——  The Food Squad’s arena challenge had been opened for half a month. Xiao Han’s PK skills were becoming more refined thanks to Qin Mo changing to numerous side accounts every day to train Xiao Han. In particular, his grasp of the assassin’s stealth skill had reached the point of perfection. Qin Mo was surprised to find that it wasn’t easy to defeat Xiao Han now.

  After the end of the sixth season, the Wind Colour got a holiday for one month. Qin Mo planned to go back home to Xi’an to visit his parents. As a competent sparring partner, he decided to say goodbye to Xiao Han before he left.

  That night, Xiao Han found that someone was online in the ‘schizophrenia group’ in his friends’ list and he immediately sent a private message: [Qin Mo, arena?]

  Qin Mo thought, ‘I have played so many rounds with you and had to pay you gold for every round. Whenever I come online, you will say words like ‘arena?’ Do I have no human rights?’

  Qin Mo thought this and said: [I won’t go.]

  Xiao Han was puzzled. [Why?]

  Qin Mo replied angrily: [There is no reason. I just don’t want to fight with you!]

  Xiao Han said seriously: [Are you afraid you won’t beat me if we fight again?]

  Qin Mo, “…”

  Who said he couldn’t beat Xiao Han?

  Qin Mo was stimulated by this method and immediately found the president of Wind Colour to ask for money. Popular Land Under Heaven couldn’t help sighing. “Loser Little Prince, the team is on holiday and you still won’t let go of my vault?”

  Qin Mo asked the president for 10,000 gold and PKed with Xiao Han for 10 rounds. Once they finished, he said: [Look, I can beat you.]

  Xiao Han: [Yes, thank you for the training.]

  Qin Mo, “…”

  Damn it, he was fooled! He ended up sparring and gave Xiao Han another 10,000 gold coins!

  The depressed Qin Mo shut off his computer and decided that he would ignore Xiao Han during his one month holiday!

  ***

  The sixth season ended and the Miracle League gave professional players a one month holiday. Most players actively went home to visit their loved ones. However, the captains weren’t so leisurely.

  Shortly after the awards ceremony, Chairman Nan Jiangang convened all the team captains of the first and second division in Beijing. The first division had eight teams and the second division had sixteen teams. In total, there were 24 captains. All of them sat around the conference table.

  Chairman Nan Jiangang asked the assistant to distribute the documents to everyone. Then he started speaking seriously, “There are two reasons for today’s meeting. First, the rules of the seventh season will be completely changed. There are detailed descriptions in the file. You can look at it first.”

  The captains looked down at the documents. After a while, Ling Xuefeng looked up and asked, “Chairman, the seventh season will cancel the single-elimination arena system and change it into a partner matchup. Is this in line with the World Competition?”

  The question raised by Ling Xuefeng was a common doubt in the hearts of the other captains.

  Chairman Nan Jiangang nodded and said, “Next year’s World Competition will indeed have a partner matchup elimination system. The World League’s idea is that the single-player system is too unstable. If a team has one or two very strong guards, they will gain a lot of points in the arena stage, which isn’t fair to the other teams. Since Miracle is a team game, more attention should be paid to the ability to cooperate. That is the purpose behind replacing one person with partners.”

  The group nodded. In other words, there would be no single-player confrontations in the seventh season. It would be a confrontation between combinations.

  For example, let’s say there was a match between Time and Flying Feathers. In the past, the two sides would send three players to the arena in a 1v1 elimination style battle. The person who survived until the end would gain the points. In the seventh season, the arena would take the form of combination VS combination. Tan Shitian and Cheng Wei could form a combination and Flying Feathers had the double melee combination of Yu Pingsheng and Su Guangmo. A player’s individual strength would be weakened and the role of cooperation between partners significantly increased.

  Then Su Guangmo asked, “According to the description in the file, the regular season only has one round of the arena. In the playoffs, if there are three consecutive rounds, you can change people in the middle. This meaning… you can change one person?”

  \r \r \r

  “Yes.” Nan Jiangang explained. “Let’s take the Wind Colour team as an example. The first round can have the Guo Xuan and Yan Ruiwen combination, the second round can have the Xu Feifan and Ling Xuefeng double summoning combination and then the combination of Ling Xuefeng and Yan Ruiwen can play in the third round. It can be a single or double change, allowing a high degree of freedom. Once you go back, you have to study carefully about how to arrange your lineup.”

  This was interesting because every team had a special ace combination. In addition to this fixed combination, they could use other teammates to create a unique style of play. If necessary, they could even bring a healer to the arena.

  Chairman Nan Jiangang continued explaining, “There is still the second matter about the establishment of the national team for the World Competition. The maximum number of players and the selection methods have been included in the file. Take a closer look. If you don’t understand anything, you can ask me directly.”

  ***

  The meeting lasted for two hours and the captains had a very lively discussion.

  Chairman Nan Jiangang looked at the eagerness of these young people and was particularly pleased. He believed that the seventh season would definitely be more exciting than any season in the past.

  Once the meeting ended, Nan Jiangang was left alone with Ling Xuefeng and he asked, “How is Old Cat’s progress?”

  Ling Xuefeng replied, “He opened a cross-server arena challenge to recruit teammates. However, he hasn’t found anyone yet.”

  Nan Jiangang frowned. “The second division will start after the Spring Festival next year. Once he finds teammates, he has to train them. He doesn’t have a lot of time. Tell him to speed up his progress!”

  Ling Xuefeng nodded. “Rest assured, Chairman.”

  Ling Xuefeng returned to his hotel and immediately turned on his computer. He logged into his Q account and sent a message to Li Cangyu. [The chairman asked about your team today. Has the situation progressed on your side?]

