The King's Avatar

By this time, the players from Wind Howl and Happy had emerged from their competitor booths. The large screen in the stadium displayed the final score as the players came onstage. They followed the typical post-match protocol, acknowledging the crowd, and greeting their opponents.

Each and every one of the Wind Howl players looked numb, robotically shaking hands with Happy’s players. The typical niceties like “you played pretty well,””keep working hard,””congrats,” and so on, were left out this time. These were all just for politeness, so no one really cared too much whether they were actually said or not.

Their players were still lined up in an orderly fashion, though, with Captain Tang Hao at the head, and the rest arranged in order. Lined up second was Vice-captain Liu Hao, who quickly arrived in front of Su Mucheng with a resentful expression on his face.

But Su Mucheng seemed to be in quite a good mood, as she looked at him with a bright smile.

Liu Hao gave a cold humph and didn’t pay attention to it. He just stuck out his hand automatically, wanting to get this over with. Su Mucheng, however, didn’t extend her hand.

“You played pretty well,” Su Mucheng said, smiling.

“You…” Liu Hao was enraged. In this match, everyone else could be praised as “playing pretty well.” Tang Hao, Zhao Yuzhe, even Lin Feng, they had all worked hard in the match, and even though they’d lost, they’d displayed their skill level. Only Liu Hao hadn’t.

He’d been completely wiped out by Su Mucheng, which had destroyed Wind Howl’s chance of success. He was absolutely the one person on the field that had disappointed the most. If there were an award for Least Valuable Player, Liu Hao would have earned it with no contest. Su Mucheng’s “you played pretty well” to him was a statement filled with mocking irony.

Liu Hao felt powerless to argue and just wanted this all to end quickly. But Su Mucheng still did not shake his hand.

“I’m not like a certain person, who can’t bear to waste time caring about all of the despicable things that you’ve done. Unlike him, I object greatly.” Su Mucheng was still smiling, but after dropping those words, she completely ignored Liu Hao’s outstretched hand and walked right past him.

Liu Hao stood there, stunned.

What grasping the key point of the match, resolutely attacking, going all-out on the offensive, beautiful performance…

It was none of that!

She just wanted revenge! She searched for an opportunity on the battlefield and ferociously opened fire upon him.

That fucker!

Liu Hao clenched his left hand into a fist. His right hand had been ignored by Su Mucheng, and now it seemed like even he had forgotten about it as it remained stiffly extended.

After Su Mucheng, the next Happy member to walk by was Mo Fan. He didn’t pay attention to Liu Hao’s state at all, and, seeing the extended hand, he simply took it and casually shook.

“You played pretty well,” he said.

What?

This sentence struck Liu Hao awake like a bolt of lightning.

You’re here to humiliate me too?

Liu Hao was furious, but Mo Fan didn’t pause. After speaking, he was already swiftly walking past.

“You played pretty well.”

“You played pretty well.”

“You played pretty well.”

Mo Fan mechanically shook hands with all of the Wind Howl players, giving all of them this same sentence. This was what he had learned was necessary to do after a match. Without any change, he delivered this message to every opponent. But for Liu Hao, after what Su Mucheng had just said, this was just rubbing salt in the wound.

Liu Hao felt faint.

You played pretty well. The sound of these mocking words seemed to reverberate around the whole stadium. It was as though all of the audience members, and his Wind Howl teammates, and all of the media reporters and commentators, were all gently smiling as they looked at him, and said: you played pretty well.

The world spun.

Liu Hao suddenly crashed to the ground.

Immediately, the stadium was in an uproar, and the players still onstage were in even more of a panic as to what to do. The stadium workers rushed onstage to carry Liu Hao away, and they swiftly looked for someone to treat him. Just like this, the post-match greetings came to a hasty close.

But the post-match press conference would go on as usual. Liu Hao instantly became the center of discussion, but it wasn’t just because he’d fainted after the match. As the single largest contributor to Wind Howl’s loss, this press conference would have been very difficult for him. Some reporters even questioned whether he’d pretended to pass out just to avoid this. Of course, such doubts couldn’t be directly voiced, as it would be somewhat heartless. What if he really had fainted?

And so the press conference opened with everyone expressing false concern. After hearing that Liu Hao was not in any serious condition, the question “what are your thoughts on Liu Hao’s performance this match” was naturally pulled out.

In the individual competition, Liu Hao had been defeated by Ye Xiu; in the team competition, he was wiped out by Su Mucheng, which directly orchestrated Wind Howl’s defeat. He had been the biggest reason why Wind Howl had lost six points. Most teams, in a situation like this, would try to protect their players who had performed poorly, even if it was just for appearances. But Wind Howl’s Captain Tang Hao wasn’t that kind of person. He very bluntly used “disaster” to describe Liu Hao’s performance today.

What a shame.

This is what everyone was thinking, but they weren’t pitying Liu Hao’s disappointing performance today. No, they were thinking that it was a shame that Tang Hao had given such a blunt answer, breaking from what most other teams would do, but Liu Hao wasn’t here to hear it. Otherwise, what sort of fireworks would have resulted?

This sort of merciless criticism was extremely rare to see. The reporters were all excitedly wondering how they should write their articles.

At this time, the results of the other matches this round had already been released.

