572 Coach Ma, We're Evenly Matched!

When Ma Yang heard that he would have the opportunity to go up, he was elated. "Alright, I'll start warming up right now!"

He ordinarily used Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's mouse and keyboard when he played as well. Thus, it did not take long for him to warm up.

Huang Wang did not seem bothered. After playing a game against the H4 Club, he could guess his opponents' standard. Even if Boss Ma kept feeding the opponents kills, it would not matter. There were four against five; it would not be an impossible fight.

Boss Ma could choose a slacker. No matter how many times he died, he would still eat up the opposing team's resources. If they activated their defense outfits and equipment, they would probably still be able to win.

However, Zhang Yuan gathered all ten contestants very seriously. After that, he started to lay out the battle plan.

"Let me tell you: not a single one of you should be thinking about sacrificing Boss Ma! You might feel happy after the game, but if Boss Ma loses 0-28 again, would he be able to continue playing?

"He wouldn't play anymore, and then who would balance out the skills? Coach Yaling doesn't know a thing about this game, and I… what if the opponents still stand no chance against us once I step up? It's entirely possible!

"I'm telling you: let Boss Ma take the bottom path. Let the supporter protect him as much as possible. Boss Ma has to have a positive KDA. If you could give him more kills, it would be best, understand?"

Huang Wang was shocked.

"That's… asking too much, isn't it?"

The team could easily have won if Boss Ma chose particularly useful support and farmed creeps under the tower at the bottom lane while the mid-laner and jungler defeated the opponents' mid-laner and jungler before covering the bottom lane.

Yet, they were now supposed to let Boss Ma play the center?

Not only would they miss many hits at the start of the game, but they could even be crippled in the later part of it.

What's more, Boss Ma was so horrid at the game that any slip up could lead to him being killed. Wouldn't it be too difficult to try and guarantee a positive result for him?

All would still be well if Boss Ma didn't die too much, but if he did, then they would have to find a way to give Boss Ma more kills.

However, a player like Boss Ma might not even be able to successfully kill an opponent despite how hard the rest of the team tried to assist him!

Zhang Yuan's expression darkened. "What do we mean by balancing the skills? The possibility of either side losing means that the skills are balanced! How else would you be able to train? We're not here to have fun! If the game isn't difficult, we have to create hurdles for ourselves!

"Stop trying to bargain with me. Not a single one out of ten of you should even think about running away. Suck it up and get up there. Whoever fails the mission… Coach Yaling, remember him and give him extra training when we get back!"

At once, all the members' grins disappeared. Now, they looked like they were facing a formidable enemy.

They had still been chatting and laughing earlier, thinking that they would easily be able to win even with four against five. However, now they realized that they had been too optimistic!

Huang Wang immediately stopped his three other teammates. "We have to quickly discuss our strategy."

From the other side, Team Leader Su saw the entire series of events and became very confused.

What? Has Coach Ma gone to warm up?

Judging from how professional Coach Ma was and how he could become the special tactical coach of such a strong team, Team Leader Su guessed that he was at least a Grand Master.

Would they still try their best, seeing how strong the opposite side was?

Weren't the skills supposed to be balanced?

Yet, Team Leader Su felt too ashamed to ask. The other parties had already said that they wanted to balance the skills out, and so they would have to play a match to see the results!

The doors to both private rooms closed.

Obviously, the six team members outside were in no mood to train on their own. Every one of them felt apprehensive inside.

That was because it was going to be their turn soon!

Zhang Yuan continued waiting outside, his expression extremely worried because he feared that the team members would feel so high that they forgot about Boss Ma.

After ten minutes, Jiang Yuan leaned his ear against the door to listen to what was going on inside. He could hear faint voices inside the private room.

"Escape first, escape first. It's not stable. Don't fight, don't fight!"

"Steady yourself!"

"I have a chance; I'll kill him myself!"

"Quickly, top-laner, come down! They want to advance through the bottom lane!"

"Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly…"

The situation was more intense than he had imagined. In fact, during their usual mock competitions, Zhang Yuan had never heard Huang Wang shouting in this manner before.

The entire match lasted about forty minutes. The voices in the private room slowly quieted down.

This time, the door to H4's private room opened first.

Team Leader Su's expression still looked slightly regretful, but there was also a smile on his face. "Ah, what a pity. We were just a short way from winning!"

Huang Wang opened the door to his private room and walked out. Quietly, he patted Jiang Huan on the shoulder. With that, he seemed to say 'The next round is your turn. Good luck!'

Before this, Huang Wang had looked flushed and re-energized after the match. It looked like he had just been playing and not competing at all.

Yet, now, Huang Wang looked exhausted. Although he was normally talkative, he spoke very little now as he opened a bottle of water and began drinking.

Zhang Yuan heaved a huge sigh of relief. Excellent, I've created more competition to train them!

Both parties' skills had been very different before. Even with Ma Yang, it merely made them play four against five. All they had needed was to come up with some tricks at the start and allow the jungler, top-laner, and mid-laner to take off. Then, the competition would undoubtedly be killed off.

However, Zhang Yuan added a limiting condition. Boss Ma's KDA ratio had to be positive. At once, the game became extremely difficult, and the gap between both parties was closed.

That was because each time the four other members wanted to fight, they first had to consider if Boss Ma would survive and be able to kill the opponents.

If the team won, but Boss Ma died, they would still get extra training when they returned.

Thus, the four of them had to surround Boss Ma and play. Their range of tactics had immediately been reduced. Everyone had been kept within a small range of operations as they tried hard to close the gap.

Of course, there was another important reason. The H4 Club had thought about aiming for Coach Ma, but DGE's mid-laner and jungler paid close attention to the bottom lane. In addition to the protection of the support, H4 had to give up trying to kill Coach Ma at all costs.

Thus, after an extremely close fight, DGE barely emerged victorious. Boss Ma's final KDA ratio was 2-2-3, which was considered a positive result.

Ma Yang walked out of the private room with a grin on his face.

What a good time!

He felt like the universe revolved around him—he had participated at an overwhelming level.

Team Leader Su rushed over at once and grabbed Ma Yang's hand. "Coach Ma! Thank you! Thank you very much!"

Zhang Yuan sighed inwardly. Ai, there's nothing I could do. The fact that Boss Ma can't play GOG at all has still been exposed.

He could not help it either. To make the training more difficult for the team, he could only resort to this. No matter how foolish the opponents were, they would still have been able to tell that Boss Ma was bronze-tier standard.

Yet, Team Leader Su looked very genuine and grateful as he said, "Coach Ma, you're so thoughtful! You knew that the two teams were worlds apart, and so, as you trained them tactically, you closed the gap between our skills!"

Zhang Yuan: "?"

Obviously, Team Leader Su could tell that the two teams were of vastly different standards. Since he knew that Ma Yang was a special tactical coach, he assumed that Ma Yang was instructing the team on tactics no matter how badly he played.

Before Coach Ma played, the team acted clumsily. Although there were five members on both sides, H4 stood no chance. Despite fighting as hard as they could, they failed miserably. One could say that it had been a catastrophe.

However, after Coach Ma came on board, the opponents' acting skills became passable and even realistic. Every one of them deserved an Oscar. The teams had really been on par at that time!

The change was not that simple!

Coach Ma was lousy and his agility was horrible, but that alone would not have equalized the teams.

If DGE had a burden on their team, the other four members could have sent him to die. Ma Yang would still have to do what he had to do, and the fight would not have been so anxiety-inducing.

However, due to something that Coach Ma had done, the entire team's battle skills were lowered. In the end, both teams had an extremely close and exciting competition!

Obviously, Boss Ma's guidance had brought the team from acting poorly to being capable of winning Oscars!

It was difficult to make a lousy team capable through instruction and tactical planning alone.

However, it was equally difficult to make a great team horrible through those methods!

