Chapter 43

"Is this really the end?" Wu Haoxuan asked in disbelief.

"What else did you expect?"

Yuan Hanshuang shrugged. "How many Awakened ones can make it into a prestigious advanced academy? Being admitted to Silver Star already proves one is among the elite of the same tier. Not to mention, their opponents were of a lower rank than us. If we couldn't even win against that, the Awakened ones eliminated by the national college entrance examination would probably be crying in despair."

Low-ranked fighters in the Black Street were mostly self-taught brawlers; only upon reaching high ranks would one encounter professionals from elite backgrounds. The Gold tier was still as distant from the Diamond tier as Black Iron was. Yuan Hanshuang could win with her eyes closed, requiring zero technical skill.

Normally, encountering an opponent with zero technical skill who was several ranks lower would have made her ecstatic, with her mind solely focused on making money to feed herself. Put in the current situation, however, it could hardly be considered a good thing.

On the fighting stage, Xuanyuan Sheng was still complaining, "I didn't even get to fight to my heart's content, and it's already over!"

"Yeah, yeah! My little mouse hasn't even drawn its second card yet!"

Since his secondary skill couldn't be deployed, Wu Haoxuan also began talking nonsense with his eyes closed. "My luck was off the charts today; if I had drawn, it definitely would have been an SSR. They didn't even give me a chance to show my stuff, sigh."

Yuan Hanshuang remained silent.

Go ahead, just make things up. As if I didn't know that even if you drew ten times, you wouldn't necessarily pull an SSR.

She buried her hands in her pockets and turned around quietly.

"Let's go. On to the next match."

Unlike the optimism plastered across the others' faces, Yuan Hanshuang's eyes were clouded with gravity.

A single team battle exposed far too many things.

*Let's wait a little longer,* Yuan Hanshuang thought.

Having them experience it firsthand and pricking their overconfidence was far more effective than pointing things out directly.

Soon, after waiting a few minutes, they were matched with a new opponent.

Regrettably, the opponents this time showed no improvement whatsoever, remaining firmly in the Gold tier. To be frank, opponents at this rank offered zero challenge; stepping into the arena was equivalent to delivering free meals.

True to form, mirroring the previous round, the team swiftly concluded the match within ten minutes.

Immediately after came the third, fourth, and fifth matches.

After five consecutive victories, the Black Street system took note of the rookie team that had maintained a 100% win rate since its inception, granting them a newcomer recommendation slot on the public livestreaming screen.

The five-win streak directly promoted Xia Mengrou's and Xuanyuan Sheng's badges from Bronze to Silver.

Upon receiving her upgraded badge, Xia Mengrou was still somewhat dazed. "This was my first time playing a team match. It didn't feel as terrifying as I imagined; it's actually quite fun."

"Of course! Our team is universally invincible in the universe, pulling off results like this on our very first collaboration!"

Gazing at the steadily increasing sum of pocket money, Wu Haoxuan was beaming with delight. "Five consecutive wins, absolutely insane! At this rate, I reckon we can completely crush the Imperial Academy next week!"

Even the usually steady柯俊达 (Ke Jiunda) began to get carried away. "I think that's entirely feasible!"

With him acting like that, the others grew even more inflated; only Gu Dong, whose expressionless face betrayed no emotional fluctuation whatsoever, maintained her usual demeanor.

Xuanyuan Sheng naturally possessed a high-spirited and triumphant personality.

In these recent matches, his performance had been utterly berserk, exhibiting extreme offensive dominance. "Let's go, let's go, onto the next match!"

After entering the matchmaking queue, Wu Haoxuan smacked his lips and muttered, "Now that everyone on our team is above Silver, the team we get matched with next won't be a Black Iron squad, right?"

"So what if it's a Black Iron squad?" Xuanyuan Sheng declared arrogantly. "Black Iron squads are just capped at Tier 4 anyway. Our team has two main attackers at Tier 4, plus one at peak Tier 4. You have a passive skill, and Ke Jiunda only needs to protect Xia Mengrou, leaving the backline under zero pressure. We can just focus on outputting damage and slaughtering everything in sight."

