Chapter 1087 A Flaw

From the standpoint of selecting candidates, Ma Junxiao could hardly be considered an excellent choice. In terms of overall ability, his competitiveness might not even match Jin Fugui's, and compared to someone of Shi Long's caliber, he was far inferior.

However, “Death,” the eldest and wisest of the Four Horsemen, still chose to place his bet on him. There was a deeper meaning in this…

Even Ma Junxiao himself didn't know that he was born with an extraordinary talent, or rather… a “superpower.” This ability allowed him to reach a depth that ordinary people couldn't achieve during “neural connections” and to break through some of the limitations imposed by program designers… To put it simply, it was a certain level of “super-limit” without any training.

Seeing this, some people will definitely ask: What if he had never played a neurally-connected game in his life, or was born in an era without such games, wouldn't this ability be useless?

That's right… that's exactly how it is.

People's understanding of “superpowers,” or “special abilities,” is basically obtained from literature, anime, or film and television works. Therefore, we also generally believe that so-called superpowers are powerful and cool forces such as “telekinesis,” “releasing electricity and spitting fire,” “super physical fitness,” “flying and escaping,” and “predicting the future.”

However, this understanding is obviously very one-sided.

Given the scale of the planet Earth and the current size of human society, even if there really are ability users of the above level, their number would definitely be extremely rare, otherwise the world would have been destroyed long ago.

If there really are special abilities in this world, most of those abilities would be the ability to “quickly master any musical instrument,” the ability to “never shake when performing precise operations,” the ability to “never fall when going down stairs,” or “the ability to accelerate metabolism by standing on one leg and barking like a dog.” These types of bizarre abilities are not so powerful and cool, and are even difficult to detect.

In fact, perhaps some of the people reading this passage right now are superpowered, but you just don't know it yet.

This is also a very normal phenomenon. For example, a person with the ability to "quickly master any musical instrument" happens to be a farmer born in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He has never seen any musical instrument in his life, so naturally he cannot discover that he has the relevant special ability; and the ability to "never shake when performing precise operations", if it falls on a noble courtier of the Elizabethan era, this brother who even needs servants to wait on him to get dressed in the morning, obviously cannot become a surgeon, right?

As for the abilities of "never falling down stairs" and "accelerating metabolism by jumping on one foot and barking like a dog," which you won't know unless you try, and if you don't know you won't try… not to mention it; to put it more bluntly… a person who can "100% catch a blade with their bare hands" is useless if they have never been slashed from the front in their life.

Of course, Ma Junxiao's superpower has been brought into play; it is this innate power that created the character [Devouring Sky Ghost].

Although Ghost Xiao is a terrible candidate, his ability just happens to give him an astonishing advantage in the "new candidate game" designed by Woody.

This is also where "Death's" intention lies—he doesn't want a "qualified candidate," but a "person most adapted to the rules of the game." He wants to use Ghost Xiao, this "loophole" aimed at the current game format, to prove that this "new game format" is a failure, and thus prove that Woody's ideas are wrong.

A completely unqualified candidate can completely abuse other candidates who are better than him, and even defeat the winner of the candidate game, just because he has a special ability that makes him stronger than ordinary people in the game world… Once this happens, it will undoubtedly be a great irony.

This is "Death's" calculation, a brilliant move beyond the "gamble."

It doesn't matter to "Death" who wins the candidate game... As long as his chess piece can be invincible in the frontal confrontation of the game, he can shake Woody's overall plan and the achievements he has already obtained.

And right now, the only person blocking his plan is Feng Bujue.

As the winner of this "new candidate game" designed by Woody, as long as Jue-ge wins against Ghost Xiao, it will be the best proof of the correctness of the game's results. Even "Death" will have nothing to say...

However, Feng Bujue is not aware of this at the moment...

Since he lost contact with Woody, no one came to inform him of this information. Even if Michael, who had contacted him before, vaguely sensed "Death's" plan, he would not tell Jue-ge... First, he had no obligation or interest in helping a devil like Woody; second, even if he agreed with Woody's ideas and wanted to help, he would have to weigh whether he should offend the Four Horsemen for this; third, Feng Bujue had too much of a cheap mouth, and Michael was a little annoyed by him.

Fortunately, even if he was completely unaware of this severe situation, Feng Bujue's desire to win was quite strong, but... beyond this desire, he still had a bit of a "playful" mentality.

Therefore, when facing the qi bullet released by the [Left Hand of Judgment], he was not absolutely cautious.

He only used the effect four of the [Exodia Prison Uniform Set]: [Sealed Defense Wall (can be activated at any time, consuming mana, creating a defense field, the mana consumed depends on the size and strength of the defense field)] to deal with it.

As a result, he was almost killed by this ordinary qi bullet...

The moment the [Sealed Defense Wall] collapsed, Feng Bujue urgently changed his move, instantly activated [Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Art - Extreme] and retreated rapidly, and quickly took out the two treasures [Moving Like Thunder] and [Immovable Like a Mountain], accelerating to escape the opponent's attack trajectory while opening the second layer of defense... Even so, he still lost nearly two-thirds of his body - except for his head, neck, part of his clavicle, right shoulder, and right arm... everywhere else was blown away by the qi bullet.

