Chapter 21, 192 games! 496 points!
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The Starry Skies Fighting Network has over ten different multiplayer combat modes, including battle royale for a thousand players, Star Realm Survival, ranked matches, matchmaking fights, and individual duels.
Modes like the battle royale and Star Realm Survival typically involve teams of 3-10 players, challenging not only individual strength but also teamwork, and they are extremely popular.
Many martial arts streamers spend years in these two modes of combat.
If they co-operate well, they can completely achieve victory against stronger opponents.
Li Yuan, Yan Zhou, and Zhou Qi would often form teams during their leisure time only to face crushing defeats…
But the true martial arts masters who aspired to push the limits of their lives and hone their martial arts skills…
would focus more on 'ranked matches'.
With exactly the same physical quality and a random combination of cold weapons… the contest is about the combatants' martial arts skills and their awareness in battle.
The purest form of martial combat.
Only the victor survvies.
Since his junior year of high school, aside from practicing in reality, Li Yuan spent almost every holiday, summer vacation, and winter vacation participating in ranked matches.
His main goal was to sharpen his own martial arts skills through these virtual duels that were close to real fights.
…In the ranked match arena, a huge platform with not a single spectator.
Shua! Shua!
Li Yuan and a fiery red figure appeared simultaneously on opposite sides of the platform.
"Li Yuan?"
"Lin Lanyue, you're also in ranked matchmaking?" The two stared at each other, both somewhat taken aback.
Neither expected to be matched again just two minutes after their duel had ended.
It was extremely rare.
Both ranked and matchmaking fights paired fighters with equivalent ranks from around the globe.
Just how many were at the Gold Stage worldwide?
At least ten million.
Both fell into an uncomfortable silence, then three seconds later.
"I'm not going to lose."
Lin Lanyue was the first to speak, her eyes fixed on Li Yuan as she coldly said, "You may be slightly better in martial arts skills, but that doesn't mean I'm bound to lose."
"Mm-hmm, you're right," Li Yuan nodded.
42 seconds later.
On the platform.
"Puchi!"
His long spear was like a dragon, as Li Yuan once again suddenly erupted, ruthlessly piercing Lin Lanyue's chest with his fierce long spear.
"You…" Lin Lanyue, enduring the intense pain of being impaled by the spear, only managed to shout one word.
Before her entire being turned to nothingness.
"You've gotten a bit smarter, refraining from rash attacks, always probing," Li Yuan retrieved his spear, gently shaking his head: "It's just a pity, I only revealed a single flaw, and you were duped again."
"You really want to win against me too badly."
"The more you want to win, the easier it is to lose," Li Yuan murmured to himself: "Always keep a steady mindset."
"Steady as an old dog, you advance unstoppable."
At this point.
Li Yuan had received a system notification: "Congratulations, Guardian Yuan, you've won this Gold Stage match, points +10!"
"Her rank points were higher than mine."
"So the system considers my win bonus points?" Li Yuan thought.
Winning a fight and earning 10 points was a significant amount.
"Continue matching," Li Yuan willed.
…
In another private space.
"So annoying!!"
"Damn Li Yuan, it must have been on purpose, aargh!!"
Alone in a space with a starry sky backdrop, the red-haired Lin Lanyue couldn't hold back any longer, grinding her teeth as she murmured to herself: "I curse you to never find a wife in your life."
For Lanyue, losing wasn't something she cared about.
She didn't even know how many times she had lost in ranked matches.
If it were just two simple losses to Li Yuan, she wouldn't be so angry.
She was prepared for the possibility of defeat when she agreed to the duel.
What mattered was how she lost.
Twice she had been pierced through the chest by a long spear; once might be coincidence, but twice? Still coincidence?
"Calm down! Lin Lanyue, you need to stay calm," Lin Lanyue took a deep breath, striving to calm herself down: "In martial arts cultivation, the first thing is to remain calm, not to panic in any situation."
Suddenly.
Drip— A communicative call.
Seeing the name displayed on the communication projection.
"Big Brother?" Lin Lanyue hesitated, then murmured softly, "Xiao Qing, answer the call."
Buzz—the projection changed, revealing a young man wearing blue martial arts attire, quite handsome.
The man's features bore some resemblance to Lin Lanyue.
"Little sister," said the man with a smile.
"Big Brother," Lin Lanyue suppressed the irritation in her heart, revealing a small smile: "What made you suddenly contact me?"
"What, I can't get in touch with you?" the young man said with a smile.
"Hmph!"
Lin Lanyue couldn't help but snort, "Big Brother, think about how long it's been since you last got in touch with me."
The young man smiled indulgently and said, "I heard from Xiao Qiang that you lost a duel with a classmate on the Starry Skies Fighting Network, so I came to see how you were right away."
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"Gǔ Qiánghàn, that loudmouth." Lin Lanyue frowned. "I'll go teach him a lesson at school tomorrow."
"Xiao Qiang is just worried about you, so he told me." The young man smiled. "As an older sister, don't be too hard on him."
"I know—" Lin Lanyue elongated her tone.
But in her mind, she was figuring out how to deal with Gu Qiang tomorrow at school.
