Chapter 1 The Start

The match began, the map loaded, and the characters spawned.

The ruined city floating in the air seemed so close to the stars. The whole world appeared to have only one color: a grayish-white tinged with a touch of pale blue. Even the characters that had just loaded into the map seemed to be coated in this light, their various equipment taking on a similar hue.

Han Yanrou gripped her battle spear, while One Inch Ash tightened his hold on his katana, both awaiting Ye Xiu's instructions.

Ye Xiu had experienced countless battles, from the Glory online game to the professional arena. There was nothing he hadn't seen. But at this moment, he couldn't help but feel a few emotions.

From a level 1 noob in the new Glory server, he had finally stood here once more after two and a half years. The two figures before him were the very same ones who had started down this path with him back then. Then there was also Baozi, who was waiting on the substitutes' bench, ready to accurately replace someone at any moment. And Su Mucheng, who had experienced the previous defeat at this very moment with him.

It was these people who, two and a half years ago, were still fighting over dungeon records with the pioneering guilds of other teams in the new Glory server.

Two and a half years later, they were in direct contact with Glory's top team, vying for the championship that symbolized Glory's highest honor.

They had done it!

Ye Xiu knew that countless people must be thinking this way at this moment. Starting from the new server, starting from scratch, doing it all over again, and finally, making it to the finals, it was all too incredible.

Yes, it was indeed quite remarkable.

But was this considered achieving their goal? Was this considered success?

Not yet.

The dictionary definition of success is to obtain the expected result, to achieve the objective. Their expected result, the objective they wanted to achieve, was only one thing: the championship!

Therefore, they were still one step away from success.

"Go!"

At Ye Xiu's command, Lord Grim took the first step. The other four members of Team Happy followed closely behind.

"Go! Does Ye Xiu think this is a dungeon or a Boss fight? 'Go'?" Pan Lin, the commentator on the television broadcast, laughed, teasing Ye Xiu's single-word command.

"Hehe, most of these people were brought over from the online game by Ye Xiu!" Li Yibo said. It had been a year since Happy entered the pro league, and they had fought their way to the finals in such a dazzling manner. They had been interviewed many times, and everyone knew a lot about their situation. Apart from Su Mucheng and Fang Rui, who were proper transfers, everyone else, including Wei Chen, the former captain of Team Blue Rain, had all been met by Ye Xiu in the online game, and they had eventually formed this team, Happy.

Their beginnings might really have been just like the kind of friend team that ordinary players were familiar with, but after fighting all the way, this friend team had stood on Glory's highest stage.

Go!

This time, the goal was not a dungeon record, nor was it a wild Boss; it was Team Samsara, the overall champion.

Happy's spawn point was in the west. At this moment, the five of them formed a formation and moved east. There were no obvious road signs or traces on the map. Happy's destination was also quite clear: it was the Aztec-style pyramid-like building on the west side. When they got close, they didn't stay under the pyramid for long, nor did they climb up. Instead, they turned north and went around to the back of the pyramid.

The back was shimmering with waves. The tranquil river showed no signs of flowing. Happy only briefly tested how deep the water was, but they didn't take the waterway. Instead, they continued east along the back of the pyramid.

Everyone also became more vigilant at this time. The five of them looked in five different directions, and every inch of movement around them was under Happy's observation. Although theoretically, even if the two teams moved at their fastest speed, they shouldn't meet yet. However, after the previous match's refresh locations being random rather than symmetrical, both Happy and Samsara had taken this situation into consideration and entered battle mode early.

Soon, the five members of Happy came out from the back of the pyramid, and another well-preserved pyramid building came into their view. Then, they saw the figures of the five Samsara characters.

Samsara's opening choice was also to first reach the pyramid closest to their side, but after that, they did not continue to go deeper like Happy. After reaching the pyramid, they began to study the terrain in this area. At this time, the five characters were making observations, seemingly scattered, but in reality, they were still maintaining a formation that could enter into coordinated combat at any time.

Happy saw Samsara when they came out from the back of the pyramid, and Samsara immediately saw Happy on this side. Both sides stopped their movements at this moment, maintaining their distance and watching each other from afar.

The screen froze, but the message channel began to refresh frantically.

Because it was a completely unfamiliar map, they couldn't make very thorough deployments based solely on the simple understanding they had before the match. In random maps, there was clearly more communication and command within the team. At this time, the two teams met, and Samsara immediately began to deploy. Messages flashed quickly, with rapid discussions and final conclusions. However, the players' characters did not move until the messages filled almost the entire screen, and finally the last one popped up: "Action!"

Everyone had seen every instruction, and after the final order was issued, the five of them began to operate simultaneously, and the five characters began to act at the same time.

Ranged, melee, and healer, each performing their duties, connecting with each other, and coordinating with the terrain features they had already understood, quickly forming the most satisfactory formation.

Then, Happy finally issued instructions as well.

"Withdraw," Ye Xiu said.

Happy left.

They came out casually, right from the back of the pyramid, without peeking or spying. The five characters rushed out as if they were in a hurry, and stopped when they saw Samsara.

Then Samsara meticulously deployed, preparing for a complete battle, ready to attack or defend, taking all aspects into consideration.

Then Happy withdrew.

Samsara had actively prepared everything, but they had no opponents...

"..."

Zhou Zekai rarely sent a message in the channel, but it was just a series of ellipses. Although he didn't talk much in the first place, being speechless and not liking to talk were two different things.

"What is Happy planning to do?" Pan Lin wondered in the television broadcast. On Samsara's side, because of the communication and instructions within the channel, although there were many code-like abbreviations, everyone could still understand the basic actions by comparing them. But there was no communication on Happy's side. When Ye Xiu said "Go," they set off; when Ye Xiu said "Withdraw," they shrank back.

"Well, let's see," Li Yibo said, not knowing whether this "let's see" was referring to Happy's intentions or calling everyone to watch together…

At this time, the one who most wanted to understand Happy's intentions was of course Samsara. But they remained unmoved. After being speechless for a moment, they immediately began to study the terrain again, as if Happy had never appeared.

There was no confrontation, only a face-to-face encounter.

Ordinary players were confused, and the television commentators and guests also had to "wait and see," but professional players had already begun to discuss.

"Happy... is probably trying to test Samsara's mood?" Yu Wenzhou said. Happy's intentions were basically Ye Xiu's intentions. Not only Pan Lin and Li Yibo, but even a master-level expert like Yu Wenzhou didn't dare to speak too definitively.

"Samsara seems very steady," Xiao Shiqin said. Psychological factors were not so easy to see through. However, judging from Samsara's ignoring Happy's teasing-like actions, they had at least not been easily led by the nose by Happy.

So what's next?

Next, the television broadcast screen and the live holographic projection were cut into two parts as much as possible, so that everyone could clearly see the deployments of the two teams.

Samsara continued to study that area of terrain, while Happy began to move quickly upward from the back of the pyramid. However, Ye Xiu's Lord Grim suddenly turned out from the back again when he reached about halfway up.

Samsara was naturally on guard in this direction. As soon as they saw Lord Grim appear, they immediately prepared themselves.

"Don't panic!" Ye Xiu actually sent a message in the public channel.

"I'm just taking a look," Ye Xiu said, and then, his Lord Grim actually sat down on the eastern slope of that pyramid...

"You guys carry on," Ye Xiu continued to say.

"Xiao Zhou, look at the 3 o'clock direction behind you. Isn't that platform quite good for sniper cover?" Ye Xiu even started giving pointers to Samsara.