Chapter 5: The Finals for Rhythm Master

The Rhythm Master’s competition started on time at 3 pm the next day.

When Liu Chuan arrived at the site for the competition in the afternoon, he couldn’t help being startled. The place was bustling with people. Staffs were walking around the place holding placards to help maintain order. This was the school’s first warm-up event and there was actually this many people that signed up!

The MC for the event this time was Jiang Xue. When it was time, she stood on the stage holding the microphone and loudly said, “Welcome to the Rhythm Master Campus Competition! The preliminary round will begin very quickly. May all the players please follow their group’s referee according to the number plate they had received. Players whose rank for all three songs are A or above can advance to the semifinals!”

Rhythm Master’s ranking results were automatically generated by the system, in order from lowest to the highest, it went D, C, B, A, S, SS and SSS.

With three minutes for each song, it would only take ten minutes to finish competing. While it was still considered a bit difficult, the songs specified for the preliminary round were level 6 songs and by achieving just an A, you could advance to the next round. Using this kind of method for the preliminary round, it could pick out the rookies all at once, saving quite a bit of time……

After half an hour, the small groups’ preliminary round were all finished. Almost 70% of the people who signed up were eliminated. It was obvious many of the students who played were here purely to join in with the fun. They were still very happy after being eliminated and stayed to continue to watch the semifinals.

Following the same style as the preliminary round, the semifinals were also divided into groups to compete, only the difficulty of the songs increased to level 7.

Liu Chuan had once again gotten all the combos in a song. The students, who stayed to watch, didn’t dare make a sound while he was playing the game until the result was shown. Seeing the golden dazzling SS rank on the screen……everybody finally couldn’t help gasping in amazement, “That was too amazing!”

“A double S ranking!”

“Brother, you’re awesome!”

“The championship will be yours for sure!”

The faces of the students, who stayed to watch, were all incredulous, even the referee was very shocked. Getting an A rank for songs with a level 7 or higher difficulty was already very good and an S rank was normally very hard to witness——much less a double S!

Achieving a double S didn’t only require getting all the combos, but it also needed to get all the rhythm points1 with practically no mistakes!

The referee couldn’t help giving Liu Chuan a thumbs-up. “Amazing! Continue doing your best in the finals!”

Close to a thousand people who had originally signed up were eliminated in the preliminary and semifinals round. In the end, only ten people who could advance to the finals were left.

The ten players followed the referee to the area for the finals. The setup here was more grandiose and there was even a projector on the stage. When the player played the game on the phone’s screen, it would be projected at the same time onto the large screen on stage. The onlookers only needed to watch the large screen to find out what was happening with the match.

The audience one by one took their seats and MC Jiang Xue went on stage and said with a smile, “Fellow classmates, good afternoon! Welcome to the second half and the Rhythm Master2 finals. Congratulations to the ten students for entering the finals! Let’s please have the ten players come onto the stage and introduce themselves!”

With an enthusiastic round of applause, the ten players one by one walked on to the stage and took the microphone to start introducing themselves.

“Hello everyone, my name is Zhou Xiaowei and I’m from the Chinese department. I’ve already played Rhythm Master for more than a year. I’m very happy to be able to participate in this competition and reaching the finals. I will do my best!”

The words were said by a graceful beauty wearing a light blue dress with high heels. Her easygoing speech earned a cheer from below the stage.

The self-introduction carried on one after another and the microphone was passed into the hands of the ninth player who was a young man wearing a pair of glasses and looked very refined.

The young man held the microphone, gently straightening his glasses and said, “Hello everyone, my name is Wu Zemen and I’m from the physics department. I’m very happy to be able to enter the finals and hope that I can get the championship, I really want the first-place prize iPad.”

Liu Chuan looked beside him in surprise. He didn’t expect this guy with the glasses to actually reach the finals?

With a calm expression, the young man beside him handed the microphone to Liu Chuan when he finished speaking.

Liu Chuan took the microphone and said with a smile, “Hello everyone, my name is Liu Chuan and I’m from the history department. I’m very happy to be able to enter the finals and hope that I can get the championship, I also really want the first-place prize iPad.”

Everyone: “……”

F*ck! He was too lazy to think of lines and just repeated the ones that Wu Zemen had just said?

The audience reacted with applause mixed in with a bit of booing.

Smiling, Liu Chuan handed back the microphone to MC Jiang Xue. Wu Zemen heard someone shamelessly repeating his lines but wasn’t very surprised, only turning his head to calmly glance at Liu Chuan, feeling very confused……Who was this? Do we know each other?”

The finals had officially started and the difficulty of the songs rose higher and higher. The first round, after a few songs, had again eliminated seven players. Liu Chuan, We Zemen and Zhou Xiaowei, the three remaining players, would compete to ultimately decide who would be taking the championship prize.

