Chapter 392: Iron Mercenaries (2/2)
……
When it was noon, I contacted Xu Yang, Gui Guzi, Du Thirteen, and the others and had our lunch outside. Everyone’s plates were cleaned out in just two hours, and no one drank a drop of alcohol to ensure that they were in their best form. In fact, I asked them out precisely so that He Yi could speak with them and raise their morale even further. This was one of the natural responsibilities of a guild leader.
Some time after 12 pm, we went back to our respective residences and got ready for the tournament!
……
I logged into the game when it was exactly 12:45 pm!
It was like a festival was happening in Sky City. Considering the sheer number of players who were roaming the streets, I bet that a lot of students had skipped school to attend this tournament. According to the statistics, the penetration rate of Heavenblessed in all the high schools in China was around 50% to 70%, and among them, only 10% of male students chose not to play Heavenblessed despite knowing about the game. The percentage of female students who played Heavenblessed was pretty high as well. Knowing that, it would be a miracle if the afternoon classes for today were even at 10% capacity. I could already imagine the looks on the professors’ faces!
Ding~!
System Notice: Your party is participating in ”Who Will Rise”. Would you like to teleport to the match lobby now?
……
I looked over myself before clicking “Yes”. I had a ton of Rank 8 Health Potions, and my Magic Consumables were aplenty. All my equipment was at max durability, and all of my skills were ready to be used. I was literally as ready as I could be. Teleport!
Swhoosh!
A flash later, I disappeared from Sky City and appeared in a new map, an apple orchard to be exact. There was a tall platform at the center of the orchard, and above the platform, a huge screen where players could select and choose which match they wished to spectate. This was the spectator area, also the place where participants rested and waited for their turn to take part in their matches.
I checked the map interface, and the map was titled ”Who Will Rise Waiting Area No. 118747”. This clearly wasn’t the only waiting area in the entire server, and it was likely that each party was put in an independent instance until further notice. This prevented despicable tactics such as spying, provoking, social engineering and so on from being used before the start of the match. Eternal Moon Corporation sure had come a long way since the release of their first game.
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
A couple of players appeared beside me, and they were none other than the three girls of the Frost Cloud workshop. A fully armored He Yi was carrying the Soul Stealing Spear behind her back, and carrying the translucent image of her new shield, the Ice Soul Barrier, on her hand. By default, the shield didn’t manifest its physical form until the player entered combat state. This way, the players’—especially the girls’—image wouldn’t be marred by the heavy equipment they were carrying. People would complain that the system was intentionally humiliating their players otherwise, like forcing a girl to carry around a giant shield or something.
The bow in Beiming Xue’s hands was the Milky Way Bow as usual, but her armor was brand new. It was of course the new 2-star Outstanding Purple Gold–grade equipment she had gotten, the Dream Chest Armor!
Murong Mingyue was wearing a white priest robe that gave her a pure and holy outlook, but I knew better than anyone that it was just a lie.
The girls walked up to me while checking out their surroundings. He Yi couldn’t help but smile a little. ”This scenery is quite pretty, tsk tsk…”
I nodded before complaining. ”Legendary Brave is the only one who isn’t online yet. What the heck is he doing?”
”I don’t know…”
……
A few minutes later, Li Chengfeng finally teleported into the orchard.
”Haha, sorry I’m late!” Li Chengfeng greeted us with a smile.
I looked at him before asking, ”What took you so long? Weren’t you afraid that you’d miss the first match?”
”Not at all, hahaha!” Li Chengfeng laughed. ”In fact, I have absolute confidence that the four of you would have made it through all 20 rounds of the preliminaries even if I wasn’t around…”
I didn’t know what to say. ”Should I thank you or diss you for the vote of confidence?”
”Hah!” Li Chengfeng chuckled once before finally explaining himself. ”I was attending a meeting that was going to last until 4 pm. But I’m here now precisely because I care about the tournament, right?”
”Er, won’t that affect your career?”
Li Chengfeng looked surprised for a moment before he assured me, ”Don’t worry, I have my connections…”
”...”
The balls on this guy. To this day I had no idea what his position in the Public Security Bureau was, but on the second thought, I didn't need to know. A normal person like me could never understand his position anyway.
……
A while later, Li Chengfeng asked, ”Should we come up with a strategy or something before the fight?”
He Yi answered, ”It's fine. There will be a party reveal two minutes before the start of the match, so we can decide our strategy after we check out the enemy's information. It would suck if we came up with a fixed strategy, and the opponent was its direct counter.”
”Okay, the guild leader is wise!”
Finally, it was almost time for the match to begin. The looped CGL advertisements on the screen came to a stop, and the formation of both sides appeared on the screen—
Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls VS Iron Mercenaries
……
As He Yi mentioned earlier, the IDs and information of Iron Mercenaries appeared on the screen—
Iron War Tiger LV-101 Warrior
Iron Mad Dragon LV-102 Warrior
Iron Hunt Cheetah LV-102 Warrior
Iron Silver Fox LV-101 Warrior
Iron Mad Wolf LV-101 Warrior
……
I couldn't help but laugh. ”Wow, all their levels are pretty high. Looks like this is a full-warrior brute-force party.”