Semifinals

After Xiao He's birthday, he continued his previous life: in his spare time from classes with Ye Wanqing, he would go out and wander around the city, being a friendly neighbor.

Living the life of Spider-Man every day feels pretty good.

But while he rested, the game continued without stopping.

After two weeks of competition, the round-robin tournament has finally come to an end.

In the tournament, the teams advancing from Group A are: Dragon Country ranked first), Australian Team (ranked second), and R Country Team ranked third); from Group B, the teams advancing are: M Country Team ranked first), O Continent Team (ranked second), and the F Continent United Team ranked third).

The teams that advanced in the team competition were slightly different. In Group A, Dragon Country remained in first place, but the second place went to the Y Country Team, and the third place went to the R Country Team. In Group B, the first place went to the M Country Team, the second place went to the O Continent Team, and the third place went to the E Country Team.

The other teams will remain, and after all the matches are over, viewers around the world will vote to select two of the most popular "All-Stars" from each team. These two teams will then be mixed together for an exhibition match.

Although it was a performance, the All-Star team was actually what everyone valued most, because for many overseas Mutant, strength wasn't the most crucial factor; popularity was.

The subsequent semi-finals weren't particularly exciting, as they consisted of cross-group matches between the second and third-placed teams from each group: the second-placed team from Group A played the third-placed team from Group B, and vice versa.

In the tournament, the Australian Team, supported by their M Country counterparts, easily defeated the F Continent United Team to advance to the semifinals, while the O Continent Team defeated the R Country Team to also advance to the semifinals.

Next up is the semi-final of the tournament, with Australian Team facing off against the M Country Team, O Continent Team against Dragon Country.

In the team competition, Y Country Team defeated E Country Team, but R Country Team defeated O Continent Team in the team competition and advanced smoothly.

Therefore, the semifinals of the team competition are: Y Country Team vs. M Country, and R Country Team vs. Dragon Country.

With the arrival of the semifinals, the competition reached an unprecedented level of popularity. The number of viewers worldwide exceeded two billion, and no other event could match the viewership of the Mutant Competition!

Although each advertiser spent a considerable amount of money to appear in this event, they were now grinning from ear to ear: this level of popularity was dozens of times more effective than advertising in a typical year.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to today's semi-final of the arena! There are no weaklings who have made it this far! Today's match is sure to be exceptionally exciting, are you all ready!?" the host roared from upstairs.

The Mutant, on the other hand, were making preparations downstairs.

In the public lounge of the Dragon Country, everyone gathered together, the atmosphere more somber than usual.

"I know you might think you're amazing for getting this far, but half of that is an illusion created by 'Yinglong,' and the other half is due to the 'enemy's' tactical show of weakness," Cui Man said seriously. "They knew they couldn't stop us from qualifying, so they deliberately saved their trump card for now."

As she spoke, Cui Man surveyed the crowd, her expression grave, her voice low and menacing. "So, don't assume that today's battle will be as easy as before. Going into battle with that mindset... will get you killed."

Everyone present nodded in agreement, and Cui Man's expression softened slightly. "Alright, enough said, let's decide the order of performance."

"I still have a dozen or so games left, I'll go first," Xiao He said, stretching his muscles. "Perfect timing, I've been resting for a long time, I need to get some exercise, consider this a warm-up."

"No," Qin Weize said, raising his hand. "I want to be the first one on stage."

"Are you sure? The first match is very important. Losing will really dampen morale, you know?" Xiao He asked, arms crossed.

"Of course! I'll show you how much I've improved lately!" Qin Weize was full of fighting spirit.

"How much progress can you make in just three weeks..." Xiao He shook his head and sighed, then turned to Cui Man, "Sister Man?"

"Alright, let's send Horned Dragon into the fray." Cui Man nodded. "Anyway, the semifinals are best-of-three, so we'll give you newbies a chance in the first game to prove the results of your training."

The first match determined the starting lineups for both sides, and the sponsors for this event were being introduced above.

