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Chapter 892: It Doesn’t Need to Be Like This

Panda Novel

Excellent Era ran two dungeons in a row for nothing. After seeing how p

racticed Happy was at these dungeons, Xiao Shiqin reckoned that the ten-player record recently set by them would be cleared out by Happy sooner or later.

In the future, when pro players set out, would the world be at peace?

On one hand, it had to be said that Excellent Era was very worried about Ye Qiu, but on the other hand, they were also very negligent towards Ye Qiu’s companions. They kept on forgetting that Ye Qiu’s side was a team as well. Ye Qiu had set his mind on forming his own team the day he had left Excellent Era.

In Excellent Era’s eyes, this type of team couldn’t be considered a pro team, but they seemed to forgot that eight or nine years ago, when Excellent Era had just formed, they were the same too. With Ye Qiu at the head, he led a bunch of grassroot players from the game and carried Team Excellent Era to the peak of Glory.

Perhaps it was because the pro scene was no longer the same as it had been before. It wasn’t so easy for a black horse to rise from nothing. Even a wealthy team like Heavenly Swords was bitterly struggling in their first season.

However, nothing was absolute. Weren’t miracles created by people?

Excellent Era had a conflicting mentality, fearful yet disdainful. Xiao Shiqin was powerless to do anything. The uneasiness in his heart became greater and greater. He was beginning to wonder if his decision to choose Excellent Era had been too careless of him.

His reason for coming to Excellent Era was the same as many numerous others. Excellent Era would return to the Alliance without question and bring with them a boundless future. He came to Excellent Era not for the present, but for the future. However, he was now realizing that the solid premise for this future was beginning to waver. Facing Ye Qiu, Excellent Era was even less confident than he was, perhaps because they only knew too well how terrifying Ye Qiu could be.

Now, they had suffered a complete defeat in the competition for dungeon records. Would this increase their lack of confidence even further?

Excellent Era’s strategic plan could be considered one step wrong, every step wrong. What now? Continue to push forward, or hastily persuade them to correct their course of action?

Would he able to persuade them though? A few days ago, he had a good discussion with Cui Li. He could tell that Cui Li had sincerely accepted his suggestion, but a few days later, as soon as Happy took the spotlight in the game, he couldn’t remain calm.

At this moment, Xiao Shiqin truly felt like he was caught between a rock and a hard place.

His thoughts were no longer focused on the dungeon, how could the others not be the same? In the following section, their efficiency dropped drastically. Their progress through the dungeon even became rocky.

When Xiao Shiqin refocused his thoughts, he saw how the team’s heart wasn’t in it. His heart jumped. He felt like he had sensed something.

Sun Xiang was their team’s captain. Not only was he not helping to establish a proper mentality for a team, he was taking the lead to push it off balance. He completely broke away from the team. His violent playstyle showed his anger. This scene....

Xiao Shiqin suddenly remembered. Last season, when Excellent Era collapsed and their team’s condition took a devastating dive, didn’t it resemble this very scene? The players weren’t focused were unable to cooperate. They seemed to have no strength and confidence. Last season, could Excellent Era have suffered a setback? Was the setback due to Ye Qiu?

It can’t be.... Xiao Shiqin had second thoughts. At that time, Ye Qiu was focused on the game. Excellent Era was focused on the Pro League. The two sides weren’t direct competitors yet. Why would they waste any time fighting Ye Qiu?

Xiao Shiqin didn’t continue to guess. He could get the answers by asking others.

Once the team finished the dungeon, Xiao Shiqin urged everyone to take a break. Even if they wanted to break Happy’s records, it would take awhile.

Once the emotions of everyone began to stabilize, Xiao Shiqin immediately looked for Cui Li.

Cui Li had clearly received the news. No one in Excellent Era was more aware of the events occuring in the game than Chen Yehui, and Chen Yehui had a very close relationship with Cui Li.

When Xiao Shiqin came to look for him, Cui Li reckoned that it must be related to what had just happened. Who would have thought that Xiao Shiqin would ask about Excellent Era’s sudden decline in the last half of the season.

Why did Excellent Era suddenly collapse midseason? The media spoke of it as a mystery. Everyone had tried to analyze it left and right. In the end, they concluded that the newcomer-still-getting-incorporated-into-the-team was the reason. When Excellent Era’s internal department examined the matter, apart from these reasons, they couldn’t find anything else either.

"At that time, Excellent Era didn’t do anything that could have affected their condition?" Xiao Shiqin didn’t say it directly, but with this as context, it was quite obvious what he meant by "anything else". Cui Li listened to his question and understood. He shook his head though: "No."

But after saying no, he also went into a daze.

No? That’s what he believed, but was that really the truth? Was there really nothing?

