The King’s Avatar - Chapter 121

Chapter 121: Godly Skill

The clock hit midnight. Liu Hao sat there like a log of wood in front of his computer. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. Lord Grim’s message hung there staring at him.
“How is he going to break my record?” This question kept playing over and over again in Liu Hao’s head. He tossed and turned, but even so, he was still unable to come up with an answer.
Meanwhile, at Happy Internet Cafe, right when the clock hit midnight, Ye Xiu called Huang Shaotian over: “First come with me for a run. I’ll show you how the strategy works.”
“Hurrying.” Huang Shaotian was extremely bored.
Outside of Boneyard were Lord Grim, Cleansing Mist, Soft Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, and Huang Shaotian’s Level 27 Blade Master: Flowing Tree.
“Use this sword for now.” Ye Xiu traded with Flowing Tree and gave him the Vampiric Lightsaber that Blue River had given him yesterday.
“Trash.” Huang Shaotian muttered as he received the Level 25 Orange equipment. In the eyes of a top-tier God in the pro-scene like him, Orange weapons were worthless, let alone a Level 25 one. Of course, it would be trash.
“Stop chattering so much. Hurry up and join the party.” Ye Xiu sent over an invite.
Flowing Tree joined the party.
“Head out.” Ye Xiu declared. Lord Grim entered the dungeon, while Flowing Tree followed behind. The other three stared blankly. They hadn’t yet reacted to this Flowing Tree joining the party. They were still waiting for Hateful Sword to appear!
“We have a new player. This run is mostly to let this new player understood the strategy.” After the five players entered together, Ye Xiu said.
“What about Hateful Sword?” Steamed Bun Invasion had the spirit of loyalty. He cared a lot about his good friend, who sent him quite a few Arena points, “I sent him a message, why didn’t he reply?”
“He has something on his mind, so he can’t come.” Ye Xiu said.
“Really, he has no prospects for the future.” Steamed Bun Invasion disdained.
“Let’s start, let’s start. Let me see your new strategy.” Huang Shaotian said, making everyone who heard know that he was very familiar with Ye Xiu.
“Who is he?” Su Mucheng asked.
“Shaotian.” Ye Xiu said.
“Fck, don’t reveal my identity!!” Huang Shaotian panicked.
“Who are you yelling at! Who recognizes you?” Ye Xiu only told Su Mucheng. He was sure that Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion didn’t know who he was.
Sure enough, Tang Rou only dully said: “Oh? Your friend!”
“Yeah.” Ye Xiu replied.
“Don’t reveal my identity? I like secrets, are you a Scorpio?” Steamed Bun Invasion said.
“Pretty close.” Ye Xiu said.
“Shameful! I’m a Leo.” Huang Shaotian said.
Steamed Bun Invasion immediately singing: “If you’re born at the end of July, you’re a Leo; if you’re born at the beginning of August, you’re a Leo!”
“FCK!” Huang Shaotian yelled.
Steamed Bun Invasion still continued: “When we met, if it was an accident; when you left, why couldn’t I let it go!” In the end, he asked: “Right?”
“What’s right?” Huang Shaotian was sucked in.
“Nice singing.” Cleansing Mist applauded.
Steamed Bun Invasion was overjoyed: “I’ll sing another two verses for everyone.”
“Enough, Steamed Bun. I need to explain the dungeon. You can sing for us again later when there’s time.” Ye Xiu said.
“Okay.” Steamed Bun Invasion could only agree with difficulty.
“Watch me!” Ye Xiu began controlling Lord Grim. He gave a demonstration just like how he did in the very beginning.
Huang Shaotian deserved to be called a famed blabbermouth in the pro-scene. Following along with Ye Xiu’s playing, he began chattering: “Woah, nice pathing! Shadow Clone Technique? Falling Flower Palm? D*mn, what class are you? Unspecialized? What are you doing? Woah! How’d your weapon transform? It did transform right? Did it transform? Woah! Did you guys see that? His weapon transformed back.”
“You’re so noisy!!” Su Mucheng yelled.
Of course, Huang Shaotian had already guessed that this Cleansing Mist was Su Mucheng. He laughed out loud and then whispered to Cleansing Mist: “You played really well tonight. Even though you guys lost, it wasn’t your fault. It was all on that idiot Liu Hao. Woah, there’s a crack here?” Huang Shaotian said while watching Lord Grim send the four monsters into the crack in the stone wall. He immediately shifted his viewpoint and began commentating like a TV anchor.
“What are you trying to do here?” Huang Shaotian asked.
“The three skeletons layer on top of each other when they die, so the zombie won’t be able to come out.” Ye Xiu said.
“Really?” Huang Shaotian said. His Blade Master Flowing Tree rushed forward. While running, his sword flashed out and a Sword Draw accurately cut the outermost skeleton. Following this, he didn’t use any skills, just normal attacks: stab, slash, scrape, chop, cut.
But these few normal attacks beautifully flowed together to create a melodic harmony. Even if Tang Rou didn’t have insight into anything else, she still had some towards mechanical skill. After a short while, she discovered that this player’s playing was quite smooth and skilled. Every attack was extremely quick and accurate like a precise machine.
“This player is amazing!” Tang Rou’s Soft Mist walked over to Cleansing Mist.
“He is!” Su Mucheng said.
