Chapter 834: Training
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
As soon as the veteran made his move, the outcome became very obvious.
Windward Formation’s ruthlessness was deeply felt by Team Everlasting that round. In the eyes of Team Everlasting, Windward Formation was second only to Lord Grim as their most troublesome opponent.
He had now appeared in the second round of the individual competition. As for Team Everlasting? Their second contestant was their Sharpshooter, a half-main roster seventh player. Asking him to take down Windward Formation was asking too much of him.
If Team Everlasting lost two points, they would be eliminated from the Challenger League. The group arena and individual competition didn’t need to be mentioned. Both competitions were worth more than two points each. They could not lose a single point here. As a result, they sent out their strongest line-up to face the challenge. Ensuring that their team won at least two points in the individual competition was a difficult issue, because the Sharpshooter seventh player was slightly worse than the six players of the main roster.
Team Everlasting puzzled over it for a long time. In the end, their line-up was the exact same as in their previous round. They entrusted their fate to the heavens.
But Team Happy made a change in their line-up and placed Windward Formation second. On paper, it looked like Team Happy had a much higher chance of winning. However, Team Everlasting didn’t seem particularly worried.
They had been prepared for their Sharpshooter to lose this point. If this point was lost to Windward Formation, it would be similar to Tian Ji’s horse race (accepting one loss to ensure two wins). It was the exact situation that Team Everlasting had been hoping for. Now it had really happened.
3, 2, 1. And the match started.
Wei Chen had picked Indigo Temple himself. It was undoubtedly his most familiar 1v1 map. In an official match, Wei Chen withdrew his intentions of toying with his opponent and unscrupulously wiped the floor with his opponent. Wei Chen utilized the characteristics of his character and the map to the maximum. Team Everlasting’s side was their slightly weaker seventh player. In the second round, Wei Chen easily took the match without any suspense.
Even though Team Everlasting had expected this outcome, the result still made them nervous. The following third match would decide their fate in this life and death match.
Because they had anticipated this result, Team Everlasting sent out an Elementalist player with a strong mentality, who appeared on the competitor seat for the third round. This battle would determine Team Everlasting’s fate. Someone without a strong mentality wouldn’t be able to bear this sort of pressure.
Even this player was constantly breathing deeply to adjust himself. He wanted to get rid of that last thread of nervousness in him.
But at this moment, Team Happy sent out a player that had never appeared before last round against Team Everlasting: Concealed Light.
Team Everlasting stared foolishly.
For the entire week, apart from improving themselves, they thoroughly studied Team Happy, but this Concealed Light wasn’t within their range of investigation. Even though he was registered as a team member, there was no information on him at all.
And now this completely blank character was actually going to fight. Team Everlasting suddenly panicked. Even their mentally strong Elementalist player was starting to seem troubled.
While his hands were trembling slightly, Luo Ji was already so nervous that he couldn’t even keep his mouse steady. He felt like his hands and feet had turned numb. His heart was beating so fast that he didn’t need to feel it to feel it. Sweat covered his forehead.
"Experience needs time to be accumulated." Ye Xiu said to him, when he called him onto the stage. Even though Luo Ji wasn’t at City H, the match took place, so he could still participate from school.
Experience might need to be accumulated, but was directly having him go into such an important match to accumulate it a bit too excessive? Luo Ji cried in his heart. He was often bullied around in the in-game Arena. Now he needed to face a player from a former pro team. It was just too frightening for him.
Even though it wasn’t good to relax just because they had a big lead, giving a new player a chance to feel the pace and atmosphere of an official match was necessary. They couldn’t just keep training him forever until a critical moment in a match appeared before pushing him onto the stage. There were certainly players who astounded the world with just a single brilliant feat, but Luo Ji’s personality and skill level didn’t fit into that category of players. As a result, with an 8.5 point lead, Ye Xiu arranged for Luo Ji to give it a try. In fact, Ye Xiu had wanted to do it in the first round. Throwing in Chen Guo to fulfill the quota was a bit of a waste. After all, Chen Guo didn’t have much potential. She wouldn’t be actually be a part of Team Happy’s line-up. Unfortunately, last Friday, Luo Ji had important business to take care of, so he couldn’t participate in it. As a result, in the second round, Ye Xiu wasn’t going to let this training opportunity go and put him in the individual competition.
