Chapter 8: The Struggle
Inside the speeding Lord's Train, Fenny was studying the contents of a stack of contracts. She intended to sign the Contract Parchment in her hand only after reviewing all the agreements.
Su Xiao was in no rush. He already held four pieces of [Origin Fragments]. There were five in total for this round, meaning only the final Grand Canyon struggle remained before entering the second round: the clash of the Lord Continent.
Su Xiao took out an [Origin Fragment], held it higher, and observed the semi-transparent crystalline shard, seeing the dense patterns within. This struggle had a total of 50 [Origin Fragments]. Barring surprises, obtaining 26 would guarantee victory.
For this type of notarized item determining the outcome of a struggle, even if he actually managed to drag Kaiser into this world, Su Xiao had no intention of attempting to fabricate one. That would be a waste of time.
He opened the bounty list on the [Hunt List: Blood Pact]. Bounty 4: Perfectionist made him frown slightly.
"Perfectionist: Obtain 15 pieces of Broken Origin before the start of the fourth round of the struggle."
Judging by this bounty, the first three rounds should each have 5 pieces of [Broken Origin] per world. The problem was the difficulty of this bounty was too high. However, the payoff was a net gain of 20,000 ounces of Space-Time Power upon completion.
Obtaining the first 4 pieces of [Broken Origin] had gone smoothly. In fact, this smoothness made Su Xiao sense the scent of a scheme. At this stage, there were a total of six enemy teams: Kane's Team, Demon Scythe Team, Witch Team, Priest Team, Hao Tao Team, and the just-eliminated Knight Team.
During the process of securing the first 4 [Broken Origin] pieces, Su Xiao hadn't felt any pressure from other participants. It was normal for Priest Team and Hao Tao Team to stay hidden, but Kane's Team and Demon Scythe Team should have come to compete, especially Kane's Team. In terms of overall strength, they were among the top three teams.
There was only one possibility for this situation: someone was secretly preventing these teams from acting. This way, the first 4 [Broken Origin] pieces would inevitably fall into Su Xiao's hands. Don't forget, [Broken Origin] was an item that dropped upon death. Even if someone obtained all 50 pieces a second before the struggle ended, it wouldn't be decisive.
From this perspective, there was only one possibility: Priest was secretly holding back Kane's Team and Demon Scythe Team. The reason was that in the plans of these two Violator teams, they were destined to deal with Su Xiao in the final round. Even more so, in Hao Tao and others' plans, the Dawn Ruins were meant to be Su Xiao's burial ground.
Thus, the more [Broken Origin] pieces Su Xiao obtained before the final round, the more advantageous it was for the Violators. After all, obtaining [Broken Origin] didn't immediately boost combat power. Moreover, once holding over 26 pieces, one would inevitably adopt a cautious mindset, leading to hesitation in a life-or-death battle.
This plan was very much Hao Tao's style: either win everything alive, or die in this struggle.
But for Hao Tao to go to such lengths for a single struggle victory was somewhat unreasonable. The preparations he had made before were too extensive. His attitude clearly indicated he intended to defy fate in this world progress...
Suddenly, Su Xiao realized what Hao Tao wanted. For others, it would be wishful thinking, but Hao Tao, with all attributes at 800 points and having maxed out the potential of his numerous passive abilities, indeed had the qualification. What he was truly eyeing was highly likely the [Origin Stone: World].
"[Origin Stone: World (Description): You possess the 'Qualification,' but you are not the only one.]"
A more straightforward interpretation of this sentence was: you are the chosen one, but not the only one. The reason for not being the only one was that this 'Qualification' could be seized.
From this perspective, all of Hao Tao's previous preparations began to make sense. It was common to hear of Hunters pursuing Violators, but it was indeed rare for Violators to target a Hunter.
Su Xiao welcomed this. The reason was 'Bounty 4: Perfectionist.' Hao Tao's plan perfectly aligned with Su Xiao completing Bounty 4. When it came to the final round's clash, he naturally wasn't afraid of the Violator teams.
Besides Bounty 4, the war mission issued by Apocalypse Paradise had rewards that were equally hard to refuse. If he obtained 26 pieces of [Broken Origin] and held them until the end of the struggle, the rewards would be [Apocalypse Supply Crate ×5], [Sanctuary Chest ×1], and [Apocalypse: Honor Badge].
Especially the [Apocalypse: Honor Badge]. Although it couldn't be traded, it could be sold to Apocalypse Paradise for a value of up to 5 million Soul Coins. For a Technique Grandmaster about to advance to Supreme, the allure of 5 million Soul Coins was immense.
"Really... is this okay?"
