69novels Chapter 201 Chernobyl
Chapter 201 Chernobyl
"I understand. When the six of you face this mixed team of six regular and reserve members from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, although you don't have a significant advantage, winning shouldn't be a problem either."
After listening to Xu Sanshi and Ling Luochen's accounts, Wang Yan had a general idea: Shrek Academy's second-tier team could win against Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy's third-tier team, but without an overwhelming advantage. If the first-tier team were to face off, they would not only lack an advantage but would be at a complete disadvantage.
The situation remains far from optimistic, but knowing that they are not entirely without a chance to fight back, everyone's emotions have remained relatively stable. After all, the clash with the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy is a matter for the final stage of the competition, and Shrek Academy's strength will likely see a slight increase by then. There's no need to worry so much now that it's causing them sleepless nights.
The camera shifts slightly, revealing that the students of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy are currently holding a meeting. Shrek Academy, wary of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, is also closely watching the strength displayed by Shrek Academy, which harbors ambitions to seize the throne.
"It's confirmed that this year's Shrek team has indeed encountered problems, but Shrek Academy has also changed. The Shrek Academy of the past would never have used soul tools on such a large scale, and five years ago, Shrek Academy's soul tool technology was definitely not this advanced."
Through the content shown in so many matches, Shrek Academy has demonstrated that many of the soul tools they use are no different from ours. They have even shown humanoid soul-guided robots that we have not been able to research.
While the exact abilities of that humanoid soul-guided robot are still uncertain, even if we consider it simply as a mobile soul-guided turret, it represents a significant advancement and plays a crucial role in enhancing combat power. We need to be careful; this should be our best opportunity in a thousand years.
"Don't worry, Elder Ma. You can tell from today's match that Shrek Academy is no match for us in terms of soul tool level alone. Even if we take into account Shrek Academy's consistently strong soul master abilities, we are still the stronger side this time."
The one who said this was Xiao Hongchen. Although Xiao Hongchen is only the captain of the reserve team now, it is clear that this guy has a very special status in the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.
"Of course I know that. I'm just reminding you not to relax or let your guard down. Shrek Academy's strength cannot be calculated based on previous years' levels. Even if we have an obvious advantage, we can't guarantee that Shrek doesn't have any hidden trump cards. After all, there are still two people from Shrek Academy who have never appeared in the competition. One of them is the captain of Shrek Academy, who was also the captain of the reserve team in the last competition, and the eldest son of Duke White Tiger."
The afternoon debriefing meeting ended quickly. This match didn't utilize tactics familiar to Shrek Academy, so there wasn't much to summarize. Shrek Academy still has three round-robin matches to go, but the next three opponents are all roughly equal in strength to Changning Academy, so Shrek Academy doesn't need to take them too seriously.
At least Dai Yueheng, Gongyang Mo, and He Caitou still haven't appeared at the competition venue. Long You, on the other hand, did go. After practicing for a while, Long You has completely mastered the inscription method of that composite inscription array. The success rate of inscription in the Imagination Pearl has reached 100%, which is enough to achieve Long You's previous goal of fusion with the soul-guided power mecha.
Next, Long You only needs to wait for He Caitou to master this composite inscription array, then he can find some time to practice with He Caitou once, and then directly inscribe it onto the soul-guided power mech.
Shrek Academy won the next three matches without any major incidents. During this time, Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy did not continue to compete with Shrek Academy, but proceeded with the normal competition process.
On the morning of the day the round-robin tournament in Shrek Academy's group ended, all the students of Shrek Academy gathered in the conference room as usual. The round-robin tournament was over, and everyone needed to have a large debriefing meeting. It was also time to discuss their first opponent in the third stage of the knockout tournament.
"This time, apart from those matches where everyone used the Soul Guidance Turret tactic, we will not watch the edited versions of any of the other matches. Instead, we will watch the original versions directly and have everyone find out where they can do better."
Individual battles can be a bit more relaxed, but all other team battles, whether it's a 7v7 team fight, 2v2, or 3v3, require serious attention. When you're at a disadvantage in individual combat, teamwork in multi-player battles is crucial.
Before watching the competition video, Wang Yan specifically emphasized the key points to watch, to prevent the students from wasting time by not grasping the key points during the video viewing process.
Although the match video was unedited, the playback speed was still increased considerably because everyone had watched it more than once. During the entire playback, the conference room was quiet except for the sound of the match video playing and the rustling of notes.
At 3 PM, the six-hour match video recording ended, and it was time for everyone to share their thoughts. The first to speak was reserve team captain Bei Bei. Normally, the main team captain Dai Yueheng should speak first, but since Dai Yueheng hadn't appeared, Bei Bei started the proceedings.
"In my personal opinion, there weren't many mistakes in these matches. The occasional lapses in coordination were due to a lack of familiarity with the performance of the soul tools."
This problem should have improved a lot by now, but it seems inevitable that both Xiao You and Cai Tou will bring out more new soul tools in the later matches.
“I’ve noticed this problem too. Can’t we use simulation training to avoid this kind of problem from happening? You know, starting today, we will have a full three days of rest.”
This is a fairly obvious problem shown in the entire match video. The reserve team is doing okay, but once Ling Luochen loses Huo Yuhao's soul skill support, there is a noticeable disconnect when coordinating with the reserve team. This suggests that Dai Yueheng and Gongyang Mo, who haven't yet played, likely have similar issues. Therefore, after Bei Bei finished pointing out the problems, Wang Yan immediately spoke up, hoping to find a solution.
