Chapter 319: The Game Pool

"How on earth did that happen?!" Mu Sicheng was utterly confused.

Bai Liu says calmly, "Intelligence and targeted skills screening."

"I'm leaning towards that answer too." Wang Shun nodded and echoed Bai Liu's statement, "Russell Cemetery collected a large number of new players with low skills, and then dispatched teams of new players with oppressive skills depending on the skills of each guild team member they were playing against."

Wang Shun continued, "This tactic was evident in the Russell Cemetery against multiple Guild teams, whose players' skills consciously targeted the enemy's ace."

"The most obvious one is still the Russell Cemetery versus the Killer Sequence Challenge."

Wang Shun taps on the panel and a short video appears.

The characters in the short video are clearly Spades, who is trapped in a mud puddle, and Wang Shun illustrates.

"In this match, Russell Cemetery Tactician's skill swallows one of the enemy players into the mud, limiting movement speed and reducing attack damage, but in turn requires one of his players to sacrifice to activate this skill."

"The skill is not much use in daily games or in normal league play."

"In the game, no player would sacrifice themselves just to trap a monster, and in the league, no guild would sacrifice their hard-earned players just to jam an opponent's player's shift."

Wang Shun turns to the trapped Spades in the panel: "But this seemingly weak skill works wonders against Spades, who are used to moving away from the group and going it alone, using quick movement and quick attack as their main killers."

"After trapping Spades, the assassin sequence's furious attacking rhythm was momentarily interrupted and a day later, the assassin sequence was drained of one of its members."

Wang Shun turned to Mu Sicheng: "If Spades hadn't forced a breakaway at the end, last year's first place would not have been a killer sequence."

Mu Sicheng couldn't believe it: "That's how you get a 93% win rate?!"

"It's because of this approach that the win rate is so high." Bai Liu looked down at the paper, "Collecting a large number of new players, then sifting through the mass of players to find just the right kind of skill to restrain the enemy, changing teams as the enemy rotates, each time the team is a carefully selected expendable item that dies."

"Very good tactics." Bai Liu commented in a calm tone.

Wang Shun let out a long sigh, "It's a brutal tactic, but often brutal tactics work in this game, and I can't think of a good solution at the moment."

"How can there be no solution?!" Mu Sicheng was unconvinced, "They make tactics against us, we can make tactics against them too!"

Liu Jiayi, who had not said anything, suddenly spoke up: "It can't be done."

Mu Sicheng squints over, "Why can't you do it? It's all just ordinary recruits and ordinary skills, once you know the intel about them ......"

"The problem is that it's hard to know." Liu Jiayi looks directly at Mu Sicheng, " Russell Cemetery has between five hundred and a thousand reserve players, and in order to keep the exposure of these players down, Russell Cemetery has given up on developing star players, on singles and pairs, and basically no way for each player to find their way into the small TV library of game videos. "

"It's difficult to get information on the skills of so many average newcomers in this situation."

Mu Sicheng looks sideways at Wang Shun: "You can have Wang Shun blend in and use your skills to get information on the other side ......"

Liu Jiayi coldly interrupted Mu Sicheng: "You think the King's Guild hasn't tried?"

"First of all, even if Wang Shun could infiltrate Russell Cemetery and get information on these hundreds of people without being discovered, it would be difficult to determine from the information obtained by Wang Shun alone which of these hundreds of people have the skills of the newcomers that are targeting our team."

"Secondly, Mu Sicheng, do you know how many permutations there will be when hundreds or thousands of people come to make permutations of five?"

"Tens of thousands." Before Mu Sicheng could answer, Liu Jiayi gave a straightforward answer, "These hundreds of people can put together tens of thousands of combinations for the tournament, and there are tens of thousands of possibilities for what their skills will look like when they are put together."

Liu Jiayi looks directly at Mu Sicheng: "We are in the light, they are in the dark, there are only five of us and they have hundreds of new people who have not been exposed much at all."

"And because of our excellent skills, none of us have had much exposure, except for Tang Erda who has several gameplay videos that have made it into the small TV library for almost everyone."

"We can't play their path of giving up the star players completely because we need audience support to get the get-out-of-jail-free card, so we're going to get more and more exposure later on, and it's easy to get information about us."

"There is a complete mismatch in the amount of intelligence information." Liu Jiayi coldly passes judgement, "Developing targeted tactics is not possible."

"Last year at mid-season, even the Kings Guild didn't know which players Russell Cemetery would send out to answer the call in the moments before they took the field."

Mu Sicheng listened as he slowly slumped over the table, his eyes glazed over: "...... How else can this be played? This is too much of a bummer, isn't it?"

Suddenly, Mu Sicheng straightened up again and slammed the table: "No! The Russell Cemetery is consuming these reservists in such numbers, sending them to their deaths, and these reservists won't want to do that!"

