After arriving near Guo Ziyi, Gongcheng Yuandu controlled Sun Ce to search for a new barracks.
His remaining troops had been reduced to just two-fifths of their original number during their very first clash with the enemy.
A single barracks could recruit twenty men, meaning he was now down to a mere eight soldiers.
Yet, with skillful maneuvering, even eight men could manage to take down an unescorted character at the cost of some casualties.
...
After a few minutes of steady farming alongside his teammates, the troops under Sun Ce's command had now swelled to sixty-eight.
At this point, discussion messages began to appear in the team chat.
Zhang Jiao: "Hey everyone, how many troops do you all have now? Report your counts, I've got forty Yellow Turban Warriors over here."
Guo Ziyi: "You're a bit short, aren't you? I've got exactly eighty."
Arthur: "I have sixty."
Sun Ce: "Sixty-eight."
...
All ten players reported their total troop counts.
Gongcheng Yuandu did a quick mental calculation: the ten of them possessed a combined total of five hundred and sixty-eight soldiers.
He checked the kill count for both sides: 7:3.
*Only seven, huh...*
Seeing a gathering prompt suddenly light up, he quizzically panned his camera toward Zhang Jiao's location, where three players had already rendezvoused with him, while other teammates were leading their troops to converge on the spot.
*Time for a team fight?*
Thinking this, he too led his troops toward Zhang Jiao.
...
A pink-haired girl with headphones resting around her neck and a quiet, sweet face frowned prettily as she watched the mobile game currently in progress.
"This Sun Ce's control is insanely good..."
Opening the battle stats and seeing the four kills Sun Ce had secured, followed by a glance at her own two kills, the girl muttered rebelliously.
*What should I do next...*
With that thought, she looked at the map.
Many of the red dots representing enemy barracks on the map had gone dark; clearly, those barracks had already been claimed by the enemy.
She glanced again at the white dots representing friendly barracks; although plenty of barracks remained, they were all too far away from her. If she just headed over like that, she'd likely run into the enemy...
Looking at her meager thirty-four soldiers, she shook her head and still directed her character toward a certain barracks.
...
Gongcheng Yuandu couldn't help the twitch of his lips as he looked at the soldiers occupying half the mountainside.
Guo Ziyi rode past Sun Ce at that moment, mounted on a Shadow Runner horse and leading his troops as he galloped toward Zhang Jiao.
Seeing this, Yuandu followed closely behind.
Zhang Jiao: "Brothers, in a moment we'll push straight across toward the north!"
Arthur: "Sounds good, there's only five minutes left anyway, and our kill count is higher than theirs."
Guo Ziyi: "With us grouping up like this, even if the opposing team gathers as well, our economic lead will send them packing in total defeat!"
Fang Xuanling: "We shall indeed drive them to a crushing defeat!"
...
Watching the cheerful team chat, Gongcheng Yuandu smiled involuntarily, then parked his character beside Zhang Jiao to wait for the others to assemble.
Liang, who was hurrying over at that moment, couldn't help smiling when he saw Takeda Shingen charging toward him from the opposite direction.
He nocked an arrow and loosed it at the incoming enemy, his troops clashing instantly with Takeda Shingen's forces.
Battle cries rang out wave after wave, and the sound of clashing weapons never wavered.
Arrows flew at breakneck speed straight toward Takeda Shingen's face.
Taking an arrow, Takeda Shingen unleashed his first skill and launched a surprise assault on Li Guang. Knowing full well how fragile archers were, the player operating him hastily put some distance between them and immediately tapped the gathering command.
Zhang Jiao: "Let's move, let's head out and help Li Guang first!"
Fang Xuanling: "The enemy is surely rushing over at this moment as well, we must be quick and take them down in a single team fight!"
Arthur: "Makes sense, let's go, let's go."
...
Following his teammates to provide support while occasionally scanning the map for anything out of the ordinary, Gongcheng Yuandu picked up the water glass on his desk and took a sip, but it was empty.
Swallowing past his dry throat, he checked the remaining match time and, seeing three minutes left, had no choice but to sit back down and immerse his mind once more in the game.
True to Fang Xuanling's prediction, the moment they reached Li Guang's vicinity, the entire enemy team arrived as well.
