Black Online

Chapter 216: Fighting Against Read

"You may select your soldiers."

The referee tapped on the gaming console on the table, and the selection window appeared in front of Remu and Fang Raon.

’I now have a choice to make.’

Fang Raon thought to himself.

After learning about Read, he realized that he could be an open book to his opponents, which would be dangerous.

He didn’t know whether Remu knew Read, but since he was both a professional Chi-Go player and General’s Game player, he knew he needed to keep his guard up.

"I have a question to you. Why aren’t you participating in the Professional League?"

Fang Raon asked curiously.

"...Don’t talk to me."

Remu said coldly.

He didn’t want to be interrupted while he was choosing his strategy and deciding on his soldiers.

’I guess he doesn’t let me fish for any answers. It has been a thought in my mind for a while now. If he is so good at the game, why is he participating in the Amateur League?’

Fang Raon thought to himself.

Perhaps the level in Professional League was simply much higher, and Remu wouldn’t stand a chance over there.

’General’s Game is called a young people’s game because the concentration and control needed to control multiple soldiers are so taxing and difficult.

’Perhaps Remu isn’t participating in the Professional League because controlling 10 soldiers is simply too hard for someone of his age.

’It is much easier to control only three.’

He thought.

Without knowing it, he actually guessed perfectly, and that’s exactly the reason why Remu didn’t join the Professional League.

At his best, he could control five soldiers simultaneously, which just wasn’t enough to survive in the Professional League.

In the Professional League, players were capable of controlling seven and eight soldiers at the same time.

Even being able to control one more soldier than your opponent was a significant advantage that was game-changing.

Still.

Remu didn’t care about the Professional League as in his opinion, the Amateur League was a completely different kind of game.

He didn’t think the Amateur League was a lesser version, even though all the best players were over at the Professional League.

10v10 and 3v3 were very different in General’s Game, and those who were at the Professional League might not be good in the 3v3 format.

It still didn’t change the fact that there were many Professional League players that were also excellent at 3v3.

If all the Professional League players participated in the Amateur League, there was a good chance that Remu would have never made it out of the Round of 32.

"..."

Fang Raon sat with his arms crossed and waited.

A short while later, Remu finished his soldier selection and turned to Fang Raon only to see that he hadn’t chosen his soldiers yet.

’Why is he waiting? Well, that doesn’t matter to me. It works in my favor if he hasn’t chosen yet since I can Read him.’

Remu thought.

In that moment, he started scanning everything from Fang Raon’s body language to his expressions to try and determine who he might pick.

Everything.

Fang Raon was like an open book right now, and he was even able to tell that he was feeling nervous right now.

’I feel naked right now.’

Fang Raon thought.

He quickly came to the conclusion that it must be because Remu was using Read on him.

The corner of his lip curled slightly. He then closed his eyes. And then he started pressing something on his interface window.

’Huh? I can’t get a good Read on for what he is choosing... I think even he doesn’t know what he is currently choosing! He is choosing his soldiers blindly!’

Remu thought in a shock.

It was indeed the perfect counter to Read, as if Fang Raon didn’t know what he was choosing, and neither would his opponent.

However.

It was a really dangerous thing to do, as he might choose accidentally three Helpers and thus be completely useless in the battle.

’Reckless fool!’

...

Further back in the hall, Della couldn’t believe her eyes.

"He has his... eyes closed."

"Remu is knowledgeable about Read. It’s not a surprise since he is a professional Chi-Go player. I know Read is more commonly known than Maxima over in the real world.

"To truly succeed in Chi-Go, knowing Read is mandatory, as being able to read your opponent’s body language is the key."

Rock said.

"So he is trying to counter that by blindly choosing his soldiers? I don’t know. That seems risky. Wouldn’t it be better to just try to best him in combat?"

Della asked.

"At the moment of choosing, if Raon thought, ’I’ll just choose the best possible soldiers to defeat him in combat,’ Remu would’ve found out immediately with the help of Read, and he would’ve chosen three best soldiers to combat that strategy.

