Chapter 18: Chapter 18

On the virtual world’s spectator platform, hundreds of spectators were watching a livestream. Li Miaomiao was among them; she was focused and listening attentively.

“70% of a swordsman’s strength depends on your footwork.” A man in jeans was teaching sword techniques on the training grounds. “Now, I’ve virtualized a sparring partner with a combat strength of 500.”

With a whoosh, a bandit holding a cleaver appeared and charged over murderously.

“The sword is an extension of the hand. I just need to use my footwork to control the distance between the enemy and me.” The man in jeans was like a phantom as he took a few steps back, causing the bandit’s consecutive strikes to miss.

“The other party missed his first strike, so it will take time for him to strike again. This gap… is the time for us to make a move.” The man in jeans seized the opportunity when the other party missed. He took a step forward and thrust out his sword, and the sword stabbed into the bandit’s neck like a venomous snake.

He instantly retracted his sword and retreated, causing the bandit to turn ethereal and dissipate.

“A sword has many disadvantages among the assortment of cold weapons, such as being relatively short and lacking in strength. However, its advantage is its agility and speed. We need to maximize its advantage,” the man in jeans explained.

Whoosh.

On the viewing platform, Xu Jingming appeared and sat down beside Li Miaomiao—the viewing platform allowed one to join a friend in watching a livestream.

“Miaomiao, what are you watching?” Xu Jingming was in the queue, and having trained for eight hours, he was tired. It was time to take a break.

“I’m learning swordsmanship.” Li Miaomiao looked at Xu Jingming and said, “I practiced swordsmanship for seven or eight years as an amateur, and an expert like you has even taught me personally. I thought that my swordsmanship was good, but in this virtual world, my basic combat strength is barely 156 despite my best efforts. I can’t even qualify for the preliminaries. I fought for more than two hours as a Starry Sky before maxing out the stars and advancing to one-star Silver Moon! The moment I advanced, I lost three consecutive matches. Fortunately, this game doesn’t drop our levels. I’m now a 0-star Silver Moon.”

Xu Jingming nodded. “Take it slow. There’s no rush; it’s only the first day. Most of the people here are newbies who are still at Starry Sky.”

Li Miaomiao sighed with emotion. “The threshold for Radiant Sun is 400 basic combat strength, and Divine’s threshold is 1,000 basic combat strength. I lost three times in a row as a Silver Moon, sigh…”

“Oh right, this livestreamer, Cong Yao, was a medal winner at the Olympics for the heavy sword category. He also participated in the World Martial Arts Tournament,” Li Miaomiao said. “The sword techniques he spoke about are quite useful.”

“Cong Yao is quite impressive.” Xu Jingming nodded.

The man in jeans, who was explaining, swept his gaze past the stands and saw Xu Jingming. He nodded slightly, and so did Xu Jingming.

“He’s already a 29-star Radiant Sun! He has a 29-2 win-loss ratio at Radiant Sun. His sword technique is very impressive,” Li Miaomiao said. “He should be one of the top few at swordsmanship among those who are live-streaming.”

“No Divine players are live-streaming?” Xu Jingming asked.

“There are, but none of the streaming Divine players are good at swordsmanship!” Li Miaomiao sighed. “There are too few Divine players these days. There are only 32 Divine players in China, and there are only three who are live-streaming! If we want to learn swordsmanship, we can only find Radiant Sun ones.”

Xu Jingming opened the spectator platform and saw his friends who were live-streaming—125 of them were live-streaming.

“Quite a number of your friends are live-streaming,” Li Miaomiao said in surprise.

“Professional gladiators also need popularity. The more popular one is, the higher the appearance fee,” Xu Jingming said. Many of my friends still need to manage themselves even after retirement, and many have participated in variety shows.

“There are nearly 1,000 professional gladiators among my friends list. To only have about 100 live-streaming isn’t much.” Xu Jingming scanned the livestreams and saw Shuo.

Yang Qingshuo was doing a livestream of a battle.

Xu Jingming immediately tapped it and zoomed into the livestream.

“This is your good friend, Yang Qingshuo, right?” Li Miaomiao exclaimed in surprise as she looked at him. “How impressive. Those who can reach Radiant Sun on the first day are all top professional gladiators. 32-star Radiant Sun. Even if he kept winning… he needed to win 31 consecutive matches!”

“He’s quite impressive.” Xu Jingming watched.

…

In Yang Qingshuo’s livestream.

On the snowy battlefield.

“We need to make full use of our advantage. For example, if I’m fast, I should find an opponent who’s alone and defeat them one by one.” Yang Qingshuo wore leather armor and held a silver spear. He ran across the snow at lightning speed and went straight for an opponent who had a shield in one hand and a hammer in the other.

As he ran, Yang Qingshuo explained. His voice was loud enough for all his audience to hear him.

Because he was a 32-star Radiant Sun and had participated in the World Martial Arts Tournament, along with his explanations being quite interesting, Yang Qingshuo’s livestream was quite popular. It had more than 1,000 people watching.

The muscular man holding the shield and hammer was tall and stout, but he was slow. He watched helplessly as Yang Qingshuo chased up to him without being able to escape.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Yang Qingshuo’s figure was like a ghost as he circled the strong man for a few steps before consecutively thrusting out his spear a few times, producing afterimages.

