After Armand returned to the team, Mu Shicheng, who had been blown down by the wind, stood up in anger and wanted to charge forward again, but Bai Liu held him back.
Bai Liu looked across the crowd and met George’s eyes from a distance as he turned his head back.
George’s gaze lingered on the troublemaking Mu Shicheng for less than a second before moving to Bai Liu’s face. This Golden Dawn captain’s scrutiny of Bai Liu was focused and serious, as if he intended to drill a hole through Bai Liu’s face with his gaze.
“Wow.” Bai Liu smiled slightly. “This Captain George seems to recognize me.”
Tang Erda’s expression gradually stiffened. “...Probably not. If he really remembered what Bai Six did, he would only attack right now.”
“George is very straightforward when it comes to taking action.”
“So why does this Captain George keep staring at me?” Bai Liu tilted his eyes upward to look at Tang Erda. “It couldn’t be that he fell in love with me at first sight, could it?”
Tang Erda blurted out instinctively, “That’s not impossible. Back then, he also only met you once and then ran away with you...”
Bai Liu: “...”
Fortunately, George did not observe Bai Liu for too long. Once Armand returned to his side, George withdrew his gaze. As if he had never looked at Bai Liu at all, he calmly continued leading the team forward.
The onlookers who had been panicked by the wind quickly began cheering and screaming instead.
They interpreted the accident just now as a duel performance.
The winner of this duel performance was clearly Armand, which meant that this eye-catching newcomer also possessed extraordinary combat ability. That made Golden Dawn’s supporters quite excited.
As the team, with its bright golden base, passed in front of Bai Liu and the others, the cheers reached a peak, almost as if in provocation.
Mu Shicheng became even more irritable.
“Damn it, it’s just because my skills are banned. If you’ve got the ability, duel me one-on-one inside a game...”
“That’s enough.” Bai Liu glanced at him indifferently. “You’ve already given them such a good publicity effect today. Stop seeing them off. Let’s train.”
“...Yes.” Mu Shicheng clenched his fists in frustration. He realized he had been impulsive. His fingers changed from monkey claws back into human form, and he stopped speaking.
They walked toward the login entrance again and began the next round of training.
——————
After two games, Liu Jiayi, who had crawled out of swamps and toxic mists, saw a line of prompt text jump out on her system panel:
[System Notification: Player Liu Jiayi has met the game frequency requirements for league registration. Do you wish to register?]
Liu Jiayi looked up at Bai Liu and, under his firm gaze, took a deep breath.
[Confirm.]
[League Guild Selection: Killer Sequence, Kings Guild... Wandering Circus...]
Liu Jiayi’s gaze paused for a moment on the crown symbol of the Kings Guild.
Then she selected Wandering Circus.
[System Notification: You have become one of the registered players for the (Wandering Circus) guild league. Please find your other four teammates as soon as possible...]
The moment Liu Jiayi confirmed her registration, her photo appeared at the end of the popularity voting announcement.
It was a photo taken from a very strange angle. Liu Jiayi stood before some gargantuan creature, using poison, with half her veil blown up by the wind. Her movements were ruthless and crisp, while the corners of her mouth tilted up childishly, making her look both playful and innocent.
This was a default registration photo preset for her by the Kings Guild.
It was impossible for this photo to be a screenshot from a small TV, because it was too close to her. It was not the perspective of a small TV. Clearly, someone very close to her had secretly taken this picture while she was in combat.
Liu Jiayi stared blankly at this photo.
This shooting angle...
She remembered that the person standing behind her to defend her in that game had been...
Queen of Hearts.
After she killed that huge monster and came down, Queen of Hearts had looked at her with a smile and unhesitatingly pulled out a poker card, raising her hand to attack her. She sliced open Liu Jiayi’s veil while Liu Jiayi was caught off guard, leaving a bloodstain on the side of her face.
Liu Jiayi had looked up at Queen of Hearts in shock, not understanding why she had done that.
Queen of Hearts knelt down so their eyes were level and said to her with a smile, “This is the first lesson I am teaching you about the league. Even if the person standing behind you is your teammate, do not trust her easily.”
