translator: Oyen editor: Ciel
After the quarterfinals ended, lots were drawn to determine the match arrangements for the semifinals—— Mojue VS Without Fire, Dynasty VS Frost Moon.
Without Fire’s Nie Yuzhu, Jing Yang and Zhou Yanbing were players from double ring, double sword and longsword flow respectively. All three were close-combat melee; Nie Yuzhu and Zhou Yanbing were veterans, while Jing Yang was the newcomer whom the club was invested in training. All three players had similar individual strengths, thus the key to the competition would be their lineup.
Qin Mo didn’t care about the competition’s results. Aside from the champion who would earn 12 points, the other teams who made it to the top four would all gain 10 points each. This gap wasn’t big. Furthermore, Mojue was ranked first at the moment, and even if they failed to win this championship, the team’s ranking would not be affected.
At 8:00pm in the evening, Qin Mo instructed the remaining members in the club to log in to the online game.
There was still over a month’s time before the team battles in the second half of the year. In order to familiarise the teams with the competition rules in advance, the officials had opened a ‘custom room’ on the online game. This allowed the room owners to freely choose a competition mode, and the system would automatically simulate the process.
Qin Mo had made an appointment with Dynasty for a friendly match tonight. After logging in to the server at 8:00pm, he received a private chat message from Chu Jianxin——
Merging Sky And Sea: “God Mo, custom room number 788, password 7896.”
Ink Mark: “Received.”
Copying the message, Qin Mo sent to Mojue’s group chat. Everyone immediately entered the custom room, where Dynasty’s members were already waiting.
Merging Sky And Sea: “God Mo, has everyone on your side arrived?”
Ink Mark: “Yes.”
Merging Sky And Sea: “Is god Han not coming?”
Ink Mark: “I allowed him to rest and prepare for tomorrow’s game.”
End Of The World: “Look, other people’s captains are so considerate.”
The person who said this was obviously Sang Jun, and Chu Jianxin immediately retorted: “I’m also very considerate. Knowing that you’re bored, I specifically invited you over to relieve your boredom ^_^”
Having already gotten used to captain Chu’s cheekiness, Sang Jun could only sigh helplessly.
A strange silence filled the room.
“I always feel like when two teams meet in a private room, it’s like going for a blind date,” Chu Jianxin typed. “It’s rather embarrassing, I’m not sure of what to say…”
A lively rookie from Dynasty immediately jumped forth with a joke. “Blind date? Who does the captain fancy, let’s snatch them back to be the captain’s wife?”
Sang Jun also sent the same query. “Who caught your eye?”
Chu Jianxin sent a blushing emoticon: “God Mo, what do you think of me? Would you like to be the captain’s wife?”
Qin Mo: “…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Zbpef’r afjw wfwyfgr: “…”
Pa kjr fcbeut ab wjxf atlr rbga bo pbxf klatlc atf afjw, mbeiv sbe cba vb atlr rbga bo atlcu lc qeyilm? Qtfgf kjr sbeg mjqajlc’r vfwfjcbeg? Snfgsbcf ogbw Gscjras kjcafv ab rklamt mjqajlcr lwwfvljafis.
Ca atlr wbwfca, j ilcf bo afza revvfcis jqqfjgfv lc atf gbbw mtja——
Thousand Miles Ice: “Oho? Who is so bold as to steal our family’s Xiao Mo?”
Everyone: “…”
Chu Jianxin immediately sent a row of fearful emoticons: “I said nothing, please spare me, god Han! I don’t dare to steal your god Mo, I was wrong!”
“As long as you don’t dare, all is forgiven.” Xiao Han sent a headpat emoticon.
“Xiao Han, why are you here?” Qin Mo wondered.
“Night time is for resting. I heard you were fighting a friendly match, so I came over to observe.” Xiao Han replied.
Having received a reply, Qin Mo didn’t bother to ask any more. “Then, let’s begin.”
Chu Jianxin immediately pressed the button to start the match.
As Qin Mo sat in the commander’s seat, a prompt appeared, instructing him to roll the dice. Qin Mo rolled 88 points. On Dynasty’s side, Chu Jianxin rolled 67 points.
Following this, another prompt appeared—— you have rolled a higher score. Please select: [go first], [allow the opponent to go first].
This was different from the earlier competitions. Previously, players who rolled a higher number of points were automatically given priority in selecting a map. However, in this three-member competition, the option of allowing the opponent to go first was available. In other words, the side with the higher number of points could choose to take the initiative, or to give their opponents the chance.
