wasn’t opposed to the idea most of the time. If he refused, he would always coldly give you a ”No.”

”ID card.” Chen Guo said.

Mo Fan handed it over.

”Will you be using Deception?” Chen Guo asked.

”Doesn’t matter.” Mo Fan’s expressionless face made Chen Guo angry, but she endured.

”So our team’s name will be Happy?” Chen Guo asked Ye Xiu for confirmation.　　

”Doesn’t matter.” Ye Xiu smiled.

”I like this name.” Chen Guo didn’t want the name to sound too domineering. The name Happy was a bit unconventional, but it held a lot of special meaning to her, so she wanted to register using this name.

”You’re the boss. You have the final say. If anyone objects, you can just kick them out.” Ye Xiu said.　

”Okay.” Chen Guo smiled.

The Challenger League registration was on the Glory official website. Information on everyone in Team Happy was officially up on the web.