Chapter 699 – Bans and Picks
After listening to the arrangement of Mu-Nyang and Pangu, Hongjun was baffled. He narrowed his eyes and calculated karma, searching for clues and models of this game and where these two creators had gotten the inspiration from.
All clues pointed toward a lower world, which had already been destroyed.
"MOBA game? A mortal's game?"
Hongjun learned how the mortals of the destroyed world played the game. Although he never tried it, he understood how it worked.
"How pointless. Instead of playing a repeatable game like this, they should have spent time on something else entirely."
He looked down on the old world's mortals, believing that games were a waste of time.
Still, Hongjun began reading karma, learning how to play MOBA games as a reference.
"Master?" Eve and Zhunti gazed at their master, wondering what Hongjun would do.
"Eve, Zhunti, Hades, and Xiang Yu will fight in this battle with me. The rest of our men will be the hostages."
Eve and Zhunti were delighted by Hongjun's order. Hades, who had pledged allegiance to Hongjun to survive, was also relieved that he was chosen.
As for the other fighter, he came from Qin Shi Huang's clan. Xiang Yu was his name, and he was once a deity, who acted as a vanguard general of the Qin Emperor.
Currently, Xiang Yu had been bought over to Hongjun's side because of his combat experience. Now, he had been promoted to great dao sage.
Xiang Yu smirked and glanced at his former lord, Qin Shi Huang. The latter slightly shook his head and laughed at Xiang Yu's mockery gesture.
"Don't die out there, Xiang Yu," The Qin Emperor calmly gazed at the traitor.
Xiang Yu laughed, "Nah. If I die, you and your subordinates will die first. Main representatives can be resurrected at the cost of your lives."
"That's the spirit. Sacrifice your former allies to get things done is the right choice! Though, I hate it when you're clearly trying to kill me."
"Hmm! Just be quiet and die for my sake."
After the light bickering, Qin Emperor stopped talking and let Xiang Yu run his mouth.
Meanwhile, Sun Wukong and Kunwu were grumbling. Now, they wished that they should have joined Miaomiao's side instead of serving Hongjun.
The monkey king patted Kunwu, one of the earliest backers of Miaomiao in the past.
"We picked the wrong side."
"Indeed, we did."
"Do we have a chance to get out of this alive?"
"Let's pray to Buddha."
"Yeah. We can only pray."
…
Hongjun completed the roster and pressed the confirm button on the system menu.
DING
The menu changed. Now, it showed the list of Miaomiao and Pan Mei's representatives.
<Please select five members to ban them from participating in this game.>
"Hmm?"
In MOBA games, players could ban champions so that their opponents couldn't pick them. And here, Pangu simply incorporated the system into his event, allowing Hongjun to ban five rival representatives from joining the game.
Unfortunately, Hongjun couldn't see who Miaomiao and Pan Mei had chosen. He had to choose them blind.
Still, Hongjun had been calculating karma and was aware of the nature of Miaomiao, Devil, Pan Mei, and Hiiro. He hovered his hand over their portraits, almost pressing the buttons.
Suddenly, Hongjun had the change of heart.
'No, no. It will be pointless to ban them from entering. It's better to let them join the game since they lack real combat experience against sages. I should ban old sages on their side.'
Hongjun flipped the pages. He banned five people from Miaomiao's side and didn't pick anyone from the player's side.
Nuwa, Fuxi, Tlaloc, and two unrestrained sage Cathulhus were the Hongjun's choices.
DING
<Ban list completed. Please wait for your opponents to complete their selection session.>
Hongjun stroked his beard and calmly waited for the timer to countdown and reach zero.
A few seconds later, while Hongjun believed that his side was settled, several portraits of his representatives were kicked out of the roster.
DING
<Chaos Realm Faction has banned Hongjun, Zhunti, Buddha Sage, Pan Mei, and Hiiro.>
<Player Faction has banned Venti, Orochi, Lilith, Adam, and Devil.>
"…"
Hongjun's expression turned blank. He gazed at the selection menu, where his portrait and Zhunti's image were kicked out of the list.
…
Chaos Realm Faction
Miaomiao clicked his tongue when he noticed that Player Faction banned five of his people instead of targeting the Heavenly Dao Faction. Moreover, Devil and Lilith's names appeared on the ban list, which disabled them from entering the event as representatives.