But the reality was far worse than imagined. As soon as Wang Yan finished speaking, Long You immediately followed up:
"To be honest, no. We have a limited number of virtual reality login helmets, and their effectiveness is far inferior to the Panlong Set in the academy. Given the need to ensure that Senior Dai Yueheng can quickly adapt to soul-guided combat and Senior Gongyang Mo can quickly adapt to the soul-guided powered mecha, we can hardly have much time to practice."
Compared to achieving perfect teamwork, maximizing individual abilities is our most pressing goal right now.
The effectiveness of the virtual world login helmet was obviously best understood by its creator, Long You. Now that Long You said the virtual world login helmet couldn't achieve the desired effect, Wang Yan didn't doubt it and could only regretfully abandon this attempt.
"Xiao You is right. Since teamwork is bound to have some flaws when Yu Hao is not around, we might as well focus on improving our individual abilities."
Yueheng and Gongyang, tell me about your current strength. Especially Dai Yueheng, are you confident you can withstand Ma Rulong, who is at the Soul Saint level?
"I now have a soul-guided power exoskeleton, which has greatly improved my physical strength, agility, and speed. Although my attack range is definitely not as good as Ma Rulong's, as long as I get close, I will at least be able to entangle Ma Rulong, and it is not impossible for me to even defeat him."
Dai Yueheng wasn't just talking nonsense; he had actually tested it. This was Xingluo City, the capital of the Xingluo Empire, which could be considered the stronghold of their White Tiger Dai family. Although it wasn't possible to create opportunities for practical combat training for everyone at Shrek Academy, it was fine for him alone.
Since he didn't need to be with the team during the competition, Dai Yueheng made full use of this time. Every morning, as soon as most of the participating academies left the Star Emperor Hotel, he and Teacher Fan Yu would quickly head to the White Tiger Duke's Manor outside Star Luo City for practical combat training. This served two purposes: to enhance the effectiveness of virtual training and to clearly define improvements in combat strength.
"That's good. As long as we can keep Ma Rulong in check, the others from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, even Soul Emperors, are not a threat."
"Gram, what about you? Have you gotten used to fighting with soul tools yet?"
"Don't worry, Teacher Wang, I've adapted well. I can definitely unleash the combat power of a Soul Emperor who isn't from an academy."
"That's good. Let's continue our discussion."
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After a brief digression, the topic returned to normal, and the Shrek Academy tactical debriefing meeting only ended when a staff member from the Star Emperor Hotel came to remind them that dinner was ready.
Over the next two days, Long You and He Caitou successfully inscribed a composite inscription array that could perfectly achieve the fusion of the soul-guided power mecha.
Considering that this fused, fifteen-meter-tall mecha still has many shortcomings, it doesn't even have a chance to eject and escape. Moreover, if Shrek Academy needs to use this move, it will be a life-or-death situation. Therefore, Long You gave this fused soul-guided power mecha a meaningful name: "Cherno Alpha".
“Cherno Alpha, although I don’t quite understand why you insist on using this name, it sounds very powerful, so I won’t object. Tomorrow during the day, let’s log into the headsets in the virtual world and practice our ability to control this big guy.”
No engineering student dislikes mecha. Looking at the rugged, towering soul-guided mecha in front of him, and stroking the cold metallic skin on its surface, He Caitou's eyes shone brightly at that moment.
Not to mention He Caitou, even Long You, who had some foresight about the finished product, was now immersed in admiring this powerful mechanical creation. It wasn't until the soul power stored in the fused large soul-guided mecha was completely exhausted, and the large mecha automatically separated and transformed back into the original five-meter-tall small soul-guided powered mecha, that Long You and He Caitou came back to their senses with regret.
"Stop using the virtual reality headset, it's too ineffective. I'll take you somewhere tomorrow so we can have some real-world practice."
Dai Yueheng could use the White Tiger Duke's influence to find a suitable training ground, and Long You could naturally use the Long family's influence as well. Although the Long family compound was not suitable to return to now, over the years, Long You's uncle had found some other suitable safe spots in Xingluo City.
Although the patriarch of the Long family, Long Guozhang, had already rebuilt a place of inheritance for the Long family in the north of the continent, how could Uncle Long You not make any preparations when he thought about the danger of eventually tearing off all ties? A small manor in Xingluo City that seemed to have no connection with the Long family had now been transformed into a safe haven for the Long family.
Once they sense something is wrong, most of the clansmen still remaining in the Long family compound (those from the clan leader's lineage who have not betrayed them) will immediately evacuate to this safe point. Only after confirming that there is no danger outside the city, or that a strong support force has arrived, will everyone begin the mass migration.
Now, Long You was going to use this safe spot. Although the small manor didn't seem to have changed much on the surface after the change of owners, it had been heavily reinforced internally and was not easily damaged. Long You only needed to add a layer of soul guidance barrier to the manor to prevent outsiders from sensing the internal situation and soul power fluctuations.
The next day, Long You and He Caitou, carrying a level-eight milk bottle filled with soul power specially obtained from Senior Sister Zhang Lexuan, arrived at this safe point. After spending half an hour setting up a permanent soul-guided barrier, Long You and He Caitou entered their respective soul-guided powered mechs, clasped their hands together, and activated the inscription arrays engraved on their palms.
With a sound of mechanical friction, a powerful surge of soul energy erupted from the point where the two soul-guided powered mechs clashed. Dust billowed from the manor floor as the energy surged, and by the time it settled, the Cherno Alpha had already reappeared in its original spot.
However, the once imposing and majestic soul-guided power mech now looked somewhat comical. Whether raising its arms or legs, Cherno Alpha's movements were jerky and jarring. Moreover, as the range of motion increased, the mech's overall balance seemed to be compromised.
"Damn it, we have to stop."