Chapter 1 The Victory

"We won!"

The moment Renquye fell, Chen Guo jumped up excitedly. This time, she knew about Ye Xiu equipping Lord Grim with mana recovery equipment, so when she noticed Team Wuji starting to target that, she began to look forward to it.

Ye Xiu didn't disappoint her. He swapped to the prepared equipment during the fight, slowed down the pace to recover mana, and then launched a wave of counterattacks, directly taking away the opponent. The second round of the match could already be considered over. Having secured the points from the individual competition, even if Team Wuji won the subsequent team competition, it would be too late. This was precisely the so-called "prematurely killed" match in this kind of competition format.

"Calm down, it's just the second round," Ye Xiu said, seeing Chen Guo's excitement, but he was also smiling.

On the audience side, the face-slapping party had already silently retreated. Facts proved that those who hadn't bothered to watch this match were very wise. An 8.5 to 1 lead was not so easily overturned.

The face-slapping onlookers dispersed quickly, as if their faces would swell if they stayed for another second. Those who remained were Team Wuji's few fans, all looking dejected. They didn't know what would happen to Team Wuji next, but based on their understanding of the trends in professional esports teams, Team Wuji was probably very difficult to maintain.

Team Wuji's training room was silent.

He An still had his head buried in his hands, feeling like he couldn't face his teammates. But at this moment, no one would come forward to blame him. This result wasn't caused by the mistake of any one person, but by the entire team's slump, leading to such a tragic elimination.

Was Team Wuji going to end here?

Everyone was silent, occasionally glancing at Team Wuji's boss, the person who could decide Team Wuji's fate.

Team Wuji's boss was naturally disappointed and heartbroken, but he also knew that every team member was just as upset, especially Wu Chen, who had been with Wuji since the beginning of his professional career and was deeply attached to Team Wuji, perhaps even more so than the boss himself.

The boss knew that when Team Wuji was relegated, Wu Chen had received offers from other professional teams. But in the end, he stayed, only to face such a regrettable outcome. He couldn't return to the professional scene with Team Wuji, and instead had to witness Team Wuji's end.

The boss sighed, wanting to say something to comfort everyone, but at this point, any comfort seemed futile. Whatever the result, they needed to face it head-on.

"Everyone has worked hard... Let's rest early today..." the boss said, and then took his leave first.

Rest early, that's what he said, but tonight, could anyone in Team Wuji sleep? Including the boss himself, who let out a long sigh as he left the door. Not just tonight, but probably for a long time to come, he wouldn't be able to sleep well.

Victory and defeat are always accompanied by laughter and tears.

At another place in City H, someone else was excited about Team Xingxin's victory.

"Xingxin won!" Chang Xian, who ran directly to the match room, roared in the room the moment Renquye fell.

"Cough..." Cao Guangcheng, who was drinking beer and watching adult films, choked hard on his beer from Chang Xian's yell, spraying beer everywhere. He was about to start cursing, but then he saw Chang Xian frantically flipping through the manuscript he had prepared last week, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"An 8.5 to 1 lead, it's normal to win, right? Is it worth getting so excited?" Cao Guangcheng said, wiping the beer he had sprayed.

"Can my article be published now? Let me see if there's anything else that needs to be changed," Chang Xian shouted.

"I suggest you keep it short. Although it's a niche topic, it happened in the Challenger League, so it's not a big deal. Short content with a lot of information is best," Cao Guangcheng said.

"Teacher Cao, can you help me take a look?" Chang Xian asked, turning back.

"Alright," Cao Guangcheng actually liked the enthusiastic and hardworking newcomer Chang Xian and tried to help him as much as possible. He wouldn't refuse such a simple favor as helping to look at a draft.

With so many years of professional experience, Cao Guangcheng read manuscripts very quickly because he was good at grasping the key points. After quickly scanning Chang Xian's manuscript, Cao Guangcheng nodded: "It's good, the introductions of the members are all pretty good. But the part about the match can be simplified further, just use a sensational headline to introduce the process."

"Oh, then I'll revise it," Chang Xian said, trusting senior Cao Guangcheng completely and going to revise it without questioning.

Cao Guangcheng, on the other hand, was a little dazed holding the beer can. After Chang Xian got some interview materials from Xingxin last week, Cao Guangcheng realized that Xingxin was a team with far more talking points than some relegated professional teams, just based on the backgrounds of some of the players.

