TuxedoTranslations

Chapter 73

Half an hour earlier — Sabertooth Team

“Everyone, get ready to log in! We need to enter the Galaran map before any other team!” The coach’s voice boomed through the training room. “Think of it like the Normandy invasion—we must land first! Even a second of delay could cost us the win!”

As the current top #1 team in the league, Sabertooth had a massive roster. From top players to substitutes to new trainees, there were nearly a hundred members total. All eyes were on the five who stood at the very peak of the pyramid—the main roster.

Led by Dylan, the five quickly logged in, adjusted their gear and skills, formed a party, and rushed toward the Galaran map as fast as possible.

They did indeed arrive at the dungeon gate first. Dylan’s heart leapt with excitement—without hesitation, he tried to cross the teleport line into the Galaran Ruins, only to be stopped by an invisible wall.

A system message sounded in his ear—only audible to him:

“Dear player, your team does not meet the required size. The 25-player raid ‘Galaran Ruins’ cannot be entered.”

“D-ge, what happened?” Mo Lan asked nervously from behind.

Dylan opened his mouth but didn’t answer. In that instant, he realized that countless viewers were watching their livestream—tracking every move Sabertooth made.

If he revealed that this was a 25-player raid, their rivals could instantly rally extra members and rush over.

But that few seconds of hesitation was all it took—

The Shadow team descended from the sky, followed closely by the Rainbow and NoTrace teams.

The chaos began.

Fighting was what Sabertooth did best. They weren’t afraid in the least—if anything, they were eager to unleash their strength. Battles erupted everywhere. Dylan backed up to a safe perch, raised his sniper rifle, and began taking shots, all while glancing at the stream chat.

As expected, their fanbase dominated the feed—flooding it with waves of adoration.

Dylan, drunk on the flood of “Forever God!” comments, suddenly had an idea. Lowering his voice to that smooth, dangerous tone that made people weak, he murmured into the mic:

“Hey, my little darlings watching the stream… can I ask you for a favor?”

Chat exploded:

【Holy crap, D-God spoke!!!】

【I’m your little darling, D-ge!!! 😭😭😭】

【Aaaaah that voice—so deep, so hot!!】

【My ears are pregnant!!! I love him so much!!!】

【Brother, just say the word!! Whatever you say, we’ll do it!!】

Dylan paused for a second, then said calmly, “Can you open a second livestream account and check what the other teams are doing? Then come back to my stream and report it. This is really important to me.”

At that moment, the Sabertooth fans in the chat felt an overwhelming sense of honor — like they’d just been assigned a secret mission. One by one, they jumped into action, full of energy and excitement.

【Got it!! I’ll log into my alt right now and open another stream!!】

【I’ll go spy on the Shadow team! You girls can check out the Rainbow and NoTrace teams!!】

【Make sure someone covers KUQ too!!!】

【We’re the Sabertooth Spy Squad now!】

【Spy Squad, charge!! For our brother’s victory!!】

Dylan chuckled quietly, feeling rather pleased with himself. This way, he could get first-hand intel on the other teams in real time — and react accordingly. He was sure he was the first one to discover this loophole in the tournament’s rules, and to exploit it so cleverly. How brilliant of him.

Soon, his chat started reporting back with all kinds of updates:

“Rainbow team tried to snipe a boss but got caught by Shadow!”

“Shadow fought Rainbow and accidentally dragged NoTrace into it!”

All of this was within his expectations — dull, predictable, nothing surprising. So Dylan gave his viewers another “suggestion.”

“Don’t forget to check out the Polaris team too,” he said, voice dripping with mock sincerity. “They’re a legendary three-time champion, after all — maybe they’ll be the dark horse of this season.”

His tone was sarcastic enough to sting, but his fans took it as gospel. They immediately swarmed over to Polaris’s stream, spreading the usual shade as they went.

【Polaris barely even managed to register this year — what’s there to be scared of?】

【Exactly! They only beat some random nobody team that didn’t even qualify last season.】

【Dark horse? Please. More like dead horse.】

【D-God’s just being respectful to his seniors, that’s all!】

【Since they’re “seniors,” maybe it’s time they retire already!】

【D-God is just so humble and polite, I love him!】

…

The trash talk from Sabertooth’s stream carried straight over to Lin Mingfei’s Polaris stream. The viewer count skyrocketed in seconds.

