Vanguard of the Eternal Night

translator: xiin

editor: kara

This flower really had a great time blooming.

Victor woke up the next day and felt like all of the bones in his body had been removed and replaced again. His walk was soft like as if he was stepping on clouds, and he floated his way into the living room.

He saw his iceberg slouching on the sofa again.

Tyron was still wearing his pajamas, his legs resting on the coffee table and a bucket of popcorn on his thighs. He looked bored with his head propped up against his hand as he watched the big screen in front of the coffee table.

Victor: "……"

He didn't know why, but Victor suddenly had a kind of confused feeling when he saw this scene: When had his War God become so modernized?

He still remembered when he had first met Tyron… This iceberg hadn't liked modern sofas, so they had to buy classic mahogany furniture; he hadn't liked the system cleaning after him on its own, so he would do his own cleaning every time; he also had hated simple and convenient fast food and would only eat dishes cooked by real people--

He'd really been hard to serve!

But now, this old antique had learned to lie on the sofa to watch TV and eat popcorn?!

.

Victor couldn't help but snigger and went to find a place to sit down.

Tyron glanced at him and moved his legs to give him a spot. He stretched casually as he moved--for some reason, Victor's face and ears turned red. He felt that this action had been incredibly sexy.

Tyron took the opportunity to stuff the popcorn into Victor's arms, "What are you laughing about?"

Victor didn't tell him and asked instead, "What are you watching so seriously?"

Tyron replied, "Duke's game video. This is his second round from the district competition."

Duke was the ID of his next opponent. His profession was a grim reaper , and his weapon was a huge scythe, so he'd been nicknamed 'Death God' by his fans. His fighting style wasn't very consistent with this warrior-type profession and was instead similar to the fighting style of an agility profession. It had very strong personal characteristics.

Victor was very surprised.

Tyron would often look at the general information about his opponents, but he would rarely watch their matches one by one. He would basically only pick out a higher level, representative game video and watch it. His observational skills were particularly amazing, and it often only took him a few minutes to sum up a player's strengths and weaknesses.

Therefore, as soon as Tyron said that he was watching Duke's district competition video, Victor became very surprised and asked, "Is this person very strong?"

Tyron raised his brows, "On the contrary. His weaknesses are particularly evident. His center of gravity and coordination are poor, and his left vision has obvious blind spots. The strength of his left hand is also very weak when he uses his blade."

Victor became even more bewildered, "So, he's very weak? In that case, why are you studying his game videos?"

Tyron moved his finger and showed Duke’s official website to Victor.

Victor understood at a glance.

.

This was because, on Duke’s fan forum, the general trend went like this:

"Old Duke went to the hospital again yesterday. I heard that he hasn't recovered from his old illness of coughing up blood… [candle] praying for Old Duke."

“The player from the last round was too much! He knew that Old Duke wasn’t well, yet he insisted on engaging in a blade fight with him! Couldn’t he have chosen another way? He had to use a method that inflicts such a heavy burden on the brain&#k2026; It’s obviously intentional.”

"Feeling pity for my Duke who is pushing on despite his illness. This might be his last provincial competition. Could you all please forward this message for me? I don't want Old Duke to leave with any regrets."

"That group of people will be nothing but overjoyed if they lose an excellent player. They just wish Old Duke would die from his disease today!"

……

There were many densely packed posts that were basically all similar in content.

"……" Six dots almost appeared on top of Victor's head as he read it all. "What illness does he have?"

Tyron continued to flip through and showed Victor:

Duke's disease was called 'psychosomatic mental disease'.

Victor: "……" Wait a minute! Why did this name seem so familiar?! Wasn't this the disease that his own old antique had suffered from before?!

Tyron: "Your thoughts aren't wrong."

.

Duke was a person who many contestants found tricky to deal with.

This was because his weakness was particularly obvious. The left half of his body was not in harmony. However, this weakness of his could not be exploited.

Because, the only reason Duke couldn't control the left side of his body well was due to this mental disease.

Once opponents took advantage of this weakness, it would become 'bullying a sick player and deliberately provoking the other side's illness'. It might be fine if Duke was fine, but if Duke went to the hospital after a match (and this was something that happened every other day or so), then they were done for. Duke's fans would immediately transform into dragons protecting their cub and blow up the flames of public opinion in order to burn everyone else into charcoal.

This went beyond tricky; it was basically enough to give them a crazy headache.

There was a special league for players with physical illnesses, and the staff from that league would frequently find Duke to try and persuade him to switch. However, Duke refused to go, and he insisted on signing up for the A-League and competing with a group of able-bodied people.

This made things very difficult for the able-bodied people.

Sometimes, there were players who had already confirmed their placement in the next round who would simply let Duke win when they saw that he was their next opponent. There were other players who relied on their personal images for a living who could only bear with it and lose to Duke rather than be said to be bullying patients suffering from serious illness. Some contestants were quite direct and made use of Duke's weaknesses, but once they won, they would be flamed fanatically by his fans and could only go back to apologize to Duke.

