Chapter 425: The Challenge

Tang Erda, after sitting there for a few seconds, almost fled and entered the pool once more.

By the time they came out again, Bai Liu was the only one left outside the play pool.

Bai Liu nodded calmly to them, but Tang Erda struggled to keep her eyes steady above Bai Liu's somewhat red lips, clenched her fist and coughed, then looked away: "...... You should rest, you don't have to join the training for now. "

Mu Sicheng's mouth was still slightly open, his expression blank, Muke's head down, not saying a word, his hands clutching a pair of short knives dripping blood from the game pool where he had just killed so violently.

Liu Jiayi raised his hand to greet Bai Liu, his tone unusual: "Have you and Spades started talking?"

Mu Sicheng, Tang Erda and Muke, who want to skim over the matter unspoken: "......"

Bai Liu paused for a moment to contemplate the matter, and then spoke about it in a natural way, without any squirming: "I think we've just started talking."

Liu Jiayi cupped her face and came closer, tsking a few times, full of gossip: "I remember who it was that tricked her into marrying you in the game of Forest's Edge, and once she came out of the game pool-"

Liu Jiayi's expression turned cold for a second, the smile at the corner of her mouth became three parts cool, three parts sarcasm, and four parts carelessness: "- it's just a game, I don't take it seriously."

Bai Liu: "......"

Muke jerked his head up to look at Bai Liu, Mu Sicheng's pupils continued to quake and he stumbled over his words, "What marriage?!"

"You're married to that idiot and you've just fucking started talking?!" Mu Sicheng slapped the pool in anger, "What the fuck, does a relationship start after marriage?"

Liu Jiayi grabbed the edge of the game pool and flipped out with a clean flip, landing on the ground and replying lightly to Mu Sicheng's words, "Marriage before love, haven't you heard of it?"

Mu Sicheng: "......"

What the fuck is this again!

This is totally not the normal procedure for a relationship, is it!

Tang Erda, who had a headache from all the noise, helplessly interrupted the chatter: "This is Bai Liu's personal matter and freedom, let's take care of the matter at hand first."

"The challenge is coming up soon."

Several people were silent and looked to Bai Liu who nodded, "Let's go back to the meeting room first and we'll get to know the teams for this year's challenge."

Meeting room of the Roving Circus Guild.

A few of the men who had finished training took a shower and changed their clothes and sat in the meeting room.

Wang Shun walked up to the front of the room, his eyes steady as he clicked on the system panel and began to introduce the rules and teams for the challenge.

"As per the rules of previous challenges, it is the first place pre-season team that draws a team from the eight playoff teams they play against first, then excluding that drawn team, the second place playoff team, which is us, then draws a team from the remaining seven teams to play against."

"But this year's situation with the two teams that made the pre-season cut is also very special." Wang Shun said and started rubbing his temples with a sad look, "Because the president of our guild abducted the president of someone else's first place team into the guild."

"I just spoke to Yuan Guang and he told me they weren't going to play the challenge for a while and were going to forfeit, but-"

Wang Shun looked up at Bai Liu, who was sitting at the end of the long table: "Chairman, did you tell Yuan Guang not to abstain for the time being?"

Bai Liu nodded, "I have other plans for him."

"Are you trying to get Yuan Guang to forfeit when they win the challenge to go into the playoffs against us and give us heads? Like we did in the pre-season?" Wang Shun shook his head rather disapprovingly, "President, that's unlikely."

"All eight teams this year are very strong and Yuan Guang will probably not win the challenge, and even if Yuan Guang do win the challenge, the playoffs are a draw system from high to low and it will be hard for them to meet us."

Wang Shun nodded to the panel, "The playoffs are where the top four ranked guilds draw first to determine the teams they will play against in one round, and then the winning team in one round draws in the second round to determine the team they will play against in their next match."

"Unless Yuan Guang wins all the way to the final, there's no way they'll be able to play against us again in a playoff schedule."

Wang Shun's brow furrowed, "But you should know, President, that Yuan Guang and the others don't even have a death warrant, which is unlikely."

Mu Sicheng propped his jaw loosely, his eyes clearly wandering as he stole glances at Bai Liu, and casually asked, " Yuan Guang is so skilled, can we get him to join our team and help us play?"

"No." Wang Shun replied quickly, "All players who have signed up for the league as an independent guild for the current year are not allowed to be on the league field as a member of another guild team in the middle of a tournament."

Mu Sicheng finally came to his senses and frowned: "Not even if we annex Russell Cemetery?"

"Neither." Wang Shun shook his head. Wang Shun shook his head, "Even if the Russell Cemetery guild disappears completely after the annexation, Yuan Guang and his teammates will still be former Russell Cemetery players, and until next year, they can sign up again as members of the Wandering Circus and play for us, but not this year. "

Mu Sicheng scratched his hair in annoyance, "Grass, so isn't this a fight, Bai Liu is injured and hospitalized again, only to end up with nothing to eat but a guild name."

"No." Bai Liu folded his hands together on the table as he raised his eyes, "We ate a tolerance opportunity."

Wang Shun was stunned: "What does the fault tolerance ...... chance mean?"

