Wei Chen, after making that thought-provoking statement, didn't elaborate. Everyone figured the details had already been covered, and this was his concluding remark. They had been watching the match for over an hour, and hadn't seen Wei Chen or Baozi. So the two of them had been at the roadside all this time, with Wei Chen recounting his glorious past?

"Soul, my ass! It was only two years!" Ye Xiu stepped forward and mercilessly exposed him.

"Nonsense!" Wei Chen turned and saw it was Ye Xiu, but remained composed. "Without me, would there even be Blue Rain?"

Wei Chen wasn't lying. Like Ye Xiu, he'd entered the Glory scene before the Glory Alliance professional league even existed! At first, they were just ordinary online game players. The means to make a living through the game were nothing more than tasks within the game. Back then, Ye Xiu belonged to the Jia Dynasty guild, but he hadn't founded the guild. The person who did probably hadn't imagined that it would become the foundation for the future Jia Dynasty club to establish its dynasty.

The Jia Dynasty guild, like any other player guild, was initially formed by a player who gathered a group of friends he'd made in the game to create a gaming group for everyone to enjoy together. It grew stronger during their playtime. After the Glory Alliance was finally established, some of these guilds eventually became the online game foundations for clubs and teams. The Jia Dynasty guild was like this, and so was the Blue Brook Guild. The difference was that the Jia Dynasty club, which was ultimately formed with the Jia Dynasty guild as its foundation, had Tao Xuan, the founder of the Jia Dynasty guild, as its boss. The Blue Rain team had other investors and founders, but their guild foundation was built from the ground up in the online game by their first captain, Wei Chen. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that without him, there wouldn't be Blue Rain.

"If you guys can't even beat my juniors tomorrow, that would be too embarrassing," Wei Chen said, glaring at the members of Team Happy.

Facing your old team after leaving is usually a sad thing for most people. But Wei Chen took a full eight years to complete this!

Eight years. What kind of feelings did he still have for Blue Rain?

Although he usually boasted about his glorious past with Blue Rain with a shameless and ostentatious expression, everyone could hear the old guy's nostalgia for the past.

Was he missing his youth? Or missing Blue Rain?

No one pried, because everyone knew that no matter what Wei Chen's attitude was towards the past, he was now a member of Team Happy, and he unequivocally stood on Team Happy's side.

"Tomorrow, good luck," Ye Xiu said.

"Good luck!" A few young people shouted together on the side of the road.

"Where's Fang Rui?" After everyone finished raising their morale, Ye Xiu casually asked.

"Haven't seen the guy," Wei Chen said.

Everyone had different ways to prepare for the match. What was this master of dirty play up to? Everyone was a little curious, but no one would disturb him just out of curiosity.

Shanglinyuan residential complex.

Although it was late, there were still many people in the residential complex enjoying the cool air outside and walking their dogs. Su Mucheng and Tang Rou sat together on a stone bench by the roadside, looking up at the sky.

"The weather was so nice during the day today. Why are there still no stars at night?" Su Mucheng said.

"The stars are always objectively there, but unfortunately the atmospheric pollution is severe now. So it's not that they're not there, it's just that we can't see them. Or maybe the starlight is too weak, and the city lights have hidden their brilliance!" Tang Rou said.

"Hmm, that's a pity!" Su Mucheng sighed.

"Speaking of which," Tang Rou suddenly said, "what was your mood like the first time you played in the playoffs?"

"The first time? I was nervous and worried. I was worried that I wasn't doing well enough, and worried that I couldn't help him," Su Mucheng said.

"What about later?" Tang Rou didn't ask who "he" was. It was obvious!

"Later... I really didn't do well. If I could have been better, then Jia Dynasty probably would have still been the champion that year... Han Wenqing lost to Ye Xiu three times in the playoffs, but that time he won, because he had a good teammate by his side, while Ye Xiu didn't..." Su Mucheng's expression became a little gloomy.

Tang Rou secretly regretted it. She had momentarily forgotten that Su Mucheng's first time participating in the playoffs ended with a second-place finish. This seemed like a good result, second only to the champion, but in reality it was very painful. That feeling of being just one step away from success was enough to make a person collapse. Regret, self-blame... No achievement could bring a person more of these emotions than this second-best result.

"I'm sorry," Tang Rou said.

"It's nothing. It's been a long time," Su Mucheng said.

Has it been a long time... Tang Rou thought to herself again. That time, Jia Dynasty missed the championship in the finals, and after that, the Jia Dynasty team never even made it to the finals. Would Su Mucheng's self-blame be even heavier? Would she always feel like she hadn't helped Ye Xiu enough?

"We will definitely win this time!" Tang Rou said.

"Aren't you nervous?" Su Mucheng asked her with a smile.