The second round used a “self-selected song” type of competition style. The three people all chose one song and were ranked according to their achievement.

Ladies first, Zhou Xiaowei took the lead to walk to the stage and chose the song 《The Raising Fighting Spirit》, a level 7 song.

(ahh…as someone who loves to watch anime, I couldn’t help fangirling even though I’ve never watched Naruto)

This was a song from the well-known anime 《Naruto》. With a strong sense of rhythm, the speed of the notes fell extremely quickly. Halfway through playing, many of the people sitting in the audience wanted to vomit blood. The beautiful Zhou Xiaowei broke the five hundred combos, accidentally missing two notes in between. When she got the final score of an S, the whole place suddenly erupted into thunderous applause!

Next, Liu Chuan got on stage.

With a smile on his face, very relaxingly, Liu Chuan got on stage and wore the earphones. The large screen on stage showed the interface of Rhythm Master. After that, a shocking scene happened——

They only saw his slender fingers quickly tapping at the screen, each tap with incomparable accuracy. The combo score on the middle of the screen was continuously jumping one after another! 100……300……500……700……900……!

The audience was immediately dumbfounded!

The song ended and the golden words “ALL COMBO” popped up on the screen with the dazzling golden “SS” symbol. The audience, as if they had just awakened from a dream, applauded like crazy!

“Too good!”

“So strong ah!”

“A double S score! F*ck! Our school actually have such an expert?”

“This skill level can go to national competitions right?”

“All combos! It was actually an all combo! More than 900 combos! If it was me, my hand would’ve cramped!”

The sound of the applause and the cheering of the crowd could almost blow the roof off.

At that time on the bus, Jiang Xue had seen the frantic hand speed but didn’t expect him to actually put on such a steady display. More than 900 notes and not one was missed, his mental strength was too good.

However, as the MC, Jiang Xue had to remain calm. She grabbed the microphone and said with a smile, “Liu Chuan’s display just now was extremely outstanding. He was even able to get all the combos to get the score of a double S, truly admirable! Next, we look forward to Wu Zewen’s performance!”

Usually, if the person in front had played such a good score, it would give the person behind them a lot of pressure. However, Wu Zewen wore an extremely composed expression, it seemed as if there wasn’t even a hint of nervousness.

He got up and walked on to the stage. Lightly straightening his glasses, he put on the earphones, turned towards the referee and nodded his head to signal he was ready to start.

The familiar melody of the song played, the same song and the same rhythm. Wu Zewen once again started the jaw-dropping combo!

100……300……500……700……900……!

The screen once again showed the golden words “ALL COMBOS”, then the screen showed the final score of an extremely rare “SSS” three S score, then the screen popped out a “Broke the Record” prompt……

The audience had already been shocked too many times that they couldn’t even utter a single word!

Even Jiang Xue, who had always been very eloquent, was somewhat unable to continue her lines. After being dazed for a moment, she just excitedly said, “Wu Zewen’s score was an SSS, three S! A total score of fifty-seven thousand six hundred and sixty points, this score……it was this song’s full score! It’s also the score for the national record! Congratulations to Wu Zewen for breaking the national record!”

Rhythm Master’s national record was the song’s full score. As long as it was played with no chink in one’s armour, you could get the record of a full score. To accomplish this record, it didn’t only require strength but also the influence of luck and psychological factors. During an actual competition, many experts, on the contrary, wouldn’t be able to get the score’s record because of nervousness.

Following Jiang Xue’s explanation, the stunned audience then burst into applause like they were crazy!

The national record, just hearing it sounded amazing! Even those who didn’t understand Rhythm Master and had run over to see the excitement couldn’t help but feel admiration!

The competition continued to carry on, it was Liu Chuan’s turn to select the song.

Liu Chuan glanced at Wu Zewen and deliberately chose from the song list one of the hardest song——the level 10 song 《DA DA DA》.

——Want to compete with hand speed? Brother will play with you!

When the song’s name appeared on the large screen, the place was once again filled with the deafening sound of applause!! Those who had played Rhythm Master for quite some time would know that this song,《DA DA DA》, had once been a song assigned for the finals for the T.G.A National Grand Prix!

Once Zhou Xiaowei saw this song, she couldn’t help wanting to cry. Her skill level was quite amazing within the school, but playing a level 8 song was already at her limit, a level 10 song…she just simply couldn’t play this national level song!

Zhou Xiaowei was the first on stage. She played halfway before it was game over.

Sigh, it wasn’t that she was too weak, rather, it was just that the other two people were too strong. Today, she was here as a green leaf1 against these amazing people……

[1] 绿叶: lit. green leaves, fig. an actor playing a supporting role

Zhou Xiaowei played until halfway through before surrendering. After the game over, it was Liu Chuan’s turn to get on stage.

