924 Listless

The cameras zoomed in on Huang Shaotian. Everyone in the audience could see it on the screens above. The crowd immediately exploded into an even greater uproar. Countless Tiny Herb fans began shouting and whistling, intensifying Liu Xiaobie’s challenge towards Huang Shaotian.

On the screen, a teammate nudged Huang Shaotian and then pointed in the direction of the screen. Huang Shaotian smiled and waved his hands at the cameras.

The crowd roared. This guy probably didn’t know what was going on, did he? Was he not watching the previous match?

Huang Shaotian was very confused by the crowd’s reaction until the teammate next to him said a few words to him. He suddenly understood what had happened and stared at the camera with a smile. He continued smiling.

The cameras couldn’t focus on Huang Shaotian the entire time! It seemed like he didn’t care, so the cameras turned away in disappointment. The instant the cameras turned away, Huang Shaotian’s two hands quickly shot up and gave Liu Xiaobie the middle finger.

"Ah! Hurry up and go back!" The director of the broadcast shouted violently.

The cameras quickly focused on Huang Shaotian again. Everyone watching the All-Star Weekend once again saw Huang Shaotian smiling. His smile was no different than before. Everyone was puzzled. Was the stream lagging?

"This guy is too crafty!" The director felt very depressed. Flipping someone off was very uncultured. If the live stream had caught it, Huang Shaotian would certainly be fined by the Alliance, but in their current situation, as long as no one reported this incident, even if the Alliance knew, they would turn a blind eye towards it.

Without the cameras on him, there were only a few people who could see him giving the middle finger. This was Team Tiny Herb’s home stadium, so it was filled with Team Tiny Herb fans. When they saw it, they went into an uproar and created quite some noise. Those who didn’t know what was going on were very puzzled and naturally turned to ask others about it. As a result, news of Huang Shaotian giving the middle finger to Liu Xiaobei was spread by mouth, and the uproar in the stadium grew louder like a rising wave. Practically no one cared about when the next Rookie Challenge match would be taking place at this point.

The stream’s commentator was still carefully commentating the next match of the Rookie Challenge, but his heart felt so stifled that it hurt. Such a magnificent scene had actually been missed by the cameras! What was going on onstage was very ordinary. It was an exhibition match where the younger generation paid respects to the older generation. In the end, the senior God won. He gave the junior a word of encouragement and the junior expressed that he would take this opportunity to learn from his senior…...

"How boring….." The commentator was about to fall asleep, but even if he felt bitter inwardly, he could only falsely raise his spirits and talk very excitedly about his admiration for this match.

The broadcasting team was the most sullen out of everyone on the first day of All Stars. There had been such fat, juicy material, but the scene of the crime wasn’t caught by the cameras. In hindsight, there had been numerous measures that could have been taken. For example, they could have talked to the Alliance to see if they could give Liu Xiaobie special authority to issue a challenge. It was the All Stars anyways. The matches were just for fun, so more easter eggs couldn’t hurt.

Unfortunately, everything only came to light post facto. The event had lost its immediate value. It could only be embellished into a good report afterwards. Various titles, such as The Challenge of the New Generation, quickly sprouted in the minds of many reporters.

In the following Rookie Challenge, another good piece of material was supplied.

Team Wind Howl’s Zhao Yuzhe challenged Team Misty Rain’s Chu Yunxiu. When asked his reason for the challenge, his reply was: I want to be the number one Elementalist.

"Kids nowadays have such drive!" Ye Xiu sighed.

Zhao Yuzhe wasn’t as brash as Tang Hao last year, who had claimed that the junior would succeed the senior, but the intent behind his words was very obvious.

"Good! How ambitious!" The host shouted loudly, "Then, please welcome Team Misty Rain’s captain, Chu Yunxiu, to the stage!"

Amidst the applause, the commentator seized this opportunity to use this as a topic to talk about: "I’m sure everyone still remembers that in the Rookie Challenge last year, the two year veteran Tang Hao shocked everyone with a "the junior succeeds the senior" and defeated Lin Jingyan in the end, replacing him not only in name, but also in reality, as the number one Brawler. He transferred to Team Wind Howl this summer and took Lin Jingyan’s position. Now let’s look at Zhao Yuzhe. He’s also from Team Wind Howl and Tang Hao’s teammate. Could his challenge have been influenced by Tang Hao’s move last year? After Zhao Yuzhe won Best Rookie last year, he continued to perform spectacularly this season. His position in Team Wind Howl is stable, and his team’s achievements have been quite impressive too. He’s a player with a bright future!"

During this introduction, Chu Yunxiu had already gone down from his seat and onto the stage.

There weren’t many female pro players in Glory. Only Chu Yunxiu and Su Mucheng had been able to squeeze onto the All Stars list. Su Mucheng wasn’t eligible for All Stars because of Excellent Era’s relegation this year. At the moment, Chu Yunxiu was the only female player among the 24 All Stars.

Chu Yunxiu was also from the Golden Generation. She had been a pro player for many years and had assumed the role of team captain. It wasn’t easy to make her lose her calm. When the cameras zoomed in on her, she didn’t seem to have any peculiar reaction towards Zhao Yuzhe’s impolite challenge. She shook hands with Zhao Yuzhe and received a few questions from the host. Everything seemed very normal. The host harbored evil intentions and wanted to deepen the conflict, but she easily neutralized all of his attempts.