“I’m coming too!!” It looked like Steamed Bun Invasion couldn’t see it. WIth a loud shout, he rushed up too to help. After a short moment, the first skeleton died. Ye Xiu said that the skeletons had to overlap and naturally, Huang Shaotian understood what to do. Coordinating together, they killed the second and third monsters. The three piles of skeleton bones piled on top of each other. Huang Shaotian looked at the zombie and sure enough, it was trapped inside blindly scratching: “Wow, it really isn’t able to come out? You’re really amazing, so there’s such a method. Like this, we should be able to save around ten seconds!”
“Yup.” Ye Xiu said.
“How many of these can be done in this dungeon?”
“Nine.” Ye Xiu said.
“Nine, a minute and a half! That can’t be right! Right now, the current record is much faster than just this. What else is there?” Huang Shaotian asked. This was a pro God’s ability to judge. From the time, he could already determine that just relying on this wasn’t enough to set such a record even by a pro-team.
“The second BOSS can be trapped too.” Ye Xiu said.
“That can be trapped too? How do you do it? Hurry up, hurry up. Let me see.” Huang Shaotian said, while letting his Flowing Tree rush forward. After running for a few steps, he stopped. He turned around on the spot for two full circles and then asked: “How do we do this part?”
“Watch me!” Ye Xiu didn’t laugh at him. As a top-tier God, he could calculate the approximate clear time for Boneyard, but the details were a bit blurry. When Ye Xiu was playing in the beginner village dungeons, he was also going through them using guides.
After demonstrating the strategy along the way, they gradually reached the second BOSS. Tang Rou took note of the time. Even though they were teaching while clearing, their speed was still so quick. When the time came to officially set the record, chasing down those 20 seconds wasn’t a problem at all! However, the second BOSS was still going to be very troublesome!
“So here, we’ll be fighting like this……” Ye Xiu was at that stone wall explaining while moving and jumping around. Huang Shaotian’s Flowing Tree looked around left and right and also tried jumping around. In the end, he replied: “You’re right. It can only be done this way.”
“Soft Mist, you pull.” Ye Xiu instructed.
“I pull? If I pull, then I won’t be able to rush back in time. I don’t have Shadow Clone Technique!” Tang Rou said.
“You don’t need to rush back. You just have to send the BOSS over, that’s all. There’s a different strategy this time.” Ye Xiu laughed.
“What strategy?” Tang Rou asked.
“I’ll record it and then show you when the time comes.” Ye Xiu said. If Soft Mist pulled the monster, she wouldn’t have enough time to rush back to her position, so she wouldn’t be able to see the whole picture.
“Okay.” Tang Rou replied and then didn’t say anything further. She ran over to pull Zombie Bailey. She knocked it into the sky and then blasted it over. Steamed Bun Invasion was next up. He played quite well and gave the mid-air Zombie Bailey a Knee Attack in the back. Next was Su Mucheng. An Anti-Tank Missile helped push Zombie Bailey farther. This pitiful BOSS directly flew over. Huang Shaotian’s Flowing Tree was already in place. Right when Zombie Bailey was about to land on the ground, a sword light flashed out. The angle and timing were absolutely perfect. The flying Zombie Bailey was slashed and then redirected. It suddenly stopped for a short time in midair. Flowing Tree had already stepped forward to meet it and used an Upward Slash to lift Zombie Bailey into the air.
Over there, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had already jumped onto the stone wall and hit the midair Zombie Bailey in front of him. The Myriad Manifestation Umbrella swooshed out and a chain of bullets flew out. It was unexpectedly the Launcher skill BBQ in midair.
Lord Grim had already begun to fall, but under Ye Xiu’s quick movements, the BBQ bullets all hit the necessary position. Zombie Bailey rolled about in the air until it finally rolled into the crack in the stone wall.
“Beautiful!!” Huang Shaotian yelled, “You deserve to be called the father of Delivery Gun! You’re still the best with that skill. I don’t even think Zhou Zekai could do that mid air Delivery Gun. That guy only knows how to be handsome. Who would actually let him shoot you to high heavens in actual combat?”
“Oh? It’s not bad!” After Lord Grim landed, Ye Xiu looked up and confirmed that Zombie Bailey was stuck up there and unable to climb out. This set-up made sure that they would succeed on the first try.
If this was a normal Delivery Gun, there truly wasn’t enough of an angle to complete it. However, when Lord Grim jumped up in this way, the character would reach a certain height, making enough room to use Delivery Gun. However, this angle could only be made with a very short hop. The timing had to be accurately grasped in order to deliver Zombie Bailey into the crack.
Su Mucheng wasn’t quite skilled enough to do this. Only Ye Xiu could do it.
As for Huang Shaotian’s Flowing Tree, his role was also extremely important. A normal upward cut had no way of lifting Zombie Bailey to Ye Xiu’s desired position. That was why Sword Draw had to stop Zombie Bailey from flying and then use an Upward Slash to send Zombie Bailey up.
In order to send it into the desired position, Sword Draw’s timing and the following uppercut had be executed accurately. Fortunately, such timing wasn’t difficult for Huang Shaotian. The harder task was still on Ye Xiu’s instant midair Delivery Gun, that was a true godly skill.
Seeing Lord Grim and Flowing Tree return, Tang Rou said in amazement: “Done?”
“Done.” Ye Xiu said.
“How did you do it?”
“I’ll show you later. Let’s keep going for now.” Ye Xiu said.
