Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

Vantico had only just set down the key when Tyron spoke in a languid tone, "If someone wants to see me, does that mean I have to see them?"

"……" Vantico's expression was displeased as he said, "It's an elder! An elder!"

The old antique thought to himself, Was there anyone with a higher generational status than him in this world?

He could pretty much guess what kind of person it was who wanted to see him. It was probably that Vantico's teacher could no longer remain calm after they had learned about what had happened in their previous game.

As for Vantico's virtual key, it was probably a pass to an outside world. After using his communicator to check the key, it appeared to be a symbol that signified a guest identity, allowing the bearer to remain for three days with the host's invitation.

Tyron thought about it. He felt that it might end up being quite interesting, and he could even travel there with Victor. However, he teased Vantico and asked, "What does your elder have to do with me?"

Vantico was really angry now; his eyebrows went up in a vertical line, but he immediately remembered that his teacher had entrusted him with this matter and refrained from blowing up. He spoke in a pleasant voice, "You, you won't regret going."

Tyron: "How can I be sure that you aren't purposely wasting my time?"

When he said this, Victor, who was beside him, instantly exploded, "Exactly. Why are you coming over now? The championship game is about to start, don't you know?"

"I couldn't get a hold of you guys!!" Vantico couldn't hold back anymore and was going crazy, "Just come if you want! If you don't, then… I'll just think of another way."

Victor: "……" Aiya, what did it mean to be ferocious in appearance but feeble in essence? This was exactly it. The first half of his words didn't match up with the second half!

Vantico looked at the husband-and-husband pair who were still seated in their chairs in the same relaxed pose and felt his teeth ache. He felt that he'd been stuffed with a big mouthful of dog food and finally just said, "At most, I'll wait for you for five… no, ten… fifteen days! If you don't come… you'll have to bear the consequences!"

After saying so, he fiddled with the key and changed its effectiveness to last for a month. He was still angry as he stomped off.

The competitions that came after were a little lackluster, but the audience was still immersed in the rankings for these famous players.

There had been some changes in the top eight. The 8th place had been replaced by the 10th place, and Kiss of the Goddess had broken through again and made it into the top 30. There were also two new faces in this year's National Championships who remained just beyond the 40th place…

As time went by, Victor became more and more nervous. His legs kept bouncing, and he drank down three drinks in the morning alone.

Tyron found it funny, "Relax. Or, should I go and find Crimson to have a fight ahead of time?"

Victor was startled and said, "No, no, no, no…"

The two of them looked over in Crimson's direction and found that Crimson's friends and family area was very unique. Someone had finally arrived at noon, but after lunch, many more people had slowly made their way over. Finally, they were all crowded together as they chatted and laughed.

Victor: “Wow, what a big harem&#k2026;”

Then, he went to look at the public screen. Sure enough, there were many comments from the audience that explained the general situation for him free of charge.

Crimson also played PVE games, so he was naturally involved with a very good PVE pioneer team. PVE and PVP were different, and it was difficult to pin down the specific ranking for a team. After all, there was no way to compare them directly, and it could only be evaluated according to each team’s honor and merits.

Crimson's PVE team was very well-known. It was said that if they were asked to take down a boss, their payment was usually set at around 10 million credits and scaled according to difficulty; if they were asked to open up a new outside world, it would be based on time, and their boss, the team leader, could earn tens of thousands of credits a day.

Now, their entire team had come to watch Crimson's game.

It was rumored that this national competition would likely be the last time that Crimson would participate in PVP. After all, every player's energy was limited, and they basically would never involve themselves in both PVE and PVP.

Half an hour before the start of the game, Tyron headed backstage.

Victor returned to the relatives' area and saw a row of players seated in Crimson's area. The leader waved to him and flashed a row of neat, white teeth in a broad smile.

After a while, someone in the back waved again.

Victor hesitated and shifted a little closer. He then saw a handsome brother say, "Brother-in-law Four, hello. I'm Crimson's team leader. How about watching the game together?"

Victor: "……" Brother-in-law Four?!!!

Ah, ahh, this team leader had managed to get 20 points of goodwill as soon as he had arrived. Victor immediately felt like he should go over and join them.

The other team members sitting behind their team captain acted like monkeys, chatting endlessly to each other for a while and asking many questions about Odin in a curious manner--Contestant Odin's competition record was really legendary.

Victor asked, "You guys all don't play PVP?" He felt that Crimson's team captain should at least be an amazing player.

As a result, the team captain touched his nose and said, "About this… being a team captain actually… I'm in charge of command, and Crimson is in charge of logistics. It's not that I'm more powerful than he is."

The team members behind him also tore down his reputation shamelessly, "Yeah, yeah, the big boss only played PVP once. He didn't even make it out of the provincial competition group fights, sigh…"

The team captain: "……"

In short, it was a cordial and friendly meeting between the relatives of the two contestants.

.

It didn't take long for the two commentators to finish praising the two contestants and their backgrounds. There was a light show that swept across the entire planet, and then, the two contestants came up onto the stage.

