Chapter 329: Pre-season

"The pre-season is nearing its end."

Wang Shun stood next to the panel, a relieved look on his face: "Now you're doing well in the team competition, President Bai and Captain Tang have trained you well."

"It's just hard work for you guys, training intensely while competing intensely every day."

Mu Sicheng slumps back in his chair, Liu Jiayi sleeps with his head on the table, and even Muke sleeps with his head propped up on his hands, eyes squinting.

Wang Shun couldn't help himself: "But that was the most tiring time, the next period will be a lot better as you're in the pre-season top circle and the frequency of games has come down to about three or four a day."

"Next we report on the popularity ranking of each person."

" Bai Liu, 179."

" Liu Jiayi, 186."

" Tang Erda, 194."

" Mu Sicheng, 236."

" Muke, 261."

Wang Shun tapped on the system panel, "Everyone's ranking will be moving up quite slowly next, as it's getting close to the mid-season popularity circle."

"There are 32 teams in the mid-season and each team has five main players, so the popularity circle for the mid-season is concentrated in the top 160, giving you an overwhelming popularity advantage over the pre-season teams and making it difficult for you to go up."

"Especially this mid-season, there are a lot of newcomers who have shone and attracted popularity, and are now firmly in the front row."

"Joker, who I told you about before, is currently ranked 79 and is already in the top 100, the highest ranking of the newcomers."

"Next in line is Armand of Golden Dawn and Sister Phoebe of the King's Crown, one at 93, one at 102."

"These newcomers are guaranteed by the guild's popularity, so they rise quite quickly and will not drop without incident if they perform well subsequently, which means they will stay in the upper circle, so the popularity ranking competition will be quite fierce this year."

Wang Shun looked around the room, "Next up, the top five in popularity at the top spot."

"Thundering first, Spades ."

"Second, Queen Hearts."

"Third, Georgia."

"The fourth, the judge against the gods."

"The fifth, the Executioner of Buming, the President of the Deer Hunter's Guild and the person I want to focus on with you today."

Wang Shun tapped on the system panel and the information was zoomed in on the floating panel.

"This guildmaster was previously a main attacker and only switched to tactician after the departure of the Reverse God last year, this is his first year in the league since becoming a tactician and judging by the roster so far he is doing very well."

"It's worth mentioning that this guild president was not in the top 50 in last year's popularity rankings until the end of the league, with the highest popularity ranking being 59."

Mu Sicheng snapped out of his half-asleep, half-awake state of exhaustion and said in shock, "No way? This man is the president of a big guild and is still very strong, how can his popularity ranking be so low?"

Wang Shun laughs: "The popularity ranking is partly based on strength, but also on personal style, performance and appearance."

"The president of the Deer Hunters, while strong, is not very strong due to his personal style, lack of presentation, and appearance ......"

Wang Shun hesitated for a moment and clicked on the panel to play a small video, "You'd better watch it yourselves."

The man in the small video thrusts his hand hard directly into his right eye, feeling it being stretched out alive, his features squeezed and distorted, his face shifting erratically like a fluid, then seeming to turn and grasp as if searching for something in his own eye, before finally slowly pulling his hand out again.

But from beginning to end, the man's entire face was a bloody blur, impossible to see clearly.

Wang Shun nodded a pause: "Now you see, folks, this executioner summons weapons so bloody that you can't even talk about looking at the outside, so it's never been very popular."

"But this year he has seen an incredible rise in popularity, even pushing the veteran tactician, the Inquisitor of the Reverse God, straight into the mix."

Mu Sicheng wondered, "Why?"

Wang Shun paused, "I think it was the exodus of the Reverse God that made him what he was."

"As you can see from this video, Executioner's personal style is very bloody, outgoing and brutal, and on the field Executioner is also a very aggressive main attacker, suited to aggressive and strong tactics and very good at killing his opponents."

"But because the Reverse God is a moderate tactician who doesn't kill easily and the Executioner is completely subservient to the Reverse God, he often holds back everywhere in the ring, unable to use all his strengths and struggling to show an appealing side to the audience."

"After the departure of the Reverse God this year, the Executioners brought in Joker, a newcomer who is more in tune with his personal style, and the tactics he developed as a tactician were quite extreme, so what I saw on the field was that the Executioners brought out those previously suppressed aggressions in full force."

Wang Shun clicked on the panel and a short video played, "Here's a recent Deer Hunter regimental match, a match point performance against the rowing 19 [Moon Serpent] Riparian."

The executioner, clad in a coat and with a bloody face, extends his bloodied, bony hand to strangle the neck of a writhing serpent, kneeling in a natural, leisurely manner half beside it, but the veins and sinews in his arm are rippling, and he viciously dislikes the struggling serpent into the ground.

The serpent was unable to resist and quickly spasmed twice and stopped writhing before its body burst open inch by inch, splattering blood as the head of the snake screamed miserably and transformed back into its human form: "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! I abstain! Abort!"

But before he could reach out and point out the panel forfeit, he collapsed to the ground in a heap, his eyes frozen motionless and seemingly dripping with tears.