The following parts were normal. Who knew how many times faster Huang Shaotian picked things up than Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion. He only needed a few random instructions and then he would know what to do.
The only annoying part was that this guy really did talk too much. The teacher lectured, but the student talked even more than the teacher. Was such a situation normal?

Chapter 122: Liu Hao the Helper

After this run of Boneyard finished, Huang Shaotian took a look at Excellent Dynasty’s record and then immediately said with certainty: “Yeah, we should be able to improve the record by around 30 seconds if we use this strategy.”
“However, for their record, they had to have used this strategy to set it. Wasn’t this an original strategy by you? How did they get it?” Huang Shaotian said.
Huang Shaotian really was a keen-witted guy. In the Glory pro-scene, he was famous for his astonishing decision-making and ability to take advantage of openings. He was amazing at Interrupts and a paragon opportunist. Taking the final opportunity was something he loved to do.
This was extremely obvious in the team competition. He might appear weak like he was invisible on the field or might make you feel like his condition was extremely bad. But once an opening appeared, he would immediately seize the opportunity to kill you. Cold-blooded and ruthless, characteristics of a true killer.
If you only looked at his style, you would think he was a cold and cruel character. But Huang Shaotian’s acting was extremely poor. This was because he loved to talk. When he battled, it might seem like he wasn’t there. However, his extremely quick hand speed and his love for the mic always made him shine like a star in the chat box.
Commentating on Huang Shaotian was always the most relaxing for the TV hosts. If they ran out of things to say, then they just had to read what was being typed in the chat box…… Who knew how many analysts and experts pointed out that if he could fix his habit of spending so much time and energy on typing, then he’d be even more terrifying. But this person would never change. Just for him, the Alliance created a special competition rule: in the team competition, dead players were prohibited from sending out messages.
Dead players could no longer play, so players like him could concentrate on typing out messages……. When rule came out to avoid that, the entire Alliance cheered.
At this moment, Huang Shaotian felt that Excellent Dynasty’s record was extremely irregular. Players like Tang Rou and Steamed Bun Invasion, who didn’t have any perception, couldn’t tell this. Even the pro-level Su Mucheng hadn’t noticed it. Now that she heard Huang Shaotian bring it up, she also felt that something wasn’t right: “You’re right, how could that be?”
“That Hateful Sword is Liu Hao.” Ye Xiu said.
“Ah?” Su Mucheng stared blankly.
“What’s Hateful Sword?” Huang Shaotian asked.
“Who’s Liu Hao?” Steamed Bun Invasion asked.
Soft Mist had hid to the side. She didn’t come over to join in on the conversation. Tang Rou saw that Cleansing Mist and Ye Xiu weren’t ordinary friends. And this newcomer Flowing Tree seemed to be the same. She didn’t really understand the things they talked about. Tang Rou also didn’t know whether it was convenient for her to listen, so she politely stepped out.
“Hateful Sword learned our strategy from here. Later, he went to help Excellent Dynasty set the record.” Ye Xiu first explained it to Steamed Bun Invasion.
“Woah, he’s really studious!” Steamed Bun Invasion gasped in praise. After three seconds, he put two and two together: “Dmn, that guy was a spy.”
“…….” Everyone was speechless.
“I’m going to scold him!!” Steamed Bun Invasion declared.
“Stay low, only private message him.” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh……. okay!” Steamed Bun Invasion had wanted to type it out on the world channel. But hearing God’s commands, he changed his plans and sent the online Hateful Sword a pile of messages. He used every type of hateful word he could think of.
Only then did Ye Xiu give Huang Shaotian an explanation: “Liu Hao opened up a low-level account. He’s been following along with us these past few days.”
“You figured it out a long time ago?” Su Mucheng asked.
“Yup!” Ye Xiu said.
“Then, why’d you keep bringing him?” Su Mucheng asked.
“Pro-level player! How could I reject such a player!” Ye Xiu said.
“How terrible!!” Huang Shaotian said, “You dragged him along to dungeon, so his condition would be all messed up. Did you see today’s match? That guy looked like an idiot. It looked to me like he saw the team competition as Boneyard. Sister Su, did you guys hold a meeting to criticize him?”
“I didn’t drag him. He was the one actively followed along. I just let him do what he wanted.” Ye Xiu said. ¨C25C“And then this punk deliberately held back when you guys were setting the record and then went all out with his team. You really do have a lot of confidence! How were you so confident that you’d be able to break their record?” Huang Shaotian said. ¨C26C“We have you, no?” ¨C27C“How did you know……..” Huang Shaotian stopped mid sentence. ¨C28C“Ha ha, the Alliance had already set it up half a year ago. How could I not know you were coming here today?” Ye Xiu said. ¨C29C“Dmn, you actually calculated that I’d come here so long ago!!” Huang Shaotian said.
“Actually, whether or not you came wasn’t the important point. It’s not like you can’t play if you’re not here!” Ye Xiu said.
‘But…….” Su Mucheng hesitated, “In this dungeon, Shaotian and Liu Hao are around the same. Even if you two can coordinate to use Delivery Gun to send Zombie Bailey over……. there’s only so much time that can save!”
“It was originally around the same, but after Liu Hao helped us set the record, things changed.” Ye Xiu said.
“What changed?”
“We have an extra Vampiric Lightsaber!” Ye Xiu said.
