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Seeing Sun Xiang walk toward the competitor booth just like that, the pro players were stunned.

It wasn’t that they doubted this choice of player or anything, but… as of now, the judge still hadn’t announced the final player choice of both teams. But from Samsara, Sun Xiang was walking toward the competitor booth just like that?

He was exposing information.

Because of the random nature of the third round of playoffs, the player order was decided on the spot. If one went before the other, then it would be like revealing your move too early when playing rock-paper-scissors. The competition system couldn’t allow this kind of flaw, so following normal procedure, the two teams would first report their players to the judge, the judge would confirm, and then it would be announced to the stadium through the big screen. Only then would the players go onstage, verified by the judge.

This was the normal procedure because it amplified the atmosphere of the live match. Often, the name would be announced at the same time as the player went onstage. But in reality, the player had been determined long beforehand. Otherwise, if one team’s player stood up first, then the other team could see that and say, oh, that player, then we’ll send this player up…

This was the problem with Sun Xiang exposing the roster order. Right now, Happy actually hadn’t reported their player order yet, but he was already walking toward the booth. Then, if Happy made any arrangements specifically targeting Sun Xiang, then that wouldn’t be breaking any rules. They would just be getting a bargain.

And on Samsara’s side? They had no way to make any further changes. Jiang Botao had already reported the first player to the referee.

This was a huge oversight! Sun Xiang, that guy, this crucial match hadn’t even started yet and he’d already made such a low-level mistake!

Pro players were very familiar with the match format and paid attention to the rules, so they immediately realized that Sun Xiang’s actions didn’t seem right. But the ordinary audience members didn’t have this professional sensitivity. Right now, they were actually applauding and praising Sun Xiang’s appearance!

Was this a trick?

Seeing that the other Samsara players didn’t have any reaction to Sun Xiang’s action, the pro players couldn’t help but begin to think in this direction. It was one thing for just Sun Xiang himself to get confused, but there was no way that not a single person in Samsara realized the problem, right? But if this really were a trick, then the team’s reactions didn’t seem quite right, either. If they were pretending, they should at least pretend to be alarmed at Sun Xiang’s actions, right? And then when Happy made counteractive arrangements, they would suddenly change players. They could then say that Sun Xiang was just wandering around the stage. There was nothing against the rules about that.

That was what that plan should look like, but it didn’t look like Samsara was doing that, either. Nor did Happy have much of a reaction. Ye Xiu walked toward the judge, reporting their first player, and then he headed toward the competitor booth.

As expected, Happy’s first player was Ye Xiu. Even when Samsara had leaked information, they stuck with their original, obvious plan. One after another, Sun Xiang and Ye Xiu entered their respective competitor booths.

Bold, confident!

Samsara displayed the kingly attitude of a championship team. They didn’t engage in any of those schemes that people were imagining. Upright and honest, they sent out their first player, who boldly walked into the competitor booth.

No trick.

Was there really no trick?

“The trick is that there is no trick,” Blue Rain’s Yu Wenzhou suddenly said.

“In other words, if you feel that there is no trick, then there is no trick; if you feel that there is a trick, then the trick comes,” he added.

Xiao Shiqin nodded, Wang Jiexi also nodded, Zhang Xinjie did not disagree, but no one said anything else.

Most of the others were still at a loss. Only after thinking hard did they begin to understand, and they all felt that their brains weren’t enough.

“How black-hearted…” Those who could follow the twisting logic were all sighing. And at this time, the judge announced, the first battle of the final match group arena began now.

Map loaded, characters loaded.

A narrow, slightly winding canyon, extending from north to south. Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf loaded in on the north end of the canyon, while Lord Grim was on the south end.

Behind each of the two characters was usually the map boundary. Right now, the televised broadcast showed a close-up of the area behind the characters.

The so-called “map world” behind the characters was filled with two military camps of NPCs, each with a wooden sign at their entrances, with words written very clearly on them: Military Area, Death to Intruders!

The players watching the match suddenly understood. This map world was like the edge of a cliff, an abyss, a place that the characters would suffer damage just from entering. This kind of boundary design wasn’t unique in Glory, and this map simply used a particular method to implement this design.

However, this kind of scene, would it be like an abyss where once you fell, there was no way to survive? No one knew. In this kind of crucial match, there was no way anyone would test it out for themselves. If they were to test, they would want to think of a way to send the opponent’s character there. Right now, as soon as Ye Xiu and Sun Xiang realized the design behind them, they immediately controlled their characters to stay far away.

Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf steadily stepped forward. Even though Ye Xiu could control Lord Grim to use the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella’s Ninjato form to scale the canyon walls, right now he did the exact same thing as Sun Xiang – control his character to steadily advance.

