# Chapter 5: Contract Surrender?
Drip, drip~
Blood dripped from the blade tip, falling onto the grass blades. Within several hundred meters of the grassland, corpses lay scattered in all directions. Those who came to participate in the World Conquest War had to be prepared to die in battle. Su Xiao had understood this clearly when he first participated in a World Conquest War.
Of the 53 contractors, three had escaped. Among these three, one had burrowed underground and escaped after Su Xiao severed one of his arms. As for the other two, they had used spatial items or abilities to extricate themselves as soon as the battle began.
It wasn't just these two who had escape-type items or abilities; many others did as well. Unfortunately, their luck was poor. Just as they were about to escape, Su Xiao cut them down. In that situation, whoever fled first was who Su Xiao prioritized killing.
Holding his longsword, Su Xiao surveyed his surroundings. One person still survived.
Several dozen meters away, a white-haired girl sat kneeling on the grass, her dress stained with blood—both her own and blood splattered from other contractors.
"Impossible... how could there be a seventh-rank contractor?"
The white-haired girl muttered to herself. Clearly, she had mistaken Su Xiao for a seventh-rank contractor. In truth, this was understandable. Su Xiao's strength was already at the pinnacle of the sixth rank. After awakening the Azure Shadow King, his combat power had risen to the early seventh rank.
There was a massive difference between seventh-rank and sixth-rank contractors. This was a watershed moment. Many contractors got stuck at the sixth rank, some forever.
One of the conditions for advancing to the seventh rank was having a single attribute break through the 150-point barrier. For sixth-rank contractors who focused on single or dual attribute growth, this wasn't impossible—they just got stuck at the sixth rank for a while, accumulating attributes.
What was truly difficult was breaking through the 150-point attribute barrier. The more main attributes one had, the harder it was to break through. Many contractors with single or dual attribute growth got stuck here. Some died; more failed after two attempts and lost their chance to advance to the seventh rank.
Don't think one could keep accumulating resources at the sixth rank forever. In this situation, the rewards from each world experienced would become lower and lower. Even if one survived many times by luck, the consecutive low ratings would cause them to regress from contractor to worker, losing their qualification to pursue power.
This kind of worker had absolutely no chance to turn things around. However, those who failed their first trial world and became workers still had a chance to become contractors again.
The white-haired girl's eyes lost focus. She knew she was doomed. Just moments ago, a contractor from the same paradise as her had requested a 'contract surrender' with the enemy, but the enemy hadn't even acknowledged it.
The so-called contract surrender was a unique feature of Apocalypse Paradise—there was no other like it. When two Apocalypse Paradise contractors fought and one side was defeated, they could request a contract surrender, paying 50% of the resources in their storage space and 15% to 35% of their equipment. Both parties would then sign a contract. Of course, even within Apocalypse Paradise, this situation only occurred occasionally.
This kind of thing had basically never happened in Reincarnation Paradise. After being defeated, forget about surrendering—even calling someone 'dad' was useless.
The white-haired girl's lifeless eyes looked toward Su Xiao. Soon, light returned to her gaze.
"Pfft~ I won't submit to you."
The white-haired girl suddenly became brave. Whether she lived or died, she decided to die with dignity. The enemy was brutal, but his brutality was impartial. He wouldn't show any mercy because of her gender or appearance—he would directly behead her with one slash. Conversely, he wouldn't underestimate her because she was female, but would treat her as a life-or-death enemy.
The target Su Xiao had been cutting down earlier wasn't the white-haired girl, but a contractor in front of her. After Su Xiao killed that contractor, his longsword followed through and slashed across the white-haired girl's chest and abdomen. Since only the tip of the blade grazed her, the wound was only a few centimeters deep.
The white-haired girl tried desperately to forget this point. Even though she was a perception-type, the fact that she had almost been killed as an afterthought was too humiliating. As proof of her battle, she checked the combat information to see if her earlier attack had injured the enemy. The combat information read:
[Warning: You are being invaded by an unknown energy.]
[Warning: Your mana has been burned by 337 points. You have received 1,315 points of true damage.]
[You have received 81 points of true damage (Demon Mark) + 516 points of slashing damage (Light Slash Wound) + 317 points of blade damage (Light Slash Wound) + 435 points of damage ignoring physical defense (Living Being Severing)...]
[Your physical defense is temporarily reduced by 8%.]
[You have been paralyzed by an unknown energy. Effect lasts 2.9 seconds.]
Seeing that string of damage judgments, the white-haired girl felt like crying. She didn't even know how she had survived. After taking that one slash, she had directly collapsed from near-death exhaustion.
In truth, Su Xiao's slash hadn't fully utilized the power of the Dragon-Slaying Flash. The reason was that the enemy he intended to cut wasn't the white-haired girl—his blade had only grazed her.
The judgment of slashing damage and blade damage was different from the true damage of the Azure Steel Shadow. Azure Steel Shadow could invade the enemy's body as long as the blade struck them, burning their mana and causing high true damage.
As for slashing damage and blade damage, the damage intensity was determined based on the location of the slash, the depth of the wound, the organs injured, and so on.
For example, if Su Xiao used the Dragon-Slaying Flash to sever an enemy's finger, even though the Dragon-Slaying Flash was extremely sharp, the maximum damage intensity the enemy would receive was finger-severing damage.
Of course, this didn't mean the sharpness of the Dragon-Slaying Flash was useless. If it cut into the enemy's torso and injured their organs, the damage intensity caused by the Dragon-Slaying Flash would completely surpass the Azure Steel Shadow.
If it struck a vital point, with sufficient sharpness to completely break through the enemy's physical defense and sever their head, then no matter how high the enemy's health points were, it would be a one-slash kill. There was a judgment called 'vital point instant death.'
"Come on... I'm ready. I'm a contractor. I always knew this day would come. Pursuing power comes at a price."
The white-haired girl knelt on the ground and lowered her head.
Clang.
The longsword slashed through without hesitation. Fighting an enemy was a life-or-death struggle—this was the simplest, purest principle.
Su Xiao lightly flicked the blood off the Dragon-Slaying Flash. The gleaming longsword returned to its sheath. Against 53 contractors, 3 had escaped, and 50 had been killed.
Following the direction indicated by the prompts he received, Su Xiao headed toward his own base camp. The airship had already landed, and the struggle for the Space-Time Power Condensation Body was about to begin.
In this battle, Su Xiao had gained a total of 183 merit points. Moreover, when the battle ended, his mana had fully recovered.
Actual combat was the key to testing abilities. The Shadow Flame state was very strong—the boosts to speed and true damage were beyond reproach.
The enhancement of self-developed blade techniques was also an extremely strong point. However, there were limitations in this regard. Although each technique had been strengthened into a finishing move, the stamina consumption had also increased significantly. They weren't unusable, but they had to be used cautiously to avoid running out of stamina during chaotic battles.
If Bubu Wang was nearby, this situation could be greatly alleviated. Bubu had an aura-type equipment called [Awakening Holy Emblem]. When equipped, it formed a 500-meter range aura that increased the stamina recovery rate of allies by 20%. If there was an opportunity, this kind of aura equipment could be upgraded.
After walking for over half an hour, an ultra-giant airship appeared in Su Xiao's line of sight. His base camp had arrived.
Reincarnation Paradise
Reincarnation Paradise