Chapter 18 Livestream: The Dance of Swords

In the dazzling starry sky of the virtual world's battle platform, there was a live broadcast room shining like a bright star, attracting countless gazes. Among them, May Lee, an audience member brimming with enthusiasm for swordsmanship, was also present, her eyes tightly fixed on the screen as if to etch every detail into her memory.

"Seventy percent of a swordsman's strength depends on your footwork," a man in jeans was teaching swordsmanship in the martial arts field, his voice echoing throughout the live broadcast room like an ancient sword mantra, guiding the audience into the mysterious world of swordsmanship. He stood in the center of the training ground, as if the master of this virtual world, his name was Sean Thorn, a legendary figure who had won an Olympic saber medal in the real world and was also a regular participant in the World Martial Arts Competition.

Sean Thorn's swordsmanship was as thorny and challenging as his name. He virtually created a sparring partner with a combat power of 500, a bandit wielding a machete, who lunged with a fierce and brutal aura. The audience held their breath, waiting for Sean Thorn's performance.

"The sword is an extension of the hand," Sean Thorn's voice was calm and firm, his steps light and swift, as if dancing, each movement filled with rhythm and melody. His figure was like an illusion, retreating several steps, causing the bandit's every slash to miss. The audience marveled at his footwork, which was not just a simple movement but an art, a profound understanding and mastery of swordsmanship.

"When the opponent's slash is empty, it takes time to slash again, and this time... is when we strike," Sean Thorn's voice carried a hint of cunning. He seized the moment when the bandit's slash was empty, stepped forward with a thrust, and the sword, like a venomous snake, stabbed into the bandit's neck. With a swift retraction and retreat, the bandit's figure dissipated into the void.

"The sword has many disadvantages among cold weapons, such as being relatively short and lacking power. But its advantage is its flexibility, as fast as lightning. We need to leverage its strengths," Sean Thorn continued to explain, his words like the cold light on the tip of a sword, pointing directly to the essence of swordsmanship.

At that moment, a familiar figure appeared in the stands, Jamie Smith, a master in the virtual world, walked over and sat next to May Lee. The smart system of the battle platform could recommend live broadcast rooms based on user preferences, such as 'friends watching now,' allowing Jamie Smith and May Lee to meet in the same broadcast room.

"May, what are you watching?" Jamie Smith's voice carried a hint of fatigue; he had trained for over eight hours in the real world and now wanted to take a break. His gaze turned to the screen, catching sight of Sean Thorn's performance.

"Learning swordsmanship," May Lee looked at Jamie Smith, her eyes sparkling with excitement, "I've been practicing swords for seven or eight years in my spare time, and you, a great master, have personally taught me. I thought my swordsmanship was pretty good, but in the virtual world game, I've been struggling, my basic combat power is barely 156, not even qualified for the qualification match. After playing in the Starlight level for over two hours, I finally got a full star! I was promoted to Silver Moon level one star! Just after the promotion, I lost three games in a row. Fortunately, this game doesn't demote, and now I'm at Silver Moon level zero stars."

Jamie Smith nodded, his voice encouraging, "Take your time, no rush, it's only the first day. Most people are beginners, still at the Starlight level."

May Lee sighed, "The threshold for the Sun level is 400 basic combat power, and the threshold for the God level is even 1000 basic combat power. I'm on a three-game losing streak at the Silver Moon level, sigh..."

"By the way, this host Sean Thorn has won an Olympic saber medal and has also participated in the World Martial Arts Competition," May Lee said, "His swordsmanship lectures are quite useful."

"Sean Thorn is indeed impressive," Jamie Smith nodded in agreement.

When Sean Thorn's gaze swept across the stands, he also noticed Jamie Smith and nodded slightly. Jamie Smith also nodded back, their eyes meeting in a silent exchange.

