Our Glory

GLORY!

Hearing the sounds that were incomparably familiar to him cease to ring, he glanced back at the big projector.

On the center of the screen stood the game's logo along with the word that he had fought for, for the last 10 years of his career.

Victory.

Throughout the past decade of fighting for Glory, his pursuit for victory had never stopped.

Despite the tossing of the wind and rain, under the gazes of millions, his dream still appeared as though it had never been shattered.

"Ice-cream?" Ye Xiu turned to the girl beside him.

Shooting Ye Xiu a bright smile, Su Mucheng nodded happily as it was currently in the middle of summer. "Sure!"

Grabbing his jacket, the two prepared to leave the training room as Ye Xiu stopped for a brief moment before taking one last look at the big screen.

"Don't worry, our glory will continue." Turning around, Ye Xiu lit a cigarette, closing the doors to the room before exiting the building.

While walking around the streets of City B, the duo finally settled in a secluded ice cream parlor they frequently visited in the past.

When the duo walked into the parlor, they were hit with a smell of various flavors that made Su Mucheng smile brightly. The shop was unique to Su Mucheng and was one of her favorites because the smell of ice cream would always stick onto her hair whenever she left. Although the building wasn't necessarily big, upon entering, they could still see a wide range of ice cream, macaroons, cookies and other sophistically crafted flavors that looked fancy.

Passing through the entrance, a soothing bell rang out, indicating their arrival. 

"Welcome!"

Seeing the familiar owner that was in his late thirties, Su Mucheng waved to the vendor before casually walking up to the refrigerator.

"I'll have a Milk and Ube swirl please." Su Mucheng glanced over at the various flavors that were in stock before carefully choosing two.

"And for the young man behind you?" 

Unlike Su Mucheng, Ye Xiu took a quick look at the menu hanging from the ceiling before randomly picking one out. "Black Sesame and Oreo, thank you."

Paying for their ice cream, the parlor went up to a machine in the back before pulling down on a lever, rotating the ice cream cone skillfully as the ice cream poured out.

Sticking a small plastic spoon into the ice cream, the owner handed over the ice cream over to Su Mucheng before proceeding to complete Ye Xiu's order.

The duo then found an area to sit in the corner of the shop as they silently ate their ice cream. 

While eating and thinking about the world championships that was coming up, Ye Xiu couldn't help but think of the times when he first started playing Glory.

Before the game was released, the boy who he had met just a few months prior had talked about how Glory would be different from other games and how hype the game would be.

Thinking back, Ye Xiu wondered if he was a prophet, it seemed as if he had predicted the future of Glory.

The game had indeed lived up to his expectations, but he was no longer here to witness its glory.

If only he was…

Snapping out of his thoughts, he had unconsciously finished his ice cream, looking up only to see Su Mucheng staring at him.

Ye Xiu wasn't a person who spoke about his feelings, he had always been the one to hide his thoughts making them unreadable. But when it came down to her brother, Ye Xiu would always wear a regretful and dejected expression. Perhaps he wasn't even aware of it himself.

Not wanting to forcefully divert his thoughts elsewhere, Su Mucheng looked down at her ice cream, taking another small bite before asking Ye Xiu. "Isn't this a good thing? The championships."

Not expecting the sudden question, Ye Xiu slowly nodded. "En, the heavens had given me another chance, perhaps this is what he wanted me to do."

Knowing who Ye Xiu was talking about, Su Mucheng was suddenly at a loss for words, with feelings surging through her. "I'm sure he's watching everything, knowing him, he probably wants your name to resound throughout glory in his stead."

"Haha, looks like you've grown quite a bit!" 

"Only so-so."

Ye Xiu watched as Su Mucheng finished her ice cream before thanking the owner and leaving. 

On their way back, the duo walked silently as today had brought up a lot of questions and memories for Ye Xiu.

Questions he had answers to and some in which he didn't. But he had a feeling that in the coming month, the answers would soon come to light. In any case, now wasn't the time to be distracted, what was to come will come. He needed to focus on the world championship, leading his team to victory.

Perhaps… this was the last time he could make such a bold move, perhaps it was the last time he could fight for glory.

Perhaps, this was what he had predicted would happen as well.

In the past, he had stated that playing for another 10 years wouldn't pose a problem as he would still love the game unconditionally, but Glory was now tired of him.

He could no longer keep up with the new wave of players, he was getting too old.

What withers with mechanics, comes with experience. Except, experience alone could only bring him so far.

Thus, as he still had the chance to play, he would make the most of it, his love for Glory would never fade.

Arriving at their hotel, the two parted ways before entering their room.

"Try to sleep early, starting tomorrow, we'll have a long month ahead of us."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Su Mucheng eyed Ye Xiu as she knew how irresponsible he was. 

In the past, Ye Xiu would sometimes wake up to use the restroom only to be seen playing Glory afterwards.

Seeing the 'heed your own advice' look from Su Mucheng, Ye Xiu face dropped as he quickly said goodbye, waving her off. "Alright, alright, see you tomorrow." 

The current hotel rooms were specifically rented out by the Glory Alliance for the team, they were originally going to have a massive mansion to practice and live together in, but there was some issues causing the construction to be delayed. According to Feng Xianjun who contacted Ye Xiu earlier on, it would be fixed and put to use by the end of tomorrow.

