If there was one word to describe this plan, that had to be despicable. But then again, one had to admit that it was indeed a foolproof plan. Galileo and Copernicus only needed three seconds to understand Feng Bujue’s plan. The two had been working together for a long time, so without even any communication, they retreated at the same time and yelled at the three from Regulation, “We don’t have the plot armor, so we shall stand back for now!”
Invincible Champion and Ye Zhi hesitated. They turned to Zen Dream. As the leader of this small unit, he had the responsibility to make the decision.
“The two of you follow the GMs.” Zen Dream’s attitude was surprisingly calm. “I will stay with Brother Feng.”
Seeing his teammate wanting to stop him, he instantly added, “There’s no need to persuade me. Even if I die, it won’t cause Brother Feng’s plot armor to disappear, so it’ll be fine.”
With a few words, K3, who stood ten meters away, sensed something. He did not wish for his foes to communicate any further. With a bounce, he charged forward.
Since this was the world where Sakura Town was, K3’s power could not be compared to when he was in the Kingdom of the Dead. However, even so, the strength and speed he showed was still very impressive. Compared to the GM’s moves earlier, he might be even better.
However, to everyone’s surprise, someone managed to stop him alone.
Zen Dream, this fella who wasted all his Game Coins on cigarettes, beer, and perming his hair so that his apparel consisted of the newbie’s attire and Regulation’s coat. In that moment, there was a suffocating sharpness in his eyes.
His body moved, and the blade came out of its sheathe. His wrist turned, and the two forces collided. Zen Dream’s skill might appear reckless, but it was actually carefully calculated. He not only stopped K3 from moving forward, he also used a difficult angle to launch a slash that would be hard to evade. This forced K3 to stop his attack and use his right arm to block the blade.
In terms of combat, when both parties had extreme reaction time, the actions that could be completed by players and the accuracy of the action carried out by the players were a standard to gauge the difference between an expert and a normal player.
Of course, this was merely a difference between an expert and a normal player, not the difference between two experts. Ignoring extenuating factors like luck and the environment, within a structured and scripted exercise, the thing that was compared between two experts was… still talent.
“Oh? Interesting.” K3’s eyes moved to fall on Zen Dream’s face. “Even a player can do this much…”
Before he finished, the situation changed again. Two arms came from behind him, crawling underneath his shoulders. They bent upward, locking his shoulders in place.
Naturally, it was Feng Bujue who used this Lu Shan Ascending Dragon. By then, he had already activated Body Enhancement Spell, and that was how he had managed to do all that before the Anomaly even had the chance to react. Now, Feng Bujue could not care less about the loss of Life Points. After all, he would not die with the plot armor intact. Without the skill, he was afraid that his current status was not enough to detain the Anomaly.
“Go! Why are you guys standing there‽” After detaining K3, Feng Bujue turned his head to yell at the other four. Invincible Champion and Ye Zhi shared a quick look before finally moving away. The two GMs saw that they had finally moved and also moved to follow. They rushed to the front and led them away from the battle.
“Do you two think this is fun? Playing hero?” K3 laughed coldly before his expression dropped. “Oh, no wait, heroes will die, but you’ll only get transported.”
This last sentence was said with the deepest condescension.
“We just wish to talk to you,” Feng Bujue said. “Right, Brother Zen?”
Zen Dream then realized how cunning Feng Bujue actually was. On the surface, Feng Bujue’s plan looked like he was about to gain the plot armor and challenge the Anomaly in an invincible state to help the GM with their cleaning job. But in reality, the other benefit of this plan was that he was able to chase the other members away so that he could communicate with the Anomaly alone. With the GM gone, he could try to negotiate, and if that failed, he had the plot armor for the ensuing battle.
Zen Dream was there to collect information. For him, communicating with words instead of punches was definitely better. Thus, he followed Feng Bujue’s lead and added, “Indeed, er… Mr. Anomaly, if you are willing to have a temporary truce…”
But K3 stopped them both.
“My relationship and position in relation to you… is like the lobster in the restaurant tank and the customers that walk in for dinner. Is there really a need for words?” His tone turned heavier, and a shocking pressure exploded from his body. He not only shook Feng Bujue loose, he also bounced Zen Dream’s blade away. “Do you think I have to answer your questions‽”
It was okay for Zen Dream as he was merely forced back by a wave of energy, but Feng Bujue was hugging the man tightly when he activated the skill. He was peeled off the Anomaly and knocked back by the wall of energy. He knocked into the column of the nearby archway.
