172: Chapter 169 The Vanished Six Days

Fog City edged out the Stars and Stripes by a single match.

The Fate Platform exploded.

Comments in the Yanhuang Civilization region were like a bursting dam.

"Champions!!! The champions of the first round of the 5v5 Faction Sequence Battle!!! Long live Yanhuang Civilization!!!"

"The Wall of Despair is invincible! Lucky Squad is the best in the world!"

"Two hundred and fifty-one points in the bag, feels great!"

"Old Master Zheng, the pillar of the nation!"

"If you ask me—that 'Little Luck Technique' in Lucky Squad is the most absurd thing. The trigger rate for the Eye of the Greedy Wolf's 10,000% critical hit chance is abnormally high in his hands."

"His talent is literally called 'Little Luck Technique', what kind of 'normal' are you expecting?"

Survivors from the Fog City Camp started celebrating in the Symphony Realm.

Tom Baker spent five karma points in one breath to buy five posting permissions, arrogantly flooding the screen—

[Tom Baker (Fog City): Good game! The Red Dragon Knights are forever the pride! Congratulations to Yanhuang Civilization for the championship! But third place is ours! Everyone in the Stars and Stripes, you still can't beat us!]

The Star-Spangled Banner Camp replied almost instantly.

[David Reeves (Star-Spangled Banner): One match. Just one match. What are you happy about? We'll win it back in the next 10v10 round.]

[Tom Baker (Fog City): Next round? Are you sure you have the budget left to buy posting permissions to talk tough? XD]

"Hahahaha, Tom's tongue is so poisonous!"

"He's even mocking them for being poor!"

"This rivalry between Fog City and the Stars and Stripes is too interesting—"

The verbal sparring between the various camps continued for an entire afternoon.

That night.

The Revival Society once again used the Gold Tier artifact, the assembly order, to summon the Yanhuang Civilization elite gathering.

There was only one agenda—the team division plan for the 10v10 Faction Sequence Battle starting at noon the next day.

Yang Hang's Clone attended as "Little Luck Technique".

In the final team division plan, the five members of the Wall of Despair and the five members of the Lucky Squad merged, naming themselves "Absolute Defense," implying that they must win and cannot lose; the championship was the only goal, and they would enter the battle as soon as it started at noon the next day.

At noon on the 21st day of the Magic Sea calendar, the 10v10 Faction Sequence Battle began.

Composed of the original teams that occupied the top two spots in the 5v5 battle, the Absolute Defense squad displayed crushing dominance from the very first match.

Zheng Yuanshan held down the command, President Shen Qing provided healing support throughout, Zhang Haotian held the line and dealt damage, Guan Tiezhu paved the way with his iron wall, Gu Qingyi moved at high speed to cut into the back row, combined with Captain Ye Shuang's poison, Yang Yue's water flow manipulation and lightning control, Little Luck Technique Yang Hang's absolute "Untouchable" Domain, plus the combat support from Fang Rui and Chen Yong.

The coordination of the ten people had already developed muscle memory from hundreds of 5v5 matches.

After expanding to ten people, their tactical dimension was raised by an entire level.

At the end of the first day, the Absolute Defense squad's win count: 102.

In second place was the Fog City Red Dragon Knights squad, with a win count: 71.

The gap was clear at a glance.

"Stable again."

"I declare—10v10, there is no suspense."

"Yanhuang Civilization, never defeated!"

The atmosphere on the Fate Platform was so relaxed that some people started posting food photos, showing off sunsets, and even organized an online KTV relay race in the Symphony Realm.

But right in this joyous, celebratory atmosphere—

Some small voices began to appear.

Not about the Faction Battle.

It was about the individual battle.

[Worried Old Zhang (Yanhuang): Has anyone noticed Fate Master's individual Sequence Battle ranking? It hasn't changed for three days. One thousand five hundred matches. The ranking has dropped to outside the top tens of thousands. Hans Weber at the top now has over two thousand matches, a difference of nearly six hundred. This guy's match count is rising faster and faster. Did he skip eating and sleeping just to fight individual battles?]

[Deep Sea Angler (Yanhuang): Last time the ranking slipped, Fate Master caught up by over eight hundred matches in one night. This time it hasn't moved for three days... Could something have happened?]

[Little Taro (Yanhuang): Don't panic, don't panic. Everyone panicked last time too, and what happened? Fate Master caught up easily.]

