I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

"He...he anticipated the sniper shot from beyond the mountains!"

"My God! That's a legendary technique from beyond the Thousand Mountains, known as the 'unsolvable assassination.' How did he manage to do that?"

"He didn't even look back! It was as easy as dodging a flying insect while taking a walk!"

"Monster! This guy is definitely a monster! His sensory abilities are beyond human comprehension!"

The public channels and the stands were in complete chaos. If the previous victories could be explained by the unpredictable nature of the skills...

This time, in a pure skill-based duel, Li Wu's almost omniscient predictive ability completely shattered everyone's psychological defenses.

In the meeting room of the Myth Guild, Chasing Wind stared at the screen, his hand so heavy he could barely hold the bow.

"Is...is this really something an archer could do?" he muttered to himself. "We're both archers, so why is there such a huge difference..."

He had always aimed to emulate Li Wu, but now he realized that Li Wu's figure was so distant that he no longer even had the thought of chasing after him.

A barely perceptible look of shock flashed in Hua Zitong's eyes. She knew Li Wu was strong, but she hadn't expected that after the attributes were balanced, Li Wu's "strength" would manifest itself in such an unreasonable way.

That was no longer a battle; it was toying with the fate of one's opponent.

……

The fourth round has ended, and the top eight have been determined.

Li Wu's name appeared at the top of the list without any surprise.

His next opponent rekindled a glimmer of hope for everyone who expected him to lose.

[Stage 2, Round 5 (Quarterfinals): Seeing Through the Fog (Area 21) VS Knife Size (Area 8)]

"The size of the blade! It's the chief analyst from the countermeasures team!"

"It's finally here! The most cunning mind in the entire server has met its match against the most unreasonable monster!"

"This is going to be interesting! Although Dao Da-shita's individual combat ability isn't the absolute best, his tactical and strategic planning skills are universally acknowledged as number one! He must have analyzed all the battle videos from 'Seeing Through the Fog' at least a hundred times!"

"That's right! If brute force can't win, use your brain! I want to see whether intuition, like seeing through a fog, or calculation of the knife's dimensions is superior!"

This duel is hailed as the ultimate battle between "spear and shield." However, this time, Li Wu is the invincible spear, while Dao Cunshi is the shield that tries to withstand everything.

The match venue has been updated.

This is a standard chessboard. The black and white squares are huge, flat, and smooth, with no cover whatsoever.

This is an absolutely fair stage that purely tests positioning and strategy.

Li Wu and Dao Kudi stand at opposite ends of the chessboard.

Dao was still wearing that unassuming black robe, his face expressionless. Unlike the others, he didn't rush forward, nor did he even draw his weapon.

He simply looked at Li Wu calmly, and then spoke.

"I've roughly calculated your luck stat."

Li Wu raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

"Oh? How much?"

"It's impossible to calculate." Knife Size shook his head. "Because its mechanism of action goes beyond conventional probability models. It's not 'increasing' your success rate, but 'correcting' the outcome. Any probability that's unfavorable to you will be forcibly reversed by it."

"Good analysis." Li Wu nodded. "So, how do you plan to fight?"

"I can't beat you." Dao Chi's answer surprised everyone.

They've already given up before the fight even started?

"I'm not going to compete to win," Knife Size continued, "but just to verify my last hypothesis."

"What conjecture?"

"While your perception can help you avoid direct, malicious attacks in advance, can it distinguish rules that lack direct malice?"

After saying that, the knife finally made a move.

Instead of attacking, he raised his hand and gently tapped the square in front of him.

hum!

The white checkered pattern instantly turned red.

A system notification sounded in Li Wu's ear: [Warning: You have entered the "Rules of the Chess Game." Please abide by the rules. Red squares are "Forbidden Zones"; stepping into them will result in burning damage.]

Immediately afterwards, the knife size was clicked on another grid, and that grid turned blue.

[Warning: Blue squares are "slow zones"; stepping into them will reduce your movement speed by 50%.]

He tapped it a third time, a fourth time...

In the blink of an eye, squares of various colors such as red, blue, green, and purple appeared on the chessboard, each color representing a negative effect.

Burning, slowing, poisoning, silence...

The "Knife Size" class is not a traditional combat class, but an extremely rare hidden support class—the "Chess Player"!

His ability is not to fight, but to set the rules!

He can alter the rules of the battlefield within a limited area, creating an absolutely advantageous combat environment for himself!

"My attacks can't hurt you. But the rules can." Dao Size said calmly, looking at the arena he had transformed into a death chessboard.

"The effects of these grids are not malicious in themselves; they are simply objective rules. Can your perception help you avoid them?"

This is his open scheme.

He intends to use his own rules to trap Li Wu on this small chessboard!

Li Wu stared at the colorful death zone and fell silent.

The audience was stunned.

Holy crap! There's such a profession?!

"That's so unfair! How can we fight like this? The entire arena is a trap; there's nowhere to even step!"

"This is what real brain-based gaming looks like! The knife size is awesome!"

Everyone believed that Li Wu was truly in dire straits this time.

However, after a three-second silence, Li Wu suddenly laughed.

"Your idea is good." He looked at the size of the knife and nodded approvingly. "Using rules to fight against my senses is logically sound."

"But," he changed the subject, "have you ever considered that your so-called rules, in my opinion, are full of loopholes?"

After he finished speaking, he moved.

Instead of trying to bypass the trap grids, he stepped directly into the red "no-go zone" that the knife had just set up.

Just when everyone thought he would suffer burns, a bizarre scene unfolded.

It was as if Li Wu was walking on an invisible membrane, completely separating him from the red grid.

He stood unharmed on the red square, without any injury.

The pupil, which was the size of a knife, suddenly shrank to the size of a pinhead.

"Impossible...you...how could you...?"

"Your rules are based on this venue. But my rules supersede the venue."

Li Wu raised his hand, and instead of any offensive arrows gathering on the bowstring, three ancient and mysterious symbols appeared.

[Transfer], [Add], [Balance]!

He shot the tan arrow at himself.

The moment the arrow struck his body, it transformed into four rotating rock shields that circled around him.

Rock-solid protection!

"Now," Li Wu stepped over the deadly trap squares, walking step by step toward the knife-sized figure as if strolling in his own backyard, "it's your turn to abide by my rules."

……

When the four rock shields that swirled around Li Wu's body appeared, Dao Chi's face turned deathly pale for the first time.

His prized "rules of the game" became a complete joke in front of his opponent.

All the negative rules he established were completely blocked by that seemingly insignificant rock shield.

"Rules...isolation..." Dao Size muttered absentmindedly, instantly understanding the essence of the opponent's skill.

This is not a simple defensive skill; it is a domain-based skill that creates independent rules!

Within that small, encircling area of ​​the body, all external rules—whether it's damage, slowing, or poisoning—are ineffective!

He tried to restrict Li Wu with rules, but Li Wu directly created a rule that "ignores your rules".

This is a crushing defeat from a higher dimension.

"I lost."

Before Li Wu could even stand in front of him, Dao Dushi readily admitted defeat.

He knew that the battle would be over the moment his tactics were completely cracked. Continuing to struggle was pointless.

As he conceded defeat, a system announcement sounded, and Li Wu successfully advanced to the semi-finals.

This "battle of wits," which had been eagerly anticipated by countless people, ended decisively and cleanly in a way that no one expected.

The figure, as small as a knife, vanished in a flash of white light, but the shock he left on all the viewers lingered for a long time.

"Even the 'player' who sets the rules has lost... so who can stop him?"

This question lingers in everyone's mind.