“Mmm, yes, that would be great. What time will you be reaching Suzhou tomorrow?”
“I"ll be reaching Suzhou at around nine in the morning, so how about we meet at that cafe in s.h.i.+quan Street at ten? Can you also bring Lu Chen and Beiming Xue along as well?”
“Okay!” He Yi didn"t waste any time in agreeing to the meeting, but she added something after that. “However, if you want to sign us to a contract, you"ll need to sign Murong Mingyue as well.”
The other party hesitated for a moment before she laughed and said, “That"s fine as well. A party needs at least four people after all. I agree to that condition.”
“Okay, then I"ll see you tomorrow!”
……
He Yi ended the call and looked up to see the three of us staring at her with shocked expressions on our faces.
“Lenovo wants to sign us?” I asked.
He Yi"s laughter tinkled in the air as she nodded her head and said, “However, I have this feeling that they really only want to sign two people, and that is you, Lu Chen, and Beiming Xue. Mingyue and I are merely the extras that come in this package deal.”
I couldn"t help but laugh. “Eve, you"re already among the top 20 players in the champion arena, so no one is carrying you into the team. Sis Mingyue, on the other hand, is definitely being carried onto the team..”
“b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l! You a.s.s!” Murong Mingyue punched me from behind before she laughed and said, “Can"t you leave me some dignity!?”
He Yi and Beiming Xue covered their mouths and laughed at that.
The four of us quickly drove to the nearest buffet place and started our feast. After we finished off the seafood, we began to talk about what we were going to do next as we nursed our drinks.
“We should go and partic.i.p.ate in the team arena later. Don"t bother with your ranking in the champion arena for now. We need to prioritize getting our team arena rankings up as well.”
I looked at He Yi and Murong Mingyue and said, “Mingyue, your ability to win 1v1 duels is very limited, so you should focus on your 2v2 battles with Eve. Once the both of you have established a deep understanding of each other"s quirks, tendencies, and idiosyncrasies, you"ll be able to display the full might of the Priest + Magic Knight pairing, one of the most ridiculous pairings in the game. Eve, you just need to be able to pull the opponent"s fire without dying yourself. Given your attack power, most teams in the team arena won"t be able to do anything to you and even breaking into the top 10 of the champion arena isn"t a pipedream for you.”
He Yi laughed and nodded her head. “Mmm, I got it. I"ll work hard. I won"t go to any of the meetings over at the GGS Shanghai branch over the next few days. I"ll just focus on grinding the arena. It"s time to go for broke! I"ll just ask them to send me the meeting minutes afterwards.”
Murong Mingyue retorted in a sarcastic voice, “Ah, you really do fit your role as vice-president…”
He Yi simply laughed at that comment.
It was at this time that Beiming Xue, who had been flipping through the news on her phone, suddenly let out a soft yell. “Woah! Did you guys see the news! Something big has happened in the gaming world!”
“Oh? What happened?” The three of us were taken aback by her sudden yell.
Beiming Xue"s eyes were fixed on her phone as she read it out to us. “TCL, one of the premier companies in China, has decided to create a gaming club. They"ve signed the CGL Hall of Famers Candlelight Shadow, Tempest Shadow, Blue Sky Scar, Transient Smoke and Clouds, and G.o.d"s Dance for an outrageous amount of money…” (I"ll have to apologise here. In my previous uploads, I actually thought that TCL was a korean company. I"m not allowed to edit my previous mistake, so I can only say it here~)
I sucked in a deep breath before saying, “d.a.m.n, TCL really knows how to make an entrance. Oh man, I didn"t think that a huge corporation like TCL would actually make their move this fast. No wonder Lenovo called us just now. Tsk tsk, TCL swallowed up the five heavenly kings of Candle Dragon just like that. I wonder just how much money they spent to accomplish such a task. But with this signing, TCL squad will have many powerful warriors and skilled generals, so they"ll definitely be one of the invincible battles.h.i.+ps in the tournament scene.”
Beiming Xue pursed her lips before she smiled and said, “Let me check just how much money TCL spent to sign Candlelight Shadow and his gang…”
“Okay.”