Watching from the sidelines, Sang Jun couldn’t help sending a message: “The person with the highest number of points can allow the other side to go first?”
“En,” Qin Mo replied. “Let me try.”
Qin Mo chose to give the opponent the initiative, and a prompt immediately appeared on Chu Jianxin’s side—— please select three maps.
Chu Jianxin quickly selected three maps from the map library, namely Mingzhou Square, Mingzhou Arena, and Mingzhou City East Gate.
Sang Jun was speechless. “Can you be a little more serious?”
“I am very serious,” Chu Jianxin laughed. “All three maps have names starting with ‘Mingzhou’.”
Sang Jun was too lazy to bother, choosing to address Qin Mo instead. “Captain Qin, how many maps can you ban?”
“The system prompts you to pick one of the three.” As Qin Mo said this, he quickly banned two maps, leaving only Mingzhou Square.
The next prompt appeared before Chu Jianxin—— please select the contestants.
Five boxes appeared on the screen. After Chu Jianxin submitted five names, another prompt appeared before Qin Mo: Please ban one person from playing. Otherwise, select ‘abstain’.
If one person was banned, the other side could only choose three people from the remaining four. Thus, it was likely that in the three-member competition, the great gods who were the cores of their teams would be banned. The reason the league came up with such a system was to force a competition of comprehensive strengths, as well as to give the newcomers more opportunities.
With this new format, teams supported by only one or two gods were expected to face tragic circumstances. Qin Mo could already predict that the other teams would ban either Xiao Han or himself, breaking up their Twin Stars combination in this three-member competition.
“The officials are too hateful,” Chu Jianxin gloated. “This sort of competition system is basically a ‘breakup competition system’!”
It was really a ‘breakup competition system’. Many ace pairs in the league were likely to face the situation where one of them was banned.
“There’s an option to abstain,” Sang Jun explained. “If no one is banned, then the opponents will also be forbidden from banning when it is their turn.”
“Both sides will come forth with their strongest lineups, which is also a possible strategy,” Chu Jianxin mused. “However, I feel like no one would dare to let Twin Stars go when meeting Mojue? God Han and god Mo are destined to break up temporarily ^_^”
Xiao Han frowned. “Captain Chu, you seem to be very happy that Qin Mo and I will be separated?”
“Of course, the double BOSSis too powerful, removing one will make it easier~~” Chu Jianxin teased.
Qin Mo didn’t care in the slightest. In fact, neither he nor Xiao Han were likely to play in the three-member competition. After all, there were plenty of lineups that Mojue could send. As a healer, Li Muran could bring along two outputs, or could team up with Zhu Qingyue to play a slow fight with a healer and auxiliary protecting the core output. Three outputs could also team up to play a fast break—— Mojue had never been a team of just Qin Mo and Xiao Han, and Qin Mo had already made plans to give the newcomers more opportunities in the three-member competition.
There were only 5 seconds left on the countdown when Qin Mo chose to abstain. As a result, Chu Jianxin was forced to abstain when Qin Mo submitted his list of five names, allowing both sides to send their best teams in a friendly manner.
Qin Mo sent three newcomers, He Beiguang, Pei Yu and Li Muran. Chu Jianxin also sent a lineup of newcomers.
Watching from the sidelines, Zhu Qingyue couldn’t help but speak up. “This competition system is very friendly to teams with a comprehensive lineup and strong comprehensive strength. Mojue will never have to worry about our core being banned. After all, if you are banned, we will still have Xiao Han, and if Xiao Han is banned, there is still me. Our lineup is varied, and cannot be cripped by the opponents’ ban.”
“Indeed,” Qin Mo nodded in agreement. “The most unlucky team is Sword Song. After all, their only first-class player is Lin Shuangcheng, and if he is banned, Xiao Song will be under great pressure.” Pausing, Qin Mo corrected himself. “But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Xiao Song can use this opportunity to temper himself.”
“That’s true.” Zhu Qingyue nodded in agreement. “While the first side still has the advantage of a home map, the second side can choose to ban players or abstain, giving them more flexibility in their tactics.”
“En, regardless of whether it’s a home or away game, it’s fair to both sides.” Pausing for a moment, Qin Mo turned to face the other. “Qingyue, you’ve brought a three-member team to practice lately. How’s it coming along?”
“Our practice is coming along smoothly. We’ll do another run after Xiao Han and the others get back,” Zhu Qingyue replied.
The map loaded at this moment. Realising that the game was about to begin, Qin Mo and Zhu Qingyue paused their conversation to focus on the friendly match.
