Compared to character level, skills could directly increase one’s combat prowess.
Hao Tian sent out skills one after another and chased his opponent to the edge of the arena platform.
Hong!
Suddenly, Star Chess released a burst of energy from his body, causing a shockwave of flame to break Hao Tian’s series of attacks.
“Star Chess has used Energy Burst!” exclaimed the commentator.
There were three ways to win in these fights. One could either directly defeat one’s opponent, have one’s opponent surrender, or force them off the platform. Star Chess was already forced to the edge and had no choice to but to activate his Energy Burst.
However, the next moment, Hao Tian also used his Energy Burst, and as if a raging wild bull, he rushed at Star Chess and threw a heavy punch that broke through Star Chess’ defense and landed right on his chest.
Boom!
The muffled sound of the impact rang out!
Star Chess lost his footing, fell off the platform, and crashed onto the ground, causing clouds of dust to rise up.
“The winner is Hao Tian!” announced the commentator in a booming voice.
“He won!” the spectators screamed in excitement, and Hao Tian’s fans all stood up and cheered for him.
The screams from tens of thousands of people flooded the arena like a tsunami!
Star Chess was led off the center with eyes full of regret. Although this opening fight was held more for the sake of showmanship, and neither of the pro player would be disqualified regardless of the result, it was still a great chance to gain popularity. Winning under the eyes of tens of thousands of people was the best way to prove one’s reputation. But now that he had lost, most of the spotlight was on Hao Tian, unlike he had planned.
But it was what it was. Since he had lost fair and square, although Star Chess was unhappy, he still suppressed his emotions.
Red Phoenix bent her waist and walked onto the center of the platform with a smile. “Thanks to both of the pro players for bringing to us such a high level fight. Master Star Chess, you unfortunately lost. Do you have anything you would like to say?”
Star Chess collecting himself and forced out a smile. “It was an enjoyable fight. I got to witness how strong the young man is. He has a lot of potential. People like him will be able to take on my generation’s torch and fight for glory on the international stage…”
This was obviously just a formality. By using formal language and constantly mentioning the ‘young’ and ‘older’ players, Star Chess was secretly emphasizing the fact that he was a veteran.
“Thank you for your thoughts.”
Red Phoenix turned to Hao Tian and said, “Master Hao Tian, do you have anything you would like to say?”
Hao Tian stretched his hand for the microphone. Red Phoenix was glad as she thought that Hao Tian was finally going to say something and quickly passed him her microphone.
Hao Tian stared at Star Chess for a while expressionlessly.
“Are you only here to earn some pocket change or something?”
He then dropped the mic and left without another word. He evidently did not care about keeping up small talk with Star Chess at all.
Star Chess’s expression turned ugly, and veins were almost popping out of his head. He gritted his teeth.
How could he say something in front of so many spectators‽ Star Chess was furious.
The audience in the arena was instantly sent into an uproar, and Red Phoenix hurriedly tried to smooth things out.
…
“Kid’s got character. I like it,” Han Xiao said as he smirked.
He remembered Hao Tian from the past. This fellow did not bother with the bullsh*t that came with being a pro, and he hated being under the spotlight. He focused on training himself all the time and was very professional and righteous. In other words, a combination of a gaming nerd and a simpleton.
Han Xiao’s requirement when looking for players to cultivate was basically just how popular and how much potential the player had in his past life. It was not that he looked down on noobs or anything, but pros simply offered him a better return as they could utilize his resources to a better effect.
With the current resources at his disposal, Han Xiao could easily cultivate a player to a point where they were invincible among the current players. However, he did not do this as it was not beneficial in the long run. All the benefits that Han Xiao had been providing Frenzied Sword and the others with were more or less logical compared to the current players’ level.
Although the current players had weak attributes, this did not mean that they were bad at controlling their characters. With that in mind, Han Xiao could still learn a lot from the players. Despite how overpowered he currently was on Planet Aquamarine, the new techniques that he had learned from the players would prove useful in future fights.
Countering various abilities, performing countermeasures in emergencies, movement control, overall macro… and so on were all part of professional tournaments.
Players all developed in their own ways, and watching all the different powers clash against each other was one of the interesting aspects of these fights. For example, although Hao Tian did not have Star Chess’s [Ground Stomp], he was able to use other trump cards. Being able to utilize this variety of skills to their full capacity and even combine them in fights was what differentiated pros from regular players.
Moreover, being able to develop oneself properly also counted as a strength. Take boxing as an example. If Person A worked hard every day to train himself, while person B slacks off all day long, naturally, A would have a physical advantage over B in a fight. Or maybe A had better connections and could find a teacher to teach him new moves, while B could only train by himself. There was no rule that said A had to stop and wait for B to catch up.
This logic could also be applied to players. Be it farming monsters, complete missions, or looting for better equipment, no matter how prepared one was, in an actual fight, it would all come down to one’s performance. Maybe due to his lack of practice, B would get pummeled by A the whole fight. But just before B was about to lose, he might catch on to a mistake A made and turn the round with a one hit KO. Something like this was extremely common in tournaments.