"I watched your fight video." The young man spoke seriously. "It's normal for you to lose, aside from being at a disadvantage with weapons, that boy's spear technique is also much higher than yours, I reckon he must be at the Third Stage Intermediate Rank."
"Third Stage Intermediate Rank?" Lin Lanyue was slightly surprised, aware of the ranking divisions of Martial Arts Skills.
Lin Lanyue could sense that Li Yuan's Martial Arts Skills were higher, but she hadn't expected him to be so much stronger than her.
"His movement technique should also be at the Third Stage level, I fear he might have a chance to be listed in the 'Blue Star Youth Rankings'." The young man said. "That's enough to qualify for special recruitment."
"Blue Star Youth Rankings?" Lin Lanyue was even more astonished.
With her family's vision, she naturally understood the significance of this list.
"How about his Physical Quality?" the young man asked casually.
"So-so, I reckon just over level 6, hasn't awakened his Martial Spirit yet." Lin Lanyue shook her head.
She had some understanding of Li Yuan's situation.
"Hasn't awakened his Martial Spirit?" The young man was taken aback, then shook his head. "That's a bit of a pity."
The young man had only asked casually, without truly caring.
To him, whether Li Yuan was good or bad didn't matter.
"Little sister, your Swordsmanship should have just broken through to the Third Stage," the young man laughed. "In a normal sparring match, you'd have a hard time winning against that boy even out of a hundred attempts."
Lin Lanyue involuntarily bit her lower lip.
She was unwilling to accept it at heart, but she also knew her second brother's judgment was possibly even more astute than Teacher Xu Bo's.
"Having such a Martial Arts Skills genius as a classmate is a good thing," the young man smiled. "It's also a warning for you, so you won't get overly proud thinking you're the top of the middle school grade."
"I wasn't," Lin Lanyue frowned. "Second Brother, did you come to comfort me, or to lecture me?"
"Haha, okay."
"My mistake, I won't scold you anymore." The young man laughed. "You focus on honing your Swordsmanship, there's still half a year's time, strive to break into the Blue Star Youth Rankings."
"With that qualification, when you enter Starry Sky University, you will be given more attention, and dad can also apply to the family for more resources for you," the young man said.
"Yeah, I know." Lin Lanyue nodded.
She wasn't young anymore, soon to be of age, and was very clear on how the family operated.
When there are many children, only those who are sufficiently excellent can receive the family's resource investment for cultivation.
Otherwise, even upon reaching adulthood, you'd barely get fifty thousand Blue Star Coins per month for living expenses.
Forget about anything else.
"In two weeks, after Big Brother and I come back from the United States, we'll come visit you specifically," the young man smiled.
"Your matters are resolved? Is dad not coming?" Lin Lanyue was quite surprised.
"Dad has to go to Ross Country, there are still military affairs to attend to," the young man shook his head.
"Oh!" Lin Lanyue pursed her lips, rather disappointed.
Before long.
Lin Lanyue ended the call with her second brother.
"Third Stage Intermediate Spear Technique, Third Stage movement technique?" Lin Lanyue murmured to herself: "This Li Yuan, he progresses so fast."
She remembered very clearly.
In freshman year, there was no mention of Li Yuan in the grade rankings; he rose suddenly in sophomore year.
In just one year, by the end of the sophomore final exams, he had burst into the top thirty of his grade, even surpassing her in the single Martial Arts Skills score.
In reality, losing a single top score had minimal impact on Lin Lanyue.
But it made her take note of the name Li Yuan.
"In that exam, I was only a few points behind in skill score, which means the gap wasn't big." Lin Lanyue clenched her teeth. "Now, he has become so much stronger than me in Martial Arts Skills?"
Lin Lanyue didn't quite understand.
She had received excellent Martial Arts education since childhood, had the guidance of a dedicated Swordsmanship teacher, and she practiced diligently... yet, she was rapidly overtaken and surpassed by him.
"Perhaps."
"Just as dad said, there are always some geniuses in this world." Lin Lanyue shook her head to herself. "It's just a pity that without awakening Martial Spirit, it's too hard to achieve great success in the Martial Path."
She was verbally annoyed, feeling that in both bouts, Li Yuan had done it on purpose.
But deep inside, Lin Lanyue felt some regret for Li Yuan.
"Let's continue."
"Following the 'Mind Method' dad helped me with, I can almost go through forty ranking matches at one time." Lin Lanyue resumed matchmaking.
Ordinary people get a headache from playing video games for too long.
The virtual fights on the Starry Skies Fighting Network are much more taxing on the spirit.
Especially when injured or defeated, that intense pain is extremely stimulating for the mind.
So, virtual duels can't go on indefinitely.
...
Night, nine o'clock.
In the virtual network, Starry Skies Fighting Network, inside Li Yuan's personal space.
"Finally, almost there." Li Yuan took a deep breath, eyes scanning over his ranking match panel:
Ranking Match: Gold Stage.
Points: 496 (1000 points needed to participate in promotion matches)
...
From two o'clock in the afternoon until nine at night.
For seven hours, Li Yuan had hardly rested, fighting a total of 192 matches.
He won 120 matches and lost 72.
And had pushed his points from 112 to 496.
Only one victory away from reaching 500 points.