Chapter 1 The Results Are In

By two o'clock in the morning on May 17th, the results of the first round of the Cocoon War, as well as the list of players in the repechage, had been announced.

Because they were in sleep mode, the period from one to two o'clock was effectively ten hours long. For a 1v1 match, even the longest battle of attrition should be over by then. The time remaining before two o'clock was for the system to calculate the results and for the staff to organize the relevant information.

When Xiao Tan finished a scenario and returned to the login space, he received a system prompt informing him that he had advanced. It seemed that Bei Ling's investigation and analysis were indeed reliable; even in the winner's group, a record of forty-two wins was not enough to be at the bottom.

Over the next two days, Xiao Tan, who had plenty of free time, devoted himself to training in Spiritual Arts Specialization, accompanied by Bei Ling.

He finally bought a cost-effective Spiritual Arts skill that he could actually use from the Surprise Box:

[Name: Draw a Cross and Curse You]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Learned]

[Skill Category: Spiritual Arts]

[Effect: Curses a target, causing your next attack to deal 10% extra damage to that target (can only be cast on non-friendly targets within your line of sight and within fifty meters; the target can sense that they have been cursed; can be cast on the same target multiple times, but the effect does not stack)]

[Consumption: 2 Spiritual Energy (Cooldown 5 minutes, Duration Unlimited, until it takes effect)]

[Learning Condition: Spiritual Arts Specialization F]

[Note: Basic Daoist art recorded in the Wuwo Chapter of the Seven Chapters of Guigu. This move was created by the 250th generation direct descendant of Guigu Daoism. Whenever he encountered someone he didn't like, he would use this spell to put psychological pressure on them, making the other person feel like they were being haunted by a ghost. Then he would lure the other person to his "Paranormal Detective Agency" for consultation, ultimately achieving the dual purpose of rectification and extortion.]

This skill was very helpful for improving his Spiritual Arts Specialization proficiency. A level thirty-five player had 350 Spiritual Energy, so the consumption of a mere two points of Spiritual Energy was almost negligible.

Xiao Tan's Spiritual Arts Specialization was at E-grade, and the success rate of his Spiritual Arts skills was 40%. Even if he only succeeded once every three attempts, on average, it would only take six points of Spiritual Energy to cast a skill. The skill would not go on cooldown if the casting was unsuccessful, so all Xiao Tan had to do was... spend two to six points of Spiritual Energy every five minutes to use this skill once. At most, 72 points would be used in an hour, and it would take five hours to exhaust his Spiritual Energy. During this time, the skill would have been cast at least fifty times.

The actual situation in the scenarios turned out to be much more optimistic than this calculation. Basically... as long as Xiao Tan entered a long scenario, he could guarantee the efficiency of using the skill every five minutes for the first eight hours.

Moreover, this thing didn't have very specific restrictions on the target, as long as it was "non-friendly." That meant... crows in the trees, soft-shelled turtles by the river, anything would do.

Thus, players who encountered Xiao Tan and Bei Ling in team scenarios in the past two days often saw this scene—the guy in their team named Wang Tan Zhi would cast his gaze on a nearby living creature every five minutes. This living creature could be an ant, a monster, or a passing NPC. After locking onto the target, Brother Wang would silently draw a cross in his palm, muttering, "I curse you..."

With this very targeted strategy, Xiao Tan raised his Spiritual Arts skill to D-grade on the afternoon of May 18th, but... that was as far as he got. He didn't reach C-grade before the second round of the Cocoon War began.

By the evening of May 19th, Xiao Tan had smoothly reached level thirty-six, and he had also acquired a new Combat skill through a scenario:

[Name: Fuyana (Binding Fang)]

[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, Disappears after two uses]

[Skill Category: Combat]

[Effect: Fires a gigantic, tooth-shaped shockwave from the palm of the hand, binding the target to the nearest plane (cooldown thirty seconds, target must have a physical form)]

[Consumption: 300 Stamina]

[Learning Condition: Combat Specialization C, this skill card cannot be traded after pickup]

[Note: A move derived from ordinary Beast Spirit Summoning, invented by Roy Seker, the half-bear clan leader. From any point of view, Seker was a magical genius; he was not only proficient in his clan's Druid spells, but also made great achievements in necromancy. He was the only outstanding figure who mastered both nature and death energies at the same time.]