Queen of Hearts lowered her shimmering eyes and whispered,
“—You never know when the teammates around you will go mad. They will betray you and attack you.”
“Teammates are not reliable. In a competition, as a tactician, the only things you can trust are yourself and your absolute control over your teammates—control that makes them nothing more than weapons in your hands, even if they go mad.”
Liu Jiayi paused for a moment.
Then she changed the photo and looked up as she walked out of the login entrance.
The news that Liu Jiayi had registered for the league scrolled across the popularity announcement bar on the system panel. At the same time, announcement fireworks suddenly burst across her system panel.
[System Notification: Player Liu Jiayi has joined the Wandering Circus team!]
[System Announcement: Player Liu Jiayi has permanently withdrawn from the Kings Guild team!]
The announcement fireworks had obviously been bought by the Kings Guild. It was a region-wide broadcast.
Amid the fluttering fragments of electronic fireworks, Liu Jiayi saw an old acquaintance standing stiffly not far from the login entrance.
Qi Yifang’s eyes were red as he held two boxes. He seemed to have already had a major crying session, but in front of Liu Jiayi, he forced himself to maintain the appearance of a gege. He looked at the newly logged-out Liu Jiayi with a smile that looked more like crying.
“Congratulations to Little Witch for participating in the league!”
Liu Jiayi’s steps outward stopped.
Behind her, Bai Liu gave her a gentle push forward.
“Go. Say a proper goodbye to him.”
Liu Jiayi slowly walked to Qi Yifang.
Qi Yifang seemed very happy to see her and tried to grin, but the moment he smiled, tears streamed down with a splash, and he could not stop sobbing.
“Wooo, Jiayi, you’re so amazing. I’m so happy watching...”
Qi Yifang knelt down with teary eyes and sniffled twice. “I, I joined the official team, Jiayi.”
Liu Jiayi glanced at him. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It’s not good at all, wooo.” As Qi Yifang spoke, two more lines of sorrowful tears flowed down. “We’ve been training and coordinating with a nun player recently. She’s so strong. Liu Ji and I can’t keep up with her. The Queen calls me useless every day. As soon as I think about how we’ll have to fight against you in the future, I get so scared, wooo, wooo, wooo.”
“What if we win?” Qi Yifang cried so hard he looked miserable; even snot bubbles were coming out. “The Queen said she won’t show you any mercy.”
Liu Jiayi could not help laughing. She crossed her arms and raised her chin with a huff.
“Don’t look down on my new team. Who wins is still undecided!”
“Stop crying!” Liu Jiayi shouted to stop him, beginning to feel a headache. “Aren’t you embarrassed, crying like this?”
Qi Yifang handed the boxes to Liu Jiayi and relayed Queen of Hearts’ words to her, defending himself while sobbing.
“Originally, the guild’s new information supervisor was supposed to bring you these things, but on the way, he happened to see the system message saying you joined the league, and he couldn’t accept it for a while.”
“He’s crying even harder than me. The other reserve members are all crying in the dorms right now. I’m the only one who can still control myself a little, so they let me come give you the things.”
Liu Jiayi silently took the two boxes.
Then Qi Yifang pulled out a pair of ice skates from somewhere and handed them to Liu Jiayi.
It was a pair of very pink ice skates. On one side, a doll and a little witch had been clumsily drawn holding hands. These two patterns had clearly been added later.
Seeing the pair of ice skates, Liu Jiayi looked up in surprise.
“[Super Speed Skates]? Where did you guys get these? I remember the level-three instance that drops this item hasn’t appeared in a long time.”
“The Game Pool has this instance, but it’s really hard to complete the monster book and get the item.” Qi Yifang said pitifully, “A whole group of us farmed it for more than half a month before we finally got one pair. Liu Ji farmed it. He got injured while farming it, but I guess it was a blessing in disguise. He improved a lot during the farming process, and that’s why he was able to be selected for the official team.”
The smile on Liu Jiayi’s face faded.
Qi Yifang continued, “We prepared this as a gift for you when you entered the league. Your movement speed isn’t great. With these shoes, you can run a little faster and won’t get hurt as easily.”
