005

Thanks to the team's setup, Zhong Qing logged off before 7 PM. When she shut down the game, she finally noticed the stiffness in her neck, shoulders, and back from sitting in one position for so long, especially in the cramped space where the bed and desk heights didn't match up well.

Fortunately, youth is still on her side. As she stretched and did hand exercises in the small room where the bed, desk, and wardrobe left just a narrow path, she ordered a laptop stand online.

Moving wasn't an option, so she'd have to raise the computer to improve her posture for now.

Zhong Qing didn't feel particularly bothered by her current living conditions. In fact, she found some amusement in it. As she busied herself cooking dinner on the electric stove, she grabbed a tablet that still had the original owner's face recognition unlock enabled. After connecting to the landlord's WiFi, she tuned into the live broadcast of the Glory tournament.

It was the first round of the playoffs in June.

The freshly announced quarterfinals would decide which four teams advanced to the semifinals, heating up the summer even more. Today's matchup was Void vs. Hundred Blossoms, with Hundred Blossoms hosting.

The commentators were the familiar Pan Lin and Li Yibo.

Zhong Qing watched the teams make their entrances and the individual match begin. Even though she already knew the outcome, she still found it engaging. After all, in the full-dive game's storyline, the player is sent back to the eighth season, one month before the plot begins. The seventh season's match results were just brief text in the game's background setting.

Even after joining a team, players could see last season's results on a scoreboard or review past matches for tactical reasons, but it could never compare to watching a live match.

"For the first individual match, Hundred Blossoms is fielding their rookie from Season 7, Zou Yuan, controlling the ammo expert Blossoming Flowers. For Void, we have Li Xun controlling the assassin Ghostly Firefly."

"As the successor to Falling Blossoms, Zou Yuan didn't get much playtime in the first half of the season. You could even say he was a benchwarmer. But as the season went on, he started appearing more in individual and group matches. That said, leading off in the playoffs brings its own pressure."

"But either way, it's long-range versus melee… We can see that Hundred Blossoms has chosen the map, Mud River Peninsula."

As soon as the map loaded, Pan Lin immediately realized that the home team had chosen a map that favored Hundred Blossoms.

A map that restricted movement, combined with the home team's familiarity with its layout, gave Zou Yuan an advantage. Add to that the long-range vs. melee matchup, and Zou Yuan might be a rookie, but he wasn't a total newbie.

Zhong Qing watched as Blossoming Flowers left some traces to mislead the opponent before skillfully climbing up a tree to hide.

She figured there was no need to watch further. With such a strong advantage, if Zou Yuan still couldn't win, Hundred Blossoms might've chosen the wrong heir to the team's core.

Sure enough, Hundred Blossoms won the first individual match, though they lost the overall round 1-2.

She hadn't forgotten about her dinner while watching the match, so she quickly jotted down a few notes on the fridge during breaks. It wasn't until the team match ended that she finally sat down to eat, although her food had already gone cold.

The score for the first round between Hundred Blossoms and Void ended at 7.5 to 2. Zhang Jiale played both as the anchor in the group match and the core in the team match. Zhong Qing thought if she were in her current under-20 body, she'd be exhausted by now, but when Zhang Jiale shook hands after the match, his eyes were full of fiery determination, completely overwhelming any fatigue.

Zhong Qing didn't bother watching the post-match interviews. Watching Glory tournament live broadcasts and following the game's storyline as if it were a drama were two completely different things. Still, it only pushed the scales of her decision-making slightly, without tipping them fully.

She needed to think about her plans for the next six months, or maybe less.

Though her room was small, it had a fridge and cooking equipment, so cooking for herself would save more money than ordering takeout. Zhong Qing knew the most cost-effective way would be to live off instant noodles and sausage, but she wasn't planning on wrecking her health. She even made time in her schedule for morning and evening exercise.

She was well aware of what she needed to do in addition to keeping up her in-game skills, to be ready when the time came for her decision.

In the game, meeting people like Shaoguang and Liuchao had been unexpected, and joining the Samsara guild even more so. But Samsara—

She rested her chin in her hand and casually drew two lines on a piece of paper with her pen.

Samsara, compared to the Big Three guilds, had another advantage besides money—it didn't dig into the backgrounds of its elite group members as rigorously. They didn't demand exhaustive details like all social connections or past accounts.

Having seen someone once slip into Samsara's elite team, even becoming a captain and playing undercover during world boss raids without raising any suspicion, Zhong Qing was confident that if it were her, she could probably do it just as well—except she wouldn't be an undercover mole; she was aiming to lead the team.

That was a position that didn't require extraordinary hand speed or in-game mechanics, just strategy. A role where she could both advance and retreat at will.

Of course, all this depended on her leveling up her account to the max and entering the Heavenly Domain.

Shaoguang Liujing: "Hey, we might need to find someone to join us tomorrow."

ZQ: "?"

After resetting the QQ account on her PC and adding the group from today's dungeon run, Zhong Qing received a message from the priest, Shaoguang, just as she finished her plans for promotion.

Shaoguang Liujing: "Liuchao is a diehard fan of Jiang Botao, so he's going to watch the playoffs in person (crying)."

ZQ: "Actually, we can still run without a melee."

Shaoguang Liujing: "Are you taunting us?"

ZQ: "We can just grab any DPS. After our recent gear upgrades, our damage output should be enough. Ice Forest at level 20 isn't mechanically difficult. Goblins are squishy, and since we have reliable tanking and healing, missing a DPS shouldn't be a big deal."

Shaoguang Liujing: "Alright, we'll see if we can find someone. And I'll take that last part as a compliment from you."

ZQ: "It was a compliment. See you tomorrow morning ^-^"

Shaoguang Liujing: "See you in the morning!"