National destiny: Global tower climbing skills have decreased by 10,000 times.

Chapter 119 The Paradox of Choice

Ye Fei remembered that when he discussed this matter with Xing Yuan, he said, "I'll handle this. I have experience, so you don't need to worry about it."

He thought back to the time before he transmigrated; he was just an ordinary person who played games and didn't pay much attention to the e-sports industry or know much about it.

Xingyuan was originally a member of Zixia and was quite familiar with these procedures.

He said he would make some improvements to the Zixia Selection of Professions and then adapt it for this purpose.

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you. I'll come check on it in a few days."

Today is the day of the acceptance inspection.

Ye Fei left the villa and took a car to the building of the "Bai Lian E-sports Alliance".

However, even at this time, the place was already bustling with people; just from the outside, the entrance was packed with people.

A long queue formed at the entrance of the lobby on the first floor, stretching all the way to the sidewalk, a dense mass of people as far as the eye could see.

The participants appeared to be a diverse group of amateur contestants; some were carrying backpacks, some were eating breakfast, some were nervously scrolling through their phones, and some were discussing something loudly.

The title of "King of Gaming in China" has a far greater influence in the Chinese e-sports circle than Xingyuan himself imagined.

With the help of the news, after the news of "Xingyuan's return to the martial arts world" spread, the number of people who came to see him was more than double what was expected.

Most of them believed that with Xingyuan's strength and influence, the team he built would have a bright future and great prospects.

And so this lively scene unfolded.

Ye Fei entered the building through a side door, walked through the corridor, and went up to his office on the second floor.

Xingyuan was sitting at the table, with a small program running on the computer screen in front of him.

"There are quite a lot of people," Ye Fei said.

Xingyuan straightened his tie, a small "Chief Interviewer" badge hanging from his chest, stood up, and smiled smugly: "Of course, what do you think I am?"

"I'm going to an interview now, you just watch."

He pushed open the door and strode out.

At the entrance of the Bailian Esports Building, a familiar, large figure was queuing in the crowd.

Chu Liang, carrying a satchel, adjusted the camera on his collar. This time, he turned on his live stream again to participate in the "Live Selection" of Bailian Esports.

The live stream title is simple: "100-person preliminary selection." The number of viewers has already exceeded 50,000.

The last time he did this was in Zixia. He failed in his election, exposed a major scandal, and almost ruined his future.

This time, his strength and mentality are completely different from before, and he wants to win this audition fair and square.

It was noon. Chu Liang had successfully passed the first two rounds of selection.

His score of 3020 in the "Dragon Slayer Ranking" competition, reaching level 8, ranked fifth among all members of the original five teams.

Three of the four people ahead of him were former vice captains of the five major battle teams.

This result is enough to prove that his hard work over the past few months has not been in vain.

He has now reached the third round of selection and is sitting in the candidate seat for the arena competition.

The selection mechanism was also copied from Zixia, but there is one difference. This time it is no longer a single-player speedrun competition, but adopts the same PVP mode as the Dragon Slayer Ranking.

Six tracks, six champions, and challengers take the stage voluntarily. The champion of the Crown Prince track is someone he has never met before.

His name is Zuo Shi, the former vice-captain of the "Mo Ying Team", a Crown Prince player, with 3045 points on the Dragon Slayer Ranking.

He was a loyal follower of Xingyuan and had long harbored resentment towards Xiang Chu's behavior, but being in that position, he was bound by the same rules and powerless to do anything about it.

It wasn't until Xingyuan arrived and Xiang Chu was removed from the roster that he was able to leave his original team and willingly become Xingyuan's subordinate.

He has now been sent here, disguised as a contestant, also on Xingyuan's orders.

He is the "gatekeeper"!

Actually, this was Ye Fei's idea, but Xing Yuan relayed it to him. He was "ambushing" Chu Liang here, just like You Shao sent Chen Hong back then.

However, that time it was a setup, this time it's a test—

It was a test specially designed by Ye Fei for Chu Liang.

His expression was calm, he sat upright, his hands resting on the mouse, revealing no emotion.

Chu Liang seized the opportunity, stood up, and stepped onto the stage for the Crown Prince competition.

Someone in the audience recognized him.

"The Sword Demon! It's that Sword Demon!"

"The top ten players in the Dragon Kingdom's Crown Prince rankings, the number one streamer who can rival professional players, he's here too?"

"It's him! I used to watch his live streams every day, but I stopped watching after he went into seclusion."

"I never expected to see the real person here."

"I remember he almost got tricked by Zixia before? Now he wants to do a hundred consecutive pulls again?"