"He is now at Sun level 28 stars! With 29 wins and 2 losses at the Sun level, his swordsmanship is very formidable," May Lee said, "In the live broadcast now, in terms of swordsmanship, he should be in the top few."

"No God-level players live streaming?" Jamie Smith asked.

"Yes, but there are no God-level players who are good at swordsmanship live streaming," May Lee lamented, "There are too few God-level players now, with only 32 God-level players in Xia Country. Only three are live streaming! If we want to learn swords, we can only find Sun-level players."

Jamie Smith opened the battle platform and watched his friends' live broadcasts, and there were 125 friends live streaming.

"You have a lot of friends live streaming," May Lee exclaimed.

"Professional players also need popularity. Those with high popularity get much higher appearance fees," Jamie Smith said, many friends even after retiring still need to manage themselves, and many participate in variety shows.

"I have nearly a thousand professional players among my friends, and it's not much that over a hundred are live streaming," Jamie Smith continued to browse the live broadcasts and saw Quincy Shawn.

Quincy Shawn was in the middle of a battle live broadcast, and Jamie Smith immediately opened it, enlarging the live broadcast screen.

"This is your good friend Quincy Shawn, right?" May Lee looked at the screen and exclaimed, "Amazing, to be in the Sun level on the first day of the game, you have to be a top professional player, Sun level 32 stars, even if it's a winning streak... you need to win 31 games in a row!"

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"He is indeed impressive," Jamie Smith watched.

...

In Quincy Shawn's live broadcast room.

Snow battlefield.

"We need to leverage our strengths, for example, I'm fast, so I look for isolated opponents and break them down one by one," Yang Qing Shuo said, wearing a leather armor and holding a silver spear, running as fast as lightning on the snowy ground, heading straight for an opponent with a large shield and a large hammer.

While running, Quincy Shawn was also commenting, his voice audible to the live broadcast audience. Because he was at Sun level 32 stars and had participated in the World Martial Arts Competition, his commentary was also interesting, and Quincy Shawn's live broadcast room was quite popular, with thousands of people watching.

The burly man with a shield and hammer was tall and strong but slow, watching helplessly as Quincy Shawn chased after him but unable to escape.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

Quincy Shawn's figure was like a ghost, walking around the burly man for a few steps, and then a series of spear shadows were thrust out. The shield and hammer strong man was also a professional-level master, carefully raising his shield to protect himself, but the gap was still too big.

The spear shadow that came from the side, brushing the edge of the shield, stabbed into the strong man's head, and the strong man's figure dissipated into nothingness.

"Beautiful."

"The opponent at the Sun level was taken away in a few spears."

"Amazing, 32 wins and 1 loss, what a monster, flying alone!"

"Quincy Shawn has announced his combat power, and it has reached 970. The threshold for the Sun level is 400. There are few at the Sun level who can block him."

The audience watched in amazement and also enthusiastically rewarded.

Rewards of various gifts.

Quincy Shawn glanced at it, feeling delighted, and continued to say: "When we are in battle, we should choose opponents that we suppress. For example, the opponent just now, at first glance, is a heavy type, but we are a flexible and fast type. We can freely attack, and the other party is hard to touch us."

"Look, the one with twin blades in the distance," Quincy Shawn stared at another opponent on the snowy field in the distance, "I guess he is also practicing the 'Shadow Leopard Evolution Method' like me, but his speed is not as good as mine, and the twin blades are shorter than mine. We can easily harvest him. We must take advantage of the fact that the other team has not gathered before, and try to break them down one by one. Later, our team will have a numerical advantage and can easily win."

Quincy Shawn quickly ran over.

...

Jamie Smith looked at it and was relieved: "Quincy Shawn, the hero also has a place to use his martial arts, and he can also make money by live broadcasting."

"Friends from all over the world are fighting." Jamie Smith looked at one live broadcast room after another. It was not very clear about the ones who didn't live broadcast, but the friends who were live broadcasting were all in the battle.

