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

"Let's go, Mr. Sword Demon."

A deep, resonant voice came from behind him. Chu Liang turned around abruptly and saw Chen Hong.

Chen Hong simply smiled and then walked away.

He quickly turned his head away, no longer looking at him, trying to calm himself down.

"We absolutely must not let this person influence us!"

Soon, the preparation time for the competition ended, the contestants had finished their discussions and divided into teams, and Bai Wu went back onto the stage.

"The third round of the competition has officially begun. Next, the champions of each track will choose their teammates to form teams and compete first."

"Is there a champion who wants to go up on stage first?"

"I'll go first!" Chen Hong raised her hand, strode onto the stage, and said in a loud voice:

"I only chose one teammate, Chu Liang."

Chen Hong gave Chu Liang a look that made him feel uneasy.

The other champions were somewhat puzzled: logically speaking, the more teammates the better, and choosing only one would be tantamount to wasting the opportunity.

However, among all the candidates who advanced in the Crown Prince race, besides Chen Hong and Chu Liang, there was only Hui Ye. Now he was all alone, and his eyes were filled with emptiness.

"Who wants to be on the same team as that trash? It's better not to be teammates with him at all."

"Oh, it was him. No wonder. He deserved to be alone."

"Yes, this is truly a terrible thing. Evil people always get their just deserts..."

Huiye sat to the side, listening to every word, but dared not utter a sound, sitting there stiff as a piece of wood.

Bai Wu nodded: "Alright, please have the selected teammate come up on stage. The first round of the Crown Prince Track A8 team competition will now begin."

Chu Liang reluctantly walked onto the stage, sat down at the computer desk, and logged into his account again.

As he predicted, the game began.

Chen Hong displayed the most direct malice from the very beginning—she would end the round immediately after playing her defensive cards, without playing any offensive cards.

Occasionally, when he draws multiple attack cards, he will pretend to play a "Strike" card, and he will also deliberately avoid attacking the low-health monster that Chu Liang is focusing his fire on, instead hitting other monsters with full health.

Once they reached the campfire, Chen Hong never slept, only casting "Attack" or "Defense" spells. The first three monsters were fought entirely by Chu Liang alone.

Since there was no time limit for the rounds, Chu Liang took advantage of the lull in the fighting to start typing to him:

"Who exactly are you? Are you willing to sacrifice your own advancement to drag me down with you?"

What exactly is your purpose?

Chen Hong smiled, and his reply was brief:

Do you remember Mr. You, the interviewer from the first round?

The reason is simple: he dislikes you, and he wants you to—

"roll."

Chu Liang didn't ask any more questions. He understood that this was a scheme set up by You Shao from the very beginning. From start to finish, their only goal was to make him leave this place and never appear in Zixia again.

He already had a bad impression of Zixia, but he still held onto a glimmer of hope and decided to give it a try, which is why he made it this far.

After all, if he could make it a profession, the pay would be much better than being a small-time streamer. And Zixia is a nationally renowned team; since he was invited, he had every reason to see it through.

Now he understands that the ending he imagined was just wishful thinking. The truth in front of him is that he had refused to leave from the beginning, and was only telling him now.

But the more he said that, the stronger his desire to resist became: Since you insist on keeping me out, I'll just barge in and see for myself!

He believed there must be a way to break the deadlock!

Thinking of this, Chu Liang forced himself to calm down and began to analyze the situation:

If Chen Hong doesn't attack at all and only blocks, the team's output will depend entirely on him.

In two-player mode, where the monsters' health is doubled, his damage output alone is far from enough. The difficulty he faces is far greater than that of A8 itself.

But is there really no way? Chu Liang closed his eyes and pondered for a long time.

A8, although the difficulty has increased by another level and the monsters' health has doubled, the damage has not doubled.

As long as his average defensive efficiency can match the damage threshold of the first-level monsters, he can still whittle them down by dealing low damage.

This is different from his usual approach to clearing levels. Previously, he could effectively avoid battle losses by efficiently accumulating sword-forging points, quickly dealing damage, and reducing the number of rounds.

Now, his goal is different. He can no longer kill the monsters quickly. As long as he can maintain his losses and survive to get out of the first level, he will have succeeded!

He suddenly understood and found his direction. He gave up the "Summon Forward" card from the reward cards and chose "Cloak of Stars".

Later, he entered the five-choice greeting and drew a "wall-building" card.

Several audience members noticed something amiss and began to whisper among themselves:

"That big guy wasn't even trying to have fun, was he? He didn't fight when he could, and put all the pressure on the fat guy."

The person next to him sighed, "Sigh, in this kind of high-difficulty environment, how can one person possibly keep up with the output?"

The person next to him sighed, "Sigh, in this kind of high-difficulty environment, how can one person possibly keep up with the output?"

"That chubby kid is really unlucky to have run into a champion like that."

However, when another small monster appeared, Chu Liang struggled to fight it, but still managed to survive without suffering too many casualties.

Upon reaching the second campfire, Chen Hong once again swiftly chose to play a 'Strike' card, completely disregarding her own losses. Chu Liang glanced at his health bar and could only helplessly go to sleep.

Just then, Chu Liang saw a message appear on the screen:

"Not bad, Sword Demon. Despite his name, he surprisingly knows how to adapt."

"To have survived all this way in such an environment, I must say, you really have some skill."

"Unfortunately, the road ahead won't be so easy."

Chu Liang ignored him, forced himself to calm down, and glanced at the map.

The route ahead is complicated, with elites, question marks, and powerful monsters, and there are very few campfires.

He carefully observed and chose the safest route, which would avoid all the elites, with only one minor monster to fight, and the rest being basically question marks.

He was very satisfied. After drawing the route, he clicked on the next question mark.

However, it was precisely this question mark that led to the worst-case scenario—

Two powerful monsters, 'Calcified Cultist' and 'Wet Cultist', appeared on the screen.

"Why them of all people!"

Chu Liang felt a chill in his heart. He knew very well that these two monsters were typical monsters with strong growth potential. If he couldn't finish the battle quickly, he would only be dragged down to death by the monsters' ever-increasing power.

If it were other monsters, it wouldn't be so bad, as their damage has a threshold, and relying on the original defensive tactics, there's still a chance to fight them.

However, the cultists are completely contrary to his defensive tactics; their damage will only increase, and there is no threshold at all.

If you can't kill him quickly, no matter how high his defensive efficiency is, he will eventually be killed.

He sighed and looked towards Chen Hong, only to see an even more unexpected scene.

Not only did he not attack, he didn't even play a single defensive card. As soon as the turn started, he clicked "End Turn".

After a few rounds, the "Wet Cultist" unleashed a high-damage attack, which Chu Liang barely managed to withstand with a "Skill Potion".

Chen Hong, however, took all the damage head-on and collapsed on the game screen.

A message came in:

"Haha, the game is over."