After the end of the matches in Zone C, the matches in Zone D also concluded successfully the next day.
With that, the first round of the Nianhua’s Cup came to a close, and the rankings of teams in each zone proudly displayed on the central screens of the major cities.
Undoubtedly, among these participating guilds, the Seven Silver Coins made quite a scene.
Not because of how eye-catching their performance was, but due to their excessively cunning and sinister gameplay throughout the process.
On the official forum, there were countless posts expressing disdain. But despite the disdain, everyone knew that, compared to those standard matches, more people preferred watching the spectacular and stunning operations like those of Old Six with his audacious and flamboyant playstyle.
Anyway, as they weren’t players on the field, in a certain sense, it was part of human nature to fear chaos.
Han Yuze, as the former ace player of the Crusaders, had long been accustomed to being the center of attention.
Originally, this time, he should have ignored the gory threads on the forum, as he usually did. However, unexpectedly, he received a friend message from Jiang Yan at this time.
[South Wind Blows: The support guy with you during the match, is he my younger brother?]
Han Yuzi: “……”
[Yu Weize: Yes, he is.]
[Yu Weize: Sis, did you also watch the match?]
[South Wind Blows: Yeah, someone from our guild signed up, so we followed the discussion and paid attention.]
Although instinctively, discussions usually meant trouble, Han Yuze still asked an additional question.
[Yu Weize: What were they discussing?]
The sent message didn’t wait for a response. After a while, Jiang Yan sent another message.
[South Wind Blows: Do your guild have any openings? Add me in.]
Seeing this message, Han Yuzierealized that Jiang Yan had unexpectedly left the Sky Vine Guild at some point.
Then, after a brief recall of their earlier conversation, it wasn’t hard to deduce the cause and effect.
Considering how the members of the Sky Vine Guild discussed the match, their evaluations of their few members here weren’t favorable. With Jiang Yan’s personality of never letting herself be wronged, she would likely retort directly even for Jiang, which naturally led to an unpleasant situation. Whether she left on her own or was expelled by the guild management of Sky Vine was unknown.
Han Yuze naturally understood some situations within the Genesis Continent, but seeing Jiang Yan’s reluctance to delve into it, he tactfully refrained from asking further: “Sure, sis. I’ll contact the management to add you.”
When the name [South Wind Blows] was heard by What Pen Carries Fragrance, it took a moment to register, but since Han Yuze intervened, there was naturally no reason to refuse. With a blink, the dead account in the guild was added.
After joining the new guild, Jiang Yan thanked and went on her way to brush instances.
She had recently been immersed in self-improvement. Even though she had been blocked continuously by several instance team leaders due to mishaps, she remained unperturbed.
Regarding Jiang Yan’s joining the guild, Han Yuze had never thought of hiding it from Jiang Shi.
Indeed, after waiting for a while, Jiang Shi called him back to the guild’s territory.
He asked immediately upon seeing him, “Why did my sister suddenly come over?”
Han Yuze recounted his deductions.
Jiang Shi raised an eyebrow, “Are you saying that people from Sky Vine bullied her?”
Originally, Han Yuze wanted to say that with our sister’s personality, it’s uncertain who bullied whom. However, under Jiang Shi’s gaze, the words that came out were much more natural: “You can interpret it that way.”
Jiang Shi’s fingertips gently pinched his chin, “Since she didn’t have fun there, it’s good that she came over.”
This way, they didn’t need to consider whether or not to include Sky Vine in the list of friendly guilds on the battlefield—
Han Yuze’s judgment was extremely accurate.
Indeed, Jiang Yan was indeed expelled by the management of the Sky Vine Guild.
Before this, she had single-handedly debated with multiple individuals in the guild channel, directly shutting up more than a dozen participants in the discussion, until some were kicked and left, feeling somewhat breathless.
Among them, the player, [Little Ghost] who initiated the discussion at that time, was particularly furious. He even wanted to add the person as a friend and have a heated debate for a few hundred rounds. But after checking the information of the other party’s guild, he couldn’t help but laugh, “How come I’ve been defending Seven Silver Coins? Could this South Wind Blows have been a mole arranged by them on our side! Stirring up trouble here and causing chaos, and then leaving, only to directly join Seven Silver Coins? This manipulation is really impressive!”
The Vice Guild Master, [Blind Bat], also had an unpleasant expression, “Clearly, it was their first time participating in the Nianhua’s Cup, but their infiltration tactics are quite polished.”
“Indeed,” Little Ghost spat, “Who knows if those forum posts were instructed by them to steer the conversation.”
Originally, just like other guilds, Sky Vine participated solely in the competition, without any specific grudges.
However, the problem now arose after the match ended. Due to excessive attention on Seven Silver Coins, various derivative threads popped up on the forum, and many directly incited discussions targeting the second-ranking Sky Vine Guild.
