This is a commonly used heavy-handed technique in martial arts! In Nangong Lan's words, this kind of heavy-handed technique is generally not taught in martial arts; it must be decided by the master after testing the disciple's character. Because the power of this heavy-handed technique is really great, concentrating all the body's strength in the palm, an ordinary person simply cannot withstand this blow! At best, internal organs will rupture; at worst, it can even take a person's life.
However, Chen Xu secretly learned it.
Such a powerful move naturally needs to be programmed into a computer for real-world combat. Ordinary people, without mastering the method of generating force, could never learn it even after countless attempts, so Nangong Lan wasn't worried about Chen Xu and his group learning it. However, he hadn't anticipated that Chen Xu wasn't just practicing military combat skills; that set of "advertising gymnastics" also helped Chen Xu strengthen his muscles and bones.
After mastering this powerful striking technique, Chen Xu secretly tested it. With just one palm strike, he almost completely exhausted all his strength, and the effect... was enough to strike a sandbag on the ground with a dull thud without it moving.
Chen Xu couldn't test it on people, so he naturally didn't know its true effectiveness. This move also couldn't be used in everyday fights. First, you can't just attack anyone randomly. Second, from a martial arts perspective, the stance, the gathering of energy, the exertion of power… this series of movements is far too cumbersome, taking at least two seconds. And in those two seconds, your opponent won't be a sitting duck. Therefore, this move is probably only suitable for surprise attacks, like Guo Furong's Overwhelming Force.
A lot happened during that month.
First, Vivendi launched the "Martial Arts Tournament," a global online gaming platform, and announced that it would open the first global online martial arts tournament in six months... Registered netizens can fight online and ultimately determine the champion of the first martial arts tournament.
The champion's prize is $300,000!
This already surpasses the prize money of WCG, the highest esports tournament today!
It has to be said that Vivendi really spares no expense… Of course, it's predictable that they'll earn a lot from advertising this event. And you should know that the biggest difference between online tournaments and WCG is that the number of players registering for online tournaments will far exceed that of WCG. Moreover, with Vivendi's capabilities, there's no need to worry about data analysis and modification; they can't even penetrate the game's outer shell, let alone analyze its data.
The fact that Vivendi launched its battle platform does not mean that everyone has to use that platform to fight.
Especially for many Chinese players, many foreign software and websites cannot be opened.
Therefore, both Shanda and Tencent partnered with Vivendi and received technical support, allowing them to place "Martial Artist" on the HaoFang and Tencent gaming platforms, where the number of users accessing the platforms is always at full capacity.
Meanwhile, various martial arts schools seized this opportunity to grab market share. Currently, the top-ranked players on platforms like Haofang and Tencent are almost exclusively from a few major martial arts schools, leading to countless verbal battles.
Chen Xu and his team had nearly finished researching Baguazhang. Although it wasn't perfect, releasing it to the market as soon as possible was crucial. Each style of martial arts represents a unique way of operating, and users, once familiar with a style, are reluctant to switch. Microsoft, for example, rushed to market its Windows system before it was fully mature, aiming to seize users' operating habits. Therefore, in just one week, Chen Xu and his team released the basic moves of Baguazhang online. A group of individuals, led by the Computer Association, naturally became the "henchmen" of the Baguazhang style, defeating opponents and racking up points on platforms like Tencent and Haofang. A month later, Baguazhang's ranking rose to third in the country, second only to Wing Chun and Tai Chi.
However, as the game became increasingly popular, various problems also arose.
The most serious problem is that players from different playstyles are arguing endlessly, determined to determine which playstyle is the strongest!
This is really disruptive to harmony!
The six ministries quickly noticed this trend. Due to various reasons, they could not ban the game, so they increased their efforts to manage online speech, thereby preventing some people with ulterior motives from stirring up trouble and disrupting harmony.
But tragedy still struck.
The more stimulating and violent a game is, the more irritable players tend to be. Just like the classic game "Legend of Mir," which frequently led to player fights and even arson, "Martial Arts Master" is a fighting game, albeit an e-sports title. However, when these fights escalate, the consequences can be far more devastating. This very situation occurred in an internet cafe in Guangdong.
Back in the late Qing Dynasty, Guangdong was already a place teeming with martial arts masters, and various schools still hold influence there. After the emergence of martial arts masters, these schools were unwilling to accept defeat and quickly began to expand.
Young people are inherently impulsive, especially in a game with such intense clashes. So, in an internet cafe, several young people were playing and competing in the game. The losing side suddenly got angry, and the fighting moved from the computer to real life.
