Hearts seemed very interested in the conversation. "Bai Liu has been winning all the way through the competition."
"This is exactly where Bai Liu is wrong." The man sneered. "I don't need to tell you how fatal the instability of newcomers can be, right, Hearts?"
"Bai Liu didn't think about playing a few more team matches in the early preseason to stabilize the team. Instead, he rushed to finish games early just to gain fame, wasting match after match without properly adjusting or training."
He sneered arrogantly. "Short-sighted idiot."
"Just wait and see. Bai Liu will definitely run into serious trouble in the later stages of the team battles. His tactics simply won't hold up."
As the two spoke, the screen in the center of the viewing pool flashed—
[System Alert: The Wandering Circus has accumulated 8 points in total, won the game in advance, and advanced to the next round.]
[Storm Mansion Team Eliminated.]
The entire venue erupted into a massive carnival. Shrill screams drowned out their conversation. Even the fan sitting beside Hearts no longer paid attention to her.
He jumped to his feet, waving his arms wildly, shouting the names of the Wandering Circus and Bai Liu.
In the league, winning was everything.
Hearts withdrew her gaze. "So your tactic of sneak-attacking opponents in real life is a good one?"
Bai Liu, who had just logged out, lowered his head and brushed off his shirt. The tactician of the Fanatic Lambs sat in his seat, staring at Bai Liu from afar, who seemed completely unaware of these undercurrents. Slowly, one corner of his lips curled upward into a sarcastic smile, and the expression on his face gradually turned vicious.
"Certainly."
"In a team competition where they're already at a disadvantage, if even one of Bai Liu's key players gets injured or makes a mistake, he'll definitely lose."
Hearts replied indifferently, "Your tactics have a fatal weakness."
The man glanced at her contemptuously. "Little witch, hm?"
"As long as I don't cripple them completely, they can still enter the game. And the little witch can heal them with medicine."
"Yes." Hearts leaned forward gracefully. A sharp poker card appeared between her fingers. She raised it to his neck and whispered in his ear, "And if you dare to touch the little witch—although I can't kill you here—I don't mind using your tactics."
"Killing people outside the venue."
The man lazily raised his hands in surrender, as if he didn't take her threat seriously at all. "I won't touch the little witch. Her skills are too rare. I want to recruit her for next year's league."
"She's not the one I want to target."
"I prefer challenging tacticians." His eyes locked viciously onto Bai Liu. "Especially those who look so ostentatious."
After the battle with Storm Mansion, Mu Sicheng stretched and followed Bai Liu out of the viewing pool. "Are we fighting again today?"
"No," Bai Liu replied. "Let's go to the game pool and practice team matches."
Mu Sicheng froze. "Huh? Why didn't we practice team matches just now?"
"If I give up a singles or doubles match, I can just play more team matches instead, right?" Mu Sicheng asked in genuine confusion. "Why do we need to practice in the game pool? There aren't even any opponents there."
Bai Liu answered calmly, "Who says there aren't? Your opponent is Captain Tang."
Mu Sicheng stared blankly. "Tang Erda???"
"Yes." Wang Shun nodded in agreement. "President Bai and I discussed this for a long time before deciding."
"God Mu, you, Liu Jiayi, and Mu Ke are all pure rookies. You've never played in a league before, so you'll be more unstable on the field—especially in team matches. You might fail to coordinate in time, which can disrupt both offensive and defensive rhythms."
Mu Sicheng frowned. "Then why not practice during the preseason?"
"No. We revealed too much information during the preseason already." Wang Shun shook his head. "That's one issue. The other is the level of opponents. You experienced it today—do you really think playing team matches against teams like that will improve you?"
Mu Sicheng paused and fell silent.
To be honest, today's opponent had been so weak it almost made him swell with arrogance. For a moment, he had thought, So this is the league? That's it?
Wang Shun sighed. "Do you feel like they weren't even worth fighting?"
"For capable newcomers like you, using such weak teams as whetstones will only make you accustomed to low-level battles."
"But soon, you'll be facing top-tier guilds. The sudden jump in difficulty will make it hard to adapt. That's why Guild Master Bai and I agreed it's not suitable to use these guilds for team training."
Mu Sicheng scratched the back of his neck irritably. "But Bai Liu and I work well together. Do we really need this much extra training?"
Wang Shun sighed helplessly. "It's not that you cooperate well with Bai Liu. It's that Bai Liu cooperates well with you."
"He's not just good with you—he can coordinate well with any of you. Captain Tang is the same. He's an experienced main attacker and can tolerate your mistakes to a certain extent."
"The issue lies in the coordination among the three of you. There's no problem with Bai Liu or Captain Tang, so Bai Liu doesn't need to join your training."
Mu Sicheng pointed at Bai Liu indignantly. "But he's a rookie too! Why doesn't he have to train?"
Liu Jiayi rolled her eyes. "Do you think we're on the same level as Bai Liu, this pervert?"
Mu Ke nodded. "I can train."
Bai Liu smiled. "I want to train too—but not with you."
Mu Ke froze, his eyes darting between Bai Liu and Tang Erda. He swallowed carefully. "You mean…"
"Yes." Bai Liu smiled. "I'm on Captain Tang's side. The three of you are one team. Your opponents are Captain Tang and me."
Tang Erda walked up behind Bai Liu with a stern expression, arms crossed, glancing at them coldly. It was obvious he wouldn't go easy on them.
Bai Liu smiled gently. "I believe Captain Tang and I together should be more than enough to polish your instability."
Mu Sicheng, Liu Jiayi, Mu Ke: "…"
Wang Shun turned to Bai Liu. "We rented the game pool for today, so we can use it anytime. But…"
Bai Liu looked at him. "Is there something else?"