How oppressing!

The broadcast team once again felt stifled.

When Liu Xiaobie pointed his sword at Huang Shaotian, it felt like a tempest was about to come. A black cloud rolled out, and then nothing happened after that. This time, Chu Yunxiu’s calmness made Zhao Yuzhe’s challenge, which had already been less brash than Tang Hao’s challenge from last year, appear even more like it was a stick hitting cotton.

Why? Why couldn’t this year’s Rookie Challenge produce any highs?　

The broadcast team was quite depressed. They forgot that the previous Rookie Challenges rarely had any highs. It was just that last year, there had been several very abnormal and significant challenges in a row, raising the expectations for this year’s Rookie Challenge.

For this year, Liu Xiaobie pointing his sword at Huang Shaotian and Zhao Yuzhe’s challenge to take the top seat was already quite exciting, but it just couldn’t compare with last year’s.

"Mm, both sides are ready. The match will soon begin. This match will be the same as the match with Lu Hanwen and Liu Xiaobie. Both sides will be using their own pro characters. On the left side of the map was Zhao Yuzhe’s Howling Fire. On the right side of the map is Chu Yunxiu’s Windy Rain. Uh... Chu Yunxiu is the only female player among the 24 All Stars this time. She doesn’t seem to have any peculiar reaction to this unfriendly challenge from her junior." The commentator introduced the scenario.

"Haha, many of our friends watching knows very well that even in important matches like the playoffs, Chu Yunxiu always remains this calm. This kind of attitude isn’t anything strange." The commentator’s co-caster, the honored guest Li Yibo, said a few words. As long as it was an important match, Coach Li would always be there. For an exciting event like the All Star Weekend, the number one guest commentator would of course be sitting. 　

Those who used their heads would realize that his evaluation of Chu Yunxiu actually contained some hidden implications. He was criticizing her lack of passion for the game, which was why she would frequently be unable to hold on during important matches. It was one of the huge problems that had plagued Team Misty Rain.

After the match started, in the public chat, Zhao Yuzhe typed out a helpless expression: "Senior, I hope you’ll treat this match seriously!"

"Haha. I will." Chu Yunxiu replied out of politeness.

"After a brief exchange in the chat, the two sides have now drawn closer to each other." The commentator continued.

"Hm... everyone, look. Zhao Yuzhe’s Howling Fire isn’t going directly at her. He’s taking a rather roundabout path. It looks like Zhao Yuzhe is truly serious about this match….." Li Yibo said.

"Yeah... employing tactics to move around isn’t commonly seen in All Stars, no?" The commentator said　　

"Indeed. I remember last year that neither Tang Hao nor Sun Xiang employed tactics to move around. They just directly clashed with their opponents instead." Li Yibo said.

"Coach Li, what do you think this means?" The commentator asked.

"This... it means Zhao Yuzhe cares a lot about this match..." Li Yibo said, while glancing at his co-caster. Old friend, could you please be a bit more attentive. I just said that it seems like Zhao Yuzhe is serious about this match, yet you asked me again. Are you testing my ability to phrase things in a different way?

Zhao Yuzhe, who was employing positioning tactics to move around, obviously didn’t come out as soon as Windy Rain appeared in his line of sight. Chu Yunxiu’s experience was abundant. She immediately realized this point, so she decided to stand still, waiting for Zhao Yuzhe’s Howling Fire to come out.

"This... mm, turning being on the defensive into taking the initiative. It’s not a bad solution...." Li Yibo said.

The commentator felt like kneeling down and bowing to Li Yibo. Anything that he said had substance. Li Yibo’s explanation for Chu Yunxiu’s action was reasonable, but in reality, she didn’t care enough about this match, so she was probably just too lazy to fight for the initiative against Zhao Yuzhe.

Chu Yunxiu’s Windy Rain just stood there. Zhao Yuzhe’s Howling Fire quietly sneaked closer to her from the side. A pro player shouldn’t be so easily ambushed. Even Zhao Yuzhe felt like it was too boring. What a tragedy! His opponent just had to be this God. If it had been anyone else, his opponent wouldn’t be so passive, right?

I guess I’ll just end it beautifully.... Seeing that Chu Yunxiu didn’t seem to be interested in fighting seriously, Zhao Yuzhe decided to kill her with some beautiful combos, but right when he started planning out how he would go about doing that, Windy Rain suddenly turned around. She pointed her staff and made the first move.

"Ah?" The commentator had been listless the entire time, but now he was suddenly so astonished that he was at a loss for words.

"Chu Yunxiu strikes first! What a fierce attack!" Li Yibo was more clear-headed. On stage, Windy Rain’s spells launched one after the other. A huge area-of-effect explosion devoured Zhao Yuzhe and brought him into a perilous situation.

"This this... could it be that Chu Yunxiu’s initial attitude had been a set up?" The commentator was astonished. Seeing Chu Yunxiu’s offense, it didn’t seem like she didn’t cared about the match.

"Tsk tsk tsk." In the audience seats, Ye Xiu clicked his tongue repeatedly.

"What is it?" Chen Guo asked.

"I heard that Chu Yunxiu is in a bad mood today." Ye Xiu said.　　

"Why?" Chen Guo said.

"It’s probably because today is the last episode of ‘My Unusual Girlfriend’.... She had to miss it...." Ye Xiu said.

"AH?!" Chen Guo didn’t know how to describe what she was feeling right now.