Chapter 170 The Seven-Colored Spring

In the end, the six members that Team Tyranny sent were still the ones with the highest appearance rate this season. The only slightly unexpected thing was Song Qiying's appearance.

After all, he had lost the final round of the individual competition in a rather embarrassing way, and he would inevitably be affected by it. The following team competition was so important, so it seemed safer to send the more experienced Bai Yanfei. But in the end, Tyranny placed absolute trust in their young general, arranging for him to play in the crucial final round once again.

"Now is not the time to train newcomers..." Commentator Pan Lin couldn't help but complain.

"Heh." Guest commentator Li Yibo, who came from Team Tyranny, smiled. "This isn't training, it's just pure trust. Tyranny's players must have such courage and confidence."

Pan Lin was speechless. This so-called pure trust seemed unscientific no matter how you looked at it! Were Tyranny's veterans going to bet their perhaps last chance on such a nerve-wracking trust?

While the two were talking, the six members of Team Happy also stood up one after another and walked towards the stage.

Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Fang Rui, three experienced All-Star level players, had always been the backbone of Team Happy, and were the three with the most stable appearance rates.

An Wenyi, Happy's cleric, had consistently occupied a stable spot in the team competition due to his class.

Then, Tang Rou! She had just eliminated Tyranny's reversal momentum in the individual competition with an overwhelming force. In the direct confrontation with Song Qiying, who was also a rookie, she won extremely strongly. The controversy over the Best Rookie award was becoming increasingly difficult to criticize in terms of strength.

The sixth member, Luo Ji! The person with the fewest appearances for Happy throughout the entire season, but in the first round of the semifinals against Team Tyranny, he completely changed the game in an absurd way, which once triggered a frenzy of heated discussions. The discussions were interrupted a bit by the matches between Team Samsara and Team Tiny Herb, but when Happy and Tyranny were about to face off again, Luo Ji's name would frequently appear in various discussions and predictions.

In the second round, Team Tyranny chose the map for their home game, and Happy did not send out Luo Ji. And the map chosen by Team Tyranny did not have the conditions to deploy the "demolition style" (chaiqian liu), and Team Tyranny seemed to have some concerns about Luo Ji.

So, in the third round, a random map was chosen. After briefly understanding the map situation, Happy immediately sent out Luo Ji in such an important deciding game. The map specially prepared for the playoffs appeared for the first time in this round of competition, and there was absolutely no possibility of practicing it beforehand. Was the ability to "know the terrain structure and then demolish it after just one glance" really true?

For a time, the topic revolved around Luo Ji again. Pan Lin, who had just thought that Tyranny's sending Song Qiying was very bold, now couldn't look straight at Happy.

Song Qiying was, after all, a highly touted candidate for this season's Best Rookie, which was a testament to his strength. What about Luo Ji? He didn't have any particularly outstanding moments in his few appearances in the final stages of the regular season, until he suddenly detonated everyone's attention in the first round of the semifinals. But regarding that ability, Pan Lin didn't believe that it was really "knowing it after one glance." If he didn't have this ability, then Luo Ji's appearance was more of a bluff, and then what? There was no then. Happy was just trying to set up a suspicious formation, and sent out this newcomer who didn't have much experimental experience and whose technical level wasn't high-end. No matter how you looked at it, it was riskier than Tyranny sending out Song Qiying.

In the hustle and bustle, the players from both teams had already lined up in the center of the arena.

The starting lineups of both sides also appeared one by one on the electronic screen after the referee went through the procedures.

Shaking hands with each other, there was no conversation. The tense atmosphere of the deciding game overwhelmed everything, and the air seemed to be frozen at this moment. After the two teams of players silently completed the pre-match etiquette, they walked towards their respective competition seats at the referee's indication.

There was no provocation, no psychological probing or inducement, and no harmonious performance such as "friendship first, competition second." The match that determined the efforts of this year, or even the efforts of this lifetime, began in such silence. The audience felt this terrible silence and felt very depressed.

The audience was like this, so what about the players on the field?

The characters of both sides refreshed at both ends of the map. This map, called "Seven-Colored Spring," was square. The refresh positions were not the most common four corners, but the center of the four edges at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock. What was even more surprising was that the refresh positions of the two teams were not the symmetrical refresh that had always been the case. Team Happy appeared at the 6 o'clock position, while Team Tyranny refreshed at the 3 o'clock position.

This was a refresh that broke the tradition of Glory battles, but thinking about it carefully, neither the arena rules nor the league competition rules of Glory had ever explicitly stipulated that the refresh must be in symmetrical positions. It was just that this had always been the case, so people regarded it as the default rule. And in this crucial game, such a bold randomness actually appeared, which immediately caused an uproar outside the arena.

