Chapter 186 Prodigy

From the perspective of selecting candidates, Ma Junxiao was by no means an outstanding choice. In terms of overall ability, his competitiveness might not even have been as good as Jin Fugui's, and compared to candidates of Shi Long's level, he was far inferior.

However, "Death," the eldest and wisest of the Four Horsemen, still chose to place his bet on him, and there was certainly a deeper meaning in this…

Even Ma Junxiao himself didn't know that he was born with a talent that was different from ordinary people, or rather… a "superpower." This ability allowed him to reach a depth that ordinary people couldn't achieve during "neural connections" and break through some of the restrictions imposed by program designers… To put it simply, it was reaching a certain level of "super-boundary" without any training.

Seeing this, some people will definitely ask: what if he had never played a neural connection game in his life, or was born in an era without such games? Wouldn't this ability be useless?

That's right… it would.

People's understanding of "superpowers," or "special abilities," basically comes from literature, animation, or film and television works. So we all generally believe that so-called superpowers are powerful and cool forces like "telekinesis," "shooting electricity and fire," "super physical ability," "flying and escaping," and "predicting the future."

However, this understanding is obviously very one-sided.

Given the scale of planet Earth and the current size of human society, even if there really are people with abilities of the above-mentioned level, the number of those people would definitely be extremely small, otherwise the world would have already been destroyed.

If there really are special abilities in this world, most of those abilities would be… "the ability to quickly master any musical instrument," "the ability to never shake when performing precision operations," "the ability to never fall when going down the stairs," or "the ability to accelerate metabolism by standing on one foot and barking like a dog"—these are not-so-powerful, not-so-cool, and even imperceptible strange abilities.

In fact, perhaps there are people reading this text right now who have superpowers, but you just don't know it yet.

This is also a very normal phenomenon. For example, a person with "the ability to quickly master any musical instrument" happens to be a farmer born in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He has never seen any musical instruments in his life, so naturally, he cannot discover that he has a related special ability. And if the ability to "never shake when performing precision operations" falls on a wealthy courtier in the Elizabethan era, this brother, who even has servants to help him put on clothes in the morning, obviously cannot become a surgeon, right?

As for the abilities of "never falling down the stairs" and "accelerating metabolism by jumping on one foot and barking like a dog," which you wouldn't know unless you tried, and wouldn't try if you didn't know… not to mention them. To put it more bluntly… a person with a "one-hundred-percent chance of catching a blade with their bare hands" is as good as useless if he has never been slashed from the front in his life.

Of course, Ma Junxiao's superpower has been brought into play. It is this innate power that created the character [Devouring Ghost Xaio].

Although Gui Xaio is a terrible candidate, his abilities will give him tremendous advantages in the "new candidate game" designed by Woody.

"Death's" intention lies here—he doesn't want a "qualified candidate," but a "person who is most adapted to the rules of the game." He wants to use Gui Xaio, this "loophole" aimed at the current game format, to prove that this "new game format" is a failure, and thus prove that Woody's idea is wrong.

A completely unqualified candidate, just because he has the special ability to be "stronger than ordinary people in the game world," can completely abuse other candidates who are better than him, or even defeat the winner of the candidate game… Once this happens, it will undoubtedly be a great irony.

This is "Death's" calculation, a brilliant move that transcends the "gambling game."

Who wins the candidate game is irrelevant to "Death"... As long as his pawn can be unmatched in the frontal confrontation of the game, he can shake Woody's overall plan and the results he has already obtained.

And right now, the only person blocking his plan is Feng Bujue.

As the winner of this "new candidate game" designed by Woody, as long as Jue-ge wins against Gui Xaio, that will be the best proof of the correctness of the game's results. Even "Death" will have nothing to say...

However, Feng Bujue is not aware of this at the moment…

Because he lost contact with Woody, no one came to notify him of this information. Even if Michael, who had contacted him before, vaguely noticed "Death's" plan, he would not tell Jue-ge… First, he had no obligation and no interest in helping a devil like Woody. Second, even if he agreed with Woody's idea and wanted to help, he would have to weigh whether it was worth offending the Four Horsemen for this. Third, Feng Bujue's cheapness was too strong, and Michael was a little annoyed with him.

Fortunately, even if he was completely unaware of this grim situation, Feng Bujue's desire to win was still quite strong, but… in addition to this desire, he still had a bit of a "playing" mentality.

Therefore, when facing the qi bullet released by the [Left Hand of Judgment], he was not absolutely cautious.

He only used Effect 4 of the [Exodia Convict Set]: [Sealed Defense Wall (can be activated at any time, consumes mana, creates a defensive field, the mana consumption depends on the size and strength of the defensive field)] to deal with it.

As a result, he was almost killed by this ordinary qi bullet…

When the [Sealed Defense Wall] collapsed, Feng Bujue urgently changed his move, instantly activating [Gathering Spirit Body Technique - Extreme] to retreat rapidly, and quickly took out the [Moving Like Thunder] and [Unmoving Like a Mountain] orbs, while accelerating away from the opponent's attack trajectory and opening a second layer of defense… Even so, he still lost nearly two-thirds of his body—besides his head, neck, part of his collarbone, right shoulder, and right arm… everything else was blown away by the qi bullet.

