The barrage went quiet for a moment, only to be followed by an overwhelming wave of astonishment!
— Ahhh, he really is handsome! Old K wasn’t lying!
— He’s only eighteen? Oh my God, he’s really only eighteen?!
— Show some restraint, people. Are you here to watch the match or stare at handsome guys?
— Can’t we do both?
…
The barrage continued to chatter noisily. Everyone in the venue had arrived, taken their seats, and finished adjusting their equipment. The match was about to begin.
Qiuyun filled the piping bag, squeezed the batter onto the parchment-lined baking tray one by one, and put it in the oven. After setting the timer, she took her phone and stretched out on the sofa to watch the match.
A man’s competitive spirit was poison. Although no one said it outright, everyone was more or less harboring a vague hostility toward this handsome newcomer, along with a faint sense of exclusion.
The six players quickly formed three two-person teams, dividing the map into three territories. They chopped down materials and built their bases, while QY, relying only on the small amount of money provided by the system, probably wouldn’t even be able to afford the front gate of a base by the end.
Tsk. This was a competition, after all.
Someone in the barrage grew anxious: Why bully the newcomer right from the start?
Another person argued back: What, does even our Legend have a newbie protection period now?
The commentators also said that the opening situation was unfavorable. The territories with good terrain and abundant resources had already been claimed. In each pair, one person stood guard while the other built the base, whereas QY had to construct his base alone while also guarding against ambushes.
Compared to the audience outside, who were either worried or simply enjoying the spectacle, QY himself seemed to be… relaxed in the game?
He wandered through areas with relatively scarce resources, picking and choosing his materials. Then he hand-crafted a bomb.
The barrage filled with question marks.
— This kind of ancient tactic can actually still be seen in a modern competition?
— Same. I usually make bombs for fun matches, to set up ambushes and mess with people.
— Honestly, this thing has terrible cost performance. The materials are hard to find, its range is extremely short, and aside from the fact that it has no cooldown beyond its detonation time, I can’t find a single advantage.
— Hey, what is he wandering around for? Why isn’t he building his base? Once the others stack up their firepower, what is he going to use to fight them?!
— Sigh, let him be bad at the game. With a face like that on-screen, we can just treat it as eye candy.
After finishing the bomb, QY used the money provided by the system to buy a gun from the shop. He put both items into his backpack and resumed his wandering.
Since QY’s progress was so boring, the director had no choice, for the sake of the broadcast, but to switch the view to the other players.
Choosing locations, gathering materials, building bases, earning gold, stocking up on firepower, steadily expanding their territories…
It was a very traditional match progression, one that leaned heavily toward tactics and strategy.
As a game developed into its later stages, it became increasingly dependent on experience and established systems. Once everyone had a steadier, more conservative method with a higher chance of victory, no one would take unnecessary risks to win. If a structure was already collapsing, it was better to surrender outright and preserve one’s strength for the next round.
The barrage began returning to the main match:
— Ren is so steady. That defensive line looks practically impenetrable. He could probably take on two players at once!
— I’m more optimistic about Axe this round. Those walls are incredibly solid. Ren definitely won’t be able to break through from the left.
…
This was Qiuyun’s first time watching Legend. She understood the game only vaguely from the barrage, and to be honest, she was beginning to feel a little sleepy.
But just as the barrage was in full discussion, the system issued three announcements in succession:
QY killed Waed.
QY killed TC.
QY replaced Waed and TC as the new lord.
The barrage was suddenly filled with question marks.
Even the director looked baffled and hurriedly played back the footage.
Just as the two bases were nearing completion, QY arrived at the edge of their territory at precisely the right moment. He moved around the defenses at astonishing speed, slipped up close, and tossed over his explosive pack. Then he instantly shot the player standing farther away and quickly vaulted over the wall to escape.
He hadn’t gone far at all. The bomb exploded on the other side of the wall without taking a single point of his health.
The entire sequence had flowed together seamlessly. On the data panel beside him, his hand speed had shot up to 570!
It was a technical micro-control play!
Compared to dutifully building walls and expanding territory, close-quarters combat and gunfights were naturally much more exciting to watch!
The commentator grew animated. “RG really kept QY hidden! He didn’t participate in Wednesday’s team warm-up match, so we had no idea his shooting accuracy was this good! His attacks are clean and decisive, too!”
Qiuyun: “…”
Could it be that he didn’t participate because he was still in class?
The barrage was also full of astonishment:
— Holy crap, he actually pulled off the steal!
— But that kind of ambush should only work once. Everyone will be on guard after this, so they’ll pay closer attention to his movements on the minimap.
— I agree. A tactic like that should have been saved for at least the semifinals. Showing his hand in a regular-season match is such a waste.
Regardless of what the barrage said, QY quickly took control of the base and obtained the map of his new territory. He then followed the standard process, expanding his territory and filling it with firepower.
In some areas, however, he replaced the original steel with wood, effectively weakening the base’s defenses.
Neither the barrage nor the commentators could understand what he was doing. But after QY’s previous maneuver, no one dared to rush to judgment.
The map was now divided among three powers, and the battle continued to intensify. The match entered its most heated stage.
The other two-person teams tacitly turned their weapons toward the newcomer who refused to play by the rules, maintaining constant pressure.
Unfortunately, they were also competitors. Even the two teammates in each pair were only temporary allies, each with their own calculations and plans. No one was willing to give the other an advantage.
That was the only opening QY had to survive in the cracks.
If all four of them had coordinated perfectly and united against him, QY wouldn’t have had any reason to keep fighting. He might as well surrender and go downstairs to rest early.
And so, the battle fell into a bizarre state.
QY darted around while being hunted from all four sides. The strange thing was that his territory did not shrink at all, which meant that his funds were continuing to grow.
The other four players were exhausted from pursuing him while remaining wary of one another. They also had to expend ammunition, and their hand speeds continued to climb. But everyone knew that a person’s explosive output was limited. No one could maintain peak performance throughout an entire match.
The others were nearly spent.
At last, QY finished his cycle of chopping wood, building, patching, and fleeing. He turned around and joined the melee.
Smoke and flames filled the battlefield, accompanied by the explosions of long-range missiles. The battle came to a complete end.
The barrage was once again filled with question marks.
— Wait, it’s only been a little over ten minutes since the start! Where did he get enough money to buy such an expensive weapon as a long-range missile?!
— Because from the start of the match until now, the only thing he bought from the shop was a gun.
— And he got the base for free. Not only did he spend nothing, it also kept generating money for him.
— 666, Ren looked completely dumbfounded. He probably never imagined he’d need to deploy interceptors. QY just delivered a missile straight to his doorstep.
— I’m dying. But how are they going to calculate the rankings? After one missile strike, shouldn’t everyone have died together?
