196: First victory and aiming for a ten-game winning streak

Confirmed by the look in his eyes—this was someone who needed to be beaten to death.

The opponent hadn't made a move yet, but Xu Shian's gaze involuntarily drifted toward the surrounding sky.

He had watched over a dozen matches from the stands, but from the inside, there was absolutely no trace of the audience outside.

Opposite him, Prince Xin Mǎkèěr watched Xu Shian's movements with a secret surge of joy.

As expected, he's a little rookie in his first battle!

Isn't this just giving me free points?

Magic Missile!

A cluster of six Magic Missiles took flight from Prince Xin Mǎkèěr's hand, followed by four more volleys in succession, curving as they flew toward Xu Shian.

Xu Shian was startled!

An attack range of three hundred meters? Did you grow up eating Jinkela fertilizer?

Attacking from such a distance meant the opponent had clearly prepared a specific tactic for himself.

Magic Missile had no other benefits except for one: homing in on enemies... At three hundred meters, it was very difficult to hit someone unless one used large-scale area-of-effect attacks.

And against this kind of homing skill, dodging didn't make much sense.

Xu Shian raised a hand, and the massive Bear Big blocked the way in front of him.

-1469, -1502... -3305

A series of 24 damage numbers floated above Bear Big's head in quick succession.

By the time the round of attacks ended, Bear Big had lost 41,305 health points... A not-so-professional sub-tank summoned beast had half its health bar deleted by a mere appetizer!

And this damage was even after accounting for Bear Big's damage reduction and high defense.

Xu Shian immediately corrected his posture; no one who managed to get into this arena was weak.

Even for someone like Bankai, who might scramble in next month, Xu Shian never considered him too weak... If he were truly weak, Xu Shian wouldn't have bothered spending effort on him!

Xu Shian quickly adjusted his mindset, acknowledging his opponent's strength.

After two invisible Ravens were summoned, they immediately flew out in a wide arc.

When watching others fight, it always seemed like child's play, something he could destroy with a flick of his wrist.

But when it was his turn to step up, he was still a bit flustered.

The Magic Missile skill was a channeled skill with no cooldown limit.

Before the first batch of Magic Missiles had even landed, the second batch was already in the air.

At this moment, Xu Shian once again realized his shortcomings.

Mainly, he hadn't expected someone to be able to stretch their attack range so far.

Besides weapon skills, there must be other auxiliary abilities to achieve this.

The key was that a long attack range was one thing, but having a homing skill like Magic Missile was another... Archers actually had Guided Arrow and Homing Arrow too.

Unfortunately, Xu Shian felt those two skills weren't very useful... They lacked damage and had no real development prospects!

Previously, he had only considered PVE and hadn't thought about the PVP aspect.

Now that he was being pinned down and beaten, he realized the benefits of these two skills... Bear Big took two more rounds of Magic Missile bombardment and then crashed to the ground.

In the distance, a wicked smile appeared on Prince Xin Mǎkèěr's bandage-wrapped face.

Can you block my Epic-grade Magic Missile, which has been enhanced to +3?

Now that the meat shield is dead, feel the magical judgment of Prince Xin Mǎkèěr... Just as another round of Magic Missiles arrived, another brown bear blocked the opponent's path.

The Ethereal was not annoyed.

If a player who made it to the ranked matches was defeated this easily, he would instead feel that life was as lonely as snow.

When the next round of Magic Missiles flew out and was about to hit the bear, they unexpectedly began to return the way they came... Return?

No!

Prince Xin Mǎkèěr was shocked and turned to look behind him!

Less than 50 meters away, a figure abruptly appeared!

It was Ink Shadow's Positional Swap.

Xu Shian waved his hand, and six Boar-men Hunters appeared less than twenty meters from the Ethereal.

They raised their bows and fired!

The Ethereal hurriedly reinforced his defenses.

Ice Shield, Mana Shield... Unfortunately, the volley from the six Boar-men triggered a Combined Strike in the middle.

Two layers of Mana Shields were broken one after another, and the Ethereal knew things were bad!