Everyone had witnessed the match that day. After Seven Silver Coins took two bosses in a row, they simply “took a nap” by a tree next to the fourth boss, causing the conclusion of the normal match to seem quite hasty.
Because of this, quite a few meddlers couldn’t resist making assumptions. They discussed whether, if the team from Sky Vine also found the final boss, there was a chance for a comeback.
Of course, after such assumptions were made, the only thing harvested was a line of ridicule.
When the members of Sky Vine entered the posts, Sky Vine’s strength was merely average. Getting the second spot in their debut battle was already considered a stroke of luck. Facing Seven Silver Coins, they probably didn’t even know how they would lose.
The members of Sky Vine felt indignant and replied to the thread, but they were immediately besieged. Later, they came back and found Little Ghost and a group to support their position on the forum. However, they were humiliated by netizens and retreated with their tails between their legs.
It was because of this accumulated frustration that they redirected their anger toward Seven Silver Coins, venting it in the guild channel.
Coincidentally, it happened that they ran into Jiang Yan online.
In front of the sibling protector, only Miss Jiang could scold her brother.
Little Ghost, of course, was unaware of the relationship between South Wind Blows and PoisonedMilk. In a few words, he almost concluded that the other was a spy planted by Seven Silver Coins in their guild. Looking at the chaos still ongoing in the guild channel, he gritted his teeth and asked, “Seven Silver Coins are really bullying. This matter can’t just be left like this! South Wind Blows even refused to add me as a friend. If we don’t retaliate, others will tread on us in the future!”
As the Vice Guild Master, Blind Bat didn’t want to provoke conflicts between guilds, “What do you plan to do? Don’t make enemies with Seven Silver Coins.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t make enemies.” Little Ghost continued to incite, “I’ve been paying attention to that account. It’s just a trash alt with quite a few top-notch gears. Let’s provoke her by exposing a few of her equipment, and if we really complain to the president of Seven Silver Coins, we’ll just say it’s a personal grudge. Seven Silver Coins’ management isn’t stupid. Their planted mole was already at fault, and they won’t make a big deal out of this small matter.”
Blind Bat listened for a while and faintly felt that something was amiss, “Are you really upset, or are you exaggerating the issue? Listening to you, you’ve been eyeing their equipment for a while, huh?”
Little Ghost chuckled, “Hehe, you don’t know, those equipment are really good. Just seizing the opportunity.”
In fact, for Sky Vine, getting the second spot in their debut was quite satisfactory, which had pleased Blind Bat, the Vice Guild Master, for a long time.
However, the subsequent forum incidents made people feel even worse, and coupled with the commotion in the guild channel today, after hesitating for a while, he nodded, “Alright, I’ll go with your plan!”
The second match was scheduled for the next Wednesday.
The week-long interval was mainly for equipment adjustments.
Jiang Shi, seeing Jiang Yan join her guild, decided not to hide anything.
Anyway, they were both going to grind instances, so he considered inviting Jiang Yan to experience an advanced instance together. But upon checking, he found that the other had already entered an instance. Alone, he gathered a few members from the Gentlemen Fan and called some others in the guild to go to a large-scale group instance to loot boxes.
After coming out two hours later, Jiang Shi glanced at the coordinates of Jiang Yan’s account in the guild channel. Seeing that she wasn’t in an instance anymore, he immediately sent a team invitation.
However, she found that the other had enabled the “refuse to join a team” setting.
Jiang Shi asked Han Yuze, “How do you usually invite my sister to a team?”
Han Yuze: “Just send an invitation directly.”
Jiang Shi: “She’s refused to join a team. How am I supposed to send an invitation?”
Han Yuze: “Wait, let me ask.”
Han Yuze sent a message to Jiang Yan’s game ID from the friend list.
After a while, he told Jiang Shi, “She didn’t reply to me.”
Furrowing her brows, Jiang Shi glanced again at the location of South Wind Blows.
From the map, it seemed she was at the entrance of some popular instance.
There were no situations of being AFK in holographic online games. Even if there were incoming calls, they would directly connect through the communication system, so it wasn’t possible to temporarily leave.
So what was she doing now?
Just as Jiang Shi was about to call Jiang Yan, she happened to see a message pop up in the guild channel.
[[Guild] Random Player ABC: Is South Wind Blows here? Are they from our guild?]
[[Guild] Random Player ABC: What’s going on? Why are the people from Sky Vine blocking you? Need any help?]
In an instant, Jiang Shi understood why Jiang Yan was silent.
Interesting, it seemed that they were really targeting her.
Glancing back at Han Yuze, their eyes met through team voice chat, as he spoke to the team members waiting to start the second instance, “I have some private matters to attend to. Anyone wants to come along?”
The others were unaware of the situation, but the Gentlemen Fan immediately grasped the underlying meaning of “private matters.”
The fatigue they felt from grinding instances vanished, and they all perked up, “Count us in, we’re particularly interested in these ‘private matters‘!”
All the team members are melon eating crazy player.