Midnight, after the teleport.

A chaotic, scorched earth, atop a hill composed of lava ash and black ore.

"Are all five of us in?" Honghu's first reaction was similar to that of Brother Jue. He looked at his four teammates and said, "Something must have gone wrong during the loading process."

"Hey, hey… I was just dragged in to make up the numbers. I never thought I'd actually have to fight people in a script." The one who said this was naturally the perennial substitute of the Trash Alliance team – Bi Laoshi.

This brother had many points of contention… Firstly, he was the only player in the history of the Peak Conquest S2 to have made it to the finals without playing a single match.

Even Sasaki Mei, the substitute for the Warring States team, had played several matches in the preliminaries, but Bi Laoshi had truly been there just for show… From the preliminaries to the finals, his name only ever appeared on the substitute list.

Secondly, Bi Laoshi was also a very popular player online.

Some might wonder why someone who had never played a game would be so popular? But if you think about it, it makes sense… it's the internet's trolling effect.

No one knows when it started, but someone mentioned Bi Laoshi in a forum. That person jokingly posted, "Has anyone noticed that the substitute for the Trash Alliance has never played a single match? This Laoshi hung up the whole time and still made it to the quarterfinals, winning all the way and completely crushing us trash players."

Someone replied, "At this rate, he might hang up all the way to the finals."

Then someone else replied, "I wonder if we'll see Bi Laoshi play in the finals?"

This led to another complaint: "I'm begging Bi Laoshi to play. I'm watching the Peak Conquest just to see Bi Laoshi, but he hasn't come out after almost a month."

From then on, the topic became unstoppable…

"Don't say bad things about Bi Laoshi! Bi Laoshi gave me this life!"

"How dare you mortals discuss my God Bi here? When my God Bi appears, who can compete? What Ghost Xiao or Shiva all get out of the way. He obviously disdains fighting with you mortals."

"Yeah, yeah, as long as Bi Laoshi appears, he'll destroy the universe in minutes. The championship is definitely in the bag. Honghu keeps him hidden because he's afraid that other opponents will lose their fighting spirit after seeing Bi Laoshi's performance, making the game lose suspense too early. He is worthy of being called a wise general."

"Believe in Lao Bi! Get to the finals! Believe in Lao Bi! Gain eternal life!"

Such spoof replies spread like a virus. After a period of fermentation… Bi Laoshi had become like Brother Chun in various forums related to Thriller Paradise.

However… in reality, Bi Laoshi was just an ordinary casual player.

He was under thirty this year and was Zhao Yingwang's senior in school. The two were also old friends in real life. Speaking of which… Zhao Ying (Zhao Yingwang's real name) was led onto the path of gaming by Lao Bi (Bi Laoshi's real surname is indeed Bi). Who would have thought that many years later, Zhao Yingwang would become a famous professional player, while Bi Laoshi was at most a game-loving office worker.

So… how did this office worker become a member of this final team? This matter has to be traced back to the founding of the Trash Alliance…

This time, the four members of the Trash Alliance were undoubtedly aiming for the championship. They were all very strong independent players who had worked together many times in the game and appreciated each other. Therefore, when Honghu proposed a cooperation, they hit it off immediately.

When deciding to form a team, the four main members of the Trash Alliance had already decided – four people would play until the end. Therefore, from the beginning, they planned to find a perennial soy sauce role to be the substitute.

But… where to find such a person?

It would definitely not work to just find some random cat or dog that they were not familiar with. If this person was bought off offline… leaking information about the team or doing something to damage the team's image, it would be troublesome.

Considering these factors, they still had to find someone they could trust…

Although Honghu knew many independent players, they were all professionals. Asking them to be spectators in the team the whole time… would be a bit too much.

Juan Menghan also had some connections, but more or less, these people were related to Shi Dao's circle. Given Juan Menghan's current position, it was obviously not convenient for those people to come and help.

As for Uncle Trash, let us use the shortest words to state a somewhat sad fact – he did not have many friends.

In the end, it was still Zhao Yingwang… who invited Bi Laoshi.

Lao Bi was a very suitable candidate. He was a casual player himself, and he was happy to be a live audience member in such a top team; moreover, his level happened to be 40, which met the registration requirements; in addition, he was still single… and had plenty of game time.

After simple negotiations… it was done.

Thus, Bi Laoshi followed the team all the way through the levels, making it to the finals without playing a game, and also won the top ten rewards in the preliminaries… his level suddenly rose to level 50, and he also got various equipment… from the perspective of apparent strength, he was indeed a well-deserved strong player.

"Don't worry, the other teams aren't as strong as you think." After hearing Bi Laoshi's words, Zhao Yingwang patted him on the shoulder, "You're not as weak as you think either…"

"Oh? Really?" Bi Laoshi was a little excited when he heard this.

"No, it's fake." Unexpectedly, Zhao Yingwang replied in the next second, "I'm just comforting you."

Zhao Yingwang was worthy of being a representative of the cold-faced complaining school. His ability to talk nonsense in a serious manner was excellent and quite deceptive.

"Then I have to thank you!" Bi Laoshi really wanted to slap him.

"Okay… let's talk about that when we meet people from other teams." Two seconds later, Juan Menghan turned to the two of them and said, "There seems to be a good show to watch in front of us…"

"Oh?" Zhao Yingwang and Bi Laoshi heard this and turned their attention together.

At this time, Honghu, Uncle Trash, and Juan Menghan's eyes were all fixed on the vast scorched earth in the distance.

Zhao Yingwang and Bi Laoshi followed their gaze and soon discovered that… about a kilometer away, there were two strange shadows approaching each other.

One of them was a figure that did not look very tall; his whole body was shrouded in thick black demonic energy, and his appearance was difficult to distinguish.

The other figure, who was just over two meters tall and half-human and half-demon, was recognized by the players – it was the Lord of Demons.