The King's Avatar

Chapter 1284: The Overlooked Sacrifice

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

Yang Cong was named the number one Assassin in the Alliance, but his Assassin style wasn’t particularly liked. For Assassins, most people liked the thrill of a one-hit kill from Life-Risking Strike. But Yang Cong almost never used this skill, to the point that people wondered if his Scene Killer hadn’t even added points to this skill and only used it to bluff.

But in the most recent All-Star Competition, Yang Cong’s Scene Killer revealed the fangs of an instant-kill, defeating his opponent in just one strike. Even though that was just a show, Yang Cong at least let everyone know, he knew how to use Life-Risking Strike, the most thrilling of all the Assassin’s skills.

The All-Star Weekend ended, and all the players returned to their normal competition conditions. But in the match against Happy, Yang Cong once again revealed his sharp fangs, and Life-Risking Strike stole away An Wenyi’s Little Cold Hands.

This move was incredibly unexpected, and losing the healer in the team competition was deadly. Lord Grim’s little healing skills could occasionally save a situation at critical points, but relying on him to support a 5v5 team battle was impossible.

Happy could only launch a full, rapid offensive, hoping that they could use this to obtain an advantage of numbers. However, 301 was clearly prepared for this situation. As soon as Yang Cong’s attack succeeded, they immediately lowered the tempo of the battle and began a slow battle of attrition. Neither arrogant nor rash, they tightly protected their own healer, and ultimately they swallowed Happy like this.

The battle of attrition wore on for almost 20 minutes, but nearly all of the light of this match came from that Life-Risking Strike of Yang Cong’s Scene Killer. This was a brilliance possessed only by Assassins.

During the post-match press conference, Yang Cong of course was surrounded by the reporters. Everyone was extremely curious, after seven years of persistence, why did he suddenly change his playstyle in this match? Was it because he found inspiration from that performance at All-Stars?

"Perhaps!" Facing the questions of the reporters, Yang Cong smiled. "You know, it’s not that I don’t know how to use Life-Risking Strike, it’s that I’m unable to use it!"

"What does that mean?" The reporters didn’t understand.

"Because I’m 301’s captain," Yang Cong responded simply.

The reporters suddenly understood. The captain was a team’s soul, its banner. At any time, the captain had the responsibility of leading the entire team. They might use words to encourage the team members, they might use actions to carry everyone along, but no matter how they led, the captain, first and foremost, had to be present.

And Life-Risking Strike? This was a lose-lose playstyle. After using Life-Risking Strike, the Assassin would only be left with a sliver of health. There wasn’t a single team who would miss a target like that. And Yang Cong was 301’s captain. He needed to strive to remain on the field. He couldn’t just simply kill one target and then come offstage.

Life-Risking Strike. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to use it, but that he was unable to use it.

Because he was the captain. On his shoulders, he carried more duties and obligations than others did. He could not be an independently-acting Assassin, because he represented not just himself, but the entirety of a team.

Once they understood this, the reporters suddenly realized something that everyone had overlooked all this time.

From Season 4, everyone praised how Wang Jiexi, for the sake of Tiny Herb, quietly adjusted his playstyle, gradually putting away his more elegant, more attention-grabbing, more popular Magician playstyle. But there was another player who joined in the same season as Wang Jiexi, another All-Star level player, another team captain. From the very beginning, he had also quietly sacrificed some things, for the sake of his responsibilities.

Life-Risking Strike was the most brilliant skill of an Assassin.

Perhaps compared to Wang Jiexi, Yang Cong hadn’t done as much. But both players had the same determination of sacrificing themselves for the sake of their teams. For this sentiment, it shouldn’t matter exactly how much was sacrificed.

After realizing this point, all of the reporters present felt extremely moved. But even as they were moved, they were still curious.

"Then why did you suddenly use Life-Risking Strike in this battle?" a reporter asked.

"I was probably inspired after All-Stars! After the All-Star Competition, I realized that nowadays, methods like this are probably the best way I can contribute to the team. It’s about time that I leave some responsibilities for other people to carry," Yang Cong smiled.

The reporters were once again stunned.

This... was someone already preparing to give way and retire!

Players from Season 3 were indeed at the twilight of their careers; very few were still active in the circle. But how many were like Yang Cong, already deciding to step down before he’d even begun to reveal significant signs of decline?

The All-Star Competition... what did it allow him to see?

Did being at the bottom among All-Stars allow him to see the exit toward which he was walking? Or did the younger players allow him to see a future that was worth looking forward to?

None of the reporters continued to press for details. They knew that even if this was Yang Cong was doing this voluntarily, even if he could still smile gently as he faced everyone, his heart would certainly have feelings of sadness. The helplessness brought by the flow of time was cruel. Who was insensitive enough to dig into this scar for details?

