Victim of the Matching System

In the final stages of the elimination rounds, Xue Ming went to various arenas to discuss tactics and techniques with the students based on their elemental composition, urging the losers to cheer up and make a final push.

The whole process was lengthy and complicated. Not only did the gunsmiths and students review for the exam, but the teachers also learned a lot from these children.

The log entries were filled with more and more names, and in addition to names, more details about the matches were appearing.

"The red team's spirit is resilient; a complete ball of silk threads can be vaguely seen, indicating that it has reached the cocooning stage."

Xue Ming took notes while observing the situation on the field.

"With eight minutes remaining in the match, both sides' stamina and energy reserves are like flickering candle flames, ready to be extinguished at any moment."

On stage, sweat poured down like rain, and blood boiled like Fen Feng.

"The blue player fought very cleverly. His spiritual body was not as strong as the red player's. He used delicate spiritual threads to counter the blows of the stick, trying to neutralize the force of the blunt weapon's direct impact, like a rolling pin, sending it to the side of his upper and lower arms where there was more fat—his eyes, hands, heart, and intention were all integrated into one, which was a very good technique."

During brief pauses, the duelists would stop to catch their breath, panting heavily as they exchanged glances.

"Judging from the cumulative damage to their bodies, the blue team's attack range was smaller but the density was greater, while the red team's attack range was larger, yet neither could weaken the enemy's combat effectiveness—both players were reaching their physical limits."

Xue Ming raised his head and stared at the two contestants who were locked in a fierce battle.

"If nothing unexpected happens, and the red player fails to break through their own limitations, evolve, and find a new playing style, they will lose."

The situation on the field unfolded exactly as Xue Ming had predicted.

--The blue team member appeared to have been hit in multiple places, with bruises, contusions, and bleeding from his face, yet he still maintained a clear gaze. Holding a long staff, he crouched down and advanced to strike, his cautious and methodical stance resembling that of a seasoned hunter.

The red player only had three injuries. He was holding the baguette with his right hand, and his thumb, wrist, and Thumb were all bruised and bleeding. He had to forcefully use both hands to grip the weapon and change his center line to fight back, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to hold the baguette at all.

Another injury was to the abdomen and liver, where the blue team used their long staff to stab him from a distance. The precise and vicious stab almost turned that area of his abdomen into a mass of rotten flesh, with torn muscle tissue visible and blood flowing continuously down his pants.

The final point of damage is a whipping strike to the left leg, specifically the calf. To weaken the red side's fighting ability, the blue side uses the long staff to gain a two-step advantage. If the opponent's left leg can be disabled, the red side's intention to advance and launch a preemptive attack will become more obvious due to the sluggish left leg.

The psionic fluctuations of both sides were strong and powerful, making them the group with the strongest fighting spirit among the seventh-grade students.

Eight minutes passed, and the two were still locked in a stalemate. Their groans and cries of pain, punctuated by their injuries, sounded like the defiant growls of cornered beasts struggling against the odds.

The blue player was very patient, but for a moment when his opponent lost his balance in the shoulder, elbow and torso, he had a moment of wishful thinking about being aggressive and eager to win.

It was almost an instinctive reaction! It really was just instinct!

Time seemed to slow down at that moment. The red player's left shin twitched and trembled, causing him to lose his balance, and the blue player swung his bat!

The staff is entwined with sharp spiritual threads, a simple enchantment to increase damage. The goal is to finish off the enemy with ruthless blows and bleeding damage!

If it drags on for another few dozen seconds, my body might betray my brain and I'd probably collapse to my knees before my opponent!

Thinking this, Little Blue launched an attack almost simultaneously with Little Red's trembling and unsteady state.

The embossed iron rods, gleaming with a deep blue light, were simultaneously unleashed. Red Fang, who had been hunched over, straightened up to parry, but instead of dodging, he stood up abruptly, regaining consciousness at the last second—as if his previous weakness was merely a trick by the wolf to lure the enemy into a false sleep!

The crisp, lively sound of metal clashing against metal was produced.

Xue Ming couldn't help but applaud the Red Team's fighting spirit.

"--Well done!"

