Chapter 1 A New Weapon

A glimmer of light flashed, and Mad Blade, who had just finished today's match, appeared in the stronghold's lobby, his face a little troubled.

"Sigh, another defeat. Wandering Angel is too steady, I can't win against him. My ranking has dropped again. The next opponent is Solomon's Key from the Koye Club, also a tough guy. If I lose the next match, I won't have a chance to qualify."

Mad Blade shook his head, looking worried.

The season was already halfway through, and the situation was gradually becoming clear. In the team competition, Dynasty had locked in a spot in advance. Chang Kong and the Temple were still hovering on the edge of eighth place, and the situation was deadlocked. If either team lost a match or scored too few points, they would be left behind. Given the harsh environment of Group C, with its many strong teams, the possibility of catching up later was extremely low.

However, the team competition wasn't Mad Blade's concern. His performance in the individual competition was mediocre, ranking in the middle, around seventeenth or eighteenth place, with a win rate of about fifty-fifty. But every time he won, it was a hard-fought victory, and he felt the limitations of the Mecha Warrior profession.

Although the Mecha Warrior profession could fight and withstand attacks, and was proficient in both melee and ranged combat, it was relatively well-rounded, but it didn't have any particular strengths at the moment. Although his skills were very good, there was still a gap between him and the top players. These individual competition monsters all had their own set or several sets of special tactics, and they were good at dragging the battle into their rhythm. Mad Blade found that if Mecha Warriors wanted to catch up in this area, the only way was to rely on more powerful or more distinctive mechanical weapons.

The shortcomings of Mecha Warriors were not their fault. The Mechanical class was not well-suited to the first version. After all, each generation had its own overpowered class. To make up for the shortcomings of Mecha Warriors, one could only rely on stronger mechanical weapons and higher-level mechanical bonuses in later versions. In each version, Mecha Warriors were a viable, all-around, and decent profession, capable of acting as tanks or damage dealers, a tier 2 to tier 3 choice, with a smooth upward development curve, unlike Mechanics, which experienced great ups and downs.

It was already very difficult for Mad Blade to achieve his current results. Besides his own good level, the bigger reason was the high-quality mechanical equipment he obtained from Han Xiao. If he hadn't met Black Phantom back then, he would probably only be able to compete in regional events and wouldn't be able to reach the international stage.

Among all the players who followed Han Xiao, Mad Blade was the most ardent supporter, not only because he received the most help, but also because he had been with Han Xiao for so long and really liked him as a character. Sometimes he always felt that he was a real person.

Although all the NPCs in the Star Sea were like real people, Han Xiao gave him a special feeling—maybe it was because Han Xiao was the first important person he had met, so he had a preconceived notion.

Regaining his composure, Mad Blade prepared to find Han Xiao to repair his equipment and, by the way, add some new weapons for the next match, hoping they would be effective.

Just as he was about to set off, Han Xiao arrived at the lobby first. Mad Blade immediately went up to him, expressing his desire for repairs. The shop interface appeared before him.

He quickly browsed through it and suddenly found several new items at the bottom.

"Huh, ability potions? I haven't seen these before, are they new?" Mad Blade asked in surprise.

Han Xiao put several ability potions into the shop interface. The quantity was limited, so he priced them quite high. The introduction said that they could grant the drinker another person's ability in the short term. It also stated where the potions came from. The potions made by Han Xiao using his own genes were among them, and Mad Blade spotted them at a glance.

"There's only one Black Star ability potion. What does it do?"

The potions were all priced at 2000 Enas, which was not cheap, even a bit expensive. One could only find out the effect after using them. Each time, the effect of the temporary character card one received would definitely be one of the creator's abilities, but what ability one drew was random, not fixed.

Mad Blade hadn't decided whether to buy it yet. At this moment, Dynasty, the Temple, and other participating teams also came over and also noticed the new product, ability potions.

"Temporarily gaining someone else's ability, this seems to be a buff potion. Why is it so expensive? Is the effect really powerful?"

In order to improve their combat power, these teams spared no expense. Hao Tian immediately bought a Rezart ability potion. After drinking it, he was prompted to receive a temporary character card, which effect was to increase the power of the next magical attack by 77%. He was a little surprised.

"It's a pity I'm not a mage, otherwise this boost would be really powerful. It can be used in crucial moments in team battles, such as a great AoE opportunity, or to burst down an opponent's squishy character. If used well, it can determine the victory in one fell swoop!"

This wasn't the first time players had encountered character cards. Character cards could additionally increase combat power and were very practical. They were usually only rewarded for special tasks and were hard to come by. They didn't expect Han Xiao to actually sell character cards here. Although they were temporary, it was the first time they had seen them, and they were surprised and delighted.

Hearing this, Mad Blade's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly took out money to buy the only Black Star ability potion—he was a Mechanic, and Black Star was also a Mechanic, so the ability would definitely be compatible with him.

Ignoring those teams scrambling for the other ability potions, Mad Blade went to the side and cautiously drank Han Xiao's potion.

A panel prompt appeared.

[You have obtained [Character Arrival Card - Han Xiao (Temporary)]]

[Character Arrival Card - Han Xiao (Temporary): [Black Star's Arrival] - Your mechanical affinity is increased by 247% for three minutes, uses 0/1 (this character card has a time limit of 5 days)]

Mad Blade suddenly widened his eyes, and astonishment froze on his face. He couldn't help rubbing his eyes, afraid he had misread the numbers.

"T-Two and a half times the bonus!!"

