Published at 25th of March 2019 9:37 pm

Chapter 501: Self Sacrifice

Upon seeing Ye Xiu leave so abruptly, Chen Guo locked gazes with Tang Rou for a brief moment and stood up.

“Log him out, please.” Chen Guo told Tang Rou before following Ye Xiu out of the room hurriedly.

“Okay.” Tang Rou answered while watching the two leaving the room hastily.

Chen Guo stepped out of the room and found Ye Xiu right away. Instead of going anywhere, Ye Xiu was smoking, facing across the street. She slowed down, carefully composing her words in her head, but just as she walked up to him, Ye Xiu crushed the cigarette, which still had a good deal left, on the windowsill.

It angered Chen Guo immediately, but she stopped herself before the words fell out. Considering Ye Xiu’s feelings, she thought to forgive him just this once.

“You… ”Chen Guo only spoke one word before Ye Xiu’s soft sigh interrupted her. Staring out of the window, he spoke quietly, “This is the end of Excellent Era.”

“Hmmm?” leaving a confused Chen Guo, Ye Xiu turned around and walked away quietly. Chen Guo followed his gaze to out of the window. On Excellent Era’s headquarter, the team emblem still glowed radiantly.

However, what about the actual team?

Chen Gou’s heart ached all of a sudden. Nonetheless, she did invest a lot of emotion and energy into the team for years. She didn’t only enjoy Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng’s performance..

That was her, then what about Ye Xiu?

He never said much about retirement. Facing the various powers and in the game, he was not particularly nice to anyone due to his attachments. However, this didn’t mean that Ye Xiu didn’t care about Excellent Era.

Sun Xiang’s addition was the hope for many Excellent Era’s support. It filled them with expectation.

Wouldn’t Ye Xiu have the same expectations?

Chen Guo suddenly thought that Ye Xiu leaving Excellent Era already made many uncomfortable. When he was still a part of the team, Excellent Era had been failing. To save the team, Ye Xiu chose to leave. Did he know that his departure would have been an effective way to save Excellent Era?

Unfortunately, Excellent Era was simply too heartless. To get rid of what they labeled as a useless burden, they used everything they had. They would probably never know that their team leader, for a chance to improve the team, had already decided to leave on his own.

For the growth of the team’s next generation prodigy, Wang Jiexi faked his loss and sacrificed his own reputation. However, this was a competition, after all. No one could keep a perfect record forever. A single defeat didn’t spell the end of the world. On top of that, his sacrifice would be understood and appreciated.

What about Ye Xiu?

Was there anyone who would understand his departure? Would anyone think of the efforts and troubles he had gone through? Excellent Era might have even believed that it was their trick that forced him to leave. They probably even took pride in it. They would not know that this could have been resolved peacefully. They never had to chose between the team and Ye Xiu, because their team leader was perfectly content with making sacrifices, even himself...

Him leaving had brought in Sun Xiang, a shining rookie from the pro scene. He was also a prodigy.

Ye Xiu was just like all the other fans of Excellent Era, filled with anticipation for Excellent Era’s future.

However, as of now, he was full of disappointment.

Sun Xiang was one one factor. After all, there was only so much you could ask of one person. The cause of his despair was probably Excellent Era’s entire team for their inability to guide one single member. His disappointment was never targeted towards any particular member of Excellent Era, but rather towards the entire team and the whole club. The difference in ideologies was the spark of the conflict between Ye Xiu and the club.

Finally, after all the self-sacrifices, he was remunerated by nothing but regrets and disappointment. These kinds of emotions never showed even when Excellent Era abandoned and mistreated him, but it surfaced when Excellent Era continued to decline.

Chen Guo watched Ye Xiu walk back to the room in silence. She found herself on the verge of tears and in a turmoil of emotions.

“You’re back?” In the room, Tang Rou was sitting on Ye Xiu’s seat, controlling Lord Grim when she saw Ye Xiu walk back in. She was telling the others that she was logging out.

“How long does it take to smoke a single cigarette?” Ye Xiu smiled.

“Oh, do you still want me to logout?” Tang Rou asked.

“Log me out.” Ye Xiu consented with a wave of his hand. If he didn't log out, the big guilds would definitely coming back to cause more trouble. He had enough troubles for awhile now. Running around took too much time. It was much more convenient to just logout.

“Okay.” Tang Rou nodded, told those around Lord Grim in the game, and logged out of the game. Then, she left the seat and gave it back to Ye Xiu.

“How’s the tenth server?” Ye Xiu asked half-mindedly upon seeing Tang Rou going back to her game.

“It’s the same as always: dungeons, leveling… ” Tang Rou replied.

“You are already tackling the Heavenly Domain Challenge, aren’t you?” Ye Xiu asked again with a laughter.

“Yep! I’m trying.” Tang Rou answered.

“Didn’t you finish the challenge for boss once already? Why are you trying so hard?” Ye Xiu shook his head.

“I am just trying to find our difference in skill!” Tang Rou answered with a smile and looked at the door questioningly, “Where’s Guo Guo?”

