Chapter 619: Team Preliminaries
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Li Yi felt quite awkward when he noticed Fire Ice's disheveled look. Although he could be quite perverted, he would never do anything that took advantage of the misfortune of others.
Li Yi took a blanket to cover Fire Ice and power walked himself out of the bedroom.
When he returned home, he saw Jiaojiao and Lin Qian sitting in front of a computer, chatting in earnest.
The Brawl King Tournament was just about to start. Li Yi, Jiaojiao, and Lin Qian were all very excited about it.
Jiaojiao raised her head and glanced at Li Yi. "Where did you go?"
"I went out to deal with some things."
Jiaojiao turned to squint at Li Yi. "What things? Did a woman come looking for you?"
"Yeah, not one woman but dozens of them. I'm so exhausted."
Li Yi plopped himself down beside Lin Qian. She quickly coughed and moved herself to sit on the other side of Jiaojiao.
"Dozens? Do you think you're Superman? Stop boasting."
"Are you challenging me? If you're unconvinced, let's go at it 300 times tonight!"
Jiaojiao arched her eyebrows. Just as she was about to argue with Li Yi, Lin Qian could no longer hold back. She cleared her throat a few times before pointing at the computer and said, "The Brawl Tournament is going to start anytime now."
Jiaojiao clapped her hands and stood up from her seat to dash into her bedroom. "Ah, I'll need to go and prepare myself."
Li Yi then shifted his position to approach Lin Qian. Although he knew the answer, he asked the obvious question, "Where's Ice?"
"She went back to her room to rest. That gal was acting very oddly tonight. Not only did she borrow some of Jiaojiao's clothes, but she also went to get a bottle of wine from your house. She was acting so mysterious and flustered; it was like she was hiding a man in her room. Before this, I went to check on her and found that she had actually locked her door from the inside. This is too weird..."
"Borrowing clothes, taking alcohol, and locking the door..."
Once Lin Qian had said that Li Yi immediately caught on to the truth about what happened earlier.
He felt deeply ashamed and slightly regretful. If he knew this was what happened, he would not have left the room so quickly.
Lin Qian stood up too. "I'm also going back now so I can watch your tournament and cheer for you."
"Ah, don't. Stay for a while."
Li Yi grabbed Qian'er's small hands and could not stop caressing them. Qian'er's skin was as white as snow, and her hands were not big either. They felt feeble and boneless under his touch, which was a very comfortable sensation indeed.
Lin Qian blushed. "If Lil Jiao sees this, she might use her scissor kick on you."
"That's great, I can hit two birds with one stone."
"Puh, you hooligan!"
Lin Qian withdrew her hand and quickly went downstairs.
....
Li Yi took the headset controller and went to Jiaojiao's room.
Jiaojiao's mother had returned home, and Jiaojiao no longer stayed with him. Li Yi had the Brawl Tournament to thank for her presence in his house today.
In the room, Jiaojiao was sitting on the bed, already in the game. Li Yi shamelessly pinched the 'small apples' a few times, earning a few moans from Jiaojiao. After he was satisfied, he finally put on the headset controller and logged into the game.
The venue for the Brawl King Tournament was the Sea Island's Trading Center. This was so that it was convenient for players from all three major factions to come and watch the event. Of course, aside from convenience, the other advantage was the opportunity to further promote the Sea Island's Trading Center. This was done so that more players would use its functions.
At the central area of the Sea Island's Trading Center where Xu Man once sang, a majestic and breathtaking temporary building was erected. It was the Brawl King Arena.
There was no need to purchase an entrance ticket to enter the Arena. There were no restrictions either. Anyone could enter it whenever they wanted to.
It was practically impossible to have an ultra-arena that could hold tens of millions of people in real life. This type of convenience could only exist in-game.
The Brawl King Arena's surface area would automatically expand and adjust itself according to the number of players that entered it. On top of that, each player would have a holographic 3D screen in front of them so that they could clearly watch the fight on stage no matter how far they were.
The Arena was already overflowing with players before the tournament began. Meanwhile, a lady clad in resplendent garments was singing on the stage, entertaining the players with her voice.
"Come, come, come! Once you've placed your bets, it will be confirmed. No do-overs. We've got 12 to 6, 6 to 3, 3 to 1. Individual bets. Buy if you want, you don't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Friends, come to me, Potato Dealership, if you want to score a fortune!"
"I have all sorts of bets. The dealer will never take the money for himself, and all bets are placed on a contractual basis. Thus, we will faithfully send gold to your account automatically once the competition is over. What are you waiting for, my friends? Quick, come to Blackball Dealership!"
The famous black-market dealers had gone all out. They were no longer behaving like stingy misers. Instead, they repeatedly sent promotional messages on the World Channel. The competition was at an all-time high.
The World Channel displayed up to ten messages at once. These black-market dealers kept pushing their own messages up by repeatedly sending them to the channel. Every single one of them hoped that all ten messages that were displayed were their own messages. The results were as expected. They fought and snatched at each other while pouring countless amounts of money down the drain. Some had even resorted to cursing and scolding.
Li Yi and Jiaojiao had entered the scene at the same time. They were both transported into the contestant-exclusive area.
Brother Windcloud Nine, Amber Sword Heart, Ah Ye the yellow-robed Priest, Tyrant Sword King the Fifth, and Brother Simon had all arrived. They were all standing within the area and looking out at the Arena.
