Chapter 87: Disgusting Opponents
The countdown appeared above the arena platform, and the noisy audience gradually quieted down.
The long blade was drawn from its sheath. Su Xiao observed his opponent several dozen meters away. This was a burly man with dark skin all over, about 1.9 meters tall. He wasn't wearing heavy armor, but had metal claws on both hands, each claw blade at least 30 centimeters long.
Based on Su Xiao's judgment, this was most likely an agility-type contractor. The opponent didn't hide the quality of his weapon; a golden light flickered at the claw blades, and it was clear from the look that this weapon was meticulously crafted.
[Competition, Begin!]
As the prompt appeared, Su Xiao lowered his body. Just as he was about to charge forward, a loud bang came from the front.
With a boom, the burly man named Oliver lunged forward at extremely high speed.
In almost an instant, Oliver closed in on Su Xiao. It had to be said, this contractor who specialized in "bullying matches" had some real skill.
So-called bullying matches were actually a kind of "commercial" behavior. Some contractors knew they had no hope of breaking into the top five, so they weren't strongly motivated to climb the arena rankings. Thus, they deliberately underperformed in same-tier competitions, causing their rankings to drop significantly.
For example, Oliver could probably fight his way to around 10,000th place in the fourth-tier arena, but he deliberately dropped to around 15,000th place.
Through some time of operation, Oliver accumulated a group of spectators with unique interests. Every time he was about to compete, he contacted these people through special channels.
Watching fourth-tier contractors get brutally beaten was a very satisfying experience for most workers, so they didn't mind spending a few extra Paradise Coins to watch.
Oliver was also smart enough. He would take a portion of his earnings and share it with the fourth-tier competitors he bullied, thus avoiding any grudges.
If Su Xiao fought in the arena to accumulate combat experience and climb the rankings while facing various opponents, then Oliver was purely after immediate profit.
Oliver, who could fight "bullying matches," naturally had some skill. Besides, he didn't want to offend anyone, so he fought seriously to respect his opponents.
A sound of wind breaking came from the front. Su Xiao sensed the mana in his body; it had recovered about 1,500 points.
A gleaming claw strike came straight at him. Oliver, reaching out with one hand to tear open Su Xiao's throat, frowned. For some reason, ever since the competition started, he had felt a sense of unease.
The sharp metal claw neared Su Xiao's throat. Su Xiao leaned back, intending to dodge the metal claw. Sensing this, Oliver's expression turned interesting. This was something he hadn't expected. The thought that arose in his mind was: 'A competitor at 15,000th place... is this weak?'
Just as this thought appeared, his forward-swinging claw missed. At the same time, a chilling sense of danger surged from behind him. He instinctively blocked the back of his neck with the metal claw on his left hand.
The back of his neck, left hand, and spine all felt a cold touch, followed by numbness.
With a clink, Oliver heard the crisp sound of metal hitting the ground. Part of his left hand lost sensation, and a blood-red prompt appeared.
[Warning! Your weapon (left) is severely damaged. Durability has dropped below 15 points.]
[Warning! Vital point attacked. You have suffered...]
[Warning! Unknown energy invading the body. 98% of body tissue will be paralyzed for 1.9 seconds.]
[Prompt: Your health has dropped to 1%. You have been returned to the rest room.]
...
Oliver stumbled forward a few steps instinctively. He raised his left hand; the metal claw on it was severed by one-third.
"Four strikes..."
Oliver's face showed a pained expression. He wasn't surprised that Su Xiao had taken him down in four strikes. The moment Su Xiao suddenly disappeared, Oliver had already sensed something was wrong. He was just distressed about his damaged weapon. This competition had been a huge loss.
"Stepped on a landmine, but the audience should still be satisfied. In a way, this counts as bullying too."
Oliver smiled, chose to teleport out of the rest room, and went to repair his weapon.
On the arena platform, large amounts of light particles floated in front of Su Xiao. These were the particles formed after Oliver's defeat.
