Chapter 1 The Beginning

The Happy main stadium was hosting the match against Tyranny. The first round of the individual competition was Ye Xiu versus Qin Muyun. The match had already entered the map loading phase, but the venue still wasn't quiet. However, the focus of everyone's attention wasn't on the match itself. Happy's fans were booing the absent Han Wenqing like madmen, while Tyranny's fans felt a little unable to lift their heads because of this. They even forgot that although Han Wenqing wasn't participating, they still had another player fighting on the field. Poor Qin Muyun, transparent, continuing to be transparent.

Until the match officially began.

When Qin Muyun's Zero Degree Celsius appeared on the holographic projection of the arena, on the electronic big screen at the venue, and on the televisions or computer screens of countless Glory players, they finally realized: Han Wenqing wasn't here, but their Tyranny was still fighting.

"Add oil!"

Suddenly, shouts erupted from the venue, coming from the away team's seating area, from the Tyranny team's fan group.

The momentum instantly surged, scaring the Happy fans.

Truth be told, clashing with Tyranny's fans was something that Excellent Era's fans were good at. Although there were some Excellent Era fans who had transitioned to Happy's side, they weren't the majority. Letting Happy's fans confront Tyranny's fans head-on made them seem relatively weak. This had already been proven in the regular season.

But now, it was the playoffs, a do-or-die playoff. Happy, as a new team, was creating miracles. At the thought of this, Happy's fans also became excited.

This was their home stadium. How could they let Tyranny's momentum overwhelm them?

An intense confrontation first erupted from the audience at the venue.

The characters of the two players on the field were both moving forward at a leisurely pace.

Happy's home stadium map selection: Thatcher Manor, also a section of a scene cut from the vast maps of the Heavenly Domain. The map had many elements and rich content. There was a lake to the west, a small forest to the east, and in the center was a two-story manor castle with underground structures. In addition, there were various small buildings such as mills, stables, and gardens distributed within the manor.

The two characters spawned at the north and south ends, both choosing to move in a straight line. They quickly approached the center, but because of the manor castle in the middle, neither could directly spot the other in their field of vision.

Qin Muyun's Zero Degree Celsius came from the north, heading straight for the back of the castle. It seemed that he wasn't entirely unfamiliar with this map. After arriving at the back of the castle, he clearly controlled Zero Degree Celsius to rush to a corner of the wall, and then, using the window sills and pillar corners that existed there as footholds, he jumped up. Before long, Zero Degree Celsius directly jumped to the top of the castle, and the field of vision instantly widened.

But Qin Muyun immediately controlled Zero Degree Celsius to lie down, lowered his body, found a suitable position, and then carefully looked outside.

Within the field of vision, the south end was empty.

In terms of movement speed, if Lord Grim had come from the middle, he should have arrived by now.

But he hadn't.

The left? The right? Or could it be…

Qin Muyun's vision subconsciously pressed downwards.

The manor castle wasn't just for show; it could be entered. If Lord Grim had chosen to go straight through the middle like he had, then when he jumped onto the top of the castle, he could have entered the castle directly.

The castle also had a back door on the back side, but Qin Muyun didn't choose to enter. His class was Sharpshooter, and open areas were more conducive to his performance. Fighting opponents inside rooms wasn't a good idea for a Sharpshooter.

Or perhaps that was why Ye Xiu had chosen to enter?

Qin Muyun pondered, accurately controlling Zero Degree Celsius to begin his next move.

Boom!

He vaguely heard an explosion, seemingly far away, seemingly close, but then, the sound of the explosion rang out with utmost clarity beside Zero Degree Celsius, or rather, beneath him.

Whoosh!

Zero Degree Celsius was lying on the top of the castle, but Lord Grim had actually fired a cannon from inside, blasting a hole in the top of the castle, directly about to drop Zero Degree Celsius down.

Qin Muyun's reaction was quick enough. As soon as the explosion occurred, the blast wave surged, and he immediately controlled his character to jump to the side, while simultaneously throwing a grenade.

Inside the castle, Ye Xiu's Lord Grim was admiring his masterpiece while holding the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, when he saw a grenade sliding down in the rolling black smoke.

Bang, boom!

The grenade was detonated by Ye Xiu with a casual operation. This kind of technique, which ordinary players would be excited about for a long time after pulling it off once, feeling like it was incredibly cool, was just something that Ye Xiu did casually.

The grenade that was thrown didn't pose a threat, but it made Ye Xiu cautious. Of course, he could have had Lord Grim directly use the Mechanical Wings to fly out of the hole he had blasted open with a cannon to pursue, but he had to consider the possibility that Qin Muyun was up there preparing an ambush.

So Lord Grim rushed to the window, jumped up, shattered the window with the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella, and flew out.

The second floor, but Lord Grim didn't fall down. The instant his body flew out, the ninja blade in the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella had already been drawn. With a flick, it was inserted into the wall. He swung and swayed, landed, jumped again, and threw out the ninja blade again…

Ye Xiu was also incomparably skilled in the ninja's climbing techniques using the ninja blade. Lord Grim's series of actions after flying out of the window were so fluid that people couldn't bear to blink.