But no matter what happened, Duke came out innocent. His opponents and fans had nothing to do with him, and he also didn't know anything about it, saying that he lived in the hospital all-year-round and had nothing to do with the happenings of the world.

.

After looking through Duke's forums, Victor was completely muddled. He looked at his old antique with some heartache and said, "What should you do? You definitely can't lose the next game against him. This is the last game to enter the top six. But, you also can't fight too hard… How about letting him win a match?"

Tyron meditated for a moment, then said, "Actually, I also have a very obvious weakness."

Victor: "?!"

Tyron was deadpan as he said, "I won't lose. All of my experience and skills are about how to survive, how to win, and how to kill the opponent. There's nothing about how to deliberately get killed by an opponent."

Victor: "……"

This 'weakness' was really overbearing!

Tyron took a handful of popcorn from the bucket in Victor's arms and said, "If he can win against me, then come. If he can't win--what kind of qualifications do the weak have against the strong?"

.

One day later, when Tyron stood on the stage, he really didn't give Duke any special treatment.

Before the game, Duke's face was a little pale when he stood on the stage, and his entire person seemed to have difficulty walking--although the characters in the virtual world were completely free of any diseases, who told him to have a 'psychosomatic mental disease' that was still incurable by modern medicine? His fans all believed that this disease would affect a person's manipulation of their virtual body, which was why Duke's virtual world image was so distressing.

Duke pulled on gloves, covered his mouth, and coughed twice, sounding like he was tearing his heart and lungs apart.

After that, he came over to shake hands, and Tyron ignored him directly.

Everyone: "……"

Duke had his hand raised awkwardly for a long time, and just when his fans began to kick up a fuss and express their displeasure with Odin, it seemed that Duke came to a realization and removed his gloves.

Tyron finally reached out, and the two players shook hands.

Tyron's dark, golden eyes pierced sharply through Duke's eyes, making his pale cheeks flush with a sudden sense of crisis.

Tyron was very certain that Duke was in a good state.

At least, it wasn't any worse than his own state when he'd just entered this world.

.

The randomized map for the first round: Jasper Bamboo Forest.

It was clear from just the name that this was a map with bamboo everywhere. The bamboo forest was very dense, but it was also the kind of cover that was relatively easy to destroy. If it was a scythe like Duke's, it was possible to clear up a large area with one stroke. There was a small stone shrine and pavilion in the middle of the forest, but it was difficult for contestants to find purposely while playing in a match.

At the start of the game, Tyron was transmitted directly in front of the shrine. Presumably, Duke had been randomly transmitted into the depths of the bamboo forest.

The two commentators also started to speak, "Today's match is a little like the Great Demon King vs the God of Death…"

"Cough, cough, the two contestants' figures and auras have their own characteristics, and their fighting styles are also very distinct. We all know that Odin's explosiveness is very powerful like an eagle coming down from the sky. He approaches quickly, then takes away the opponent's life with a series of quick, accurate, and fierce attacks."

"As for Duke, he has the feeling of a poisonous viper in the grass. The characteristics of his profession are very flexible and can be said to have infinite Shadow Jumps. He can escape into the shadows before, after, or even during his attacks and jump out again instantly, giving him a feeling of invincibility."

"The randomized factor of this map is very high. We'll have to see if Duke can ambush Odin out of the blue or if Odin will take down Duke with a smooth series of combo attacks."

.

After the countdown ended, both contestants disappeared in a flash.

Tyron didn't rush to move after he went into stealth. He instead stepped up onto the stone shrine, waiting for his enemy to come like a silent sculpture.

Duke, on the other hand, made use of his profession's advantage and blended into the shadows, flying quickly through the bamboo forest. It was impossible for the naked eye to see where he'd been, but the pilot lens added a black fog effect on him so that the commentators and audience could see where he was.

A strong wind swept through the bamboo forest. Each bamboo leaf rustled and shook as though countless small swords were shifting uneasily.

Tyron, who was standing on the shrine, suddenly turned around and looked into the shadows of the bamboo forest.

At this time, Duke's passive skill as a reaper had also given him a warning that there was a living presence within ten meters of him.

The black fog slowly stopped moving for a moment before quietly approaching the shrine.

.

At this point in time, neither player was able to see the other, but the tension had already started to spread out invisibly.

Both commentators were in a state of high concentration, ready for the next wave of rapid burst actions.

All of a sudden, Tyron reached out and tugged gently at his steel wire.

A total of six steel wires were interconnected in different directions. When they shook gently, they caused the dead branches and leaves on the ground to rustle--however, there was one direction without such a sound.

Therefore, at this instant…

The two players burst out explosively at the same time!