Honestly, I have been messing with this idea for months only to finish it today... So I'm really sorry if some things seem cringy or too dramatic (I think I am too dramatic for my own good). But... enjoy this story that my wild imagination somehow comes up with.
[One Autumn Leaf has come online]
One Autumn Leaf: Autumn Tree Dancing Rain Greetings from Paris ^^
[Autumn Tree has come online]
Autumn Tree: Seriously? Paris now?
One Autumn Leaf: [NightInParis .png] The view is good from my room.
Autumn Leaf: Ok, Mr. CEO. No need to flaunt your wealth to us peasants. When are you going to return to China?
One Autumn Leaf: Not anytime soon I doubt. There's an important business I have to take care of here first.
One Autumn Leaf: Where is Mucheng btw?
Autumn Tree: She's still asleep. She was up last night watching K-Drama.
Autumn Tree: What's with the popularity with K-Drama anyway.
One Autumn Leaf: Maybe you should ask Mucheng.
One Autumn Leaf: Ah, gotta go. Ye Qiu is calling [HuangShaotianpout .png]
Autumn Tree: Alright. Keep me update [AutumTreeWave .png]
[One Autumn Leaf is offline]
Ye Xiu smirks as he put down his phone. Sorry, Muqiu, but this is going to be a surprised for you. He looks up as he walks out of the airport with a suitcase in tow. His phone vibrates again and he checks it just to see Ye Qiu's angry messages on QQ.
Ye Qiu: Where are you?
Ye Qiu: Why did you disappear on me?
Ye Qiu: Come back here, stupid brother!
Ye Qiu: Don't tell me you are dumping your work on me again!
Ye Qiu: Hello?
Ye Qiu: Brother? Answer me!
Ye Qiu: Ye Xiu Ye Xiu Ye Xiu
Ye Xiu: :)
Ye Xiu: Have fun Ah Qiu.
Ye Xiu: Don't die on me.
[Ye Xiu is offline]
Ye Qiu: What? Xiu'ge
Ye Qiu: COME BACK HERE!
'I'm sorry brother but I have more important things to do than some business trip. I'm sure you can handle it just fine without me.'
Ye Xiu put his phone back in his pocket and head out of the airport to look for a taxi. He heads toward the nearest one and tells the driver to head toward the hotel he booked ahead of time near Samsara's stadium. Checking the time, he found that he only has two hours left to check in to the hotel and get to the stadium for the start of the event. With nothing to do, he looks out the window as the taxi rolls along, thinking about the past.
He was meant to be a professional player too, alongside Su Muqiu. However, certain things happened and here he is now. He can almost remember that day like yesterday when he received the scared of his life. Muqiu, while preoccupied with telling Ye Xiu about the new glitch that he discovered in the game, didn't noticed the car swirling out of control near him. Acting on instinct, Ye Xiu pulled Muqiu out of the way of the car, narrowly missing it as it crashed into the sidewalk. However, such incident had caused his parents to notice him as they were coincidently on a business trip in the same city and they dragged in him back home afterward, having him continue his education to be the heir to the family. Thinking back on it now, he doesn't regret his decision. That day he had stubbornly followed Muqiu out and because of that, he was able to save his life. If he hadn't made such decision, he fears of where Muqiu would be right now.
His thoughts get pulled back to reality when the taxi got stuck in traffic. Looking toward the road, it seems that there are a lot of traffic now that they are near the stadium. He sighs and tells the driver to let him off there and pays for the trip. Taking his luggage, he walks toward his hotel and check in then leave his luggage in his room. Taking a look at his watch, he sees that he still have an hour before the event start, enough time to get to the stadium and find his seat. He walks out of the room, locking it behind him and head toward the stadium.
The stadium is crowded as expected with tons of stalls set up selling team merchandise and especially a lot of Team Samsara ones. Well, that's the perk of being the home team for the All Stars Weekend. As the main host, after finishing the Alliance's requirements, Club Samsara obviously put in all of their efforts to show off their power. On the brochure, each of the 24 players chosen for the All-Star event had their own page. The page had a photograph, the player's information, an introduction, and a hand-drawn picture of the player's powerful Glory character. The production was quite good.
Ye Xiu quickly finds his seat and sits down as the music continue to play in the stadium. There is at least another 45 minutes until the event start anyway. Well, the earlier the better. No doubt the stadium will get even more crowded as it gets closer to the start time of the event.
Ye Xiu: Dancing Rain Guess where I am.