Xiao He, Xiao Pei and Muran fought against Dynasty’s three newcomers in Mingzhou Arena. Mojue had the stable lineup of a meat shield, an output, and a healer, while Dynasty had an explosive lineup of three outputs. They joined hands to kill He Beiguang, but because of Li Muran’s healing, they were unable to kill He Beiguang for a while, causing the battle to fall into a stalemate.
Pei Yu acted according to the circumstances to attack Dynasty’s players from a distance. However, Li Muran was under great pressure. He Beiguang was constantly being attacked, and had to be healed continuously…
Suddenly, as Li Muran’s skill went on cooldown, the opposing swordsman took the opportunity to control him. Dynasty’s three members then joined hands to kill the residual blood He Beiguang, whose death left a gap in Mojue’s formation. The three newcomers from Dynasty then attacked Pei Yu, killing him almost immediately.
Looking at the word ‘failure’ that had appeared on their screens, Xiao He and Xiao Pei were somewhat embarrassed, while Li Muran’s face was still expressionless.
“It doesn’t matter,” Qin Mo encouraged. “You’ve never cooperated in a three person match. This result isn’t too poor.”
At least, everyone was clear about what they ought to be doing, and the temporary lineup was not disorganised. It showed that their personal ability had reached the standard of professional players, but there was a clear lack of consciousness, resulting in their poor ability to cooperate with their teammates.
Xiao Han sent a private chat message to Qin Mo. “It seems that in this three-member competition, one of us will definitely be banned.”
“Don’t worry,” Qin Mo replied. “We still have Qingyue. His practice is about done; when it’s necessary, we can let Qingyue take command.”
Xiao Han sent a smiling emoticon “Yes, Qingyue is also a captain, and his consciousness is not worse than ours.”
“Do you want to keep watching?” Qin Mo asked.
Xiao Han: “I won’t play until tomorrow afternoon anyway, I am idle now.”
“You must take a bath and sleep before 10:00pm,” Qin Mo requested. “You should get enough rest.”
“En, I’ll listen to you,” Xiao Han replied.
He seemed to be very relaxed, not at all nervous for the semi-finals tomorrow.
Qin Mo also believed that Xiao Han had a sense of propriety, so he said no more and continued to watch the game. Dynasty’s three newcomers ought to have practiced their combination before. Among them, one of the outputs in the back row was very strong, and ought to be a reserve player trained by Sang Jun.
The second game was Qin Mo’s home map. He selected an obstacle penetration map, and Dynasty changed their lineup, sending a healer in the place of a newcomer.
Both sides had healers, but Pei Yu’s output was still insufficient, and Xiao He’s output was very limited. The moment both healers ran out of blue, Dynasty’s double outputs joined hands to kil Pei Yu, winning themselves another game.
Both teams continued to play. Out of a total of ten games, Mojue won four and lost six. Seeing that it was nearly 10:00pm, Qin Mo prompted everyone to go offline and get some rest.
***
Everyone else had left, but Li Muran was still in the training room, tidying up his station slowly. Realising his intentions, Qin Mo asked. “Do you have something to say?”
“Captain Qin,” Li Muran greeted. “I think that Mojue’s great gods are very strong, but between our newcomers and the other teams’ newcomers… there is still a gap.”
Today, after losing six out of ten games to Dynasty, Li Muran realised that Xiao He and Xiao Pei were not on the same level as other teams’ rookies. After all, Dynasty was backed by a powerful club, and had extremely strict requirements for their newcomers. Their newcomers had a solid foundation and good personal strength. When it came to the team battles, as long as a single teammate made a mistake, if caught by the opponent, the formation of the entire team could collapse.
“I have already taken this into consideration,” Qin Mo replied easily. “I will give Xiao He and Xiao Pei more opportunities during the three-member competition.”
Embarrassed, Li Muran lowered his head. “I’ve overstepped my boundaries. So, captain Qin has already considered this.”
Qin Mo smiled. “It’s good that you can think from the perspective of the team as a whole. Go to bed early, and don’t be too hard on yourself.”
Li Muran nodded. After returning to the dormitory, he received a notification of a red packet from Shen He on his mobile phone. “I heard that you lost six messages in the friendly match. I’ll give you 66 yuan, hehe, good night!”
His mood improving instantly, Li Muran accepted the red packet with a smile—— he had almost forgotten. While Pei Yu and He Beiguang were not as good as Dynasty’s newcomers, Mojue still had an outstanding rookie in Shen He.
Li Muran has so much confidence in Shen He… 😏
Thank you for the chapter~~! 💜💜💜
Yes, he believes in Shen He 😏
You’re welcome~ 😍