He could hardly imagine how Little Red, who had suffered such severe injuries, could endure the pain and withstand the pressure, and come up with such a way to break through the predicament at the last second before the decisive battle.

Previously, Little Red was teased and played with by her opponent's long weapon, like a toy to be slaughtered. Occasionally she would risk her life to break through the encirclement, but the damage she caused was extremely limited, and she could not carry out precise strikes.

Being able to set a trap at the last second, feign weakness to counterattack, and execute that process—that's already quite remarkable.

The result of the match is not yet in.

--Because the red and blue teams were fighting with their batons at arm's length, their last bit of adrenaline was keeping them going. Unless they hit vital nerves in the head and face with perfect precision, they couldn't land a decisive blow.

They had been fighting for eight minutes without a break. Unless Lady Luck was on their side and only favored one of them, they simply couldn't hit the enemy's head in this state of mind.

A few seconds passed, and both sides moved more and more slowly. Finally, the blue team collapsed, and in the blink of an eye, the red team also became weak and about to kneel down.

The final bell rang--

"--Red wins."

Xue Ming delivered White Lady's products to the two heroes and talked to the Little Red Little Blue about the details they needed to pay attention to during the knightly duel.

He said to Little Blue, "You did very well, you played very smartly, just a little bit short. In the final round, at arm's length, your stick advantage vanished. If you can't hit the weakness that had accumulated damage before, the red side will have the advantage instead—you were too impatient."

Little Blue said dejectedly, "It's not that I was impatient. The moment I saw him collapse, my body seemed to disobey me, and I just wanted to go up and finish him off!"

"That's because your body is too impatient," Xue Ming emphasized. "You can't control your physical body, you can't achieve unity of spirit and flesh, and the speed of transformation will slow down—you need to adjust slowly, which is a very, very difficult thing."

After drinking White Lady's product, Little Red brought a bucket of cold water and poured it over himself from head to toe. When he left the scalding hot arena and returned to his teacher, he was a completely different person. When he was quiet, he was like a shy girl.

"Well done." The gunsmith nodded to Little Red: "You have a deep understanding of mimicry technology—you were able to maintain your rationality and plan your attack even in a highly intense combat environment. You are a very capable soldier."

Little Red didn't say anything, but bowed to the gunsmith teacher to express her gratitude.

Finally, the red and blue teams shook hands and exchanged information with each other, and the spiritual threads and spirits exchanged messages.

Although it was just an ordinary competition, it took on a different meaning in the eyes of the dean and a group of teachers and students.

Those were the remarkable achievements of psionicists at two different stages—the pupa and the cocoon—made using knightly combat techniques.

Unlike simple addition and subtraction, the outcome of the match cannot be determined by whose stick or pyroxene is stronger, or whose spirit is more perfect.

Although the blue player was in the pupa stage, the reason for his defeat was not that his psionic ability was inferior to that of the red player.

On the contrary, his performance in the first half was outstanding. His understanding of the Spirit Silk and his mastery of the staff almost completely outclassed his opponents on an intellectual level.

The red team player is in the metamorphosis stage, with a more powerful spiritual body, but the means of determining the outcome have little to do with psychic energy.

He struggled in the first half, his weapon nearly slipping from his grasp several times. His spirit was able to save him from fatal mistakes once or twice, helping him absorb damage and regain his grip on the baguette. However, the main reason for defeating his opponent was the mimicry used to lure him in and the subsequent offensive plan.

The key factor that determines the outcome of this contest is patience. Whoever loses patience first, succumbs to pain and fatigue, will lose the victory.

Judging from the red player's habit of treating his wounds and pouring cold water on himself after the match, he has probably experienced this kind of pain more than once, and his nerves are like steel, forged through countless trials.

All these infinitely mysterious changes come from the gunsmith's knightly combat skills.

It is a mental technique that ordinary people can practice and is applicable to most combat scenarios. In the context of psychic duels, it is almost a dimensional reduction attack.

At the highest point of the spectator seating --

Dean Lupin watched as the students, in the final elimination rounds, showed no mercy or etiquette, revealing their pathetic fighting postures as they went all out, yet he felt a strange sense of beauty in it.