Ye Xiu: [SamsaraStadium .png]
Dancing Rain: What? You are at the All Stars Event?
Dancing Rain: Does my brother know?
Ye Xiu: Yup and no, don't tell your brother. It's going to be a surprised.
Ye Xiu: ;)
Dancing Rain: Ok :)
Dancing Rain: Where are you seated?
Ye Xiu: Area A Row 18 Seat 19
Dancing Rain: Ok, I'll make sure to call you up when I get the chance.
Ye Xiu: Wait what?
Ye Xiu: You just want to show off don't you?
Dancing Rain: It's not a bad way to reveal though.
Dancing Rain: I can almost see my brother's surprised look when he sees you come on
Dancing Rain: :)
Ye Xiu: You are one evil girl.
Ye Xiu: But I love you still ❤
Ye Xiu: Let's all go eat after this.
Ye Xiu: My treat :)
Dancing Rain: Yay! Ok~
Dancing Rain: I gotta go now.
Dancing Rain: They want to go over the last bit of information before the event.
Dancing Rain: I'll see you later
Dancing Rain: Love you gege ❤
Ye Xiu looks up as two girls sit down in the two seats next to him and he immediately recognize one of them.
"Excuse me but are you perhaps Miss Tang Rou?" he asks.
The two girls turn to look at him in surprised.
"Who-"
"Yes I am. And you are Ye Xiu if I remember correctly."
"Eh, little Tang, you know him?"
"Yes, our family introduced us before."
Their family indeed introduced them before… as marriage prospects. Ye Xiu is sure glad that he managed to get out of that situation since he sure doesn't want to be tied down by such thing as marriage yet. Oh the horror.
Tang Rou introduced Ye Xiu and Chen Guo to each other and they shake hands.
"Miss Tang, I never thought you would be someone to play Glory though," he says.
"I don't," she says. "Chen Guo got us tickets and insisted that I come with her. Although this sure is a coincidence, to have seats next to each other."
"Yes… a coincidence indeed."
At eight o'clock sharp, the music stops playing and the venue turns pitch black before beams of light direct at the stage as the character projections appear one by one. Before long, the event continue on as usual without a hitch. There were quite a few interesting fights during the Rookie Challenge, especially between Gao Yingjie and Wang Jiexi and then the other one between Tang Hao and Lin Jingyan. However, there is one player that caught his eyes. Qiao Yifan, that kid sure has potential, if only his team can realize and use it right.
The first day of the event soon ended after the match between Yu Nian and Zhou Zekai and the three of them exit the stadium together. It turns out they all book the same hotel as Ye Xiu and the coincidence is starting to make him nervous. Is this fate or some trick play by God?
Once they get back to the hotel, Ye Xiu bid them good night and return to his own room and turn on the TV to watch the interview afterward. After finding nothing interesting beside Zhou Zekai's short responses, which he laughs at the reporters' expense, before turning in for the night.
...
The morning of the second day of the event, Ye Xiu wakes up and opens up his gaming laptop and inserting in his account card. Immediately when he gets in, he receives several greetings from players in Excellent Dynasty guild. Even though Ye Xiu rarely finds the time to play Glory much in favor of the company, he still finds time occasionally to come on and help out the guild with wild bosses and they often see him as a valuable expert who only appear once in a while.
He then spend the entire day playing in the game since he doesn't get a lot of opportunity to play like this. Of course, he didn't forget about his breakfast and lunch as he called for the hotel to bring him some food for the day.
When the time come for the second day of the event, he logs out of the game and head out of the hotel to meet Tang Rou and Chen Guo before going to the stadium together.
The first part of the second day of the event is the mini games and the first up is Zhou Zekai with the hurdles. Of course, the host had a huge headache with him as he pick the lucky audience to go up on stage with him.
"Ahh!" Chen Guo suddenly cried out next to him.
"What is it?"
"Su Mucheng also brought binoculars!" she answered excitedly
"Really? Let me look!" Ye Xiu said and she handed it to him.
He takes it and looks toward the pro players' seats and quickly found her. Yup, she has her binoculars out alright as she searches around with them. He sees her binoculars turn and turn, until it finally turned towards his direction, where it quickly stopped. They are a bit far apart but still manage to see each other. Chen Guo already wanted the binoculars back to him and he hands them back to her. She raised them up and immediately cried out.
"She seems to be looking towards us, don't you think?"
