Chapter 76 The Curtain

November 14th, 8:00 AM.

The most anticipated matchup list in Thriller Paradise history was finally released.

For nearly thirty hours before the list appeared, the intelligence analysis departments of major studios had already calculated all possible matchups over and over again. Except for the [Hell Front] and [Garbage Alliance] teams, the behind-the-scenes teams of the remaining six teams had already prepared all seven sets of battle strategies, waiting to hand them over to the players when the news was announced.

And the final matchup situation was as follows:

[Order] vs [Gods], [Warring States] vs [Rivers and Mountains], [Garbage Alliance vs Jianghu], [Hell Front vs Red Cherry].

Presumably, you readers who are reading this chapter are also quite surprised to see such a pairing. After the surprise, you may have guessed something...

That's right, this is a fix.

As the author, I forcibly put the [Order] and [Gods] teams, which everyone thought would enter the finals together, together, creating a "what the heck?" reading experience. This... is the power of God.

Okay, this chapter is not a monthly preview after all, please treat the main text with a serious attitude...

Regardless of the semi-final format, one thing needs to be explained first, that is... Dream Inc. has changed the semi-final schedule.

The official website's statement is: [In order for the majority of viewers to see the live broadcast of each semi-final as soon as possible, the times of the four matches in this round will be staggered].

In other words... the four matches will be one after another, and the next match will not start until the previous one is over.

Of course, Dream Inc. has also prepared corresponding measures for the "player online time limit" issue. They will communicate with the heads of the eight teams (usually the captains) within twelve hours to determine and coordinate the players' online time. Then, at midnight on the 15th, Dream Inc. will lift the "game time limit" for all members of these eight teams until the player's match is over.

This matter... is actually quite difficult to implement, and the main problem lies in the "negotiation" aspect.

If Corpse Blade had a team in the top eight, they would definitely make a fuss about it and try to exchange it for some benefits. Unfortunately, their two teams... and even the company's boss... were all taken care of by Brother Jue.

And the six professional teams that successfully entered the top eight, although they were not completely free of petty tricks, were not as extreme as Corpse Blade. Therefore, the communication work went smoothly, and basically before noon on the 14th, these six studios had already negotiated with the game company.

The rest is the [Garbage Alliance] and [Hell Front] teams.

Uncle Garbage... seems to be a very easy-going person. After receiving the online communication from Dream Inc. and listening to the other party's narrative, he replied almost without thinking, "Whatever you want~ Anything is fine~ Do you want me to give you a good review after the call, dear~"

This kind of self-abandoning attitude simply moved the customer service to tears... uh... maybe tears of sympathy...

In short, the negotiation work on the [Garbage Alliance] side was the most smooth; on the other hand, Feng Bujue's reaction on the [Hell Front] side was somewhat unexpected.

Dream Inc. originally thought that Brother Jue would put on that arrogant posture and say something like "This daddy is invincible in the face of any rules." But unexpectedly... after listening to the other party's arrangements, Feng Bujue actually made a request.

His request was... please put the [Hell Front]'s match first.

The customer service manager in charge of communicating with Feng Bujue (they didn't dare to let grassroots employees communicate with Brother Jue, for fear of being tricked) the first reaction after hearing this request was... could this also be some kind of competition strategy?

However, he was wrong...

Feng Bujue immediately gave a very legitimate reason: "Our team members are not professional players, and some of them are busy with work during the day. If we are ranked in the last two matches, and the previous matches take a particularly long time, it may delay their work. This kind of pressure from real time will undoubtedly affect their performance during the match."

Indeed, [Hell Front] is the only team composed entirely of non-professional players. From a practical point of view, this request is reasonable.

Therefore, Dream Inc. quickly conveyed Feng Bujue's request and reason to the heads of the other six teams. After they all nodded, they contacted [Red Cherry], which was directly related to the matter; then... something dramatic happened. Captain Xu Huai Shang actually agreed to this matter without consulting the upper management of the studio at all.

Although this move did not have any impact at the time, it... laid the groundwork for a "certain event" later.

…………

November 15th, midnight.

Peak Hegemony S2 semi-final, the final round of the Four Realms Melee, begins!

The first match of the night was [Hell Front], against - [Red Cherry].

[Madness is not cool, Level 50]

[Wasted Sigh, Level 50]

[Rainlike Drizzle, Level 50]

[Sorrowful Spirit Laughing Bones, Level 50]

[Flower Amongst the Rocks, Level 50]

[Please select the game mode to join for the team.]

[You have selected Peak Hegemony S2 - Four Realms Melee, please confirm.]

[Confirmed. Please select the spectator for this battle.]

[Confirmed. Your team has entered the queue and is waiting for your opponent to be ready.]

[Match complete, coordinating nerve connections, script generation in progress...]

[Loading begins, please wait.]

"The smoke of war has just settled, the blood is still warm, the melee starts again without waiting. The stars gather in the four realms, heroic feelings soar beyond the heavens."

[Loading is complete, welcome to Peak Hegemony S2 - Four Realms Melee.]

[This mode provides a script introduction and has a chance to trigger side hidden quests and special worldviews.]

[Script victory reward: Advance to the finals.]

[The script introduction will be played soon, and the match will begin immediately after the playback.]

This time, the spectator Feng Bujue chose was... Gu Xiaoling.

Yes, you read that right. He actually benched the only shooting-type player in the team in the semi-finals.

When the audience saw the lineup of [Hell Front]... they were all stunned. Looking back at Brother Jue's road to promotion, Gu Xiaoling was the only member who had never been substituted, a veritable ironclad main force.

However... it was such a member who became a spectator in such a match that determined whether they could advance to the finals...