A Glimmer flashed, and Frenzied Saber, who had just finished today's match, appeared in the base lobby, looking somewhat worried.
"Sigh, another defeat. The Lost Angel is too reliable; I just can't beat him. My ranking has dropped again. Our next opponent, Key of Solomon from the Key Club, is also a formidable opponent. If we lose again, we'll have no chance of advancing."
Frenzied Saber shook his head, his expression worried.
With the competition already halfway through, the situation is gradually becoming clearer. In the team competition, Dynasty has secured a qualifying spot in advance, Long Sky and Temple are still hovering on the edge of eighth place. The situation is very close, and if they lose a match or score too few points, they will be left behind. Given the strong teams in Group C, the possibility of catching up later is extremely low.
However, while he wasn't Frenzied Saber the team competition, his performance in the individual competition was mediocre, ranking in the middle, around seventeenth or eighteenth place, with a win rate of about 50/50. But he always won with great difficulty, and he felt the shortcomings of the Mech Warrior profession.
While the Mech Warrior class is versatile, capable of both melee and ranged combat, it currently lacks a particular strength. Although its skills are excellent, it still falls short of the top level. These individual tournament prodigies all have one or more unique tactics, adept at controlling the pace of the battle. Frenzied Saber has discovered that if the Mech Warrior wants to catch up in this aspect, the only way is to rely on more powerful or distinctive mechanical weapons.
The Mechanic's shortcomings are not due to a lack of combat prowess. The Mechanic Class was not well-suited to the first version, as each version brings its own meta. To compensate for the Mechanic's weaknesses, the only option is to rely on stronger Mechanics and higher-level Mechanics in later versions. In each version, the Mechanic is a playable, well-rounded, and decent class. It can serve as a main tank or a damage dealer, making it a Tier 2 to Tier 3 choice with a smooth development curve, unlike the Mechanic's dramatic ups and downs.
It's already quite remarkable that Frenzied Saber has achieved what he has. Besides his own skill level, the biggest reason is the high-quality mechanical equipment he received from Han Xiao. If he hadn't encountered Black Phantom, he probably would have only been able to compete in regional tournaments and would never have been able to reach the international stage.
Among all the players who followed Han Xiao, Frenzied Saber was the most die-hard supporter, not only because he received the most help, but also because he had spent so much time with Han Xiao and liked the character very much, sometimes feeling that he was a real person.
Although all the NPCs in Galaxy are like real people, Han Xiao gave him a special feeling—perhaps because Han Xiao was the first important person he encountered, and that was his first impression.
After calming himself down, Frenzied Saber prepared to find Han Xiao to repair his equipment and also wanted to add some new weapons for the next match, hoping they would be useful.
Just as they were about to set off, Han Xiao arrived at the lobby first. Frenzied Saber immediately went up to him, expressing his willingness to have the items repaired, and the shop interface appeared before them.
He quickly browsed through the list and suddenly noticed several new items at the very bottom.
"Huh, Ability Potion? I've never seen this before. Is this something new?" Frenzied Saber asked in surprise.
Han Xiao put several Ability Potion into the shop interface. The quantity was limited, so he priced them quite high. The description said that the effect was to gain the ability of another person for a short period of time, and it stated who the potion came from. Among them was a potion that Han Xiao made using his own genes, which was spotted by Frenzied Saber at a glance.
"Black Star only has one dose of his Ability Potion. What are its effects?"
The price of each potion is 2000 Enas, which is not cheap and even somewhat expensive. The effect can only be known after use. The effect of each temporary character card is guaranteed to be one of the abilities of the Tu Shu, but which ability you draw is random and not fixed.
Before Frenzied Saber could decide to buy, the participating teams from the Dynasty and the Temple also approached and discovered the new Ability Potion.
"Temporarily gaining someone else's abilities—this seems to be a buff potion. Why is it so expensive? Is it really that powerful?"
To enhance their combat power, these teams spared no expense. Hao Tian immediately bought a Rezar Ability Potion. After drinking it, he was surprised to receive a temporary character card with the effect of increasing the power of his next magic attack by 77%.
"It's a pity I'm not a mage, otherwise this amplification would be really powerful. It could be used in crucial moments of team fights, such as excellent AOE opportunities, or to burst down the opponent's squishy targets. If used well, it could secure a decisive victory!"
This wasn't the first time the players had encountered character cards. Character cards could provide an extra boost to combat power, making them very useful. They were usually only rewarded for special missions and were extremely rare. They hadn't expected Han Xiao to be selling character cards here. Although they were temporary, it was still the first time they had ever seen them, and they were both surprised and delighted.
Upon hearing this, Frenzied Saber's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly took out his money to buy the only Black Star Ability Potion —he was Mechanic Class, and Black Star was also a mechanic, so his ability was definitely compatible with him.
Ignoring the teams scrambling for the remaining Ability Potion, Mad Frenzied Saber stepped aside and carefully drank Han Xiao's potion.
A prompt appeared on the panel.
[You have obtained [Character Summon Card - Han Xiao (Temporary)]]
[Character Summon Card - Han Xiao (Temporary): [Black Star Descent] - Your Mechanical Affinity is increased by 247% for three minutes. Uses: 0/1 (This character card's duration: 5 days)]
Frenzied Saber's eyes widened suddenly, his face frozen in astonishment. He couldn't help but rub his eyes, afraid that he had misread the numbers.
"Second, a 2.5x bonus!!"
Frenzied Saber almost spat out water.