After a few minutes, Beiming Xue laughed and said, “I got it. According to a small but reliable news site, TCL signed them to a one year contract. Candlelight Shadow"s annual salary is twenty million RMB a year, while Tempest Shadow, Blue Sky Scar, and Transient Smoke and Clouds were all signed to ten million RMB deals. G.o.d"s Dance managed to get a slightly better deal than the rest of the and her salary is at twelve million a year…”
He Yi"s small mouth dropped open as she said in an incredulous voice, “TCL really does know how to make a splas.h.!.+ Just recruiting those five professional gamers will cost them a cool sixty-two million dollars a year! That"s insane…”
I shook my head before I replied, “Perhaps, spending this money is worth it. After all, Candlelight Shadow is the most popular gamer in China and he even has the moniker "Martial G.o.d". Just the money they will make from a year of tournaments and marketing will be enough to recoup their outlay. Furthermore, when Candlelight Shadow went to South Korea to study, he was originally known as South Korea"s "Starcraft Emperor", so he"s really famous in that country too. So TCL has actually killed two birds with one stone here. It was an excellent piece of business, really.”
Murong Mingyue nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, Lu Chen is right on the money. TCL"s move to sign the five heavenly kings of Candle Dragon can definitely be considered a masterstroke.”
I cleared my throat before saying, “So it honestly looks like Lenovo is very serious about signing the four of us to a contract. I mean, they"re even willing to send someone down from Beijing just to meet us tomorrow. So what kind of terms should we ask for? What should be the deal breaker for us? Because this concerns how much we will earn in a year as professional gamers.”
He Yi let out a silvery laugh and said, “We should support state corporations like Lenovo, so we won"t ask for a ridiculous amount of money. But we can"t shortchange ourselves too much either. Lu Chen"s price on the open market definitely won"t be any less than ten million on the open market. Any less would be putting his t.i.tle as Little Heavenly King to shame. Beiming Xue"s contract also can"t be any less than eight million, because I honestly don"t think you"re inferior to Transient Smoke and Clouds in any way. As for Mingyue and I, we don"t really care.”
“Yeah, let"s finish grinding the team arena and talk about it again. Let"s win as many matches as we can before going to sleep. Let"s get up at nine and discuss this again.”
“Okay!”
……
We had returned home from dinner, so it was about time to challenge the team arena with Beiming Xue!
Woos.h.!.+
I went online and appeared in Sky City. I saw Beiming Xue was running towards me with the Blazing Shadow Bow in hand. She smiled and said, “Big bro, add me to your party…”
“Alright.”
I added Beiming Xue to my party and activated Martial G.o.d before I opened up the arena interface. I chose the team arena option and the leaderboard popped up as well. To my utter surprise, I saw that the team ranked first on the board was Stranger of Three Lifetimes and Eyes Like Water. I had never expected the players of Vanished G.o.d City to show out like this and take first place in the team arena. However, the players who challenged the champion arena were all coming for that crown right now, so Stranger of Three Lifetimes might not be able to hold on to that top spot for too long.
Light flashed in front of my eyes before Beiming Xue and I were teleported to one of the arena waiting rooms. The two of us looked out of the window to see countless arenas scattered across the area. We would soon be partic.i.p.ating in endless battles in these stadiums.
“Are you ready, Beiming? I"m about to start looking for a match…”
“Yeah, I"m good to go. Big bro, let"s begin!”
“OK，GOGO！”
“Okay! Go, go, go!”
We shared a smile before I pressed down on the “Fight” b.u.t.ton. Before even a second pa.s.sed, we heard the ringing sound of the system notice.
Ding~!
System Notice: h.e.l.lo, your team has been successfully matched with the players “Nine h.e.l.ls” and “Hotspring”! The battle will commence in 5 seconds!
We were teleported into the arena after that. Okay, there were two fighters standing in front of us. One was a Level 117 magic knight and the other was a Level 116 wanderer. Both of them were mounted on identical mountain rams. I had seen these mounts before because there were quite a few players in Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls who were riding on these things. They were significantly lousier than the Fireblade Warhorses, but they were better than nothing. As Dark Steel-grade mounts, they still added a significant amount of stats and it was way better than running on the ground like a trooper.
Rustle...
Beiming Xue"s battle senses were extraordinary, so she immediately flew backwards and raised her bow the moment she entered the arena. Her beautiful blood-red eyes were fixed on the other team and she looked as if she was ready to let fly.
