PvP between an Agile Warrior and an Assassin did not involve much technical finesse. Sometimes victory really came down to hard advantages-namely, equipment and skills.
Xiao Xiao wore a full set of orange gear and carried two orange weapons, while that beast Ye Fengxing wore a full set of orange gear and carried two Silver Weapons... Ye Fengxing would not claim he could crush Xiao Xiao in stats and skills, but he certainly had an advantage. As for technique, their classes were different, so it was hard to say who was better. They could only judge by the results-and Xiao Xiao had never won...
Even the Demon Shadow Killing God, like the vast majority of melee players, hated fighting Ye Fengxing in PvP and found his duel invitations a tremendous headache.
Whenever Xiao Xiao ran into this situation, his most common response was, "Fuck off! Go get lovey-dovey with your Lan Xi! You two lunatics are made for each other!"
Ye Fengxing's powers of perception exceeded what many people could even imagine! Xiao Xiao had suffered terribly in their first duel... Well, anyway, the bastard had forcibly dragged him out of Stealth and beaten him utterly, leaving him in a truly miserable state!
Of course, once Xiao Xiao knew what to expect and got serious, even Ye Fengxing had trouble breaking his Stealth. Professional players were different from ordinary players, after all. Whenever the Demon Shadow Killing God played an Assassin, any "professional" would applaud and nod in approval. "Professional! Now that's fucking professional!"
Cold-Hearted certainly wanted to join the professional scene too. Unfortunately, one relied on skills, while the other relied on skillfulness. This was not a question of a gap in ability, but of being on entirely different levels...
Kuang Dao and the others knew nothing of these finer points. All they knew was that someone had disregarded their order to clear the area, and the men they had sent out had embarrassed them! Once was not enough-they had actually embarrassed them twice! They could not stand it. They simply could not stand it anymore!
War Hero Yi Yan wanted to talk and see whether they could resolve the problem peacefully, while Kuang Dao insisted on testing what their opponent was really made of. They could not bow their heads based solely on Cold-Hearted's account and disgrace the War Hero guild for nothing.
Now that the matter had become a question of the guild's reputation, War Hero Yi Yan could hardly stop him. The two of them led several dozen players charging over...
"Can you change your status to green?" Ye Fengxing studied Adaric, his brows unconsciously knotting together. This guy was a real headache! No matter how awesome Ye Fengxing was, he could not stop people from seeing Adaric with only four health points left, much less stop a crowd of players driven wild by the sight of a nearly dead boss...
"What status? What green?" Adaric opened his big, innocent eyes, looking utterly bewildered.
"All right..." Ye Fengxing reluctantly hauled out the stretcher cart again, silently cursing and hoping this guy was not being controlled by some designer. Otherwise, he would definitely track that bastard down and beat the hell out of him.
"What are you doing?" Adaric asked warily.
"Hiding you." Ye Fengxing loaded the Tauren onto the stretcher cart and dragged him into a small cave nearby.
Well, calling it a cave was a bit much. It was really just a hole in a low dirt hill. Someone had gone inside earlier while killing monsters, and the level 18 elite within had already made its glorious transformation into experience points. Seeing that its den was rather nice, with a small entrance and plenty of room inside, that someone simply hid Adaric there.
"Put me down! A brave Shaman Warrior never fears death! What you're doing is an insult to a warrior! I..." Before Adaric could finish, he saw someone lift the hem of his mage robe and start tearing off strips of cloth...
At that sight, the brave Tauren could only obediently shut his mouth and "strafe" someone's body from head to toe with his huge, furious eyes. If looks could cut like knives, that someone would already have been riddled with fucking holes.
Ye Fengxing had no time to wonder what this esteemed fellow meant by rolling his eyes around. The bastard had already rushed out, itching to begin his killing spree.
Like Lan Xi, Ye Fengxing was a PvP fanatic. Out in the wilderness, where killing people was not a crime, someone like him would stir up trouble even without a cause if he ran into anyone he disliked! And these people had actually dared to attack first. Wasn't that just... making a bad situation worse? Pouring fuel on the fire?
"Here comes your grandpa, you little bastards." A cold smile quietly curled Ye Fengxing's lips as he slipped into Wind Stealth.
The War Hero Family's several dozen elites split into teams of three and slowly searched the dense forest. These players had plenty of experience in online games. Members of each team stayed roughly ten meters apart, with no more than forty meters between teams, making it easy to support one another.
They never pulled extra monsters along the way. Even when they could not go around them, they pulled as few as possible, slowly killing them one or two at a time as a trio and leaving no openings for an ambusher.
Players in big guilds were generally quite skilled. In a giant like the War Hero Family, members were practically employees-they received monthly wages in game currency. Converted into real-world money... well, as long as they were not constantly dreaming of wine, women, and extravagant living, it was more than enough to support a normal life.
That was why players in large guilds usually had a strong sense of unity! Many treated gaming as their job, and no one casually gambled with their livelihood. When something happened to the guild, how could its members not give it their all?