Lord Grim climbed on the wall, moving in a clear direction. With a few ups and downs, he had already thrown himself onto the top of the castle, landing without stopping. He immediately did a roll, already finding cover to hide behind. The entire process was silent.

Then, he quietly poked his head out and looked towards that end.

Nothing!

Zero Degree Celsius wasn't there. Qin Muyun hadn't chosen to ambush at that broken hole.

Ye Xiu didn't waste any time because of this unexpected situation. Lord Grim's perspective quickly shifted, quickly scanning the few points on the roof.

From Lord Grim firing a cannon to blow open the top of the castle to jumping out of the window and climbing to this point, the entire process was only 5 seconds.

In 5 seconds, Ye Xiu had already scanned all the possible locations that Qin Muyun could have moved Zero Degree Celsius to in just that turn of his perspective.

Besides that, there were only two possibilities.

First, he jumped directly from the back of the castle, but Ye Xiu had just controlled Lord Grim to climb up from this side and hadn't seen him, so that wasn't possible.

Then there was only the second: Qin Muyun's Zero Degree Celsius had jumped down from that hole.

Calm, composed, extremely good at positioning. This was Ye Xiu's impression of this fifth player who fought alongside the four Heavenly Kings of Tyranny.

Extremely good at positioning?

Ye Xiu suddenly realized something. Lord Grim, for no reason, suddenly rolled to the side.

Bang!

A crisp sound.

Unlike the previous time when Lord Grim had blown off the roof with a cannon, this time, a bullet pierced through a small hole, and then flew straight into the sky.

"Wow!!"

Along with this shot, there were also bursts of exclamations from the venue.

The audience had a God's perspective, and everything was under their observation. Lord Grim flipped out the window and climbed to the top, while Zero Degree Celsius fell back down from that broken hole. Then, just like how Ye Xiu had accurately located Zero Degree Celsius's position before, Qin Muyun's Zero Degree Celsius had aimed his gun accurately at Lord Grim's current location.

How did he do it?

"Accurate deduction and judgment." Regarding this point, Li Yibo had made a summary when Ye Xiu found Zero Degree Celsius's position. At that time, Ye Xiu had immediately moved Lord Grim to a position after entering the castle, and from that position, he had happened to capture Zero Degree Celsius jumping up from behind the castle, catching a glimpse of his figure in front of the window.

This was naturally not a coincidence. This was because Ye Xiu knew that he could jump like that behind the castle, so he had found an observation point inside the castle. And then, after jumping up from that end and landing, what were the good hidden observation points on the top of the castle?

The location that Ye Xiu knew clearly was exactly the location that Qin Muyun had found. Thus, he successfully ambushed him.

Conversely, Qin Muyun had judged Ye Xiu's subsequent actions, so his Zero Degree Celsius entered the castle. Then, after that, if Ye Xiu wanted to sneak attack Zero Degree Celsius who was ambushing above, where would be the best place to do so? Thus, he also successfully ambushed him.

High-level duel, high-level deduction. If the two didn't have such high-end positioning abilities, and hadn't chosen the most outstanding positions, their deductions would have been wrong.

Li Yibo had also expressed his feelings about this point before.

And this time, Qin Muyun's sneak attack didn't need him to explain it again. Everyone could understand it by drawing inferences from what he had said before. But what surprised everyone was that Qin Muyun's sneak attack hadn't succeeded. A big move, a sniper shot, had actually missed. Lord Grim's sudden roll, without any warning, was truly captivating.

"How did he know?" Pan Lin, in his unskillful way, asked Li Yibo again, leaving him speechless.

"This is probably Ye Xiu's further deduction…" Li Yibo said reluctantly, but he didn't know that he had actually guessed correctly this time. Ye Xiu's ability to dodge was indeed based on deduction and judgment. It was just that it was timely enough, just dodging that shot. Of course, he had quick reactions, but luck was also important.

Two shots, two position changes, with fluid operations and profound content. The high level of the match was vividly displayed from these few points.

"It seems like this will be an exciting game of hide-and-seek." Li Yibo was about to draw a conclusion when, whoosh!

The roof opened again.

Mountain Split!

Lord Grim, who had rolled to avoid that shot, didn't pause at all. As the bullet pierced through, he immediately jumped up. Mountain Split! He smashed a Mountain Split towards the ground.

Happy must have accurately tested the durability of this fort top. This Mountain Split landed, immediately breaking through the top of the fort in a crushing manner. Lord Grim fell with the sword wind.

In the air, on the ground.

Lord Grim and Zero Degree Celsius faced each other.

Hide-and-seek? By the time Li Yibo finished his words, the two characters had already met like this. He was just speaking too fluently, so he didn't have time to swallow the second half of his sentence back.

Bang bang bang bang!

Qin Muyun didn't panic. Zero Degree Celsius raised his gun to meet the attack, while also moving.

Whoosh!

The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella opened, intercepting the bullets. The Mountain Split had ended the instant it shattered the roof. At this time, Lord Grim was actually just falling freely. If he were hit by a bullet, he would definitely be sent flying by the push shot technique.

But with the shield as cover, everything became much more comfortable. Sword light once again emerged from the umbrella handle, Silver Light Falling Blade!

Lord Grim changed direction in mid-air, and the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella retracted, but… where was Zero Degree Celsius? He had already disappeared without a trace.