A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 62 Intermission

In less than a second, the magician had received the blessing.

As for what it was, considering it was a live broadcast, he didn't say a word.

A large portion of the journey was cut, and the scene was fast-forwarded to the team encountering enemies.

The paladin truly shone this time, simply raising his shield so that no attack could penetrate it, while the magic mage stood behind him, unleashing a barrage of attacks.

"Clang clang clang".

That's the sound of a bullet hitting a shield. It's a pity we can only see the player's first-person perspective, but even so, Jiang Shuzhou can still feel how strong the paladin's defense is.

The Dynasty team quickly and easily eliminated the three-musketeer squad.

The musketeer was indeed a trap in this version; his shield took nearly a hundred bullets, but it didn't cause him any damage at all.

The paladin put away his shield and prepared to leave, and Jiang Shuzhou finally saw the shield's current state.

"What kind of heaven-defying defense is this?"

Jiang Shuzhou exclaimed that it was insane; the defense was too high. So many bullets, yet not a single dent was made in the shield.

Perhaps due to good luck, the Dynasty team eliminated four teams, earning 12 points. Combined with the 20 points from the first-place team, they had a total of 32 points.

The subsequent battles weren't particularly interesting, but Jiang Shuzhou didn't come away empty-handed.

At least he gained some information. Previously, because he was in a solo team, he thought that each person would receive a blessing upon completing a mission. In reality, it was not the case. One mission corresponds to one blessing, and only some more difficult missions would grant two or even three blessings.

The missions weren't all about eliminating and clearing monsters; some missions included escorting or capturing points, which Jiang Shuzhou had never encountered before.

He would just randomly find a mission location, a hidden spot, bury it there like a potato mine, and then go and ambush people. What's more, the second time he ambushed, he encountered two teams fighting each other.

After both teams were killed by Jiang Shuzhou's schemes, the match ended, and he had no chance to do anything else.

After glancing through the battle videos of other teams, Jiang Shuzhou didn't see any teams worth paying attention to. The rest were all weaklings who posed no threat whatsoever.

Of course, it's also possible that they're hiding something, which is normal. Some people like to show off, while others naturally prefer to keep a low profile.

Take Jiang Shuzhou for example. With his skill, he can kill anyone even without teammates. If he were paired with two powerful support characters, he would be invincible.

It's a pity they can't be paired up; every support class Jiang Shuzhou has a reason why they can't team up.

First, we need to find a mage or a magic network mage. Forget about mages, we haven't found anyone yet.

The magic network mage Jiang Shuzhou looks disgusting, not to mention that he is a mage himself and has no spell slot restrictions, so he can be ruled out immediately.

The remaining options are priests and druids, which goes without saying.

The pastor is a believer in God, and you are sworn enemies with him. If any pastor dares to team up with him, his faith value is guaranteed to plummet, and he might not even be able to maintain his rank.

Druids won't work either. Putting aside their rather barbaric lifestyle, don't forget how Jiang Shuzhou advanced to become a first-tier mage.

The "Nature's Enemy" buff is still active, so while a druid might not immediately see the problem, they'll definitely be able to tell after spending enough time with him.

So, someone with high emotional intelligence would say no one is qualified to help him, while someone with low emotional intelligence would offend everyone who could help him.

It has to be one of our own.

Jiang Shuzhou missed Hayes, this seasoned warrior who was not only strong but also had a lot of combat experience. He was much better than the weaklings in the competition. Even if he couldn't provide support, he could still help absorb some damage.

"Ugh."

With a sigh, Jiang Shuzhou logged back online, intending to learn something specifically to deal with paladins.

Choosing the mage Jiang Shuzhou means you've achieved something in every sense of the word in your life.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The news of Teacher 87 drowning during a training match spread like wildfire. Well, what can you do when he's a streamer?

In the live stream, nearly a million viewers saw him successfully ambushed by Quassamo and instantly killed, filling the room with a joyful atmosphere.

"Is this the roar we were promised?"

"Heh heh, a marksman daring to go solo, he'll probably get picked off by the assassin this time, won't he?"

"Old 87, you've really caused trouble! You even took a teammate with you after you died, didn't you?!"

"That's so true, I'd love to drown in this kind of taste during the audition."

"..."

Everyone was there to have fun, and most of the comments were just for laughs. They didn't have high hopes for 87 anyway, even though he's a strategy streamer, that doesn't mean he's a good player.

As long as he's better than most people, that's fine. This time, 87's performance was alright; at least he didn't embarrass himself, and he inflicted enough damage on Quassamon before he died.

"Hey guys, be careful!"

87 looked listless; it was clear that having his intestines ripped out was not a pleasant experience.

"Being careful doesn't mean you have to be attentive, does it?"

"Careful-hearted."

"I think this is a joke I'll never get over."

The comments section started teasing 87 again.

"Ahem, as the author of this strategy guide, you only saw that I was successfully ambushed, but I saw the extraordinary nature of the demon."

87 knew that he should offer something useful at this point.

"As a participant, the main reason for my failure this time was my lack of understanding of the monster."

"If I had known that there were demons like the Quassamodo among the demons, I would never have separated myself from the team."

"This failure has taught me a lesson. I'll be releasing a video series later, which will be dedicated to guiding all sorts of monsters. I'll let everyone know when it's done, so please come and support me."

After saying that, 87 ended the broadcast to prepare to research and make videos. As for the competition?

It's all about participation; he definitely won't get the reward anyway.

Many viewers in the live stream were caught off guard when 87 suddenly ran away. After a barrage of question marks, the audience didn't blame him too much, considering that 87 had suffered quite a bit today and was probably in deep trouble.

There are many people like 87, and fortunately, the authorities recently introduced relevant laws that clearly classify various live streams.

Live streams like "Astral Descent," which may contain gore, have been categorized as 18+, requiring facial recognition just to enter.

This also reveals the official attitude of the Chinese government.

This move by the authorities was out of necessity. They have very little influence over the game. Even forums that many people believe are managed by the official governments of various countries are actually beyond their control.

The forum appears to be managed by artificial intelligence, which reviews all content in accordance with the relevant laws of various countries.

Amending or enacting laws is the only way to influence the forum.

However, the influence of this law is limited. In some cases, the forum administrators still do as they please. For example, a certain country once legislated to require real-name registration for the Internet, and everyone must register their real names to go online.

However, the forum did not react at all.

China had previously tested this by enacting a new law requiring the unbanning of all banned users to protect their right to free speech.

This time it worked, and that's how Jiang Shuzhou got his account back.

Regardless of what lies behind the game, all nations of Earth can only accept it.

Based on this idea and with the mindset that it's better to guide than to block, China quickly established a rating system and relaxed the management of game videos.

That's why 87 dared to stream his matches; otherwise, given the previous censorship standards, his stream would probably have been banned long ago.