The fifth round of Battle of the Cocoon arrived on the morning of 23rd May, and it was already the last round. At this stage of the competition, there were little to no participants who sailed through by luck. The remaining players were all strong competition. Wang Tanzhi’s opponent was a professional gamer from Brahman. Even though the man was not as powerful as the top 4 from the guilds, he was no pushover and was no weaker than a celebrity player.
After the match started, this match was selected by the ‘focus match’ of this round by Dream Inc. and broadcasted on the big screens of the thousand market servers. Feng Bujue predicted this because the ID Wang Tanzhi had been circling the forum for a whole day. The attention it got was no less than Brother Jue when his name was announced as one of the VIP players. A previously unknown person managed to eliminate Seven Kills who was ranked 17 on the combat stat ranking? Who was this person? What guild did he come from? What kind of tactic did he use? What kind of mastery was he focused on?
Again, the rumors flew. Many players that knew Xiao Tan and more players that did not know Xiao Tan popped out to give their opinions…
The views for Xiao Tan’s previous matches’ recording skyrocketed. Other than the one where he got the bye, the other three matches became the focus of discussion. By then, no one questioned Xiao Tan’s ability anymore and the bye became a thing of the past. Looking back… of the three matches, Wang Tanzhi ended two of the three matches with one hit. He was a true assassin in that way… And his final match with Seven Kills was an instant classic, especially that battle during the last minute… It was the best fight the game had ever seen.
Therefore, it was only logical for Xiao Tan’s fifth battle to be moved to the big screen. But this match was not as interesting as people as hoped, because… the two only fought for 3 minutes before it was decided. Wang Tanzhi won without any surprise and he won with ease. That meant the fight wasn’t that interesting. Many even suspected… his opponent was a little too weak…
But… A small group of people saw something else in this battle. The top players at the upper echelon listed Wang Tanzhi as one of the opponents they most refused to meet in the tournament…
…
At 2 am on the 23rd, the Battle of the Cocoon officially ended. The top 100s name list was announced for Thriller Paradise’s first Tournament for the Best. 90 players who went through the rounds of elimination and the 10 seed players were on the list.
The imminent Battle of the Butterfly would begin on the morning of the 25th and in sleeping mode as well. This stage would only had one round and the winning 50 would enter the last round—”Final Tournament”.
The biggest difference between Battle of the Butterfly and Cocoon was that the list was given before the match even started… Even though the matchmaking was still randomized, this earlier announcement made all the difference in the world.
The battle list was announced on the morning of 23rd. It meant that… before the Battle of the Butterfly, the players had near 48 hours to prepare. During this time, the participants or the teams behind the participants could do many things, like investigating the opponent’s information, study their previous match recordings, and purchase the skills or equipment that hindered their opponents. This kind of arrangement naturally caused some reaction among the players, and like usual, they vented on the forum. Many conspiracies abounded, saying this was the Dream Inc. was giving the gaming studios an unfair advantage over the casual players…
However, it was true that a casual player like Feng Bujue would be disadvantaged under such rules. But the most troublesome thing was he had to win…
One, he had the name of ‘VIP player’ around him. He was the public target. If he lost during his first match, people would lampoon him. Secondly, he was in a contract with Woody. The name of the guild ‘Underworld Frontline’ became serendipitously accurate. If he failed this first step of his task, who knew what Woody might do? So, Brother Jue cared about this match quite a bit.
And to make matters worse, Feng Bujue’s opponent in the Battle of the Butterfly was another VIP player—Xu Huai Shang. As mentioned before, even though Xu Huai Shang hid her name on the combat stat ranking, it did not affect her popularity as a celebrity gamer. And we shall go into the details of that now…
At the risk of sounding shallow, the biggest reason behind her popularity was her beauty; second, she was a professional gamer. The best gamer from the studio ‘Red Sakura’. Those two factors alone would ensure her popularity. No matter the era, the term ‘beautiful female gamer’ would attract eyeballs. It was unsure whether she would be the last, but she was definitely not the first…
Before joining Thriller Paradise, Xu Huai Shang was already a superstar in the gaming world. In terms of popularity, even the top players from Regulations and Brahman were no match, much less the players from Jiang Hu and the rest who were like dust…
In terms of looks, Yama, a female player from Brahman, was not weaker than Xu Huai Shang and she was not that hard on the eyes. But standing next to Xu Huai Shang, she would become a normal civilian…
With Xu Huai Shang’s natural gifts, she could have easily moved from the gaming world into the entertainment world. In fact, several big management companies had offered her great contracts. Many experienced agents stated clearly that with her looks and presence, she could have easily taken down Hollywood and she could have been the next Bond girl if she wanted.
Many scripts offered her the role of main characters, but Xu Huai Shang stuck to gaming. Even though celebrity players earned less than actual celebrities and it was harsh for a female player to be treated seriously in this industry, she did not care. With her ability, she won many accolades and had become one of the best players. Perhaps because of her passion for gaming, her fans in the world of gaming was no less compared to any big celebrity. If anything, she had more diehard fans than them. One could say that she was the queen of the gaming world.
It was not to Feng Bujue’s advantage that this was his first competitor…
Xu Huai Shang had more than ten thousand fans on her side and Feng Bujue was more like an urban legend… Many people heard about him but almost no one really met him… Fewer people would lend him their support.
Objectively speaking, Brother Jue was ranked second while Xu Huai Shang was ranked 14th on the combat stat ranking. They were both top 20 and VIP players. At least according to the computer… the difference between their power levels wasn’t that big. Furthermore, Xu Huai Shang had done her dues in the gaming world. She did not fake her way to the top and Brother Jue expected a strong opponent in her.
Overall, the only fair point about this match was the information-collecting before the match. Since neither of them had joined the Battle of the Bug and Cocoon, there were no recordings of their matches. Information like character status (main weapon, equipment, skill, fighting style, and so on)… Feng Bujue was just a casual player, he had no channel to find any convincing leads on his opponent. For Xu Huai Shang, even though she had the support of her gaming studio, for a mystery like Feng Bujue, Red Sakura could do nothing as well…
In conclusion… this match was bound to be interesting and it was anyone’s match.
Dream Inc. also announced beforehand that this match would be broadcasted on the big screen and given priority stream. This Battle of the Butterfly would attract plenty of attention and many questions would be answered…
Who was this Feng Bujue who jumped to the second place on the combat stat ranking out of nowhere? Even Xu Huai Shang herself was quite curious to meet her match…