"Only half a year, just half a year," Dean Lupin sighed, gripping the gem on his Magic Wand and gazing towards the arena. "I feel like all these children have changed."

Director Simmons stood beside his old friend, his eyes darting around uncertainly. Most of the senior students at Galahad were Blue Stone People, quiet, wise, and erudite elites who rarely expressed such a strong fighting spirit. It was as if they were hunters from the barbaric era, wearing leather skirts and holding spears, which seemed unbelievable.

"I have to admit, the gunsmith professor's skills are indeed quite impressive."

Even in a duel between graduating students, as long as the Magic Wand of the two opponents are not too different, the psychic magic that can be cast is not like rubber bullets, which are quick-attack spells and cannot defeat the opponent in the first round.

Like Rock Tyson's fire-blowing tube, this technique can indeed kill strong monsters and scare away most of the mindless monsters in the underground environment, but the sixteen-meter square arena is too small, leaving too little room for mages to perform. As long as Meteor can survive the first round of grilling and clear a path for his charge, he can firmly grasp victory.

Director Simmons didn't get bogged down in details.

He stopped being stubborn, because reality doesn't follow magic etiquette, nor does it give students the time or space to perform rituals or spells, and there's one more crucial thing.

The winners on the field so far have all achieved excellent results in their knight combat skills course, with almost all of them earning full credits for the semester.

The fact that lapis lazuli and Fenxing hybrids can rank among the top is due to the ruthless crushing effect of the monstrous beast physique on Homo sapiens.

Magicians can also learn knightly combat techniques; there's no conflict. Many students, after realizing their weakness in their spiritual bodies and the futility of their clubs, have abandoned the idea of throwing projectiles and instead used enchanting rituals to enhance the direct damage of their clubs and train their physical resilience. For them, this is a roundabout way of doing things compared to their primary focus on Magic Wand.

But it was precisely this detour that repeatedly forged the students' will. The continuous hammering and forging over half a year allowed these children, who were afraid of pain, to rediscover their own bodies.

Lupin pointed to a pair of girls, one in Little Red Little Blue, who were classmates. The two had just finished their match and, after leaving the ring, held hands tightly and hugged each other, turning into two little crybabies.

"The last time I saw this scene was before World War II, when there were many heroes and people were full of hope—young people had role models and never became discouraged. Even if they lost, it didn't matter; their opponents were not stumbling blocks, not competitors who would steal their honor, but the best partners."

Simmons turned his head to look at the stadium stands, where countless people rose and fell, one by one standing up following the totem flags of the academic faction, like waves crashing on the shore. The cheers and shouts of encouragement made him feel mesmerized.

"Is this really an elimination tournament? Lupin, I don't understand."

It's important to know that in previous years, the Sage's Cup was decided in the preliminary rounds, and all eyes were on a few young talents. After all, they were the hope of the entire village of Balason. The talent of psychic energy is a gift from heaven—only a very, very few people can Defying Heaven and Changing Fate after adulthood. Often, one can see a person's future from the age of three, so family background becomes extremely important.

In the elimination rounds, it's all about picking treasures from the trash. Unlike the Red Stone Red Stone People, the Blue Stone People are not lively. After one or two failures, most of the students lose their fighting spirit and sharp energy, making the selection process for the duels very ugly.

Simmons said that because this year's Philosopher's Cup is very different.

The two anonymous brothers, acting as teacher and teaching assistant, were like a shot of adrenaline, somehow giving the students the same motivation and charm that made the audience in the elimination rounds shout out the slogan of the Best Moon God Cup.

This is a kind of magic that Director Simmons finds hard to understand, but Dean Lupin can understand part of it because he participated in the Sage's Cup in the previous two eras, both as a participant and as a referee, and understands that friendship is the most magical thing.

Children always need energy, vitality, and a fearless spirit.

These students care so much about winning and losing, and become incredibly serious during the elimination phase, because the knightly combat skills give them another chance. Compared to rituals like bestowing stones and staffs, this is an opportunity that everyone can seize and hold firmly in their hands.

Dean Lupin had always wanted to research the craft of combining staff and stone, to bestow upon the Blue Stone People another form of [fairness].