The executioner slowly rose to his feet at the sound of the game ending, dropped his blood-soaked jacket over the man's head, drew a cigarette from it, lit it by holding it in one of the lip-shaped openings on the twisted, bloodied face, and exhaled a puff of smoke.

"When you break the law and hurt others, you deserve to be tortured, and pain is just the easiest thing in the punishment you get."

At this point in the mini-video, Wang Shun pauses, zooms in on the video, and then points to the executioner's middle finger where the cigarette is clamped, saying, "See? There's a silver finger ring here."

Mu Sicheng squinted and did spot a silver ring at the base of the executioner's bloodstained middle finger: "See."

"This ring is his skill weapon, called the [Ring of Death]."

Wang Shun explained, "[The Ring of Death] is a ring given to the executioner by Herod, the ancient legendary saint who was fair, just, supreme and kind to all men."

"It is said that the executioner was afraid when he hanged a powerful and rival king, and in order that the executioner might not feel afraid when hanging criminals, King Herod gave the executioner his ring, telling him that it was only sinners you were putting to death and that there was no need to feel afraid."

"From then on, King Herod gave the executioner the right to kill beings who had sinned, including kings, and this ring was [the Ring of Death]."

"The exact mechanism of how the [Death Ring] works is currently unclear, but it is said that any opponent touched by the executioner's hand with the ring will be in excruciating pain, as if they have been tortured countless times until they die of pain."

"I tried to gather information about these opponents who had been touched by the executioner, and generally the harder the pain, the more or less they had done something illegal and criminal in reality."

Wang Shun continued, "But that's not all, some of the players who have been sanctioned by the Executioner do look like they're going to break the law soon from what I've gathered, but they really hadn't done any of those things when they were sanctioned, and they hurt really badly after being touched by the Executioner with the ring."

"If the Reverse God hadn't repeatedly stopped them before, these people would probably have died after being tortured by the executioner as well."

"So my personal judgement is that the torturers' criteria for judging the torture inflicted may not be objective but subjective, that is, you will be tortured as badly as the torturers feel you deserve to be tortured."

"The Reverse God leaving is equivalent to unshackling the executioner, which is not good news for us." Wang Bolin said solemnly, "On the one hand this will allow his might to be unbridled on the field and dominate the top of the popularity rankings, on the other hand, he will be unbridled when he executes us."

"Let's pray that we all make a good impression on the executioner's mind."

"One last reminder for everyone playing tomorrow." Wang Shun laughed bitterly, "I just said all that crap because I didn't want to report on the teams playing tomorrow."

"We only have one game tomorrow and the enemy opponent is -"

Wang Shun took a deep breath: "Frenzied Lamb."

In the ornamental pool lobby, Bai Liu, walking out of the disbanded ornamental pool, is followed by a man who is sneaking up behind him.

The man, holding a fist-sized camera, carefully blended into the dense crowd, looking for angles to photograph Bai Liu, looking like a seasoned paparazzi reporter who has spent years snapping pictures of celebrities' privacy.

Bai Liu talks naturally to the people around him as if he is unaware of the person behind him.

The paparazzo smiled wryly, adjusted the angle twice, and when he could almost get a clear shot of Bai Liu's upper body, he pressed the on button and the camera cackled twice before spitting out a photo from the outside.

The man took the photo, scanned it and then clicked on the system panel with joy and sent an email.

[Got it! Let the action begin!

The photo shows a dazed Du Sanying sitting across from Bai Liu, sucking on a large mouthful of noodles, with a line of twelve-digit realistic coordinates clearly printed below.

Reality.

Du Sanying is holding Bai Liu's packaged beef noodles in his hands and drinking the soup, after finishing it he looks curiously at Bai Liu who is lounging on the sofa watching TV.

Usually Bai Liu is in bed at this hour, but today Bai Liu is still watching TV.

Du Sanying glances confusedly at the garden babies on the TV.

Does Mr. Bai Liu like this?

Bai Liu doesn't really like this kind of thing, but his TV hasn't paid the aperture fee for a long time and he can only watch some basic channels, so Bai Liu just watches them casually and eventually stops at the children's channel.

Du Sanying asked, "Mr Bai Liu, don't you want to take a shower and rest early today? We have a very important match tomorrow, don't we?"

Bai Liu said calmly, "No washing for now, someone will be looking for us later and I need to take you out for a trip."

Du Sanying suddenly said, "No wonder you asked God Mu to leave his motorbike downstairs when he left, so this is the right time to use it.

Du Sanying scratched his head shyly: "God Mu, that heavy-duty motorbike looks so cool, I don't know how to ride a motorbike but it's nice to have a ride."

Bai Liu let out a hint: "I don't know how to ride either."

Du Sanying breathed a sigh of relief and laughed: " Mr Bai Liu wouldn't either ......"

After a while he reacted, Du Sanying said with horror, "Wait, Mr Bai Liu, you don't know how to do it and neither do I. Who's going to drive the bike?"

The sound of motorbikes whizzing by beneath the windowsill, the engine humming, arrogant and ear-splitting, the dazzling high beams of light beaming into Bai Liu's window, a halo of light on Bai Liu's face.