Fenny spoke with a hint of nervousness.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. His gradually softening gaze made Fenny realize she couldn't hesitate any longer.
"Alright, I trust you."
As she said the words 'I trust you,' Fenny almost added a sob. The benefits of boarding this pirate ship were indeed plentiful, but it was equally taxing on the nerves.
Su Xiao took out an old-fashioned typewriter. Baha took it, skillfully adjusted it, and began using it to send a message to Kaiser. The content was as follows:
'Danger, need reinforcements, massive gains, world coordinates, ψ10, μ7.22.ρ1685.β53.η655, team number, 001566952, wait for opportunity, Arbiter identity, join team.'
Apart from the necessary information, the shorter the message, the higher the chance of it being sent. Baha attempted to send it. The first attempt failed, and the old typewriter immediately aged a bit more. It tried again, and the typewriter began to operate, typing out the pre-entered content until completion.
After waiting a few minutes, the typewriter operated on its own, producing the content:
'Currently in Reincarnation Paradise, can reinforce immediately.'
Kaiser was actually inside Reincarnation Paradise. This was highly unusual. Given Kaiser's status as an Arbiter, he was most likely in the Ninth Rank battlefield, serving as an Arbiter under the notarization of the Void Tree.
But considering Kaiser's flexible Arbiter identity, he had probably been expelled from his current world this time. If his guess was correct, Kaiser had paid this price to give his allied participants in that world a huge advantage. Now, an old friend was requesting reinforcements, which was a perfect coincidence.
Su Xiao had Baha send another message, the content being:
'Temporary Arbiter identity, transmit coordinates, ψ10, μ7.22.'
After sending this message, Su Xiao took out an iron bucket that looked like a small trash can. After waiting for over half an hour, a loud clatter came from inside. It was Kaiser transmitting something over. Given the current world, ordinary means couldn't transmit anything, but this thing resembling a small trash can was Kaiser's 'Kaiser Brand Receiver.' Besides receiving bizarre items, its success rate for receiving normal items was less than 0.2%.
Opening the small trash can, Su Xiao took out a metal badge marked with a φ symbol, looking as if it had been soaked in the deep sea for tens of thousands of years. He pressed it onto the Contract Parchment, and the metal badge merged into the parchment, turning into a seal pattern.
"Sign."
Su Xiao looked at Fenny. Fenny looked like she was about to cry. It wasn't that she was dragging her feet; this was 7,875 contracts! In her entire life, she had never signed, let alone seen, so many contracts.
Clang~
The long blade was drawn, calmly resting against Fenny's neck. The ceremonial feel was instantly heightened. 'Forced by circumstances,' Fenny, under 'life-threatening coercion,' could only 'reluctantly' pick up the contract pen and sign.
To be fair, this healing-type girl was very clever, knowing to leave herself an out. If things went wrong later, she had the chance to apply to Apocalypse Paradise for a re-evaluation, citing that she was coerced, with a blade at her throat. She was desperate; she even cried.
As Fenny signed the contract, she immediately received a flood of prompts and warnings. Before she could understand what was happening, the most significant prompt appeared.
[Prompt: You have been expelled from the team by the team leader.]
After Fenny was kicked out of the team, the member slot she occupied didn't become vacant. The reason was that through a large number of contractual operations, Su Xiao had put a 'Temporary Arbiter Vest' on Fenny. 99.99% of Hunters couldn't do this. The reason he could was due to Kaiser's flexible Arbiter identity.
Kaiser often hovered between being a full Arbiter and a reserve Arbiter. As a result, his reward determination mechanism included items like 'Temporarily Grant Arbiter Identity,' similar to how Su Xiao could obtain items related to 'Negative Charm Benefits.'
Through the item transmitted by Kaiser, combined with Su Xiao's authority as a Hunter and his mastery of contracts, he successfully put an Arbiter vest on Fenny that would only last half an hour. The problem was that the fit of this vest was very poor. Using this, after kicking Fenny out of the team, the member slot she originally occupied would inevitably be left with only a vest.
To prevent Fenny from being directly eliminated, Su Xiao pulled her back into the team. He had tried this with the Ghost Witch, Vile, before; kicking her out and pulling her back within 60 seconds was feasible.
As soon as Fenny returned to the team, she found that the member slot she had just occupied was taken. Moreover, the avatar corresponding to this slot had turned a murky gray. The next second, the head of a cunning, scrawny little old man appeared on it. Seeing this cunning, scrawny little old man, Fenny's first thought was of a treacherous goblin.
Logically, Kaiser couldn't join this team. He was an Arbiter of Reincarnation Paradise. And indeed, that was the case. Operations were operations, but when facing the notarization of the Paradise, one had to comply. Kaiser was immediately expelled from the team.