He also queued up for the "battle," but it was a bit difficult to get ten people because he was a God level.

"May, where is the God-level player live broadcasting?" Jamie Smith asked.

"Here it is."

May Lee was very thorough in studying the live broadcast and quickly pointed out three, and the live broadcast rooms of the three people were all the same scene—

The void of the battle space, with only a prompt: "Seven people are ready..."

"Live broadcast, people are not there?" Jamie Smith laughed.

"Live broadcast can lock the battle space." May Lee said, "Those who can become God level now are all by the qualification match. It represents that their basic combat power is at least 1200, and they are all monsters. Many players in the World Martial Arts Competition can't reach it."

Jamie Smith nodded and looked at the live broadcast rooms of the three God-level players.

"Panda Channing Cheung, Archer Emily Johnson, and Female War God Yvonne Green." Jamie Smith read out the names of these three people, and these three people were all very famous.

May Lee was also excited and said: "Before, because of the gap in physical quality between men and women, the World Martial Arts Competition has always been a stage for men. But now women also have suitable genetic evolution methods, and they are no longer at a disadvantage physically. On the first day, there are female players who have become God level. Archer Emily Johnson... She has won three Olympic archery championships, and she is the big devil in the archery world."

"A God-level archer is very terrifying." Jamie Smith nodded, and in cold weapons, the threat of an archer is very great.

"Female War God Yvonne Green has won the first place in the women's World Martial Arts Competition twice. But the heat of women's events is much lower than the World Martial Arts Competition." May Lee said, "Now, they can really prove themselves."

"The number of female professional players is also much less than that of men." Jamie Smith nodded and said, "It's because the heat is generally low, and the income is generally low."

This is also normal.

Because the World Martial Arts Competition is not limited to gender, women can also go to war.

But women are indeed at a disadvantage physically, and in the highest World Martial Arts Competition, the most dazzling are still the men.

"With genetic evolution methods, women's physical talent is not inferior to men at all." May Lee pointed out, "Among the three live broadcast God-level players, two are female players, and this proportion is self-evident."

"Hmm, what is that? The top live broadcast room?" May Lee was surprised.

Jamie Smith also saw it, and there was a live broadcast room at the top of the observation platform.

"Summer National Official Live Broadcast Room?" Jamie Smith and May Lee both saw the name.

"Let's go and have a look."

The two gently clicked to enter.

Whoosh!

As the only top live broadcast room on the observation platform since the opening of the virtual world, a large number of viewers are constantly pouring in, and the stands are infinitely broad, two million people... More and more people are coming in.

Jamie Smith and May Lee also came in and sat in their positions, looking at the distance.

"Zoom in." Gently click, and the live broadcast scene in the distance quickly zooms in front of you.

There are three people sitting in front of the commentary platform.

"This is the Summer National Official Live Broadcast Room." The host is the official gold host 'Shine Lewis', next to a middle-aged man and a woman, Shine Lewis said with a smile, "Today is the first day of our official live broadcast room, and the two people next to me are the head coach of the National Martial Arts Team, Ray Wong, and the coach of the women's team, Sophia Thompson."

Ray Wong and Sophia Thompson waved: "Hello everyone."

"Our live broadcast room has just started, and the audience has already broken through ten million people." Shine Lewis's smile was brilliant, and her smile could become popular on the Internet. The official media also regarded her as a treasure. Now, the first live broadcast of the Summer National Official in the virtual world is to let her be the host.

"Our first live broadcast will be the first God-level battle of our Summer National that is about to start!" Shine Lewis said.

With Shine Lewis's words falling, the atmosphere of the entire live broadcast room reached a climax, and the audience's expectations and excitement reached the peak. This is an unprecedented live broadcast, this is a duel between God-level players, this is the peak battle in the virtual world. Jamie Smith and May Lee also felt an unprecedented tension and excitement, and they knew that this would be a feast for the eyes and the soul.

(To be continued...)