Is the person you sculpt as cute as me?

"No, Eel, even though you are our captain, I cannot allow this."

"What are you dissatisfied with my decision?"

On the top floor of the Mage Tower, Yu Man was arguing with Xiao Lu, and everyone else was also dissatisfied.

Xiaolu spread a piece of paper on the table. It was the registration form.

Audition registration can be done either by filling out a form in the real world or by sending a message to a designated person in the old world, making the entry threshold very low. Consequently, a large number of dropouts will emerge, and the majority will be amateur teams that register just for fun.

I'm afraid that "Sheshe Restaurant" has also fallen into this problem.

"You stranded, stinking seafood! Why is your player ID called Fish Boss? And I'm called Deer Boss?"

"Aren't you the boss?"

"No, no, no, you're being cunning and clever." Xiaolu saw through her ruse. "You're deliberately taking me out and giving me the title of boss, and you inherit the position of Boss Yu. You're truly despicable."

"But you're the boss."

"But I still feel outshined by Boss Yu. It's really not good."

There is no consensus on the ID to fill in the registration form, and this is the contradiction they are currently facing.

The blackbird had long been dissatisfied with his own bird, the fifth, and was of course the first to clamor for revolution.

But no one could understand her strange lines, so no one except Yu Man noticed that she was unhappy. Yu Man did notice it, but pretended not to see it.

Liu Tong Qi Hua, on the other hand, was upset because she and Yu Man were being called "Hua Lao Er" (Hua Lao Er). She was trying to learn various languages, especially Chinese, so she knew that this slang name was very unpleasant.

Yu Man filled in 70 as "七老零". She actually had no complaints, but just thought it was very interesting, so she joined in the fun.

The biggest problem is the deer.

"Eel," the player ID for traditional professional esports teams, is basically just internet-addicted teenagers forcing themselves into using English they can barely pronounce. But we seem to be even more clueless."

"is a bit……"

"I don't want the commentary to say that Boss Lu entered the match and that Boss Lu won the match... You, Boss Yu, are a bit..."

There is some truth to that.

Yu Man thought about it for a moment, and her face suddenly turned red.

Then he tore up the registration form, and the dispute was resolved.

Finally, they simply wrote down their IDs.

Eel, fried dough fritters, 70, six and seven flowers, koltrast.

There is also a coach——"Mao Laoliu".

Those who were not present naturally could not protest.

?

However, this registration form was not used.

?

What no one expected was that a training match quietly came to them.

It was no longer the agent who brought the news, but 70.

The one who challenged them to a fight was even a very powerful professional team that had proven itself on the field and attracted a lot of discussion.

They won third place in the Development Cup and received a share of $300,000.

They once carried the uninvited expectations of many people——

They were also inundated with uninvited spit because of their humiliating failure.

Yu Man knew them, or rather, everyone knew them.

After all, they came from "Xiankan", from Shimlabaken.

……

To this-

"Uncle Eel, are we going to fight?"

After delivering the message, 70 waited quietly for Yu Man to speak.

This is indeed a rather strange thing.

A mature and successful team came to play a training match with a fledgling team like them...

And it’s now—the night before the auditions.

"I'll have to think about it."

Fight—Yu Man wanted to fight.

But after all, they were all acquaintances, and hitting them too hard might cause problems, so Yu Man was a little worried.

The system of professional competitions and arenas is different from her understanding of "growth, growth - until crushing".

Instead, they set up a temple in a snail shell.

Being suppressed into a relatively fair environment, we try our best to polish the details, matching, restraint, and intrigue.

Even so, they have become much stronger.

Unlike the two previous training matches, Yu Man has basically finalized everyone's skill combinations according to the ideas given by Senior Mao.

After much thought, Yu Man directly sent a private message to Yago.

"Brother Ya, what's going on with the training match?" Yu Man asked.

"Things are very complicated. It seems my daughter didn't explain it clearly."

Yago knew 70 very well and had obviously handled this matter, so he communicated with Yu Man very patiently.

"Didn't they lose in the Kaituo Cup? They were defeated by a Southeast Asian team, then humiliated by their opponents and attacked by the public, who called them war criminals and all that."

"...So, your mentality is a little bit exploded?" Yu Man asked.

"They're definitely going to explode, but it's not as serious as we imagined. In my opinion, this matter is better than we thought." Yago calmly sorted out his words, speaking bit by bit, "They don't intend to give up, they just want to find a new way to start again. You understand, big brother Eel."

"Reorganization?"

