"Are both of them pretty weak?"
Upon hearing Zhang nglong's words, the surrounding team mbers all showed surprised expressions.
Although the audience for Street Fighter is not nearly as large as global smash hit gas like League of Legends, when it cos to the difficulty of the gaplay, it is actually not at all inferior to those gas.
A Street Fighter expert can win against a regular player's three characters with just one character without losing a sliver of health, and Luo Ling and Wei Weihai were almost at that level.
In the entire Street Fighter gaming scene, they had notable reputations. In the finals of the last National Street Fighter Internet Cafe Competition, Luo Ling's endga execution in terms of refinent and difficulty even garnered praise from many international players; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe it as an instant classic.
It was because of this competition that Luo Ling suddenly gained a huge following of fans, both dostically and internationally, and even the world champion of Street Fighter spoke very highly of him.
In the eyes of the other team mbers, although the two of them were sowhat arrogant and overbearing within the team, they absolutely recognized their strength. If those two were to be described as "weak," then what did that make them?
Although Zhang nglong was their boss, every esports player had their own dignity. Zhang nglong could say their work was inattentive and not proactive, but insulting their level of play was sothing they could absolutely not tolerate!
"I heard that both of you have quoted a price of 2 million a year?" Zhang nglong continued to ask.
The two snorted coldly, implicitly confirming the figure, even though this price was a bit of an exaggeration for them. Among professional Street Fighter players, even the top international players only have a base salary of about 200,000 US dollars, excluding competition prize money.
"But in my eyes, even giving you 200,000 Huaxia currency a year would be too high!"
"What?" Both widened their eyes in disbelief. Although the team they were on before was not as formal and large-scale as Wang Ling's club, a base salary of 200,000 Huaxia currency was an insult to top-tier players like them!
"What? Not convinced?" Zhang nglong said with a smile, "But in terms of your skills, that's all they're worth!"
"Boss Zhang!" Luo Ling finally couldn't hold back.
"Luo Ling, what are you going to do?" the coach imdiately restrained Luo Ling. However, Luo Ling shrugged off the coach's hand, completely ignoring his authority.
"It's fine, let him speak," Zhang nglong said with a smile.
"Boss Zhang, since you say our skills are poor, yours must be 'peerless,'" Luo Ling intentionally stressed the words "peerless," "how about we spar in a match, so this noob can have his eyes opened?"
Wang Ling's face suddenly changed at this. Having known Zhang nglong for so long, when they hung out together, the thing they did most was play gas. However, Zhang nglong was like a gaming black hole; whenever he watched a ga, his comntary made him seem like a world champion, but when it ca to actually playing, he was incredibly bad.
Especially with fighting gas, Zhang nglong took the term "noob" to a whole new level. When facing off against Wang Ling, he was almost always defeated three to one or even sotis three against two, and to date, he had not won a single ti.
Even after every loss, Zhang nglong would bla his keyboard or controller, but Wang Ling knew very well that each piece of Zhang nglong's gaming equipnt was worth no less than a hundred thousand. His computer was a supercomputer used as the mainfra, the display screen had military strategic-level clarity, and even his mouse was diamond-encrusted.
To describe Zhang nglong's gaming skill, there was only one phrase—"to be bad is the original sin."
In the esports circle, the value of APM (Actions Per Minute) varies between gas. For instance, in gas like Warcraft, where the sa button is often repeatedly pressed, even an APM of 300 can have a lot of fluff.
However, for fighting gas, the APM is solid and without any fluff. According to Wang Ling's records, Luo Ling's APM surpassed 321, and according to official data, the current world champion's APM is roughly around 347, which is a quite frightening figure.
Now that Luo Ling, the Huaxia champion, wanted to have a go with Zhang nglong, Wang Ling believed that if Zhang nglong did his best, he would perform quite well if he could take down even half of Luo Ling's health bar. It was even quite possible he wouldn't land a single effective hit!
