Chapter 1631: Perseverance Creating an Opportunity

 Nomyummi  Editor: Nomyummi

The broadcast, the pro players, and the more skilled viewers were focused on Fang Rui’s battle with Lu Boyuan and Fang Minghua. Only the viewers who were mostly there to watch the flashy stuff continued to linger on the battle in the trash room.

The battle taking place there was indeed incredible as well, and it could also decide the match. However, from an overall perspective, Fang Rui’s suppression towards the two Samsara players was the true match point. The outcome of this match would likely depend on Fang Rui.

And right now, he had vastly exceeded everyone’s expectations. To think he would be able to hold them off in a 1v2 for so long. Samsara’s two players were unexpectedly unable to get past him.

Of course, if Lu Boyuan’s Chaotic Cloudy Mountain wanted to go, Fang Rui wouldn’t mind at all. Fang Rui’s goal was clear. He wanted to stall Fang Minghua’s Laughing Song. If Lu Boyuan was going to give him trouble, then he would deal with him. If Lu Boyuan wanted to leave, then he would be more than happy to let him leave.

Lu Boyuan had already abandoned Du Ming once. Whether it was from a strategic perspective or a mental one, he couldn’t abandon Fang Minghua too. Samsara was already down one player in the team competition, and down a total of three points overall.

This bastard…

Lu Boyuan grit his teeth, trying to catch Boundless Sea. He just needed to grab him once, and the deadlock would be over. Fang Minghua also understood this reasoning and did his best to help Lu Boyuan.

But Fang Rui was just too crafty. He was bringing out his dirtiness to his limits. Boundless Sea weaved in and out, and there were plenty of times where he had brushed past Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s fingers. The difference was just by a hair.

This wasn’t a matter of luck.

Fang Rui was playing at his peak. It wasn’t like he couldn’t dodge more safely, but he was intentionally making the margin of error as small as possible. He had done this ever since Chaotic Cloudy Mountain’s first attempt to block him. From beginning to end, he had gotten past Lu Boyuan as efficiently as he could so that he could have more time to deal with Fang Minghua’s Laughing Song. If not, there was no way he would have been able to hold down Samsara’s two players for so long. This was why the pro players were so astonished. For such precise movements, once or twice, nothing too special. But for him to do it again and again for so long? How focused did he have to be? How tiring must it be?

Yes, very tiring!

Fang Rui soon could feel the fatigue hitting him, and he had only held them down for not even a minute.

He had been mentally prepared, though. He knew how difficult it would be. In Ye Xiu’s 1v3, Ye Xiu had used his overwhelming disadvantage to keep his opponents’ attention on him. However, for his 1v2, he needed to take the initiative and proactively seize control of the battle.

And he did it.

So far, only the word “perfect” could describe what he had accomplished.

He was exhausted, yet he was still constantly racking his brains to win control over his opponents.

He had played to his limits in the group arena as well. After only a short rest, he had to play again in the team competition.

Persevere, persevere to the end!

Fang Rui knew how important his task was. If it was said that their foundation had been established through Ye Xiu’s 1v3, then their final path to victory would be brought out by him.

He had never thought of himself as this team’s core. All he wanted was to perform well enough to match his pay and position. He knew that this was a moment that could likely decide the match. All he needed to do was to persevere.

He didn’t set himself a goal, counting down. Fang Rui only had one thought: persevere, persevere until the end. He would hold down these two players until the moment they won. Before that moment came, he would never relax.

One minute…

One and a half minutes…

Two minutes…

Two and a half minutes…

Fang Rui persevered, playing absolutely perfectly. Not even the slightest opening could be seen in his plays. More and more people started shifting their attention to his side. More and more people were noticing the inconceivable. The pro players had forgotten about their bets long ago.

One minute. That had been the upper limit of their bets. There had only been a single person who called out this time, Team Wind Howl’s Ruan Yongbin. The second highest bet was 45 seconds. When Ruan Yongbin shouted out one minute, no one had taken him seriously. Everyone knew that Ruan Yongbin and Fang Rui were former teammates, and the two had a good relationship with each other. He had yelled out one minute as a way to cheer his friend on.

But now, a minute?

Wrong. Everyone had been wrong, very wrong. Even Fang Rui’s friend, Ruan Yongbin had underestimated Fang Rui’s capabilities.

Two and a half minutes. This was the current record, and it was still going. His perfect playing made it so that Fang Minghua’s Laughing Song couldn’t escape, which in turn made it so that Lu Boyuan’s Chaotic Cloudy Mountain couldn’t leave.

The battle in the trash room had lasted for two and a half minutes too. It was no longer two separate battles. The two sides had grouped together, turning it into a 3v4.