"Yes and no. As the top three finishers in the Kaidao Cup, they received a direct invite to the Spring Split," Yago said calmly. "But the forums are bashing them, saying the spot is a waste. The media and analysts agree."

Yu Man was silent.

It's indeed more complicated than I imagined.

The team that suffered a humiliating defeat has not yet had a second chance or time to calm down.

"Simply put, they no longer want this spot and instead plan to participate in the auditions and two other outposts."

"...Selling spots?" Yu Man asked. "It must be quite expensive. After all, this is a tournament with a total prize pool of one billion US dollars."

"Brother Eel, sometimes there's no need to play dumb."

Yu Man stopped typing and felt complicated.

Time did not give her the opportunity to choose her words carefully.

"Come on, Shimla Bakken."

Yago ended the private chat with this last sentence.

……

The ship carrying them arrived quietly at Shimla Bakken.

It was not the bustling port, but the private waters belonging to the shipyard.

Unlike the hustle and bustle of the docks, where merchants come and go, workers are busy, and middlemen and hawkers never stop bustling about—

The excitement here is of a different kind.

Magic lanterns, strung like candied haws, rose from the sea. Newly built ships, or those under repair, drifted on the precisely defined sea. Huge amounts of timber were piled in moisture-proof warehouses, but the doors could never be closed.

The employed local people of Shimla Bakken were just getting off work.

But they had nowhere to go.

The strangers gave them jobs, salaries, shelter and three meals a day.

Being able to be part of the unprecedented prosperity of Himlabakken, these people living on the perpetually gloomy snowy island still miss the bustle and warmth.

They smoked, drank and talked about work in the empty unloading area.

Hammering nails, sanding boards, painting...

Their conversation, along with the smoke from their mouths, drifted up into the fine snow in the evening.

"How much money do you give them?" Yu Man asked, gazing at the scene from afar.

At this question, 70 cleared his throat and imitated the blackbird's voice: "Look, Eel, there are two kinds of bosses in the world."

Everyone, including Blackbird, laughed.

Of course, she didn't list the two options, but simply spoke of herself: "Seriously, at least it allows them to support themselves and their families, and still have money left over for things they like or extra meals...that's about it."

"Good."

"When the shipyard is busy, I sometimes think that these NPCs...are actually people from another world. At least that's how I see them. This game doesn't feel like a game anymore."

Yu Man and Hei Li remained silent, while the others seemed to be thinking about something.

70 continued, "I feel like this other world, in order to promote itself, roughly investigated the human world and then gave itself a lot of clichéd skins. Things like all loot dropping on death, strange arenas, and class systems, it feels quite strange."

"Maybe it's just roughly processed." Yu Man glanced at the blackbird.

The latter smiled and shook his head.

She looked back at Yu Man and concluded:

"But the present or the old world, and the many worlds that once flourished but are now withered, are just pages in its book... and another page. Some people turn the pages, some write books, and some close the books - or want to read them again."

Everyone was used to the blackbird's chirping and didn't take it to heart.

Yu Man looked at the waning moon and thought about herself this time——

No.

This time, can we put an end to it?

……

Anyone but the dock workers was living it.

Those who came to meet them a little late were no exception.

Under the leadership of Yago's powerful aura——

They arrived as promised.

Tengge, Nixiaolu, Asuka, Shuishuinenen, Fried Chicken... five contestants.

They all have the guild name "Xiankan" and are quite famous in the old world and even in the real world.

As a team, they exuded a sense of harmony, like leaves from a tree, a harmony that comes only after a long period of mutual integration. Anyone who saw them could tell at a glance that they were a team.

In order to avoid being seen, the meeting was arranged behind the shipyard.

This is the small garden leading to the cafeteria and government building, which is particularly quiet in the evening.

They pushed aside the tables and chairs covered with fine snow and greeted each other cheerfully.

"Long time no see, Eel President, JD Master..."

"This is the legendary No. 1 Grandma in the world, Six and Seven Flowers! I've seen the real person."

"Miss 70, after you went to team up with President Eel, you and your brothers have been exploited by Ya Ge. There's no one left to stand up for us."

"You know, 70, we are the Princess's faction, and we support you in overthrowing Yago's violent rule."

"Indeed, indeed. Finish the game quickly and come back to take charge. Otherwise, I'll be out at sea with Yago every day killing people... There really is nothing else to do."

They kept making this joke in front of Yago.

Yago coughed a few times embarrassedly and wanted to say something, but all his friends had happy expressions, so he took back his words and just embraced everything with a heroic laugh.

Then--