The King's Avatar Chapter 1173-1174

Chapter 1173: Intense Practice

Translator: Nomyummi  Editor: Nomyummi

After the three All-Star players of Happy carefully reviewed their performance, they began diligently practicing for the team competition. The other teams couldn't quickly adapt to this Myriad Manifestations Umbrellwielding unspecialized, the likes of which had never been seen before. Those other teams could only try and gain experience through the meager bits of what was available to them: real battles, recordings, and their own imaginings. But Happy could directly practice coordinating with this umbrellwielding unspecialized. They could come to understand him, they could grow accustomed to him, they could become familiar with this entirely new and unique class.

In this aspect, Su Mucheng and Fang Rui were at a disadvantage. Tang Rou, Steamed Bun, Qiao Yifan, and even Mo Fan had all interacted with Lord Grim for a much longer period of time than them. This was especially true for Tang Rou and Steamed Bun. No one else knew this kind of unspecialized, but for these two, this was just another class, always fighting right alongside them as they learned this game. They were the fastest to integrate with this unspecialized, and for now, they were the team players that could coordinate with Ye Xiu the best.

Qiao Yifan grew up in the normal system, and by the time he arrived at Happy, he already had a very solid foundational and technical strength. Like it was for Tang Rou and Steamed Bun, the unspecialized was an entirely new thing for him to learn and adapt to, but unlike them, he first had to unlearn some of his established preconceptions about Glory. So, although he had also fought for a long time alongside Lord Grim, his understanding was a little bit weaker than that of Tang Rou or Steamed Bun.

Then there was Luo Ji and An Wenyi. Luo Ji was also a blank sheet of paper that could adapt to Lord Grim, but the problem was that his skill level lagged behind, and he had no way of truly fighting side-by-side with Lord Grim. An Wenyi joined a little later, and he suffered from the same problem as Qiao Yifan. He had to unlearn some things in order to adapt to this entirely new class. Furthermore, his technical skill was also lacking.

And then there was Mo Fan. Just getting this solitary hero to coordinate with the team was already an endeavor and a half, never mind adjustment to Lord Grim in particular. The road was slow and long.

And all of these people were still better than Su Mucheng and Fang Rui, who had only officially arrived at Happy this season.

However, the skill, experience, and awareness of these two players was clear for all to see. After they began emphasizing this aspect of their training, their grasp of the unspecialized improved in leaps and bounds.

Tang Rou was training fiercely, the three All-Stars were training fiercely. The others had no reason to relax, and the entirety of Happy immersed themselves in fierce training. But Luo Ji, who wasn't with the rest of them and who still had to worry about his studies, couldn't keep up with Happy's current pace of training. Because of this, he was filled with anxiety. In comparison, An Wenyi, the other college student here, was much more decisive. This person directly chose to take a leave of absence from school, and devoted himself to professional gaming.

"How did you convince your parents?" Chen Guo had asked him. She felt that, for a student, the greatest obstacle to this kind of decision would be the family.

"I gave them the prize money from the Challenger League," An Wenyi said.

Calm, rational, accurate!

These were the special traits of An Wenyi, the person whom Ye Xiu had found in-game despite his unexceptional skill.

The entire team was busy, and they invested more time than ever into practice. This made Guan Rongfei restless. He essentially never went outside, but now he often came to the practice room to hover behind Ye Xiu and cough meaningfully. He was anxious to finish research on the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, and he needed Lord Grim's account card to look at the umbrella. But now that Ye Xiu increased training, the amount of time that the card was in use greatly increased, thus reducing the amount of time Guan Rongfei had to study the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. This made him rather distressed.

This is also why powerhouse teams might make two or even three copies of Silver equipment, to facilitate study in the R&D department so there wasn't any conflict between them and the players.

But with Happy's current state and the material requirements for the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, making an extra one was definitely unrealistic.

On days when he couldn't get the account card to study the umbrella, Guan Rongfei could only spend his time on the other classes. Equipment for the other classes was, for him, much easier than the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella. Especially Dancing Rain, whose equipment he had studied and developed for many years now. It was only last season, under the club's orders, that he had stopped working to raise the equipment to level 75. But now, he once again took up this research. He was so familiar with the equipment that he hardly even needed the account card - his mental visualization was enough.

