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

After defeating the first elite, Lin Xi habitually tapped "Skip Rewards" and entered the next room without looking up.

Three knight figures pop up on the screen—the "Knight Trio".

On the left is a tall knight wielding a heavy hammer, on the right is a mage, and in the middle, a ghost knight floats in mid-air, holding a translucent longsword.

Lin Xi stared at the group for a moment, realizing he had seen them somewhere before, but hadn't really noticed them.

Without much thought, he immediately began his familiar routine. In the first round, he used "Overclock" to draw a card, "Kernel Acceleration" to increase the cost, and "Rocket Punch" in his hand became 0 cost.

He quickly played a card, "Overclock," and drew another card, "Quick Search."

"Great, it's working!" Lin Xi was overjoyed and promptly spent the remaining amount.

After finishing the game, I glanced at the deck and knew I could draw "Reuse" and "Kernel Acceleration" in the next turn, completing the startup. Then, as usual, I pressed "End Turn".

Just as he pressed the button, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of his hand—on the far left, there was a 'Compression' card that had appeared out of nowhere.

Lin Xi's pupils contracted, and her nerves suddenly tensed.

"Oh no! I dialed the wrong number..."

At the end of the turn, "Compression" turned into a wisp of dust and disappeared from the hand.

Lin Xi paused for a second, then quickly opened the deck interface—the 'Compression' card was still in the deck, but the one in her hand was gone.

He realized that the compressed file was one he had just extracted using overclocking.

Because I was in a hurry to deal damage, I played an extra card and forgot about the Ghost Knight's characteristics, which resulted in 'Compression' not being played.

The Void ability of Ghost Knight was then triggered, causing him to burn the card himself.

"This is troublesome..." Lin Xi's voice trembled slightly.

At the start of the fourth round, he happened to draw a bad card, holding a "Quick Search", "Rocket Punch", and several status cards.

He quickly played a "Quick Search" card and drew three cards in a row, which resulted in a "Discharge+", a "Double Release+", and a "Black Hole". His cost was reduced by 1, which meant he couldn't play "Rocket Punch".

His cycle broke, the monster's damage came down, and he finally experienced his first loss of health on the third floor.

Several more rounds passed, and without 'compressing' to clear the status, status cards accumulated more and more, making the hand increasingly bloated.

The Three Knights still had more than half of their health remaining, but their deck was already starting to get stuck with bad cards.

Sweat beaded on Lin Xi's forehead.

He looked up at the large screen on the wall—Jin Ying and Du Feiyang's progress bars were rapidly approaching, and Lü Si was also keeping a close eye on them.

My health bar has already dropped significantly. Although the Ghost Knight has been killed, the mage on the far right is gathering a shield and charging up. It looks like if I don't kill him soon, there will be a burst of high damage in the next round.

He suddenly had a premonition: this might be the end for him.

"What should we do...?"

Lin Xi remembered that function. His finger hovered above the keyboard, he hesitated for a few seconds, and then pressed the S key.

The screen flashed, and the scene returned to the state before the battle began. Deck, health, and hand were all reset.

This feature is the built-in "Replay" function unique to the international version of Slay the Spire.

— Simply press the S key during battle to restart the current battle, which is the same mechanism as exiting and re-entering to refresh in the real world.

However, in this world, this feature is no longer something that requires exiting the game to trigger, but a recognized, built-in shortcut that can be activated at any time, and is reasonable and compliant in any competition.

However, in official matches, it's rarely used unless absolutely necessary. Replaying requires loading the screen, which takes nearly five seconds.

In a match where speed determines victory or defeat, those five seconds plus the time for a retake are enough to create a significant difference in skill level.

Lin Xi knew this perfectly well, but he had no other choice.

The loading screen flashed by quickly, and five seconds later, the battle resumed.

In the spectator room, the coaches noticed Lin Xi's actions.

"Number 27 pressed S!" Coach Shen shouted first, staring at the screen.

"Retake? He actually retakes it in this situation?" Coach Zhang also came over.

"I noticed that the elite player in front of him was playing quite well. Could it be that he made a major mistake?"

"I think it was a mistake. Look at his deck, it's all status cards now, he's stuck and can't move," Coach Lu said.

"Sigh, he lost at least five seconds with that, plus the time for the replay... Look, Jin Ying and Du Feiyang are already showing signs of surpassing him."

On the spectator screen, the rankings changed. Du Feiyang was in first place, Jin Ying was in second, and Lin Xi had dropped to third.