The Ninth Division led by War Hero Yi Yan was one of the most profitable divisions in the Ninth Branch, and its members were excellent as well. Naturally, their monthly pay came pouring in! That, in turn, attracted even more outstanding players eager to join the Ninth Division.
Although many outsiders came seeking it out by reputation, War Hero Yi Yan still preferred playing with his veteran members. Those old hands all understood their leader's intentions-breaking new ground on a new map was hard work, but the extra rewards were doubled too. Their leader was playing favorites!
War Hero Yi Yan was a decent leader, but he was no enlightened immortal. He still had a little selfishness in him... Who did not have a few old buddies? When something good came along, how could he not think of them first?
Of course, nothing was absolute. If an exceptionally outstanding talent appeared, War Hero Yi Yan would not let them slip away. A little favoritism was fine, but it could not go so far that it interfered with business. War Hero Yi Yan drew that distinction clearly. This time, for instance, he had brought along several rookies who had been in the guild for less than a year.
The reason went without saying. If every one of them had not possessed excellent skills, they would never have been selected for the Raid Team.
Some veteran members did not see it that way. They felt that, by seniority, those boys should never have gotten a turn. What a shame to lose such a wonderfully lucrative assignment...
Of course, they only thought about it. Their Brother Yi Yan's word was law when it came to managing the team's personnel! If you belonged to the Ninth Division, you had to listen to him. If you did not like it, you could leave. The old members all knew their division leader's temper, so none dared object in public. At most, they gathered in little groups to grumble in private.
Xiao Xiaoxian was one of these "interlopers." He was only nineteen that year and was attending university—the perfect time to be playing games! And the boy's gaming talent really was a little startling, which was why War Hero Yi Yan had taken notice of him and made him a core priest on the Ninth Division's Raid Team.
Although the boy was still a little immature in dealing with people, that was no problem. War Hero Yi Yan believed he could polish this rough gem. After all, "Brother Yi Yan" had been the Ninth Division's leader for three years and had a whole crowd of elite players under him. Surely that was all thanks to his excellent training as their leader.
At that thought, War Hero Yi Yan could not help raising his head and glancing toward Xiao Xiaoxian.
The Raid Team's core priest was absentmindedly healing his teammates. He was grouped with a Warrior and a Mage, forming the classic Warrior-Mage-Priest "holy trinity."
The Warrior-Mage-Priest Combination was a standard three-person team composition. With those three classes, a team had a tank, a healer, crowd control, and damage output, creating a very solid little unit.
Whatever they encountered-dungeons or PvP-the Warrior-Mage-Priest trio had nothing to fear! They could take hits, dish them out, and heal.
Of course, other class combinations could also create a "holy trinity," and there were an enormous number of them! Still, the Warrior-Mage-Priest combination remained the classic holy trinity in countless people's minds... No one could explain exactly why, though one explanation had more supporters than most.
Supposedly, the Warrior was the first tank class designed, the Mage was the first crowd-control and DPS class designed, and the Light Priest was the first healing class designed. The skills of these three classes worked together as though planned in advance, fitting seamlessly with one another. They were practically perfect!
In the early days, many experts who played Warriors, Mages, and Priests created countless classic strategies that later generations still talked about with relish, giving the trio tremendous recognition among the masses. How did that analogy go again? It was like being half-starved as a child and then receiving a flatbread just when you needed it most... After growing up, you could never forget that flatbread, and might even think it was far better than the delicious meals you ate every day!
The analogy was a little exaggerated, but it was not entirely unreasonable. History even recorded similar incidents-for instance, Comrade Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the great Song dynasty...
Before taking the throne, this fellow had supposedly been known as "Beggar Zhao." Whether later generations invented that name or someone actually called him that at the time was impossible to say. In any case, before he made his mark, he was desperately poor and led a miserable, depressing life.
One winter, Comrade Zhao Kuangyin was cold and hungry. He did have two pieces of dry bread on him, but they were frozen so hard that he could not bite into them. As luck would have it, there was a mutton shop by the road. Our Brother Kuangyin went inside and pitifully begged for a bowl of broth, soaked the dry bread until it softened, and ate it. Oh, how delicious that meal was...
In short, even after becoming emperor, Brother Kuangyin could not forget it. During one of his incognito outings, he even made a special trip to the "old place" to recall his bitter past and appreciate his sweet present.
This "surprise assault" threw the shopkeeper straight into a panic... He scrambled to prepare a bowl of mutton soup with crumbled flatbread. Comrade Zhao Kuangyin was very pleased after eating it and rewarded the shopkeeper with a hundred taels of gleaming silver.
The incident even made "mutton soup with crumbled flatbread" famous! From then on, beef and mutton soup with crumbled flatbread became signature dishes of the Shaanxi region. They remained popular to this day, and business was positively booming.
Anyway... the Warrior-Mage-Priest trio was just like that beef and mutton soup with crumbled flatbread. Earlier generations praised it, later generations followed their lead, and eventually everyone grew accustomed to it. That was how it became a classic.
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