Chapter 2970: Computing Power Pools Go Better with Competitions

————It will be a bit later~~

————

The next day, the first event of the Snow Melting Competition officially began.

The Arcane Maze was originally Chess from Xia Duo's hometown, but later he added some Spell Duel elements to it and recommended it through Niya to her teacher, Princess Xiya, who was the supreme decision-maker of the Seven Towers at the time.

Since then, every Snow Melting Competition has included the Arcane Maze event, and because of this, the event has been able to spread widely throughout the Northland.

Over the years, many outstanding players have emerged among the Elves.

Today, Xia Duo and Niya came to Seventon to watch the competition, and naturally, they would not miss this new event brought by Xia Duo. Likewise, just like yesterday, the contestants from Netheril today were mostly from Gustav Tower.

Or rather, they possessed Elf bloodlines!

This was actually a continuation of yesterday's silent protest. Not just yesterday, but today as well—according to what the Council had discussed beforehand—every subsequent match would prioritize letting those with Elf bloodlines compete as much as possible.

For this, they were willing to lose some matches!

By such means, they intended to force the Psionic Network Center to compromise on certain issues, such as increasing the dividend ratio for each country.

……

The sub-networks of the few countries that hadn't gone offline yet didn't have any problems for the time being, but a small trouble had appeared on the Main Network side—

Xia Duo hadn't missed almost any of the subsequent matches, but he had far too many things to be busy with. His main body was like someone rushing between venues, traveling back and forth between the Territory, the Tower of Time, and Seventon.

Some Elves liked to watch in person, while others preferred watching the broadcast or even checking more detailed records afterward. But regardless, this had caused a significant drop in support for the Computing Power Pool and the Spirit Thought Network among the local Mages in Evereska.

Xia Duo also had a massive headache over this problem. Shutting down the Computing Power Pool was obviously his responsibility as the operator, while borrowing resources from other countries was, in reality, just temporarily transferring users who were originally only on the National Sub-networks into the Main Network.

If the future Public Computing Power Pool really evolved into this situation, then the so-called "Main Network" would completely degenerate into a dispensable decoration; countries would use it if they needed to, and ignore it completely if they didn't.

"Consultant Xia Duo, what should we do now? Temporarily shut down the Computing Power Pool? Or find a way to borrow resources from other countries?" a Mage asked.

On the third day of the Snow Melting Competition, inside the Gateway Control Hall of the Alliance Headquarters' Psionic Network Research Center, a group of Mages left behind to work overtime had already fallen into a state of confusion.

There was the Snow Melting Competition in Seventon, and the Jiche Sheji Dasai as well as internal Arcane Competitions in the Territory and the Tower of Time. Xia Duo could not avoid saying a few words of outlook and encouragement in front of the residents and members of the Tower of Time.

The reason lay in the fact that most of the users on the Main Network were local Mages from Evereska, but now the local Mages were mostly busy watching the competition. These Elves didn't even need to head to Seventon; they could watch the live broadcast directly in Evereska.

One could also use various techniques to operate pieces to counterattack. If the counterattack succeeded, the opponent's move would be invalidated, and their strategy for the game would be exposed instead.

Many matches, even in Xia Duo's eyes, were very pleasing to the eye.

The killing of pieces in the Arcane Maze possessed a huge first-move advantage. With equal levels of Spell Duel skill, the first player often won, but the one being killed was not completely without the ability to resist.

"Who do you think will win between the two of them?" Niya asked.

While a broadcast might allow one to see deeper information during the match, considering the efficiency of real-time broadcasting, the perspectives were relatively limited. It was impossible to let the audience see whatever they wanted; what the audience could see depended entirely on the broadcaster's perspective.

Although it was just a single game, it won the unanimous cheers and congratulations of the audience. At that moment, he was not a mixed-blood human with a sensitive status in the Elf World, but a maze player who had surpassed the Elves with perseverance and Wisdom.

Compared to watching in person, where one could only rely on their own Perception to obtain information about the match, a broadcast could directly show deeper information obtained by higher-level Spellcasters through specialized Scrying spells.

This situation was not what Xia Duo hoped to see.

"From the perspective of chess skill alone, the Elf has a slight edge, but the Arcane Maze is not just Chess; it also involves Spell Duels. In that regard, humans have a slight advantage. The final result is really hard to say."

Xia Duo did not show any bias because the contestants on the field were human. Purely in terms of chess skill, the Elf was indeed superior; even Xia Duo himself, without the aid of a smart brain, would be inferior.

It was just that after the cheering, one could not help but think of the opponent's identity as a mixed-blood human. This caused a strange thought to continuously breed and ferment among the Elf population, until it could no longer be hidden, completely shattering secular prejudice.

The Main Network load had already reached a very dangerous state and might be unable to support it at any time!

Doing that would immediately solve the problem of insufficient users on the Main Network, but—

Of course, for most of the time, his main body remained in Seventon to watch the competition with Niya. The standard of the Snow Melting Competition was not low, and the level of the contestants was naturally increasing year by year, almost visibly to the naked eye.

Very soon, a key turning point appeared in the match. After several difficult captures, the Elf contestant exposed their game strategy and was finally caught by the human contestant, who completed a fatal checkmate and won the victory.

……

But regardless, chess skill still possessed a very strong bonus for winning a duel; otherwise, it would be better to simply cancel this event and just have a Spell Duel.

For example, while there were events happening in reality in Evereska, causing the number of users to decrease and the load capacity to drop, other countries instead increased the number of users on their own National Sub-networks to impact the Main Network load.

And in Evereska, while his main body was relaxing and watching the competition, his avatar could not rest. Influenced by the Snow Melting Competition, the number of Mages connected to the Computing Power Pool had dropped off a cliff.

The charm of competition lies in this: it makes people involuntarily ignore the contestants' identity, gender, appearance, race, and many other external factors, only appreciating the contestants' competitive level.

If they performed well and won the match, even the most critical audience would not hesitate to give their most enthusiastic cheers.

In the audience, Xia Duo and Niya were chatting while watching the match. The two sides currently battling on the field were from Netheril and Yierlan, respectively—what a clever combination.

But as he had said, the Arcane Maze was essentially a Spell Duel wrapped in a Chess shell. If one side possessed absolutely overwhelming Spell Duel experience and technique, even if they didn't understand the rules of Chess at all, they might not necessarily lose.

This exposed the biggest weakness of the Main Network. Even if they managed to survive this crisis by luck, in the future, as the number of Mages from various countries connecting to the Computing Power Pool sub-networks increased, this weakness of the Main Network would likely be deliberately manipulated by them.

There were mainly two advantages to being on-site: one was the large audience and lively atmosphere, and the other was being able to see whatever one wanted to see.