--Because a passenger only has one stick in their lifetime, and this spirit medium's temper is hard to fathom, if it can be artificially controlled to turn the stick into a magician's wand, into a tool, there is a possibility of recreating the universe, a feat of turning decay into magic.

The knightly combat skills taught by the gunsmith to his students are like another kind of Magic Wand. As long as the Universal Elixir is still available, it can heal injuries and diseases, restore limbs, and forge steel.

As the Dean was lost in thought—

Director Simmons, however, was furious and anxious because his granddaughter had been eliminated according to the drone footage.

"How could this be! How could she..."

Lupin: "Calm down, Simmons. A lot of people are watching you."

Simmons, enraged, grabbed Lupin's beard and shouted, "We made her such a powerful Magic Wand! Her psychic talent isn't bad either, why did she fall in the first round?! I don't understand!"

Lupin: "Everything has a reason; it's just that she was unlucky."

Simmons rolled his eyes. "Luck? I don't believe in luck! Can Luna be defeated by luck? She's twenty-one! This is her last time participating in the Sage's Cup! To falter at this crucial moment! The whole family will be disgraced!"

"Don't put too much pressure on the child." Lupin pointed to the big screen. "Look at your granddaughter, look at Luna, take a good look at her."

"The referee must have been biased! Damn it!" Simmons had never been so angry. No matter how angry this cunning jackal was, he would never lose his temper. The reason he broke down and cursed was because his granddaughter, whom he cared about most, had submitted a zero score at such a crucial moment. It was like a top high school student in the mortal world failing the college entrance exam.

Director Simmons was blinded by concern; when his gaze drifted to the large screen in the main hall, all his anger vanished.

Because his granddaughter was crying and burying her head in her friend's arms--

--Miss Luna's makeup was ruined, and she was covered in bruises from being beaten. Simmons felt both sorry for her and guilty. A sense of shame that was hard to describe was about to overwhelm him.

"Gunsmith! Gunsmith! Gunsmith!"

"I'm here!" Xue Ming replied from afar.

Simmons: "It's all your fault! My granddaughter was eliminated! It's all your fault! She was defeated by your top student using knightly combat skills?!"

Xue Ming raised his hands in surrender. "No, no, no, no! Director! You probably don't pay much attention to Miss Luna. This student is very hardworking and diligent. She even got full marks for the sixteen points in Knight Combat Skills. She is indeed a top student. I admire her very much."

"Then why? Why did she lose?!" Simmons' forehead veins bulged, but his attention was drawn to the live broadcast of the match on the main stage.

On the big screen, Luna, sobbing, is held in the arms of her opponent, who is her classmate, also a 21-year-old graduating student.

"You've done very well, Luna."

"I hope you can look at this rationally. We've done everything we could. It's just that we're less skilled and less capable than others, so there's nothing to complain about."

"The root of all tragedy lies in the lottery of matching. Simply because you met me."

"Your two defeats in the ring weren't because you were bad. Your first opponent was Hasben Madison, he's the Flash—your efforts weren't in vain."

The myth of Sisyphus says, "Losing hope is not the same as despair. The fires on earth are as good as the fragrance of the heavens."

"We were good enough; no one should be held responsible for this defeat."

As Jiang Bailu spoke, she handed Luna a makeup remover pad and brought her water, her face full of apology.

The entire audience saw Simmons' granddaughter sobbing and rolling her eyes as she cursed.

"You're so strong, how the hell did you even make it to the losers' bracket?!"

Jiang Bailu covered her forehead and rolled her eyes back.

"I originally wanted to borrow the Radiant Stone and the stick from Meteor Brother for the competition, but I was matched with him in the second round and lost immediately. I'm also a victim of the matchmaking system. We're classmates, so meeting you is fate."

At this point, the director was playing a trick on people.

--The camera cuts to contestant Bu Liuxing.

Meteor was squatting in the convenience store eating an ice pop. He didn't have Iron Knight with him, and he had lent the Rose Shining Stone Wolf Mask to Bailu.

He appeared on television again, very composed, greeting the audience with strange hand gestures and saying only one word.

6.