Lü Si followed closely behind, currently in fourth place, and it was estimated that the gap between him and Lin Xi would not exceed ten seconds.

"Oh dear, kid! I trusted you so much, how could you make a mistake at this crucial moment!" Coach Zhang slapped his thigh and shouted at the screen.

"My five packs of Longhua cigarettes are gone again!"

"There's also a pack of Peaceful World (a type of instant noodles)! Don't forget." Coach Zhou smiled.

"My five packs of Longhua cigarettes are gone again!"

"There's also a pack of Peaceful World (a type of instant noodles)! Don't forget." Coach Zhou smiled.

"I told you long ago, Du Feiyang and Jin Ying are the most reliable."

"That player number 27 was playing really well, it's a real shame now," Coach Shen said. "Now we'll see who comes in third."

From the third floor onwards, Coach Wang sat in the corner, looking at the computer without saying a word.

His gaze kept darting back and forth between Lü Si and Lin Xi's windows, and his palms, which were gripping the mouse, were already sweating.

Originally, Lü Si was lagging behind in fourth place, which made Coach Wang very worried and secretly anxious.

Seeing Lin Xi's mistake and the third chance beginning to appear again, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself:

"You must seize this opportunity, Lü Si!"

The third boss, the "Queen".

When Lin Xi entered the room, Du Feiyang and Jin Ying were almost finished with their game. Lü Si was right behind him, less than five seconds behind.

The Queen has a unique mechanic: each turn she locks the first three cards in her hand, forcing her to use only one of them.

For decks that rely on specific cards to get going, bad luck can be fatal.

In the first round, Lin Xi's "Rocket Fist" was locked, preventing him from activating other status-enhancing cards. He could only play a few other cards to barely survive.

In the second round, both 'kernel acceleration' and 'overclocking' were locked simultaneously. It couldn't function properly and couldn't start, so it had no choice but to wait for the next round.

In the third round, both "Compression" and "Quick Search" were locked at the same time. After a slight hesitation, he chose "Quick Search" and ended up drawing two status cards.

Lin Xi's attack was thwarted, while Lü Si was already unleashing his full firepower. If the "State Machine" strategy is like sharpening a knife, the damage may not be high, but it's frequent and continuous.

Lü Si's "Balanced Ball" is like a powerful axe; with high concentration and multiple abilities, each card played has a high value and fast output efficiency.

After a few more rounds, Lu Si's side had finished defeating the 'Torchhead Aggregate'.

Coach Wang clenched his fists, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Lin Xi gritted her teeth, forced herself to calm down, and carefully adjusted the card order. She finally completed the activation in the fourth round, but she was already far behind Lü Si.

The cards were played again in a continuous stream. In the same round, "Rocket Punch" and "Double Release" were played one after another, and "Queen's" health bar began to drop rapidly.

On the spectator screen, Lin Xi's boss health bar suddenly plummeted.

"We'll start chasing them on the 27th!" a coach shouted.

"It seems he has completed the startup." Coach Shen stared at the screen.

"This speed... seems even faster than before!"

Lu Si was also going all out. His deck was stable, with Ice Ball defense, Electric Ball attack, and occasionally Black Ball activation every turn.

However, the speed is linear, there is no burst, and it involves animations that span multiple rounds.

Lin Xi plays cards continuously in the same round, and its output speed is exponential.

In the spectator room, everyone's attention was focused on the screens of these two people.

Even the spectators who had originally just come to join in the fun stood up at this moment.

In the final battle, victory or defeat hinges on milliseconds!

Finally, at 58 minutes and 36 seconds, Lin Xi's boss fell first.

At 58 minutes and 41 seconds, Lu Si's boss also fell.

The word "Victory" popped up on the screen.

Lin Xi took off his headphones, his hands still trembling. He looked up at the big screen—the rankings had been updated.

First place: Du Feiyang, 54 minutes and 06 seconds

Second place: Kim Young, 54 minutes and 20 seconds

Third place: Lin Xi, 58 minutes and 36 seconds

Fourth place: Lü Si, 58 minutes and 41 seconds

Lu Si stared at that number, stunned for a long time, almost unable to recover.

Five seconds! Just five seconds to go.

He felt a little dizzy, slowly put down the mouse, leaned back in his chair, and couldn't say a word.

Coach Wang's face was ashen; his lips moved, but he ultimately said nothing.

Lin Xi sat in the chair, staring at the words "Third Place" on the screen, her mind blank.

It took him a few seconds to realize

—He won. He qualified to represent the school in the local competition.