But unfortunately for them, Lin Mingfei — that sly old dog — never turned on his bullet comments. No matter how chaotic the chat got, he remained utterly unbothered, calm as a monk in meditation.

Before long, the Sabertooth fans learned that Polaris had given up on clearing the Galaran Ruins.

【This is the so-called three-time champion team???】

【LMAO they’re this scared? What kind of PVP players are these?!】

【I’ve never seen a team back out like this — refusing to even enter the dungeon! So embarrassing!】

【Someone tell D-God, this is hilarious! Sabertooth doesn’t have anything to worry about!】

【Sabertooth forever!! D-God is eternal!!】

At first, Dylan had been a bit uneasy. Strangely enough, he wasn’t particularly worried about last year’s runner-up team, Shadow — but something about Polaris had made him uneasy.

Now, with this new intel, all that worry melted away.

He thought to himself, Of course. Polaris only has five people — how could they possibly fill a 25-player raid group? What, are they going to recruit randoms off the street? Not a chance. There’s no way they’re getting into that dungeon.

A few moments later, more chatter came pouring into the stream:

【D-God!! Polaris is going to the Scorpion’s Eye Trench!】

【They’ve given up being PVP players — they’re switching to PVX now!】

【Good news!! Great news!! Sabertooth has this season in the bag!!!】

The Scorpion’s Eye Trench? Dylan was stunned. Is Zero out of his mind? What’s the point of farming that place?

Even if they couldn’t enter the newest dungeon, they could still train team coordination in the arena — that would be way more useful! Wasting time in a PVX map made no sense at all.

But before long, his “spy squad” returned with another update from the enemy side:

“D-God!! The Scorpion’s Eye Trench drops 1500-tier gear!!!”

“They say it’s even higher tier than what drops from the new raid!!”

“D-God!! Let’s go there too! Sabertooth can’t lose to them!!”

Dylan didn’t answer, but something in his gut felt off. A faint unease crept in.

In between shots, he typed rapidly in the team chat:

Sabertooth Dylan: 【Did you guys know the Scorpion’s Eye Trench drops 1500-tier gear?】

Moments later—

Sabertooth Mo Lan: 【1500-tier? Never heard of that before.】

Sabertooth Yoyo: 【That high? What’s the Galaran Ruins gear then?】

Sabertooth Mo Lan: 【No idea. Probably around 1500 too, I guess.】

Sabertooth Goblin: 【??? Then why are we killing ourselves here? Are we being played? Let’s go farm Scorpion’s Eye instead!】

Sabertooth Yoyo: 【That doesn’t make sense though — the Galaran Ruins gear should be better. When has an earlier-released gear set ever had higher stats?】

Sabertooth Robin King: 【What are you guys even talking about? Have you looked at the Scorpion’s Eye gear stats?】

Sabertooth Dylan: 【Sorry, I don’t pay attention to PVX content.】

Sabertooth Robin King: 【Then let me show you. The 1500-tier gear has no defense boosts — only +400 breath capacity and +70% movement speed. You sure you want to farm that?】

Dylan froze for a moment, realization dawning.

Instantly, the tension left his body. He exhaled in relief.

Zero and his team clearly hadn’t noticed this yet — after all, PVP players were always too busy training to pay attention to PVX mechanics.

But meanwhile, Dylan’s so-called “spy squad” was starting to panic.

How could there possibly be a team in the world whose internal members of their ace team, Sabertooth, would spend half a day debating over even the simplest proposal or move—and nearly get tricked in the process!

【We have to keep helping D-ge expand our territory!】

【What if Polaris’ Zero has other schemes?】

【That Zero may be handsome, but he looks like a cunning old fox! Not trustworthy at all!】

【I suspect they’re planting a trap!】

【Let’s go, let’s go, head to Polaris’ livestream!】

Feeling a strong sense of urgency, this group of fans gathered a huge wave of people and flooded Lin Mingfei’s livestream. Soon, they overheard the conversation between Lin Mingfei and Shi Ya.

Shi Ya: “I just checked the equipment attributes from the Scorpion Eye Trench exchange… feels like it’s not very suitable for PvP.”

