Editor: Decembery
In the semi-finals, Team Eagle Riders once again encountered Team Su Se.
It had only been half a month since the end of the Summer Season, therefore, Su Se had not yet formed a very targeted and actionable strategy against the Eagle Riders’ lineup. As such, they reverted to a stable game plan in the Star Alliance Cup semifinals.
However, this time, the commander’s position returned to Wang Kaiqi.
After all, Wang Kaiqi was a player with many years of experience and thus was more skillful than Tang Weiran in his methods of dealing with various situations on the battlefield. However, it was a shame that his habits had long been dissected and studied by the Eagle Riders.
The young commander didn’t have enough experience, but the old commander had been studied thoroughly—this was Su Se’s main problem at this point in time.
The Eagle Riders won steadily in the first game of the semifinals.
In the second game, Qiu Yu didn’t go on-field. In the thirty-second minute, Su Se grasped a chance to make a comeback and slowly reversed the situation before eventually obtaining victory.
In the third game, Qiu Yu returned and the arena once more became a stage to show off the perfect tacit cooperation between him and Mu Feibai.
Although the commentator couldn’t make any rash conclusions, the First Star District’s netizens and fans already accepted the truth in their hearts—In this year’s semifinals, Su Se, unfortunately, had no hope of winning against the Eagle Riders.
[Having god Qiu and god Mu on-field at the same time is literally a bug—both of them can beat up three on their own, but there are only five on a team. Their opponents can’t spend all their energy to suppress them and ignore Zhou Shu, Du Chen, and Lin Jinxi.]
[Du Chen also improved quite a bit since the beginning of the Simmer Season. If Su Se really ended up sending all their members to target god Qiu and god Mu, Du Chen would probably be able to shoulder the burden. Moreover, although Zhou Shu’s performance isn’t outstanding, he’s still someone who entered the team at the same time as god Mu. There definitely won’t be problems if he covers everyone else.]
[What a shame that Su Se always meets the Eagle Riders in semifinal rounds—one of them will have to be eliminated QAQ]
On the other hand, the netizens in other districts weren’t so conflicted. From their perspective, the more spectacularly Team EWG won, the happier they would be.
[Wow I just love watching MU and Cupid on the field together! Each of them would be involved in exciting battles, watching them fight is definitely a feast for the eyes!]
[Hahaha I’ve discovered that as long as Cupid is on-field, MU’s attacking rhythm would also speed up! Their cooperation is certainly the cream of the crop!]
[I must say, MU’s potential can only be fully released in the presence of strong teammates. I used to think he cooperated quite well with FOAL and INSTANT, but after seeing him and Cupid—my god! These two are the ultimate partners, like coffee and milk!]
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.
[What a shame that Cupid’s physique isn’t very strong, he was immediately carried off by the doctor after the third round. I hope he’ll return in time for the fifth.]
[I thought the Star Alliance Cup allowed players to remain in the game cabin between games? If Cupid did that, he wouldn’t be that physically exhausted. Why is he leaving in between games?]
[Because of Eastern Third District’s complaint! They just don’t want Cupid to rest in the game cabin so they requested for a change in rules to prevent players from doing so! My heart hurts so much for Cupid—the competition’s already so intense, yet those Alphas from SCS are still trying to hurt him all the time! Who knows how much pain he’s in…]
Hle Te vgfk j rtjgq ygfjat ogbw atf qjlc jr tf ijs ojmf vbkc bc atf lcolgwjgs yfv.
Hl Itfofcu qgfrrfv vbkc bc tlr agfwyilcu yjmx. Llr nblmf tfiv rbwf ecmifjg fwbalbc, “Ciatbeut wjrrjuf atfgjqs mjc tfiq klat atf qjlc, la’ii jirb wjxf sbeg cfgnfr fcafg j qfglbv bo gfijzjalbc. Po sbe fzqfglfcmf jcbatfg revvfc rtbmx, atf jvnfgrf gfjmalbc klii yf fnfc wbgf lcafcrf. Qlatbea jc jvfdejaf qfglbv bo gfra, la lr abb tjgrt bc sbeg ybvs ab gfaegc lwwfvljafis ab atf mbwqfalalbc.”
Qiu Yu wiped the tears and cold sweat that beaded his forehead due to the pain on the pillow and sighed, “There’s nothing to do about it. That’s how the rules are, so I’ll just have to endure.”
After another muffled groan, he took a deep breath and smiled, “The good thing is that I’m less affected now. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t be in a good condition if I alternate between rounds like this.”
At least, he could still guarantee that his performance wouldn’t be affected. The worst case would be that the pain would be more intense afterwards.
Qi Zhefeng fell silent for a moment and replied, “Seems like the Third District’s schemes fell through.”
……
“Could it be that you want Third District’s scheme to succeed?”
In the game, Mu Feibai smiled towards his teammates as he reached for a gun in their base.
“If we can win this game even without Qiu Yu on-field, that would truly be shattering KKL and MIG’s schemes.”
“Got it.” Zhou Shu inserted bullets into his sniper rifle, “We did have a chance to win in the second game, but I messed up and didn’t get in place in time. Ran-jie is indeed still the rock to my scissors, sigh…”
Du Chen carried his gun and stood by the base’s doors silently, waiting for the countdown to end.
If there was a chance, he would of course want to win. He really didn’t want to see the scene of Qiu Yu being carried away by the doctor, bone-pale one more time.
To improve, he trained even harder. After returning to their dorms each night, he would don the game helmet and watch recordings of previous notable competitions again and again, attempting to memorise the expert’s strategies and movements. Sometimes, he would even dream of the competition.
