Chapter 71: True Colors Revealed
The survival trial ended, but there was no sensation of being teleported.
[Announcement: All contractors must reach a boarding point within half an hour. There are 12 boarding points in total, and contractors may choose any one.]
[Announcement: The trial has ended. All contractors are forcibly placed into a weapon-ban state.]
[Announcement: In three seconds, all contractors will receive a domain-level invincibility shield and high-level invisibility (effective only against creatures on the island). These effects will disappear upon boarding.]
...
A layer of golden shield appeared, with pure white feathers fluttering at its edges.
Su Xiao looked at Bubu Wang. Bubu Wang was already semi-transparent, its body surface covered in a golden shield.
Now, all that was needed was to return to a boarding point. There were twelve boarding points in total: two distributed along the island's edge, three in the ordinary areas, and seven in the red soil areas.
Struggling to stand, a sharp pain came from within his chest.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Su Xiao coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood, which startled Bubu Wang.
"It's nothing."
Su Xiao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. There was no need to fight now. With the invincibility and invisibility granted by the Paradise, no creature on the island could threaten him.
To get the contractors to board as quickly as possible, Reincarnation Paradise had shortened the time.
Su Xiao climbed out of the vertical shaft. The Black Mist Source eroded toward him, but the golden shield shone brightly, preventing the Black Mist Source from penetrating even a single bit.
Mounting Bubu Wang, the man and dog quickly rushed toward the island's edge.
Twenty minutes later, an airplane parked near the beach came into view.
The sound of waves reached his ears. Su Xiao didn't board immediately but instead looked out at the endless sea.
"What a coincidence, running into you here."
A crisp female voice came. Su Xiao didn't turn his head; he remembered this voice.
"Brother Wusan and Old Bal are dead?"
Su Xiao's words made the newcomer pause.
"Brother Wusan isn't dead. Old Bal unfortunately perished. It was all to protect us..."
"Heh~."
Su Xiao let out a cold laugh. The newcomer narrowed her eyes and lightly bit her fair thumb.
"You have to believe me. Old Bal's death has nothing to do with me. He was poisoned."
Su Xiao turned his head to look at the newcomer. She was Xiao Mihu, her clothes somewhat tattered.
"You didn't kill Brother Wusan? Got soft-hearted?"
Su Xiao ignored Xiao Mihu's words, seemingly talking to himself.
"What are you saying? I don't understand."
Xiao Mihu shrugged, smiled innocently, and hopped toward the plane.
Dragon-Slaying Flash appeared in Su Xiao's hand. Almost instinctively, a dagger slid out from Xiao Mihu's sleeve.
"Oh no~"
Xiao Mihu held a long dagger shimmering with dark purple light and stuck out her tongue.
"I forgot about the invincibility shield and weapon ban."
The long dagger flipped in Xiao Mihu's hand. She didn't look like a healer at all.
"A thief learning a healer's skills. Weird."
Hearing Su Xiao's words, Xiao Mihu pouted.
"It's a healer learning a thief's skills, actually. The one I wanted to kill most was you, not that old man."
As Xiao Mihu finished speaking, she noticed Bubu Wang looking at her with a strange expression, as if saying: 'Isn't living good? Why come looking for death?'
Su Xiao turned and walked toward the plane, no longer bothering to chat with Xiao Mihu. He hadn't noticed Xiao Mihu's abnormality at first, but when he parted ways with the team, one of her actions had caught his attention.
At that moment, Xiao Mihu had looked at the wild boar with a gaze full of killing intent. A healer wouldn't have that kind of look—it was the look of someone who killed often.
Sure enough, none of these kids in their teens in Reincarnation Paradise were normal; otherwise, they would have been eliminated long ago.
Su Xiao boarded the plane and found a random seat. Soon after, Xiao Mihu also boarded, playing with the dagger in her hand.
Neither side continued the conversation. After the plane took off, the cabin was filled only with the roar of the engines.
[Storage space has been unsealed.]
"Finally relaxed."
Xiao Mihu raised both hands, seemingly very happy.
Su Xiao raised an eyebrow. The storage space was finally usable. Not having it was too inconvenient.
He stored the Spider Empress, the Black and White Twin Guns, and the items obtained from the trial world into the storage space, feeling much more at ease.
A few hours later, the plane gradually descended, arriving at the initial isolated island.
Several planes were already parked on the island. As soon as they arrived, a teleportation sensation appeared.
[Teleportation complete. Hunter returns to exclusive room.]
[Exclusive room is an absolute safe point. No one can enter without the hunter's permission.]
[Hunter has returned to Reincarnation Paradise. Beginning settlement of derivative world rewards.]
Survival Trial: Devouring Island
Difficulty:
World Source Obtained: 36%
Tasks Completed: 3 (Hidden Tasks ×3)
Comprehensive Evaluation: None. (Survival mode trial has no evaluation.)
Hunter detected obtaining World Source in the trial world.
Beginning collection of World Source...
World Source collection complete. Beginning reward tally.
Rewards Obtained: 14 attribute points, 18,000 Paradise Coins.
Settlement complete. Rewards have been automatically deposited into the hunter's mark.
...
The trial world had no evaluation. Just as Su Xiao was about to spend Paradise Coins to recover his body, Reincarnation Paradise's prompt appeared again.
[Prompt: Hunter has completed the second-rank trial.]
[Hunter promoted to second rank.]
[From now on, the minimum difficulty of derivative worlds for the hunter is .]
[Hunter's attribute shackles have been removed. Attributes can now exceed 50 points.]
[Arena has been upgraded. From now on, the hunter will compete with second-rank contractors. Arena Champion Mark has been withdrawn.]
[Because the hunter held the Arena Champion Mark, the hunter's second-rank arena ranking has been raised to 50,000th place.]
[New ability unlocked: Derivative World Contact Platform. This function will take effect when the hunter enters a new derivative world.]
...
Su Xiao thought to himself, "Just as I expected." As he had imagined, being promoted to second rank didn't result in a "level up" situation. He still shared the same Attribute Enhancement Hall and Trade Market as first-rank contractors.
The biggest benefit of being promoted to second rank was breaking through the body's limits, allowing attributes to be raised above 50 points.
Not only that, but from now on, the minimum difficulty of derivative worlds Su Xiao entered would be . This meant he could enter some higher-difficulty worlds, such as Hunter × Hunter, Holy Grail War, and so on.
This was both good news and bad news. The bad news was that derivative worlds would be more difficult, with a higher risk of death. The good news was that the higher the difficulty of the derivative world, the faster his strength would grow, and he could obtain stronger abilities.
[Detected that the hunter has completed a hidden task, totaling three rings. Difficulty: . Checking task completion rate...]
[Task completion rate is 89%. Evaluation: Good.]
[Rewards being distributed. The hunter may choose one of the following options.]
A: 8 attribute points.
B: Soul Crystal (Medium) ×6.
C: Dark Purple Equipment (Random) ×1.
D: Honor Medal (Can waive one main task failure penalty, including forced execution penalty.)
E: Gayin Active Protein (Key material for forging, enhancement, etc.)
F: Random Skill Scroll (Dark Purple quality or above.)
...
Seeing the rewards for the hidden task, Su Xiao was conflicted. It wasn't that the rewards were low, but that each option was very generous. For a moment, he didn't know how to choose.