Yuan Hanshuang remained silent once again.

Familiar words that inevitably brought to mind someone's arrogance before a duel and his conceit when claiming he would teach her fist techniques. Sometimes, having confidence was a virtue, but too much of a good thing was harmful—take Xuanyuan Sheng right now, for instance, who looked thoroughly punchable.

At least for the moment, Yuan Hanshuang secretly hoped they would immediately run into a formidable opponent, so as to expose the fatal flaws that this hastily cobbled-together team had been revealing since their very first match.

Exposing issues now was vastly superior to being beaten to a pulp by the Imperial Academy during the confrontation matches.

Perhaps hearing Yuan Hanshuang's silent prayer, the optical brain screen flickered.

"*Ding!* You have been matched against the Black Iron team [Oh Yeah Squad]. Both teams, please report to the fighting stage immediately!"

Wu Haoxuan laughed. "Well, speak of the Black Iron team, and an actual Black Iron team arrives."

Xuanyuan Sheng had a distinct trait: his conceit and pride weren't an issue in themselves, but he had a knack for dragging the entire team off course with him. Case in point, the entire squad was currently thoroughly puffed up with arrogance, convinced that crossing tiers to fight a Black Iron team would be a walk in the park.

Such a capability was useful when commanding large-scale warfare and team battles, but for commanding a small squad...

The group arrived at the fighting stage.

Following their promotion, the fighting stage had transformed from a crude ring into a dreamlike upgraded version. Spatial expansion technology was deployed around the perimeter, realistically rendering audience stands packed with densely clustered heads engaged in murmurs.

Naturally, these spectators weren't physical audience members on-site. Once a Black Street combat match was featured on the livestreaming channels, anyone with the Black Street app could watch the matches directly from it. The application of environmental simulation further heightened the atmospheric immersion.

Evidently, the audience for this match was somewhat overly abundant. As a rookie team, having a double-digit viewership for a match would already be considered impressive, yet the people seated here numbered at least in the tens of thousands.

Yuan Hanshuang split her attention to monitor the chatter and discovered they had indeed come specifically targeting their opponents.

"The *Oh Yeah Squad* got matched against a rookie team? Five matches with a 100% win rate, wow!"

"I took a look; there are two Diamonds on that team. It's probably skill-bracket averaging for matchmaking."

"Both Diamonds are Tier 4? Quite rare. And there's even a low-tier Tier 4. Did they rely on team matches to pad their scores and climb to Diamond?"

"Our *Oh Yeah Squad* is the ultimate score-padding killer! If they win this round, the next match should promote them to Diamond. Let's go, let's go! Quickly crush that shameless score-padding team!"

Hearing the spectators' discussion, Yuan Hanshuang felt a surge of jubilation.

Sure enough, the moment the match started, six muscular men leaped out of the opposite side with a flurry of *duang-duang-duang* sound effects. Not only were they all Tier 4 fighters, but during the countdown, they also raised both arms, flexing the thick, bulging muscles on them toward the surrounding crowd.

Seeing the *Oh Yeah Squad*'s classic opening pose, an eruption of cheers swept through the spectator stands.

"Go get 'em! *Oh Yeah Squad*, the muscle squad, smash them to pieces!"

"Overthrowing the shameless padding group is everyone's duty!"

"Brothers placed bets on you guys today, so you better win with style and flair."

"Ah, this," Xuanyuan Sheng muttered thoughtfully. "Do you guys think we should also come up with an opening pose next time?"

Xia Mengrou was the first to shriek in protest. "Absolutely not! It lacks all aesthetic appeal!"

"We don't necessarily have to copy their posture," Xuanyuan Sheng argued. "We could cross our arms over our chests, slightly raise our chins, and look down disdainfully at the front. Wow, I just visualized it, and that scene would definitely look super cool!"

Watching the few of them completely devoid of crisis awareness, still standing in place chatting and joking, Yuan Hanshuang mentally lit a candle for them.

