Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 419: 403: Secret Weapon

Many people were still asking in his comment section who that girl was, wanting to send her some local specialties to express their gratitude.

Lance immediately denied knowing her: “I don’t know her, don’t ask me, stranger.”

Then he decisively put down his mobile phone and returned to his team to prepare for the evening’s match.

Tonight was the finals!

Lance was in a good state of mind, but his teammate Roger was obviously nervous.

However, Roger was unwilling to appear too nervous lest his anxiety affected his teammates, and he was even more afraid of his own poor performance.

So, he displayed a “I am very nervous, but I am trying my best not to show it; yet you can still see a hint of my nervousness” kind of complicated emotion.

Lance felt vexed on his behalf.

Last night’s semi-final match didn’t go too smoothly.

Their “hostage-taking plan” was only half successful – they managed to capture one of the opponents.

But at the same time, one of their teammates was taken hostage by the other team…

By the time everyone had reacted and realized that they had the same idea, it was too late.

Attempting a risky rescue could result in losing the captured opponent, leading to a total collapse.

In the end, they had no choice but to distance themselves and securely bind the hostages – the process was extremely difficult, as the opponents struggled fiercely the whole time, forcing them to tie several layers of ropes.

Anyhow, after returning to the competition venue, the situation turned into a four-versus-four.

Then everyone began to tug and pull; while seriously battling on one hand and attempting to rescue teammates on the other, they also had to prevent the opponents from rescuing their own teammates.

The entire battle situation became a tangled mess, posing a challenging task for the commentators, Ren Jian and Zara.

Ren Jian was still struggling, commenting on the current situation while analyzing and predicting the players’ next moves.

But Zara had given up, turning into a “present situation repeater,” only recounting what the players were doing at the moment, no longer trying to predict what they would do next.

Because she was too easily slapped in the face!

If this kind of unprofessional behavior happened in previous matches, no matter how unimportant it was, she would be criticized.

But this match was just too chaotic, and the audience was also a bit bewildered, so they forgave her uncharacteristic conduct.

In the end, this chaotic battle turned into a contest of raw power, with Roger taking the first kill.

The next moment, Lance and his teammate Liuting pulled off a brilliant swap and teamwork, successfully getting two more kills.

Three kills weren’t enough to determine the victory, but the fourth teammate risked their lives to prevent the last opponent from committing suicide. The three of them then cooperated to restrain that opponent, capturing one more hostage.

After that, the outcome was settled.

The subsequent matches were similar to this one, with similar tactics, the same humor, and even some ugliness…

Everyone had placed their daggers in the most convenient positions to grab. As soon as they saw themselves at a disadvantage, with no chance of fighting back or escaping, they wouldn’t hesitate to stab themselves in the heart.

Dying only added one point to the opponent’s score, but being captured would result in an immediate collapse!

After fighting hard to the very end, it was ultimately Lance’s team, [Burned Boat], that took the first three victories, advancing to the finals.

That night, Randall had talked to his boss, Lincoln, about whether they should add an emergency rule to limit the hostage-taking tactic.

It looked rather ugly and didn’t resemble a national competition at all, more like a street brawl.

However, Lincoln denied the proposal: the rules were fair for both sides, so there was no need to change them.

Moreover, wasn’t this fun?

If they really wanted to change the rules, they could do it in the next competition.

As the evening match began, the live broadcast room’s heat skyrocketed to an astonishing level once again.

The transfer of the 17 million players from “Assassins’ Alliance” to “Speed Chase” seemed not to have affected people’s interest in the competition.

The final ownership of the four-million-prize still touched the hearts of the players.

Of course, the first-tier players in “Speed Chase” had all completed the main storyline, began exploring freely, and had more free time, which was another important reason.

As soon as the match started, both sides adopted the same tactics – first sending out one person to seize a close position, then immediately going to regroup with teammates without delay once the position was secured.

The remaining four people rushed towards the convenience store as a group.

Points are not the key to success, but Fire Dragon Fireworks, steel wires, ropes, or even sticky mouse traps are the key!

Lance especially enjoyed tying people up and then slapping a sticky mouse trap on the opponent’s face.

His reasoning: obstruct their vision to prevent information leakage.

He kept apologizing with his mouth, but showed no mercy with the sticky mouse trap.

They even practiced making and using simple horse tripping ropes last night!

Thirty minutes later, the [Burned Boat] team was behind 1:2 against the [Frost Wind] team.

It was only after they fought in person that they realized that the [Frost Wind] team was even stronger than what they had seen in the videos!

All the team members were strong, with seamless cooperation amongst them. They were also very careful and played steadily with few mistakes.

Lance’s team lost two games, almost being forced to the limit and entering a losing situation under the opponent’s “Who makes fewer mistakes” tactic.

One more loss, and the championship would slip away.

Roger took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, regained his composure, looked at his teammates, and re-entered the arena.

Their first target was still the convenience store.

However, Lance didn’t go to the previous shelf. Instead, he went to a different shelf three rows away from the Dream Brand Fire Dragon Fireworks and picked up a Little Fire Dragon-shaped pistol from a variety of toys.

This hidden Easter egg in the game was placed there by Cloud Dream’s intern Camille.

Once when Lance visited Shuihua’s personal space, he saw her playing with this toy gun.

Out of curiosity, he also looked for it in the game.

Although there was no special note in the system’s description, he still carried it with him.

During a break in their training session that day, Lance jokingly pulled the trigger at his teammate while they were resting and chatting.

Then to their surprise, they saw his teammate’s health being restored!

They checked the system introduction for the Little Fire Dragon Pistol again, and it still showed no special changes:

[Little Fire Dragon Pistol]: Just an ordinary adult toy.

Afterward, the “Little Fire Dragon Healing Gun” became a secret weapon of their club, never to be publicized.

They had never used it in any external training matches either.

Until now, at the critical point in the national competition final, it was finally taken out by Lance.

Fifteen minutes later.

The score was tied at 2:2.

Secret weapon exposed.

In the final round, [Frost Wind] grabbed the Little Fire Dragon Pistol first and confirmed its effects.

However, when they tried to take advantage of this healing pistol, they failed.

— This healing pistol wasn’t strong enough to change the course of the battle. Its greatest value lied in disrupting the rhythm of the fight.

It would increase the damage tolerance of its owner and their teammates, but the combat rhythm and damage calculation of professional players were refined to near muscle memory levels.

Such a sudden change, without specialized training, would easily lead to mistakes.

Pressure during the critical points was not only felt by Lance and Roger, but also by their opponents.

It led them to make the wrong decision to use an item they were completely unfamiliar with, disrupting their rhythm.

As a result, the outcome of the battle was inevitable.

The “Assassins’ Alliance” Unlimited National Championship came to an official end.

The [Burned Boat] team, with three wins and two losses, clinched a comeback victory, hoisting the championship trophy.