Chapter 354: Bat-Human Species

Hmph, although it was a bit unexpected, thinking she could take her down like this is a bit naive.

It wasn't just the size of the map that led Yun Mu to judge that this map was unsuitable for a rush.

【Executor deployment complete!】

As the prompt from the Duel Pod system sounded in her ears, Yun Mu controlled the Executors to occupy several Neutral houses beside her base.

After occupying a house, any unit that approaches the house will be attacked by the Executors hiding inside the building.

And when Executors occupy a house building, they not only increase their damage but also extend their range; at the same time, one can only deal damage to the Executors inside the building by destroying the building itself.

Of course, some special skills or means of attack can effectively counter house buildings.

For example, the Executor's Hand Grenade throwing skill, or the Repairman's individual Flamethrower, can both effectively deal damage to buildings.

But!

There are a great many Neutral buildings on the Blizzard Villa map, and they are almost all right next to each other.

Even with the Hand Grenade throwing or individual Flamethrower skills, it is very difficult to cause destruction to multiple building targets.

Consequently, after the player Huacai's Executors launched a Charge toward Yun Mu's base, dense gunfire suddenly erupted from the buildings standing on both sides of the road.

Most of the Executors at the very front were killed on the spot; the player Huacai, having realized what was happening, hurriedly had the remaining Executors find cover to hide and used the Hand Grenade throwing skill to launch an attack on the occupied buildings.

Doing this is, of course, no problem, but don't forget.

The player Huacai's goal was to take advantage of the moment Yun Mu hadn't reacted to punch her to death in one go!

At this moment, her Executors were blocked by the buildings, and even if she used Hand Grenades to clear the buildings, it would take quite a bit of time.

In such a long time, Yun Mu's Flash Silver Tank would be built!

Sure enough, just as the player Huacai's Executors were painstakingly blowing up two house buildings, a Flash Silver Tank drove out from Yun Mu's base.

In a few quick strokes, it wiped out these Executors blocking her own Gate.

As for the Barracks?

The moment the Flash Silver Tank appeared, the player Huacai actively controlled the Barracks to perform an Ascension and ran away.

"Fancy but useless."

With a somewhat smug chuckle, Yun Mu let the remaining Executors crawl out from the buildings, pushed forward together with the Flash Silver Tank, and took several Repairmen to advance toward another Mining Field on the map.

Then, she discovered that an Ore Refinery was standing on the Mining Field, and there was also a Laser Tower guarding beside the refinery.

"."

Damn it, not mining the minerals near their own home, but secretly sticking a straw into her side, are they! Yun Mu felt a bit heated and decisively had the Flash Silver Tank cooperate with the Executors to take down this Mining Field.

"Hmph, trying to escape!"

Catching up to the Armed Mining Vehicle attempting to flee, Yun Mu blocked it halfway and blew it up.

At the same time, she built another Mechanical Dog and began patrolling back and forth in the nearby Mining Field to prevent the opponent from secretly mining somewhere else while she wasn't paying attention.

However, she didn't find anything this time.

After all, an Ore Refinery costs two thousand, and this thing can't perform an Ascension.

If the opponent dared to steal minerals again, they would likely be demolished by Yun Mu before they even broke even.

Looking at the situation, she should be at an advantage now; although her development was slightly delayed for a moment, the opponent's economy was clearly not as good as hers.

Because whether it was the Ore Refinery or the Laser Tower, the construction costs were not cheap.

And in order to sneak attack Yun Mu, Huacai had also built an extra Repairman to run to her doorstep and repair the Barracks.

The money in their hand definitely wasn't much.

After finishing the construction of the Radar, Yun Mu decisively used the area scan skill to take a look at the situation at Huacai's home.

Just as she expected, the opponent had no money at all to build a Flash Silver Tank, and the base's defense was extremely empty.

However, wanting to take down the opponent with her current forces was probably not realistic.

It was still because the map was too large; if she wanted to attack, the troops she lost would likely be difficult to replenish in time.

Besides that, those occupied house buildings were also relatively troublesome obstacles. "In that case, as long as I don't attack, it'll be fine." Yun Mu muttered to herself in a low voice, controlling her units to push forward.

Taking advantage of the time she held the advantage, she compressed the range in which the opponent could operate.