"I thought I wouldn't be nervous, but in fact, I found that that's not the case," Tang Rou said. Nervous? What was that? Things that would make people nervous had always made Tang Rou feel more excited and motivated. But this time? Excitement and motivation were all there, but the nervousness hadn't been completely eliminated. Tang Rou discovered that there was a bit of fear in the depths of her heart. She admitted it.

"Is that so?" Su Mucheng continued to smile. "Then maybe that's a good thing! I've always thought that you really lack a sense of tension. Being too nervous is certainly not a good thing, but not having any sense of tension at all doesn't seem too good either!"

"Does Ye Xiu also feel nervous?" Tang Rou said.

"Of course he's nervous. Actually, he's been nervous all season. Otherwise, why would he be trying so hard?" Su Mucheng said.

"I can't see it," Tang Rou muttered.

"Nervousness can also be transformed into motivation! You, enjoy this hard-won nervousness! It's not an obstacle for you at all. It's nutrition!" Su Mucheng said.

"Is this the way to eliminate the pressure of the playoffs? To eat nervousness as a supplement?" Tang Rou said.

"Is this method not good?" Su Mucheng said.

"It seems like that's all I can do," Tang Rou said. She understood Su Mucheng's meaning to some extent.

"Oh, you two are here!" Just then, Ye Xiu and his group of old and young people returned to the residential complex. Walking along the avenue, they saw the two sitting on the stone bench.

"Yeah!" Su Mucheng and Tang Rou stood up. They were also ready to go back.

At this point, the members of Team Happy had gathered almost completely, except for Mo Fan, who was still watching videos in the training room, and Fang Rui, who was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did that guy Fang Rui run off to?" Ye Xiu muttered casually again.

"Him? He's sleeping!" Su Mucheng said.

"Huh?"

"He came back around eight o'clock and then went to sleep," Su Mucheng said.

"He went to sleep at eight o'clock?" Everyone looked at each other.

At eight o'clock, Ye Xiu, Qiao Yifan, An Wenyi, and Luo Ji were all watching the match tonight; Wei Chen and Baozi were bragging on the side of the road; Su Mucheng and Tang Rou were taking a walk and chatting in the residential complex, but Fang Rui was already sleeping at this time.

"He goes to sleep at eight o'clock? How long does this guy want to sleep for?" Wei Chen exclaimed.

"Is this his way of relieving stress?" Everyone said.

"Maybe he's afraid of being too nervous to sleep, so he went to bed early to cultivate sleepiness for a longer time." Everyone continued to discuss.

Even so, no one returned to their residence to check if Fang Rui was asleep because they were curious. The night before the match ended with everyone separating first, but eventually gathering again.

The next morning, Ye Xiu got up and went downstairs. As expected of someone who went to bed at eight o'clock, Fang Rui was already downstairs in the living room, looking at the newspaper with vigor.

"Team 301 lost pretty badly!" Seeing Ye Xiu come down, Fang Rui greeted him and said. He was holding today's Esports Weekly, which he had already bought back. You had to know that it was now the playoffs, and sales of Esports Weekly would be very tight, especially in the area around the former Jia Dynasty club. If you didn't go early, you might not be able to buy it.

"Yeah, I watched the match," Ye Xiu said.

"Those old guys from Tyranny really went all out, huh?" Fang Rui said.

"Of course. What else?" Ye Xiu said.

"But the report also said that they played somewhat conservatively," Fang Rui said.

"Their tactics have changed a bit. They're no longer the Tyranny that charged head-on in the past," Ye Xiu said.

"They slowed down?" Fang Rui said.

Ye Xiu nodded.

"We're probably going to meet them next. It's going to be even harder to fight," Fang Rui said.

The two top experts didn't need to say much. With just a few simple sentences, they both understood the situation.

Tyranny had many veteran players. Objectively speaking, they were no longer suited for too fast a pace. Old players were better suited for steady and methodical matches, where they could fully utilize their experience and patience to deal with their opponents. But Tyranny had never been this type of team. They had been charging head-on for ten years, but in this season's playoffs, they had slowed down their pace as a whole.

Tyranny wasn't just rotating veteran players to conserve their stamina! They had fundamentally adjusted their tactics, rebuilding a routine that was more suitable for them, instead of following their existing pace.

"It's not just those old guys who will become scary," Ye Xiu said.

"Oh?"

"There's also Zhang Xinjie," Ye Xiu said.

"Him?"

"His style is originally more suitable for this slow-paced, positional style of play. He and Tyranny were fundamentally incompatible in terms of style. Only someone with his personality could force himself to adapt to tactics that were completely unsuitable. But now, Tyranny's style is moving closer to what he's truly good at!"