[Iron-Faced Ruthless (Yanhuang): Last time it stopped for two days. This time—it's been three days. The first round of the individual Sequence Battle settles at 12:00 PM on the 23rd. There are only three days left. Is Fate Master not going to catch up?]

The post went quiet for a few seconds.

Then the comments slowly started to increase.

Worry.

Discussion.

Unease.

Like a small pebble falling into a calm lake, ripples were spreading out in circles.

—

Thousands of miles away.

Hans Weber had just finished his 2,166th individual battle.

He glanced at the leaderboard.

First place: Hans Weber (Teuton), wins: 2,128.

Yang Hang—ranked outside the tens of thousands, 1,500 matches, motionless.

After these few days of relentless fighting, he had successfully taken first place, while the original top-ranked Yang Hang had fallen outside the tens of thousands.

It is worth mentioning that as everyone's win count in individual matchmaking battles gradually increased, the probability of being matched with strong opponents also gradually increased, so everyone's overall winning speed had dropped significantly compared to the first day of the individual battles.

To ensure his ranking advantage, Hans Weber pushed himself even harder, only breaking the two-thousand-match mark in these six days.

He had opened up a lead of over five hundred matches over Fate Master Yang Hang.

Hans clenched his fists, and blue-white lightning arcs darted out from between his fingers, illuminating his entire face.

He smiled.

The smile spread from the corners of his mouth to his eyes.

"Three days."

He licked his lips.

"If you aren't even going to chase, then don't blame me for widening the gap to a point where you can't even catch up."

Time arrived at the final day, the 23rd of the Magic Sea calendar.

11:03 AM.

Time remaining until the settlement of the first round of the Individual Sequence Contest—fifty-seven minutes.

Fate Platform · Symphony Realm · World Echo.

The rate at which the post was refreshing was ten times faster than usual.

Not because of the Faction Battle. On the real-time leaderboard for the 10v10 Faction Sequence Battle, the Yanhuang · Absolute Defense squad was perched at the top with crushing dominance, leading the second-place Red Dragon Knights by a full one hundred and seventy matches. No suspense, no anxiety.

Everyone's eyes were locked dead on the real-time win count leaderboard of the Individual Sequence Contest.

[Individual Sequence Contest · Real-time Win Count Leaderboard (Settlement Countdown: 00:56:41)]

[1st Place: Hans Weber (Teuton), wins: 3,364]

[2nd Place: Victoria (Fog City), wins: 3,328]

[3rd Place: Zheng Yuanshan (Yanhuang), wins: 3,325]

[4th Place: Yang Hang (Yanhuang), wins: 3,322]

[5th Place: Shen Qing (Yanhuang), wins: 3,319]

[6th Place: Zhang Haotian (Yanhuang), wins: 3,316]

[7th Place: Solomon (Hebrew), wins: 3,313]

[8th Place: Christian Müller (Teuton), wins: 3,310]

[9th Place: Jackson (Star-Spangled Banner), wins: 3,306]

[10th Place: Igor (Polar Bear), wins: 3,303]

[...]

[4,271,856th Place: Yang Hang (Yanhuang), wins: 1,500]

One thousand five hundred.

Six days.

Not a single byte had changed.

The comments under the post were no longer discussions. They were shouting.

[Anxious Fish (Yanhuang): Fate Master!!! There's less than an hour left!!! Where are you???]

[Deep Sea Angler (Yanhuang): I've been staring at Fate Master's ranking every day since the 18th. It didn't drop the first day, and when it dropped to over a thousand on the second day, I wasn't panicked, thinking it was the same as last time. The third day it dropped to tens of thousands—still okay, there was time. The third day it was over a hundred thousand. The fourth day over five hundred thousand. Today—four million two hundred and seventy thousand. My hands are shaking now.]

[Tide Watcher Li (Yanhuang): I don't understand. I really don't understand. Fate Master had six hundred and sixty-two matches on the first day, and later caught up to one thousand five hundred matches in one night. This shows he is fully capable of crushing everyone. Why did he stop for six days? Old Master Zheng is fighting, President Shen is fighting, Zhang Haotian is fighting; they are all running between Faction Battles and individual battles. Why isn't Fate Master fighting?]

[Little Taro (Yanhuang): Could it be... that something happened?]

The area under this post went quiet for a full seven seconds.

Then—

"Don't jinx it!!!"

"How could such a powerful existence as Fate Master have an accident, and isn't the Fate Platform still operating normally!"

"Right! The Fate Platform is fine, Fate Master must be fine!"

"But... six days..."

The atmosphere in the comment section jumped repeatedly between comfort and anxiety.