Chapter 1 The Pinnacle Duel

Two individuals at the pinnacle, igniting an earth-shattering battle.

The battle commences, killing intent soaring.

Spiritual energy blazes, eclipsing the daylight.

Behold…

The Celestial Dance Hourglass divides into eight, suspended in mid-air.

The Poker of Death gathers but does not release, its brilliance focused at his fingertips.

Shiva, before he moves, already emanates the aura of an approaching storm.

Unknowingly, with a light tap of his foot, he reveals the posture of thunder.

In an instant, gazes meet, figures rapidly shift!

A storm of offense and defense unfolds with astonishing speed, imperceptible to the naked eye.

In a mere breath, more than a dozen beams of light erupt; these are the eight stone discs of the Celestial Dance Hourglass, firing dozens of light beams at Feng Bujue from eight cunning angles.

Jue-ge, relying on his agile movements, dodges each beam and launches a high-speed close-quarters combo at Shiva with the light cards held between his fingers.

Feng Bujue's hands, wielding the cards, dance with numerous afterimages, executing exquisite continuous slashes; the seemingly chaotic attacks are actually ordered within the chaos, incredibly sharp.

[Name: Card Assassination Art]

[Skill Card Attribute: Passive Skill, Permanently Mastered]

[Skill Category: Combat]

[Effect: When using card-type weapons in close combat, speed, strength, and accuracy are increased by 300%]

[Learning Condition: Combat Specialization S]

[Remarks: A peculiar martial art favored by Oswald, a former CArnefeLL member. Upon reaching a certain level, ordinary playing cards can be used to cut the human body, ending the opponent's life with combos interwoven with splendor and gore.]

This S-level combat skill was not found by Feng Bujue in any script, nor was it purchased from a scare box; rather, it was "comprehended" when his Combat Specialization reached S-level.

Although he had comprehended this move for some time, Jue-ge had not equipped [Card Assassination Art] in most previous scripts; after all, there are only twelve skill slots in total, and in team scripts, he still prefers to bring some "strategic" skills.

However… this battle before him is an exception.

This is a close-quarters, hand-to-hand fight, with no tricks or third-party factors, so Jue-ge doesn't need to bring skills that are not related to fighting. He brought: [Card Assassination Art], [Spiritual Consciousness Convergence Art - Modified], [Evil King's Flame Kill Black Flame], [Moon Step], [Rankyaku], [Flying Sand Revolving in the Wind], [Kikoho], [Baseball Fist Lv10], [Naughty Child's Whipping Leg], [Lingxi Finger], [Nanto Flying Dragon Fist], [Summoning Art - Mason].

Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary players, this is already a very luxurious skill combination.

However, as the top dog of the Gods' Studio, how could [Shiva] be inferior to Jue-ge, a casual player, in terms of overt stats?

Let's take a look at the skills Shiva has brought:

[Impervious to Spears and Blades] (Active, gains extremely high physical defense for ten seconds without sacrificing speed).

[Scatter with One Clap] (Active, a palm strike with immense power).

[Guts] (Active, can only be activated when both Stamina and Spiritual Energy are above 50%; after activation, both Stamina and Spiritual Energy are reduced to 20%, and all of one's own Survival Value is restored).

[Sharp Fang Divine Strength] (Active, exerting force with the fingertips, directly striking the target's nerves through the muscles; accurate hits can cause paralysis of the enemy's corresponding body parts for several minutes).

[Weightless Contact] (As previously described, see the skill database).

[Spirit Breaking Strike] (Same as above).

[Fleeting as Light Smoke] (Active, acceleration skill, short-distance movement).

[Heavenly Tyrant's Sky-Splitting Blast] (Active, rushes towards the enemy, knocking the target away, and the impact will shake away any objects in the way).

[Armor of Ashes] (Passive, after dealing damage with fire attribute skills or weapons, immediately gains a layer of armor equal to 5% of one's maximum Survival Value, stackable up to five layers, with a cooldown of fifteen seconds between each trigger).

[Tyrant's Mad Strike] (Active, can only be activated when using a long weapon, launches an indiscriminate sweep at all targets in the vicinity, and the damage dealt will be converted into one's own Survival Value at a certain percentage).