The dream-team roster was no more. Now, Miaomiao had to make a new team with him and Ma Moxi as the core.
Devil and Lilith were on the verge of raging. They yelled in unison.
"DAMMIT! WHY?!"
Ma Moxi wryly smiled, "Your name must have been well-known among the players. That's why they are banning you."
"But Miaomiao should have been on the list. Why did no one choose him?" Lilith didn't understand the player's logic.
Ma Moxi pointed at Miaomiao's portrait. In the menu, the portrait showed some of his detail, which revealed his current cultivation base.
It was listed as an immortal.
Not immortal sage.
Not deity.
Not sage.
AN IMMORTAL!
From a stranger's perspective, Miaomiao was the weakest link here. There was no reason to ban him.
Devil burst into laughter. She cackled and wiped her tears.
"Those players are idiots! This asshole is a fucking unrestrained sage in disguise!"
"But we took the most damage though. The Players and Heavenly Dao Faction banned 10 of our people," Lilith bit her lower lips.
"But no one goddamn picked Miaomiao!"
Miaomiao bitterly smiled as everybody looked down on him. He turned his attention to the roster.
'Strange. Mu-Nyang should have let us choose who to ban first before the pick. Why is he allowing us to choose first before we proceed to the ban phase? Oh, right. It must be Pangu's dirty trick again. He must have wanted to see who we picked and then he must have told the players or Hongjun whom they should ban!'
Thinking this far, Miaomiao clapped his hands. He stopped worrying about Pangu's underhanded tricks and focused on picking a new roster.
Since Devil, Lilith, Orochi, Venti, Adam, Orochi, Nuwa, Fuxi, Tlaloc, and the two evolved Cathulhus couldn't participate, Miaomiao turned toward other fighters.
Currently, Fu Daotian, Xie Tian, Xie Qingtian, Meng Xin, and Xie Lian were the best choice.
Miaomiao immediately added Xie Tian and Meng Xin to the roster. Nothing could go wrong with additional fate bearers.
As for the last member, Miaomiao had a silly idea. He turned to Nya-Nya, who had been mingling with other working catopuses.
Ma Moxi noticed Miaomiao's strange look. He followed the latter's sight and found Nya-Nya.
"How about a Yuumi?"
"Yuumi sup?"
"Yuumi Top."
"That's fucking trolling! She's not gonna make it!"
"At least, I won't put her mid or jungle."
"No! Definitely no!"
"Bummer."
Miaomiao laughed. He turned toward Xie Lian next.
But before Miaomiao could pick Xie Lian, Clem suddenly rushed to his side and sent a sound transmission to both Ma Moxi and Miaomiao.
'Guys. Does this game allow a multi-headed hydra?'
"…"
Ma Moxi and Miaomiao turned to Clem. They widened their eyes and stared at her, giving the evil dragon a thumbs up.
"You're a genius!"
"Damn brilliant!"
Clem smirked, "How long do we have until the game starts?"
"About 15 minutes left."
"Good. I'll be right back. Don't pick the last member yet!"
Clem dashed toward the group of dragonewts and subordinates of Lilith and Devil. She also chatted with Levy, Nero, and other dragons.
Miaomiao observed their reactions. Nero repeatedly shook his head, but Levy and Clem seemed to be in an agreement.
Suddenly, their bodies released a blinding light, and both women merged as one! Clem and Levy suddenly transformed into a two-headed hydra!
"It feels kinda weird. I can't move my body anymore, but I can still feel my dantian in my neck," Levy complained.
"The control over the body is up to me. But don't worry, Levy. You can detach from me whenever you want."
"Okay. Cool."
Clem giggled and turned to other candidates, "Who wants to join us? Don't worry about dying. You can detach from us later on!"
Everybody stared at Clem in disbelief. On the other hand, Orochi nodded and approved of Clem's method.
Devil and Lilith clicked their tongues in disgust. They looked away from Clem as they hadn't reconciled with this evil dragon yet.
"We should have killed her when we had the chance."
"Too late now. She's Miaomiao's bitch."
"Tsk!"
Miaomiao overheard their conversation. He broke a sweat, worrying that Devil and Lilith might kill Clem one day.
