The King's Avatar

What was the significance of the leaderboard?

Most directly, of course, it was that the system used to distribute rewards. Even the club guilds couldn’t disregard these extremely valuable rewards, so they too actively strove for the top spot.

Aside from this, the leaderboard was also a way of proving the strength of an individual or a guild. An in-game event like Ghost Parade was partially based on luck, but when the top of the leaderboard was entirely occupied by pro level accounts, it was clear that luck only mattered when skill levels were similar. In front of the crushing power of pro players, no matter how good an ordinary player’s luck was, he simply couldn’t compete with the raw skill of the pros.

The club guilds paid close attention to leaderboards, whether it was for the first wave of dungeon records for new servers, the records for the highest-level dungeons, or the rankings for in-game events. The rewards were part of the motivation, but aside from that, ranking higher meant showing off their strength and expanding the influence of the team.

The pro teams relied on their performance during the season to demonstrate their strength, but the club guilds, their representatives in-game, were a presence closer to home. Unlike pro players, the guilds didn’t exist in a separate space; they existed right alongside the numerous ordinary Glory players.

Expanding the team’s influence through activities in-game was one of the most important jobs for every club guild. And the leaderboard was the main battlefield for all of this.

Thus, after the first day of the Night of a Hundred Ghosts leaderboard battle, the club guilds were unhappy. Very unhappy.

It had been a rare opportunity for the pros to mobilize in-game, but in the end, the various guilds had been unable to coordinate well with their respective pros. Ultimately, of the top 27 places, 9 were occupied by members of Guild Happy. They managed to steal a third of the top spots. Of the top 10 places, Happy had snatched 5. First, second, and third place, Happy dominated, not leaving a single chance for the other guilds.

The big guilds discovered that they had never tasted such a victory before.

This result was a lively topic of discussion in the pro player group as well, after Huang Shaotian’s angry spamming, of course. Happy’s elegant victory had earned even their respect. And, from the reports of their guilds, they essentially understood how Happy managed to pull it all off.

Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, and the others still hadn’t joined the pro player group; from Happy, only Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng were in here. Ye Xiu was obviously targeted from all sides. After Huang Shaotian’s spam, everyone directed their spearheads toward Ye Xiu, half-jokingly calling him sneaky, dirty, treacherous.

”Hahaha,” Ye Xiu laughed. ”If you’re jealous, then just say it directly!”

They had no words. They were all pro players, after all. They didn’t need this leaderboard to prove themselves, and they didn’t care too much about particular rankings. They did care about the earnings that came with each ranking, but aside from that, it was all for fun. Would they really be jealous over something like this?

”Jealous my ass you fucker you fucker you fucker!!” Huang Shaotian responded instantly, chaining together so many swear words that it seemed like endless echoes.

System: Troubling Rain has been kicked out of [Glory Pro Players] by the group moderator.

Everyone sweatdropped. Several of the rookies in this group didn’t even dare to say a word.

The mighty Sword Saint, Glory’s number one Blade Master, was kicked out of the group just like that. Sure, this senior was very noisy, but if these rookies had been in Ye Xiu’s place, none of them would have the courage to treat a God like that!

Was this the power of Glory’s former king, God Ye Qiu?

This was the first time the rookies had really felt the power of this former king. After all, the retired Ye Xiu had been playing in the Challenger League during this past season, and hadn’t surfaced in this group often. And now, the king made his grand return. In one move, he ruthlessly assassinated the noisy God Huang Shaotian.

How powerful! How tyrannical!

The rookies quietly admired God Ye Xiu and sympathized for God Huang Shaotian.

”Anyone else?!” Ye Xiu called.

”Childish!” In fact, someone did still have the courage to speak out. Everyone saw the name, Desert Dust - it was Han Wenqing, a rare participant in the group chat. Was it that only someone like God Ye Xiu could induce him to speak here? And was it that only he, who had toppled Excellent Era’s dynasty, dared to directly call Ye Xiu out like this?

No!

Some seniors corrected the rookies. The main reason that Han Wenqing dared to confront Ye Xiu was that he, too, was a group moderator.

Moderators had no way of moderating each other, so neither feared the other. The reality was often this ordinary and boring.

”Then, what about the group owner?” one of the rookies asked. Only the group owner was more powerful than a moderator.

”Group owner? After joining this group, have you ever seen the owner?”

”No…”

”The group owner is a long-retired player and left this circle long ago. All we have left is this group.”

”The group owner must have been a really incredible person,” the rookies marveled.

”Eh, he was alright,” was the response of the seniors. Because, in reality, this group-making senior really wasn’t all that special. Of course, this person had made it to the Glory professional scene, one person out of millions of players - from that angle, he could be considered a remarkable person. However, comparing him to other pros, he really was a very ordinary person. He just made this group, that’s all. There were no requirement necessary to do something as simple as that. Once again, the reality was disappointingly ordinary for the rookies.