"Even with all my buff skills, my Mechanical Affinity is only half of this value. Black Star's attributes are terrifying! Just how strong is he?!"
This goes beyond just being perverted!
This is practically a bug-like buff!
Using this character card at this level, don't talk to me about skill or technique; even a pig could brute-force his way through the opponent!
Han Xiao has many abilities, but this time he drew a temporary character card that included his Mechanical Affinity with the book. This isn't considered a skill, but rather a basic attribute of Master Han, so it became a buff effect.
Without using any skills, Han Xiao's talent and passive abilities stack up to 247% Mechanical Affinity. Once he uses a skill, this number will increase by another one or two hundred. This is the simplest effect, but also the most brutal amplification.
Because Mechanical Affinity is the core attribute of the Mechanic Class, it directly affects combat power!
As the Mechanic Class level increases, Mechanical Affinity will also increase. However, the bonus from using temporary character cards is an additional boost, a truly leapfrog enhancement! It's almost equivalent to temporarily gaining attributes from dozens of levels higher!
And after several dozen levels... that's exactly the level where Mechanic Class start to shine!
Fortunately, temporary character cards can only be used once, and are extremely rare. If they became a player's fixed skill, that would be incredible—lonely as snow, invincible!
Seeing Frenzied Saber's heavy breathing and extremely excited appearance, Han Xiao stroked his chin, filled with curiosity.
"What ability did this kid draw that made him so excited?"
"Frenzied Sword, third place in the individual competition of the Planet Aquamarine region, a professional mecha warrior, known as the Huaxia's Number One Pugilist Mechanic... Hah."
At the Planet Frostwinter Key Club headquarters, Key of Solomon casually browsed the information on his next individual match opponent, smiled nonchalantly, and said with a hint of arrogance and strong confidence, "Looks like there's no suspense."
The veteran player, "Cursed Scepter," asked, "Are you planning to use the Gate of Howling?"
"You're overthinking it. You don't need to use your trump card to win the next match. I bet masters like the Lost Angel, the Golden Champagne of the Rose Knight, and Marshall Scarlet of the Devil all have hidden tricks up their sleeves. Although I'm currently ranked seventh, I'm sure I can reach the top once I use my trump card. However, just qualifying from the group stage is enough; it's best to save your killer move for the finals."
Key of Solomon was very confident in his trump card. The Gate of Howling was a special spellcasting item he obtained from an extremely difficult hidden quest. Although he didn't know what the other masters' trump cards were, he was confident and dared to say that he was almost invincible in one-on-one combat at this level. Even without using his trump card, his combat power was second to none. Being able to reach seventh place already demonstrated his strength.
"After this match, my ranking will rise another place. The last few opponents are quite tough, so I can conserve my strength and intentionally lose. That way, my ranking will probably drop to 15th, which will just guarantee me qualification. That's enough..."
Based on the premise of winning the next match, Key of Solomon began to formulate the final group stage plan. In his eyes, the next match was a bonus point before facing a strong opponent. Victory was in his grasp, and there was no need to consider the possibility of losing.
Winning is a certainty; the only question is how they'll win.
Frenzied Saber is one of the few Mechanic Class in international individual competitions, and the only Mechanic Class player from Huaxia. He holds the title of "Huaxia's Number One Pugilist Mechanic" and has gained the attention of many fans and viewers.
Since the start of the competition, Frenzied Saber's performance has been mediocre, ranking in the middle. However, even in the matches he won, it was clear to the audience that he was struggling to win and his ranking could not be improved, as if he had reached his limit.
Of the three Huaxia individual contestants, Kings and Generals is ranked high and has no worries about qualifying, while Snow-Dyed Blossoms ranked low and, with the competition now halfway through, has no hope of qualifying unless he wins all his remaining matches. Frenzied Saber is hovering on the edge of sixteenth place and has a chance to become the second Huaxia contestant to qualify, carrying the hopes of many fans.
Frenzied Saber's upcoming schedule is quite extreme, consisting of either top-ten ranked opponents or weaker opponents ranked at the bottom. Fans analyze his performance and believe that even if he can defeat all the weaker opponents, his points will still be slightly insufficient. He needs to defeat at least one top opponent to have a chance to advance. However, Frenzied Saber's current performance is mediocre, with a very low win rate against top opponents, making the situation quite pessimistic.
Their opponent in this match is [Key of Solomon], ranked seventh.
Many fans were secretly anxious and cheered him on. Others mocked and ridiculed him, saying that Frenzied Saber was being falsely touted as the Huaxia's Number One Pugilist Mechanic, embarrassing the country on the international stage. In short, the quality of the comments varied greatly, and all sorts of opinions were posted on the forum.
No matter how you look at things, time won't slow down even a second, and the day of the competition arrives on time.
When Frenzied Saber and Key of Solomon entered the arena, the audience could see their health, stamina, status bar, and other attribute values, making the match situation clear and easy to watch.
The battlefield was a huge city, with towering and thick concrete and steel walls completely surrounding it. The two landed at opposite ends of a passageway in this giant wall, which was tens of meters high and four or five meters wide on average, and could see each other's tiny figures from afar.
In the scene, the north wind howls, dark clouds loom over the city, sand and leaves fly, and the landscape is desolate and vast.
Viewers zoomed out from their God perspective and discovered that the exterior of the giant wall was painted with several large, square characters in red paint:
--Black Phantom's Third Sanctuary
"Haha, I was randomly assigned to this venue."
"Hey, I recognize this place. Isn't this the Third Sanctuary on our planet?"
The Huaxia audience was pleasantly surprised.