“Fck, so this was why I was so important!” Huang Shaotian’s cheeks streamed with tears. They had originally looked for him to fully use that Orange weapon’s power. An Orange weapon meant that their damage output would increase. Adding that in over the course of the dungeon, the effects were obvious. Plus now that they could do a mid-air Delivery Gun for that Zombie Bailey part, they’d have to be cursed to not break the record.
“I pity Liu Hao. I don’t want to help you anymore.” Right when Huang Shaotian said this, he suddenly received a guild invite. Huang Shaotian saw that it was Blue Brook Guild and jumped in surprise. Of course he knew that this was the guild that their Club backed. How did he suddenly get a message from them? Was his identity exposed? But after looking at it, he saw that it was unexpectedly from Lord Grim.
“See, look. I’m actually helping you guys by setting the record. If I didn’t look for you, who else would I look for?” Ye Xiu said.
“Is my identity exposed?”
“Of course not.” Ye Xiu asked Blue River for the ability to temporarily invite members to the guild in preparation for pulling Huang Shaotian’s Flowing Tree in.
“Okay, we’re going to officially start now. Everyone concentrate.” Ye Xiu announced.
“I thought I said I wasn’t going to help you guys?” Huang Shaotian asked Su Mucheng.
“Really? I didn’t hear it. You must have imagined it!” Su Mucheng said.
“Fck, you two!” Huang Shaotian was helpless.
“We’re officially starting. Let’s try to get it on our first try.” Ye Xiu gathered everyone and then entered the dungeon.
They officially started. Even though Huang Shaotian was constantly complaining, his performance was flawless. After they completed a third of the dungeon, Ye Xiu couldn’t bear it any longer: “Steamed Bun, didn’t you want to sing? Please sing!”
“Really? Okay then. Everyone, I’m going to be singing a song about astrological signs!!” Steamed Bun Invasion said and then immediately began singing.
All of a sudden, the dungeon was filled with sounds of chattering, singing, and the cries of undead monsters. It became much more lively than in the beginning.
“Does it have to be like this?” The two girls were almost unable to bear it any longer.
“If I’m dying, you’re all coming with me.” Ye Xiu dully said.
Extremely noisy, yet flawless play.
Huang Shaotian and Steamed Bun Invasion could be considered extraordinary in this area. As a result, they wholeheartedly played without being distracted. They were so good that when they got to Zombie Bailey, with one of them singing and one of them talking, they were able to successfully send Zombie Bailey up into the crack on their first try.
In the last third of the dungeon, the situation stayed the same. And when the final BOSS fell, the two girls immediately got up. One yelled “I’m going to get water”, the other yelled “I’m going to use the restroom” and then disappeared in a flash. They were even faster than the system announcement.
System Announcement: Congratulations to Blue Brook Guild’s players: Lord Grim, Cleansing Mist, Soft Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, and Flowing Tree for breaking the Boneyard dungeon record, time: 16:24:67.
They beat the record by 32 seconds. Huang Shaotian’s prediction was correct. Excellent Dynasty’s record was already extremely close to the limit. To be able to beat it by 30 seconds wasn’t easy.
“32 seconds…….. 32 seconds……..” Liu Hao hadn’t moved a muscle since Lord Grim’s message. He hadn’t even seen the pile of messages Steamed Bun Invasion had sent him. He had been staring at the system announcements the entire time. He had kept on telling himself that there was no way his record could be beaten, yet he had still waited there staring.
It finally arrived. A 32 second improvement. Liu Hao had absolutely no idea how that was possible.
Flowing Tree? Who was this?
Hateful Sword was still in Blue Brook Guild. He immediately opened up the guild roster and then searched for Flowing Tree. Level 27, Blade Master.
To be able to beat his record, this player’s skill couldn’t be low. However, because this Boneyard was a completely new strategy, if it was someone like Soft Mist and Steamed Bun Invasion, then they’d need a lot of practice. But this player had joined tonight and then immediately went to break the record. Was this someone Ye Qiu had prepared long ago? Or was it another pro-level player that could quickly grasp the strategy?
Looking at the time, this was their second run after 12 o’clock. With their 32 second improvement, even if they had made a few mistakes with Zombie Bailey, it was still enough to take down Excellent Dynasty’s record. But they hadn’t the first time, which meant the first run was very slow. It was a test run. It was for learning.
To be able to completely grasp the strategy in one run. This sort of quality meant he had to be a pro-player.
A pro-player…….. Blade Master……. Then thinking of tonight’s match……. Huang Shaotian.
Liu Hao almost coughed up blood.
Who would believe him? That his Boneyard Dungeon had actually been set by Ye Qiu and Huang Shaotian. Could this still be called setting a f*cking record? They’re holding an all-star event!!
However, even if he was Huang Shaotian, it still shouldn’t be by 32 seconds right? Although he was an amazing top-tier player, it was only Boneyard. No matter how amazing, there was still a limit. Any pro-player could reach that limit. Could it be that there was some hidden strategy? There shouldn’t be one! He didn’t see anywhere that could be improved on!
Liu Hao’s soul left his body. He could only feel anguish swamp his heart. He left the room and wanted to walk around, when he accidentally bumped into Su Mucheng.
“Hi!” Su Mucheng greeted Liu Hao. This was unprecedented. Su Mucheng never gave face to the people who had driven out Ye Qiu. She was never polite to them.
“Thanks for your help!” Su Mucheng smiled and then swiftly walked away.
Help…… what does that mean? What help! How did I help!! Liu Hao’s face fell deathly pale. He clenched his fists so hard that his bones almost popped out.
