Chapter 420: Players are Best at Breaking Through Mental Shackles
The live stream follow-up rules, specialized for fighting, force all live broadcast screens to switch to the invitation holder.
And this, for rogue-type players, is obviously very fatal.
But everything has a time limit. In 1997, when brick phones had not yet become widespread, most people could only use pagers, and to watch programs, they could only use televisions. The transmission of information was obviously very delayed.
Although the friends in front of the TV realized that the Fatal Fury Team's invitation had been stolen, the Fatal Fury Team itself obviously hadn't realized it yet.
And Terry, eager to chase Geese and a bit saddened by how he could have fallen so low as to be unable to avoid a collision with a passerby, simply didn't stop and continued the chase.
As a result, he didn't catch the person. When he came back and found the invitation missing, Terry was completely stunned. He quickly found a restaurant with a TV and started looking for people.
Then he witnessed the outrageous tactics of the player community.
The 996 Team's live broadcast screen was fixed in the sky—
A somewhat fierce-looking large bird, seemingly wearing a hat, was soaring in the blue sky, clutching the invitation!
And the title of the live broadcast team's screen remained as '996 Team'.
"Damn, players really have the best ideas! Why didn't I think of that!"
Watching the ghost camera's tracking live broadcast, Cheng Tian slapped his thigh, expressing heartfelt admiration.
The fierce large bird soaring in the sky with the invitation was a Honchkrow, the evolved form of the Pokémon 'Murkrow'.
The fighting tournament did indeed prohibit the use of most non-fighting skills, but there were no additional restrictions on minion summoning. While fighters all possessed extraordinary destructive capabilities, few had the ability to fly.
The last flying fighter had to be traced back to Goenitz in '96.
And this also meant that the Honchkrow carrying the invitation into the sky, as long as it didn't fly out of the area restricted by the tournament organizers, would not be considered a foul!
Is this reasonable? This is not reasonable!
Soon, a large number of calls from contestants and spectators flooded the organizer's switchboard department, mostly raising objections to the 996 Team's sky broadcast.
The organizers were initially dumbfounded. They really hadn't anticipated this situation, but temporarily changing the rules would be like slapping themselves in the face. So they could only explain and tacitly approve, then watched with a strange expression as the viewing data for the 996 live stream visibly increased.
Driven by curiosity, fun, and wanting to see how long the bird could last without landing, many viewers flocked to the 996 channel.
They had seen fighter brawls, and they had seen female fighter transformations. Now it was time to see a fighter's bird.
While this stunned countless people, it also made them exclaim, "It can be done like this!?"
The 96 Team's action was tantamount to violently breaking the fighters' mental shackles, making everyone realize anew that the preliminaries, which required "obtaining and retaining the invitation" according to the rules, didn't actually mean everyone had to fight head-on. This clearly opportunistic approach also complied with the rules.
As a result, various strange and wonderful ways to preserve the invitation emerged among the seeded and preliminary teams in the form of "Hey? I have an idea!". More than a dozen live channels began to show visible changes in their art style.
Of course, the Fatal Fury Team, whose invitation had been stolen, obtained the 996 Team's composition information almost immediately. But because the live screen was fixed on the bird, and the 996 Team deliberately concealed their presence and hid, the Fatal Fury Team, who were already not good at areas outside of fighting, were completely at a loss.
No one could have imagined that the Fatal Fury Team would lose their seeded team invitation in this manner.
Behind the scenes, people had even started making bets: some on how long the bird could stay airborne, some on how long the Fatal Fury Team would chase the bird, and others on whether the Fatal Fury Team would decisively give up and move on to snatching other teams' invitations.
"Tsk ~ What a pity, my Owl Spirit doesn't have physical interference capabilities, otherwise I could have tried it too."
Aileen, whose imagination was clearly sparked by the Honchkrow, said with a look of regret while watching the live broadcast.
"There's no need to be confined to the sky, though."
Cheng Tian, however, pinched his chin and directly reminded her.
"Oh? The sewers? That place is indeed a blind spot."
Prompted by Cheng Tian, Aileen immediately thought of the city's sewer system, nodding repeatedly at first, then showing a disgusted expression.
"I can tolerate the sky to some extent, but if it really appears in the sewers, I'd rather not participate in the tournament than chase it."
"Watch. Someone will definitely do it. Maybe someone from the sewers will... do it."
Cheng Tian was certain about this.
But no sooner had he spoken than Cheng Tian suddenly straightened up.
Because in his Dominator Radar, several humanoid silhouettes, distinctly different from other ordinary individuals, suddenly appeared. And Cheng Tian could clearly determine that, compared to humans, these silhouettes were closer to cyborgs with deep mechanical modifications throughout their bodies.
The number was smaller than expected, only three people, and the body outline of the leader was clearly more than two circles larger than the people next to him.
"It doesn't seem to be someone from Shadow Law..."
Cheng Tian raised his hand, and the Mind Crystal appeared, flying directly out of the laboratory's main door and towards the uniformly approaching cyborgs.
The silhouette had already roughly identified the newcomers, but the Mind Crystal's shared vision allowed Cheng Tian to directly confirm their identities.
Maxima, a cyborg warrior belonging to 'NESTS'.
However, since he appeared during the day, without any disguise of his identity, and the number of people remained at this level, it was highly probable that he wasn't here to cause trouble again.
Maxima, who was approaching the research institute, suddenly froze, then looked up into the air, meeting the boldly floating Mind Crystal. His modified retina displayed a series of data analyses, ultimately concluding that it was a "supernatural product."
But just as Cheng Tian had guessed, he wasn't here to cause trouble a second time, but had come with a purpose. So, even if he didn't know whether this floating crystal ball was a product of the research institute, he wouldn't act rashly.
He appeared politely, knocked on the door politely, and in the reception room, directly opened a box that seemed to have no weight but made a dull sound when placed on the table, and set it directly in front of Cheng Tian and the others—
A whole box of gold bricks, and they were also space-recognized valuables that could be exchanged for Heaven's Chosen Coins.
"This is the organization's apology for yesterday's matter."
The burly and serious, but currently somewhat simple-looking Maxima pushed the gold bricks forward, then immediately got to the point.
"Our boss wants to buy the left eye of Juri Han from you. Please name your price."