TuxedoTranslations

Chapter 91

There it was again—classic Xia Tong nonsense.

The others fell silent as chickens, looking at Lin Mingfei with suspicion—and just a trace of sympathy.

Shi Ya gravely patted Lin Mingfei’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Zero. Your brothers will avenge the humiliation you once suffered.”

A massive throbbing vein popped on Lin Mingfei’s forehead. “What the hell are you all even talking about—?!”

He had no idea what kind of tragic image Xia Tong had built for him in his mind, but he suddenly had the strong feeling that, in Xia Tong’s eyes… he was no longer pure.

This question wasn’t something that could be examined too closely—let alone verified. Fortunately, the final match-point round began, and everyone’s attention shifted away from his vague “purity.”

Sometimes the members of Polaris seriously suspected that their captain, Lin Mingfei, had some kind of shady under-the-table PY deal with the developers of King’s Tomb, because he was uncannily like a tapeworm living in the dev team’s stomach. As soon as they loaded into the map, they discovered that once again, the situation had unfolded exactly as Lin Mingfei predicted.

It was the legendary “flag-planting map.”

Across the vast ancient battlefield stood defensive fortresses everywhere. On the paths leading to them were primitive but razor-sharp bear traps and steel wires. In front of every fortress gate was a fixed flag-planting point. Players from both teams had to pick up flags scattered around the map and carry them to these points to raise them. The total number of flags was fixed. The two teams had to fight over them—and whichever side planted ten flags first would win.

The moment they loaded in, Zhou Yanjun went numb.

“Damn it, I have to be honest. I’ve only queued into this map twice this entire season.” He held up two thick fingers angrily. “And both times were total free-for-alls! Yes! Completely chaotic free-for-alls! One of those games, we even wiped the enemy team—but it still didn’t decide a winner. Can you believe that?”

“Why?” Xia Tong asked, confused.

“Because I fell into a pile of bear traps. That crap gives you a damn ‘Bleed’ debuff. If the healer doesn’t cleanse you, you just keep losing HP, nonstop. I hadn’t even finished planting the flag before I bled to death!” Zhou Yanjun said in a lifeless tone.

Xia Tong: “……”

“So basically, it means we absolutely can’t die easily, huh?” Shi Ya clicked his tongue lightly. “You guys are putting a lot of pressure on me, you know!”

This bunch always howled miserably before every match. Lin Mingfei was used to it by now and ignored them. He lowered his head and said to Xia Tong, “Actually, I think you could look at the wizard class from a different angle.”

“What do you mean?” Xia Tong looked up at him in confusion.

“You’re fragile, sure—but that doesn’t mean you have to play reactively. Try taking the initiative. Strike first. If you preempt them, maybe you won’t have to take hits in the first place,” Lin Mingfei said with a smile.

“Take the initiative? Strike first?” Xia Tong repeated. “You mean just start chasing them down right from the beginning?”

“No.” Lin Mingfei raised one finger and swayed it meaningfully. “You need to make sure the initiative you seize is truly something you ‘seized’—not something the opponent deliberately ‘left’ for you. If it’s the latter, then it’s not an advantage. It’s a trap.”

“…What does that mean?” Xia Tong looked even more lost.

“It’s hard to explain in detail. You might experience it firsthand once the match starts,” Lin Mingfei said softly with a chuckle.

The countdown ended.

The two teams met in the center of the ancient battlefield. Without any need for signals or commands, a chaotic fight broke out. Strangely, neither side was going all out—they traded probing attacks back and forth. Midway through, both Dylan and Lin Mingfei tried to break away to pull a flag and transport it, but because doing so required time and made their intention to split off too obvious, they were discovered again and again, dragged back into the fray, and beaten to near-critical HP. The heart-pounding reversals made everyone’s pulse race. With so many concerns binding them, they couldn’t kill anyone—and they wouldn’t let anyone leave to plant a flag either. Calling it mutual harassment wasn’t an exaggeration.

Pulling a flag had become extremely dangerous. Lin Mingfei didn’t order anyone else to do it; instead, he darted out himself whenever he saw an opening. But he was a squishy target too. After being targeted by Goblin and then hit by Robin King’s sliding attack, he rolled awkwardly across the ground several times.

“Zero!” Xia Tong shouted anxiously. He tried to close in on Goblin to apply pressure, but a sharp pain suddenly shot through his foot, making it hard to move.