"You can’t let someone as skilled as Remu have that kind of advantage, and Raon knows that!"

Rock said.

"Then, he is just hoping for the best that he selects three good soldiers accidentally?"

Della asked.

"He needs to improvise. In combat, Helper is useless, so as long as he doesn’t choose two Helpers or three, it will be fine.

"With Ranger or Warrior or Tank or Assassin or Mage, he will be just fine and can come up with some strategy.

"So there is a very high possibility that he will select three decent soldiers. Much higher chance than choosing three bad ones.

"However, it is more tricky with the skills. There are so many selections that you can easily get a bad skill."

Rock said.

"When you were training Raon, did you ever use Read when going against him?"

Elena asked curiously.

"I never did. I didn’t use it even once during this tournament either."

Rock crossed his arms and said.

It surprised Della and Elena, and they wondered why he didn’t use something so powerful during the tournament.

Rock was very well-versed in Read, and with that, there might’ve been a chance that he could’ve defeated Anna.

Yet.

He opted to not use it?

"I will never go into someone else’s head ever again."

Rock said coldly.

’What happened?’

Della wondered in surprise, as she had rarely seen her grandfather look so deadly serious.

There were three different techniques of Read—sensing presences, reading emotions, and reading intentions.

Rock was only using sensing presences lately, and he had trained it to such a high level that he could feel someone’s presence from miles away.

That’s why.

When they were following Fang Raon over to the Killua Temple, they were actually very far away from him.

However.

With his Read, it didn’t matter, as he still knew where he was heading to, and slowly followed behind so they wouldn’t be discovered.

"..."

Rock didn’t say anything more, as he didn’t want to explain his reasoning for not wanting to use Read to get into someone’s head.

He had already said enough.

...

"And done."

Fang Raon finished choosing his soldiers and skills for them, and then he opened his eyes slowly.

’Can he Read me if I now look at which soldiers and skills I chose? How would he even know?’

Fang Raon wondered.

He looked at Remu and noticed that he wasn’t paying any attention to him anymore, and he then shot a quick look at his choices.

***

[Mage - Skill: Flame Spirit]

[Assassin - Skill: Shadow Step]

[Tank - Skill: Lift]

***

Fang Raon looked away from the screen and saw that Remu turned to look back at him, and he immediately used Read.

He was trying to figure out what soldiers he chose!

’Can he do it, though?’

Fang Raon wondered.

However, still, he tried to erase all the thoughts from his mind—especially everything about his soldiers and the skills.

’Hmm...’

Remu narrowed his eyes.

...

"It looks like Raon now knows what soldiers and skills he has, so Remu is trying to Read him to find those out."

Rock said.

"Can he?"

Della asked worriedly.

"This is the problem with Raon’s strategy. While he can trick Read at the start by choosing his soldiers and skills randomly, he can’t do that for the entire duration of the match.

"At one point, he has to know which soldiers and skills he has, so when that happens, Remu can just Read him to find out."

Rock said.

"So Raon will be in trouble! Does that mean what he did at the start in the end makes no difference at all?"

Della asked.

"...Nope. It worked wonderfully. The countdown is ending, and it doesn’t matter if Remu knows now. It will be too late to change."

Rock said.

...

[00:00]

The countdown reached zero, and then, their soldiers appeared in the village that was shaped like St. Bella’s Village.

’Damn it. I couldn’t Read him fast enough to find out what soldiers and skills he has.’

Remu thought with an ugly expression.

Then, his gaze landed at Fang Raon’s soldiers, and he just scoffed as it wasn’t that good of a combo.

It was just a mismatch of random soldiers.

’I’ve never come across someone using a Mage, Tank, and Assassin combo. It’s because it’s a nonsense combo!’

Remu thought.

He, on the other hand, had chosen Helper, Warrior, and Mage as his soldiers, which was a very reliable three-soldier combo.

’Since he will figure out my skills soon enough once he starts Reading me, I will just go straight into attack!’

Fang Raon thought and ordered his soldiers.

His plan was simple—attack!