It seemed like he needed to consult Chen Yehui.

"Wait a second." After saying "no", Cui Li suddenly had a change of heart. He told Xiao Shiqin to wait and called Chen Yehui.

Cui Li didn’t say anything in his phone call. He simply called Chen Yehui to come over immediately.

A few minutes later, a knock sounded from outside his office door. Chen Yehui had rushed over.

"Last season, after Ye Qiu left and went to the game, did anyone on our side run over to fight with Ye Qiu in private?"

Chen Yehui’s heart thumped. This situation had happened before. He and Liu Hao were the primary instigators. Liu Hao had already been traded away by the team. If this bomb exploded, would he be shouldering the blame alone?

Chen Yehui started to panic. At that time, they had done it behind the club’s back. After a bunch of stuff happened that even affected the team’s performance, no one dared to say a word. When the club examined the reasons for their relegations, they didn’t pursue this topic, so all of the participants let out a sigh of relief. Who would have thought that, half a season later, this topic would pop up again?

Chen Yehui saw Xiao Shiqin in the room. This guy was even further away from them back then. How could he know about it?

Chen Yehui fell silent and his expression clearly turned pale. He had already given them the answer. By the time he noticed his own actions, he realized that his slow response was enough of an answer. If he tried to cover up the truth, he would be challenging his boss’s intellect. Helpless, Chen Yehui could only tell the truth. As for who to blame, he obviously pushed it all onto Liu Hao. He explained that it was all Liu Hao’s idea. Liu Hao had told him about these ideas and since it wasn’t too much trouble, he just gave him a little help like providing characters and what not…...

Bang!

Cui Li didn’t allow him the chance to continue speaking. He slammed the table and suddenly stood up. He pointed at Chen Yehui and said "you you you" for awhile, but in the end, he wasn’t able to say anything else.

There was no point to saying anything now.

If this was before and he had found out the truth that this matter had led to their team’s downfall and poor performance, the participants would have certainly received severe punishment. For a staff member like Chen Yehui, he might even have been fired.

But a year had already passed since then. It was too late to settle the score now.

Chen Yehui retreated to the side pathetically. He didn’t dare to breathe. Right now, only the manager knew. If the boss found out, what would the result be?

"It looks like even if this matter wasn’t the primary reason for Excellent Era’s sudden decline last year, it must have had some sort of effect." Xiao Shiqin said. Cui Li and Chen Yehui heard his words and felt moved at how reliable this person was. He was giving them a way out, helping them lower the weight of it!

Naturally, that wasn’t Xiao Shiqin’s main intent. He followed: "We need to learn from this mistake!"

The other two immediately understood. He was saying that Excellent Era was currently in the middle of reproducing last year’s disaster!

"This... could I say something?" Chen Yehui carefully spoke up.

"If you have something to say, just say it." Cui Li wasn’t in a good mood right now.

"Uh, I’m just saying in theory, this year’s situation is very different from last year’s situation. After all, this year, we’re direct competitors with Happy in the Challenger League. Right now, Happy urgently needs to improve their character’s strength so that they can close the gap between us. If we can limit their growth in game, we’ll also be hurting them on stage. Since we have energy to spare, hitting them with a blow in the game could also be considered as preparation against them!" Chen Yehui said.

Xiao Shiqin forced a smile: "Guild leader Chen, the issue isn’t whether we have energy or not, but rather in the game, it’s hard to say who will be dealing that blow. Let’s not talk about the past for now. Just take today for example. Guild leader Chen, I’m sure you’ve seen the contest for the dungeon records. I can be the representative for the team and say that our team put in their 100% in today’s dungeons. I feel content with our performance, but there’s nothing we can do about it. The reason that Happy’s times are so much better than ours is because they spend all day in there. The game is their home stage."

"Even if our team’s skill level is much higher, beating their records will require a certain amount of effort. That is the issue here. If we put in effort and we win, then that’s great, but if we lose, everyone will receive a severe blow to their mentality. When match day comes, I don’t know if this mental wall can be eliminated." Xiao Shiqin said.

"There is always a winner and a loser in a competition. If we’re too afraid of the negative impacts of losing and don’t even try, won’t that be too passive?" Chen Yehui said.

"This isn’t about being passive. This is about weight the pros and cons. You say competition, but what are we competing for? It’s not like those rewards are necessary, nor does it matter much if Happy gets one or two extra rewards. So in this competition against them, we don’t need to win. As long as we have a good enough time that puts pressure on them, so they cannot keep reaping rewards over and over again, isn’t that enough? Why have our team strike at their morale? Guild leader Chen, send me a few of your helpers. I’ll bring them into the dungeons and practice. That’s all we need." Xiao Shiqin said.

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