Discussions rose and fell.

Chu Liang ignored him, pulled out a chair and sat down, exchanged a glance with Zuo Shi, and then clicked confirm.

Games start.

Advanced Level 7: PVP Mode.

Same seed, same role, crown prince.

Chu Liang's actions from the very beginning were characterized by a confident and skillful approach.

His "Dual Star Sword Style" has matured considerably compared to a few days or a month ago.

He can no longer focus on sword forging as the primary strategy and starlight as a secondary strategy, but can flexibly switch between primary and secondary strategies based on the actual card draw situation.

He was lucky this time. He got the Starshine components very quickly in the early game, and he got 'Radiance', 'Collection' and 'Radiant Strike' one after another. He occasionally got a few Sword Forging Cards, but they all became secondary.

Those in the know in the audience began to whisper among themselves.

"It's here! It's the Star Sword Dual-wielding style!"

"What is it?"

"This is a fighting style he developed himself, and it's still unique in the entire Dragon Kingdom."

"I'm so glad I got to see it with my own eyes today, so the trip wasn't a complete waste."

"Starlight, so it can be a genre? I've never heard of it before."

"This is Sword Demon's signature move, so you guys should watch and learn from it."

Ye Fei stood in the backstage monitoring room, watching Chu Liang's actions through the screen. His expression remained unchanged, and Zi Guang never left Chu Liang's field of vision.

On the screen, Chu Liang's Starfall style was much more mature than the last time I saw it. His playstyle had become more flexible and varied, and he no longer only knew a few fixed routines.

Ye Fei also noticed that, compared to the last time he saw him, his Starshine style paid more attention to the concept of "card draw".

"Not bad," Ye Fei commented softly.

I sent him a folder of recordings before so he could study them, but they were all raw, unedited videos of matches without any explanations.

Ye Fei wanted to see how much he could learn through his own understanding and comprehension, without any explanation.

In the game "Spirit Tower," decks are easy to learn, controls are easy to learn, and strategies are easy to learn, but the "strategy" is difficult to learn, and the most difficult thing to learn is...

"Thoughts"

In this world, without explanations, you can only learn the most superficial decks and operations from cold, hard gameplay videos.

These things are "visible".

But what truly matters lies not within the game itself, but outside of it. Copying a deck is easy, but understanding how a deck is actually created is the real challenge.

This is the "thinking approach," which includes resource management and overall operations.

And these things are "invisible".

Chu Liang was able to notice the importance of "card draw" without any explanation from Chu Liang, which is enough to show that his "talent" and comprehension ability are up to par.

This reassured Ye Fei that he hadn't misjudged the person. He felt fairly satisfied.

But he always felt that something was missing, that he was still a little short of achieving his desired goal.

He remembered this seed; he had looked at it beforehand when he and Xingyuan were choosing it, especially the one that Chu Liang was playing with now, which he remembered.

The most distinctive feature of this seed is that the first two layers of card dealing are normal, but the third layer is very different, even bizarre.

"This is the final test, so do your best, Fatty," Ye Fei said to himself.

The two quickly reached the third level, with their progress and status being neck and neck.

Starting from the third level, the probability of Starshine Tokens appearing suddenly becomes extremely low. Instead, Sword Forging Tokens and various other miscellaneous tokens appear.

As for Zuo Shi, he originally practiced the most traditional sword-making style.

He didn't have many sword-forging cards in the first two levels. He grabbed a lot of transition cards, but only had two or three sword-forging cards among them, making it very difficult for him to progress.

He recalled Xingyuan's instructions to him before the match: "When dealing with this player called Sword Demon, don't hold back. Give it your all and beat him to a pulp!"

"If you lose, you can leave!"

These words were like a whip, always ready to lash him, making him give his all from the very beginning, without the slightest slackening.

Upon reaching the third floor, he was surprised to find that there were suddenly many more sword-casting plaques.

His eyes lit up, and he became excited. Without hesitation, he grabbed all the usable sword-making plaques.

However, things started to go wrong for Chu Liang.

The first two monsters on the third floor didn't give him a single card he wanted in his reward cards; they were either low-quality sword-forging cards or transitional cards that he couldn't use at all.

He gritted his teeth, grabbed the inferior sword-making token, and threw it at the target.

Even after defeating the third minion, he still hadn't gotten the card he wanted.

If too many sword-forging tokens are selected, the starlight concentration will be too low, rendering the sword useless.

But if he doesn't take it, he'll lack damage and won't be able to reach his full potential.

He stopped.