Old Demon

The reason for this is that Li Shuyi is used to fighting alongside Bai Xiaowen. With the protection of the Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier and Bai Xiaowen's strong crowd control skills, she can deal damage without any worries. But without Bai Xiaowen, she has to pay attention to self-preservation in one-on-one battles.

Through repeated failures, Li Shuyi gradually became familiar with the rhythm of solo queue battles, and her win rate began to rise again.

By the end of summer vacation, Li Shuyi's record remained at Bronze II, and she failed to advance in the promotion matches twice.

"My solo queue skill level is about this high, equivalent to a level 5 Awakened in Standard Class. I've made significant progress in combat experience." Li Shuyi felt she had gained a lot.

During this summer vacation, in addition to practicing combat on the Awakened Platform, the two also took time to practice their Battle Specialty.

With his basic attributes improved, his Battle Specialty stuck at a bottleneck, naturally broke through. Bai Xiaowen's Advanced Combat Specialty and Advanced One-Handed Swordsmanship had both reached level 4, and with the boost from the Ultimate Academic Ace, he was at the level of advancing to level 5.

Li Shuyi leveled up twice in the King of Fighters Plane, her basic agility soared to 18 points, and her One-Handed Swordsmanship made continuous breakthroughs, reaching level 5 through sparring with Bai Xiaowen.

This is a genuine level 5 without any title bonuses or artificial enhancements; Miss Li's swordsmanship talent is indeed very high.

On August 31st, Bai Xiaowen played his last ranked match via live stream.

"Okay, we've found an opponent... School starts tomorrow, so we're playing the third match of our qualifying round. After that, we'll go to sleep..." Bai Xiaowen said, wearing his virtual reality headset and letting out a sigh.

"The streamer is so confident, is he sure he'll win?"

"Is he new upstairs? Xiao Wen hasn't lost a single solo queue game since he started playing."

"None of the opponents I've encountered have forced Xiao Wen to use his full strength."

"Don't jinx it, this game is crucial, a win will put us in Silver Tier rank."

The live stream chat was constantly flooded with messages, making it impossible to reply to Yi-Yi. Bai Xiaowen didn't reply and went straight to the competition area.

Bai Xiaowen routinely opened the battle interface, glanced at the opponent's ID and level, which was also visible to the viewers in the live stream.

"What?! Level 7?!"

"A level 7 Awakener, actually only at the Bronze Tier? That's quite rare. Which level of expert is this Awakener called ' Old Demon Demon'?"

"A song of ' Cool Cool ' for the streamer."

Bai Xiaowen was a little surprised. That familiar ID, and that familiar level... Could it be such a coincidence?

Even if the opponent is Old Demon from the same guild, we still have to fight. Taking it seriously and not holding back is the greatest respect we can show to the Old Demon. But then again, the Old Demon's strength might not be weak. After all, he's a level 7 Awakened and a seasoned veteran of the B-League.

This area is hilly terrain with low shrubs.

Bai Xiaowen, accompanied by four Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier, climbed to the top of a stone hill. After looking around, he did not find the Old Demon.

"I remember the Old Demon seemed to have a group invisibility skill; it looks like he's hiding."

Bai Xiaowen conducted Mental Scan but failed to identify the Old Demon.

There are two possibilities: either the Old Demon's stealth skill has a very high priority, or the Old Demon did not get close immediately after going into stealth and is currently at a relatively far distance, outside the range of the Mental Scan.

Since I can't find it by scanning, I'll search for you.

Bai Xiaowen cast Puppet Talisman, summoning two Straw Demon Soldier, four Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier, and Skeleton Mage wrapped in tattered robes. They then dispersed and began searching methodically.

With a wolf howl, the Wolf King Raging Claw was summoned and stood guard beside Bai Xiaowen. Meanwhile, on the other side, a Shadow Assassin Stealth.

This was the first time Bai Xiaowen had summoned all his creatures since the start of the battle, immediately drawing gasps from the chat. Bai Xiaowen had summoned nine creatures, a number that many high-level Summoner Class might not even have.

The hill map was only a few hundred meters in circumference, not a large area. Soon, near the hill on the other side, a Skeleton Sword-and-Shield Soldier encountered the Old Demon, breaking his cloaking.

Bai Xiaowen immediately commanded his summoned army to advance towards the Old Demon, while simultaneously casting an Insight skill.

[Meng Gui]

[Race: Human Species / Human Race]

[Occupation: Level 7 Monk]

[Attributes: Strength 15, Agility 14, Constitution 20, Spirit 28]

[Skills: Blessing, Flash, Refractive Barrier.]

Seeing Old Demon's attribute panel, Bai Xiaowen finally understood why Old Demon, as a level 7 awakened user and a member of the Super God Guild's main team, had been stuck in the Bronze Tier —his role was that of a support!

[Blessing] is a skill that increases shields for the entire group, [Refractive Barrier] is a three-star group invisibility skill, and the last one, [Flash], is both offensive and defensive, and can be used to restore Life Value to friendly units or to deal damage to non-friendly units, making it a relatively balanced skill.

Here's a brief explanation of how to distinguish between "friendly forces" and "non-friendly forces".

Teammates in the same team are considered allies by default. However, if the intention of the Old Demon when using a skill is to "attack a target", then the [Flash] skill will cause "forced damage" even if it lands on an ally.

This usually happens when an ally is controlled by skills like fear, and is used to wake them up.

The target in combat is the enemy by default. However, if the Old Demon's purpose in using the skill is to "heal the target", then the [Flash] skill will help the enemy restore Life Value even if it lands on the enemy.

This situation is relatively rare, but it does happen. For example, in the mission "Capture Kyo Kusanagi", if Kyo Kusanagi's Life Value is down to single digits and he is bleeding, and he could die at any moment, causing the mission to fail, a well-timed heal can save this extremely important S-Tier Elite Tier mission.

This is also why the [Flash] skill is quite special; therefore, in terms of determining friend or foe, it is based on the Old Demon's will.

In most cases, the friend/foe detection for area-of-effect skills is set to default.

When Bai Xiaowen uses the "Thunderstorm Scroll" in the Three Kingdoms Plane World, he assumes that Guan Yu and his soldiers are allies and the Yellow Turban Army is the enemy. Therefore, the wide-range attack item "Thunderstorm Scroll" will not attack Guan Yu's army, but will only attack the Yellow Turban Army.

In contrast, the judgment of normal attacks and single-target skills is not so complicated. As long as a normal attack or single-target skill hits, it will definitely deal damage, even if it hits an ally, it will still cause "forced damage".

Just like Miss Li Shuyi, when she first started practicing Basic Shooting in the Wilderness Zone, she accidentally injured Skeleton Soldier with her crossbow, leaving bolts stuck in its ribs. Although Miss Li did not intend to harm the Skeleton Soldier, it still caused involuntary damage.

For example, in the Kusanagi Estate, the Shadow Assassin ambushed Kusanagi Sōji. Although Bai Xiaowen and others had already joined the Kusanagi Clan's camp and were considered allies, the Shadow Assassin's single-target Assassination skill still caused damage.

A similar example is the killing of Dr. Makihara at the NESTS Organization's base.

That said, two and a half of the Old Demon's three skills are support skills, no wonder he can't climb the ranks in solo queue.

Here's a joke about support champions' 1v1 capabilities...