A second later, Feng Bujue immediately used rewrite to restore his body and landed on the ground with a cold sweat, thinking: "Damn it... I used all the mana accumulated from the Dragon Ball-level fighting before (Exodia Prison Uniform Set Effect 1) to fully activate the defense wall, but it didn't block it... I thought it would only happen with direct contact, but now it seems... even the energy bullets fired by the [Left Hand of Judgment]... will still be attached with the characteristic of 'data erasure'..."

Thinking of this, he had adjusted his breathing, and Ghost Xiao also returned from a distance and took the opportunity to switch from defense to attack.

Dou qi suddenly rose, and golden flames appeared again.

When the killing cries rose again, the figures of the two people re-crossed, and between attack and defense, vast forces clashed, moves and styles went forth, and the earth shook.

"Hmph... That just now seems to have reduced your stamina a lot." Ghost Xiao said in a slightly triumphant tone while attacking, "I thought your stamina was unlimited in this form..."

In the battle between these two people, survival points were no longer the key point, because after suffering blows that would be fatal to ordinary people, they could use methods such as "denial" or "rollback" to restore themselves, so... the key was whose stamina would run out first.

"It was never unlimited in the first place, but the pressure you're giving... is still a little bit weaker than what Infinite gave me, so I basically didn't lose much stamina in the early stages of the battle." Jue-ge also responded during the fight, "Of course, I am not the same strength as I was in S2." As he spoke, he swept over with a [Bear Child's Low Sweep].

Ghost Xiao had long been prepared for this "low-road" attack, and avoided it with a leg retraction jump: "Tch... Whatever you say, I just want to know... Your stamina is already lower than mine right now, what are you going to do next?"

"Does that even need asking?" Feng Bujue smiled, "When you're at a disadvantage, you have to play greedy..."

"And then expand the disadvantage?" Ghost Xiao replied.

"Enough nonsense!" Jue-ge retorted, and a Lv10 [Baseball Fist] flew over.

"Useless!" Ghost Xiao dodged the attack with a retreat, and said, "I know exactly which of the moves you use are fatal and which have tactical significance. Using 'odd moves' might work against others, but using them on me... will only waste stamina."

As he said this, he had already counterattacked and attacked again, not giving Jue-ge any room to breathe or maneuver.

"Since you can see it anyway, let's just make it clear..." Ghost Xiao said while fighting, "Admittedly, I don't have much stamina left either, and I can't use another [Left Hand of Judgment]... But if we keep fighting like this, you'll be the one to run out of stamina first..." He paused for half a second, and then said, "I won't give you a chance to take out [Yi Da]. If you have to use it, you'll have to use skills like 'dodge into phase space' to buy time and create openings... In that case, I'll take the opportunity to retie the [Sega Sanshiro's Black Belt]..."

"Those A.v.g.n equipment on your body didn't restore with your body, presumably because your stamina or ability is not enough to support you to repair them... In other words, once I retie the black belt, you can only use the two remaining NES peripherals on your head and right hand to deal with me... Even if you don't lose quickly, you won't have any advantages to speak of.

"As for... [Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Art - Extreme] or something, feel free to use it, but I'm afraid that if you use it... your body will collapse before mine."

Speaking of this, Ghost Xiao also laughed: "Heh... Feng Bujue, at first you said you wanted to let me have a good time, and I sneered at it, but now I have to admit that you did it... To be honest, I didn't expect you to push me to this point, and even make me calculate so many things in the battle... But, precisely because of this, the ultimate victor will still be me!"

Ghost Xiao's confidence was also well-founded, and he had already figured out several countermeasures for Feng Bujue: To reverse the situation at this point, Jue-ge must have a further substantial increase in his basic attributes, and this increase must be sustainable for a period of time and consume less... Using [Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Art - Extreme], which harms both himself and the enemy, is definitely not an option; [Godly Fighting Qi Armament Color Change], which affects speed, is meaningless; Jue-ge cannot transform into [Blood Rakshasa] because his survival value is not at rock bottom; [Ultimate Martial Arts - Asura Transformation] is also a self-damaging transformation... As for [Soul Descent], which Jue-ge has not used in the competition yet, the version he can use is Xu Huai Shang's soul intent version, not the "survival, stamina, and spiritual art value are all positive infinity" version triggered by the consumable [Hachikyou Yakumaru]... so there are also consumption issues.

With such a calculation, it seemed that he really had nothing to rely on.

At the end of this battle, what they were fighting for was still the most basic numerical value in the game—stamina; even if both sides had reached the super-limit domain, and could do things with a little stamina that ordinary players couldn't do with ten points of stamina, since the two were in the same realm, it was essentially the same as a duel between ordinary people.

"Ha!" After a few seconds, Feng Bujue chuckled and replied, "It seems you've put a lot of thought into it..." At this moment, he revealed a wicked smile, "But... Did you forget to calculate something?"