“Watch the bear traps on the ground!!” Shi Ya shouted urgently. From his perspective, Xia Tong had already gained a “Bleed” debuff. It had only lasted a few seconds, and his HP bar was already draining rapidly.

Xia Tong didn’t dare act rashly. He could only stand still and wait for Shi Ya to cleanse the debuff and stabilize his health. He couldn’t clearly grasp the situation—should he cover Lin Mingfei’s retreat back to the team, or continue focusing fire on Sabertooth?

He finally understood why Zhou Yanjun had called this a “free-for-all.” Because no one was familiar with the map mechanics, even a tactical master like Lin Mingfei was probably too busy surviving to direct them.

Too passive. How had they become this passive?

Xia Tong’s thoughts were in turmoil.

As time dragged on, both sides’ mental stamina and patience wore down. Their attacks and defenses grew increasingly chaotic. Finally—bang, bang—while trying to stop Dylan from pulling a flag, Bo Yu was stuck by Mo Lan. Dylan turned and fired two shots, blowing Bo Yu up.

At such a critical moment, losing a member was a devastating blow. Lin Mingfei stepped back, trying to find cover to wait for his skills to come off cooldown. But Zhou Yanjun, enraged by Bo Yu’s death, roared and lunged at Mo Lan. Midway, Goblin caught an opening and unleashed a full burst combo, taking him down instantly.

After that, Polaris seemed to trigger a chain reaction of deaths. Even after Shi Ya used two major heals on Zhou Yanjun, he couldn’t save him. Shi Ya himself ran out of skills and had nowhere left to retreat. He was cut down under Mo Lan and Robin King’s coordinated assault, falling beneath the leopard’s claws.

Lin Mingfei and Xia Tong hid behind a not-so-tall barricade and decisively abandoned Shi Ya. Xia Tong’s condition was still decent, but Lin Mingfei’s HP bar was down to one-third. His handsome face was covered in dust and wounds—disheveled yet oddly heroic. With no healer left on their side, he didn’t expect anyone to top him back up. Helplessly, he wiped the corner of his lips with the back of his hand.

“I can tell you guys don’t really want to fight anymore,” he shrugged, still in relatively good spirits, even joking a little. “But it’s fine. We’ve already achieved our goal. You’ve seen Sabertooth’s level. As for winning or losing—let’s just treat it as building up good karma for the league’s official matches.”

Xia Tong lowered his eyes. He didn’t quite dare look at Lin Mingfei. He really liked that face of Lin Mingfei’s—and seeing it battered made his chest tighten painfully.

“Actually… I still want to fight,” he said, his gaze steady, like the clear, icy light reflected off a snowy night. “I’m not convinced yet.”

This entire match, he had been muddleheaded and chaotic. He hadn’t managed to seize the initiative even once. He hadn’t experienced what it felt like to truly “strike first.” And now it was about to end—how could he not feel regret?

“What do you still want to practice?” Lin Mingfei asked softly, his voice gentle. Outside their cover, the members of Sabertooth were still sweeping the area, seemingly discussing picking up flags. The two of them whispered in this narrow safe zone, close to each other, not feeling the slightest fear.

“I just want to hit them. Hit them hard, without any worries! Screw planting flags or not planting flags—it’s annoying as hell,” Xia Tong muttered, pouting.

Lin Mingfei smiled.

“Okay. Then I’ll buy you another chance,” he said quietly.

Xia Tong’s eyes widened slightly. The next moment, he saw his hunter alpha rush out.

This time, Lin Mingfei did the opposite of usual. Instead of crouching behind cover, he charged straight ahead with his gun. As the members of Sabertooth faced him head-on, for some reason, all five of them simultaneously recalled the Snow Palace from two years ago.

Back then, it had also been five of them—against Lin Mingfei alone.

They had so easily wiped out Polaris’s advantage, believing they were on the verge of a perfect victory. Yet the ending had been shocking and unprecedented.

Like PTSD resurfacing, even though Lin Mingfei only had one-third of his HP left and posed little real threat, and even though Sabertooth was no longer the mid-tier team they once were, this close frontal encounter still felt eerily familiar—like a Grim Reaper long hidden in the shadows suddenly descending from the sky, spreading vast black wings that blotted out the sun, casting a heavy psychological shadow over them.

“Point-blank triple snipe—100% accuracy! Back off!!” Robin King blurted out. Almost reflexively, he began retreating, widening the distance from Lin Mingfei. His movement infected the others. In an instant, the entire Sabertooth team seemed to lose the ability to think, scattering backward in a fan-shaped formation.