Lin Mingfei: “No defensive bonuses at all? Only boosts to run speed and stamina?”

Shi Ya: “Huh? You know about it? So… what exactly do you mean by that?”

The Sabertooth fans in the livestream held their breaths, waiting eagerly for Lin Mingfei’s follow-up. Some even pulled out notebooks to take notes, afraid of missing a single word.

But Lin Mingfei’s response left them completely frustrated.

“We’ll talk offline later.”

Pausing, the old fox—seeming almost possessed by a mischievous spirit—smiled at the livestream, which hadn’t even opened the comment section:

“There are plenty of enemy informants in the livestream right now. What? All of you trying to learn from us? Not a chance.”

The Sabertooth fans watching online: “……”

Damn! They got roasted!!

Some Sabertooth fans were still rational enough to realize that ranting in the enemy’s livestream would immediately expose their espionage attempt, and that would be embarrassing. But many others were completely blown away, losing all ability to think, and switched their livestream chat into full-on battle mode:

【Learn from us? Our Sabertooth champion team doesn’t need to learn from your outdated team!】

【The guy’s old but arrogant!】

【Hilarious! A cowardly team that doesn’t even dare to pioneer is talking big here!】

【They’re off farming the Scorpion Eye Trench anyway, stop embarrassing yourselves here! Forfeit already! Please!】

【What future can a team with an Omega have? They beat a weak team and act like they’re something special!】

【We’re even giving you face by watching your livestream! Boosting your views!】

【This livestream is freezing! If it weren’t for D-ge telling us to come, we wouldn’t even be here!】

…

Dylan never expected his fans to be dumb enough to say such things in another team’s livestream, exposing him as the mastermind behind the scenes. Unsurprisingly, the angry rivals took screenshots and posted them on forums with full names attached:

【Relying on fans to spy on the enemy to feel secure? Is this the quality of a former champion team? Yep, Dylan, we’re talking about you!】

Suddenly, Dylan’s supposedly clever behind-the-scenes move was fully exposed. Not only Polaris’ fans but also many fans from other teams watching the chaos joined in. Sabertooth was already a hot team, and Dylan’s arrogant attitude had long annoyed people. This created a “everyone pushes when the wall wobbles” situation. Fans from multiple teams went to their own livestreams to collect evidence, post screenshots, insult Dylan, and some even went to Dylan’s livestream to confront Sabertooth fans directly.

Even someone like Dylan couldn’t handle this level of trolling; he had to turn off the chat and play dead.

Meanwhile, Polaris’ team was on the way to the Scorpion Eye Trench. Shi Ya was browsing the forums intermittently and saw the “Hundreds Unite to Roast Dylan” scene.

“Wow,” he said excitedly after reading through the posts. “Zero, you really have a sharp tongue.”

“Huh? What about me?” Lin Mingfei asked.

“You triggered a historic flame war with one sentence,” Shi Ya said. “I heard Dylan even turned off his chat—he usually loves seeing people hype him up in the chat, right?”

“Be careful, the livestream is still on. Don’t get recorded by Sabertooth fans saying you insulted their idol,” Lin Mingfei teased, half-smiling. “Wouldn’t you be scared if they sent you a razor?”

“They’re busy sinking on their own; why would they care about me?” Shi Ya said confidently.

“Not really sinking, just in a bad mood,” Lin Mingfei said lazily. “The officials actually want the discussions about the King’s Tomb battle prep to be as lively as possible. So for non-principled issues like this, they turn a blind eye. The more Sabertooth fans fight and go crazy, the happier the officials are—they even save on publicity costs. At times like this, I kinda want to tell our fans to chill, watch quietly, and not get involved. If you argue with idiots and no one can tell who’s the idiot, it just looks bad.”

In the livestream chat:

【Wow!! This guy’s tongue is lethal!!】

【You’re so vicious, so vicious, so vicious!!】

【I really want him to go personally confront Sabertooth’s fans! He might win them all with words!】

【Wake up, no one can start a fight, my bro Zero is so chill, better safe than sorry.】

【Hahaha, chill my foot, Sabertooth fans are about to explode from anger.】

【Listen to my bro, no more fighting! Everyone stop fighting! Watch the livestream in peace!】

【Hahaha, it’s hilarious watching Sabertooth fans try to clarify themselves.】

Under Lin Mingfei’s one-sentence “summon,” Polaris’ fans quietly withdrew from the forum chaos.

