The King's Avatar

124, 131.

Shen Jian's Striker Lethe headed towards the coordinates mentioned by Tang Rou, but he wasn't moving fast or slow. His wading in the mud and water showed the uncertainty in his heart. When he was almost at the destination, he didn't directly show his face. He searched his surroundings as if he were looking for a good spot to set up an ambush.

His opponent had justly and honorably declared her position, but he was stealthily creeping forward preparing for an ambush. Most people usually despised this sort of dirtiness. Luckily, this was Team Miracle's home ground, so the boos from the crowd were more subdued.

Shen Jian looked around for awhile before finally finding a position that he liked and then sprinted towards it.

No one?

His gaze moved towards the coordinates 124, 131, but there were no signs of Soft Mist.

"You liar!" Shen Jian was furious. He felt like he had fallen for a trick. This had to be a trap, yes, a trap. As he lashed out in chat, he immediately had Lethe quickly leave.

"What, you've arrived?" Tang Rou replied back in chat.

Shen Jian ignored her. Don't even think about using words to distract me, Shen Jian thought, forgetting that he was the one who had started this conversation.

"You're too slow. If I didn't walk around for a bit, the referee would punish me," Tang Rou said.

Shen Jian didn't believe her, but the crowd knew she was telling the truth. After Tang Rou announced her location, Soft Mist stood there waiting the entire time. However, Shen Jian's Lethe kept dilly-dallying. When he had almost reached her location, he started looking for an ambush spot. Tang Rou had waited for quite a while before she had Soft Mist start moving around.

"I'm on my way back. Just wait there." Tang Rou said.

Shen Jian was suddenly in a panic. Lethe spun around, his gaze sweeping over his surroundings, searching for Tang Rou's location. The crowd stared blankly at him. Wasn't this supposed to be a fight between two players? From the looks of it, why did it feel like he was playing hide and seek!

Shen Jian didn't just stand there like an honest person. After spinning around twice, he felt like there were too many places for his opponent to come out from. There weren't any ambush spots nearby, which meant that she had run away...

The home crowd was Team Miracle's, so they endured it once more.

Quite a few people were looking forward to how the show would continue forward though because the escape route chosen by Shen Jian just happened to be Soft Mist's return route. The crowd had a bird's eye view of the situation, so they could see it very clearly.

The two sides finally met face to face. This surprise encounter once again made Shen Jian panic, but Tang Rou didn't even greet him before attacking.　

Dragon Breaks the Ranks!

A dragon instantly appeared in front of him.

Shen Jian's Lethe moved backwards to dodge and evaded it. His character glanced around. It seemed like he was searching for an escape route.

The match has already reached this point, and you're still thinking about running away?

How is he planning on playing this match?

This time, the crowd had no answer and boos gradually started coming out. It wasn't that the those who played dirty couldn't accept running away, but those who played dirty weren't this gutless in a direct confrontation either. Running away needed to have a clear tactical intent, but Shen Jian? The crowd couldn't see even a glimpse of a plan. From the start, he had appeared overcautious the entire time. He was now faced with his opponent's spear, yet he was still like this.

Can you win with this sort of attitude?

Bang!

A Falling Flower Palm pushed forward. Shen Jian wasn't able to react in time, and Lethe shot backwards. However, Lethe was surrounded by walls on three sides. Lethe slammed into a wall and then rebounded back. Soft Mist's Furious Dragon Strikes the Heart welcomed him and pinned him back to the wall.

"What is he doing?"

The crowd wasn't just booing. Angry curses were starting to be thrown out.　

Even He Ming and Wang Ze, Shen Jian's former teammates, his two pals after coming to Team Miracle, were also having trouble watching.

"What's wrong with him?" He Ming asked Wang Ze. Who could Wang Ze ask? It looked like Shen Jian was the player being pointed at by everyone, fearful and nervous from the pressure. As for Tang Rou's Soft Mist? Her temperament, playstyle, and drive were no different than before. Shen Jian's gaze shifted towards Happy's player area. An Esports Time was quietly sitting where Tang Rou had been sitting at before.

What's going on? Did I give her the wrong one?

He Ming didn't dare to believe it. The other players on Happy might not be affected, but he had trouble believing that a rookie like Tang Rou would feel nothing from the pressure of the public.

"Little Tang is playing quite relaxed," Ye Xiu commented on Happy's side.　

Would Tang Rou be affected by this pressure? It wasn't just Team Miracle who cared, Happy cared even more. And from this match, it couldn't be said that Tang Rou was completely unaffected because there truly had been some changes.