Liu Chuan continued to easily move his hands with whirling speed in front of the audience’s shocked gaze and, as if no one else was present, played out the insane combos!

300……700……900……1000……1300……1500……1700……

He was simply unstoppable!

The rhythm of the extremely difficult and chaotic notes that went so fast that it left people dazzled, was like playing in the mud to him, it was like the combos were for free!

The song ended and the total combo score was 1828, once again showing the “ALL COMBOS”! This time was actually an SSS! A perfect play!

The entire audience wasn’t alright……

With the corners of her mouth twitching, MC Jiang Xue said, “Liu Chuan’s performance was too beautiful! This level 10 song, with an extremely high difficulty, was one of the assigned songs for the National Grand Prix’s finals! Liu Chuan could even hit all the combos……truly…… it was too amazing!”

It turned out he really wasn’t boasting when he talked about the 1200 combos on the bus, his combo even exceeded 1800……

Holding in the dizziness, Jiang Xue said, “We look forward to Wu Zewen’s performance……”

The audience hasn’t had the time to get over their shock yet, following Wu Zewen who came up next, everyone was once again hanging their jaw wide with shock——

800 combos……1000 combos……1300 combos……1600 combos……1800 combos……!

Wu Zewen also got all the combos with 1828 notes!!

Even more ridiculous, he had actually gotten the terrifying perfect SSS score once again!!

When Liu Chuan had gotten the SSS score, the audience was stunned. Followed closely, Wu Zewen had also gotten the SSS result, everyone just couldn’t believe it……

Two records were broken?!

Shit, exactly what strange womb did you two appear out of nowhere from? A national level’s finals song, was it free to perform perfectly?

MC Jiang Xue’s voice was shaking. “Following after Liu Chuan, Wu Zewen once again got the perfect result of getting all the combos! The two’s final score is 180 080 points, it’s this song’s full score and at the same time breaking the national record!!”

The audience’s applause was chaotic, and the screaming and cheering were unstoppable!

Jiang Xue excitedly said, “In the first round, Wu Zewen won and in the second round, the two had tied. Next, let us enter round three which will be the deciding game! Let’s welcome Wu Zewen to come and choose the song!”

Sister3 Zhou Xiaowei had already fallen completely into the background. These two people were too strong, to such an extent that the beautiful Zhou Xiaowei had become as pitiful as a rookie…

[2] In Chinese culture, and possibly Asian culture in general, people would often call other people sister, uncle, auntie and etc even if they were not blood-related in any way. It’s a way to show either familiarity with the other person or to be polite.

Wu Zewen walked to the middle of the stage and thought seriously for a moment before saying, “I choose the level 10 song《Canon》, the rock ‘n’ roll six-key mode.”

Everyone: “…………………………”

This song《Canon》, as long as the person had played this type of music game, they wouldn’t be too unfamiliar with it. The world-famous song sounded very pleasant and the sense of rhythm was also extremely strong and there were various kinds of versions around the world. Rhythm Master had released the rock ‘n’ roll version of 《Canon》and it could be said to be an extremely crazy song!

The difficulty of the six-key version of the rock ‘n’ roll《Canon》was especially more gutwrenching. The speed at which the notes fell caused people to be dazzled and speechless. The six-key mode needed to control six key positions at the same time. Both hands’ index, middle and ring finger must be carried out with unparallel agileness. The most sickening part of this song was the “double chaos”. The so-called double chaos, in other words, was the different operation of the left and right hands such as the left hand swiping left while the right hand swiped right or the left hand pressing a long key and the right hand pressing short keys. The entire song from beginning to end was the insane double chaos. Without the left-right divided attention and the agile control skill level of both hands, you simply wouldn’t want to choose this type of song!

Slightly surprised, Liu Chuan turned to glance at Wu Zewen——the young man was still extremely calm, there wasn’t even a hint of an expression on his refined face, only, the eyes behind the lens were shining a bit.

The two people gazed at each other for three seconds, then Wu Zewen very calmly moved out his line of sight.

Liu Chuan couldn’t help smiling.

He chose such a difficult song, was this actually a provocation or just a respect for a master?

No matter what, he chose the song and Liu Chuan had to go next.

Liu Chuan went on stage first.

The familiar song of《Canon》played and the notes started to fall like crazy. The fingers on both of Liu Chuan’s hand also started to use their quickest speed to tap the screen!

100 combos……500 combos……1000 combos……1500 combos……2000 combos……!

Actually surpassing the 2000 mark! The audience was going crazy!

More than 2000 combos, wouldn’t the fingers cramp?

While the audience was holding their breaths to see just how many combos he could make, a messy note suddenly appeared on the screen. Although Liu Chuan was extremely familiar with this song, however, he hadn’t played this song a lot in the Rhythm Master game. When the notes got chaotic, one was accidentally missed! Once a note was missed, the combo would start counting all over from 1.

