Sacred Souls: Genesis
Chapter 351 - Chapter 351 Chapter 340 The Glory of Victory (Two in One)

Chapter 351: Chapter 340: The Glory of Victory (Two in One) Chapter 351: Chapter 340: The Glory of Victory (Two in One) Zhao Mingwei had dragged those two Magic Thieves out of the Black Ash Knight’s body, after which the situation on the battlefield was basically declared over.

The other players wouldn’t let this perfect opportunity slip away. Amidst the visual feast of various awakened abilities intertwining, the Black Ash Knight’s last sliver of health was thoroughly depleted.

The moment the Black Ash Knight went down, he didn’t die but rather was swallowed by an effect Jiang Qiao made, and was actually sealed in the instance lord’s quarters, left to the five Knights to deal with their compatriot.

The Magic Thieves, realizing that the defeat of the Black Ash Knight also meant that they had no chance of defeating the Saints, hurriedly fled the battlefield through a space-time rift.

When the line “Hunted prey slaughtered” appeared in front of all the players on the field, not only did the audience on the battlefield cheer, but all the players who participated in this strategy also let out cheers and spontaneously applauded.

But Zhao Mingwei felt terrible… The dizziness in his mind made him feel somewhat suffocated, and the surrounding cheers and applause only made Zhao Mingwei feel the noise was aggravating.

He adjusted his breathing, barely allowing his consciousness to sober up a bit, but his limbs were still as heavy as if filled with lead; Zhao Mingwei tried to move his arms but found he could not stir at all.

Perhaps… they were already broken.

“Are you okay?” Mo Shigui noticed Zhao Mingwei’s abnormal state, but from the game’s perspective, Zhao Mingwei’s health points were full, indicating he was in a healthy condition.

This made Mo Shigui realize there might be something wrong with Zhao Mingwei’s body in the real world.

Luckily, in order to avoid a chaotic situation with absent players during this online competition, Boss Yin had gathered all the participating players behind the scenes at the Uptown Gymnasium, allowing Mo Shigui to directly check on Zhao Mingwei’s physical condition.

“It’s nothing, I might just be overexerted from staying up too late. I can hold on until receiving the instance reward,” Zhou Mingwei said, forcing a somewhat unsightly smile.

Just then, the stands erupted in yet another wave of cheers, not in celebration of the Saints on the field…

It was the professional gamers from the various clubs, invited by Boss Yin, whose occupational habits kicked in–or it might be more accurate to say, their routines.

Although the holographic projection of Strife also displayed the competition on the battlefield, the players themselves couldn’t see the real-world scenery; the projected scene was just the game map from Strife.

Thus, post-game award ceremonies and interactions with fans… could only be conducted by logging off and walking up onto the stage in person.

But the technology of the game Saints outstripped Strife in one crucial aspect… The battlefield for the Black Ash Knight purge battle had always been the Uptown Gymnasium, in both the game and reality.

Mo Shigui, standing on the battlefield, could see the audience on the stage; at this moment, he felt an illusion as if the black iron shield and Longsword in his hands truly existed in reality.

But the players from other clubs, and some ordinary players, hadn’t realized this, and after defeating the Black Ash Knight, they had habitually chosen to log off collectively.

Under Mo Shigui’s gaze, a group of professional and ordinary players who had participated in the purge battle walked out of the player tunnel on the other side.

That was the reason for the audience’s cheers.

The audience liked a player mostly because… they didn’t care about what your in-game character was like; what they preferred was the real person of the player, not a game character.

“Let’s welcome to the stage Fervent Caramel from Cola Craze, Sui Le, and the former team captain Cruel Moonlight from Night Rush…”

The previous host of the Strife award ceremony had popped out of nowhere; he was also a host hand-picked by Boss Yin.

As more and more legendary professional players appeared on stage, the shouts from the audience grew ever louder.

The host knew how to whip up the excitement of the audience at the venue and in the live broadcast.

“But what you’re all most looking forward to is that man taking the stage, right?” the host shouted at the audience “Shout out his name loudly!”

The calls for “Laughing Grandpa” from the audience grew louder and louder; ever since Zhao Mingwei retired, his fans had been hoping to see him appear on the stage again for the second time.

This was undoubtedly the perfect opportunity!

After stirring up the excitement, the spotlight in the uptown stadium shone on the single players’ entrance. Logically, Zhao Mingwei should have walked out from the players’ entrance by now.

But…

“What are you talking about?” Zhao Mingwei’s voice suddenly appeared behind the host.

Upon hearing this voice, the host turned around abruptly, only to find that Zhao Mingwei’s character from the game “Holy Spirit” was standing behind him, the oppressive aura exuding from the Emperor of Dragon and Tiger making the host involuntarily step back a little.

