"Are you ready?" Anduriel asked.
Sylvide held the crystal in her hand, felt it, and nodded. Although she is not an alchemist, she was born in such an environment and is familiar with it, so she is no stranger to the magic furnace.
"Old Coppernose," Anduriel said, "Our little princess is almost ready. Where are you?"
"It's coming," Suonan replied gruffly, a little dissatisfied, "Why are you in such a hurry?"
"I'm not in a hurry." Andurel chuckled.
The dwarf heard what he meant and snorted heavily.
The two of them started to argue with each other again and again.
Vikki was following his companion through the hall. The two of them came under the platform in the center of the hall. The boy was about to climb up, but Vikki grabbed him from behind. "Wait a minute," she called. The young man was stunned for a moment and turned back to look at her.
"Li Yuhao, you can't lose." Vikki stared at him and said seriously.
The young man was startled, then stretched out his hand to adjust his glasses: "But the coach said..."
"The coach is a coach, the game is a game, you have to have your own ideas."
The former thought for a moment and then nodded seriously: "You are right, Vicki, I listen to you."
Vikki smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
The young man blushed, turned around, walked through the railing, and came to the stage. Suonan Steel Eyebrow just glanced at this ordinary young man and complained with the characteristic impatience of a dwarf: "It's so slow to get here."
"sorry."
"If you have time to talk about this, why not get ready first." The dwarf handed a crystal to the other party: "Take this crystal and say when you are ready."
Li Yuhao took the crystal, held it in his hand, took a breath, and then nodded to Suonan: "Mr. Suonan, I'm ready."
"So fast?" The dwarf glanced at him in surprise.
On the other side of the crystal, Sylvide and Anduriel also received the news prepared here. After both parties confirmed it, the game officially started.
The single-player race in the Star Ball is very different from the team competition. The single-player race does not need to fill the entire ball. Generally, one chooses one of the five below the Star Ball to reach the top finish line first. The one who wins.
The rules of the competition are simple and clear, and not complicated. After all, there are not many freaks like Fang? Most people cannot achieve the goal of five-way advancement.
However, since there is only one end point, opponents will inevitably interfere with each other during the competition. The rules even allow the destruction of the structural points where the opponent is preparing to build a bridge. In this way, although the requirements for the craftsman base in the confrontation process are much lower, it is more of a pure competition of computing power.
Sylvide's starting point was at point a5, which was a relatively good starting point. However, once she got started, Anduriel and Fang Fang found that she was not faster than her opponent.
Sylvester was holding the crystal, and she was obviously a little unfamiliar at first. After connecting to the fifth structural point, her movements gradually became smoother, and her fine calculation power began to come into play. But at the same moment, Fang looked at the other side and saw that his opponent had passed the ninth structural point and reached one-fifth of the total schedule.
In the hall——
Li Yuhao was equally nervous, and his hands holding the crystal were sweating.
As a substitute in the team, he didn't have many chances to play. It was only because the other main player hadn't arrived yet today and the coach didn't plan to let Vikki play first that he was reminded of the existence of such an almost transparent person.
The coach asked him to find a way to lose to the aborigine, but Vicki's words gave him a wake-up call.
Although he is a substitute, he is also a selector and is here to participate in the game.
The young man calmed down. Although he believed that he was not as talented as some of the main players in the team, when he was learning skills at the Tarun Craftsmen Association, the taciturn old craftsman was also very optimistic about him. The old craftsman didn't like to talk. Whenever he encountered any setbacks, he would just pat him on the shoulder.
From the rigorous selection of trainees to today, although there were many bumps along the way, I finally got to this place.
He remembered that during the training camp, his instructor had said more than once that his biggest problem was that he was nervous. When he got on the court, he could only perform at least 20/10 of his strength. For professional selectmen, failure to overcome this would be a fatal flaw.
But Li Yuhao knew in his heart that at least until today, he had never overcome this.
But he was obviously in good shape today.
His connection speed was so fast that even Vikki who was watching below was a little surprised. The old dwarf was even more stunned. He couldn't help but take another look at the ball of stars, then looked at the young man again and nodded.
But when he connected to the seventeenth node, his opponent was reaching the eleventh node.
Watching this scene, Anduriel couldn't help but cursed secretly. I thought to myself that this damn old copper-nosed man was really disrespectful, knowing that she was the little girl from the Albert family, yet he found such a powerful opponent. In his opinion, the opponent's level was that of the best young people in the Southern League, nothing more than that.
Does this old guy really want to win so much?
He couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.
But at this moment, Fang? frowned slightly.
He saw that Sylvester chose a very unusual route after the eleventh node. She connected horizontally to the twelfth node - generally speaking, in racing, it is best to The connection point is vertically upward, followed by various diagonal upward paths. These nodes are also key nodes for opponents to compete for in the game.
