Chapter 1006: Reverse Psychology
Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi
If Tang Rou’s performance could be likened to a night cereus in bloom, then Mo Fan’s performance was just the same flower blooming a few more times.
In the beginning, he had used a shuriken to destroy the Mechanic’s Electron Eye, giving everyone a small surprise. Then, he managed to successfully ambush Life Extinguisher, giving everyone a small climax. Then, in a dire moment, he managed to struggle and create an opening, making a beautiful counterattack, and giving everyone an even larger climax.
However, no matter if it was a surprise or not, small climax or large climax, they were all extinguished in the blink of an eye. Mo Fan had caused some trouble for Xiao Shiqin, but it didn’t manage to have any influence on the overall match. In the end, Deception fell in his struggle. Xiao Shiqin had managed to successfully one vs two. Even worse was that he hadn’t taken much damage in either round. This round was a little better, after all, Mo Fan had managed to obtain a few chances to attack. However, overall, Life Extinguisher’s health had only gone down by a third. Still having so much health after taking out two people in the Group Arena gave him a terrifyingly huge advantage.
“Mo Fan has thoroughly shown us his ability, but I think he still doesn’t last long enough in those crucial moments. What do you think, Adviser Li?” Taking the pause in Happy’s switching of players, the broadcast began replaying some scenes from the match, and the shots were mostly Mo Fan’s shining moments. Pan Lin then began to commentate.
“It’s true. Two times he managed to grasp the upper hand, but his opponent quickly turned the tables. This participant has many problems regarding how he deals with different situations. It’s obvious that he is rather inexperienced. Let’s hope that this match helps him grow a little!”
The two people commentating seemed to both look at Mo Fan in a favorable light. However, the audience present couldn’t hear this. Even if they did, the Excellent Era fans wouldn’t care. As Mo Fan walked back to the seats from the booth, he was sent off with boos from all sides. As a scrap-picker, most players hated him, so the jeering directed at him was confident and self-righteous. They could even jeer a little about Happy. They even accepted this kind of person into their ranks? Where was their integrity?
Mo Fan was emotionless, completely ignoring the noise around him and walking back to Happy’s bench. Everyone looked at Ye Xiu, watching how he would communicate with Mo Fan.
Yet Ye Xiu didn’t approach the other or even turn his head. He simply said, “Sometimes, it’s better to save your skills for later.”
Mo Fan didn’t respond, returning to his seat without a word. It was only after a pause that he suddenly made a noise of confirmation.
As for the others, they were all solemn. Before, Chen Guo had even been imagining how Happy might be able to crush Excellent Era in an overwhelming victory, but reality was a cruel mistress. After two rounds, Happy had already lost two heads and only managed to take out a third of their opponent’s health. Wei Chen, the third to go up, was uncharacteristically serious, not even saying anything shameless, just nodding his head at everyone before heading off to the booth.
The previous two matches had been complete defeats, unable to even show the difference between the strength of their accounts. Wei Chen with his Windward Formation, heading up now, was the one with the strongest equipment in all of Happy. However, his opponent, Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher, was an All-Star level character. Disregarding the quality of the equipment, Windward Formation’s eight pieces of silver equipment was nothing compared to Life Extinguisher in terms of quantity. Life Extinguisher had a whole eleven on him.
Chen Guo’s optimism died completely. Watching Wei Chen walk step by step to the competition booth, anxiety rose in her heart.
They couldn’t lose this round; good luck, Old Wei! Chen Guo silently encouraged. She saw him walk towards the competition booth, not even responding to the boos from the Excellent Era fans. Today’s Wei Chen was completely focused because of the dire situation they were in. He didn’t even have the energy to spare for shamelessness.
The third round quickly started and, as always, the characters spawned and the commentators introduced the players.
This was the third time Xiao Shiqin had entered the Group Arena already, so there was no need to introduce him again in such a short span of time. Pan Lin and Li Yibo’s discussion naturally focused on Wei Chen.
“Those who haven’t been fans of Glory for long would probably be unfamiliar with this player, Wei Chen. However, if there are any Blue Rain fans around you, you might want to go up and ask them about it. Wei Chen was the first captain of Team Blue Rain, and in the first years of Glory, he was one of the figures at the very top. I doubt anyone expected him to return after all these years. Wei Chen has often gone on the field in these past matches. Adviser Li, what do you think of Wei Chen’s current status?” Pan Lin said.
“So many years have passed, but Wei Chen’s playstyle really hasn’t changed a bit!” Li Yibo exclaimed, casually making a boast about his experience, before beginning to comment. “From these few matches, he hasn’t lost any of his experience or awareness despite not having fought in a pro match for so long, and he also has the advantage being of a veteran: his mental fortitude. However, in regards to performance, I feel that none of the past matches have really pushed him enough to show his limits. Maybe this match can show us what level he’s truly at? How will Wei Chen respond to this player who is currently at the top of the Alliance?”
