Chapter 1 Decisiveness

Having made up his mind, Barcode activated his transformation skill—[Gun Artillery Armor].

This was a skill that could only be used three times, and Barcode, in order to test its effect, had already used it once in a script a long time ago. So, this was his second time using it.

According to the studio's original plan, this killing move was best saved for the last few rounds of the competition… after all, to win the championship, you had to play all fifteen rounds.

But, plans could never keep up with changes… the first opponent randomly matched was the Pantheon, and the first "vanguard battle" had been lost. This development allowed the team members on the field to no longer consider conserving their strength.

In that instant, a white light flashed, and Barcode's arms, under the transformation of the white light stream, turned into two black mechanical arms with distinct lines.

Clang—

Facing the slash of the orichalcum weapon, Barcode simply raised one arm and easily blocked it. The sharp blade couldn't even leave a scratch on his arm.

Vishnu saw that his opponent had activated a transformation that was not mentioned in the pre-match intelligence. Although he was a little wary, he had no intention of stopping… after all, being one against two, he had no time to stop and observe. Once he stopped his fierce attack, the brief advantage he had just gained would vanish.

Therefore, after the first sword was blocked, Vishnu immediately moved, took a step to the side, exerted strength in his wrist, and unleashed a series of consecutive slashes with a backhand.

Orichalcum crystals could be condensed into any shape of cold weapon, but Vishnu chose a broadsword, which showed that he was very confident in his swordsmanship.

Of course, his "swordsmanship" was completely different from the routines of Jian Shao, Chan Ge, and others. The heavy broadsword was not suitable for those sword moves that pursued speed and change. This kind of sword was more focused on using the weight of the weapon and the strength of the user to suppress the opponent.

Clang, clang, clang…

Vishnu was obviously well versed in this. Between attacks, the sword in his hand picked, opened, chopped, and pressed… every move was extremely efficient and dangerous.

Even though Barcode was in a powerful transformation state, he was still suppressed to the edge of breaking through his defense, defending with difficulty.

At the same time, in the distance… Sashimi, who had been knocked away by the adamantite golem, had stabilized himself and taken out a megaphone from his bag, launching a counterattack without stopping.

Only to hear a "Ha!" A [Howling Cannon] roared from his mouth, boosted by the unique "amplifying weapon", and hit the torso of the adamantite golem after being amplified several times.

Along with a shattering sound like a chime, the body of the adamantite golem was directly pierced through. The hole was even bigger than the one made by [Ancient God's Finger] before, big enough for dolphins to perform jumping through hoops.

"Did I break it…" Sashimi adjusted the distance between himself and the target while staring at the opponent, thinking, "No… that's not right… that 'left arm' was also pierced, but it can still move."

His deduction was correct. Any single part of this adamantite golem could continue to function as long as its overall structure was not destroyed and its mass was more than 50%.

In fact… the more incomplete the appearance of the adamantite golem, the more you needed to be wary, because after the mass decreased, the speed of this thing would increase accordingly, and… the damage that was done to cripple it would become the golem's attack power.

Chi—

Just as Sashimi was thinking, another sound of wind breaking rose sharply. The giant shadow of the golem disappeared with the sound, replaced by the figure of Vishnu.

This time, the switch was not initiated by Vishnu for the sake of attacking… he had to switch in order to defend.

Two seconds ago, Barcode on the other side of the battlefield joined his arms together and unleashed a [Burning Heat Incineration Cannon]. Although this move was not in the intelligence report, just looking at the posture before the move and the condensed energy particles, one could tell that this would be a large-scale fire-based energy impact.

Vishnu naturally couldn't use the broadsword in his hand to block this move. Even if he temporarily gathered orichalcum to make a shield, he probably couldn't block it, so… he could only avoid it by switching positions.

And the result of the "passive" switch was… his main body was immediately attacked by Sashimi after appearing, taking damage and losing health.

