The King's Avatar

As expected, the finals didn’t disappoint. There was still an hour left before the match officially went underway, yet the Liulisong Sports Arena was already completely packed.

This wasn’t Excellent Era’s home stadium, but the influence of a powerhouse was not something those at the level of Jade Dynasty or Mysterious Fantasy could compare to. In the finals, Excellent Era’s fans gathered together. There were plenty of local fans and City H’s most loyal fans, who would always follow the team into battle as Excellent Era’s iron fan army; they too graced their presence for this match. Banners in support of Excellent Era could be seen all throughout the stadium. However, those hoping for tonight’s victory were in the minority. More of them were pointing towards next year, pointing towards Excellent Era’s sweep through the Alliance.

Just like the survey had found before the match, even though many were hoping for Happy to win, more people’s predictions favored Excellent Era. As Excellent Era’s most loyal fans, how could they doubt the superior team? In comparison, those who hoped for Happy to win just wanted drama. Cheer for them? They were afraid that others would think of them as idiots.

Despite the trend, there just happened to be a bunch of idiots. Among the sea of Excellent Era banners, that bunch held up Happy’s logo high and shouted that Happy would topple Excellent Era. They became the joke of the surrounding people, but they didn’t care. They were staunch supporters of Happy. The players and the characters from Team Happy had a connection that stemmed from the game.

”Happy! Happy!!” Seven Fields led everyone to shout with all they had. It was a reminder to everyone: don’t ignore Happy.

Excellent Era’s fans quickly discovered this small group of reckless people and flung all sorts of insults and biting remarks at them. Seven Fields and the others remained unmoved as they continued to express their support for Happy.　　

At 7:30 PM, the lighting in the stadium gradually began to darken. Everyone immediately became excited because this indicated that the match was one step closer to starting.

Whether it was the broadcast or the holographic projections, all of them required light. Watching a Glory match was similar to watching a movie. As soon as the match started, apart from the stage, everything else would be pitch black. If not for these conditions, it would have been very difficult for Ye Xiu’s face to not have been revealed after so many years of playing.

When the lights went completely dark, the host began calling for the players to come onto the stage. First up was Team Excellent Era. The person at the front was Xiao Shiqin, who had transferred to the relegated Excellent Era because he was confident about Excellent Era’s future. The spotlight shone on the player passageway. Xiao Shiqin walked out and waved to the crowd. He was no stranger to this scene, but it had been a year since then. When he saw the projection of Life Extinguisher appear next to him as he walked out, even Xiao Shiqin felt fascinated.

The brought to life character made a heroic battle pose. The crowd applauded. Afterwards, the spotlight shifted to Excellent Era’s second player. The holographic projection on stage also changed.

This was the new way players came onto the stage. The crowd’s spirits were thoroughly ignited. Excellent Era’s fans cheered. The last player to come out was Sun Xiang. He and the pose struck by his character One Autumn Leaf made the crowd’s cheers reach its highest point.

After Excellent Era was Happy. When the host announced their name, the stadium erupted with boos. When the host introduced Happy’s first player, Ye Xiu, the boos reached its highest point. There were even curses and insults thrown in as well. When Ye Xiu’s character, Lord Grim, appeared on stage, the crowd roared in laughter.　　

It was just a model, so the proportions didn’t need to be rescaled. The character was larger than a real person. As a result, the character’s equipment was even more clear, and the joke that was Lord Grim’s mix and match equipment was magnified.

Lord Grim’s equipment was all Level 75 Orange equipment, but it included cloth, leather, light, heavy, plate armour. How could the crowd not laugh? Such a dress style was too much of a novelty.

The crowd became even more hectic with their laughter. As Excellent Era’s fans laughed at this set of equipment, they continued to curse at the ungrateful traitor. Some fans even tried to rush on stage, but were quickly stopped by security and kicked out. Towards such a controversial match, the organizers had made plenty of preparations towards possible behavior like that.

After Ye Xiu, the boos towards Happy clearly lessened. At the end, when Luo Ji and An Wenyi came onto the stage, there was practically no noise at all. Seven Field’s group continued to cheer, but in this packed stadium, what noise they could make was rather small.

After introducing the players, about half an hour had passed. The two sides sat at their respective benches. At the player preparation area, Excellent Era’s boss, Tao Xuan, personally came to watch over the match. Before the match started, he once again came over to give a polite greeting to Ye Xiu. Under the gazes of so many Excellent Era fans, he had to put in enough effort.

