925 There’s No Next Time

My Unusual Girlfriend was the TV drama that all the big TV channels had been broadcasting over the past three weeks, topping the viewing charts and sweeping over the crowds. Chen Guo wasn’t a huge fan of this sort of things, but she did know about them. However, the Captain of Team Misty Rain, Glory’s Number One Female Pro Player, would deign to allow the fact that she couldn’t watch the finale when it came out to affect her mood? It seemed ridiculous to Chen Guo. Could this be described as letting your concerns mess with your head?

Yet knowing that this made Chu Yunxiu’s current state of mind easy to analyze. Her thoughts weren’t even present, so she hadn’t been in the mood to react to Zhao Yuzhe’s taunt at all. As for her sudden fierce torrent of attacks, it was just a cathartic release of her frustrations at not being able to watch the finale live, not because of Zhao Yuzhe’s provocation. If you were to think this was a tactic of hers to mess with your head, then you were simply thinking too much.

The sudden surge of attacks had clearly taken Zhao Yuzhe completely off guard. A blanket of Elementalist skills raged across the map, almost unavoidable. Chu Yunxiu’s mechanics were refined, and she was extremely familiar with the Elementalist class, allowing her to predict most of Zhao Yuzhe’s countermeasures. This made Zhao Yuzhe feel as if he was trapped in the palm of her hand.

He had hoped that Chu Yunxiu would take this seriously, but then she had turned out to be unenthusiastic, disappointing him greatly.

Yet now his opponent had suddenly become bold and unrestrained with her attacks, to the point where Zhao Yuzhe wasn’t prepared for it at all. Zhao Yuzhe wanted to cry!

"How dirty…" That was Zhao Yuzhe’s thoughts about Chu Yunxiu’s actions. He would never be able to guess that it was because she couldn’t watch the finale of a popular drama.

It took Zhao Yunzhe everything he had to escape Chu Yunxiu’s torrent of attacks and by then, Howling Fire’s health had gone down by approximately a fourth. It wouldn’t be easy to turn the tides in this situation, but Zhao Yuzhe still made an effort to readjust him state of mind. If he managed something that was harder to do, then it would prove his worth even more, right?

However, Chu Yunxiu’s performance was at its peak after her fierce offense, pursuing him relentlessly and attacking him viciously. Zhao Yuzhe had wanted to avoid this barrage for now, but who would’ve expected that Chu Yunxiu would be bursting with it? The buff from not being able to see the finale seemed to be continuous.

"Ai, it seems like Zhao Yuzhe is struggling to turn the tables…" Even Li Yibo dared to comment like this during a livestream. The scales of victory were already tilted too far to one side. Zhao Yuzhe eventually fell, frustration and refusal to accept this defeat boiling within him. With only a year and a half of experience in the pro circle, he still wasn’t very mature, walking down from the player stands with a face filled with rage. The broadcasting showed both the players in various scenes.

The winner, Chu Yunxiu, didn’t seem very happy about her victory either. She seemed as listless as she had been when she had gone on stage. So, the camera took more shots of Zhao Yuzhe, revealing his anger to the audience in full.

Zhao Yuzhe didn’t want to accept this! He felt that Chu Yunxiu was playing too dirty. All this effort because she was afraid to lose? Yes, he had to make the audience understand it: Chu Yunxiu was terrified to lose to him; he was already a threat in the eyes of Glory’s best Elementalist!

Seeing a shot of himself on the big screen, Zhao Yuzhe knew that this broadcast was going live to tens of thousands of viewers, hurriedly composing his expression into something less revealing. As he walked onto the stage, looking at Chu Yunxiu, he was a sea of calm.

"That was a good strategy, senior!" Zhao Yuzhe took the mic, not even waiting for the host to speak before initiating conversation with Chu Yunxiu. He did his best to act professional and retain his smile, but he was obviously too inexperienced to keep this up with ease. Compared to Huang Shaotian’s peaceful smile at the camera when he was planning to flip people off, Zhao Yuzhe strained a hundred times as much to keep his smile. This was made evident just by looking at the closeup of him. Zhao Yuzhe could tell, as well, and found it strained. He tried to adjust the way he curled his lips up, but only managed to make his expression look even more strained.

In comparison, Chu Yunxiu was much more of a veteran. She smiled casually and said, "It was so-so!"

"This was my own fault for not being careful enough. Seeing how listless you were just now, I had thought you weren’t going to be serious about this match!" Zhao Yuzhe pointed out Chu Yunxiu’s strategy, but was subtle about it, just like how his challenge was; he didn’t raise much of a stink over it.

"So long as you’re on the battlefield, you should always give it your all," Chu Yunxiu said. This was definitely an exemplar civility.

"Yes, I need to learn from you, senior. No matter when, I have to give it my all," Zhao Yuzhe replied.

"Good luck!" Chu Yunxiu nodded.

Zhao Yuzhe was quite good at being tactful. Anyone who was observant enough could still easily understand his implications. Yet Zhao Yuzhe still wasn’t satisfied. What he had managed to explain so far was only that he hadn’t been able to play to the best of his ability because he was caught off guard, but he had yet to say what he really wanted make known!

Seeing Chu Yunxiu already turning to return to the player stands, Zhao Yuzhe hurriedly called after her, "Next time I won’t fall for your trap, senior!"

