Chapter 16 Barcode's Transformation

Having made up his mind, Barcode activated his transformation skill—[Gun-Cannon Armor].

This was a skill that could only be used three times, and Barcode had already used it once in a script a long time ago to test its effect; so, this was his second time using it.

According to the studio's original plan, this trump card was best saved for the last few rounds of the competition… after all, to win the championship, they had to play fifteen full rounds.

But, plans ultimately couldn't keep up with changes… the first opponent they randomly matched was the Pantheon team, and they had even lost the first "vanguard battle." This development left no room for the team members to consider conserving their strength.

In that instant, a flash of white light appeared, and Barcode's arms, under the transformation of the white light stream, turned into two distinctly lined black mechanical arms.

Clang—

Faced with the slash of the Orichalcum weapon, Barcode merely raised one arm and easily blocked it. The sharp blade couldn't even leave a scratch on his arm.

Vishnu saw that his opponent had activated a transformation not mentioned in the pre-match intelligence. Although he was somewhat apprehensive, he had no intention of stopping… after all, in a two-on-one situation, he had no room to stop and observe. Once he stopped his fierce attack, the brief advantage he had just gained would vanish.

Therefore, after his first strike was blocked, Vishnu immediately moved, taking a step sideways, and exerted force in his wrist, unleashing a series of slashes with his backhand.

Orichalcum crystals could be condensed into any shape of cold weapon, but Vishnu had deliberately chosen a broadsword, which showed that he was very confident in his swordsmanship.

Of course, his "swordsmanship" was completely different from the routines of Jian Shao, Brother Chan, and others; a heavy broadsword was not suitable for those sword moves that pursued speed and change. This type of sword focused more on using the weight of the weapon and the user's strength to suppress the opponent.

Clang clang clang…

Vishnu was obviously well-versed in this way, and between attacks, the sword in his hand flicked, opened, chopped, and pressed… every move seemed extremely efficient and dangerous.

Even though Barcode was in a powerful transformation state, he was still suppressed to the point of almost breaking through his defenses, and his defense was stretched thin.

At the same time, in the distance… Sheng Yu Pian, who had been knocked away by the Orichalcum puppet, had stabilized himself and taken out a megaphone from his knapsack, launching a counterattack without stopping.

Only to hear a "Ha!" A [Howling Cannon] roared from his mouth, boosted by the unique "megaphone weapon," and struck the Orichalcum puppet's torso after being amplified several times.

Accompanied by a series of bell-like shattering sounds, the Orichalcum puppet's body was directly blasted through; the hole was even bigger than the one created by the [Ancient God's Finger] before, large enough for dolphins to jump through.

"Did I break it…" Sheng Yu Pian adjusted the distance between himself and the target, while keeping a close eye on the opponent, thinking, "No… that's not right… the 'left arm' was also pierced before, but it can still move."

His deduction was correct. Any single part of this Orichalcum puppet, as long as its overall structure was not destroyed and its mass was more than 50%, could continue to move.

In fact… the more incomplete the appearance of the Orichalcum puppet, the more one needed to be wary, because after the mass decreased, the speed of this thing would increase accordingly, and… the damage that crippled it would become the puppet's attack power.

Shriek—

Just as Sheng Yu Pian was thinking, another sound of cutting through the air suddenly arose. The giant shadow of the puppet disappeared with the sound, replaced by Vishnu's figure.

This switch was not initiated by Vishnu to attack… he had to switch in order to defend.

Two seconds ago, Barcode on the other side of the battlefield joined his arms and activated a [Heat-Flame Incineration Cannon]; although this move was not in the intelligence, just looking at the posture before the attack and the condensed energy particles, one could tell that this would be a large-scale fire-type energy impact.

Vishnu naturally couldn't rely on the broadsword in his hand to block this move. Even if he temporarily gathered Orichalcum to make a shield, he probably couldn't block it, so… he could only avoid it by switching positions.

And the result of the "passive" switch was… his main body was immediately ambushed by Sheng Yu Pian after appearing, taking damage and losing health.

