The Tide Town Leader nodded in agreement, his face grim, and his tone filled with the indignation of 'empathy': "What everyone said is absolutely right. We in Tidal Town are also deeply affected by this! It's not easy for any of us, and this Vice President Xu... sigh, this time he's truly gone too far. We must unite and firmly resist this unreasonable fee. We need White Night City to provide adequate compensation."
As soon as he spoke, he immediately received the approval of all the Tide Town Leaders.
"Exactly! They must give an explanation!"
"This is too much bullying!"
"Is this competition even going to happen? If it continues like this, who can afford it?"
For a moment, the small conference room was filled with outrage, the fury of a dozen Tide Town Leaders almost tearing off the roof, their anger directed squarely at Xu Gaoyuan and White Night City's 'greedy' pre-competition arrangements.
The air in the training base was thick with the smell of gunpowder and a collective denunciation of Xu Gaoyuan.
Things quickly escalated.
It had completely spiraled out of Xu Gaoyuan's control.
It was on the verge of erupting.
Finally...
Guild President Ma Lingzhi stepped forward and promised that the Guild would fund and provide certain compensation to everyone who had exchanged tickets.
Only then did the matter finally come to an end.
After some back and forth, the leaders of the various towns returned to their respective areas to begin training.
Over in Tidal Town.
"Team Leader." A young man stepped forward and greeted the Tide Town Leader.
This young man was named Li Shenyu, the team captain for Tidal Town's competition this time, and also the captain of the recently prominent 'Kagura Strategy Group'.
He was very strong, able to quickly grasp any Dungeon and perform with incredibly high skill.
Originally, ever since the major strategy groups reshuffled, Tidal Town had only the 'Wind and Strategy Group' as its sole outstanding group.
For this competition, the plan was also to send the 'Wind and Strategy Group'.
However, on the day of personnel selection, Li Shenyu proactively approached the Adventurer's Guild, stating that their 'Kagura Strategy Group' far surpassed the 'Wind and Strategy Group' in all aspects and should be the chosen participants, and he challenged the 'Wind and Strategy Group'.
And so.
That night, a 'Resident Evil' selection match was held.
The final result surprised everyone.
The 'Wind and Strategy Group', a very capable veteran strategy group, was ultimately lured into the underground pipes by the 'Kagura Strategy Group' and ambushed by a group of aquatic Lickers. Li Shenyu just stood outside the fence, watching, single-handedly blocking all retreat routes for the 'Wind and Strategy Group' and completing a shocking, decisive kill.
In the eyes of the Adventurers watching at the time, Li Shenyu's strategy was simply too excessive. He didn't engage the 'Wind and Strategy Group' in a direct confrontation at all, relying entirely on deception and utilizing zombies to defeat his opponents.
The Adventurers unanimously believed that this round of 'Resident Evil' selection could not fully reflect the individual strength of both sides.
The 'Kagura Strategy Group' should not have gained qualification to participate in this manner.
It was unfair.
However...
A loss was a loss, and a win was a win.
There was no unfairness.
Although the 'Wind and Strategy Group' was unwilling, they still chose to withdraw and concede the qualification to the 'Kagura Strategy Group'.
The 'Kagura Strategy Group' consisted of 5 members, which is the standard for a strategy group. The members were three males and two females, all very young Adventurers.
All of them had come together this time.
The Tide Town Leader had only interacted with these young rascals for a short time and knew they were difficult to handle.
Seeing Li Shenyu and the other team members proactively step forward to greet him, the Tide Town Leader couldn't help but feel a headache, knowing these guys were surely up to something mischievous again.
The Tide Town Leader's face darkened, "Why aren't you training properly? What are you doing here?"
Li Shenyu said nonchalantly, "There are only so many attempts a day. We'll finish training sooner or later, there's no rush right now."
"Yeah, Team Leader, it's not easy for us to come to White Night City. We definitely want to go out and look around, see the sights of White Night City. Otherwise, staying cooped up in this training room every day would be so boring," a girl in pink Adventurer attire next to him said sweetly, leaning on Li Shenyu.
Seeing the girl's attire, veins throbbed on the Tide Town Leader's forehead.
Perfectly good Adventurer attire, but she had to cut it here and cut it there, creating a bunch of holes.
And she even called this 'unique'.
It was all bad habits learned from Lord Chen's 'Audition Online'.
The girl's appearance was still very pure. Although her clothing and styling were eccentric, and her hair was extremely voluminous, with more than half of her head being hair.
But none of this could hide her beauty, nor her proud figure.
This hairstyle was also learned from 'Audition Online'; there were similar character stickers in some scenes that instantly captivated the young people in the town.
It sparked a trend.
However, this trend gave people over middle age a headache, and they exclaimed about the impropriety of it all.
The Tide Town Leader found these guys very troublesome, but he still said earnestly, "You can visit White Night City after the competition. You should focus on training. Don't put your thoughts elsewhere at a time like this. I'll figure out a way for the entrance tickets."
In fact...
He didn't need to figure out anything; he had plenty of free tickets in his hand.
As long as these brats wanted to grind.
They could grind from morning till night until they puked.
However.
These kids simply wouldn't listen to the Tide Town Leader, looking completely nonchalant.
"It's fine, Uncle, with Brother Shen here, those guys are no match for us!"
"That's right, Uncle."
"Besides, we've played 'Resident Evil' so many times. We understand those firearms and weapons much better than they do. Those guys won't be our opponents at all."
"You saw how amazing Brother Shen is, Uncle. Just now, he killed over 50 people by himself in a public match."
The members of the 'Kagura Strategy Group' were all young hotheads, not very old, and their eyes were filled with adoration for Li Shenyu. They didn't acknowledge anyone else.
Nor did they think anyone could be a match for Li Shenyu.
Seeing these guys' arrogant expressions, the Tide Town Leader couldn't help but sigh.
However...
Li Shenyu was indeed formidable; there was no denying that.
Especially when using firearms, he was completely at ease. In the 'Resident Evil' novice mode perfect clear leaderboard, his score was second only to Li Ruoshu.
These kids' overall performance in 'Resident Evil' was indeed not bad.
Although a bit sneaky.
But Guild President Li Yunque also said that this Dungeon required exactly that kind of sneakiness.