753 Try Hard and Struggle

"Old Lin, you’re not going to come out and practice?"

Lin Jingyan could hear Ye Qiu calling out his name. In terms of age, Lin Jingyan was actually even older than Ye Xiu. However, in terms of experience with Glory, Lin Jingyan would be considered his junior. This wasn’t anything strange. A pro player who joined the Alliance earlier could be younger than a pro player who had joined later.

Ye Qiu’s Let There Be Light was turning in circles, clearly trying to search for his whereabouts. Lin Jingyan was neither Lu Hanwen nor Zhao Yuzhe. He ignored Ye Qiu’s challenge. Ye Qiu had Su Mucheng and a bunch of other extraordinarily skilled experts on his side. Leaping out to meet the challenge was simply suicide. In terms of individual strength, Lin Jingyan’s side was weaker, but in terms of overall strength, Tyrannical Ambition was stronger. Restrain the few outstanding individuals and utilize their greater overall strength to win. Zhang Xinjie’s strategy was very logical. Lin Jingyan wouldn’t run out and duel anyone. This wasn’t a pro match anyways.

After playing alongside a master at playing dirty for several years, Lin Jingyan couldn’t help but pick up some of his teammate’s strengths. At this moment, his Brawler played exceptionally dirty. He threw a brick to the left and a gas can to the right. He never threw a projectile from the front, allowing him to restrain his side’s opponents as much as possible, while bringing out their troop’s greater overall strength.

Ye Xiu continued to lead his team in battle. He clearly understood that Lin Jingyan was much more difficult to deal with in a large-scale battle than Zhao Yuzhe or Lu Hanwen was. It seemed like today was revenge for allying with Xiao Shiqin to bully Zhang Xinjie. Two veterans had joined together to clash against him. Already possessing superior troops, these two veterans steadily controlled the situation. Even though Ye Xiu’s side hadn’t yet retreated in defeat, in this stalemate, Tyrannical Ambition had already gained enough time. A system announcement soon followed. The wild boss had fallen. Tyrannical Ambition had killed the boss.

Ye Xiu still hadn’t pinpointed Lin Jinyan yet. Lin Jingyan didn’t take the initiative to greet him either. After taking down the boss, he disappeared silently along with Tyrannical Ambition.

It was a very oppressive battle. Everyone was feeling a bit sullen. This battle made them feel powerless. If the two sides had clashed in a head-on fight, Ye Xiu’s side might even have a slight upper hand, but what did that matter? Their goal was the boss. Now that Tyrannical Ambition had killed the boss, the four guild alliance was only left with injuries and casualties. This battle could be considered an overwhelming victory by Tyrannical Ambition.

With Lin Jingyan now helping Zhang Xinjie, Tyrannical Ambition took down the next two bosses as well. Afterwards, it was about time for Zhang Xinjie to go to bed. Would Lin Jingyan stay? No one knew this answer because Ye Xiu still didn’t know which character Lin Jingyan was playing on. Lin Jingyan didn’t use a character with powerful equipment. He simply used a very ordinary Brawler character from Tyrannical Ambition. After playing together with the master of dirty playing, not only did Lin Jingyan pick up how to play dirty, even his decision-making had been affected.

Ye Xiu was only able to confirm that Lin Jingyan was not online when the next boss spawned.

In the end, Ye Xiu’s side took this boss. When they split the drops, Ye Xiu also gave them some good news and some bad news.

"The good news is that it looks like Liln Jingyan won’t be staying up all night to continue competing with us."

"The bad news is that it looks like both Zhang Xinjie and Lin Jingyan will be working together to contend with us. Beating Tyrannical Ambition will be more difficult now. I’m sure you guys already know what I’m talking about from the previous three boss fights, right?"

"Then what do we do?" Loulan Slash asked.

Ye Xiu called out the other three guild leaders, Yue Ziqin, White Stream, and Martial Awareness: "I say why aren’t there any pro players from your teams helping us out?"

The three guild leaders refuted in unison: "That isn’t something we can do anything about!"

Indeed. No pro player had such a clause in their contract, requiring them to work in a situation like this. Let alone the guild leader, even the Club had no grounds to order their pro players to help the guild out. It was either the pro player helped out on his own volition, or someone like the guild leader played the sympathy card to ask for help.

Asking someone to help for one or two battles was doable, but asking someone to put in all of his time and effort, working from morning to night, like Zhang Xinjie wasn’t. And with the current pro scene’s common practices, very few were willing to contribute. What’s more, it was currently the summer transfer window for pro players. The season hadn’t even started yet. If they labored their summer away, obtaining materials and strengthening the team, what if they were traded away to another team? Didn’t that just mean they worked all summer for nothing?

The Alliance’s original common practice had long since disappeared as the Alliance rapidly developed. Back then, many pro players would contend against each other in the game during the summer break. That custom would probably never appear again.

