165: Advance to [Platinum 8]

Chapter 165: Promoted to Platinum 8

Shi Li was already familiar with the Star Ascension mission for the Snail Walking Lady; he was just missing that last little bit.

Regrouping once more, he spent 30 minutes to reach the final BOSS.

This final BOSS was an octopus monster with a rather peculiar mechanic.

It occupied a 3x2 grid itself, and then each round, it would generate 1 Tentacle in 2 of the 3 spaces in the row in front of it, acting as a damage Shield.

Therefore, Red Blade Maiden's percentage damage couldn't be fully effective; hitting the Tentacle was essentially a waste, draining her health for nothing.

Besides blocking attacks, these three Tentacles each carried three different types of hard crowd control.

Sleep: Unable to act, dispelled upon taking damage and gains the Weakness effect.

Freeze: Unable to act, dispelled upon taking damage and gains the Armor Break effect.

Petrify: Unable to act, damage -10 upon taking damage.

Compared to the purest hard crowd control, Stun, these three types of hard crowd control each had their pros and cons.

The Weakness granted by Sleep is a negative effect that reduces the target's attack power.

The Armor Break granted by Freeze is a negative effect that increases the damage taken by the target.

The damage reduction granted by Petrify is indeed a positive effect, but Petrify's Energy cost is lower than Stun.

Moreover, if the target already has 10 points of damage reduction, the effects of Petrify and Stun are exactly the same.

The presence of the Tentacles severely limited the deck's damage output against the BOSS, and they also had a special mechanic that prevented their summoning from being blocked by occupying spaces.

The only solution in this simulation mission was Purification.

However, Shi Li himself didn't have Purification cards, so he could only solve it by collecting companions and items.

The key was that merely defeating the BOSS wasn't enough to achieve a perfect Star Ascension.

He received a hint from the NPC encountered during the mission.

He needed to defeat 48 Tentacles and then the BOSS, while also carefully managing the BOSS's health, to achieve a perfect clear.

48 Tentacles meant a considerable number of rounds.

Previously, if Red Blade Maiden carried Unceasing + Vitality + Vast, her damage output wouldn't meet the requirements.

If she carried Unceasing / Vitality + Abundant + Vast, her damage output would be sufficient, but even if she only lost 10 health per round, she couldn't sustain it over prolonged rounds.

Don't let the 10-point health loss seem like it could be easily healed; the problem was that this BOSS placed immense pressure on both damage output and Healing, making it difficult to spare any resources.

Fortunately, after acquiring Surging, this problem could finally be resolved.

Surging + Abundant + Vast / Crimson Blaze were all very strong combinations.

"Done."

Coupled with the experience accumulated from dozens of previous attempts, Shi Li finally completed the strategy.

You have completed this simulation with a completion rate of 100%.

You can obtain 1 character card [Snail Walking Lady (Three Stars)].

You can obtain 1 hand card [Movement (LV3)].

Yes/No to reset this mission for 21000 cubic coins.

"No."

The moment he clicked confirm, the text popped up.

Chasing Wind Resonance: 40% → 60%

He was one step closer to achieving Chasing Wind Resonance.

Then a warm current swept through his body, and his personal panel received an upgrade.

Rank: Platinum 7 → Platinum 8

Stamina: 345 / 345 (4.1 ↑) → 357 / 357 (4.1 ↑)

Energy: 360 / 360 (2.7 ↑) → 370 / 370 (2.7 ↑)

Most importantly, his deck expanded from 6+1 to 7+1.

He now revealed 3 initial cards at the start instead of 2.

This way, his disadvantage against Platinum 9 and Platinum 10 opponents wouldn't be as significant.

If he were to face The Master of the Banlan Tribe again now, he definitely wouldn't win so difficultly.

After all, the strength of a fully unique deck was undeniable; even if he had one less card than his opponent, Shi Li believed he could compensate with his deck's strength.

"Comfortable."

In addition, both the Snail Walking Lady and Demon-Defeating Dark Hunter's Star Ascension missions exceptionally granted LV3 hand cards.

And it was LV3 Movement, a card that LV1 and LV2 Movement couldn't compare to.