Fear, this was Ghost Xiao's most direct feeling at this moment.

Even though he believed that Feng Bujue was likely bluffing, that wicked smile still made his heart tremble...

And the audience's reaction at this time... was the same as Ghost Xiao's. Although they didn't know what Jue-ge was referring to, they couldn't help but think... Since it's Feng Bujue, he probably really has some way.

"Open your eyes and watch carefully! Something amazing is about to happen!" Two seconds later, Feng Bujue also raised his voice with a lot of performance desire, seemingly making an announcement to the audience.

As soon as the words fell, there was a "boom—" sound, and in that extremely short moment, a golden aura stronger than the one on Ghost Xiao's body flashed and disappeared on Jue-ge's body.

"What!" After that flash, Ghost Xiao's face showed horror, and he exclaimed.

The attack and defense between him and Feng Bujue immediately changed from evenly matched to a situation where he was retreating unilaterally... Moreover, Jue-ge's movements actually seemed effortless.

"How is that possible!" Ghost Xiao shouted as he retreated, "Why can you still withstand the consumption of Super Saiyan with your current stamina..."

"Although it's also Super Saiyan 1..." Feng Bujue interrupted the other party and said directly, "My version is a little different from yours..."

Since Jue-ge had no hair on his head, and there was no continuously burning aura around him... It wasn't until their conversation reached this point that the audience belatedly realized... It turned out that Jue-ge had also activated the [Super Saiyan 1] transformation at this moment.

"If yours is 'Super Saiyan 1 First Stage'," Feng Bujue said, "then mine is 'Super Saiyan 1 Full Power'." He said, "Obviously, mine is more efficient, and the consumption is almost the same as normal."

"Why..." As Ghost Xiao spoke, his breathing was already messed up, "You're just learning other people's skills! Why can you exert changes that even the original users haven't mastered!"

"Huh?" Feng Bujue lengthened his voice and glared with dead fish eyes, "That's of course because you're too weak."

"You... Say... What..." Ghost Xiao recited word by word, obviously going berserk again.

"Your overly powerful innate ability is like a double-edged sword." Feng Bujue didn't let him finish speaking again, and snatched the words, "To use an analogy, it's like a three-meter-tall person playing basketball. Even if he doesn't use any skills, just raising his hands, no one can block him. Then he doesn't need to train his blocking skills..." He paused, "You belong to this situation... Others have to go through thousands of trials and tribulations to barely touch the field, but you can reach it naturally. The result is... You can't become stronger like others through countless equal or not-so-different duels; you can't master things like Soul Intent and Spiritual Weapon; you have no chance to use or train the transformation skills that you obtained long ago..."

Ghost Xiao was speechless to Jue-ge's words, because what the other party said was the truth.

"The person who inherited a million-dollar fortune is different from the person who earned a million-dollar fortune. What is common sense to the latter, the former may not even know..." Feng Bujue continued, "So I said... you're too weak!"

After saying that, Feng Bujue's figure suddenly froze, and he gathered all his remaining energy into one move and used a [Roundhouse Kick]!

This was the only time in this battle that he used his full strength...

It was conceivable what would happen when the "Bald Head Form," which was already on par with Ghost Xiao, was enhanced with the "fifty times battle power" of [Super Saiyan 1]...

Although Ghost Xiao used the [Right Hand of Denial] to resist at the last moment with an overload, the [Roundhouse Kick], which was also a law of causality skill, would not be overwhelmed in terms of move properties.

The leg wind suddenly fell, and the victory or defeat was decided.

On the stage of this Pinnacle of Supremacy S3 Finals, [Devouring Sky Ghost], who had never lost in a one-on-one frontal battle, tasted his first defeat.

Feng Bujue's last two comments, "too weak," also gave the gods and demons who were watching the match and still had doubts about Woody's game a "result" that was enough to convince them.

…………

Until he turned into white light and dissipated and was teleported back to the viewing space, Ghost Xiao still looked blank, because this feeling of being a "loser," this experience of being defeated convincingly and speechless... was too unfamiliar to him.

It wasn't until a full minute later that he came back to his senses. At this time, the unwilling tears and the bitterness of defeat suddenly surged up... like a burst dyke.

His teammates had never seen him like this before, but after thinking about it... a seventeen-year-old boy tasted such a defeat in the final of such an important competition, wouldn't it be normal to have a good cry?

"Don't be sad..." A few seconds later, Zen-ge walked to Ghost Xiao's side, "You've already fought very well..." He patted Ghost Xiao on the shoulder, "The competition isn't over yet... Leave the rest to us."

Although Meng Jingchan was not material for being a captain, that vicissitudes of social temperament was undoubtedly very infectious when comforting others.

"Yeah." Ghost Xiao was a boy after all, and after hearing this, he wiped his face with his sleeve and swallowed the tears.

However, no one expected that in the next second, Chan-ge would give himself a swig of wine and continue, "But... I personally think... our general situation is gone, right... Haha, hic~"