Chapter 1 Team Battle

In the competition channel, both the Jiangcheng and War Axe teams entered a team battle scenario on a plant planet.

The trees towered into the clouds, blocking out the sun, with only a few rays of sunlight shining down through the dense canopy at an angle, the light cut by the swaying branches, leaving dancing spots of light on the ground.

The two teams appeared in different locations within the forest. Viewers on the competition channel could switch between the perspectives of different teams and players. The barrage of comments was dense, most of them cheering for Jiangcheng.

"Go, Jiangcheng, crush War Axe."

"First versus eighth, isn't that a piece of cake?"

"Go, go, Miss Feng Yue!"

The finals were a best-of-five format, with each round consisting of five matches: team battle, arena, flag capture, instance competition, and instance generation. Different victory points were awarded based on the outcome of each battle, and the winner of the round was determined by the total victory points.

The one-minute countdown slowly reached its end. As the numbers hit zero, the first match of the first round of the finals officially began. The two teams in the picture immediately moved. Feng Yue from Jiangcheng threw out a compressed ball, which transformed into a semi-tall, spire-shaped base station, used to conceal their tracks and mislead detection, thereby hiding the team's movements. Below the base station was the eye-catching logo of the Black Star Army – Army products, superior performance, guaranteed quality.

The War Axe team also concealed their movements, but they used magical props. The War Axe leader, "Viking Captain," took out a black scroll from a magic pouch at his waist. It was covered with dazzling golden magic runes. He tore the scroll open with both hands, and a stream of white gas containing a high concentration of magical energy flowed out, enveloping the entire War Axe team, making everyone's bodies translucent.

"Oh, is that a Supreme Magic Scroll?" Han Xiao was also watching the forum broadcast. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the special runes on the scroll.

This type of magic scroll was made of very rare material, capable of carrying more powerful spells. It had to be crafted by hand. Han Xiao had seen La Ji make them. The inscribed spells were at least Master level, and they were very expensive. War Axe using one to inscribe a concealment spell was clearly showing off.

"Now that they've reached the finals, all the teams are showing all their cards," Han Xiao said with interest.

Having reached the international finals, all the teams would hold nothing back, going all out, which would add a lot of variables. The team's strength would fluctuate greatly, making it difficult to predict their strength based on past performance.

Team battles had always been a dominant form of combat. Different tactics were formulated based on different scenarios. A large forest like this obviously required jungle warfare, with the focus on concealing oneself and discovering the enemy, a battle of wits and courage.

After concealing their movements, both teams began searching for their opponents. Jiangcheng relied on multi-functional detection radar, while War Axe used rune magic, enhancing themselves with spells like "Clairvoyance," "Sky Eye," and "Aura Detection" – due to cultural reasons, the Swedish War Axe team preferred magical means.

Both sides slowly sneaked around, the atmosphere tense and oppressive. In this situation, the commentators on the Chinese competition channel began explaining the match to liven up the atmosphere.

"Alright, both teams have entered the arena. We can see that the battlefield's mini-map has been divided into sixteen areas, with the top left corner being A1 and the bottom right corner being d4. The horizontal axis is sorted by the same letter and different numbers. The Jiangcheng team is currently located at A3, at the top of the map, while War Axe is located at C1, in the bottom left. Now it depends on what kind of action they take… Oh! Sure enough, both sides have used high-altitude maneuvers in unison!"

One of the War Axe players was a birdman, spreading his wings and breaking through the canopy, flying in the air, surveying the battlefield. On the other side, Feng Yue threw a few compressed balls into the sky, which transformed into floating soldiers, patrolling at high altitude, moving even faster.

For current players, flying was already very simple, but in this scenario, because of the trees blocking the way, the advantage of flying wasn't that great.

With compressed ball technology, mechanical equipment was more portable. The mechanical class's portable mechanical capacity and deployment speed had been greatly improved, bringing about a subversive change. In the previous version, Feng Yue wouldn't have been able to carry dozens of mechanical devices with her, or complete the deployment with a flick of her hand.

In the picture, the flying units of both sides quickly discovered each other. The War Axe flying player easily destroyed the floating soldiers that weren't enhanced by mecha force.

