Chapter 90 - Championship (8)

Despite Brent changing his squad's objectives various times in just a few minutes of the game, the members were all quick to adjust. It was common for them to adapt to whatever unprecedented situation they faced. At this time, they clearly understood that it would be more practical to retreat.

Their squad also possessed teamwork and every member respected Brent greatly for his position. Although their status in real life was relatively the same, they still opted to be ordered around.

"The assassin is on my left side. It was concealing its presence using the grass! I saw its shadow sneaking," the mage narrated as it skipped away from the location. 'I had died once from the sneaky attack of this assassin, there was no way I would fall for the same tactic again!' she mentally added.

"I'll cover you guys. My skills are all available again," William presented as he moved towards the mage until their characters have moved on to the more suitable and safe area.

Instead of pushing the mid, they quickly planned to teleport right to the top lane so that they can make preparations for the coming attack of the giant mutant. 

"Now, our main goal is to suppress the giant mutant and fight against it! We can't let it attack our tower. Hurry!" Brent continued to command his teammates while all of their characters stood on the ground and were about to use the teleport command.

The large screen specifically zoomed in as the animation effects of their teleportation started. 

"WOW!"

"Isn't that teleportation effect cost so much?"

"Look at their characters and the map, why do you sound surprised by just an animation effect?"

The audience muttered all their praises while the teleportation effect was highlighted on the large screen. If it was not zoomed in, then they would only see a quick change of light on the effect.

"What a flex! That folks... is how you flex your money!" the two commentators slightly laugh and smiled as they admired the animation effects that continued to bubble around the characters. 

Even the person that controls the perspective of the large screen was grinning ear to ear as the animations continued to play on his monitor.

The teleportation effects were undeniably great to watch. Some characters produced golden and silver lights while others have playful objects floating magically that matched the skin upgrades of their characters. 

These animation effects would give the characters a sense that it would be drifting somewhere. It would look like the characters were about to be engulfed by an invisible force before they will appear at their chosen destination.

Hearing the commentators' remarks, all audience laughed understanding their feelings with what they saw. Some giggle loudly while others started to discuss if the animation effect was worthy to buy.

"I don't even have this kind of teleportation effect, man! The Lee Gaming squad are legends with this stuff!" the younger commentator added playfully. There was a bit of envy in his tone.

"There must be a good hashtag for this scene... I think it should be, #onlyTheLeeGamers!" the older commentator suggested and the laughter from the audience became louder.

It was indeed a total flex for most of the gamers, these animation effects were known to be the most expensive effects offered in the game. It would cost triple the regular cost.

It meant, only a few gamers could afford it. Some of the pro scenes did not even get this effect!

Brent glanced at the overall map while his character has not yet arrived at their destination. His eyes were almost not blinking as he concentrated on their battle. 

After the giant mutant was slain, it would respawn and help the Chronos eventually. 

But it would still take half a minute to respawn and assist the Chronos squad as the system of the game would read first which lane the mutant would go. 

This NPC was programmed to follow the lane that had the easiest access going to the opponent's base. Meaning, the codes of the game would make a quick calculation of the map first before the giant mutant would come back to life and do its mission.

"I can't believe the Chrons squad got the last hit! What great luck they have! I was pretty hopeful that we could steal the mutant!" William clicked his tongue as he maneuvered his tank. He wanted to pursue and attack their opponents but after realizing that Claire's assassin had gone invisible, he could not take the risk. 

"It's more than luck. The tank did not even die!" the fighter user shook her head as he saw how CEO UNRIVALED had restored its HP before they could kill it.

"Well, it's not yet time for us to kill. Later, we will surely wipe them out!" William chuckled.

They may get the opportunity to kill a member of the Chronos squad but a direct clash after the giant mutant would be summoned by their opponent would be unproductive. It would mean they have to trade the security of their top lane.

"Actually, they are catching up! Their marksman and assassin are the same levels as us!" Brent's sister reminded them immediately after noticing that the EXP gap of their characters was no longer as great as earlier.

"I'm wrong to attack their tank! I was too confident that I could slay it with my bullets. I've neglected the presence of their support!" Brent reflected on his mistake right away. He knew that it would be most ideal to kill the healer first but because of CEO UNRIVALED's low HP, he was still tempted to aim at her.

"Wait, their leveling becomes abnormal! Their characters should be just on level 6 after they got the giant mutant. But why is it that the assassin and marksman is level 9 like us? And the three others are level 8?" William suddenly asked as he cast a glance at the overall stats of their enemies.

"OH, it must be the effect of special character crest!" Brent immediately responded and also tap at the stats window on his device. The game would not show this crest but its effect would be hard to miss out on.

"Which character crest? They are not using the default crest for their characters?" William frowned as he never really changed his tank character crest.

"The one that boosts EXP," Brent replied.

The character crests would allow a boost ability to a particular user, similar to how emblems and badges work on other mobile games. The boost would happen when certain conditions are met by the character during the battle.

For this game, there are ten various character crests that players could choose from: Marksman crest give characters an additional range of their attacks by percentage. But it will only be activated once the character reached the max level. 

Tank crest gives characters additional defense power once 90% of their HP would be lost in a clash. 

Assassin crest gives extra physical damage as long as there would be a fallen sword on its item inventory. It was the most expensive item that cost 4000 gold.

Mage crest gives mana reduction consumption whenever the character reaches the max level. It would also potentially give make a more wide AoE attack if there is a magician staff on the character's inventory.

Basically, all roles provided in the game had their default crest. But there were only six current roles available in the game: Assassin, Mage, Fighter, Support, Marksman, and Tank. And not all players would use this type of crest for the items could also give a similar effect on it. Sometimes, it would also be more effective for their gameplay to explore other crests.

Mostly, players opt to use special character crests as it gives an overall advantage over just the boost of skills.

The roaming crest boosts speed and jungle damage. Most junglers used it to farm easily. If the farming would be quick then characters would gain buffs from the jungle monsters. Stealing jungles would be executed smoothly as well.

Then, there is a gold crest that boosts earning of gold depending on the character's KDA status. When the character obtained higher gold earnings than the rest, it can easily discard one item to another. Some players would like to switch their items from time to time but it would cost so much gold. So, they would usually opt to use this gold crest.

The third is EXP crest that worked similarly to the gold crest. The only difference is it gives extra EXP for every kills the squad attained. EXP crest applies to the entire squad but the gold crest is an individual bost. This meant even if one member would use the EXP crest all of its benefits would connect to the entire team.

Lastly, the morph crest. This is the most rarely used crest as gamers have not yet fully grasped how to use the crest. Even those gamers on the pro scene and gaming tacticians have not yet come up with a solid strategy to use the morph crest.

William immediately realized that one of the Chronos squad players must have used the EXP crest. And the first blood had given them more EXP after the crest was activated. But who activated the crest?