LV3 Movement: Move 2 of your cards by 1 space. (T3)

"Moving 2 cards simultaneously will make the deck formation more flexible.

Paired with the Snail Walking Lady, I can even adjust the positions of 3 cards in one round."

With this hand card, Shi Li's deck flexibility would greatly increase.

Finally, let's look at the Snail Walking Lady's card.

The little girl in the projection generally looked unchanged, except for a pair of white wing patterns appearing on her shoulder blades.

Snail Walking Lady

Chasing Wind, 20 points, Three Stars, Attack 20, 100/100, 0/40

Snail Walk - Characteristic: Snail Walking Lady's Movement is increased to T0, and she can move 1 space for every 20 Energy consumed.

Bearing the Brunt - Passive: In the round Snail Walking Lady enters the front row, she grants 10 Shield to adjacent martial cards.

Pillar of Strength - Passive: In the round Snail Walking Lady enters the middle row, she grants 10 Healing to adjacent martial cards.

Snail Power - Passive: In the round Snail Walking Lady enters the right column, she automatically enters Defense.

Ox Power - Passive: In the round Snail Walking Lady enters the left column, she increases her own attack power by 10.

Strike Later - Passive: In the round Snail Walking Lady enters the second row, she allows 1 of your martial cards to attack in her place.

End Support - Passive: In the round Snail Walking Lady enters the last row, she can take damage for 1 of your martial cards.

"This is amazing."

The two newly added entries made Shi Li very happy.

The Snail Walking Lady herself was primarily a support, and being able to take damage for teammates was definitely a very powerful function.

Then, with her low points and low attack, allowing other cards to help with damage output was absolutely cost-effective.

Especially if the peak Flower Cudgel Leader attacked in her place, she could deal 60 damage, which was equivalent to 3 times the Snail Walking Lady's damage.

Now, the Snail Walking Lady finally had a complete set of entries.

First, last, left, middle, and right columns could all trigger passive effects.

In the optimal scenario, she could trigger 1 row passive and 1 column passive simultaneously, which meant 2 passives.

However, this required a high number of empty spaces on the card table; it generally only had enough room to perform in the late stages of a game.

Having completed this mission, Shi Li looked at the 20,000+ cubic coins he had left.

He simply opened the Rampage Trial; it was time to challenge the 2-9 stage again.

Indeed, with the addition of the Lotus Succubus, it went much smoother.

Shi Li actually cleared two stages consecutively, reaching 2-10.

And in the 2-10 stage, he obtained a new exclusive item card.

Rampage Surge: When holding this card, one card gains a 1.2 skill multiplier in the Rampage Trial (bound).

A 1.2 skill multiplier meant that a skill dealing 100 damage would now deal 120 damage.

This was absolutely perfect for Red Blade Maiden.

With this exclusive item card, plus 2 unique Rage cards.

He was confident he could at least reach 3-3 or even 3-5.

Unfortunately, this matter had to be put on hold for now.

Because after clearing 2-9 and 2-10, he was completely out of money.

This was lucky; he got the desired result without too many attempts, otherwise, a mere few tens of thousands wouldn't last long.

By the time he finished all this, it was already morning, but having just been promoted, Shi Li was still full of Energy.

Although he had chosen an academy, the academy's independent courses wouldn't start so quickly.

New students were assigned public classes for the first two months, regardless of their academy.

Shi Li followed his dorm mates to the classroom, and under Chang Zhun's leadership, they would definitely not be late.

However, after 10 minutes of class, he discovered a problem: he had already learned most of these knowledge points.

Pure classroom instruction only lasted for two days; after that, the freshman placement match was about to begin.

"Did you hear? The freshman combat power ranking has been released."

Gong Ping suddenly said while the four of them were eating in the cafeteria.

"Ranking? What's the judging standard, rank?"

A Ya Jun was a little curious.

In the past few days of classes, there were noticeably more Platinum 8 and Platinum 9 classmates.

Even a few, like Chi Xi, had been promoted to Platinum 10.

Even A Ya Jun himself was about to successfully advance to Platinum 10.

