Chapter Twenty-Three
Ten minutes into the arena battle, Sheng Lingmie arrived at the port. The water was calm and still, and Xiao Shiqin did not see Bu Yehou from Sheng Lingmie's perspective.
Five minutes ago, after arriving at the port, Bu Ye Hou jumped directly into the water and never resurfaced.
At that moment, the elite players from various guilds who were watching the match couldn't help but recall the fear they felt when the tenth server opened and they were manipulated by Lord Grim at Thousand Waves Lake.
"From the attribute points allocated by the Nightless Marquis, we can see that she mainly focuses on speed and intelligence, so she lacks stamina. The same is true for her equipment attributes; she did not specifically choose those orange-tier equipment items that focus on stamina."
The arena battle was too peaceful, which was exactly when the commentator needed to step in. Unfortunately, Li Yibo had been away from online games for many years. While stalling for time, he carefully observed the camera positions of Zhou Qiao. Fortunately, Zhou Qiao's method wasn't sophisticated; it was just impractical and therefore not widely used. After watching for a while, Li Yibo roughly deduced the principle:
Three minutes ago, after the Living Spirits had finished sweeping through the town and found no trace of the Nightless Marquis, Xiao Shiqin turned his attention back to the chat channel.
After Zhou Qiao issued the water fight invitation, he did not speak in the public chat. He searched the town map but could not find her. She had hidden herself, but the referee did not consider it as passive play.
"To avoid being killed by the terrain, should we simply abandon the terrain and choose to fight it out in the water?" Xiao Shiqin muttered to himself.
Standing on the dock, the creature did not wait any longer. Two melon-shaped mechanical airdrops took off, their propellers spinning, and bombs fell onto the water, creating splashes.
The Undying Marquis appeared on the crest of a wave. Xiao Shiqin noticed the reflection from the sniper scope. The mechanical box transformed into a mechanical rotor and took flight. Even so, blood splattered in the lower right corner of the view, and the health bar dropped a bit—Shenglingmie was shot in the right shoulder.
Unable to continue firing, the Nightless Marquis was blown away by an air compressor that Life Destroyer had quietly launched before takeoff.
Under the influence of the powerful blowing effect, Bu Yehou failed to catch himself on the water and plunged headfirst into the water, his vision immediately submerged by bubbles.
The distorted four-dimensional effect of the Nightless Marquis affected her stamina bar. Because she was lurking underwater before firing the gun, her stamina value was not fully restored. After falling into the water, her stamina value showed a dangerous red number.
Since the living beings were still in the air, there was no need to worry about him firing a shot. After adjusting his position, the Undying Marquis fired in the water and almost flew back to the surface.
As the creature flew halfway down, it retracted its mechanical arm. A gunshot rang out as it fell. Xiao Shiqin thought to himself, "This is bad." The angle of entry into the water was indeed wrong, and the fall failed. It struggled in the water for a few moments before resurfacing.
He was met with a second Barrett sniper shot, this time hitting him squarely in the forehead.
Because many of the mechanic's gadgets are not as convenient to use in the water as they are on land, Xiao Shiqin was indeed restricted. However, the water surface brought more challenges. The recoil generated by the Nightless Marquis's sniping made it impossible for her to take advantage of the opponent's stun after being hit, as she had in previous matches.
As the Lord of Nevernight adjusted his position, two more mechanical airdrops flew out of the mechanical box. The small propellers carried the dissimilar bodies to the Lord of Nevernight, and the melon-like bellies of the mechanical airdrops split open, beginning a new round of bombardment.
Xiao Shiqin's skill in hitting the mechanical box is a sharpshooter's dual control.
The water was turbulent, and amidst the flying waves, the health bars of both Shenglingmie and Buyehou were rapidly decreasing. The commentator couldn't judge the situation from the white waves for a moment, and could only stare at the health and mana bars of the two characters to deduce what skills both sides had used.
Life Destroyer threw out a magnetic field coil, but this skill, which he had been holding onto for a long time, failed to achieve the expected trump card effect. Nightless Marquis's offensive did not weaken and remained as strong as ever. In the end, Life Destroyer's perspective turned gray first, and Nightless Marquis remained on the arena with a slight advantage of 13%.
The water surface returned to calm, and the stable gun mount that had broken the effect of the life-destroying magnetic field coil was now visible underwater.
This is the weapon skill chosen by the Marquis of Nevernight.
"This is the first time Zhou Qiao has chosen this skill! Although she has shown a strong attitude that is different from her usual style in previous competitions, a stable turret? This is unexpectedly strong!" Pan Lin exclaimed.
Li Yibo remained calm and collected. He had guessed what was going on after Xiao Shiqin's magnetic field coil failed to achieve its intended effect, so he was very confident: "Zhou Qiao's timing in deploying the gun mount was perfect. It was precisely when Xiao Shiqin's attacks were most intense. She left the stabilizing gun mount underwater, and the splashes perfectly concealed the movement of releasing the stabilizing gun mount."
He gestured to the director to switch to the replay of the moment she used the skill: "Her performance in the first two sniping attempts also made people subconsciously overlook the possibility that she had the option to use this skill."
Finally, Li Yibo commented: "Xiao Shiqin made no mistakes, nor did he have any outbursts. Like his professional mechanic, he was as accurate and efficient as ever. But Zhou Qiao used this to deceive the tactical mastermind's tactical arrangements and narrowly defeated his opponent."