”Ye Xiu, you bastard!” At this moment, Huang Shaotian crashed back into the group chat. His first sentence after returning was a shout at Ye Xiu. The rookies couldn’t help but feel awe at Huang Shaotian’s fearless spirit.

”I’ll let you off for today,” was Ye Xiu’s indifferent response. After that, despite Huang Shaotian’s provocations, he didn’t say another word, having either muted the chat or gone offline.

The group had to wait a while for Huang Shaotian’s ranting to subside. There was a moment where everyone thought, kicking out Huang Shaotian was actually pretty nice, why was he let back in?

Of course, these were just their thoughts. Kicking members, letting them back in, that was a battle for the moderators, a battle of gods. The rest of the ordinary members, no matter how important they might be in the pro sphere, were just insignificant little monsters in this group.

The group eventually quieted down, and everyone was finally able to discuss some more serious topics.

The pro players joked light-heartedly about Happy’s huge victory today in the event, but in their hearts they were all shocked by the outcome.

They too had participated in this event; they too could direct their guilds to accomplish the tasks they wanted, but why couldn’t they do what Ye Xiu had managed to accomplish?

”This guy, seriously…” One player wanted to talk about this, but couldn’t find the proper words to express what he wanted to say.

”The Glory Textbook…” In the end, it was Xiao Shiqin who brought up Ye Xiu’s long-time title. He then added, ”An extremely comprehensive textbook.”

”Xiao Shiqin, you faced off directly with Happy. How is their team, really?” someone asked.

”What do you all think?” Xiao Shiqin asked. Even though these people hadn’t directly fought Happy, he knew that they had all paid close attention to Happy’s players. Happy was really in the spotlight right now!

”Some of the players on that team really do have skill,” said Lin Jingyan.

”Tang Rou?” Someone said. Indeed, Tang Rou, aside from Ye Xiu, was the most attention-grabbing member of Team Happy.

”A hot girl!”

”Yeah, when I saw that picture of her in Esports Home last time, I almost fell right in love!” Someone sent a rather shameless drooling emoji.

”It looks like you’ve already fallen in love?”

”You know, Happy really has a lot of hot girls!”

”Yeah, that’s not fair!”

”Misty Rain’s two new sisters aren’t too bad looking either!”

”Twin flowers!” Drooling, it was the drooling emoji again.

”Could you all be any more despicable?” Finally, a table-slapping emoji - Chu Yunxiu of Team Misty Rain spoke up.

The group instantly fell dead silent.

In the eyes of the fans, the members of this group were refined, high-minded, all-powerful professionals, but in reality, they were just ordinary people who happened to be a little better at playing Glory. Like anyone else, they had normal thoughts and desires, good ones, bad ones, noble ones, dirty ones… Not to mention, this was a male-dominated world. So when a pretty female player was mentioned, it was inevitable that her gender and appearance would become the topic of discussion. Fortunately, Chu Yunxiu appeared at the right moment and cut short the vulgarity of this group of males.

”Tang Rou is an extremely outstanding player. It seems like lots of teams are interested in her, but in the end Happy was still able to hold on to her.” The discussion quickly turned back on-topic.

”She’s very strange, it’s unclear what she wants…” Wang Jiexi said. He was the first to offer her an invitation, and was also the first to be confused by her desires. Honor? Status? Money? He couldn’t figure out what would move her. These three things were the main motivations for most pro players!

After Wang Jiexi said this, Team Void’s Li Xuan added, ”Happy’s Ghostblade is also pretty good! Wasn’t that kid on your Tiny Herb before? Why’d you just let him go?”

”You’re interested in him?” Wang Jiexi didn’t directly answer Li Xuan because he knew Li Xuan wasn’t really asking, it was just a casual comment. Every transfer period would have the transfers of good and even God-level players. Being a good player didn’t guarantee that one would be able to remain a part of the team.

”Us? For now, no,” Li Xuan said. But, he had said ”for now.” Void’s Ghostblade Duo was still at their peak, they weren’t yet ready to retire, so they didn’t need another Ghostblade. However, did Li Xuan’s ”for now” suggested that Void already had an idea in mind?

”Did anyone pay attention to that Brawler in Happy?” Samsara’s Jiang Botao suddenly spoke up, inserting himself into the conversation.

The group chat wasn’t like a competition onstage. During a competition, everyone could just battle to their fullest without holding back, but communication in the group involved feelings. There was less talk between those that didn’t know each other well, while veteran players who had interacted with each other more were much more familiar with each other, and thus tended to speak more. This was a normal pattern for any human interaction.

So, most of the time, veteran players took the initiative in conversations, while newer members of the group, even God-level players, found it difficult to open conversations in an unfamiliar setting, but this Jiang Botao was an exception to the rule - even though he couldn’t really be considered an old player, he had integrated with the older players early on, and he was able to communicate naturally with all types of people.

”Oh, that guy, you noticed him too? What do you think?” Lin Jingyan asked.

”Don’t know. I can’t understand him.” Jiang Botao said.