Fortunately, the adamantite golem, after losing nearly a third of its mass (melted and fell off due to the high temperature), successfully ate the huge high-heat impact.

"It's really difficult…" Vishnu couldn't help but mutter after being injured. At the same time, he gritted his teeth and endured the pain, counterattacking.

At this time, the adamantite left and right arms also happened to fly behind Sashimi. Vishnu took this opportunity to control the two giant arms to launch a three-sided attack on Sashimi.

However, how could Sashimi, whose ability was "listening," not know that there were objects approaching behind him? Prepared for a long time, he calmly avoided the attack with a backflip and once again opened the distance, using subsonic finger for medium-range firepower suppression.

On the other side, Barcode was not idle either; since he couldn't hit Vishnu's main body for the time being, then he might as well output to the adamantite golem in front of him. Anyway, the firepower was excessive during the transformation… might as well use it.

He saw Barcode directly drill into the hollow body of the golem through the hole blasted by Sashimi, swung his two mechanical arms, and unleashed a wave of fierce punches in all directions, causing the golem's outer shell to deform from the inside out, becoming like a durian.

"Almost there." When Sashimi said this, under his bowl-cut head, a faint smile appeared on his plain face, "Although the first few attacks gave us quite a bit of trouble, the shortcomings of your summon (he didn't know that this was actually a psionic weapon) were exposed, and it seems very weak."

The shortcomings that Sashimi mentioned, or rather, that he had already seen, were mainly two:

First, the independent combat ability of the adamantite parts was too poor. When Vishnu's attention was focused elsewhere… for example, when he was focused on the fight with his main body… then, the adamantite parts that were far away from him almost became "uncontrolled" state, and could only make some simple actions, without any threat.

Second, in order to maximize the power of the "switch," there must be a certain distance between the main body and the golem, and it is best to keep the two in a state of continuous movement. This point… would be hindered when facing enemies with outstanding defensive capabilities who could stand their ground and withstand the main body's attacks. Not to mention… after opening the distance, shortcoming one would be immediately highlighted.

"Alas… I thought that relying on the first two switches, I could at least kill or cripple one of them…" Vishnu also responded in a timely manner, "I didn't expect that Barcode would still have such a transformation that could greatly improve his attack and defense. I can only say… as expected of someone from Order…"

At this point, he sighed deeply again.

To be honest, the bitterness of fighting two against one… anyone who fights knows.

But Vishnu had not given up, because… he still had "the final means."

At that moment, knowing that switching could no longer pose a threat, Vishnu decisively activated the strongest special effect of the adamantite golem—[Naga Deity Yi's Power]. The three adamantite parts on the field instantly turned into white light and condensed in the air.

White quickly turned to black.

A black hole like an abyss tore apart the surrounding space, swirling and expanding…

A pair of snake eyes suddenly opened from the darkness. Immediately afterward, a giant snake with a black back and a white belly rushed out of the black hole.

The Naga Deity Yi was as thick as a dragon. The unique cyan light of orichalcum material faintly shone on its black back. Its evil god-level malice, which seemed to have substance, made the air in the entire space turbid and heavy… Its presence and oppressive feeling were even more so than the Four Pillar Gods.

"Kill!" Vishnu didn't waste any more words. As soon as the Naga Deity Yi appeared, he said this one word. At the same time… he himself ran away.

Before his voice fell, the Naga Deity Yi spread its body and turned its head to swoop down towards Sashimi. The scene was really like a snake pouncing on a small animal like a field mouse.

Seeing this, Sashimi quickly rolled to the side, barely dodging the giant snake's rush.

One second later, the place where he had just stood was swallowed into the Naga Deity Yi's mouth… the ground with a volume of a car was crushed and swallowed by the giant snake like tofu… The destructive power of this kind of attack, if it were to bite on a player, the scene could be imagined.

