Chapter 1079 Contradictory Mentality

Two dungeons in a row, Excellent Era had attempted to set records, but they had just done it for nothing. And seeing how skilled Happy was, Xiao Shiqin estimated that their 10-man team's record would soon be washed away by Happy.

Would they be able to maintain peace just by sending out pro players?

It had to be said that Excellent Era was especially wary of Ye Qiu on the one hand, but on the other hand, they were especially unconcerned about the people around Ye Qiu. They repeatedly forgot that Ye Qiu also had a team, a team that he had decided to build with a plan in mind since he left a year ago.

In Excellent Era's eyes, such a team couldn't be considered a professional team. They had forgotten that eight or nine years ago, when Excellent Era first formed their team, it was just like this. Led by Ye Qiu, they took a team of grassroots players from the game and eventually brought Excellent Era to the top of Glory.

Perhaps the current pro scene had changed, making it less likely for dark horses to emerge. Even teams with strong financial resources like Yizhan struggled in the league at first.

But nothing was absolute. Weren't miracles created by people?

Xiao Shiqin was already powerless to say anything about Excellent Era's contradictory mentality of both fearing and underestimating Ye Qiu. His uneasiness grew stronger, and he even began to suspect that Excellent Era's decision might have been careless.

He had come to Excellent Era because, like many others, he had no doubt that Excellent Era would immediately return to the league within a year, with an incomparably bright future. He came to Excellent Era not for the present, but for the future. But now he realized that the premise of this future seemed to be wavering. Facing Ye Qiu, Excellent Era was even less confident than him, perhaps because they knew how terrifying Ye Qiu was.

Now they were completely defeated in setting dungeon records in the game. Wouldn't this make these guys even less confident?

Excellent Era's decision could be said to be one wrong step after another. What should they do now? Continue stubbornly down this path, or quickly persuade them to correct it?

The problem was, could he persuade them? He had had a good talk with Cui Li a few days ago, and he could see that Cui Li sincerely accepted his opinion. But after a few days, when Happy made a splash in the game, everyone became restless.

At this moment, Xiao Shiqin really felt caught in a dilemma.

His thoughts were no longer in the dungeon, and neither were anyone else's. The next part was done with extremely poor efficiency, and they actually stumbled and stuttered through it.

When Xiao Shiqin came back from his thoughts, he saw the distracted team in front of him, and his heart skipped a beat. He felt that he should have noticed something.

And among the team, Sun Xiang, as the captain, not only didn't help everyone establish the correct mentality, but instead took the lead in losing his balance, completely breaking away from the team and venting his anger there. This scene...

Xiao Shiqin suddenly remembered that last season, when Excellent Era finally collapsed and their state plummeted, it was very similar to the current situation. The players were all distracted, a disorganized mess, looking like they had lost their confidence and motivation. Could it be that Excellent Era had suffered some setback at that time? A setback from Ye Qiu?

Impossible... Xiao Shiqin thought again. At that time, Ye Qiu was still working hard in the game. Excellent Era had to deal with the pro league, and the two sides had no direct competition. Why would they compete with Ye Qiu?

Xiao Shiqin didn't continue to guess. He could just ask about this.

So after this dungeon was barely completed, Xiao Shiqin persuaded everyone to rest, saying that breaking Happy's record wasn't something that could be done in a short time.

After stabilizing everyone's emotions, Xiao Shiqin immediately went to find Cui Li.

Cui Li had obviously received the news. No one observed the game more closely than Chen Yehui, and he especially liked to keep in close contact with the manager.

Xiao Shiqin came to him, and Cui Li guessed that it was related to this matter. But when Xiao Shiqin opened his mouth, he asked about Excellent Era's sudden decline in the second half of last season.

Why did Excellent Era suddenly collapse? In the media, it was treated as a mystery. Everyone analyzed it left and right, but in the end, it was just the usual talk about new players adapting. Within Excellent Era, besides these all-purpose reasons, they really couldn't find any other problems.

"At that time, did Excellent Era not do something else that affected its state?" Xiao Shiqin didn't say it directly, but in this context, his "something else" was quite suggestive. Cui Li immediately understood and shook his head, saying, "No."

But as soon as he said that, he hesitated.

No, that was what he thought, but what was the truth? Was there really nothing?

It seemed that he should ask Chen Yehui about this.

"Wait a moment." Just after saying "No," Cui Li suddenly had an idea. He greeted Xiao Shiqin and immediately called Chen Yehui.

