Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
A faint light flashed past. Frenzied Sword, who had just finished his match for the day, appeared in the stronghold hall. He was quite upset.
“Sigh, another loss. Lost Angel is too steady—I really can’t beat him. My ranking dropped by one again. The next opponent is Club Key’s Key of Solomon, a very strong guy. If I lose again, it will be completely impossible for me to qualify.”
Frenzied Sword shook his head worriedly.
More than half of the matches were finished, and the situation started to get clearer. In the team matches, Dynasty had secured one qualifying position; Long Sky and Temple of God were both still moving around the edge of eighth place. If they lost a certain match or did not score enough points, they would be left behind instantly. With the harsh environment in group C, catching up afterward was extremely difficult.
However, the team matches had nothing to do with Frenzied Sword. His performance in the Singles was not too great but not too bad. He was ranked in the middle around 17th to 18th place. His win percentage was about fifty percent, but every victory was a tough one. He started to feel what a Mechanical Pugilist lacked.
Although the Mechanical Pugilist class could both fight and take hits, was capable of both melee and ranged attacks, and was quite well rounded, it did not have a unique strength. Despite his skills being very high, there was still quite a distance between his skill level and the top tier skill level. These maniacs in the Singles all had their own special tactic or even tactics. They were good at dragging their opponents into their own tempo. Frenzied Sword realized that if a Mechanical Pugilist like him wanted to chase up, the only method was to depend on stronger or more unique mechanical weapons.
However, the flaws of the Mechanical Pugilist class were not because of personal skill level. The Mechanic class did not suit the first version very well. After all, every version had its own legends. In order to make up for the shortcomings of a Mechanical Pugilist, one had to depend on stronger machinery and higher-level enhancements in the later versions. In all versions, the Mechanical Pugilist class was considered a class that was fun, well-rounded, and not a bad class. It could be played as the main tank or the damage source, and its development curve was smooth, unlike the Mechanic class.
It was already very rare for Frenzied Sword to have achieved so much. Other than his skills, the main reason was his high-quality mechanical equipment from Han Xiao. If he had not met Black Phantom back then, he probably would have been in the area competition and never would have made it to the international stage.
Of all the players that followed Han Xiao, Frenzied Sword was the firmest supporter. Not only because he had received the most help but also because he really liked the character of Han Xiao after spending so much time together. Sometimes, he even felt as if Han Xiao was a real person.
Although all the NPCs in Galaxy felt like real people, Han Xiao gave him a unique feeling. Maybe it was because Han Xiao was the first important character that he had met.
After regaining his focus, Frenzied Sword decided to find Han Xiao to repair his equipment and add some new weapons for the next match, hoping to increase his chance of winning.
Just as he was about to head toward Han Xiao, Han Xiao came to the hall. Frenzied Sword approached immediately and expressed his wish of repairing. The store interface appeared before his eyes.
He quickly browsed through it. Suddenly, he noticed a few new items at the bottom.
“Hmm? Ability Potion? Never seen this before. Is this new?” Frenzied Sword was surprised.
Han Xiao placed the Ability Potions into the store. There was a limited quantity, so he made their price very high. The effect introduction was that they granted one ability of another character for a short period. The source of the Ability Potion was written, and the potion that Han Xiao made from his own genes was in it as well, which was discovered very quickly by Frenzied Sword.
“Only one Ability Potion from Black Star. What’s its effect?”
The potion prices were all 2,000 Enas, not cheap at all, or it was quite expensive. One would only know its effects after using it. The effect of the temporary Character Summoning Card would definitely be one ability of the person that it came from. The ability given was random.
Frenzied Sword had yet to make a purchase decision. At this time, Dynasty, Temple of God, and other contesting teams approached as well. They noticed the new product, Ability Potion, as well.
“Temporarily grants an ability of someone else. This looks like a buff potion. Why is it so expensive? Are the effects very strong?”
In order to increase their strength, these teams did not hold back on spending. Hao Tian immediately bought an Ability Potion from Rezar. After drinking it, a notification of temporary Character Summoning Card popped up. Its effect was increasing the damage of magic attacks by seventy-seven percent; he was quite shocked by it.
“Sadly, I’m not a Mage, or this enhancement would be quite strong. It can be used in key moments in the team fight or to kill the weaker opponents in a short time. It can turn the tables if used properly!”
This was not the first time that the players had come into contact with Character Summon Cards. The Character Summon Cards could enhance one’s strength and were very practical. Usually, only special missions awarded such things, so they did not appear often. They did not expect Han Xiao to sell Character Summon Cards. Despite these being temporary ones, this was the first time that they had seen them. They were shocked and joyed.
Frenzied Sword’s eyes sparkled, and he hastily bought the only Black Star Ability Potion. He was a Mechanic, and so was Black Star. Thus, the ability was definitely going to be suitable for him.
Not bothering about the other teams snatching the rest of the Ability Potions, Frenzied Sword walked to the side and drank Han Xiao’s potion carefully.
A notification appeared on the interface.
_____________________
You have received [Character Summon Card – Han Xiao (Temporary)]
[Character Summon Card – Han Xiao (Temporary)]: Black Star’s Advent
Increase your Machinery Affinity by 247%.
Duration: 3 mins
Usages: 0/1
_____________________
Frenzied Sword instantly opened his eyes widely. The shock was stuck on his face. He could not help but to rub his eyes, afraid that he had read the wrong numbers.
