Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 50: Destined Opponent
On the left side of the huge central arena of the "Rainbow War God Hall", a metal plate stands alone. This plate is only the size of an ordinary tower shield, and is fixed on a metal bracket that is about as high as my chest. In fact, it is a bit too simple to just call it a metal plate. I believe that in the eyes of many people, it is still a simple sculpture: it is carved into the shape of a ferocious monster head, with three sharp horns on the forehead, bulging eyes, thick nostrils, a hideous and twisted face, a bloody mouth, and two huge fangs on the upper and lower jaws.
Its shape was very simple, not as delicate and lifelike as the sculptures I had seen in many cities. It just used some rough lines to outline the outline of a monster's eyebrows and eyes, and some places had turned yellow-brown due to rust. But for some reason, I always felt that this simple animal head sculpture contained a wild and fierce murderous intent. This murderous intent was penetrating through the cold metal and diffused in the air around it, making everyone who passed by it feel as if they were being watched majestically by an irresistible force. I subconsciously wanted to avoid its gaze, but I didn't have the courage to do so. Standing in front of it, I felt that this evil beast of unknown origin seemed to be able to revive at any time, pounce out from the rusty metal plate, open its bloody mouth, and tear all the creatures in front of it into pieces.
The monster's mouth was open so wide that it took up three-quarters of the entire metal plate. Between its bulging upper and lower jaws and the fangs on both sides, there was a smooth silver panel with two rows of different texts displayed on it. The text on the left half was light green in color, while the right half was occupied by red text. There were about thirty or forty lines of both red and green text. Some of the text was brighter in color, while others were a little dim.
Our guild leader, Lady Feiyin, placed her right hand on the metal plate, and immediately, a dazzling rainbow of light shone out from the metal plate, enveloping us. When the light faded and everything returned to calm, I saw that our guild name, "A group of people who are bored and chattering about random things," had appeared in the green column on the left, with bright green light flashing between the words. So I quickly figured out one thing: the lines of green text of varying lengths on the left were all the names of the guilds from the Continental Alliance, while the red words on the right should all be the names of the guilds from the Doomsday Empire, that is, the opponents who will compete with us for honor in front of the throne; similarly, we can also know that the names that are flashing are all idle people like us who are resting, while the guild members whose names have become dim should be fighting their own battles.
According to the rules, we can challenge the idle Doomsday Empire Guild team. If they accept our challenge, we can directly enter the battle. If they refuse, we can continue to challenge others. Similarly, our opponents also have the right to challenge us.
"Who should we challenge first?" Fei Yin frowned and stared at the dozen or so bright red guild names on the panel, hesitating and not knowing how to choose.
"How about this 'Strong Man Alliance'?" Xiangeya suggested, pointing to the third name on the metal plate. "This name sounds like a bunch of ignorant rookies bragging and exaggerating. People who usually give their guilds such names are basically newbies who are strong on the outside but weak on the inside. It shouldn't be difficult to deal with them."
Fei Yin thought about it, and probably agreed with the Elf Sharpshooter's opinion. She reached out and clicked on the name of "Strong Man Alliance" and issued a challenge invitation.
Soon, we stood on the same stage with our opponents. We were eagerly looking forward to seeing the group of people that Xiange Yayi had mentioned, wearing low-level equipment and full of youthful enthusiasm, whose strong smell of rookies could be smelled from two streets away, who thought that they could eliminate the gap in level and equipment and fight against all opponents with unyielding fighting spirit and firm courage, and who were full of romantic personal heroism. We also hoped to smash their dreams of becoming strongmen with our cruel iron fist of realism.
But unfortunately, it didn't take long for us to discover that our opponents might not be brave nor tenacious, and they didn't have the fighting spirit and will to fight that any excellent warrior should have. But at least deep in their souls there was a shining excellent quality that deserved special respect - honesty!
Just as we very realistically call ourselves "a group of people who are bored and chattering incessantly about random things", when five professional killers in their sixties grinned at us like wolves looking at lambs that had just been delivered to their doorsteps, as if they couldn't wait to chop us into meat paste, I think they had every reason to call themselves "strong men"!
A level 63 demon warrior easily killed five of us. When he chopped down the last one to enter the ring, he still had more than one-third of his life force left. I was the third one to enter the ring. After only five rounds, he grabbed me by the ankle and threw me off the ring like a dead dog. It was only then that I noticed that the blood-red word "strong man" on his head was highlighted in bold italics, as if emphasizing the true correctness of this word when applied to them.
