Chapter 1 Disguise

A fake identity—was this why Ye Xiu was always hiding? Chen Guo wasn't sure, since Ye Xiu hadn't been serious when he said it. Before she'd known Ye Xiu, Chen Guo would have believed that Ye Qiu was focused on the competition, so he didn't do interviews or commercials. But now that she knew him, Chen Guo thought that Ye Xiu was certainly focused on Glory, but not to the point of being almost pedantic.

From all that she'd learned, Chen Guo felt that Ye Xiu's hiding had many reasons. Like how he initially ran away from home and didn't want to be found and taken back; impersonating someone, he needed to be low-key, which was also a reasonable reason. Plus, this guy was probably just too lazy to deal with these things, which created this mysterious god. And now, the family problem wasn't as acute as it was at first, and the identity problem was solved this time. With two of the three reasons gone, it was reasonable that Ye Xiu didn't care about these things anymore.

Chen Guo was thinking wildly as she walked to their Xingxin training area. But it wasn't deserted at all. The Xingxin players, including Mo Fan, were up earlier than her, all busy at their computers.

"Why didn't you call me!" Seeing everyone's enthusiasm, Chen Guo was ashamed and complained to Tang Rou.

"I didn't think everyone would be up!" Tang Rou said.

"Could it be just a coincidence?" Chen Guo asked.

"It is," Tang Rou nodded. "When I came, Ye Xiu, Lao Wei, and the others were already here."

"What are they doing?" Chen Guo looked around. Most people were doing their own training. Only Ye Xiu, Wei Chen, and Sun Zheping were sitting around a computer, all with their arms crossed, watching the screen with stern expressions.

The screen showed a recording of a Glory match. Chen Guo walked closer and watched for a while. She recognized it as a match of the Zhuxian team. The offline matches had been going on for more than a month, and the teams left at the end knew each other's faces, and they recognized each other's characters. The screen was showing a match of the Zhuxian team in the group stage.

Chen Guo watched for a while but didn't see anything special. Although the Zhuxian team had the name of a professional team, they had always been mediocre. In the following matches, more people favored Xingxin. After eliminating Wuji and winning 10-0 against Xuanqi, no one doubted Xingxin's genuine strength. But defeating Jia Shi… few still believed this. But if it was the Zhuxian team, most people thought they were not as good as Wuji and Xuanqi, and they would probably lose even more miserably against Xingxin.

But seeing the three great gods watching the Zhuxian team's match so seriously, Chen Guo felt that there might be something going on, so she didn't dare to make any rash comments. After watching for a while, the match ended, and the Zhuxian team won the team competition.

"What do you think?" Ye Xiu then spoke.

"Your analysis makes some sense," Sun Zheping nodded.

"What's wrong?" Chen Guo couldn't help but interrupt.

"Oh, we're studying the Zhuxian team," Ye Xiu said, turning to Chen Guo to explain.

"What's wrong with Zhuxian?" Chen Guo asked.

"Zhuxian's performance has always been average, but maintaining this average is a terrible stability," Ye Xiu said.

"What do you mean?" Chen Guo didn't understand.

"It means that they are at ease, capable of winning the game more efficiently, but they have always maintained this state," Ye Xiu said.

"Why?"

"I don't know." Ye Xiu shook his head. "Perhaps they are deliberately weakening themselves, or perhaps they are deliberately practicing rhythm control… In short, is this not the true strength of the Zhuxian team?" Chen Guo asked.

"It's just speculation at the moment. For now, the three of us agree with this possibility." As Ye Xiu spoke, he pulled up QQ, clicked on an avatar in his friend list, and QQ vibrated, then he sent a row of "Hey, hey, hey."

Then the QQ window kept showing that the other party was typing, but no message came back for a long time. Ye Xiu couldn't wait and typed another sentence: "You're not that bad, are you? Are you typing that slowly?"

Chen Guo leaned closer and took a look, and her liver trembled. The name of the other party in the chat window was "Yu Wenzhou."

What was Ye Xiu doing with this Blue Rain team captain?

Chen Guo was wondering when she saw a message back: "The rhythm should be deliberately suppressed! But I don't think it's to disguise their strength. It should be to be more secure, so they play patiently and slowly. The operation seems unfamiliar, like they are adapting to a new character."

"Sure enough!" Ye Xiu replied.

"Personal opinion," Yu Wenzhou said.

"Okay, I understand. Thanks for your hard work. If you're sleepy, go back to sleep!" Ye Xiu said.

"..."