"The lineup for both sides has been decided: 'Horned Dragon' from the Dragon Country and 'Mechanical Hero' from Europe!" the host announced. "Let's welcome them to the stage and hope they will present a spectacular showdown!"

"Mechanical Hero ..." Xiao He frowned in thought, then recalled that it was the Mutant who was beaten up by Ruiwen Raven, who could turn his body into a machine, similar to his Mechanical Modification, only two levels weaker.

Of course, the Mechanical Hero is at least LV4, but he's not quite up to the task of leading the charge...

"A test the waters?" Cui Man said, arms crossed, "Let's see if the first one to go up is 'Yinglong'."

"If so, will they just admit defeat?" Ye Wanqing asked curiously.

Xie Haining shook his head. "You need to understand their purpose... They never intended to defeat Yinglong; they just wanted to exhaust his appearances."

"Old Xiao has played fifteen matches in Group A and three matches against the M Country Team in Group B... There are fourteen matches left." Ye Wanqing counted on her fingers, "If Old Xiao plays nine more matches, there will only be five left..."

"That's right, which means he can only play five times in the final against M Country Team." Cui Man nodded. "And that will give M Country a chance to fight back. If they win the remaining seven games, they can secure the victory."

"But it's impossible to force Yinglong to play nine matches in this semi-final, right? Unless they can win one big match." Li Zhengliang asked, somewhat puzzled, "Otherwise, we would have already won the sixth match."

"So they definitely have a secret weapon," Cui Man frowned. "The same goes for M Country. They would never put all their bets on Yinglong's inability to appear. They definitely have a secret weapon too. For example, Balance Man might go in first to weaken Yinglong, and then another stronger guy might come in to defeat Yinglong. Nine matches, nine strong opponents. Even for Yinglong, it would be very difficult to fight an opponent of Balance Man's level nine times in a row."

"Does that mean they plan to take down everyone except Yinglong?!" Yue Feng roared angrily. "They don't take me seriously, do they?!"

"Judging from your previous performance, you really can't win a single game." Cui Man raised an eyebrow. "Against the M Country Team, the only ones with a chance of winning are probably Candle Dragon and Gluttonous Beast..."

As she spoke, Cui Man shook her head impatiently. "Anyway, let's see how this match goes first. To be on the safe side, it would be best to leave Yinglong with nine appearances."

The two participants had already arrived on the field.

"They didn't send Yinglong out first? They were always going to send Yinglong out to lead the charge and boost morale, weren't they?" Mechanical Hero frowned as he watched Qin Weize enter the fray. "A sudden change of heart... this is troublesome."

In this case, he has no choice but to win this match; otherwise, they will only be able to use up Yinglong's eight appearances.

It's already the semi-finals, there's no need to hold back, so the Mechanical Hero unleashed his ultimate move right from the start.

"Mechanical Pioneer, Overdrive!" The Mechanical Hero assumed a horse stance, and his skin rapidly cracked and dissipated, while the muscle tissue beneath his skin transformed into a complete mechanical device, making him look incredibly powerful.

Immediately, the seams connecting the various parts of the Mechanical Hero began to flash red light, and a large cloud of steam shot out from behind him.

"It's coming..." Xiao He thought to himself: The Mechanical Hero is probably planning to use his full strength.

An eye patch stretched out horizontally, covering the Mechanical Hero's eyes, and then he transformed into a silver flash and rushed forward at incredible speed.

Qin Weize released a large shockwave from his feet, leaping backward to create distance.

"Oh? So you can release it with your feet now," Xiao He muttered to himself with interest.

Cui Man nodded. "His impact can only originate in his hands, but it can be redirected and released to other parts of his body."

After creating some distance, Qin Weize raised his index finger and began to unleash an attack on the Mechanical Hero. The range of the attack was greatly reduced after being released through the index finger, forming bullet-like attacks that densely swarmed towards the Mechanical Hero.