This is truly a long and painful memory, but the most painful thing is that it is not the only time such a memory has happened.
Yangtze River Delta suggested that we challenge a guild called "Too Lazy to Think of a Name". His reason was: A guild that is too lazy to even think of a name must have lazy members and their levels must not be high.
But soon, the miserable experience that happened to us revealed such a cruel reality for us: a group of guys who are too lazy to think of names are not necessarily lazy when doing other things, for example, they are very diligent in upgrading...
Yan Zhen recommended a guild called "Just Play". She felt that a guild with such a name should be full of lazy guys who might not be very keen on improving their levels and enhancing their combat effectiveness.
But less than five minutes later, we discovered another way to understand the name of this guild: this group of extremely powerful alien warriors were so relaxed when they duelled with us that it seemed like they were just "playing around"...
When we were depressed because of the setbacks and defeats, our guild leader, Miss Feiyin, showed her wisdom and intelligence as a guild leader. She used a certain advanced knowledge called "marketing" to analyze our current situation and found that we are currently in a big environment called "seller's market". Those so-called "sellers" who are challenged are often large guilds with strong strength. They will never worry about the lack of opportunities to be challenged; while those so-called "buyers" who frequently attack and actively challenge like us are mostly small guilds with weak strength and eager for success. The more they lose, the more impulsive they will be, and the stronger their desire to challenge will be. Therefore, from the comparison of the number of all teams, the overall strength of the challenger is always lower than that of the challenged. Therefore, our best choice is not to actively choose our opponents, but to wait to be chosen by the opponent, so that we are more likely to encounter some weaker opponents.
This set of unfathomable mysterious theories is like a navigation light at night, pointing the way forward for us who are lost. We sincerely feel that Miss Feiyin's words are like a string of shining pearls, and every word sparkles with the brilliance of reason, illuminating the abyss where the truth hides for us - although I don't know exactly what she means, it doesn't prevent me from thinking it makes sense.
It wasn't long before we saw the first opponent who challenged us. Without any hesitation, we immediately accepted their challenge with great ambition...
Please forgive me, I really don’t have the courage to recall what happened after that.
Just one tragic failure was not enough to make Miss Feiyin realize the truth. Our president insisted that his judgment was correct and that the failure of the first challenge was just an inevitable accident. So we faced the second challenge, and then the third, and the fourth...
We have used our blood, tears and scars to prove that the so-called "seller's market" is really a beautiful mistake...
Finally, our president made a major revision to his judgment: this cruel ring where we left our blood and tears was neither in a "seller's market" nor a "buyer's market". It was in a primitive state of anarchy. Those greedy strongmen kept sweeping and accumulating bloody and brutal points until they finally won nine games and retired. For a weak team like us, everything here is unpredictable, unpredictable and unchoiceable. Every opponent is so dangerous, and any cruel and terrible thing may happen in this chaotic and bloody arena. The most likely thing is that the five of us lined up in a neat column and were beaten up and thrown off the ring one by one...
We fought seven duels in a row and got nothing. The nine victories we were looking for were so far away, as if they only existed in ancient legends. We had never felt so desperate to complete a task. Even when we were surrounded by Sasquatch with only half of our health remaining, we didn't feel so lost and helpless. From my friends' eyes, I saw the same idea of retreat in everyone's heart: Should we just quit here, quit this sacred arena, admit our own weakness and insignificance in front of the gods, and then forget about this task and the generous rewards that the gods will bestow on the brave, until one day, when we feel that we are strong enough, we will come back here again?
Behind them, the huge gate wall was dark, like a mocking mouth, waiting to welcome the desperate losers.
I felt a little unwilling to give up, whether it was the arduous and dangerous journey, the generous reward for completing the task, or the self-esteem of a warrior who wanted to be strong and competitive, I was unwilling to quit. Looking at the anxious and frustrated faces of my companions, I felt that I should cheer up and at least make one more attempt and one more effort.
You know, many incredible miracles are often born from this one more effort.
"Let's try this team..." I said, pointing at a name on the metal plate, "...I think they'll be easier to deal with."
"Oh?" Feiyin glanced at the sign expressionlessly, "Why do you think so?"
Why? No one knows why! I just think that we shouldn't be desperate and depressed because of failure. We should at least muster up the courage to try one last time before giving up. God, I just pointed at the weird sign casually without even looking at what was written on it.
"Why? Ah, hahaha..." I touched my forehead with a dry laugh and glanced at the sign guiltily.