Ye Xiu then closed the chat window and looked at Wei Chen and Sun Zheping: "The opinion is similar to ours. It seems that this is indeed the case."

Chen Guo had figured out the situation and had been dumbfounded for a long time. These guys not only researched themselves but also dragged in Blue Rain's Yu Wenzhou, asking this top master in the alliance to help analyze it?

"This, this, this… this is too much!" Chen Guo said.

"Too much?" Ye Xiu turned to look at Chen Guo. "Which rule did we break?"

"This, this, this…" Chen Guo was speechless. Of course, there was no such clause in the rules, but this approach made Chen Guo feel like they were bullying the small. If the people of Zhuxian knew, they would probably cry.

But the three of them weren't done yet!

"Should we ask Zhang Xinjie again?" Wei Chen said.

"Him?" Ye Xiu glanced at the time. "Get up on time, wash up, eat breakfast, exercise, daily training, without a second of error. By the time he's free, who knows when it will be. Let's not count on it!"

"Aren't they known as the four tactical masterminds? Who's the other one?" Sun Zheping said.

"Xiao Shiqin?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Sounds like that name," Sun Zheping nodded.

"Can you pay more attention to the younger generation? You can't even remember the name!" Ye Xiu scorned.

"Um…"

"What does 'um' mean?"

"Stop talking nonsense. Find him!" Sun Zheping said.

"Do you even know what's going on? Do you know which team he's on now?" Ye Xiu said.

"Which team!?"

"Jia Shi!" Ye Xiu said.

"Oh?"

"What 'oh'? Don't you read the transfer news?" Ye Xiu said.

"Never read it," Sun Zheping said.

Ye Xiu actually knew this. The person in front of him never cared about this kind of thing. As far as he was concerned, no matter what changes your team had, he would just chop you to death.

"It might not be convenient to ask him," Ye Xiu said.

"Um." Wei Chen nodded. "Maybe that guy will deliberately analyze it in the wrong direction to confuse us." Wei Chen speculated about the possibility of Xiao Shiqin from a no-limit perspective.

"Yes." Sun Zheping nodded. "It's possible. Those guys who play tactics are all dirty at heart."

"Yes, yes, especially without limits." Wei Chen quickly agreed. Obviously, the "they" Sun Zheping was talking about included Ye Xiu, one of the four tactical masterminds!

"Hehe." Ye Xiu laughed dryly.

"Not ashamed," Wei Chen shook his head and sighed.

"Instead, he's proud of it." Sun Zheping also sighed, looking at Ye Xiu as if he were something hopeless.

"Hehe." Ye Xiu laughed again. "Two losers."

"The Zhuxian team seems difficult to deal with!" Wei Chen changed the topic, his transition as stiff as his lack of limits.

"Well, according to our analysis, the Zhuxian team may not have any hidden tactics. What they are really hiding is the strength of their characters." Of course, Ye Xiu would not waste time on nonsense and went straight to the point.

"The current strength of the Zhuxian team's characters is actually not weak," Wei Chen said, flipping through the information in his hand. It was the detailed information about the Zhuxian team that could be collected, which Chang Xian had sorted out and given to them.

It had been more than five months since level 75 was opened, and level 75 orange equipment was not as rare as it was at the beginning. A team with a professional background like the Zhuxian team could buy a full set of equipment even if they couldn't get it themselves. After all, orange equipment had a drop rate in the game, so the price was not comparable to silver equipment. If a team aiming to be professional was reluctant to spend money on orange equipment, they might as well disband early.

The Zhuxian team had never given up over the years and was quite willing to invest. The characters were fully equipped with level 75 orange equipment. If such characters still had hidden strength, then the only thing that could bring significant improvement would be silver equipment.

"Does the Zhuxian team have that much wealth?" Wei Chen wondered.

"I don't know…" Ye Xiu was also at a loss. If they hadn't ended up in the Challenger League, the Zhuxian team might have been forgotten by them in the professional circle.

"Did they… get some sponsorship, so they suddenly became rich?" Chen Guo interjected, saying something very insightful. And this came from her personal experience. Because of Xingxin's excellent performance in the offline matches, some manufacturers had begun to contact Xingxin to discuss cooperation. Of course, no formal negotiations had been reached yet, because all companies and manufacturers still wanted to observe further. The current performance was not enough for them to sponsor for a long time, but if Xingxin could really defeat Jia Shi, their intention to cooperate would become clear and strong.

Right now, the Zhuxian team seemed to be hiding something, and Chen Guo immediately thought, could this team have received such support?