Chapter 471: Chapter 456 Boring Reason (Two-in-One Chapter! 5000 words!)
The first ‘professional’ league of Holy Spirit City had indeed kicked off under Lu Wei’s hosting.
Next to the Thorne Arena in Blossom Square, thirty-nine professional players from various teams had set up four new flag-planting arenas.
Players from Holy Spirit City and cloud players flocked to the event, as it was touted as a match between so of the world’s most famous eSports players!
Although it wasn’t their main job, Strife, their popularity was undeniable, and the tickets could have sold for three to four thousand, maybe even fifty to sixty thousand if they weren’t offered for free.
Not to ntion that it was free now! Players just had to find a spot in Blossom Square, and cloud players were even happier, being only the size of a thumb as spherical light bodies, they could even get close enough to lick the faces of their beloved players.
Emperor Bai had not expected the situation to develop so rapidly; Blossom Square, which had been empty, was suddenly packed to the brim.
Let alone the audience… even the comntators had already arrived.
“I am the special invited comntator and frontline reporter, an old acquaintance of everyone! The first match is between Emperor Bai of the Bai Sword Team and Lin Suan from the Caral Frenzy! Lin Suan can be considered the second in command at Caral Frenzy, and he uses the sa heavy artillery character he is skilled with in Holy Spirit City. Emperor Bai hardly needs an introduction, this legendary player, although not yet maxed out in Holy Spirit City since he’s playing in a correction match, let’s look forward to his performance!”
“You don’t have a single orange gear on you now, I’ll let you keep one-third of your health… so that no one says I’m bullying you,” Lin Suan inherited the tradition of Caral Frenzy, which was to be playfully verbose. In Caral Frenzy, only the captain, Caral, didn’t like to talk playfully; the others were more so.
“Alright!”
Emperor Bai actually accepted it and charged straight towards Lin Suan’s character with his sword drawn. Lin Suan and Caral had entered Holy Spirit City at the sa ti, so their equipnt was luxurious enough to make ninety-nine percent of the Gun Masters in the server drool over Lin Suan’s equipnt catalog.
The battle between the two players burst open in an instant. Lin Suan thought that since Emperor Bai was new to playing Holy Spirit City, he might not be fully familiar with its battle system yet.
But that was not the case!
After giving Emperor Bai a one-third health advantage, Lin Suan found that his own health couldn’t stop declining!
This legendary player, who could be inducted into the Hall of Fa for Strife, demonstrated his exceptional talent for other gas at that mont. Even though it was a correction match, Lin Suan’s attributes were still superior to Emperor Bai’s secondary account.
But it was useless! Despite Lin Suan’s aggressive efforts, he still could not beat Emperor Bai, who ultimately won with only one-tenth of his health remaining, defeating the second-in-command of Caral Frenzy!
“Oh! Emperor…pah…truly lives up to his reputation as the God of Struggle! Even in Holy Spirit City, he still exhibits a powerful dominance! Let’s congratulate Player Bai on his victory in the first ga and earning a point!” said the frontline reporter.
While this was a spontaneous – one might say fan-organized water friend match, the rules were clear: point matches, elimination rules, all were in place.
All of the players, and the other thirty-nine… no, forty-one, since two more local players of Holy Spirit City had joined, would cycle through and face each other once. Winning a match earned one point, losing deducted one, and the highest scoring player would advance to the semifinals.
The pace of competition in Holy Spirit City was fast, with flag battles hardly offering any cover. Players went head-to-head in direct confrontations, with matches typically concluding within three minutes.
Emperor Bai quickly approached his second match, facing a Berserker player with the ID, Hidden Dagger in Imperial Robes.
When Emperor Bai saw the character wearing a funny face mask step onto the stage, he slightly furrowed his brows and fell into a mont of contemplation.
“Could I ask… which team are you from?” Bai Emperor did not recall any player on the Chinese teams with this ID.
“What team? I don’t play kiddie gas like Strife!” a youthful voice ca from behind the funny mask.
