Chapter 222: The letter C printed on the shadow thief’s scarlet cloak belonged to Close.

Everyone in the club praised Brother Tang’s lucky hands. Brother Liu even specifically asked the kitchen to make him his favorite seafood taco.

God Tang was flattered. “I just drew at random.”

Yes, but he’d gotten a big, passion-inspiring gift bag.

This time, Chen Feng didn’t scold the competition committee. Putting the lot drawing session at the very end was quite good, since all they had to do was fight when they saw their opponent. They could bring this kind of mood straight into the competition!

The results of the draw affected both sides. Compared with FTW, who was filled with fighting spirit, the whole of IN was disheartened seeing these results.

It wasn’t that they were afraid of FTW––they hadn’t respected this fallen Team of Gods from the start––they just felt that the situation was awkward.

Otee had been ridiculed by the crowd, and the club had spent a long time telling him off. For better or worse, he was still in other people’s territory. What was he bragging for? He should be wary of getting attacked by fans.

Only then had Otee stopped. The club figured that since there were 16 teams, they shouldn’t have the bad luck to draw FTW.

When FTW was eliminated by other teams, then the page would turn on this chapter and it would end. Unexpectedly…

IN’s coach pulled Otee in for another round of telling him off. Otee had been oppressed for several days and couldn’t suppress his own anger any longer. He said furiously, “Just fight and be done with it! After we win against FTW, everything Laozi said will be true!”

IN’s coach: “……”

Otee: “Is it even possible for us to lose to FTW? Other than Close, everyone on that team is a noob. As long as we target Close until he dies, they’ll be nothing but a load of crap.”

IN’s jungler Harper: “Their new jungler is very strong.”

“Yes, although Quiet is a newcomer, his strength can’t be that bad since Close gave up his jungler position.”

“How strong can he be? This is the globals. Maybe he’ll be so scared he’ll wet his pants as soon as he goes up!”

“And there’s the new system…”

“This new competition system has both advantages and disadvantages. FTW will definitely take the shadow thief in the first match. There are only a few line-ups that work with the shadow thief, and they’ll definitely lose as long as we target them to death.”

IN’s coach didn’t interrupt, but he heard what was said very clearly.

Otee was a fellow with a grumpy temper, but his brain was still somewhat useful.

The club had initially acquiesced by remaining silent when he first started shouting online. Regardless of where the traffic came from, becoming popular through hate was still a type of popularity.

It was just that they’d had the bad luck to draw FTW for their 16 into 8 game.

But it didn’t seem like such a big deal when thinking about it from another angle…

As the host, FTW had attracted a lot of attention. If they were able to beat FTW, they would be able to attract people’s attention even if they ultimately fell in the 8 into 4 games.

See?

They’d only stirred up a round of hype with FTW, and there was already an investor approaching them, testing the waters. If they really won against FTW……

IN’s coach: “FTW will definitely take double shadow and double frost in the first battle of freedom match. We…”

While they might say that they didn’t pay much attention to them, in actual fact, they’d done quite a lot of homework on FTW. Double shadow meant the death knight and shadow thief, and double frost was the ice mage and frost hunter––this was FTW’s winning line-up and would likely be pulled out in the first match’s battle of freedom.

After all, it was their first time facing the new competition system, so it was reasonable to expect that FTW would come up with their most stable line-up under circumstances where they didn’t have enough time to prepare.

And all they had to do was to use the remaining time to come up with the right strategy as soon as possible.

The pros and cons of the competition system depended on how people made use of it.

At first glance, it seemed to be beneficial for FTW, but if everyone knew what they were going to use, then it also made them easy to target.

Of course, FTW, which had fallen into Fu Li’s trap a long time ago, had already reworked their shadow thief line-up. But it was impossible for an external team to know this.

A day passed by in the blink of an eye, and the summer global finals began.

There was no competition on the first day; there were only three opening competitions and one performance competition. They were all entertainment games, but the popularity for them was no lower than that of the main competition. The arena could hold tens of thousands of people, but obtaining a ticket was still difficult. FTW had special guest seats and came in through the staff entrance, settling themselves in early.

