Chapter 428: The Challenge

Wang Shun was the last to push through the door, he took a deep breath, looked up at everyone and finally moved his eyes to Bai Liu's face, "Chairman, we've been informed of the draw."

The relaxed atmosphere in the meeting room was gone.

Bai Liu gave a slight nod and said calmly, "Come on."

Wang Shun led the way, clutching a pen and panel in both hands as he tried to keep his voice steady: "The raffle table will be set up in the mid-season viewing pool, and all eight playoff teams will be there."

"The pool will be opened on the spot immediately after the draw, and the race will be played."

"All of these teams are very strong, and all of them are wearing death knights." Wang Shun paused, "But you and God Mu are the only ones we have."

"There's no mercy in the playoffs, we've all fought hard to get here for our core desires." Wang Shun took a deep breath, "Going into a team match like that, we're risking a lot of death."

"Unless it's ......"

Bai Liu spoke indifferently, "Unless I win my first solo match so spectacularly that I ride the head star player, eat up his popularity, and promote him to a high ranking star player, giving everyone on the team a free pass."

"But it's almost ......" Wang Shun sounded tough, "impossible."

If Bai Liu is drawn to play, the first match will inevitably be against the killer sequence, if it is a single match for the killer sequence ......

Bai Liu is 100% up against the one ranked #1 by .......

Wang Shun tried to control himself from thinking the worst: "But President, as I told you, the playoffs are not quite the same as the pre-season and mid-season."

"Playoffs are rarely played in singles and pairs."

"Because most of the teams that have made it to the playoffs have already had enough individual benefits through the singles and pairs, almost all of them have gotten a death warrant, which can only be used once in a match, and if it's used in the singles or pairs, it can't be used in the team matches."

"As long as their team members don't fall below the 100th ranking of the popular death penalty, the tactic used by the major guilds in the playoffs is the phased abandonment principle, where they will often simply abandon the singles and duos and keep all their death penalty medals to focus on the team matches."

Wang Shun turned back to Bai Liu: "That means if the killer sequence also forfeits the singles and pairs, we'll go straight to the team match with no exemptions for the three main players."

"And the killer sequence is even worse if you don't choose to forfeit the single." Wang Shun's face sank, " President Bai, you only have one forfeit and you are going to be on both the single and the group match twice in a row, then you will have to choose one match in the single and the group match to go on without a forfeit."

"And if you lose in a tournament where there are no exemptions, then you're really dead!"

Bai Liu's tone was flat: "Don't rule it out, but a winning bet is still worth a try."

"The chances of winning the bet are too slim!" Wang Shun was devastated and had a headache, "That's a killer sequence! If you were to link up, the single match would be against the best main attacker in the entire game, Spades, and the group match would be against the top tactician in the entire game, Inverse God!"

"So do I have to give up everything and admit defeat now?" Bai Liu turned his head and calmly asked Wang Shun, "Want me to lead these players behind me who have given everything to me, even their souls, to do nothing and kneel down in front of these playoff teams and admit defeat?"

Wang Shun was stunned.

Bai Liu withdrew his eyes, no light coming out of his dark eyes: "Never."

"I'm going to win until the end."

As they walked down the aisle where the mid-season viewing pool teams entered, Wang Shun paused in a daze, and as Bai Liu passed him with his eyes downcast, Wang Shun heard Bai Liu whisper in his ear in an uncharacteristic tone.

"The game of God and me, this has just officially begun."

A flash of white light fell on the face of every Bai Liu who stepped into the huge ornamental pool, and he squinted slightly.

The cheers and roar of the crowd were deafening, the space of the huge viewing pool seating area in the ring was distorted and overlapping with people, too many to see, and huge electronic fireworks exploded and fell brilliantly in the sky around the audience.

In the centre of the viewing pool was a huge silver and white screen, with a circle of eight distinctive teams in different styles of uniform sitting close by, with fully dressed members behind them waving their waving flags back and forth and chanting slogans in unison.

Mu Sicheng leaned slightly behind Bai Liu, who had seen some big games like this, but the spectacle still shook him: "...... This viewing pool, how is it bigger than during the mid-season?"

