Grandmaster Explains the Replay

Grandmaster Explains the Replay

Tang San did not rush to continue fighting.

After storing the three Rewind Incense Ashes in his personal archive, he first walked over to the Battle Replay screen.

Grandmaster glanced at him. "Watch the White-Clothed Scholar first?"

"Mm."

Tang San nodded.

After truly killing the White-Clothed Scholar, he wanted even more to know where he had won—and where he had nearly lost.

Lin Chuan brought up the replay.

On the screen, the moment the White-Clothed Scholar transformed into a serpent played again. Misty moisture swirled up, and its snake body unfurled from the bamboo grove, but its spear did not thrust immediately.

Grandmaster raised a hand and pointed at the screen.

"Look here. Its real opening move wasn't at the spear tip."

Everyone followed his finger.

Its snake body, shoulders, back, and waist all gathered strength almost at the same time. The spear tip was the final threat to reveal itself, but before it appeared, its body had already told them what it was about to do.

Grandmaster did not continue immediately.

He had Lin Chuan play that brief segment again.

The first time, everyone saw only the White-Clothed Scholar's spear.

The second time, Dai Mubai frowned first, as if he had finally noticed the faint ripple spreading across the water when the serpent lowered its body.

The third time, even Ma Hongjun saw something. Pointing at the screen, he said, "Its waist twisted first?"

"Correct." Only then did Grandmaster nod. "Most of the time, you're not slow to react. You simply saw the wrong first signal. If you wait until the spear tip is in your face before dodging, of course you'll be too slow."

His words were not harsh, yet several young Spirit Masters felt their ears burn.

They had been praised as geniuses too often.

But before this replay screen, the word genius was useless. A half-beat too slow was still too slow, and missed movements were still missed.

Ma Hongjun frowned. "Isn't this just watching where it's going to attack?"

"No." Grandmaster shook his head. "In the Great Spirit Arena, many Spirit Masters use the glow of Spirit Skills, the rhythm of Spirit Rings, or even feints to conceal how their bodies exert force. Here, it happens to be the opposite. The game suppresses Spirit Skills and forces you to look at the most basic things."

He paused.

"If you can't even understand this, then when you return to the Great Spirit Arena, you'll only be fooled even more badly by flashier moves."

That left the Shrek students silent.

Yan stood some distance away. He said nothing, but his eyes never left the screen.

He did not like Tang San, but he had to admit that Tang San's insight back then had not been luck.

Hu Liena suddenly said, "Boss, can the replay stop at this moment?"

Lin Chuan was about to answer when a system notification appeared before his eyes.

[Detected a customer providing an effective explanation.]

[Battle Replay function upgraded: Explanation Mode.]

[Explanation Mode: With the player's consent, replay segments may be paused, slowed down, and have key movements marked.]

Lin Chuan was delighted inside, but kept his expression steady.

"Yes."

He tapped beside the replay screen.

The image froze.

The White-Clothed Scholar's spear tip hung in midair. Tang San's game character was at the instant before dodging. His toes had shifted half an inch, his shoulders were already preparing to turn away, but his staff had not yet fully lowered.

Oscar felt his scalp tingle.

"If this gets used for training people later, no one will be able to hide when they slack off."

Dai Mubai nodded. "Being half a beat slow will be obvious at a glance."

Xiao Wu had been worried that Tang San would feel uncomfortable. Hearing them say that, she finally loosened her hand slightly.

Tang San himself remained calm.

"Teacher, show the part where I first died on the narrow bridge too."

Grandmaster looked at him. "Are you sure?"

Lin Chuan asked as well, "Publicly?"

Tang San nodded. "Publicly."

The narrow bridge footage appeared.

Xiao Wu's fingers tightened again.

That had been the first time Tang San died in the game. Even though she knew he would not be harmed in reality, she still did not want to watch it.

But Grandmaster did not avoid it.

"Here." He pointed to the instant Tang San's character landed. "Your judgment was not wrong. The real problem was your body. You were still moving with the muscle memory of your original body, but the game did not give you your own body."

