Chapter 1 Unlucky Draw

If it weren't for a behemoth like Team Excellent Era, Team Wuji would have already been at the peak in the Challenger League. Drawing such an opponent in the second round was definitely bad luck. But when it fell on Team Happy, almost no one sympathized with them, and a flood of mockery and ridicule immediately poured in. The former face-slapping party rushed to spread the news, calling friends and inviting them to witness this exciting moment. Everyone thought that Happy was bound to lose this time.

Chen Guo, who browsed the forums every day, knew about these online messages, but carefully avoided revealing them, fearing that they would affect the players' emotions. Everyone was actively and seriously familiarizing themselves with their fully equipped characters, and there was really no time to be distracted.

This day quickly passed. On Friday night, Room 117 of the Glory Arena's Challenger League dedicated zone was packed. The onlookers attracted by Happy along the way were mostly detractors, and now that they came to watch, they all became fans of Team Wuji. This made Team Wuji's own true fans a little confused about the situation.

Everything in the Challenger League was automatically reviewed by the system. The dedicated Challenger League arena was designed for these corresponding settings. The match officially began at 8:00 PM. Before 7:55 PM, both sides needed to complete the coin toss for the home and away games. Then the home team would choose the map, and both teams needed to arrange their own team's order of appearance. At that time, the Challenger League system would automatically draw the characters who needed to participate in the match into the arena. Before this, both sides were unaware of each other's lineup. This arrangement was exactly the same as in the professional league.

At eight o'clock, the second round of the Challenger League, the match between Team Happy and Team Wuji, officially began. The first round was at Team Wuji's home court. Team Wuji, with its professional background, would certainly not make the mistake of not having a map selected when the time came.

As soon as the time arrived, the characters from both sides who were to appear in the first individual match were automatically drawn into the competition seats by the system.

Team Wuji sent out their Launcher, Xiao Qiang.

The Launcher wasn't the tactical core of Team Wuji, but now it was the character used by their captain.

That day, Ye Xiu saw a visitor with He An who looked familiar but couldn't remember. After checking back, he already knew who that person was.

Wu Chen had been fighting for Team Wuji for three years as the vice-captain, using the Launcher Xiao Qiang.

In the seventh season, he was relegated with the team. What happened after that, only fans of the team would pay much attention to, as Wu Chen wasn't a big star.

Now it seemed that Wu Chen was still working for Team Wuji, and had now been promoted to captain. Usually, very few teams would replace the captain while the original captain was still on the team. Wu Chen's promotion to captain indicated that Team Wuji's original captain, core player, and Sord Demon Sedingkun's operator Yu Hongliang was no longer on the team.

The person who serves as captain is not necessarily the strongest player on a team, but they must be the most reliable person on the team. And now, Wu Chen had undoubtedly become the most trusted member of Team Wuji. At this time, he was playing in the first individual match. Team Wuji's intention was self-evident: they wanted to gain the upper hand first.

On Happy's side, the player who was sent out was Baozi. The first member to play inevitably had to bear a lot of pressure. Even the most tenacious players couldn't completely ignore the existence of this pressure. Even someone with Tang Rou's personality might want to play better because of this pressure, resulting in being eager for success. In comparison, Baozi's rough nerves were perfect for dealing with this situation.

Pressure? Did Baozi even know that such a thing existed?

The characters entered the arena, and then the selected competition map was announced: Linjiang Water Corridor. Then they waited for the two players to confirm the start of the match. If neither confirmed, the system would automatically start after five minutes.

"This map…" Ye Xiu muttered after seeing the map.

"Is there anything to pay attention to?" Chen Guo quickly asked.

"Baozi," Ye Xiu called out.

"Here," Baozi, who was loosening his muscles in preparation, responded.

"Pay attention to not falling into the water," Ye Xiu said.

"Understood," Baozi nodded.

Linjiang Water Corridor was a semi-aquatic map. The gap between professional players and ordinary players was even greater in water battles. Because players could escape and not play water battles, but professional players, if they really abandoned this, they were likely to be exploited by their opponents.

Water battles weren't something that professional players liked very much, but they had to practice it. Now that Team Wuji had chosen such a map, it was clear that they wanted to take advantage of the amateurs. However, they hadn't chosen completely, as the semi-aquatic map meant that there was still half land. Such a map required more improvisation.

The match began, the map loaded, and after a countdown of three, two, and one, the match officially started. The two characters were still separated at opposite corners of the map, but connecting the two was a winding corridor above the water.

Baozi didn't care about any of this. As soon as he entered the match, he controlled his character to rush straight towards the opposite corner. Wu Chen on the other side seemed unhurried and very calm.

