Chapter 53: The Atmosphere Turns Strange
Chapter 53: The Atmosphere Turns Strange
"Team 233, please note that your preliminary round will commence at 10:30 on the A8 Arena. Additionally, your opponents for this match are Team 038. Please prepare accordingly."
"Best wishes for a victorious battle!
- Quan Cheng Cup Organizers"
As Lu Wu received this text message, Dudu and Hao Zhijian's faces paled instantly.
The Quan Cheng Cup served as a warm-up tournament for the High School League.
The competition was significant, with its own dedicated website.
To generate hype for the event, the website had been promoting seed teams a week in advance, and unfortunately for Lu Wu, Team 038, one of the seed teams, was their opponent.
Although they were among the lower-ranked seeds, they were indeed seed players.
Their information was readily available on the official website.
Team 038 hailed from the Elite Class of Quan Cheng No. 4 High School.
The captain, Zhang Ke, had a Jungle Wolf summon beast of Black Iron quality.
The other two members were Zhang Yong, with a Black Iron quality Goblin summon beast, and Zhang Shan, with a Black Iron quality Gnome summon beast.
This was all the information available about Team 038, but it was enough to put Dudu and Hao Zhijian under immense pressure, especially considering their status as an officially recognized seed team.
After all, one of them was naturally timid, while the other had become accustomed to being bullied by Lu Wu.
It was rare for them to feel so confident, only to have Lu Wu pin them down and rub their faces in the dirt.
A month later, Hao Zhijian had lost most of his confidence, and the prospect of facing a seed team made him particularly anxious.
Lu Wu, the only one who remained calm, felt a bit stifled inside.
Why arrange a match against a seed team right off the bat?
According to the usual pattern, they should have been matched against a few fish teams first to get some practice, and then take on the seed teams after gaining sufficient experience.
Lu Wu felt a bit overwhelmed by this initial challenge.
However, as the captain and core of the team, he couldn't show his anxiety. He had to exude the confidence of a leader and reassure his teammates.
Lu Wu had no choice but to take Dudu's chubby hand and gently stroke her head, speaking softly, "Don't be afraid, trust me, we can win."
With those words, Dudu's tension instantly dissipated, and her mind raced with excitement.
After reassuring Dudu, Lu Wu turned to Hao Zhijian, who turned to face him with a longing gaze, hoping for some encouraging words from Lu Wu.
But Lu Wu's gentle expression instantly transformed into a fierce one, "You can be nervous, but if you perform poorly and cause us to lose, I'll twist your head off!"
Well, Lu Wu was being a bit hypocritical here!
However, this tactic worked wonders on Hao Zhijian, who immediately lost his fear.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Hao Zhijian's anxiety shifted into fear of Lu Wu.
After settling his teammates, Lu Wu led them around the training ground.
The match was scheduled for 10:30, and with time to spare, Lu Wu decided to stroll around the training ground.
Firstly, he wanted to observe other matches, and secondly, he sought opportunities to touch other summon beasts.
Since it was the preliminary round, the training ground wasn't open for on-site spectators; most of those present were participating summoners.
You never knew who might be their next opponent, so gathering information beforehand was crucial. Even without that, as a quasi-professional summon beast breeder, Lu Wu needed to expand his knowledge of summon beasts.
However, Lu Wu's attempts to touch other summon beasts didn't go smoothly.
The participants were wary of strangers trying to strike up conversations, fearing they might be after their information.
Lu Wu tried his best to chat up the girls, but only one of them was willing to give him the time of day.
Additionally, the event staff noticed Lu Wu's wandering and touching everything in sight. They immediately warned him, telling him to either sit and watch or wait at the designated competition arena if he wasn't spectating, and to stop wandering around, making their job more difficult.
Lu Wu had no choice but to reluctantly bring his teammates to the pre-match rest area of the A8 Arena.
When they arrived, Lu Wu and his team saw that there were quite a few people in the spectator zone of the A8 Arena.
Indeed, these people's gazes were not focused on the two fish teams currently competing in the A8 Arena but were mostly directed towards the pre-match rest area.
Of course, they weren't just observing Lu Wu's team, the only team in this area.
What caught their attention was Lu Wu's upcoming opponents, the 038 seed team, who hadn't arrived yet.
Before the 038 team's arrival, they did pay some attention to Lu Wu's team, to a greater or lesser extent.
After all, Lu Wu's team was the first opponent of the 038 team.
If possible, these spectators hoped that Lu Wu's team would be stronger, so that they might force the 038 seed team to bring out more of their strength.
In the 1619 version of the book, this was a certainty!
However, when everyone saw Lu Wu's team, they immediately lost that thought.
Some even hesitated, wondering if they should turn around and leave.
There was no other way; Lu Wu's team gave off a strong first impression of being a typical fish team.
The team's three summoned beasts were:
A small skeleton and a mini pig, both widely acknowledged as particularly weak summoned beasts. Although Hao Zhijian's Fuzzy Bird was somewhat better, it was still just average and not particularly impressive.
Even if the Fuzzy Bird was exceptional, it couldn't carry two weak teammates!
So, almost everyone who saw Lu Wu's team immediately concluded that the upcoming match was destined to be an overwhelmingly one-sided and uninteresting affair.
This was not the kind of match these spectators, who had spared time to watch, were looking for.
They would rather watch other seed players' matches than this.
If one had to say something appealing about Lu Wu's team, it would be Lu Wu's ordinary-looking face.
And that's exactly why Cheng Qingqing stayed.
After seeing Lu Wu's team's summoned beasts, she was about to leave, but when she looked up and saw Lu Wu's face, she sat back down, having just stood up.
"Qingqing, let's go?"
Her teammate, Liu Qing, seeing this, pulled her arm and said, "There's nothing good to watch in this match!"
"No, it's quite interesting!"
"A mini pig and a small skeleton, what's so interesting... Oh, fine, you're right!"
Initially focused on the summoned beasts, Liu Qing hadn't noticed Lu Wu's ordinary face. But when she did, she froze, nodded vigorously, and sat down next to Cheng Qingqing.
The two girls' actions left their male teammate confused. What was going on? But when he also saw Lu Wu's ordinary face, he immediately understood, feeling a pang of jealousy.
What made it worse for him was that this situation wasn't unique to their team; other teams with female members were also affected.
As the number of affected girls increased, the atmosphere in the spectator zone of the A8 Arena became peculiar...
(End of Chapter)
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