Yes! He had fallen for a trap! Zhao Yuzhe made sure to make these words as clear as possible. He wanted everyone to notice this and then realize how much Chu Yunxiu feared him, even needing to trick him to obtain victory.

Chu Yunxiu had already returned the mic to the host by then, but the mic was just for amplifying their voices for the entire audience to hear. If it was just an interaction between the two onstage, this distance didn’t make the mic necessary. Hearing Zhao Yuzhe hollering, Chu Yunxiu turned around. The host could tell that this would be a potential selling point, and Knight Charged to Chu Yunxiu’s side, holding up the mic for her as he saw she was already opening her mouth to speak.

"Next time?" Chu Yunxiu seemed a little confused, "You’re a second year, right? Can you still enter the rookie challenge next year?"

"Ah?" Zhao Yuzhe was struck dumb by Chu Yunxiu’s reply. That was completely off topic! He was just saying this out of courtesy; how was "next time" any sort of keyword? Yet Chu Yunxiu had caught this little loophole to retort, making Zhao Yuzhe unable to formulate an immediate response. Seeing that he had little reaction, Chu Yunxiu turned and continued to walk off.

"What was that about?" Zhao Yuzhe actually scratched his head in confusion in this shot of him. He wanted to fire back a few words, but heard the host saying the closing lines for the round, thanking the two players for their spectacular match and whatnot. Zhao Yuzhe couldn’t continue to cling to the stage and refuse to leave, so he could only return the mic and end this time’s plan for rising higher.

The two’s match held loud thunder, but not much rain*. Zhao Yuzhe didn’t raise too much of a stink about it and Chu Yunxiu’s attitude was peaceful as well, nothing like the tension in last year’s Rookie Challenges.

With these two sent off stage, the event continued. Now there was only one round left. Usually, it would always be a player from the hosting team who would come out to challenge someone at the end, but Team Tiny Herb only had one player who was eligible for the Rookie Challenge, Gao Yingjie. However, Gao Yingjie had already participated in the Rookie Challenges last year, so he couldn’t go again. So, this All Stars broke the tradition, and the player the host announced was Team Heavenly Sword’s Lou Guanning.

"Oh…" This still caused quite a ruckus among the audience.

First, Team Heavenly Swords was also based in B City, and with their skill, they hadn’t achieved the level of becoming archrivals with Tiny Herb, residing in the same city, so, being from the same city, the Tiny Herb fans would give Heavenly Swords some attention as well.

In addition, Lou Guanning was a rather legendary figure. First, he had been a very famous RMB warrior in game, but no one would’ve thought he would go so far, even to create a Pro Team and advancing into the Pro League. A normal player who got to this point was at the top of the top.

"That guy is pretty popular, huh?" Chen Guo commented.

"Haha." Ye Xiu laughed, not commenting. He had been in contact with Lou Guanning for quite a while now, and they were becoming closer and closer. However, he hadn’t thought that the first time he would see the other was through this: on the big screen was a close-up of Lou Guanning, walking onto the stage.

Talking about his appearance, he wasn’t particularly comely, but he wasn’t unsettled at all, being under the gaze of so many people, walking down step by step casually.

Lou Guanning was still considered a Rookie in the pro circle. The current battle records of Team Heavenly Swords didn’t meet expectations, either, nothing to be proud of. However, his composure when walking down was even better than Glory’s current First, Zhou Zekai.

Of course, Zhou Zekai’s calm was mostly because of his personality. However, Lou Guanning’s steady demeanor portrayed that he was someone who had witnessed pomp and ceremony before. He wouldn’t feel nervous at all in this sort of situation.

The rebroadcast and live host were both introducing Lou Guanning’s legendary gaming career. It should be known that this player’s identity and position was a little special. He wasn’t just a member of a team, he was also the boss of one. With this, even if Team Heavenly Sword’s performance didn’t meet expectations, his position was a extraordinary compared to the other pro players.

On the stage, receiving an interview, Lou Guanning was like a fish in water. Much stronger than Zhao Yuzhe, who had to practice repeatedly just to cover his emotions up with a smile.

"Hey, do you think he’ll challenge you?" The surprising thought suddenly popped into Chen Guo’s head.

"

"Me?" Ye Xiu pause for a moment before shaking his head. "He won’t. He isn’t someone who doesn’t know what’s appropriate. If he really wanted to challenge me, then he would tell me first."

"That’s so boring!" Chen Guo was rather eager still, but what Lou Guanning then said crushed her hopes for this drama. Lou Guanning wanted to challenge Yu Feng, the current number one Berserker.

Transferring from Blue Rain to Hundred Blossoms and becoming their core player. Yu Feng had fell into a slump with Hundred Blossoms, and some even predicted that they would become the second Excellent Era.

However, as the season progressed, Team Hundred Blossoms got their feel back and their performance began to improve. The combo of Yu Feng’s Blossoming Chaos and Zou Yuan’s Blooming Blossoms were syncing up more and more, gaining more and more popularity and support from the normal players. There was no doubt that Yu Feng and Blossoming Chaos would be voted into the All Stars this time. As for Blue Rain, his spot in the main roster had been filled in by the rookie Lu Hanwen. Though there was a new Berserker player to control Brilliant Edge, he wasn’t on the field much and his performance wasn’t particularly eye-catching, so he didn’t really have the competitive abilities required by the voters to participate in the All Stars. The title of the First Berserker followed Yu Feng, returning to Hundred Blossoms.