“Now you’re in the league.” Qi Yifang pushed the item in front of Liu Jiayi, looking at her expectantly. “Take it.”
Liu Jiayi looked at him quietly, then spoke calmly.
“Half a month ago, I was still a member of the Kings Guild, but now I’m not. I didn’t join the league for you guys either, so I won’t... take this.”
“But we are!!” Qi Yifang’s tears surged. He half-knelt on the ground, moved forward forcefully, hugged Liu Jiayi, and wailed loudly, “We wanted to join the team because we wanted to protect you!”
Liu Jiayi’s breathing hitched slightly.
Qi Yifang choked out, “No matter whose team you choose to join, we all hope you can be safe.”
“—The Queen said the competition is cruel and fair. She said you are a very smart person. If we intentionally went easy on you on the field, letting you survive and letting you go, you would be able to tell. And that would instead interfere with your strength, making you even more endangered during the match, because you would also become soft-hearted toward us and affect your own decisions.”
Liu Jiayi’s fingers curled and clenched tightly.
Qi Yifang closed his eyes.
“We aren’t as smart as you, and we didn’t know what to do. We thought about it for a long time, and felt this was the only way.”
He suddenly opened his eyes and hugged Liu Jiayi tightly in his arms.
“We swear we will use our full strength to deal with you guys. Jiayi, you must also use your full strength to deal with us. If you find us coming to hunt you down, then run!”
“Run as far as you can! Run so that even if we use all our strength, we can’t catch you! Run until the game ends!”
“You must survive!”
Liu Jiayi laughed very softly.
There seemed to be tears in her eyes as she reached out and generously hugged Qi Yifang back.
“Don’t make me sound so useless.”
“Who’s going to run? We’re going to win!”
Qi Yifang let go. He raised his hand to wipe his tears, turning grief into a smile. His gaze was determined as he said,
“Us too!”
Bai Liu watched Liu Jiayi return holding two boxes and a pair of ice skates.
Behind her, Qi Yifang wiped his tears and turned to leave. But he had not gone far before he began running and crying loudly.
As Liu Jiayi walked, she could not help beginning to run too.
She threw herself into Bai Liu’s embrace and buried her face inside, unwilling to let anyone else see the tear stains on her face.
“Bai Liu, will we... really win?” she asked softly, holding Bai Liu’s waist.
Bai Liu patted her head.
“We will win.”
Liu Jiayi’s voice grew even softer.
“Then what is the price of winning?”
Bai Liu looked at Qi Yifang’s retreating figure in the distance.
“You don’t need to pay any price, because you have already paid it to me.”
“The price of victory can be paid by me alone.”
On the system popularity voting panel, the number [0] beneath Liu Jiayi’s poster suddenly changed.
[Player Liu Jiayi has received one vote.]
[Player Liu Jiayi has gained the qualification to enter the Game Pool.]
—
Author’s Note:
Here, I want to make a very serious statement: most of the characters in this text have their own emotional storylines. Some are romantic, and some are not. Enmity, familial affection, friendship, and romance are all present, and basically all of them serve the main storyline.
Some reader friends asked me why I had to give 4 (Mu Shicheng) a “lifelong enemy.” It is because they have to play in the league! How can you play without enemies!
I also do not really know how side CPs are calculated. If this refers to romantic lines, then at most, I will write them to the level of 2 (Tang Erda) and Su (Su Yang). This is also to serve the characters and the plot, and will not be expanded upon. Basically, these are the character relationship lines you saw in the early stages. The proportion of content is about the same as +1 (Liu Jiayi) and Liu Huai, Queen of Hearts and Qi Yifang, 4 (Mu Shicheng) and Liu Huai and Armand, or 2 (Tang Erda), Su (Su Yang), and Bai Liu. They are all roughly equivalent.
Basically, for every person in the Circus, I have created two character relationship lines: one enemy line and one friend line. This is mainly to build the characters and make the later league matches more interesting to watch. If any reader friends mind this point, run_fast.jpg.
Of course, 6 (Bai Liu/Bai Six) has the most enemies. Basically, every guild leader is his lifelong enemy.
Bow. Thank you all for your support all this way!
