Chapter 66 — The Young Master's Stratagem, the Battlefield Valkyrie

Under such circumstances, the scales of victory gradually tipped toward Team Seven.

If they had been single-mindedly bent on winning, the fight would likely have been over in under fifteen minutes.

But at Tenten and Sakura's vehement insistence, the three male members of Team Seven slowed their offensive.

They kept the situation under control, experimented with more tactical variations, and familiarized themselves with the map as much as possible, preparing for the battles to come.

After all, among the other 114 teams, there were still plenty of tough opponents.

In particular, the shameless village-chief combo of the Akatsuki Corps and certain small ninja faction alliances—forget chunin; even if five jonin went in to fight them head-on, the result would be certain death.

"OK, I've got all five of them pinned down. If anyone has ideas, feel free to talk."

As she spoke, Tenten raised her hand, her jade-like fingers pulling the trigger in a blur of afterimages.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Five bullets meant five deaths for the opponents.

Although in the settings of Radiant Alliance, both enemies and allies could revive in a wondrous construct called the "Aether Well" after being killed, as the battle progressed, the time required for revival grew longer and longer.

And now, the five members of Team Seven were shamelessly using their opponents as tools to stall for time.

This counted as a benign bug, but so far only the Ino-Shika-Cho team and Team Seven had thought of it.

Their discussion could be seen by all the spectators on the big screen.

Yet it was precisely this scene that proved Konoha had not given its genin any backdoor cheating, nor let them familiarize themselves with the combat environment in advance.

...

"From what we can see, there are three routes to our base. If the other maps are broadly similar, we can develop quite a few tactical strategies."

Sasuke's expression was cold, but his ink-black eyes flickered with the flame of fighting spirit: "If our raw strength is insufficient, tactics will make up for it!"

Seeing Sasuke so full of spirit, Naruto did not spoil the mood and simply listened quietly nearby.

At that moment, he felt lucky.

His own brain might not be much use, but the other four in the team...

"Ah! Youth! My blood is about to boil!" In the distance, Rock Lee was savagely slaughtering enemy NPC soldiers.

Yeah, the other three in the team still had their intelligence above the baseline.

Having figured this out, Slacker Naruto simply sat cross-legged on the ground in the five-hearts-facing-heaven posture, trying to explore on his own the "Sage Mode" mentioned in the prophecy book and sense natural energy.

Unfortunately, without the help of toad oil, even if this game, with the data Wang Xu had added, could truly simulate natural energy, he would still find it very difficult.

"What tactics?" Tenten held her anti-materiel sniper rifle in her arms, stroking it gently as if embracing her lover.

"Two plans!"

In that moment, Sasuke was possessed by Shikamaru.

He held up two fingers: "Plan one. Target the strong! We give up some resources appropriately and intercept and kill the strongest members of enemy teams. Even if we cannot kill them, we must harass them and stop them from earning contribution, in exchange for divine grace! That way, we gain the advantage in accumulating equipment, slowly roll the snowball, and ultimately crush our opponents with irresistible force!"

"Plan two."

Sasuke's gaze fell on Tenten, and he hesitated for a moment.

Sensitive Sakura was consumed with jealousy. Her inner second personality roared madly, while on the surface she sat quiet as a white lotus.

"Resource tilt!"

"Huh?" Naruto, an excellent straight man, had an extremely high level of skill in picking up topics. With a single refined, condensed syllable, he expressed something like "How exactly do we tilt them?"

"The core of this plan is Tenten! We give her all the resources from two routes and defend the remaining route well. With her range advantage, she can blow away the vast majority of teams whose strength does not exceed ours by too much!"

Even Sakura had to admit this plan was indeed effective.

Tenten's weapon was simply too powerful. Even an elite jonin, if careless, could be instantly killed by her.

Even a fool may sometimes have a good idea, and Naruto raised an objection: "But... what if the equipment the God of Glory gives her is something she cannot use?"

"Impossible."

Sasuke the Proud said confidently: "You ask why? Because I am here."

This manner of speaking made Rock Lee, not far away, flash instantly to Sasuke's side.

"Sasuke, that line sounds so much like All Might's! Are you going to become the King of Heroes too? Then from now on, we are rivals!"

Sasuke the Proud's face cracked instantly.

He covered half his face and sighed.

He felt that when working in the same team as Naruto and Rock Lee, his brain cells died several times faster than usual.

"May I make a suggestion?" Tenten fired several shots, taking out the enemy five who had just revived and crawled out of the "Aether Well" not long ago.

"Of course." In Young Master Sasuke's mind, Tenten was the most normal teammate in all of Team Seven.

The only normal person among a bunch of freaks!

Was that not worth cherishing?

(I feel like I just insulted myself too...)

Sasuke shook his head, his tone gentle enough to make Sakura want to kill: "Please go ahead."

Tenten's little face reddened, but she quickly recovered: "If we follow plan two, my movement speed and stamina are not enough. I would waste a lot of battlefield merit."

"So that's what it was."

Young Master Sasuke looked proud: "I considered that long ago. When the time comes, just have Rock Lee carry you on his back. With his speed and stamina, there absolutely will not be any slip-ups or waste!"

"Yes! Guaranteed to complete the mission!" Rock Lee agreed crisply and decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

"Oh." Tenten was a little disappointed.

The strategy meeting ended. The enemy Ironheads still refused to surrender, so the new five-member Team Seven advanced together and destroyed the enemy's main base in one wave.

...

When the new five-member Team Seven removed their gaming helmets, many examinees had already finished their first match.

Some were wailing, some were laughing uncontrollably, and some team members were tearing into each other in internal strife...

The main reason was that the VR game was too realistic. Many people subconsciously treated it as the real world and could not let themselves go at all.

Human nature is a terrifying thing. When people believe they are about to die, how many will drag their teammates down to cushion their own fall?

From this angle, the five Ironheads who fought Team Seven could be considered relatively lucky.

Their friendship had withstood the test, their bonds had grown firmer, and their tenacity and willpower had begun to be widely praised and known to the world.

Team Seven's reputation, by contrast, had actually worsened.

This had nothing to do with fountain camping. It was purely the aggro drawn by Sasuke and Tenten.

Because Wang Xu's mischievous streak had acted up, the scene in which Sasuke proposed those two tactics had been specially marked on the big screen.

Now many girls had become his followers and given him a nickname: the Uchiha Strategist.

Though somewhat undeserved, this nickname did indeed earn him the hatred of many males.

As for the aggro Tenten drew, it all came from females, for reasons similar to Sasuke's.

One person blocking the respawn point and scoring several pentakills—such a handsome, powerful, and beautiful girl drew praise from many men, who created the title "Battlefield Valkyrie."

To avoid envy is to be mediocre. Tenten took the jealousy of her female peers lightly and behaved with great ease.