This was the year's biggest e-sports event. Over the entire planet, waves of screams and cheers rose up one after another, and all eyes were fixed onto the scene.

Inside the vast interior of the planet, countless fireworks were set off simultaneously, and fans chanted excitedly. The chanting from all directions fused together, and any words that were spoken were completely blurred.

What shocked Victor the most was that a member of Crimson's team, who was seated beside him, even screamed hysterically, "Ahhhhhhh--may the great demon king live forever!"

Victor: "……"

The team captain: "Just, just get used to it."

After a while, another wave of cheering began from the left side of the audience. Almost all of the team members were unable to remain seated and stood up to join in on the cheering.

The team captain raised his fist and called out tentatively, "Long live rainy days?"

Victor: "……"

However, the randomized map for this game wasn't a rainy day map. It was a volcanic map.

For a few seconds after the randomized results had come out, the entire scene was a little shocked.

The rhythm of a game on a volcanic map could only be described with one word: fast. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, and any exchange of attacks could be the last on this kind of map.

The volcanic map had always been the same one, but the positioning of the arena within the map would vary slightly. For team competitions, the venue was a relatively open area above the volcano; and for individual events, the venue was centered around the lava waterfall beside it. The waterfall was over 50 meters high, and there were many suspension bridges around it.

If one fell down and was lucky, they may land on the black volcanic rocks that protruded out of the lava, lose some health from the drop, and get up again. If their luck was bad though, then they would land in the lava and die within a few seconds.

And, there was one other thing that couldn't be avoided on this map: constant loss of health.

In other words, not only was there no wet Lord Four for the audience to enjoy, but also even the time that they had to lick the view had been greatly shortened.

The rainy day cult: "Don't talk to us. We've already died from sadness [manual smile]."

"It's the last game. It was a perfectly fine game… Why is it a volcano map? Eh…"

At the start, while the commentators were still explaining the map, Victor was actually listening to the team captain speak.

At the end of the day, the commander of Crimson's PVE team had experienced many battles and was used to giving command. He might not have necessarily been more professional than the commentators, but his opinion might have been more unique.

The team captain spoke incisively, "The limited amount of space isn't conducive to close combat, but the complex terrain isn't good for mage professions either. Crimson will definitely find a way to demolish the bridges. I don't dare comment on what Lord Four will do, but as far as I'm concerned, there are two ways that I can think of: One is to use steel wires to create an invisible foothold, and the other is to find a way to shift the fight to the large volcanic rock area below as it's more suited for close combat."

In terms of strategic vision, the team captain had left no room for criticism. His comments had really hit the nail on the head.

In the first second after the start of the round, both players immediately aimed for strategic advantages!

However, it was difficult for those whose level of play weren't up to par to understand their intentions. The audience was basically left confused by the first wave of fighting.

They saw Odin first use Flash to approach the enemy, then use another set of fast, continuous Flashes, but he didn't start up his Shadow Dance, and instead, he moved constantly along the suspension bridges around Crimson.

This round of attack was fierce and took over the starting advantage in one breath. He directly knocked down Crimson's mage shield and 10% of his health. However, if he'd started up Shadow Dance and used his full strength, his health advantage would have doubled.

Crimson's situation had left them even more surprised: The mage had only opened up a shield at the start of the game and then used water balls constantly! Water ball! Water ball! Water ball!

This was an instant-cast spell that meant that he didn't have to worry about being silenced. That was indeed the case, but it didn't have much attack power either! Odin didn't even try to dodge and allowed them to scrape away 3% of his health.

The commentators: "Great! They plotted and schemed around each other right from the start. In this first round of confrontation, the great demon king, Odin, obtained the health advantage, but the mage god, Crimson, managed to gain the advantage in terms of location."

"Pay attention to Odin's wires!"

They then saw that Odin's continuous Flashes as he had charged in to attack Crimson had actually been a way for him to arrange a criss-crossing series of steel wires.

And, these steel wires that should've remained hidden had become very visible, because Crimson's water balls had exposed their position. Then, the water vapor was soon evaporated by the high temperature, and the thin steel wires were roasted stiff, breaking due to the rapid change in temperature!

Off-stage, Victor was shocked and surprised.

But then, he soon heard the team captain beside him say, "No, it's Crimson who was too overconfident. He didn't manage to gain the field advantage."

As soon as his voice had dropped, they saw a rope on the suspension suddenly begin to fray. The heavy iron and wood planks sank one by one under the force of gravity, causing the entire bridge to begin to fall.

The two players on the suspension moved with it, and the pressure from Odin's close-combat attacks was now clear to the audience.

Many people said that Odin was ruthless when he dealt his combos, so it was unsurprising that any other player would choose to avoid combat and direct confrontations with him. It was even to the point where some players would still have a psychological shadow after they had stepped down from the stage.

Even a violent mage at Crimson's level didn't dare to enter a direct health exchange with him!

Less than ten seconds into the start of the game, there was a sudden roar of surprise from the audience.

--Crimson had jumped down directly!