The match had been decided. But for a playoffs match, the stadium right now was almost too calm. Far too many people hadn't even recovered from the shock yet. This was Happy's stadium, Happy instantly reversing the situation to achieve such a massive victory was something that should have made them go wild, but because of this method, they were still processing what had just happened.
It wasn't until the players of both sides completed the post-match exchange and began acknowledging the crowd that many people were roused from their trance.
They won!
They won. They had indeed won.
Ohhh!
Suddenly, cheers rose up. The passion of the audience had actually come so late.
Sitting in front of a television, Yu Wenzhou received a phone call. It was from Huang Shaotian, but after he picked up, all he heard was noise, clearly coming from the stadium. Huang Shaotian, like the rest of the audience, had been reviewing what had happened and only just now recovered.
"That was incredible!!!" Yu Wenzhou heard Huang Shaotian's voice yelling from the other end.
"Haha," Yu Wenzhou chuckled.
"How did they do it, huh?" Huang Shaotian continued to shout.
"Who knows?" Yu Wenzhou said.
Indeed! Who knew the answer to this question?
After greeting the crowd, the players of both teams left the stage and returned to the prep rooms. After a brief rest, they would begin the post-match press conference.
First up was the losing side, Tyranny. Captain Han Wenqing, Vice Captain Zhang Xinjie, and Zhang Jiale were the three representatives. As soon as they arrived, they saw the reporters all eager and anxious to ask their questions. Unsurprisingly, as soon as the conference officially began, the first reporter chosen to speak didn't even bother with the typical sympathetic words for the losing team, instead directly asking what their views were of this match.
An extremely formulaic question, but for this match, everyone felt that this question was particularly weighty, and went straight to the point.
"Extremely unexpected," Han Wenqing answered.
Just two words? The reporters were clearly unsatisfied.
"Could you elaborate?" someone requested.
"Happy's plan in the team round was indeed unprecedented and surpassed all imagination. We had completely neglected this possibility." An elaboration came from Tyranny's vice captain Zhang Xinjie.
Even though he was known for his minimal error rate, it was impossible for him to never make an error, and he himself never claimed that title, nor was he ever ashamed to mention his own mistakes. He had categorized this team match as their "negligence," but even if he defined it this way, most people probably wouldn't agree with him. That scene shook and shocked the entire Glory world. Tyranny shouldn't be blamed for failing to anticipate this possibility.
The reporters of course didn't pursue this point. Immediately afterward, another reporter asked, "This loss, will it affect Tyranny's upcoming match?"
"I don't believe so." Zhang Xinjie's words were always that precise. "I believe that this kind of large-scale and accurate plan requires a large amount of preparation. Next match is our Tyranny's home game."
"Two matches." This time it was Han Wenqing who added some words from the side.
Zhang Xinjie smiled. Han Wenqing's "two matches" was equivalent to declaring that next match was Tyranny's victory. This, of course, was what Zhang Xinjie expected and hoped for as well, but he wouldn't say these kind of words without confirmation, and besides, he needed to correct Han Wenqing's statement for the point he wanted to make.
"Next match is Tyranny's home game, and in the case that we win"
"Not 'in the case,' we're winning for sure, okay? Next match and next next match, both of them." This time, Zhang Jiale just mercilessly cut him off.
Zhang Xinjie was helpless, but the reporters were all looking at him, clearly still waiting for him to finish his thought. Zhang Xinjie didn't bother to emphasize his "in the case," and instead said, "If we advance to the third match, with the randomly chosen map, Happy still will not be equipped to deploy such a strategy again, so for the upcoming matches, we do not need to worry about facing a situation like today's."
To the side, Zhang Jiale curled his lip. Evidently he was still rather dissatisfied by Zhang Xinjie's usage of "if" in referring to the third match.
Zhang Xinjie's analysis was rational and rigorous. Based on this kind of analysis, everyone discovered that indeed, even though Happy had produced a frightening scene this round, all they accomplished was this one round's victory. It had no strategic impact on the upcoming battles. As long as Tyranny adjusted their attitude and didn't let this loss affect them too much psychologically, they would be fine.
And would this be difficult for Tyranny? They were all war veterans. With Zhang Xinjie's analysis, this match was just an ordinary away game loss. How could it affect their morale?
Tyranny's mood was extremely stable. As the background of the frightening events of this battle, they seemed to have completely adjusted their mood by the end of the match. They were already focused on the next match and even the next next match. Whatever Happy had managed to pull off this match, it wouldn't weigh down their thoughts at all.
The press conference of the losing side didn't give off the air of being lost or downtrodden at all. This was Tyranny. Nothing could stop them from lifting their chests and advancing forward.
Afterward, the three members who participated in the press conference returned to the prep room. Once everyone gathered their things, they could leave the stadium. The television screen in the prep room, however, was displaying Happy's press conference. No one purposely tried to avoid it; they would occasionally glance over, wanting to hear what Happy was going to say.
