The King's Avatar

After the Rising Dragon Soars the Sky sent Moon Luring Frost flying, the audience could already see where he would be blasted. Du Ming, who was in the middle of the battle, was perhaps the last person to realize the situation. However, even though ordinary gamers could see it, they didn’t react so quickly. The pros were different – as soon as they saw the direction in which Moon Luring Frost was flying, they were caught off-guard for only a moment before quickly realizing that this was intentional.

What came next confirmed their hypotheses.

A pit that initially didn’t seem that deep. Alone, that wasn’t enough to limit a character’s movements. If Du Ming had detected it from the very beginning, if he had chosen to move in a more diagonal direction, he would have had enough time to get out of the pit and dodge the Dragon Breaks the Ranks.

But unfortunately, he hadn’t paid attention to this detail. He took the opportunity to counterattack by moving horizontally, but then he was impeded by that shallow indentation in the mountain wall.

With that one obstacle, the opportunity was lost. It was too late to make any other response.

The Dragon Breaks the Ranks into Rising Dragon Soars the Sky pushed Moon Luring Frost even further into the wall. Now, it was no longer an obstacle of one moment. Now, Du Ming’s Moon Luring Frost was stuck in the pit for good.

Move, there was only one direction.

Attack, there was also only one direction.

And this one direction wasn’t even available to every attack. For example, Downwind Sword Slash, even though it was a straight-line forward attack, Moon Luring Frost was stuck firmly into the pit, and didn’t have the space to perform the starting motions for this skill. Naturally, the skill couldn’t be used.

“Du Ming lost.”

In this moment, everyone was confident in making such a judgment.

No freedom to move, no freedom to use skills, he couldn’t even jump. Soft Mist blocked the entrance, and Dancing Fire Flowing Flame was already stabbing inward. Skills? Were they even needed? Even if Tang Rou controlled Soft Mist to only use ordinary attacks, Du Ming had no way of controlling Moon Luring Frost to dodge. In a situation where he couldn’t move, parrying the attacks became imagination. Soft Mist’s attacks landed with 100% accuracy, which only made Du Ming even more at a loss as to what to do. In this situation where attacks were landing upon him nonstop, even if he had hundreds or thousands of skills that could instantly allow him to move outside of the hole, he wouldn’t be able to use them.

Just like that, he fell…

Du Ming lost even more helplessly than Mo Fan had in the fourth battle, where he’d been unable to land a single hit on Zhou Zekai’s Cloud Piercer.

Mo Fan, at least, had had space to move. He could at least demonstrate attempts, even if they hadn’t succeeded in the end.

But Du Ming?

Even his right to attempt was stolen away. He was stuck in this hole, stabbed by Soft Mist again and again, all the way until he died. It was pathetic to the extreme.

Winner, Happy’s Tang Rou!

The system dutifully announced the result. The Happy fans were thrilled, jumping and shouting in the stadium. The Samsara fans were dumbstruck. When Zhou Zekai had completed his 1v3, they’d thought that victory was already theirs, that Happy was done for. But now, Happy had actually catching back up to them. Tang Rou’s Soft Mist still had 73% health left to face Samsara’s final player. Under these conditions, the final outcome of this group arena couldn’t be predicted.

How did this happen?

The Samsara fans were still stuck in a daze.

When Zhou Zekai, with a Cloud Piercer that was almost at half health, accomplished a 1v3 to reach Happy’s second-to-last character and player, everyone felt that this was a gap that couldn’t be closed.

And then, had it ever felt like Happy was catching up? There hadn’t been that feeling, it seemed like. Everyone was waiting for the result to be finalized. But then, the situation had suddenly become what it was right now. Suddenly, Samsara’s insurmountable lead had shrunk to only this much, 100% against 73%.

The audience couldn’t restrain themselves. This was the deciding match of the finals, the time in which the team needed the most support and encouragement, and yet at this moment, Team Samsara heard the sound of booing.

Glory’s demonic home stadium.

The place where Team Samsara was invincible. Then, last match, Happy had destroyed Samsara’s home game win streak. And this match, Happy caused Team Samsara to hear the sound of booing in their own home stadium.