In the audience, Happy's enthusiasm was completely ignited by Zhou Qiao's victory, and they went on a wild celebration. Of course, Excellent Era was not to be outdone. Although they lost the first game, Happy's advantage was negligible. How could a makeshift internet cafe team be so arrogant in front of Excellent Era?
Amid the shouts from the audience on both sides, Liu Xiaobie, fully armed, covered his ears with both hands and complained, "This is too noisy."
Gao Yingjie's eyes shone brightly, still not recovered from the intense match: "That was truly a wonderful match! No wonder you are Senior Xiaoxiao."
"But Happy's victory can only be described as a Pyrrhic one." Xu Bin was also paying attention to the match.
He debuted in the sixth season, when Zhou Qiao had just won the fifth season championship with Tiny Herb as the king of one-on-one. He had never officially faced Tiny Herb in the regular season. After the new year, Zhou Qiao chose to retire. Therefore, for Xu Bin, Zhou Qiao was a relatively unfamiliar opponent. Hearing Gao Yingjie's words, he was a little puzzled: "Is Xiao Gao and Zhou Qiao very familiar?"
Liu, debuting in Season 7, after a brief separation: "..."
High School, Season 8 Debut, Hero: "..."
Liu Xiao blurted out the truth: "You forgot? Xiao Gao was flirting with her during New Year's Day."
Gao Yingjie's face flushed red: "I wasn't hitting on anyone..."
Zhou Qiao was unaware that Tiny Herb's successor's reputation had been damaged. She turned her left hand, which was a little swollen from the intense operation, and waited for the second player of Excellent Era's arena to enter.
Seeing the ID on the other end, Zhou Qiao smiled and said, "It's Qiu Fei."
Nightless Marquis: Since we both came from the Excellent Era youth training camp, I'll point you in the right direction.
The Undying Marquis: (XXXX, XXXX)
Marquis of Nevernight: Why haven't you arrived yet?
Marquis of Nevernight: Why are you ignoring me?
The Undying Marquis: QAQ
The Undying Marquis: Are all the younger generation these days so unlovable?
Qiu Fei remained unmoved by Zhou Qiao's trash talk.
As Ye Xiu's personally trained disciple, Qiu Fei's account card combat style follows One Autumn Leaf's skill point allocation style. Although it has been several years and the level cap has been updated several times, Zhou Qiao still couldn't help but recall the scene when she was with Excellent Era, where the Sharpshooter was beaten up by the Battle Mage and ran all over the map.
Fortunately, she is much more mature now than she was six years ago, and she didn't repeat that embarrassing moment. The match between Zhou Qiao and Qiu Fei can be described as conventional. Qiu Fei didn't use any tactics, and Bu Ye Hou's 13% health was insufficient to meet the needs of a kiting strategy. After the two met on the map, they had a very ordinary exchange—the sharpshooter harassed the battle mage from a distance, and the battle mage used a dash skill to close the distance with the sharpshooter and finish off the low-health enemy.
After being caught up by the battle format, the view of the Nightless Marquis quickly turned gray, Glory popped up on the big screen, and the audience began to shout Qiu Fei's name.
After leaving the competition stage, Zhou Qiao did not immediately return to Xingxin's competition seat. Instead, he went to the vicinity of Jiasheng and whistled under the watchful eyes of the referees and security guards.
Xiao Shiqin: "?"
She didn't say anything, but simply spread her five fingers, waved them, and went back with an exceptionally bright smile.
Sun Xiang was deeply humiliated and gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. Xiao Shiqin watched in horror, fearing a scene like Sun, who was six years old, fighting Xiao, who was five years old, would unfold—professional players fighting in front of everyone would definitely be banned.
To Xiao Shiqin's great relief, Sun Xiang took a deep breath and endured it.
Wei Chen was the second player from Happy to enter the game.
Qiu Fei displayed a composure beyond his years in the face of Wei Chen's lewd style. Fifteen minutes into the third match of the arena, the tip of the battle-style spear pierced through the chest of the formation facing the wind, and magical battle energy surged out, with "Glory" popping up on the big screen.
Qiu Fei turned the tide for Excellent Era, making the Excellent Era audience even more excited. Wei Chen was greeted with cheers of "one against two" and deafening boos. However, he was already used to this scene. Instead, after encountering Ye Xiu in the passage, he punched him on the shoulder.
Wei Chen: "You really have taught your apprentice well."
Ye Xiu exaggeratedly rubbed his shoulder: "Seriously, Lao Wei? If you can't beat the other side, you should reflect on your own actions instead of taking it out on me!"
With only 3% of his health remaining, Excellent Era's slight advantage vanished within a few shots after he faced Lord Grim. Sun Xiang entered the fray third, facing a Lord Grim who was nearly at full health and mana.
One Autumn Leaf: Do you want to find a place to replenish your mana?
One Autumn Leaf: Otherwise, wouldn't people say I won unfairly?
Jun Moxiao: How did you know I was loading a bar?
Zhou Qiao noticed the conversation in the channel and laughed while flexing her wrists: "I thought he had learned his lesson."
After all, the last time Sun Xiang trash-talked and provoked Happy, his seniority was reduced again and again.
Sun Zheping, sitting next to Zhou Qiao, noticed her movements: "What's wrong with your hand?"
Zhou Qiao's attention was on the game: "I'm getting a cramp."
Sun Zheping frowned, got up from his seat, and handed Zhou Qiao a steaming towel when he returned.
Zhou Qiao took the towel, deeply moved: "Is this the tender side of a tough guy, Senior Sun?"
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