Although Sashimi was mentally prepared for this, when this scene really happened, he couldn't help but feel cold all over and his hair stood on end…

"Chase his main body!" After experiencing the Naga Deity Yi's attack, Sashimi basically gave up the idea of facing it head-on. He immediately shouted at his teammate, and he himself also chased after Vishnu's escape direction in strides.

Of course, it was the same whether he shouted or not. Barcode felt that something was wrong when he saw Vishnu running away, and he had already started chasing.

Thus, the final stage of this "mid-general battle" became a chase scene where the Naga Deity Yi chased the two members of the Order team, and the two members of the Order team chased Vishnu of the Pantheon team.

The attack power of the Naga Deity Yi was equal to the attack power of the adamantite golem when it was sacrificed multiplied by ten. In the current state of the two members of the Order team, basically… as long as they were touched by it, they would be killed instantly.

For Vishnu, this should be considered an advantage; unfortunately… there were still several disadvantages from other aspects.

Even though Vishnu still had more than half of his stamina and psionic energy, his survival value was not as high as the two members of Order, and he no longer had the emergency evasion skill of instant switch.

The transformed Barcode was far stronger than Vishnu, who could not use psionic weapons, in terms of attack and defense, not to mention that there was Sashimi assisting him. If the two of them joined forces, Vishnu would probably be killed in seconds… Even if he could barely hold on until one of his opponents was touched to death by the Naga Deity Yi, as long as he died before any one of the enemies, he would lose the match.

Therefore, this chase became a battle of "whoever is chased first loses." The advantages and disadvantages in terms of attack and defense were already obvious. Now everyone had to compete in speed and endurance.

The painful thing was… in this aspect, all three players were about the same.

The Naga Deity Yi's endurance was unlimited, but its speed was only fifty-fifty with the players. The key was to see who slowed down or stopped first between Vishnu and the two members of Order.

…………

"Gui Xiao, you can see their stamina values, right? Who do you think will win in the end?" At the same moment, Ye Zhi in the viewing space asked Gui Xiao a question, which was also something that the other members of Order team really wanted to know.

"Hmm…" Gui Xiao thought for a while, "Actually… it's not 'who runs out of stamina first' that determines the victory or defeat; in fact, in my opinion, we have already won… The question now is, how long will it take for the two on the field to realize 'that thing'."

"Oh?" Ye Zhi asked suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"It's just that they can 'run different routes'…" Gui Xiao replied.

As soon as these words came out, everyone else in the viewing space, including Ye Zhi, all changed their expressions slightly and quickly realized something…

This battlefield had "boundaries," which was information that had been announced before the match. The opponent must also know this; the place where the battle started was in the center of the entire battlefield space, far from the boundary, but even so… with their current speed and continuous linear movement in one direction, it was only a matter of time before they were blocked by the boundary.

When they reached the boundary barrier, Vishnu, who was running at the front, would inevitably need to make a sharp turn to continue moving, and that kind of behavior… was fatal.

It was impossible for Vishnu not to have thought of this, so he would not run in a straight line. He had to run in an arc so that he could gradually run out a "circle" to avoid being blocked by the boundary barrier head-on.

In response to this situation, as long as the two people chasing him did not move side by side, but separated slightly, let one of them run along the same route as Vishnu, and the other slightly deviated towards the front of the other's "arc", approaching with a shorter distance, they could complete the interception.

Moreover, even if this tactic was discovered by Vishnu, he would be powerless; because the two chasing sides were only "slightly separated", with one of them slowly cutting in. Even if Vishnu saw this and then reversed his route to another direction, it would not cost the cutter too much stamina. What's more… turning back and forth, to put it bluntly, was walking in a small s-shaped route… This way of moving was also shortening the distance between him and the boundary, and the closer he was to the boundary, the smaller the space he could turn to go around.

…………

Sure enough, after running for a minute or two, Sashimi and Barcode almost simultaneously discovered that the route that the opponent was running was skewed and realized the reason.

