Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 39 Individual Qualifiers
This setting is made for the sake of professional balance and the balance between various professions. I still did not give up and discussed with Xue Wuxia, Afeng and others, and finally came to such a frustrating conclusion. In Tianxia, non-knight professions are still subject to certain restrictions in riding pets, and cannot be compared with professional knights. This is also the biggest advantage of knight professional players. It is unlikely that "high-altitude bombers" will be allowed in the game. Players can have certain advantages, but it is difficult to completely suppress the opponent. At least the disadvantaged party should be allowed to have the ability to counterattack. This is the most basic principle of game balance. Being able to fight on a flying pet that is only suitable for close combat is something that only professional knights who have mastered the "riding" skill can do, so as not to leave opponents of other professions without the ability to fight back.
Fortunately, it wasn't so unlucky that it happened to only me. I could only accept this fact helplessly and use flying mainly as a means of transportation. At least it was much more convenient and faster when I was in a hurry. I still persisted in the underground struggle and practiced the tactics of mutual coordination and joint combat with the Fire Wing Ghost Horse Taotao which had both land and air amphibious combat capabilities. I tried my best to use the next few limited days to familiarize myself with its fighting methods, hoping to have a good performance in the upcoming "World Heroes Conference" and make a fortune.
On August 1, the first thing to do was the individual competition of the "World Heroes Conference". The official registration deadline was July 29. On July 30, the organizing committee announced the list and grouping of 512 seeded players who had been carefully selected and selected to participate in the individual competition through "Tian Media". Other players participating in the preliminaries were notified by the system. Of course, before the official start of the preliminaries, players' registration was still accepted, but those who were late could only be randomly assigned to various groups. Even if they were strong , they lost the qualification to become seeded players.
The selected seed players are basically the top players with a great reputation, and most of them choose to sign contracts with higher levels and have a level 7 pet. There are 56 dragon knights alone, accounting for more than one-tenth of the total number. There are really many players in Tianxia who are not afraid of death. Of course, it may also have something to do with the fact that even if the knights and magic knights fail, they can choose to switch to the Knights of Light. The Church of Light did not give up such a good opportunity, and vigorously promoted and lured the players who failed to sign contracts to increase their own personnel reserves. Hua Mantian's rapid rise after his job change almost became a "model" for players who changed to the Light Class and was widely publicized. Not only did he quickly advance to the fifth class, but he also unexpectedly signed a contract with a sixth-class Warcraft lion bull with a mere third-class "pet scroll". Although the lion bull was just an ordinary sixth-class Warcraft, its ability was not very outstanding. In addition to its thick skin and flesh, it was relatively resistant to beatings and only had one sonic attack skill, "lion's roar", but with his skilled fighting skills and a set of equipment with good attributes, he at least qualified to participate in the "World Heroes Conference". It is said that in order to increase the chance of success, Hua Mantian delayed signing the "pet contract" until he was promoted to the fifth class. He was really patient and endured the pain of his poor strength in the early stage. He also signed up for the "World Heroes Conference" this time. It is estimated that on the one hand, it is to meet masters from all sides and improve his skills, and mainly to cooperate with the Church of Light in publicity. Although he did not become a seeded player and the chance of being honored as one of the "Top Ten Masters in the World" is not great, no one can deny that he has great development potential. In time, he will definitely return to the ranks of top master players and be qualified to compete with Supreme Honor, Dragon Travels the World and others.
