Chapter Ch125 - Familiar People
translator: xiin
editor: kara
The first day of the opening ceremony for the National Championships was an official event. It was brilliant yet steady and ended with a dignified group aircraft performance.
According to convention, there would be two performance compet.i.tions held the next day, along with some other programs to fill in the time.
This year’s performance was quite innovative. Many audience members laughed and said, “This is simply full of malice! It’s definitely a New Year’s gift for single dogs!”
In the first match, they’d chosen an old husband-and-wife pair as the two contestants––it just so happened that they had also proposed during a certain provincial compet.i.tion. As a result, it could be imagined that the champion had been beaten up one-sidedly yet hadn’t dared to fight back, and at the end, he had been killed off by his wife with a smile on his face.
Tyron thought to himself, ‘The husband is weak and humiliates his country, tsk’, while he brought out drinks and popcorn and set them up by Victor’s hand.
The two of them laid there in the exclusive seats, and Tyron said, “There’s ice inside. Drink slowly.”
The second performance compet.i.tion had the e-sports compet.i.tors playing in mecha armor.
Due to the particulars of the s.p.a.ce, as long as the gravity device was removed from the middle of the artificial planet, and the ion protection film was opened up for the audience, the two mechas could fight directly in s.p.a.ce. The problem was that these mecha armors weren’t ordinary ones but beast types… The contestants were ordinary e-sports compet.i.tors who’d never partic.i.p.ated in operating and using mecha before.
Yes, the two players had been all over the place and almost broke down until one of them finally ended up being knocked over––at first, it had just been a slow backwards somersault. Later, the player had wanted to stop, but they couldn’t control the speed, and instead, they had ended up soaring in a straight line, turning into a rocket that flipped wildly while racing around the field.
Victor laughed until he couldn’t anymore, almost curled up into a ball from laughter.
By his side, instead of laughing though, Tyron was looking at the mecha with a serious expression as he pondered: How could he fight this thing? It looked like a steel demon summoned by a wizard. Was its weakness where the core was?
The master a.s.sa.s.sin was already going through the horror scene of ‘dismantling the mecha by hand’ when he suddenly heard Victor laughing nearby, “Fortunately, they didn’t vote for you to partic.i.p.ate in a mecha game last time! It’s really hard to learn, let me tell you, usually one has to have a doctorate before they can really use it. I’m afraid you would really suffer…”
Tyron: “……”
The image in Tyron’s mind suddenly turned into an old antique seated high up, being torn down.
Two seconds later, Tyron pursed his lips, the arc of his chin turning tense.
At the end of the performance match, the next show on the schedule was an underwear show.
Countless beautiful models swam upstream on the weightless stage, their curved figures perfectly outlining the s.e.xiness of the human body with their actions.
Victor said, “It’s really at the limits this year… Fortunately, I’m not straight.”
Tyron, on the other hand, had inherited the demonic trait of being unabashed and simply appreciated the aesthetics of the human body.
When Victor saw his expression, he couldn’t help snorting, “There’s a store over there selling fan merchandise for the underwear models. Would you like me to buy you a blow-up doll?”
Tyron said, “Alright, buy one and put it in the kitchen. You won’t need to buy vinegar for 100 years.”
Victor raged, “… Are you looking down on me? A hundred years is too short!”
Tyron: “……”
The two of them were still talking when the camera that linked to the screen overhead shook and aimed directly at them.
Not only did petals float on the screen, but there was also a love wreath surrounding them––this was another A-League tradition. The two people targeted by the love camera needed to kiss and show their love to tens of millions of viewers on the scene.
The old antique hesitated.
Victor’s inner heart was crying out, “He’s shy!! He’s really shy!!” He was overjoyed and seized the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to flip over, throwing himself directly at Tyron and giving him a kiss.
Tyron: “……”
Victor: “……”
He’d pounced over too fiercely, and they’d smashed their lips together painfully.
The fans: “Kisss–––––” This sound was so powerful that there was a big wave of sound covering every corner of the planet’s surface.
Victor thought to himself happily: They must have noticed my gong side.
He flipped over to look at the public screen only to find that the audience was expressing, “It’s a fiery-hot riding position! We like it!”
“Little Vic is so proactive, directly sending himself over to be hugged. I already took a photo of the moment when the great demon king’s dragon heart was full of joy!!”
“So envious that I want to cry, I also want an Odin who lies there waiting to be attacked…”
Victor: “……”
‘The first beauty of e-sports’, Odin had been caught by the love camera. The wave of excitement brought about by Odin hadn’t yet receded when the camera immediately went to capture another character.
They saw Vantico and a beautiful woman with a hot figure captured on the screen at the same time. The beautiful woman was surprised after realizing that she was next to Vantico, but her response was quick as she pulled down his sungla.s.ses.
Vantico raised up his foot in horror and instinctively kicked the beauty away. Then, the back figure of Old Friend could be seen as he walked into the camera, pressing Vantico down for a kiss.
Everyone: “…. Kiss!” Who was this? They couldn’t see the face!
The camera soon flew off, but the four people who had been captured by the camera discovered that they were seated very close together.