The audience finally released their breaths!

It really was strange. Watching the competition today, they weren’t expecting how many combos the player could make, instead, they were expecting when he would break the combos……

To continuously connect them, this was too unscientific, it was only normal for a person to break them!

When Liu Chuan broke here, many in the audience really wanted to applaud this classmate, but they forcefully held back.

In the end, Liu Chuan got 2017 combos, a total score of 150 000 points, achieving an SS ranking!

Next, Wu Zewen went on stage.

Once the refined young man wearing a pair of glasses, who still had an extremely calm expression, wore the earphones, he began to concentrate as if forgetting himself.

Combo 100……500……1000……1500……breaking the 2000 mark!

Would he be like Liu Chuan and miss a note?

It should be known that under such a high-intensity operation, both hands would become more and more tired, making it increasingly easier to make mistakes later on.

With a calm expression, Wu Zewen along with his superfast fingers gave everyone the answer!

He wouldn’t miss a note!

Combo 2200……2300……2400……2500……2600……

2617!

All combos!

An SSS result, the same perfect play!

The audience was stunned……

MC Jiang Xue was also in a trance and didn’t know what to say for a good moment.

Even Liu Chuan almost kneeled!

Just now when he was playing the game, Liu Chuan was paying attention to his hands the entire time. When his white slender fingers were pressing the notes, they didn’t get panicky or confused. His sense of rhythm, as well as his hand speed, was extremely strong. The rock ‘n’ roll 《Canon》six-key mode, he was actually able to play the full score SSS result?

With regards to this score, even Liu Chuan couldn’t have done it!

Although Liu Chuan’s hand speed was extremely fast, with regards to music, he was still an amateur. Rhythm Master not only needed hand speed, but it also needed you to grasp the rhythm of the music. This type of music game, only fingers that were perfectly used to pressing keys and music beats could play out a perfect score. More than two thousand notes played got the perfect score, with not a big difference, the final score would be the full score SSS……

The two people with the crazy whirling hand speed, in a simple campus competition, could actually play at the national level finals……

Not only MC Jiang Xue, but the students watching were also a bit incredulous.

Although there were many excellent gamers in the school, the T.G.A Grand Prix, however, was a high-level competition that included many esports events, it was a feast for the domestic esports community! Players that could go to T.G.A were amazing gods whose hand speed, awareness and reaction abilities were basically the best in the country! The two played the assigned high-level difficulty song for the National’s finals and even got such as terrifying score?! How could you believe this?!

The sounds of conversations filled the whole place. Fortunately, Jiang Xue had also seen the world and very quickly calmed down and controlled the place.

Jiang Xue took the microphone and said, “The matches for the three songs in the second round of the finals is already finished. Finally, the third-place winner of this competition is the Chinese department’s Zhou Xiaowei! The runner-up is history department’s Liu Chuan! The champion is……physics department’s Wu Zewen! Congratulations to all the winners. Let’s welcome the award presenter onto the stage to present the prizes to the players!”

The applause was deafening.

Below the stage, a young man who was sitting in a guest seat the entire time watching the competition, finally couldn’t help asking, “What’s the background of those two people?”

The person beside him quietly answered, “Liu Chuan I have never heard of. Since he’s from the history department, in a moment go find Jiang Xue and ask about it. As far as Wu Zewen goes, he actually quite well-known. He is the physics department’s xueba with very good marks. He is often hanging around the library, rarely participating in these kinds of fun events. Today, once he started, it truly caused people to be quite taken aback……”

The young man nodded, thoughtfully looking at the direction the players had left towards.

Outside the door, Wu Zewen was carrying the iPad award as he walked ahead without letting anyone know. Liu Chuan quickly caught up to him and said with a smile, “Wu Zewen, you are really amazing ah! I intentionally chose the hardest song, but it didn’t cause you any trouble at all and was instead stomped by you!”

Wu Zewen politely nodded his head. “Thank you, you’re also pretty good.”

His expression was very calm. After glancing at Liu Chuan, his gaze moved away from Liu Chuan’s face, appearing as if he didn’t enjoy interacting with the stranger too much.

Liu Chuan asked, “Your hand speed, at its peak it could reach more than 600 right?”

Wu Zewen nodded. “En.”

This type of asked-once-answer-once type of personality was similar to a top spinning a circle after being spun once.

Liu Chuan helplessly smiled and continued to ask, “What musical instrument did you learn? With such a good grasp on the sense the rhythm, not an amateur right?”

Wu Zewen said, “I can play the piano.”

Liu Chuan continued asking, “Piano? Have you taken the exam? What level?”

Wu Zewen said, “Performance level.”

“……” Liu Chuan slipped and almost kneeled.

Piano performance level!

Over amateur3 level ten, a high-level performance level?!