These young men are usually idle and like to form gangs. To put it bluntly, they're petty thugs.
This incident escalated significantly, with both sides calling for reinforcements, resulting in a large-scale brawl involving hundreds of people. Fortunately, no one died, but many were seriously injured and hospitalized. This can be considered the worst offline player-versus-player battle since the release of "Martial Arts Master".
In China, when something like this happens, the government usually bans the game!
Just like the Blue Speed Internet Cafe incident back then, it was caused by two middle school students arson after a dispute with an internet cafe employee, resulting in 25 deaths. This directly led to the nationwide rectification of internet cafes and restrictions on minors. In this incident, the country was also very angry and wanted to take action against "Martial Arts Master" but did not know how to do it. So in the end, Hao Aiguo could only contact Chen Xu first.
Chen Xu was furious when he heard the news. Although he hadn't been to an internet cafe for a long time, he knew the atmosphere there. And now that such a serious incident had occurred, he couldn't escape responsibility.
When Chen Xu asked Hao Aiguo how the higher-ups planned to handle the situation, Hao Aiguo explained that the game "Martial Arts Master" was currently causing significant problems. Many netizens were irrationally attacking others and other martial arts styles online, which was very wrong. Therefore, the government hoped to add real-name verification to "Martial Arts Master," requiring users to register with their real names. This should deter players, but technically, it would require the cooperation of the SMMH (Sports Management Center of Malaysia).
Chen Xu readily agreed, as the game already included real-name authentication information, which he had disabled during its release. Now, Xiao Min only needs to create an activation message and upload it to the HaoFang and Tencent gaming platforms. Once the game "Martial Arts Master" connects to the platform, users will be required to enter their real-name information for authentication; those who don't will be unable to play online.
However, this method only addresses the symptoms, because many places online do not require real names to post, and many people argue and quarrel, such as arguing on forums or bombarding Baidu Tieba.
Many young people are easily swayed and, under the malicious instigation of some people, find it difficult to distinguish right from wrong. Just to prove a point, they blindly follow others and hurl insults online.
For example, Wing Chun practitioners criticize Tai Chi, Tai Chi practitioners criticize Yi Xing, Yi Xing criticizes Tong Bei, and so on. This has led to a less harmonious relationship between the various schools.
Meanwhile, a group of foreign experts also set their sights on the Chinese online gaming platform. On April 2nd, a challenge was suddenly posted on the homepage of the HaoFang gaming platform through hacking: "Chinese martial arts are all show and no substance. They plagiarize the essence of our Korean nation, Taekwondo, but are not truly authentic. Today, our Wude Hall challenges the so-called martial arts schools of the Chinese. We must make it clear to the Chinese that what you have copied is merely the superficial skills of our Taekwondo. When facing the genuine article, you will only suffer a crushing defeat. We are the Wude Hall of Taekwondo, and we are determined to shatter the arrogant martial arts dreams of the Chinese and prove that Taekwondo is the strongest martial art in the world!"
Chapter 153 First Defeat
One stone stirs up a thousand waves!
This challenge quickly caused a huge sensation online. The forums of the "Martial Arts School" section on several major portal websites were instantly flooded with posts from agitated netizens venting their anger. For the first time ever, the netizens of the Baidu Martial Arts School forum organized themselves, that is, they abandoned their so-called portal prejudices and began to gather together to vent their dissatisfaction by bombarding the forum.
Of course, the posts that were exposed were all related to Koreans on Baidu Tieba.
At 10:00 AM sharp, the Taekwondo forum was bombarded with messages.
At 1 PM sharp, the fan forum for the famous South Korean idol group TVXQ was bombarded.
At 2:20 PM, the Korean celebrity forum was bombarded...
To people's delight, the heated online debates and criticisms of various schools of thought have all disappeared. When facing external enemies, the Chinese people are always able to instantly become incredibly united and stand together against them.
However, it's clear to anyone with eyes to see that this unity is only temporary, and there's nothing that can be done about it... To be honest, the Chinese are too clever; each Chinese person is a dragon! They don't submit to anyone else! When there's no common enemy, the Chinese are prone to infighting. Why are they prone to infighting? It's because they're too clever; they all think they're very strong and don't respect anyone else at all!
If things continue like this, there will likely be many more big problems ahead, which will be very troublesome.
However, it is indeed a good thing that attention has been diverted.
