Chapter 2 Second Round of the Finals

The second-round individual competition in the finals had already reached the second player for both sides, but the atmosphere at the venue seemed to still be stuck in the first match. When Mo Fan went onstage, the away team’s audience seats erupted in enthusiastic applause, but for the entire venue, due to the Samsara fans’ continued low spirits, the atmosphere appeared extremely dispirited. They simply had no mood to mock or create noise to interfere with their opponent.

The atmosphere of the venue could greatly influence the players’ performance, especially for some emotional players. The more enthusiastic the atmosphere at the venue, the more energetic they would become, whether it was positive or negative, it could all become a catalyst for their burning passion.

At this time, the atmosphere at Samsara’s home venue was abnormal. It had only just reached the second player for both sides in the individual competition, but because of Zhou Zekai's defeat, the atmosphere was as if the entire match had already been lost, exceptionally icy.

As a result, in this cold and detached atmosphere, Mo Fan seemed much more relaxed than usual, and even his steps onto the stage seemed light.

This round quickly began, and both characters loaded in.

Because this round was not a random map selection on the spot, the list of participants for the individual competition had already been given. Jiang Botao knew who his next opponent would be.

But at this time, Mo Fan’s Deception was already loading in, yet Jiang Botao seemed to be like the Samsara audience, immersed in the previous match and unable to break free.

Defeating Zhou Zekai with only four percent of his health remaining, but in the end, consuming twenty-four percent of Jiang Botao's Wave Sword, this exchange was really quite good.

However, considering Ye Xiu's initial healing, Jun Mo Xiao's health in the actual battle did not start from four percent. Jiang Botao's performance was actually still quite good.

But he could never forget the first exchange when he thought he had seen through his opponent, but in the end, he was still hit by a wave of attacks.

Although he quickly stabilized himself afterward, he had indeed felt the "terrifying nature of the senior."

He didn't underestimate Ye Xiu, but from the pre-match exchanges, both sides had already engaged in psychological warfare. Jiang Botao's words were not intense, nor did they contain blatant ridicule, but he used a slightly frivolous attitude to gently tease his opponent. Because Jiang Botao knew that for these experienced veterans, blatant challenges and ridicule were not good psychological tactics. Instead, some seemingly inadvertent, but more genuine displays of emotion were more likely to stimulate them.

Jiang Botao was not the first to play for Samsara, but he had quite a bit of interaction with Ye Xiu, who was going to be the first to play for Happy, before the match.

There was no provocation or mockery in his words, and it seemed like he was just stating the facts calmly, but in the end, Ye Xiu revealed his intention to teach him a lesson. Jiang Botao's subtle provocation was obviously quite successful.

He was hoping to provoke this kind of attitude in Ye Xiu, so that when facing Zhou Zekai, he might be impatient, distracted, or think too much about Jiang Botao. Even if he defeated Zhou Zekai in this emotional state, when facing Jiang Botao next, he might be too excited, too focused...

In short, disrupting his concentration was Jiang Botao's goal.

But as a result, Ye Xiu was provoked by him, and then he defeated Zhou Zekai, and then gave Jiang Botao enough lessons to illustrate the "terrifying nature of the senior."

Jiang Botao was at a loss, which made him not know whether his psychological warfare had played a role at all.

When the gap was quite large, this subtle psychological offensive might not have any effect. But Ye Xiu was facing Zhou Zekai! How could there be a significant gap?

So Jiang Botao still tended to think that Ye Xiu had not been provoked by him at all.

So the emotions he revealed were just sugar-coated bullets released to make me overly optimistic?

This was what Jiang Botao truly experienced as the "terrifying nature of the senior." The subtle details could not be completely understood in just a few minutes. Psychological warfare had complexities that were no less than those on the field.

Loading complete!

But when these words popped up, and the screen quickly changed to the in-game perspective, and the three-two-one countdown began, Jiang Botao immediately collected his thoughts.

Ye Xiu? Who? What did he do? Don't know!

His opponent in front of him was Mo Fan, and defeating this person was all that mattered.

Jiang Botao's attention quickly returned to the match, quickly returning to the opponent he was about to face, Happy's Mo Fan.

A silent, persevering, patient, and also somewhat explosive player.

His technical structure wasn't very standard, typical of someone with a wild, untamed background, but what was even more surprising was that after an entire season, this characteristic still existed in him. This made Jiang Botao very curious about how Happy trained. Did they give this rookie player some corrective guidance?

Could it be that they were all allowed to develop on their own through self-study? But Happy didn't just have this one rookie. The others didn't have his typical characteristics.

This kind of doubt was useless to think about without anyone to answer it. Moreover, knowing the reason was not important to Jiang Botao. He just needed to see the final state that the opponent was currently displaying.