Competitions would often produce with unexpected results, and this was what made it all so interesting.
The chance for Han Xiao to venture off into the stars would not come for another four or five months. As this was right in the middle of the tournament season, Han Xiao planned to take this time to look for more potential lackeys. For him, players were currently the most valuable resource on the entire planet.
After the ceremony, the arena started off the regular matches. All ten battle platforms had one referee, and all had ongoing matches at the same time. There were about ten thousand players who had registered for the tournament, and they were all currently going through the first elimination round. Each match was fairly straightforward and only took around ten minutes on average.
Only when the elimination stage entered the final rounds would the tournament slow down, giving time for the players to be introduced one by one.
As Frenzied Sword and Bun-hit-dog’s matches were held on a different day, Han Xiao got bored and went to the forums after switching between several fights.
There were a lot of players who were excitedly discussing about the opening fight. Hao Tian’s performance invited a lot of praise, and Long Sky Club also released their official message, congratulating Hao Tian for seizing victory in the opening fight.
…
A few days later…
Players were eliminated one after another, and the audience’s excitement was higher than ever. Han Xiao was also rejoicing from this.
Aside from selling merchandise, creating more tools, and training with Hila, he spent most of his free time watching the fights. He mainly paid attention to the team battles where two teams would try to fight each other to th
e last man on a random map. Each team was allowed to send in six players.
Pugilist, Esper, and Mechanic. These three classes had drastically different combat styles and allowed for a large variety of team combinations and skill chaining. Moreover, taking into account of terrain differences, team battles were much more entertaining to watch than the individual battles.
The more common teams were composed of a main tank, melee attacker, ranged attacker, and someone in charge of crowd control. The specific numbers for each role would differ depending on the team’s tactics.
Pugilist was naturally the most popular class for the main tanks.
Espers, on the other hand, were more of a jack of all trades. Due to their varying abilities, Espers could take on both melee and ranged roles in a fight.
Mechanics played the role of the main attacker and dealt outburst damage under their teammate’s protection.
Chapter 300 - Frenzied Sword's First Fight
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Out of the three main class change trees for the Mechanic class, Cannon Master was the most popular among the players. It served as a reliable ranged attacker. Mechanics and Mechanical Pugilists, due to the early stage of the game, were still quite awkward in a fight. There were close to zero contestants with those two classes.
Mechanics were definitely out of the question, especially when they were a player and did not have access to a vast number of resources that Han Xiao had. Without paying to win, the Mechanics’ combat strength was nothing impressive.
Mechanical Pugilists, at this point in the game, were like a weaker version of the normal Pugilists. Moreover, they even had to repair their tools every time the durability ran out. A Pugilist would serve the role of a meat shield much better.
Han Xiao did not agree with this meta. Mechanical Pugilists were actually already pretty strong in Version 1.0. As long as they did not have awful gear, they could easily be both a tank and an attacker. They would also adapt to different environments much easier due to the variety of their equipment. However, the Mechanical Pugilist class did have a higher skill cap then Pugilists as they also had to control their machinery.
The combination of need for good equipment and harder controls meant that there were barely any who chose to play as a Mechanical Pugilist.
Although the Mechanics were quite useful in group matches, they performed poorly in individual battles. Players of the other two classes would often consider themselves lucky if they came up against a Mechanic.
After nearly a thousand elimination rounds, Mechanics had already been defeated sixty-four times, while they had only won eleven times!
Many of the players on the forums had already come to the consensus that Mechanics were not suitable for PVP. After watching several fights himself, Han Xiao understood that, as the Mechanic was a class that would take longer to develop, and also due to the class’s demand for skillful controls, it was not a class that suited the PVP scene this early on in the game.
Moreover, most the equipment that the Mechanics made was not high level enough to actually make much of a difference in a fight, especially not when other classes also had access to basic equipment.
The Mechanic class was heavily reliant on the player’s equipment, and as new versions of the game were released, players would gain access to better equipment and also reveal the strength of the class.
Today was Frenzied Sword’s first time fighting in the tournament. The opponent that he drew against was an Esper. Han Xiao was watching this fight live.
Frenzied Sword was a Mechanical Pugilist and had received a bunch of ‘benefits’ from Han Xiao—well, gear that he did not need anymore. Frenzied Sword was wearing the Magnetically-Controlled Retractable Armor and also had the Heavy Mechanical Arm attached to his arm. He had also brought with him lots of other spare parts and gadgets, which all hung on his body. He was fully clad in metal, and he gave off a cold glint under the sun, looking like a heavily armored knight.
The opponent was an ice-type Esper. With the wave of his hand, he instantly covered the platform with a thin layer of ice, reducing Frenzied Sword’s movement speed while increasing his own.
The Esper was a kiting player, and he then took out an enhanced Assault Rifle and started firing at Frenzied Sword, causing a shower of sparks to burst on Frenzied Sword’s armor.