But the Mechanical Hero was extremely fast and agile. He moved at high speed, dodging Qin Weize's attack, and then in the blink of an eye, he arrived at Qin Weize's side and punched Qin Weize in the ribs.

The blow was quite heavy, and Xiao He frowned immediately: given Qin Weize's physical abilities, this punch should have been enough to incapacitate him.

To Xiao He's surprise, Qin Weize only took a step back, but the Mechanical Hero's arm was knocked away by a powerful impact and torn off his shoulder.

"I see..." Xiao He suddenly realized: releasing the impact at the point where he was hit could neutralize the enemy's attack and even allow him to take the opportunity to inflict damage on the enemy.

The Mechanical Hero stood up, looked back at his torn arm, wires extending from the severed part, reconnecting the limb. But Qin Weize pressed his advantage, repeatedly pushing against the Mechanical Hero's chest with both hands.

The impact shot through the Mechanical Hero's body, blasting Qin Weize to pieces and sending him flying backward.

Qin Weize breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this, but his joy was premature: although the Mechanical Hero was smashed to pieces, his body still emitted a bright red light, and the broken parts of his body began to deform. Then, the shattered body turned into seven small drones, which launched a barrage at Qin Weize.

Qin Weize immediately lunged to the left, rolled to his feet, and then spread his arms wide. A powerful impact radiated outwards from him, deflecting all the projectiles.

The next moment, a fist came flying straight at Qin Weize, hitting him squarely in the abdomen. Qin Weize grunted and quickly used his shockwave to blast the arm away, but the Mechanical Hero was already launching a flying kick at him.

Qin Weize released the impact from his feet and quickly moved to avoid the flying kick, but the Mechanical Hero's arm had already come around from behind and hit him on the back. Before he could recover, he was hit in the face by another fist.

Meanwhile, the Mechanical Hero seized the opportunity to descend from the sky, landing on Qin Weize's chest with both feet, and crashing into him as they fell to the ground.

"Boom!" The impact sent dust flying, and the Mechanical Hero created a huge crater in the ground.

Then, the Mechanical Hero's two arms flew back and landed on his shoulders. He stepped on Qin Weize and quickly transformed Qin Weize hands into machine guns.

But he seemed to realize something was wrong: there was a strong fluctuation...

The fluctuations were so intense that the space around Qin Weize seemed to distort, and he immediately sensed something was wrong.

"If I blast you to smithereens, you'll lose your fighting ability, right?" Qin Weize laughed, his hair and clothes billowing in the wind. "Max Wheel, MAX Impact!"

A powerful shockwave shot upwards, instantly shattering the Mechanical Hero's body into pieces. However, Qin Weize's impact continued to be released, further disintegrating the Mechanical Hero's body. But just before the Mechanical Hero's head was completely crushed, Qin Weize suddenly stopped: after all, it was a competition, and continuing would result in death.

"That should be enough, right..." Qin Weize, panting, lifted the Mechanical Hero's head, raised his hand towards his forehead, and said coldly, "Or do you want to continue?"

The Mechanical Hero's face remained expressionless, but a mechanical voice replied, "Enough... I've lost."

"Wow, that's quite a clever use of it..." Xiao He thought to himself with interest, resting his chin on his hand.

In fact, Qin Weize should have lost his fighting ability when he was hit by the Mechanical Hero, since his physique was only LV2. However, he used the impact to offset part of the Mechanical Hero's attack power, and then after being stomped on the ground, he released an impact to the ground, blasting a crater in the ground, creating the illusion that he was seriously injured.

From the Mechanical Hero's perspective, Qin Weize was pinned to the ground and badly injured, so he lowered his guard and prepared to end the battle. But in fact, Qin Weize had already begun to gather strength for his strongest attack and successfully turned the tide of the battle.

"Indeed, it seems you haven't been wasting your time lately," Xiao He nodded with a smile.

"Unlike you, just wasting your days. Humph?" Ye Wanqing teased from the side. Xiao He pinched her bottom. "How have I been wasting my days? Every single day I've served you to your heart's content."