He instantly activated the absolute defense mode of Ice Block, blocking the Fatal Strike, then quickly canceled Ice Block and used Blink to leave the scene!

Unfortunately, he had already fallen into Xu Shian's rhythm, and there was no going back... How far could a Blink go, anyway?

Oh, you can turn invisible too? Under Ink Shadow's Absolute Insight, this kind of invisibility skill that hasn't had many points invested in it is nowhere near enough!

Twenty seconds later, Prince Xin Mǎkèěr fell with a sense of grievance.

[Ding! You have won the ranked match and obtained 1,080 life spirit crystals!]

The portion of the 5% entry fee that was less than one crystal was not paid.

[Your ranking points +1, obtained Bronze Badge +1]

To be honest, when he heard the introduction, hearing that the arena took a 90% cut felt okay.

But when it actually came time to collect the tax, it felt painful.

1,200 life spirit crystals passed through the arena's hands and immediately became 120 less... Xu Shian chose to exit the arena.

Xu Shian returned to the Snow Peak Plain.

Looking at the two Ravens that had been flying for ages and were now landing on his shoulders, he was a bit speechless.

This wave was due to Xu Shian's operational error.

In that case, let's strike while the iron is hot and go for another round!

[Ding! Ladder ranking cooldown: 23 hours, 59 minutes, 17 seconds]

You can only play one match every 24 hours?

And you might not even win that one... No wonder after a month, so many people are still stuck at Bronze Rank 2 or 3!

Since he could only play one match a day, Xu Shian could peacefully attend to his own business... Wa Island.

Kukimototaka looked at the butler who was collecting equipment for him from outside.

"A price hike? They have the nerve to raise the price for even this linen robe?"

"The quantity we want is too large, giving these profiteers an opportunity..."

Kukimototaka shook his head.

"Right now is the most critical juncture for the rise of our Sakura Empire, but unfortunately, these merchants are short-sighted and only care about immediate petty profits!"

"Young Master, what should we do now?"

"Are our own professional talents being trained?"

"The Master and the Eldest Young Master are forming our Kukimoto Family's guild to fully assist your rapid ascent."

Listening to his butler's flattering words, Kukimototaka sighed slightly.

"It's not that simple! I always feel that Shi Chuan isn't far from me..."

"On what grounds? We haven't offended them, have we?"

Kukimototaka remained silent!

Does one even need to ask for a reason for such things? The historical conflicts between the two sides had long ago destined the two countries to a fight to the death.

Judging others by himself, if he were to swap places with Shi Chuan, he would certainly want to eliminate such a major threat!

Now, the neighboring Great Xia Country is likely waiting for the national borders to open... and then both sides will have a war with no surrender and no giving up!

After all, in this new world, officials and governments can no longer restrain the angry youths and radicals among the people.

There is too much blood vengeance between the two countries, and this hatred has sunk deep into the populace, long becoming an inextricable and chaotic mess.

Kukimototaka was very self-aware.

He was afraid of being retaliated against and decapitated by Xu Shian.

Recently, to level up, he would hide in Dungeons and never go to the monster spots in the wild to farm.

Regardless, he had to get an arena ticket first and see what kind of opportunities were inside... East Dragon Calendar, August 17th, Year 521.

Xu Shian opened the arena panel to check his status.

[Player: Shi Chuan]

[Class: Summoner]

[Rank: Bronze Rank 2, 4-Star]

[Record: 9 Wins, 0 Losses]

[Badges: 9 Bronze Badges]

[Spectate from Stands, Register for Battle]

Today, he was going to pull off a ten-game win streak... He had been in the queue for two days, and it was finally his turn!

It wasn't because there weren't many players, but because to get a ten-game win streak, one had to fight someone else on a nine-game win streak... Xu Shian's two days in the queue were spent waiting for another nine-game winner to appear.

If a match couldn't be found after three days, a high-rank Bronze would come over to perform a 'dimensionality reduction strike' on you!

Of course, Xu Shian was fearless!

Let them all come.