Chapter 126: Chapter 120: Was Aurora Eliminated?

That statement immediately put an end to the team leaders’ hopes.

But moments later, Gideon Lockwood’s phone was bombarded with messages from the various team leaders.

Felix Lowe’s message, in particular, was jaw-dropping.

[Felix: How about I trade you Mysterious Wind Snow and Blue River Flower for them?]

Gideon Lockwood sneered to himself. ’Does he really take me for a fool?’

He rejected the offer in no uncertain terms.

Felix Lowe continued to up the ante.

[Felix: I’ll add 3 million in compensation!]

[Gideon: You think we need the money?]

Felix Lowe thought about it and realized it was true. DAF was famous in the gaming league for being loaded. Their performance was mediocre, but they were definitely willing to spend a fortune.

[Gideon: Don’t even think about it. Those two are never going to your team!]

After sending the message, Gideon Lockwood, in an excellent mood, took a screenshot of the chat log and sent it to Arthur Lockwood.

The moment Arthur Lockwood saw it, he felt a sense of catharsis, as if years of pent-up frustration had finally been released.

It was time for DAF to return to the top!

***

The game continued. Master Rory and Echo had successfully taken a commanding lead on the leaderboard. They even used the guide to lead wave after wave of players into traps, completely wiping out everyone from The Snowy Labyrinth.

Outside the game, Gideon Alden was so furious he almost smashed his phone. In order to answer to his guild members, he used a smurf account to post his chat logs with Lorraine Morrison directly onto the game forums.

He added a post: [Well, that was an eye-opener! The Apex Dominion Guild will stop at nothing to win! I admit I fell for a honey trap…]

The members of the Apex Dominion Guild who saw the post were livid.

The dozen or so members participating in the open qualifiers, in particular, couldn’t believe it was true.

Mr. Newman, especially, was about to impulsively call Lorraine Morrison, but Mr. Mason stopped him.

“Calm down. Let’s get to the bottom of this before we start asking questions. If it turns out to be fake, we’ll just end up hurting Lorraine’s feelings. We’ll go confront Gideon Alden in person!”

However, when they contacted Gideon Alden, he agreed to the confrontation in a hostile tone, which made everyone’s expressions darken.

Only Mr. Newman refused to believe it. But after seeing Gideon Alden’s phone, his face turned ashen, and he called Lorraine Morrison to demand the truth.

But Lorraine Morrison didn’t answer her phone, as if she had vanished off the face of the earth.

Gideon Alden replied smugly, “See? A classic sign of a guilty conscience. As for the forum post, we can delete it, but there are conditions…”

With Zeke Quincy and Aurora Sinclair absent, his rampant arrogance flared up again.

Mr. Mason suppressed his anger and asked, “What conditions?”

A smile spread across Gideon Alden’s face as he said without hesitation, “We want Master Rory and Echo…”

“Impossible!” Mr. Mason cut him off, rejecting the idea instantly. He looked at him as if he were an idiot.

Gideon Alden was taken aback for a moment, then replied helplessly, “I don’t mean we want to take them from you. I just want them to help us clear a dungeon.”

“Just that?”

Mr. Mason had expected him to make an outrageous demand after causing such a scene. He was surprised he only brought up such trivial conditions.

’This doesn’t seem like his style at all!’

“There’s one more thing…” As Gideon Alden said this, he started to feel nervous.

“What is it?”

“After this is over, our two guilds will form an alliance. We won’t invade each other’s territory, and there will be no retaliation!”

The two guilds were on completely different levels of Power now. Especially after several top experts from District Twelve joined, the Apex Dominion Guild’s influence had been expanding continuously. It was almost on par with the major guilds backed by professional teams. This made him constantly worry that Zeke Quincy would use this as an opportunity to absorb his guild.

When Lorraine Morrison approached him this time, he’d thought he could deal a heavy blow to Apex Dominion. He never expected to miscalculate so badly, resulting in the complete annihilation of his guild members in the event.

Even though he had made the forum post, he was terrified that Zeke Quincy would declare a guild war on them after the competition.

“Is that all?” Mr. Mason asked, looking at him with a wry smile.

Gideon Alden pushed up his glasses and, forcing an air of composure, replied, “There is one last thing, but I’ll reserve the right to bring it up later!”

Seeing his pathetic attempt at bravado, Mr. Mason gestured to a laptop. “Our guild leader is here at the venue. He’ll give you a reply after the match ends.”

