The King's Avatar

After Round 22, there were only only small changes on the points ranking. Clearly, after half a season of accumulation, the various teams all had a solid point foundation, and it would be very difficult for the points of one round to cause any big shifts on the rankings.

In the three rounds after the new year, the most-eye catching team was undoubtedly 301..

None of 301's opponents these three rounds - Void, Tyranny, and Hundred Blossoms - were weak. But 301 had still managed to win beautifully with a 9-1 and two 8-2 victories. Bai Shu didn't disappoint all those curious about him and had a strong performance in all three matches. 301's Captain Yang Cong had already completed his style change in these few rounds. He was no longer that directly-attacking warrior Assassin. Cold, ruthless, deadly, this was the impression that today's number one Assassin in the Alliance gave everyone, and he did a better job than many other Assassins who had always used this style. This sort of clean and neat style change led people to feel that this was a player who had always been somewhat underestimated.

Even though 301 hadn't risen on the leaderboard after these consecutive victories against strong opponents, they were steadily closing the gap between themselves and the top 8. After this round, their opponent Hundred Blossoms had fallen to eighth place with 131 points, only eight points ahead of 301.

The other team that was worth paying attention to was Team Wind Howl. Wind Howl, named the soft-footed shrimp*, had really been beaten bloody by the strong teams during the first half of the season. 10-0'd by Happy, 9-1'd by Tiny Herb, that was the tragic ending they faced in the last two rounds of the first half. During the winter transfer window, they'd tried to invite Tyranny's Zhang Xinjie with much fanfare, but ultimately they'd failed to make the deal, and they'd left behind a strong impression that they desperately needed to adjust the team. If they wanted to make any acquisition after that, all of the teams were lions with jaws gaping wide. Any player could have an asking price over ten million for them.

Wind Howl was quite desperate, but they weren't going to be taken for a ride like this! Zhang Xinjie was a player that could truly take care of all their problems, a God, a popular player, they were willing to pay a sky-high price. But now any random player cost over ten million, this was simply robbing a burning house. To Wind Howl, these players were just spare tires. There was no way they'd make such a large investment.

They were unwilling to be cheated, but they also couldn't discuss any suitable transfers. In the end, the transfer window closed without Wind Howl being able to complete any discussions. They could only pretend they had everything together, sending out an announcement expressing the team's belief in the current roster, belief that their current strength was enough to win everything, and so on.

Quite a few people who liked drama all anticipated seeing Wind Howl's continued fall! But at this moment, the match schedule helped out Wind Howl. In the opening of the second half of the season, none of Wind Howl's opponents were strong teams. Conquering Clouds, Radiant, Lightly, in front of teams like this, the soft-footed shrimp could still bare its fangs and wave its claws, eating them one by one. After Hundred Blossoms lost to 301, Wind Howl reached seventh place.

And coming up next? In Round 23, Wind Howl's opponent was Bright Green, a team that with Seaside was already locked in the relegation zone. It looked like Wind Howl, for now, wouldn't be falling.

Those paying attention to Wind Howl were only interested in seeing results. The fans who truly enjoyed watching high skill and technique displayed during a match had quite a few high-level confrontations they could choose in Round 23.

Tyranny vs Happy, Blue Rain vs Samsara, and 301, who had found its momentum in the second half of the season, would be playing their away game against the team whose team competition style had completely changed this season, Thunderclap.

After deliberating, the television broadcast team finally decided to give up on the match between the number two Blue Rain and the number one Samsara, simply because the difference between Samsara and Blue Rain was a whole 22 points. Even if Blue Rain earned a ferocious 10-0 victory over Samsara, they still had no way of shaking Samsara's huge lead. After thinking of this kind of result, this match felt a lot less interesting.

On the other hand, Tyranny and Happy were currently tied at 148 points, and their relative ranking was determined by the outcome of the previous match they'd played against each other. This time, whoever won would reach fourth place on the rankings.

The higher the rank at the season's end, the more prize money and dividends the team could earn. It also had a bit of an effect on the playoffs. In the playoffs system that had come into effect last season, the right of playing the home match in the third tie-breaking match between two teams was given to the team who had the higher ranking in the regular season. Even though this home match didn't include the right to choose the maps, the boost in morale from the home fans was useful.

For the broadcast of Round 23, they ultimately chose to show Happy's away game against Tyranny.

February 21.

City Q.

After the All-Star Weekend, Team Happy once again arrived at this city.

Tyranny's home stadium had actually sent a large bulk of security officers to welcome Team Happy. After half a season, Chen Guo had never seen such a welcome before!

"Is this necessary?" Chen Guo said.

"This is an official match, and the arriving person is Ye Xiu," the captain of the officers said in a very serious tone. But as he spoke, a coldness also seemed to flash in his eyes as he coolly glanced at Ye Xiu. His right hand seemed to subconscious drift toward the baton hanging at his hip.

"The hatred is that bad?" Even though Chen Guo was an Excellent Era fan in the past, she had never followed the team to Tyranny's home stadium, and didn't know the atmosphere here. As soon as she asked this question, she suddenly heard a loud shout from somewhere: "Ye Xiu, 1v1 me!"

And then a water bottle flew toward them, its cap very rudely opened, spilling water all over them.

"7 o'clock, 7 o'clock!!" This security officer's directions were like the directions given in a Glory match. Immediately, people charged toward the 7 o'clock direction, seizing the target. As for what happened afterward, Happy's members didn't know. The target was tightly surrounded by security and swiftly escorted inside the stadium, all the way into the prep room.