Brother Cai took selfies like crazy, then worked hard to pick out one from the dozens he’d snapped. He applied a set of filters, then calmly posted on Weibo, “The venue’s very lively ^_^”.

The tone of his message was low-key and subtle, and his pose in the photo looked natural and casual.

If one didn’t know that he’d been taking photos for 20 minutes, then they really would believe in his ‘casualness’!

The fans had sharp eyes, and shrill screams rang out when they saw that they were at the special guest seating.

“Ahhhhh, my FTW, represent!”

“Brother Cai, who did you come with? Is it our jungler king? Let me see, hurry and let me see!” It came with a little penguin emoji.

Bai Cai: “Old Wei.”

Wei Xiao turned his head. “Hm?”

There was a click as Brother Cai successfully captured a shot.

Wei Xiao: “???”

Bai Cai: “Showing off some love.”

Wei Xiao: “…………”

Bai Cai originally wanted to help Wei Xiao add filters to the photo, but as a result… to hell with fixing it!

This brat had pale skin, a beautiful appearance, and long legs. It was an inadvertent glance over, yet it already gave off the aura of a scum man who could charm thousands of girls!

Brother Cai felt sour and decided not to be polite to Wei Xiao. He tossed it up on Weibo directly and sent out a new post, “Your jungler king.”

Great, he was even more sour now. There were only 500 comments for his selfie, but this new photo broke through 1000 comments almost instantly!

And he’d spent 20 minutes taking his own photo and 20 minutes editing it!

There was something on Wei Xiao’s mind, and his eyes kept floating towards the stage.

Bai Cai certainly knew what he was thinking. “Take it easy, hey.”

Wei Xiao glared at him. “Heartless and uncaring.”

Brother Cai, who’d been focused on interacting with their fans, was left speechless, “Wake up, you. Will our captain make mistakes?”

Wei Xiao’s mood was a mess. “The competition committee is too much. The new competition system has been released for such a long time, why do they have to play around with the old one? Don’t mess around if you can’t afford to use it for the opening game!”

Bai Cai wasn’t worried at all. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. He’s Glory’s great demon king.”

Wei Xiao’s tone was bad-tempered, “The captain hasn’t soloed in a long time!”

Bai Cai put away his cell phone and comforted this irritable jungler king, “Don’t you have any awareness of Old G’s level? Is there any need to be like this.”

Wei Xiao: “Old G is very strong, okay?! He’s been wanting to bully the captain for a long time now!”

Bai Cai: “……”

Wei Xiao gritted his teeth. “Damn it, if Old G dares to bully the captain, then I’ll go and kill him afterwards!”

Brother Cai was unable to coax him, so he bowed his head and continued going through his Weibo––

They’d had over a week of special training, and he hadn’t touched his cell phone much at all.

There was certainly a reason why Brother Cai and Wei Xiao were able to sit in the special guest seating.

This was the opening event for the globals. Other than the participating teams, others weren’t qualified to sit here.

Was FTW participating in the opening games?

Of course!

There were three opening games. One was 5v5, one was doubles, and the last one was a singles game. All of them would be kicked off by the last year’s champion and runner up.

The 5v5 game was between L&P and Y1, the doubles was between Kim Sung-hyun and Li Heran against Asleep and Cong Yi, and the singles was between Close and Gary.

Last year, Asleep and Cong Yi had only been in third place for the doubles, but because one person from the runner-up team in the doubles retired last year, they ceded their position, and Asleep and Cong Yi had come to take part in the opening game.

Wei Xiao wasn’t concerned about anyone else. His heart and eyes were filled with his own captain.

He’d kissed him several times before leaving. Lu Feng had held onto him by the waist. “It’s all right.”

Wei Xiao: “Of course it’s all right. Nothing can possibly happen, absolutely nothing!”

This tone… it was completely clear that something was up with him!

Lu Feng: “You don’t believe me?”

Wei Xiao was like a little kitten stamping its paws. He said immediately, “I believe you!”

Lu Feng rubbed noses with him. “Then, what’s the panic for?”

