The battle began, the map loaded, the characters loaded.

The abandoned capital floating in the sky seemed so close to the stars. The entire world seemed to be in only one color, that gray-white suffused with a hint of pale blue. Under this starlight, even the multicolored equipment of the characters who had just loaded in seemed to be layered over with this light.

Soft Mist lifted her spear, One Inch Ash gripped his tachi, and they waited for Ye Xiu’s instructions.

Ye Xiu was a seasoned veteran, from the Glory game to the professional stage, there was nothing he hadn’t experienced before. But in this moment, he couldn’t help but feel emotion swelling in his heart.

From a small Level 1 character in the new server, after two and a half years, he was finally standing here once again. Right now, the two standing in front of him were the ones who had been walking alongside him since that very beginning. Aside from them, there was also Steamed Bun, still waiting in the substitute area, ready to come onstage at any time. And Su Mucheng, who had experienced with him the defeat they’d suffered the last time he was in this moment.

It was this group of people. Two and a half years ago, they were still in the new server of Glory, fighting with the pioneers of the other team guilds for dungeon records.

Today, after two and a half years, they were directly engaged with Glory’s top team, striving for that proof of ultimate glory, the championship.

They did it!

Ye Xiu knew that, in this moment, there were certainly countless people who thought this. Starting from a new server, starting from zero, starting over, and at last, reaching the finals. It was simply incredible.

Yes, it was indeed incredible.

But, did that mean that they’d done it? Did this count as success?

Not yet.

The standard dictionary definition of “success” was obtaining the anticipated outcome. Achieving a goal, that was called success. The result they’d anticipated, the goal they wished to achieve, there was only one: winning the championship!

Thus, they were still one step away from success.

“Start!”

Ye Xiu’s order came down, and Lord Grim took the first step outward, closely followed by the other four Happy players.

“Start! Is Ye Xiu treating this as running a dungeon or killing a Boss? Still saying ‘start’?” In the broadcast, Pan Lin was chuckling, ridiculing Ye Xiu’s choice of word.

“Heh, these people here, most of them were players Ye Xiu pulled from in-game!” Li Yibo said. Happy had been playing the Alliance for a year now, and they’d garnered such attention as they fought their way into the finals. They’d accepted a number of interviews by now, and everyone knew a lot about their history. Aside from Su Mucheng and Fang Rui, who had officially transferred, the rest of them, including Blue Rain’s former captain Wei Chen, were all people that Ye Xiu had encountered in-game and pulled together to build this Team Happy.

In the beginning, they might have really been like what many ordinary gamers were familiar with, just a group of close friends in-game. But after they’d fought down this road together, this group of close friends was already standing on Glory’s highest stage.

Start!

This time, their goal was no longer any dungeon record, or a wild Boss; it was Team Samsara, it was the championship.

Happy’s spawn point was on the west, and right now, the five of them were moving eastward in formation. There weren’t any clear road signs or markings on the map, but Happy’s direction was quite clear; they were headed toward the western Aztec-style pyramid. Once they were close, however, they didn’t stop below this pyramid, nor did they climb it. They turned north and circled around to the back of the pyramid.

The back side winked with light. It was impossible to see if the tranquil river was flowing. Happy tested how deep the water ran, but they didn’t take the water route. They simply continued east along the back of the pyramid.

From this moment, everyone became even more vigilant. The five characters’ views were pointed in five different directions, covering every inch of their surroundings. Theoretically, even if the two teams were moving toward each other at the highest speed, it was still too early for them to meet. Even so, after the experience of last round, where the teams’ spawn points were random and not necessarily opposite each other, both Happy and Samsara included this possibility in their calculations, and entered battle condition early.

Soon, Happy’s five reached the end of the pyramid’s back. The other pyramid that was still intact now entered their sight, and then, they saw the silhouettes of Samsara’s five.