Not long before this, the stadium had still been filled with the excitement of winning the championship. The mood had swung from one extreme to the other; it was clear how greatly the fans’ spirits had fallen.

On the sidelines, Lu Boyuan was sitting on pins and needles. When Du Ming walked out of the competitor booth and felt this atmosphere, he was also somewhat hesitant and frightened.

The performance of their first player Sun Xiang had been fine. Zhou Zekai had played flawlessly, and he was the one who had ignited the excitement of winning the championship. But after him, Lu Boyuan, Du Ming, Samsara’s decline from prosperity had occurred on their heads.

Zhou Zekai had been eliminated by Fang Rui, but in that battle, Cloud Piercer had lost less health than Boundless Sea. But then it was Lu Boyuan, and then Du Ming. Now the two of them had both lost, yet the two of them combined had been unable to kill off a single whole life on Happy’s side.

The audience was in no mood to reflect upon the process. Just this outcome was intolerable.

In such an important match, the rare scene of the home fans booing the home team actually appeared.

Samsara’s fans were upset because they had held too high hopes for their team. But the pro players? Their stance was more neutral, but in comparison, they felt that it was more interesting for the black horse Happy to overthrow the two-time champions Samsara.

Happy had gone from being left far behind in the dust to suddenly catching up like this. Even the more logical watchers among them felt that this was extremely exciting, and they wanted to see if the situation would become even more interesting.

Would this be a 1v3?

At last, it was time for those standing on Happy’s side to hold this kind of hope. Zhou Zekai had completed a 1v3 against Happy, and now it was Tang Rou’s turn to return that 1v3 to Samsara, a 1v3 that would decide the final outcome of the group arena. Was there anything more wonderful than this?

“1v3!!!”

Happy’s fans were already shouting in the stadium. This angered the Samsara fans even more, and their boos became louder. They hoped that the team would quickly wake up. Originally, it was their side’s 1v3 that had created such a beautiful lead, and now their opponents were yelling about a 1v3. How humiliating was that!

Amidst the away fans’ shouts of a 1v3 and the home fans’ dissatisfied boos, Samsara’s vice-captain Jiang Botao stood up. Under this pressure from both sides, he walked onstage.

The boos suddenly quieted down, proving how popular Jiang Botao was in the hearts of Samsara fans. He’d been voted into the top ten and even the top five All-Stars for the past two years, which absolutely required a large number of supporters.

Samsara’s fans were extremely upset with the situation, but the two players who’d put them in this situation had already lost and left the stage. Right now, it was their vice-captain stepping forward, so many Samsara’s fans’ hopes were once again lifted, and the booing quieted down.

Even so, the amount of pressure that Jiang Botao felt wouldn’t decrease at all. He knew very clearly that even though the booing sounds were quieter, that was because their final hopes were on his shoulders now. If he also could not give a satisfactory result, then the boos that he would suffer when he came offstage would surge even more than they had just earlier.

This battle, he couldn’t mess up!

It wasn’t just the mood of the fans, but the morale of their team as well. If they experienced this kind of blow, then they would be at a great disadvantage entering the team round. He had to figure out a way to stabilize the overall situation.

Jiang Botao came onstage. His movements were neither too fast nor too slow. He walked over to report to the judge, and then entered his competitor booth. It was all carried out in an unhurried, orderly fashion. He was adjusting his own mood, letting himself be as calm as possible, not letting himself worry.

Character loaded, map loaded. The ninth battle of the group arena, the deciding battle, began. Happy’s Tang Rou, character Soft Mist, 73% health; Samsara’s Jiang Botao, character Empty Waves, 100% health.

Soft Mist charged forth.

It was just like last battle, like last last battle. Without thought, extremely decisive.

This was Tang Rou’s style. She had always been like this.

But now, no one would think of Tang Rou as so simple ever again. In the battle that had just ended, despite being in an extraordinarily brave state, Du Ming had ended up losing in such a pathetic way, not by control, nor by technique, but by calculation.

And these calculations had been done without any change to her normal behavior, so much so that before the situation happened, no one had realized.

Those who would play against Tang Rou now knew to be more prepared. The pro players in the audience gave themselves a word of warning for potential future meetings with this Best Rookie.