The opponent didn't want to give up the battle either, because it was a bet between two people, and the stakes were high enough to cover a month's living expenses. So, the opponent played extremely cautiously in that round. Finally, he found a flaw and, after a combo, knocked out the person who should have won, then followed up with another combo to finish him off.

At this stage, the person who should have won was mentally unbalanced. In fact, if he had played normally, even if he was the first to lose, his mindset wouldn't have fluctuated so dramatically. But he happened to lose when he found the opponent's flaw, and his combo went wrong during the attack, which was not entirely his own mistake, but an issue with the machine or joystick. This is unfair for a competitive player, which is why his mentality completely collapsed during that battle. In his emotional upheaval, he became reckless as if he was venting, and his joystick operation was violent.

This eventually led to a counterattack by others. Therefore, fighting games don't become popular not because players don't like them, but because brainless design doesn't appeal to the masses.

Why has the game Street Fighter remained popular into the 27th century? Compared to other games, Street Fighter's gameplay experience and hit sensation may not be the best, but its simple design with optimized moves and consciousness-assisted operation allows players to execute moves at will without causing rage due to unresponsive controls.

Now, even Feng Yi doesn't dare say he can fully master such a joystick and control, even though he is the Revenge Shadow Rider with micro-control skills far superior to normal people. But even on a joystick with obvious flaws, mistakes are possible, not to mention he hasn't touched games for many years, and his previous encounter was just casual play.

And after seeing Allen's platform battle record, Feng Yi was more convinced that Allen's skills might have reached the top level. Even if not at the top, he was definitely at the second-tier expert level.

This so-called top and second-tier have general references. The second tier might have one or two people per city, while the top level can spread over a continent or province, or a large area.

For someone like him, with a super top-level skill, a main power force might have several such individuals, and it's hard to say who would win in a fight.

Thus, Feng Yi could roughly conclude that Allen's level should be between second and top-tier. Precisely because top-level masters are very rare, he lacked the experience and foundation to fight against top-level masters, which was his advantage.

As for the difference between the top and second-tier, it wasn't that obvious anymore.

One could say, when facing average players, whether top or second-tier, the result of their battles would be no exception — failure. The gap between top and second-tier wasn't apparent, even in combos; the top-tier's tricks were also known by the second-tier, and the combos used by the top-tier were also employed by the second-tier.

The reason one is top-tier and the other is second-tier might be related to mindset, and another reason is the control of timing.

Take Feng Yi for example, when facing top-tier masters, he can successfully seize the opponent's exposed flaw, and the chance for the opponent to catch his flaw is much smaller than his chance to catch the opponent's flaw. Even if the brain can react, the hand speed cannot keep up.

There are subtle nuances, like suppressing rising, suppressing jumping, and suppressing moves — these are techniques commonly used by top-tier masters. Feng Yi often uses them too, but they're only effective against novices; when facing top-tier masters, the first thing they'd do is control distance.

If two masters fight, a top-tier master won't immediately treat you as a formidable opponent, often using flawless suppression techniques to control the opponent to a safe distance where he's out of reach for attack.

But such methods are only effective against normal masters, if used on Feng Yi, he would seize the slight flaw left at the moment the opponent makes a move and quickly find a gap to counterattack.

At this point, the disadvantage is clearly with the top-tier master, unless Feng Yi's combo goes wrong. So even for Feng Yi's level, surpassing top-tier masters relies on seizing opportunities. At this time, when top-tier masters find their opponents may be stronger, they start to shrink, avoiding proactive aggression, with Feng Yi instead becoming the aggressor.

But people cannot always attack; attacking reveals flaws, and Feng Yi is no exception. That's why he doesn't like these types of games. Once reaching this level, almost all masters he encounters play this way, occasionally one or two are aggressive, but they are a minority.

Feng Yi was unclear about what type of player Allen was; he guessed Allen tended towards aggression, precisely because he had just started playing this game and didn't fully understand its mechanics, which led to aggressive tendencies. This is a common mentality among most players.

What Feng Yi couldn't speculate was whether Allen's ranking belonged to the second-tier or top-tier, a crucial question.

If he is currently at the top-tier, at the start of the game, he would certainly try to contain and strike at Feng Yi, providing Feng Yi the best initial aggressive opportunity to potentially cut half his health.

If Allen is a second-tier expert, an aggressive move won't work because second-tier experts excel at gaining advantages and setting the pace at the game's start, often using suppression tactics right away.

If so, once Feng Yi goes aggressive, he may not outdo the opponent, but instead could be caught in a combo. Therefore, Feng Yi decided not to use his usual techniques, opting to pull back for defense, observe the opponent, realizing even he had to be cautious amid this life-threatening situation.

Meanwhile, as the combat prompt starts, the two swiftly enter the duel phase.

The character Feng Yi uses is Baozi, mastering Chinese martial arts, and excelled in distant control. Coupled with Allen's first character being Fatty, Feng Yi believed he could pull back for control.

As the game begins, Feng Yi immediately jumped back for positioning, initiating a Chi Wave attack to chip away blood and charge energy.

"Cheap tricks," Allen scornfully smirked, controlling Fatty to evade Feng Yi's Chi Wave with a small jump, rushing forward to rapidly close the distance.

His plan was simple; once constrained by long-range Chi attacks, he risked losing blood no matter what, and even defending would cost him blood, clearly unfavorable for him.

And since Fatty excelled at corner suppression, he had no reason not to suppress.

Of course, Fatty didn't choose to roll to dodge, because for a master, flipping and rolling are invincible for a moment; however, rolling up would put the body in a brief non-operational stage, giving the opponent a chance for a combo attack.

Though Fatty was bulky, his jumping ability wasn't great. Regardless, he opted for the relatively correct yet risky jump to evade the energy ball and succeeded.

Upon seeing this, Feng Yi slightly wiggled, appearing to prepare to launch another Chi Wave, remaining in a non-operational state when launching.

However, he didn't actually do so, but instead made a slight wiggle and quickly ran forward to deliver a mid-kick, immediately taking a small chunk of Fatty's health.

During this time, Allen clearly noticed Feng Yi's wiggle, suspecting the opponent was predicting his move. He swiftly moved forward, regardless of Feng Yi's move, planning to dodge and catch him off guard, potentially hitting a combo.

But Feng Yi's wiggle was merely a feint, deceptively unpredictable. Just as Allen was about to approach, unexpectedly this trickster suddenly dashed forward with a kick, leaving Allen no time to react.

Such a sly and malicious move! After the kick, Feng Yi quickly advanced and applied pressure, using light attacks to suppress the opponent's actions.

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