The King's Avatar

In the end, I still lost!

Lin Jingyan sighed as he walked out from the player booth.

Although it was a pity, he didn’t feel upset. Losing to Fang Rui was an acceptable outcome.

After all, he was in his declining years, while Fang Rui was at his peak.

In terms of getting rid of the past, it had been two years, yet he still could not forget his Demon Subduer. As for Fang Rui? He had even switched classes. Fang Rui had evidently been more decisive than him in this matter.

I really have turned old, while Fang Rui has a long road ahead of him left!

Looking towards Happy’s seats on the other side, Lin Jingyan felt it was a pity that this was a group arena. Fang Rui was not allowed to leave his seat until his role was over. Lin Jingyan wanted to use this opportunity to give Fang Rui his well wishes; he didn’t know if the two of them would ever have another chance to face against each other again on this stage.

After gazing in silence at that side for awhile, Lin Jingyan walked down from the stage. His well wishes could only remain in his heart.

Good luck, my friend!

With the end of this fight, the group arena was at the halfway mark. Happy had three players left, including Fang Rui. Tyranny only had two players left.

As Lin Jingyan walked down from the stage, Tyranny’s fourth player stood up.

Tyranny’s Song Qiying, a Striker rookie. He had joined this season, steadily maturing. It seemed that he would be Desert Smoke’s successor. And in this important playoffs stage, Tyranny had the confidence to send him onto the stage. Tyranny was not Happy. They had other options besides a rookie. Even so, Song Qiying had been fielded as Tyranny’s important fourth player in the group arena; the team’s intent to raise him could clearly be seen.

However, placing him in this position didn’t mean he was the anchor of this group arena. From a certain perspective, fielding him as the fourth player showed Tyranny’s attitude towards this group arena.

“Tyranny’s fourth player is Song Qiying! It seems that Tyranny had no plans of ending this group arena with their fourth player!” Pan Lin immediately started to analyze this arrangement. In the playoffs, the fourth player was oftentimes the team’s core player, trying to win the group arena 4-5 to take a two point lead into the team competition. The more aggressive teams would even place their core player third to take a three point lead.

But Tyranny had placed Song Qiying fourth. It was likely that their fifth player would be their core, captain Han Wenqing. That would be the most appropriate arrangement.

Li Yibo had come from Tyranny, and Tyranny’s captain and core player had been Han Wenqing for all ten years. The team’s captain hadn’t changed, and the team’s core hadn’t changed. As a result, it was hard for the team’s temperament to change. Even though Li Yibo had left Tyranny many years ago, he still had a good grasp of the team. But today, Han Wenqing avoided Ye Xiu and didn’t even take the fourth position, instead fielding Song Qiying.

The more familiar one was with the team, the more strange it felt encountering something unexpected. When Pan Lin raised the discussion, Li Yibo stared blankly for a long time before replying: “Away teams will often play more conservatively!”

It was a standard response. Li Yibo had lost confidence in analyzing Tyranny as former Tyranny player. The Tyranny today felt too different.

“Well, let’s see how Song Qiying performs! It’s also quite a coincidental matchup. When Song Qiying first appeared this season, he had to face Happy’s Fang Rui,” Pan Lin said, “But… Fang Rui shouldn’t last much longer.”

It could be said that Fang Rui had achieved a 1v2. He took down Zhang Jiale’s Dazzling Hundred Blossoms, using quite a bit of mana. After that, even though he won against Lin Jingyan, it had been a bloody fight. Boundless Sea only had 14% of his health and 11% of his mana left. He was an arrow at the end of his flight.

“Winning for Fang Rui will be difficult, but with Fang Rui’s methods, if Song Qiying is too careless, he’ll suffer the consequences,” Li Yibo said.

“It’s unlikely that he’ll be careless, no?” Pan Lin chuckled.

Li Yibo laughed as well.

The current Song Qiying was no longer the same Song Qiying as when he first fought Fang Rui. It had been an entire season. As one of the favorites to win the title Best Rookie, Song Qiying had received much attention. Although he looked to be Desert Smoke’s successor, his personality was quite similar to Tyranny’s vice captain, Zhang Xinjie. He was careful and meticulous. He was young, but with his personality, how could he be careless?

The match began as the two commentators discussed this issue. Song Qiying met their expectations. The match had just started, and his attitude towards the upcoming fight could already be seen.

As he traveled, it didn’t matter whether the battle would reach these areas, he would still carefully observe them. His line of sight constantly shifted left and right.