It was clear that everyone was preparing for the placement matches.

Therefore, Shi Li's advancement in two days was not an uncommon situation.

"Rank is just one of the hard standards; other factors will be considered for players of the same rank."

Gong Ping explained.

If ranking was based solely on rank, there would likely be a large number of tied rankings, which would be meaningless.

"Then where do I rank?"

Chang Zhun suddenly became curious.

Hearing him, Gong Ping pulled out his phone with a spreadsheet.

Chang Zhun's current rank was Platinum 7, and there were a total of 178 freshmen at this rank.

Chang Zhun was actually ranked last in this tier.

Among them, 4 people were Platinum 10, 33 were Platinum 9, and 85 were Platinum 8.

So Chang Zhun's final ranking was 300th.

"This is unscientific."

Chang Zhun could not accept this fact.

A Ya Jun: "It seems like popularity is also a factor in the consideration."

Gong Ping: "The person who made the list doesn't seem to like you very much, brother."

Shi Li: "I completely understand."

But the other three thought this ranking made perfect sense.

If it weren't for the hard standard of rank that couldn't be ignored, they estimated that Chang Zhun would have been ranked last in the entire year.

Rope-burning dog, I spit.

"However, according to this ranking, you won't be able to get a seeded spot."

A Ya Jun noticed Shi Li's ranking.

Among the freshmen at Platinum 8, Shi Li was ranked 1st.

That is, 38th overall.

The first stage of the freshman placement matches adopted a "Grand Melee" mode.

The rules were the same as the city-wide mock unified examination in Durian City, with a total of 32 Grand Melees.

Seeded players would not be assigned to the same Grand Melee, while other players were randomly assigned.

In fact, A Ya Jun was a little worried about Shi Li; his rank was only 38, not a seeded player.

Because one of Shi Li's biggest advantages in defeating stronger opponents was his ability to use the synergy between bo shan and cloud river to compensate for the disadvantage of having fewer cards in the early game.

But in a Grand Melee, everyone's cards were revealed at the start, and Shi Li's synergy advantage was completely gone.

"It's fine, it doesn't matter."

Shi Li just smiled at this.

Seeing this expression, A Ya Jun suddenly hoped he wouldn't encounter him.

The next day, the freshmen arrived at the school's cubicle hall.

"Wow, impressive, as expected of Qingchuan University."

Gong Ping couldn't help but exclaim as soon as he entered.

The cubicle usage area at their Twenty-sixth High School was simply incomparable to this place.

Even Jiangnan University was far inferior to this place.

The number of cubicles at Jiangnan University was quite large, but they were built like a capsule hotel.

Looking at how grand Qingchuan University was, everyone could be assigned a private room.

Through the cubicle, Shi Li quickly entered the pure white space. "Hello, student Shi Li, you will have 10 minutes to arrange your deck."

The AI's voice reminded him.

"Hmm--"

Shi Li thought for a moment and began to arrange his deck according to his pre-conceived plan.

First, the front row cards, from left to right.

Cicada Wing, bo shan, Tiao Tiao

First, Tiao Tiao Guard and bo shan, of course, were damage-absorbing cards.

As for Cicada Wing Patrol, besides its functional aspects, its sustainable existence value was relatively small.

So placing it in the front row to absorb damage would be a good choice.

The attached traits were Blessing + Second Battlecry + Delayed Battlecry.

Then the middle row cards, from left to right.

Empty, cloud river, Hua Gun

Grand Melee was a non-refreshing deck state mode, meaning whatever the deck state was after the first round, it would continue to be the same in the next round.

Therefore, sustainability was especially important.

What kind of sustainability could compare to Revival?

So cloud river was definitely a must-have.

As for Flower Cudgel Leader, there was even less to say; it was the second attacker in Shi Li's deck.

As for the back row cards, from left to right.

Bai Mo, Empty, Red Blade

In these first three back rows, Shi Li hid a small combo.

First, in the reveal round, Demon-Defeating Dark Hunter prevented Flower Cudgel Leader from Charge for 1 round.

Flower Cudgel Leader unleashed "Bludgeon Barrage," dealing 120 damage.