“Ice abilities combined with ranged weapons is indeed a good combo to kite with.” Han Xiao nodded.
Firearms and other equipment were available to players of all classes, but without the Mechanic’s Machinery Affinity, they could only dish out the base damage with those weapons.
Frenzied Sword moved across the ice as he tried to avoid the spray of bullets. He had very good armor on, so the Assault Rifle was not much of a threat to him. However, the Esper player planned to keep on kiting and slowly whittle down Frenzied Sword’s HP.
Bullets landed one after another on the heavy armor, but they suddenly stopped. The Esper had run out of ammo. Just as he was trying to reload, Frenzied Sword took this opportunity and leapt forward with the help of the booster on his legs. His legs exploded off the ground and scattered the ice surface that he was standing on.
Frenzied Sword flew through the air and rapidly closed in on the Esper.
The Esper player hurriedly threw away his Assault Rifle and took off a grenade launcher from his back, immediately firing a shot at Frenzied Sword in midair.
Boom!
An explosion occurred where Frenzied Sword was, causing a bright flash of light, followed by a cloud of dust that rolled across the platform.
A sound of gears locking into place suddenly came from within the smoke, and a thin metal cable shot out and latched to the Esper player before it rapidly pulled him back to Frenzied Sword.
Bang!
The two clashed into each other and rolled around on the ground due to the impact. Melee combat was Frenzied Sword’s strong suit, and he quickly took care of the Esper after a few exchanging blows.
“Smoke to reduce visibility and increase the hit-chance of the hook.” Han Xiao nodded. He had focused on every single detail in the battle. Frenzied Sword was able to use the Mechanical Pugilist’s abilities and equipment to a pretty good level, and he could be counted as one of the rarer Mechanic players.
Currently, no single player had reached the point where they were completely invincible. All classes had weaknesses that could be taken advantage of. In the case of the ice-type Esper, Mechanical Pugilists could use their equipment to close in the distance, Pugilists could use Energy Burst or other movement skills, while other Espers also had their own tactics to use.
…
As he was not popular yet, Frenzied Sword’s victory did not garner much attention. Moreover, it was only an elimination round. However, Han Xiao thought that Frenzied Sword had shown a stellar performance in that fight. He just did not know if this Frenzied Sword was as good as the one in the past.
Players from around the planet went all out in the fights, and soon, twenty days had passed. Eighty to ninety percent of the players had been eliminated, and the ones left behind were the cream of the crop.
Frenzied Sword had passed hurdle after hurdle and had not lost a single match up to this point, so more people were starting to pay attention to him. There was an extremely small number of Mechanics who had made it that far into tournament. So, naturally, as a Mechanical Pugilist, Frenzied Sword piqued the interest of many curious players. Most of his earlier matches were replayed by players.
“Is this how Mechanical Pugilists fight? He seems to bring along a lot of equipment. It looks kind of complicated.”
“That combo he did with multiple weapons and gadgets looked really cool, but it seems pretty hard to pull off.”
“What’s so great about this? He just has a lot of good gear. Take away all that equipment and let’s see if he can still beat a Pugilist.”
“Bruh… why would a Mechanical Pugilist fight with their bare body for
no reason?”
The forums were filled with different opinions, but overall, Frenzied Sword had finally made a name for himself. In a tournament filled with Pugilists and Espers, his Mechanical Pugilist class was a breath of fresh air.
However, Frenzied Sword’s rising popularity was nothing compared to the current talk-of-the-town, Hao Tian.
As a pro player from Long Sky, Hao Tian had blasted through all his opponents since the first round, and he seemed to be getting stronger and stronger after each fight. His battle team was also taking win after win in the team matches section. Hao Tian seemed like a potential candidate who could carry the future of the Chinese e-sports scene.
Aside from the three core members, none of the other Long Sky players were anything to scoff at. They had great team fights and were able to effectively complement Hao Tian’s aggressive playstyle.
On the other hand, the pro players from the other gaming guilds seemed to be hiding their strength, so they were not blasting through all opposition like Long Sky.
Long Sky players demonstrated an overwhelming momentum in both solo and team matches, and they were the player favorite on Planet Aquamarine. Many video streaming channels were also focused on highlighting these players.
Bun-hit-dog’s ‘Suicide Hosts’ team had been eliminated in a single round. Han Xiao randomly watched their match, and his eyes almost burst out of their sockets.
All six members were Cannon Masters. It was a pure ranged DPS team composition… yet they were unluckily placed in a dense forest that did not favor ranged classes at all.
To make it worse, their opponent was a powerhouse team made up of foreign pro players.
They were butchered.
Although Han Xiao knew that they did not have much of a chance in this tournament to begin with, he was still speechless at how bad their luck was.
It seems like Hao Tian has the best chance of getting a good score. Frenzied Sword’s performing well in his solo matches, but his team’s performance is rather subpar, and they’re barely surviving in the tournament…
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 172