"It's the post-season viewing pool." Liu Jiayi spoke coldly, "Nonsense. Liu Jiayi spoke coldly, "Nonsense, after the pre-season and mid-season, all the viewing pools in the entire game are combined into one viewing pool, of course it's big."

The presenter stood on the elevated platform above the big screen, his arms waving and his impassioned voice carried through the loudspeakers to every corner of the viewing pool.

"Today, the eight great teams that performed so well in the mid-season tournament are gathered here, but rather unfortunately, the Tactician of the Killer Sequence, the Inquisitor of the Reverse God, is absent for some reason, but this does not interfere with the conduct of our challenge ......"

Bai Liu's gaze passes over the Reverse Cross flag of the killer sequence to the vacant tactician's position, gives a beat, then moves away to look at Spades, who is looking straight at him from the next position, and blinks very softly.

Spades jumps to his feet and dives into the lower viewing pool, but Liao Ke, who has spotted the lizard's intentions, holds him back, helplessly holding his forehead and chanting something to Spades, who doesn't seem to be listening, as he looks straight at Bai Liu with his head tilted under the banner that swings back and forth.

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and stopped looking at Spades.

The presenter continued.

"I'm sure we're all very excited for this year's playoffs, and compared to the dead weight of previous years, and the one-and-done nature of last year's killer sequence, this year can be described as a blossoming event, with very good newcomers emerging from all the big teams."

"First up is the youngest newcomer, Phoebe of the King's Guild! Ranked 27th! That's a very high ranking!"

The host raised his hand and dropped it with a resounding thud to the King's Guild: "Right out of the gate at mid-season, Phoebe won the enthusiastic hearts of the large crowd with her excellent individual performance and doll-like appearance."

Phoebe carried her nun's skirt with a haughty thank you, her emerald green eyes looking across the street at Liu Jiayi in the circus procession, smiling sweetly and bowing slightly to Liu Jiayi, her hands lowering the hem of her skirt and clasping her hands together reverently under her chin as she whispered with her eyes closed.

"May the Lord grant that the witch may never go to hell."

Liu Jiayi's gaze moved away from Phoebe's face to the white Crown Club banner that was being swayed and tossed from side to side right in front of them, and her eyes locked with the languid Hearts sitting at the front.

Hearts lowered his eyes and covered them with a fan, no longer looking at Liu Jiayi.

Liu Jiayi's lips pursed.

"And then there's Golden Dawn's Armand, with the same golden looks as President Georgia, and a seemingly unassuming butterfly that can create a hurricane at every game!"

"Platoon 21!"

The host waved his hand in introduction as he joked, "Of course, I hope you won't be fooled by the sunny appearance of Golden Dawn's president and vice president, these two are much cooler personalities than sunshine, and the last person who tried to make a joke about them with their appearance has been swept away into another world."

Armand, dressed in a pure white uniform with gold trim and a golden seven-stringed lyre with wings in his hair, looks past the waving golden banner to Mu Sicheng, who is hiding behind Bai Liu and looking from side to side.

"The last of the last!" The host got excited, "Introducing to you all! The strongest newcomer of the year!"

"The Joker who won thirteen consecutive matches in the singles! Placed 11!"

The host spoke extremely fast and fiercely, "This clown player went down and killed a spectator in his first game and said he didn't care to show us his true colors, so he always shows up with a clown mask, which is usually painted by the blood of the player he killed in the last game, and on such a grand occasion today, he still wears the mask and almost killed our staff member who persuaded him to remove it in the opening scene the opening act and nearly killed the staff member we persuaded to take off his mask ......"

"It seems that the Joker mask is a feature of this player and there is a good chance we won't see the Joker with his mask off for the entire playoffs."

He said he was halfway through the introduction and got strangely stuck.

The host watched in disbelief as Daniel, sitting in the deer hunter's seat, slowly stood up and, as if to suppress his excitement, removed the mask from his face with shaking hands.

The presenter said slowly and confusedly, "...... the clown removed his bloody mask."

Daniel shows a baby face, his apple-green eyes staring across the street at Bai Liu, who is walking towards the stands.