For their press conference, Happy sent out Ye Xiu, Fang Rui, and Luo Ji, three people. It didn't even need to be said who the star of today's show was. As soon as the three of them walked out, the cameras flashed nonstop. Eighty percent of them were closeups of Luo Ji, who felt like he was going to go blind - he had certainly never experienced this sort of greeting before.
"Congratulations to Happy on a third straight victory." Interviews with the winning side were always a bit more cheerful, carefree, and natural. In general, victorious teams were willing to talk a bit more, so reporters weren't especially impatient.
"Continuing from last round where Blue Rain's Huang Shaotian suffered heavy injuries from cutting down a tree, Happy once again used a similar idea!" Of course the questioning began with this point.
"Haha, that was entirely different. Huang Shaotian did that to himself," Ye Xiu said.
"Fuck!" Yu Wenzhou, who was watching the television, received more messages from Huang Shaotian, two in a row. First a curse, and then: I'm gonna kill that guy for sure, do you know any assassins you could introduce me to?
Yu Wenzhou smiled and ignored him. The live crowd had burst into laughter, and Yu Wenzhou could understand how embarrassed Huang Shaotian must be.
"So what happened today was something that Happy purposely set up?" a reporter continued to ask.
"Of course," Ye Xiu said.
"Could you talk about how this was accomplished? You must have made extensive preparations in many aspects, right?" The reporter pulled out the question they cared about the most, and everyone's gazes focused on Luo Ji.
But unexpectedly, Ye Xiu answered this question first. "It wasn't necessary. Our player here has an exceptionally sensitive intuition for maps. After just one look, he can instantly figure out how to do it."
"What?!" All of the reporters were dumbstruck. The press conference actually quieted down completely.
Luo Ji was sweating. Luo Ji was sweating waterfalls. Luo Ji was sweating Iguazu Falls.
They were actually just going to say this?!
A bit unsettled, Luo Ji snuck a glance at Ye Xiu, only to see a completely calm and honest expression.
After just one look he can instantly figure out how to do it? Since when did he have that kind of demonic ability? In order to accurately create this enormous destruction, he had used who knew how many kilograms of draft paper just for his miscellaneous scratch work alone. Guan Rongfei had supplied a large amount of data and calculations on all sorts of aspects of the in-game physics as well. This was a strategy that had been prepared for a very long time. To use it in the regular season would be too wasteful, so they had saved it for the crucial elimination stage of the playoffs, to deliver a hammering blow.
Before they had come to attend the press conference, Ye Xiu exhorted him to say this and that, but he had thought that Ye Xiu was kidding! But now, he saw how, facing the camera lenses of so many reporters, Ye Xiu was so relaxed and composed as he lied.
"You could just do it like that? What kind of power do you have?" When the reporters recovered, they instantly focused on Luo Ji again, and even addressed him with the formal "you." Hearing this, Luo Ji became even more panicked. Of course, he could only say what he could, if he was wrong he was wrong, so he muddled through a story. "Uh, I was always pretty interested in Glory's map things, so I guess I have a certain amount of experience, and some intuition, it's probably just something like that."
The reporters were too good at observing people. Ye Xiu was very calm, but this Luo Ji, he was still young, and seemed to be a bit panicked. But when they thought again, this was a rookie, suddenly being surrounded as though he were a star. It would be fairly normal for him to be a bit nervous. So this, this was it the truth?
The reporters were wavering between belief and doubt. Watching the television, though, Yu Wenzhou was already laughing. How could such a thing be possible? As soon as you heard what he said, it was clearly something just to fool them! What kind of idiot would actually believe that?
In the away team prep room, Tyranny hadn't yet left. When the conference reached this point, the prep room instantly quieted down. Song Qiying hurriedly made his way next to Zhang Xinjie. "Vice Captain, Senior Ye Xiu just said that they hadn't prepared this beforehand, it was just an on-the-spot plan. Then, even in their away game, they might be able to do it again."
"Idiot, how could you believe that. That guy Ye Xiu is purposely trying to make this a mystery." Zhang Jiale immediately came over to teach Song Qiying.
"Is that so?" Song Qiying was at a loss. He continued to watch the television, and heard Luo Ji's speech.
"Experience and intuition?" Song Qiying muttered, sneaking a glance at Zhang Jiale.
"Look at him, he was clearly taught to say that by Ye Xiu!" Zhang Jiale told Song Qiying.
Song Qiying didn't say anything, and looked at Zhang Xinjie.
"That kind of experience and intuition, is there such a thing?" Zhang Xinjie was saying.
"Are you an idiot too?" Zhang Jiale was all sorts of speechless.
"We have severely insufficient data in this area. It may be necessary to re-evaluate," said Zhang Xinjie.