Another week quickly passed, round 4 was just about to start. Happy was about to fight their second home game, and their challenger was the team that was currently the subject of much gossip, Team Tyranny.

One week of training wasn't enough to immediately cause drastic improvement. The results of training were silent and invisible steps upward, droplets that gradually accumulated into something significant. But after this week of intense training, at least Happy's spirits were greatly changed - every player seemed to be shining.

Extra training wasn't too much of a problem for young people, Chen Guo thought as she looked around at everyone.

But… what about you?

Chen Guo looked at Ye Xiu.

You're certainly no young person. But to let everyone come together faster, you joined in on the extra training. What kind of impact would such intense training have on a player of his age? Wei Chen, for one, hadn't kept up with this training pace. This let Chen Guo know that older players couldn't push themselves this fiercely.

Chen Guo was very afraid. She didn't even dare ask, because she knew that there was no point in asking. Even if this wasn't healthy, Ye Xiu had no choice but to do this. Only he could wield the unspecialized. This wasn't a class for which they could find a sparring partner.

Aside from well-wishes, Chen Guo could do nothing at all.

September 26th.

One day before the the fourth round of the Glory Alliance Season 10.

Happy, unlike other teams, was still intensely practicing. Other teams, on the day before competition, would generally go through lighter practice. The players still played the game, they wouldn't let their hands get cold entirely, but the lighter practice allowed them to get enough rest and keep their spirits up.

But Happy was still practicing as fiercely as ever. Relaxation time? To them, this had no meaning. Right now, what they needed was to improve as fast as they could. Another day of practice was another day of improvement. Without enough improvement, just taking a break before the match wouldn't change the match's outcome.

Chen Guo looked around at everyone in the practice room.

The weather lately had been alternating between heavy clouds and showers, and although the temperature wasn't high, the humidity made it seem hotter. The two high-power air conditioners in the training room worked incessantly to blow cold air through the room, but many players were still practice until their foreheads were slick with sweat.

They only had to move the mouse and keyboard, which meant that they were really only moving the parts of their body below the shoulder joint. They weren't running, they weren't fighting against some obstacle with their bodies. And yet they still managed to sweat from their exertion.

The tapping and clicking of the mouse and keyboard sounded like a curtain of beads falling to the floor. This tense and high-level atmosphere in the training room made Chen Guo feel like it was difficult to breathe. But she stayed and watched for a bit longer before quietly leaving the room.

When she went downstairs to the internet cafe on the first floor, she heard someone ask at the front desk, "Is Ye Xiu here?"

She went down a few more steps, and saw the panicked and terrified face of the young woman collecting money at the front desk. And then there was a shout in the Internet cafe, and then another, and another.

Chen Guo hurried down the staircase and saw the four people standing in front of the counter. And countless guests in the internet cafe had already left their computers and flocked over.

Han Wenqing, Zhang Xinjie, Zhang Jiale, Lin Jingyan… Team Tyranny, the four titans who had been named the Four Heavenly Kings, were standing right in front of the counter of Happy Internet Cafe.

The Internet cafe guests who recognized them instantly went wild.

This sort of thing absolutely never would have happened two years ago.

At that time, Chen Guo was still a diehard Excellent Era fan, and Happy Internet Cafe was still a favorite gathering place for all Excellent Era fans. If a Tyranny player appeared at the front desk then, who could predict what the impulsive fans would do?

But now, things were different. Ever since Chen Guo turned from a fan into a hater, Happy Internet Cafe was no longer filled with such passionate Excellent Era fans. Those that still came were calm and rational fans. They wouldn't necessarily do anything if they saw a Tyranny member.

And now, many of those that came to Happy Internet Cafe were fans of Happy itself. This forced Chen Guo install another door between the stairs and the second floor, and in the back of the building, there was now a direct exit from the second floor.

Fans were wonderful, but they could also be such a hassle!

After Su Mucheng officially transferred to Happy, there was even some shameless male who, carrying a large bouquet of flowers, said that he wanted to express his love to Su Mucheng. Chen Guo was so scared that she almost called the police. At these times, having the more delinquent-like Wei Chen and Steamed Bun around actually made Chen Guo feel a little safer.