The strong shield and hammer-bearer was also a professional expert, so he carefully raised his shield to protect himself. However, the gap between the two couldn’t be surmounted.

The fifth spear afterimage stabbed from the side, scraping the edge of the shield and piercing into the stocky man’s head. The stocky man’s figure then turned ethereal and dissipated.

“Beautiful.”

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“He took down a Radiant Sun opponent in a few strikes.”

“How impressive! 32 wins and 1 loss—what a monster! He can carry an entire team alone!”

“Yang Qingshuo revealed his combat strength, and his combat strength has reached 970. The Radiant Sun threshold is 400, so very few Radiant Suns can stop him.”

The audience exclaimed in amazement, and people also tipped him enthusiastically. They tipped him with all kinds of gifts.

Yang Qingshuo was delighted when he saw this. At the same time, he said, “In combat, we have to choose our opponent. For example, the opponent from before looked clumsy, but we are agile and fast. We can deliver as many moves as we want, but it’s very difficult for the other party to touch us.”

“Look, the one in the distance is using dual sabers.” Yang Qingshuo stared at his other opponent in the snow. “He probably cultivates Shadow Leopard Evolution like me, but his speed is inferior to mine. His two sabers are shorter than mine, so it’s very easy for us to finish him off. We have to take advantage of the period before the other party’s team gathers together and defeat them one by one. In the late stage of the match, our team will have the numerical advantage and can easily win.”

Yang Qingshuo quickly ran over.

…

Xu Jingming was pleased when he saw this. Shuo, you’ve found your calling. You can earn money from live-streaming.

My friends from all over the world are working hard. Xu Jingming watched one livestream after another. He wasn’t sure about those who weren’t live-streaming, but all his live-streaming friends were in combat.

He had also joined the queue to ‘fight.’ But as the match was at Divine level, it was a little difficult to make up ten people.

“Miaomiao, where are the live-streaming Divine players?” Xu Jingming asked.

“Here.” Li Miaomiao was very knowledgeable about the available livestreams, so she quickly pinpointed three people.

Three of the livestreams had the same scene—in the void of the combat space, there was only a notification: “Seven people are ready…”

“There’s a livestream, but the person isn’t around?” Xu Jingming laughed.

“You can set the livestream to broadcast the combat space,” Li Miaomiao said. “Those who have reached Divine by now did so through the preliminaries. This means that their basic combat strength is at least 1200. All of them are monsters. Many World Martial Arts Tournament contestants are unable to attain it.”

Xu Jingming nodded and looked at the livestreams of the three Divine players.

“Panda Zhang Qian, Sharpshooter Wang Yi, Goddess of War Sun Yuting.” Xu Jingming read out the three people’s names. They were very famous.

Li Miaomiao also said excitedly, “In the past, the World Martial Arts Tournament had always been a stage for men because of the difference in the physiques between men and women. But now that women also have suitable genetic evolutionary methods, they no longer suffer any disadvantages physically. A woman became a Divine player on the first day. Sharpshooter Wang Yi… She was an archery champion at three Olympics and is a monster in the field of archery.”

“A Divine archer will be very terrifying.” Xu Jingming nodded. Among cold weapons, archers posed a huge threat.

“Goddess of War Sun Yuting was champion of two Women’s World Martial Arts Tournaments. However, the popularity of the women’s competitions is much less than the World Martial Arts Tournament,” Li Miaomiao said. “Now, she can truly prove herself.”

“There are also fewer female professional gladiators than men.” Xu Jingming nodded. “They suffer from lower popularity and generally have low income.”

This was very normal. This was because the World Martial Arts Tournament didn’t restrict women from participating in battles, but women were indeed physically disadvantaged. At the highest levels of the World Martial Arts Tournament, men shined the most.

“With the genetic evolutionary method, a woman’s physical talent is no less inferior to that of a man.” Li Miaomiao pointed and said, “Of the three live-streaming Divine players, two are female players. The ratio makes it obvious.”

“Yeah, what’s that? A pinned livestream?” Li Miaomiao was surprised.

Xu Jingming also saw that a livestream on the spectator platform had been pinned.

“China’s Official Livestream?” Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao saw the name.

“Let’s go and take a look.” The two of them entered with a tap.

Whoosh!

As the only livestream pinned on the spectator platform since the virtual world’s launch, a large number of viewers kept pouring in. The viewing stands were infinitely wide—two million, five million…

More and more people came in.

Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao also came in; they sat and looked into the distance.

“Zoom in.” With a light tap, the livestream in the distance zoomed in.

Three people sat in front of the podium.

“This is China’s official livestream channel.” The host was a top host who often hosted official events, Liu Xin. Beside her was a middle-aged man and woman.

Liu Xin smiled and said, “Today is the first day of our official livestream. The two people beside me are the head coach of the national martial arts team—Huang Yong—and the female team’s coach, Qin Yiwen.”

Huang Yong and Qin Yiwen waved their hands. “Hello, everyone.”

“Our livestream has just begun, but the number of viewers has already exceeded ten million.” Liu Xin smiled brilliantly.

Just one smile of hers could go viral on the Internet. Mainstream media treated her like a treasure. Therefore, she was made the host of China’s first official livestream in the virtual world.

“This is our first broadcast, and the livestream will be following China’s first Divine battle that will shortly begin!” Liu Xin said.