The two exchanged a few simple words and decided that Barcode was responsible for cutting corners, and Sashimi continued to maintain his original route to catch up.

After another moment, Barcode, who was cutting corners, had approached enough to shoot while moving. He raised his two mechanical arms covered with gun barrels and started shooting.

In normal times, Vishnu could still use orichalcum to condense a shield to block this attack, but because he could not use the power of orichalcum when the Naga Deity Yi was present, this firepower suppression made him very uncomfortable and had to adjust his route again to stay away from Barcode.

In this way, Vishnu also understood that it was impossible to go around in circles and compare endurance with the opponent. He could only run straight towards the boundary and wait until he got there.

And this "wait until he got there" came very quickly… all three were top players and were basically moving at full speed. Before long, they arrived at the boundary.

When the barrier in the distance could be confirmed with the naked eye, Vishnu suddenly burst out and took the lead in launching an attack!

His choice was also reasonable. Instead of being forced to respond when there was no way to advance, it was better to take advantage of the fact that there was still space in front and turn around to make a surprise attack.

But… how could those two old fritters behind him be so easily ambushed?

Sashimi had been listening to Vishnu's heartbeat and blood flow rate all the way. He had been on guard against the opponent's explosion for a long time, and he also knew that there would be signs a few seconds before that.

As a result, as soon as Vishnu's action of stopping suddenly and changing direction started, a subsonic finger had already shot towards the direction he was about to move in, preemptively hitting the outside of his thigh.

This attack was not very strong, but it was enough to make his body pause.

In that instant, Barcode, who had quick eyes and hands, raised his hand and fired a shot. This shot was fired from the sniper rifle barrel on his mechanical arm, because this was a skill that could only be fired with a "sniper rifle"—[Philosophical Cannon].

"Without the terrible depths, there can be no beautiful surface."

As usual, the [Philosophical Cannon] had no "gunshot." When firing, what usually came out of the muzzle was a famous quote.

Vishnu, who was forced to a dead end, was hit in the face by "philosophy" just like that… Considering his physical strength, structure, regeneration ability, etc., which were far inferior to Infinite, who was blown up in the head by the same skill back then, his probability of surviving this shot was conceivable.

Even if the Naga Deity Yi caught up and swallowed him in one bite within two seconds after Barcode shot, it would be too late… Not to mention that there was a lively Sashimi next to him, even if there wasn't, Vishnu would turn into white light one step ahead of Barcode.

At this point, the second "mid-general battle" of S3's first round, [Order] vs [Pantheon], came to an end.

The final result was that the Order team won, making the total score between the two teams one to one.

Although from the process, it seemed that the practice of Sashimi and Barcode joining forces to calculate a newcomer was a bit embarrassing for them, but the match was the match. In the professional world, the result was greater than everything. Any means allowed by the rules could be regarded as tactical strategy, which was beyond reproach; to lose in the end for the sake of personal so-called "face" would be a disservice to the name of profession.

…………

Five minutes passed quickly.

Anyway, both sides didn't know who the other side would send out for the next match, so there was no way to deploy tactics.

During this time, the team members mainly made an emotional buffer, swept the game that they had just finished out of their minds, and prepared to welcome the next match.

[The match will begin in thirty seconds]

As soon as the rest time ended, the system voice immediately sounded.

At the same time, the members of both sides participating in the "lieutenant general battle" were also transmitted into the battlefield in response.

When the two players who fought in this duel appeared in the "Dirac Sea (pseudo)", all the viewers who were watching this match live were stunned, followed by various intense emotions such as surprise, doubt, and excitement.

And the members of the two teams who were in the viewing space all showed solemn expressions on their faces.

[Devouring Ghost Xiao] vs [Shiva]

Who would have thought that these two people would meet in the "lieutenant general battle" position.

But in any case, since they have both stood on the field, then… this lieutenant general battle will undoubtedly be a veritable "peak battle".