Korean bastards, utterly shameless. Although Taekwondo is a traditional art of the Korean Peninsula, it is inseparable from the influence of Chinese martial arts.
What angered netizens was that Taekwondo has only been officially established for a few decades, yet it still has the audacity to claim that Chinese martial arts are copied from them.
This is truly intolerable!
Actually, this isn't the first time the Koreans have provoked us. To be precise, it's also not the first time a foreign martial arts style has provoked us.
As early as the Republican era, Japanese samurai, in an attempt to shatter the myth of the invincibility of Chinese martial arts, repeatedly provoked the Chinese martial arts community. After realizing they were no match for Chinese martial arts in a fair fight, they resorted to all sorts of despicable means, including poisoning, kidnapping, and extortion.
The famous martial arts master Huo Yuanjia is well-known. Even after being poisoned, he insisted on continuing to fight in the ring. As a result, the Japanese army spread rumors that Master Huo Yuanjia had been killed. Utterly shameless!
At that time, the Japanese army relied on the power of the Black Dragon Society to try to break the myth of Chinese martial arts. They used this tactic a lot!
The Black Dragon Society, backed by the Japanese military, acted ruthlessly and unscrupulously. Many martial arts masters in China at the time were ordinary people, receiving no support from their own governments. Faced with such insidious tactics, they could only bitterly retreat from the arena.
In modern times, there are still many private fights between these martial arts schools. However, times have changed. Those underhanded methods can no longer be used, or rather, they can no longer be used openly.
Do you really think that things like challenging other players to do something new are no longer happening?
How is that possible?!
It's slightly better in China, since it's a society governed by law, and China strictly regulates private fights. But overseas, in many Chinese martial arts schools, it's practically a case of a small fight every three days and a major fight every five!
Furthermore, nowadays, when martial arts styles like Taekwondo and Karate want to expand into a city, they often challenge local martial arts masters. However, they're clever; they don't follow the old rule of simply closing their establishment if they lose. Instead, they humbly approach the masters with the attitude of juniors, "asking for guidance." They shut the masters down with their words, thus accepting their defeat. The masters, generally respecting their status, won't bother with their small temples. Of course, if they win, well, they'll be incredibly arrogant.
However, private feuds never have much impact. This is the first time a challenge has been publicly waged online, and this time, the impact has been enormous.
The Korean players who came to challenge the venue this time were easy to identify. Their registered names were all in Korean, but before the Korean, they had a clan name, similar to how many Chinese players create clans, but this clan name was in Chinese... Martial Virtue Hall.
Wudeokkan is one of the nine major schools of the World Taekwondo Federation, and they are the ones leading this event. However, the specific personnel who will participate are still unclear. Logically speaking, this game has only been released for about a month, so those who can play it well are probably some veteran gamers... because they are more familiar with the controls.
The members of this martial arts club quickly launched an online challenge. Their team of twenty people would challenge three opponents each day on the HaoFang and Tencent gaming platforms to compete for points.
Because of the popularity of martial arts novels, which are primarily published by Chinese masters, the HaoFang and Tencent gaming platforms have created dedicated sections for certified masters, learning from some professional international platforms. These platforms are staffed by highly skilled individuals, unlike many domestic platforms where just anyone can join.
On these overseas platforms, the points earned from winning matches can be exchanged for currency. Because high-level competition is rare, game replays have significant research value. The platforms have administrators who select exciting replays for download, charging based on download volume. As the platforms grew, they simply raised the bar, opening channels for players to compete for points. The top player in each channel could earn a certain amount of US dollars that day… This attracted even more people to participate in competitions, and some even made a living from it.
Of course, there are rules for this kind of point-scoring.
Each person's score is reset to zero every day. You can earn points by battling opponents. However, you cannot battle the same ID more than three times. After that, you must challenge someone with a higher score than you. After challenging a skilled opponent once, you must accept a challenge from an opponent with a lower score than you... In short, the rules are very complicated, and the purpose is to prevent people from registering multiple accounts to cheat.
Korean experts are keeping an eye on these Chinese expert channels.
They organized themselves into groups of twenty people, divided into ten teams, to enter the channel and start racking up points.
On the first day, all ten channels were taken by Koreans. Chinese players started shouting that newbies shouldn't go in and feed the enemy, while various factions started organizing their top players to snipe them.
The next day, top Chinese and Korean players clashed, but many were still observing, and some players, overconfident in their abilities, couldn't resist challenging them... This was a good intention, but it inevitably resulted in them becoming easy targets for their opponents. The following day, the Korean players again took first place in all ten channels.