The commentator perked up, "Oh! The scouts on both sides have broken out into a short battle. Let's see what actions both sides take next… It seems that War Axe has adopted a blitz strategy, with the entire team rushing toward the scout's location. And Jiangcheng… Yo, Jiangcheng seems to have mastered the opponent's position, and is circling around! Feng Yue has set up a large number of burrowing mines and mechanical traps along the way. She's trying to turn the entire battlefield into her own territory! As long as the mechanical class has time, they can continue to expand their scene advantage. Now War Axe is on the defensive…"

Jiangcheng's gameplay was already inclined toward the mechanical class. The captain, Kuang Dao, was a Mech-Martial Artist himself. After Feng Yue joined, the tactical choices became more and more inclined toward being sneaky… The most terrifying thing was that not only was she good at ambushing people, but she was also a seasoned veteran who was even better than you at head-on combat.

The War Axe team was soon in trouble, encountering the burrowing mines laid out by Feng Yue, and was blown into a daze.

Under the series of rumbling explosions, the lush forest turned into a sea of fire – to say nothing else, the mechanical class was undoubtedly number one in terms of scene destruction!

With the opponent stepping on the traps, Jiangcheng stopped hiding, changed their route, and directly stormed over. The War Axe players were also equipped with magic-powered armor, but compared to the Army products, these high-quality magic-powered armors were completely inferior.

Kuang Dao charged left and right, wielding all kinds of mechanical melee weapons with great skill. The other team members cooperated tacitly, and after sacrificing two people, they successfully annihilated the War Axe team and won the team battle.

On the competition channel, the Chinese audience was in high spirits.

"Haha, I knew it, Jiangcheng would definitely crush War Axe. The regular season's top spot wasn't for nothing."

"The War Axe people have experienced it, haven't they? This is what it feels like to have the version shoved in your face."

"With Miss Feng Yue's joining, Jiangcheng is really not just a little bit stronger."

"Miss is strong and has a gentle personality. I'm a fan. When will she release a photo album?"

"Jiang Yu Luo is already an old woman, how can she be as young and beautiful as Miss Feng Yue. Sorry, I'm going to cheat on her. It's not that you're not good enough, it's just that my standards are a little high."

"New love and forgotten old wife, scumbags who like the new and hate the old are trash!"

Amidst the clamor, the two teams finished their rest and began the arena match. War Axe sent out an ordinary player to scout the way, while Jiangcheng's choice of player made the audience excited. The first player to appear was none other than the captain, Kuang Dao.

Now that Jiangcheng had won the team battle, the captain taking the lead in the arena was clearly meant to completely overwhelm the opponent in terms of momentum, pressing their advantage. The audience felt Jiangcheng's confidence and domineering attitude from this lineup.

The commentator's tone was excited, his mouth blabbering, his speaking speed like a machine gun:

"The first battle of the arena match, Jiangcheng's captain Kuang Dao applies to fight. Although it's a pity that he didn't enter the top sixteen individual players in the finals, he's ranked eighteenth in the international regular season. If he had a little more luck, he might have been able to enter the finals. Now let's take a look at the battle situation… Oh, as expected! Kuang Dao overwhelmingly ended his opponent. The Mech-Martial Artist class combines the advantages of the mechanical and martial arts classes. In this mechanical class-dominated version, this class has a great advantage."

In the picture, Kuang Dao adopted a tough fighting style, not dodging or evading, but directly attacking, throwing out compressed balls, turning them into different mechanical traps, electric currents shooting out, controlling the opponent's movement – in terms of control, the Mech-Martial Artist was much stronger than a pure Martial Artist.

After easily approaching his opponent, Kuang Dao unleashed a storm-like barrage of combos. The way he chained moves was very different from a Martial Artist's hand-to-hand combat. Mechanical weapons switched dazzlingly, with swords, hammers, axes, guns, whip locks, and cannons all available. He used different weapons to connect the moves. This set of extremely difficult combos was smooth and extremely gorgeous. In less than a minute, he emptied his opponent's health bar.

He was really strong, and really handsome. Although his class was no longer the Martial Artist he had been in his previous life, Kuang Dao had obviously blossomed a second time.

The War Axe side couldn't sit still. Viking Captain directly stepped up as the second fighter to face Kuang Dao, captain versus captain.

Viking Captain was a Martial Artist. He took off his heavy armor and activated a berserk buff triggered by his armorless state. His exposed skin was covered with blue rune enchantments, providing protection and regeneration, and he wielded two orange-quality epic enchanted battle axes.

"Roar roar aah – blood and glory!" Viking Captain roared at Kuang Dao, clanging his axes together.

