1196 The Most Challenging

At any other time, Chen Guo would have just about died laughing from seeing these reporters harassed like this. But now, she didn't feel like laughing at all, only crying. From the very first second she sat on this stage, she was trying very hard to control herself and prevent the tears from falling.

The rules of the Alliance didn't extend to a team's boss, so Chen Guo could have skipped all of the pre- and post-match press conferences. But now, she sat here, next to Tang Rou, because she wanted to be with Tang Rou, because she knew that Tang Rou was making a very difficult decision.

Chen Guo felt like she was good for nothing. She had wanted to sit up here to give Tang Rou support, only to find that she herself was the weakest. She couldn't be calm like Ye Xiu and Fang Rui, or steadfast like Tang Rou. Hold back the tears… this was all she could manage to do.

The 1v3 promise had caused an uproar in the outside world, and within Happy, it had also been a topic that everyone treated with caution. After the end of the press conference where she had made the announcement, the absolutely rational An Wenyi had said frankly that Tang Rou's actions were irresponsible to the extreme.

Tang Rou hadn't retorted, and afterwards, she spent her days and nights in intense training. Everyone saw this, and so An Wenyi temporarily refrained from expressing his opinion any further. After all, the five rounds hadn't been fought yet, perhaps Tang Rou could really pull it off. As her teammate, at a time like this, An Wenyi went along with the others and chose to encourage her and cheer her on.

35 days passed, five rounds finished, and in the end Tang Rou hadn't been able to do it. In the prep room after the match, An Wenyi didn't rush to say anything, but everyone could see from his eyes just how dissatisfied he was.

And then, Tang Rou apologized, for her earlier irresponsibility. And then, she announced her decision: revoking her promise, and continuing to play.

Everyone was stunned, especially the most dissatisfied An Wenyi. Now, this rational player viewed Tang Rou's decision as even more inconceivable.

Everyone knew the pressure she would have to bear from a decision like this.

The irresponsible Tang Rou now used this sort of method to take responsibility for her team. Why couldn't she just soften up a bit, admit some weakness?

An Wenyi couldn't understand. He just knew that if it were him, he never would have thought of this self-destructive tough method.

The prep room was quiet.

Why wasn't anyone dissuading her? An Wenyi looked at Captain Ye Xiu, at Boss Chen Guo, at his other teammates, but no one said anything. Was it because no one recognized the severity of this problem? That certainly wasn't the case. The current silence precisely demonstrated just how shocking and frightening Tang Rou's decision here was.

But no one stood up to say anything. Had everyone lost their reason? An Wenyi wanted to step forward, wanted to logically analyze the most appropriate way to address this situation. But, he couldn't open his mouth. How to address this? An Wenyi thought that she should just lower her head to the reporters, admit that her earlier words were improper, and earnestly request that everyone agree to let her withdraw her improper promise.

An Wenyi could clearly see that those reporters weren't actually very interested in forcing a player to retire, as that would generate animosity towards themselves. They were looking forward to this kind of scene, her lowering her head. With that, they could paint themselves as saviors leading a player to the correct way.

Was that what had to happen?

In his mind, An Wenyi imagined Tang Rou's voice quietly begging forgiveness, and he saw those gleeful, arrogant, puffed up faces. After that, those guys would of course generously accept Tang Rou.

"Fuck!" The rational An Wenyi actually swore, harshly kicking a locker. This was just so fucking disgusting! An Wenyi found that he couldn't find it in himself to persuade Tang Rou to act any differently than she had.

"Then… that's that!" Ye Xiu said.

"Ye Xiu, come out here for a second." Boss Chen Guo suddenly walked out of the prep room and called out to Ye Xiu.

"Hm?" Ye Xiu followed her out.

Just when Tang Rou made her decision, a terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in Chen Guo's mind.

Given Tang Rou's personality, it wasn't too hard to understand her making such a tough answer and taking greater pressure upon herself. And so, Chen Guo suddenly thought of Ye Xiu. That guy, maybe he anticipated early on that Tang Rou couldn't 1v3 within five rounds. The five round limit was his taking advantage of the situation to throw her into a trap.

Because he had very clearly expressed before that Tang Rou's dedication to Glory wasn't stable. Her interest came from the challenge, so it was possible that one day, when she reached a certain height and there were no more challenges to interest her, she would lose her interest in Glory. At that time, this added to her life attitude of a casual rich girl, what would be her resulting attitude? Would she directly quit Glory, just like she had quit music? Or would she aimlessly continue along, just because she was part of the team? Neither outcome was one that Happy wanted to see. So this time, Ye Xiu threw Tang Rou into a trap, putting her in shackles and forcing her to endlessly fight?