In these two days, Brother Jue intentionally had Xiao Tan and Bei Ling queue together for scenarios, because their levels were close, and their strength was about the same, so the effect of leveling up in a team was the best. If he interfered, the situation in the scenario would be difficult to predict...

Judging from the results, this move was quite effective.

…………

Finally, at one o'clock in the morning on May 20th, the second round of the Cocoon War arrived as scheduled.

[The second round of the Cocoon War is about to begin. Your data will be loaded in thirty seconds. Please do not leave the login space.]

[Ten-second countdown before loading, nine, eight, seven... two, one.]

Unlike last time, Xiao Tan was teleported directly.

"The dark forest hides the three-sleep cocoon, finger-缠绕 softness with hundred-refined strength." As the opening words rang out, a blinding white light obscured Xiao Tan's vision, forcing him to close his eyes.

[Loading complete. You are currently participating in the Pinnacle Tournament - Cocoon War.]

[This mode has no scenario introduction, no side hidden quests, and no special world view.]

[Scenario Victory Reward: Advance to the Top 720]

[Main Quest Triggered]

[Kill the opponent]

A series of voice and window prompts quickly flashed and soon disappeared.

Xiao Tan immediately gained the ability to move.

He opened his eyes and found that the surrounding light was dim, but there were still some sources of light.

At this moment, he was in a tunnel. On the wall to his left, there was a dim yellow light bulb every ten meters or so, about three meters above the ground, extending into the distance. With the help of these lights, he could roughly see the situation inside the tunnel.

Xiao Tan observed for a while and initially guessed that this should be a tunnel for trains to pass through... First of all, there were rails under his feet; secondly, these rails were obviously not electrified, and the rails were surrounded by gravel. Furthermore, this tunnel was arched, and the height and width could only allow one train to pass through, and there was only one rail.

So... the question came... what if a train came?

According to the game's consistent style of being full of malice, since the map was arranged in a tunnel, a train, which was full of dramatic effect and would catch players off guard, would definitely come...

"Well... let's take a look at who the randomly assigned opponent is..." Xiao Tan looked around, both in front and behind, and didn't see his opponent. So, he went to the side with the light bulbs, stuck to the wall, and slowly advanced, while opening the game menu.

"Eh? Brother Long?" Xiao Tan glanced at the menu and saw that the ID was actually Long Aotian.

Long Aotian was the first friend Brother Jue and Xiao Tan met after entering Thriller Paradise. They were quite close, so they often queued for scenarios together. Just five days ago, Xiao Tan had queued for a scenario with Brother Long. At that time, Long Aotian joked that maybe the two of them could meet in the semi-finals, but unexpectedly... a joke had now come true.

"This is not good..." Xiao Tan thought to himself.

He was very familiar with Long Aotian's skills, title abilities, and fighting style. Of course, this was the familiarity of a teammate... Fighting against him was a different matter.

In addition, the news that Long Aotian had defeated Meng Jingchan two days ago had caused quite a stir. Although Meng Jingchan later returned to the winner's group through the repechage, Brother Long still became famous in one battle.

Facing such a familiar and unfamiliar opponent, Xiao Tan felt a lot of pressure.

Because he understood the other party's strength, he felt at a loss... He understood why Meng Jingchan had lost. As a close-combat player who also excelled in "skill, speed, and agility," Xiao Tan couldn't think of how to break Long Aotian's defense.

"Brother Long is an opponent on the same level as Seven Kills... It seems I can only seek victory in danger..." Xiao Tan was still calculating his tactics in his mind.

Unexpectedly, a familiar shout came from the distance in the tunnel.

Long Aotian was straightforward and shouted directly, "I'm here! Come on!"