85: Chapter 85: The Birth of a Commoner's Strategy

Just when the entire internet reached a consensus that "the high-difficulty stat scaling is broken, and Level 18 is absolutely impossible," and even began petitioning Gu Yi to nerf Red Sword Brother's damage.

Inside a high-end apartment on Blue Star, in the newly established exclusive encrypted voice channel of [Atlas Academy], several top-tier players were engaged in a heated discussion.

"Old Bai, I've calculated it."

[Data Maniac] stared at the spreadsheet covering the entire screen, "Red Sword Brother's attack power after entering his berserk state, combined with the Level 18 modifiers, results in over ten thousand damage per hit. This is simply not something current players' progression levels can tank."

"Then what if we try extreme micro-management?" [Ah K] suggested, "What if we use the deployment invincibility frames of low-star Servants to perform extreme kiting?"

"No." White Night, the backbone of the group, rejected the proposal without hesitation.

He took a sip of his energy drink and said calmly:

"Don't forget the original intention behind founding our strategy group. Everyone is currently stuck at Level 18; what they need is a 'step-by-step F2P guide' that can earn them the plated etching medal."

White Night pulled up a timeline on his computer screen: "If a strategy requires players to perform retreat micro-management precise to the millisecond, that's not a strategy, that's watching a show."

"What we need to do is provide a 'fault-tolerant timeline' that even casual players, or those who don't even have many five-star cards, can use to clear the stage by deploying in order with their eyes closed!"

[Zero] gasped, "A fault-tolerant timeline against absolute stat-based one-shots? How can we tank it without a full team of five-stars?"

"If you can't tank it, then don't!" A glint flashed in White Night's eyes.

"The underlying system of 'FGO' is a very rigorous physics engine! No matter how high Red Sword Brother's attack power is, it still takes time for him to swing his blade, and he can only kill one person per hit!"

"Since maxed-out five-stars die just the same as low-star cannon fodder, why don't we treat low-star cards as the cheapest 'lightning rods'?"

White Night's voice grew increasingly excited: "We just need to borrow a whale's max-level five-star damage dealer as our single core! Fill the rest with low-star supports and taunt tanks!"

"When Red Sword Brother walks over, we throw down a Georgios and activate his taunt skill. No need to retreat, no need for micro-management, just let him die! Once he dies, Red Sword Brother's attack recovery time plus his movement will buy us at least 3 seconds!"

"Then throw down a Leonidas to stall for another 3 seconds! During this precious window of opportunity, we have our supports stack all buffs onto that max-level five-star. Before Red Sword Brother hits half health and goes berserk, one Noble Phantasm will instantly vaporize him from full health!"

"No micro-management, just deployment order and mechanic counters! This is what truly 'copying homework' is about!"

For the next ten full hours, this encrypted voice channel was filled with calm calculations and the wails of those breaking down.

"It's not working! Georgios was deployed too early! After going berserk, Red Sword Brother's wind-up animation is 0.8 seconds. Georgios only bought 2.4 seconds after tanking three hits, and Scathach's Noble Phantasm charge is still a bit short!" [Data Maniac] shouted frantically, staring at the frame-by-frame analysis filling his screen.

"Then manipulate the extreme field of view!"

White Night, his eyes bloodshot, redrew the lines on the virtual sandbox and overturned the previous deployment timing, "Wait until the very moment Red Sword Brother's toe steps into the C4 grid, then drop Georgios! Use the brief invincibility window upon deployment to forcibly swallow the startup time of his first strike!"

"But we don't have enough Cost!"

[Ah K], who was in charge of the simulations on the other side, wiped away sweat, "Deploying Mozart and Shakespeare in succession, under the modifier that reduces DP recovery by 75%, causes a 0.5-second vacuum period in DP recovery! That 0.5 seconds is enough for Red Sword Brother to walk past our core defense line!"

"Then delay Leonidas's taunt!"

[Black Cat] typed rapidly, modifying the timeline, "The attack buff he provides to the whole team after dying lasts for fifteen seconds. As long as we scrape together the cost for the two supports within the final second, the buff won't break!"

Like performing precise surgery, they dissected every inch of Red Sword Brother's movement distance, the attack recovery of every swing, and even the tick-rate of every point of Cost recovery, breaking it all down into the coldest, most rigorous data.

Failing again and again, restarting again and again.

They stayed up from late night until dawn.

Until, through various adjustments and complementary details, they managed to streamline and polish this originally low-fault-tolerance clearing timeline into a "perfect closed loop" that required no extreme reaction speeds—just following the steps led to a successful kill!

On the morning of the third day.

On the video site C-Station, a video appeared without warning and quietly crawled onto the tail end of the trending list.

Uploader: [Atlas Academy].

The video title was exceptionally eye-catching, like a nuclear bomb, instantly detonating the entire internet:

" [Pruning Protocol · Level 18 Low-End Reward] If you have hands, you can do it! Single-core Scathach + All-Low-Star Lineup, Step-by-Step F2P Strategy Tutorial!"

"What the hell?! Single-core? Clearing Level 18 with all low-stars? And 'if you have hands'?"

Countless players who had just been brutally tortured by the game, fueled by anger and suspicion that "this is definitely clickbait," flooded into the video.

However, from the moment the video started playing, the entire barrage of comments fell into a ten-minute collective silence.

In the video, White Night's Servant team consisted entirely of 1-3 star low-rarity Servants, except for a max-level [Scathach] borrowed from a friend!

Accompanied by White Night's gentle and clear instructional voice, a textbook-level piece of art unfolded.

"Hello everyone, this is Atlas Academy. In this video, we will teach you how to easily take down the Level 18 Contract. You just need to borrow a max-investment five-star single-target damage dealer from support, like Scathach, and bring a bunch of low-stars for the rest."

"Before we officially start, take a look at the modifiers I've chosen." White Night's gentle voice came from the video as he drew a red circle on the modifier panel in the center of the screen.

"When fighting the Pruning Protocol, the biggest taboo is stubbornly forcing your way through the stats. Since this is a single-core F2P guide, there's no need to be stubborn and pick the 'Enemy HP increased by 120%' modifier, which just forces unnecessary pressure on your damage output. Just follow my lead and pick these modifiers."

Following White Night's explanation, the viewers were shocked to discover that the Level 18 modifiers he chose were all "Our HP halved," "Our base HP reduced to 1," and "Max squad size reduced to 7"—restrictions that looked scary but were actually extremely clever shortcuts!

"This is the highest wisdom of high-difficulty content—playing to your strengths and avoiding your weaknesses."

White Night patiently explained: "Since our low-star cannon fodder gets one-shot anyway, 'Our HP halved' is essentially a free modifier with no penalty."

"As long as our timing is perfect and we ensure absolutely no enemies leak through, 'Base HP set to 1' has no impact at all; we only need a few utility cards, so 'Max squad size reduced to 7' is also essentially free!"

"By avoiding all the nasty stat modifiers that increase damage and defensive thresholds, and using these 'free' mechanic modifiers, you can easily reach Level 18!"