ATIBTF Chapter 97

The Starry Swordsman, wielding his two-handed sword, charged forward with fierce momentum, and Muffin had a vague, bad feeling.

Up until now, the Starry Swordsman had barely made an appearance. JW’s 1st position player had chosen a brilliant farming route, making it nearly impossible for them to catch him.

Although the early game was a bit rough, the Starry Swordsman was a hero with impressive farming speed, and his economy had likely caught up by now.

Before Muffin could even assess the opponent’s economy, he was stunned by a throw from the Starry Swordsman.

As a 1st position hero, the Starry Swordsman used his only crowd control skill on Muffin, which could be seen as a sign of respect towards him.

Almost simultaneously with the Starry Swordsman charging in, this hero wielding a greatsword activated his ultimate, Frenzied Assault.

The Starry Swordsman’s ultimate, Frenzied Assault, is a straightforward skill. Once activated, it greatly increases the Swordsman’s attack speed, attack power, and movement speed for the duration of the ability.

Before Muffin could shake off the stun, he was hit by the Swordsman’s slashes, now enhanced by the ultimate, and was reduced to half health.

His crowd control removal item was still on cooldown, so Muffin could only wait for the stun to wear off before trying to escape.

With their 1st position player down, and the enemy’s 1st position activating their ultimate, Muffin could already tell how dangerous the situation was. Although he didn’t know the enemy’s economy, the fact that the Swordsman’s auto-attacks could reduce Muffin’s tanky hero to half health showed just how formidable he was.

The Starry Swordsman was at his peak power now, and they couldn’t engage in this fight.

Once the stun ended, Muffin quickly activated his Hardening skill, reducing the pain from the Swordsman’s attacks.

“Retreat! Retreat!” Muffin commanded his team over the voice chat.

However, JW wasn’t about to miss this opportunity to take down the enemy.

Jiang Min instantly threw out a stun hammer, locking down LSQ’s 2nd position.

Yu Hao blocked their retreat, trapping the enemies.

Seeing that Muffin had activated Hardening, Wei Yabo knew not to waste time trying to take down the tough target and charged past him, targeting the stunned 2nd position instead.

A few quick strikes were enough to finish off LSQ’s 2nd position.

With both of their carries down, LSQ was collapsing, and the remaining members could only retreat.

Wei Yabo’s ultimate was still active, and he shouted, “I can still fight! Let’s chase!”

The JW team, led by Wei Yabo, pursued the fleeing LSQ members.

Hao Qianyi made a sharp jump and stomped down, pulling LSQ’s 4th and 5th positions—both squishy targets—back into the fray. They couldn’t withstand the damage from the Starry Swordsman’s ultimate and fell quickly.

Wei Yabo secured the quadruple kill.

“Penta kill! Penta kill!” Hao Qianyi was even more excited than Wei Yabo himself.

With only Muffin left, and in a poor state, it was only a matter of time before he was taken down.

In the end, Wei Yabo secured the first penta kill of this BO5.

“Damn! That feels good!” Wei Yabo shook his neck, finally letting out the frustration that had built up during the early game.

“Don’t relax, there’s still more to fight for,” Yu Hao reminded, staying vigilant.

After the team wipe, LSQ’s morale didn’t drop too much. Both teams were at each other’s throats, neither willing to back down.

In the final moments, JW managed to protect Wei Yabo with Jiang Min’s Holy Protection at the Pit of Doom. Supported by the rest of the team, the Starry Swordsman rampaged through LSQ, securing the Epic Monster and pushing forward to take down LSQ’s core player, who couldn’t be revived. JW then pushed to the enemy base, ending the match.

As the word Victory appeared on the screen, the JW players couldn’t quite believe it.

This BO5 had lasted over 6 hours, and JW had been on the brink of losing… but they actually won?

“We… won?” Hao Qianyi was in disbelief.

“We’re in the top four!” Wei Yabo was the first to take off his headset and jump up.

Yu Hao and Jiang Min took off their headsets almost simultaneously and exchanged a smile.

Luckily, their journey in the World Championship hadn’t ended here.

The WPL live stream chat was buzzing with excitement.

Is there anything more thrilling than having two teams from this region in the top four?

【Wow! This is truly the most hopeful year for WPL!】

【AFK, good luck! JW, good luck!】

【The last skill from Sugar God, I was drenched watching it.】

【Cypress1V5! Incredible!】

【Don’t get too excited, what if both teams are eliminated in the semifinals?】

【Stop jinxing it, putting down your own team’s morale.】

【I don’t care, WPL is amazing!】

In the post-match interview segment, the victorious team’s representative was the standout player, Cypress Wei Yabo, who secured a pentakill in the final game.

The interview was hosted by the beautiful WPL region presenter, Yun Ning.

Yun Ning wore a stunning black qipao, looking graceful.

“Hello, everyone, and welcome to the post-match interview for the WOC Professional League Global Finals Top 8. I’m your host, Yun Ning,” she greeted the camera with a smile.

Wei Yabo stood beside her, holding the microphone, his expression stoic.

In reality, his hand holding the microphone was slightly trembling.

No matter how many times he’s faced the camera, post-match interviews always make him nervous.

Yun Ning: “Our guest for the post-match interview today is JW’s 1st position player, Cypress. Say hello to everyone!”

