The King's Avatar

After fighting for almost a week in City Q, Team Happy finally returned to their home City H. What awaited them was a torrential downpour.

Samsara, Happy.

One was a championship team that had won two consecutive championships, while the other was a new team that had just joined the Alliance. These two teams, with a world of disparity between them, ultimately entered the finals together.

No one would dare underestimate Happy ever again. No one would dismiss them as a grassroots team ever again.

Sixth place in the regular season, defeating the powerhouses Blue Rain and Tyranny in the playoffs, Happy was currently attracting everyone’s attention with an unstoppable momentum.

Now, not only did people want to see the birth of a new dynasty, a number of Glory players also wanted to see the birth of a miracle – a new team that had just entered the Alliance, with never-resting footsteps, snatching the championship.

At midnight, the victory polls for the first round of the finals and the finals as a whole had all opened. By 8:00 in the morning, after eight hours, the support that both teams had received was actually tied.

Before this, whether facing Blue Rain or Tyranny, the rate of support that Happy received was always lower by a huge margin. Even if their team had no lack of All-Stars, even if their team had the Best Rookie, even if they had brought surprise after surprise over the course of this season. Despite all that, in the playoffs, the Glory fans still didn’t look favorably upon them.

Until today. Until now.

They defeated Blue Rain, defeated Tyranny.

Happy had received enough trust. In the pre-match support poll, they were in fact tied with Samsara.

Samsara: 51.6%.

Happy: 48.4%.

Samsara had a slight lead, but such a small difference was really nothing. For Happy to be able to split the vote so evenly with Samsara, that was already enough to prove how remarkable they were. Even if it were Blue Rain or Tyranny who had entered the finals, it was possible that they wouldn’t be able to tie the vote like this. But Happy, under unfavorable circumstances, defied all expectations to make it here. This led more people to become interested in them, and people began to once again look forward to the unexpected.

Three days later, City H, Xiaoshan Stadium, would that be where the miracle began?

The rain washed clean Xiaoshan Stadium, and because it was such a downpour, the streets were unusually cool and clear. No matter how passionate or enthusiastic the Happy fans were, in this kind of weather, they couldn’t cheer on Happy with all the energy they would have liked. But business at Happy Internet Café was exploding in this weather. The internet café no longer seemed like an internet café, even the aisles were packed. Using excuses like finding shelter from the rain, everyone scurried into the internet café and began enthusiastically talking about the upcoming finals match. Even those who were sitting at computers weren’t really using their computers. Everyone was discussing with the people next to them.

They might know each other, or they might not.

This wasn’t important. Right now, those who were gathered here, they all had the same hope, the same anticipation: for Happy to win the championship!

The second floor of Happy Internet Café could be considered Team Happy’s base of operations. Even though they were a team that had already made it to the finals, the team’s simple infrastructure couldn’t be changed immediately.

Right now, all the members of Happy had gathered in this training room that was definitely last place in the Alliance.

Yesterday, they had traveled through the night to return to City H. Luckily, the ugly weather hadn’t affected their flight. And this morning, they were once again unaffected by the weather, and right on time, they arrived at the training room.

This kind of discipline was required during the regular season. After the playoffs began, Ye Xiu advocated individual adjustment more. The team didn’t schedule too many training plans, and instead allowed the players to arrange their own time.

But now, they were at the finals, only one step away from winning the championship. Happy’s players had spontaneously complied with the discipline of the regular season, and gathered here just like this.

“What’s going on? Didn’t I say that there were no plans this morning, and that you all should rest up?” Ye Xiu said, seeing the room full of people.

Everyone scoffed. Look at you, when you’re talking, can’t you look at your own standpoint first? You said there were no plans in the morning and that we should rest, but aren’t you also standing here right now anyway? When you’re saying something like this, could you not be so matter-of-fact?

“Alright! Since everyone’s here, then let’s enjoy Samsara’s exciting performance in the playoffs!” As Ye Xiu spoke, he was already setting up the screen to display data on Samsara that no one knew when he’d organized.

Samsara’s strength couldn’t be doubted, and Happy had recognized this point long ago. In the first match of the regular season, they were swept by Samsara, and at the halfway point of the season, when the teams switched stadiums and fought again, Happy had only won three points.

But the results of the regular season didn’t affect Happy too much.

Blue Rain, Tyranny.

Hadn’t these two teams each defeated Happy twice in the regular season? But the one who had the last laugh in the finals was Happy.

To use past victory and defeat as the basis of judgment, that was something the media loved doing. Their work was to find topics to discuss, and discussing the past encounters of two teams was undoubtedly a very accurate line of thought.

But for pro players, for pro teams, past defeats were simply sources of experience. They wouldn’t feel unduly humbled, nor would this make them feel that defeating the opponent was too difficult. Every match was a new start; every victory required two hands to build once again.

