Book 4: The Return of the King


    Chapter 31


    The thundering wave of cheers created a false impression to the


    people present in the stadium.


    It seemed that the final match wasn’t that important any more.  The


    most important thing was that the audience could witness another match


    by all the famous players at the same arena where Solo’s team had won


    their first national championship.


    “The exhibition game is at nine o’clock tonight.”  Xiao Mai raised his


    wristwatch and announced excitedly.  “Right at the same hour when Solo’s team


    had their national finals all those years ago.  The audience here can go eat


    dinner after the award ceremony at six o’clock. You can re-enter the stadium


    with your ticket stubs to watch an additional match.”


    Ai Qing lowered her head, trying and failing to control her emotions.


    Ai Qing’s hands were still trembling slightly, it took her three tries to turn the page.


    The uproar lasted until the warm up music for the final match began to play.


    “Your goddess’s popularity has far exceeded yours.”  Grunt smiled and stood


    up. He stretched with a yawn and picked up his own keyboard, mouse, and


    Dt stood up, too.  He re-entered the competition stage.


    Five players dressed in black sports tops with a silver K&K logo on them. Their


    old foes sitting on the stage waiting for them were dressed in blue sports tops with


    black SP logos on their chests.


    Dt led his people to their seats.


    Ten people sat in front of two rows of computers belonging to the best two teams


    in the Chinese region.


    One minute later, the final match of the Chinese Regional would begin.


    One game determined the winner.


    Within thirty minutes, the first national champion of <Secret Room Storm> in the


    Chinese Region would appear.


    Dt was ready.  He raised his head and looked at Slide.


    These two old friends fought together side by side in the Asian Tournament of ‘07.


    They won the first group championship in the Asian Tournament for China. They


    were in the different game events at that time.  But today they sat here to compete


    for the only championship. This was different from the game in Korea. It was an


    exhibition game then, but now this was the actual final match.


    Slide smiled with his thumbs up.  He meant: Go for it, brother.


    The large screen started countdown.  The two group of people got into the


    competition mode at the same time.


    A three second countdown began.


    The mission: Rapid Retreat


    The mission rules:


    1. As long as one bandit gets on the helicopter and retreats within the 30 minute


    time limit, the bandits win.


    2. The team that eliminates the entire opposing team within the 30 minute time


    limit wins.


    “Ok, this is the mission for our last match today.  Rapid Retreat.” Ai Qing’s voice


    clearly passed to every corner of the stadium.  “This mission had already come up


    in the final competition of the Shanghai preliminary.  SP defeat team Taotao by an


    overwhelming margin in that game. Comparing with the other three mission types,


    the characteristics of the Rapid Retreat is to attack with immense fire power.  The


    area near the helicopter is a death zone. It’s also the location for the final confrontation


    between the two teams.”


    The game assigned teams.


    SP was bandits and K&K the police.  In other words, SP would be retreating.


    Several people were stunned when they saw the map.


    It was the map of Tokyo, something they had not seen for quite some time.


    Dt, Grunt, and Inin had played with Ai Qing against the Koreans on this map..


    “Captain, captain, I played this map before.”  Inin spoke quickly, “Dt and Grunt


    played it before also.”


    “Switch to only offensive guns.”  Slide said and turned to Inin immediately,  “Inin


    brief us on the map.”


    On one side, Inin quickly summed up the details of the map.


    On the other side, Grunt whistled into the team chat.  “Not bad. Dt, we have


    good luck.”


    Dt switched to a short knife.  This was the weapon most suitable for climbing.


    “Grunt, follow me. 97 leads the two young ones.”


    Since the official tournament began, the range of the map of all cities had been


    The game with the Koreans last time didn’t use the competition map.  The range


    of Tokyo at that time was very wide with more than ten high buildings.  This time


    the size was reduced to only two high buildings. But even though there was only


    two buildings, it was still very disadvantageous to Dt since the bandits would win


    so long as one of them escaped.


    SP could gather five people together to achieve maximum firepower, but K&K


    couldn’t do so.  Dt could only send two groups out in order to assure that they


    didn’t let a single member of SP escape.


    It was sunset.


    There were tanks passing on the streets.


    Dt and Grunt jumped to the other side of the street one after another.  They used


    their grappling hooks to climb up the exterior of the wall. This required very high


    skill to climb, but it was the fastest method.  It would save more than two minutes


    compared to walking up the stairs.


    Twilight fell on the wall of the building.


    On screen, only Dt was visible on the exterior wall, between the rows of windows.


    He kept climbing up and up……


    Even the sound of their ascent on the wall was in sync.