With a crack, Feng Bujue’s body snapped the solid column, which was so huge that one person would not have been able to hug it. His Life Points instantly dropped to one percent, and that caused Body Enhancement Spell to deactivate automatically. The archway tipped forward since the column that supported it crumbled, and it was careening toward where Zen Dream and K3 were standing.
By then, the clouds had cleared away. Even without lighting equipment, they could see quite a distance away. Zen Dream saw how Feng Bujue spat out copious amount of blood from his mouth and the pained grimace on his face. It was already lucky that the kid did not faint instantly. Furthermore, he had the ruined large object as reference to discern how despairingly strong K3 was.
Zen Dream’s forehead was filled with cold sweat, thinking, If he didn’t have the plot armor, he would have been killed on the spot.
Of course, he did not have the time to care about other people. The archway was still falling toward him, so he needed to evade this first. Zen Dream leaped backward as he followed K3’s movement. He retreated to a distance that he believed he could employ for both offense and defense.
K3 was unfazed. He watched Zen Dream move away and did not show any sign of moving away from the falling archway that was crashing toward him. K3 probably wanted to show off to the players, so he chose not to evade. He raised his right hand and used his index finger to press down on his thumb, and then his thumb snapped upward…
BANG!
Somewhere just above the spot where K3 was standing spontaneously combusted. This power of the finger snap was expanding in a funnel-like shape. It caused the archway that was falling to crack and shatter into pieces.
“This combat ability… It’s like a normal-sized Toguro Brother…” Feng Bujue leaned against the stump of the broken pillar and used it as support to stand up. However, a smile hung on his lips. “But this does make me wonder. How is the plot armor going to keep me alive, facing a foe like this?”
K3 slowly turned his head around. He looked at Feng Bujue and said, “Hmm? You’re still alive?”
“Huh… You thought I would die from that one move? If that were possible, I wouldn’t have spoken to attract your attention,” Feng Bujue said.
K3 really did believe that, and the reasoning was simple. As an Anomaly, he could observe the player on a data-level and roughly discern their Life Points. The skill that he had used, theoretically, should have ended Feng Bujue. Therefore, after he used that skill, he had not been paying him any attention, but to his surprise, the man stood up again and started talking. It felt like… unleashing your ultimate in the fog of war, believing that the foe would have been flattened, but somehow, the foe appeared several seconds later with last bit of health remaining.
“Humph… Actually, I’ve mastered the elusive skill of immortality…” Feng Bujue planned to mimic Duan Fei and use a bunch of bullsh*t to buy some time first.
However, K3 was not going to let him speak for long. He raised his right arm, and with a snap, a blade of air appeared and flew at Feng Bujue.
A laser-like sound entered Feng Bujue’s ears. He felt a blade of air crossing the side of his face, but he was not damaged at all.
“What…” K3 was confused. The logical simulation had told him that he would not miss, but he saw with his own eyes that the player before him did not make any high-speed evasive move.
“What have you done?” K3 seemed to have gained interest in Feng Bujue. “Twisted space or influenced my sight?”
He posed the questions based on logical presumption.
Yet, Feng Bujue gave a senseless answer. “Your brother merely tossed his head to the side to evade your attack, which was so slow that it appeared motionless.”
“Is that so?”
When K3 started the question, he was eight meters away from Feng Bujue, but when he finished it, he was already standing before Feng Bujue. “Now that you mention it… the strength and speed of your earlier attack was far beyond the limitation of the data. It was at least twice as powerful as I expected. Looks like you’re quite interesting as well…”
Isn’t that a given? I used a skill earlier after all, Feng Bujue grumbled internally, but on the surface, he used a hard to read tone. “Ah… That was just a little trick. Evaluating other people’s abilities through reading their data is a meaningless action. The way we Earthlings train is different from you. Normally, we hide our Qi and only fully unleash it during combat.”
He’s just shamelessly voicing the setting of Dragon Ball, isn’t he? Zen Dream was grasped by shock.
Feng Bujue saw the mix of confusion and curiosity on K3’s face, so he continued. “You might not realize it from my current appearance, but I’ve had an interesting past. I completed several years of hell-like training on an island surrounded by the sea, climbed up an UFO-like tower that was several million meters tall following the totems, drank a lethal drink that could unleash a human’s full potential, and successfully rescued Earth from the hands of aliens several times…”
Hey… He has not only copied the quote, he has started to tell strange stories… While Zen Dream was shocked, he instinctively reached into his inventory to pull out a bottle of bear and tossed it back to calm himself down.