It seemed as if Ye Xiu had called out those three guild leaders to complain about their pro players not working hard, but he was also complaining about how the entire Alliance had changed. Everyone had become more practical, whether it was the teams or the players. The nostalgic attachment felt by Ye Xiu and other old players towards their original teams was difficult to find in a rookie nowadays. Sun Xiang and Tang Hao, these two recent outstanding rookies, changed teams after just a year or two since their rise. They left their original team to a team with more potential just like that.

It wasn’t just the players changing. It was the entire scene. Clubs, teams, and players were just a part of the picture now.

Ye Xiu thought about the past. In the beginning, Excellent Era hadn’t been so crazy about pursuing commercialization. Tao Xuan had originally considered victory as the greatest joy too. However, Tao Xuan was much more involved in the scene. As the scene changed, he adapted, adjusted, and changed too.

Ye Xiu kept his love for the game. He still considered victory the greatest glory and always strove to victory. In fact, this was the reason behind Glory's name. The company spread the message that everything in the game was for glory. Perhaps this was just a form of marketing, but there were people who truly believed the message and worked hard to fulfill it. A dream should have no distinction between being noble or being lowly. For these people, their dream was to be the best at this game and gain whatever they believed to be as glory.

Ever since Ye Xiu walked this path, his dream had never changed.

He recalled his two friends, who once held that same dream. One lost everything before he could even step onto the path towards his dream. The other had once obtained everything along the way, but eventually went to pursue other goals. Now only Ye Xiu remained. Only he had never strayed from his path: his dream was Glory and nothing more.

Nowadays, numerous pro players may look down at these dreams, but they were also striving for their own dreams and their own glory.

Tonight, the system seemed to favor Ye Xiu’s side. A total of eight bosses spawned. Everyone ran around busily. In the end, they were able to take down six of the eight bosses. The two that they failed to get were because their information hadn’t arrived fast enough. In the end, other guilds took it away. Wei Chen’s contribution towards these six bosses wasn’t small either. He cleverly manipulated Samsara’s second elite group. The trick that he liked to use was help their first elite group until only Ye Xiu’s side became their only opponent.

How could the first elite group compare with Ye Xiu and the four guild alliance? The first elite group suffered defeat in every battle. In the end, they could only feel ashamed in front of their second group leader, Wei Chen. In their eyes, the second group leader beautifully completed their task every time, but their first elite group could never seize the opportunity to finish.

Wei Chen consoled them every time with words like "It’s okay. Don’t think about it." or "Our opponent is Ye Qiu. It’s already impressive that we managed to get this far." His fake somberness made everyone in Happy want to throw up.

Samsara really lost out big this time. Not only were they being manipulated in the dark, the first and second elite group were on the verge of fighting with each other. Who cares if your first group leader was ashamed? The first group always failed to complete their task. How could the second group, who always completed their task beautifully, not have any objections? All groups within the guild competed with each other, whether that was the first elite group or the second elite group. From the second group’s perspective, the first group was too stupid. Next time, the first group should be the ones to assist the second group, while the second group tried to snatch the boss.

Wei Chen always stepped in to resolve the dispute. This was because his current work was putting his role as a spy to perfect use. As a result, in the second group’s eyes, Wei Chen knew what was right for the guild and was adept at tactics. In the first group’s eyes, Wei Chen was someone of noble character and unquestionable integrity.

"I feel like with me uniting Samsara, it’s only a matter of time before I become their ruler. What should I do if Samsara one day recognizes my talent and actually assigns me to be their guild leader?" Wei Chen was in a good mood after playing the entire night. In the morning, Zhang Xinjie logged on. Everyone decisively logged off. When they went to eat breakfast together, he boasted shamelessly.

"You still need me to tell you? Empty out their guild storage and then beat it." Ye Xiu said.

"F*ck, that’s too far. Won’t Samsara call the police?" Wei Chen said.

"You brute, you were actually thinking of doing it?" Ye Xiu said.

"If I haven’t been discovered, who knows!" Wei Chen said.

"Then you’d better work really hard. Maybe you’ll actually get the opportunity to be Samsara’s guild leader. If you can actually get everything their guild storage, we won’t need to worry about anything anymore." Ye Xiu said.

"Your way of thinking isn’t correct. Haven’t you ever heard of the saying "Sit idle and eat. In time, even a mountain can be nibbled away." It’s only by understanding this concept that you can firmly grasp their entire fortune." Wei Chen lectured Ye Xiu.

"I’m done eating. I’m going to go to bed." Ye Xiu got up.

"B*stard! I’m not done talking yet! You degenerate! You’ve already got a huge apartment all to yourself, but you go to the girl’s rooms everyday. What evil thoughts could you be harboring? I’m not a picky person, but Sister Su, if I were you, I definitely wouldn’t be able to bear it." Wei Chen said as he turned towards Su Mucheng.

"I just want to walk less and save time." Ye Xiu said.

"Listen youngster, exercise is vital to being healthy!" Wei Chen said.

"Old people are always so long-winded." Ye Xiu shook his head and sighed. He went upstairs to rest.