Brother Windcloud Nine stepped forward to greet Li Yi. "Dark Wing, you're here."
"Mmhm."
Aside from Brother Windcloud Nine, everyone else was his enemy. Li Yi would never disgrace himself by approaching them. Instead, he stuck to chatting leisurely with Brother Windcloud Nine.
As time went by, other contestants arrived as well. When the time strikes 20:00 hour sharp, all 12 contestants were present.
Swish swish swish swish!
At the screams, cheers, and whistles from the millions of players, the 12 contestants appeared in the middle of the Arena.
"The Incredible Continent, Dark Wind, Invincible Jiaojiao, Unending Unmatched, Fengxi..."
There were four players from each of the three main factions. Each faction formed one side of a triangle and bow in respect to the audience.
"Brawl King Tournament, Round 1, Team Preliminaries. All players, standby. The tournament will start in 10 minutes. I will now explain the rules of the Team Match..."
The host for tonight was the singing woman in glamorous clothing who was performing earlier. She was a budding singer, and even though she did not have a reputation that rivalled the great celebrity Xu Man, she was already a person of high status in the eyes of the general public.
"Team Match? Preliminaries? What's that?" Jiaojiao shook her head in confusion.
Li Yi explained it in simple words. "Basically, the four of us will form a team to fight against the other two teams."
Unending Unmatched was stunned. "Huh?"
Fengxi sighed and looked up at the sky. He worryingly muttered, "Will the Team Preliminaries affect the Individual Matches? If it does, I hope all of you would not impede my progress."
Three sets of eyes immediately focused on Fengxi's face.
Fengxi gave Li Yi and the other two a once over. "With my abilities, I won't have many problems handling three at once. Your capabilities will allow the three of you to deal with one with relatively few problems, right? I do not wish to hear a negative reply from you."
Unending Unmatched could not help but say, "Do you know who we are? You... You're too skilled in boasting, huh?"
Li Yi did not know if he should laugh or cry at this situation. He looked at Fengxi, utterly speechless.
The budding singer was trying her best to explain the rules of the Team Match on stage. Since the Pantheon officials had not announced it beforehand, the players had no idea that there was a Team Match round in the tournament. However, Li Yi was not exactly surprised by this. The Pantheon officials loved to act this way; in his past life, he had similar experiences when he was involved in the God Wars.
The rules for the Team Preliminaries were not complicated. Similar to the Individual Matches, contestants were not allowed to use potions or any support items. Victory would be decided once one party was KO-ed by another party.
"My name is Zhou Xin, hehe, glad to meet all of you today. There will be a round of finals after the Team Preliminaries, but only two teams will be selected to participate. I recently released my album titled 'I am Zhou Xin', and it is sold in shopping outlets nationwide. Thank you..."
The budding singer was trying really hard to promote herself. However, her speech was the exact opposite of her clothing; while her clothes were dazzling to see, her speech was making the crowd sleepy.
"Singer my ass! You've been talking for 5 minutes already; can you just stop? F*ck, the celebrity in our hearts is the Brawl King, not you."
"Take a rest and stop wasting your energy. Go down, go down!"
The Team Preliminaries had yet to start, but the budding singer's attempt to sell herself was already angering the crowd.
The singer scrambled off the stage pitifully. The system had taken this opportunity to send a notification to the contestants. [Please select a team leader.]
Li Yi invited JIaojiao and Unending Unmatched to form a team. Both of them had joined him, but a problem arose when it was Fengxi's turn to do so.
With total respect, Fengxi told Li Yi, "I refuse to be your teammate, thank you."
Unending Unmatched lost himself again, "Oh please, if we don't form a team now, we won't be able to give you a Buff during the match, even if we wanted to."
"Do I look like I need Buffs?"
Fengxi's sentence had triggered Unending Unmatched so much that he had a strong urge to go and give the guy a good solid punch.
Li Yi chuckled and patted Unending Unmatched's shoulders. "Just let him be, we don't need to force it upon him."
Jiaojiao also commented in a carefree way. "There's literally no difference whether he is on our team or not."
Li Yi nodded and continued to tell Unending Unmatched, "When the match starts, do not blindly charge into the fight. We must stay steady and calm."
"Mmhm, understood, Guild Master."
"All contestants on stage, please prepare yourselves. The Team Preliminaries will commence in 1 minute. Zhou Xin here wishes you all the best."
Even while she's off the stage, the budding singer never forgot to promote herself.
The players from the three factions each stood in one direction, collectively staring at the levitating countdown timer in the middle of the venue.
This was not a match where a faction would be fighting against another faction. Instead, all three factions would fight simultaneously, starting a battle royale...
Li Yi told Fengxi, "Please change the mode to Country, thank you."
"Please don't drag me down, I beg of you." Fengxi made a fist and palm salute at Li Yi and the other two with him.
"He's f*cking amazing at parading himself for attention!" Unending Unmatched snarled.
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5...4... 3... 2... 1!
As the countdown progressed, the initially rowdy Arena grew increasingly quieter. When the match officially started, all shouts from other players would be automatically muted to prevent them from distracting the contestants.
"Hubby, good luck! You must not be the first to die!"
Right when the countdown timer elapsed and the match officially started, a crisp and clear shout was heard from the audience.