But now her opponent is far ahead of her. After using up the best nodes, the competition is actually quite disadvantageous for Miss Ship Officer. But no matter how disadvantageous it is, there seems to be no need for horizontal connections.
Apart from wasting the time of a node, horizontal connections seemed to have no meaning.
And at the thirteenth and fourteenth nodes, Sylvide also did not choose the optimal solution. If the choice of the twelfth node was to avoid the opponent's route, how could it still be understood? if.
So he really couldn't understand the last two choices.
Fang couldn't help scratching his head. He didn't know if Sylvide had made a mistake or if he didn't understand it. However, it is very rare for an alchemist at this level to be able to understand something he cannot understand.
Not only him, Li Yuhao was also confused.
To be honest, he saw that his opponent was a little rusty at first, but he was still a bit rusty, and his level was actually very high. After bumping into each other at the beginning, he soon caught up a lot, but starting from the twelfth node, the opponent seemed to be lost again, repeatedly circling the lower level.
But when he was halfway through the schedule, his opponent was still at one-third of the way.
But he only took a few more glances when Suonan's steel eyebrows reminded him: "Don't be distracted, little guy." But the dwarf turned back to look at Sylvide's light spot and couldn't help but raise his thick eyebrows. Eyebrows, watching this scene, a faint light flashed in his eyes.
The game was proceeding in an orderly manner, and it seemed that the result was very clear from the mid-term. One side is far ahead, but under such circumstances, it is generally impossible for the other side to have a chance to turn around.
However, it was Luo Yu who really discovered the anomaly and was the first to warn him:
"Miss Sylvide seems to have caught up..."
At the fifty-fifth node, the gap between the two shortened for the first time.
This does not mean that Sylvide's speed of connecting nodes has become faster. In fact, Li Yuhao has connected to the 63rd node, and the number of leading nodes has expanded from the previous six to eight.
It's a pity that this game is not about who can win by connecting more nodes, but about who reaches the finish line first——
Although the other party has more connected nodes, the overall progress advantage has become smaller.
"what happened?"
Li Yuhao himself was also shocked.
On the same plane, the shortest straight line between two points is obvious.
Although in most craftsman events, single-player racing is not the main event, just like the team games in the early years, lo will always be just a performance event. But after so many years, people have already reached a consensus that the shortest straight line in the center of the star ball is the path that military strategists must fight for——
And he has obviously gone a long way on this road, and it is impossible for his opponent to catch up anyway.
If it were anyone else, they would definitely restrain their emotions at this moment, not caring about anything else, and just focus on further expanding their own advantages. After all, although the opponent was catching up, his lead was not small. But at this time, Li Yuhao found that his old habit had appeared again.
When he found that his advantage began to shrink, he subconsciously couldn't help but nervously check to see what was wrong.
When Suonan Gangmei saw his expression, he knew what the young man was thinking and couldn't help but shake his head. Distractions are a big no-no for both competitors and professional craftsmen.
Craftsmanship is actually a very autistic profession. Big things must wait until the work at hand is completed with full concentration.
It’s not that we can’t draw lessons from our experiences, but that’s an afterthought.
Sure enough, when Li Yuhao was distracted for a moment, his hand slowed down even more, and he watched helplessly as Sylvide caught up again. By then, he was really anxious. Vikki's voice in the audience seemed to be calling his name, but it was mixed in the noise in the hall, as if it was far away in the horizon.
He was very familiar with that tone of voice, which sounded like he hated iron for not being able to become steel——
But the young man took a deep breath. At that moment, he suddenly remembered his last trainee assessment, and his heart suddenly became quieter for some reason.
Although he has various shortcomings, he has finally reached this stage, and those who can reach this stage are all outstanding young alchemists, and he is naturally the same.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally saw what Sylvester was doing.
On the other side of the crystal, Fang? saw this one step ahead of him.
The straight line between two points is the shortest.
But the shortest straight line does not necessarily mean the shortest process.
The ball of stars is a sphere, and the distribution of structural points inside it is not uniform. The closer to the center, the greater the density. The speed of the connection between two points does not depend on the distance between them.
In other words, there is actually a trick in single-player racing, which is to choose a path with as long a distance between points as possible. Although it looks like a detour, it is actually much faster. .
But among the thousands of structural points in the sphere of stars, which chosen one would have the leisure to find such a path?
After all, there is no such title as King of Lo in the Craftsman League.
Just in the thousands of years of history of alchemists in Aitaria.
But there has been such a person——
Suonan Steel Eyebrow scratched his beard and sighed in annoyance. He could almost see Anduriel's proud face. He thought that the little princess of the Xilinspika family was just a whim, but who knew that the other party was serious about it and even learned this skill.
What annoyed him the most was that he didn't even know how to do this.
