Chapter 143 – Speaking Out for Justice

The excitement of charging into the Team Battlefield at one go left Comrade Jiang Yang still wide awake and energized at three in the morning. His legion comrades’ accounts were still logged into YY, but his headphones were completely silent. It seemed everyone had already gone to sleep, leaving only their computers on and YY running.

The Team Battlefield was located at the very center of Sky Arena. Unlike the first two floors, which were purely PvP-focused, the Team Battlefield was more like a mini-server—or rather, a mini-main city. Within the city were squares, weapon shops, pharmacies, general stores, and more. All players who logged into the Team Battlefield moved around in this city, buying weapons, potions, or looking for suitable teammates.

The rules of the Team Battlefield were as follows:

1. Players must freely form a five-person team before applying to enter the arena within the city.

2. Items such as potions and other consumables could be used during matches, so players should stock up in the city beforehand.

3. Opponents could not be chosen manually and were randomly assigned by the system. Matches had no time limit and ended only when all five members of one team were dead. Disconnecting or logging out also counted as death.

4. Each victory granted +30 points to all five members of the winning team, while each loss deducted 30 points from all five members of the losing team.

5. A five-person team must maintain the same lineup for three consecutive matches before disbanding or swapping members. If the team disbands or swaps members after just one match, each member would lose 60 points; if after two matches, each would lose 30 points.

6. Players in the city who weren’t in combat could, at any time, select any ongoing match from the system’s battle list to spectate in Spectator Mode and could exit at any time.

Jiang Yang had initially worried that this kind of team battle might lead to point farming—like trading wins and losses back and forth so everyone could gain points. But after carefully reading the rules, his concerns vanished. For one, unlike solo or duo battles, the points gained from winning weren’t higher than the points lost from losing—they were the same. So mutual farming would just keep everyone at a standstill. Additionally, the system randomly assigned opponents, preventing friends from cheating. However, the rule requiring three consecutive matches before swapping members put a lot of pressure on players to choose their teammates wisely. As the saying goes, one bad apple spoils the barrel. In a five-man battle, unless the strength gap between the two teams was enormous, just one weak link could lead to a complete loss. And if that weak link happened to be the healer… well, might as well just self-immolate to save time.

What was even scarier was that you couldn’t just swap out teammates—the penalty for swapping was exactly the same as losing a match. Continuing to fight meant at least a sliver of hope, even with terrible teammates, whereas swapping meant admitting defeat outright. So once you picked the wrong teammates, you were stuck grinding through three matches—which also meant handing over 90 points.

Sure enough, the most common messages in the World Chat were requests for teams or teammates—

[World] Lover’s Juice: Lv. 70 god-tier healer LFG! Lv. 70 god-tier healer LFG! Lv. 70 god-tier healer LFG!

[World] Ice Rain Executioner: 80% win rate DPS team 4=1, just need one Spirit Master and we start!

[World] Captain Johnny: DON’T BELIEVE LOVER’S JUICE, THAT’S A FAKE HEALER! JUST GOT KICKED FROM OUR TEAM!!!

Even Jiang Yang, with his measly 350-point entry score, had multiple people approach him within minutes of standing in the square, checking his gear and eagerly inviting him to join their teams. It was as if he were some once-in-a-century martial arts prodigy.

After experiencing the Solo and Duo battlefields, Jiang Yang had gained a more objective understanding of his own skill level. In terms of technique, he was above average, but far from a pro. Paired with his gear, if he played carefully and precisely, he could just barely step into the threshold of being a pro—but that was it. Against truly skilled players decked out in top-tier gear, he’d be crushed into dust. And Sky Arena was never short on pros.

The top five names on the Total Score Leaderboard were still the same as a few hours ago, their rankings unchanged—but their scores—

No.1—[Silent Fortress] Alps: 740 points

No.2—[Flame of the Gods] Sigh of the Gods: 712.5 points

No.3—[Silent Fortress] Brother Eastwind: 680 points

No.4—[Frostbite Canyon] Festive Lantern: 650 points

No.5—[Holy Light Sanctuary] Dutch Souvenir: 650 points

If their earlier decision not to enter Lover’s Constellation could be explained by wanting to accumulate a little more base points after just hitting 500, then now it was clear—they weren’t just aiming for a little more, they were farming points!