Wei Xiao: “I’m not panicking!” It was just that his voice shook a little.

Lu Feng kissed his brow and said gently, “I’ll use the shadow thief.”

Wei Xiao: “!”

Lu Feng: “Don’t worry, I won’t die even once.”

Wei Xiao breathed in lightly, then hugged him tight. He rubbed forcefully against his shoulder and neck, then murmured quietly.

Lu Feng’s heart softened when he heard him.

––I don’t dare imagine how it used to be for you.

Lu Feng fully understood this vague and ambiguous sentence.

Three years, three full years.

Lu Feng had stood alone in a strange arena, faced cheers from all over the world, and won one singles championship after another.

The feeling of holding the trophy alone, he didn’t want to experience that feeling again.

The trophy wasn’t heavy.

But it was better when it was held up by five people.

Wei Xiao couldn’t explain how he felt to anyone.

Nervous, flustered.

It was just an opening game, and the results didn’t matter. It was a singles game, and it was Close.

What was there to be nervous about?

What was there to feel flustered about?

In Brother Cai’s words: “You’re simply being unreasonable!”

Yes, this kind of feeling was really unreasonable.

Nothing would happen, and it was a performance game where he wouldn’t lose. Lu Feng had even promised that he wouldn’t even die once.

But…

He couldn’t keep his heart from pounding, couldn’t keep his legs and feet from feeling restless, and he couldn’t control his rapid and chaotic breathing.

Wei Xiao wouldn’t be this nervous even if he was the one in the arena.

But when he looked at Lu Feng on the stage and saw the lonely Lu Feng, he grew nervous.

Was he afraid of Lu Feng losing?

Afraid of this myth collapsing?

Afraid of the end of a legend?

No…

He was just afraid that Lu Feng would be alone.

He was afraid of him feeling lonely.

The 5v5 game was naturally the finale. The first game was the singles.

The entire venue exploded when Close came out.

At the end of the day, it was a home game, and it was being held in China. Close’s popularity was enough to stun the entire global audience.

He came out wearing the FTW team uniform. The dark black team uniform was like the night sky that had absorbed all light. He maintained eternal silence and coldness even under dazzling fireworks.

Fans shouted his name, and it was as though time had turned back to one year ago, two years ago, three years ago…

It seemed like they’d gone back to the time when he’d kept watch over the screen, staying up in the early hours of the morning despite the time difference just to see him win the championship trophy.

The solo king.

The pillar of the China competition zone.

A brilliant legend under lofty Glory!

Wei Xiao’s eyes were red, and he clutched at the back of Brother Cai’s hand.

Bai Cai sighed, and the tip of his nose stung.

Who wasn’t a Close fan?

Who hadn’t watched him hold up the beam for the whole competition zone?

Who didn’t want him to be brilliant forever?

Even the host’s voice sounded a little choked when the exclusive battle song that belonged to the singles champion finished playing and it was time to speak.

“Welcome Close, please take your seat.”

Lu Feng nodded slightly, then went to the competitor’s seat.

The moment he sat down, he connected his peripherals and put on his headphones, isolating the stage from the canyon.

Gary also went to his seat. Both sides were ready.

There was a new competition system for the singles and doubles, but this global opening game would continue with the old competition system.

When the long-lost single player canyon appeared on the screen, it felt like an isolated world.

The new competition system had started with Close, and the old competition system would end with Close.

The gears of fate kept moving forward, but it didn’t erase the past.

It would always be there.

The Glory that belonged to Close.

Because it was an exhibition game, the BP segment was cancelled. Shocking, shrill screams sounded through the venue the moment the audience saw Close take the shadow thief.

There were two shadow thief championship skins.

The first one was the shadow thief champion skin that Lu Feng had chosen after the Team of Gods won the team championship three years ago.

The second one was the championship skin from last year’s singles competition. Lu Feng had ended the competition with a shadow thief, so he’d gotten another championship skin.

Two champion skins, all from the same player.

The letter C printed on the shadow thief’s scarlet cloak belonged to Close.

The author has something to say:

Ying, who doesn’t love a great demon king? [Wei Little Xiao’s dangerous glare]