Chapter 1 The Evening

Dusk.

The arena room named "Team Excellent Era," 28529, was undoubtedly the hottest room in Glory's arena recently. Or rather, since the launch and operation of the Glory online game, no specific arena room had maintained such a high level of popularity for such a long time.

Tonight was no exception. Starting from 6:00 PM, onlookers had crowded into this room. No one took the seat for combat, but they were all consciously in the audience position.

Would anyone challenge tonight?

The onlookers were all guessing. Since the topic of Team Excellent Era exploded, many experts had launched challenges online. During that time, many matches could be seen every evening. Of course, some came to slap faces, and some were purely curious players just playing around.

Team Excellent Era had never lost, not even once.

However, the appearances of Team Excellent Era were somewhat deformed. The vast majority of the matches were won by that Battle Mage named Han Yanrou. In single matches, she was definitely the first to appear. In team arena, she was also definitely the first to appear.

In the minds of online game players, this Han Yanrou was already terrifyingly strong. Given many rumors about Ye Qiu, many people suspected that it was actually Ye Qiu behind the scenes, acting as a substitute for this character. This was speculation from ordinary players, but professional players who were paying attention to this matter could see that this Battle Mage was not the same as Ye Qiu's Battle Mage. Especially on Team Excellent Era's side. After being slapped in the face by the news that Lord Grim was not Ye Qiu, they tried to find ways to prove that Ye Qiu was definitely in Team Excellent Era. However, based on the data they had obtained recently regarding Team Excellent Era accepting player challenges, they also felt that this Han Yanrou was not Ye Qiu.

But it was hard to say for sure. After all, they only had to deal with these player-level experts. For a God like Ye Qiu, there was no need to use his full strength. He could win by pretending to play casually. People like Chen Yehui, who never minded speculating about Ye Qiu from the worst possible angle, especially believed that this was Ye Qiu deliberately mystifying.

Whether Han Yanrou was Ye Qiu's substitute, and if not, then who was she? This was one of the countless gossips derived from the Team Excellent Era topic.

At exactly seven o'clock, the recent hot character Han Yanrou appeared and stood on the competition seat on one side.

The opponent? Would there be an opponent?

The onlookers waited expectantly. Recently, opponents had become fewer and fewer. Last night, they waited until 8:15 PM before someone came to challenge, and they were defeated without any excitement.

Having reached this point, in the players' minds, Team Excellent Era's strength was already very high. It seemed that they could no longer be stopped by online players. Could such a level really break into the professional circle?

This was also one of the topics derived from Team Excellent Era. From the beginning, everyone thought Team Excellent Era was unreliable and didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, but now some people had begun to have this idea. Among the current onlookers, although most were still face-slapping parties who wanted to see Team Excellent Era lose, many were also concerned about when Team Excellent Era would lose. Although they looked similar, the focus was different. A considerable part of their mentality had already tilted towards Team Excellent Era.

Team Excellent Era's marketing strategy during this period had yielded some gains. Chen Guo's risky move this time had good prospects.

"Here they come!"

In Team Excellent Era Club's online game studio, after Tang Rou's Han Yanrou appeared in the room, Chen Yehui immediately greeted everyone. He had been hiding in the audience early on, and of course, this match would be recorded by him today.

"Who goes first?" Chen Yehui asked the others.

"I'll go!" Li Rui said with a smile, taking the lead.

Chen Yehui nodded. He had no opinion on who went first, but he didn't forget to give instructions: "Be careful. This guy is the most popular one in Team Excellent Era. I suspect Ye Qiu might be playing as a substitute." Chen Yehui said seriously.

"Ye Qiu?" Li Rui smiled. It wasn't that he looked down on Ye Qiu's level, but he looked down on Chen Yehui's vision.

"She's not." Li Rui finally said lightly. It didn't seem like he was contradicting Chen Yehui, but completely denying Chen Yehui's suspicion was enough to disrespect Chen Yehui.

Chen Yehui's heart was on fire again. He felt complicated for a moment, and he really hoped that Li Rui would lose, so he wouldn't be so arrogant. He was still in the training camp. If he really became a professional player one day, became a trump card, would he talk to himself with his nostrils?

Li Rui didn't bother with Chen Yehui's feelings at all. He logged in to his character and was already preparing to enter the room in the arena. Han Yanrou was the most popular one in Team Excellent Era, which he certainly knew. He had followed this topic a lot. Precisely because of this, he actively responded to the first battle. If he could defeat the most popular one in Team Excellent Era, the attention would definitely be full. How could Li Rui miss such an opportunity to attract attention?

Battle Mage.

