I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

Li Wu watched them retreat but did not pursue them.

He stood there, watching the figure with the knife-sized back, and pondered the opponent's fighting style.

This is the first person he's encountered today who truly requires him to put in some effort to connect with.

It's not because of how strong they are.

It's because his playing style and mindset are different.

He doesn't rely on brute force; he relies on analysis and a systematic approach.

If his analysis is correct, this strategy could have been effective.

However, he made a fatal mistake: he used incorrect data as a basis.

Li Wu made a mental note of this, and then scanned the battlefield once more.

His points have just increased a little more.

Defeating that mage earned me ten points.

The number is now 320.

……

After withdrawing from the combat zone, the knife stopped in a ruin and opened an internal channel.

The plan failed.

There was a moment of silence in the channel.

"Does he really not lack mana?"

"I didn't observe a significant decrease in his mana consumption throughout the standoff."

"That's impossible. How could the mana consumption of skills above level four not be noticeable?"

After thinking for a moment, Dao Dashi replied, "He has a way to regenerate mana, and it's extremely efficient—enough to maintain balance even in high-intensity combat. This is a variable I hadn't considered before."

There was a moment of silence on the channel.

"So what do we do now?"

I focused on the issue of knife size, reviewed all my observations from the day, and then responded.

"Continue to observe."

"He is currently in first place with a large gap. If he continues at his current pace, he will most likely win the final championship."

"To change the outcome, we need to find his real weakness."

"So far, the only observed weakness is the charging time of large skills. During those ten or so seconds, he can be disrupted."

"But his Flash speed is too fast, and the cost of getting close is too high."

"Therefore, the only feasible solution is to interrupt him remotely, and to hit him within the first second of his charging up. If it takes more than a second, he will realize it and give up charging up."

"How many players on the field can do that?"

It took a long time for someone to reply in the channel.

"I thought of one, but he's on the other side of the field right now."

The knife-sized figure asked, "Who?"

"The sniper from District 26, whose ID is 'Beyond the Thousand Mountains'."

"His shooting range is the longest of everyone on the field right now, over 300 meters."

"Moreover, he uses purely physical archery, unaffected by any magical interference."

The knife-sized person wrote down the name and replied with three words.

Contact him.

……

After clearing out the troops whose knives were smaller, Li Wu advanced further towards the center of the battlefield.

At this stage, the battlefield has become relatively stable, with the fighting mainly consisting of small groups wearing each other down. No one is actively trying to get close to him anymore.

He knew the reason.

The image of that single arrow killing sixteen people has become the most convincing signal to retreat on this battlefield.

Most people's current logic is: hit others, earn points, and don't touch that lunatic.

This made him a little bored.

He found another high spot, stood on it, and looked around.

Then his [Fate Perception] stirred.

This fluctuation is different from the previous ones.

It wasn't a sense of malice from afar, but rather a "lock-in" feeling that came from a very distant place, carrying an aura of precise calculation.

It was as if someone used something to secretly aim at him from a very far distance.

Li Wu defined this feeling.

The direction is to his left and behind.

The distance is not close.

He didn't move immediately; instead, he turned his head and scanned that direction with "Energy Falcon".

Trees, ruins, stone walls—a seemingly peaceful scene.

But on a ruin at a high point about 300 meters away, he found a barely perceptible aura.

It was a person, lying prone in the shadows atop the ruins, his posture almost blending into the ruins, holding a bow and aiming at him.

Three hundred meters.

This distance exceeds the effective range of most ranged classes.

But this person did not exceed that.

Li Wu went through the situation in his mind.

Sniper.

It should be the sniper route after a traditional archer class, specializing in ultra-long-range precision strikes, with an effective range exceeding 200 meters, which is rare in the entire server.

He made a judgment about this person's intentions.

The opponent was probably not acting alone, but rather part of a coordinated operation, specifically tasked with sniping at his weaknesses while he was charging up.

This combination might be effective if he hasn't seen the knife size combination before.

But now he knows.

He slowly raised the arcane bow.

……

Three hundred meters away, "Qianshanwai" lay on top of the ruins, using his precise visual perception skills to see all of Li Wu's movements.

His score wasn't high, but his role in this match wasn't to win based on points from the beginning. Instead, he was a tactical tool to help valuable people solve key problems.

He had worked with Daosiji several times, and the division of labor was always the same.

The knife maker is responsible for identifying the problem, and he is responsible for solving it.

The problem this time is that Li Wu's preparations have been weakened.

He needed to fire a sufficiently accurate arrow within the first second Li Wu began to gather his strength, interrupting his actions.

The flight time of an arrow within 300 meters is approximately 0.4 seconds.

He needed to anticipate Li Wu starting to charge up his power 0.4 seconds in advance before firing.

This requires an extreme understanding of the other party's behavior patterns, as well as extremely keen intuition.

He observed Li Wu for about three minutes, recording all observable details of his movements.

Then he started to wait.

Waiting for a signal to build up power.

……

Li Wu raised the Arcane Bow and began to gather power.

It's not a powerful skill; it's just a regular energy arrow that only takes one second to charge.

But just as he began to build up his power, his [Fate Perception] gave him a push.

Direction: Left rear.

He knew the arrows were coming.

Without fully charging his bow, he took a step to the right and casually put it down.

"laugh!"

An arrow grazed the spot where he had been standing and embedded itself in the stone wall behind him.

Three hundred meters away.

Li Wu stared at the arrow for a moment.

An ordinary physical arrow, with no magical enhancements at the tip, pierced a distance of three hundred meters purely through physical force, demonstrating an exceptionally high level of accuracy.

If anyone without sensory abilities were standing there, this arrow would have hit their target.

Moreover, the timing chosen by the opponent was indeed the point at which he was accumulating strength.

Li Wu mentally pieced together the combination of the person and the size of the knife.

This is a complete hunting team specifically designed to target him.

Interrupts charged attacks, provides close-range control, and allows mages to wear down their opponent.

If all three stages are activated simultaneously, it can indeed create suppression.

But now there's only one left.

The melee combination with the knife-sized weapon has been discontinued.

Only this sniper remained, attempting to interrupt his charge from 300 meters away.

With this configuration, the threat becomes limited.

Li Wu raised his bow again, this time not to charge up, but to use the [Energy Falcon] to locate the target and, in conjunction with the [Blazing Sun Piercing Arrow], to shoot a pure white beam as thin as a hair at the ruins on the high point three hundred meters away.

At a distance of 300 meters, the light takes less than 0.1 seconds to reach the object.

"Qianshanwai" saw the white light shooting towards him and quickly rolled backward to dodge it.

But the beam of light didn't follow him; it went straight through the top of the ruins where he was lying, shattering large stone slabs and raising a cloud of dust.

He rolled to the back of the ruins, pressed himself against the stone wall, and gasped for breath.

That arrow was just a hair's breadth away.

If it wasn't done beforehand, it would be pierced through the heart.

He lay there, touched his chest to make sure he was alright, then turned on his communicator and sent a message to Daoshida.

"He knows where I am; I need to change positions."

The blade size recovered very quickly.

"Change. Move west and find another high point."

"Qianshanwai" climbed down the back of the ruins and began to search for a new location.

But he had an idea in mind, which was the size of the knife.

The opponent doesn't just rely on reflexes to dodge arrows in combat.

The other side knows in advance where the arrow will come from.

This is not a problem of reaction time.

This was a prediction.

Or, to be more precise.

Perception.