Chapter 164 The Other Side's Calculation

[The match will begin in thirty seconds]

Along with the system's voice, both teams entered the arena.

As Feng Bujue predicted in the spectator space, the Jianghu team sent out the Cai Bupa Ne and Bu Tiange sibling duo for the "Mid-Game Battle."

But, please note… this "prediction" was made by Feng Bujue in the "spectator space," not his original prediction before the match.

"I truly didn't expect to meet you in this 'Opening Battle'," was what he said to Sword Shadow… which meant that he himself had already admitted his misjudgment.

So, what was Jue-ge's original judgment?

Feng Bujue thought that the opponent would send Wu Daoke in the first match, and the Sword Shadow and Bupa combination in the second…

Considering Jianghu's perspective, if Hell Front arranged a lineup from weak to strong, then their arrangement could very likely achieve a two-to-zero lead at the start. Even if Hell Front put their main force in the first two matches, they wouldn't be without a chance of winning; they could at least fight to a 40-60 split. Afterward, as long as Jianghu sniped Snow with Bu Tiange in one of the subsequent matches, they would have a chance to take the match point and advance.

However, the calculation that Jue-ge did for the other side ultimately did not become reality.

Because… Jianghu was calculating something else.

It might be hard to believe, but after the matchmaking list for this round was announced, Jianghu immediately held an internal meeting. At the end of the meeting, they made the decision to "give up advancing."

The reason for giving up was simple: after joint discussion and analysis by management, players, and the data team, they unanimously determined that… with Jianghu's current roster depth, no matter how much of an advantage they gained in team composition, the hope of getting three points from Hell Front was very slim.

In other words… barring any accidents, Jianghu's S3 journey would end in this round.

After reaching this conclusion, the way Jianghu calculated things naturally changed… they didn't need to arrange their lineup for the slim chance of advancing like Shanhe did in the previous round. They only needed to satisfy two points: first, to score at least one point in the overall score to avoid the embarrassment of being swept; and second, to use the competition platform to showcase players and increase popularity.

Therefore, Jianghu arranged the lineup for the first three matches as follows… "Opening Battle" - Kuang Zong Jianying; "Mid-Game Battle" - Cai Bupa Ne, Bu Tiange; "Lieutenant Battle" - Wu Daoke.

This kind of arrangement undoubtedly abandoned the hope of advancing. They didn't seek to win the last two matches, but only to score points in the first three and ensure that all four of their popular players could appear on stage.

Although Feng Bujue immediately realized this after finishing the opening battle, the "roster" was submitted ten minutes before the match; a person's judgment can be corrected, but the match roster cannot.

Thus, in this match, there was a confrontation between Snow and Wang Tanzhi against Cai Bupa Ne and Bu Tiange.

Jue-ge originally planned to use Xiao Tan's control ability to cooperate with Snow's various military bombardments to bully the two melee players, but after Sword Shadow was replaced by Xiao Bu… the feasibility of this tactic became questionable.

Some people might remember that Wang Tanzhi and Bu Tiange had once faced off in S1 (Chapter 380 - Stone Formation Assassination). Although Xiao Tan won at the time, even he had to admit that he won purely by luck.

In that "Bug Battle," both the weather (pitch-black night) and the terrain (towering stone forest) were very unfavorable to Bu Tiange, a shooting-specialized player. Moreover, since the players' levels were still low and their abilities were limited in S1, the advantages and disadvantages brought by the environment were even more pronounced.

And if you put aside these third-party factors and look at this duel, it's not hard to see that… Bu Tiange is actually a player who counters Xiao Tan a lot.

In fact, not only Xiao Tan, but Bu Tiange's [Thunderbolt Boomerang] can be said to be the nemesis of all players who take the "stealth assassination" route. In front of him, there is no space to use agility to pull and control at all. The only ones who can counter him are power-type characters like [Da Fantianguan] or [Long Aotian], but unfortunately… Snow and Xiao Tan are not this type.

…………

"You've already watched the match recording between me and Bu Tiange, right?" Xiao Tan said to Snow, who was busily manufacturing mechanical creations.

At this moment, the preparation time had not yet ended. Because there was a shooting-specialized player among the opponents, and this was a desert terrain, Xiao Tan and his team did not distance themselves from the opponents as originally planned, but started preparing on the spot.

"Of course, I've watched it." Snow replied while looking down and busying himself. "I've also scanned through his matches in S2 and S3. It can be seen that he has become much stronger than when he was in [Star]." He paused, raised his eyes slightly, "And… he counters you a lot."

"Yeah…" Xiao Tan groaned, silent for a few seconds. During this time, he seemed to have made up his mind, and then spoke again, "Snow, I have an idea…"

"What?" Snow replied.

"Can you help me hold them back for a while?" Xiao Tan said, "Buy me… two minutes."

"Huh?" Although Snow's hands didn't stop, he raised his head. He looked at Xiao Tan and blurted out a sentence in English, "Dude… Are_you_kidding_me?"

It was understandable that he had this reaction. It should have been Xiao Tan who was buying him time, but now, he was actually asked to have someone who could barely fight head-on to help his teammate buy time.

This couldn't be said to be asking the impossible; it was simply asking him to die…

"Please, just two minutes, think of a way." After Xiao Tan finished speaking, he didn't give the other party any room to say anything else, and disappeared without a trace in a flash.

"Ma~ De Er~ Fa [beep—] Er!" Snow looked at the empty sandy ground in front of him, and a sentence of MMP in English blurted out. In addition to shock, he couldn't help but complain in his heart, "I thought only Feng Bujue would do this kind of thing of selling his teammates at the last minute. I didn't expect you, Wang Tanzhi, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, to betray the revolutionary friendship that we finally established! Are there any good people in Hell Front? Who can I trust in this world in the future?"

Complaints aside, he still had to think of a way…

Snow was definitely not someone who would sit still and wait for death. He didn't really think he was "sold out." He knew very well… that Xiao Tan must have had a good reason for doing this, so he had to risk his life to buy these two minutes for his teammate.