Tang San fell silent for a moment. "Yes."

Hu Liena glanced at him.

Admitting failure in front of an opponent was not easy.

Yet Tang San said it naturally, as if he were merely confirming a proven fact.

She suddenly understood why Tang San improved so quickly.

It was not that he was unafraid of embarrassment.

He simply treated embarrassment as material too.

Hu Liena asked herself whether she would be willing to place her first humiliating death before her opponents and dissect it frame by frame. She could endure pain and compete fiercely, but she might not be able to lay out her failure so calmly.

That calmness made her more uncomfortable than Tang San defeating the White-Clothed Scholar once.

Grandmaster continued, "This is the most valuable part of this game. It does not amplify the abilities you already possess. It takes away what you are familiar with and forces you to understand combat again."

Ning Rongrong seemed thoughtful. "What about support-type Spirit Masters? Do we have to go in and get hacked at while holding staffs too?"

Lin Chuan looked at her. "Support-type Spirit Masters do not necessarily need to learn how to cut people down, but at minimum, you need to understand why your teammates get cut down. If you cannot judge danger, you cannot judge when to give speed and when to give strength."

Ning Rongrong opened her mouth but did not argue.

She understood.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could make her teammates stronger, but if she only stood in the back and boosted them in the order of her Spirit Skills, then in a complicated battle, she might even strengthen the wrong person at the wrong moment.

"But what if I understand it, yet don't have time to say it?" Ning Rongrong asked again.

Grandmaster glanced at her.

That question sounded much more like one a support-type Spirit Master would ask.

"So you must first learn to see ahead of time," Grandmaster said. "Power-attack types can make up an instant with their bodies. Agility-attack types can make up an instant with speed. Support-type Spirit Masters often cannot. By the time you speak, your teammate has already been struck. Then it is too late."

Ning Rongrong pressed her lips together.

She recalled how practiced she had been when calling out boosts in the Great Spirit Arena, as well as those matches she had thought she handled well.

In the past, she cared more about how strong her boosts were.

But now, with the replay screen paused before her, she suddenly realized that no matter how perfectly a boost was given, if it came one step late, it only pushed an error further along.

Oscar whispered beside her, "Then support-type Spirit Masters are pretty scary too. If you call too early or too late, someone will remember it."

Ning Rongrong shot him a glance. "So you had better not panic either."

Oscar immediately shut up.

The image on the replay screen began to slow down again.

This time, those watching were no longer simply watching for entertainment.

Yan watched the monster's shoulders.

Hu Liena watched Tang San's gaze before he attacked.

Xiao Wu watched the center of gravity before a dodge.

Ning Rongrong watched when her teammates needed support most.

Looking at the row of young Spirit Masters who had finally quieted down, Lin Chuan calculated the accounts clearly in his heart.

Using the machines made money, buying out content made money, and even watching how people died and corrected themselves could become a course.

This internet café was finally no longer surviving on novelty alone.

Light footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.

Yue Guan stood at the entrance, his gaze falling on the frozen replay image. His smile remained gentle, but there was clearly more seriousness in his eyes.

"It seems I arrived at just the right time."

No one answered.

The people who had just been gathered before the replay screen instinctively moved aside a little. Yue Guan's presence was not oppressive, but a Titled Douluo standing at the door was itself a reminder.

This was an internet café.

It was also Spirit City.

Seeing that subtle change, Lin Chuan became even more clearheaded.

The shop rules could stop people from fighting, but they could not stop the weight brought by status. Yue Guan merely stood there, yet the brief classroom that had formed between Shrek and Spirit Hall had already gained another layer of outside pressure.

He could not merely be a boss who knew how to collect money.

From this moment onward, who could watch, who could learn, and who got to use the machines first would all become points of comparison. If the rules were not firmly established, those who came later would not just be customers, but a heap of troubles he could not shake off.

This business was far more complicated than he had imagined when he first opened the doors.

And far more interesting.

Which meant he could not act recklessly.

One wrong step, and everything afterward would fall into chaos.