Chapter 49

[Report! ! ! Whisper and Evil have teamed up a-a-a-a-a-a-a-again! ! ! Counting that car accident, this is the third time, right?]

[Report! Whisper is playing as a milktank a-a-a-a-again!!!]

[This pair of former enemies in Team Free is really reconciled already, right? Although they still don’t communicate much during their team-ups, the very fact that they can team up means that they’ve already broken the ice, right?]

[There’s certainly no communication. It definitely can’t be completely the same as before. It’s understandable. After all, they’ve gone through so many bad things.]

[It’s good enough that they were able to break the ice. Otherwise, how can they play together as teammates? I am satisfied. Go for it this season, Team Free! Just go for it! ! !]

[I am not satisfied. I can’t accept this! Ji Yanhan, you f*cker, return my twin stars to me! ! !]

[To those new fans who say that they’re already satisfied, I suggest you watch Shi Shen’s videos from when he was still doing live broadcasts from an internet café to learn of their history. Once you see how these two were back then, then you’d understanding why everyone isn’t satisfied.]

[Don’t mention the past anymore…]

[Don’t mention the past anymore +1, these are all old wounds.]

[Don’t mention the past anymore +3. During the live broadcast today, Whisper wanted to replenish Evil’s blood. Evil probably felt that he had only lost a little blood and that it didn’t need replenishing so he went charging on ahead. Whisper’s healing was interrupted several times until he had no choice but to open his mic and call ‘Shi Luo’. I swear I’m going deaf, I thought he called him ‘Luo Luo’. Damn it! It seems that ever since he transferred from FS and changed his ID, no one ever calls him ‘Luo Luo’ anymore.]

[My Luo Luo, ah f*ck…]

[Kill me. Let’s just forget about it…]

At noon, Zhou Huo used his mobile phone to scan the forums. He was having mixed emotions.

The relationship between Yu Sui and Shi Luo has recently ceased to be hostile. Everything was going as he expected. Zhou Huo was very satisfied. But whenever he thought about the practice match with Sacred Sword that afternoon, he couldn’t bring himself to be happy.

Sacred Sword really loved messing with people’s heads.

Speaking of, Shi Luo was a mentally-tough player. Back then, he refused to keep holding on to Sacred Sword’s ‘great gift for newbies’ and directly switched jobs. If they lose today’s game once again, these players probably wouldn’t go so far as to change jobs, but they would definitely take a hit to their morale.

The morale of a team has always been a very mysterious thing. In a strange way, it was like a kind of luck. When morale was high, the team could outperform themselves, almost rendering them invincible. But once it was thwarted, it was like the entire team was possessed. Losses would follow one after the other.

Having won their first match of the regular season, Zhou Huo thought that this was a good sign and that they would be able to go about things steadily and smoothly, winning match after match. He never expected that at this time, those bunch of devils would appear to ruin his teams’ good Feng Shui.

“You’re thinking too much.” Old Qiao too got up early. While eating, he said, “You think a winning streak’s a good thing? All teams who stumbled in the competition had winning streaks early in the season. Yu Sui’s got the right idea. Losing now is better than being caught off guard when we encounter them in the future.”

Zhou Huo looked at Old Qiao, completely vexed. “Isn’t their usual training difficult enough? Why do you all insist on giving yourselves lessons in frustration?”

“Adjusting one’s mentality after a loss is also one of the lessons and it’s compulsory for all players.” Old Qiao said nonchalantly. “It is commonly known as the ability to resist stress. This ability is also very fascinating. It’s an ability that can be eroded over time and needs continuous strengthening. You don’t understand.”

“Fine. I can’t control you guys anyway.” Zhou Huo said helplessly, looking at the time. “I’ll go to pull up the custom server. When they wake up, ask them to go to the training room after they’ve had something to eat.”

At three in the afternoon, all four of Free’s players logged into the custom server on time.

The game officials provided all the teams in the first and secondary leagues custom servers specifically for the players’ training. This kind of dedicated server is separated from the main server, so ordinary players and other teams wouldn’t be privy to the details of their practice matches.

Inwardly, Zhou Huo said to himself, ‘Good thing the league was these safety measure in place. Otherwise, news of Sacred Sword trampling all over their region’s champion and runner up team would be all over the internet by now.’

After confirming that there were no problems with any of their players, Zhou Huo notified Sacred Sword. Both sides clicked on ‘enter’ at the same time and directly entered the map.