“You… can see me?” Upon realizing something, the host first turned off his microphone, then asked in a lowered voice… to Zhao Mingwei’s character projection.

At that moment, the host thought he had gone mad.

“Of course, I can see you,” Zhao Mingwei’s voice suddenly resounded throughout the whole uptown stadium at this moment.

No matter how much the host tried to suppress his voice, his conversation with Zhao Mingwei still echoed in the ears of all the audience.

Zhao Mingwei lifted his head to glance over all the audience in the stands, seeing the confusion and hesitation in everyone’s eyes since, to the spectators… the person talking wasn’t the much-admired Demonic Player Zhao Mingwei but merely a game character with the ID “Happy Gaming”!

But Zhao Mingwei didn’t think so; he spoke out loud, pressing his still mobile hand against his chest.

“I can see you all as well! Just who… are you waiting to appear? I’m already standing here on this stage!”

His words stunned the professional players who had already logged off and were standing on the stage in their real forms; they all wore expressions of ‘can you really do that?’

“Laughing Grandpa, but you’ve always used the holographic projection of your game character, even the trophy can’t be picked up by you,” said the host.

The host was quick-witted, realizing that the game “Holy Spirit” was capable of interacting with reality; he quickly changed his narrative.

For this “Holy Spirit” online competition, the sponsor Silver had specially made a trophy that was now placed on the stage, with the logged-off players already standing next to the trophy.

Of course, the trophy was just a means to get Zhao Mingwei to show up; after watching the battle against Black Ash Knight, what most audiences anticipated the most was to see Zhao Mingwei himself on the stage.

If… Zhao Mingwei were to appear in person, the ceremony’s popularity would definitely…

While the host was thinking this, a trophy shimmering with golden light suddenly appeared in midair; just by looking at the special effects, one could tell it was definitely a projection from the game!

The trophy slowly descended in front of Zhao Mingwei; he reached out with his one functional arm to grasp a corner of the trophy, trying to lift it, but he found no strength in his arm.

The moment Zhao Mingwei touched the trophy, it hurriedly fell towards the ground, and his body almost knelt down, but a pitch-black bracer reached out from the other side and held up the other side of the trophy.

Without even looking up, Zhao Mingwei knew it was the game character of Mo Shigui, followed by Black Pot Cooking Meat, and Juan Canyun who had been dragged over as well…

“Damn! Just touching this trophy gives you Special Equipment as a reward!” Black Pot Cooking Meat suddenly exclaimed upon touching the trophy “Forget about holding the trophy! Black Ash Knight’s corpse is here! Come touch the corpse!”

This made the players who had appeared in person exchange glances, and under the host’s desperate gaze, they sprinted off the stage at the speed of a hundred meters dash, and then ran towards the players’ entrance at a sprinting pace.

When they logged on again… all the players who had participated in the battle against Black Ash together lifted the trophy that was flashing with golden light.

“Black Ash Knight Platinum Trophy*Legend

Description: This trophy is created to commemorate the spirits who participated in the Black Ash Knight crusade. Stand tall and proud, heroes!”

Ultimately, that trophy shattered into millions of specks of stardust, dissipating in mid-air.

“Cough… Ladies and gentlemen… After holding the trophy in the game, could we also hold it in reality?” the host pleaded with the strangely dressed spirits, having already used a pleading tone.

Having these weirdly dressed characters mixed together, it was utterly impossible to tell who was who. What crucial was the live stream’s popularity! The host’s ideal scenario was having all stars show up and Zhao Mingwei holding the trophy.

That would definitely dominate all major news headlines.

“For the spirits, this is their second reality.”

As the trophy’s glory faded, Queen Mei’s figure appeared in the corner of the arena, but Queen Mei’s first words didn’t catch anyone’s attention. The host was still incessantly trying to turn the award ceremony into an all-star scuffle rather than a spirit player’s treasure-touching convention.

At the moment, the spirit players on the field didn’t care about what the host said–they were all checking their loot from the Black Ash Knight crusade, trading equipment with one another.

“The special equipment given by the Black Ash Knight Platinum Trophy seems to be different for everyone?” Caramel the equipment fanatic started to inquire about other players’ trophy traits, “I got the ‘Star of Output,’ the kind that boosts attack speed, and an orange equipment, too.”

“You should be happy with an Orange equipment and a Star of Output, but why the hell did I get a Star of Healing? How does a Wandering Gunman end up with a Star of Healing?” Black Pot Cooking Meat was puzzled.

“Star of Precision trophy, wanna swap?” Add Milk Without Price perked up like a cat sniffing the aroma of grilled fish upon hearing Black Pot Cooking Meat’s complaint.

“Spirits…”

Queen Mei, standing behind the players, wanted to remind them to trade equipment after the award ceremony! But… no one listened to her.

Adding the prime special equipment of the Platinum Trophy to their inventory sent all the players who had participated in the Black Ash Knight crusade into an irrational frenzy, as if being half a step slower meant that their suited Platinum Trophy would be snatched away by others.

The entire arena subtly began to resemble a marketplace once again.

“Listen to me…” Queen Mei humbly yelled at the still haggling spirits.

“Right, since there’s a Star of Output and a Star of Healing, could there be an MVP Trophy?”

Caramel asked around and found that each person’s trophy granted entirely different attributes, but these attributes seemed to be distributed randomly. Some players got a Platinum Trophy that was quite useless for their character class in terms of effects and properties.

And Caramel’s comment caused everyone’s gaze to converge on Zhao Mingwei, who was silent.

Caramel had to admit, the MVP of the Black Ash Knight crusade had to be Zhao Mingwei.

Sure enough, shortly after the trophy disintegrated, a lot of data appeared on the big screen of the Uptown Stadium, showing the performance of all the players in the Black Ash crusade.

There were no weak links in this elite team composed of professional players and high-scoring passersby. Everyone had performed exceptionally well, so Jiang Qiao did not just create one or two MVPs, but instead acknowledged various fields of honor, rewarding the strategy group players with special equipment.

But the most eye-catching MVP Trophy still existed, also known as the Best in Show Trophy.

Eventually, Zhao Mingwei was the one who obtained the Best in Show Trophy. The big screen was already playing a compilation of Zhao Mingwei’s best in show highlights.

“The MVP Trophy is indeed with me. The effect is adding two levels to awakening skills; check the rest yourselves,” Zhao Mingwei shared the MVP Trophy’s properties in the current channel.

Under Jiang Qiao’s cue, Queen Mei seized the opportunity and intervened in the loot-sharing meeting of the Holy Spirits as an interviewer.

“Holy Spirit, what are your thoughts on receiving the highest praise for this battle against Black Ash Knight?”

“Mei?”

It was then that Zhao Mingwei noticed that Queen Mei wasn’t a player, but the ultimate boss in the Battle of the Gods, yet the friendly ID colour above her head made Zhao Mingwei drop his guard.

This interview also snapped the audience out of their confusion about ‘what are these Holy Spirits doing?’.

Even though the players couldn’t see Xiao Ye’s real face on the field, they were eager to know Xiao Ye’s future plans and his feelings about winning this MVP!

As fans, it’s always the most delightful thing to hear the brags and plans of an admired godlike figure.

“Thoughts? Does anyone have a trophy with a light attribute boost? I’m willing to trade it for this MVP trophy,” Zhao Mingwei took the opportunity to do a bit of advertising.

And as Zhao Mingwei’s words echoed in everyone’s ears… the players who were almost fighting over the loot… fell into a suffocating silence, and the audience followed suit.

Until “Free Milk, No Extra Charge” broke the silence.

“I have one! I just traded the Precision Star for a Glory Star! It boosts light attributes! Wanna trade?” Free Milk, No Extra Charge asked, waving a trophy that radiated little sparkles of light in his hand.

“Xiao Ye! That’s your MVP trophy!”

The professional players couldn’t help but shout out.

“This special equipment’s attributes are pretty useless to me… why not trade for something more useful? Aren’t you guys trading amongst yourselves too?” Zhao Mingwei asked, puzzled.

“That… does seem to make sense?”

“Then I also have a Glory Star here!”

Is this a flea market?

Just as Queen Mei was trying to find a reason to start her pie-in-the-sky speech… Zhao Mingwei’s anomaly caught her attention.

“Big bro, go on and confirm the trade,” Free Milk, No Extra Charge said, opening the trade window with Zhao Mingwei, but the confirmation from Zhao’s side was delayed.

“He’s crashed,” Mo Shigui announced some bad news from the side.

“Crashed?”

Before Free Milk, No Extra Charge could ask what happened, Mo Shigui and Zhao Mingwei almost simultaneously chose to log off.

Queen Mei was also stunned for a moment, until she heard Jiang Qiao’s voice by her ear.

“The body and soul of that Holy Spirit are in a bit of trouble, the emergency personnel have arrived, and I’ll accompany him to the hospital, but I’ll still pay attention to your speech on the way, so don’t worry, just go on as rehearsed.”

Since the end of the Black Ash battle, Jiang Qiao had immediately called for an ambulance, understanding Zhao Mingwei’s physical condition better than anyone else.

So, Queen Mei would have to carry on painting her pie in the sky, while Jiang Qiao could only watch on the way to the hospital.