On the side of the Tongxin Alliance, I, an undead wizard with a magical weapon in hand and an outstanding record, was naturally selected as a seeded player without any controversy. Afeng and Xue Wuxia, who have level seven magic pets, were also shortlisted based on their performance in the previous "World Heroes Conference". Another seeded player was Long Kong. This guy used all his connections and adopted a barter method. He used a pet egg of a six-tailed fire fox that he had found with great difficulty, combined with a very good equipment, to exchange it for a pet egg of an Iron Elephant from another player. He got his wish and became an Iron Elephant Knight. His strength is not much inferior to that of an ordinary level seven magic pet, so he was lucky to make it into the big list. There are 512 seeded players, and our Tongxin Alliance only has four. In terms of numbers, we have no advantage over other equally powerful mercenary groups such as Glory and Longteng. We should be ranked after 50. If we want to occupy a seed team spot in the team competition after the individual competition, we have to look forward to the performance of the four of us and other players participating in the competition, such as the Guardian of the Heart. If we can go further or even win the "Top Ten", it will be very beneficial for Tongxin Alliance to qualify as a seed team.
The first seeded player is of course Supreme Honor. Although he is similar to the second-ranked Dragon World in terms of strength and record, both of them are Dragon Knights and each of them has an offensive artifact, but Supreme Honor has taken advantage of always being the first to advance, and has a slight advantage. The third seed is Desert Eagle, who is also a Dragon Knight. It seems that apart from the artifact factor, the Dragon Knight still has a certain advantage over other professions with its powerful strength. Risk and benefit are always proportional. The fourth seed is somewhat unexpected. It turned out to be the Archbishop of Light, Saint Heaven, who has the defensive artifact "Angel Robe". His pet is a level 7 Light Spine Dragon, which is a relatively rare light magic dragon. It is compatible with Saint Heaven's attributes and is more powerful when combined. It is said that he used a level 7 pet egg and a level 6 pet egg to exchange for it from other players. Even so, it is incredible that the priest of light, who pays attention to the balance of offense and defense and has auxiliary effects, can surpass the other players and become the fourth seed in the individual competition. Even if he can withstand a beating, he must have the strength to kill his opponent. It must be a killer that few people know about - the information submitted by the players to the organizing committee is only used for ranking and cannot be disclosed to the public. The top four seeded players happen to belong to the two camps of light and darkness. On the surface, they seem to be evenly matched. It is unknown which side will have the upper hand in the end. This is also a major highlight of the "World Heroes Conference" and something that many players are looking forward to.
I, a necromancer who also possessed divine weapons, was assigned to the 154th group, which meant that I was the 154th seeded player. Compared with my prominent reputation, my ranking was a little low. On the one hand, it was because I had basically never participated in individual competitions and lacked relevant reference materials. One-on-one competitions were not conducive to the performance of necromancers, and it was generally recognized that there was no advantage at all. The rankings of several other necromancers who signed up to become seeded players, such as Qingwu Feiyang, Qiushui Changtian, Tianxing, etc., were still behind me, and in this respect, they were far inferior to the magic knights who belonged to the dark camp. On the other hand, I hid the information of Taotao after it completed the third evolution. Anyway, it had not shown its face before other players after becoming a fire-winged ghost horse. According to the rules of the organizing committee, it could be kept secret as personal privacy, and there was no fear of being reported and punished. In this way, I was inferior to other contestants in terms of pet strength, and my ranking would naturally not be too high. Anyway, I would definitely be selected as a seeded player, so there was nothing to worry about. Although I have to play two more qualifying games, I should have no problem winning given my strength. It's a good opportunity for me to warm up and get familiar with how to duel with expert players without sufficient time to prepare, and improve myself through fighting.
Xue Wuxia ranked 463rd, Longkong ranked 398th, and Afeng, because he became a dragon knight relatively early, and relied on a modified "Returning Dragon Spear" in his hand, got a relatively ideal ranking of 137th, which was a little higher than me, and was the highest ranking among the members of our Tongxin League participating in the individual competition. Although it has a relatively prominent reputation, Tongxin League is a "civilian" mercenary group after all, and it is a small business, so it is impossible to have too much investment, and naturally it is difficult to get a higher return. Even in the game, it also follows this rule, and cannot be equipped with more high-level fine equipment. Compared with the master players of similar level, it is naturally a little behind. If you want to win in the game, you can only rely on stable or even super-level performance on the spot.