"You woman, you're really too scary!" Ye Xiu was shocked after hearing Chen Guo's blunt questioning.

"It's not like that?" Chen Guo said.

"Of course not."

Chen Guo sighed in relief. She didn't know where this thought had come from either, perhaps because she had watched Ye Xiu for a while now, and his normal way of doing things was often rather cold and indifferent. But Chen Guo would not tolerate his orchestrating this kind of plan to the teammates at his side. Hearing his refutation, Chen Guo was relieved.

"But now, she…"

"She'll suffer an enormous amount of pressure. This is really her personality, always choosing the most difficult and the most challenging," said Ye Xiu.

Tang Rou chose the most difficult way to face this. Then what about Chen Guo herself? She couldn't retreat. As a team, no matter what, they should always support and accept every single member of the team. Today, she stood here with Tang Rou, with whom she was the closest, but if it were any other member of Happy, she would do the same.

With these beliefs, Chen Guo calmly faced the reporters who raged around her. Even if she couldn't control her tears, she would be Tang Rou's most firm supporter, the most firm supporter of every single player on Team Happy. Just like that.

Insane! Happy's people are all insane.

This Tang Rou didn't consider her own image at all, and Happy's boss didn't consider the effect of such a player on the team's image as a whole. There were clearly problems with the thought process of this team's operations, big problems.

Don't they understand these principles? It seemed that they did, but they acted like this anyway. Tang Rou was willing to bear the public pressure, and Happy's boss? Even under these conditions, she emphasized her thanks toward Tang Rou for making such a difficult decision for the team.

How could there be a team like this, how could there be a player like this!

The reporters were completely resentful of Happy and Tang Rou, who didn't fit their expectations at all. When the winners of today's match, Tiny Herb, came out for their press conference, the reporters were still alight with an anger that couldn't immediately be extinguished.

They carelessly finished with their congratulations toward the winning party and immediately asked the Tiny Herb players for their thoughts on Happy's actions today.

"Oh?" Hearing that Tang Rou made such an announcement, the Tiny Herb players who attended this press conference, Wang Jiexi, Gao Yingjie, and Liu Xiaobie, found it very surprising.

But soon enough, Wang Jiexi nodded his head. "She would do something like that!" Wang Jiexi couldn't help but think of their time in the tenth server, when defeating Tang Rou was a matter of seconds for him. Even a beginner could tell the enormous disparity of skill that existed between them. But despite such a frightening disparity, Wang Jiexi could only defeat Tang Rou's character and not her fighting spirit. As Tang Rou became more clearly aware of this disparity, Wang Jiexi sensed only an increased excitement from her.

From then, Wang Jiexi knew what kind of person this was. And then later there was the Challenger League, when Tang Rou once again refused Tiny Herb's invitation, Wang Jiexi took another step in understanding how different Tang Rou was from the crowd.

Understanding how different she was from the crowd and then looking at the things these reporters were chattering about, even Wang Jiexi felt that they were laughable.

The reporters clearly felt that Tang Rou breaking her word like this and destroying her self-image would prevent her from continuing to exist in the Alliance, that she would have no more future.

"No powerhouse team would want a player with such a bad reputation ruining their image."

Wang Jiexi heard this sound, spoken with confidence.

It was true, these words are very reasonable. But the problem was, the "future" of which you speak is entirely different from the future in Tang Rou's eyes. This player, different from the rest, is absolutely not walking the normal, expected path of a pro player.

Powerhouse team?

This person had already rejected Tiny Herb twice now, a rejection with no hesitation or leeway. It was evident that Tiny Herb had nothing that attracted her. The so-called powerhouse team was nothing in her eyes.

These group of players that Ye Xiu found all had their quirks and defects, but they were all extremely reliable people! Thinking about this, Wang Jiexi discovered that he subconsciously admired them. But facing the reporters' questions, he sensibly evaded.

"Well, perhaps there's some reason she won't honor her commitment! I'm not too sure, so I can't very well say anything," Wang Jiexi said.

"Then what do you think about Fang Rui saying that he could take on eight of you?" One reporter also dragged this statement over.

To this, Wang Jiexi just smiled a little. "I look forward to our next battle."

To think that trash talk like this would provoke some reaction from Wang Jiexi, the reporters found that they were too naive. And from Wang Jiexi, they couldn't find any interesting topic to discuss. They could only turn their attacks to the other two from Tiny Herb. Tang Rou's actions once again became the focus of their questions.

"I'm pretty happy she didn't quit. I look forward to battling her again." Liu Xiaobie only looked at the result, not the process.

"No matter what, her courage and determination is worth learning," Gao Yingjie said.

Society's morals were degenerating day by day!

The reporters lamented. They couldn't even hear strong condemnation of Tang Rou from Tiny Herb's players?