Vanguard of the Eternal Night

Chapter Ch124 - National Championships Opening

translator: xiin

editor: kara

The rules for the National Championships were always very complicated. The main reason for this complexity was related to the limited resources, making it so that the time for the National Championships was difficult to lock in.

There were six and a half Star Regions in the Chaoyang Alliance. From the most central to the most remote areas was a distance of tens of thousands of light years. To hold an Alliance-wide event, first of all, players needed to be informed prior so that they could try their best to arrive at the venue on-time. This could only be done by means of folding space, which wasn’t considered difficult. What was difficult was that the players who couldn’t be there and the big spenders who spent a lot of money to watch the live broadcast needed to be provided with a super light channel for a month to ensure that data could be delivered and exchanged in real time.

As for the viewers who had no money to buy the live broadcast, the best situation for them was to hope that a broadcast station in their Star District would buy the rights to broadcast it, then spend money to set up their own channels so that their Star District could receive the data within 2-48 hours. The worst situation was that they had no money support from the government, so they could only use the conventional optical information channel. Planets that were two light years away via the information channel would only be able to see the first tournament two years later... It was really something to make those who heard it break down in tears.

The ultra-light speed channel was semi-military, and the A-League needed to apply with the highest levels of the Alliance every year. This year, they’d managed to snag the time between two military performances with much difficulty and were able to receive 65% of the resources for civilian use for one month.

Out of that 65% given for civilian use, the A-League had spent a significant amount of wealth to buy 79% of it, then immediately informed the entire league’s e-sports circle––

This year’s National Championships were to be held on February 14!

The impact of this news was amazing. In a flash, the traffic and activity in all regions of the Alliance increased by a small margin, and construction for the competition venue contracted by the A-league immediately began. A multi-trillion level industrial chain began to rumble into action.

At this time, the two of them had already been on vacation for a very long time and now had to run back to the Second Star Province. Now, they had two options:

First was to run to the ultra-light transfer station to compete with a virtual image. The A-League would provide ultra-light speed connections for the contestants free of charge.

Second was to go a little further and head directly to the real national arena.

Needless to say, Victor wagged his tail and made the decision for them, then happily followed Tyron to the National Championships Arena––

The A-League was very willing to spend. This year, they were holding the National Championships on an asteroid.

Yes, a man-made asteroid!

It certainly wasn’t solid at the core. It was actually a hollow, spherical space station, but it was commonly known as an ‘artificial planet’. It was about half the size of Earth and was like a hollow ping-pong ball floating in space.

Because it was hollow, it had no gravity. The centrifugal force formed from its rotation provided ‘artificial gravity’ equal to Earth’s gravity. When the time came, the audience would walk around in the inner layer of the ping-pong shell like hamsters running in their wheels. When they looked up, they would see another group of audience members walking on the ‘ceiling’.

The contestants’ stage would be in the center of the planet, and the virtual reality equipment would ensure that everyone could see the front of the stage when they looked up.

Of course, in fact, the audience wasn’t really ‘looking up’. They laid directly on their seats facing the stage, watching the live broadcast while lying there and sleeping when they wanted to. It was incredibly comfortable.

Tyron held a card between two fingers, waved his hand, and flicked it into Victor’s chest pocket.

“Relative seating.” Tyron said, “They’ve already given you a position on the equator.”

The two of them travelled through the ultra-light speed channel and arrived in the planetary orbit for the A-League venue in less than ten days.

The huge ‘table tennis ball’ was inlaid in gold and white. The two colors outlined the different latitudes and rotated around the central axis at different angular speeds.

There were already 16 orbital stations around the outside of the planet. In one of the orbital stations, the two of them disembarked and entered the interior of the artificial planet via the spacecraft provided by the A-League.

The spacecraft adjusted its angle as it neared the planet. From the inside out, the scenery was magnificent and splendid. For a moment, it seemed like they were passing through the endless Milky Way with other countless ships like tiny coral insects floating in the deep sea. Another moment, it was a bright blue star, and the AI automatically closed the light film and turned on a strong blackout curtain over the airship window. A while later, the man-made planet gilded in gold rose up from outside the window.

The shell of the artificial planet was a perfect sphere with only two points at the north and south poles. Two holes had been purposely made on the surface out of transparent, anti-reflective material.

Victor asked the staff curiously, “What are the two transparent holes in the north and south poles for?”

The staff blinked their eyes, “Secret.”

Victor and Tyron managed to make it in time for the National Championships’ opening ceremony and saw the ‘secret’ to the north and south poles on the very same day.

When all the superstars all stood at the center of the stage and moved freely in the weightless space like mermaids, countless audience members laid in their seats along the shell of the artificial planet, shouting and cheering.

Through the microphone, a ‘pop’ sound could be heard.

The lights over the entire planet suddenly disappeared at this moment!

At the same time, the darkened man-made planet rotated just right and revolved to the perfect angle to allow the light from the stars around it to shine directly from the outside of the spherical shell into the inside––

This beam of light streamed in straight from the north pole, moving through the dark at a speed visible to the naked eye, and connected directly to the photosensitive equipment at the center of the planet!