This path is called the 'Path of Roses'.
It was discovered by a bored alchemist during a bet with the goblins. In order to make this bet, the alchemist spent ten years. In the eyes of the old dwarf, this could almost be said to be the most boring bet in the history of Aitaria, and the other party was really a boring person in the extreme.
Because the bet is just an ordinary magic pocket watch.
But this alchemist is famous in the history of Aitalia. Because the other party has a pseudonym called Luo Zhen.
He is also the founder of Rose Workshop.
This path is not complicated.
But remembering the exact locations of one hundred and forty-four structural points requires an amazing amount of memory. Not every alchemist in the Xilinspica family can remember this path.
The last one was called Arecio Silinspica, the father of the current head of the Red Rose Family and the grandfather of the little princess. The next person is not actually a member of the Spica family, nor is he even an alchemist.
This made Suonan Gangmei sigh. It also seemed to symbolize the decline of the Southern Alchemist Alliance. This was once the birthplace of the Rose Workshop and the Kingfisher Workshop, but today it is almost impossible to see genius alchemists coming from here. Get out.
He himself is a dwarf, and Anduriel is actually an alchemist from the north. Prince Coleman wants to restore the glory of the Southern Alchemist Alliance, but how easy is it?
Amidst a sigh of surprise, Sylvide took another step closer.
Eighty-nine nodes, ninety-seven nodes.
In the hall, people seemed to have noticed that a game was going on here, and more and more people gathered around. After all, most of the people here were participants in the Continental League, and they couldn't be more interested in the competition between craftsmen.
And they also want to take the opportunity to find out what level their opponents are.
A thin layer of sweat formed on Li Yuhao's forehead.
He has already calculated that if he had ignored it before and only focused on further expanding his advantage, the opponent might not really be able to catch up with him. After all, his advantage was too great at the beginning.
But because of my own mistakes, it’s hard to say now——
He couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.
Li Yuhao knows his own affairs very well. At the last moment, he will almost certainly make a mistake due to nervousness. Therefore, if he just maintains his current advantage, it is probably a high probability that he will lose in the end.
The young man took a deep breath, and couldn't help but feel more and more panicked. Vikki also stopped and looked at the final situation nervously - he couldn't help but raise his head and look at the other person, and an inexplicable thought flashed through his mind.
She must be disappointed, right?
When he thought about it, his hand slipped even more.
As for this mistake, the crowd couldn't help but let out a low cry, which meant that Sylvide's light had steadily caught up. When people saw this scene, they couldn't help but be curious. The contestants who had made it this far were all the elite among the elites - how could such a low-level mistake happen?
"Is he from the Guta Craftsmen Association?"
"Didn't you say that Bangzi is very good this year?"
"That's just what I think."
And these words entered the young man's ears one after another, making him unable to concentrate even more, and the connection speed became slower and slower. Vikki looked angry and anxious below, and finally couldn't help shouting to the people around her:
"What are you arguing about? Can you be quiet!?"
If it had been anyone else, they would probably have gotten into a fight over these words. But Vikki obviously had the natural advantage of being a beautiful girl. The person who spoke muttered a few words in private after hearing this, but he didn't really argue with her in public in the hall.
Vikki frowned and then turned around.
In the ball of stars, there is only a thin line between the two groups of light.
On the field, Li Yuhao happened to see the scene where Vikki was fighting for him. Somehow, this scene immediately reminded him of the game at the Elpaxin Craftsmen Association.
It was exactly the same then as now, they were just a little bit close to winning, but in the end it was the boy whose name he still didn't know who knocked their entire team to the ground with one person.
Sometimes he would recall that scene in his dreams. After that game, Vikki secretly cried several times.
He suddenly stopped, and a flash of lightning flashed in his mind.
In full view of everyone, the young man stretched out his hand and subconsciously made an imitating movement.
At that moment, there was a sudden silence in the hall——
In the basement, Luo Yu let out a light sigh.
Even Fang? couldn't help but be startled. Because he saw that after the light spot of Sylvide's opponent stopped for a moment, it suddenly split into two, drawing two completely different dividing lines in the sphere of stars.
Bright light, one continues to climb upward. The other one extended towards Sylvide's path.
Multiple parallelism.
Although it is still the prototype of this technique.
But Fang? It was obvious that the opponent's skills had a strong style of his own - in the training software that Shana gave him, everyone's technical styles were very different.
And the multiple parallel techniques he finally formed actually have a very deep personal style - this technique seems to be natural, and everyone has their own understanding.
But the skills the boy showed at this moment were clearly so similar to the scene he showed in El Paxin - just like the first time he used multiple parallel skills.
imitator.
Many words suddenly appeared in Fang's mind.
