9:00 AM, Bercy Arena.
Three hours remained before the match, yet the entrance outside the venue was already packed with people. Xu Hexuan stood by the artificial lake in the plaza, carrying several promotional posters and craning his neck to look around.
The crowd surged endlessly around him. With just a casual glance, Xu Hexuan could spot countless fans and friends wearing HPL merchandise, excitedly chatting away. The chilly early-winter wind did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.
Many people were even hauling piles of cheering gear around in short sleeves. The sea of people was so overwhelming that Xu Hexuan could barely take it all in.
“Damn, there are this many people? I thought we came way too early.” Xu Hexuan sighed, rubbing his hands together as he pulled several printed sheets from his backpack.
At the top of the first page was the bold title: [HPL Paris Live Viewing Idiot’s Guide v3.0]. Below it were detailed instructions complete with diagrams.
The guide had been made voluntarily by fans and posted online. Xu Hexuan had downloaded a copy before leaving as well.
The explanations inside were extremely thorough, making sure that even Chinese fans who knew neither French nor decent English could successfully get from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the seats they had bought tickets for.
But after arriving in Paris, the fans discovered something: They might have seriously underestimated just how absurdly rich War of Glory was!
The officials had clearly gone all out this year. Ads for the S6 World Finals were practically one step away from being plastered onto airplane seatback screens!
The moment fans walked out of immigration, they were greeted by overwhelming finals posters everywhere, complete with multilingual guides explaining which train to take, which station to get off at, and how to reach Bercy Arena…
Huge promotional portraits of both teams’ players stood inside the bustling capital airport, drawing countless passersby to stop and admire them. Even plenty of businessmen in designer suits paused curiously to take photos.
One of Su Ning’s solo posters made Xu Hexuan’s eyes widen in shock. Good lord—after editing, this guy was absurdly handsome!
He watched helplessly as a group of people of unknown nationalities blushed excitedly and rushed over to crowd around the poster, snapping photo after photo. Even after taking over ten pictures, they still refused to leave, until older bros waiting in line behind them had to start shooing them away.
—How did he know all this so clearly? Because he himself had been standing in line too!
Xu Hexuan was completely convinced now. With this level of exposure, why the hell bother entering the entertainment industry? Could those low-budget variety shows plaster your promo photos across every corner of Charles de Gaulle Airport so travelers from all over the world could see them??
This was one of the busiest airports on earth, with over a hundred thousand travelers passing through every day!!
Xu Hexuan ranted furiously in his head. Even now, he still couldn’t understand what kind of madness had possessed Su Ning back then to insist on becoming an idol trainee…
On the opposite side, facing Su Ning across the airport, stood the current highest-paid and most decorated Korean player in War of Glory history: False Choi Hyun-woo.
Xu Hexuan took a look. That area was just as packed with fans. He secretly hid his hand inside his sleeve and flashed a thumbs-down gesture toward the poster. You’re definitely losing today.
What shocked him even more was that, with active cooperation from the Paris city government, the European-style flagpoles lining the Champs-lyses had all been replaced with the emblems of UG and PNG—one on the left, one on the right. Xu Hexuan’s jaw practically hit the floor the entire way there.
By the time he finally reached the entrance of Bercy Arena, he still hadn’t fully recovered from everything he’d seen along the way, only to have his worldview shattered all over again by the concentration of fans outside the venue.
Quite a few people were busy packing up tents while hauling gigantic light signs, enormous flags, and banners out from inside—
Holy crap, these people had literally camped overnight outside the arena with all their gear!!
“I, Xu, am impressed. Truly impressed!” Xu Hexuan exclaimed into the wind while clutching the guidebook. Behind him, the two friends who had come along—a man and a woman—walked over. The woman, dressed in the same HPL expedition jacket, asked curiously, “Impressed by what?”
Xu Hexuan snapped back to reality. “Oh, right. I mean all the promotion we saw along the way. The production value is insane!”
As he spoke, he immediately flipped to the last page of the guidebook and pointed at the words [Meeting Point]. “Auntie, look here,” he said to the woman. “We’re heading to PNG’s fan check-in area first! If we show them our VIP tickets, they’ll hand out cheering merch and teach us some live fan chants too.”