In that instant, it was like the marbles had been pushed to the final switch, electric power surging through numerous parallel circuits. This artificial, brilliant division line of yin and yang, morning and dusk, ran east from the original meridian of the planet until it returned back to the starting point like a black curtain pulled open by the invisible hand of God, finally lighting up all the gorgeous fireworks!

On the holographic stage, gilded gold text appeared as the host’s voice announced the official opening of the 1170th National E-sports A-League Championships of the Chaoyang Alliance!

The cheering came back in a flash, and the entire audience was shouting.

The light from the stars travelled straight through the central axis of the artificial planet. After all the lights came on again, it shot accurately into the south pole, then continued on into boundless space without turning back.

It would remain this eye-catching until the end of the opening ceremony, when the perfect angle was completely staggered, and the light would disappear.

The programs on the stage had already begun. The carnival before the National Championships would last for three days and three nights.

Tyron and Victor got up from their positions, put on the virtual-reality-assisted glasses, and rose up from the golden latitude track for the audience to the white track that represented the lounge area. It was crowded with people, and everyone was reveling in excitement.

Above them, the other side of the planet was also buzzing with activity, colorful lights weaving into dizzying carpets.

Victor took Tyron to the most famous place in the National Championships venue for a group photo.

“This is the King’s seat!” Victor said. Because there were so many people around them, he had to shout to be heard, “Come and take a photo! Send out two status messages! Otherwise, we’ll have come in vain!”

The so-called ‘King’s seat’ was actually a place that featured all 64 contestants in the National Championships––except for the gold-tiered contestants who’d already obtained the qualification to remain in the competition, the rest were all silver-tiered contestants from the three recent provincial competitions.

Their virtual images were stored on a base half a meter high and then displayed within the huge hall. After the National Championships began, the bases would be turned on, and virtual images would appear instantly, becoming two-meter-tall giants that lined both sides of the hall.

Tourists could go from beginning to end, down the passage to observe the enlarged images of each player and their deeds displayed below. In front of each image was a small exhibition cabinet with several items that had been donated by the contestants. In the middle of the National Championships and after the end of the competition, a charity auction would be held, and proceeds from the auction would go to several e-sports public welfare funds.

Other than this ‘King’s seat’ passage, there were also positions for retired players and outstanding contributors to the e-sports circle in another location.

That place was called the ‘White House of E-Sports’, and all the people who were there could be said to have names that thundered throughout the world. No matter where or when the A-League National Championships were held, this hall had to be the first thing built.

Tyron was the provincial competition champion of the Second Star Province, so he was second in the silver-tiered group and stood there facing the entrance of the hall.

Back then, the A-League had asked him for a virtual image, and he’d been very unhappy as he stood there with his arms over his chest for a long time.

The professional photographer had led Victor aside to discuss, “Can you please ask Lord Four to move a little? Maybe pose a little? We’re going to have to take at least ten seconds of movement...”

Victor whispered, “Does he have to move? I think he’s shy.”

The photographer wanted to cry but had no tears as he said, “He’s already wearing his hood! Please, have Lord Four wear the wings. The sponsors have spent hundreds of thousands on customized wings and only want him to fly for five seconds, going from standing to flight and back again––nothing else! We really can’t do any less!”

Tyron looked disgusted: Were wings worth making such a fuss over? Superficial human beings.

The master assassin was very proud. It didn’t matter if they shot him while he was playing but to bend over for the sake of the audience’s special request?

––No way, get lost.

Later, Victor had coaxed Lord Four for a long time––for some reason, the photographer felt that it had been more coaxing than acting spoiled––and Lord Four had finally relaxed and acquiesced. The iconography master had almost hugged Victor’s thigh and wailed in joy.

Finally, at the end of the image capturing, the photographer was very dedicated to his task and had raised up the wind blower!

The aura of this reluctant War God was very shocking. The wind had blown his cape so that it fluttered in the air, and when his wings had flapped calmly, his entire person had looked like an angel waiting to slaughter. At the moment when he landed, there had been a kind of domineering aura of being the king of the world.

Then, it had been very clear that Lord Four had been very dissatisfied with the appearance of this unexpected wind blower and walked out of range of the image capture directly, leaving without looking back.

––There was no ending! The action capture hadn’t ended!

The image capture photographer had become petrified on the spot, two wide streams of tears meandering down his cheeks.

All the way until the special effects director came up with an idea, “How about we do a special effect and have him directly become black feathers that dissipate into the air?”

......

The final result was that the audit and handling staff were eager about stealing a copy of the holographic dynamic image to take home.

Finally, the image of ‘Odin’ was the first one placed near the entrance.

As a result, the onlookers first desperately tried to squeeze further inside, looking up towards the War God’s face from the bottom up, and even tried to pluck the feathers––and then, the entrance was completely blocked, and the E-sports White House nearly came to a standstill due to a traffic jam.