301’s match had ended the earliest. To no one’s surprise, they took down Seaside in an easy 10-0 victory. They now had 239 points, 2 points ahead of Wind Howl and 5 points behind Happy.

Team Hundred Blossoms, at this critical moment, withstood the pressure. After lagging behind Tyranny 0-3, they furiously chased their points, and managed to win both the group arena and the team round, resulting in a final score of 7-3. With 237 points, they were now tied with Wind Howl. However, because they lost to Wind Howl in terms of their head-to-head score, they were still in ninth place for now. Still, they were able to carry their hopes into the final round.

Hundred Blossoms’ fans were beyond excited. Their team’s strong fighting spirit and refusal to give in gave them strong feelings of loyalty and pride. They held faith that this kind of team could definitely fight until the last moment, and achieve results that would make everyone happy.

Aside from this, Thunderclap had also managed to obtain victory in the team round against Samsara, ending the match 7-3. Right now, Thunderclap was tied with Happy at 244 points, but because they lost to Happy in terms of their head-to-head score, they were at sixth place for now. But in the final round, Thunderclap was facing Miracle. In terms of opponent, their final round was pretty relaxed, so everyone figured that Thunderclap had secured their spot in the playoffs. The celebrations in Thunderclap’s home stadium were much more relaxed than those at Hundred Blossoms’ stadium.

After seeing the results of all the other matches, Pan Lin and Li Yibo were still eagerly waiting for the final statistics of the match between Wind Howl and Happy.

Finally, the statistics were announced, and the MVP award for this match went to Luo Ji. The official analysis affirmed his outstanding performance and important role in this match.

“As expected of Coach Li.” Having lost the bet, Pan Lin had to express his regret.

“Haha, time for you to pay,” said Li Yibo.

“I know this one place that serves good dapanji ¹ , let’s go later!” Pan Lin was quickly back to his energetic self.

“Even though it’s this late?” said Li Yibo.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Pan Lin prompted him. The match broadcast announced its conclusion in the middle of the off-topic conversation of these two. By this time, all matches of Round 37 of Season 10 of the Pro League had ended. Aside from these five teams who were fiercely competing for playoff spots, the other teams dutifully played their matches well.

The biggest change on the leaderboard was that 301, after sweeping Seaside, finally returned to the top eight, while Hundred Blossoms was squeezed to ninth place. Which eight teams would make it to the playoffs? This would only be decided with the final round.

Aside from this, Blue Rain won 8-2 against Void, allowing them to once again surpass Tyranny to sit at second place. This competition of rankings would impact the playoff matchups, and so there were a number of people paying attention to this.

In Wind Howl’s post-match press conference, Liu Hao earned the public criticism his captain made to the media. Meanwhile, in Happy’s press conference, Luo Ji appeared for the first time. He was bombarded with questions from the reporters, enough to make his head spin. He pitifully looked to his seniors to save him, but no one was paying attention to him – Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng were calmly chatting over to the side!

“You beat Liu Hao so hard that he actually fainted,” said Ye Xiu. “So ferocious of you.”

“As soon as I see him, I can’t help but explode,” said Su Mucheng.

“You have to stay calm!”

“We won’t see him again.”

“That’s not for sure, there’s still one round left,” said Ye Xiu.

“God Ye, could you talk about why the team chose to make such bold arrangements against Wind Howl this round?” At this time, Su Mucheng had actually taken out a handful of sunflower seeds and was munching on them right there on the press conference stage, and a reporter, feeling that this was just too much, finally interrupted the two’s conversation to ask this question.

“Oh? Was it bold?” Ye Xiu immediately adjusted his attitude to respond to the question. “I don’t think so. Wind Howl’s extreme tactics could be used for a while, but not forever. To get such excellent results in so many rounds, their luck is quite good. But if they really wanted to rely on such tactics to defeat every opponent under the sky, then they’re truly underestimating everyone far too much.”

“That’s to say, you don’t think Wind Howl’s prospects are good?” the reporter asked.

“Who’s Wind Howl’s opponent in the final round?” Ye Xiu asked.

“It’s Tiny Herb,” the reporter answered.

“Oh. If Wang Jiexi is killed by strategy like this, I think that he should just give up and retire,” said Ye Xiu.

“Uh… this…” The reporter felt awkward and had no idea how to continue.

“Didn’t you just say that nothing was for sure with the final round?” said Su Mucheng.

“The rankings aren’t for sure, but that doesn’t mean Wind Howl can win!” Ye Xiu said to her.

“Can you talk about Su Mucheng’s performance today?” the reporter asked.

“She astutely grasped the the key points of the match and decisively attacked. A beautiful performance,” Ye Xiu said.

“Then what do you think about Luo Ji’s performance?” the reporter continued to ask.

“We were able to achieve victory largely thanks to the foundation he laid down,” Ye Xiu said.

“Then will Luo Ji participate in the playoffs?” the reporter asked.

“That’s a secret we can’t announce beforehand,” said Ye Xiu.

“Then, can we ask, which team does Happy hope to encounter first in the playoffs?” asked the reporter.

“The season hasn’t ended yet, and Happy hasn’t entered the playoffs for sure. Answering that question now would be too improper,” Ye Xiu said, serious.

The reporters were speechless. Fuck, who was the person who’d announced, fresh out of beating the Challenger League, that they would be the Season 10 champions? It was you, wasn’t it?