The King's Avatar

The two players entered their booths and their characters loaded in. The match was about to begin.

That was when some sort of uproar erupted amongst the in-stadium audience, and then, the live broadcast commentator Pan Lin also suddenly yelled, “No way!!!”

“What?” Li Yibo was puzzled. The character loading was always the same, so he didn’t pay attention.

“…” Pan Lin hesitated. Just now, in the character loading screen, when it reached Lord Grim, his equipment flashed by and Pan Lin thought that he had seen an 80 in the Level section. However, it had just been flash, and he wasn’t sure what he had seen exactly. The character loading screen was a fixed shot, there wouldn’t be any special shots. Thus, Pan Lin didn’t say anything, just hurriedly asking the cameraman to display Lord Grim’s equipment as soon as they entered the match.

The uproar that had briefly occurred at Happy’s home stadium was also because some people had seen Level 80 on Lord Grim’s equipment. Just one or two people, then it might just be that they misread, but then those people who thought they misread realized that quite a few people were misreading today!

The characters loaded in quickly and before the audience had figured out what was going on, it had finished and the characters spawned on the map, symbolizing the start of the match. The live broadcast immediately displayed Lord Grim’s equipment.

Boom!! 　 The audience exploded. This time, the entire audience could clear see it: Equipment Level: Level 80. And it wasn’t just for one piece of equipment either.

Weapon: Myriad Manifestations Umbrella;

Top: Dissonant Soul Armor;

Shoes: Cloud Breaker Boots;

Belt: Chain Lightning Belt;

Cape: Civil Dawn;

Badge: Sky-Splitter;

Right ring: Hurricane.

Of Lord Grim’s equipment, these seven pieces of Silver equipment were Level 80.

“Lord Grim has… Level 80 equipment equipped. What’s going on?” This time, Pan Lin could see it clearly, and didn’t have to suspect that he had gotten it wrong, meaning that he was free to yell about it.

Li Yibo was also completely struck dumb. Level 80 equipment? What the hell?

There was no need to even mention the audience. The stadium was naturally a cacophony of confusion. Everyone was first shocked into speechlessness, then they exploded into discussion.

Even the referee wasn’t spared. When he saw the Level 80 equipment, his brain practically short circuited. Then, his first thought after that was to wonder if something had gone wrong with the system. Did they need to pause the match?

Then, Blue Rain’s players were also stunned upon seeing the Level 80 equipment.

“Level 80 equipment? What’s going on?” Huang Shaotian expressed his bewilderment. Though it wasn’t to the point where he would cry from fear, he had to admit that the Ye Xiu had truly managed to shock them this time.

Yu Wenzhou clearly hadn’t been expecting that improvements to their equipment would be a Level increase to eighty. However, after a moment of shock, he began to organize his thoughts.

“Is it a system error?” The other members of Blue Rain all wondered.

However, Yu Wenzhou didn’t think so. The equipment and system would all be checked before the match, to make sure that the match would go smoothly. It wasn’t like there hadn’t been small errors with the hardware before, but errors in data hadn’t occurred once since the start of the Alliance, so why now?

“The characters are Level 75, that’s for certain.” Yu Wenzhou took his mind off of those incidents and began to analyze this logically.

“For Level 75 characters to equip Level 80 equipment, then there must be a ‘Level requirement minus five’ stat on the equipment.” Yu Wenzhou swiftly thought of this.

“However, how they created these pieces of Level 80 equipment is a complete mystery.” Of course, Yu Wenzhou wouldn’t know. If he did, then Blue Rain would have Level 80 equipment, too.

“Happy’s R&D is that skilled?” Huang Shaotian exclaimed in shock. Level 80 equipment was enough to leave all the powerhouses in the dust.

Discussion had erupted everywhere. After Yu Wenzhou, commentators Pan Lin and Li Yibo soon figured out that these pieces of Level 80 equipment had a “Level requirement minus five” stat, making them usable, which was relatively obvious. However, after that, no one could say how Happy managed to create Level 80 equipment under a Level 75 Level limit. 　 “So this is the ace that Happy had prepared for the playoffs!” Pan Lin exclaimed in the broadcast.

“Level 80 equipment? How?”

The match continued. After confirming that nothing had gone wrong with the software or hardware, he didn’t have a reason to pause it. Currently, Song Xiao, on the field, had also found out that his opponent had Level 80 equipment and was naturally shocked.

“Afraid yet?” Ye Xiu asked.

“Even so, it doesn’t mean that I can back down!” Song Xiao replied.

As expected of the most renowned clutch player of the alliance, Mister Clutch. Against Ye Xiu, who had won thirty-seven consecutive individual matches this season, against this shocking reveal of Level 80 equipment, Song Xiao expressed his shock, but soon calmed. Afraid? Back down? He was just joking around. In reality, he was treating this like any other match, focused on taking victory.