“You……. halt.” Liu Hao growled fiercely.

Chapter 123: Talking to Himself

“Oh, is there something you need?” Su Mucheng turned her head and smiled sweetly, the complete opposite of Liu Hao’s cold and fierce expression.
The two looked at each other. Each with fire in their eyes.
Even though she was smiling, Su Mucheng’s eyes displayed an even colder gaze than Liu Hao’s.
In their eyes, Su Mucheng was always a warm girl and was very kind to everyone. However, she stayed around Ye Qiu’s left and right most of the time as if she never had her own opinion. This sort of girl seemed very easy to bully.
Liu Hao fiendishly roared for Su Mucheng to halt. But now that they looked into each other’s eyes, he was the one who felt unconfident.
“If you have nothing to say, then I’ll be leaving first.” Su Mucheng laughed, turned her body around, and left.
Liu Hao watched as Su Mucheng gradually walked farther and farther away. Gradually, he calmed down. After sucking in a deep breath, he returned back to his room.
Taking his cellphone, Liu Hao gave Excellent Dynasty’s guild leader Chen Yehui a call.
“Hello, Liu…….” The voice on the other side was a bit hesitant as if he didn’t know what he should say.
“You deal with the dungeons yourself for now! It’s a bit troublesome for me to come out right now.” Liu Hao said.
“Oh…….”
“The tenth server…… if no pro-player meddles with it, then the records will definitely be ruled by Ye Qiu. The standoff between the different guilds have already shifted to this. Right now, it’s basically who can win over Ye Qiu’s help.” Liu Hao said.
“That’s…… not convenient for us, no?” Chen Yehui said.
“You can try contact him and see what his attitude towards us is. If it’s no good, then still pay attention to him. See if there are any openings. There is one important thing I need you to find out.”
“What is it?”
“Ye Qiu’s price. After each collaboration with a guild, tell me what rewards he gets! That’s something I hope you find out for me.”
“Do you want me to find players to oppose him? He’s lacking manpower right now.” Chen Yehui said.
“This……. you can try it, but don’t send out players from our guild. Don’t let other guilds find out. Right now, Lord Grim is a very important player to them. Who knows whether he’ll join a big guild to protect himself.” Liu Hao said.
“Okay, then I’ll figure it out from here!” Chen Yehui expressed.
“Yeah, I’ll come visit the tenth server when I have time. Let’s keep in contact.” Liu Hao said.
“Okay.”
After hanging up the phone, Liu Hao sucked in a deep breath. He couldn’t move on impulse again. These past few days, he’d been too excited, which was why he made so many mistakes. Destroying Ye Qiu’s record was a failure and he had even been reversed duped by Ye Qiu. Even though it made him extremely angry, in the end, he was the only one to blame and was suffering because of it.
The one mistake he truly shouldn’t have been made was in tonight’s match, where he made several mistakes in a row that caused them to lose.
Even though they only won three points last match, Sun Xiang had at least done a 1v3, which gave fans hope.
This time, they were the home team against the visiting second place team Blue Rain. If they had won a few more points, then it would have a beautiful turn around for them. In the team competition, Excellent Era really did hold more of an advantage. However, their vice-captain’s several amateurish mistakes cost them the competition.
Now, even though everyone was unhappy, they still temporarily regarded it as a mistake that he made because of his poor condition. But, if Excellent Era’s record continued to stumble and never rise, then when reviewing the season, what could have originally been Excellent Era’s comeback was completely ruined all because of Liu Hao’s mistake. His mistakes wasn’t a mere mistake, it was an extremely heavy mistake.
This mistake was enough to affect his future. Right now, if he didn’t deal with the situation and still privately distracted himself by tangling with the retired Ye Qiu, then everything really would be over for him.
Ye Qiu…… I know you’re still unwilling to give up. But things have only just started. Let’s see just how capable you are. I’ll be watching!
Liu Hao gnashed his teeth. He did one final snarl at the mirror and then fiercely rubbed his face. After putting down his hands, a harmless smile appeared on his face. It was as if he had performed some sort of magical shape-shifting spell.
Liu Hao pulled open the door and then walked out once again. His gaze shifted to his neighbor’s room. A small glimmer of light shone through the crack between the door and the wall.
“Cough.” Liu Hao coughed and then lightly knocked on the door: “Sun, did you rest?”
“The door’s not locked.”The reply from the person in the room was extremely cool, but his tone revealed that he clearly wasn’t in a good mood.
Liu Hao adjusted his expression one final time and smiled: “Then I’m coming in!” He pushed open the door and entered.
In the Happy Internet Cafe, after they ran the dungeon twice, the record was broken; the two girls too. Tang Rou really did go to get some water. But carrying her teacup, she refused to leave from the reception desk and talked with Ye Xiu about this and that. All the way until Ye Xiu saw Cleansing Mist take the initiative to go offline and rest, before exclaiming: “No more dungeoning, right?”
Ye Xiu laughed bitterly in helplessness: “Up to you!”
“I remember there’s a quest that I hadn’t finished yet.” Tang Rou mumbled to herself and then left. Ye Xiu was speechless. This girl usually hated to do quests, especially those delivery, mushroom gathering, turnip digging, search ones, etc etc. The difficulty for these were extremely low. They didn’t have combat in them, so Tang Rou regarded them as a waste of time and hated them to the extreme. She had to grind her teeth while doing them because Ye Xiu had reminded her that they were must-do quests, which rewarded attributes or skill points.