Hidden Dagger in Imperial Robes’s statent was essentially a group taunt at all the professional players present and most of the players of Holy Spirit City.
Because most Holy Spirit City players had transitioned from playing Strife, only a minority had never played that ga.
This is the world’s top VR online ga!
Emperor Bai wasn’t upset by this remark, as Hidden Dagger in Imperial Robes’s voice did not seem adult.
Before Emperor Bai could ask Hidden Blade his age, the surrounding players began to inquire.
“Little bro, what you just said doesn’t cut it!”
“Although I’m a loyal player of Holy Spirit, I also play God of Struggle. Little bro, are you mocking everyone here?”
“How old are you, kid?”
“I’m thirteen this year! Top ten strongest warriors in the server! Anyone who disagrees, co duel ! Co on!” Overwheld by the chatter of the players around him, Hidden Blade beca sowhat irritable, and imdiately changed his title to the sa one that could only be unlocked by the strongest warrior in the arena.
The title of strongest warrior is a legendary one, but it has no attributes, so Hidden Blade only wears it while showing off in public.
“Thirteen years old? Really a middle schooler… no, should be a middle schooler, right?”
“Little guy, did you have soone else rank up to strongest warrior for you? How much did it cost?”
When Hidden Blade suddenly revealed his real age, it made the Holy Spirit players doubt its authenticity, as the concept of a warrior school student was a bit too incredible.
On one hand, they doubted whether Hidden Blade had misreported his age, and on the other, they suspected his ranking was achieved by soone else playing on his behalf.
But… Holy Spirit accounts are now bound to the player’s ID, so there’s no such thing as account theft or handing your account over to soone else, and even if there were Holy Spirit power-leveling services, few would dare to take on a job for the strongest warrior ranking!
So players suddenly recalled the recent Holy Spirit challenge where Hidden Blade was that unknown player who made it into the top eight!
And when the battle began, Hidden Blade proved his strength as the strongest warrior.
Aggression!
The effects of Blood Frenzy and Bloodthirst Skill were instantly applied to him, and as he glowed a faint red all over, his huge sword was already swinging.
Emperor Bai hadn’t even had ti to buff himself, but he still swung his straight sword to clash with Hidden Blade’s huge sword.
The weight of the huge sword solidly overpowered Emperor Bai’s straight sword, causing Emperor Bai’s balance to tilt slightly… When Emperor Bai tried to adjust his stance, he found Hidden Blade’s crimson blood hand gripping his collar!
Soul Devouring Hand!
Hidden Blade used a relatively secretive Berserker PVP technique with this grab, acknowledging that combat in the ga is sowhat different from reality.
Different professions have their unique hidden tricks which players gradually discover in battle.
Emperor Bai’s unfamiliarity with the many professions in the ga cost him, and after Hidden Blade’s Soul Devouring Hand made contact, it was followed by an upward strike, and right after that, his greatsword transford into a longsword made of blood.
Soul Devouring Demon Sealing Slash followed by Blade of Blood Qi! Hidden Blade unleashed two other major attacks besides his awakening skill on Emperor Bai in an instant.
Though both moves originally had significant casting delays, he managed to execute both almost instantaneously through his specialized techniques.
In that instant, Emperor Bai’s health dropped below half. He managed to counterattack and succeeded, but Hidden Blade’s combat skills evidently far surpassed Emperor Bai’s.
In less than two minutes, Hidden Blade defeated the God of Struggle maintaining half of his health advantage.
When the words “victory” appeared over Hidden Blade’s head, the once bustling Bloom Square fell suddenly silent.
Emperor Bai collapsed to the ground, with Hidden Blade’s sowhat childish voice echoing in his ears saying, “I won” those three words.
The opponent was very strong; Emperor Bai didn’t feel ashad to be defeated by a re thirteen-year-old schoolchild, but his fans felt embarrassed! His detractors seed to have found a new point to criticize.