Wave Sword began to move, cutting straight to the center. At the same time, Jiang Botao sent a message in the channel: "Center? Flank? Thank you."

There was no response. Jiang Botao wasn't surprised. Until now, no one had ever seen Mo Fan communicate with anyone during a match, let alone exchange trash talk.

Jiang Botao casually threw out a sentence and didn't expect Mo Fan to react. Facts proved that he was right not to expect it.

Wave Sword quickly reached the center of the map. At this time, the largest stalactite in the cave stood in the center, connecting the ground and the top.

Jiang Botao had already angled his view before Wave Sword approached. Mo Fan's Deception did not come from the opposite center road.

This guy's matches, more than likely, were going to be flanking and ambushing. It seemed like this time was no exception.

But this was Samsara's home map, and a home map was advantageous to oneself and difficult for others. With this as a guideline, the selection of the map was excellent if it facilitated one's own players as much as possible and restricted the opponent's players as much as possible.

And Mo Fan's style was within the scope of this map's restrictions. After seeing that the opponent had not cut through the center road, Jiang Botao casually found a position for Wave Sword and waited quietly.

The closest stalactites were three in number, and this so-called closest distance was also a certain distance. It was too difficult to launch a sneak attack without being discovered while crossing this distance. It seemed that Mo Fan's specialty had been cut off abruptly.

"Do you need to know my coordinates?" After selecting his position, Jiang Botao paid attention to the rotation of his view while also trying to communicate with Mo Fan again.

Mo Fan could say a few more words online than in reality, but he really didn't have the habit of communicating with his opponents during matches, especially not this kind of meaningless nonsense.

Coordinates, there's no need, because I can see you...

Behind one of the three stalactites closest to Wave Sword, Deception concealed himself.

However, this distance was not good for launching a sneak attack, so Mo Fan patiently waited.

As a result, Jiang Botao didn't move.

In this situation, if Jiang Botao didn't move, and he didn't move either, then the one who would be judged as having a passive game would be him. Mo Fan had learned this lesson and remembered it firmly.

He mentally calculated the time, and seeing that the other party really wasn't going to move from here, Mo Fan had no choice but to take action.

Behind the stalactite, Deception quietly poked his head out.

Jiang Botao kept rotating, and his all-seeing view immediately noticed that a cold light flashed before him. Deception flicked his hand, and a shuriken had already been thrown over.

Wave Sword dodged, took a step forward, and swept out with the Heaven Chain in his hand. Jiang Botao didn't expect this sword to directly hit Deception, who was only slightly revealing his body in order to attack, so when Heaven Chain swung, his wrist turned, using a Circular Wave Sword, directly cutting towards the back of the stalactite in an arc.

Deception shrank his body, and then the ninja blade swung out, quickly rising and falling, and after just a few movements, he climbed several meters high, steadily squatting on the ninja blade inserted into the stalactite.

From Jiang Botao's perspective, it was impossible to discover Deception's movements, but he didn't just let Wave Sword rush over like that. A magic swordsman was not a close-combat profession.

Wave Sword moved horizontally, trying to widen his view.

With this distance, Wave Sword's view was enough to fit Deception, who was at a high point. Mo Fan's sneak attack attempt now seemed a bit childish, completely ignoring the other party's professional characteristics.

But no one had expected that Wave Sword was moving, and Deception was also moving. Wave Sword had pulled out an angle to the side, and Deception was also going around the stalactite, continuing to hide himself.

He guessed Jiang Botao's actions!

At the edge of the arena, at the Happy team's player seats, Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and so on, all revealed gratified smiles.

Mo Fan was really becoming more and more like a professional player. Judging the opponent's intentions and making responses, it was a typical professional mindset.

He came from an unconventional background, and his technical characteristics at least had clear imprints, but his thoughts, his awareness, and his attitude were increasingly that of a professional player.

He was increasingly responding to the match according to the logic of the game, rather than the scavenging logic he was familiar with in the past. With changes in thought and awareness, then gradually, he would adjust his technical structure and play with characteristics that were more conducive to the match.

Ye Xiu was becoming less and less worried about this guy's future. He didn't like to communicate with people, but that didn't mean he refused to change himself. He had his own way of adapting. Perhaps it was slower than those who directly listened to others' teachings, and he would take more detours, but in the end, what he found would definitely be what suited him best and was most powerful.

"It's good to be young!" Wei Chen suddenly said with emotion. He had also seen Mo Fan's silent growth. He only hated that he no longer had such an opportunity. Otherwise, not to mention just being bad at communicating with people, even if it was more difficult, he would definitely try to find a way to break through and improve.

Growth, that was the main theme of young people!

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Here is the first chapter. The fatigue after six updates is indeed difficult to eliminate. My mind is a bit stiff today. Also, I have diarrhea, but of course this is not from writing, it's from eating too much Lao Gan Ma...