"Seems like it…"
"Ah, she seems to be waving in this direction. Who do you think she's saying hi to?"
Of course, she's oblivious to Ye Xiu waving back at Mucheng next to her.
Up on stage, the pros are already up on stage as well as the lucky audience and the first event quickly started after the introduction of the audience members. The first mini game goes as expected with Zhou Zekai coming in first place.
The second event was the High Jump and the pro player selected is Su Mucheng. The stadium's cheers and applause for her is thunderous. Her popularity is as high as always. Ye Xiu and Su Muqiu jokes about hiring bodyguards just for her before because of it just to ward off all the boys that are after her.
"Mucheng, how do you plan on choosing the four audience members?" the host asks excitedly.
The first lucky audience is decided by a random roll and as for the remaining three, Mucheng decides to pick them herself.
"I pick Area C."
"Ah…" Chen Guo cries out in surprise next to him.
"Row 18."
"Ahhh…"
"#21!"
Chen Guo next to him couldn't believe what she just heard and turns over to Tang Rou for confirmation to which she confirms that yes, she has been chosen.
"Next up, I have an idea. I want to choose this friend's neighboring seats. I think it'll be very fun if we invite people who know each other to come up," Mucheng suggests.
"Mm, that sounds like a great idea. Are you going to pick both of them? #19 and #23?"
"Yes!" Mucheng confirms.
"AH! We can even go up together!" Chen Guo shouted excitedly as they all got up to go up the stage.
Ye Xiu borrows Chen Guo's binoculars as he gets on the stage and takes a look toward Excellent Era's pro players area and smirk.
...
In the meantime in Excellent Era's box, Su Muqiu's jaws are wide open as he stares in shock at the stage. That wrecked Ye Xiu! How dare he lies to him about being in Paris! And he also corrupts his adorable little sister on the lie too! And that little girl, how dare she keeps such a secret from her own brother!
His heart begins to bleed at the betrayal and tears stream down his cheeks comically as his teammates look at him curiously.
Muqiu takes out his phone after he wipes his tears away and starts spamming Ye Xiu's QQ asking for an explanation.
...
Ye Xiu's phone begins to vibrate in his pocket and he knows that it's probably Su Muqiu being angry at him on QQ. He secretly turn it off as he pays attention to the host as he introduced them.
"Could I ask for your names?" the host asked.
"Chen Guo."
"Tang Rou."
"Ye Xiu."
"It seems like you three are like what Mucheng wanted. Are you three together?"
"The two of us are good friends," Chen Guo says pointing to herself and Tang Rou. "And he's an acquaintance of ours."
"You three are lucky enough to participate in today's event. What are your feelings about this?"
"Of course, I'm very excited."
The questions continued on as usual as Chen Guo pretty much answers all of them.
"Who is your favorite pro player?" the host asks them.
Chen Guo's gaze turns toward Su Mucheng and answers, "Of course it's Su Mucheng!"
The host immediately has Mucheng come over and interact with her fan before he move on to ask Ye Xiu about his favorite player.
He was about to answer with Muqiu's name but he stops himself before inwardly smirking.
"It's Han Wenqing," he says with a smile.
...
Elsewhere, someone once again breaks into tears. This betrayal… Oh such sweet betrayal. I will get you for this, you black-hearted Ye Xiu!
...
"Why do you like pro player Han?" the host asks.
"Do you need a reason to like someone?" Ye Xiu says, smiling with his eyes (^_^).
The host couldn't help but inwardly cry at such a vague answer. Can't you just be more energetic about this?
Ye Xiu leans in toward Tang Rou as the host move on to the other participant to interview.
"Do you have a class that you play?"
"Chen Guo convinced me to try playing in the new server with a Battle Mage."
"Oh? Same class as me then."
Once the host finishes with the introductions, the match officially starts and the eight players goes to their respective platforms. After the eight players goes up, they begin to log in with their account cards. However, Tang Rou was offered to use a level 70 Battle Mage account since hers is only level 40 to be fair which she accepted.
The eight players' characters were projected onto the stage. The screens featured each character's perspective. But to everyone's surprise, when Ye Xiu's character appears on screen, there is quite a commotion from the pros and audience alike.
A battle mage character fully clad in silver equipments.
...
"What what what what! That character has fully equipped silver equipments! Is this a glitch or is he some kind of rich kid buying materials for them. There's no way he can get all of those materials himself can he? Or is it because he hacks the game? Is it is it?" a certain someone begins blabbering about it in Blue Rain's section.