Fortunately, the Orichalcum puppet, after losing nearly a third of its mass (melted by the high temperature and falling off), successfully took the powerful high-heat impact.

"This is really difficult…" After taking damage, Vishnu couldn't help but murmur, while gritting his teeth and enduring the pain, he turned around and counterattacked.

At this time, the Orichalcum left and right arms also happened to fly behind Sheng Yu Pian. Vishnu took this opportunity to control the two giant arms to launch a three-sided attack on Sheng Yu Pian.

However, how could Sheng Yu Pian, whose ability was "listening," not know that there were objects approaching behind him? Having been prepared for a long time, he calmly avoided the attack with a backflip, and once again pulled away to suppress with subsonic finger fire from mid-range.

On the other side, Barcode wasn't idle either; since he couldn't hit Vishnu's main body for the time being, he might as well output damage against the Orichalcum puppet in front of him. Anyway, he had too much firepower during the transformation… might as well use it.

Barcode directly drilled into the hollow body of the puppet through the hole blasted by Sheng Yu Pian, and swung his two mechanical arms to beat it wildly in all directions, causing the puppet's outer shell to deform from the inside out, turning it into something like a durian.

"That's about it." When Sheng Yu Pian said this, a faint smile appeared on his expressionless face under his bowl cut, "Although we suffered quite a bit at the beginning, once the weaknesses of your summon (he didn't know that this was actually a psionic weapon) are exposed, it seems very weak."

The weaknesses that Sheng Yu Pian spoke of, or rather, that he had seen, were mainly two:

First, the autonomous combat ability of the Orichalcum parts was too poor. When Vishnu's attention was focused elsewhere… for example, when he was focusing on fighting with his main body… then, the Orichalcum parts that were far away from him almost became "uncontrolled," and could only perform some simple actions, posing no threat at all.

Second, in order to maximize the power of "switching," there must be a certain distance between the main body and the puppet, and it was best to keep both of them in a state of continuous movement; this… would be hindered when facing an enemy with outstanding defensive ability who could stand still and withstand the attack of the main body. Not to mention… after pulling away, the first weakness would be immediately highlighted.

"Alas… I thought that by relying on the first two switches, I could at least kill or cripple one of them…" Vishnu also responded in a timely manner, "I didn't expect that Barcode still had that kind of transformation that could greatly improve his offense and defense. I can only say… as expected of a member of Order…"

Having said that, he sighed deeply again.

In all honesty, the pain of fighting two opponents alone… only the one fighting knows.

However, Vishnu had not given up, because… he still had a "final means."

At that moment, Vishnu, knowing that switching could no longer pose a threat, very decisively activated the strongest special effect of the Orichalcum puppet—[Serpent God Yi's Power]; the three Orichalcum parts on the field instantly turned into white light and condensed in the air.

White quickly turned into black.

A black hole like an abyss tore through the surrounding space, expanding and widening like a vortex…

A pair of serpent eyes suddenly opened from the darkness, and then, a giant snake with a black back and white belly rushed out of the black hole.

The Serpent God Yi, with a body as thick as a dragon, and the unique cyan light of Orichalcum material faintly projected on its black back; its substantial evil god-level malice made the air in the entire space turbid and heavy… its sense of presence and oppressive force were even greater than those of the Four Pillar Gods.

"Kill!" Vishnu didn't waste any more words. As soon as the Serpent God Yi appeared, he said only this one word, and at the same time… he himself ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.

Before he could finish speaking, the Serpent God Yi stretched out its body, turned its head, and swooped toward Sheng Yu Pian. The scene really looked like a snake preying on a small animal like a field mouse.

Seeing this, Sheng Yu Pian quickly rolled to the side, barely dodging the giant snake's attack.

A second later, the area where he had just been standing was swallowed into the mouth of the Serpent God Yi… a piece of ground the size of a car was crushed and swallowed by the giant snake like tofu… the destructive power of this was imaginable if it bit a player.