“She’s still outside.” Ye Xiu spoke.

“Didn’t she go looking to talk to you?”

“When she walked over, I was crushing the cigarette on the windowsill. She caught me red-handed, so I ran away as fast as I could. Awkward!” Ye Xiu explained.

Tang Rou’s head poked out from behind the screen, and she peered at Ye Xiu, who sat across her to the side. In the end, only a sentence slipped out nonchalantly, ”So that’s it.”

“Hurry and level up. The Heavenly Domain is much more fun than regular servers.” Ye Xiu spoke.

“I can see that.” Tang Rou agreed with a nod.

No one spoke another word after. Everyone was minding their own business on their computers. Tang Rou was still in the game, tapping out a string of clicks on the mouse and keyboard. Ye Xiu left the game to the side. No one knew what he was doing.

After a few moments, Chen Guo came back into the room and settled herself in the seat directly across from Ye Xiu’s. Likewise, she didn’t say a word and dived straight into the game.

However, in the game, after Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim left, Loulan Slash and the others were still indulging in the joy of their victory. They couldn’t believe that they had actually defeated Excellent Era’s starting line up. They didn’t even notice that Deception had vanished.

Until another group of people appeared at the opening of the alley.

“Perfect! My ambitions are still burning right now!” Ocean Ahead yelled out in the front.

“Hahaha! Let’s go!” Loulan Slash didn’t stop anyone. All five of them were using alternates, so they weren’t afraid of being accused of being unfair. The guilds were all rivals, so no matter what you did, there was always someone who used unfair tricks. What’s important was that you couldn’t leave a handle on the surface for someone else to accuse you with. This was the rule for survival for the guilds. Loulan Slash and the others had been preparing for a long time, so they understood this rule pretty well.

“Let’s use them to practice our teamwork!” With a swing of Loulan Slash’s sword, the five charged ferociously at the group with the same amount of momentum as before.

The group at the end of the alley was a normal ten-people team. Uponing seeing the five rushing at them, the group immediately turned tail, just as like they had been ordered to do.

“Damn! They’re no fun!” Ocean Ahead cursed, running ahead of the group.

“Should we chase them?” Homeward Bound asked.

“Yes! We have nothing to do anyways!” Loulan Slash yelled back.

The five ran after the group. They enjoyed the chase and the chaos that followed greatly. They still needed improvement before they could be compared to the pros, but in comparison with the regular players, their skills were unmatched. With the professional league as their goal, their teamwork was above most guild teams. Five versus ten posed no problem for them at all.

The guild masters had just received news and were hastily reorganizing troops. They were rushing over to supervise the battles by themselves.

Loulan Slash had no intention of playing guerrilla warfare. Instead, they wanted to see just how powerful the five of them could be as a team.

The five were brimming with pride after they crushed the starting team of Excellent Era. Despite the fact that they had seven people before and their victory was largely due to brilliant command of a God, their victory couldn’t have been possible without their teamwork and efforts. Their crushed confidence was re-ignited.

Compared to professionals, we are not all that great, but professional teams weren’t unbeatable.

All five of them had such realization in their hearts. At the same time, their performance was vicious as well. They slipped in and out of the chaos with surprising orderliness.

“Great! It feels so good!” Ocean Ahead was a total battle enthusiast. Stepping over the piles of dead bodies, he roared as spells exploded all around him. It was as if his battle cries were setting the rhythm of his spell releases.

“I say that you guys should at least pay some attention! Some dropped pretty useful equipment. Don’t forget to pick them up!” The Cleric, Thousand Falling Leaves, reminded his teammates while pocketing a light saber from a swordsman himself.

“True. Look at Deception. He even picked up Sun Xiang and Liu Hao’s equipments.” Loulan Slash commented.

“Of course, he’s a professional scrap picker. Things like that are instinct for him.” Night Tide agreed.

“Speaking about him, his skills are pretty good too. Should we try to recruit him?” Ocean Ahead stopped his shouting and began to talk business.

“That guy, so many guilds had their eyes on him, but none of them succeeded. Look at him, he doesn’t even know who Sun Xiang is. I don’t think he feigned ignorance. Who knows where that NEET came from.” Loulan Slash exclaimed.

“No matter how much of a NEET he is, he still plays Glory. To know utterly nothing about the pros, isn’t that a bit too extreme?” Ocean Ahead spoke.

“This huge world is filled with exceptions!” Loulan Slash exclaimed.

“Hey! Can you guys stop chatting now?! I can’t hold them off anymore!” Homeward Bound cried out at that moment. As more and more people gathered, the group was starting to have a difficult time holding on.

“Kill! Kill until we die!” Loulan Slash shouted, rushing over to help Homeward Bound.

The guild masters of the three guilds were present at the battlefield already. They were on the verge of tear of joy over the fact that they were actually able to surround their enemies this time. In the end, with a closer look, they only found five people… Why was it only five? Where were the other two?

After a thorough investigation, they still didn't know if the missing two were dead or just escaped their radar. Then they checked again, only to find that both of them had logged out.

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