Kuang Dao stood opposite him with his hands on his hips, looking speechless.

"As expected of a Martial Artist, his resistance to embarrassment is really high…"

Getting so into the role, these foreign friends really had a soft spot for role-playing.

Just then, a phantom of a muscular strongman suddenly appeared behind Viking Captain, flashing by. Immediately afterward, Viking Captain's muscles swelled up like a balloon, and the martial arts aura attached to his body, which had been in a burning state, now seemed to have turned into solidified gasoline, suddenly exploding and shooting out.

With a bang, his aura soared!

On his status bar, a new buff state appeared – Viking Captain had used a character arrival card!

The commentator's expression changed, "Glory Clan's Rage, Melee Attack Power +50%, Physical Resistance +30%, Strength +400 points, Agility +200 points, Maximum Health +20%, Movement Speed +40%, Every attack deals an additional 300 points of Frost Damage, lasting for five minutes! This character card is so strong!"

Seeing this, the barrage exploded instantly.

"He's using a character card, this match is hanging in the balance."

"See if Kuang Dao has a powerful character card, if not, this match might be over."

Character arrival cards were rare items. The more powerful the character card, the harder it was to obtain. Pro players used them as trump cards. Now that it was the finals, no one would continue to hold back. At this time, Viking Captain had played a trump card.

Ultra-conventional overpowered props like [Black Star Army Badge • Evolution] were only available in one division, so it was normal for them to be banned. But character cards were different. Any player had a chance to obtain them, only differing in effect, so they weren't on the banned list, but there were also restrictions.

Because each round had five different types of matches, the rules stated that the character card used each time couldn't be inherited to the next match. That is to say, even if Viking Captain killed his way through the arena match, and the character card's effect hadn't ended, he would have to use death to refresh the status, and couldn't bring the character card's buff to the next flag capture match.

Pro players' character cards were even rarer, and displaying them to the audience in the league was in itself a highlight prepared by the event organizers, in order to make the matches exciting and attract attention… This rule provided excitement and reduced the impact of character cards on the entire competition.

After all, each round was a best-of-five, with at least fifteen matches. Character cards were bound and couldn't be traded. Being able to come up with fifteen awesome character cards was also a skill, and besides, others also had character cards, who knew whose treasure was bigger.

Seeing the opponent's change, Kuang Dao's eyes focused, and he also activated a character card.

A phantom of a handsome man in black appeared behind him, as tall as the sky and the earth. Many viewers recognized this figure at a glance, and instantly became excited.

"Whoa, Black Star!"

"Here it comes, here it comes, I knew Kuang Dao couldn't not have a character card!"

"I remember Kuang Dao used Black Star's character card last time too, right?"

"Now Black Star is Super-A grade, the effect can't be the same."

Many Army players became excited. Han Xiao's stats were always question marks, so they could only get a glimpse of Han Xiao's strength through dungeon battles and character cards. At this time, their curiosity was suddenly aroused.

They saw a new buff appearing on Kuang Dao's status bar, and all the viewers looked over.

[Character Arrival Card – Black Star: (Indestructible Body) – When you are attacked, you ignore and absorb 25% of the damage value. 60% of the remaining damage that is resisted by resistance will be converted into Qi energy. At the same time, you can convert Qi energy into health, with a ratio of 1:9, with a maximum of 35% health regeneration per second. The effect lasts for 10 minutes.]

Seeing the effect of the character card, the barrage was silent for a moment, then suddenly exploded.

"Holy crap, what kind of perverted ability is this?!"

"No wonder Black Star has this title in the universe… Who the hell can withstand this?!"

Countless Army players were stunned.

Although Viking Captain's character card was powerful, it was at least acceptable, but the effect of Black Star's character card far exceeded their range of understanding. The viewers were all shocked!

– Is this the level of a Super-A grade! Just one ability is so terrifying!

High output, many subordinates, and his own endurance is off the charts…

With Black Star having such abilities, let alone now, they probably wouldn't be able to beat such a terrifying Boss to death in the future!

"Huh, how does he have my character card?" Han Xiao was stunned. He remembered that he hadn't issued such a mission.

After a moment's thought, Han Xiao understood that Kuang Dao had probably obtained a blank character card and happily replicated his ability, merging two specializations into his own nickname – [Indestructible Body].

"Well, after the specialization was upgraded, I haven't even used it many times myself, but you're enjoying it."

Han Xiao shook his head and smiled.