“Ok, let’s turn our attention to the match. Xiao Shiqin has, again, let Life Extinguisher take a more strategic route, and Wei Chen’s Windward Formation… Uh, he… wandered around a little and didn’t leave, staying at his spawn point. Heh, this… seems to be exactly the same as how he started the past few matches! We can hear very loud booing from the audience present. Seems like the audience really doesn’t like this strategy. I trust that after using it several times, Wei Chen is clear on what the audience thinks, but he doesn’t seem hesitant at all!” Pan Lin explained the current situation.
“Heh, that’s always been Wei Chen’s style. For victory, he’s willing to do anything,” Li Yibo said in a tone that suggested he understood Wei Chen very well, once again lowkey boasting.
This time, Pan Lin decided to cooperate. “Actually, Adviser Li, you’ve fought Wei Chen back when you were a pro player, so if it’s possible, could you analyze Wei Chen’s intentions for us from an opponent’s perspective?”
“This, it’s probably a psychological tactic! When a player doesn’t meet their opponent, very rarely will they guess that their opponent hasn’t even moved. Not being able to find their target after so long, they’d begin to worry and become impatient. Meanwhile, Wei Chen can wait off to one side, building his advantage on a psychological level,” Li Yibo said.
“But… Won’t everyone know after they watch the match recordings?” Pan Lin said.
“Yes. It’s precisely because it’s so simple, that no one would expect him to use it over and over again.” Li Yibo said.
“Reverse psychology!”
“That’s right.” Li Yibo nodded.
“But… after the participant knows that there’s this chance that he’ll use it, they’ll probably go over when they don’t find him. That way, he can’t build a psychological advantage!” Pan Lin said.
“Then what if they can’t him find when they come over?” Li Yibo said.
“Oh…” Pan Lin came to a sudden understanding, “So this is to confuse his opponent and make sure they can’t guess his intentions!”
“Actually, the intention of this playstyle is precisely to make sure his opponent can’t guess his intentions,” Li Yibo riddled out.
“Okay… Now we can see that Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher is approaching the center of the map. Naturally, he didn’t find Windward Formation. Life Extinguisher seems a little hesitant; it seems like Xiao Shiqin isn’t sure how to proceed!” Pan Lin said.
“It’s because Xiao Shiqin must’ve seem Wei Chen’s match recordings, so he knows of the possibility. And it’s because he knows of the possibility, that he has to be wary of it. What he’s afraid of isn’t Windward Formation staying at his spawn point, but Wei Chen countermining him, making him believe that Windward Formation hasn’t moved when he has is actually making his way over strategically.” Li Yibo said.
“However, it seems that Windward Formation hasn’t planned to do that now.” Pan Lin said.
“But Xiao Shiqin needs to make sure.” Li Yibo said.
As expected, Xiao Shiqin had Life Extinguishers wander around the area. After still not discovering his opponent, he began to make his way towards Windward Formation’s spawn point.
“Life Extinguisher is coming; what will Wei Chen do? Will he have Windward Formation move and continue to trick Xiao Shiqin?” Pan Lin cried out.
In reality, the stadium was filled with booing, and even the audience watching the live broadcast on TV were getting impatient. No one was interested in a single man act like Xiao Shiqin running around trying to find his opponent; everyone was waiting for the two sides to clash. This made things hard for the commentator, who discussed this sort of boring situation as if it was extremely interesting.
“Life Extinguisher is quickly approaching, but Wei Chen doesn’t seem too intent on having Windward Formation leave!” Pan Lin said, glancing at Li Yibo. The situation wasn’t as Li Yibo had predicted.
“This is probably a reverse psychology of last time’s reverse psychology*. Wei Chen predicted that his opponent might guess that he would move his character to try and confuse him, so he instead just left his character there, to achieve an unexpected goal,” Li Yibo said.
“Uh… This… it’s possible…” Pan Lin agreed uncertainty, looking at Li Yibo helplessly.
Reverse psychology of a reverse psychology, that was a tangled riddle that only Li Yibo could come up with. Pan Lin didn’t know how skilled Li Yibo used to be as a pro player, but he dared to assert that Li Yibo must have great mental fortitude as well and wouldn’t be defeated by any sort of trash talk. He was just way too thick-skinned.
Li Yibo carefully analyzed Wei Chen’s actions and Wei Chen didn’t disappoint him, staying there with his proud “reverse psychology of reverse psychology.”
In the stadium filled of booing sounds, Xiao Shiqin’s Life Extinguisher had finally arrived and the two characters faced each other. Wei Chen’s Windward Formation attacked immediately, waving his hand and casting Chaotic Rain.