Yang Cong’s statement already revealed many things.

Team 301 Degrees was about to change their tactical core. Yang Cong’s Assassin stepped aside for this, and he could use a freer method to battle. Perhaps starting from this round, Scene Killer’s one-hit kill fangs would set off a new scene in the Alliance?

No one would overlook the fact that this was the number one Assassin in the Alliance! Nearing the end of his professional career, he voluntarily gave up his position as the core player, and from this he would step onto the road of a true Assassin.

Then, after Yang Cong stepped down, who would be 301’s new core?

The reporters were just as curious about this question, but 301 didn’t give an answer during this press conference. Looking at 301’s current players, there was Li Yihui who’d transferred from Tiny Herb. Even though he’d dropped out of All-Stars after leaving Tiny Herb, he was still a very strong player. There was also the Blade Master player Gao Jie, whose ability had been steadily increasing the past few years. These two players both had the possibility of becoming 301’s new core.

But two days later, the Monday of the new week, in the register of people signing with the Alliance, some people discovered that 301 just signed a new contract. Not a transfer, but an independent registration.

Bai Shu, a name that no one knew, silently entered Team 301 Degrees. And from the public data released by the Alliance, everyone could see that this person named Bai Shu was using the character that former 301 player Xu Bin had left behind after transferring away, the Knight Tide.

Who was Bai Shu?

Countless people were desperate to know this answer, but the Alliance was currently on a weeklong break. This year’s Spring Festival had arrived relatively early. January 22 was already Lunar New Year’s Eve, only two days away. All of the teams were already on break. Only the Alliance was still reporting as usual on the newest transfers and replacements as they happened during this transfer window. The players of the various teams had all long gone home to celebrate the new year.

Happy also became a lot quieter. Even Wei Chen and Fang Rui, these dirty and shameless guys, very seriously and obediently reported home for the Spring Festival. In an instant, only three people were left in Happy’s training room.

"It’s just the three of us again!" Chen Guo said, looking at Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng. She didn’t feel lonely because there were so few of them. Two people still with her, this was more excitement than she’d ever had since her father passed away.

"Yup, us again," Ye Xiu said.

"Is your brother coming this year?" Chen Guo asked.

"Probably not!" Ye Xiu said.

"You’re not planning on going back home?" asked Chen Guo.

"We’ll see, we’ll see." To this question, Ye Xiu’s typical calm, free, and easy attitude wavered a bit, a rare sight to see.

"Then, let’s get ready for the Spring Festival!" Chen Guo didn’t ask any further.

"Are we going shopping again?" Ye Xiu asked.

"Scared?" The two women smirked at him.

"Even my legs are shaking," Ye Xiu smiled bitterly.

"Then, thanks for your hard work." The two of them showed no intention of letting him off easy.

Just as the three of them prepared to depart, Ye Xiu saw that the door to the R&D area was unlatched, and there seemed to be sounds coming out.

Ye Xiu shot a puzzled glance at Su Mucheng and Chen Guo, and the two immediately noticed this as well. The three of them went forward, Ye Xiu gently pushed open the door, and they saw Guan Rongfei sitting at the computer, completely engrossed in operating something, his mouth moving nonstop as though muttering something to himself.

"What’s going on?" Chen Guo barged in, waving her hand in front of Guan Rongfei’s face. "Isn’t your train at 9? What time is it now?"

Guan Rongfei finally looked away in disgust after Chen Guo blocked his line of sight. After hearing Chen Guo’s shout, he casually checked the time. "It’s 9:40? Oh, I missed it."

"What are you doing?" Chen Guo shouted. If someone who didn’t know what was going on saw this, it would have been really difficult to tell who was the one who had missed the train.

"Working on equipment." Guan Rongfei’s response was incredibly simple, so simple that Chen Guo had no response. She of course figured that Guan Rongfei was suddenly investigating some clue, and then became so focused that he forgot about everything else. But her head really hurt over how this guy was always forgetting himself like this, so much that aside from his work, everything else was ignored.

"You’re not going home?" Chen Guo asked.

"Don’t rush." Guan Rongfei raised his finger and waved it.

Chen Guo suddenly thought that this guy must have reached some critical point, so she didn’t dare to say any more and just waited to the side.

After that, Guan Rongfei continued to lose himself in his work, seemingly forgetting everyone standing around him.

"So what exactly are you working on?" Ye Xiu walked up to him.

"Look, this..." As soon as Ye Xiu came up, Gaun Rongfei immediately grew animated, beginning to chatter away at Ye Xiu.

"Huh, is that so. Let me see." As Ye Xiu spoke, he turned on another computer.

Chen Guo’s jaw dropped. What happened to their Spring Festival celebration?