“Good, good, good! That’s great!” the woman exclaimed happily. “Xiao Xu is reliable after all! Unlike certain people!”
The moment she brought it up, her anger reignited. She shot the man beside her a vicious glare.
“I…” The tall man looked aggrieved, suffering in silence.
Before leaving, he had also custom-made a bunch of cheering gear for supporting his son! It was all still in his bag!
But the moment he brought it home, his wife spent half a month scolding him—first complaining the light sign colors weren’t pretty enough, then saying the photos weren’t clear enough.
“What ‘I’?”
“…I was wrong.”
“You were wrong?” the woman sneered and dug up old grievances again. “How could you possibly be wrong? Of course you weren’t wrong! You only bullied our son so badly he didn’t even dare come home, but sure, you were totally right! Asking you to wear a team jacket was apparently harder than killing you, huh?”
The moment old history was brought up, the man immediately shut his mouth guiltily. He shrank his neck and didn’t dare argue back. Back then it wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to wear the jacket—it was just too small. He genuinely couldn’t fit into it…
Xu Hexuan: … In a situation like this, how dare I say a word?
He could only force himself into selective blindness and deafness and obediently pull out his camera to take photos for Her Majesty.
While the couple argued—or rather, while one side got scolded unilaterally—Xu Hexuan pulled out his phone and hesitated as he opened Su Ning’s chat window.
Naturally, the husband and wife had gone to take photos with the airport poster too. Xu Hexuan had helped them shoot pictures with his professional camera, and he had also snapped one on his phone.
…Should he send it?
Thinking about how Su Ning seemed to have had no contact with his family for almost a year, Xu Hexuan couldn’t help hesitating. Especially now, with only a few hours left before the finals—would sending something like this affect him?
Perhaps for the same reason, the couple hadn’t once mentioned wanting to contact their son during the entire trip, even though Xu Hexuan could reach Su Ning anytime…
After thinking for a long time, Xu Hexuan finally gritted his teeth and hit send.
Xu Hexuan: I brought your friends here! VIP seats up close cheering for our Feng-bao, let’s go Feng-bao!!! [bunny kissing.gif]
Xu Hexuan: [Group Photo]
If the people in the picture were enemies, sending this message right before finals might’ve disgusted a mentally fragile player badly enough to shatter their mentality on the spot.
But these were family… Xu Hexuan thought that two people who loved Su Ning, coming to support him at one of the most important moments of his life, could only ever become a source of strength—not a burden.
——
9:00 AM Paris time was exactly 4:00 PM back in China. The “War of Glory World Finals Official Broadcast Room” on Shark Live was still just a black screen, yet countless starving viewers had already rushed in to wait early.
The speed of the barrage comments and gifts flying across the screen exceeded the limits of human eyesight. Within a single minute, the HPL army had pushed this completely blank stream to the number one spot across the entire platform!
“Holy shit, they knocked me off first place in one minute??” A male streamer next door was utterly speechless. He’d spent a fortune buying recommendations and drawing traffic from everywhere just to barely scrape together over two million popularity points and reach first place. Meanwhile, the other side?
A black-screen stream sitting at 1.35 billion popularity.
Thanks, but even if he performed a handstand while eating shit live, he still wouldn’t catch up!
And that pitch-black livestream was still flooded with red bullet comments sent via 9,999-yuan gifts:
[The phoenix rises from the ashes—today!]
[PNG, bros, I haven’t slept all night just waiting for you!!]
[Five years without a championship—this ends today!]
[You’re writing a new chapter in the region’s history. Let’s go, my little broken team!]
……
Inside the arena, the commentators’ desk and filming crews from every broadcast platform were already in position.
Chao Mi closed his eyes and took who-knew-how-many deep breaths to calm his nerves.
It was no exaggeration to say that the players on stage might not even be as nervous as he was. The pleasant cool breeze from the arena’s central air conditioning kept blowing across him, yet somehow sweat still formed at his temples.
Beside him, Qing Ci was unusually quiet too, lowering his head as he organized the documents on the desk page by page: players, teams, heroes, season summaries…
Qing Ci’s professionalism and preparation meant he had long memorized all these statistics by heart. But today, in front of billions of viewers worldwide, during the most important BO5 of all, he absolutely could not afford a single verbal slip. Reviewing everything again was necessary.