The team would have about two weeks to practice, synergize and get everything together before flying off to Zurich, Switzerland where the Glory World Cup would be hosted.

As for the format and tournament rules, they would only be informed once they arrived in the Letzigrund Stadium.

Walking into his hotel room, Ye Xiu placed his jacket down and immediately crawled onto the bed, falling asleep soundly.

...

The next day, Ye Xiu woke up early as he found it hard to sleep, it may have been excitement or maybe because of the thoughts he had yesterday.

Stretching for a bit, Ye Xiu walked over to the restroom and washed up before going to the training room with his tablet in hand.

Fiddling with the buttons, Ye Xiu managed to turn on the big projector that showcased a match between two teams from Australia.

Thundering Waves vs. Defying Nebula

Although the format used in Australia was different from the one they went by in China, the general layout was similar.

For example, in the team challenge, rather than having five players with a substitute in each team, the alliance in Australia had six players on the field at once, along with a substitute.

BOOM!

The video was playing as Ye Xiu was instantly attracted to the sounds. Since Ye Xiu was watching in spectator's view, he could look over the entire map to have a more accurate judgement when watching.

Right now, a grappler who was on the side of Thundering Waves with the name Deceiving Hawk was hiding behind a rock, as his teammates seemed to be pushing the opposing players towards him.

Even though it was a four on five, Defying Nebula still couldn't get close to those on Thundering Waves.

No, it was wrong to put it that way. Rather than Defying Nebula not being able to close in on the players from Thundering Waves, it was more like their movements were restricted on a global scale.

Ye Xiu could tell that both teams were well-practiced, but the play style of Thundering Waves were tricky and quite annoying to play against.

With just a few minutes of watching, Ye Xiu was able to accurately deduce Thundering Waves play style.

Right now, although Thundering Waves were in a four vs five situation, they weren't really in a fight. What the players were doing was just slowly forcing those from Defying Nebula backwards.

However it wasn't as easy as one-two. No matter how good you are, Glory wasn't a game meant to be played by one, a player missing was extremely detrimental, especially in a team oriented competition.

Yet despite missing a player, the play style that Thundering Waves was running enabled them to generate a lot of pressure, allowing them to overwhelm the opposing players. This showed the team's coordination, trust and strengths.

But what Ye Xiu didn't understand was why they were running the play style. Why were they restricting the movement of the players from Defying Nebula? 

They were forcing Defying Nebula to hover over Defying Hawk who was hiding in ambush, but would it work? Ye Xiu didn't know what was to come as it was his first time witnessing such a bizarre method, but he firmly believed that a world-championship team wouldn't do something for naught.

And sure enough, his questions were answered.

"How fast!" Before Ye Xiu even had a chance of grabbing some water, the grappler Deceiving Hawk immediately rushed out. 

Flying Hands!

Spinning Throw! 

Aerial Twist!

Upon seeing the five players in his view, Deceiving Hawk instantly darted towards the group and grabbed onto two players in surprise.

Flying Hands was a technique that allowed a player to grab onto another user and swing the target into the ground, and if used correctly, the skill would allow two players to be grabbed simultaneously.

Seeing Deceiving Hawk rush out and precisely grab onto two players showed how good he was as well as the team's plan. 

And it wasn't like the players from Defying Nebula wasn't aware that Deceiving Hawk was hiding, it was just that their movements were limited! If they were to split or walk into a different area, they would have immediately attracted the aggro of the four players and been killed.

Their only choice was to follow along, but despite being on high alert for Deceiving Hawk, they were still punished in the end.

But Ye Xiu didn't care about the other team, what he was surprised about was the speed Deceiving Hawk held. How did he travel so fast? Silver Equipment?

It had to be, otherwise there was no other way.

Such a crude and irritating method could only be pulled off with a grappler of that caliber. It was like another version of Lord Grim, the unspecialized could only be played due to the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella. And Team Thundering Waves could only be played because of the specifically designed Silver Equipment made for Deceiving Hawk.

But Ye Xiu could still see some openings in the fight, although they could be covered up afterwards, if someone had struck out during the time that there was a gap between their formation, the entire play style and tempo of Thundering Waves would be disrupted.

Resuming the video, Deceiving Hawk then rapidly spun in circles, swinging the two targets in each hand before releasing, sending both players flying.

While the two players were being launched backwards, Deceiving Hawk immediately chased after one with his immense speed, grabbing onto the legs of a player called Black Light before jumping into the air.

Back Throw!

Flipping Black Light over his back, Deceiving Hawk smashed him into the ground before killing him.

As for the other player that he threw, he had actually thrown him into a series of boundaries created by a ghostblade player on his team called Silent Reaper as the remaining three players from Thundering Waves immediately jumped onto him, wiping him out.

In just a minute, two players from Defying Nebula were instantly wiped out, this turned the match into a 6v5 situation in favor of Thundering Waves.

You could practically say the match was over, with the player lead that Thundering Waves held, Defying Nebula wasn't able to turn it around.

GLORY!

The victor was Thundering Waves, without losing pressure and seizing a single opportunity, they were able to win based on sheer power.

"Phoo…" Ye Xiu felt a sense of excitement as he played the video once more, this time analyzing the match more in-depth, wondering what he would have done if placed in the same situation.