In an instant, the Four Heavenly Kings of Tyranny were surrounded by energetic fans.

To openly appear in an Internet cafe, these four Gods were too careless.

Fortunately, no one did anything excessive. Most people just came to watch. Some of the braver ones went up to ask for an autograph, or even begged for a selfie, until Han Wenqing furrowed his brow and everyone scattered back to their seats.

At this moment, Chen Guo realized that there had to be a reason that these Tyranny veterans dared to show up in an Internet cafe. Han Wenqing had the Intimidate skill, with no cooldown. He could activate it whenever he wanted.

This was the first time Chen Guo had met up-close this ten-year captain of Tyranny. Two years ago, this was the painful enemy! Excellent Era's potential fourth consecutive victory was lost to this person, which had earned her hatred.

But now, Excellent Era had faded into the mists, and Chen Guo did truly respect the fighting spirit of these Tyranny veterans. When they lost to Samsara last season, she almost teared up for them.

When interacting with people in the pro scene, Chen Guo often had to remind herself to project a strong aura. She, after all, was the boss of Happy. But in front of this Han Wenqing, Chen Guo felt that she shouldn't try to act all high and mighty in front of him. This was a person who would directly kick out the boss from the training room.

"You're looking for Ye Xiu?" Chen Guo went up to greet them.

"Yes. Is he here?" Han Wenqing asked.

"Follow me!" Chen Guo led the four upstairs, and took the opportunity to study the other three Gods. Zhang Xinjie, hair and clothing immaculate, wearing his glasses. When he stared straight ahead, he would never let his gaze wander to the sides. Zhang Jiale, a spirited and energetic figure, yet revealing a hint of melancholy. Was it because of too many second-place finishes? Chen Guo couldn't help but wonder. Lin Jingyan, the former number one Brawler, didn't have that delinquent aura that Wei Chen and Steamed Bun had. He was a very refined person, and when he saw Chen Guo looking at him, he even smiled and inclined his head.

Chapter 1174: A Casual Greeting

Translator: Nomyummi  Editor: Nomyummi

"Ye Xiu, there are people looking for you!" Chen Guo pushed open the door of the practice room. She was a bit excited to see the expression on Ye Xiu's face when he saw these four Gods suddenly appearing here.

"Who?" But to her disappointment, Ye Xiu didn't even look up.

"Me." Han Wenqing didn't let Chen Guo introduce him, he just directly spoke.

"What are you doing here?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Match," Han Wenqing said.

"The match is across the street," Ye Xiu said.

The atmosphere instantly grew cold.

The match was tomorrow. Tyranny had clearly arrived in City H a day early to rest and adjust their condition before the match.

"Everyone, feel free to take a seat!" Chen Guo had to try and diffuse the tension, inviting the four to sit on the sofas near the wall of the practice room.

"Practicing hard?" But Lin Jingyan didn't sit down, instead coming over to watch Happy practice.

"Do you have any dignity? Trying to sneak a peek at our practice?" Ye Xiu finally lifted his head, giving Lin Jingyan a disdainful look.

"Is this sneaking?" Lin Jingyan ignored him and stubbornly continued to look.

Right at that moment, Fang Rui happened to mess up.

"Haha, feeling the pressure from behind you?" Lin Jingyan laughed.

Fang Rui turned around and gave him two middle fingers.

"You changed classes pretty well!" But now Lin Jingyan stopped with the joking tone, and spoke sincerely.

"It's alright!" said Fang Rui.

The two fell into silence.

Former teammates, the number one Brawler and the number one Thief, the famed Criminal Partners, now both abandoned by their team. No matter how honorably they left, it would never be enough to make up for their feeling of loss. And now, one went to Tyranny to persist with the little light he had left, while the other came to the newly-formed Happy, changing classes to strengthen the team. Although they were no longer teammates, the goal toward which they strove was still the same. Now, they would face off against each other onstage. They could no longer strive toward this shared goal together. It was inevitable that one of them would lose.