Besides the two familiar elite commentators, HPL had also sent in a heavyweight reinforcement to guarantee viewing quality: Da Ju, head coach of Team Furia, had arrived in Paris as today’s guest analyst.
This made up for the weakness in the usual Chao Mi–Qing Ci duo. Though both were excellent talkers, their understanding of the mind games between top-tier players still lacked slightly.
Clearly, the task of analyzing player decision-making and macro strategy during the finals would now be handled live by a professional coach.
In addition, a live barrage display had been added beside the commentator desk so the commentators and guests could interact more easily with online viewers.
At the same time, countless co-streamers had also assembled the most professional commentary lineups they could find. Tofu, among them, had long since dragged Ecas—the same high-ranked Chinese server blondie—from Su Ning’s “Feng-bao VIP Simp Group,” all in an effort to provide viewers with the best possible experience.
Soon, at 10:10, the live broadcast finally connected.
But before viewers could even get excited, they were assaulted by a ridiculously long, soul-crushing advertisement segment: the organizers had dumped every sponsor ad into the pre-show all at once.
At first it was still normal stuff—gaming keyboards, mice, computers, snacks, and so on. But less than a minute later, the tone of the ads abruptly changed.
[Mei Airlines Private Jets — Providing You With Ultimate Luxury Service!]
[Visit the ROX official website now to grab the commemorative tournament edition vehicle! Prices start as low as 15,000,000!]
[Partnering with Glory—Luxury residences await your stay with breathtaking Huangpu River views!]
[?????]
[Glory, what the hell are you…???]
[When I type question marks, it’s not because there’s something wrong with me—it’s because I think Glory’s officials are trying to make me laugh!]
[Are these ads something I’m supposed to be watching?? Glory, are you insane? Why do you think I can afford any of this???]
[Horror story: the stock for the ROX commemorative car is actually going down…]
[?? So they're selling the new apartment by the Huangpu River too? Turns out everyone's gotten rich except me??]
[The hell... you guys... the hell…]
[When everyone was crying about being broke, I thought we were all in the same boat. Then the tide went out, and it turns out I'm the only poor bastard left!!]
The match hadn't even started yet, but the official broadcast had already left the audience gasping for air.
Fortunately, ten minutes later, several familiar faces finally appeared on screen.
Qing Ci sat upright before the camera and greeted the viewers. "Good afternoon to all Summoners watching from home! It's currently 10:30 a.m. on November 10th, Paris time. Welcome to the War of Glory S6 World Championship Grand Finals!"
Chao Mi and Da Ju also gave formal introductions.
The moment viewers saw Da Ju's face, they were caught off guard once again, and the chat exploded.
[?? Why's the coach here??]
[Holy crap, is this BO5 really that professional? Afraid viewers won't understand, so they brought in a coach as a commentator??]
[Then why not invite the coaches from the other Worlds teams? Aside from PNG, the other HPL coaches should all be free!]
Catching sight of the comment, Da Ju explained, "It's actually to avoid any conflict of interest. The coaches from the HPL teams at Worlds know each other very well, and they've probably discussed plenty of strategies together. The organizers told me beforehand that they were worried someone like Pan Pan or the others might accidentally let something slip on air. I haven't seen any of PNG's scrims during this period, so I'm analyzing everything from the perspective of a regular viewer."
Since Da Ju had no prior knowledge of PNG's preparations while still being able to explain strategic details that ordinary commentators might miss, he was naturally the organizers' first choice for a guest analyst.
Qing Ci nodded and shifted the discussion to the teams for a brief pre-match analysis. "Today's finalists—UG from the Korean region and PNG from the HPL—are, without question, the strongest two teams among all fourteen participants at this year's World Championship."
As he spoke, UG's team statistics appeared on the big screen.
[Ultimate Gaming]
Red Side Win Rate: 83.7%; Blue Side Win Rate: 69.3%
Team KDA: 5.1
Average Game Length: 35:51
First Blood Rate: 77.5%
First Baron Control Rate: 55%
Rift Herald Control Rate: 65%
The moment the numbers appeared, Coach Da Ju immediately went into analysis mode. "First of all, UG's 83.7% win rate on red side is incredible. It shows how well they take advantage of having the last bans and counter-picks to build their composition. They're also not afraid of blue side grabbing the current meta picks first, which tells us their champion pool is extremely deep."
