The King's Avatar

The audience members looked at one another.

As Lu Boyuan had thought, it was precisely because he was too skilled that he was hit by the Powerful Knee Strike. If it were a normal player, then they would’ve already used a Fling to throw Steamed Bun Invasion to the ground.

The viewers definitely comprised of normal players, so they didn’t understand why Chaotic Cloudy Mountains had ducked down low before straightening up with his arms in air like he was surrendering. As Lu Boyuan cursed, wondering what the hell Steamed Bun was trying to do, the viewers, who had no idea what was actually going on, were trying to figure out what the hell Lu Boyuan was trying to do.

Right now, Lu Boyuan, someone who usually didn’t speak much during matches, was yelling in the channel. Words like ”are you fucking crazy” and the such could probably count as personal attacks, if pressed.

Lu Boyuan had completely lost it!

It wasn’t just the audience who thought so; even the live commentator Pan Lin was commenting on this. Lu Boyuan’s current state was just too far from his usual self.

”Calm down!” No one would’ve expected that, onstage, Lu Boyuan’s opponent Steamed Bun would send a message admonishing him.

”Panicking like that isn’t proper.” Another followed. Where had Steamed Bun learned all this from?

”Fuck!” Lu Boyuan exclaimed. Why the hell was this guy suddenly scolding him?! They were opponents, okay? What the hell does my panic have anything to do with you?! And plus, I’m not panicking!

As Steamed Bun scolded the other, his actions didn’t stop. With his Brick a miss, he did a Sand Toss.

Lu Boyuan wasn’t in the calmest of states right now, but he wasn’t panicking either. Chaotic Cloudy Mountains dodged perfectly. After Sand Toss, Steamed Bun Invasion continued to close, but Lu Boyuan’s Chaotic Cloudy Mountain wasn’t a ranged class, so there was nothing he wanted more than for his opponent to be close. As Steamed Bun Invasion closed in, he naturally wouldn’t retreat and just observed the other’s motions. Lu Boyuan decided to forgo taking the initiative and returned to the usual style of Grapplers, waiting for his opponent to make the first move and countering. He’d see what tricks this guy had up his sleeves.

Thus, Steamed Bun Invasion arrived in front of Chaotic Cloudy Mountains as the latter slowed down his pace on purpose.

Brick!

Lu Boyuan was close to tears.

Was this really the legendary use-immediately-after-cooldown style?

To be honest, if you really wanted to calculate this kind of pacing, it would be very troublesome. Although Brick wasn’t a low-level skill, it wasn’t very high either. It was a skill Brawlers learned very soon after advancing classes and had a short cooldown. Considering the frequency at which Steamed Bun used the skill, calculating the cooldown of this skill would be very distracting.

This was probably the real motive behind his frequent usage...

A skill like Brick didn’t deal much damage, but because of its crowd control, you had to be wary of it. Steamed Bun, using this skill so frequently and making it so that his opponent’s had to stay on guard against it was very distracting for his opponents. In addition, this guy often used his skills in a chaotic mess, suddenly throwing in some troublesome skill; it really was quite hard to guard against!

Lu Boyuan felt like he had discovered something; he felt like he was close to figuring out his opponent’s thought process.

However, this seemly random and completely mindless use of Brick Throw wouldn’t just distract the opponent, it would also disrupt your own rhythm! After all, skill usage needed to be paced. Sometimes a different skill would evidently work better in this scenario, but Steamed Bun just always chose Brick. Wasn’t that a little wasteful?

Lu Boyuan, who had thought he was beginning to understand, realized that his logic didn’t work out after considering it a little more.

Lu Boyuan’s thoughts, very unfortunately, went down an erroneous path. He had started trying to figure out Steamed Bun’s thought process and rationalizing the other’s actions from a theoretical perspective. And this was something that even Ye Xiu, who had far more experience and time with Steamed Bun, had failed to accomplished in two years.

As for why Steamed Bun liked Bricks, that was something Ye Xiu could explain to Lu Boyuan. It was because Bricks were easy to come by and unsuspecting. After you used them, you could just toss them aside to get rid of the weapon.

Trying to use Glory theories to figure out this problem would only get further and further away from the truth of the matter. Lu Boyuan was thinking himself into a mess. It was true that counterattacking was a Grappler’s primary style. However, this style required you to have a precise understanding of your opponent’s style, a decisive judgement, quick eyes, and steady hands.

Yet right now, the one Lu Boyuan was trying to figure out was Steamed Bun. Steamed Bun, the mystery that even Ye Xiu had failed to figure out after two years.

And so he lost.

He lost without knowing how he lost in a complete mess. It was only when Chaotic Cloudy Mountains fell that Lu Boyuan woke up from his stupor of trying to figure out Steamed Bun.

He lost just like that?

Lu Boyuan was shocked. He had been under this strange impression that there was plenty of time, and he had plenty of health. Trying to figure out Steamed Bun was like losing yourself in an abyss.

After leaving the booth, Lu Boyuan was still scratching his head. As he walked back to the bench, he kept looking up at the playback on the big screen. It wasn’t until he was back at the bench that he smacked himself on the forehead, ”Fuck, I’m so dumb!”

When he had gone up there, it was with the decision to take the initiative more and not give this weird player any chances to play tricks. Why did he end up trying to figure out his opponent as he fought?