With Fang Rui's practice interrupted, the team coordination practice could only stop as well. Ye Xiu stood up and looked at the four of them. "Did you need something?"

"Nah, we're staying nearby. We figured we'd come walk over and take a look." As Zhang Jiale said "walk," he himself was walking around in a circle around Happy's lineup of computers, finally stopping next to Ye Xiu. He looked at Ye Xiu's character Lord Grim, who was still onscreen. Lord Grim, the character that had caused so many headaches for the Gods, big and small, of the the pro circle.

"Hey, let me try your little toy here," Zhang Jiale said, trying to squeeze into Ye Xiu's seat.

"Don't you have any dignity? You also want to peek at our equipment stats?" Ye Xiu, of course, didn't give him any room.

"Haha, what secrets do you still have to hide? The stats have long been figured out already," Zhang Jiale said.

The stats of Silver equipment weren't displayed, but for a long period of time, Lord Grim had worn one Silver and twelve Orange equipment. A character's overall stats were displayed, as were those of orange equipment. With the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella as the only variable, it really wasn't difficult to deduce its stats.

"That was before, now we've levelled up, do you need us to tell you that too?" Ye Xiu said.

"Really? 75? How sharp, let me look." Zhang Jiale was still trying to force his way in. If talking about rules, his doing this was extremely inappropriate. Silver equipment were the secrets of all of the teams, no one would ever try to insist on seeing them. Zhang Jiale was taking advantage the fact that he was familiar with them, plus Happy with its grassroots origin didn't have a very serious atmosphere, so he could struggle like this.

"Go away, go play over there." Zhang Jiale was pushed away once and for all, and he could only bitterly give up. Watching him, Ye Xiu was all sorts of speechless. "Don't tell me you're really here to spy on us! For those sort of methods, we'll have to call the police."

"Call the police? How embarrassing is that?" Steamed Bun jumped up. He grabbed a bag of drinks from under the table and swung it around in circles, instantly creating a fierce meteor hammer.

"Guys, can you stop!" Chen Guo yelled, exasperated and feeling the beginnings of a headache. Normally, these Gods were all glittering and glamorous, and she couldn't help but worship them sometimes. But now that she thought about it, not a single one of them was older than herself.

With Chen Guo's scolding, the practice room quieted down.

"So what did you come here for?" Ye Xiu asked.

"It's been a while. We thought we'd come see you," Zhang Xinjie answered. When Chen Guo had gestured toward the sofa, in the end Zhang Xinjie was the only one to neatly sit down, and now he politely gave a response. This made Chen Guo feel that he was the only good person here.

"How about it, it's not bad here, right? Anyone want to come over? Our boss is right here, if you make a good plea, then maybe in the winter transfers you can hop on this championship bus," Ye Xiu said.

"You're really aiming for another championship victory," said Zhang Jiale.

"Who isn't?" Ye Xiu said, before adding, "Oh, you're not. You'd have to get rid of that 'another.'"

"You bastard!" Zhang Jiale cursed. Just in this room, there were many people who had never won a championship - Su Mucheng, Fang Rui, Lin Jingyan, none of them had. But Ye Xiu specifically attacked him, to mock his four second-place finishes, of course.

It was said that you shouldn't expose or attack someone's shortcomings, but because everyone here was friendly with each other, sometimes shortcomings were attacked like this. It was just like how Zhang Jiale insisted on looking at the equipment, which would be unacceptable in other contexts with different people. But the problem was, not only did he fail to see the equipment, he was still ridiculed by Ye Xiu. Zhang Jiale was rather depressed.

"If you're not here for anything serious then hurry up and leave, stop disrupting our practice." Ye Xiu started waving his hands to get them to leave.

"You're still practicing even now?" Zhang Xinjie furrowed his brow. To someone like him, who always maintained the strictest of practice schedules, practice the day before a competition was unthinkable.

"What do you understand!" This was what Ye Xiu said to this Glory Master Tactician, a man that really understood quite a lot of things.

Zhang Xinjie didn't retort. He stood up and said, "It looks like your team still has areas that need urgent improvement!"

Chen Guo gulped. Just from this one little clue, he was already able to make such a guess. This "only good person" was in reality quite terrifying!

