52: Abandon the war

When the time arrived, the team members all breathed a sigh of relief.

A Star Gate opened before them, and after a strong sensation of nausea upon entering, they were transported to the Star Gate.

It was the spatial ability user who had made their move.

At this point, all survivors had gathered.

Lin Ye counted, roughly 25 people.

It seemed many more had been eliminated later on.

The only fully formed teams were Prosperity, Nebula, and Koda.

Then there was Divine Land, with only four people remaining, and a few scattered survivors.

"Survivors gathered, returning."

Everyone successively passed through the Star Gate and returned to Earth.

Outside, the leaders of various teams had already gathered.

Jiang Xiaoyu was also there.

He praised a few people with satisfaction, then led everyone away.

On the train, everyone gathered with interest to watch the netizens' comments.

"Is Prosperity that strong? They actually defeated Divine Land."

"As expected of Chen Ou, he's amazing, mommy loves you~."

"Get out, where did this male mommy come from?"

"This newcomer must be Lin Ye, he can actually perform group teleportation."

"Those perverts from Divine Land actually attacked Wang Mengmeng, die."

...

As expected, Prosperity gained a wave of traffic because they defeated Divine Land.

"Chen Ou, mommy loves you too," Zhao Wenlong said with a playful smile.

Everyone burst into laughter, and Chen Ou covered his face.

He was Prosperity's most popular player, but he had too many 'mommy' fans, which led to many 'male mommies' mixing in.

Next was Wang Mengmeng.

Lin Ye hadn't expected the relatively introverted loli, Wang Mengmeng, to have so many fans.

Indeed, there were too many perverts in this world.

Chen Ou cleared his throat and changed the subject, "We were lucky this time, thanks to Lin Ye's group teleportation. Let's tally the income now; we'll sell it and split it after we get off the train."

The topic change was abrupt but quite effective; everyone's gaze involuntarily turned to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye straightened his back, "The biggest income was from the Seventh-Tier Giant Ape; we earned over thirty million in that one battle. For the scattered items, I confirmed with an online shop, and they're worth roughly twenty million. An acquisition team will handle it after we get off the train."

Everyone nodded. This time, the focus was on the competition, so it was good luck to get ten million each, mainly thanks to that powerful giant ape.

"Everyone performed well this time, and the company has decided to give you a bonus," Jiang Xiaoyu said cheerfully as he walked over.

"Oh? How much is the bonus?" Zhao Wenlong asked with interest.

"Fifteen million per person."

"Haha, we hit the jackpot."

"The company is really generous this time."

"Usually, a million is considered good; it might be because our results were truly excellent this time."

Lin Ye expressed his satisfaction. Although he already had two billion in shares, and this money was constantly increasing.

But he also had a lot of debt, student loans, and Bai Zhiqing's loan.

However, the pressure wasn't great; he decided to pay off the student loans as soon as he returned this time.

Still, the more money, the better.

After selling their gains upon disembarking, everyone returned to the club.

That night, the club paid for a big celebration.

With full points this round, the subsequent rounds would be much easier. Based on Prosperity's past performance in team and individual matches, they were already guaranteed a spot in the top five.

But they still couldn't let their guard down. The team and individual matches would begin in three days, so after celebrating today, they needed to focus on strategy and formation.

Tactics and formation were very important.

Especially in the individual matches, it severely tested the coach's level of strategy and formation.

However, this had nothing to do with Lin Ye; he was immersed in training.

First team training was together, to foster camaraderie and improve coordination.

His teammates were also diligent; those who could go professional were people with both talent and effort.

The two skills he had practiced extra for this competition weren't used, but Lin Ye didn't give up and continued to cultivate them diligently.

By the time the competition started, he had finally mastered Cannon Fist.

Combined with his already masterful Force Emission, this Cannon Fist was simply terrifying, raising his attack power to the low-tier Sixth-Tier level.

Lin Ye felt that if all his remaining skills were also mastered, he might still have a significant gap against dominant players like Chen Ou, but he wouldn't have a problem against players from ordinary teams.

This would still require about twenty more days of cultivation.

The competition entered a long phase of team and individual matches.

The first few rounds were simple, and everyone easily scored full points, but when the new round of opponents was revealed, the entire Prosperity club was filled with solemnity.

Nebula Club.

The undisputed number one professional team in all of Xia Kingdom.

Their strength was formidable; every position on the team was basically top-tier.

Especially their captain, the Sixth-Tier Glutton, Zhang Tianci.

Glutton, a terrifying profession.

The abilities of this professional template were all born for eating.

A Glutton could gain powerful attributes by continuously ingesting nutrients.

They could even comprehend skills and increase skill proficiency by eating things.

The more powerful the food ingested, the faster the Glutton progressed.

A Glutton ate everything; a Sixth-Tier Glutton could already devour metal to strengthen their body. Once their entire body was filled with metal elements, they were virtually invulnerable.

Lin Ye had witnessed the terror of Zhang Tianci; he alone could often crush other professional teams.

This enemy was very formidable.

"Coach, what should we do?" Chen Ou felt a sense of powerlessness.

He wasn't afraid of an ordinary Glutton, but Zhang Tianci had spent an exorbitant amount of money, devouring all sorts of rare items as if they were worthless.

Thus, his strength was also extremely terrifying.

Jiang Xiaoyu also had a headache. With Prosperity's strength, they had no chance of winning against Nebula Club; the lowest-ranked person on their team was at Chen Ou's level.

"Let's go back and discuss it thoroughly."

"This match will be difficult~"

Lin Ye also felt heavy-hearted; he felt he was about to face the first major defeat in his life.

Back at the club, everyone was silent, looking at the draw results.

"Why don't we just give up and preserve our strength?" Bai Zhiqing was very calm.

While this seemed cowardly, clubs that encountered Nebula earlier had generally done so.

Nebula was too strong; going head-to-head was simply asking for death.

"Surrender without even fighting?" Zhao Wenlong was unwilling.

Lin Ye remained silent. If he were Sixth-Tier, no, even just Fifth-Tier, and all his skills were mastered, he could contend with the Glutton, Zhang Tianci.

But currently, he met none of those conditions.

Everyone remained silent.

They all knew in their hearts that a head-on confrontation would undoubtedly be like throwing an egg against a rock.

Chen Ou glanced at his teammates and decided to make the decision for them.

"Let's avoid this battle. Nebula isn't someone we can challenge right now. Even if we don't get points from this match, we're still guaranteed a spot in the top five, and other teams also won't get points when they face them."

Upon hearing this, everyone agreed.

Although Lin Ye felt very upset, he didn't object. There was truly zero chance of winning this match.

The next day, the news of Prosperity withdrawing from the match was no surprise to anyone.

"As expected, Prosperity also chose to withdraw. There's really no way to fight them; their entire team together might not even be able to defeat Zhang Tianci."

"Zhang Tianci is too terrifying. It's said he weighs ten tons, and his entire body is made of rare metals."

"There's no way to fight this."