After big guilds such as Warsky Alliance, Gods of Destruction, Hegemon Palace and so on failed to claim Silver Fir City for themselves, they fell quiet and kept a fairly low profile. Warsky and his players were fighting to get a good ranking in the competitive arena. Farewell Song and Lin Bing Dou Zhe especially were so enamored with 2v2s that they spent three whole days grinding inside the arena as a team. As a result, the pair took first place in the ranking and was far, far ahead of the runner-up team, Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits. Judging from how good they were, Warsky Alliance might even send them to all future competitions with 2v2s in them.

It would be a sound decision. Farewell Song and Lin Bing Dou Zhe definitely made a powerful duo as they were both calm, patient, and clear-headed. They wouldn’t act if the time wasn’t right, and if the time was right then they acted with unflinching decisiveness. This excellent quality of theirs gave them multiple wins even against powerful teams like Luo River God of the Capital and Moonkiss.

That didn’t mean that our teams were doing bad in the arenas. He Yi and Murong Mingyue also spent three days fighting inside the team arenas, and He Yi’s skill grew drastically thanks to it. She was steadily growing into a well-rounded player, and even her parries were starting to look good and proper. Besides super teams like Farewell Song and Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Candlelight Shadow and God’s Dance, and Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits, everyone else basically got destroyed by the tank-and-healer pair. With Murong Mingyue behind her, He Yi could solo almost anyone like it was a single-player game.

……

As for Beiming Xue and I, our focus was on the champion arena. For the past three days, I spent half my time grinding levels, and the other half grinding wins in the champion arena. In the end I accrued a total of 3784 wins and 7 losses, averaging at a mind-boggling 99.8% win rate. Out of these 7 losses, 5 of them were to Candlelight Shadow. It was to be expected though. No one could be at their best at all times, and not even I could maintain an 80% win rate against a player like him. That being said, I still beat him 14 times out of the 19 encounters so if there was anyone who felt ashamed here it would be him, not me.

Oh, I also lost a match to Luo River God of the Capital. The girl had insane firepower, and in that match I committed a technical error and walked right into her fire trap. In the end, she was able to one-shot me with the triple-hit spell Ice Fire Flurry. You just couldn’t make even a single mistake when fighting against a woman like her.

My last loss was in the hands of Lin Yixin. We encountered each other 4 times in the arena, I won 3 out of 4 times. It was a pretty good result.

……

Noon, at the living room of the workshop.

Clak clak clak clak...

Murong Mingyue was sitting by the table and typing elegantly like a butterfly. She seemed to be searching for some game data.

Clutching a cup of red tea and sitting next to her, I asked, "Sis?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you looking for?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just testing out the high-end notebook Lenovo sent us…"

"Fuck!"

Since we were now proud members of the Lenovo e-sports team, the company had sent us all personalized, high-end notebooks. They had arrived just the day before, and they were pretty outstanding. At the very least, playing Angry Birds or Plants VS Zombies on it was smooth as hell.

Seated on the other side of the table, He Yi pushed her notebook toward me and said, "Look at these rankings! You’ve been doing amazing these past couple days, Lu Chen. Even our team leader, Rose, said that your results were out of the world. Speaking of which, Rose is going to visit in a couple of days. Lenovo is planning to build the team headquarter at Shanghai, and they’ll be recruiting a couple more players beside us."

I smiled. "Sure, why not? We’re the first seed, so we can choose to enter the prestigious competitions only. But someone has to participate in the not-so-prestigious competitions as well, right? Rose already said that our main focus should be on grinding and improving our in-game strength as much as possible. Only then will we be able to prove ourselves in the upcoming competitions."

Beiming Xue bent over and took a peek at the champion arena ranking on the screen. She couldn’t stop herself from sticking out her tongue and commenting, "OMG big bro, your win rate is ridiculous…"

I returned her smile and said, "It’s okay."

I checked out the ranking list—

Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand Matches Fought: 3784 Wins: 3777 Loss: 7 Win Rate: 99.8%

Candlelight Shadow Matches Fought: 4471 Wins: 4443 Loss: 28 Win Rate: 99.3%

Little Piglet Matches Fought: 5782 Wins: 5161 Loss: 621 Win Rate: 89.2%

Wind Fantasy Matches Fought: 3124 Wins: 3072 Loss: 52 Win Rate: 98.3%

Legendary Brave Matches Fought: 4899 Wins: 4427 Loss: 472 Win Rate: 90.3%

Beiming Xue Matches Fought: 5130 Wins: 4672 Loss: 458 Win Rate: 91%

Purple Marquis Matches Fought: 3982 Wins: 3672 Loss: 310 Win Rate: 92.2%

Luo River God of the Capital Matches Fought: 2984 Wins: 2941 Loss: 43 Win Rate: 98.5%

Blue Sky Scar Matches Fought: 10189 Wins: 8173 Loss: 2015 Win Rate: 80.2%

Chaos Moon Matches Fought: 4088 Wins: 3472 Loss: 616 Win Rate: 84.9%

……

At this point, we were all squeezed in front He Yi’s screen to check out the champion arena ranking. The girls stuck their tongues out when they saw how fierce the competition was...

