Chapter 872: Circus Clowns

In the game, Song Ren's emotions were incredibly agitated. As the loading screen rolled into the game's cutscene, his mind replayed Link's tutorial from the previous video.

Although up until now, the fighter he had played the most in the game was actually Pyra and Mythra, he had still played Link many times in the game.

After all, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of his favorite games. In his hands, Link, the hero, had transformed into Hyrule's Old Rogue, which could be said to be quite nostalgic.

He had watched that less-than-four-minute demo video over ten times, and he knew every one of Link's moves inside out.

Including the incredibly cool infinite bomb aerial combo, he already understood its principles.

It was nothing more than throwing a bomb and attacking at close range, followed by a short hop forward fast fall. Because the short hop allowed him to catch the bomb he had previously thrown while airborne, he could use the steps of catching and dropping the bomb to reset the attack's startup and recovery frames, achieving a seamless combo effect, and finally, when there were no ground platforms, connect with an up special spinning attack to finish.

Throwing bombs, he could do that.

Short hops, he could do that too.

Catching bombs, he could still do that.

All that remained was to combine these three actions.

As the game's countdown began, Song Ren's mind had already outlined scene after scene of the upcoming battle, and he superimposed the cool Link video he had watched earlier onto his own perspective.

The countdown ended, and an exciting Super Smash Bros. match officially began. The first thing Song Ren did in the game was run towards the edge of the cliff.

This was a tactic he had devised long ago: the opponent would chase him, then he would execute a combo to knock them off the stage, followed by an aerial bomb to finish them off.

His thoughts were beautiful, but Zhang Yi didn't rush to his side to engage in a melee battle at the cliff edge as Song Ren had imagined.

Zhang Yi didn't move at the start of the game. When he saw Song Ren run to the cliff edge, he calmly controlled Link to pull out his bow and charged up a shot towards him.

“Damn it, why are you so sneaky? Come over here!” Caught off guard, he was accidentally hit by an arrow, increasing his percentage meter by over ten points. Song Ren was immediately speechless.

“Why should I go over?” Zhang Yi said unhurriedly. “If you've got the guts, come hit me!”

He wasn't flustered in the game, simply drawing his bow and shooting arrows.

“Only you can do that?” Song Ren immediately retaliated with his own Link.

Everyone was playing Link, so why should only he be able to shoot arrows?

One stood in the center of the arena, the other at its edge. The two charged their bows, shot arrows, and then defended.

The two in battle exchanged shots back and forth, but it left Wang Han, who was spectating, speechless.

“Link in that video was so cool, and all you two learned was how to shoot arrows?” Wang Han grumbled from the spectator area.

For today's grand battle, although she wasn't expecting to see the fights from the video, she was certainly watching it with the mindset of going to a circus to see clowns.

But this round of passionate archery had simply put her to sleep.

“Haste makes waste; let's get a feel for it first!” Zhang Yi explained.

“Exactly, let's warm up first! Old Zhang, you coward, I'm coming over!” Song Ren chimed in, finally unable to resist as he watched Zhang Yi, who hadn't moved an inch from the center of the arena.

After playing Super Smash Bros. for several days straight, though his technique wasn't that of a master, he still had a grasp of the basic controls.

Timing Zhang Yi's arrow shot perfectly, Song Ren immediately dodged with a sidestep, using the invincibility frames to evade the arrow and close the distance with Zhang Yi.

Next up was the combo he had mentally practiced thousands of times.

Bomb basic attack, short hop catch bomb, reset basic attack, infinite loop!

In that instant, Song Ren felt as if he could already hear Old Zhang's miserable cries after being infinitely comboed by him, then finally launched off the stage by an up special.

However, when he actually tried it, he found the situation a little awkward.

He successfully performed the three steps: switching to a bomb, a basic attack, and a short hop. Although it was a bit slow, he did succeed.

And Zhang Yi's character was indeed launched into the air by him.

But the crucial point was that he missed one step in between.

That was the critical short hop fast fall to catch the bomb, then resetting his basic attack's recovery frames.

The round bomb fell directly at Link's feet and was not caught by him.

He paused for a moment, still not having picked up the bomb.

So the bomb exploded, blasting him away instead.

“Haha, Old Song, is this your Link? You're killing me! Do you know what this is called? A poor imitation!” Seeing Song Ren get blasted away himself, Zhang Yi finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Wang Han in the spectator area couldn't hold back either and let out a chuckle.

After all, she hadn't received professional training; she still found it a bit hard to resist laughing at such a funny situation.

“What's so funny?! Don't laugh! Mistakes are normal! It's my first time, after all!” Song Ren coughed twice.

But he finally had a clearer understanding: the operation looked simple, but it was actually incredibly difficult to execute.

The difficulty wasn't in the steps themselves, but in the timing of the transitions. He could easily perform each step separately, but combining them instantly raised the difficulty.

It was probably like watching DOTA highlight reels: he understood everything he saw, but when it came to playing himself, it was a completely different story.

“I'm not going to waste any more breath on you. Let me show you the recovery KO tutorial I learned, okay? I'm not like you; I won't immediately try flashy and difficult moves. I'll start with something simple. You use a heavy attack to knock me off.” Zhang Yi said to Song Ren, suppressing his laughter, and stood still at the cliff edge.

“I'd like to see what you've learned.” Song Ren listened to Zhang Yi, controlled Link to walk over, ready to see what trick he had up his sleeve.

Following Zhang Yi's words, Song Ren controlled Link in the game, charged up, and then used a heavy attack.

Bang!

Zhang Yi's Link in the game was immediately launched away, with a trail of gray airflow behind him.

Normally, Link's strategy in this situation would be aerial movement combined with an up special for recovery.

However, Zhang Yi chose a different method.

He switched to a bomb in mid-air, threw it beneath himself, intending to use the bomb's recoil for recovery.

But the idea was wonderful; actually executing it was a bit different.

According to the normal approach, the bomb should have been behind Link.

But only after Zhang Yi threw the bomb did he realize the seriousness of the problem: the bomb was thrown in front of him.

With the bomb's explosion, he was directly blasted away by the shockwave, but in the opposite direction of the platform.

“Damn it!”

Zhang Yi's eyes widened, and he instinctively yelled, controlling Link to use his up special to try and recover, but alas, he was blasted so far by the shockwave that he couldn't even hook onto the edge in time.

“So... Old Zhang, this is your Link? You've reminded me of a classic tale, you know, learning the Handan gait?” Watching Zhang Yi essentially self-destruct, it was Song Ren's turn to burst out laughing.

“You two, stop talking. I think the circus needs you.” Wang Han wore a look of utter satisfaction. This was the scene she wanted to see: a double performance by the big and small jokers.

(End of Chapter) <>