"We can start with that!" Mu Sicheng spoke with conviction, his eyes glowing as he looked at Bai Liu, " Bai Liu, your time has come, with your eloquence you can surely successfully turn this group of preppers to join our Wandering Circus Guild!"

For a moment, Bai Liu, Wang Shun and Liu Jiayi all looked at Mu Sicheng with a very friendly expression.

"Actually." Wang Shun said politely, "I think God Mu you could have been less active in the tactical discussions."

Mu Sicheng reacted for a moment and after realising what Wang Shun meant, he slumped back down on the table in depression: "...... Did I say it wrong again?"

"It's not possible that the reserves know they're going to be used as cannon fodder and still willingly go to the league for this Russell cemetery, is it?" Mu Sicheng rested his head on the table, his eyes on Wang Shun.

Wang Shun sighed with mixed feelings, "Indeed."

Mu Sicheng was now really confused: "Why?"

Liu Jiayi rolled her eyes and said, "Idiot, do you know why Russell Cemetery is called Russell Cemetery?"

Mu Sicheng paused for a moment, then said incredulously, "Fuck, no? A cemetery? Is that what I think it means?"

"Bingo, yes, it means exactly what you think it means." Liu Jiayi snapped his fingers, "New players joining this guild know what kind of guild they are entering and know that they are likely to be sacrificed by the guild."

"They knew they had walked into a public graveyard and were prepared to become one."

Mu Sicheng leaned back in his chair, his eyes out of focus: "...... I can't figure out why they're doing this."

" God Mu you don't pay much attention to these messages because you don't like the guild." Wang Shun explains, " Russell Cemetery is essentially an escapist guild that accepts a lot of new players who fear the game."

"There were some new players who were very repulsed by the game and were keen to avoid it, so the president of Russell Cemetery stepped up and set up this collective cemetery sex society."

"He promised these players that you could deposit your deaths here in the Russell Cemetery and that on the day of the victory of the Russell Cemetery, I would wish to resurrect you from the cemetery and divide the points among you, satisfying your desires so that you could get out of the game."

Mu Sicheng thought it was absurd: "How can anyone believe that?"

Wang Shun nodded: "Many players believe that, excluding new players with high level skills who are screened out by the big guilds, a significant proportion of the remaining players with mixed skills have gone to Russell Cemetery."

Mu Sicheng was speechless: "What if this Russell Cemetery can't win the championship at all? Wouldn't they have died for nothing?"

Liu Jiayi kicked Mu Sicheng and lifted his chin to indicate that he should take a look at the winning percentage on the PPT.

Mu Sicheng was at a loss for words again, but he still felt something was wrong: "Even if this Russell wins, can these people ensure that the guild leader will keep his promise?"

Liu Jiayi couldn't help but give Mu Sicheng the [you're such a fool] look again, "Do you know what the slogan of Russell Cemetery is?"

Mu Sicheng looks to Liu Jiayi: "What is it?"

Liu Jiayi said, "[May we die in hope]."

"These new players who choose to join Russell's Cemetery are those who have been left behind by the big guilds. They start with the expectation that they can survive on their skills, and later on they find out that their skills are not worth anything and nobody looks at them.

Liu Jiayi adds, after a moment of silence, "In the later stages, these newcomers don't believe they can survive the game on their own, they live in fear, thinking that they will die sooner or later, and that it is better to die with hope than to be tortured in a horror game."

"Many people don't actually expect the president of Russell Cemetery to deliver on his promise, they just want to die with peace of mind."

Wang Shun on the side sighed as he listened, " God Mu, you and Bai Liu probably don't pay much attention to such guilds as you are both high level skill players and such guilds are the last way out for low level skill players."

"I always thought it was amazing that such a guild formed by low-skilled players escaping ended up being such a killer." Liu Jiayi recalls with her cheek, "Last year Hearts won, but they didn't play well."

Bai Liu looked sideways at Liu Jiayi: "How did Hearts win Russell Cemetery last year?"

Liu Jiayi thought for a moment before replying, "The people of Russell Cemetery can't do anything about Hearts, her skills involve appearance shifting and charm, and it's hard to find players who can resist her skills."

"But the rest of the team was clamped down pretty hard."

" Hearts fought a war of attrition, grinding slowly and fighting hard, but the opponent was new and still had a lesser panel than Hearts' side, and won in the end."

Bai Liu turned to Wang Shun: "How did Counter Gods win this team last year?"

Wang Shun and Liu Jiayi were silent at the same time.

It took a while before Wang Shun spoke up, "I didn't see it clearly."

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, "Didn't get a good look?"

"One dimensional minute into the game." Wang Shun said bitterly, " Russell Cemetery's tactician then voluntarily surrendered to the Reverse God."