Three days' time, not too long, not too short, but it passed by in a flash.
As the sun shone down upon City H after the rain, the city seemed refreshed and pure. After being washed, even the familiar streets seemed to have something new about them.
One hour until the match's start, the audience had been let into the stadium long before, but the area outside of the stadium was still bustling with crowds of people.
Far too many Glory players hoped for the chance to watch the finals live, but unfortunately, tickets were hard to obtain. There were a number of people who hung around near the stadium to try their luck, some who wanted to sneak their way in, some who were asking around to see if anyone had an extra ticket. In any case, no one was idle.
Fu Chao was one of these Glory players, and his goal was the same as those of these gathered gamers, but from the very start, Fu Chao hadn't joined the crowd. There were too many people here, it would be much too difficult to try and sneak in through the front or get a ticket from someone.
Fu Chao stayed far away from the crowds, and instead lingered around another area of the stadium, paying close attention to his surroundings.
There were many passageways leading in and out of Xiaoshan Stadium. Right now, during such a large event, they of course opened the main doors, which were the largest and could accommodate the most traffic. And the side doors, the small doors, wouldn't be freely open for use at this time, of course.
But just because they weren't open for use didn't mean that they couldn't be used. Fu Chao planned to use one of these side doors. After he walked away from the main doors, the surroundings became much calmer, and just ahead, Fu Chao saw a small unassuming door, closed shut.
Fu Chao went up to it. He didn't know whether to push or pull it, but either way, after several tries, the little door didn't budge. Clearly, it was tightly locked.
Fu Chao didn't give up. He hadn't thought that the stadium workers would be that careless, anyway, he'd just come here to try his luck.
Just casually walking in through an unlocked door hadn't been his real plan, either.
What he wanted to do was find a worker passageway. There might be stadium workers there, but he could try and find a good opportunity to sneak in through there.
There should be!
Fu Chao had a great deal of faith in his assumption. He believed that there must be these kinds of staff passageways convenient for workers. He just didn't know whether Xiaoshan Stadium's workers could be bribed that easily.
No matter what, he had to give it a try.
Fu Chao continued to walk, until he heard the indistinct sound of voices coming from up ahead. He quickened his footsteps, turned a corner, and saw another side door, which was just about to be closed by the last person entering.
"Wait up!" Fu Chao disregarded all else as he shouted and sprinted toward it. This was a chance he didn't want to miss.
That person had clearly heard the shout and stopped moving, turning around to take a look. As Fu Chao ran, he waved his right hand to get attention, while his left hand was already clutching the wallet in his pocket.
The side door wasn't far, and Fu Chao closed the distance in a few steps, just as the other person completely turned around. Their eyes met, and Fu Chao suddenly tripped, nearly toppling over. When he stabilized, shock was written all over his face, and he was at a loss as he stared at this person who had stopped to look at him.
This was a face that Fu Chao wasn't unfamiliar with, but he'd never thought he'd have the chance to see this person at this close of a distance. Fu Chao suddenly felt like the fingers clutching his wallet were a bit stiff.
Han Wenqing?
Tyranny's Captain Han Wenqing?
Fu Chao's brain had completely shut down. How did the stadium worker he'd been planning to bribe suddenly turn into Han Wenqing?
He just looked like him. That must be it, right?
Just as Fu Chao thought this, he heard another voice from inside the doorway.
"What's going on?"
And then another person walked out, one hand adjusting his glasses, and looked at Fu Chao.
Zhang Zhang Xinjie?
Fu Chao loosened the hand clutching his wallet in his pants pocket, and pinched his leg. It hurt.
"Who's shouting?"
Another sound, another person walked out.
Zhang Zhang Jiale?
Tyranny's three fierce generals were actually standing in front of him right now, living and breathing.
"How come you're not coming?"
Another new voice.
Was it Lin Jingyan? Evidently, Fu Chao had adjusted, and was already beginning to subconsciously make predictions. But the person who came out
Wang Wang Jiexi?
Fu Chao felt another wave of dizziness. It was actually Tiny Herb's Captain Wang Jiexi, another impossibly major figure.
"What's going on?"
"What are you guys doing?"
One voice after another, one person after another. Less than three meters in front of him, Yu Wenzhou, Huang Shaotian, Li Xuan, Chu Yunxiu, Yang Cong, Yu Feng
Fu Chao felt like his five senses were destroyed for good.
Is this magic? Is this some cosplay group? How come so many gods suddenly appeared out of this little door? Glory's top gods!
And then - what are they doing here? Are they all looking at me? What am I supposed to do? Immediately kneel on the ground and beg forgiveness? That's not right, I don't think I had the chance to do anything wrong yet? Then what should I do? Go up to them and say "it is an honor to meet you all"? Damn, isn't that a bit dramatic? I have to change the tone, but how should I say it?
As Fu Chao pondered, the pro gods all exchanged glances, each with expressions of confusion. In the end, it was Han Wenqing who, unsure whether to laugh or cry, swept his gaze over everyone and said, "Someone just shouted to hold the door. What are you all doing?" After that, he simply entered the door first.
As soon as everyone heard that it was just that, that they'd all dragged each other into this for nothing, they all laughed and re-entered the door. The last one to enter was Tiny Herb's Xu Bin, who looked at Fu Chao, and left the door open for him.
This is
Fu Chao hadn't yet figured out how to greet so many gods when they'd all already went back inside. But they'd left the door for him, and Fu Chao, remembering his original intention, rushed forward and caught the door. Looking around, there were people not too far away, but none of them seemed to be paying attention to this area, so Fu Chao entered, closed the door, and then realized that he'd actually managed to sneak in just like that. And the people that had led the way for him were all of Glory's top gods.