***

Meanwhile, Master Rory and Echo’s scores climbed ever higher, making them the envy of every other contestant. But their power was simply too great. With only ten minutes left before the match ended, the other players were on edge.

The players falling behind on the leaderboard grew desperate. One player with the ID “I Am A Madman” secretly gathered dozens of other contestants, preparing to launch a final assault on the pair.

Their scores were so high that successfully killing just one of them would guarantee a spot in the next round. The temptation was enormous.

Master Rory and Echo, meanwhile, had stopped searching for quests. They found an excellent hiding spot and were quietly waiting for the match to end.

Seeing that they had stopped moving, the tester reflexively kept the guide character at a safe distance from them.

[guide]: Aren’t you going to other quest points?

[Echo]: Haven’t you had enough fun yet?

The tester was filled with frustration. ’This girl, Echo, is absolutely vicious,’ he thought.

She had mercilessly used him to feed kills every single time. If the manager hadn’t forbidden the guide from attacking players, he would’ve used his character’s advantages to teach her a lesson.

The tester watched as the two sat on the ground recovering their stamina, completely ignoring their surroundings. Resigned, he had the guide sit down a short distance away to wait out the end of the match.

Just then, the colleague next to him suddenly exclaimed, “Hahaha… you’re surrounded!”

The tester glanced at the minimap on his screen and asked, puzzled, “There’s no one else here.”

“They used an invisibility item. If you don’t want to be a punching bag, you’d better get away from them, and fast.”

In the open qualifiers, each player had a pack for storing special items. Completing certain high-difficulty quests would reward players with items like health and mana potions, or even special skill items, but the drop rate was very low.

The tester chuckled, quickly getting up and using an assassin’s Invisibility Skill to run away.

Alvin Morgan, who had been keeping an eye on the guide, said immediately, “Aurora, watch out! We have enemies.”

The terrain here was surrounded by mountains on three sides, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Echo moved alertly in front of Master Rory, spreading poison outwards and occasionally lashing forward with vines.

But “I Am A Madman” took an item from his pack and threw it at the mountain behind the pair.

With a loud BANG, the valley they were in began to shake violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground, and rocks began to tumble down the mountainside.

It was a [Natural Disaster] item, an extremely rare drop from a random high-risk quest. It was incredible that he had been lucky enough to get one.

This even made the staff in the tech department a little envious of his luck. After all, the guide had led Master Rory and Echo through countless quests, and they had never obtained that item.

The moment he heard the sound, Alvin Morgan’s expression changed, and he shouted for Aurora Sinclair to run for it.

But rocks were falling rapidly from both sides of the valley, and the fissures in the ground were widening. The Poison Master wasn’t as fast as the Boxer, and Echo was soon cut off by a giant boulder.

Just then, Master Rory, who had been running ahead, suddenly turned and rushed back toward Echo.

A single Flame Fist struck the boulder behind her, shattering the massive rock into smaller pieces and buying Echo time to escape.

I Am A Madman immediately ordered the ranged-class players to unleash their Skills on the pair.

They were attacked from both front and rear, and their health plummeted.

Fortunately, they had acquired enough potions, and with the Poison Master’s healing ability, they were barely able to hang on.

They were just about to survive the full sixty seconds of the event when I Am A Madman suddenly summoned a giant ursine to block their path.

The crowd outside the game watched with their hearts in their throats, unconsciously holding their breath as they stared at the event’s countdown timer and the pair’s health bars.

Their health bars hovered in the red. Echo had taken most of the damage for Master Rory, and her own health was nearly depleted.

“Aurora, quick, use the Golden Bell Shield in your pack—”

But Aurora Sinclair’s hands suddenly moved faster. In a stunning move, she picked up Echo, threw her toward I Am A Madman, and cast her only Golden Bell Shield on her in the process.

But this action slowed her down, and she was immediately buried by the landslide from behind.

Her health bar emptied instantly.

Everyone watching outside the game was stunned. The people from DAF were so shocked they shot to their feet.

“Was Aurora eliminated?”

“Those guys are despicable! I’m so mad…”

“It’s over. Her prize money is gone.”

Felix Lowe of Team PL looked over at the DAF members and sighed regretfully, “What a pity.”

“Yeah, but her micro is incredible. To be able to throw another player like that… most of us pros couldn’t execute a move that smoothly.”

“Sigh. It was a glorious defeat. DAF really lucked out with her…”

Suddenly, Zeke Quincy pointed at the leaderboard and shouted in shock, “Quick, look! Aurora’s score didn’t reset to zero—”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep