Chapter 416: Chapter 403: Peerless National Hero! (4000 words!)

Juan Canyun was also one of the Medal Recipients, but he wasn’t in any rush to log into Spirit.

Because he was watching a video… that had just gone viral on the international net.

The video was of Caramel’s duel with the number one player in Conflict, White Emperor.

It shouldn’t be so hot for professional players to be matched in a video, but after Caramel defeated White Emperor in a dominating fashion, the popularity of the video surged instantly.

After the popularity spiked, a significant doubt emerged on the international net.

That was… Caramel was cheating.

“Calling it hacking just because of a half-health stomp? Can’t the Koreans take a loss?”

The other professional players from Vibrant Nucleus were also paying attention to this matter, and the controversy over Caramel’s alleged cheating was beginning to spread across several social networking sites on the international net.

The reason was nothing other than Caramel’s actions and attack speed in the video were so fast that it made people… suspect he might be using some sort of assistance program.

Cheats do exist in the game Conflict, but for a professional player to cheat, it’s a big deal that could affect the length of their career!

What Juan Canyun was worried about was… he had also been busy training, which means climbing the competitive ladder in Conflict, and the worst part was that he had also been matched up against White Emperor.

It seemed to be White Emperor’s training time, and after Juan Canyun was matched against him, he held back a little but still easily defeated him with only a quarter of his health remaining.

And sure enough… the video of Juan Canyun’s duel with White Emperor was also uploaded online.

This was not surprising to him; the duels of professional players were often recorded by someone dedicated to observing, but what struck Juan Canyun as a coincidental horror was that after he finished his match with White Emperor, White Emperor then ran into Feng Yi.

Of course, the result was a disastrous loss; Juan Canyun checked White Emperor’s record for the day and found that apart from two wins early in the morning against non-Chinese professional players, he had been on a losing streak all day.

At this moment, an almost neurotic laughter suddenly came from the other side of the training room.

“Don’t run away! I’m in a hurry to attend little Mei’s Medal Ceremony! A little explosion won’t hurt that much!”

Lu Wei was also using a VR device to play in the global arena of Conflict, and Juan Canyun was curious to see which unfortunate soul had been matched with Lu Wei, this madwoman.

As soon as he finished watching the duel between Caramel and White Emperor, a recommendation popped up at the end of the video with ‘You may also like to watch,’ and instantly, the three videos recommended grabbed Juan Canyun’s attention.

“Titan Team’s Red Thread VS White Sword Team’s White Emperor matched battle,” the title was straightforward, and it was published five minutes ago, but the view count had surged to 340,000 ahead of any others.

The view count was inflated! Juan Canyun immediately made this judgment, clicked on the video, and saw that the uploader was an account with a default ID and no avatar.

Under this account, there were only three videos of Lu Wei being matched up against White Emperor in succession, and this was just after Lu Wei had played them.

The results were identical to Caramel’s; Lu Wei did even more outrageous things than Caramel, not knowing what holding back meant, even winning one of the matches with only a third of her health remaining against the number one player in Conflict, White Emperor.

Lu Wei displayed an overwhelming dominance, and the uploader of the video was obviously trying to use this to quell the international net’s tempo of accusing Caramel of cheating.

Although it worked, the international netizens started paying attention to…

“Who is the little Mei that Line Team kept shouting about while fighting White Emperor?”

“That’s the character locked in the international region of Spirit.”

“What is the Medal Ceremony?”

As Juan Canyun read these comments, what was originally just a minor gaming event in Spirit had, due to Lu Wei’s live stream popularity, garnered the attention of esports gamers worldwide.

“Done! Back to number one in the world!” Lu Wei exclaimed as she defeated the White Emperor for the fourth time and successfully claimed the top spot globally.

She didn’t savor the moment for long and immediately logged out of the competitive arena, then began streaming as she logged into Spirit.

Seeing this, Juan Canyun stopped daydreaming and quickly returned to his seat, donned his VR headset, and logged into Spirit.

When Juan Canyun opened his eyes again, he was in Lionheart City, which had a very different atmosphere from the first time he logged into the game.

If he had to pinpoint the difference, it was that the previously deserted streets of Lionheart City were now bustling like a market.

At the same time, Juan Canyun noticed a detail: the flags hanging on the streets of Lionheart City had changed from a lion’s image to a ring of flame.

This emblem was all too familiar to every player who had fought in the Deity War instance; it was Queen Mei’s insignia, and the soldiers on the streets had become the undead soldiers from the Deity War.

Only these soldiers were wearing helmets, so they didn’t scare the newbie players.

What was essentially a coup by Queen Mei had brought all the players on the server together to celebrate the former King’s sudden death.

“It’s Little Q! It really is Little Q!”

“She looks pretty good in the game too!”

As Juan Canyun was checking his new mission related to the awarding ceremony, a bunch of twinkling lights suddenly gathered around him. Among these lights were the excited voices of many girls.

Cloud Player System… Juan Canyun saw these orbs and once he looked up, he realized that the sky was full of them.

The color tone of the orbs was very warm, adding a dreamy feel to Lionheart City, but the problem was that each orb was a “surveillance robot.”

Juan Canyun immediately opened his system settings and checked the options ‘Hide Cloud Player Orbs’ and ‘Mute Public Channel Sound.’ With that, all the orbs and the accompanying noises around him disappeared.

Then, following the mission’s instructions, Juan Canyun arrived at the central garden of Lionheart City, where a huge crowd of players had already gathered. The area where Queen Mei stood on the platform was bordered by an invisible air wall, and the players crowded at its edges in a sea of humanity.

Some players even had to climb up to the roofs to catch sight of Queen Mei in her queen-limited outfit, standing in the garden.

Unable to get into the inner circle, Juan Canyun had no choice but to watch the awarding ceremony through a livestream.

The official channel of Spirit was registered on all major streaming platforms and had become extremely popular following Zhao Mingwei’s livestreaming event.

At this thought, Juan Canyun was somewhat concerned about how Laughing Master would handle his breach of contract.

But that wasn’t what he needed to focus on right now.

The attention that this awarding ceremony was receiving had already exceeded that of a… game event.

All… Almost every Spirit streamer Juan Canyun could find was broadcasting the entire awarding ceremony. With so many people streaming, how many were watching this one event?

This question swirled in Juan Canyun’s mind. He had been on the champion’s stage in the summer competition; there was no reason he should feel nervous about a game event. He kept consoling himself with this reasoning.

Queen Mei had already begun delivering a speech to mark the end of the final battle event on stage.

The content of the speech was something Juan Canyun had found similar to in many literary works and movies, with sentiments like thanking the Spirits for protecting the world and so on.

Initially, Juan Canyun thought that this awarding ceremony would just grant titles to the top ten players in the entire server, but Spirit had many more tricks up its sleeve than he had imagined.

The first medal to be awarded was the Biland Island Guardian Medal. A total of fifty-seven thousand players across the server won this medal, and all of them had participated in the defense of Biland Island. The medal was a legendary accessory and came with a heap of Gold Coins as a reward.

The second medal awarded was the Extinction Medal of Black Tide Island. There were far fewer recipients of this medal, just two hundred. These two hundred included Yin Hui, Mo Shigui, Can Xin, and other players who didn’t just defend the city in the final battle but chased down dragons as if they were regular monsters.

Yin Hui was an exception… though he didn’t see it that way.

The Biland Island Extinction Medal is a special equipment, presumably a limited edition special equipment.

These two hundred medal recipients were all teleported to the high platform where Queen Mei stood, and Queen Mei personally handed the medals to them, as if bestowing awards.

Yin Hui didn’t rush to leave the stage after receiving the medal, but instead asked a… very thought-provoking question.

“Your Majesty Mei, since you have taken the throne from the old king, why not bestow upon us… titles of nobility?” The question asked by Yin Hui was one that, if truly in front of a monarch, could lead to the chopping block.

The players below watching were also puzzled, but Yin Hui was probing, trying to understand the relationship between Queen Mei and the players, or what the existence behind Queen Mei truly considered the players to be.

“This country is shattered, Sir Yin Hui, we have only generals, soldiers, laborers, smiths, city-builders… but no nobility!” Queen Mei seemed to have anticipated this situation and responded very calmly to Yin Hui without needing Jiang Qiao to remind her.

“You Spirits are also free, and I do not wish for you to be bound by a political honor. We are also unable to bind you. I have taken this throne not for power, but to mend my country, so all that you have won in another world belongs to yourselves, not to anyone else. This is the relationship of allies, Spirits,” Queen Mei said.

Many of the players below didn’t quite understand what Queen Mei was saying, but Yin Hui had already understood.

“I believe this alliance will remain unbreakable,” Yin Hui said, leaving behind this remark before walking off the stage.

After awarding all two hundred medals, Queen Mei’s gaze fell on the crowd of players below before saying…

“The term ‘hero,’ I believe you Spirits will never feel unfamiliar with it, all the Spirits who participated in the final battle of Biland Island, to the inhabitants of this world, can be called heroes. But there are ten Spirits… they have made unparalleled contributions during this battle and will be awarded the Medal of the Saviors!”

Quite uneventful.

When Juan Canyun was teleported to the stage, he looked around at the shadows beside him.

Out of the sixteen members of the Beheading Squad, five of them had battlefield merit points close to the top ten, including himself, Caramel, Lu Wei, as well as Control Bug and Zhao Mingwei.

Zhao Mingwei and Control Bug were not online, so there were only eight players who appeared on stage, which looked quite awkward.

Juan Canyun looked down at the cheering players below, feeling surprisingly no turbulence in his heart, because he knew that his standing on this stage wasn’t solely due to his own efforts.

All players who participated in the final battle should share this honor with him, as should the entire Beheading Squad.

That’s Juan Canyun’s view, but others didn’t see it that way.

When Queen Mei awarded the Medal of the Saviors to Juan Canyun, he also received an email that said ‘customer service will contact you within a week to collect your deed.’

Standing beside Juan Canyun was Caramel… As the player with the highest merit, it seemed Queen Mei had an additional special reward for Caramel.

“Spirit, your merits on the battlefield are unmatched, and I believe you would not be satisfied with just the Medal of the Saviors. I have another honor I wish to offer you, but this honor is quite heavy. Would you accept it?”

Queen Mei wasn’t quite clear what had happened in the Battle of Beheading, but Caramel had exhibited the essence of a carry in the fight, his use of the Moonlight Sword was of such large scale.

As a result, Caramel had wildly accumulated merits in the consciousness world of Biland Island, to the point of being ahead of Juan Canyun–who was in second place–by a full twenty thousand merits; knowing that Canyun’s merit points were only eighty-three thousand, Caramel’s were a solid one hundred and four thousand points.

An additional medal?

Could it be that one hundred thousand merits triggered some hidden reward?

What does “quite heavy” mean?

Caramel didn’t think too much and directly clicked the view option in the dialog box. In a flash, a medal with properties even more terrifying than the Medal of the Saviors appeared before his eyes.

‘Unparalleled Patriot

Special Equipment

Strength +10%

Intelligence +10%

Stamina +10%

Spirit +10%

…

Alert: This medal represents the highest honor of this nation, a title, and honor that can only be worn by the strongest. Do you believe you are worthy to bear this honor? (The medal will be passed to the victor if you are defeated in the arena)]

This Special Equipment is so overpowered!

Caramel determined at first glance that the properties of this medal were overly powerful, as equipment that increases attributes by a percentage does not exist in Spirit. This medal also comes with two powerful passive effects.

But being transferred to the victor after a defeat in the arena… that’s quite interesting.

When Queen Mei presented this unparalleled national medal, all players in the entire server learned of its properties!

“What does this equipment description mean? We get to have this medal after winning in the arena?”

“Can we go snipe him now?”

“What are you thinking? That’s Caramel the God!”

“Even gods have their moments of defeat.”

Listening to the discussions of the surrounding players, Caramel knew once he acquired this medal, it would become someone else’s possession if he was defeated in the arena!

The atmosphere among players in Spirit is too friendly, so friendly that players don’t drop their equipment when they are PK’ed in the wild, which led players to choose to rob equipment from NPCs instead.

But the unparalleled national medal might be the only piece of equipment in Spirit that could be lost upon death.

But Caramel liked this challenge!

Without a second thought, he chose to accept Queen Mei’s reward.

“This Spirit, named Caramel, has chosen to accept the honor of the unparalleled national medal!” declared Queen Mei loudly to all the onlooking players around.

Caramel, holding the unparalleled national medal, turned around, facing all the players in the server and even all the players watching the live broadcast, and shouted…

“Whoever can defeat me, come and try!”

But as the words fell, a figure appeared above in the sky, moving at a speed invisible to the naked eye, instantly thrusting a knife toward… Queen Mei behind Caramel.

Queen Mei was no pushover; blood formed into twin swords in her hands, trying to block the attacker’s thrust.

But it was no use, it was already too late for Queen Mei to resist. In a shower of blood, the attacker’s sword pierced Queen Mei’s chest!

Caramel hadn’t expected such a thing to happen during an official system event. His first reaction was to draw his longsword, trying to protect Queen Mei, but his attack was effortlessly blocked by the opponent.

“Unparalleled national medal? Do you think you’re worthy?”

A mocking voice rang in Caramel’s ear; looking up, he saw the familiar face appearing before him.

Eternal*Thorne!