At this rate, by tomorrow, when the three-day limit was up, these guys might even break 1,000 points. This realization made Jiang Yang a little panicked. It wasn’t that he couldn’t stand others having high scores, but this farming speed proved their strength. In servers he wasn’t familiar with, there were players this skilled—and they were spread across different servers. More importantly, their Legion Commanders and Deputies might all be in Flagship, meaning these guys might not even be the top-tier players—just the second or third in their legions’ rankings. The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

The last full-server merge dated back to Cross-server PvP, but the final victor then had been Huaxia Summit. It wasn’t just about the Anti-Romance Alliance reaching the top—back then, Huaxia Summit also had the most registered teams. If he remembered correctly, some servers didn’t even have any participants.

Without anyone realizing, the Warring States era of Huaxia Online had arrived. In his panic, Jiang Yang felt… a tiny spark of excitement ~\(≧▽≦)/~

Despite not feeling sleepy at all, Jiang Yang got up and made himself a cup of coffee just in case. When he returned, several more people had whispered him with team invites—none of them familiar faces, which made him slightly uneasy. But sitting around doing nothing wasn’t an option either, so after some deliberation, he chose a team that claimed to be “4=1¹4=1 means the team already has 4, looking for last one, start immediately.”

A five-man team entering the arena didn’t need to gather physically. The leader just had to click the application button in the system menu on their screen, and if the other four members all agreed, the entire team would be teleported into the PvP map together—even if they were standing in completely different corners of the Team Battlefield’s main city. The team Jiang Yang joined was indeed 4=1, because the moment he entered, a prompt popped up on his screen asking if he wanted to enter the PvP map. This meant the team was full, and the leader had already sent the application.

Normally, for this kind of team PvP, everyone would join the same YY channel for easier coordination. But since the leader didn’t seem to care, Jiang Yang didn’t bring it up, not wanting to delay things. He swiftly clicked “Agree,” and seconds later, the screen transitioned as he and his four teammates slowly appeared in a map that looked like a fairyland.

The scenery was beautiful, but Jiang Yang had no time to admire it. His first instinct was to look for the enemy, but in this vast paradise, the opponents were lurking in some hidden corner, leaving no trace.

Jiang Yang wanted to ask the leader if they should also hide—otherwise, with the enemy unseen and themselves exposed, they’d already lost half the battle. But halfway through typing this question in the party chat, his fingers froze. Then they started trembling, his whole body on the verge of convulsing, because he had just seen his team roster—

[Blood Warrior] Flowing Wind

[Spirit Master] Thunder’s Wrath

[Assassin] Mad Lad

[Demon Refiner] Alinda

[Berserker] Jiangnan Blade King

No YY? Fine, they could rely on mutual understanding. No tactics? Fine, they could rely on improvisation. BUT FOR FUCK’S SAKE, NO HEALER?! Were they all supposed to chew on tree bark for sustenance?! At least give them a Blesscaller or something!!!

Clutching at the tiniest shred of hope, Jiang Yang typed with trembling fingers—

[Party] Mad Lad: Uh, guys, seems like… we’re missing a healer, huh?

The leader instantly replied—

[Party] Flowing Wind: Why do we need a healer in a full DPS team? Just chug potions and tough it out.

Such a domineering response instantly eased Jiang Yang’s worries. He figured he’d stumbled upon a team of pros planning to steamroll their opponents—the so-called “one-shot rush.” If they were going to crush the enemy, then obviously the higher the DPS, the better. Battles would be over in one or two minutes anyway—short enough that a single potion would suffice.

As they spoke, the enemy appeared in the distance but didn’t charge recklessly. They seemed to be observing, perhaps assessing their combat power based on gear.

However, Jiang Yang’s team acted exactly as he expected—the moment they spotted the enemy, they launched a full-scale assault with unstoppable momentum!

Leader Flowing Wind took the lead, likely having used a Speed Scroll, and was the first to reach attack range. Without hesitation, he unleashed—a Taunt!

Mad Lad was still sprinting behind the leader, but Jiang Yang, sitting at his computer, was completely bewildered…

Taunt—a Blood Warrior’s aggro-pulling skill. Damage: 0. Mainly used to draw a boss’s aggro.

But the problem was, this was PvP, not a dungeon. Both sides were already hostile—why the hell would he use an aggro skill?!

Wait—

Did he think that was the end of it?

No!

After the Taunt, Flowing Wind immediately followed up with another big move—Deception is Fair in War!

Deception is Fair in War—another Blood Warrior aggro skill. Damage: 0. Mainly used to solidify boss aggro.