Bai Liu had a smile on his face, "Here it comes."

Du Sanying is in a state of shock: "What's coming?!"

Bai Liu turned off the TV with the remote control, unbuttoned both shirts for ease of movement, flipped his wrist shirt upwards twice and looked to Du Sanying: "The bikers who ambushed us are here, let's go down and drive the motorbike."

Du Sanying howled, "But Mr Bai Liu, neither you nor I know how to drive!"

Bai Liu nodded, "It's okay, it's okay with you, let's go."

Bai Liu took off the motorbike helmet hanging on the back of the door and tossed one to Du Sanying, then put it on himself, opened the shoe cupboard and retrieved a rusty baseball bat from inside.

Bai Liu turned to Du Sanying: "Are you ready?"

Du Sanying has one hand scrambling to buckle his helmet and one hand up, "Quite, ready!"

Bai Liu held out his hand to Du Sanying: "Come over when you're ready."

Du Sanying looked at Bai Liu's hand outstretched to him, then at Bai Liu's bland expression, and took a deep breath with clenched fists.

It will be fine, his misfortune will not affect Mr Bai Liu!

Du Sanying jerked his hand out to Bai Liu, who took Du Sanying's wrist and looked up at the door.

There is a clanging of metal sticks outside the door, obviously someone with a stick and knife knocking on the fence on either side of the stairs, and footsteps thumping upwards, eventually stopping in front of Bai Liu's door.

Bai Liu walked slowly to the door and whispered, "When I open the door later, close your eyes and you'll be fine."

Du Sanying swallowed hard and nodded.

The door was slammed and the sound of vicious curses carried through the room.

" Bai Liu, get out!"

"You dare to offend us Brother Kong, see if I don't break your legs today!"

Bai Liu opened the door to the room with no emotion on his face, "Close your eyes."

When the knife, fist and stick came at him, Du Sanying's eyes closed subconsciously, but Bai Liu kept Du Sanying in front of him without changing his expression.

The moment the men were about to attack Du Sanying, the door to Bai Liu's room unexpectedly fell outwards, right onto the faces of the menacing men.

Bai Liu didn't hesitate to fill in as his opponent went down, backhanding two baseball bats.

The blood spilled out in a line and splashed directly from his shirt onto Bai Liu's face.

Bai Liu tugged on Du Sanying's wrist and stomped on the door, turning around as the crowd of people shouting and screaming up the stairs continued unabated, Bai Liu looked down at the group, blood dripping from the baseball bat onto the floor.

Du Sanying's voice trembled, but he obediently kept his eyes open: " Mr. Bai Liu, are you, are you all right?"

Bai Liu faded: "I'm fine, whatever I do later, don't open your eyes."

Du Sanying shakes and nods quickly.

Bai Liu pulls Du Sanying to the stairway, holds him by the shoulders in front of the hissing punks with knives and iron bars, and gives him a gentle push downwards.

Du Sanying was pushed out, frozen for a moment in weightlessness: " Mr Bai Liu ......?"

Did he get pushed off!!!

The sharp tip of the knife and the raised iron bar were about to hit Du Sanying, who had fallen down the stairs, when the old iron fence next to the stairs suddenly creaked twice and collapsed.

A group of men holding onto the fence and charging upwards over it rolled in a heap along the collapsing fence, the knives and sticks they hadn't yet confiscated plunging into their own bodies.

The screams were instantly joined together.

"Ah!!! Old Wang dog your knife! It's in my kidney!"

"Who's PVC pipe! Shit, it's in my hand! Take it away, it hurts!"

Bai Liu makes a couple of light, quick jumps and lands firmly next to a large man lying with a bloodied head.

On top of this big man was Du Sanying, who had not yet recovered.

Du Sanying fell unharmed on the human sandbag, but looked terrified and on the verge of tears, shivering but still not opening his eyes: " Mr Bai Liu, can I open my eyes now?"

Bai Liu sweeps a glance at the large man Du Sanying is holding down.

The big man stared menacingly at Bai Liu and struggled to get up to stab him with a knife.

Bai Liu lifted his hand and gave him a dry stick.

The man collapsed again with blood soaring from his head and a dizzy spell.

Bai Liu took Du Sanying by the wrist and pulled him up and down the stairs without looking away, "You can open your eyes now."

Du Sanying slowly and cautiously opened his eyes, then screamed out in shock.

The narrow staircase aisle was full of long-suffering punks, the railing acting as a barrier to prevent them from moving, and the floor was littered with concrete foam and pools of blood from the iron bars.

Bai Liu's side face was also splattered with a spot of blood, and with his emotionless expression, he looked especially ...... frightening.

Du Sanying swallowed nervously, "All these people, did Mr Bai Liu take care of them?"

Bai Liu gave Du Sanying a sidelong glance: "No, I was just helping you out."

Du Sanying is full of confusion: "......????"

"Did I do it all?" Du Sanying, always a good citizen, reacted for a moment after hearing the words and accepted the reality with horror, breaking down and shouting, "So am I breaking the law!"

Bai Liu withdrew his gaze: "Not really, I checked, it's self-defence."