Then, with utter amazement, I saw for the first time the name of the opponent I had chosen for ourselves.
The name of this guild team is: Level 5, chased by wild dogs and ran naked. Level 10, got cheated by selling point cards. Level 15, was wiped out in a dungeon. Level 20, had an online romance with a shemale. Level 25, got hacked by a Trojan. Level 30, became a generation of black hands. Level 35, was guarded by someone using a plug-in. Level 40, was banned just after learning how to use the plug-in and had to start over from a small account. The guild was formed by the president's funeral march.
This tragic, sad and desolate guild name is simply a poignant and tragic epic of revolutionary heroism. It uses vivid realistic techniques to vividly depict the tall backs of alien warriors who are unwilling to succumb to bad luck and stand up to declare war on fate. Its positive significance is enough to transcend the huge gap between all races and positions, and inspire the sincere and profound courage and fighting spirit of all intelligent lives from the deepest part of their souls, which is inspiring and thought-provoking!
The more direct impact on us is that on this sign that can only display ten characters per line, this lengthy guild name takes up a full ten lines of space, and the densely packed large characters take up nearly three-quarters of the entire sign's area. This means that when the screen displays this page, no matter how I point, there is more than an 80% chance that I will point to the name of the guild.
Somehow, an irresistible inevitability is operating mysteriously, making us choose them and letting them choose us.
"Uh... the name of this guild is so long..." I sighed subconsciously as I looked at this guild name that makes anyone sad and cry.
"So what if the name is long?" Fei Yin continued to ask listlessly. It can be seen that the successive failures have made her very depressed, and her tone of voice is full of boredom.
"What I mean is..." Under the pressure of the guild leader, I had to rack my brains to come up with nonsense, "...Don't you think...the longer the name of a guild...the worse it seems?"
The only reference we have for my point of view is our own record. The data we have shows that the winning rate of guilds with shorter names in this arena is 100% higher than that of guilds with longer names - the specific score is 7 to 0 - in fact, on the board that can display all the registered teams of both sides, our guild name, which takes up two and a half lines, is the second longest.
Looking at the guild name that was three times longer than ours, I felt the fiery will to fight rekindled in my companions' eyes, and something strong seemed to be re-injected into their tired bodies.
"What you said does make sense..." Miss Feiyin looked at the guild name that sounded like a long epic poem and could not help but nod her head repeatedly, "But..." Suddenly, she frowned slightly, glanced at me with displeasure, and asked suspiciously, "...Why do I always feel that your words sound so harsh?"
I spread my hands and shrugged, trying my best to look innocent.
In any case, Lady Feiyin still followed my advice and issued a challenge to our next opponent.
Soon, they accepted our challenge.
Just like the scene that happened seven times in a row, a brilliant holy light descended from the sky, accompanied by a "buzzing" sound, and a round arched magic door opened out of thin air from the holy light. This door seemed to be transparent, and we could still see the scene on the opposite ring through it, but in the center of this door, the originally straight light seemed to be folded and bent by a pair of magical hands, forming a series of spiral curves that were visible to the naked eye and constantly rotated inward. As this spiral of light and shadow continued to rotate, the space inside the door seemed to have undergone some abnormal changes, causing the scene on the opposite side to become somewhat distorted, like the flowing reflections seen on the constantly shaking water surface.
At first, I thought that this magical door would take us to another dimension, but when I stepped through the door with rippling light, I found myself still standing in the same place: the temple that had been frozen for thousands of years was still around me, the colorful dome was still above my head, and the huge central arena was still in front of me. The only difference seemed to be that the magic door with the dark tide of space had moved behind me.
But soon I realized that the surrounding environment had changed dramatically: the temple I was in originally, although magnificent, reflected the hard and cold chill of the Spine of the World everywhere, without a trace of warm and gentle life breath. But now, although the temple is still a sacred fortress covered with thick ice, it is filled with indescribable brilliance of life, exuding a holy and solemn, yet kind and amiable grace everywhere. Countless rainbows flickered on the high walls of ice and snow that rose into the sky around me, making me feel indescribably gorgeous and sacred, and at the same time, it seemed as if countless pairs of gazes were watching you from afar from that infinitely high and respectful place.
I believe that each rainbow represents a god. They come to the world in this way and look at the brave men in the world with approval.
Across the arena, a magic door also opened. In front of the door, five adventurers from the Doomsday Empire had already passed through the sacred door wall, wearing strange armor and holding various weapons, waiting for our arrival.
That is our destined opponent!