However, the route he chose was still the middle road. The viewers had given up on seeing a battle in water or a forest in this map because the manor at the center of the map had indoor rooms, which meant protection to a certain extent. Taking a roundabout route towards the manor had no meaning in this map, which was why neither of the two teams made that sort of choice.

One player towards the front of the manor, one player towards the back of the manor. The two players met again in the manor for the seventh time.

For someone with a cautious and strict personality like Zhang Xinjie, Song Qiying had probably thought out his plan for this fight before he even got onto the stage. When Song Qiying made it to the back of the manor, he didn’t go through the back door nor did he jump onto the roof. Instead, he adeptly searched for a window and went in.

The two teams had fought several rounds all inside the manor. Tyranny had a good idea of the structure of the manor by now.

When he jumped through the window, he immediately turned up, left, right, checking his surroundings. Song Qiying quickly grasped his present situation.

He didn’t see Boundless Sea. Afterwards, it looked like he already knew what to do as River Sunset walked towards the right corridor. When he reached the second door along the corridor, he went in. He moved step by step as if he were following steps in a guide.

Fang Rui’s Boundless Sea was inside the manor too. He didn’t have much health nor mana, how could he openly welcome his opponent? Last round, he took a roundabout route to the back of the manor, but he was too in harmony with Lin Jingyan. He didn’t want to use the same method twice though, so he had Boundless Sea climb onto the walls of the manor. He didn’t climb to the roof, instead climbing onto a balcony and entering the manor through the second floor.

The second floor was much more intact than the first floor. Only two battles had taken place here. Ye Xiu and Qin Muyun had fought here. Ye Xiu had launched a surprise attack onto Zhang Jiale here too, but the aftermath of it was just a hole in the floor.

Fang Rui had Boundless Sea move towards that hole. When he reached the hole, he took a look at the surroundings. After picking a spot, his Boundless Sea crouched down.

Crouch…

Guarding a tree-stump and waiting for rabbits. In vast open maps, this sort of ambush tactic rarely worked. It only had value if you knew the target’s pathing. But Fang Rui hadn’t done any investigation, yet he still went straight for this hole and crouched there…

Everyone started wondering when a system notification would come.

If someone just sat there patiently not caring if the opponent actually came or not, how long would the match take? As a result, the Glory had rules to prevent it. The referee could judge according to the circumstances whether the player was complying with the rules and then interfere if necessary.

Of course, there needed to be some concrete rules too. The referee couldn’t just start interfering as soon as a character hid behind a corner. The referee could interfere after no target was seen for 18 seconds.

The players familiar with Glory’s rules started helping Fang Rui count.

They were familiar with the rules. How could the master of playing dirty Fang Rui not be either? When it became 17 seconds, Boundless Sea switched postures.

Glory’s referees weren’t machines. This sort of clever loophole in the rules could be denied based on their own subjective views. However, it looked like the referee was okay with Fang Rui’s cleverness and didn’t interfere after 18 seconds.

Boos started coming from the crowd, from Tyranny’s fans. Tyranny’s loyal fans were familiar with the rules. They started booing at the referee because they felt that the referee was being biased towards the home team.

The referee ignored them because the boos were quickly suppressed by the applause. Tyranny’s fans wouldn’t be able to affect a referee’s decision. This was Happy’s home stadium.

“Fang Rui only switched postures. His goal hasn’t changed. Isn’t this violating the 18 second rule for sitting and waiting?” Pan Lin called the referee’s decision into question.

“The referee can make decisions based on his own discretion. First, the two characters are inside the manor, greatly reducing the search area and increasing the chances that Fang Rui’s patience will pay off. Second, Song Qiying’s River Sunset is very close by. It’s very likely that he’ll walk into Fang Rui’s range. My guess is that the referee acknowledged the increased success rate, so he judged that it was fair and didn’t interfere. If Song Qiying chooses to break away from his current route, my guess is that the referee will probably interfere,” Li Yibo was quite knowledgeable about the referee’s thought process.

“I see… but from a certain perspective, by not interfering, isn’t the referee leaking information to the player?” Pan Lin said.

Li Yibo stared blankly. When he looked at the match again, Boundless Sea was no longer crouching, but standing up. Qi was gathering in his palms. However, he couldn’t actually see any traces of River Sunset, yet he was already preparing his ambush as if he knew River Sunset was coming.

Silly referee, his decision seemed very rational, based on the circumstances of the match, but Fang Rui exploited it.

This master of playing dirty took advantage of the rules. Seeing that the referee didn’t interfere, he judged that Song Qiying must be nearing his ambush location.