“Humph… what you just described…” K3 smiled as he grabbed Feng Bujue’s collar with one hand. “That does not interest me at all.”
He gathered strength in his right arm. “Regardless of the presence you adopt in your world, here, in my world, you are nothing more than a projection of data standing in my way.”
The punch moved, and a red glow erupted. If Feng Bujue was hit by this punch, he would definitely die; there was no chance of survival. This time, K3 was holding his target, and his punch was heading right toward his target. Ignoring the mysterious power that Feng Bujue employed to evade the shot from before, he was not going to avoid this incoming punch.
With a bang, K3’s punch landed on a concrete object. After the energy gathered around the punch collided with the object, the collision erupted in a glowing explosion. Feng Bujue did not feel any impact around his head at all. For some reason, Casey Jones’ Mask automatically changed from hidden to shown status, and it appeared to protect his face.
One second later, the sound of shattering occurred. The hockey mask on Feng Bujue’s face was crawling with spidery lines, and it slowly dissolved into data pieces before turning into dust.
“Your equipment, Casey Jones’ Mask, has been destroyed. The buff to your fighting mastery has disappeared. Current Fighting Mastery is Level E.” The system announced those two very horrible pieces of news.
Feng Bujue was made flustered by this sudden development, he exclaimed internally, It ruined my equipment‽
This time, Feng Bujue had indeed miscalculated. He did not anticipate that under the condition that the main character’s plot armor was unable to turn the situation around, the method it would employ to save the player… was to trigger some kind ’equivalent exchange’ rule.
This time, it was his equipment that was sacrificed. If he allowed K3 to continue using this kind of lethal attack on him, the plot armor might adopt a different method of transferring the damage away, like forcing the exhaustion of Life Points Recovery Potions in his inventory or possibly transferring the damage suffered to another teammate.
Realizing that Feng Bujue had survived the attack, K3 was slightly surprised as well, but he did not hesitate too much and applied both of his arms this time. He launched a series of punches at Feng Bujue’s body. The punches rained on Feng Bujue, but K3’s punches all landed on a layer of invisible wall, and his force was neutralized by a type of invisible material.
This time, it was not the effect of the main character’s plot armor, but instead, it was the effect of Echo Armor. The Echo Armor did not prove to be any useful when Feng Bujue was sent flying earlier because the Echo Armor’s effect was around the player’s physical body, and Feng Bujue was attacked when he was literally hugging the enemy. But at this moment, the Echo Armor came into play. Facing multiple high-speed blows, the Echo Armor proved to be a very good defensive item.
K3 had increased the speed and numbers of his punches, so naturally, the power of each individual punch decreased, and that was going to be powerful enough to overcome Echo Armor’s defense. If K3 tried to attack with another heavy punch, Feng Bujue would have to rely on the main character’s plot armor to survive, but K3 had changed his attack tactic and thought about using another skill to test Feng Bujue, yet that turned out to be worse than expected. It confused him even further about Feng Bujue’s defensive mechanism.
The attack to the head missed due to a certain mysterious reason, and a heavy punch from close quarters was neutralized by a mask that suddenly appeared out of thin air. From the changes of the data, it is impossible to tell whether he has used some kind of skill that alters one’s sensory perception. But from the looks of it, it does not appear like he activated some kind of active defensive skill…
In these few seconds, K3’s logical program was trying to predict what Feng Bujue had done.
For my high-speed punches, the attack should have covered all the fatal organs like his liver, joints, bones, and lymph. If he had a very high reaction speed, reactively, he should be able to evade all the individual attacks… and if he is a player that specializes in defense, then this attack should be able to tell me his weakness.
But… he did not perform any kind of defensive action and did not try to evade. A set of data appeared out of thin air to block all my attacks. The defensive layer only appeared when my punches were within a certain distance of his body, and it appeared precisely at the spot where my punches would have connected with his body. Is this a kind of skill or the effect of armor?