If Zhang nglong agreed, he was sure to be humiliated and suffer a complete defeat, but if he refused, Boss Zhang would no longer have any authority or credibility going forward. Whether Zhang nglong accepted the challenge or not, it was not a good situation for him.
Of course, Zhang nglong could fire them for the sake of his dignity, but such high-level players are not easily replaceable, and their loss would certainly be a blow to the team!
"Of course!" To everyone's surprise, Zhang nglong actually agreed imdiately. "However, I have one condition!"
"What condition?" Luo Ling asked.
"If you win, I'll raise your salary to 5 million a year, and I won't care how you throw your weight around in this team!"
"Fine!" Luo Ling agreed without a second thought. In his mind, he had never even considered the possibility of losing, as money and skill had no correlation whatsoever.
"And if you lose?" Zhang nglong asked in return.
"If I lose, I'll let you dispose of
as you wish!"
"There's no need for that," Zhang nglong said with a laugh. "If you lose, you'll work for
for free for three years and are forbidden from insulting your teammates ever again. How does that sound?"
"Deal! It's settled!" Luo Ling said eagerly, as if the salary of 5 million US dollars a year was already within his grasp.
"Let's go." Zhang nglong picked up the controller,
The rules were simple: each player chose three characters, and a player would lose once all three of their characters were defeated.
Both players selected the sa characters—Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li—except that the order in which they were deployed was slightly different. Zhang nglong's order was Ken, Chun-Li, Ryu, while Luo Ling had chosen Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken.
"Luo Ling doesn't plan on leaving any face for the boss!" When the onlookers saw Luo Ling choose Chun-Li first, they imdiately had a bad feeling. Chun-Li was the character Luo Ling was most proficient with and was also his signature character. He had once managed to pull off a 41-hit combo in a competition, instantly beating a professional player's character with full health.
"Round 1 ready fight!"
Luo Ling's hands moved at an unimaginable speed, launching a torrential barrage of attacks on Zhang nglong, who appeared like a complete novice, being hit with a 35-hit combo by Luo Ling's Chun-Li.
"Damn! I can't bear to watch this!" Wang Ling covered his eyes with his hand, his expression showing embarrassnt, "Going head-to-head with a national champion, isn't this just asking for trouble while trying to save face?"
The other team mbers also looked at Zhang nglong with pity. In this team, aside from Wei Weihai, no one had ever forced Luo Ling to use his third character.
Following this trend, it looked like Zhang nglong wouldn't even be able to deal a bit of damage.
"Round 2 ready fight!"
"Pop pop pop..."
Another 37-hit combo, and Zhang nglong was taken down in seconds again!
"Luo Ling, leave so face for the boss!" Wei Weihai purposely said loudly.
Indeed, in the third round, after a series of practiced combos, Zhang nglong was left with only a sliver of health. One more hit and the forced damage would take away that last bit of health, declaring Zhang nglong's complete defeat in this contest.
When everyone's gaze turned to Zhang nglong's face, wanting to see his expression, he actually revealed a strange smile.
"Well, that's about right!" Zhang nglong said. "Now I'm going to tell you just how 'lousy' your skills are!"
"Hmph, tough talk!" Luo Ling muttered to himself, his hands moving rapidly once again.
"It's over!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, a salary of 5 million a year, and it's so easy to get. I'm jealous!"
"Wait a second! Boss Zhang blocked it!"
"What? Blocked the chip damage? Is this blocking?"
What they referred to as blocking was a brand-new defensive system where a player, just before the opponent's move hit them, could push the joystick to the right or downwards and block the attack completely without losing any health!
But this maneuver demanded extrely high reaction ti and operation speed from the player.
"Just once, it must be luck, right?"
"Definitely luck. Even a beginner can manage that kind of block occasionally!"
But what happened next had everyone's eyes wide open.
Zhang nglong's expression was calm, his hands moving rhythmically, and Luo Ling's following 13 attacks were all perfectly blocked by Zhang nglong using the blocking technique!
Luo Ling's expression instantly froze.
"This... This is impossible!"
Wang Ling's eyes were filled with disbelief. "This guy, he was pretending all along!"
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