One only had to observe the situation to know that Coach Ma had a unique understanding of the game. That was the only reason why he could equalize both teams through his instructions and cause both teams to learn something from the mock competition!

Thus, Team Leader Su felt infinitely grateful to him. Although Coach Ma was horrible at the game, he was extremely experienced in terms of tactical planning.

Zhang Yuan was speechless. He had not thought that his simple reference to Ma Yang as a 'special tactical coach' could have won Team Leader Su over so easily…

However, it was inappropriate for him to clarify things now. Thus, he had no choice but to let the mistake fester.

Still smiling, Team Leader Su said, "Coach Ma, we're evenly matched. Let's play again!"

Ma Yang grinned and said, "Alright!"

Zhang Yuan rushed to the second team, led by Jiang Huan, and then shot them a look. "Go ahead."

Once everyone entered the private rooms, Huang Wang sorrowfully said, "Brother Zhang, would all the clubs we'll be visiting be like them? If so, we'd be better off returning to Jingzhou earlier.

"Even with Boss Ma in our team, we're tied. These teams are horrible, aren't they?"

Zhang Yuan sighed. "We can't go back because we haven't finished spending the funds. Boss Pei wouldn't allow us to return.

"Just bear with it, everyone. Based on our current itinerary, we'll visit a new club every three days. Let's play with the five most famous clubs before we decide on our next move.

"If all of those clubs are this horrible, we'll forget about the smaller clubs later on. Once two weeks pass, we'll go home."

…

…

July 7th, Thursday…

Chen Kangtuo walked out of Thriller Hostel's third project, looking extremely sad but excited. Finally, he had fulfilled Boss Pei's requests!

His experience over the last few days was inexplicable.

At first, he had wanted to bluff Hao Qiong into experiencing Thriller Hostel with him. If both of them had gone through it together, at least he would have had company.

However, Hao Qiong did not fall for it. He had said, "Boss Pei only requested that of you and not of me. I still have loads of work to do." In short, no matter how Chen Kangtuo tried to bluff him, he was immovable.

Thus, Chen Kangtuo had no other option but to go through Thriller Hostel's third project again and again, all by himself.

The fact that Chen Kangtuo had gone to the 'Smog Mountain' State Mental Hospital in the United States did not mean that he would not be scared by Thriller Hostel.

Of course, the 'Smog Mountain' State Mental Hospital was more terrifying.

When they started working on the third project of Thriller Hostel, they had not thought about turning customers away. Instead, they had applied the same concept that they applied to games: they wanted to bluff customers into coming and then slowly increase the horror levels so that the experience became scarier as they ventured further into the haunted house.

Chen Kangtuo had designed that himself. Thus, to some extent, he had dug his own grave…

When he first entered, he had been tortured and felt extremely terrified. However, the more he entered, the more familiar he became with the surroundings and the less afraid he felt.

That was to be expected. It was like many employees who worked in haunted houses; they got used to their surroundings quickly.

Chen Kangtuo proudly picked up his phone and called Boss Pei.

"Boss Pei! I did as you said and familiarized myself with all the details in every project of Thriller Hostel! Please, come and review my performance!"

On the other side of the line, Pei Qian fell silent.

Review your performance? How am I supposed to do that? Do you want me to enter the haunted house with you and watch how easy it is for you to get out?

In the end, would it be you or me who gets frightened?

Dream on!

Pei Qian sniggered. "There's no need. That's not important."

Once he said that, he hung up at lightning speed.

Chen Kangtuo looked at his cell phone, confused.

"Boss Pei said… it's not important? Then, why did Boss Pei make me memorize every detail of Thriller Hostel?"

After considering this for a long time, a realization dawned on Chen Kangtuo. "Could it be… Boss Pei isn't saying that this particular thing is not important, but that it's not important for him to review my performance?

"It's important that I memorize every detail of Thriller Hostel…

"In other words… Boss Pei wants me to memorize all the details in the hopes that I would experience it from a visitor's point of view. Am I supposed to find all the shortcomings and work to perfect them, to improve customers' experience?"