Cui Li didn't say anything on the phone, he just told Chen Yehui to come out immediately.

A few minutes later, the manager's office door was knocked, and Chen Yehui hurried over.

"Last season, after Ye Qiu left and went to the game, did anyone on our side secretly go to contact Ye Qiu for some reason?"

Chen Yehui's heart suddenly skipped a beat. This was very likely. He and Liu Hao were the main instigators of these things. Now that Liu Hao was gone, wouldn't he be the only one to bear the consequences?

Chen Yehui suddenly panicked. At that time, they did those things in secret, behind the club's back. Especially after discovering that the pile of things they had created had even affected the team's performance, no one dared to speak up even more. When the club summarized their failure later, they didn't investigate the reasons for this, which let the participants breathe a sigh of relief. No one thought that after half a season, this matter would suddenly be brought up.

Chen Yehui saw Xiao Shiqin in the room, and this person was even more distant to him. Could it be that he was also an insider?

Chen Yehui didn't say anything for a long time, and his expression was uncertain, which had already betrayed him. After thinking about it for a long time, he suddenly realized that his slow reaction was enough to explain the problem. Hiding it any longer would be challenging the manager's intelligence. Helpless, Chen Yehui had no choice but to confess frankly. As for the responsibility, of course, he pushed it all onto Liu Hao, who was no longer there. It was all Liu Hao's idea and Liu Hao's plan, and he, Chen Yehui, had only given a little help in realizing Liu Hao's idea, such as providing a character or something...

Bang!

Cui Li didn't allow him to continue. He slammed the table and suddenly stood up, pointing at Chen Yehui and stammering for a long time, but couldn't say anything.

It was useless to say anything now.

If they had found out at the time that the trigger that led to the team's decline in form, the drop in results, and ultimately the relegation, was this kind of thing, all the participants would have been severely punished. For someone like Chen Yehui, who was a staff member, it was possible that he would have been directly dismissed.

But now, almost a year had passed, and it was too late to settle accounts.

Chen Yehui pitifully retreated to the side, not daring to breathe loudly. Only the manager knew about this matter now. What would happen if the boss also knew?

"It seems that Excellent Era's sudden decline last year wasn't the main reason, but it had a certain impact." Xiao Shiqin said at this time. When Cui Li and Chen Yehui heard this, they all sighed that this person who had been a captain for many years was reliable. These words were giving them a way out and helping them reduce their responsibility!

And this was naturally not Xiao Shiqin's main intention. The second half of his sentence was: "We must learn from this!"

When those two heard this, they immediately understood again. This was referring to Excellent Era's current actions, which were repeating the mistakes of last year!

"This... can I say something?" Chen Yehui asked cautiously.

"Say what you have to say." Cui Li was particularly annoyed with him now.

"Uh, I'm just speaking factually. This year's situation is different from last year's. After all, this year we and Happy are opponents in the Challenger League, and now Happy urgently needs to close the gap between their character strength and ours, so we can restrict their development in the game, which is the same as restricting them on the field. When we have enough energy, giving them appropriate blows in the game can also be considered active preparation!" Chen Yehui said.

Xiao Shiqin smiled bitterly again when he heard this. "President Chen, the problem now isn't about energy, but about who will be beating up who in the game. It's hard to say. Let's not talk about the past, let's just talk about today. President Chen, you should have witnessed the competition for the dungeon record. I can responsibly say that the team did its best in today's dungeon, and I think the results should be satisfactory. But there's no way around it. Happy's results can surpass us by such a large margin because they spend all their time on this. This is their home field."

"Even if our team's level is higher, we have to put in the corresponding energy if we want to break their record. So here's the problem. It's okay if we put in the energy and beat them, but once we lose, everyone will be severely psychologically affected. I don't know if this psychological impact can be eliminated by the time the competition comes around," Xiao Shiqin said.

"Competition will always have winners and losers. If we always avoid competing because we are afraid of the negative impact after losing, wouldn't that be too passive?" Chen Yehui said.

"This isn't being passive, it's weighing the pros and cons. What are we competing for? We don't necessarily need that record reward, right? And we don't need to care too much if Happy gets the reward once or twice, right? So we don't need to beat them in this competition. As long as we have a record that's about the same height, and we can hold them down, so they can't repeatedly beat their own record and earn rewards, isn't that enough? Why let the team do this kind of thing that will damage morale? President Chen, give me a few good players, and I'll train them and brush the records," Xiao Shiqin said.