Chapter 2 The Second Round Ends

By the end of the second round, only seven hundred and twenty participants remained in the War of the Cocoon.

Wang Tanzhi was among them.

After that match, Brother Long contacted Little Tan, and they discussed the situation at the time. Long Aomin was indeed a very "typical" person, and he was very open-minded after losing. He wasn't annoyed at all. On the contrary, he greatly admired Little Tan's surprising tactics, almost clapping and cheering...

In any case, Blade was not a commercial game studio, and there were no ranking requirements for its members, so it didn't matter where Brother Long lost.

However, this match caused quite a bit of discussion on the forums. Because Brother Long sent Meng Jingchan into the additional match in the first round, many players once regarded him as a dark horse in this competition. As a result, after only one round, the news of Long Aomin's elimination was revealed...

"I said earlier that Long Aomin only won the first round by luck," this kind of view emerged on the forum like bamboo shoots after a rain. In fact… 90% of the people who made these comments had never watched Brother Long's match… and they hadn't watched either round. They just read some posts and news, made some speculations based on the results, and published some fallacies.

Of course, there were also many players who had actually watched the battle between Wang Tanzhi and Long Aomin. Most of them came to see Brother Long, but they didn't expect the result of the Tunnel War to be like this... let alone that the process would be so dramatic.

Little Tan completed a classic kill in front of thousands of viewers. Although there was an element of luck involved, as Feng Bujue said, since he could come up with the idea and dare to take the risk, then he deserved the victory.

It was just that… compared to Brother Long's overnight fame after the first round, the ID Wang Tanzhi was still tepid. It seemed that the vast majority of people still thought he won by luck.

…………

At one o'clock in the morning on May 21st, the third round began.

Like the previous two rounds, Little Tan was on standby in the login space on time.

The familiar system prompt still appeared: [The third round of the War of the Cocoon is about to begin. Your data will be loaded in thirty seconds. Please do not leave the login space.]

[Ten-second countdown before loading, nine, eight, seven… two, one.]

But… after the countdown ended, the opening remarks did not arrive as expected.

After about five seconds of silence, Little Tan just felt something was wrong when the system voice sounded: [No matching target found. You have a bye in this round. Congratulations on directly entering the fourth round.]

"Huh?" Little Tan was quite at a loss after hearing this prompt. After dozens of seconds, he finally reacted, "Did someone not queue up on time?"

Obviously, yes.

Coincidentally, among the seven hundred and twenty players who entered the third round of the War of the Cocoon, one person didn't come tonight. The reason was that his wife was giving birth… she was sent to the hospital in the evening, so he didn't go online at all tonight.

If there were an even number of players absent, the system could still complete the pairing, and then deal with the odd number of people in the next round. But tonight there was only one missing person, so… one player got a bye.

And Little Tan was the one who got the bye.

Five minutes later, when he came to Feng Bujue's conference room and told him about his direct advancement, Brother Jue's response was: "Your luck… if you could give me two-tenths of it, I would sell all my assets tomorrow and buy a plane ticket to Macau."

…………

In short, Little Tan advanced to the top 360 so uneventfully.

The next day, the matter of the bye was hyped up, and many IDs that were obviously internet water armies (internet trolls) put on a righteous posture and opened fire on Dream Inc. in various forums.

If you broke apart and analyzed the arguments of these people, and then looked at their core meaning, it was simply "This is not fair! Someone who was eliminated in the additional match should fight him! The winner advances!"

Anyone with eyes could see that this was a farce orchestrated by some unscrupulous game studios, wanting to give their eliminated players another chance. These studios regarded the bye as a life-saving straw, widely dispatched gunners, posing as bystanders, feigning righteous indignation, and spared no effort to create public opinion, attempting to put pressure on the game company.

But they obviously got the wrong target…

Dream Inc. was not an ordinary game operator. Being headstrong and ignoring criticism was basically their motto.

The situation of players being unable to compete due to off-field factors had already been explained in the rules, which was regarded as a waiver, and there was no objection at all. So Dream Inc. completely ignored those water armies.

So, after fussing for a whole day without success, the gunners, who were angered into shame, focused their attention on Little Tan, which could be said to be displaced anger… In short, Little Tan was targeted. If his performance in the fourth round was good, then people would naturally have nothing to say; but if he seemed vulnerable, the post-match would definitely become the main excuse for the trolls to launch attacks.

At that time… "If so-and-so went to fight, he would definitely advance!" "Dream Inc. would rather give a bye to a useless person than give an opportunity to a strong player, where is the justice?" These kinds of remarks would inevitably erupt, which was already foreseeable…

…………

At one o'clock in the morning on May 22nd, the fourth round of the War of the Cocoon began.

"Hidden in the depths of the forest, the silkworm sleeps thrice, with the gentleness of a finger, it is tempered a hundred times." After the countdown ended, the system voice recited the opening remarks in a sonorous tone.

[Loading complete. You are currently participating in the Pinnacle Tournament - War of the Cocoon.]

[This mode has no script introduction, no side hidden quests, and no special worldview.]

[Script victory reward: Advance to the top 180]

[Main quest triggered]

[Kill your opponent]

Little Tan was teleported to a black wasteland. The ground was made of hard rocks, and no grass grew. Looking around, it was vast and boundless, and there were no obvious landmarks.

A round moon hung in the sky.

Two figures stood proudly.

A familiar face appeared in Wang Tanzhi's vision. Without confirming through the game menu, Little Tan recognized the other party – Qisha (Seven Kills).

Qisha also recognized the man in assassin's attire in the distance.

This map was not conducive to any tricks, and both of them were well aware of this.

Qisha also had a good relationship with Brother Long. Moreover, this was not the first time he had encountered Little Tan. Therefore, it was also impossible to expect him to underestimate his opponent.

The bright moon shone for thousands of miles, and the killing intent reached ten thousand zhang.

The winner advances, and the loser is eliminated. There was no retreat, and no one would give in.

"Sigh… with such a map and such an opponent… I'm afraid I'm doomed…" Little Tan adjusted his breathing and thought to himself, "But…" He looked down at his hands, "Why are they trembling with excitement… Could it be that deep down in my heart… I'm yearning for such a battle…"