Dylan was the first to snap out of that idiotic reaction. Lin Mingfei had already fired two shots at him. If Dylan hadn’t quickly returned fire and taken Lin Mingfei’s head, he probably would have evaporated as well. With a sliver of HP left, he roared at Yoyo, who then scrambled to heal him.

In that split second, Xia Tong blinked out from behind cover. The little wizard raised his icy crystal staff high. A fierce wind erupted, spell light forming a tangible vortex.

“Whisper of the Wind,” Goblin muttered. He was closest to Xia Tong and immediately recognized the wizard’s AoE skill. It had a four-to-five-second cast time and couldn’t be interrupted—a super armor state. But something felt off. There seemed to be something else mixed in—

Before he could process it, Xia Tong’s Binding Spell had already landed on him.

“What the hell?! How did he do that?!” Goblin shouted in shock, unable to move. “He was clearly channeling Whisper of the Wind! How can he still cast Binding Spell—”

“Don’t panic! I can heal you! You won’t die!” Yoyo said.

“I—I’m not panicking! I’m just surprised—” Goblin protested.

“He canceled the post-cast delay of Binding Spell using Whisper of the Wind!” Mo Lan reacted quickly, though his tone carried helplessness. “At this point, nothing Blink pulls off would surprise me.”

Robin King said in a low voice, “Be careful not to let him get close! His weapon has a slow enchantment! Don’t fight him—hurry and plant the flags! Winning is what matters!”

Dylan narrowed his eyes. “Leaving no survivors in the arena is basic professionalism. Didn’t Goblin say Blink lacks real combat experience? Now’s the perfect time to bait him into overextending. Yoyo, come with me. Let’s try Goblin’s tactic and see if we can take the head of this omega player,” he said lightly, stepping forward.

“Ah? Do we really have to do this, Brother D…” Yoyo hesitated, but under Dylan’s pressure, he followed him toward Xia Tong.

“There’s no need to toy with Blink like this. As long as we win, that’s enough,” Mo Lan couldn’t help frowning. “Snatching neutral monsters before was one thing. Now this is just getting dirtier and dirtier…”

Goblin, newly basking in Dylan’s rare approval, was flushed with excitement and quickly defended him. “Hey, what do you mean ‘toy with Blink’? It’s a scrim, a scrim! Sure, winning is important, but tactics need practice too! Blink’s still our opponent. With such a good chance to probe the enemy, it’d be a shame not to try!”

Before he could finish, Yoyo let out a scream. “What the hell—?!”

The others froze. On the team list, “Sabertooth_dylan” had turned gray.

“How did Brother D die?!” Robin King exclaimed. “Yoyo! Your HP!”

“I don’t have any big heals left!!” Yoyo cried in panic. “I used all my survival skills on Brother D—ahhh—” In the blink of an eye, Yoyo’s name also turned gray.

In just a few seconds, Sabertooth had lost two players. The remaining three changed expressions instantly. Robin King and Mo Lan both turned to stare at Goblin in stunned disbelief.

“Why are you all looking at me?!” Goblin felt a chill run down his spine.

“I told you not to try your stupid tactic!!” Mo Lan shouted furiously. “Move! Go plant the flags! Or we’re really going to lose!!”

Goblin’s face turned pale, his back drenched in cold sweat. He didn’t dare argue. The three of them changed direction and sprinted toward the fortresses in the east, west, and south.

But before they could run more than a few steps, a violent gale struck them—it was the wizard’s AoE skill, Whisper of the Wind. Their legs felt as if they were trudging through thick mud, unbearably slowed. Then three Binding Spells descended from above, tightly restraining them—

—and yanking them back.

“Not good!! Bear traps!!” Robin King caught sight of what was behind them out of the corner of his eye and shouted—but it was too late. For the next few seconds, their movements were completely out of their control. They could only watch helplessly as they were dragged straight across the bear traps. A bright red Bleed debuff appeared beside their HP bars, and their health began to drop.

It’s over!

Those two words flashed through the minds of all three Sabertooth players at once.

They no longer had a healer. No one could cleanse this fatal debuff for them. If Xia Tong hadn’t seized the initiative earlier, they might still have been able to counter-kill him, quickly plant the flags, and end the fight. But now, as long as Xia Tong ran desperately around the map and avoided getting caught—or snuck attacks on them while they were planting flags—they would be dragged to death alive. The final winner would definitely be Polaris.

How did this happen?! They had clearly been on the verge of wiping Polaris out—how had it suddenly turned into a comeback?!