…
Five minutes later, Clem's attempt to recruit an additional head ended up in failure. Even Orochi and Venti, who had been banned from participating, declined her offer.
In the end, Clem decided to join the game as a two-headed hydra.
"Let's go with just us."
Miaomiao nodded and glanced at the list. Unfortunately, Clem and Levy had not reached the sage realm yet, so they couldn't join the game.
He dragged them to the altar and sacrificed remaining Orochi's clones to make both of them unrestrained sages. Then, he adjusted their foundation, stabilizing their dantians.
By the time Miaomiao finished the annoying task, the system warned him that he had less than five minutes remaining to make the decision.
Miaomiao stopped caring about the girls and finalized his roster.
Top Lane – Xie Tian
Jungle – Ma Moxi
Mid Lane – Mao Miaomiao
Bottom Lane ADC – Meng Xin
Support – Clem
When Miaomiao was done, Lilith and Devil peeked at the roster screen. Then, they frowned.
"Clem as sup?" Devil was shocked.
"A noob as ADC? This game is going to hell," Lilith facepalmed.
Miaomiao laughed at their reaction, "Let them try. I'll teach them how to fight."
"I mean, I know that Xie Tian can handle things on his own, but Meng Xin and Clem have no chemistry. You should take the ADC role and let Xie Tian support you. Let Meng Xin run mid and Clem go top," Devil tried to change the position of the team.
"That arrogant kid is going to get ganked to oblivion if he plays mid. Let those noobs feel things out on the bot side since they can help each other. Remember that other guys from Heavenly Dao don't know how to play the game, too!"
"…"
Devil still didn't have faith in Miaomiao's logic, but she allowed him to do whatever he wanted. After all, she had already taken the silver Qi pearl and merged with the Entity Ore.
"Alright. If you're that confident, good luck."
…
Player Faction
"…"
The player's plane was deserted as Nian had now occupied it as his new home. He laid around, licking the huge catnip ore, and playing catch with it alone.
But after playing with the ore for days, Nian got bored. He wondered if there was someone or something similar to him so that could play together.
He wanted a friend.
Nian carried the ore on his back and brought it out to the portal. After he had crossed the portal to the medium plane, he looked left and right, deciding where he should go next.
"Nyan?"
Nian's nose twitched as he caught the scent of Hiiro, who had once carried the catnip ore. Currently, Hiiro was resting in front of Heavenly Dao's portal, blocking the exit route of the cultivators.
"NYAN!"
Nian rejoiced. He dashed toward Hiiro at his full speed. As if the giant monster cat had teleported, he reached Hiiro within a split second.
"!!!"
Hiiro failed to react. He raised his sword to block the giant paw of the cat monster.
But before the strike landed, his body and Nian's body vanished.
…
"Ugh!"
After Hiiro was forcefully teleported, his entire body felt numb. He couldn't move or feel his body.
Hiiro slowly opened his eyes.
When Hiiro came back to his senses, he found himself hanging on a metal hook. Several sharp spikes of the hook had already pierced through his chest, arms, and legs. Moreover, the metal of this machine disabled his Qi and dantian!
Next to Hiiro, Pan Mei's body and the remaining players got stuck on the hook as well.
Then, a grim system message appeared before them.
DING
<I want to play a game, munya.>
"What?"
Hiiro didn't understand what had happened here.
<Your body and soul have been sealed in this dimension, and the only way to get out is to pray that the five representatives of your side don't die too often, munya. Every time one of them died, one of you will also die and your soul will be trapped here forever, munya!>
"!!!"
Hiiro and Pan Mei gulped. They stared at the system notification panels in fright, especially Pan Mei.
The King Piece of Pangu protested, "I haven't even logged into the game! HOW?!"
Hiiro widened his eyes when he heard Pan Mei's remark. He began questioning this game's origin.
<Now, let me introduce you to the game pieces, munya!>
WHOOSH
A triangle plane appeared below the trapped players. At each corner, a city wall had been pre-built.
However, at the corner that they were looking at, no structure other than the fountain was in sight. There wasn't even a single tower to protect their base!
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
Four male and one female game character suddenly teleported to the fountain. They, too, looked around in shock as they were supposed to be outside the game.
DING
The same messages of Mu-Nyang appeared before them.
<I wanna play a game, munya.>
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