  [Not for the moment.] Li Cangyu replied. [Qin Mo gave my Xiao Han half a month’s worth of training and his PK level has grown considerably. There are very few people who can defeat him. Occasionally, there are one or two but they aren’t interested in playing competitively.]

  Ling Xuefeng wondered: [Have you considered my suggestion? Exposing your identity and using it to recruit teammates will be more useful than the one million bonus that you set.]

  Li Cangyu smiled. [I am planning to do so.]

  Then he asked with concerned: [Didn’t you have a meeting in Beijing today?]

  [Yes, today’s meeting was about the change in the competition system and the national team’s selection. I’ll send it for you to look.] He used his phone to take photos of the files and uploaded them to Q.

  Li Cangyu sent a hug emoji and looked thoughtfully at the files.

  10 minutes later, Li Cangyu finished reading about the new system and was somewhat puzzled. [The single-player elimination is cancelled and it will become a combination arena?]

  Ling Xuefeng: [Yes.]

  Li Cangyu: [Okay, then I can try a combination with Xiao Bai. Output + Milk Dad.]

  Ling Xuefeng, “…”

  He knew this would happen!

  If Li Cangyu really formed a team with Bai Xuan, it was estimated that many people would cry in the future. Cat God protected by the milk dad was simply unstoppable. He wouldn’t be able to die and there would be a collective protest.

  Li Cangyu continued with: [Can the two of us form a combination in the World Competition?]

  Ling Xuefeng was slightly moved and asked: [Don’t you want to bring your Milk Dad?]

  Li Cangyu sent a smiling emoji. [I want to take you even more.]

  Ling Xuefeng, “…”

  Was this person being intentional or unintentional?

  There was a moment of silence and then Ling Xuefeng asked: [Why do you want to form a combination with me?]

  Li Cangyu: [Because you are handsome.]

  Ling Xuefeng, “…”

  Li Cangyu unconsciously teased Ling Xuefeng, unaware that on the other side of the computer, Ling Xuefeng was once again smiling.

  [Then you want to combine with me and rely on my face to kill the opponents?] Ling Xuefeng typed.

  [Don’t you think the two of us can dominate the world, regardless of whether we depend on our face or our strength?] Li Cangyu replied quite seriously.

  Ling Xuefeng’s smile deepened and his eyes softened. [Don’t think too far ahead. You need to quickly find teammates and play well in the domestic league before talking about the national team.]

  Li Cangyu sent an ‘OK’ gesture. [Rest assured. I will move step by step.]

  Then a dialogue window popped up in the lower right corner. It was from Zhang Jueming.

  [Cat God, I found a very interesting person in the arena. Do you want to come and see?]

  Li Cangyu quickly typed: [Okay, I’ll be right there.]

  Chatting with Ling Xuefeng made him happy but there was a more pressing matter at present. Li Cangyu and Ling Xuefeng waved goodbye. Then Li Cangyu logged into the game and went to the cross-server arena to find Zhang Jueming.

  ***

  Zhang Jueming had been following Cat God’s instructions and taking Xiao Gu to play in the cross-server arena.

  The cross-server arena was graded according to the player’s points and winning percentage. Opponents of the same level would be matched. Once the points were full, there would be a promotion and the player could enter a higher level area.

  From lowest to highest, the ranks of the arena were: bronze, silver, gold, diamond and king.

  Most players in the bronze section were rookies and those with terrible hand speed. The silver section had average players. Masters in the online game would usually reach the gold and diamond section while the king section was obvious. It was basically the section for the side accounts of the professional players.

  Zhang Jueming met a person in the qualifying session of the bronze section.

  Anyone playing the arena knew that the bronze section had a mix of elementary school students and rookies. However, it was also possible to encounter some masters training their side accounts from scratch.

  Zhang Jueming knew instantly that this person was a master practicing a side account.

  On that day, he opened a healer account while Gu Siming played a psychic side account. This was to let Xiao Gu become familiar with the operations of the psychic. The two of them joined a random matching queue and were successfully assigned to a room.

  It was the bronze section so Zhang Jueming and Gu Siming could easily crush players. Yet in this match, they encountered an incident.

  Their team had a rookie who couldn’t play and died six times in a row to the opposite team’s black magician. The black magician relied on the 30% status bonus from the six kills to wipe out the team in one breath and successfully grabbed the crystal.

  Zhang Jueming was a healer and Xiao Gu was an auxiliary. The two watched as their teammates were killed and couldn’t help. They could only lose in a depressed manner. This was the first time that they saw the word ‘failure’ in the bronze section.

  After this match, Xiao Gu said, “The black magician has a good awareness. He is definitely playing a side account!”

  Zhang Jueming had previously been a captain and naturally saw that this black magician wasn’t simple and wanted to add him as a friend.

  This person’s ID was Don’t Like to Talk. Zhang Jueming sent the message: [Let’s become friends to team up together.]

  Don’t Like to Talk: [Okay.]

  Thus, Zhang and Gu formed a team with him. They played 10 games in a row and naturally won the 10 games.

  Zhang Jueming teamed up with the black magician to see his true level. The more he saw, the more shocked he became. This person’s awareness was first-class and he was also capable of grasping opportunities.

  The black magician was a dark magic class. The most important thing was the negative effect of the Death Mantra. Under this spell, the black magician’s attack skills would receive a damage bonus. Many black magicians didn’t know how to connect spells but this person did it very well. His grasp of the spell cooldowns was simply perfect.

  However, he was like his ID ‘Don’t Like to Talk.’ He rarely spoke. Whenever he was asked something, he would reply with short words. He never took the initiative to send a message.

  In order to avoid scaring him, Zhang Jueming temporarily didn’t tell him about the formation of the day. He teamed up with the black magician for three or four days to make sure this person had potential before telling the captain.