The league hadn’t even started yet. If they lost their very first scrim during the preparation period, what would that mean for them? They would become the most humiliating defeated generals in Sabertooth’s history! They’d be mocked to death by the countless academy trainees and substitutes eyeing their positions below!

Among the three, Goblin was undoubtedly the most terrified. His mind had turned to mush. He had no idea what exactly had happened in the span of these few minutes. All he knew was that the new tactic he suggested had taken the team from certain victory to the brink of total defeat. After the scrim, during the review session, he would face unprecedented judgment. What would his teammates think of him? What would Manager Zhao Xin think? What would the club think?

Goblin felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss, cold to the bone. In his mind, a pair of indifferent, venomous eyes faintly appeared—Ping Shuai’s eyes.

That substitute he once looked down on and discarded like trash… after this battle, he’d probably step right over Goblin’s head.

This was a nightmare.

Goblin began trembling all over, drowning in regret.

Just then, the three of them saw a figure approaching from afar, walking steadily toward them.

It was Blink.

Why was he coming over? At a time like this, shouldn’t he be standing far away, waiting for the three of them to bleed out before planting the flags and securing the win?

The three Sabertooth players slumped on the ground, utterly confused and already resigned. They gave up resisting, letting the glowing green Binding Spell coil around them.

Xia Tong finally stopped in front of them. The little wizard looked down at them from above, raising his icy crystal staff like a strict dean about to scold students.

“This scrim’s win or loss is really important to you guys, right?” he asked calmly.

The three said nothing.

Though caring so much about a single match result might seem petty, for Sabertooth’s players, it was an undeniable fact. Embarrassing or not, they silently acknowledged it.

“There are three of you. You need to plant ten flags total—so each of you only needs to plant about three. Judging by your remaining HP, you probably still have a little over a minute left. Let’s make a deal,” Xia Tong said rapidly, enunciating clearly. “Apologize to our captain. If you don’t, you’re all going back to base—game over. But if you apologize sincerely, I’ll immediately withdraw from the arena. You can still count this round as your win!”

The three Sabertooth players looked up as if they’d just heard a fairy tale.

Mo Lan: “…Huh? There’s such a good deal?”

Robin King: “…Apologize for what? I don’t quite follow.”

Goblin, eyes misty: “…Oh my god, I think I’m seeing an angel…”

Since none of them answered directly, Xia Tong knocked each of them lightly on the head with his staff.

“What are you spacing out for! Hurry up and decide!” The little wizard looked even more anxious than they were.

“Can’t we think about it for a second?” Mo Lan rolled his eyes, still struggling to swallow his pride.

“Think about what?! Such a good deal and you won’t take it—are you dumb?!” Xia Tong urged desperately, afraid they’d bleed out before apologizing. “Just think of it as making friends! Being friends with us has lots of benefits!”

Robin King: “Such as?”

Xia Tong scratched his head frantically. “Such as… such as—I can sing for you guys!”

Mo Lan: “…Huh?”

Robin King: “…”

Goblin: sniffle.

After that added incentive, the three of them caved.

“Fine. It’s just apologizing to Zero!” Mo Lan sighed. “Sorry. We shouldn’t have badmouthed Zero behind his back—called him scheming, said he was old, said he should’ve retired long ago.”

Robin King added, “We also shouldn’t have cursed him and his team to decline every day, called them trash. In reality, you’re all upright and very capable opponents.”

Goblin said, “…And we especially shouldn’t have spread rumors without evidence—saying he sleeps with fans, that he has bad character, that his private life is immoral. All of that is completely fabricated.”

“I, Mo Lan.”

“I, Robin King.”

“I, Goblin.”

“On behalf of the entire Sabertooth team, we collectively express our sincere apology to Polaris’s captain, Zero. We hope no one forms any misunderstandings about Zero because of our nonsense! Zero is truly a very upright and outstanding player and captain!”

Satisfied, Xia Tong tucked his staff into his arms and clapped happily. “All done! I recorded it! I’ll keep my word and withdraw now. See you! Mua~” He blew them a kiss—and vanished from the map at lightning speed.

The Sabertooth trio: “????”

Mo Lan’s jaw dropped. “He… really left? Pretty honest, actually…”

Robin King: “How did I never notice Blink was kind of cute before…”

Goblin’s eyes had turned into two pink, heart-shaped peaches, thumping wildly. “Damn, what do you mean kind of cute?! That’s super cute!!!”

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