The Rookie Challenge Competition was completely up to the rookie. Signing up didn't have to be done through the Club or the Team. However, rookies usually gave their Team a heads up beforehand. Clubs would sometimes publicize their rookies and would also sometimes ask their rookies to sign up.
Qiao Yifan obviously didn't belong to the latter. With a genius like Gao Yingjie, if the Club was going to publicize a rookie, it most certainly wouldn't be him. Participating in the Rookie Challenge Competition was Qiao Yifan's own idea. He had given the Club a heads up, but everyone was just surprised, that's all.
For someone like him to participate in the Rookie Challenge Competition, he was somewhat overestimating his abilities. This was what everyone was thinking about and it was something Qiao Yifan had thought about too, but it hadn't changed his decision. It was just when the news got to the captain, he still felt somewhat uneasy. If the captain didn't support his decision and he was still going to be stubborn about it, then even though the rules said that no one could stop him, his future in the Club might be gone.
However, aside from the Rookie Challenge Competition, there was no other chance for Qiao Yifan to appear on stage. This was his only chance and he hoped that he'd be able to seize it.
He had succeeded!
Team Captain Wang Jiexi didn't have any objections to his decision and he wasn't treated coldly, like how the other team members treated him. Wang Jiexi simply gave him the attitude a team captain should have by giving him a few words of encouragement and hoping that he would perform well and learn.
"I will!" Qiao Yifan was very excited. Afterwards, he prepared for this day the entire time. No other person cared so much about the Rookie Challenge as much as he did because he knew that it was just for "show". Qiao Yifan also understood this, but he hoped that he'd be able to "show" something different in this "show" in order to win a turning point in his career.
Qiao Yifan versus the number one Phantom Demon, Li Xuan.
The host announced the contestants. The players and the audience responded normally. A few of them were excited, and they were mostly Li Xuan's fans.
They didn't know what was so astonishing about this match, but Tiny Herb's players knew.
They knew because Qiao Yifan played as an Assassin, but he chose to challenge a Phantom Demon, Li Xuan. It was somewhat unheard of.
The rookie had complete control over his decision and he also had his reasons. Usually, rookies would choose to challenge seniors they liked in the Alliance, which was why it was very common that players who played the same class fought in the Rookie Challenge. Outsiders would only think this type of reasoning when Qiao Yifan chose to fight Li Xuan, but to the more familiar players of Tiny Herb, they had no idea what the reason was for Qiao Yifan decision.
After Qiao Yifan went up on stage, he said some common words on how he wanted to learn from his senior, which made Tiny Herb's players even more puzzled.
"The kid likes Li Xuan?"
"No idea!"
They were completely at a loss. And only now did they discover that they knew very little about their younger teammate. They all looked towards Gao Yingjie. Qiao Yifan and Gao Yingjie had a very good relationship with each other. This was perhaps the only thing they knew about Qiao Yifan's situation and the reason for this was because of Gao Yingjie's existence.
Gao Yingjie was also at a loss, perhaps even more puzzled than his seniors. This was because he understood Qiao Yifan well, but he couldn't understand why he would challenge Li Xuan...... He recalled how Qiao Yifan was always very busy, how he was often alone, and how they hadn't been talking much lately. Gao Yingjie felt like something had happened.
