Chapter 0 The True Strength

A truly powerful tactic or move is powerful because… even if the opponent has thoroughly analyzed it, it remains extremely difficult, or even impossible, to counter.

Buu and Oub's "charge net" tactic falls into this category.

The foundation of this move is Oub's skill [Cell Enhancement Surgery] (see Chapter 648 or the skill database for details); at the start of the battle, Oub casts this skill on his teammate, directly doubling Buu's physical ability… even if Buu's original physical abilities were mediocre, doubling them would still put him at a top-tier level.

Subsequently, Buu and Oub each activate the [Magnetic Finger] skill, and through a strange posture, they touch their fingertips together, creating a combination skill effect called [Bipolar Magnetic Chain].

The principle and effect of this move are quite complex. Simply put… when the two start moving, the one with less kinetic energy and slower speed will be pulled by the one with greater kinetic energy and faster speed, and their speed will gradually synchronize; moreover, this pull will gradually strengthen as the movement time accumulates, allowing the faster one to break through their own maximum speed…

Looking at the numbers, the combination of these two moves allows two players to gain more than a 2.5x boost in physical ability in a short period, with minimal consumption, making it undoubtedly very powerful.

However, it also inevitably has two drawbacks:

First, if either of the two connected by the "magnetic chain" stops moving, the skill effect will rapidly decline.

Second, due to the influence of the "traction," the trajectory of the two in rapid movement, the angle after turning, etc., will be disturbed by the distance between them, making it quite difficult to control… especially when making some sudden stop and sharp turn movements, it is difficult to predict where they will end up rushing.

However, Buu and Oub used this second point… After a lot of training, they turned it into a powerful weapon, and with their tacit cooperation, they completed this elusive "charge net."

Of course, even if their tactics are strong, they won't be like characters in a certain manga (okay, it's *Bleach*)… explaining their various abilities in detail while fighting.

On the other side, Ma Guanhua and Yunyun, who were struggling to hold on, had undoubtedly studied the fat and thin duo's tactics before the match.

Unfortunately, even if they analyzed the weaknesses of the skill, they didn't have enough hard power to break the situation…

The only way they could do at the moment was to hold on for five minutes.

Five minutes is the duration of [Cell Enhancement Surgery]. As long as they can survive for five minutes, Buu's physical abilities will return to their original level; of course… the speed of the "charge net" will not decrease because of this, because the [Bipolar Magnetic Chain] only increases speed and kinetic energy. Once the values are up, the changes in the two's own physical abilities will not have much impact.

It was just that, at this time, if they used some method… even a suicidal one… to intercept one of Buu and Oub, then, without the support of [Cell Enhancement Surgery], it would be difficult for the two to regain the speed needed for the "charge net."

The [Shanhe]'s duo were aiming for this opportunity, and it was their only chance.

But, how could Buu and Oub give them this opportunity?

[Shanhe] had Qiufeng Se in charge, and [Tiandi] also had strategists like Yuzhong Jichang; when the match list was announced in the early hours of yesterday, Jichang immediately thought… Qiufeng would definitely find a way to break through the fat and thin duo's tactics. Therefore, before the start of today's match, Jichang specifically told Buu and Oub—"The opponents will definitely defend with all their might in the first five minutes, only seeking to survive. In that case, you don't need to waste too much physical energy and energy on this iron plate tactic, just keep moving and create the illusion of great pressure, the real breakthrough… is after five minutes…"

Buu and Oub, who received the instructions, earnestly implemented Jichang's strategy. For the first five minutes, their "charge net" looked no different from usual, but in fact, the two "weavers" were in a more relaxed state… merely maintaining movement and accumulating kinetic energy. Throughout the process, they did not bother to find gaps in the attack, nor did they guard against the opponent's breakthrough.

As expected, after five minutes, Ma Guanhua's desperate move suddenly started.

He gathered his strength, shouted violently, activated his skill, and jumped high…

However, the impact he imagined… did not come.

If Buu and Oub were as tense and ready as usual, then the moment Ma Guanhua jumped up, their pincer attack should have arrived. But this time, they watched Ma Guanhua jump up very calmly, unmoved, until this brother embarrassingly wasted a big move, Buu and Oub barely became serious—they knew that the "breakthrough" that Jichang said had opened.

After that, things were simple. Before dissolving the [Bipolar Magnetic Chain], Buu and Oub successfully took one head and injured one person; the remaining injured player on the opponent's side, facing a pair of two-person combination with support, was exhausted to death.

In this way, [Tiandi] pulled back a city and brought the total score to one to one.

After that, it was the "Deputy General Battle."

Qiufeng Se and Yuzhong Jichang, these two wise generals, launched a fateful duel in this third game.

I don't know if it was stimulated by Feng Bujue's some trash talk, the full-level Qiufeng Se turned himself into a thorough "lightning ability user," and even his title was Thunder… You thought I would say "Raichu (a kind of electric Pokemon)" right? No… his title was much cooler than that, it was [Thunderlight].

In comparison, Yuzhong Jichang was inferior in hard power, but he was not without a solution—before the game, he asked each member of the team to prepare a set of "rubber protective armor" in their bags, so that anyone who faced Qiufeng Se could take it out and use it.

This kind of rubber protective armor is not expensive, it's just mass-produced store goods. Worn outside the torso, in addition to slightly reducing speed and increasing physical energy consumption, it will not affect the original equipment attributes; when facing electric ability users, this is a very good defensive method.

So, in the first thirty seconds of the "Deputy General Battle," Jichang took a look and saw that he was facing Qiufeng, then smiled mysteriously and took out the rubber armor from his bag and put it on.

Then, the barrier disappeared, and the two went forward to fight.

About twenty seconds later, Jichang was knocked out…

Qiufeng's lines before hitting the last blow were: "So… what's the point of only the torso being insulated…"

Two to one, [Shanhe] took the lead again.

This was not the first time Yuzhong Jichang had encountered this situation. He could often predict the opponent's moves in complex tactical games, but he made very silly mistakes in some simple places…

However, this did not affect his popularity. His fans were most enthusiastic about creating various memes for Jichang after he lost, such as: "Old buddy, let's go back to playing cards," "It's time for a game of Crazy Thinking," "Isn't it normal for a card player to lose a fight?" and so on.

And the studio was also relatively tolerant of him; a highly educated "returnee" like Jichang who entered the industry at the age of twenty-three was very rare in the professional circle, and he also had the title of Magic: The Gathering intercontinental (European) champion when he entered the industry, not only did he bring his own batch of fans, but he could also help the studio improve its international influence. To take a step back… even if he completely disappeared in *Thriller Paradise*, he was also a top 100 player in the ladder of *Crazy Thinking*, so… losing is losing.

In the "Associate General Battle," [Shanhe], holding the match point, sent out [Mocha Su] and [Qiang Si], while [Tiandi] sent [Shangxin Guo] and [Niannian Mumu Chaochao].

Because they pulled out Mocha Su, a strong player who should have been placed in the "General" position, [Shanhe] still had the advantage in strength; [Tiandi] was caught off guard, they did not expect that… [Shanhe] had put out a lineup similar to the [Zhushen] in the first round—that is, a lineup that abandoned the General Battle and decided to determine the outcome in the first four games.

The same "four-game optimal lineup," [Zhushen] lost, losing to the insurmountable high wall of Guixiao (although he is 1.69 meters tall); and [Shanhe]… finally won, winning thrillingly.

When the score of three to one was fixed, the second focus battle of this third round also came to an end.

After this round, [Hongying] and [Tiandi], the two seeded teams ranked in the top ten, were tragically eliminated.