Although Sheng Yu Pian was already mentally prepared for this, when this scene really happened, he couldn't help but feel cold all over and his hair stood on end…

"Chase after his main body!" After experiencing the attack of the Serpent God Yi, Sheng Yu Pian had basically given up the idea of confronting it head-on. He immediately shouted at his teammate, and he himself also chased in the direction of Vishnu's escape.

Of course, whether he shouted or not, Barcode had already felt that something was wrong when he saw Vishnu running away, and had already taken off in pursuit.

Thus, the final stage of this "lieutenant battle" became a chase scene where the Serpent God Yi chased after the two members of the Order team, while the two members of the Order team chased after Vishnu of the Pantheon team.

The attack power of the Serpent God Yi was equal to the attack power of the Orichalcum puppet when it was sacrificed, multiplied by ten. In the current state of the two members of the Order team, basically… as long as they were grazed by it, they would be instantly killed.

For Vishnu, this should be considered an advantage; unfortunately… there were still several disadvantages from other aspects.

Even though Vishnu still had more than half of his stamina and spiritual power left, his survival value was not as high as that of the two members of the Order team, and he no longer had the emergency evasion skills like instant switching.

The transformed Barcode was far stronger than Vishnu, who could not use psionic weapons, in terms of offense and defense, not to mention that Sheng Yu Pian was helping him. The two of them joining forces would likely kill Vishnu in a matter of seconds… even if he could barely hold out until one of his opponents was grazed to death by the Serpent God Yi, as long as he died before any of the opponents, the match would be lost.

Therefore, this chase became a battle of "whoever gets caught first loses." The advantages and disadvantages in terms of offense and defense were already very obvious. Now everyone had to compete in speed and endurance.

The painful thing was… in this aspect, the three players were about the same.

The Serpent God Yi's stamina was infinite, but its speed was only fifty-fifty with the players. The key was to see who would slow down or stop first, Vishnu or the two members of the Order team.

…………

"Gui Xiao, you can see their stamina values, right? Who do you think will win in the end?" At the same time, Ye Zhi in the spectator space asked Gui Xiao a question. This was also something that the other members of Order team really wanted to know.

"Hmm…" Gui Xiao thought for a while, "Actually… it's not 'who runs out of stamina first' that determines the outcome; in fact, in my opinion, we've already won… the question now is, how long will it take for those two on the field to realize 'that thing'?"

"Oh?" Ye Zhi asked doubtfully, "What thing are you referring to?"

"It's that they can 'run different routes'…" Gui Xiao replied.

As soon as these words came out, everyone else in the spectator space, including Ye Zhi, changed their expressions slightly, and quickly realized something…

This battlefield had "boundaries." This was information that had been announced before the match. The opponents must also know this; the place where the battle started was in the center of the entire battlefield space, far from the boundaries, but even so… with their current speed constantly moving in a straight line in one direction, it was only a matter of time before they were blocked by the boundaries.

When they reached the boundary barrier, Vishnu, who was running in the front, would inevitably need to make a sharp turn to continue moving, and that kind of behavior… would be fatal.

It was impossible for Vishnu not to have thought of this, so he would not run in a straight line. He would definitely have to run in an arc, so that he could gradually run a "circle" and avoid being blocked by the boundary barrier head-on.

In response to this situation, as long as the two people chasing him did not move side by side, but separated slightly, so that one of them ran along the same route as Vishnu, and the other leaned slightly towards the front of the other party's "arc," and approached with a shorter distance, they could complete the interception.

Moreover, even if this tactic was discovered by Vishnu, he would be powerless; because the two people chasing him were only "slightly separated," and one of them was slowly cutting corners. Even if Vishnu saw this and then deflected his route in the opposite direction, it would not cost the corner-cutter too much stamina. Besides… turning back and forth, to put it bluntly, was running in a small s-shape… this way of moving was also shortening the distance between him and the boundaries, and the closer he was to the boundaries, the smaller the space he could turn around and detour.