3,2,1….
No matter how nervous Luo Ji or Team Everlasting’s Elementalist player was, the system mercilessly started the match as soon as the countdown ended. This match wasn’t a Ring, but a map that Luo Ji chose himself. In terms of utilizing a map’s advantage, Luo Ji’s skill in that aspect was above Steamed Bun’s.
But being panicked, it was hard to say if he could utilize the map properly. As soon as the match started, Luo Ji immediately began summoning. He should be familiar with this, but because he was nervous, he appeared all over the place. His summoned creatures started automatically started wandering around. For a moment, there didn’t seem to be any control over them.
Summoning a bunch of creatures all at once was also somewhat of a noob move. Summoners relied on their summoned creatures to battle, but their summoning skills had cooldowns. By letting out a huge swarm of them, he was practically using up all of his skills, making his pace of the battle seem lacking. However, against an experienced player, such a lack of pacing was devastating.
Team Everlasting’s Elementalist entered the match with a thread of fear against Concealed Light, but as soon as the match started, he saw the other side summon one creature after the other. Then, these summons ran around randomly. It was a magnificent sight, but... it didn’t make sense!
Is this a trap?
In a life and death battle, this Elementist didn’t dare to be careless. He naturally played very cautiously. A very unprofessional move would need to be analyzed as if it were dangerous. As the say went, there can never be too much deception in war. Trusting what was in front of his eyes would simply be too naive.
The Elementalist carefully neared. Halfway there, Luo Ji finally summoned everything at his disposal. He swiped his mouse in a circle and clicked ahead. All of his summons began marching over. During this process, Luo Ji began adjusting the formation of his summons, while also calming down. His playing became smoother and smoother. Not long afterward, the summons were lined up in an orderly fashion.
The Elementalist saw that the orderly formation and didn’t dare to advance any further. He maintained his distance, waiting for those summons to get closer, so he could rely on his range advantage. The Elementalist threw out a probing spell.
When Luo Ji saw his opponent attack, he didn’t stay idle either and immediately ordered his summons to retreat. However, no player’s offense would just be a single skill. After casting a spell, players would know ahead of time how to follow up. While observing the situation, the Elementalist continued to attack. As a result, Concealed Light’s summons slowly began to become more and more and more and more disorderly.
Luo Ji couldn’t keep up with his opponent’s pace, and he insisted on a specific counter against his opponent’s attacks. He was being haunted by his pursuit for perfection, but because his skill wasn’t good enough, the more he sought perfection, the less perfect it became. In the end, the Elementalist could finally tell that this brother wasn’t some expert.
He saw it. Everyone in Team Everlasting obviously saw it too. Suddenly, the practice room seemed to be filled with celebration. They had won two points in the individual competition. If the match had three obstacles to pass through, they had passed through the first one. However, even passing through all three obstacles wouldn’t determine their victory. The individual competition ended with 2 points to 1. Even if Team Everlasting won both the group arena and the team competition, their point total for this match would be 8.5 to 1. The two sides would be tied and they would need to participate in an additional tiebreaker match.
But in any case, Team Everlasting at least still had hope.
The third round of the individual competition ended without any suspense. Team Everlasting easily took the win. Luo Ji was naturally very disappointed.
"Compared to that you who wrote guides, you’ve been improved a lot." Ye Xiu messaged.
Luo Ji knew that too, but he also knew that Ye Xiu was just consoling himself. He replied back with a forced smile emoji listlessly.
"For the current you, you don’t need to worry too much about winning. Cherish every battle and continuously work on improving. As you slowly build up confidence and experience, victory will naturally come to you." Ye Xiu said.
"I will." These words lifted Luo Ji’s spirits. He knew that Ye Xiu wasn’t consoling him, but giving him guidance. It might not have been the first time that Ye Xiu said this argument before, but when it was time to implement it, it was easy to forget. A good teacher who gave sincere advice kept this in mind.
When the individual competition ended, the group arena began after a short break. Because neither side had too many players to choose from, it was clear who would be appearing in the group arena.
Team Happy’s side would consist of Ye Xiu, Tang Rou, and Qiao Yifan.
Team Everlasting’s side would continue to have their experienced ace He An as the general, leading their Warlock and Qi Master in their fight to the death.