But before any rhythm could arise in Emperor Bai’s two live-streaming rooms, his team mbers ran up to him in so panic.
“Captain, the manager said we need to stop streaming,” one of the Bai Jian team mbers said.
“Why? Aren’t we on vacation?” Emperor Bai still wanted to continue with the match.
“God of Struggle officials have issued a statent, asking to exit the ga and stop streaming before seeing how things go,” the team mber said anxiously.
Emperor Bai stood up from the ground. He noticed that other professional players from different clubs had started logging off one by one, even the players from Cola Frenzy were running towards the edge of the arena shouting at Caral.
“Captain! Xue Bi wants us to return to base!”
“Return to base? Why?”
“Because God of Struggle officials released a troubleso announcent,” a cold voice rang out from the other side of the arena, it was Bubble’s secretary, Xue Bi “If you want Thorne to recover, we can do that anyti, but let’s return to base first.”
Caral glanced at the terrifying expression on Xue Bi’s face and grudgingly decided to abandon challenging Thorne any further, opting to select the loading bar to return to base.
Seeing that most other club’s professional players chose to log off, Emperor Bai of the Bai Jian team also had no choice but to follow suit and log off.
Caral was then teleported back to Cola Frenzy’s base, now known as Holy Spirit City.
In a rather private council hall in Holy Spirit City, all the players from Cola Frenzy were gathered, along with the players from Jumping Nucleus and Caral and President Yin.
“What exactly happened?” Caral asked his boss with so dissatisfaction.
“How did you assemble this all-star lineup? You even pulled in the Bai Jian team. My god… how much is the appearance fee? Ten million? Twenty million?”
Bubble started off with a bunch of things that Caral couldn’t comprehend at all.
“Appearance fee?”
“God of Struggle officials acted on… the issue of using God of Struggle player IDs in the first Holy Spirit competition,” President Yin summarized the root cause of this event succinctly.
“ID?” Caral still didn’t understand what was going on. Surely God of Struggle officials couldn’t ban them from playing Holy Spirit? That would be their freedom of life!
Although God of Struggle officials indeed had no right to ban them from playing Holy Spirit, they did have the authority to prevent them… from playing Holy Spirit under their God of Struggle professional player identities.
President Yin directly sent Caral an official notice from God of Struggle.
It was a notice titled “Regarding the Prohibition of International Players from Playing Other Gas as God of Struggle Professional Personas.”
Caral skimd through the notice and roughly understood what the ban ant.
Firstly, the comrcial rules of the God of Struggle league entailed that the players’ ID personas and character personas were “sold” to the God of Struggle league, which would then release a variety of ga-related rchandise each year, such as figurines depicting players’ characters.
For instance, there was a figurine available online depicting Caral’s character in God of Struggle. If soone bought this officially released figurine, Caral would also receive a certain royalty.
This was a significant source of inco for professional players, but the prerequisite for receiving royalties was that the ‘Caral’ ID persona belonged to the God of Struggle officials.
“Does that an we have to change our nas when we play Holy Spirit from now on?” Pots and Pans, who had understood the ban earlier than Caral asked, “But the ID I am using isn’t my professional one on the field, so this ban doesn’t apply to , right?”
“Indeed, it doesn’t concern you, but player Caral, you might need to use a na change card to switch your ID,” said President Yin.
“Like adding a dot behind it like Feng Yi?” Caral asked while glancing at Feng Yi standing behind President Yin.
Since Feng Yi had shifted to Leap Nuclear Corp, he followed Mr. Yin like a tail. Feng Yi’s Fengshui Coback ID was occupied by soone else, so a dot was added behind it for distinction.
The ID for Bai Di also added a zero at the end, as such common IDs had already been registered in Holy Spirit City long ago.
“No, the legal departnt at the God of Struggle’s office isn’t easy to deal with, they started to think that players using the popularity of the God of Struggle league in other gas is… not a good thing.” Mr. Yin could understand the officials’ mindset at God of Struggle.