“Let’s go then!” Ye Xiu called out and then the two charged forwards.

The group arena map choice naturally couldn’t only consider Ye Xiu’s needs. A clean, simple map would be great for him and Tang Rou, but for those like Fang Rui who relied on dirty play, then it would be a huge trouble.

Thus, the group arena map had to make sure to take care of everyone’s needs, so it’d usually contain a variety of terrains.

However, it didn’t seem like either of the two participants had any intentions to use the terrain, the two were heading directly for the center.

Just as they were about to meet, with everyone eagerly anticipating how this Level 80 equipment would perform spectacularly, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim suddenly swerved.

Ye Xiu, having maintained a straightforward and brute force style for thirty-seven rounds, suddenly decided to switch to being strategic in the first one on one match of the playoffs.

“Ye Xiu has decided against a frontal contronfation,” Pan Lin noted.

“A wise choice,” Li Yibo commented, “The group arena is different from individual matches. One must defeat their opponent with minimal cost to oneself, so, if possible, it’s better to use the environment and play strategically. Brute force styles aren’t actually the most suited to group arenas. In individual matches, their victories will be victories no matter if they take down an opponent with great cost or if they manage to take down an opponent without losing a drop of health. However, in the group arena, these two results are completely different.”

“But many teams still have brute force style players in their group arena lineup! It doesn’t seem like anyone avoids having them play in the group arena,” Pan Lin brought up.

“Brute force is a style that players use, but it’s not set in stone. In the group arena, brute force style players can play a little more wisely. Like Ye Xiu, for the individual competitions, he kept a brute force style, but now with the group arena, he’s decided to be a little more flexible,” Li Yibo said.

“But some players seem to stick with using brute force even in the group arena,” Pan Lin argued.

“Yep! After all, everything has its exceptions! Different situations will require different attitudes,” Li Yibo said.

The two stopped their conversation there. Currently, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had swerved left, heading towards Song Xiao’s right flank. However, since Ye Xiu only swerved after the two had seen each other, Song Xiao knew exactly where Lord Grim had gone and was already keeping an eye on that side.

Ye Xiu didn’t act like many dirty play pros did, hiding away and waiting for a chance. From an opening on that side, Lord Grim peeked around the corner and, boom boom boom, three Anti-Tank Missiles came blasting over.

Song Xiao had his eyes on that side and he saw Lord Grim just as he peeked out. The three Anti-Tank Missiles couldn’t even count as a sneak attack, yet…

Boom! 　 Receding Tides actually got hit by one of the missiles. The force of the explosion threw him back a few steps, but Receding Tides soon stabilized himself.

“He did it on purpose!” Li Yibo immediately realized. 　 “Oh?”

“He’s testing Lord Grim’s attack power,” Li Yibo explained. Too many pieces of equipment had been changed, causing a huge shift in stats. Though the base four stats could still be seen, they needed experience to get an understanding of Lord Grim’s attack power. Song Xiao had a good grasp on the consequences of getting hit by this attack, and at the same time, he was giving the rest of Blue Rain information. In the future, they’ll continue to face Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim, so they had to hurry and collect data.

“Hm, Lord Grim’s switched out several pieces of equipment at once, very effective. All the data that the teams collected on him during the regular season is pretty much useless now. Everything will have to start from scratch,” Pan Lin mentioned.

“What’s even more troublesome is that the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella clearly has different stats depending on the form,” Li Yibo added.

“Happy really has dropped quite the bomb!” Pan Lin said.

“Right now, we just don’t know if only Lord Grim has seen such improvements or if all the characters in Happy have,” Li Yibo continued.

“We’ll know soon enough.” Pan Lin seemed rather excited.

“Hm… After Ye Xiu let Lord Grim attack, he hid again.” Li Yibo returned to the match.

“Song Xiao isn’t rushing either. Is he trying to figure out Lord Grim’s attack power? Advisor Li, what do you think of this attack?” Pan Lin asked.

“Ah… the attack’s damage has clearly gone up,” Li Yibo said. This season made him feel more and more that he was falling behind. He was preparing to do some revision and further study. Actually, it was very hard to get much from a single attack. This was something decided by both the attack power of the attacker and the defense of the target. 　 Li Yibo was like the audience, he didn’t know the actual stats of the characters, so it would be impossible to ask him to deduce much from a single strike. Team Blue Rain’s members at least knew their teammates’ character’s defense, and they could derive the attack from the damage taken. As for the other spectators? In their eyes, there would be a hundred different damage calculations from Lord Grim fighting a hundred different opponents. It would be extremely difficult to figure out Lord Grim’s actual attack power. 　 Though Li Yibo was studying up, he couldn’t figure out something so difficult in such a short time, unless a team was willing to provide their stats.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. So, he could only say that Lord Grim’s damage had increased, which was clearly unnecessary. If his attack power hadn’t changed, then what would the point of switching in all that Level 80 equipment?