Samsara’s choice in the beginning of the match was also to first reach the pyramid that was close to them, but afterward, unlike Happy, they hadn’t continued to advance. After reaching the pyramid, they began to investigate the surrounding area. Right now, the five characters were all studying, and although they seemed to be scattered, in reality, they maintained a formation that allowed them to coordinate battle at any moment.

When Happy walked out from behind the pyramid and saw Samsara, Samsara also immediately saw Happy. In that moment, both sides stopped moving. They maintained their distance and observed from afar.

The scene was still, but their chats instantly began flying with messages.

Because it was a completely unknown map, they couldn’t make any detailed plans based off of the simple introduction given right before the battle. In battles on random maps, there was significantly more communication and direction. Now that the two teams saw each other, Samsara’s side instantly began laying out plans, messages flashing out one after another. There was rapid discussion, and a final conclusion. But the players’ characters didn’t move, not until the messages practically filled the screen. Finally, there was a message: “Go!”

Everyone had read every line of instructions. When the final order came, the five players and the five characters began moving simultaneously.

Long-range, short-range, healer, each of the classes performed their duties and joined together, taking advantage of the special characteristics of the map that they’d observed so far. They swiftly arranged themselves in a satisfactory formation.

And then, on Happy’s side, an order was finally issued as well.

“Retreat,” said Ye Xiu.

Happy left.

They’d arrived casually from the back of the pyramid, without probing, without spying. The five characters had rushed out as though pressed for time, and stopped as soon as they saw Samsara.

And then Samsara had carefully arranged themselves, making all sorts of preparations for battle, able to advance and attack, able to retreat and defend. They’d taken everything into consideration.

And then Happy retreated.

Samsara had actively prepared everything, but they didn’t have an opponent…

“…”

In the channel, Zhou Zekai sent a rare message. It was just a string of ellipses. Even though he didn’t speak much in the first place, “reticence” and “speechlessness” were still two very different moods.

“What’s Happy doing?” Pan Lin exclaimed. Over on Samsara’s side, because of the numerous communications and instructions, even though there were many code-like abbreviations, everyone could still understand the basics. But Happy’s side had no communications. Ye Xiu said “start,” and they’d set out; Ye Xiu said “retreat,” and they’d withdrawn.

“Mm, watch for now,” Li Yibo said. It wasn’t clear whether “watch for now” referred to Happy’s plan, or was directing the audience to simply watch for now…

Right now, the ones who wanted to understand Happy’s plan the most was still Samsara. But they didn’t make any move. After expressing speechlessness, they immediately resumed their investigation of the area, as though Happy had never appeared.

No clash, just a sighting.

The ordinary gamers were baffled, and the broadcast commentators needed to “watch for now,” but the pro players were already beginning to discuss.

“Happy… probably wants to sound out Samsara’s mood?” Yu Wenzhou said. Happy’s plan, that basically meant Ye Xiu’s plan. It wasn’t just Pan Lin and Li Yibo, even Yu Wenzhou, a master-level player, didn’t dare to speak confidently.

“Samsara seems very steady,” Xiao Shiqin said. Things on the psychological level weren’t easy to see through. But just from the way that Samsara ignored Happy’s baiting-like movement, at least they weren’t carelessly led by the nose by Happy.

Then, what next?

Next, the broadcast screen and the live projection were both split in two, so that everyone could clearly see both sides’ movements.

Samsara continued to investigate that area, Happy began to move upward along the pyramid from the back side. But Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim, after walking about halfway up, suddenly circled around from the back of the pyramid.

Samsara, naturally, was waiting for any movement from this side. As soon as they saw Lord Grim appear, they immediately had preparations.

“Don’t panic!” Ye Xiu actually sent a message in the chat.

“I just came to take a look,” said Ye Xiu, and then his Lord Grim actually just sat down right there on the eastern slope of that pyramid…

“You guys keep working,” Ye Xiu continued.

“Little Zhou, look at 3 o’clock behind you, isn’t that platform perfect for some sniping cover?” Ye Xiu actually began to point out things to Samsara.