Soon afterwards, it was time for the final preparations before the match. The list of who would be playing in which match had been set. It could not be changed anymore. However, there had been a leak. With the new change in format, the Alliance might change this fixed player roster to teams picking their players at the match continued, but these were all after matters. The usual format would be used in this match. When it was almost 8 PM, the host called for the first players on each side to go on stage and get ready. Happy’s first player stood up.

Tang Rou!

The first player sent out by Happy was Tang Rou.

This was Ye Xiu’s arrangement. She herself liked it too because the first player sent out by Excellent Era should be Sun Xiang. Tang Rou liked to fight against skilled players. From Ye Xiu’s analysis, the combo of Sun Xiang and One Autumn Leaf wasn’t something any one in Happy could beat face to face. Ye Xiu had formulated many plans. In the end, he decided on Tang Rou first, meeting force with force. If the fire inside Tang Rou was ignited and she went beyond her limits to win, then that would be great. If not, with Tang Rou’s Battle Mage style, Sun Xiang would also have to go all out. As a result, the second player sent out would be Mo Fan.

Mo Fan’s quiet and extremely patient style would make it so that Sun Xiang would have nowhere to vent all the pent up energy he had from the previous match. That pent up energy would turn into annoyance. With that mentality, it would be easy for openings to leak. Mo Fan slowly contending with him was the most suitable. Even if he didn’t win, Wei Chen would be up third. His shrewd and dirty style would be enough to deal with the extremely gloomy Sun Xiang.

Tang Rou, Mo Fan, Wei Chen.

These three were the first three players in the group arena lineup. This arrangement was to deal with Sun Xiang alone. Even though Sun Xiang had yet to beat them in a verbal battle, that wouldn’t make Ye Xiu underestimate his skill in Glory so much so that he even arranged a 3v1 specifically to target him.

Tang Rou headed towards Happy’s booths on the right side. At the same time, the matchup for the first round in the group arena was announced.

Team Happy - Tang Rou - Battle Mage - Soft Mist.

Team Excellent Era - Xiao Shiqin - Mechanic - Life Extinguisher.

Xiao Shiqin!?

Hearing this name come out, Tang Rou stopped in astonishment. She turned her head to look.　　

She hadn’t walked far yet. She could clearly see from Excellent Era’s bench, the person who was about to go up was that one wearing glasses, the player who looked like an intellectual.

It’s not Sun Xiang? Tang Rou wasn’t the only one surprised in Team Happy. Everyone looked towards Excellent Era’s bench. Their expressions of surprise made Sun Xiang delighted. Sun Xiang was clapping and laughing out loud. He was pointing at Happy as if they were monkeys at a zoo.

”You thought the first player to be sent out would be me? You’ve been fooled! Hahahaha!” Sun Xiang wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass and immediately called them out.

Xiao Shiqin turned his head to look at Happy and smiled. Then, he turned his head back and headed towards Excellent Era’s booths on stage.

Happy didn’t underestimate Sun Xiang, but from the looks of it, Excellent Era didn’t underestimate Happy either. Was Sun Xiang provoking them with a 1v5 intentional? Or did the team make adjustments because of his brainlessness. Trying to figure that out was pointless at this time. Sun Xiang not going first made Happy’s battle arrangements pointless. What’s worse, Excellent Era very likely read Happy’s likely plan and made their own counterplan.

Xiao Shiqin versus Tang Rou?

Just from the this matchup, Ye Xiu could smell hints of a counterplan. Having a highly intelligent tactician deal with a battle fanatic like Tang Rou was most definitely the correct choice, but then again, an intelligent player like Xiao Shiqin wouldn’t be on the losing side towards any type of playstyle. Him leading might just be a safe arrangement.　

The unexpected arrangement disrupted Ye Xiu’s plans. He had to analyze the situation. Even though the lineup had been set, he could give different instructions to the players depending on the circumstances.

Ye Xiu looked towards Tang Rou. He saw that when she found out that she would be facing Xiao Shiqin, she let out a rather regretful expression.

Ye Xiu understood Tang Rou’s expression too well. It was just that she was giving out this expression towards a player like Xiao Shiqin. If the other side knew, who knew what they would think.

Xiao Shiqin was an All Star player too. Even if his title as a Master Tactician stood out more, even Sun Xiang wouldn’t be certain he could beat him in a 1v1. For a player of this caliber, let alone Xiao Shiqin, even if Zhang Xinjie came over with his Cleric, it would be hard to say what the result would be!