This is they misunderstood, and thought he was a worker?
Fu Chao's mind was actually quite good, being able to think of a plan like this. Just earlier, he had been knocked a bit silly by the continuous appearance of so many gods, but now he returned to normal, and it only took a moment to realize what had happened.
These pro gods of course weren't any cosplay group, they'd also come to watch the finals live. But to have them walk in through the front doors would definitely cause unthinkable chaos, so the stadium had specially prepared for them an unassuming side passageway. Fu Chao had mistakenly ended up here, just in time to see all of these gods entering. He'd shouted without seeing who it was, and so the gods had mistakenly thought that he was a stadium worker, and he'd cheated his way in just like that.
So lucky!
How excited he felt! Excited at being able to enter the stadium, and even more excited at having done so through this kind of method. At this moment, Fu Chao felt like his desire to see the match wasn't even as strong as before. He was more excited to get online and gossip about this legendary encounter to all of his friends.
His heart was surging, but Fu Chao didn't dare show it on his face. He had to maintain this misunderstanding.
Soon, there was a bright light coming from up ahead, and the sounds of cheering rang clearer and clearer. He was just about to enter the main stadium area, the stadium of the finals.
Fu Chao's thoughts instantly returned to the match. He didn't just come to the finals for the excitement. Fu Chao, as a City H resident, had been converted into a hardcore Happy fan after a season of matches, and he couldn't wait to see Happy defeat Samsara, a never-before-seen black horse miracle.
Go Happy!
Go Samsara!
The stadium echoed with the sounds of cheering from the two teams' fanclubs. Although Samsara was the away team, they had a very strong following, as expected of the current most powerful team in the Alliance. Aside from the fans that had followed the team here, even in City H they had a number of supporters. Right now, even though they couldn't overturn Happy's home stadium, they could still make some waves here. They weren't suppressed by Happy's home at all.
"Defeat Samsara!!"
Fu Chao was instantly angry. This was Happy's stadium. No matter what team came, this sort of pride and arrogance just wasn't allowed. Although he didn't even have a seat, he simply stood in the passageway and started shouting. As for where the pro gods had gone to sit down after arriving, Fu Chao forgot to pay attention.
"Sir, please quickly return to your seat."
Jumping around like this in the passageway, Fu Chao quickly drew attention, and a worker came over. But the worker didn't suspect that he didn't have a ticket, and simply instructed him to return to his seat in the interest of maintaining order.
"Alright alright, as soon as I go to the bathroom I'll return to my seat." Fu Chao had already thought about how to remain undetected after making it into the stadium. Just now, he'd forgotten himself and attracted attention, and when the worker came up to speak to him, he regretted it so much that he wanted to hit himself. He'd hurriedly used a bathroom excuse, and the worker hadn't become suspicious, so he quickly headed to the bathroom.
He hid in the bathroom for quite a while.
Watching the time, hearing the shouts from the stadium, Fu Chao grit his teeth and endured. The stadium stopped letting people in half an hour before the match officially began, and during that half an hour, the stadium went through strict procedures to secure the area. To stay in the stadium during this time without a seat, he would be discovered very easily. Fu Chao had to last through this period of time. After the match officially began, if there wasn't an absolute need, there wouldn't be any large movements from security. At that time, if workers were still wandering around everywhere and disrupting the audience, they would probably be blasted to death.
8:30
Fu Chao's watch had slid to this time, and he could hear the sounds from the stadium. The match was indeed just about to begin.
Group arena, Happy's first player was still Ye Xiu. That "full rookie roster" he'd talked about in the press conference last time indeed turned out to be nonsense.
Samsara's first player was Lu Boyuan, the All-Star Grappler player.
"You have to win!" Fu Chao could only sit in the bathroom, grind his teeth, and pray. The match had only just begun, so to be safe, he was prepared to wait for a few more minutes. On one hand, he hoped for Happy to win quickly; on the other, he hoped they could play a little longer so he wouldn't miss as much. One could only imagine the conflict in his heart.
Two minutes passed
He couldn't hold back any longer!
Fu Chao charged out of the bathroom, and flew back toward the main stadium area.
Victory!
Happy opened strong. Ye Xiu, undefeated in individual match, continued his brilliant record this season, coming onstage first and defeating Samsara's Lu Boyuan.
"Beautiful!!!" By the time Fu Chao arrived, all he saw was the word "GLORY," but even so, he was as thrilled and excited as if he'd seen the entire process. But after waving his fist once, he immediately remembered that he was supposed to be lying low, and after carefully examining his surroundings, Fu Chao began to sneak around, looking for a corner where he wouldn't be noticed.
The match continued.
Only now did Fu Chao remember that so many top gods had come to this stadium to watch the match live. Where were these people sitting now?
With how large this stadium was, there was of course no way he could find them. But when he thought about it, he knew that these people would definitely be gathered together, and the stadium would definitely have special security measures around them. As someone who didn't even have a ticket, Fu Chao would be looking for death if he tried to find where they were and slip in among them.
Here's a good spot!
Fu Chao finally found a seat that he was relatively satisfied with. Standing, sitting, or crouching, just being able to sneak in here and enjoy this match was satisfying enough.
That was what Fu Chao had originally thought, at least. But in the end, he found that he was wrong.
To be truly satisfying, the match itself needed to have a satisfying outcome. But today's match ended in Happy's defeat. In the finals, Samsara took the lead in their away game.