Mad Blade almost spat out water.

"Even if I use all my bonus skills, my mechanical affinity is only half of this value. Black Star's attributes are too terrifying. How strong is he?!"

This was beyond what the word "monster" could describe!

This was simply a bug-like increase!

At this level, using this character card, don't mention any skills or operations, even a pig could bulldoze the opponent!

Han Xiao had many abilities, but this time the temporary character card drew his mechanical affinity, which was not considered a skill, but Han the Great Technician's basic attribute, so it became the effect of a buff bonus.

Without using any skills, Han Xiao's talent and passives stacked up to 247% mechanical affinity. Once he used skills, this number would increase by another one or two hundred. This was the simplest effect, but also the most brutal increase.

Because mechanical affinity was the core attribute of the Mechanic class, directly affecting combat power!

As the Mechanic class's level increased, mechanical affinity would continue to increase, but the bonus from using the temporary character card was an additional increase, a completely leap-like enhancement! It was almost equal to temporarily gaining the attributes of dozens of levels later!

And dozens of levels later… was exactly the level at which the Mechanic class exerted its strength!

Fortunately, the temporary character card could only be used once and was hard to come by. If it became a fixed skill for players, that would be terrible. Lonely as snow, invincible, that was just unbeatable!

Looking at Mad Blade's heavy breathing and extremely excited appearance, Han Xiao stroked his chin, curious.

"What ability did this kid draw from me? He's so excited."

…

"Mad Blade Angry Sword, third place in the Haier Star Division individual competition, profession Mecha Warrior, known as the First Mecha Warrior of China... Heh."

In the Koye Club's stronghold on Frostwinter Star, Solomon's Key casually browsed through the information of his next individual competition opponent, smiling indifferently, his tone carrying a faint arrogance and strong confidence. "It seems there's no suspense."

The old member "Cursed Scepter" asked, "Are you planning to use the Howling Gate?"

"You're overthinking it. Winning against the next opponent doesn't require using my trump card. I bet that masters like Wandering Angel, Rose Knight's Golden-Champagne, and Devil World's Marshall-Scarlet are definitely hiding their ultimate moves. Although I'm currently ranked seventh, as long as I use my trump card, I can definitely reach the top. However, qualifying in the group stage is enough. It's best to save the trump card for the finals."

Solomon's Key was very confident in his trump card. The Howling Gate was a special spellcasting item he obtained from an extremely difficult hidden mission. Although he didn't know what the other masters' trump cards were, he was confident that he was close to invincible in one-on-one battles at this level. Even without using his trump card, his own combat power was one of the best. Being able to reach seventh place already showed his strength.

"After this match, my ranking can rise another place. The last few opponents are more difficult to deal with. I can retain my strength and deliberately lose, so my ranking will probably drop to 15th place, which is enough to guarantee qualification..."

Based on the premise that he would win the next match, Solomon's Key began to formulate his final group stage plan. In his eyes, the next match was a scoring opportunity before facing strong enemies. Victory was in his grasp, and he didn't need to consider the possibility of losing at all.

Winning was certain, the only question was how to win.

…

Mad Blade was one of the few Mechanic class players in the international individual competition, and the only Mechanic seedling from China. He wore the title of "First Mecha Warrior of China" and received the attention of many fans and viewers.

Since the start of the competition, Mad Blade's performance had been mediocre, ranking in the middle. But even in the victorious matches, the audience could see that he won very hard, and his ranking always couldn't go up, as if he had reached his limit.

Of the three Chinese individual competition players, Wang Hou Jiang Xiang was ranked higher and didn't need to worry about qualifying, while Xue Ran Fan Hua was ranked lower. Now that the season was halfway through, unless he won all the remaining matches, he had no hope of qualifying. Mad Blade was hovering on the edge of sixteenth place and had the opportunity to become China's second qualifying player, carrying the hopes of many fans.

Mad Blade's next schedule was relatively extreme, either facing top ten masters or bottom-ranked weaklings. Fans analyzed his performance and concluded that even if he could take down all the weaklings, his points would still be a little short. He had to defeat at least one master to have a chance to qualify. However, Mad Blade's current performance was not good enough to compete with the top players and not bad enough to fall behind. His win rate against masters was very low, and the situation was not optimistic.

And this match's opponent was the seventh-ranked Solomon's Key.

Many fans were secretly anxious, cheering him on. Some also ridiculed and mocked him, saying that Mad Blade had been blindly hyped up as the First Mecha Warrior of China and had embarrassed himself abroad. In short, the quality of the comments was uneven, and there were all kinds of remarks on the forums.

No matter how one looked at things, time would not slow down by a single second. The day of the match arrived on schedule.

Mad Blade and Solomon's Key entered the arena. The screen showed the players' health, stamina, status bars, and other attribute values, making the situation clear and easy to watch.

The battlefield was a huge city. Towering, thick concrete and steel walls surrounded the city tightly. The two players landed on opposite ends of the walkway on the giant wall, which was dozens of meters high and four to five meters wide on average, and could vaguely see each other's tiny figures.

In the picture, the north wind swept, dark clouds loomed over the city, sand and leaves flew, desolate and vast.

The audience zoomed out the God's-eye view and found that the outside of the giant wall was painted with several large, square characters in red paint:

--Black Phantom Third Shelter

"Haha, it actually randomly selected this venue."

"Oh, I recognize this place. Isn't this our planet's Third Shelter?"

The Chinese audience looked surprised and delighted.