A second later, Feng Bujue immediately used rewrite to restore his body and landed back on the ground with a cold sweat, thinking, "Damn it… I used all the mana accumulated from that Dragon Ball-level battle (Exodia Convict Set Effect 1) to fully activate the defense wall, but it didn't block it… I thought it would only happen with direct contact, but now it seems… even energy bullets released through the [Left Hand of Judgment]… will have the characteristic of 'data erasure' attached…"

Thinking of this, he had adjusted his breathing, and Gui Xaio also returned from afar, taking the opportunity to turn defense into offense.

Battle aura suddenly rose, and golden flames reappeared.

When the killing cries rose again, the two figures re-intertwined, and between offense and defense, vast forces collided, their moves and stances shook the earth.

"Hmph… that just now seemed to have reduced your stamina a lot." Gui Xaio said in a slightly triumphant tone while attacking, "I thought your stamina was unlimited in this form…"

For these two people's battle, survival points were no longer the key, because they could use means such as "denial" or "rewind" to recover after receiving blows that would be fatal to ordinary people, so… the key was whose stamina would run out first.

"It was never unlimited, but, the pressure you're giving… is still a bit short compared to what Infinite gave me, so I basically didn't lose much stamina in the early stages of the battle." Jue-ge also responded while fighting, "Of course, I'm not the same strength as I was in S2 anymore." As he said that, he swept past with a [Naughty Child's Low Sweep].

Gui Xaio had long been prepared for this "low-road" attack, and avoided it with a leg retraction and jump: "Tch… whatever you say, I just want to know… now that your stamina is already lower than mine, what are you going to do next?"

"Is there even a need to ask?" Feng Bujue smiled, "When at a disadvantage, you must play greedier…"

"And then expand the disadvantage?" Gui Xaio replied.

"Less nonsense!" Jue-ge retorted, and a Lv10 [Wild Ball Fist] was thrown out.

"Useless!" Gui Xaio dodged the attack with a withdrawal, saying, "I know exactly which of your moves are fatal and which have tactical significance. Using 'unexpected moves' might work against others, but using them on me… will only waste stamina."

As he said this, he had already counterattacked and attacked forward again, not giving Jue-ge any room to breathe or maneuver.

"Since you can see it anyway, let's be frank…" Gui Xaio said while fighting, "Admittedly, I don't have much stamina left either, and I can't use another [Left Hand of Judgment]… but if we continue to fight like this, you'll be the one to run out of stamina first…" He paused for half a second, then said, "I won't give you a chance to take out [Yi Da], if you have to use it, you'll have to use skills like 'dodge into phase space' to buy time and create openings… In that case, I'll also take the opportunity to retie [Sega Sanshiro's Black Belt]…

"Those A.v.g.n. equipment on your body didn't recover with your body, presumably because your stamina or ability is not enough to support you to repair them… That is to say, when I retie the black belt again, you can only use the remaining NES peripherals on your head and right hand to deal with me… Even if you don't lose quickly, you won't have any advantage.

"As for… [Gathering Spirit Body Technique - Extreme] or something, feel free to use it, but I'm afraid that if you use it… your body will collapse before mine."

Speaking to this point, Gui Xaio also smiled: "Heh… Feng Bujue, at first you said you wanted me to have a good time fighting, I scoffed at it, but now I have to admit that you have done it… To be honest, I didn't expect you to push me to this point, or even make me calculate so many things in the battle… But, precisely because of this, the ultimate victor will still be me!"

Gui Xaio's confidence was also well-founded. He had already calculated several countermeasures for Feng Bujue: To reverse the situation at this point, Jue-ge must have a further significant improvement in his basic attributes, and this improvement must be sustainable for a period of time and consume less… [Gathering Spirit Body Technique - Extreme], which hurts himself eight hundred for every thousand damage to the enemy, is definitely not good; [Combat Aura - Armored Color Variation], which affects speed, is meaningless; Jue-ge can't transform into [Blood Rakshasa] because his survival points haven't reached the bottom; [Extreme Martial - Asura Transformation] is also a self-damaging transformation… As for [Soul Advent], which Jue-ge hasn't used in the competition yet, the version he can use is Xu Huaishang's Soul Intent version, not the "survival, stamina, and spiritual power values are all positive infinity" version activated by the consumable [Yatsuka Jingasa Maru]… so there are also problems with consumption.

With this calculation, it seems that he really has nothing to rely on.

This battle, fought to the end, is still about the most basic numerical value in the game—stamina. Even if both sides have reached the realm of super-boundary and can do things that ordinary players can't do even with ten stamina points with just one stamina point, since the two are in the same realm, it is essentially the same as a duel between ordinary people.