Wang Shun hesitated before speaking. "There's a Killer Sequence match today—against the Skeleton Legion, ranked 27th last year. It's about to begin. Do you want to watch it first?"
Bai Liu paused briefly. "Let's go."
—————————————————
Killer Sequence Arena — Viewing Pool
Compared to the No. 98 viewing pool where Bai Liu had been earlier, the population density here was at least ten times higher.
Standing at the top edge of the massive viewing pool, Bai Liu looked down at the battle displayed on the giant central screen.
A host stood in front of the screen, holding a microphone and speaking excitedly.
"What you're seeing now is the strongest player of the Killer Sequence—Spades—fighting against the Skeleton Legion member, Disciple! Last year, both achieved excellent results in the singles competition…"
Mu Sicheng couldn't help muttering, "He's so noisy."
Wang Shun explained quietly, "Popular matches have commentators. You'll get used to it. You can't hear them inside the game anyway."
The host suddenly raised his voice. "Spades has locked onto his opponent's neck with a whip! Is he going to kill the opponent and end the match early?!"
On the big screen, Spades knelt on one knee on his opponent's shoulder, expression cold. He pulled upward with the whip in his hand. The opponent's face turned purple before collapsing forward, throwing Spades off.
Spades landed smoothly, rolled, and seemed to retrieve something from Disciple. The screen instantly went dark.
[System Alert: Congratulations to player Spades for collecting all key items. The game is over.]
[System Alert: Player Spades finishes the game in advance, wins the singles match, and scores 2 points.]
The audience was silent for more than a minute before exploding into thunderous applause.
"The match ended in under five minutes!" the host screamed. "The mid-season singles record has been broken! What a start for the Killer Sequence!"
"Last year's champion team has returned even stronger!"
Under countless gazes, Spades logged out and walked straight back to his seat without looking around.
The Reverse God beside him turned to speak. Spades nodded calmly, lowered his eyes, and wrapped his hands and whip handle with bandages.
All the audience's fervent gazes were fixed on him alone—but Spades never glanced back. The cheers and worship had nothing to do with him; he accepted them as naturally as breathing.
Like a god accustomed to being worshiped.
Soon, the doubles match began.
[System Alert: Doubles match about to begin.]
[Killer Sequence members Bai Yi, Bai Jiamu vs. Skeleton Legion, Bone Shield Cavalry.]
The host chattered excitedly, "Doubles used to be Killer Sequence's weakness last year. Let's see if that changes this season…"
As Mu Sicheng watched Bai Yi and Bai Jiamu fight with seamless coordination, steadily pressing their opponents into a corner, his expression darkened.
Bai Liu asked calmly, "What did you notice?"
Mu Sicheng gritted his teeth. "Do they share the same brain?"
"Their coordination is incredible," Liu Jiayi said seriously. "Whatever happens to one, the other reacts instantly—even from far away. It's like a single person controlling two bodies."
"And I didn't see them communicate at all," Mu Ke added, taking a deep breath. "How are they doing that?"
On the screen, the four players battled in a confined space.
The moment Bai Yi was about to be struck from behind by skeletal claws, Bai Jiamu glanced over sharply and sliced precisely with his scalpel.
At the same time, as Bai Jiamu turned to attack, his opponent was knocked airborne by Bai Yi's backhand swing of an egg beater.
In such tight quarters, they never once injured each other. Their attacks flowed seamlessly—without exchanging a single word.
Step by step, they forced their opponents into despair.
[System Alert: Players Bai Yi and Bai Jiamu finish the game in advance, win the doubles match, and accumulate 6 points.]
[System Alert: Killer Sequence accumulates 8 points in total, wins in advance. Game over.]
[Skeleton Legion: 0 points.]
The audience erupted again.
Cheers for Killer Sequence and Spades filled the arena. Some fans even twisted and danced in their seats, as if the championship had already been decided.
Wang Shun watched with complicated emotions. "This is the charm of top-tier guild competition."
"Compared to last year, Killer Sequence is far more mature," Liu Jiayi analyzed calmly. "That's probably the tactician's doing."
Bai Liu observed silently for a moment before turning away. "Let's go train. We're still far from good enough."
—————————————————
Killer Sequence Lounge — After the Match
The Reverse God clutched his head, eyes vacant. "What do we do? Our next match is against the eighth-ranked team. They're strong. There's no way we can end it early—we'll have to play a team match…"
No one else seemed worried. Bai Yi was still excited, circling around him.
Only Liao Ke looked sympathetic. "Is it that serious?"
The Reverse God nodded heavily. "Yes."
Bai Yi blinked. "But we finished early today. What's the problem?"
The Reverse God sighed. "I didn't end it early for show. I did it to avoid a team fight."
"Our team coordination is still immature. Against well-trained big guilds, we'll get crushed."
He shot a resentful look at Spades, who was dozing on the sofa. "You're the main culprit!"
Spades simply turned over and continued sleeping.
The Reverse God sighed again. "Forget it. No use blaming you now. We need serious team practice."
He turned to Liao Ke. "Did we rent today's game pool?"
Liao Ke spread his hands. "No. We were too late. The Wandering Circus rented it."
"They also ended their match early today. Probably the same issue—team battles are their weakness."
The Reverse God glanced at the sleeping Spades and deliberately raised his voice. "The Wandering Circus… their tactician is Bai Liu, right?"
Spades' eyes snapped open. He sat up abruptly, red sleep marks still on his face.
He stared straight at the Reverse God.
"Bai Liu. Where is he?"
The Reverse God: "…"