Chapter 475: An Honorable and Fair Fight?

In the endgame of a manual of chess, certain specific scenarios call for certain specific moves; if one simply follows the manual's prescriptions, defeat becomes a near impossibility.

StarCraft possessed its own set formulas, much like those chess manuals—for instance, this photon cannon rush deployed by Owner Fang, which could well be deemed a novice-slayer.

Yet this was not to say that veterans would never fall prey to it; whether one could deceive a seasoned master depended entirely on psychological manipulation and a measure of luck.

In truth, every person caught by such a ruse would instantly wonder if they were a fool, because this sort of tactic appeared… almost remarkably reckless.

Yet those who had succumbed to this very strategy, from novices to veterans, excluding only the most transcendent gods of the game, could collectively encircle the globe.

Where games were concerned, a higher degree of realism did not necessarily equate to greater convenience for the player.

The original version allowed one to observe red dots representing enemies on the map's red markers from a god's-eye perspective; now, however, apart from the overview near the base and the radar surveillance attached to the buildings, vision could only be transmitted via the psionic link shared between the Protoss. On one hand, the fog of war was gone, but on the other, the god's-eye view was also absent, meaning that the field of vision was by no means convenient.

Owner Fang had sent his probe into the opponent's base to cause a brief commotion, clearly not merely to taunt or to lure the tiger from the mountain, but as a calculated diversion to draw the gaze of both the audience and the Protoss forces in the game, using the shadow beneath the lamp to construct a photon cannon within a visual blind spot.

Thus, by the time Gu Tingyun recalled his roving forces, the fourth photon cannon was already nearing completion!

These four photon cannons were like a malignant tumor planted right beside Gu Tingyun's base; if they were not destroyed, the probes could not even harvest minerals, yet to move up and attack…

A few of the lowest-tier Protoss soldiers, completely unupgraded in both speed and attack—no matter how miraculous the micromanagement, how could they hope to fight defensive towers?!

At the cost of a single photon cannon, the Zealots were entirely annihilated!

Owner Fang's photon cannons then proceeded to leisurely pick off the probes, casually erecting yet another photon cannon right in the face of the opponent's base.

"..."

Never mind the spectators watching from behind, whose faces were flushed red with suppressed emotion; even merely watching induced a despairing urge to die.

Tear off the virtual reality headset and quit! GG!

Even Gu Tingyun could brook it no longer; any other man would surely have leapt up on the spot, brandishing his stool to strike someone.

Owner Fang removed his virtual reality headset and turned around, only to find a crowd of people staring at him with green, envious eyes.

How infuriating! It was utterly stifling!

To be so sinister and crafty!

"Winning by unfair means—this is simply winning by unfair means!" Zhou Mo shouted in dissatisfaction. "This is nothing but opportunistic trickery. If this were a true war, one ought to advance steadily and strike surely. What sort of method is this, relying on opportunistic tricks right at the opening?!"

"Precisely. If this were a real war, with one's own base entirely hollowed out, such a method would, with the slightest carelessness, only lead to self-destruction!" Xun Yuan also chimed in.

One had to realize that everyone had just witnessed Owner Fang's home base; far from having any military forces, it lacked even a single defensive tower, populated entirely by probes. A base like that could have its nest entirely upended by a mere handful of soldiers.

Who commands a war in such a fashion?! To think that if all battles were fought this way, their great clans would have been eradicated centuries ago.

Naturally, they did not know that before Owner Fang's reincarnation, there existed a stratagem known as the "Empty Fort Strategy," which was far more flamboyant than this deed.

"I think there should be another match!" Mu Qing remarked, chewing on a spicy gluten strip.

"I agree, there should definitely be another match!" many others echoed in unison.

Gu Tingyun: "...Then how about we have another spar?"

After all, it was what everyone desired; urged on by the crowd, the two commenced another game.

In this match, Gu Tingyun had clearly begun to pay heed to Owner Fang's stratagems, deliberately selecting the map where he had first played Protoss in a one-versus-seven battle. The base was nestled within a valley with only a single exit, which was blocked by photon cannons; even if left unguarded, none could hope to slip through under the surveillance of the defensive towers.

Owner Fang's probe took a turn at the enemy's gates, and upon discovering that photon cannons were already under construction, it turned tail immediately. The essence of the rush tactic lay in rushing when the opportunity presented itself; when no opportunity existed, one naturally played a standard opening. One had to be perfectly clear about what constituted an opportunity and what did not; a brainless rush was bound to fail.

In this match, Owner Fang clearly played by the book, and the two sides engaged in a balanced back-and-forth. Though Owner Fang's micromanagement was decent, he would not force a contest of micro-control against a grand cultivator.

The learning capacity of a grand cultivator was swift, to say nothing of the fact that this was hardly a difficult feat for such a being.

The Protoss could personally control a portion of their warriors via psionic link, akin to the sensation of manipulating several avatars simultaneously.

Owner Fang was not facing an ordinary player, but a supreme cultivator of immense realization.

Under personal manipulation, the minutiae of control could even achieve the feat of simultaneously directing three Dark Templars, or Zealots with fully upgraded attack, speed, and defense, to deflect bullets with their blades. Whether in visual spectacle or technical prowess, it was a thrilling sight to behold.

It was virtually flawless.

Owner Fang had randomly drawn the Terran race this time; though it was a faction Gu Tingyun had never encountered, Owner Fang maintained a lukewarm, steady pace in the early game.

Twenty minutes passed.

"I told you this owner isn't actually anything special!"

"Look, inside Senior Gu's base!"

"What a massive warship!"

"And so many strange dharma vessels..."

Looking back at Owner Fang's base.

"The owner's dharma fleets are so few..."

"Principal Gu has already launched his assault."

On Gu Tingyun's screen, the view was densely packed with all manner of dharma fleets, indicative of an extremely high economic level.

Meanwhile, Owner Fang still relied on a mixed force of infantry and air units.

A mixed force was one thing, but he had actually attempted a sneak attack while the opponent was advancing, which resulted in the near-total annihilation of his forces without inflicting any significant losses.

Curiously, the forces Owner Fang used for the sneak attack had even included transport ships, yet no troops seemed to have been dropped before they were blown out of the sky.

"The owner is definitely going to lose this one!"

Seeing Gu Tingyun leading a sky-blotting fleet to press upon the borders, the surrounding spectators grew deeply excited.

Those golden warships aligned themselves, resembling a golden cloud that obscured the sun, flanked and escorted by various "flying dharma treasures."

A massive dharma vessel shaped like a golden swallow glided forward slowly. Following closely, the surrounding light distorted, acting like an invisible canopy that concealed the movements of all the Protoss warships.

Upon the desolate desert, the yellow sands swirled. One could only see a swallow-like shadow; looking up, the golden Arbiter swept across the sky, and only on Gu Tingyun's screen could one see that the surrounding area was filled with swarms of fleets.

The immense fleet struck from the flank of Fang Qi's expansion base. Interceptors scattering from the giant carriers resembled a sky full of locusts; in nearly the blink of an eye, a vast number of buildings in Fang Qi's expansion base were demolished, and even the reinforcing troops that had just arrived were instantly wiped clean!

With an almost sweeping momentum, they charged directly toward the center of the main base.