"Roar~"
"This competition was interesting."
The audience was lively. They were slightly surprised at first, but quickly accepted the fact that Su Xiao had taken down Oliver in four strikes. There were no expressions of shock or dumbfoundedness.
These workers or contractors who came to watch the fourth-tier arena had been hanging around in Reincarnation Paradise for a long time. They knew that the fourth-tier arena was full of hidden talents, and any unexpected situation could occur.
Su Xiao returned to the rest room. His personal arena data refreshed.
[Competitor: Su Xiao.]
[Status: Good.]
[Ranking: 14,790th (Fourth Tier).]
[Consecutive Wins: 1.]
[Top Five Reward: Not obtained.]
Due to the low number of consecutive wins, the ranking didn't improve much. After resting for a while, Su Xiao continued to match opponents.
...
Inside a ruined building complex.
Beep, beep, beep...
A rapid electronic sound came from beside Su Xiao's ear. He had been fighting in the fourth-tier arena for over thirty hours, during which he slept once and ate a few meals.
After fighting for over thirty hours straight, his ranking had improved from 14,790th to 9,573rd, with 98 consecutive wins.
Relying on the Legendary +13 Dragon-Slaying Flash and his Blade Master skill, Su Xiao had bulldozed his way up. Among his opponents, over twenty contractors had their weapons and armor nearly destroyed by the edge of Dragon-Slaying Flash.
Dragon-Slaying Flash was too sharp. Gold-quality equipment simply couldn't block its slashes. Even unrefined Legendary equipment had no good outcome when clashing head-on with Dragon-Slaying Flash. The +13 enhancement level was no decoration.
Once he broke into the top 10,000 of the fourth-tier arena, Su Xiao began to encounter troublesome opponents. All kinds of disgusting abilities emerged endlessly.
Toxins that grew stronger after injuring the enemy, phasing abilities, extremely bizarre Nen ability specialization systems. Su Xiao even encountered an academic-style mage, though the opponent hadn't yet reached the level of a Mage Lord.
That academic-style mage was basically a turret. He only mastered three abilities: fireballs about three meters in diameter, earth spikes that could extend over 10 meters, and lightning strikes falling from the sky.
Don't think fireballs were low-level. Whenever that academic-style mage attacked, he would release at least ten fireballs. The earth spikes had a coverage area of 200 meters. The lightning strikes were a bit better, with about 3 to 5 falling each time, but they could track enemies and make turns of over 60 degrees mid-fall.
After Su Xiao used Dragon Shadow Flash to break through to close range, that academic-style mage surrendered after just one slash. That guy returned to the rest room and drank several cups of hot tea before recovering.
Half an hour later, his hand was still trembling uncontrollably. The message he left for Su Xiao was interesting: 'What kind of crazy class do you have? It's practically my natural enemy.'
Now, Su Xiao's opponent was a girl around sixteen or seventeen years old. Don't think a girl this age was cute. This fourth-tier girl was full of gunpowder. Everything on her body could explode: her clothes, severed limbs, even her hair were micro-bombs.
Under Su Xiao's feet, there were three bombs. These were biological bombs, somewhat like chameleons, able to completely block perception.
With Su Xiao's instinct ability, he naturally wouldn't step directly on these things. Over ten seconds ago, the girl kicked from about ten meters away. Of course, the kick couldn't reach Su Xiao, but she threw her shoe, causing a massive explosion with a 300-meter radius. Su Xiao was blasted to a spot above these biological bombs.
His mana was completely depleted. Su Xiao put Dragon-Slaying Flash back into his storage space.
Boom!
The explosion engulfed Su Xiao. His body turned into large amounts of light particles.
Inside a pile of rubble, a girl with only one leg crawled out.
"It hurts so much..."
The girl grimaced. Although she had won, she had been nearly cut in half. What she didn't know was that before the fight, Su Xiao only had 1,460 mana points left.