…………

Sure enough, after running for a minute or two, Sheng Yu Pian and Barcode almost simultaneously discovered that the route the opponent was running was skewed, and realized the reason behind it.

The two exchanged a few simple words and decided that Barcode would be responsible for cutting corners, while Sheng Yu Pian would continue to chase along the original route.

After a while, Barcode, who was cutting corners, had approached to a distance sufficient to conduct shooting on the move. He raised his two mechanical arms covered with gun barrels and began to fire…

If it were normal times, Vishnu could still use a shield made of Orichalcum to block this attack, but since he could not use the power of Orichalcum when the Serpent God Yi was present, this suppression of firepower made him very uncomfortable, so he had to adjust his route again and stay away from Barcode.

In this way, Vishnu also understood that it would be impossible to run in circles and compare endurance with the opponent. He could only run straight towards the boundaries, and wait until he got there to make a decision.

And this "decision" came very quickly… all three were top players, and they were basically moving at full speed. Before long, they reached the boundaries.

When the barrier in the distance could be confirmed with the naked eye, Vishnu suddenly erupted and launched an attack first!

His choice was also reasonable. Instead of being forced to respond when there was nowhere to go, it was better to take advantage of the space in front of him to turn around and launch a surprise attack.

But… how could those two old foxes behind him be so easily ambushed?

Sheng Yu Pian had been listening to Vishnu's heartbeat and blood flow rate all the way. He had been prepared for the opponent's eruption, and knew that there would be signs of it a few seconds before that.

As a result, just as Vishnu's movement of stopping suddenly and changing direction started, a subsonic finger had already shot towards the position he was about to move to with foresight, and hit the outside of his thigh.

This attack was not very strong, but it was enough to make his figure pause.

At that moment, Barcode, with quick eyes and hands, raised his hand and fired a shot; this shot was fired from the sniper barrel on his mechanical arm, because this was a skill that could only be fired with a "sniper rifle"—[Philosophy Cannon].

"There is no beautiful surface without a terrible depth."

As usual, the [Philosophy Cannon] did not "fire." When firing, what was usually sprayed out of the muzzle was a famous quote.

Vishnu, who had been forced into a dead end, was hit in the face with "philosophy"… Considering his body strength, structure, regeneration ability, etc., compared to Infinite, who had his head blown off by the same skill back then, he was much worse, and the probability of him surviving this shot was conceivable.

Even if the Serpent God Yi caught up and swallowed him in one bite within two seconds after Barcode fired, it would be of no avail… Not to mention that there was still a lively Sheng Yu Pian next to him, even if there wasn't, Vishnu would turn into white light before Barcode.

At this point, the second "lieutenant battle" of the first round of S3, [Order] vs [Pantheon], came to an end.

The final result was that the Order team won, making the total score of the two teams one to one.

Although from the process, the approach of Sheng Yu Pian and Barcode joining forces to plot against a rookie was somewhat embarrassing for them, but the match was the match. In the professional world, the result was greater than everything, and any means allowed by the rules could be regarded as tactical strategies, which was beyond reproach; losing in the end for the sake of personal "face" was a disservice to the name of a professional.

…………

Five minutes passed quickly.

In any case, neither side knew who the other side would send out for the next match, so there was no way to arrange tactics.

During this time, the team members mainly did an emotional buffer, sweeping the match they had just finished out of their minds, and preparing to welcome the next match.

[The match will begin in thirty seconds]

As soon as the break time ended, the system voice sounded immediately.

At the same time, the members of both sides participating in the "adjutant battle" were also teleported into the battlefield in response.

When the two players participating in this match appeared in the "Dirac Sea (Pseudo)," all the viewers who were watching this match live were stunned, followed by… surprise, doubt, excitement, and other intense emotions.

And those members of the two teams who were in the spectator space all showed solemn expressions on their faces.

[Devouring Sky Ghost Xiao] vs [Shiva]

Who would have thought that these two people would meet in the "adjutant battle" position.

But in any case, since they have both stood on the field, then… this adjutant battle will undoubtedly be a veritable "peak battle."