Humming lightly under his breath, he propped himself up on the spectator's fence with one hand and with a flip he tried to jump, ready to run in the direction of Bai Liu, but halfway down the jump, Daniel was stopped from jumping down by a quick glance from Cen Buming behind him, who grabbed him by the collar.

Without looking back, Daniel pulled out his sniper rifle without hesitation and pointed it at Cen Buming with a smirk in his voice: "Stop me from getting to him and I'll kill you."

The presenter looked dumbfounded: "Joker's got a gun on his tactician now! The Deerhunters have suddenly erupted into infighting!"

Cen Buming was unmoved, his tone even: "No harm can come to anyone in the hall."

"I told you, I can get Bai Liu to come to you on his own accord, do you have to rush this for a while?"

Daniel paused for a moment as he withdrew his gun, grabbed the fence and flipped back over, sitting back in his chair again, his whole body slumped unhinged against the backrest, annoyed not to look at Cen Buming, and his tone wan, "You better be telling the truth."

The host returned and continued the introduction, but in a somewhat disinterested tone, "Next up are the two pre-season teams."

"One team, Russell Cemetery, which forfeited and came back after being all but destroyed last year, is still playing with the same rotation of players this year, with no bright newcomers or star players."

"The other was a rookie team that was respectable relative to Russell Cemetery, but still a long way from the playoff teams, and it's worth noting that two of their regulars got exemptions."

"One is the roaming position player, Mu Sicheng, ranked 97th, this belongs to the rubbing position, this position is a bit dangerous ah, if the next single game this team does not perform well, it is likely to fall out, after all, the eight teams in the playoffs there are still many reserve players waiting to eat popularity to move up."

"There is also a tactician, Bai Liu, ranked 67th."

"A good newcomer all round, but didn't find anything particularly outstanding at the moment and the tactical style is a bit extreme."

The moderator's tone became hesitant: "...... But there is quite a bit of speculation that the rookie tactician is most likely a rules skill."

"Good! Now that the basic information of each major team has been introduced, before we proceed to the draw for the challenge, we ask the tacticians of the eight teams in the playoffs to first have a friendly exchange with the tacticians of the two teams in the pre-season."

The host's voice was lazy: "Of course, an unfriendly exchange is fine."

Although the exchange of tacticians between the playoffs and pre-season is a regular part of the game, historically the teams that make it to the playoffs are arrogant and not many are willing to talk to pre-season teams.

Spades was such a dark horse to the extreme last year that not many playoff team tacticians at the Challenge were willing to come down from the stands and shake Spades' hand.

Not to mention this year.

In the absence of the good-tempered tactician, Hearts, Executioner, and Georgia, all of whom are cold and rejecting, would not even give an extra glance to the spectators who have dropped millions of points on them, let alone reach out to shake hands with a new president who has just climbed the ranks.... ...

The presenter's eyes widened in disbelief and he rubbed his own eyes twice in shock before he was sure he had seen correctly.

"Grrrr!" The presenter turned off his microphone and plopped down on the lift's sheet source, muttering to himself in a trance, "What the hell?!"

The notoriously arrogant presidents of the three major guilds came down to shake hands with Bai Liu!

And queuing up in order?

The cheers from the audience briefly ceased as everyone stared in awe at the strange situation on Bai Liu's side.

Georgia walked up to Bai Liu in a dignified manner, looked deeply at him, took off his white elbow gloves, extended a bony hand and handed it to Bai Liu: "Golden Dawn President, Georgia."

Bai Liu's gaze paused for a moment on Georgia's hand and he smiled as he held out his hand, "The Wandering Circus, Bai Liu."

Hearts curled his mouth and held out his right hand with a graceful dip of his wrist, "We've been friends for a long time, you can call me Hearts."

"Thank you very much Queen for your willingness to bet on me that day." Bai Liu slightly bowed and gently shook Hearts' four fingers in a gentlemanly manner, "I hope you will continue to enjoy my performance for the rest of the day as well."

Cen Buming stood in front of Bai Liu, he looked at him for a long, long time before withdrawing his eyes and extending his hand, speaking in a hoarse tone, "Bai Liu, I am the executioner."

Bai Liu calmly extends his hand, "Executioner, I am [the poor tramp]."

Their hands briefly clasp in the air before Cen Buming lets go and turns away without a second thought.