“Welcome to the third match of the Century Cup elimination rounds. I am your old friend, Tao Zi!'”
“I am your new friend, Brother Tiao!'”
“Unconsciously, the Century Cup’s 12 teams have already brought us two extremely intense matches. From the current rankings, it’s evident that the established guilds’ teams remain very dominant, undoubtedly bringing considerable pressure to the new teams.”
“This season, strictly speaking, probably has only one new team, right? Tao Zi, speaking of which, since the start of the Century Cup, one could feel your high expectations for the Seven Silver Coins. Now that we’re more than halfway through the first stage, do you still hold the same optimism for them?”
“Well, how should I put it, I can only say that until the end, nobody knows how things will turn out. That’s the charm of e-sports, isn’t it?”
On the commentary desk, Tao Zi and Brother Tiao, as the official commentators, were subtly influencing the atmosphere at the venue. Though not too direct, their commentary precisely brought out the most current and attention-grabbing topics.
After all, this was already the third match of the first round. Once this match concluded, a portion of the teams would most likely bid farewell to their chances of advancing, including the promising Seven Silver Coins, a rising guild due to the Century Cup.
“Alright, today’s match map is already displayed in front of us. It seems to be a brand new city map. Judging by the scale, it reminds me of scenes from Ultraman fighting small monsters. [Urban Ghost City]—that’s the name of this map. Let’s see what kind of spectacular performance the players can deliver on this map!”
As customary, the official commentators initially directed the discussion towards analyzing the map.
Meanwhile, the 12 teams, now randomly spawned across various points on the map, had started their respective actions.
“A city map? Quite rare,” Jiang Shi said while moving and quickly observing the surroundings.
The Century Cup’s new map usage was significantly higher compared to Nianhua Cup, with occasional older map matches. Hence, on-site adaptability was crucial for the players.
However, for the Seven Silver Coins, a new team without prior experience, this situation, akin to starting from scratch for everyone, ironically became an advantage.
Unable to hear the commentators’ analysis, the players on-site solely relied on their own eyes to gather necessary information.
The starting lineup for Seven Silver Coins in this match comprised Jiang Shi, Han Yuze, Serious Young Man, Gentleman Fan, and Muchuan Pants.
Moving along with the team, Serious Young Man held a notebook and was quickly jotting down notes. He furrowed his brows slightly and remarked, “I didn’t expect they would include an empty city map. Did the official planners readjust their direction again?”
Serious Young Man’s doubts weren’t baseless.
Starting from the underwater map of Nianhua Cup to the two previous matches of the Century Cup, it was evident that the substantial number of minor monsters noticeably decreased the significance of the four major bosses, indicating a trend towards a diversified point accumulation strategy. However, from the beginning until now on this map, despite shuttling between the densely built high-rises, they hadn’t encountered even a single minor monster. It felt vastly different from the previous matches, somewhat reminiscent of a sudden change back to the old ways.
If this match truly returned to determining victory through contesting the four major bosses, Jiang Shi wouldn’t mind adjusting tactics to adapt. Yet, his intuition suggested it might not be that simple. “Let’s continue observing before making any conclusions.”
As if to confirm his intuition, before he finished speaking, a series of explosions suddenly resounded, overwhelming the final notes of his sentence.
The members of Seven Silver Coins simultaneously halted their steps and looked toward the direction of the explosions. From a distance, they could only see billowing mushroom clouds rising. The towering floors where the explosions occurred directly split into two and collapsed with a loud crash.
Though they weren’t sure of the specifics, it wasn’t hard to speculate that the team in that area suffered heavy casualties.
“Was that an internal explosion?” Muchuan Pants asked uncertainly.
Jiang Shi scanned the quiet buildings around him, contemplated for a moment, and sincerely remarked, “We should be thankful that we never considered entering any buildings.”
Han Yuze chuckled, “However, it seems there are quite a few hidden points in this match, but it might require risking our lives to acquire them.”
This chuckle made others notice the situation on the points leaderboard.
A team that was all zeroes just minutes ago suddenly shot up by 50 points, jumping to the top position, clearly conspicuous.