Wei Yabo, with a serious face, responded, “Hello, I’m Cypress, the 1st position player for JW.”

Yun Ning: “First of all, congratulations to JW for advancing to the top four!” Wei Yabo replied in a flat tone, “Thank you.”

Yun Ning then asked several more routine questions, to which Wei Yabo gave concise and efficient answers.

He was actually hoping the interview would end quickly, as he was hungry and eager to go back to the hotel for a meal.

Finally, Yun Ning asked the last question.

Yun Ning: “Today’s BO5 match was really exciting! We saw that your opponents focused a lot on targeting you, but it seemed like you weren’t too affected and played exceptionally well. Do you have any tips on how you made adjustments?”

Wei Yabo scratched his head, thought for a moment, and said, “Uh… not really. After our coach found out we were facing LSQ, he started giving me special training. As for a secret… I guess I’ve just gotten used to being bullied by the coach, so when others do it, it doesn’t feel like much.”

After Wei Yabo said this, the audience developed a deep respect for JW’s coach, Chaos.

—-

After the Top 8, there would be a short break before the Top 4 matches.

During this break, the coach and team leader generously gave the players half a day off, but they were not allowed to leave the hotel to go out and have fun.

Here is the English translation:

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“Tch, we’re on break but can’t leave the hotel? How boring!” Hao Qianyi was the first to protest.

Fan Dadi remained unmoved: “The top four matches are coming up soon. What if you can’t focus after having fun?”

A-Xin, the social media manager, chimed in: “Exactly. What if someone catches us going out to have fun? People will criticize us for not being serious.”

She had learned her lesson after being criticized on Weibo when JW’s performance was poor, with daily negative comments under the official posts.

Thankfully, JW was performing better now, advancing to the top four, and the comments on the official Weibo were much more encouraging and positive.

Since the team had a rule not to leave the hotel, the players had no choice but to follow it.

With nothing else to do and unable to go out, the players ended up staying in the training room playing games on their computers.

No training meant they could play and relax.

Yu Hao dragged Jiang Min to duo queue again.

As soon as he logged in, a familiar ID popped up.

In the chat window, it read:

【I’m Little Cutie: Bro! Carry me in a game! I’ve lost five in a row! I’m dying!】

This was none other than Yu Hao’s younger brother, Yu Ning.

Yu Ning was also a fan of WOC, a grade-schooler who liked to play games whenever he had free time.

His rank wasn’t high, but he was quite addicted.

It was said that his dream was to become a professional player, just like Yu Hao.

However, Yu Hao had mercilessly told him that with his current skills, it was difficult.

【Experienced Driver: Why aren’t you doing your homework instead of playing games?】

【I’m Little Cutie: It’s Saturday, bro! I finished all my homework! You didn’t miscalculate the time zone, did you?】

Yu Hao had been so absorbed in the global finals that he had completely forgotten about the time zone.

【I’m Little Cutie: Bro, please! Carry me!】

Professional players generally didn’t want to play with low-ranked players because playing with bad players for too long could ruin their own skills.

However, playing one game for fun wasn’t a big deal, a chance to relax.

【Experienced Driver: Fine】

【I’m Little Cutie: Really? Bro!? You agreed!?】

Yu Ning was so excited he could almost jump up.

Usually, whenever he asked Yu Hao to play with him, Yu Hao would always refuse with various excuses.

【Experienced Driver: But I need to bring someone else too, let’s trio queue together.】

【I’m Little Cutie: No problem! Anything works! Let me experience the feeling of easy wins!】

Yu Hao turned to Jiang Min and said, “Sugar, want to play a game with me and my brother?”

Jiang Min, sucking on a lollipop, replied, “Your brother? Oh, the one who dreams of being a professional player?”

Yu Hao nodded: “Yeah, he’s just a kid. Let’s fulfill his request. He’s asked me several times.”

Jiang Min thought there was no harm in playing one game, so she said, “Alright, let’s queue.”

Yu Hao: “But we need to switch accounts, our ranks are too high to queue with him.”

WOC had a rank protection system where players with large rank differences couldn’t queue together.

“Okay,” Jiang Min agreed.

Professional players had plenty of alternate accounts, and both Jiang Min and Yu Hao had several.

They switched to less frequently used accounts and queued with Yu Ning.

After waiting a bit, Yu Ning saw two more names appear in his team.

【Carry Me】 and 【666】.

【Carry Me】 was Yu Hao, and 【666】 was Jiang Min.

Since they were in the same team, they didn’t need to type anymore, they just switched to voice chat.

Yu Ning opened his mic and, using his unchanged child’s voice, asked: “Bro, is this ‘666’ your friend?”

Yu Hao: “My teammate.”

Yu Ning exclaimed: “It can’t be Sugar, right!”

He kept up with WOC’s professional scene and knew that Yu Hao’s most frequent duo partner was Sugar.

And Sugar… even though Yu Ning was as young as him, he had overheard his mom and Yu Hao’s conversations and knew that his brother had seemingly won over Sugar. So now, Sugar was probably considered his…

Yu Hao: “Yeah.”

Jiang Min also greeted him, acknowledging, “Hello.”

Yu Ning, excited, blurted out: “Sister-in-law!”

[mfn]You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️ -TL: Ysiad [/mfn]