Even though the ’light’ around this kid is brighter than a normal level eighteen player, he shouldn’t be better in combat compared to the two GMs. In fact, that Zen Dream fellow should be stronger than him, but why… why am I unable to kill him?
This series of thoughts crossed K3’s mind in a flash. As a set of programed data, the range of his thoughts was very limited, but that did not mean that the speed with which he processed the information was slow. Seeing that his attacks had failed, he quickly made the decision to use a much stronger skill to deal with the enemy.
The red dragon tattoo around his right arm exuded a very powerful glow. Even through the sleeves, one could see the lines of the dragon tattoo very clearly. The powerful aura materialized into tangible arms to press on Feng Bujue’s shoulders, forcing him into place.
“You are much more resilient than I imagined…” K3 retained his condescending and chilling gaze. “But I wonder how much longer you will hold on.”
K3’s combat style was straight-forward and simple. If the previous attack did not work, he would use something stronger. If it still did not work, he would adopt an even stronger attack. Essentially, he would continue to increase his damage until the target was destroyed. So far, there was no one who could force him to employ all his strength.
In his previous battles, as K3’s strength increased, his foe would have to keep up with this increase as well. Including Wailu, all the monsters, players, and GMs that had been killed by K3-Red Iron… When they faced this enemy that got stronger with every move, none of them had managed to survive his Red Dragon Fist.
“You’re coming again?” Was Feng Bujue the kind of person who would allow the enemy to ruin two pieces of his equipment? Of course not.
Just as K3 raised his limb, Feng Bujue turned around with a rather awkward posture. He extended his leg and used the ultimate skill, Below-the-belt Shin Kick. This was the last chance that he had to use this skill. After he employed this exhaustible skill this one last time, it would disappear from Feng Bujue’s skill bar.
“Are you kidding me…” Initially, K3 was supposed to utter this as a question—it was supposed to end with a question mark—but before he could finish, the mocking question stopped short in his throat because his face was careening toward the ground.
Below-the-belt Shin Kick was only effective against monsters, and Feng Bujue was merely using it as some kind of Hail Mary. Yet, from how things had transpired, the system did treat the materialized Anomaly as some kind of monster.
Feng Bujue moved his feet and slid away from K3. He slithered to appear behind him and took out the weapon from his inventory. He did not fish for the wrench or the steel blade but armed himself with something even worse—the stool.
Zen Dream made use of this opportunity to get closer. Facing K3, who was falling to the ground, he had confidence that he had numerous ways to end this Anomaly’s life.
“You like to fight so much?” As Feng Bujue spoke, he picked up the Stool of the Eighteen Bronze People (No. 5).
“I’ve lost my equipment and utilized the last of my skills…” he grumbled in an annoyed tone. “So, I will fight with you until you’re satisfied!”
As he finished, the bench flew downward. Feng Bujue aimed right at K3’s back. Zen Dream’s sword did not just sit there either. He aimed precisely at the back of K3’s neck, and this was a blow that came with its own special effect.
———
Skill Name: Strong Edge
Skill Type: Active, Permanent
School: Fighting
Effect: Increase the damage output of the next slash by thirty percent. Must be equipped with bladed weapon when activating this skill. Cooldown: five minutes.
Consumption: five percent of Maximum Stamina Points
Learning Requirement: Fighting Master D, Level \u003e 20
Remark: A slash that goes beyond the maximum output can sometimes change the outcome of the battle.
———
This was a balanced but useful skill. Even though it was not the skill given by the title Cold-faced Killer, it was the skill most commonly used by Zen Dream. Combining its effect, consumption, and learning requirement, it was a very balanced skill. At a higher level, there probably would be a passive skill that could replace it, but before level thirty, for players using bladed weapons, this was a good skill that could be activated often.
After all, the man was called the Cold-faced Killer. At the crucial moment, he was fast, precise, and sharp, and this came with no changes to his facial expression. He was a quintessential cold-faced killer.