For example, in the dialogue in this match, the previous Tang Rou wouldn't have bothered with topics unrelated to the match. But now, she could mischievously tease Fang Rui and chat a few words with Shen Jian. This was a change in attitude. She wasn't impatient to prove the public opinion wrong, but rather player in a more relaxed way. With her personality, she might not be able excite her full potential, but controlling and adjusting her emotions purposefully was a more mature transformation.

Shen Jian's cowardice put him in a stifled position. His ten percent health instantly disappeared and then he started falling behind, losing to panic. Under this vicious cycle, he suffered a crushing defeat to Tang Rou.

"What were you doing?" He Ming ruthlessly berated Shen Jian. It wasn't like they couldn't afford losing, but in the end, Shen Jian had only been able to take away 20 percent of Tang Rou's health. This sort of trash performance was practically the same as giving away the point. He Ming couldn't understand what had happened to Shen Jian. Why did his playing suddenly take a dive? Their Team Miracle had prepared amply for this match, and seeing that their opponents were at the sharp end of the public's stick, their mentality going into the match had been quite solid. The rookies that joined the Alliance along with Team Miracle might have lost, but they performed very well. On the other hand, it was Shen Jian, their anchor for the group arena, that had lost in such an embarrassing manner.

Shen Jian didn't know how to explain himself. He had been given such a heavy responsibility, but it turned out that he had no confidence with this heavy responsibility. It was truly very shameful. In Team Miracle, he had acted quite arrogant as a capable senior. He didn't want his lofty image to crumble this easily.

"We can't lose this team competition! We can't be shaven clean by them, can we?" He Ming saw that Shen Jian hadn't responded. He didn't say anything more and started encouraging the team for the following team competition.

However… they had been quite confident about this match, but in the group arena and individual competition, Happy annihilated their forces. The psychological advantage held previously by Team Miracle had disappeared long ago. In particular, each of them hiding a copy of the Esports Time and then giving the copy to their opponents wasn't exactly a good-looking move, yet their method was completely ineffective and might end up being laughed at later. In this round, everyone in Team Miracle felt like they were clowns.

"Happy's team strength is much worse than their individual strength. Their teamwork isn't good. This is our chance." He Ming said.　

However, everyone already knew this. He Ming repeating it didn't do anything.

He Ming didn't know what to do with their downed spirits. In reality, his confidence had been killed too. It was just that he was the team captain, so he kept reminding himself not to show weakness.

"What's there to be afraid of! At worst, we lose! We're just a new team with new players. Go in with a learning attitude!" At this moment, the punk Guo Shao jumped out and yelled. He was still bursting with life, filled with hope towards this following team competition. He actually dared to say something like "At worse, we lose!" Perhaps no team captain would ever say these words, but that was the truth, and it actually eased the players up quite a bit. Even Shen Jian seemed to have relaxed. He didn't belong to the "new players" category!

"We can do this!" Guo Shao might as well just jump into the crowd and start cheering for his teammates. He attracted quite the attention from the crowd.　　

The team competition began shortly afterwards. Guo Shao's words had been quite effective. With the attitude of "At worst, we lose," Team Miracle's players let loose. But the problem was that once they let loose, they couldn't keep it together. In the end, they were a new team too. They had problems with teamwork because of their lack of experience. He Ming, Shen Jian, and Wang Ze were experienced players, but they weren't experienced as core players. Their ability to keep things together clearly couldn't compare to Ye Xiu, Su Mucheng, and Fang Rui, who had all once been top core players in their teams.

Their home map advantage wasn't able to help them. In the end, Team Happy won the team competition, sweeping Team Miracle 10 to 0.

The other matches taking place that same day ended in succession. In the ninth round, an extremely unusual scene appeared. There were unexpectedly 5 perfect wins this round, and all of them were away game victories.

Team Happy versus Team Miracle: 10 to 0.

Team Blue Rain versus Team Conquering Clouds: 10 to 0.

Team Tyranny versus Team Lightly: 10 to 0.

Team Samsara versus Team Bright Green: 10 to 0.

Team Tiny Herb versus Team Seaside: 10 to 0.

Apart from Team Happy and Team Miracle, the other four matches were all strong versus weak team matchups. However, the weak teams had the home game advantage. Not being able to win even a single point was very surprising. The public opinion believed that as the league developed, the disparity between the top teams and weak teams was growing larger and larger. The powerhouses prospered in the current scene, receiving more resources than weak teams and then using these greater resources to further strengthen their team. Under this cycle, the strong teams became stronger, while the weak teams became weaker. The new teams without any strong financial backers seemed to have difficulty breaking through these strong teams. Team Heavenly Swords had initially been looked at highly because of their strong backing, but who would have thought that their boss would be personally taking up the banner. Their expectations for Team Heavenly Swords would have to wait until after this boss lost his interest in playing.