To make Tang Rou prefer doing her most hated quests rather than such a fun activity like dungeoning, that made Ye Xiu gasp in admiration: Huang Shaotian deserved to be called the one who changed the Alliance’s rules.
“What happened? What happened? Where’d everyone go? Why is no one responding.”
Actually, Ye Xiu wasn’t so tough either. He also took off his headphones and rested for a bit. Right when he put his headphones back on, those crying sounds immediately popped up again. Huang Shaotian was still scared of having his identity exposed. He nested in the darkness of Area A and lowered his voice when speaking, but even so, he still talked non-stop, his spirit excellent.
“Okay, we’ve set the record. We don’t need to keep dungeoning.” Ye Xiu said, while bracing himself.
“Did you hear what I was saying before?’ Huang Shaotian clearly didn’t know that Ye Xiu had taken off his headphones. People like him who loved to talk incidentally also carried a “talk to himself” attribute. Otherwise, there would often be times where there would be nothing to talk about. Talking to himself meant that he didn’t need to hear other’s replies, so he was never aware that other people weren’t listening.
“Oh, it wasn’t too clear, what did you say?” Ye XIu asked.
“What’s with your weapon?”
“Self-made, Myriad Manifestation Umbrella.” Ye Xiu said.
“You made it? When did you make it? How come I never heard about it?” Huang Shaotian asked.
“It was from a long time ago, when you were still stealing BOSSes back then.” Ye Xiu said.
“DMN DMN D*MN!! Don’t remind me of those terrible times!!” Huang Shaotian panicked. At that time, he was still just a normal player. But his ability to take advantage of openings had already been completed. He was an expert at stealing BOSSes. In the early days of Glory, the rules were very different than now.
“It was at that time that me and my friend made it together.” Ye Xiu said.
“This weapon……. it looks like it’s specially made for unspecialized characters?” Huang Shaotian said.
“Correct.” Ye Xiu said.
“But when the third server opened, the level cap increased. Class Awakening Quests were introduced and unspecialized characters disappeared.”
Ye Xiu didn’t reply. He didn’t need to reply because of Huang Shaotian’s ability to “talk to himself.”
“So your weapon lost its value until the fifth server opened and the Heavenly Domain was introduced. Unspecialized characters that couldn’t awaken could gain experience and continue leveling in the Heavenly Domain, however at that time the level cap had increased to Level 60. Even though the Heavenly Domain Duel Challenge has no level limit, it had a Level 60 difficulty. And the series of quests had to be done individually, so no one could help you which was why the trend of unspecialized characters never resurrected. And at that time you were already using One Autumn Leaf in the pro-scene. The title Battle God had already been given to you, so you never turned back to it.” Sure enough, Huang Shaotian voluntarily said a whole bunch of stuff.
“Yup!” Ye Xiu replied this time.
“Right now, you’re planning on starting from the bottom up again?” Huang Shaotian asked.
“Yup!”
“Then why’d you retire? You could have asked for a random account already leveled. You give the weapon to the Club to finish, wouldn’t that be faster? I don’t understand. I really don’t understand. Why’d you retire?” Huang Shaotian asked.
“Can you not understand ‘Team performance isn’t good. Team captain takes the blame and resigns’?” Ye Xiu said.
“So? There’s still no need to retire! If we talk about your matches, I’ve seen them all. It’s clearly the team was at fault and you were isolated by them. Was it Liu Hao’s schemes? That guy’s like a hungry wolf. Just one look and you can tell he’s up to no good. You’re way too careless.” Huang Shaotian said.
“When did you learn how to read people’s’ faces?” Ye Xiu said.
“I didn’t say that. That’s what Wang Jiexi said.” Huang Shaotian said.
“How could he judge other people’s faces with his uneven face?” Ye Xiu said.
“Stop talking!! That guy really does know some magic! Last time…….” Huang Shaotian blabbered on. On the side, Steamed Bun Invasion hadn’t left yet. He also didn’t understand what the two were talking about and was pitifully waiting on the side.
“Steamed Bun, there’s nothing else for today! If you want to go to the Arena or the dungeon, go ahead!” Ye Xiu said.
“Okay.” Steamed Bun Invasion left.
“Oh right! Let’s go for a round. I want to see just how great your weapon is!” Huang Shaotian said.
“And you’re going to use this account?” Ye Xiu laughed.
“What’s wrong with this account? It’s a Level 27 one like yours. The weapon is a bit lacking, but it’ll make do!” Huang Shaotian said.
“This account’s an unspecialized account though.” Ye Xiu said.
Players who didn’t understand wouldn’t understand what he meant. But when Huang Shaotian heard this, he was immediately startled. Right, if it was an unspecialized account, even though they were at the same level, he had a big advantage. Why? Because at Level 27, no matter what class the account was, it would only have access to 7 sub-class only skills. But unspecialized players? At Level 20, they had access to 120 skills. That difference was too great. That was why everyone had put unspecialized characters as kings in the past. They were kings because unspecialized characters were completed extremely early and their advantage in the early game was extremely large, so large that it was almost completely broken. To only use a Blade Master with 7 skills against an unspecialized character, he’d definitely go in and never come out. Huang Shaotian clearly recognized this point.