"Their average game length and Baron control rate also suggest they don't like forcing fights between the 20- and 25-minute mark. Instead, they prefer dragging games into the later stages, where team fights are more stable and controlled. By comparison, PNG's Baron control rate is 75%, meaning they rely much more heavily on securing Baron to close out games. The two teams clearly have very different styles."
Da Ju continued his explanation, gradually digging deeper. "At the same time, both teams have high Rift Herald control rates, so they both love contesting the early game. That means the draft—and especially champion selection—becomes even more important."
The broadcast then switched to a comparison of each player's seasonal statistics between UG and PNG. The most concerning matchup was in the top lane. Leave (Park Se-woo) completely outclassed Wei Ye in virtually every statistical category.
"This is what worries us the most before the match," Qing Ci said with a frown. "We've always had confidence in PNG's mid-jungle duo. The bot lane is at a slight statistical disadvantage, but that's manageable. The real question is: how does PNG deal with Leave? His damage conversion, turret damage, and economy numbers are all unbelievable. He's outstanding on fighters, and when he plays tanks, he can both initiate and absorb enormous amounts of damage."
After looking over Wei Ye's stats, Coach Da Ju shook his head. "I actually don't think that's the biggest issue. The two top laners fulfill very different roles, so comparing them purely by numbers can be misleading. Myerii is the kind of player who shines on the biggest stages. As long as he performs the role his team needs him to, it doesn't matter whether his stats look impressive."
"What I'm more concerned about," Da Ju continued, "is Myerii's champion pool. His tanks are excellent, but what else does he have? What if all of his comfort tanks get banned? This BO5 against UG is clearly going to come down to the depth of both teams. It'll depend on whether everyone has expanded their champion pools enough during this preparation period."
[Makes sense. I'm honestly scared that once Treant gets banned, Ye-chan is gonna start pulling out weird picks.]
[UG's bot lane stats are insane too. What kind of monster marksman is Reeco? He averages a 54-CS lead every game?]
[...?? Holy crap, is my son Xu about to get destroyed again?]
[Even Lio from Nv doesn't have a CS lead that ridiculous. I'm starting to panic. Is our boy going to be farming under his Tier 2 tower at level one...?]
[No, no, no. It won't come to that. Don't scare yourselves before the match even starts!!]
With the brief pre-match analysis concluded, spectators began filing into the arena.
——
11:00 a.m.
The venue was packed to capacity. One hundred thousand spectators filled every seat, evenly divided into two camps. On one side stretched a sea of UG's black-and-gold colors; on the other, PNG's red-and-black supporters. The organizers had deliberately separated the two cheering sections along either side of the main stage.
Xu Hexuan and the Sui couple were, naturally, seated with the PNG supporters. Xu Hexuan glanced over his shoulder. Nearly fifty thousand people surrounded him in every direction. Directly facing the main stage, thousands of fans had assembled into a coordinated cheering formation, each holding up tiny glowing lights that together formed a gigantic PNG team emblem. The visual impact was overwhelming...
Just one glance at it was enough to make Xu Hexuan’s blood boil with excitement.
Beside him, Madam Sui was nervous as well. Although colorful spotlights illuminated the main stage, the front rows were still somewhat dim. She held up a small flashlight while reading the match booklet in her hands, which detailed every participating player’s career achievements.
When she flipped to UG’s section, every player’s page was packed from top to bottom.
Then she turned to PNG’s. Biggest achievement: HPL Summer Champion, plus some obscure domestic cup tournament from last year. And when she flipped to her son’s page, there was only a single line.
Then she looked at the expert win-rate predictions. UG 67%, PNG 33%.
Madam Sui: “……”
She immediately snapped the booklet shut and tossed it aside. What garbage. Not reading anymore!
“Damn, this booklet is so biased.” Xu Hexuan had also reached Sui Ning’s page and indignantly complained, “Why are they only listing club honors? My Feng-bao has tons of amazing achievements too, okay?!” Why didn’t all those national server accomplishments count??