The lucky ones who just experienced the explosion scene were from the Firepower Guild.
At this moment, the guild leader, Medical Decoration stood in the central space under the high-rise. Surrounding him were scattered remnants of buildings. Upon closer inspection, one could notice a faint twitch at the corners of his expressionless face.
At this point, aside from him, the avatars of the other four teammates had completely dimmed, showing the countdown numbers for revival.
Yes, they had just gained 50 points, but at the cost of the gruesome deaths of four members.
If it weren’t for Medical Decoration’s arrangement of Golden Demon Puppets on the ground level to prevent encounters with other teams, within the first few minutes of the game, they might have faced a complete wipeout.
Exchanging the revival CDs of four people for 50 points was undoubtedly a significant loss!
However, since the situation had already occurred, Medical Decoration could only console himself that, although the price was high, at least they were the first to grasp the essence of this map.
[Urban Ghost City].
This empty and desolate city still resembles a city entirely made of machinery.
The Genesis officials haven’t abandoned their strategy of diversified competition. In this city map, instead of minor monsters, various mechanical traps are dismantled and placed inside these towering commercial buildings.
From a certain perspective, safely harvesting these high-value hidden points might be much more difficult than dealing with the competitors in the same arena.
Moreover, the crucial point is that even if a relatively safe method of harvesting points is found, the excessive commotion caused by triggering these mechanical traps will undoubtedly expose their positions to other teams, just like their current situation.
Consequently, to avoid revealing their coordinates and act covertly, the only choice might be to forgo harvesting these dispersed points. However, judging from the previous two matches, solely focusing on targeting the four major bosses often fails to achieve the desired rankings.
This year’s Century Cup is no longer the era where rankings were solely determined by the contest for bosses.
At the venue, the director has already replayed several times the scenes experienced by the Firepower Guild just now.
After the official commentator, Tao Zi, conducted a thorough analysis with a tone filled with anticipation, he remarked, “One can only say the map planners are becoming more and more innovative. It’s a dilemma – whether to leave no stone unturned with the mechanical monsters’ point accumulation or to entirely focus on searching for the hiding places of the bosses. Each team’s choice is genuinely intriguing.”
“Blood Roses seem to have made a decision. Yes, they directly recalled the two who were preparing to enter the building for investigation, seemingly planning to secure a boss first.” Brother Tiao chuckled, “They’re quite lucky. If it wasn’t for Firepower Guild acting a bit faster, at this moment, Blood Roses would be facing boomshakaka.”
Tao Zi remarked, “Black Tower Guild seems quite pleased now. The demons and monsters released all of the summoned beasts at once… Oh, indeed, in the current situation, summoners like Four Ghosts might have a bit of a ‘cheat‘ suspicion.”
Brother Tiao commented, “Actually, if we talk about these ‘investigation teams,’ it seems there’s a profession more suitable than summoners.”
“Indeed, summoning creatures have limits in terms of skills, whereas with miniature machines… The Crusaders have started moving; it seems everyone knows how to be flexible. It’s like everyone is showcasing their unique abilities. Akdas currently controls more than twenty machines. Judging from strength alone, this pillar-like player supported strongly by the Crusaders is indeed formidable. It reminds me of a certain legend who was once a mainstay in the Crusaders. As for Seven Silver Coins, with Yu Weize, a top-notch mechanical engineer, they shouldn’t be sitting idly…”
Tao Zi spoke and started swiftly searching through the god-view perspective.
Finally, when discovering the trace of Seven Silver Coins in the plaza area to the city’s north, zooming in, the sight of the densely packed miniature machines astonished them. “Holy cow!?”
“Calm down a bit,” Brother Tiao, as Tao Zi’s partner, cleared his throat at once, intending to remind him about the choice of words during the commentary. However, following the angle of their vision, even his tone couldn’t resist rising, “Oh my gosh!”
At this moment, no one cared about the two commentators losing their composure.
As the director enlarged the interface, everyone clearly saw the massive mechanical army above the area where Seven Silver Coins were located.
How… How many are there?!