The Star Combat Network has many battle modes, including large-scale battles with thousands of players, survival modes in the Star Realm, ranked matches, casual matches, and personal duels.
In modes like the large-scale battle and survival, players usually team up in groups of 3 to 10. These modes test not only individual strength but also teamwork, making them quite popular. Many martial arts streamers often play these modes.
If the team works well together, they can defeat stronger opponents.
Li Yuan, Yan Zhou, and Zhou Qi often team up for some fun, but they usually end up getting crushed...
However, true martial artists who aim to push their limits and sharpen their skills focus more on ranked matches.
In ranked matches, both sides have the same physical abilities and can choose any combination of cold weapons. The competition comes down to their martial skills and combat awareness. It’s the purest form of martial combat. Only the victor survives.
Since his second year of high school, Li Yuan has dedicated almost all his free time, including weekends and holidays, to ranked matches. His main goal is to refine his martial skills through these near-real combat experiences.
In the ranked match space, a huge arena waits, with no audience in sight.
Swish! Swish!
Li Yuan and a fiery red figure appeared on opposite sides of the arena.
“Li Yuan?”
“Lin Lanyue, you’re also in a ranked match?” They both stared at each other, surprised.
Neither of them expected to match up again just two minutes after their last duel. It was incredibly rare.
Whether in ranked matches or casual matches, players are matched globally with others of the same rank. How many gold-ranked players are there worldwide? At least several million.
Both of them fell silent for a moment. Three seconds later...
“I won’t admit defeat.”
Lin Lanyue spoke first, her eyes fixed on Li Yuan. “Your martial skills are slightly stronger than mine, but that doesn’t mean I’ll definitely lose.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Li Yuan nodded.
Forty-two seconds later...
In the arena.
“Pfft!”
With his spear like a dragon, Li Yuan suddenly unleashed his power again, piercing Lin Lanyue’s chest.
“You...” Lin Lanyue felt the intense pain as the spear went through her, just managing to utter a word before she vanished into thin air.
“You’ve learned to be smarter; you didn’t rush in but kept testing me,” Li Yuan said as he lowered his spear with a slight shake of his head. “Too bad, I only showed a small opening, and you fell for it again.”
“You really want to beat me.”
“The more you want to win, the easier it is to lose,” Li Yuan thought to himself. “Always keep a steady mindset.”
“Steady as a rock, and you can move forward without fear.”
At that moment, Li Yuan received a system notification: “Congratulations, Guardian Yuan, you’ve won this gold-ranked match. Points +10!”
“Her rank points are higher than mine.”
“So the system gives me a bonus for winning?” Li Yuan mused.
Winning a match and getting 10 points is quite high.
“Let’s match again,” Li Yuan thought.
...
In another personal space.
“So annoying!!”
“Damn Li Yuan, he must be doing this on purpose, argh!!”
Standing alone in a starry scene with her red hair, Lin Lanyue finally exploded, gritting her teeth and muttering, “I curse you to never get married in this lifetime.”
She didn’t care about losing; she had lost countless times in ranked matches.
If it were just losing to Li Yuan twice, she wouldn’t be this angry. Since they had agreed to duel, she was mentally prepared to lose.
The key issue was how she lost.
Twice, she was pierced through the chest by a spear. Once could be a coincidence, but twice? Was it still a coincidence?
“Calm down! Lin Lanyue, you need to stay calm.” She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “Martial cultivation requires calmness; you can’t panic in tough situations.”
Suddenly...
Ding—Incoming call.
Looking at the name on the communication projection.
“Second Brother?” Lin Lanyue hesitated before softly saying, “Xiao Qing, connect.”
Buzz~ The projection changed, showing a young man in a blue martial outfit, looking quite handsome.
The young man resembled Lin Lanyue.
“Little Sister,” he smiled.
“Second Brother.” Lin Lanyue suppressed her irritation and forced a smile. “Why did you suddenly contact me?”
“Why can’t I reach out to you?” the young man replied with a grin.
“Hmph!”
Lin Lanyue couldn’t help but huff, “Second Brother, think about how long it’s been since you last contacted me.”
The young man smiled indulgently. “I heard from Xiao Qiang that you lost in a duel on the Star Combat Network, so I came to check on you.”
“Gu Qianghan is such a big mouth,” Lin Lanyue frowned. “I’ll teach him a lesson at school tomorrow.”
“Xiao Qiang was just worried about you, which is why he told me,” the young man chuckled. “You’re the older sister; don’t bully him too much.”
“Got it—” Lin Lanyue stretched out the word, but inside, she was already planning how to deal with Gu Qianghan at school the next day.
“I watched your battle video,” the young man said seriously. “It’s normal for you to lose. Besides the weapon disadvantage, that guy’s spear skills are much higher than yours. I estimate he’s at least mid-level in the third rank.”