Failing to defeat Samsara in the regular season had nothing to do with the present.

On this point, Happy’s faith was unshakeable. They weren’t tied down by their past failures. Under Ye Xiu’s leadership, they clearly and logically analyzed the Samsara that they were about to face in the playoffs.

One day, two days…

The sky was clear after the rain.

This was Happy’s home, these were the streets where past Excellent Era fans and current Happy fans ruled. When, gradually, chants rose up in support of Samsara, everyone knew, Samsara was here. The reigning champions, the ones who were currently gunning for their third straight championship, Team Samsara had arrived in City H.

As the saying went, a powerful dragon could not crush a snake in its home.

But the atmosphere changed that occurred in Happy’s home streets after Samsara arrived, there was the impression of a fierce dragon crossing the river.

At this time, security was increased in the area to prevent clashes between the fans of the two teams. Luckily, these fans were all Glory players, so if there were any real conflicts, 80% of the time they would just find some computers and begin a round of Glory PK. A street brawl didn’t really fit the spirit of Glory’s diehard fans.

So Glory, as a competition, would always see its fans clashing, but very rarely would situations escalate to harming physical safety, precisely because they had this different way of resolving conflict. Most of them preferred to display their brains and power in Glory.

The match day approached steadily, and the fans of the two teams steadily gathered. In the streets, the atmosphere seemed harmonious, but beneath that calm, the surrounding internet cafes had seen countless ferocious Glory PKs. One day, Happy’s Wu Chen with a dark expression had gathered a whole group of people and left the café, killing his way to who knows where. But afterward, he had returned with that same dark expression, so he probably hadn’t managed to accomplish anything good.

On Happy’s side, Wu Chen was still at the head. But because Samsara had made it to the finals, guild leader Three Realms Six Paths, as an in-game leader, of course came to City H himself. He brought a whole group of Samsara workers with him and took over Grand Internet Café, making it their battle headquarters. The two teams hadn’t even officially begun to fight, but the battle between the fans of the two teams was already escalating non-stop. But under the control of the two guild leaders, the battle at least hadn’t escalated to wild PK in-game. For now, everyone still resolved things in the Arena.

Clearly, under these circumstances, the two guild leaders still hadn’t lost their cool. Wild PK, no matter who had the upper hand, would always end up harming both sides, and it would give the rest of the guilds an opportunity to get ahead. The two guild leaders didn’t forget their true responsibilities at this time, and they didn’t let the finals affect the balance in-game.

But this was only temporary. After all, the matches hadn’t even been fought yet. If the players really were provoked by what happened in the matches, then nothing could stop the explosion. In past years, more often than not, large-scale wild battles would erupt between the two guilds, all because after a certain point, the guild leader could no longer keep control.

Guild Excellent Dynasty, supporting Excellent Era’s dynasty, was originally the most powerful guild in-game, but precisely because the team entered the finals four times, it had gone through all of those world wars. This time it’d be war against one, next time war against another, again and again for four years. They’d had to fight every year, but their opponent was always changing. They’d fought for four years, and then Excellent Era’s dynasty was broken, and Excellent Dynasty’s strength was greatly weakened. After that, when the Three Great Guilds were named in-game, they were Tyrannical Ambition, Herb Garden, and Blue Brook. The once all-powerful Excellent Dynasty could not lift this title to Four Great Guilds.

And because of this lesson learned from Excellent Dynasty’s mistakes, after that, guilds would always be very, very careful.

After Excellent Era, Tiny Herb entered the finals three times. There was one small war, one large war, and finally the third time passed calmly.

The small war was Season 5, against Hundred Blossoms. In the middle of that season, Hundred Blossoms’ Sun Zheping’s injury rendered him unable to fight. When the finals arrived, Hundred Blossoms was filled with a determination to win the championship for Sun Zheping, but, unfortunately, they lost to Tiny Herb. After the match, the fans immediately began fighting in-game, but then, Sun Zheping made the official announcement that he was retiring due to his injury. Hundred Blossoms was in no mood to engage in a world war, so in the end, it was no more than a small war.

And then in Season 6, Tiny Herb’s consecutive championship was fiercely stolen away by Blue Rain. The world war that came afterward was shocking, the fiercest in history. It was from this battle that the deep feud between the two teams was born.

And then in Season 7, Tiny Herb once again met Hundred Blossoms. The two teams both had experience with the finals and very much understood the harm of allowing the flames of battle spread to the guilds. Thus, this time, with the hard work of the guild leaders to maintain the peace, they managed to control the situation in game, and no war occurred. This became the only time so far that everything ended peacefully.

And then Seasons 8 and 9 had both seen guild world wars, but under the leadership and control of the guild leaders, they ended fairly quickly after everyone vented their emotions, and there were no lasting injuries.

And this time, Samsara, Happy. In-game, they couldn’t be considered top guilds, but the tide began to build toward a potential world war.