Samsara was at a numbers disadvantage, but these three top ten players were nothing to scoff at. From the looks of it, they were actually the ones on the offensive. The three were using Little Cold Hands as their breakthrough point, constantly sending out attacks towards him.

On Happy’s side, Ye Xiu’s Lord Grim had become Little Cold Hands’ flower protector. He practically never moved more than an inch away from him. Su Mucheng and Qiao Yifan were on the side, providing them support.

Fang Rui was playing out of his mind in the 1v2 to win Happy this 4v3, yet Happy wasn’t able to turn this into an intense back and forth. In fact, they were the ones on the defensive. It was hard not to feel that it was a bit of a pity. However, the experts knew that although Happy was on the defensive, they weren’t feeling burdened. Their defensive position was because they saw what the opponents wanted and were going along with them.

Focusing the healer was a very standard strategy, but no team’s healer had ever been so disgustingly focused like Happy’s during the season. With so much experience facing this strategy, Happy was very proficient in these situations. What’s more, they had put in great effort into practicing and studying how to take advantage of this weakness since their very beginnings.

For other teams, when the enemy focused their healer, their conditioned reflex was to protect their healer. But for Happy, when the enemy focused their healer, their conditioned reflex was to look for opportunities to kill their opponents.

This sort of intuition had become Happy’s style. Even if they hadn’t made any preparations before the match, if they ever came across this situation, Happy’s players would instinctively look for ways to turn it around.

Every team’s protection over their healer was purely defensive. Only Happy was different. Their protection over their healer was extremely aggressive. Their healer had originally been their weakness, but as the season went and their weakness improved, Happy had also set up all sorts of barbs. You could target their weak point, then you wouldn’t come out unscathed. More often than not, it would end up being your guillotine.

It wasn’t that Samsara didn’t know this point. As their opponent in the finals, they had researched Happy thoroughly. However, their current situation was out of helplessness.

They were attacking, Happy was defending. However, the health they were losing wasn’t low. On the other hand, Happy had a healer healing them. After two and a half minutes, the damage was building up.

“!!!!”

The three of them hadn’t sent out this message just once. They were also very surprised to see that their support still hadn’t arrived yet. The thought of Fang Rui stalling their two players for this long hadn’t even crossed their minds. If they had known, they definitely wouldn’t have fought in this way. They would have created an opportunity to get out of the trash room and reconvene with their other two players.

But they didn’t know, so they kept waiting. Half a minute, a minute and a half, two and a half minutes…

The inconceivable had happened. Fang Rui had held down Lu Boyuan and Fang Minghua for a two and a half minutes.

At this point, the three of them had lost the possibility of turning this around!

During these two and a half minutes, it wouldn’t have been impossible to have Lu Boyuan abandon Fang Minghua and go in to help the rest of his teammates. Or the three could have escaped from the trash room and made contact again with Fang Minghua and Lu Boyuan. However, turning points happened in an instant. After two and a half minutes, the three of them couldn’t keep up the same aggressive offense as before. They had no choice but to be more cautious about their character’s health. Who let them attack so unrestrained before? The reason that they had been so unrestrained was because they kept thinking that their support would arrive at any second. How could they have known that not a single sign of them would come even at this point?

Rush out of the trash room now?

The three looked at the health on their characters. If they gave in even a little, Happy’s four would definitely counterattack with everything they had. During those two and a half minutes, they could have forcefully made their way out. However, if they forced their way out now, they would definitely lose one or two people.

Having already lost a player, Samsara was down by three points. Until the last moment, Samsara didn’t want to take the risk of losing another. No matter how they looked at it, hoping for the 2v1 over there to have a breakthrough was more reliable than the three of them forcing their way out.

The three minute mark was approaching. In the end, Samsara chose to wait.

The spectating pro players didn’t feel like Samsara was doing anything wrong. Right now, everything was because of Fang Rui, because of his miracle. At the beginning, everyone just thought that Fang Rui’s stalling would just help Happy win some time and widen the lead a bit more. But now, Fang Rui’s stalling had become the deciding point of this match.

How much longer could Fang Rui hold on for? If Lu Boyuan and Fang Minghua successfully broke through right now and successfully got to their teammates, Happy would have a lead, but not a win. The tradeoff would truly be somewhat disappointing.

Time continued to pass.

Everyone’s attention continued to be focused on Boundless Sea’s battle with Samsara’s two players.

Angel’s Might!

Suddenly, Laughing Song’s cross let out a brilliant light. Fang Rui had held down the two of them long enough for Laughing Song’s Angel’s Might to come off cooldown.