“Mid-level in the third rank?” Lin Lanyue was a bit surprised; she understood the rank divisions in martial arts.
She could feel that Li Yuan’s skills were higher, but she didn’t expect him to be that much stronger.
“His movement skills should also be at the third rank. He might even make it onto the ‘Blue Star Youth Rankings,’” the young man added. “He meets the special recruitment standards.”
“Blue Star Youth Rankings?” Lin Lanyue was increasingly astonished.
With her family background, she understood the significance of that list.
“How’s his physical condition?” the young man casually asked.
“Average, probably just over level 6. He hasn’t awakened his Martial Spirit yet,” Lin Lanyue shook her head.
She knew a bit about Li Yuan’s situation.
“He hasn’t awakened his Martial Spirit yet?” The young man was taken aback, shaking his head. “That’s a pity.”
He was just asking casually and didn’t really care about Li Yuan’s situation.
To him, Li Yuan’s abilities didn’t matter.
“Little Sister, your sword skills should have just broken into the third rank, right?” the young man smiled. “In a normal fight, you’d struggle to win against that guy even a hundred times.”
Lin Lanyue bit her lower lip unconsciously.
She felt unwilling, but she also knew her second brother’s judgment was sharper than Teacher Xu’s.
“It’s a good thing to have such a talented martial artist as a classmate,” the young man said with a smile. “It serves as a reminder so you don’t get too proud thinking you’re the best in your grade.”
“I’m not!” Lin Lanyue frowned. “Second Brother, are you here to comfort me or to scold me?”
“Haha, good.”
“Alright, I won’t scold you this time.” The young man laughed. “Focus on improving your sword skills. You have six months to strive for a spot on the Blue Star Youth Rankings.”
“With that qualification, when you enter Starry Sky University, you’ll be valued more, and Dad can request more resources from the family for you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Lin Lanyue nodded.
She wasn’t a child anymore; she was about to come of age and understood how her family operated.
With so many descendants, only by being outstanding enough could one receive the family’s resources.
Otherwise, even after coming of age, she would only get fifty thousand Blue Star Coins as living expenses each month.
Nothing more to hope for.
“In two weeks, I’ll be back from the United States with Big Brother. We’ll come to see you,” the young man said with a smile.
“Have you settled your matters? Is Dad coming?” Lin Lanyue asked, surprised.
“Dad is going to Russia; the military has business there,” the young man shook his head.
“Oh!” Lin Lanyue pouted, feeling a bit disappointed.
Not long after, she ended the call with her second brother.
“Mid-level third rank spear skills, third rank movement skills?” Lin Lanyue murmured to herself. “Li Yuan is improving so fast.”
She remembered clearly that in her first year, there was no one named Li Yuan in her grade. He had suddenly risen to prominence in his second year.
In just one year, he had climbed into the top thirty in the grade during the second-year finals, surpassing her in martial skills.
In reality, losing a top score in one category didn’t affect Lin Lanyue much.
But it did make her remember Li Yuan’s name.
“In that exam, my skill score was only a few points lower, so the gap wasn’t that big,” Lin Lanyue gritted her teeth. “Now, he’s so much stronger than me in martial skills?”
Lin Lanyue couldn’t understand.
Clearly, she had received excellent martial education since childhood, with a dedicated swordsmanship teacher guiding her. She practiced diligently... yet he had quickly caught up and surpassed her.
“Perhaps.”
“Just like Dad said, there are always geniuses in the world.” Lin Lanyue shook her head inwardly. “It’s a pity he hasn’t awakened his Martial Spirit. It’s too hard to achieve great success in martial arts without it.”
She was angry on the surface, feeling that Li Yuan had done it on purpose in both duels.
But deep down, Lin Lanyue felt a bit sorry for Li Yuan.
“Let’s continue.”
“According to the ‘Spiritual Method’ Dad helped me with, I can handle about forty ranked matches at once.” Lin Lanyue began matching again.
For ordinary people, playing video games for too long can be tiring.
But the virtual battles in the Star Combat Network put a much heavier load on the mind.
Especially when injured or defeated, the intense pain can be extremely overwhelming.
So, virtual duels can’t last indefinitely.
...
Night, 9 PM.
In the virtual network, in Li Yuan’s personal space on the Star Combat Network.
“Finally, it’s almost time.” Li Yuan took a deep breath, glancing at his ranked match panel:
Ranked Match: Gold Rank.
Points: 496 (1000 points needed to enter the promotion match)
...
From 2 PM to 9 PM.
For seven hours, Li Yuan hardly took a break, fighting in 192 matches.
He won 120 and lost 72.
He managed to raise his points from 112 to a solid 496.
Just one more win to reach 500 points.
(End of Chapter)