Vantico soon came over and took the initiative to provoke the master a.s.sa.s.sin, “So, we meet at the National Championships. Don’t think that just because your luck was good, and you won a championship, it means that you can––”
Tyron flicked a kernel of popcorn with his index finger, hitting the middle of Vantico’s knee tendon.
Vantico was walking, but this action instantly caused a knee-jerk reaction. He almost stumbled on his left foot and fell on his right but was fortunately able to support himself with his hand, instinctively falling into a stress fight position.
Tyron leaned leisurely back into his seat and didn’t wait for Vantico to explode before taking the initiative to speak first, “Who is your teacher?”
Vantico’s words were choked back.
“You haven’t finished training, yet you’re so eager to implement all your skills in the virtual arena?” Tyron spoke coldly and casually, “So weak that you can’t even hold up against the wind. Get lost.”
The corner of Vantico’s lips twitched, and he wanted to continue acting recklessly, but the shock he’d gotten just now wasn’t small. After holding back for a long time, he finally controlled himself and quietly got lost.
Victor was very surprised as he asked, “What did you mean just now?”
The master a.s.sa.s.sin didn’t take it seriously at all and continued to eat popcorn as he explained, “This cub has made rapid progress, but it’s not acc.u.mulated strength. It’s the progress that’s made by being constantly instilled with knowledge. The skills are enough for targeted use, but unfortunately, he hasn’t practiced hard enough in reality, and he became timid when it was exposed just now.”
Victor heard the words, ‘this cub’, and almost laughed! He knew that the old antique regarded younger a.s.sa.s.sins as his juniors, but he hadn’t felt it so intuitively…
Victor: OvO He felt that his seniority level was rapidly advancing?!
After that, there were no more accidents. They watched the performances for the opening ceremony, then went back to roughly skim over the news.
At the end of the opening ceremony, the compet.i.tion for the top 32 would be held. Because Tyron had been the champion for the provincial compet.i.tion, he didn’t need to partic.i.p.ate in this round and could simply wait for the next round.
AIs were responsible for overseeing the rules for the National Championships, and this part was commonly known as the ‘loser rankings’, where after two matches, the winner would go up to play against someone with a higher position in the next round while the loser continued to fight in the current round, players slowly fluctuating up and down until their final positions were determined. Generally, players below the top 30 needed to play over 10 matches in order to have their positions determined while players in the top 10 were resolved quickly and could rush into the championship matches like rockets.
So, generally speaking, the national rankings were relatively stable, and there was no player who would suddenly drop.
The fans from the Earth District were also very relieved. They hoped that Lord Four could rank high enough in this first championship to gain honor for the Earth District and make it so that it wasn’t only Vantico who partic.i.p.ated in the National Championships.
Odin’s personal website had been filled with numerous blessings from many people, including previous opponents like Flower Blower and Tower, teammates from the Seven Kills team, who had cooperated with him for a period of time, the coach and the staff, and other countless strangers.
When they were free, Victor would accompany Tyron and go to see the various compet.i.tors one by one. Unexpectedly, they encountered an old acquaintance very soon.
The card summoner, ‘Kiss of the G.o.ddess’, had also fought his way in. His current round was his qualifier for re-entering the top 32. He was an old, well-known player, but he wasn’t always able to enter the top 32, so there was still some suspense.
What was amazing was that this fellow was still doing his live broadcasts. He’d led his live stream audience all the way through the opening ceremony of the National Championships and could be considered as the most dedicated male anchor among the professional players in e-sports.
That evening, he shared his thoughts on the stream, expressing, “Ah, I hate playing matches. Not only am I unable to use an alt account to abuse newbies over and over, but also the opponents I run into are more and more abnormal. Any carelessness and I might encounter a Time Travel or a Vantico, and they might suppress me to death, and I can only wait to be beaten like a fool… This year, there’s also the great demon king, Odin…”
Fans: “You’re going to die young! The Emperor of Luck is going to reverse-flag!”
Victor found it interesting and paid attention to it. As a result, the G.o.ddess met a profession that he was naturally advantageous against and won easily, jumping into the top 32.
The G.o.ddess then went to live broadcast to express, “I feel that my luck this year is pretty good. If I can get another natural advantage, that would be great, and then, I can challenge the highest ranking I’ve ever had in my career.”
Fans: “You’re going to die young! The Emperor of Luck is so complacent that he’s putting that flag up high!”
……
And then, the draw results for the second round soon came out:
a.s.sa.s.sin, Odin, Earth District vs Card Summoner, Kiss of the G.o.ddess, Lizard District.
Victor: “……”
G.o.ddess: “……”
Everyone: “……”
The Emperor of Luck, who’d held up a flag, had indeed gotten a ‘natural advantage’, but it wasn’t he who had the advantage, but rather, someone else had an advantage over him.
The G.o.ddess instantly went crazy, “Odin! How could it be Odin!?”
Some fans asked, “Isn’t Odin the new champion from the Second Star Province? Why is the G.o.ddess being like this before the game even starts?”
Other fans automatically replied, “Go look up X month X day’s live broadcast. You’ll see the G.o.ddess crying and calling for Daddy…”
The G.o.ddess had an expression of ‘This world hates me’ on his face. He set his chin on the table and looked at the live camera, “I choose death…”