In a situation where their combat power was at a disadvantage, the player Huacai would absolutely not go head-to-head with her.

But once they retreated, it was equivalent to giving up all Mining Fields outside their spawn point.

Once the minerals at home were mined out, defeat wouldn't be far off.

"What a brilliant contest! Player Yun successfully neutralized player Huacai's offensive by utilizing map resources and seized the opportunity to launch a counter-push!"

"Knowing they were no match, player Huacai could only shrink their operational range and, just like player Yun earlier, use the house buildings on the map to defend. The situation for both has completely reversed!"

"But going on like this is just waiting for death. What is player Huacai doing?"

"She sold the Command Center, intending to burn her bridges!"

"But player Yun isn't giving her that chance at all, immediately controlling her troops to retreat. Even without vision, has she already guessed that player Huacai sold the Command Center?"

"Little thing, trying to fight me."

Yun Mu saw at a glance that the opponent intended to have a hard fight with her after selling the Command Center; otherwise, with the little money the opponent had in their pocket, could they still squeeze out a squad of Flash Silver Tanks?

The more it was a time like this, the less she could be reckless; after all, in order to develop her economy, she had opened some branch mines at different Mining Fields.

At this time, the number of troops was not large.

If she accidentally lost the fight and didn't even have the chance to regroup her troops, that would be ridiculous.

As long as she stayed within her own territory and waited for the opponent to attack, she could fight a defensive battle.

"Whoever attacks is the one who loses, little sister." Yun Mu sat leisurely in the Duel Pod, letting her troop units stay close to the Combat Bunker.

The player Huacai, who had chased all the way here, saw the defensive formation that looked like a turtle shell in front of them, their eyes went black, and they decisively chose to surrender.

However, the match between the two was not over yet, after all, the competition mode of Old Days Front is best-of-five.

After a short halftime break, the two began the second round of the duel.

【Map: Yi Xue】

【Size: Small】

【Resources: Barren】

【Currently recruitable units: Repairman (Basic), Executor (Basic), Transport Vehicle (Basic)】

【Combatants: Yun Shu (Red) VS Huacai (Yellow)】

Hmm? It's actually a map I haven't seen before.

Was it added after the official tournament started?

Yun Mu felt a bit puzzled, but her hands didn't slow down in the slightest. Judging by the situation on the sand table, this map should be located inside the nest of some kind of giant ant.

Many giant ants could still be seen moving on the sand table; it was unclear if units would be attacked upon approaching them, or what their damage and tankiness were like. 【Our unit is under attack!】

A prompt from the Duel Pod suddenly sounded in her ear. Following the prompt, Yun Mu discovered that the Repairman she had just built was being attacked by a giant ant.

The damage wasn't very high; one hit only took away half of the Repairman's health.

Although it takes three shots for an Executor to kill a Repairman, the Executor's attack speed is fast! As for this giant ant, it seemed to take about 1.5 seconds to land one attack.

Yun Mu decisively controlled the Repairman to kite the giant ant backward, then built two Executors to gun down the giant ant that was relentlessly chasing the Repairman.

Then, she encountered the Repairman belonging to the player Huacai, who was being chased by a giant ant.

"Da-da-da."

Without needing any control from Yun Mu, the moment they saw the opponent's Repairman, the Executors immediately opened fire, killing both that Repairman and the giant ant.

"."

After a brief silence, Yun Mu didn't hesitate to cancel the Ore Refinery currently under construction, then spent all her money on building Executors!

On the other side, the player Huacai's operations were much the same, only his reaction was slightly slower than Yun Mu's.

Before long, the Executors from both sides collided and began passionately shooting at each other.

At times like this, it comes down to technique and micro-management; there was no need for focus-firing, just positioning the Executors well and having them output damage in rows. At the same time, Yun Mu quietly produced two mechanical dogs, charging them into the enemy crowd from the flank.

It instantly tore the player Huacai's formation to shreds.

After finally dealing with the two mechanical dogs, Yun Mu's Executors pressed forward again.

Out of money? It didn't matter; she sold the Command Center directly, then had the Barracks build two Jeeps and one hacker.

First, she had the Jeep without the hacker emerge from the fog of war and head straight for the player Huacai's Barracks, then had the other Jeep carrying the hacker hide in the fog of war to wait for an opportunity.