“To be honest, my dear brothers.” Chen Huo pulled over his mouse and adjusted the sounds, “I regret it a bit. Why did I vote to fight this f*cking team? After they teach me a lesson, do you think our former boss will send out a tweet to celebrate? He’ll say, ‘fortunately, I didn’t waste any money to keep this weak-ass sh*t.’

“It’s very likely.” Puppy exercised his wrists. “He’ll probably throw me in there as well. After watching the results of the game, our former boss will breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, I didn’t renew those two utter trash.”

Yu Sui adjusted the microphone. “At the same time, this new team of our former boss will have so much confidence. After the match, they’ll think, ‘If these lousy dipsh*ts can win the championship, what more us?’

Zhou Huo, who was monitoring the team voice chat, couldn’t help but collapse. He said, “We haven’t even played yet! What are you doing psyching out your own teammates?!”

“Tactics, I’m talking sh*t about myself.” Chen Huo cleared his throat, “Don’t you understand? I’m feeding them poisoned milk, trying to get us some emotional points, y’know.”

Zhou Huo was fast losing his temper with this group of people. He was about to praise Shi Luo when Shi Luo also began to adjust his own mic. “After beating us two to zero, he’ll probably tweet me to ask which job I’m going to switch to next. Sniper?”

Zhou Huo shut himself up. He gritted his teeth and said to himself, “I shouldn’t have worried about them mentally collapsing…”

“There’s no problem with the sounds.” Yu Sui said in a low voice. “Let’s start.”

The practice game officially began.

Although Sacred Sword had undergone a huge reorganization, most of the coaches have remained the same and so their main tactics were still the same. During the early stages, they prioritized lying low, attacking was secondary. They would lie in wait until their opponents lose their cool. Once the game started, none of the players from Sacred Sword approached their mutual boundary on the map. Inside the dense poisonous fog, neither their shadows could be seen, nor their footsteps heard.

“They like to play a defensive game.” As the other striker, Chen Huo had to take it upon himself to explain the situation to Shi Luo. This was also one of the reasons Yu Sui insisted on playing this practice match. Chen Huo quickly said, “They’ll let you clear the fog. Their two strikers and their medic will band together and lie behind the bunker, waiting for the sniper to report our positions. Generally, they’ll wait until you’ve set down at least three purification dishes and then they’ll come when the poisonous fog is no longer so even. They’ll try to draw you into their map and then use the uneven distribution of the fog to make you lose your footing.”

The poisonous fog on Sacred Sword’s side of the map won’t harm them, nor would it obstruct their sight. But it was a completely different matter for Free. If Free was greedy and rushed to clear out their poisonous fog first, they would be operating within the limit of their enemy’s field of vision.

Limited visibility was the least of their problems. They still had to be very careful not to touch the enemy’s fog. Based on the game mechanics, triggering the poisonous fog would result in instant death.

“So, we’ll have to bear with it first.” Chen Huo took the lead in hiding behind the bunker. “To be honest, we’re not strong enough to just walk all over them. So we’ll have to endure in the early stages and not rush over there. After half a minute, if they haven’t moved, we’ll let Whisper go out there and be bait.”

Yu Sui used this time to set them up with the basic photon shield. 30 seconds after Chen Huo finished speaking, he walked out of the bunker and moved forward. Because of the dense fog, their opponents on the other side could not tell which player was coming. Once Yu Sui leaned over, his silhouette was no different from that of a striker setting down a purification dish. As expected, their opponents directly opened fire.

The sound of the gunshots instantly exposed the positions of the Sacred Sword players. Moving at the same exact moment, Shi Luo and Chen Huo returned fire. Both sides engaged in an exchange of shots. Shi Luo killed the opponent’s striker while Yu Sui was beaten to half-blood. Yu Sui’s maneuverability skills were the best among these players. Enduring his half-blood state, Yu Sui quickly pulled back and hid behind the bunker.

“Amazing.”

Chen Huo was cursing while quickly reloading. “Of course, we’re amazing.”

“I meant they’re amazing.” Puppy murmured behind them, “Would you believe it? From start to finish, I didn’t see even a sliver of their clothes. They’ve already determined my position in advance and made sure that I wouldn’t be able to tell their positions. Just now, that kill that you got was purely coincidence.”

Chen Huo wasn’t won over but he had no choice by to admit it.