Comparatively, Lu Cun and Lin Jinxi both had a lower starting point in terms of skill, which made their recent improvements even more noticeable.
Perhaps because they experienced being killed by Qiu Yu too many times to count during training, they had quickly become acclimated to the competition pressure. Even when they were on the disadvantaged side, their mentalities would stay firm—after all, in comparison to Qiu-ge, their opponents’ auras were lacking quite a bit.
After getting to know each other better during the entire Summer Season and armed with the confidence they gained after facing off against other teams in the Star Alliance Cup, Team Eagle Riders’ players became much more tacit in their cooperation.
Even without Qiu Yu in their lineup, they could still trade blows back and forth with Su Se. After tugging back and forth for forty minutes, Mu Feibai grasped the opportunity as Li Ji made a tiny mistake and instantaneously switched up his attacking rhythm. Wielding the entire team like a knife, the Eagle Riders stabbed into Su Se’s critical locations from the tiny gap Li Ji left!
Fourty-three minutes in, the game ended.
Team Eagle Riders emerged victorious in round four without Qiu Yu on-field!
“MU got even stronger than before!” The commentator screamed excitedly before reigning in his emotions once more. He analysed, “His strength no longer lies solely in personal strength. His command has become much more adaptable and effective, and he’s also improved in his assessment of teammates’ strengths… if not for the fact that EWG hasn’t hired a new coach, I would’ve suspected that he secretly recognised an expert as his master.”
“If you watched the Eastern First Star District’s Summer Season finals game, you’d surely be able to discover who this expert master is.” The other commentator said smilingly.
“Oh, of course I’ve watched it!” The first commentator said, “That’s their game against SCS, fifth round! That game made my hair stand on end! Although there’s a 90% chance of Cupid being the commander for that round, I still can’t believe it! Cupid! I won’t be able to believe it unless he really is a god!”
……
Even Qiu Yu, whose “divine heritage” was being discussed by the commentators, didn’t expect that Mu Feibai and the others would be able to take a victory from Su Se’s hands.
After the brief post-game interview, Mu Feibai led the team off-stage. He reached out and hooked an arm around Qiu Yu’s neck. Smiling proudly, he said, “How is it, ge? We beat Su Se, so we can get off work early again. Whatever you want to eat, I’ll treat!”
After kissing twice, Mu Feibai acted much more intimately with Qiu Yu and became more casual regarding physical contact.
Seeing the two’s movements, the faint smile on Du Chen’s lips faded. Frowning, he called out, “Captain.”
Mu Feibai looked back around, “Hmm?”
Du Chen’s line of sight fell on Qiu Yu’s shoulder, “It wouldn’t be good for you to be photographed with Qiu-ge like this.”
Qiu Yu himself didn’t really feel like this was an issue, but Mu Feibai still removed his arm and guiltily rubbed the tip of his nose.
“Oh right, how are you feeling?” He asked, “If we end up needing to play a full Bo5, can you still hold on?”
“No problem.” Qiu Yu answered certainly.
After training all this time, his body had gradually gotten used to the game cabin’s pressure. Even though he still experienced pain in his nerves after the competition, massage therapy was quite effective at reducing the pain. The only catch was that whenever he played immediately after massage therapy, the pain would become increasingly intense each time—even so, the most it would build up is three times. As such, his ability to finish the Bo5 was unaffected.
Even more so, as one of the top teams of the Eastern First District, Su Se’s ability was quite strong even in the entire Star Alliance. MIG and EL pretty much ranked at the same level as Su Se. Since Mu Feibai and the other five would even win against Su Se, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to win against MIG or EL.
Perhaps, he wouldn’t even need to go on-field a third time.
Clearly, Mu Feibai thought the same. “Xiao-Du and Xiao-Lu are in quite a good condition now that they’ve gained confidence, and they’re keeping up with the rhythm even better. If we’re in luck we might be able to get off work early for the finals as well, and you won’t be that exhausted.”
Qiu Yu quietly nodded, “En.”
Mu Feibai blinked before he leaned in closer to Qiu Yu’s ear, “Are you unhappy?”
Exasperated, Qiu Yu replied, “Why do you always think I’m unhappy?”
Of course, he wasn’t unhappy. After all, he was very glad to win the competition.
But it was true that he felt a little bittersweet.
Qiu Yu recalled the past, the day his old captain resigned and he stepped up as the new squad captain.
The old captain had just turned fifty. In those apocalyptic days of fighting and unrest, fifty was already considered quite an old age. People like his old captain who survived long enough to retire were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Hence, Qiu Yu had always thought that the old captain must have been joyful when he finally stepped back.
At this time, he looked back onto the old captain’s words—
“I still remember how your bunch of recruits fought with shaking hearts and knobbly knees when I wasn’t in front, leading you guys. But I finally can rest assured seeing you guys now. You’ve all grown, and have been polished into sharp blades after so many battles. You no longer need me to hold the fort… It’s a good thing, actually. En, it’s a good thing.”
Qiu Yu suddenly had a new understanding of this memory.
So many years later, after dying once and arriving in this brand new world, he finally understood the true emotions behind these words—the stoicism of a hero acting out his final scene.
Qiu Yu did not at all expect that his experience of such a feeling would be in the competition arena.
I suddenly forgot how he died n now it’s bothering me lik. Tyfc
Congratulations to Team Eagle Riders! 🥳
I caught up!!!
They’re getting stronger!