Chapter 450: Tournament Updates
When Zhou Ning opened the forum, a flood of new threads refreshed instantly—and nearly all of them were about him. Even the Apocalypse Pro League was being overshadowed. Instead of opening the pinned tournament recap, he skimmed regular threads first, like always, to get a feel for the current trends.
If anyone had still suspected that Wayne Sturwell might be gradually phased out as the protagonist in the new version of the game, that doubt was now gone. What players were more curious about at this point was what the upcoming main storyline would be, and—more importantly—what exactly Wayne Sturwell's special abilities did, and whether players would ever have a chance to learn them.
On that last point, Zhou Ning already had a plan. Once players reached higher levels, he would consider releasing a few slots for the substitute-creation ability formed using arrows—of course, not cheaply.
He scrolled through the list of ordinary threads and found that players' theories had reached interstellar levels of imagination. Speculation about the upcoming version and his substitute powers filled page after page. The most popular thread was from none other than the infamous Wayne hater, Grantham, already surpassing 700,000 views in a short span.
"First, I owe everyone an apology. My previous assumptions clearly carried bias. According to the protagonist toxicity rule—where people die wherever he shows up—General of the Wind Gallagher and the Moonlight Direwolf Seras have sacrificed their lives to prove one thing: Wayne Sturwell is still the protagonist of Version 2.0."
Grantham opened with a kowtowing Minion sticker, posture lowered to the ground.
"If my predictions are correct, the main storyline will continue along the same trajectory as Version 1.2—following Wayne Sturwell to the Kingdom of Sepharic, and then to Nathaniell. Based on the series, the primary antagonists will still be the Curse God Cult and the Silent Cult. The fate of the genderbent Karl Robbins confirms this."
"The final boss is highly likely to be the World-Eater Fenrir Gleipnir and other ancient gods. The 'Werewolf Cataclysm' shown in the series is probably the first of the Ten Calamities in the new version. There should be nine more. As long as we follow Mr. Toxic Luck—I mean, Wayne Sturwell—we'll eventually see them all. Not to brag, but I've already booked my steam train ticket from the Byron Republic to Nathaniell. I'll personally verify Wayne Sturwell's strength myself."
Below, he attached a freshly issued steam train ticket screenshot.
"As for the ability everyone is discussing—Wayne Sturwell's special power—I believe I've cracked it. It has to do with mist and time. Below are two clips: one from Episode 13, where the Batman-form protagonist blocks attacks using mist. The other from Episode 12, with similar fog at Aiden Manor. The purpose of the mist is likely defensive."
"Now for the crucial part. In several moments—dodging, or initiating attacks—there are clear dropped frames. In six clips shown here, it's like he blinks directly in front of enemies or has already landed his move. In Clip 3, for example, the protagonist is 20 meters away—now slowed to 0.01× speed—look, the very next frame, he's already there. According to C4D frame metrics, more than 300 frames are missing. My conclusion?"
"Wayne Sturwell's special ability is Time Stop."
With logic, evidence, and video support, the thread gained instant credibility. The replies were spiraling upward nonstop—by the time Zhou Ning finished reading, it had already hit five digits in replies.
"Marking this. We'll return when it's verified, either to bow down or dig your grave."
"Honestly? It checks out. Terrifying. This is the power of a game protagonist (manga narrator voice)."
Later, even the official team stepped in to pin it and announced the thread would be included in the next issue of Apocalypse Forecast.
Zhou Ning had to admit—a rare moment of respect for the infamous hater. Analyzing Star Platinum just from footage was impressive. Too bad the ability he deduced was The World. What did that have to do with Wayne Sturwell?
Also… Grantham said he was coming to Nathaniell and called him Mr. Toxic Luck, right? Fine. The shop will give him a 30% markup in advance.
After scrolling a bit more, Zhou Ning opened the pinned tournament recap to check the results of players he followed.
He hadn't checked for two days, and the qualifiers had completed three more rounds, determining the top 4 of both the winners' and losers' brackets.
After the top 32, the tournament switched to double elimination. Losers dropped to the lower bracket, while finalists would be decided between winners and losers' champions. The final qualification slots would be given to: the top 2 from winners, top 2 from losers, and the winner of a 5th–6th place playoff.
One match Zhou Ning was particularly interested in was Super Powerful Bluecat, the devil fruit user, versus Bird-Bird Fruit user: Heatwave, the first-ever devil fruit mirror match in the game's history—and the first demon hunter mirror match as well.
The result? Even the referee almost passed out.
Heatwave was infamous for evasive stall tactics. Super Powerful Bluecat played turtle defense. The collision of degeneracies resulted in an epic 2 hours, 48 minutes slog.
Though Blue Cat's Tortoise Fruit defense was monstrous, Heatwave ultimately relied on mobility to win, sealing the match with Blue Cat still holding 3/4 HP, dropping him into the lower bracket.
Jinse, in top 32, faced his own guildmate, Blue Ninth Sky, a Weather Master (advanced Meteorologist). After his demon hunter class change, Jinse showed zero mercy, ending the duel in 97 seconds. Zhou Ning watched the recording—performance was solid, but a short guy wearing the same trench coat as him? The vibe was terminally cringe.
Another trench coat offender appeared soon after—Sunken Star Beneath the Water, who was even photographed eating a hotdog in matching trench coat IRL. A crime against humanity. His opponent was Dessert Master, Priest second advancement, carrying the hopes of the Super Sweet Candy guild after their top player Sugarhill Big Bro was eliminated. Sunken Star Beneath the Water gave zero chances—78 seconds, drained all his mana, eliminated to losers' bracket.
The following top 16 matches were mostly uneventful, except one upset—an amateur player named Big Head Fish eliminating Dessert Master entirely in losers' bracket.
But then came today's highlight:
Winners bracket top 8 — Jinse vs Sunken Star Beneath the Water.
A showdown the audience had been begging for. The Wolf-Dog Squad internal rivalry.
Both showed up wearing matching outfits. Their synergy knowledge was so deep from co-op dungeon runs that the match was tactical fireworks. After 3 minutes 48 seconds, Sunken Star Beneath the Water won by a razor-thin margin—49 HP left. The #1 favorite, Jinse, dropped to losers' bracket.
But karma moves fast.
That same day, in the team match:
Star-Moon Guild vs Deep Blue.
A battle of legacy giants, drawing massive attention.
Due to inexperience and sloppy positioning, Sunken Star Beneath the Water got deleted first by a quicksand trap set up by Jinse and Blue Ninth Sky. With the main DPS down, the Star-Moon Guild collapsed instantly and dropped to losers' bracket.
After the match, a comment went viral and became an instant meme:
Moonstar: The ferocious wolf
Moonlit Scarce: The feral tiger
Star-Moon Boundless: The tireless ox
Star-Moon Convergence: The swift leopard
Sunken Star Beneath the Water: The rotten apple horse ruining the herd
---
[Thanks for reading! Support future releases and read more at patreøn.com/craxx_real.]