"How scary!" Chen Guo exclaimed with lingering fear. "What if that hadn't been water? What if it was acid or something?" Chen Guo examined where she'd been soaked by the water.

Ye Xiu was dumbfounded. "Isn't that a bit too cruel? How bad is this hatred?"

Right after he said that, there came a knock on the door of the prep room. It was a very precise and rhythmic knocking, quite eerie.

"Who is it!" Chen Guo was instantly on full alert.

"Zhang Xinjie," answered the person outside the door.

"Uh…" Chen Guo hadn't expected that it was actually a God and quickly opened the door.

"I heard that you all arrived, so I came to greet you." Zhang Xinjie greeted everyone in the room, and Chen Guo quickly let him in.

"Who's first from Tyranny in the individual round?" Ye Xiu asked.

This was a question that would very easily chill the atmosphere. But Zhang Xinjie still responded, "You'll see when the battle starts."

"Are you going in the group arena?" Ye Xiu asked another question.

"No…" Zhang Xinjie said.

"Do you know how to have a conversation?" Chen Guo finally couldn't restrain herself any longer.

"What is there to talk about?" Ye Xiu retorted.

Chen Guo was just about to answer, but Zhang Xinjie actually agreed with Ye Xiu's view. "Yes, I just came to greet you all. Play well, everyone. I'll take my leave now." After speaking, he just left.

"What?" Chen Guo was so confused. "There's nothing going on, he really came over purely to greet us? Was he trying to strengthen his sense of existence or something?"

"Then I'll go strengthen mine too!" Ye Xiu stood up.

"Do you need me to go too, Boss?" Steamed Bun jumped up.

"Up to you!" Ye Xiu didn't care either way.

"Let's go." Steamed Bun followed him.

"Me too, me too!" Fang Rui also joined the excitement.

"Boring." Wei Chen expressed his disdain toward these guys. The others were all more rule-following, and naturally didn't go along with this fun.

The three left the room. The prep rooms of two teams were generally either directly opposite or next door to each other, so it wasn't long before Chen Guo heard the hallway sounding with Ye Xiu's voice. "Open up, I'm here!"

With that tone, it sounded like this was his own home, and he couldn't be any more familiar.

The door to Tyranny's prep room opened. Without invitation, Ye Xiu just walked right in, followed by two others.

"The host team's prep room is always nicer!" Ye Xiu exclaimed. "What's the temperature here? Ours is a little cold." After saying this, he saw the control for the air conditioning on the wall and very skillfully controlled it a bit.

"Why are you here?" Standing to the side, Han Wenqing asked.

"Reciprocating the greeting!" Ye Xiu said.

"Old Lin." Fang Rui also greeted his old partner Lin Jingyan.

"The number one Brawler Lin Jingyan!" Steamed Bun shouted.

Lin Jingyan was instantly very happy. It'd been a long time since anyone had given him that title. This inexplicable guy from Happy was very good at chatting, it seemed!

"Happy's idiots are already here!" At this time, the door to the prep room was pushed open again, and a person charged in.

"Talking about people behind their back, where's your professionalism?" Ye Xiu turned around. The person who had just entered was Zhang Jiale.

"Oh, you're here." Zhang Jiale acted like he had nothing to do with it.

"You were the one who threw that water bottle just now, weren't you!" Ye Xiu said.

"What water bottle?" Zhang Jiale was confused.

"Don't pretend. I saw that throw style, it was completely like a grenade you'd throw," Ye Xiu said.

"What's all this nonsense?" Zhang Jiale said.

"I'll teach you a lesson during the match." As Ye Xiu spoke, he headed outside.

"Teach you a lesson!" As Steamed Bun left the room, he also gave Zhang Jiale an aggressive and intimidating shout.

"Those guys in Happy… they're really confusing!" Zhang Jiale watched as these two people left.

"Did you really throw that water bottle?" Even Tyranny's own members were asking him. Evidently, even though this thing had only happened just earlier, the news had already spread to Tyranny's players.

"I'm not that childish!" Zhang Jiale said. "But was it only water? How come they didn't put in a drink or paint or something? Let those guys from Happy go onstage all bright and colorful, hahaha."

"How bad is this hatred!" someone exclaimed.

"Gah!" Zhang Jiale jumped. "There's another one!"

"There was always another one…" Lin Jingyan was speechless. Fang Rui had come over to chat with him, so when Zhang Jiale had come in, he'd only seen Ye Xiu and Steamed Bun, and didn't notice that Happy still had another member waiting in ambush.

"If you come to Happy again, there might be drinks or paint or something waiting for you!" Fang Rui said to Zhang Jiale.

"How bad is this hatred!" Zhang Jiale said.

"Who said it wasn't?" Fang Rui laughed. "See you!" He said his goodbyes toward everyone and then left.

"Damn. Next time we go, we really have to be careful. Happy's dirty and shameless, they'd definitely do something like that," Zhang Jiale said, after Fang Rui left.

"Why's it so cold in here?" After saying this, Zhang Jiale felt the temperature in the room, and then saw the air conditioning control on the wall.

"18 degrees? Are you guys crazy!" Zhang Jiale shouted.

"It was probably Ye Xiu…" Everyone remembered how Ye Xiu had been fiddling with the control earlier.

"Just like I said! Those guys can do anything!" Zhang Jiale said.

T/N: 18 degrees Celsius, about 64 degrees Fahrenheit

*Soft-footed shrimp = coward/weakling