At this moment, Polaris had already arrived at the entrance of the Scorpion Eye Trench.

The King’s Tomb offered a variety of gameplay to satisfy all kinds of players: those who enjoyed fighting could do PvP, those who liked dungeon grinding could do PvE, and those seeking casual fun could treasure hunt, raise pets, sightsee, complete achievements, and so on. They jokingly called themselves “PvX.”

Near the entrance of the Scorpion Eye Trench, a crowd of PvX players had gathered, laughing and playing around. Occasionally, someone would be ready and jump into the trench from the entrance, while others would sigh as they emerged from the teleport points.

When they saw the five members of Polaris, everyone froze in unison.

“Huh? Polaris… is that the Polaris?”

“Yeah, I think so. They’re all quite good-looking; this kind of lineup is rare in the professional scene. I saw them once when I was watching old livestreams.”

“Aren’t they all PvP players? What are they doing here?”

“Isn’t the prep event starting today? Shouldn’t pros be busy fighting or exploring new dungeons?”

“…Are they going to fight here later? Stay back, stay back; better not get accidentally hit.”

Xia Tong glanced around, puzzled. “Why does everyone’s reaction to us… feel like they’re seeing a ferocious tiger?”

Zhou Yanjun: “Be confident. Drop the ‘like.’”

Shi Ya laughed helplessly: “Honestly, no matter where our team appears… we’re probably always going to be treated like a natural disaster.”

Bo Yu: “Well, by tradition, our team should currently be in Galuolan’s map fighting to the death with someone.”

Zhou Yanjun: “To be honest, PvX players act like rabid dogs whenever PvP starts. Often, if they want to take a screenshot or farm an item, and PvP happens nearby, their plans get completely ruined.”

Bo Yu added: “Not getting interrupted by attacks or splash damage is already a blessing.”

Xia Tong suddenly understood: “No wonder… they all seem like they want to chase us away! But we’re not here to fight!” The little wizard forced out a friendly, sweet smile and waved at the nearby players. “Don’t misunderstand, everyone! Polaris is here to farm the Scorpion Eye Trench, not to fight! No need to be afraid!”

After his greeting, the surrounding players didn’t warm up at all. If anything, their eyes now held a hint of contempt.

“What the… PvP dogs here to farm Scorpion Eye Trench?”

“Must be joking… a bunch of brawny brutes trying to farm the trench?”

“I bet they don’t even know which way the entrance faces.”

Polaris: “……”

Shi Ya suddenly laughed and said to Zhou Yanjun: “Hey, you see, you look down on PvX, and PvX looks down on us PvP.”

“PvP dogs…” Xia Tong repeated the phrase. “That’s… us?”

“No need to double-check,” Zhou Yanjun rolled his eyes. “It’s just Scorpion Eye Trench. How hard can it be? A bunch of casual PvX can farm it; I don’t believe I can’t. I’m going now!” Saying this, he stretched and marched off proudly.

The entrance of the Scorpion Eye Trench was at a whirlpool on the edge of the sea. Without hesitation, Zhou Yanjun pinched his nose and leaped in—splash!

The PvX players around watched in confusion.

“…Doesn’t he need to take a fish-gill seaweed first?”

“…Maybe he has a larger stamina capacity. After all, he looks so fat.”

“…But jumping in without even checking the guide, is he really okay?”

“…I said PvP dogs wouldn’t even find the entrance; if he makes it to the first level, I admit defeat.”

Xia Tong tiptoed to peek where Zhou Yanjun had jumped. The deep blue sea, with white splashes now and then, looked strangely interesting. Excited, he said: “Zerozero, should we hurry to catch up with Fatty?”

Lin Mingfei didn’t respond immediately. He crossed his arms, squinting slightly. After a moment, he turned sharply and strode forward. “Follow me.”

“Huh? Where are you going?” Shi Ya shouted in surprise.

“To the respawn point,” Lin Mingfei said without looking back. “I think we might need to wait there for Fire.”

Feel free to buy me a coffee/show your support on ko-fi! Thank you ❤