As expected, the moment the match commenced, the *Oh Yeah Squad* initiated a fierce, unhesitating assault without a single wasted word.

At the very first exchange, the confident smile on Xuanyuan Sheng's face drained of color. "Six melee-class fighters?!"

Indeed, the opposing muscle squad did not adhere to standard team composition ratios.

Rather than combining forces in the traditional team format, they threw caution to the wind and deployed six melee fighters all at once. Even more absurdly, these six melee combatants showed no sportsmanship whatsoever; the instant the match was declared started, they simultaneously activated their skills and charged forward, swinging their massive fists.

Witnessing yet another team fall into the trap, the audience broke out in raucous laughter.

"Hahaha, another team that didn't research the *Oh Yeah Squad* and decided to go head-to-head with them right from the start."

"I'm cracking up. Engaging in a frontal collision with six melee fighters using a standard team composition? Isn't that asking for punishment?"

Fortunately, although Xuanyuan Sheng was arrogant, he hadn't completely lost his reason. "Everyone, fall back into defensive positions!"

Evidently, the internal problems within the team had yet to be resolved, leading to the continued manifestation of a half-second delay during the opening phase. If they had managed to bulldoze through the first match relying on sheer individual prowess to compensate for such a lapse, then when truly facing a disciplined, well-coordinated team, those tiny flaws would be infinitely magnified, seized upon by the enemy, and shattered in a single blow.

"Protect the backline!"

Amidst the flurry, Yuan Hanshuang only had time to shout this single warning before locking horns with a high-tier Tier 4 opponent.

"A low-tier Tier 4 Diamond fighter?"

This opponent was clearly equally seasoned in battle, refusing to underestimate her simply because she lagged behind by two tiers. Instead, because she had attained Diamond rank despite merely being at low-tier Tier 4, he approached her with extreme caution.

To be honest, a high-tier Tier 4 opponent was troublesome for Yuan Hanshuang to deal with, but not entirely unmanageable. After all, during her 1v1 promotion matches to Diamond, she had faced a continuous gauntlet of peak Tier 4 opponents, losing several times before narrowly clawing her way up.

Since she intended to use this as a training drill for the team, she was in no rush to settle the outcome with her opponent.

On the other side, Xuanyuan Sheng had also engaged a Tier 4 opponent.

With both melee-class fighters occupied against Tier 4 opponents, the remaining four melee fighters were left unchecked and surged directly toward the backline defended by Ke Jiunda.

Panicking at the sight, Wu Haoxuan hurriedly tossed an N-card curse onto one of them.

Regrettably, his N-card could only weaken a single individual. Leaving the other muscle-bound brawler unhindered, the opponent didn't even bother uttering a cry of pain before getting knocked off the stage.

Possessing an S-grade mimesis, Xuanyuan Sheng's solo combat capability was naturally top-tier. However, once he dispatched his own opponent with maximum speed and looked back, he discovered that his team's backline had completely collapsed.

The rest went without saying.

After wiping out the backline, the *Oh Yeah Squad* pivoted to deal with the melee combatants.

No matter how much of a genius Xuanyuan Sheng was, he couldn't single-handedly fight six opponents of equal or higher rank.

Following a barrage of overwhelming attacks, the Silver Star Reaper Vanguard was thoroughly defeated.

When the results were announced, the team members inverted their previous puffed-up postures, each one hanging their heads in dejection.

Only Yuan Hanshuang felt a sense of relief inside. "Let's go. Time to hold a post-match defeat debriefing."

If they had continued winning with that arrogant mindset of theirs, they would mostly likely have turned a deaf ear to any advice. Now that they had lost and were feeling dejected, they were far more capable of sinking into deep reflection.

As she stepped down from the fighting stage, a profound, lingering voice drifted down from right above her head: "Six matches, and you didn't go all out in a single one."

She turned back to see the slender-framed assassin quietly gazing straight ahead, as if those words had merely been an illusion.

She offered a faint, knowing smile. "Right back at you."