The King's Avatar

Wei Chen sat paralyzed at his seat. He stretched his neck and sucked in a deep breath of air. He took his cigarette and adeptly flicked cigarette ash to the side. A puff of cigarette smoke rolled out from between his fingers.

Wei Chen looked at his slightly trembling hands. He stared blankly for a bit before forcing out a smile: ”Refusing to give into old age really doesn’t work!”

Calling yourself old at 31 years old sounded like a joke, but in the pro scene, this truly was a grandpa’s age. Up until now, no one this old had ever appeared before in the pro scene.

”Look at that guy.” Wei Chen pointed. Ye Xiu followed his finger and saw the unwilling face on Steamed Bun, who had just gone down from the stage. However, Steamed Bun wasn’t the type of person to get angry. He was talking with Luo Ji about the round he just played in. He was a real person acting like a Brawler in real life. He gestured with his arms and legs like a lively dragon and animated tiger*.

In contrast, even though he wasn’t as exhausted as Wei Chen, a half hour team competition was truly very tiring. Right afterwards, he needed to listen to Steamed Bun’s non stop chatter. He could almost see stars spinning in the sky at this point.

Tang Rou, Qiao Yifan, and An Wenyi were the other three that participating in the team competition. They sat down at their seats silently. Their weariness was also obvious. At the same time, none of them were happy with the results. Everyone was brooding over the outcome of the match. They didn’t pay any heed to the boos from the crowd though.

”Yo, you’re resting!”

A delighted voice floated over. Everyone turned their heads and saw Sun Xiang excitedly walking over towards Happy. Sun Xiang saw them look his way and immediately clapped: ”A brilliant match. Not bad, not bad.”

”But if it’s just that, how are we going to meet in the finals? You’re really making me worry.” Sun Xiang said.

Chen Guo was furious. Just when she was about to shoo him away, Sun Zheping suddenly said: ”Who are you?”

Sun Xiang was startled. He hadn’t seen this person in Happy before, but he had seen the other two, who had pretended not recognize him, before. Sun Xiang wouldn’t fall for the same trap twice. He sneered and asked back: ”And who are you?”

”You’re grandfather.” Sun Zheping replied calmly.

F*ck!

The others on Team Happy had been too tired and too lazy to mind Sun Xiang, but when they heard this response, they felt spirited again and looked at Sun Zheping with all sorts of reverent gazes. This reply was too powerful and too unexpected.　

Sure enough, Sun Xiang couldn’t hold back his anger. He shouted furiously ”What nonsense are you saying?!”

”I’m not talking nonsense. Go back home and ask your father. Stop being such an annoying fly in front of me.” Sun Zheping was as calm as ever.

”You you you....” Sun Xiang said you a bunch of times, but he couldn’t say anything else. Sun Zheping ignored him and waved his hands. He called out to everyone: ”Let’s go back.”

”We’re going already? I still want to sit for awhile longer. That was so tiring!” Wei Chen said, but he had already stood up and was hobbling over to the player passageway. Who knew how he injured his leg.

The others followed behind him. The crowd saw Happy leaving and immediately gave their loudest boos. Chen Guo was indignant, but Sun Xiang had helped make her feel better. She waved her hands at the crowd as if those boos were cheers.

When they returned to the hotel, they obviously weren’t in a good mood. Slapping Sun Xiang a few times wasn’t enough to cover up their disappointment from losing. Chen Guo was hoping Ye Xiu would say something, but Ye Xiu remained silent. When everyone got back to the hotel, he told everyone to take care like it was a normal day and went back to his room.

Seeing the others go back to their room one by one, Chen Guo couldn’t help but worry. She chased after Ye Xiu.

In the room, Wei Chen was lying flat on the bed like a corpse. Ye Xiu had turned on his computer and was browsing Internet with much interest.

”You’re feeling quite good!” Chen Guo wasn’t happy towards Ye Xiu’s reaction. She felt very dissatisfied.

”Don’t be so nervous.” Ye Xiu turned his head and smiled.

”What do you mean?” Chen Guo asked.

”It’s very normal for new players to be unstable. After all, our opponents can’t be beaten with just a few clicks anymore” Ye Xiu said.

”Then shouldn’t you at least say something to them?” Chen Guo said.　　

”Say what? Tell them losing is very normal? Don’t be discouraged and work harder? You tell me. Do you think anyone in our team needs to hear those kinds of words?” Ye Xiu said.

Chen Guo stared blankly.

She felt like Ye Xiu should be consoling them and encouraging them, but when she heard Ye Xiu speak, she had second thoughts. Happy…...

Tang Rou? Losing only made her more spirited. Did she need encouragement?

Qiao Yifan? He had previous experience as a pro player, but he was an invisible person that had never gone on stage. He had experienced these kinds of difficult setbacks before. How could a loss be put in his eyes?

