Chapter 183 A Stroke of Genius

The top six slots were basically secure, with Dynasty and Everlasting Sky locking in their qualifications.

During the second half of the International Regular Season, although Dynasty encountered sieges in the Survival Matches, they still maintained their unstoppable momentum in the Team Battles and Arena Matches, firmly holding onto the first place and preventing the teams below from overtaking them.

The competition for seventh and eighth place was the fiercest. The point difference between seventh and thirteenth place was small. With only a few matches left, seven teams had a chance to qualify, Jiang City being one of them. Unfortunately, Stormy Rain’s performance in the second half was mediocre. Although Jiang Yu Luo was stunningly beautiful, esports didn’t focus on looks. It was difficult for her to carry the team alone, and they regrettably lost their hope of qualifying.

As the captain and vice-captain, Mad Blade and Evil Sword had their potential stimulated through repeated practical training, and their cooperation became increasingly seamless. Fans regarded them as the symbol of the Jiang City team, calling them “Dual Blades United.”

With only the last match of the regular season remaining, Jiang City was ranked tenth, only a few points behind eighth place. The last match was their last hope for qualifying.

In eighth place was the Japanese team, Yamata, and their last match was against Everlasting Sky, while Jiang City’s opponent was the South Korean team, Kimchi.

In a room at the Black Star No. 1 base, Mad Blade had called all the members of the Jiang City team together for a meeting to analyze the situation.

Mad Blade tapped the table and said in a serious tone, “Everlasting Sky is ranked fourth, and Kimchi is ranked sixth, both are strong teams. There is no possibility of trickery. If we want to make up for the point difference between us and Yamata, there is only one possibility, and that is that we score a lot of points off Kimchi, and the Yamata team draws with Everlasting Sky, not getting many points. Only then will we have a chance to qualify.”

“That’s too demanding. Yamata and Everlasting Sky are evenly matched after all. Kimchi is also a strong team. We might not even be able to beat them,” Evil Sword said, shaking his head.

“In addition to winning the team battle, there is another way to get a lot of points,” Mad Blade said slowly. “The Arena Matches are scored according to the number of participants on both sides. If Xiao Jian and I perform beyond our level and sweep the opposing team, we can get a lot of points.”

“Indeed, if the Arena Matches are played well, a huge point difference can be created, but the… uh, Kimchi team is still very strong. Even Dynasty wouldn’t dare say they could sweep Kimchi, right?” Evil Sword said.

“This match is our only chance. We must do everything we can to get more points! I’ve taken out all the ability potions from the warehouse. There are still sixty-seven left. There’s no point in keeping them if we can’t make it to the finals. In the last match, we’ll use up all these potions. Let’s get as many points as we can, don’t save them anymore.”

Everyone’s spirits lifted.

Evil Sword’s eyes lit up. “Boss, so are you going to use the Black Star Character Card too?”

“That’s right. As long as we can make it to the finals, we’ll be satisfied. If we don’t go all out now, when will we?” Mad Blade nodded.

“Then we might really be able to sweep Kimchi,” Evil Sword said with a happy expression.

Because the inventory was sufficient, Han Xiao didn’t exploit himself. There were no ability potions of himself on the market, but before the league, Mad Blade completed a high-evaluation mission and randomly received a blank character card as a reward.

He still remembered during the last individual competition, he crushed his opponent with the [Black Star Descent] character card. Without much hesitation, he used the blank character card to generate Han Xiao’s Character Descent Card. He had been keeping this card as a trump card since the start of the competition.

In this crucial match, Mad Blade decided to use this character card.

…

For the last match, Jiang City received key attention from the Chinese audience. Dynasty and Everlasting Sky had already qualified. If Jiang City could also qualify, then three of the eight slots in the international finals would belong to China, which would be a great honor.

In the team battle between Jiang City and Kimchi, both sides fought to the death. Kimchi used all their skills and didn’t hold back at all. Jiang City used ability potions without any reservations this time, and barely managed to win a narrow and tragic victory, only getting a meager amount of points.

Many Chinese viewers were quite discouraged. Getting only this many points meant they had basically lost the chance to surpass Yamata and qualify.

Not many people were optimistic about Jiang City’s performance in the Arena Matches. The Jiang City team only had Mad Blade and Evil Sword who could fight. The other teammates were all team-oriented blue-collar workers, with average individual combat strength. The Kimchi team, on the other hand, had two people who had made it to the international individual competition. Jiang City might have a chance to win, but there was no way they could get too many points.

However, when it came to the Arena Matches, Mad Blade gave all the viewers a surprise, and the Kimchi team a shock.

As soon as Mad Blade went on stage, he took dozens of ability potions without saying a word. A long string of buffs appeared in his attribute bar, and his whole body was surrounded by light, a proper special effects warrior.

The commentator’s spirits lifted. “Oh, it seems that player Mad Blade is going all in. Now the pressure is on the Kimchi team.”

Every professional team had their own trump cards. The ability potions sold by Han Xiao were the signature trump card of every Chinese team in the international competition, leaving a deep impression on other teams, making them very troubled. The root cause was the randomness of the ability potions. Other teams couldn’t take targeted measures.

However, the number of ability potions was limited, while there were many matches. Chinese teams were saving them, otherwise, they wouldn’t have any left to use later. After all, in the finals, every round was best of five.

And now, Mad Blade was no longer concerned about future matches. He was betting everything and fighting with his back to the river. Mad Blade suddenly burst out with terrifying combat power, taking out two opponents in a one-versus-two.

