The King's Avatar

Chapter 1032: Attempted Exchange

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

The current situation made Xiao Shiqin feel somewhat embarrassed. Besides Xiao Shiqin, even his teammates might not notice this small detail.

Although Team Excellent Era’s captain was Sun Xiang, the commanding position had been transferred to him when he joined the team as vice captain. At this moment Xiao Shiqin suddenly became silent. In a situation like this, which required the team to choose, they had come to a sudden halt, almost as if a fire had been extinguished.

Xiao Shiqin immediately recovered his senses. Coming to a stop like this could be fatal on stage. He needed to quickly adjust himself instead of getting distracted, so he could grasp their current situation. After Xiao Shiqin understood that Ye Xiu was trying to do what he had been doing the entire time throughout his career, his train of thought became incomparably smooth.

Simply put, Ye Xiu was Ye Xiu, Xiao Shiqin was Xiao Shiqin. Even if they were doing the same thing, they weren’t the same people. Ye Xiu was someone Xiao Shiqin had studied, but this didn’t mean that he completely grasped Ye Xiu’s patterns. After thinking about things from Ye Xiu’s perspective, Xiao Shiqin was suddenly at a loss.

From Ye Xiu, he had learned tactics to fight the strong with the weak, and for the most part, it involved deducing many things from what he already knew. During Ye Xiu’s entire time at Excellent Era, the team hadn’t been anywhere near as weak as Thunderclap was. At most they would be disadvantaged during a match, yet they never fought with the mentality of a weak team facing a stronger team. Even during the season when Excellent Era had been in danger of being relegated, no one had thought that they were a weak team. Excellent Era’s relegation had been considered something of a miracle.

Even taking Happy’s current position into consideration, Xiao Shiqin still couldn’t determine what Happy’s intentions were. At the very least, if he were the one playing the Happy card, he wouldn’t have brought it to this kind of situation.

Should they keep chasing, or should they stop?

To be honest, in the current situation, Excellent Era really didn’t need to be so vigorous in taking the initiative. Because they had won the group arena, they were currently in the lead. They could simply sit and wait for Happy to come knocking at their door.

But the problem was, they were Excellent Era. They were the team that held the clear advantage in this competition. The dignity of a powerhouse prevented them from acting in such a passive manner. This was why Excellent Era’s actions in the past had always been proactive and aggressive. They vigorously searched for Team Happy’s position, wanting to quickly decide victory or defeat, as if they were the ones falling behind.

Except now, they had a target right in front of them, yet they couldn’t reach it.

Split up?

Xiao Shiqin shook his head. If they really divided their troops so that one group was fast enough to catch up, they might actually fall into Happy’s trap.

"This way."

Xiao Shiqin once again sent this message in the public chat. Afterwards, he directed his character to lead Team Excellent Era in the opposite direction.

He gave up on chasing after Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle, instead charging in the direction of Ye Xiu and his Lord Grim’s fake shot. However, his message in the public chat was intended to cause confusion. This way ... which way was this way?

Xiao Shiqin obviously didn’t want Happy to easily deduce his intentions. However, this time, when Wu Chen fired a projectile, he didn’t immediately leave. Xiao Shiqin’s message of "this way" hadn’t done anything to sway him. He waited for a short period of time, but he didn’t discover any traces of Team Excellent Era. In Team Happy’s chat, Wu Chen reported this occurrence. A moment later, Ye Xiu replied with his coordinates.

The members of the audience, who paid close attention, could see that these coordinates pointed to the place where Lord Grim had pretended to fire his shot. This was also in the direction that Team Excellent Era was currently headed.

Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle decisively altered his course, also heading towards this location.

From their omniscient view, the audience could see the whole situation very clearly. Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle increased his speed, gradually pressing closer to Team Excellent Era from behind. Yet, Team Happy’s other four members moved in a wide arc, seeming to want to circle their way behind Dawn Rifle.

Everyone anxiously watched the scene unfold. Finally, Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle caught up to Team Excellent Era. All five members of the team were currently within his field of view.

However, at the same time, he was also discovered by Excellent Era. Even if they had clearly been focused on getting to their destination, how could an experienced pro team like Excellent Era forget to keep track of their surroundings while moving?

"Behind!" Zhang Jiaxing called out, discovering Dawn Rifle during one of his routine sweeps.

No one rushed to look back. In a flash, the other four members had already created a protective encirclement around Zhang Jiaxing’s Cleric. The entire team turned around as one.

Immediately afterwards, artillery fire rained down ...

Excellent Era’s five members easily dodged, but they had no way of returning fire. At this distance, only Launcher’s had the range to fight back. Tean Excellent Era’s current team composition consisted of two Battle Mages, a Striker, a Mechanic, and a Cleric.

Mechanic Life Extinguisher was without a doubt their number one long range attacker. However, compared to Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle, his range was insufficient. After releasing his first attack, Dawn Rifle had already begun charging up a second attack, then a third ...

Everyone was struck dumb. Dawn Rifle seemed inclined to challenge Excellent Era’s entire team alone. Was this really Team Happy’s secret weapon?

Team Excellent Era obviously wouldn’t sit passively or be thrown into disorder by Wu Chen’s long-ranged attacks. The team rapidly flew towards Wu Chen, quickly closing the distance.

However, Wu Chen wasn’t greedy at all. As soon as he saw Team Excellent Era charging towards him, he immediately retreated. He moved even faster than he had previously, even utilizing Aerial Fire.

Team Excellent Era could only watch helplessly. Dawn Rifle’s movement speed was indeed above their team’s. This had already been previously confirmed.

However, as soon as they stopped, Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle once again happily rained skills down onto them.

Was this ... kiting?

Once again, everyone stared blankly. Wu Chen, a completely unknown player, was actually single-handedly kiting Excellent Era?

In reality, this kind of max range offensive couldn’t effectively hurt Excellent Era’s players because their characters were simply too strong. However, this kind of endless harassment made them unable to just sit still and let it happen.

In fact, the reason the team’s speed was slower than Dawn Rifle was because they were being held back by the slowest member.** If we were only considering each individuals, any member of Excellent Era outside of Zhang Jiaxing’s Cleric could surpass Dawn Rifle in terms of speed.

Leave the Cleric behind and kill Dawn Rifle first?

Just as Xiao Shiqin had this thought, his entire body suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

If they really did this, they would be abandoning their Cleric. Wouldn’t this be just the opportunity Team Happy was looking for? Even if Wu Chen’s Dawn Rifle was caught and killed this way, to trade his life for Excellent Era’s Cleric would definitely be worth it.

So treacherous, so despicable!

Was the initial wild goose chase a ploy to make Excellent Era drop their guard?

So they could quickly pick off our Cleric?

Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher looked around, sweeping the surrounding terrain. As a Master Tactician, he had an experienced eye, quickly locating a location extremely suited to this kind of sneak attack.

"Go!" This time, the order was only sent in the team chat. Team Excellent Era suddenly changed directions, charging towards the optimal attack location that Xiao Shiqin had calculated.

Translator’s Thoughts

Nomyummi Nomyummi

** TL Note: 木桶理论 literally means that a barrel’s capacity is limited by the length of the shortest plank. In economics, this is known as Liebig’s law of the minimum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebig%27s_law_of_the_minimum#Liebig’s_barrel). It essentially states that maximum potential is limited by the resource is scarecest, instead of by the sum of all resources. The concept itself is pretty straightforward, although it can be applied to a lot of situations outside of economics, as seen here. -- Veriquity

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