I didn"t bother to say anything. I simply raised the Heaven-stealing Sword high in the air and charged towards the enemy team. As I rushed towards Nine h.e.l.ls, I waved my hand in the air. My G.o.d Binding Art howled in the air as four divine weapons fell from the sky and bound Hotsprings in place.
Hmmm, the G.o.d Binding Art had a rather long channeling time, so it was pretty useless against experts like Moonkiss and Luo River G.o.d of the Capital. They would dodge this skill about 90% of the time. However, it became a cheat code in my hands when we were up against noobs like this.
Bang!
I smashed straight into Nine h.e.l.ls, causing the magic knight"s mountain ram to bleat frantically. As his eyes widened in shock, my Heaven-stealing Sword shot towards him, a spiralling cone of indigo energy swirling on its tip. My attack pierced through his s.h.i.+eld and broke through his defences. But I wasn"t done yet! I immediately followed that Universe Break with a Burning Blade Slash, causing three blazing crescents of sword energy to crash into my opponent. Four damage numbers flew up above his head as the flaming energy ate into his body.
19047!
5893!
8290!
13728!
Even a top magic knight like Gui Guzi might not be able to survive if I hit him with my full combo of Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash, so this second-rate magic knight in front of me didn"t stand a chance! As he let out a dull groan, Nine h.e.l.ls toppled down from the back of his mountain ram. He had been killed in a single round of combat.
A look of complete and utter shock appeared on Hotspring"s face. Even though he was still bound by the G.o.d Binding Art, the wanderer"s eyes widened into saucers as he yelled, “What the h.e.l.l! That"s way too insane! He killed him in a single combo? Nine h.e.l.ls has twenty-four thousand HP!”
I couldn"t help but chuckle at Hotspring"s exclamation. Just my universe break alone had nearly one-shot him. In this day and age, a magic knight needed to have at least thirty thousand health to face someone like me. If not, he was s.h.i.+t out of luck.
On the other side, Beiming Xue was strumming the Blazing Shadow Bow. More than ten arrows whistled through the air as she unleashed a Spiralling Arrow Blade + Evil Spirit Volley combo and most of them pierced Hotspring"s chestplate. Even though Hotspring was also a rider, his health and defenses were a fair bit lousier than an average magic knight"s. So there was no way that he could withstand Beiming Xue"s attacks. He let out a wail of misery as he quickly followed his companion in death.
It was our complete victory!
We had a really easy time in our first team battle together and we had ended in less than fifteen seconds! I had one-shot the magic knight with a single charge and Beiming Xue had killed the bound Wanderer with a single combo as well. Our teamwork had been excellent.
After we were teleported out of the arena, Beiming Xue"s lips curved up into a smile. “Big bro, you"re so powerful. That G.o.d Binding Art is really incredible as well! Once you bind an opponent, it makes it so much easier for me to hit them with my Evil Spirit Volley…”
I laughed. “Yeah, it"ll be really easy for us at the beginning, but once our ranks have risen high enough and we start meeting opponents like Farewell Song, Laughing At The Heavens, and Dominating Heaven Blade, the success rate of my G.o.d Binding Art will start to fall dramatically. So we can"t pin our hopes on this skill. All you need to do is to match my movements. I"ll charge in and kill the enemy while you kite them. That is the royal road of winning these 2v2 matches.”
Beiming Xue nodded her head and laughed. After that, she replied in a cool and confident voice, “I got it. I"ll work hard to become the strongest two-man team with big bro! We definitely will!!”
“Yeah!”
I gave a heavy node of my head and started looking for another match. I continued to kill noobs with my beautiful little sister. Since there were players who had been partic.i.p.ating in team arena since this afternoon, it was quite hard for us to meet any strong teams. We were basically sweeping aside all of the noobs that were matched against us. However, I didn"t keep using the same tactic all over again. I also tried using the “Ice Cyclon Domain + Evil Spirit Volley” tactic with Beiming Xue, and we also tried to use Shock Arrow to raise the success rate of G.o.d Binding Art. Another tactic I tried was to use Thousand Ice Slash + Sword Boomerang to draw all their fire towards me. All of these tactics would become weapons for us to use against stronger opponents in the future!