[Flame of Plucking the Moon] (Active, fire attribute spinning uppercut, great power, good anti-air, slightly slow preparation).

[Flying Flame Fist] (Active, low power, fast-speed long-range projectile. This move and "Flame of Plucking the Moon" can both trigger the "Armor of Ashes" effect).

The above are the skills Shiva currently has equipped…

Even putting aside his ridiculously strong spiritual energy weapon with eight built-in effects, just looking at these twelve skills is enough to understand how strong Shiva's combat power is.

This set of skill combinations can handle various combat modes such as strong attack, surprise attack, defense and counter, control, recovery, consumption, etc. No matter what the situation or what type of enemy he faces… he will not fall into absolute passivity. It can be said that he is both offensive and defensive, with proper advances and retreats.

And Feng Bujue knows all of this information. In fact, even if Jue-ge didn't use "Data Perspective" to observe his opponent, he could still investigate Shiva's equipment, skills, and other information with a high degree of accuracy through other channels.

Because Shiva is a star player, and of the super-first-tier kind. Given the amount of attention he receives, his character data in the game cannot be kept secret at all. All players who have fought with him or entered a script together, whether they are from other studios or ordinary casual players, may reveal information related to Shiva; moreover, there are also competition recordings.

Of course, it cannot be said that… because of this information asymmetry, this contest is unfair.

Firstly, Shiva himself understands the above situation. This is a disadvantageous factor that all star players will bear, and it is something he is accustomed to. Secondly, observing things through "Data Perspective" is one of Feng Bujue's abilities. No matter who the opponent is, he can always understand their data.

So, let's stop talking about the basic skills of the two for now and return to the fight…

"Tch… Still careless…" Two seconds after Jue-ge made his move, Shiva's expression changed slightly, and he cursed himself inwardly.

At the same moment, he had silently activated the "Moon" effect of the Celestial Dance Hourglass—【Moon Prism】, and retreated hastily under the cover of the skill.

The effect of this special effect is: to cover the surface of the body with a layer of Moon Prism light shield, immune to all physical or energy attacks for ten seconds; attacks with a power level reaching "extremely strong" can penetrate the Moon Prism light shield, but only deal 50% damage. After use, the Moon Stone Disc will shatter and can only be restored after returning to the login space.

Obviously, Shiva didn't intend to use this move at the beginning of the battle, and he wasn't without other skills to deal with the current situation. It's just… he really didn't expect that Jue-ge could reach this level of physical skill without activating Spiritual Consciousness Convergence Art (Shiva has watched and studied Jue-ge's competition recordings from Season 1, and has a relatively good understanding of some of his skills).

To put it bluntly… Shiva underestimated his opponent, and the price of this underestimation is… he no longer has time to take other measures to deal with the continuous slashes in front of him and can only activate [Moon Prism] as an emergency measure.

"Heh… used up a stone disc already?" Feng Bujue immediately laughed when he saw this, "I haven't even used my full strength yet…" Naturally, Jue-ge would not miss this opportunity to put psychological pressure on the other party. "If you're fighting me with the set idea that 'no one is stronger than Shiva except for Tun Tian Gui Xiao', then there's no point…" He grinned wickedly, "When fighting me… you'd better put yourself in the position of a challenger and go all out… to avoid being doubly devastated, both mentally and physically."

"Hmph…" Shiva's expression became serious when he heard this. "Thank you for the reminder."

He was not angry at all; on the contrary, he was very happy that the other party could say such things to him at the right time. Because he is a strong person, a strong person will look for the reasons in himself after suffering setbacks and will accept criticism and opinions, as long as those opinions are reasonable, even if the other party's wording is very harsh, it doesn't matter.

"Hehe…" Jue-ge was very satisfied with Shiva's reaction. The latter chuckled twice and continued, "Very good… then this time I'll let you see what I'm like when I've used a little bit of my strength."

Before he finished speaking, his figure moved again.

Feng Bujue's second round of attack had already used the instant-activation skill of [Spiritual Consciousness Convergence Art - Modified].

Suddenly! The light of the cards bloomed wildly, the shadow of ferocity, the fighting spirit stirred and swept up mad clouds…