“Take out your Troubling Rain and let’s try it out. We’ll obviously be fighting in the Fixed Field.” Ye Xiu said.
“How is that okay!?” Huang Shaotian panicked, “That would expose me. If someone saw, how am I supposed to explain it. It’s fine, it’s fine. We’ll battle some other time then! Do you have anything else you need? If there’s nothing else, then I’m going back. Oh right, why’d you retire? And why didn’t you reply to my last question? Ah?”
“You…… hurry up and go back!” Even Ye Xiu was feeling a bit powerless. He really was too noisy……

Chapter 124: The Crudest Style

Over in the corner, Huang Shaotian closed his computer. He once again scrunched back into a ball, hiding himself. He evilly snuck out from the darkness. Ye Xiu, who was at the reception desk, had been watching him the entire time and had no choice but to watch as the guy carefully prodded over.
“Why did you retire? Why did you retire?” Huang Shaotian was still asking him.
“If I didn’t retire, you think I’d want to stay in the team to be a training partner?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Training partner? Excellent Era really wanted to drive you out!” Huang Shaotian said, “But isn’t directly retiring too impulsive? You should have tried looking for somewhere to transfer to! Even if Excellent Era absolutely refused to let you go, that doesn’t mean that there was zero chance for you to transfer. There might have been a team that would pay a high enough price for Excellent Era to let you go. At the very least, you should have waited until you saw that there was absolutely nowhere to transfer before retiring!”
“If I transferred……. then what about Mucheng?” Ye Xiu said.
Huang Shaotian stared blankly.
They were both god-level players in the pro-scene, how could he not understand this? For popular players like Su Mucheng, some Club owners wouldn’t let her go even if they had to trade off the rest of the team. She was simply a money tree, a money-sucking machine to the owner. Her financial value was far greater than her skill value. Even for Huang Shaotian, even he wasn’t guaranteed that he wouldn’t be transferred to another Club. But for Su Mucheng, most owners would even sacrifice their team standings to keep her.
“If I transferred, then Mucheng would definitely terminate her contract.” Ye Xiu said.
“So it’s like this…… then what about terminating your contract? Hmm…… if you terminated your contract like that, then they wouldn’t let you join another team for at least half a year, but it’d at least be better than you retiring for a minimum one year. But if you did retire, then there’d be no way for you to return to Excellent Era. It’d be the same as you transferring. If you retired for a year, then at the very least you wouldn’t need to pay contract termination fees or maybe you could even buy out the contract right? After a year……. how long does Mucheng’s contract last until?” Huang Shaotian talked to himself a bunch.
“One and a half years.” Ye Xiu said.
“Oh…… so then, you’re planning on coming back after a year and a half? A year and a half! You’re too crazy, aren’t you?” Huang Shaotian expressed his astonishment. ESport pro-players had a short career. It was extremely rare for someone 25 years old to be able to play at this level of skill. To still dare to retire for a year and half, that was simply going against the heavens.
“Ha ha, just wait until I come back and destroy you!” Ye Xiu said.
“F*ck, you’re too arrogant, aren’t you?” Huang Shaotian yelled.
“What’s the current record for our duels again?” Ye Xiu asked.
“Ha…… tonight’s weather is pretty good!” Huang Shaotian gaze shifted to the pitch black night outside of the Internet Cafe.
After standing there staring outside for awhile, Huang Shaotian’s gaze returned back. His expression turned serious: “You have to come back.”
“Who need you say that.” Ye Xiu said.
“If you have any difficulties, contact me.” Huang Shaotian said earnestly.
“Give me back my Vampiric Lightsaber and the fee for two hours of Internet.” Ye Xiu said.
“…….” He finally stopped talking for once.
“I’ll give you the Vampiric Lightsaber later!” Huang Shaotian slapped down ten bucks onto the reception desk. He turned around and faded into the night.
“Flowing Tree went off?” Ye Xiu returned to the game and received a message from Tang Rou.
“Yeah.”
“Dungeon?” Tang Rou asked.
Ye Xiu laughed. He immediately gathered everyone and ran to the dungeon.
The record 16:24:67 on the record leaderboards, made Blue River speechless for a long time. Still staring at it, he suddenly received a message. He opened it and saw that it was Lord Grim: “How many keyboards did you eat?”
Blue River’s cheeks streamed with tears. The record, which he swore he’d eat his keyboard if it was broken, was currently number three on the Boneyard record leaderboards. If he did as he had promised, then he’d have to at least eaten a few keyboards.
“Brother, please don’t joke with me.” Blue River said gloomily.
“Ha ha, there shouldn’t be any problem with the record this time.” Ye Xiu said.
“Okay, okay.” Blue River replied, but didn’t say too much. Ye Xiu also understood. The record had been broken again and again. The experts in the game, the ones who could be considered as having good judgement, were all at a loss. Blue River still had to pay attention to this. However, the current record really was at the peak. Unless a guild was willing to pay the effort to gather a party with full Orange equipment and also look for experts to substitute in. For the new server, the possibility of that was zero.
The player who even more shocked by this record was naturally Cold Night. Originally, he had celebrated when Lord Grim’s record was broken again by Excellent Dynasty. He felt that the Excellent Dynasty experts that substituted in were even more amazing and felt that Lord Grim wouldn’t be able to handle it this time. Who knew that not long after, Lord Grim set the record back again.
Soft Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, Cleansing Mist, these were all players Cold Night knew.
But what about last time’s Hateful Sword?