Nestled against me, He Yi said with a smile, "Lu Chen fought almost 4000 matches but lost only 7 of them. Sigh, the mere sight of your win rate is probably going to murder more than a couple of fragile hearts. Did you know? Rose told me that after the Lenovo CEO saw your ranking, he told her that the money he paid to sign you was definitely worth it…"

I nodded and smiled back. The biggest reason Lenovo signed us was to promote their brand, and one of the players they signed was currently sitting at first place of the champion arena ranking. Needless to say, it was an amazing look for their brand. Plus, Beiming Xue was in the Top 10 of the champion arena ranking as well, so of course, the sponsors were satisfied with the results.

Beiming Xue suddenly burst into a giggle. "Blue Sky Scar is also amazing in his own right. Ten thousand matches, tsk tsk! It must’ve taken him an enormous amount of stamina and willpower to play this many matches…"

Murong Mingyue agreed. "Too bad his win rate isn’t 95% or higher, or the first place of the champion arena ranking would have been his for sure!"

He Yi couldn’t help but roll her eyes. "Come on, there are only 4 players in all the servers who have a win rate above 95%!"

"True."

Beiming Xue nodded in agreement. "You’ll encounter all kinds of classes and players in a 1v1 match, so only the absolute best of the best can maintain a win rate of over 95%. If you look at the win rates in a descending order, you’ll basically get the same list as the latest Player Power Ranking of China…"

He Yi exclaimed in realization, "Lu Chen’s number one, Candlelight Shadow’s number two, Luo River God of the Capital is number three and Beauty Lin is number four…"

I sucked in a deep breath. The assessment was pretty fair and objective all things considered. I had a ton of Outstanding Spirit-grade or even Earth-grade items like the God Suppressing Necklace, God Suppressing Helmet, Soul Suppressing Cloak, and Heaven-stealing Sword. In terms of equipment literally no one in China was better than me. It was also the main reason Candlelight Shadow couldn’t get a good win rate against me. My next objective was to find a big map, do some quests, grind some levels and get to Level 150 as soon as possible. I would become the first swordsman ever to ride a mount!

……

It was at this moment we heard someone knocking at the front door.

"Huh. Who is it? Is it time to pay rent already?" He Yi exclaimed in surprise.

I walked over and looked through the peephole. I found a 20-year-old girl wearing a T-shirt standing outside. She also wore a light blue-colored badge in front of her chest, but I couldn’t see the name written on it clearly.

I opened the door and asked, " And you are?"

The girl stared at me with her big, round eyes for a moment before blinking. "Are… are you Falling Dust, the Little Heavenly King? OMG you’re so… handsome…"

The compliment made me blush. "Who are you?"

The girl extended a hand to me and smiled brightly. "Hello, Falling Dust! I’m your team manager, Rose!"

"Rose?"

Her introduction only increased my surprise. Grasping her hand and giving it a shake, I asked, "You should’ve told us that you were coming so we could receive you properly…"

Rose giggled a bit before walking into the living room. "There’s no need. It’s only a two-hour trip from Shanghai to Suzhou, so I decided to drive over myself. As for why I’m here, I want to meet you all in person, that’s all."

He Yi rose to her feet and greeted Rose with a smile. "Wow, you’re quite the pretty woman in real life, Rose!"

Rose stared at He Yi for a moment before exclaiming, "So beautiful…"

Murong Mingyue greeted her next, and Rose froze like a statue. "So big…"

Beiming Xue greeted her last, and Rose twitched back to reality. "So cute…"

……

We all sat down in the living room as Rose produced a set of documents from her small bag. She started, "I’m the manager of the club, but you’re the ones who are going to be acting on the stage, metaphorically speaking. Therefore, I would like to inquire your opinions before I make any new recruitment. Here, please check out the first draft of the recruitment list."

He Yi accepted the document and gave it a look before passing it over to me. There was a long list of names—

Remains LV-122

Class: Warrior

City: Vanished God City

Guild: Blazing Hot Lips

Heart Like Water LV-123

Class: Mage

City: Vanished God City

Guild: Hunting Moon Dynasty

Unwilling to Fight LV-123

Class: Archer

City: Wind City

Guild: Peach Garden

Hidden Fragrance LV-122

Class: Magic Knight

City: Wind City

Guild: Purple Lily

Calm Night LV-121

Class: Assassin

City: Sky City

Guild: The Monarch Descends

Little Little Hero LV-123

Class: Mage

City: Vanished God City

Guild: Blazing Hot Lips

Butterfly Dance LV-122

Class: Dark Ritualist

City: Wind City

Guild: Candle Dragon

……

I licked my lips after skimming over the name list. "This is a mess. There are players from all kinds of cities and guilds…"

Rose nodded with a smile. "Mn. This is what our headhunters gathered after seeking out the best PvP players they could find in every city. They’ll all work for Lenovo if the signings are confirmed. They are the ones who’ll be participating in all minor tournaments unless the four of you choose to participate in them. Basically, you’ll never meet each other unless something unusual happens. Is this okay with you?"

He Yi and I exchanged a smile with each other before nodding in unison. "We have no problems with your decision whatsoever. Feel free to sign whoever is necessary!"

"That’s great!" Rose replied with a smile. "So, do you want to have lunch together?"

"Your treat?"

"I mean, sure, I can apply for reimbursement…"

"Alright, let’s go!"

"..."

……

We were just out of the door when my phone rang. It was Lin Yixin’s number.

"Hello, Yiyi. What’s wrong?"

"Did you check the official homepage a couple minutes ago, Lu Chen?"

"Nope. Why?"

“A new large-sized map will spawn at the far reaches of Dragonbone Mountain Range tomorrow 9 am! It will spawn between the borders of Vanished God City and Wind City, and it’s tied to the main questline!"