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

"Yes, you won, I lost."

When Xingyuan typed those words, he felt calmer than he had imagined.

He thought he would feel resentful, angry, and like he did three years ago when he faced Park Kim-hyuk, with a heavy feeling in his heart.

But strangely, there was nothing there, only a sense of relief that everything had settled.

The other side quickly replied: "Okay, as long as you keep your word, you can come and fight me again in the future."

"If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

As Xingyuan looked at these two lines of text, a strange feeling welled up inside him.

Just now, at the moment of defeat, he felt as if he had nothing, yet also as if he had suddenly gained a lot.

He lost to the person in front of him, and he accepted his defeat wholeheartedly.

This defeat was even more complete than when he faced Park Kim-hyuk back then.

"Wait!" he typed rapidly, trying to salvage something.

Ye Fei's "online status" did not turn off; he seemed to have intentionally lingered for a while.

"Even though you might not care, I still want to ask... don't you really care who I am?"

After a while, the other side typed:

"If you'd like to talk about it, I'm happy to listen."

Xingyuan lowered his guard and honestly typed:

"Actually, this is my alternate account. My name is 'Xingyuan,' my real name is Xu Yi, and I'm a former professional player from China."

"Whether you know it or not, I feel I need to mention that I once coached the national team and helped them reach the top five globally."

"Originally, I came to play with you just to give it a try."

"That day, while I was watching the live stream, I noticed that your gameplay was really off."

"Your thinking isn't like that of a new player... or even a player from China."

"Because it's too abnormal, too contrary to mainstream logic."

"So, I found you, and of course, I also used some technology to find your alternate account. I just wanted to see if what I thought was really what I was thinking, or if it was just my imagination."

"At first, I deliberately only used 30% of my strength, and I even used a screen spy camera to watch your gameplay and see what your skill level was."

"Later, I discovered you were stronger than I had imagined, so I gradually used half or sixty percent of my strength to catch up with your pace."

"Although I won that match, I could tell that you were deliberately acting."

"Back in the shop, you knew perfectly well what impact taking that 'Compression' card would have on your deck, so you deliberately didn't take it, right?"

"Actually, you can play more than just the Spectator and the Glitch Robot; you can play other characters too, am I right?"

"In other words, you were acting from the very beginning. You knew I was no match for you, yet you still kept up the act until the very end."

Ye Fei did not reply; his silence at this moment was the most direct form of acquiescence.

Xingyuan suddenly sped up his typing, his words urgent and somewhat angry:

"Then tell me! If you have such talent, why are you living under someone else's roof, working as a lackey for a small-time streamer?"

Why not participate in competitions and win awards? Become a professional player, make a name for yourself, and bring glory to your country?

"With your skills, doing all this should be more than enough, right? Do you even know who you just defeated?"

"I! Xingyuan! Top five globally!"

After typing these lines, Xingyuan angrily stared at the screen and took a few deep breaths.

However, the person in front of me didn't seem to want to give an answer.

A minute later, Ye Fei's reply arrived, and he immediately read it:

"It's very simple."

"Because the time isn't right yet, I want to play around with it a little longer."

He stared at the words and fell silent, a picture suddenly flashing through his mind.

Eight years ago.

At that time, he wasn't called Xingyuan yet; he was just an ordinary high school student named Xu Yi.

One afternoon, a friend took him to an internet cafe and said, "There's a really fun game, you should try it."

That game is called Kill the Spire.

He chose a character, one he remembered had a yellow body, a blue cloak, and a broken energy ball inside its belly—it was a malfunctioning robot.

At first, he didn't understand anything, he didn't know when to play his cards, and he couldn't even figure out the mechanism of the charging ball.

First attempt, died on the first floor. Second attempt, died on the first floor. Third attempt, still died on the first floor.

His friend laughed at him, saying, "You're such a noob!"

But he didn't give up. Instead, he gradually became engrossed in it. As he continued to study it, he slowly discovered many new techniques and soon achieved his first time completing the game.

At that time, he didn't have any motivation to play games; he just thought it was fun. Each character had a unique charm, and each battle was like solving a puzzle, attracting him to challenge them again and again.

Later, he became more and more engrossed, gradually neglecting to eat and sleep, and his skill level kept rising.

Soon, his performance far surpassed that of his classmates, and he gradually discovered his talent for playing this game.

One summer, he demoted a malfunctioning robot to A6, and a professional spy came knocking on his door.

"Xu Yi, you have great talent. Would you be interested in participating in vocational training?"

He was so excited he couldn't sleep all night. A professional gamer—that's the dream of so many people.

He agreed without hesitation.

His life changed after that.

They train for twelve hours a day, focusing solely on malfunctioning robots.

The coach said, "You don't need to practice the other roles; they won't be used in the competition."

"This strategy has the highest win rate, so just play according to this approach."

"Don't try anything fancy or new; staying steady is the most important thing."

He did as instructed. Because he wanted to win, because he represented the Dragon Kingdom.

But from that day on, he never "played by himself" again.

Every game follows the same pattern, every card is a similar choice, and every decision must be based on "win rate calculation".

It's not that he doesn't want to play freely, but he can't afford to lose—losing would disappoint the fans, affect the team, and impact the future of the entire Dragon Kingdom.

But he accepted it because he knew that this was esports.

In the world of esports, "winning" is everything; everything else is nonsense.

Until that year, on the battlefield of national destiny, he faced Park Jin-hyuk.

That Goryeo genius used a robotic style of play he had never seen before to completely crush their team.

He couldn't understand what the other person was doing at all; every step was beyond his comprehension, and he finally felt powerless.

After returning to China, he voluntarily applied for retirement and never paid attention to the e-sports circle again.

It wasn't because he couldn't play anymore, but because he suddenly realized—he had forgotten how to play games.

He only repeats the routines he has been trained in and only follows the ideas taught by the coach. He has gradually lost some of the "original" things.

After retiring, he locked himself in his room and started studying the game again.

This time, there was no coach, no pressure to win, and no "must win" mentality.

He spent two years replaying each character and developing many new playstyles.

It was during this period that he began to realize that the previously mainstream approach in the tower defense community, "sacrifice damage to save health and prioritize blocking," was not necessarily correct.

If you can kill the monster with high damage output before it can attack, then there is no need to worry about defense!

If this concept is followed, many established deck building methods will change, and even some of the overall strategies he was familiar with before will be overturned.

At this point, it was as if he had discovered a new world, and inspiration gushed forth like a spring, leading him to create many new techniques that had never been heard of before.