With insufficient time remaining, they desperately needed to secure kills to close the gap.
Seeing the ten players who had surrounded Li Guang, Gongcheng Yuandu's fully assembled teammates surged forward under Zhang Jiao's attack orders.
A torrential downpour of arrows filled the skies, and nine characters were accompanied by massive throngs of soldiers wielding long spears, shields, and swords. No sooner had one volley of arrows ended than the archers positioned in the rear drew their bows once more.
Having weathered the barrage of arrows, the enemy players snapped back to reality. Led by Takeda Shingen, melee characters like Guan Yu, Alexander, and Li Bai launched a counter-charge against Sun Ce and the other eight.
Ranged attackers and support healers such as Qi Jiguang and Zhuge Liang harassed the nine players.
Chen Ping unleashed his ultimate skill to crowd-control Zhuge Liang and the others, after which Sun Ce took the lead, followed closely by melee characters like Arthur and Guo Ziyi.
"In ages past, few heroes matched your peerless grace; laughable how Cao and Bei were mere reeds in the space!"
"Your voice and talents dimmed your fame as minister; to merit easy, but to keep it proves sinisteer."
...
Line after line of character-specific dialogue and praise poetry rang out, signaling that the match had officially entered its climax.
Flashy special effects for every character flooded the entire screen, causing everyone's phones to lag slightly.
As the troops on the field dwindled, the team fight approached its final stage, but the skirmish had lasted far too long.
Because the enemy side had a support character, any low-health characters on the verge of death were repeatedly revived by the healer.
Consequently, Chen Ping continuously unleashed crowd-control skills on the enemy support.
Then, with thirty seconds left on the match clock, they reaped all ten enemy kills at the cost of six fallen comrades!
As the timer hit zero, the golden characters "VICTORY" flashed in the center of the screen.
Entering the settlement screen, the MVP character's poetic tagline rang out once more: "Raising troops in Changsha to punish Zhu, straight to Jiangdong to build an emperor's lieu..."
Placing his phone down with a sense of fulfillment, Gongcheng Yuandu rubbed his tired eyes, then picked up his water glass and prepared to head downstairs for water. Just as he returned to the party lobby screen, a party invitation popped up.
Picking up his phone to check, the sender of the party invite was the losing team's MVP, Takeda Shingen.
Decline.
Party invitation.
Decline.
Party invitation.
...
Silently pondering for a moment, he looked at the cup in his hand and then checked the time.
*Only seven-thirty? Oh well, a match is a match...*
Accept invitation.
Glancing at the party interface and the blue headphone icon in front of his avatar, Gongcheng Yuandu took his phone and headed downstairs to fetch some water.
By the time he had filled his cup and snapped the lid shut, the party screen had already transitioned to the 1V1 challenge mode, entering the character selection screen just as he returned.
Feeling the notification vibration, Gongcheng Yuandu checked it, instantly recognized the game mode, and after a mere fraction of a second's thought, decisively selected his favorite character.
"Riding the bronze horses to pacify smoke and dust, the destined hero has a soul true and robust..."
Watching twenty-ores sun-like stars orbit the golden-robed emperor, Gongcheng Yuandu chuckled mischievously.
Clutching his water glass, he sprinted back to his room and sat down at his desk to wait for the opponent to make their selection.
Oda Nobunaga?
Seeing the character chosen by his opponent, he laughed even harder.
After taking a sip of water, he finally noticed the opponent's nickname.
Matcha Soda.
Hmm... Seems like they really like that flavor of drink?
He shook his head, took another sip from his water glass, and waited to enter the match.
As the interface shifted, Gongcheng Yuandu quickly settled into position, equipping a few skills and gear before controlling his character toward the arena in the center of the map.
The moment he reached the arena, his opponent appeared as well, looking rather confident in the character they had chosen.
Without overthinking, he tossed out a basic attack to probe. Oda Nobunaga backflipped to dodge it, then unleashed a first skill to slash at him.
Barely dodging in time, Yuandu rapidly put distance between them and immediately unleashed his second skill.
Twenty-eight mini-stars flew toward Oda Nobunaga, exploding one after another, and by the time his opponent reacted, their HP had already dropped to two-thirds.