Eighty-one, I love you.

Guided by the creed of creating hardship, facing a powerful enemy, demanding unity, placing the core above all, and having teammates sacrifice for the cause, the feelings Wu Qingchen would experience in the games to come were easy to imagine.

The coalition on Wu Qingchen’s side continued to huddle together and charge forward in a swift push.

The Oda side, likewise adopting a clustered strategy, cooperated in a manner befitting a mercenary shop of the highest order, the moment they entered the battlefield focusing their fire on the character Wu Qingchen controlled.

The coalition, meanwhile, remained steadfast in its policy of throwing themselves in front of every blow to protect Wu Qingchen. The professional players made their characters perform one scene after another before his eyes: elaborate body-blocking to spare Wu Qingchen a few points of health, deliberate deaths to let Wu Qingchen flee at once, wasted ultimate abilities cast into empty space simply to delay the enemy pursuit...

The battle’s entire purpose revolved around one person alone. No matter how hard the enemy fought, they could not lay a finger on him. This gaming experience was a pleasure Wu Qingchen, throughout eight years of playing the War Chronicle series, had never once known.

Most of all, in the all-chat channel, the Oda side would occasionally add their own defeated whimpers of complaint, making Wu Qingchen feel as though he had just drunk a cup of ice water in a blazing desert sun, the thrill rushing from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.

The battle rhythm flowed on smoothly. The Saiga Sunchi character Wu Qingchen controlled not only survived without dying again, but also accumulated most of the Oda side’s kills. With equipment and level naturally surging upward, he quickly grew into a fearsome hero far beyond any other on either side, truly meeting the firepower requirement that his teammates had once described as being able to blow one enemy away with a single shot.

Wu Qingchen became more and more absorbed; the pace of combat grew more and more intense. As the battle became increasingly favorable, the coalition gradually pushed close to the enemy’s main stronghold.

The "Wu Qingchen Game Education Plan" also advanced step by step into the third stage laid out by the training team.

Relying on the formidable defenses of the main stronghold, the enemy had established a tenacious sniper position.

Because of their rapid push, Wu Qingchen’s side had not had enough time to accumulate wealth and forge equipment, nor did they enjoy any level advantage. Faced with the Oda side’s desperate defense, the repeated assaults by Wu Qingchen and the others all came to nothing. Instead, they gave the enemy time to adjust, and the once overwhelming advantage began to drift gradually back toward balance.

With the battle at an impasse, Wu Qingchen had just begun to worry about the counterattack when one teammate suddenly started stripping off his clothes—no, suddenly started stripping off his equipment, selling everything he owned to buy from the shop a siege weapon Wu Qingchen urgently needed at that very moment.

"Are you feeding him? Have you no shame?"

The defeated wail from the enemy side voiced the concern already in Wu Qingchen’s heart.

Feeding him...

That was cheating...

It was precisely the shameless act Wu Qingchen had always despised, loathed, and been deeply wounded by in the games he used to play.

What should he do?

His hesitation lasted only a few seconds.

For his sake, among his teammates, even the one who had died the least had already given up nine kills...

For his sake, the assassin role was still running around in starter gear...

For his sake, the main crowd-controller had been holding it in for half an hour...

Such misery was truly enough to make listeners weep and onlookers sigh...

His teammates had protected him to the point of selling their livers, their kidneys, their blood, and even their seed. If, just to satisfy his own small, dull, and empty notion of "competitive game morality," he were to let the situation—already on the brink of victory—be reversed...

Would that be acceptable? Would that make any sense? Was he even still human?

Wu Qingchen, not yet planning to change careers and become an animal, reached out and took the mighty weapon handed to him by his teammate.

At once, the training room erupted in a third cheer. The objective of the third stage of the "Wu Qingchen Game Education Plan" had been achieved:

"Demonstrate the team’s efforts, highlight the players’ sacrifice and dedication, make Wu Qingchen understand the gravity and seriousness of betraying such painstaking labor, and thereby lead him, to a certain extent, to abandon some moral scruples in favor of the team’s interests."

With the weapon in hand, Wu Qingchen’s coalition side suddenly surged forward like a breaking flood. Before long, they helped dismantle the outer defenses surrounding the enemy’s main stronghold, and their spearhead pointed straight at the final building that would decide the game.

Seeing the situation turn dire, the enemy hurriedly spent large sums of money to buy reinforcements, while doing everything in their power to resist. After paying a tremendous price, Wu Qingchen’s side was finally forced to retreat for the moment.

By then, the enemy was already standing on the edge of a cliff. Wu Qingchen’s side seemed only to need one more gentle push to taste the sweet fruit of victory.

Wu Qingchen, who had been worked into a fury by the earlier abuse, intended to give that push with all his strength, to blast the enemy to ashes under the mightiest assault!

Quick return, restore health and mana, purchase items, gather forces, full army advance...

Two minutes later, accompanied by a great wave of minions and shielded tightly by his teammates, Wu Qingchen charged once more toward the enemy position.

This time, the enemy’s resistance was exceptionally weak, and the advance proceeded with equal smoothness.

Yet far from rejoicing, Wu Qingchen felt a chill crawl up his spine.

His eight years of gaming experience had sent him the most serious and urgent warning imaginable!

Sure enough, just as the enemy’s sole defender was easily destroyed, Wu Qingchen spotted on the mini-map the other four enemy heroes flying straight toward his own base.

"Damn it, they’re trying to rush the base!"

That sentence, riddled with typos and flinging punctuation everywhere, revealed exactly how panicked Wu Qingchen was at that moment.

"No time to go back!"

"Charge in! Charge in!"

"Don’t hit the minions!"

"Forget everything else! Hurry and attack the main base!"

The lines carefully penned by the ace screenwriter for the professional players instantly drove Wu Qingchen’s already considerable panic even higher.

Use the ultimate! Use the burning wine! Summon the troops! Reward the whole army!

Ignoring everything else, Wu Qingchen charged all the way to the edge of the enemy’s main stronghold, tanked the minions’ attacks, and unleashed every skill at once. His teammates surged up as well, pouring out their entire volley of fire.

Inside their own main base, the enemy’s remaining four heroes were doing exactly the same thing—only they were three seconds faster than Wu Qingchen’s side.

Both sides were frantically attacking the enemy’s decisive structure!

The enemy main base’s health bar fell at lightning speed, and Wu Qingchen’s heart sank just as fast.

Too late!

Too late!

Too late!!!

Critical hits, everyone, critical hits!

But there were no critical hits. No miracle.

When the enemy main base had only one-fifth of its health remaining, all characters were forcibly stopped in their tracks, and the message that the game was over popped up:

"Commit seppuku, losers!"

Wu Qingchen’s side had lost.

Lost...

They had been beaten like dogs in the early game, thrilled to the point of explosion in the midgame, smooth all the way through the late game as well, and yet in the end they still lost...

Staring at the seppuku prompt on the screen, Wu Qingchen was silent for a very long time.

If only I had been more careful at the start...

If only the team...