"It's actually not a symmetrical refresh!" Pan Lin exclaimed in surprise. "Director Li, will this have any impact on the game?"

"The impact is certain. The players on both sides don't know about this refresh situation at this time. They will judge the opponent's refresh position symmetrically from their own starting position. Then, by mastering the distance, they will predict the possible directions and times of the opponent in various choices. But now, the predictions of both teams will be wrong, and the first encounter will be an accident. This will greatly test the on-the-spot reaction and response of the two teams. Whoever can judge the root cause of the problem the fastest and most accurately will be able to better control the situation."

Li Yibo said a lot, and the two teams also began to act at this time. When the movements of the characters gradually became clear, there was another uproar outside the arena.

Team Tyranny, which had always been bold and direct, did not lose its true colors in this random map deciding game. It was simple and clear, and went straight to the middle.

Team Happy played a roundabout tactic, and it was divided into two groups. Lord Grim, Dancing Rain, Wind Howl, and Little Cold Hands formed a group of four, detouring on the left. Tang Rou's Soft Mist detoured alone on the right.

If it were a symmetrical refresh, Team Tyranny would be impacted by Happy from the left and right, but now Team Tyranny was cutting straight from the 3 o'clock position, which meant that Tang Rou's Soft Mist would be the first to encounter the entire Team Tyranny alone—the movement speed of a single character was always faster than the team as a whole.

The asymmetrical starting refresh created trouble for Happy from the start. In terms of time, Tang Rou certainly didn't expect to have such a vertical encounter with Team Tyranny on this side.

The movement in the three directions continued. The holographic projection and TV broadcast of Happy's four-person group had been ignored. Everyone was closely watching the movement of Team Tyranny and Tang Rou's Soft Mist, judging the speed of both sides, and predicting the location where they might encounter.

As the TV broadcaster, in addition to human interpretation, there were also many measurement software. Soon, the TV broadcast outlined the possible movement routes of these two parties, and then placed a blood mark on the intersection point. Then, it zoomed in to show the terrain at this possible encounter point.

The terrain was also unfavorable to Tang Rou!

If it was a flat terrain, the opponent could be seen in the field of vision from a long distance, and there would be enough time to adjust no matter how many people there were, so there was no need to panic at all. But this map called "Seven-Colored Spring" was not a plain. The four refresh points were four highlands, and there were also many steep terrains rising from the ground in other places. This map actually had some of the features of a highland canyon map. It's just that this style was mixed with other scenes and was quite fragmented. Especially the scenery of the Seven-Colored Spring in the center was completely different from the desolate highland canyon. The Seven-Colored Spring area, mixed in with the desolation, was lush with trees, and a large area of spring water was completely shaded by the trees. Sunlight shone through the branches and leaves and shattered on the surface of the spring water, reflecting colorful beams of light. As the branches and leaves swayed, the beams of light were constantly shattered on the water surface, leaving behind a hazy light and shadow.

Tang Rou's Soft Mist could not reach the Seven-Colored Spring at this time. Her route was restricted by the highlands on the left and right, and at the fork in the canyon ahead, Team Tyranny was moving from the east, which was the encounter point predicted by the TV broadcaster after analyzing the movement speed of both sides. Perhaps it wasn't so accurate, but at this fork, it was inevitable that Tang Rou and Tyranny would discover each other. Now what people were concerned about was how much distance there would be when they discovered each other. This would determine Tang Rou's fate. No one would be so excessive as to expect a miracle of one against five. Before the two sides even met, everyone had regarded this as Tang Rou's escape story.

The audience who supported Happy were naturally extremely anxious, and they couldn't imagine what kind of turning point there could be. Soft Mist's movement speed remained unchanged, the direction remained unchanged, and she gradually approached the fork. Pan Lin had already taken a deep breath, waiting for the moment when the two sides collided. As they continued to approach, the judgment of the encounter became more and more accurate. It seemed... it would be very close, and the situation further developed in a direction unfavorable to Happy.

"The two sides are close, just a little bit..." Pan Lin's volume gradually increased word by word, staring at the movement of both sides: "Quick, the fork, Soft Mist charges... charges... Soft Mist stops?" The sound of "charges out" that Pan Lin had accurately shouted out with all his strength was stuck in his throat. Tang Rou's Soft Mist actually stopped at the moment when she was about to walk out of the fork.

"What's wrong?" In Pan Lin's voice of doubt, Soft Mist even began to retreat, sticking to the side of the mountain wall, quite quickly, but also very carefully.

The director realized the key to the problem, and Tang Rou's first-person perspective was immediately cut out. What this perspective represented was not only what Tang Rou saw in the game, but also what she heard.

Footsteps!

Not neat, chaotic footsteps. They came out of Tang Rou's perspective.

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Finally home!