The maps for individual matches weren't too big, and there was no need or point in making them so. The two characters were constantly approaching each other. Baozi Invasion was full of killing intent, equipped with the newly acquired orange weapon, Poison Swamp Edge. The blue-green glow looked very eerie. It was obviously a weapon with very powerful poison damage. His aura made it seem like he would tear his opponent apart immediately.

Wu Chen was still unhurried, keeping a close eye on the approaching opponent while moving, calculating the distance between the two sides, and planning how he should start the attack. The advantage of the Launcher was the farthest attack range. Therefore, they usually occupied the absolute initiative, especially when fighting against melee characters. There was basically no such thing as a counterattack. If you counterattacked against a melee character, you would already be stuck to them, which was a big disadvantage.

The Rogue class had some mid-to-long range attack methods, but most skills were still melee-oriented. Wu Chen decided not to give his opponent too much chance to get close. When he was about to enter his range, he launched an attack.

As the distance continued to close, Wu Chen's mouse cursor began to roam around Baozi Invasion's body. For gun-type classes, this was their scope, the place where their bullets would fly.

"Almost there!" Wu Chen determined the distance and was just about to start his attack when he suddenly saw Baozi Invasion stop abruptly.

With this stop, the predicted attack that Wu Chen was about to make was useless. Wu Chen was immediately shocked.

Good eye!

Wu Chen didn't expect that even a non-professional player from the grassroots level would have such detailed observation skills, and actually saw that he had made a move to attack?

However, the cannon was in the barrel and had to be fired. Wu Chen was preparing to continue to complete the attack when he suddenly saw Baozi Invasion turn around and retreat.

Thus, the distance between the two sides became farther and farther away…

"What's going on?" Wu Chen was confused.

Even if he had seen through his attack intention, he shouldn't have avoided it like this. If he just ran away when he saw a Launcher about to attack, then there was no need to fight this match. With the Launcher's attack range, he could definitely attack first, right? As a Launcher's opponent, you had to find a way to force your way closer in the face of such a bombardment.

Since the opponent wasn't coming over, he had to go over himself.

Wu Chen thought this way, and then continued to move forward and close the distance with Baozi Invasion, while also not relaxing his attention on Baozi Invasion. As a result, he saw that guy wandering around the corridor. Wu Chen couldn't guess the opponent's intention at all. But under his initiative, the distance between the two sides was finally inevitably approaching. Wu Chen finally launched the first attack of the match.

Three anti-tank gun shells roared in, and because of a horizontal swing operation when firing, the three shells lined up in a line, controlling the next step of Baozi Invasion's movement.

As a result, Baozi Invasion didn't dodge or avoid it, and threw a brick out of his hand, hitting the shell that was coming towards him head-on.

With a bang.

Brick fragments flew everywhere in the explosion. The shell was actually blown up by a brick. This kind of strange thing wasn't worth being surprised at in the game.

Wu Chen, as a professional player, couldn't just attack like this. The subsequent offensive had already been arranged. The bombardment came in droves. After Baozi started by slapping the shell with a brick, he never looked so cool again. Under the opponent's long-range bombardment, he scurried around like a headless fly.

Wu Chen was a little dazed by the fight. The opponent didn't seem to have any power to fight back! Was his current firepower bombardment so strong that he could suppress people to such an extent?

However, Wu Chen was still the captain, and this thought only flashed through his mind. As a captain, if he didn't have a clear understanding of his own strength, how could he become a reliable responsibility for the whole team?

It wasn't that he was strong, it was that the opponent was too weak. He couldn't break through with this kind of firepower. This Baozi Invasion… didn't seem as powerful as he had seen before!

Could it be that… the previous Baozi Invasion was actually Ye Qiu playing on his behalf, and now it was real? But on second thought, it shouldn't be. If he had been so despicable before, there was no reason to be upright when facing a more difficult opponent like Team Wuji!

Wu Chen's heart was full of doubts, but he didn't dare to relax. He continued to attack and observe Baozi Invasion's actions. Suddenly, Wu Chen realized it, but at the moment of realization, he was once again at a loss.

Because he suddenly realized that the reason why Baozi Invasion had been passive and hadn't rushed over was: he was confused by the corridor, and he couldn't find the way!

What was going on?

Wu Chen was really a little confused. This corridor was a bit winding, but it wasn't so complicated that he couldn't find the way. This wasn't a maze. What's more, if he really couldn't find the way, he could jump into the water, walk in the water, and then come up!

"It's all your fault…" Chen Guo looked at Ye Xiu. "You told him not to fall into the water."

"Lost, tsk…" Ye Xiu also felt a little regretful.