And who was that Flowing Tree from this time?
What the heck was happening in the tenth server? Why were there so many random experts? Was this still the new server?
Cold Night and Blue River were the same. They had lost all confidence in their judgement. They had no idea whether this record could still be broken. They and a bunch of other guilds watched this record all night.
None! There was no other system announcement. Was Boneyard finally stable again? But, it was only today, that’s all. Every big guild watched for it attentively for another day. The record still hadn’t moved. Let alone the number one record, the number three record hadn’t even been touched.
Because Excellent Dynasty showed the strength of players who were at a level higher than them for the last two dungeon records, they received the attention of all the big guilds. Hidden accounts frequently appeared and then mysteriously vanished. But for the previous experts who had played, it was truly too difficult to gather any information of them from just the guild’s channel. Even more so, these were Excellent Era’s players substituting in. Besides the guild leader Chen Yehui, even their own guild members didn’t know that.
Even though everyone suspected that they had relied on their behind-the-scenes Club experts to set it, if the Club experts ran over to play in the dungeon, it would just be an occasional run for fun. But why did it look like they were picking a fight with Lord Grim? As pro-players, did it really make sense for them to go that far?
From another perspective, if Excellent Dynasty had sent out their top pro-players to set it, then who exactly was this Lord Grim who had stepped all over their record?
Lord Grim, Soft Mist, Steamed Bun Invasion, Cleansing Mist…… everyone had already become familiar with these IDs, which had appeared on TV several times. Who knew how many guilds had sent players to investigate these characters.
These players were extremely skilled. No one doubted that. If they weren’t, how could they have set such a record? What these guilds wanted to know was exactly how skilled were they?
After silently noticing these characters, who knew how many eyes were set on them. Under the circumstances where they weren’t confident in their judgement, quite a few guilds had already reported to the Heavenly Domain headquarters and had their experts from over there come. Even if they didn’t come to level, it was still okay for them to observe these few rising figures.
Herb Garden.
They were one of the Three Great Guilds, yet even so, they never made any sort of official contact with Lord Grim.
At this moment, in the tenth server’s guild leader Plantago Seed’s field of view were a few players fighting wild monsters. However, Plantago Seed seemed somewhat out of it. To be precise, he looked terrified.
Right now, he was sitting there, controlling his character. But behind him stood a genuine god-level figure.
Wang Jiexi, Club Tiny Herb’s ace player, last season’s Champion, Tiny Herb’s team captain and last season’s MVP. In the current season, his team was the current leader in points, suppressing Blue Rain as the leading team. Wang Jiexi’s account character Vaccaria was a Witch. Using weird, variable movements and strategies, he was widely known in the pro-scene as the Magician.
Plantago Seed had reported to his guild on the tenth server’s current situation, but who knew he’d alert such a great God and even cause him to personally run over to take a look at these Level 27 characters.
Plantago Seed felt an enormous pressure on him, making his playing extremely unnatural. Plantago Seed suddenly remembered the adorned notebook that was in his grasp. The notebook was a souvenir he bought after Tiny Herb’s championship victory. When Plantago Seed found out that God was coming over personally, he hurriedly brought the notebook with him hoping to get a signature from him.
But after seeing God looking at him with his uneven eyes, Plantago Seed had immediately tensed up and forgotten about it. He was currently moving his character to look for Lord Grim and the others for God to look at and only now did he remember about the signature he wanted.
How do I start……. Plantago Seed was currently thinking about this, when he suddenly heard a voice from behind him: “You’ve got a message.”
“Message?” Plantago Seed had already become so stupid from nervousness that he had even forgotten what that word meant. After a long while, he recovered and saw that his character had received a message. Opening it, he saw that it was a bunch of random chatter. He hastily closed it and settled his view onto Lord Grim and the others.
Lord Grim, Steamed Bun Invasion, Soft Mist.
Right now, these three were at Boneyard leveling. Besides them, there were also Seven Fields and Sleeping Moon. Even Plantago Seed didn’t see these two in his eyes and tried to get them of his view out as much as he could.
At low-levels, there were only a few skills that could be learned and only a single strategy, so determining a player’s skill wasn’t easy. For example, for players like Plantago Seed, they had no way of figuring out exactly how skilled Lord Grim was. But that was different for the God behind him, if even he couldn’t figure it out, then Plantago Seed didn’t know who else could.
“It’s One Autumn Leaf’s combat style.” Wang Jiexi suddenly said, after silently watching for awhile.
“Which one?
“Both of them.” Wang Jiexi said.
In his view, Soft Mist was a Battle Mage and Lord Grim was also using his battle lance to use Battle Mage skills.
“Lord Grim’s an unspecialized character.” Plantago Seed said. After saying this, he regretted it. What nonsense, how could the God Jiexi not see that?
“Yeah.” Wang Jiexi still replied.
“Is there anything special about One Autumn Leaf’s combat style?” Plantago Seed promptly asked him.
“There’s nothing special about it. It’s the crudest style.” Wang Jiexi said.
Plantago Seed immediately paid his respects! To dare say that the Battle God One Autumn Leaf’s combat style was the crudest, exactly how godly was Wang Jiexi?
“What about this Brawler?” Plantago Seed continued asking.
“This Brawler……” Even Wang Jiexi was having trouble finding the right words, “To say it nicely, he’s following his heart’s desire. To say it bluntly, he’s a complete mess.”