In the next round, Cicada Wing's delayed battlecry triggered a second battlecry.

This caused Demon-Defeating Dark Hunter to again prevent Flower Cudgel Leader from Charge for 1 round.

Flower Cudgel Leader could again unleash "Bludgeon Barrage," dealing another 120 damage.

In the round after that, Flower Cudgel Leader's normal attack dealt 60 damage, and in the round after that, Flower Cudgel Leader could deal another 120 damage, only then reaching full Energy.

In four rounds, Flower Cudgel Leader could deal 420 damage, which was terrifying.

Even if a giant card came from the opponent, it would probably be instantly killed.

After arranging his deck, Shi Li clicked confirm.

Whoosh!

His vision blurred, and he appeared in a circular auditorium.

"Shi Li!"

Gong Ping used the search function and immediately came to his side.

"I'm here."

Subsequently, A Ya Jun also appeared.

As for Chang Zhun, no need to ask.

That guy would definitely only appear at the last second of the 10 minutes. Shi Li looked around, and most people had already arrived in the auditorium waiting for the draw.

This indicated that everyone had thought about their decks in advance.

"What are you doing?"

He withdrew his gaze and found Gong Ping muttering to himself.

"Of course, I'm praying to the gods for Blessings."

Gong Ping replied.

"You, forget it. Even if they bless you, it's useless."

A Ya Jun smiled.

After enrollment, Gong Ping also advanced 1 rank to Platinum 6, but there was basically no hope of him advancing further at this rank.

Unlike himself, who could rank 2nd in Platinum 9, making him a definite seeded player.

"What the hell do you know!"

Gong Ping rolled his eyes at him.

In reality, the variables in Grand Melee mode were much greater than in a normal card game.

The school's choice of Grand Melee for the first stage of the competition was actually somewhat biased towards freshmen of lower ranks, giving them a chance.

Because in a Grand Melee, by the end, both sides basically only had one or two cards left.

In such a situation, Platinum 10 and Platinum 5 actually had no big difference.

Of course, the premise was that Platinum 5 could last until the end.

However, Gong Ping himself knew that this Grand Melee would definitely not be as easy as the one back home.

That time, hundreds of people participated in each match, while this time, there were only about 16 people per match.

"But speaking of which, there are only 32 seeded players, but Platinum 10 and Platinum 9 combined make 37, which means there are 5 Platinum 9 players who are not seeded players.

Do you know what the unluckiest situation is?"

At this moment, Gong Ping suddenly said, "The unluckiest situation is if 1 Platinum 10 and those 5 Platinum 9s are assigned to the same match. For everyone else in that match, it's simply a bloodbath, hahaha!"

"Shut your jinxing mouth."

Shi Li felt a vague ominous premonition after hearing that.

At this moment, in a conference room somewhere at Qingchuan University.

Several vice deans from the seven academies gathered, watching the progress of the freshman placement matches.

"It seems that, barring any surprises, the chief of this year's freshmen should belong to our academy."

Dean Liu of Kuangbao Academy stroked his big beard.

"Old Liu, you're speaking too soon."

Dean Huang from Steadfast Academy, who was next to him, showed dissatisfaction: "Without An Zih-hu, this placement match doesn't have much weight."

An Zih-hu was the only S-rank freshman this year.

Because he was recruited by Steadfast Academy, he had already implicitly joined Steadfast Academy.

At the mention of An Zih-hu, the other vice deans immediately became interested.

"I heard that An Zih-hu has already reached Platinum 15 and is currently training in a Level 4 Exotic, is that right?"

"I also heard that he can actually be promoted to Emerald, and will participate in the New Star Cup as an Emerald once it begins." Faced with everyone's questions, Dean Huang just shook his head and smiled without speaking.

The dean had instructed that An Zih-hu's whereabouts were not to be disclosed to anyone.

That was a secret of their Steadfast Academy, and their Qingchuan University's greatest hope for achieving good results in the New Star Cup.

"Let's focus on the current matches first, after all, it concerns the allocation of slots for each academy in the upcoming Exotic practice."

Hu Lan helped Dean Huang change the subject.