The two character’s actions at the start of the match were exactly the same. The audience watched as the two characters, one heading south, one heading north. Both were looking left and right at their surroundings in the same way. If not for their entirely different equipment, it would be hard to distinguish who was who.

At last, the two characters reached the middle, where there were no twists and turns. Very quickly, they saw their approaching opponent.

The movement pace of the two characters instantly became cautious.

No turns, no way to circle around. This was the so-called inevitable confrontation, a direct collision on a narrow road, where there was no way to evade.

Closer, step by step.

Lord Grim’s attacks could reach far, and right now the opponent was already within his attack range. But Ye Xiu didn’t attack. He simply maintained his rhythm, allowing Lord Grim to approach step by step.

Sun Xiang was even less likely to attack. A Battle Mage was a class that needed to be close enough to reach their full battle potential. As the distance closed, options gradually opened up to him, such as Dragon Breaks the Ranks, which could instantly eliminate the distance between the two characters right now. But Sun Xiang still did not make a move.

Neither side attacked. And then, as though the two of them agreed, one suddenly went left, one went right, both moving at a slant.

Just as the distance between them looked like it was about to be closed, the two suddenly controlled their characters to move diagonally, increasing the distance horizontally.

Were these two planning to let each other go by just like that, and continue to study this map?

Seeing this scene, many people already began to think in this direction. But the pro players all knew that this kind of investigation wasn’t very necessary. Their offstage teammates had the same omniscient view as the audience, and investigation was shared. So that half of the map that Lord Grim hadn’t stepped in yet, Happy’s players had already seen it from the point of view of Sun Xiang’s One Autumn Leaf. The only one who didn’t know that area was Ye Xiu himself.

Similarly, Sun Xiang had experienced one half of the map for himself, and was still unfamiliar with the other half.

In this kind of situation, would they really let the other go by to understand that half of the map they still hadn’t experienced?

No pro player would have such a harmonious and friendly thought. In this moment, for the players onstage, this one half known, one half unknown was their strength and weakness. Thus, when they met, the main goal of their confrontation should be to force the opponent toward the area that they were familiar with and that their opponent was unfamiliar with, and decide victory there.

That was why neither player attacked. Their characters drew closer and closer, both of them looking for this kind of opportunity, to bring the opponent into the half of the map behind them.

But neither of them found such an opportunity, because both of them were very cautious, and neither left any openings. This made it seem like there was a high level of unspoken understanding and coordination between them, but in reality neither forgot that their opponent was their opponent. They paid attention to the other’s movements solely to find a chance. As soon as there was an opening, that there was an opportunity to be seized, both of them would destroy this coordination without hesitation.

Their north-south distance was practically zero, but because of their slanted movement, there was still around six units of distance between them horizontally. Both characters had their backs facing the canyon wall. Unlike before, they were no longer looking around. They were focused entirely on the opponent in front of them.

Movement stopped. Stand-off.

Six units of distance. Lord Grim had too many skills he could use to attack the opponent, and One Autumn Leaf could also attack the opponent at this distance. Because of the long reach of a Battle Mage’s weapon, their attack distance was a bit longer than things like fists or swords.

But the two players simply continued to face each other without moving. No movement. The display showed their hand speeds as zero, two flat lines on the graph leisurely progressing forward.

One second, two seconds…

But even though there was no movement, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t draining their energy. Both of the players were currently extremely focused. The rhythm wasn’t just slow, it had completely stopped, and no one knew who would attack first. They only knew that in this kind of static stand-off, it would be very difficult to break the equilibrium first. The game wasn’t like reality. As long as there were no inputs, the character could maintain its posture and position for years. And moving could potentially create an opening. Despite the many experts watching this match, they were at a loss as to how to break this absolute stand-off.

No one could have predicted that these two would engage in a stand-off to this level. In order to avoid creating openings and eliminate flaws, they continuously made their moves simpler and simpler, decreasing their movements, lowering their speed.

At last, they sunk to the limit, to the very lowest.

If you didn’t act, there would be no openings.

This was no longer a situation, it was a state, a state that only pro players could appreciate.

It would be very difficult to break this state from within. To break from the outside, there was typically only one reason – the judge deciding that this was “improper player conduct” and getting involved. But this stand-off wasn’t improper conduct, it was that there was simply no way to act. There were no controls being made, but the confrontation never stopped. This was a battle of spirit. If this were truly broken by the judge for “improper conduct,” the beauty of the scene really would be ruined.

Fortunately, today’s map happened to have another outside method to break this stand-off.

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