The Most Down-Head Saber

Who was the strongest retired player?

'Amulet Owl': It depended on the circumstances, but personally, I thought it was Brother Dao.

'I Don't Want to Pay the Breach Penalty': Wasn't it Brother Dao? Though that would be another matter if players who retired this year were included.

'Not Iaido, But Drawing Sword': Anyone other than me and God Stealer?

The slash that severed Spider Woman's head had cost the headless Ghost Centaur a great deal of speed. Yet after three uninterrupted accelerations, its remaining speed was still terrifying, exceeding the limits of ordinary human reaction.

The headless centaur raised its saber and charged straight at the dragonkin.

The instinctive reactions of a ghost creature kept its entire body transparent and invincible until the blade touched its target.

The dragonkin, meanwhile, did not move at all, as though the physiological limitations of a cold-blooded creature prevented it from realizing what it was about to face.

The blade came down.

In that instant, Scholar saw the centaur pass the dragonkin. Its front knee suddenly buckled, and it crashed heavily to the ground. Traveling at over a hundred kilometers per hour, its massive body carved a long skid mark across the earth.

The dragonkin remained where it was, its right hand resting on the hilt.

As though nothing had happened.

If spectator seats had been set up for this battle in the woods, and the audience had been asked when the dragonkin joined the fight—

Then unfamiliar new viewers would probably have answered, "Obviously when the centaur charged at him."

However, if they asked Brother Dao himself, who was controlling the dragonkin, or anyone who had watched the first five Expedition Cup world championships, the obvious answer would only be, "When the mercenary blew himself up, right?"

When the Thermobaric Round detonated, Brother Dao instinctively drew his sword.

Three notifications appeared in his hidden prompt window.

You have just used 'Sword Draw Slash'. You have learned the skill 'Sword Draw Slash Lv20'.

You have just used 'Sheathe Technique'. You have learned the skill 'Sheathe Technique Lv20'.

You have triggered 'Blade Counter'. You have learned the skill 'Blade Counter Lv13'.

A player named Golden Wind had shared a mechanic he discovered in the ten-person group chat created when the server opened:

If, during combat, a player used their own experience to perform a skill their game character had not mastered, that character would automatically learn it.

The skill level simply would not be very high.

Because the level of the skill the character learned matched the player's proficiency in performing it.

These veteran players had merely developed muscle memory for those skills over thousands of hours of gameplay.

They were not superhumans in the game. Even in a Burst State, being able to use skills from the "mortal" stage was already an absurd feat.

But for Brother Dao—

For a max-level Lv30 Sword Draw Slash, he had only scored 66%.

It could only be considered a passing grade.

After seeing Brother Dao get attacked, 'I Don't Want to Pay the Breach Penalty' had no choice but to give up on the equipment for now. He discarded his ruined exoskeleton and hurried toward the Mining Mech the woman had abandoned.

He saw the dragonkin's sword and knew it was Brother Dao himself acting, rather than the character. A sudden urge to cry rose in him.

As a new-generation professional player, he knew exactly how difficult this was. Brother Dao's achievements during his professional career had long become a standard weapon for coaches to PUA active players.

—Under the effect of triple Brain Domain acceleration, Brother Dao had repeated sword draws for at least thirty-two hours every day during his professional career.

His class had been Sword Saint, centered around elaborate techniques and countering every move with the appropriate response.

But Brother Dao only knew how to draw his sword.

Using Sword Draw Slash to create an opening, applying Hard Control, then following with a high-damage combo—that was the proper use of the Drawing Sword Style.

But attacking after drawing the sword was iaido.

Brother Dao only knew how to draw his sword.

Sword drawing was not suited for proactive offense. Most of the time, it was used for defensive counters, so Brother Dao never attacked first.

Even in professional matches, he would merely stand there with a hand on his hilt.

If you could resist the urge to attack Brother Dao, then in a team match, he really would watch as you surrounded and killed his teammates.

After your five-man team killed all four of Brother Dao's teammates, you could join forces to challenge this terrifying Boss, who had competed in 326 Professional Grade solo matches over five years of his career and remained undefeated to this day.

That was Down-Head Saber.

The world's number one sword-drawing man, who spoke in a Henan accent, watched his teammates die, stood there without moving, and only knew how to defend and counter.

If Glorious Expedition displayed damage numbers like its old version did—

Then that scratch of a slash from the dragonkin's level-one character had dealt a total of 10 damage to the Headless Centaur Phantom.

Though hitting its knee joint had inflicted the knockdown Hard Control, causing the centaur to lose 400 HP from the fall.

As a Lv32 Elite Monster, the Headless Centaur Phantom still had 6790/7200 HP remaining.

For Silver Monsters, which averaged over 10,000 HP each, that was very low.

Yet even so, in Despair Expedition, almost no players would willingly farm this piece of shit.

One look at its mechanics explained why. Centaurs were a race that could increase their damage through speed, while its headless trait let it teleport and change direction, nearly guaranteeing constant acceleration. Its ghost trait also allowed it to remain semi-transparent and invincible until it actively attacked you.

The three stacked together—Best Match!

Aside from Divine Arts Classes built specifically to counter it, no one could farm it quickly.

The Headless Centaur, having fallen to the ground, immediately got back up. It teleported a short distance away and began circling the dragonkin, continuously building up running speed.

The dragonkin did not move, but Brother Dao behind it brightened up.

A new move?

Just as Amulet Owl had said in his post, perhaps the game had added AI learning functions to every minor monster.

How much of a burden would that place on the servers? Could they handle a large number of players?

The officials had swallowed his Main Account, worth over eight million, just like that. Was this actually the entry fee for the game?

Maybe the officials only planned to serve a small number of high-spending players in the future. They did not need Non-Paying Players, which was why they had made such realistic NPCs.

For an equipment-driven online game, ordinary players were part of the gameplay experience for big spenders. Was even that part about to be optimized away now?

The random thoughts in his head did not affect Brother Dao's instinctive sword swing in the slightest.

The centaur had accumulated enough speed and charged straight at him again. It raised its saber, and at the moment it swung down, teleported behind the dragonkin.

"Clang—!"

Sword Draw Slash struck at the opening, but the level-one character's attributes were too low to inflict heavy stagger. It only interrupted the centaur's attack.

Its attack blocked, the Headless Centaur instantly vanished and appeared directly before the dragonkin. With the speed preserved through teleportation, it brought down a second slash.

"Bang—!"

He used Sheathe Technique to cancel Sword Draw Slash's recovery.

Not difficult!

The dragonkin instantly unleashed a second Sword Draw Slash, deflecting the centaur's attack in another direction. Unfortunately, he still failed to find an opportunity to inflict heavy stagger.

The centaur vanished once more and appeared three hundred meters away. Its over-three-meter-tall body rapidly grew from a black speck in his vision, its speed accumulating to the limit.

Dragonkin: "..."

The centaur swung its saber down again, the blade cleaving from the dragonkin's head toward its tail, yet it did not inflict the slightest damage.

It had not even left its ghost state!

The dragonkin still gripped the hilt, not fooled by this fake attack. With his current stamina, he could not use skills consecutively in a short period.

Within the twenty seconds it took for his "Green Bar" to recover, he could only draw his sword once more.

So when the centaur charged at him again, he proactively stepped half a pace forward.

I almost didn't finish writing it at the limit.