New Age Of Glory

Half an hour before the announcement, a group of retired professional players was sitting in a room, watching the match between Samsara and Blue Rain.

"That brat Hou Siying… not only did he break Liu Xiaobie's combo record, but he also executes it while moving. If it were not due to the fact that the cleric decisively used Revive and Holy Cure at last minute, he would've secured a kill with just 8 blades. In the end, he continued until it stopped at 17 combos. A monster! Hahaha! Old Ye! What do you think? Isn't my protege something? I bet he's not losing to your Qiu Fei in terms of being a monster!"

Huang Shaotian sounded very proud as he said this and even looked at Ye Xiu smugly. It was only unfortunate that the one he tried to match up with was none other than Ye Xiu.

"It's alright. You'll find out about the devil soon enough," came the simple reply from Ye Xiu.

Huang Shaotian just frowned before his eyes landed on Li Haoxuan who was focusing on the screen with his brother, eyes never leaving the battle shown on the flat TV. He remembered a certain match from two years ago which made him feels overwhelmed by battle spirit. It was unfortunate that after completing Heavenly Domain Challenge, Li Haoxuan did not bother to go to the arena again.

Just as Huang Shaotian was about to speak once more, the door to their room was opened. A staff came in and clapped his hand to grab the attention of the players inside. "Everyone, there's half an hour left before the exhibition. Let's go and do a final rundown on what we'll do," he said before he handed a paper toward each player.

"The twelve of you will be divided into two teams. Have you decided how you will be divided?" the staff asked.

"En. Let's make this simple. I'll take my proteges against the great gods," Ye Xiu replied. "But we lack one person so how about giving me Old Zhou?" his question was aimed at the rest of the players.

The players didn't have any other opinion and simply agreed. After all, they were professional players and some of them even participated in the first World Glory Championship. They will be able to cope with the team coordination on the spot, as long as they just let one person be in charge.

"In order to keep the surprise, your character will have to be fitted with a costume made by the Glory's design team. That way, no one can see the avatar you use since the recent update forces you to use your own face as the model," the staff informed them. "When you start later, there will be two costumes in your inventory. One is for the red team, and the other is for the blue team. Please decide which team is which now in order to avoid confusion later."

Once again, Ye Xiu just smiled and made the decision on his own. "We'll take the red one. You guys can have blue."

"Hold on! Why is it always you that makes the decision? Why do we have to pick your leftovers?" Huang Shaotian asked.

"Are you not the former member of Blue Rain?" came Ye Xiu's simple reply.

Huang Shaotian has nothing to use against it so he just let out a defeated sigh. Yu Wenzhou just gave Huang Shaotian's shoulder a light pat. "Why try going against him when you know you'll end up getting shot?" he asked with a small chuckle.

Soon, it was time for them to start the show. The players split into their team and then followed the staff to the player booths. At this time, the audience focus was solely on the crowned champion, Blue Rain so they easily entered the players' booths and then simply let the staffs work on changing the hardware.

They have been preparing for this for a long time now, so the staffs were very efficient when setting everything up. In just a few minutes, everything was up and running.

In the red team's player booth, Li Haoxuan helped Li Zhihuan onto the chair and then let the staff explain on how to put on the headgear to Li Zhihuan.

Li Haoxuan took the seat next to his brother while also listening to the explanation and once the explanation is over, Ye Xiu clapped his hands to grab his team's attention.

"Alright, everyone. Let's discuss our strategy quickly. Xiao Xuan, you'll be the substitute player. Our strategy will focus on maximizing Old Zhou's damage output. Xiao Huan, your top priority is keeping Old Zhou's health above 80% for the first half of the match. Xiao Fei, you will be the 2nd line of defense, but at the same time, you will also be on the offense. Yifan, you will keep close and support both of Xiao Fei," Ye Xiu told them.

"God Ye, what about you?" Li Zhihuan asked.

"Me? I will go and pierce their line of defense and try to kite two of them away. I need you guys to keep the attention of the three of them," Ye Xiu replied.

"This is the strategy for the first half, then what of the second half?" Li Zhihuan asked again. This was his first time to actually compete seriously in a team challenge. Before they only plays for fun and there was not much strategy involved.

"The second half… We will see how it goes first," Ye Xiu said before he added: "The map is fixed. So both team knows what to expect. There shouldn't be anything surprising but the audience doesn't know that. Although this is not really an official match, I hope you will take it seriously, as if this is the final for the championship."

After Ye Xiu finished his speech, everyone placed their cards into the device then put on their headgear. As usual, they have 45 seconds of the final preparation. They used this time to put on their team costume which was on their player's inventory just as the staff mentioned earlier. As soon as they did, the other costume disappeared automatically.

"As soon as we spawn, Old Zhou and Xiao Huan will wait at the coordinate 573,491. Xiao Fei and Yifan will be with me," Ye Xiu said once he saw the map and their spawn point.

"Everyone's eyes are on us. Though they don't know us now, when everything is revealed, they will find out who's playing. So, in order to avoid losing face, let's win this match!" Ye Xiu decided to add after a while.

At the same time, in the blue team's player booth, Huang Shaotian was grinning from ear to ear. "Old Zhang, you sure that Old Ye won't expect this?" Huang Shaotian asked.

"I don't dare to claim that he won't expect this. But at the very least, we'll be able to take the rest of his team by surprise. On his side, there are two greenhorns. Although they are talented, they lacked experience. As long as we can take advantage of that, it would already be a success for us," Zhang Xinjie replied.

"Then, Old Zhang number 2 better keep up with me! If anything goes wrong-"

"Why am I number 2?!!" Zhang Jiale yelled at Huang Shaotian angrily, even cutting him off from talking.

"Aiya, Old Zhang, it's just to differentiate you and Old Zhang, ah! Since he's your former vice captain, so of course he comes first then you second!" Huang Shaotian reasoned which doesn't make Zhang Jiale feels any better. "Anyway, as I've said, if anything goes wrong, it'll be on you! When the match ends, the audience will know who messed up!"

"I know. It's just pressuring the cleric. What can go wrong?" Zhang Jiale grumbled.

"Good! If we can beat Old Ye… it'll feel like we're beating his whole legacy along! After all, the other side is comprised of mostly his proteges!" Huang Shaotian said excitedly.

"At the same time, if we lose, it will feel like Old Ye had beaten us four times," Sun Zheping chirped in. "If that happens, I'm sure that shameless bastard won't let it go for a long time."

When the players in blue team heard this, it fueled their flame of competitiveness even more. In their heart, they only knew one thing is true.

'No matter what, we can't let him win!'