The Kimchi team knew that ability potions had a limited duration. The two players who went on stage were ordinary members, mainly focused on delaying and grinding down Mad Blade’s health.

“The Kimchi team has chosen a reasonable delaying tactic. Although player Mad Blade has defeated two opponents, some of his buffs have also reached their time limit. Let’s see who the next player to go on stage is… Oh! Kimchi has sent out their ace player! They are going to reveal their true intentions and rely on the third person to end Mad Blade’s winning streak!”

The third player to enter the arena for the Kimchi team was their ace player, one of the players who had made it to the international individual competition. At this time, Mad Blade still had more than half of his health left, and his armor value was only one-third.

The situation was unfavorable for Mad Blade, and many Chinese viewers nervously sweated.

At this moment, Mad Blade took a deep breath and activated the only Black Star Character Card he had.

Han Xiao’s semi-transparent phantom appeared behind Mad Blade, wearing a black suit and expressionless, with one hand on the top of Mad Blade’s head.

“Okay, player Mad Blade has used a new ability. This is… wait, have I seen this scene in the last league?” The commentator’s eyes widened.

A buff that stunned the commentator, guests, and all the viewers appeared.

[【Advanced Tenacious Life】: Extra endurance-converted HP increased, ratio 1:60, resistance +25%, every 40% HP loss, all attributes temporarily +10%, lasts 20 minutes - from Character Descent Card - Han Xiao]

“Holy sh*t, this… this is cheating!” The commentator couldn’t help but swear.

Countless viewers were stunned.

The extra HP added was more than their own HP!

Some people remembered that Mad Blade had used Black Star’s character card in the previous season.

Now it was Black Star again!

Since this buff came from the Character Descent Card, it proved that this was an ability belonging to Black Star. All along, Black Star’s attributes in all player’s detection information had always been countless question marks. Players only knew that Black Star was abnormally strong, but they never knew Black Star’s specific abilities.

And at this time, Mad Blade’s buff once again lifted a corner of Black Star’s iceberg, directly shocking countless players.

A Mechanic actually had this kind of tank-type specialty, then wouldn’t his professional Mechanic specialty be even more perverted?!

Or are all of us Mechanics able to awaken the Tank specialty?

With a strong endurance ability, Mad Blade continued to fight and took down three more opponents in a row before finally being defeated. Evil Sword’s state broke out and barely defeated the remaining opponents.

The Arena Match points were calculated according to the difference in the number of players defeated on both sides. On Jiang City’s side, only Mad Blade lost, while Kimchi lost all their players minus one, which was the points Jiang City obtained. It was a great victory.

Mad Blade’s one-versus-five made him famous in one battle.

Jiang City got high points. Whether they could qualify next depended on how many points Yamata could get from Everlasting Sky.

Everlasting Sky lived up to expectations, spared no effort, and crushed Yamata, allowing the Yamata team to get very few points. Hao Tian was familiar with Mad Blade, and they were all Chinese teams. He didn’t mind helping Mad Blade with this small favor.

After the match, Everlasting Sky received overwhelming praise, and was truly a good Chinese teammate.

Under the eyes of the world, the list of the international top eight was released!

Dynasty was first, Everlasting Sky was fourth, and Jiang City successfully replaced the Japanese Yamata team, qualifying thrillingly, only two points higher than Yamata.

Mad Blade’s all-in bet was successful!

Three of the four teams made it to the finals. Only China had achieved this, and the Chinese players felt their blood boiling and were extremely excited.

Qualifying was a surprise, and replacing the Japanese team’s spot was even more of a pleasant surprise. No Japanese team made it to the international top eight this year. The forums were full of celebration, with drums, firecrackers, red flags, and universal rejoicing.

Han Xiao was also quite surprised by this result. He knew that the average strength of the Chinese teams was higher than in his previous life, but he didn’t expect them to play so well.

In the international top eight, China monopolized three spots. In his previous life, only the United States had achieved this, and it had only happened once in all seasons. Now China had completed this feat in the second season!

Players were celebrating wildly on the forums, but many people hadn’t realized that this was a milestone enough to be recorded in the history of the Galaxy League!

Han Xiao knew that even after many years, in future versions, people would still constantly mention China’s glorious achievements in this season and enjoy talking about it.

In the finals, the teams would fight each other, best of five. According to the points ranking, Dynasty, who was ranked first, would face Jiang City, who was ranked eighth. Although players felt that the civil war was a pity, that’s how the tournament was structured and there was nothing to complain about.

“Mad Blade’s good luck has come to an end, but being able to make it to the international top eight is already a proud achievement, enough for a new team,” Han Xiao said quite contentedly. The outstanding performance of the Chinese teams was also indirectly promoting the Black Star Army.

Everlasting Sky, who was ranked fourth, would face Kimchi, who was ranked fifth. The Chinese players didn’t watch the civil war. It just so happened that Everlasting Sky’s opponent was the Korean team, so the audience turned their attention to Everlasting Sky’s match.

However, Han Xiao wasn’t paying attention to the finals. He had thrown an eye on Lajki to observe his progress.

Although Lajki said he was going to take a detour, he wasn’t dawdling. He went straight to the mission location and had already arrived at the place where the Sky Ring mercenary team was asking for help.

————

ps (A new month has begun, asking for monthly tickets, there are double monthly tickets at the end of the month, asking for a wave in advance, mwah)