The first exhibition match ended very quickly.
Lin Jianqing hadn’t even fully understood how the fire line on the stage had managed to block the enhancement-type contestant’s path.
Before the commentator had begun analyzing the temperature control range, reaction speed, and ability stability of that A-rank elemental-type awakened in a very professional tone, along with some things that sounded like thesis abstracts to Lin Jianqing.
He listened for a few sentences and felt his brain start to automatically skip.
He couldn’t help it—it was too professional, and he didn’t really care.
Lin Jianqing’s understanding of special abilities still remained at the version Shen Huaixue had broken down for him earlier.
Enhancement type was physical body cheating, elemental type was flashy scenes, support type was healer plus buff, special type depended on luck, and psychic type was the most troublesome.
This version was crude, but for Lin Jianqing, as long as it was easy to understand, that was fine.
It suited him perfectly, this unfortunate audience member temporarily dragged by Shen Huaixue to make up for lost lessons.
When the big screen switched to the next match’s contestant introductions, the cheers at the scene noticeably got louder.
The left contestant was a C-rank psychic-type awakened, with ability direction written as “short-term perception shift.”
The right contestant was a B-rank wind-type awakened, with ability direction as “wind pressure blade and high-speed movement.”
Lin Jianqing saw the rank gap and frowned slightly.
“C-rank versus B-rank?”
Shen Huaixue leaned back in her seat, her tone completely flat: “Youth Group Tournament allows low-rank to challenge high-rank. As long as both parties agree and the tournament system assesses the risk as controllable, they can step onto the stage.”
“Psychic type is already quite special; a low-rank can also rely on timing and judgment to win against a higher-rank opponent.”
Lin Jianqing found that a bit intriguing.
“It sounds like a low-spec account beating a high-spec account through skill.”
“That’s about right.” Shen Huaixue raised the corner of her lips slightly. “But most of the time, as long as there’s a one-rank difference, you’ll get schooled by the smurf sisters.”
Lin Jianqing glanced at her.
“Can’t you be a little less realistic? What if there’s a chance for a counterkill?”
“If it were a few hundred years ago, it would be possible. Back then, everyone had information gaps.” Shen Huaixue turned to look at him, smiling naturally.
“But now, the special ability system is already so comprehensive, there are almost no information gaps. A high-rank simply crushes a low-rank.”
Listening to Shen Huaixue’s explanation, Lin Jianqing only felt that the system of supernatural beings had strict ranks.
But for a man who couldn’t awaken a special ability… others might not know, but Lin Jianqing felt that he probably didn’t need to understand these rank divisions too much.
The two contestants on the field had already taken their designated positions. The psychic-type contestant looked young.
Her short black hair fell to her neck, her figure was on the slender side, and it was clear to the naked eye that she was probably not a power-type.
Standing in the arena, her expression was very nervous.
The opponent, on the other hand, was a B-rank elemental-type wind-attribute contestant. Just by her appearance, she was much more composed, her shoulders relaxed.
With a light turn of her wrist, the surrounding air seemed to stir, and a faint ripple appeared on the protective screen at the edge of the arena.
Lin Jianqing stared at the arena for a while, then suddenly lowered his voice to ask: “How does a psychic type win against this? She can’t really just charge in and fight, can she?”
Shen Huaixue looked at his earnest, curious yet slightly guarded expression, as if she found it amusing. She moved a little closer.
“A psychic type doesn’t necessarily have to fight. She just needs to make the opponent a beat slower, misjudge the direction, misjudge the distance, and many attacks will mess themselves up.”
“You can think of it like a sudden lag in a game; the skill was supposed to go left, but a twitch of the hand sends it into empty air.”
Lin Jianqing listened and was silent for a moment.
“In layman’s terms, it’s giving the enemy high ping?”
“Mm, that’s about right.” Shen Huaixue laughed.
“It’s just that low-rank psychic types generally only have a few moves, and they aren’t strong. The terrifying thing about psychic types is the high-rank ones, and high-rank psychic types are the most troublesome. Each high-rank psychic type’s ability is vastly different.”
At this moment, Shen Huaixue was like a peacock courting, pushing up the glasses that weren’t actually on her nose, as if giving Lin Jianqing a private lesson.
“Forget it, just understand that high-rank psychic types are very strong, low-rank ones are on par with other types’ supernatural beings, and relatively weaker. That’s why I said the match below isn’t anything worth watching.”
After saying that, Shen Huaixue crossed her jade-like legs wrapped in sheer black stockings, and leaned towards Lin Jianqing intentionally or not.
Lin Jianqing, on the other hand, moved away with some disgust, as if wanting to get farther from her.
Soon, the countdown for the match start sounded, and the wind-type contestant moved first.
She didn’t create distance right away; instead, she pressed forward a few steps, raised her fingertips, and three semi-transparent wind blades cut along the ground.
The speed was so fast that Lin Jianqing’s eyes almost couldn’t keep up. The psychic-type contestant had clearly prepared in advance, slightly turning her body while keeping her eyes locked on her opponent.
The next second, just as Shen Huaixue had explained, the wind-type contestant’s movements halted for a moment.
It was very brief, so brief that if the big screen hadn’t simultaneously zoomed in on the details, Lin Jianqing might not have noticed at all.
But in that instant, the second attack she was about to follow up with deviated by half an inch. The wind blade grazed past the psychic-type contestant’s shoulder and crashed into the protective screen, emitting a very light vibration.
The audience immediately erupted in gasps, and the commentator’s voice rose as well.
“A beautiful perception shift! Although it lasted less than a second, it was enough to cause an error in the wind-type contestant’s attack judgment.”
“The psychic-type contestant has seized the distance gap. Now she has a chance to counterattack!”
Watching the psychic-type contestant who was motionless below, Lin Jianqing instinctively looked at Shen Huaixue.
Shen Huaixue, as if she knew what he was thinking without even looking, spoke lazily: “Don’t look at me like that. Hers is very shallow; it can only affect the edges of perception and has a short duration.”
“If it were real combat, as long as the opponent guards against it once, she’ll have a hard time pulling it off again.”
Lin Jianqing was about to say something, when the situation on the field suddenly changed.
When the psychic-type contestant attempted interference a second time, the wind-type contestant was clearly prepared.
She pressed her wrist down, and the surrounding wind pressure suddenly exploded, directly increasing the distance between herself and the psychic-type contestant.
That psychic-type contestant seemed a bit anxious and forcefully pursued another interference, but her face instantly turned pale. Shen Huaixue’s expression, which had been carrying a smile, dimmed slightly at that moment.
Lin Jianqing noticed her change and was about to ask, when he heard the venue system emit a short warning sound.
“Abnormal psychic fluctuation. Please reduce output.”
The commentator’s voice also paused, then quickly recovered: “The psychic-type contestant seems to want to expand the interference range, but faced with a higher-rank wind-type awakened, this approach carries relatively high risks…”
Before his voice even died down, the wind-type contestant in the arena suddenly seemed to misjudge her direction.
The wind pressure blade that should have been released toward the inside of the arena instead veered off a large distance toward the edge of the protective screen.
And the position where Lin Jianqing was sitting happened to be right behind the VIP seating on that side.
Actually, there was a protective screen in between.
There was also a distance, but in the moment that wind blade rushed towards him along the protective screen, Lin Jianqing still instinctively tensed his body.
It was too fast, so fast that he didn’t even have time to think about whether the protective screen would block it. His mind was left with nothing but a blank.
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