"Not used to playing with unspecialized?" Zhang Xinjie looked at Su Mucheng and Fang Rui.

"Since you've guessed it, what else is there to say," Ye Xiu said, helpless.

"I hope that we'll have an exciting match," Zhang Xinjie said.

"We will," Ye Xiu said.

"See you onstage tomorrow." Han Wenqing left this final statement, and the four Tyranny players departed.

"I'm feeling dizzy. They seriously just passed by to come say hi? Don't they have anything better to do?" Seeing the four leave, Ye Xiu sighed.

"They completely guessed our current condition." Chen Guo thought about Zhang Xinjie's careful expression, and she shivered at how accurate his judgment was.

"It's not hard to guess," Ye Xiu said.

"So now what?" Chen Guo asked.

"We honestly don't have much hope of winning the team competition. We'll focus on getting the individual battles." As Ye Xiu spoke, he glanced at the time. "It's about time, let's take a look together at our opponents for tomorrow."

"Are we chasing them back here?" Steamed Bun asked.

"Huh?" Ye Xiu didn't understand.

"Aren't they our opponents tomorrow?"

Ye Xiu was speechless. Steamed Bun was being himself again…

After that, the entire team went to the strategy room. Tyranny's match recordings, especially those of the previous three rounds, had already been dug up and prepared. Every day, after doing the intense practice with the rest of the team, Ye Xiu still had to make time to organize all of these materials… Chen Guo deeply felt that they couldn't continue like this. Wei Chen could help to some extent, but he couldn't free Ye Xiu completely. Chen Guo could only be grateful that at least now they had Guan Rongfei and Wu Chen. Otherwise, if Ye Xiu had to manage things on those two ends as well, they would have to cut him into pieces.

Managing a pro team really wasn't easy! During this time, she had been trying to recruit helpers. On the guild side, things were going pretty well. A number of people had been drawn in, giving semi-professional help to run the guild. Even though these people weren't here, but work done in an online game didn't require everyone to be in the same place. As long as there was internet, things could be accomplished.

On the R&D side, Chen Guo also wanted to find more help. Her number one targets were the R&D workers of Excellent Era after the team dissolved. From Guan Rongfei, she had managed to obtain the contact information of three of his former colleagues. But when she reached out, she found that these three were still together, and were still at Excellent Era - New Excellent Era!

New Excellent Era had applied to participate in this year's Challenger League. When Chen Guo checked, they were advancing quite smoothly. Their current roster had Qiu Fei as the core player, and then some former Excellent Era trainees. This season's Challenger League didn't have any monster like last season's Excellent Era; everything was back to normal. Chen Guo casually looked over, and also discovered Team Jade Dynasty, one of the teams they had fought last season. After the entire team had been fired, it seemed like they'd gathered another group of people from who knows where to give it another shot.

At the time, Chen Guo had invited Lin Yi and the others that Jade Dynasty's boss had directly fired. They had expressed that they would consider her offer, and then there was no more news from them. Chen Guo contacted them twice more, but they were still wavering.

Not until the new season began did Lin Yi call her. He and two of the players from Jade Dynasty ultimately decided to join Happy, working for the guild in-game.

For them to reach this decision now, Chen Guo was quite able to understand Lin Yi's state of mind. In the end, he still wanted to be a pro player, and this entire summer, he was likely working very hard to try and find such an opportunity. But by the time the new season began, he had been unable to find a team, and so his dream of being a pro player was put to an end. So, he contacted Happy, and became one of their guild workers.

Relative to ordinary players, Lin Yi's skill at Glory was quite high. For him to be a team captain, he was exceptional in some areas. After he joined, he quickly became Wu Chen's most effective helper.

With the hard work of these people, Guild Happy's current development was very stable. On the high-end battlefields, because Ye Xiu and the others were no longer helping, the guild lost its overwhelming advantage. But in all of the various ordinary servers, Guild Happy was up and running smoothly. Happy finally had its own stores of basic materials filling its vaults. What had happened back in the day in the tenth server, with Ye Xiu selling his labor to obtain dungeon materials, would never have to happen again.

Chapter end