As the attacks landed, a strange sound echoed, and this explained one thing—K3 was not that easily decapitated. A red-colored aura gathered on the surface of K3’s skin. This defense mechanism was somewhat similar to Feng Bujue’s Echo Armor. It blocked Zen Dream’s slash fully, leaving not even a cut on K3’s skin.
Feng Bujue used the bench and wailed endlessly on K3’s spine, and the man definitely did not hold back. His attacks were not stopped by some kind of invisible force, but… he did not hear the sound of bones cracking and did not see blood seep out from underneath K3’s clothes. It felt as if Feng Bujue was giving a massage to a man with iron skin. No matter how hard he hit, the person did not feel any semblance of pain. If the bench did not possess the property of being indestructible, it probably would have snapped in two already.
This temporarily change of offense and defense lasted less than ten seconds.
K3 had never been so humiliated before. Before he performed the whole ’falling to the ground’ series of actions, he was unable to right his sense of balance. And during that process, the attacks that Zen Dream and Feng Bujue unleashed on his back and neck never stopped for even a second. But K3 managed to survive through all that. He knew very well that the moment he stood up, he would be able to regain the upper hand in the battle. Even though the skill that toppled him was very annoying, it had also proved something in his mind—these two players did not possess any ultimate skills!
K3’s analysis was not far from the truth. Indeed, neither Feng Bujue nor Zen Dream possessed the kind of powerful and risky skill that could inflict a large amount of damage, like Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannon. If they had a skill like that, the few seconds earlier would have been the best and probably only chance for them to use it.
Unfortunately, both of them were players who had a more balanced fighting style. Neither of them had any interest in learning an all-in skill like that. Therefore, during the opening that they had, while Zen Dream’s attacks had a damage buff, Feng Bujue was merely using normal attack. Thus, it was not surprising that K3 did not die. Zen Dream’s slash did exhaust some of his aura armor, but for Feng Bujue’s Fighting mastery had dropped down to E, and he was conducting normal attacks using an item that could not even be considered a weapon. Even with so many hits, he only managed to drop K3’s Life Points by five percent.
“Ha… This is laughable.”
By now, K3 had full confidence that the two he was facing did not have the ability to defeat him at all. Even if he just stood there and allowed them to attack him, they would need a whole day to take him down.
“It’s time for you to die!”
He suddenly roared and lashed his right arm around. It formed a sheath of bladed air. This attack was slower than the snap of his finger earlier, but it was still with a speed that was not easily avoidable by the two players. Its damage was off the charts. The cut that was about the size of a large blade, after it materialized into a sharpness in the air, formed a large cement pipe that was flying through the air…
One had to give applause to Zen Dream. He managed to rely on his lighting fast reflexes to narrowly avoid this blow. Facing the slash that was at the height of his chest, most people would have bent their knees and back or leaned to the side. In any case, they would have moved downward, but it was different for Zen Dream. His first reaction was to move upward. Like a monkey, he crawled up the tree trunk that was not far away from him. Even though the tree itself was cut in two after it was hit by the blow, at least Zen Dream himself was not injured by the attack.
What about Feng Bujue? He avoided the attack as well, and how did he manage to do it? It was through the work of the main character’s plot armor.
The whole process could only be described as miraculous. Just as K3 was about to move his arm and the visual information from Feng Bujue’s eyes was moving to his brain, the main character’s plot armor had already kicked into motion. As Feng Bujue’s brain calculated the necessary reaction to the current situation and ordered his body to move to evade the attack, he felt his feet slip. On the relatively level floor in front of the shrine, and without anything on the ground for him to trip on… the man stumbled and fell backward.
It was if the friction between Feng Bujue’s feet and the ground had dropped to zero at that particular moment, and any sideward force was enough to make his slide down the surface like a bowling bowl. Before he knew it, he was already looking at the sky. Even if he intended to do this action, he would not have ended up moving faster than the opportune trip.