”My willpower wasn’t strong enough!” Lu Boyuan bemoaned.

”I don’t know why, but there was a moment where I thought to myself, I can’t play like this, I have to figure him out,” Lu Boyuan explained.

”And somehow as you were trying to figure him out, you lost, right?” Wu Qi said.

”Yeah,” Lu Boyuan nodded.

”It’s 3 to 0 now, hey!” Jiang Botao reminded everyone. Right now they really were falling behind. Happy’s fans were screaming and cheering, yelling thunderously about a flawless victory. As for Samsara’s accompanying fanclub, they were much more subdued. They had actually lost every round in the individual competition. That really was a hit to their morale.

”Hey, did you guys actually fight seriously?” Du Ming asked the three individual competition players.

The three looked at one another.

”It’s competition, there’ll always be losses every now and then,” Cleric player Fang Minghua comforted everyone.

”We’ll take back two points in the group arena!” Sun Xiang stood. He was the first player for the group arena.

”Good luck!” His teammates encouraged.

”One versus three!” Someone said.

”No, don’t, I wanna go up. I want to fight that sister in Happy,” Du Ming hurriedly disagreed.

”You want to take revenge?” Everyone mocked him. They all naturally remembered how Du Ming had fought Tang Rou at the All-Stars Weekend. Back then, Tang Rou hadn’t even been a pro player, just a noob, but her ferocious and relentless attitude left a deep impression. It was also then that Du Ming had lost face, getting humiliated by Tang Rou before being annihilated by Ye Xiu. He had been depressed for quite some time after that.

”I remember Ye Xiu also fought you back then, how come you don’t go looking for him for revenge?” A teammate immediately asked.

”What revenge? I just want to spar,” Du Ming said.

”Is it because she’s pretty?” Wu Qi grinned, an arm around his shoulders, ”I mean, she really is quite pretty.”

”Fuck off,” Du Ming pushed him away.

After falling behind 0 to 3, the atmosphere around Samsara was still as natural as ever. No one jumped up yelling something like ”we have to win the next round” or anything. However, none of them lacked this determination.

In the live broadcast, Pan Lin was analyzing the line-ups the two teams might possibly have set, while Li Yibo felt like he was just waking from a dream. He was shocked to realize that he hadn’t made a single comment throughout the past three matches. Pan Lin had thrown the discussion to him a couple of times but he had gotten by with just a few noncommittal noises. He had been ever so careful like that and ended up not giving any analysis whatsoever.

He had to make his presence more evident! Li Yibo, suddenly awake from his stupor, listened to Pan Lin’s analysis, and hurriedly found a place to interrupt.

”Yes!” Li Yibo continued Pan Lin’s train of thought. ”Samsara’s group arena line up has been constant with Sun Xiang first and Zhou Zekai as the last line of defense, with a few players on rotation in the middle. As for Happy, starting with Fang Rui and ending with Tang Rou is also a relatively consistent line up. From the line ups, Samsara seems to have a slight advantage. And the advantages in the group arena stack. I’m wondering if Happy will make adjustments to counter Samsara’s line-up. In Happy’s line-up…”

”Happy’s player is coming onstage!” That was when Pan Lin suddenly announced.!

”Ah, yes, it’s… Fang Rui…” Li Yibo felt rather helpless when he said the name. He had only just wondered aloud if Happy would make any adjustments or not, and then Happy had decided to use their usual line-up. Li Yibo felt depressed! He didn’t dare finish his thought on Happy. He had been prepared to talk about this possibility and then emphasize the possibility of Happy’s line-up remaining unchanged. But he hadn’t even gotten halfway there when Happy’s player entered the field! There was a small break between the individual competition and the group arena, could you not be so eager to fight? Do you all have something against me? Li Yibo was going to cry.

”Yes, Happy’s Fang Rui seems to have decided to get into the player booth early. Let’s see, as for Samsara, oh, Samsara’s player has decided to get onto the field, too. It’s Sun Xiang; seems like neither team has any intention of deviating from their usual arrangements,” Pan Lin noted.

”Er, in this match, from the individual competition to the group arena now, it seems like neither team has decided to make any special arrangements to counter the other. They’re treating the match as a normal match and haven’t made special preparations in accordance to their opponent’s identity,” Li Yibo could only say.

”But Samsara is already behind by three points. They won’t have a good time in the following games. Will they really be beaten ten to zero, like the audience is cheering for? Then Happy really would’ve taken their revenge,” Pan Lin wondered. If this was like before, the idea of Happy winning a flawless victory against Samsara would probably make most people laugh their heads off, but now even the live broadcast was discussing this possibility in a serious fashion. The rise of Happy’s position and power in people’s minds was truly something terrifying to behold.

”We’ll have to see how Samsara performs.” Li Yibo didn’t think Happy could do it. However, he didn’t dare make any predictions. This was Happy, and even when he was being extremely cautious, they still managed to slap him in the face. It was better if he didn’t make too many predictions like that!

”Both players have entered their booths, but it seems that the referee is going to wait for the break to finish. Coach Li, could you give us your view on this match between Fang Rui and Sun Xiang?” Pan Lin asked.

My view your ass! I don’t want to do these pre-match predictions! Li Yibo cursed internally.