While most of the players’ popularity was indeed earned by themselves, it was also based on the hard work of the ga God of Struggle and its league operations. It was as if the players were outstanding children, and God of Struggle was the kind benefactor who supported them as they grew up.
But the benefactor’s own children suddenly taking the money given and helping a competitor’s household, would be hard for anyone to swallow.
“Caral, initially this ID was sothing I conned you into picking randomly. The na-change card in Holy Spirit isn’t expensive, how about I buy you one?” Bubble said this and even directly mailed Caral a na-change card.
Caral was tempted… Using different IDs in gaming was normal, such as Black Pot Stewing at. After his mom got a dog called ‘Play Holy Spirit,’ he started picking weird and quirky IDs.
But… A notification suddenly popped up.
‘Holy Spirit’s new expansion ‘Path to Ascension’ is now online! Holy Spirits, etch your honor on the Ascension Stele, and let the whole world rember your na as the strongest!’
Na, ID… A professional player’s ID could represent all of a player’s honor.
Caral’s real na might not be known worldwide, but once soone ntioned the ID Caral, those who don’t play God of Struggle might only think of it as a type of sugar, but players of God of Struggle would excitedly shout, I rember it’s that god who could deal nine slashes a second!
If he really thought of Holy Spirit as just an ordinary ga, he could certainly discard this ID which represented his life’s honor.
“President, when you first recruited into the team, you told … the whole team should pick funny IDs, and it would be really amusing if we were called out as world champions,” Caral said quietly, recalling the history of Cola Craze’s creation, his gaze steady as he looked at Bubble.
“Then we discovered everyone really liked drinking cola, so the club was finally nad Cola Craze. The first captain was nad Cola, and thereafter, including Caffeine, including my Caral and the owner’s Bubble, and also Lin Suan, the effect of us standing on the award stage would certainly be hilarious,” Caral said.
The atmosphere of the Cola Craze club was very entertainer-like, with every player being a king of banter, so each player was eagerly looking forward to that mont after winning the championship, when the hosts would make fun of their IDs.
“But we didn’t succeed. We’ve been a team for seven years and haven’t won a championship even once. The first captain even retired, and now we can’t even contact him. Cola Craze is missing its most important ID, Cola,” Caral said.
Bubble didn’t say anything. The whole squad of Cola Craze, although usually joking around, not securing a championship in so many years was an everlasting pain. The initial little joke had sohow beco an obsession for the players.
“I’m the second team captain. I don’t know if we can win the next God of Struggle World League, but Cola Craze… can’t be without Caral, no matter the ga!” he said, “The God of Struggle competition hasn’t started yet, but I want to inscribe this ID into the history of Holy Spirit first.”
“This… we all need to be inscribed into history together for it to count,” Bubble said softly.
The IDs of Cola Craze’s players were originally just a sarcastic comnt he made, which was ‘Isn’t the host reading out a cola ingredient list when announcing IDs?’
A trivial point of mockery, yet the players had persisted with it until now.
“Let’s inscribe it all into history, starting from the Path to Ascension instance,” Caral said.
“Cool it, I checked the Holy Spirit official site, this ti the Path to Ascension part will be stread live, and if you continue using this ID, the God of Struggle officials might penalize you with fines or point deductions,” Mr. Yin said directly.
Although Mr. Yin had broken with the sponsors of God of Struggle, it hadn’t impacted the players of Leap Nuclear Corp, but Caral’s decision could jeopardize his own career.
“That’s when I can finally say the sentence I’ve been longing to,” Bubble interjected, stopping Mr. Yin’s persuasions. “Charge whatever fines! We aren’t short on money! What about the rest of the people?”
With the captain making such a decision, the other players of Cola Craze naturally chose to stick firmly to the end.
Although the God of Struggle league hadn’t explicitly ntioned which ga they were speaking about, the CG titled “The Weak” from Holy Spirit really did pack a huge impact.
Mr. Yin was now very curious about what kind of response the Holy Spirit officials would make.
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