'Field' contestant 'Old Copper Nose' 'Southern Alchemist Alliance', he suddenly realized that that was not where the headquarters of the Southern Alchemist Alliance was located, Van Rick.
That's where the last game of the Continental League was held.
He immediately realized who Sylvide's opponent was and what a coincidence it was.
…
The short low voices in the hall suddenly died down.
People were looking at the young man on the stage in silence. But Li Yuhao didn't say a word, just stared blankly at the final result on the ball of stars.
Suonan's steel eyebrows only patted the young man's shoulder: "Not bad, just a little bit off."
On the sphere of stars, representing the flash of light at the highest point, shines the light of Sylvide's winding connecting line, starting from the initial point a5 and connecting to the final point. And his light only stayed at the last moment, just one step away.
He took a gentle breath, couldn't help but clenched his fists, and experimented countless times in private - this was the most perfect time for him to show that person's skills, but in the end he still fell short.
Failed.
Vikki was separating from the crowd and ran towards him. Li Yuhao adjusted his glasses and lowered his head subconsciously, thinking that he was going to be scolded again, but he didn't expect the girl to grab his hand: "Yuhao, you, how did you do that?"
"What?"
"That trick."
The coach had already walked out from behind, separated the two of them, and said: "Li Yuhao."
"Coach, I..."
"Let's not talk about this for now," the middle-aged man shook his head: "Next, you can train hard. If e can't come, you can take his place."
The boy's eyes widened: "Wait, but..."
"It's nothing," the coach replied: "The premise is that you have to practice that skill well. In the next few weeks, you can practice in a closed environment. Let Vikki handle the outside matters for you."
The girl nodded seriously.
…
In the basement, Sylvide took a deep breath and put down the resonance crystal in her hand, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She smiled and looked at Fang?, and stuck out her tongue in a rare and playful manner: "How wonderful, your little apprentice is really amazing——"
"Little apprentice?"
Fang? He thought to himself, where did he pick this apprentice up? He himself is still a newcomer.
But it was clear that Sylvide also figured out who her opponent was. After all, she happened to be at the scene and witnessed the match at El Paxin. And he also had an encounter with the selector of the ancient pagoda.
And Uriel was laughing over there, obviously looking arrogant: "Old Copper Nose, you actually want to cause trouble for the little girl from the Albert family, have you forgotten who she is? ? When his grandfather was studying the Orb of Stars, you were probably still nursing."
"Fart, I am a dwarf, I will only be older than you humans," Suonan Steel Eyebrow was almost angry to death: "What are you proud of, old blacksmith, it's not like he is your student? What are you trying to do to the Xilinspica family?" The majesty of a little girl, you are not from the Xilinspika family!"
He shouted loudly: "Where is your incompetent student? Let him compete with the young people here. Maybe it will not be as good as the one just now. Have you seen the skills of that young man?"
"Multiple parallels," Anduriel touched his beard, obviously he knew the goods: "You didn't bring that little guy Elpaxin here, did you?"
Suonangang's brow darkened. Although he was at odds with the old blacksmith, and the Southern Alchemist Alliance was now at odds with the Northern Alliance, he was still an alchemist from Corin-Ithulian.
Although the young man before was good, he was from Guta after all.
He couldn't help but sigh. The news from Elpaxin was just a bit exciting. He didn't expect that so soon there would be a talented alchemist among the people of Guta who could perform multiple parallel skills.
He didn't want to bring up this topic anymore and changed his words: "Stop talking nonsense, old blacksmith, where are your people?"
Anduriel then turned back to look at Fang?, and Sylvide gave him an unexpected surprise. However, because of the previous question and answer, the young man in front of him always made him a little uneasy.
He thought that if the other party did something wrong, he would have to answer for it with his old face.
But an explanation is an explanation, and it was too late to change his words at this time. He could only reply in a low voice: "What's the rush? He's right here, and he won't run away."
The old dwarf had known him well for many years, so he naturally heard the guilt in his words. He laughed and returned the original words: "I'm not in a hurry this time." Anduriel's face darkened, and he turned around and looked at Sylvie De handed the crystal in his hand to Fang?
Fang? took the crystal and was slightly startled.
He clearly felt that there seemed to be many more people in the 'Magic Network' than before, and they seemed to be silently watching the game.
"Behave well." Sylvide bit his ear.
Fang?'s face turned red and he couldn't help but look at the other party, not quite understanding what Sylvide meant by this. However, Miss Ship Officer seems to be a little abnormal today. Normally she would never take the initiative to participate in such a competition.
But before he could react, a somewhat cold voice came from the other end of the crystal:
"This game is mine, Mr. Sonam."
Hearing this voice, Fang? Almost immediately, the appearance of the Korean-style girl in El Paxin appeared in his mind.
Speaking of which, is the other party's name Vicki or Vici?
…