Jiang Yang, outside the screen, was completely Spartacus’d. But inside the screen, Mad Lad had already caught up to the leader, and thus had the honor of standing beside him as they both ate the enemy Berserker’s AoE attack—Bloody Sandstorm!

Clearly, the leader had succeeded! He had firmly secured the enemy’s aggro!

Did he think that was the end of it?

No!

After the enemy’s Bloody Sandstorm came Solitary Desert Haze! Long River Sunset!

Finally, the Blood Warrior had exhausted all his skills and had to wait for cooldowns—so the enemy Spirit Master stepped up!

Sudden Storm! Pear Blossom Rain! Phoenix Rebirth!

Did they think the enemy only had a Spirit Master?!

No!

They also had a Blesscaller! And not just any Blesscaller—a full DPS Blesscaller!

Golden Age!

Flowing Wind fell, never to flow again.

Jiang Yang was the second to reach the combat zone, having already chugged two potions, but his HP bar was still down to a third—and his next potion had a 20-second cooldown.

The enemy Blood Warrior didn’t give him that time.

One Cut Kill!

As he fell, Jiang Yang watched on his screen as his three teammates, who had just arrived at the corpses of him and the leader, continued to be bombarded by the enemy’s relentless attacks. His heart was filled with boundless desolation.

The leader was truly the leader—when he said “one-shot rush,” he really meant their team would be the ones getting rushed…

BUT COULD HE HAVE AT LEAST CLARIFIED THAT THEY WERE THE ONES GETTING STEAMROLLED IN THAT RUSH?!

Jiang Yang’s first battle in the Team Battlefield was over in the blink of an eye. He regretted not closing his eyes, because now the entire disastrous process was seared into his memory, leaving a wound that not even Ten Thousand Blossoms could heal.

[Party] Flowing Wind: Wanna go again?

Jiang Yang stared at these words, suddenly possessed by the urge to interview this legendary hero—HOW THE HELL DO YOU STILL HAVE THE FACE TO ASK THAT?!

But he quickly dismissed the thought.

[Party] Thunder’s Wrath: Sure.

[Party] Alinda: But no more Deception is Fair in War, okay? Haha, though the pose was kinda cool.

[Party] Jiangnan Blade King: Let me restock on potions first. Flowing, need anything? I’ll grab it for you.

…This was a leader with three devoted fans. Sorry, he shouldn’t have crashed their party. TAT

After decisively quitting the team, Jiang Yang’s score remained at 350 points—since his Team Battlefield score was 0, there was nothing to deduct. But the others seemed worse off, because less than half a minute after he left, they started spamming World Chat—

[World] Flowing Wind: [Mad Lad] OPEN YOUR EYES AND DON’T TEAM WITH THIS *! NO SKILL AT ALL AND HE * RAN AFTER ONE MATCH! OUR WHOLE TEAM LOST 60 POINTS EACH!! YOU * HAVE ANY DECENCY?!

[World] Alinda: [Mad Lad] I’LL FCK YOUR MOTHER!!!

[World] Jiangnan Blade King: [Mad Lad] YOU’RE JUST A ****

Jiang Yang nearly coughed up blood. Was there no justice in this world? Sure, he had left the team, causing them to lose points. But anyone with an IQ over 2 could tell the next two matches would’ve been losses too! He just didn’t want to waste his life with them! And if they had time to spam chat, why not spend it looking for a healer?!

These guys must have been professional spammers—their insults were endless and never repeated. Even someone as street-smart as Jiang Yang couldn’t handle it. And if he tried to retaliate, all he had in his arsenal was “your mom” jokes. He was ashamed. TAT

Just as he was fuming, a familiar ID suddenly appeared in World Chat, blinding him—

[World] 2B Fighter Jet: Yo, guys, chill. A lid fits its pot—if you’re a bunch of rusty woks, don’t go looking for a crystal lid with gold trim. That isn’t gonna match~

The cigarette in Jiang Yang’s mouth fell onto his keyboard, slowly burning a black mark into the white surface…

But that wasn’t important!

What was important was—

[World] Mad Lad: I never knew that’s how you saw me. Why didn’t you say so earlier?! Don’t be shy! Don’t be afraid of rejection! Just come out with it boldly!!

2B Fighter Jet spat his coffee onto his monitor. He suddenly had a profound realization—the only time a Mad Lad who didn’t know how to be shameless or perverted would throw his dignity to the dogs was when he was teasing younger men!

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  4=1 means the team already has 4, looking for last one