There wasn't much to say about those relegated professional teams, to be honest. On the other hand, a team like Xingxin could have many talking points if they had some strength. The existence of this kind of team was a surprise, an accident. It was a pity that there was an even bigger accident in this season's Challenger League: Excellent Era.

With Excellent Era in charge, could Xingxin's accident last until the end? Cao Guangcheng smiled wryly. That was fate! Sometimes you didn't accept it, but it just wouldn't work. If it were any other season, a grassroots team that could defeat a relegated professional team might even make the front page. But this season, if this team wanted to make the front page, they probably had to go even further. Maybe they would be considered a regrettable team and make the headlines when they clashed with Excellent Era?

The experienced Cao Guangcheng had already conceived the themes that Xingxin would receive attention for throughout the entire season.

A night of joy and sorrow passed quickly.

Cao Guangcheng's speculation was correct. After Team Xingxin completely eliminated Team Wuji, this grassroots team that had defeated a relegated professional team was definitely qualified to be reported.

A complete report about Team Xingxin was finally published in the *Electronic Sports Weekly*.

Although it was still the most inconspicuous page, occupying a small space. But this was a dedicated report. In the history of the Glory Professional Alliance, no non-professional team had ever received such coverage. The Challenger League was called the Resurrection Tournament because the event had never selected a non-relegated professional team to join the Alliance.

*Electronic Sports Weekly* was the most professional, authoritative, and widely circulated, and its power was immediately apparent. After this issue of the newspaper was released, Team Xingxin received far more attention than when Chen Guo offered free internet access and accepted challenges. Moreover, Chen Guo's efforts first attracted a group of onlookers who wanted to slap them in the face, and then a group of face-slappers who wanted to slap the face-slappers. Team Xingxin was just an important part of the entertainment for these two groups. The support for Xingxin was like the support of the face-slapping onlookers for Team Wuji in these two rounds. It was completely temporary and insincere. They wouldn't feel sad at all when Team Wuji was eliminated.

The *Electronic Sports Weekly* report, however, brought Team Xingxin relatively positive attention. Many players who didn't care much about the Challenger League knew that there was such an interesting team hidden this time. When they saw the introductions of the players in Team Xingxin in the report, the surprise wasn't just limited to the players.

"Qiao Yifan??"

Although Qiao Yifan was a nobody, he had only left Team Tiny Herb three months ago. The players of Team Tiny Herb wouldn't have forgotten someone they had seen every day for a year so quickly. When they saw this name, their first thought was that it was a homonym, but soon they clearly saw that the report stated that it was indeed Qiao Yifan who had left their team.

"How did this kid end up on this team?" The members of Tiny Herb discussed amongst themselves, not caring much about Qiao Yifan, just curious.

"What's all the noise about so early in the morning?" When a voice sounded in the training room, all the team members immediately returned to their seats like a gust of wind. On the desk where the crowd had dispersed, there was a copy of *Electronic Sports Weekly*, still on the page about the Challenger League.

Wang Jiexi stepped forward, picked it up, and quickly found the place that everyone was paying attention to.

Qiao Yifan, that kid, ran to this team? That's a very good choice! Wang Jiexi thought. He couldn't help but think of the phone call that the manager had personally made about Qiao Yifan during the summer. At that time, he hadn't denied Qiao Yifan's talent, but only affirmed that Qiao Yifan wasn't the player that Tiny Herb needed at the moment. Wang Jiexi didn't ask much about the details of that phone call later. However, seeing Qiao Yifan running to Team Xingxin, he very much agreed with his decision.

Wei Chen??

Immediately afterward, when Wang Jiexi's gaze swept backward, he noticed this name again. Wang Jiexi became a professional player in the third season, which was exactly the season when Wei Chen retired. Although he hadn't played against this senior-level god, he couldn't have only started following Glory in the third season. Before that, he always knew Wei Chen's reputation.

"How old is this guy? Why did he also run to Xingxin?" Wang Jiexi raised his head and wondered blankly, then he saw Gao Yingjie sitting in front of the computer, also in a daze.

Gao Yingjie quickly noticed the captain's gaze and felt a little apprehensive.

"I'm sorry..." Gao Yingjie said, and quickly began to train seriously.

"You have to keep working hard!" Wang Jiexi knew what Gao Yingjie was distracted by, "You'll always meet again, on the field."