Child of Destiny

……

At long last, the highly anticipated Grand Finals of the United Cup had finally arrived.

The audience filled the live stand almost instantly, even before the match started. There was still more than an hour before the match officially started, yet these excited players could not wait and logged in early and entered the live stream ahead of time.

Fortunately, Miss Bunny and David seemed to have already been expecting something like this to happen, which was why they launched the program very early. They launched the program 2 hours ahead of schedule to entertain the live audience and online viewers.

During the program, they had also invited some experts in the field of battle analysis and such to chat and discuss the upcoming match.

They presented some arguments and discussions about the possible matchups for the match and the strategies that both sides would most likely use in the upcoming battles.

They had also voiced out their thoughts and biases for this match, as well as what format they wanted to see during the match.

They openly said that they did not want to have a bunch of team competitions that could rob all points from each other. They wanted to see the standard format of the tournament, which was widely agreed upon by everyone.

For them, it was quite boring to have a single team competition all the time. Moreover, having the standard formation would also take a while to finish due to the number of rounds that it had, making everyone enjoy the match much longer.

It would also be much thrilling this way, which was why everyone preferred it.

Aside from the expert analysts, Miss Bunny had also invited some top Godlike Players through her connections. These godly experts were also not your regular gods of the game since they could highly rank in any Godly Ranking Lists.

The most famous ones were the Guild Leaders of the Titan Guild, ‘God King’ Zeus, and ‘All-Father’ Odin.

These two gods were not in any Godly Ranking Lists due to them not participating in the most recent ranking matches or the last Hegemon Cup. But no one would doubt their strength, particularly when both of them used to stand at the peak of these rankings before and even dominated most of the title tournaments that they used to participate in.

The program ran for an entire hour and a half, along with some special numbers that Miss Bunny prepared for everyone.

Some of them were the showcase of the two teams’ strengths, featuring a music video that she edited, which also showed the magical effects of her skills.

The two music videos featured the matches that both teams had undergone during the entire tournament, along with the highlights that their members had during the process.

Both versions were good and featured the unique strengths and strategies of each side, but the brightest of them all was the feat that War God Simba had done during their match against the Earners Mercenary Group.

Such a 1-versus-4 scenario was quite rare in the scene due to how powerful the players of this game, particularly the apex and godly experts.

Moreover, Simba almost won the battle, making it even more stunning and particularly iconic.

Aside from this achievement, there was also the video of Uno defeating Ashura, which was way beyond everyone’s logic, particularly that final strike that seemed to be capable of destroying the world.

In the final seconds of the music video dedicated to the Empyrean Talons, that final strike was featured, engraving it into everyone’s mind to remind them of this scene for eternity.

The music videos, enchanted by Bunny’s Magic, further enhanced everyone’s excitement. The burning passion was now at its peak, waiting for the upcoming match.

Then it was further raised to a higher level when the tournament officials announced the battle format that Empyrean Talons had chosen.

As the one with the higher seed, Empyrean Talons had the home advantage first.

When it was revealed that they had chosen the standard format to challenge the defending champions, everyone could no longer hold their excitement and started shouting like crazy, since the Empyrean Talons did not disappoint them.

The standard format was equivalent to more rounds, which was also equivalent to a longer match.

Moreover, it did not take that long before the match also started.

*Ding*

Not long after announcing the format of the match, the system also announced the start of the grand finals.

System: United Cup Grand Finals – Empyrean Talons (Home) versus God’s Paradise (Away)

System: Round 1 (Single Matches (1)) – ‘Beastmaster’ Akailu (Peak Titled Ranker) versus ‘Whale God’ Cetus.

…

“Huh!?”

Everyone was somewhat taken aback by the first matchup of the match, not expecting Akailu and Cetus to represent their respective teams in such a very important first round.

This round was not only about being the first champion of the two teams. It was not just to earn the first point of the match, but also meant to set the morale of the teams for the next few rounds.

It was to set the pace of the entirety of the match, which would greatly affect the performance of the rest of the team.

Choosing these two to take on the role as the ‘champions’ of the first round could only mean two things.

It was either that both captains fully trusted these guys or they did not care about the first round, thinking that the result would not affect the performance of the rest of the team later.

…

While everyone was still processing the information inside their heads, the guys behind this arrangement could not help but complement one another.

“Tsk! What a tricky guy. It seems like he knows how to set the pace as well,” said Ashura after seeing Akailu on the field.

“It looks like they have seen through our plans. That guy is quite interesting,” commented Shin right after seeing Cetus representing God’s Paradise for such an important match.

The others might not be able to see through the schemes that both sides tried to do by sending Akailu and Cetus for the first Single Match, but each fully understood what the other side was planning to do.

After all, they were the ones who had planned such a setup.

“So, they are focusing on Group Battle and Team Competitions like we have expected,” said Ashura while turning to Lia beside him.

“They seem to be planning the same as us, just like what we have discussed during our team meeting,” said Shin, fully expecting such an arrangement from the opposing side.

“Then this will all be decided by the matchups of the Group Battle and how well the players at the Team Competition will perform,” said the two at the same time, seemingly thinking in sync.

Both sides were quite familiar with one another due to the scrimmage that they had done previously. They were fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each team had as well as the hidden issues that were not clear to the others.

This would all come down to how well each team fixed their problems and further improved themselves during the time they last met.

…

Meanwhile, back in the field, Cetus was currently frowning deeply while looking at his current opponent.

He ignored the map that Akailu had chosen for this round, which was a jungle. It was a map that heightened all the abilities of the latter and was quite disadvantageous to him.

What Cetus focused on was a whole different matter. “The heck!? Did I lose the roll again? Why against this guy this time rather than one of their key members?”

He was already expecting this to happen since Ashura and Lia had already foreseen such an arrangement. But he still could not help from have a little hope to match against any of the key figures of the Empyrean Talons.

After all, he still wanted to match against a powerful opponent on a competitive stage. The stronger his opponent, the better it was. He would improve much better that way compared to fighting ‘less’ competitive opponents.

Akailu, who heard those words clearly, could not help his face from twitching. “Is this guy treating the lineup arrangement as some sort of gacha draw or something?”

He was quite eager to take on this match because he wanted to regain himself after his poor performance against the Earners Mercenary Group.

Moreover, his sudden enlightenment during that time had greatly improved his overall strength, which was why he was quite excited to battle someone strong.

Even if he was interrupted during that time, the effects on his mind were not that serious since this was only a game. The system had protected him from some serious consequences, which also somewhat helped him in achieving such an enlightenment.

If it were in the real world, then he would most likely suffer a serious Qi deviation or something after being interrupted during such an important opportunity.

Seeing that his opponent seemed to be underestimating him, Akailu cracked his neck a little, producing a series of popping sounds, before saying. “You look a bit disappointed. But I promise you that this is not going to be an easy battle.”

……

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