Hearing the commentator's voice reach a breaking point with excitement, Shang Liben flashed a smile he thought was "calm and collected," then tidied his hairstyle before moving towards Miao Yueqian.

"Hello, Captain Miao, I am Shang Liben, the coach of the New Wen Team. I've heard a lot about you." Shang Liben extended his hand confidently, intending to exchange pleasantries and then smoothly suggest becoming the coach for the Jiangcheng Team.

However, while he was imagining Miao Yueqian thanking him profusely and eagerly agreeing, he heard Miao Yueqian exhale and say, "It's very unfortunate to have eliminated your team this time, it was not my intention, but the competition required a winner and a loser…"

"…" Shang Liben's smile froze on his face and his movements stiffened. Was she joking about eliminating the team he brought?

After all, the commentator had already said that the winner was the New Wen Team, not the Jiangcheng Team.

In the next moment, a sharp whistle sounded, and the referee's voice broadcasted, "Competition is over, the winner is the Jiangcheng Team!"

"What?!" Shang Liben exclaimed in disbelief, "How is this possible!"

He quickly looked at the big screen and saw someone with a bruised nose and face waving a flag high, while on the other half of the screen, Xu Xiaofeng was gripping the flagpole tightly, trembling all over.

Even if he had climbed the mountain a second or even half a second faster, the outcome wouldn't be like this right now!

This battle was truly frustrating, with countless negative emotions like unwillingness, anger, and regret continuously surging. Xu Xiaofeng's vision turned dark, feeling a fiery blaze in his chest that couldn't be vented out.

Others felt the same; if it had been announced mid-climb that the opponent won, it wouldn't have been so suffocating. But now, grasping the flagpole, victory seemed within reach yet cruelly slipped away.

After a long time, the audience stood up and applauded. This competition's result surprised everyone, with the ending unexpectedly reversed at the last moment. Precisely for this reason, it met the standards of an exciting match.

The commentators at the booth snapped back to reality and quickly remedied, "Oh my! It's actually the Jiangcheng Team that pulled ahead by one second to grab the flag. Let's give a warm applause to congratulate Jiangcheng Team on advancing to the next round!"

The voice still remained high-pitched and emotional, but the response was sparse, quite bleak.

The timing was off, so naturally, the effect wouldn't be powerful.

Of course, this doesn't mean the commentators were unprofessional; it's just that when Xu Xiaofeng already grasped the flagpole, no one would've thought that in just the blink of an eye, the balance of victory and defeat would tip.

And it was so fast, so complete, catching everyone off guard!

On the big screen, Lao Yao's face was bruised and battered, looking utterly miserable, yet he smiled like a sunflower facing the sun.

He used every bit of strength, repeatedly performing the action of waving the flag.

First was climbing, then engaging in close hand-to-hand combat with two elite team members, pushing his stamina to its limit. Now, it was completely his determination and a belief in victory that kept him standing.

Slowly, Lao Yao fell backward, but before losing consciousness, he still didn't forget to exert all his strength to plant the flag at the mountain top.

The vibrant flag waved in the night sky, and the ground command center, through an aerial reconnaissance drone, noticed the situation, immediately arranging medical personnel to check it.

The two who previously punched Lao Yao in the face hurriedly carried him down the mountain to meet the medical team quickly. They too admired this middle-aged man.

Most importantly, with the competition over, the adversarial stance no longer existed, as everyone was essentially on the same side, naturally not leaving each other in the lurch.

In the Jiangcheng Team's camp, Shang Liben directly showed signs of losing emotional control, yelling furiously, "Impossible! This is impossible! It must be a referee's judgment error, how could 6 against 1 lose?!"

"How is it impossible?" Xiao Feng chuckled, "If your team won, it's reasonable; if my team won, it's the referee's misjudgment, how double-standard you are."

Shang Liben retorted angrily, "Can't win head-on, so secretly pull the flag in the back, do you think this kind of victory is glorious?"

"Wake up. This is a competition with only wins and losses, no glory or dishonor involved. The competition itself holds no meaning; you are simply forcefully assigning meaning in pursuit of some goal you want." Xiao Feng said indifferently.

Beside them, Miao Yueqian frowned slightly, intuitively feeling that Xiao Feng was saying these words deliberately for her, not for the rather bitter Shang Liben.

In fact, Xiao Feng wasn't wrong. This match held no special significance itself, as the impact of winning or losing was minimal, with the aim and intent being to test personnel quality.

No matter how much you exaggerate it, at best, it's for preparing for potential crises to better protect people's lives and property.

But clearly, both Shang Liben and Miao Yueqian cared too much about winning and losing, albeit with Shang Liben showing it more prominently.

All in all, wanting to win is good, but when this mentality becomes excessively utilitarian, some simple things tend to get distorted.

Very soon, Shang Liben was dragged away by the captain of the New Wen Team. Actually, Shang Liben wasn't particularly fragile or couldn't admit losing; it's just the sudden reversal of victory defied his understanding temporarily.

After handling the situation with the opponents, Miao Yueqian walked over to Xiao Feng, smiling, "At least we didn't lose face as the host. This was so close; did you know, when they announced the New Wen Team won, my heart sank halfway."

"That's the comedic effect, playing with heartbeats." Xiao Feng's lips slightly curved, though saying this, inwardly feeling a heavy stone finally land.

It was too close!

Indeed, too close!

Just a tiny bit more, and he would've lost face here.

Which is more important, money or face? Xiao Feng feels face is more important; money lost can be continually earned back, but face is something money can't buy.

Of course, that kind of thinking might be a bit of a stand-and-talk bias; if all the money in his card vanished, Xiao Feng might say, money and face are equally important and indispensable.

Speaking of money, Xiao Feng couldn't help but ponder if he should think of a way to press Liu Zeng and others for more favors.

After all, with Su Yuzhuo's living example right before him, he doesn't want to fall short in this regard someday.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.