"Get away from me, you pervert..." Ye Wanqing glared at him and moved to the side, but Xiao He immediately moved closer and put his arm around her slender waist.

"Pfft!" Qin Weize on the field breathed a sigh of relief, wiped his sweat, and muttered to himself, "That was close! If I had been just one step slower..."

The Mechanical Hero slowly reassembled his damaged body, then returned to human form. With a hiss, heat radiated from his body; he was drenched in sweat and panting heavily. He angrily slammed his fist on the ground, resignedly accepting his defeat.

It's not that Mechanical Hero is too weak. When Mechanical Hero is Overdrive, he should be at LV5 in terms of strength and speed, but he is ultimately limited by the strength of his mechanical body.

This is also why Xiao He didn't use Mechanical Modification much: how could a body of steel compare to the strength of a Level 5 physique?

"Well played," Cui Man said with a slight smile. "How about continuing?"

"Of course! I still have plenty of energy left!" Qin Weize said excitedly.

But then, his enemy appeared on the other side of the field. This was the first time this person had appeared; he was a Level 5 Mutant, hyped up by the O Continent media, someone they were incredibly proud of...

"The Bomb Man, Shel Nash..." Xiao He clenched his fist, suddenly feeling a bit excited: his opponent had been hidden by O Continent Team for two months, only finally making his appearance in the semifinals: just what kind of skills does he have? Let me see.

After Nash entered the game, he didn't rush to attack. Instead, he walked around the court, as if he was observing Qin Weize.

"Hmph, you've already lost," Nash sneered after walking for a while. "If you don't want to suffer, you'd better just admit defeat."

"What is this guy saying? Damn it, I hate English..." Qin Weize frowned, then raised his hand and released a shockwave towards Nash.

An explosion occurred beneath Nash's feet, but it was only a weak one, unable to harm anyone. It merely helped Nash move a short distance to avoid Qin Weize's attack.

Then Nash waved his hand, as if he had thrown something.

Qin Weize immediately became alert, but nothing happened. He was slightly puzzled, but still prepared to continue his attack on Nash. Until the next second...

"Boom!" A powerful explosion erupted behind Qin Weize was thrown forward by the shockwave. A moment later, another explosion erupted from his right front.

Qin Weize was like a marble in a 3D pinball game, bounced back and forth in the explosion.

"Oh no..." Xiao He thought to himself, "This is bad." Nash had seen through Qin Weize's defense.

Qin Weize's defensive tactic of using impact to counter enemy attacks is only effective against "predictable attacks" because the location for releasing the impact must be decided in advance.

Therefore, when an enemy throws a punch at Qin Weize's abdomen, Qin Weize can take the blow and use the impact to neutralize the opponent's attack or even injure the enemy in return; however, if it is an unseen attack or a surprise attack, then Qin Weize will not be able to defend against it.

Just like the explosions Nash is setting up right now.

Qin Weize was thrown several times by the explosion, eventually landing right in the center of one of the blasts.

"Boom!" This explosion was unusually powerful, and the smoke and dust generated by the blast instantly engulfed Qin Weize. After a long while, Qin Weize's figure finally emerged from the center of the explosion.

After falling to the ground, Qin Weize struggled for a moment, but he was clearly too badly injured to stand up.

"Save your breath." Nash sighed slightly, looking impatient. "I only used a Level 2 bomb because your defense rating is relatively low; otherwise, you'd be nothing but dust by now. Continuing to fight will only make you suffer."

"Just admit defeat for now," Cui Man said, pressing her earpiece. "You still have a future."

Qin Weize sighed, then raised his hand in surrender.

Nash turned his head and stared at a drone overhead that was broadcasting the event live, and said calmly, "Come out, I'm waiting for you here."

Xiao He clenched his fists immediately: he knew that the other party's words were directed at him.

"Interesting." Xiao He smiled through gritted teeth. "Then I'll have a go at you."