A raging wind slashed above this body, and Feng Bujue literally lay down and successfully avoided the attack. The attack was around half a meter above the ground, and that gave Feng Bujue the perfect space to avoid the attack. However, the thing that Feng Bujue worried about still happened. While he fell, the system also cried in his ears.
“Your item Life Points Recovery Potion (M) has been used.”
“Your item Life Points Recovery Potion (M) has been used.”
The two announcements rang out consecutively, and Feng Bujue felt a headache coming. Even though he was in a very dangerous situation, he remembered very clearly that he only had two medium-sized potions!
Medium-sized potions could recover fifty percent of Life Points each, but considering the reductive recovery effect from consecutive uses… Feng Bujue glanced at the life bar on his menu, and his current Life Points were at eighty-nine percent. He was correct again.
Even though Feng Bujue had avoided the foe’s attack, the main character’s plot armor had compensated it with the confiscation of his two health potions. Because the trip to the ground still knocked some life points away from his life bar, under the condition of preserving the main character’s life, there had to be some recovery.
“Curiosity kills the cat…” Feng Bujue leaped into an upright stance. “If I’d quit the scenario before running into you, all this wouldn’t have happened, but now… my losses just keep piling up.”
K3 regarded Feng Bujue and scoffed coldly. “I have no idea what kind of losses you are talking about, but I am indeed surprised that you have managed to survive until now.”
“But… this is not so bad.” Feng Bujue, to everyone’s surprise, started to laugh. “It is due to the many conditions in this scenario that I’ve been given a chance to fight with a monster as strong as you.”
At this juncture, a hot-headed person would have tossed their lives into a fight to the death with K3 due to the loss of equipment, skill, and items; a level-headed person would have instantly quit the scenario to prevent further losses and rationally gone over the decisions that had been made earlier.
Feng Bujue’s thoughts were extremely unique. He thought that this situation was incredibly rare. If he was not given the main character’s plot armor, it would have been incredibly simple for K3 to kill him; if Zen Dream was not there to provide him the support, he would have had no chance at all at retaliation.
Running into an Anomaly was already something very rare, and to engage in a drawn-out battle with an incredibly strong Anomaly, for Feng Bujue who had actual fighting experience of almost zero and a fighting mastery of E, was an experience that one could only pray for.
“I’ve said earlier, if you want a fight, I will give you one!” A red glow suddenly erupted around Feng Bujue. The color and presence was slightly different from the one K3 possessed. Feng Bujue’s was more adjacent to the color of blood. The temperature around him increased, and even the air started to twist from the heat.
Since his Life Points had already recovered, Feng Bujue chose to reactivate Body Enhancement Spell, and Death Poker also materialized in his hands.
“Oh? You’re able to yield a power like that?” K3 was a natural fighter. When he saw such fighting spirit from his opponent, he responded in kind.
For a Level three Anomaly, their intelligence was already high enough for them to possess something like a ’personality’. Even though the four Pillars of Divinity and their higher ranking officers also had their own personalities due to their uniqueness, those were preset by the system. The personality of an Anomaly was like that of human being—they could be changed and would continue to grow based on their memories and experience.
K3 was not the only Anomaly that had a battle-lust; this personality trait was quite common among Anomalies. For them, battle was a matter of survival. They were materialized data waiting for deletion, not players who could return to the log-in lobby after death. Even facing a much stronger foe, they only had one option—try their best to vanquish their enemy.
This kind of personality and way of thinking was something that was written into them by a presence that was much higher than the Anomalies. If an Anomaly was a lifeform, then since they were born, killing everything that stood in their way was their own moral compass. No one was able to say that they were wrong because only by following this rule were they given a chance at survival and evolution.
“Okay… let’s do it,” K3 said excitedly. “Kill or be killed, that is our destiny. Is it your wish to understand the Anomalies? Then to drain the blood out of your fake projection is the best way for me to communicate that to you.”