During that firefight just now, the only reason Yu Sui didn’t die was because of his extremely skilled play. When he retreated, he immediately gave himself an injection of health. Consequently, he had a little bit more blood and their opponent died instead of him.

After giving up a head, their opponents didn’t dare come charging. Shi Luo and Chen Huo waited for Yu Sui to recover and then they began clearing out the fog. From time to time, they would be eliminated by the sniper. Puppy also tried his best to cover their rear, however because they were out in the open when clearing the fog, he was always a little disadvantaged all through out. After the first round of clearing the fog, although Free had one more head than the other team, they used more than double the economy their opponents used.

Yu Sui narrowed his eyes slightly. It was only six minutes into this practice match and the hidden danger has already appeared. They were straining their economy because of their heavy use.

Sacred Sword wasn’t the type of team to fight quickly to end the match. Moreover, they were planning to drag out this fight. Yu Sui had the vague feeling that the other team wanted to drain them of ammunitions and provisions.

It was indeed as Yu Sui expected.

When the match reached the 30 minute mark, Free had already cleared out a larger area of the map, but they used way too much of their economy. Sacred Sword’s play during this match was absolutely wretched. When they meet face to face, if Free gets one of their players, they rest will immediately flee. Even when they can save their teammate, they won’t. They’ll just let Free have the kill. Because of the many kills Free got, they were able to upgrade their equipment. And along with the upgrade in their equipment, their economy was inevitably consumed. Even if they wanted to rely on their upgraded equipment to grind over their opponents, it wasn’t as though their opponents were unskilled. When their opponents came to contend with them, they weren’t able to completely hold out.

Forty-two minutes into the game, Free’s economy was basically exhausted and the victors of this match could already be determined.

Zhou Huo didn’t even dare blink during these forty-some minutes. The more he watched, the more anxious he got. Seeing the conclusion, he heaved a sigh.

They’re gonna be cycled through the resurrection stone again.

Zhou Huo looked at Yu Sui anxiously. He knew that Yu Sui’s ability to withstand pressure was extremely strong and getting killed a dozen times was no big deal for him but it would still inevitably be difficult to bear.

Just because he could resist that pressure doesn’t mean he should be subjected to it.

The practice match hadn’t ended yet. Zhou Huo didn’t dare to say a word let alone try to talk sense into everyone now. He didn’t dare say that it was just a practice match, that Sacred Sword was really strong both in their players’ personal ability as well as overall control of the situation and that there was no shame in losing to them.

What sense was there in saying these bland and ineffective words?

Didn’t Saint understand this too? Didn’t NSN?

Especially for NSN. They knew that Saint had been defeated. Gu Gan knew that that they would undoubtedly lose this practice match but he still accepted it without hesitation.

Didn’t Wawa know that he was inferior to Angel Sword? But despite knowing that he would be humiliated, he still accepted Gu Gan’s arrangement without any objections. He was slaughtered by Sacred Sword twenty-one times and climbed up twenty-one times.

Old Qiao looked at the game interface, shook his head and said in a low voice, “The domestic region has gone through a path of blood and bones.”

Zhou Huo’s righteous ardor was suddenly ignited. He cursed and shouted obscenities. “Fuck it! If they want to keep cycling us through the resurrection stone, then let them! We’re not f*cking afraid!”

Before Zhou Huo could finish speaking, in the game interface, Yu Sui, Puppy and Chen Huo, starting from Yu Sui, all clicked the option to surrender.

Zhou Huo choked abruptly. A cough emerged from his muffled throat.

In the game, Shi Luo, who had used up his last bullet, was dazed for a half a second then quickly surrendered as well.

But because Shi Luo was a step late, the opponent still managed to take his head.

Chen Huo quickly clicked his mouse and taking pleasure in other people’s misfortune, “Hehehe, those who surrender late, get killed.”

Shi Luo: “…”

Shi Luo’s menacing stare swept over to Chen Huo. Chen Huo quickly shut his mouth.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Zhou Huo was out of breath and looked at them in shock. “What happened to going through a path of blood and bones? Aren’t you supposed to give it your all no matter how great the disparity?!!!”

Yu Sui’s expression was calm. “Why waste time on a match that’s already a certain loss? Click on ready. Let’s start the next match.”

Zhou Huo was so angry that he sat down to cool his head. He shouldn’t have worried about this team full of villains!