"Glory isn't a game that can be hacked like that," says Yu Wenzhou besides him. "Most likely he creates them himself."
"Although that account sure looks familiar. Where have I seen it before. Where where where. Captain captain, have you seen this account before? Does it look familiar to you?"
Yu Wenzhou can only shakes his head.
...
In Tyranny's section, Han Wenqing looks at the screen with his eyes widen. There is no way that he can't recognize that account no matter how it looks now with the silver equipment. That account is no doubt of his rival's. Then does that mean the man on stage is actually… him?
...
Over in Excellent Era's side, Su Muqiu is grinning widely. He recognizes the silver equipment on the character alright. The silver weapon is a gift he made for Ye Xiu on his birthday years back and the other pieces he help him build as well. Looking at how nicely the equipments look together, he can't help but feel extremely proud of it. The silver weapon, Evil Annihilation, is truly a match with One Autumn Leaf.
...
The host has no way of anticipating such a prominent character to appear from the audience. Silver equipments are usually monopolize by the clubs and if any silver equipments do appear from the normal players, it's usually just low level equipments that players would rather equip in game orange equipments over them. For this character to actually be equipping silver equipments, it could mean that the pieces must be high level.
The High Jump event soon begins and the map projects onto the stage as the eight characters lined up. They all had their heads up, looking at the steps floating in the air which is different from the previously mountain walls as obstacles, no doubt to make the competition more intense.
The match quickly began after the eight characters got into position and a loud "Bang!" sounded. One Autumn Leaf and Dancing Rain soon blasted ahead, leaving everyone else behind. The competition soon became one sided as One Autumn Leaf and Dancing Rain went ahead of everyone else with One Autumn Leaf having an ever increasing lead against Dancing Rain as the two of them occasionally exchange blows.
Down below, the other pros are steadily keeping pace while fighting each other. As for the other three guest participants, well… they are fighting it out at the bottom of the obstacles. Soon enough, One Autumn Leaf crossed the finish line first with Dancing Rain following few seconds after.
...
Ye Xiu sits back and wait for the rest of the players to reach the top of the obstacles. He smiled as Tang Rou and Chen Guo helps each other going up each platforms. Glory is indeed a game that you can't play alone.
...
After a short interview with the host, instead of returning to his seat with Tang Rou and Chen Guo, he heads on out the stadium to get a head start in case of anyone coming after him for questions. But of course, who would have thought that Muqiu also has the same idea in mind and is already waiting in front of the entrance for him.
"You little bastard, how dare you lie to me?" Muqiu jumped at him and held him in a chokehold.
Ye Xiu patted his arm as if asking for air before Muqiu finally relinquished his hold of him.
"Isn't it good to have a surprise once in a while?" Ye Xiu sends him a smirk.
"You know everyone is talking about you right now right?" Muqiu said while checking his QQ. No doubt, the pro player chatroom is currently flooded with questions of the mysterious audience with a fully equipped account of silver equipments.
"Just let them speculate all they want."
"En."
"Let's go eat later. I got a table book at a five stars restaurant nearby."
"..."
"My treat."
"Ok."
...
"Area C Row 18 Number 19!"
"Congratulations for having the chance to challenge Du Ming!"
Ye Xiu sweat dropped in his seat. They didn't just rigged the roll to have him go up on stage… Did they? Using his fully equipped silver equipments account sure is a bad idea. Now they are having him go up to test his skills, aren't they. Sure he did pressed the button but he was sure that he didn't pressed it that fast. If he had known that they would rigged the roll, he would not have pressed the button at all. He got up and slowly get down to the stage, sulking along the way.
"Who would have thought that the winner would be an old friend! But we will have to go as planned so please introduce yourself to everyone again."
"I'm Ye Xiu."
"How long have you been playing Glory, Mr. Ye?" the host asked. "To have a full set of silver equipments for your character, you must have played for a long time, right?"
"Yes, I have played for 10 years now."
"T-ten years? That's really impressive. Who would have thought that you are among the first generation of players. Then let's see how your years of experience go against a pro, shall we? You have your account correct?"
"Yes, but I will be using another account of mine."
The host sweated. The whole reason Ye Xiu got called up again was because of his One Autumn Leaf. To use another account now… What's the point of that?
The match soon began and the players go to their seat. Ye Xiu takes out the account card and smiled in reminiscence of the efforts that went into this account.
"It's time my friend, for the world to know of you."
He inserted the card into the card reader.