In order to hold the "World Heroes Conference" during the anniversary celebration, the official Tianxia has opened up a large-scale virtual space in the game as the venue. Contestants and spectators who have purchased tickets can enter through teleportation arrays in major cities and mercenary groups. It is divided into a main venue and 32 sub-venues, which are used to hold official competitions and preliminaries. Each contestant has been notified of the specific competition time and venue by the system. The audience can obtain relevant information by querying the system and choose the competition they are interested in to enter the relevant venue to watch.
More than 200,000 players signed up for the individual competition. Generally, players who have level 6 or 7 pets want to give it a try. There are even some players who have powerful level 5 pets who have participated, such as Yue Linglong. They only pay a registration fee of one gold coin. If they lose, they will not lose much. Once they are lucky enough to enter the main competition, they can get a lot of money. Moreover, such a grand event is also a rare opportunity to increase their gaming experience. There are 512 groups in total. Each group has at least more than 400 players to compete. They compete in pairs. The winners will directly advance to the next round. The losers will have an additional elimination match. The winners can be resurrected and also qualified to advance to the next round. This will give the players more opportunities and select the most capable players to qualify. Each game takes a maximum of half an hour. The death of one party will be considered a failure. If there is no winner, the referee will make the final decision based on the performance of the two players. In order to create a fair competition environment and save time, all contestants are arranged to be treated by professional doctors to ensure that they can participate in the competition in good condition without delaying recovery. At the same time, the use of various auxiliary drugs to replenish life and mental strength or speed up the recovery speed in the competition is restricted to increase the viewing value of the competition. Of course, formal equipment such as "magic storage ring" is not restricted and can be used freely. However, once the magic tools such as "Chaos Ball" that affect combat escape are used, they will be judged as negative points. If the time is up and the winner is not determined, the contestant using such props will be judged as failed.
According to the schedule, there will be at least twenty rounds of qualifiers. The seeded players will participate in the qualifiers one by one according to their ranking starting from the fifth round. According to my ranking of over 100, I will appear in the eighth round and compete with randomly determined opponents.
For a player like me who is not very experienced, it is not easy to play the individual game, especially before casting "Summon the Dead". It is extremely dangerous. Players with long-range attacks and powerful pets with fast speed or the same long-range attacks can pose a considerable threat to me. As a famous necromancer, my background is basically known by my opponents. Naturally, they will do everything they can to prevent me from summoning undead creatures to help me. This is the key to winning or losing the game. The weak defense of the necromancer cannot withstand too heavy a blow, which is the biggest weakness. As the game progresses, this is no longer a secret and becomes widely known. Instead of struggling to deal with undead creatures, it is more cost-effective to attack the main body directly. This is the best tactic to deal with the necromancer. In group battles, there are often companions to protect them, which makes it difficult to attack them directly and interfere with their casting. In a one-on-one duel, experienced master players will naturally not let me cast "Summon the Dead" easily.
This was my first time participating in an individual competition. I was facing expert players in Tianxia and I was very aware of my own weaknesses, so I couldn’t help feeling a little nervous. Fortunately, there was a rule in the preliminaries for losers to revive, so even if I failed, there was still hope of advancing to the next round. This made me feel a little more at ease. With my strength, I shouldn’t lose two games in a row and not even qualify for the group stage.
Although my own skills are a little lacking, but with the fixed skill "Attack Acceleration" and the sixth-level wind magic crystal inlaid on the magic wand, I am not at a disadvantage compared to other players in the speed of casting skills. However, "Summoning the Undead" is a relatively time-consuming large-scale magic, and it still takes a longer time compared to other offensive skills. Generally speaking, I can only summon the pet first, and then have to face the opponent's fierce attack. Whether I can seize the opportunity to cast "Summoning the Undead" as soon as possible will determine the trend of the game.