This enraged Chinese players, sparking heated debates on forums about who shouldn't have gone up there to feed points to others… While these comments might not have been malicious, given the implications for the reputation of the entire Chinese gaming community and even the martial arts world, they resonated differently with other players.
Who wouldn't want to turn the tide? Who wouldn't want to be a savior?
Anyone who dares to step forward and fight against a top South Korean fighter, regardless of victory or defeat, is a hero!
However, reality is often much crueler than dreams. Under these rules, if you go up and give points to others, no matter what, you lose and become someone else's stepping stone, and there's nothing you can do about it.
If things had been discussed calmly, perhaps everyone could have understood and discussed it together before deciding which skilled players to send to snipe. But after such an outburst, even a mud-man like him would have been enraged! Everyone was thinking, "Damn it, I'll take you down!" So many Chinese players, unwilling to accept defeat, continued to challenge, only to end up feeding points to the other team.
"Alas, organized but undisciplined!" A group of experts from various schools of thought lamented online.
The Koreans are not invincible. Although it must be admitted that this group of people are all experts, if they were to really fight against Chinese experts, the outcome would be only fifty-fifty. It is obvious that the opponent's shooting techniques are very practical and have been carefully calculated.
Soon, news spread that the reason why the Korean experts had the courage to come and challenge this time was because of the action moves that several Korean game companies had created for this game.
It must be said that South Korea's gaming industry is very developed. Coincidentally, a South Korean game company was planning a Taekwondo fighting game, which included a large amount of Taekwondo moves. In fact, the game was almost finished, but with the sudden emergence of "Martial Artist," this Taekwondo game clearly had no market.
It's very simple. Any martial artist can do what Taekwondo can do, and the game's graphics, speed, gameplay, and agility are far superior to theirs... It clearly has no competitive edge.
However, the moves from the original game can be easily ported to this game.
The Korean company was very confident in its fighting techniques. During the testing phase, they invited a group of Taekwondo masters to provide personal guidance and also invited a group of expert players to participate in the closed beta testing.
So while Chinese players were still getting used to the game controls, these Korean beta testers were already very familiar with them and had excellent skills.
Taking this opportunity to cause trouble, they're just taking advantage of the fact that Chinese players haven't had much time to play!
As for whether it's fair or not? Hey, is it even necessary for Koreans to care about that?
Chapter 154 Internet Special Agents
For four consecutive days, top Korean players have consistently taken first place across all ten channels, which is tantamount to a slap in the face to Chinese players!
At this point, many players who thought they were very strong also became frustrated and gave up. They knew that they were not as good as their opponents for the time being. This kind of method of sending a mob to their deaths one by one was just helping others to give away points. The fact that the Koreans deliberately marked the four days in red on their website was like a knife cutting into the hearts of Chinese players.
The subsequent attacks gradually became more organized.
The top ten schools of martial arts, such as Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Yi Xing, Tong Bei, Bagua, etc., each organized their own masters to occupy the top ten channels and began to block the Korean masters.
Don't underestimate China just because it doesn't have many strong players. Although the preparations this time were much more rushed than those of the Koreans... because Chinese experts basically only spent a month practicing this game, while the Koreans practiced for several months, or even more than half a year. Moreover, the moves and techniques on the Chinese side were not yet perfect.
Even so, the two sides fought to a standstill. China's home advantage was undeniable, and their relentless attacks were very effective. Through this organized and coordinated offensive, the Chinese players successfully stole three of the ten first-place rankings, though they still trailed in the overall score.
Chinese experts have meticulously analyzed the strengths of the twenty top Korean players. For example, the most formidable player, JION, is characterized by his relentless, storm-like attacks and incredibly fast hand speed. Most people would be killed before they could even react to his attacks.
Rain, who ranked second overall, is characterized by his micro-management and ability to strike after the opponent has made a move. When facing him, you rarely see him take the initiative to attack; he always finds an opening and strikes decisively. He is probably a master in real life as well.
FLY, ranked third overall, has a very strong critical strike ability. He often finishes the battle with a deadly cross-legged strike after the opponent makes a mistake…
Faced with a formidable opponent, the Chinese masters had no choice but to take it seriously. Although they knew this was a battle utterly unfair, they reasoned that fairness didn't truly exist in this world. Even the most balanced game requires human intervention; as Gu Long aptly put it, wherever there are people, there is a martial arts world—a truth that cannot be overstated.