Luo Ji? He was the one bullied the most in Team Happy. He knew he was weak. Losing was something he could be considered as skilled at.

An Wenyi? He was extremely rational and calm. The feeling of losing was just light appetizer for him.

As for Steamed Bun? Right after losing, he started reviewing the match exuberantly with Luo Ji. How could that be called being struck a blow?　　

As for Wei Chen? He had already started snoring. He was sleeping very soundly! He had probably already forgotten about all the boos from losing.

Chen Guo stared blankly. She realized that Ye Xiu was right. Console? Encourage? No one in Team Happy needed that because all of them had their own ways of coping.

”Losing right now is actually a good thing. Everything had been going very smoothly for us the entire time. Even when we met with Team Everlasting, we beat them in an overwhelming victory. That sounds great, but it will actually hide a lot of problems. You’re not thinking our team is already perfect and without flaws, right?” Ye Xiu said.

”Of course not.” Chen Guo said.

”That’s why discovering these problems early makes it easier for us to resolve them. It’s much better than suddenly finding about these issues when we encounter a truly formidable opponent.” Ye Xiu said.

”Then what’s the current problem?” Chen Guo asked.

”From this match, the problem isn’t anything new. It’s just that new players aren’t consistent.” Ye Xiu said. His screen already had a recording of the match playing.

”I won’t talk too much about Steamed Bun. He sometimes goes off the rails. Sometimes, that will make things difficult for the opponent, but sometimes, it makes it difficult for us. Just like when he got lost against Team Everlasting.... This problem will happen once, and it’ll keep happening. This comes from his personality and it won’t be easy to fix. In terms of the team, we can only increase our margin of error in our strategies. In terms of the individual, experience would be the best way to resolve this problem. The experience he has towards he has towards the same situation, the more options he’ll have. Probability-wise, the chances of him going off the rails will be lower. The other thing we can do is pray. Pray that when he goes off the rails, the ones that’ll be injured will be the opponents and not us...” Ye Xiu said. His screen was playing Steamed Bun’s match. In this 3v7 match, Steamed Bun had lost a point in this individual competition. The reason was because of ”external circumstances”.

”As for the others, their weaknesses were more obvious in the team competition. Little Tang is tenacious and eager to win. The harder the adversity, the better she performs. For a player in the group arena, she couldn’t be more suitable. But in a team competition, her explosiveness will sometimes make the team fall apart. This is particularly obvious in this match. Speaking of which, Little Tang really should look at two players as references.” Ye Xiu said.

”Which two?”

”Sun Xiang.”

”That fool?” Chen Guo despised him.　　

”Uh, Sun Xiang is a reference for what not to do, especially in Excellent Era’s matches last season. There were many cases, where his individual prowess made the team fall apart. Little Tang should take a look. They’re the same class too. She can think about what she can do in those situations to truly be the turning point in a match.” Ye Xiu said.

”Haha, I know.” Chen Guo said happily, ”Then what about the other one?”

”Zhou Zekai, of course. He’s also an explosive player, but he can use his explosiveness to lead the team to victory. In terms of actual individual skill, Sun Xiang is no worse than Zhou Zekai, but in terms of his accomplishments in tactics and his ability to read the flow of the match, Zhou Zekai is N times better than Sun Xiang. Little Tang needs to improve in this area.” Ye Xiu said.

”Oh oh, what about the others?” Chen Guo asked.　　

”Yifan is the most stable out of all the young ones. But even though he has prior experience as a pro player, he doesn’t actually have any official match experience, even more so after he switched to a Phantom Demon. In a chaotic situation, his thinking isn’t clear enough. This hesitation has to do with his mentality. Another part of it is because a pro player, who came from learning by the books, can’t help but match his style with the standard methods. He needs to find his own path as a Phantom Demon. He’s studied other pro players more than enough now.” Ye Xiu said.

”Oh...”　　

”As for Luo Ji, he’s still rather weak. When the others go all out, he can’t keep up. That can’t be forced. We can only wait for him to continue improving. He still has a lot of room to do so. As for An Wenyi, his foundation is quite good. He improved immensely during that period of specialized training. During these two months, he’s accumulated a lot of high-level experience. His problem is the same as when he first came. His reactions are somewhat slow. However, he’s very smart. He’s trying to use more precise control of the pace to reduce the impact of this flaw.” Ye Xiu said.

”But this is a match and not a boss! If it’s just controlling the pace, that won’t work in many sudden situations, no?” Chen Guo said.

”He’s also found a solution to this problem.” Ye Xiu smiled.　　

”What is it?”

”Prediction. He’ll try to predict what will happen and respond to that. Relax. As he accumulates experience, he’ll become an outstanding Cleric.” Ye Xiu said.

”Okay...”

”As for Old Wei...” Ye Xiu turned his head to look at the sleeping corpse, Wei Chen, ”Age is his problem. He can only rely on his own willpower to overcome it...”