“Tw—two point five times enhancement!!”
Frenzied Sword could hardly believe it.
“My Machinery Affinity is barely half of this number even after using all my enhancing abilities. Black Star’s attributes are way too strong. How strong is he?”
‘Overpowered’ was not even enough to describe this!
The enhancement was almost like a bug!
Using this Character Summon Card at this level, even a pig could defeat the opponent!
Han Xiao had many abilities, and this Character Summon Card granted the user his Machinery Affinity. This was not considered an ability but Han Xiao’s basic attributes, so its effect became a buff.
Without using any abilities, Han Xiao had 247% Machinery Affinity from his talents and passive abilities. When abilities were used, this number would be increased by another 100% to 200%. This was the simplest effect but also the strongest one.
That was because Machinery Affinity was the core attribute of the Mechanic class—it directly influenced one’s strength!
As the level of the Mechanic class continued to increase, the Machinery Affinity would continuously increase as well. However, the effect of the temporary Character Summon Card was an extra enhancement. Hence, this was like giving the user the attributes that he would have dozens of levels later!
And dozens of levels higher… happened to be the level that the Mechanic class started to be strong!
Luckily, the temporary Character Summon Card could only be used once and was very rare. If it was a fixed ability, it would make the player invincible!
Seeing that Frenzied Sword was breathing heavily in excitement, Han Xiao touched his chin, very curious.
Which of my abilities did this kid get for him to be this excited?
…
“Frenzied Sword, third place in Planet Aquamarine Singles, Mechanical Pugilist class, known as the strongest Mechanical Pugilist in China…”
In the Club Key stronghold in Planet Winterfrost, Key of Solomon casually browsed the information of his next opponent in Singles. He sneered and said with pride and confidence, “Looks like there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Are you planning to use Howling Gate?” an old member, Cursed Staff, asked.
“You’re overthinking, there’s no need to use my trump card to beat the next opponent. I bet that people like Lost Angel, Golden Champagne from Rose Knight, and Scarlet Marshall from Devil definitely have trump cards up their sleeves. Although I’m ranked seventh now, I can definitely reach the top if I used my trump card. However, just qualifying is enough for now; it’s best to leave the trump card to use in the finals.”
Key of Solomon was very confident in his trump card. [Howling Gate] was a special spell item that he had gotten from an extremely difficult hidden mission. Although he did not know what the trump cards of the others were, he was confident that he was close to invincible in this level in a one on one. Even if he did not use his trump card, his skills were among the highest. Being able to reach seventh place had already proved that.
“After winning this, my ranking will go up another place. The opponents in the last few matches are all quite difficult to deal with. I can deliberately lose these matches to hide my real strength. This way, my ranking should drop to about fifteenth place, just enough to qualify. And that’s enough…”
Based on the assumption that he would win the next match, Key of Solomon started planning for the rest of the matches. In his eyes, the next match was free points before facing strong opponents. He was certain of his victory and did not even consider his chances of losing.
…
Frenzied Sword was one of the few Mechanic class players in the international Singles and the only Mechanic class from China. With the title of ‘Strongest Mechanical Pugilist in China’, he received a lot of attention from many fans and viewers.
From the start of the competition, Frenzied Sword’s performance had been nothing extraordinary, and his ranking was only average. Even for the matches that he did win, the viewers could see that he had a hard time winning. His ranking could not go up; it seemed like he had reached his limit.
Between the three Singles contestants from China, King Admiral had a very high ranking and did not have to worry about qualifying; SnowFlower was at the bottom, and due to the fact that more than half of the matches had been completed, unless he won every match from now on, there was no chance for him to qualify; Frenzied Sword’s ranking was fluctuating around sixteenth place, which meant that he had a chance of being the second contestant from China to qualify. He had the hopes of many fans on his shoulders.
The rest of Frenzied Sword’s journey in the competition was rather extreme. His opponents were either very strong in the top ten or very weak at the bottom. The fans analyzed according to his performance and realized that even if he could beat all the weaker players, he would still need a few more points to qualify. He had to beat at least one strong player in order to qualify. However, Frenzied Sword had a very low win rate against strong players at this time.
The situation did not look good.
And the opponent of this match was ranked seventh, [Key of Solomon].
Many fans were secretly anxious and encouraged him. There were also people who were bitter and complained, saying that Frenzied Sword was falsely given the title of the strongest Mechanical Pugilist in China and embarrassed himself in front of the entire world. As always, the forums were filled with all kinds of comments.
No matter how they looked at it, time would not slow down even the slightest. The day of the match arrived as usual.
Frenzied Sword and Key of Solomon entered the match venue. The image that the viewers saw included the health, stamina, status bar, and all their attributes. The situation was clearly laid out for the audience to make watching the match simpler.
The venue was a huge city. Tall, thick walls made of concrete and steel surrounded the city. The two of them landed on the two sides beside this dozens of meters tall, four to five meters thick wall. They could see each other’s tiny outline from far away.
Storm clouds flew above the sky of the desolate city.
The audience pulled the bird-eye view higher and realized that on the outside of the wall, there was a huge oil painting of a few words.
Black Phantom Sanctuary Three.
“Haha, this is the random venue.”
“I know this place. Isn’t this Sanctuary Three from our planet?”
The Chinese fans were pleasantly surprised.
