Wang Tong couldn't care less. A good fight was a good fight regardless of which league the opponent belonged to.
The most game changing difference between the TPA and the IPA wasn't the METAL suit but the players themselves. Unlike the players in the TPA, IPA players had never been mind-opened. Their in-game power depended solely on the amount of time they spent in the game.
Wang Tong opened his inbox and noticed a challenge from an IPA player named "Crazy Diamond." He was a level thirty-seven player which meant that his soul energy was equivalent to one hundred sols in real life.
The soul energy of the IPA players was fixed and did not fluctuate as it did in real life or in the TPA, which made the IPA players extremely deadly in prolonged fights against a TPA player.
Crazy Diamond was equipped with a tier three METAL as dictated by his level of thirty-seven, which required a tremendous amount of time and money to reach since the DREAM corp. discouraged power leveling for the sake of maximizing their profit.
Wang Tong accepted the challenge, knowing that the challenger would have to be the cream of the crop.
Three seconds later, the match was on.
By the time Wang Tong arrived at the arena, a few hundred audience members, most of them IPA players, were already there waiting impatiently. It had been a while since any TPA player accepted an IPA player's challenge. The previous matches had been so unbalanced that it was practically bullying. Perhaps that's what the few hundred IPA audience members came here for, to see another helpless rookie from the TPA be bullied.
Crazy Diamond spared Wang Tong a glance and asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Of course."
"Even if I’m going to use my METAL suit? Don't complain later that I didn't warn you about it."
Wang Tong nodded with a smile. He was not here to win the battle, he was here for the experience, and it was the experience rather than scores that would make the best METAL fighter. The stronger the opponent, the more experience Wang Tong would get out of a fight and therefore the more meaningful the fight was.
"METAL!" Crazy Diamond clasped his left arm with the right hand with a crisp movement, while rays of bright light tumbled out from his body, from which an elegant METAL suit emerged.
Crazy Diamond wore the "Wraith III," tier three ability-focused METAL suit. Its appearance had excited the IPA audience who let out a wave of sardonic jibes at Wang Tong. Disregarding the difference in soul energy, the ability of this METAL suit alone would be able to devastate most TPA players.
Many TPA players had complained about the Wraith III's dirty, if not nasty, ability. They would rather fight with a combat-focused IPA player who was stronger, than a weaker IPA player wearing a Wraith III, if they would match with IPA players at all.
Hearing the audience's laughter, a smirk flashed on Crazy Diamond's face.
He had sent out the challenge as a taunt and had never expected any TPA player to accept it. Despite the fact that his virtual soul energy was only sixty-five sols, the Wraith III METAL suit was all he needed to defeat most TPA players, and any seasoned TPA players should have known that. His opponent's acceptance of the challenge was a telltale sign of inexperience. Nevertheless, Crazy Diamond would not turn down a victory when it was already in his pocket.
"Can we start?" Wang Tong stretched his neck muscles. They had become stiff after days of inactivity while being buried in books.
"Anytime, turn your METAL on."
"I will have it on when I need to." Wang Tong didn't want to waste precious time on explaining his lack of a METAL suit.
"The TPA players do look down their noses at us, fine, get ready!" Crazy Diamond had fought many pompous rookies in the TPA just like this one, and all of them had bit the dust in the end. Although IPA players were just ordinary people in real life, in the PA system, they could be as deadly as any TPA player, and they were even more deadly if their power was overlooked.
A swift slash fell toward Wang Tong, carrying an icy chill with it. Instead of countering the attack, Wang Tong took a quick step back; first things first: he needed to warm up.
Wang Tong's retreat had emboldened Crazy Diamond to usher a round of relentless hacks and slashes with greater speed and intensity, engulfing Wang Tong in a plethora of attacks.
The quickly escalating battle kept the audience on the edge of their seats as they let out raucous shouts and cheers.
It seemed counter-intuitive to think that IPA players were stronger than TPA players when placed under the same rules, but it was not far from the truth. One of the IPA players’ advantages was their steady soul energy. It allowed them to partake in fights without taking a break to recuperate. A TPA player's soul power, on the other hand, would fall short after only one or two rounds of matches. In other words, neither victory nor defeat meant much to an IPA player; it was all just a game.
Because of this disadvantage, most TPA players avoided fighting with an IPA player. Despite the satisfaction a TPA player might get from a victory against all the odds, the cost of losing a battle was humiliation—a cost not everyone was willing to pay.
As Crazy Diamond's attack went on, Wang Tong registered that his attack was not as haphazard as one might expect from a recreational player. Instead, it was rather structured and well planned. He was able to read Wang Tong's moves fairly accurately and respond with precise positioning.
Although Crazy Diamond's moves weren't perfect, Wang Tong reckoned that they were the results of countless hours of training.
Crazy Diamond, on the other hand, had felt increasingly puzzled as all attacks so far had been evaded; yet, Wang Tong's footwork had seemed rather ordinary.
Even if all of his strikes had missed the target, dragging out the fight would still slowly drain Wang Tong's soul energy, and allow Crazy Diamond to gain the upper hand.
Crazy Diamond's attack had been slowly picking up speed since it started and by then, it was falling toward Wang Tong in such a rapid and frenzied fashion that each strike seemed to have disconnected with the next as if it was a testament to his username: Crazy Diamond.
Wang Tong, on the other hand, retreated and countered whenever the opportunity presented itself. He reckoned that Crazy Diamond's confidence in his relentless attack was hinged on his METAL's defense capability. In a real fight, rarely could one see a TPA player attacked so recklessly since even the most calculating fighter would make mistakes that led to serious consequences. But the IPA players needed not to worry about consequences, which led Crazy Diamond to undermine prudence—a fatal error that would eventually be his downfall.
An opening appeared suddenly in the web of hack and slash as the strenuous weaver had finally dropped his thread. Wang Tong seized the opportunity and thrust a fist through the opening.
"Konng..."
Despite Crazy Diamond's effort to pull himself back, he absorbed the full force of Wang Tong's punch. The punch sent him tumbling backward, he stumbled a few times on the way, but still, he was unharmed. Wang Tong felt a strange tingle; Crazy Diamond should have been severely injured by then.
Einherjar Wannabe's counter attack had silenced all kinds of noises in the arena.
To untrained eyes, the victory had been in the bag for Crazy Diamond. Wang Tong had been pushed into a vulnerable position under a barrage of frenetic attacks, running around like a homeless dog. But it seemed true of what they say: "Every dog has its day."
Crazy Diamond steadied himself, and without a word, the outline of his figure suddenly blurred and then faded away into thin air like ink dissolved in water.
This was the stealth ability of the Wraith III and what was dreaded by many TPA fighters. It was not merely a visual illusion, but the result of advanced technology. It absorbed waves of soul energies so that even a veteran who specialized in anti-stealth tactics would not sniff out a hint of the wearer's presence. This type of ability wasn't entirely made up for the game since it existed in real life, but it existed only on tier four METAL suits or above that were given to elite assassination units.
Although it was a rare sight to behold, it wasn't anything unheard of in the IPA league.