...
"What the heck is that character?! Such mismatch equipments! Is this a 'Let's-See-Who-Can-Make-the-Ugliest-Equipment-Combination Competition'? My eyes! My eyes! My eyes! Captain! Help me! My eyes are bleeding! It's bleeding! Bleeding!" Huang Shaotian complained.
"Interesting character, and that weapon too… Is this an unspecialized?" Yu Wenzhou analyzed.
...
Han Wenqing's eyes narrowed as he recognized the character's class. It has been years since such a character appeared in the Glory scene after the unspecialized class died down after the Class Awakening Quests.
...
"Gege, it's that character! It's actually Lord Grim!" Mucheng said excitedly while Muqiu smiled as he sat next to her.
He could feels tears forming at the edge of his eyes. Lord Grim had been the character that he put a lot of efforts in to develop the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella. But when his dream was crushed with the Glory update, he had left Lord Grim in Ye Xiu's care. To think that not only has Ye Xiu been taking care of the account, he had also developed the umbrella to an extent that he himself wasn't able to before.
At this moment, Muqiu felt like a proud father who was watching his son finally making a mark in the world.
...
Needless to say, both the audience and pro players were speechless at the sudden appearance of such an orthodox character. Only the old players among them were able to remember when such a class was at its highest in Glory history while the newer players could only gawked at the class that they had once considered to be a myth.
...
When Ye Xiu defeated Du Ming, the audience was speechless while Du Ming couldn't believe his eyes that he has lost to an unspecialized. Of course he has heard myths of the unspecialized's advantage against other classes due to their variety of skills… but surely after so many updates, it still couldn't be possible, right? In the meantime, the audience was in awed at lost after seeing the prowess of an unspecialized. For such an individual to used the unspecialized to this extent, could this Ye Xiu in fact be a God?
...
Muqiu in the meantime was grinning from ear to ear. If anyone look at him now, they would most likely compare him to a father being so proud of his son for shocking the world. No doubt he is at the moment.
...
"I want a rematch!"
Du Ming still can't believe that he would be losing against an unspecialized character that has been outdated for so many years, much less an unspecialized that is being controlled by an audience. At this rate if he doesn't avenge his lost, he wouldn't even have the face to look at his fans.
"No thanks, I'm tired already."
"Huh? Tired after just one match?" Du Ming felt like dying of anger. This guy just effortlessly defeated him and he said that he's tired?
"Fine, how about I used another account this time. An unspecialized is too hard for you, huh?"
Another round started, this time with One Autumn Leaf.
...
W-What in the world is that move just now?! The entire stadium as well as the fans watching through the live stream was in shocked. Rising Dragon Soars the Sky actually turns it head up… This is a… Dragon Rises Its Head?
The entire world is in an uproar at the first appearance of such a move. For those who questioned about it earlier or those who never has such a thought, at this moment, everyone knew that the player on stage, Ye Xiu, is without a doubt… a God!
...
After the round ended, Ye Xiu has already escaped from his seat as he knew that if he lingered around for too long, he would be bombarded with questions. So it's safe to say that he has better run now or he will regret it later.
Just as he was about to reach the exit of the stadium, a figure appeared in front and blocked his path.
"Why didn't you appeared in the pro stage? Didn't you say that you signed with Excellent Era?" It was Han Wenqing.
"I did," Ye Xiu sighed. "But there's no way I can do that if my family dragged me home by the collar."
"Are you going to ever join the pro stage?"
Ye Xiu let out a small smirk and walked past him.
"At this age, I really doubt that I will. Beside with this, I has left a mark for myself. That is enough for me."
There was a long silent after.
"Let's PK sometime, One Autumn Leaf."
"Alright, I will be waiting, Desert Dust."
...
"Are you leaving already?" Mucheng asked as Ye Xiu patted her head.
"Yea, I should really get back to my business in Paris. Otherwise, Ah Qiu will really scold me when he sees me again."
Muqiu snickered and said, "Make sure you come and pay us a visit soon. We really need to have more time together than this."
"Of course."
"Xiu'ge, your flight is departing soon, you should get going."
"En, I will."
"Ye Xiu, have a safe plight," said Muqiu.
"En, thank you."
Ye Xiu turned around and head toward the departure gate. Not long after, he turned around and said, "Muqiu, sometimes I wish that if only I can be by your side… we could have achieved so much Glory together. However, I am also happy of all the Glory you are able to accomplish… for both of us."