Heh, just as Yun Mu expected, upon seeing the Jeep appear, the opponent immediately had his Executors defend.

However, while he was controlling his Executors to defend against the Jeep, Yun Mu decisively sent the other Jeep out, drifting and performing a Tail Whip right next to the player Huacai's power plant! By the time he reacted, it was already too late; the hacker inside the Jeep got out and instantly snatched away the player Huacai's power plant.

And after the power supply was interrupted, the speed of building units would decrease.

Even though he also sold his Command Center, the player Huacai's Executors were no match for Yun Mu's, and his remaining buildings were wiped out in less than two minutes.

The third match began quickly.

Perhaps because he was scared by Yun Mu, the player Huacai's performance in this match was extremely unstable, often making some confusing moves.

He even had an Armed Mining Vehicle pull back and forth in front of his own Ore Refinery for half a minute.

It really left one not knowing what to say.

Under these circumstances, Yun Mu naturally won the match quite easily, successfully advancing to the top five.

"Very simple!"

After returning to her seat in the preparation area, she smiled and winked at Brenna and Vivian, while simultaneously holding up a 'V' sign.

"What a brilliant match, as expected of Miss Yun!" Brenna praised without reservation.

"It was just average~" Being praised like that by Brenna, Yun Mu felt a bit embarrassed: "It's just that the opponent's strength wasn't very high."

"Especially in the last game, the opponent made too many mistakes," she said.

"After all, being watched by so many eyes, mistakes are normal, right?" Vivian, who was to the side, spoke up at this moment: "They were already nervous to begin with, and after losing, they naturally became even more nervous."

"That's true..." Yun Mu looked up at the audience in all directions.

Besides these people, there were tens of thousands of people watching the live stream on the Joy Company's official website.

As long as one thought about that, it was normal for it to be difficult to concentrate.

Hopefully, it wouldn't put too much pressure on that player Huacai.

It was fortunate that this wasn't Earth; otherwise, Yun Mu wouldn't even dare to imagine what the live stream's chat would have turned into.

Haha.

"After the match between player Yun and player Huacai, the next to duel will be—"

The male commentator said, pointing toward the screen in the distance.

The images on both sides of the screen flickered constantly, and soon, they locked onto Vivian and a male who looked as if he had a clump of seaweed on his head.

And below their photos, their respective contestant IDs were labeled.

Vivian VS Teacup.

"Is it my turn?"

The man with dead fish eyes rose from the preparation area, scratching his neck with his hand as he spoke, looking listless.

The dark circles under his eyes were heavy, and his skin was somewhat pale; he looked just like a teenager addicted to the internet.

And judging by the black fleshy wings slightly fluttering behind him, this contestant named Teacup was probably a... bat-person? Well, in the Federation language, he should be called a Bat-kin.

It just felt strange somewhere, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "Is this guy my opponent?"

Vivian looked Teacup up and down, then yawned as if she were somewhat bored.

"A bat doesn't count as much of an opponent for a cat, you know."

"." Hearing her words, Teacup's footsteps paused slightly.

The opponent turned his head to look at Vivian, seemingly scrutinizing something.

"Heh." After a moment, Chabei suddenly laughed with a hint of darkness, and he said, "You are no match for me."

After finishing his words, without giving Vivian a chance to reply, Chabei walked onto the competition arena on his own and climbed into the Duel Pod of the Old Days Front.

"Arrogant guy." Vivian frowned in annoyance, not remembering at all that she was the one who had provoked the other party first.

"Be careful." After thinking for a moment, Yun Mu still decided to remind her.

"Although that guy's ranking is tenth, his strength is likely not weak." She couldn't help but recall the challenge match from yesterday.

As the tenth-ranked player who faced the most challenges, that guy had defended his position without a single defeat.

Honestly, Yun Mu felt that the reason the other party was tenth was either because he was too lazy to continue playing point matches, or he was extremely confident in his own strength.

And he wanted to play as many matches as possible with others, which is why he intentionally stayed stuck at the tenth position.

Of course, this was merely her guess; as for the facts, only the other party himself likely knew.

"In any case, be careful," she said.

"Don't worry." Vivian didn't seem to take her advice to heart; she just waved her hand dismissively, a confident smile appearing on her face.

"This young lady will win; you only need to offer me applause for my triumph when I return."

(End of this chapter)