"Ha!" A few seconds later, Feng Bujue chuckled and replied, "It seems you've really put your mind to it…" In this instant, he revealed a wicked smile, "But… have you overlooked something?"

Fear, this was Gui Xaio's most direct feeling at this moment.

Even if he thought Feng Bujue was likely bluffing, that wicked smile could still make him tremble with fear…

And the audience's reaction at this time… was the same as Gui Xaio's. Although they didn't know what Jue-ge was referring to, they couldn't help but think… since it was Feng Bujue, there was probably some way.

"Everyone, open your eyes wide and watch closely! Something amazing is about to happen!" Two seconds later, Feng Bujue also raised his voice with great performance desire, as if announcing it to the audience.

As soon as the words fell, a "boom" was heard. In that extremely short instant, a golden flame even stronger than the one on Gui Xaio's body flashed past Jue-ge.

"What!" After that flash, Gui Xaio's face showed a look of horror, and he exclaimed.

The offense and defense between him and Feng Bujue also immediately changed from being evenly matched to a situation where he was retreating in defeat… and Jue-ge's movements even seemed relaxed.

"How is that possible!" Gui Xaio shouted as he retreated, "With your current stamina, why can you still withstand Super Saiyan's consu…"

"Although it's also Super Saiyan 1…" Feng Bujue interrupted him, saying directly, "But mine is a bit different from yours…"

Because Jue-ge had no hair on his head, and there was no flame burning around his body… it wasn't until their conversation reached this point that the audience belatedly realized… it turned out that Jue-ge had also activated the transformation of [Super Saiyan 1] at this moment.

"If yours is 'Super Saiyan 1 First Stage'," Feng Bujue said, "then mine is 'Super Saiyan 1 Full Power'." He added, "Obviously, mine is more efficient, and the consumption is almost the same as normal."

"Why…" Gui Xaio's breath was already disordered as he spoke, "You're clearly just learning other people's skills! Why can you display variations that even the original user hasn't mastered!"

"Huh?" Feng Bujue drawled, staring with dead fish eyes, "That's of course because you're too weak."

"You… say… wha…" Gui Xaio uttered word by word, obviously getting angry again.

"Your overly powerful innate ability is like a double-edged sword." Feng Bujue stopped him from finishing his sentence again, "To make an analogy, it's like a person who is three meters tall playing basketball. Even if he doesn't use any skills, just raising his hands, no one can block his shot, so he doesn't need to practice blocking techniques…" He paused, "You belong to this situation… The realm that others can barely touch after thousands of trials, you can reach naturally. The result is… you can't become stronger like others through countless equal or not-so-large duels; things like Soul Intent and spiritual weapons, you can't master… Clearly, you've already obtained the transformation skill, but you have no chance to use or practice it…"

Gui Xaio was speechless to Jue-ge's words, because what the other party said was the truth.

"The person who inherited a fortune of millions is different from the person who earned a fortune of millions. What is common sense to the latter, the former may not know at all…" Feng Bujue continued, "So I said… you're too weak!"

After saying that, Feng Bujue's figure suddenly paused. He gathered all of his remaining energy into one move and unleashed a [Roundhouse Kick]!

This was the only time in this battle that he attacked with all his strength…

It was conceivable what the result would be after the "bald form," which was already evenly matched with Gui Xaio, was enhanced by the "fifty times combat power" of [Super Saiyan 1]…

Although Gui Xaio used the [Right Hand of Denial] with overload at the last moment to resist, the [Roundhouse Kick], which was also a causality skill, would not be suppressed in terms of move properties.

The leg wind fell, and the victory was decided.

On this Peak Brawl S3 final stage, [Devouring Ghost Xaio], who had never lost in a one-on-one frontal battle, tasted his first defeat.

Feng Bujue's last two "too weak" comments also gave the gods and demons who were watching this match and still had doubts about Woody's game a "result" that was enough to convince them.

…………

Until he turned into white light and disappeared and was teleported back to the viewing space, Gui Xaio still looked blank, because this feeling of being a "loser," this feeling of being defeated convincingly and having nothing to say… was too unfamiliar to him.

It wasn't until a full minute later that he came back to his senses. At this time, the unwilling tears and the bitterness of failure suddenly surged up… like a dam breaking.

His teammates had never seen him like this before, but after thinking about it, wasn't it normal for a seventeen-year-old boy to have such a defeat in the final of such a major competition and cry a lot?

"Don't be sad…" A few seconds later, Chan-ge walked to Gui Xaio's side, "You've already fought very well…" He patted Gui Xaio's shoulder, "The competition isn't over yet… leave the rest to us."

Although Meng Jingchan wasn't captain material, that vicissitudinous social temperament was undoubtedly very infectious when persuading others.

"Yeah." After all, Gui Xaio was also a boy. After hearing this, he wiped his face with his sleeve and swallowed his tears.

However, no one expected that in the next second, Chan-ge would pour himself a mouthful of wine and add, "But… I personally think… we're probably doomed… haha, hic~"