A nearby fan overheard him and explained, “Well, this is the World Finals after all. Everyone here is a superstar player. If they really listed everything for UG, there wouldn’t even be enough space! Can’t be helped.”
Madam Sui immediately disagreed. “What do you mean ‘can’t be helped’? They can enjoy themselves for now. Sooner or later our son’s page will be filled too!”
“Auntie, now that’s the kind of thing everyone likes hearing!” the fan laughed. They hadn’t expected someone in Madam Sui’s age group to be such a hardcore PNG supporter—to the point of flying all the way to Paris for VIP seats!
Was this the power of mom fans?
……
Soon, the arena lights abruptly dimmed.
The audience, which moments ago had still been buzzing with whispers and chatter, instantly fell silent.
Then came a crisp click—like some kind of giant switch being pulled—and faint glows lit up around the main stage.
Under the stunned gazes of the crowd, an incredibly polished AR projection gradually appeared in midair above the stage.
Accompanied by the explosive beats of the theme song Hunger, along with roaring spell effects and artillery blasts, skyscrapers flickered faintly below while countless champions fought desperately overhead!
The barrage of abilities dazzled the audience, everyone trying desperately to spot their favorite champions among the chaos.
Suddenly, the marksman hero White Bird soared high into the sky. His spread wings reflected across pools of blood below as deadly feathers aimed toward a fallen enemy on the ground, just about to fire—
Bang!
A secret-arts energy sphere suddenly slammed into White Bird’s abdomen from a blind spot. His eyes widened in shock before several more terrifying arcane attacks surged toward him!
The massive impact sent him tumbling backward through the air. With several thunderous crashes, he smashed violently into the Statue of Liberty below!
The moment the landmark appeared, the audience instantly recognized the battlefield. This was New York.
And that meant the identity of the ambusher was obvious—
Three years ago, the deciding game of the S3 New York World Finals, where UG claimed the championship! UG_False’s Rune Arcanist had flashed aggressively into the decisive teamfight at 37 minutes, instantly deleting the enemy’s core carry and securing victory for UG!
“Wooooo——!!!”
The audience erupted in cheers, clearly recognizing this iconic moment!
The animation’s focus now seemed fixed on the Arcanist. After killing White Bird, he showed no hesitation and flew onward into the distance.
His figure swept across cities and oceans, crossed mountain ranges, and finally arrived at the next destination.
An ancient city steeped in history.
[HOLY SHIT!!]
[Damn it, don’t do this! Glory you assholes!]
[Don’t bring up S4, we used to be friends!!]
[I’m gonna lose it. My eternal pain and they’re still whipping our corpse years later??]
Chinese viewers recognized it instantly. Or rather, no one could possibly fail to recognize it. That was the Forbidden City.
That was the fucking Forbidden City!
The Arcanist slew enemies among the clouds above the imperial palace. Sharp-eyed viewers identified some of them: the Astromancer Prophet and Gunslinger Caitlyn once used by TL in playoffs, as well as Navic bot lane’s signature Void Ranger…
In the capital city, the Arcanist’s magic remained fierce, but every viewer could tell he was exhausted. He was breathing harder and harder.
His teammates surrounded him, yet they could no longer provide enough support.
At his weakest and most defenseless moment, a long spear pierced viciously through his heart from behind—
S4. UG made a catastrophic mistake in a mid-game teamfight, an unforgivable positional error that led to them being mercilessly eliminated by another team from their own region, falling in the quarterfinals.
Blood stained the Arcanist’s blue-and-white robes red as he slowly closed his eyes.
The lights dimmed once more, then flared brilliantly alongside a sudden surge in the music. The Arcanist awoke. The ruins and devastation of the past instantly vanished.
Now he stood in London. His teammates smiled around him while golden rain fell gently from the sky. Beside him, Big Ben reminded him: This was S5. This was his first championship. This was reality.
—Was it really?
The bell rang.
The Arcanist abruptly looked up.
At the top of the clock tower stood a blue-haired little girl wearing a star-shaped hairpin, balancing atop the overlapping hour and minute hands. Looking down at him, she stuck out her tongue and made a face.
Behind her, four other heroes lurked indistinctly within the tower’s darkness.
Big Ben struck midnight. The Arcanist turned his head. In the far distance, he saw the Eiffel Tower.
----------
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