This was the name of Li Rui's Battle Mage character. He quickly entered the room, and then the battle seat appeared, opposite Han Yanrou.

"Battle Mage, is that one of your people?" Chen Guo's message was received by Chen Yehui's disguised character.

"Yes," Chen Yehui replied.

Chen Guo received confirmation and then relayed it to Tang Rou: "That's him, fight!"

Han Yanrou prepared, Battle Mage equipped, and the match started in the blink of an eye.

Tang Rou's initiative went without saying. Entering the arena, the countdown ended, and Han Yanrou rushed towards her opponent. In the past, Tang Rou often directly started with a Fierce Dragon Rises. However, over the past few days, the level of players coming to challenge had become higher and higher. Tang Rou no longer used this less professional starting method. Facing experts, this kind of play would definitely put her in a passive position.

Han Yanrou approached very steadily, starting with the small move Dragon Tooth. During this process, the opponent's Battle Mage didn't move at all, looking unusually calm.

In fact, Li Rui was very nervous at this time.

Yes, nervous. Even he himself didn't expect that when he entered the arena and the countdown started, he would actually become nervous.

He took this victory or defeat very seriously. He regarded it as a turning point to seek a breakthrough. He kept telling himself that he must not lose. So when the match really came, this guy became nervous. He put too much pressure on himself. Only victory was allowed, not defeat. Not many people could withstand this kind of pressure.

Li Rui felt like he could hear his heartbeat. His legs under the computer desk trembled non-stop, and this trembling was spreading, from his legs upwards. If it reached his hands, it would be over...

The more he thought about it, the more Li Rui couldn't control himself. He found that his hands were actually shaking.

How embarrassing!

At this moment, Li Rui actually thought of these things. He even glanced left and right. Then he found that everyone was seriously staring at the match on their respective screens, and no one saw his trembling hands at this time. This actually made his mood relax a lot. The trembling of his hands also seemed to lessen.

But just as he was looking around, Han Yanrou had already rushed in front of his Battle Mage. Dragon Tooth stabbed over, and Battle Mage didn't react at all, and was hit.

Dragon Tooth could create a brief stun effect, and the significance of this stun effect was even greater than the damage it could cause for the Dragon Tooth skill.

Making good use of the stun created when Dragon Tooth hit an opponent was a basic skill for a Battle Mage player.

Tang Rou used it well. Dragon Tooth hit at the start. She didn't think about why it was so simple, and then followed up with a Sky Strike, launching Battle Mage into the air. The magic Chasers produced by Dragon Tooth and Sky Strike had already danced and entangled the target, collided, and exploded. Han Yanrou's next skill followed...

Only then did Li Rui turn his head, only to see his character being launched into the sky, and two Chasers exploded. Li Rui, who had just relaxed a little, suddenly became nervous again. His brain seemed to crash and suddenly stopped. He had forgotten everything he had learned and knew at this moment. He also watched like a spectator, watching his character being ravaged in the air. After being directly finished off by the Fierce Dragon Rises ultimate, Battle Mage's HP directly dropped by one-third.

It wasn't easy to grab such floating targets with Fierce Dragon Rises, especially after Collapsing Mountain pushed them away and then chased after them. The operation must be very fast, otherwise, there definitely wouldn't be enough time. Han Yanrou's Fierce Dragon Rises could chase the target that had been blown away, which was actually a proof of hand speed. If the hand speed didn't reach a certain level, this tactic could not be operated at all.

As for Battle Mage, did anyone still care about him? After being hit by Dragon Tooth in a daze and being launched into the air by Sky Strike, everyone was focused on Han Yanrou's sharp continuous attacks. For ordinary players, this kind of combo after being launched into the air, being played so perfectly, should be unsolvable.

But it shouldn't have been like this for Li Rui at all. However, his brain was blank. Everything he had learned and knew seemed to have been forgotten at this moment. Like a spectator, he watched his character being ravaged in the air. After being finished off directly by the Fierce Dragon Rises ultimate, Battle Mage's HP directly dropped by one-third.

One set of combos, one-third of his health. This was rarely seen in professional-level duels. For professional players, there were no unsolvable combos, it just depended on whether you could find an opportunity to break them.

Li Rui didn't see anyone paying attention to him when he looked back just now, but now, after a third of his health was knocked off, everyone turned their heads.

This was too outrageous.

Excellent players in the training camp, although not yet considered official professional level, could be said to be quasi-professional level. To be completely and completely hit by a whole set of combos, what was this doing? Intentionally letting him win?

Based on what he knew about Li Rui, a training camp friend who came with him thought of this possibility.