Bai Liu lowered his eyes, "I'm not sure my guess is right, but I started down this path hoping to eat a challenge tolerance opportunity off Russell Cemetery."

Liu Jiayi paused as she looked sideways at Bai Liu and intoned Buming: " After Russell merged with us, Russell Cemetery would become an affiliated subordinate to the Wandering Circus, with all the slots going to us, except for the warband members who could not be used by us."

"- the equivalent of us being first in the league and second in the league at the same time, we have two chances to do the challenge, is that what you want?"

Bai Liu smiles: "Yes, a place in the challenge is what I feel is the most valuable thing about Russell Cemetery."

Still puzzled, Liu Jiayi's brow furrowed, "But the effort and energy you put into getting this opportunity is a bit more than worth it."

"Twenty percent of the points aside, everyone in our squad has taken a bit of a dip in popularity after losing the last game, plus you're still injured, and this opportunity is totally not worth all the effort you've put into Russell Cemetery."

"Although the playoff teams are strong this time around, from what I've learned about the teams, our win rate against the bottom four ranked teams is not bad, even against two guilds, the Kabbalah and the Paradise Masons, I personally do think the win rate can reach about eighty percent."

"Let Du Sanying do the draw and we'll get over ninety-five per cent of these two bottom teams and then dry out and cruise into the playoffs with a win in the challenge."

Liu Jiayi looked up at Bai Liu: "I know you like to have a backhand, but you would never prepare yourself for a backhand when the normal process has a win rate of over 80 percent."

"You give yourself backhanders, usually when there's less than a one percent chance of winning the bet."

"Why this time ......" Liu Jiayi met Bai Liu's calm eyes, she seemed to realise something and her face snapped, "Do you think... ...?!"

Liu Jiayi's latter words were not spoken under Bai Liu's watchful eye, but her face became particularly hard to read.

Since Bai Liu has done so, it can only mean one thing -

--their chances of winning the challenge are less than one percent.

Bai Liu's eyes dropped to which of his shadows was reflected in the smooth table top, his gaze paused for a moment on this reflection before slowly raising his eyes to all of them.

"This time, I hope I'm wrong in my guess."

After the meeting, Wang Shun was left behind by Bai Liu.

He looked at Bai Liu, who was sitting at the end of the table, with both apprehension and confusion: "...... President, I actually don't quite understand why our guild needs a second chance at the challenge so badly."

"And I agree with what the little witch said, generally less than a win less than one percent of the situation, the president you rarely make backhand arrangements, why this time ......"

Bai Liu rested his hands on the knees of his folded legs, and his eyes fell silent for a long time before he slowly asked, "Looking at the figures of the major guilds this year, do you think that if the current Wandering Circus-"

"- What can be the odds of winning the killer sequence?"

Wang Shun's pupils flinched and he lost his breath completely, taking a long time before replying hoarsely, "- the odds, no more than zero point five percent."

"Is that so?" Bai Liu propped one hand on the right backrest of his chair, dragging his jaw as his body lazily tilted to the side, his eyes half closed, his tone still calm, "In that case, let's pursue maximum profit."

Wang Shun was dazed by Bai Liu's thunderclap and reacted dizzily for a while before jumping up and asking in a panic, "Chairman, the person we drew was Du Sanying, no matter how unlucky we were, we couldn't have drawn the killer sequence!"

"How unlucky does that have to be to draw the killer sequence on one hand ......"

"Asking the captain to draw the lots himself would be possible." Bai Liu's eyes flowed as he flicked a glance at Wang Shun with the back of his eyes and asked the unrelated question, "Have the rules for the challenge come down yet?"

Wang Shun was quiet.

He reacted for a moment, then goosebumps rose all over his body, took two steps back, stumbled, and fell back into his chair in dismay, muttering incredulously, "...... No, it can't be ...... "

Wang Shun sat alone in the conference room as if he had been struck by lightning, while Bai Liu pushed his way out calmly.

Outside the door leaned Liu Jiayi, she saw Bai Liu come out and did not look up at him, but lowered her head and nodded her toes twice: "...... Are we going to fight with the killer sequence."

"It's just a guess on my part." Bai Liu said.

Liu Jiayi pursed her lips: "...... Have you asked Spades how things are going with Reverse God?"

"He'll be fine." Bai Liu replied with a light expression, "He's Bai six holds an important bargaining chip that can be used to restrain me, it won't happen so easily."

"According to what Bai six showed me [in the future]-"

Bai Liu said coldly, "- he would have wanted me to kill the Reverse God myself on the field."

Liu Jiayi's breath hitches.

Day 2.

Wang Shun entered the conference room in a trance, his eyes out of focus as he looked at the team waiting in the room and his voice was hoarse when he spoke.

"The rules for the challenge came down and no major changes were made."

"...... but asked the presidents of the pre-season guilds participating in the challenge to personally draw the playoff teams they will be playing against."

"Our guild draws warriors, and it's President Bai."

Everyone's eyes seemed to freeze as they turned, stuck, to Bai Liu, who was sitting at the end.

Bai Liu lifted his eyelids and he propped one hand on his jaw and gave a faint hmm.