It was worth noting that because Kaiser had maximized his 'talents' as an Arbiter in the previous Ninth Rank world, he was not only expelled back to Reincarnation Paradise but also demoted to a reserve Arbiter. Before coming this time, Kaiser used a peculiar item to temporarily regain his Arbiter identity.
This had two advantages. First, it corresponded to the temporary Arbiter vest within the team. Second, after successfully arriving, if he remained an Arbiter, he would inevitably be banished from this world. The problem was that as soon as he arrived, his 'Full Arbiter' identity expired. In the notarization judgment, a reserve Arbiter without actual authority was not a target that needed immediate expulsion from the struggle.
Moreover, Kaiser immediately used a peculiar item called 'Civilian Imprint.' Its characteristic was temporary localization, meaning that in the subsequent ten-plus days of judgment, he would be judged as a native.
One of Kaiser's best abilities was to replace an identity after entering a world, such as a quartermaster or warehouse manager. After stabilizing with the 'Civilian Imprint,' he immediately activated his ultimate move. In other words, Kaiser was now the Quartermaster of the White Horn Tribe within the Raindrop: Half-Beast Tribe.
After this series of operations, the probability of Kaiser being banished from this world was infinitely close to 0. Note, it wasn't truly reduced to 0. This was also Kaiser's most brilliant move. If it were truly reduced to 0, it would correspond to an in-depth notarization. His operations couldn't withstand deep scrutiny. Instead, this incomplete operation kept the notarization at a preliminary stage.
With the operation complete, Su Xiao, under Fenny's hopeful gaze, dissolved all the contracts. This relaxed Fenny, and she silently decided that in the future, when signing contracts, she must observe carefully. It seemed that strange knowledge was somewhat useful to Fenny after all.
Under Fenny's puzzled gaze, Su Xiao took out a Soul Coin.
Ding~
The Soul Coin flew up. As it fell, a hand caught it.
"My dear friend, Kaiser isn't late, is he?"
Kaiser's sudden appearance made Fenny wary. She asked, not very confidently:
"Is this... the old friend you mentioned?"
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. Kaiser rubbed his hands together, a sly smile on his face, and said, "Madam, I've recently concocted some top-grade potions. Are you interested?"
As he spoke, Kaiser pulled out a product list. Fenny took it uncertainly, and a list of potions appeared before her eyes. From her gradually widening pupils, the 'potent' potions she saw shocked her naive and unsuspecting heart.
"Are the prices of these potions... correct?"
"Of course. I have a connection with healing types," Kaiser said, suddenly choking up a bit. He continued, "To be honest, without the help of a certain healing type, I wouldn't be alive today. So I decided I must repay healing types well. This beautiful, elegant lady, are you interested in these potions? I'll give you 20% off, and I can issue an invoice."
"Well..."
Fenny was clearly tempted.
Just then, Su Xiao spoke, "He's one of us."
"Tsk~"
Kaiser scratched his head a bit, muttering why Su Xiao hadn't said so earlier. This left Fenny bewildered. Seeing her expression, Baha took out a nano-level microscope from the team storage space. Amidst Fenny's confused look, he handed it to her, telling her to put it on and re-examine the attributes of those potions.
From Fenny's expression, which showed she was beginning to question life, it was clear how shocked she was by the 'hidden attributes' of these potions. After a moment, she swallowed, quietly moved to Su Xiao's side, and lowered her voice to ask:
"Is this old friend of yours really an Arbiter?"
"Occasionally."
"Occ... occasionally?!"
Fenny felt she was absorbing too much strange knowledge. Could the identity of an Arbiter be 'occasional'?
Ignoring Fenny's scattered thoughts, Su Xiao poured Kaiser a cup of Soul Tea. Kaiser smiled, picked it up, and after a few cups, he was full of liquid.
"It's like this. I recently received a hidden mission..."
Su Xiao explained the situation of the [Hidden Mission: Curse Origin]. This mission had three main themes: 1. Synthesize the Curse Finger, 2. Purify the curse power within the Curse Finger, 3. Use the Curse Finger to open the door at the Curse Land: Decaying Blood Sea: Secret Island.
The most tedious part was the purification, and that was the problem. Su Xiao didn't have that much time to waste on this mission, so he killed the guiding NPC. This also meant he couldn't find the subsequent mission NPCs responsible for the purification.
Su Xiao took out the large amount of [Primordial Water] he had just obtained. Kaiser picked up the [Curse Index Finger], shook his head, and sighed:
"This is actually a container for sealing a curse. Its characteristic is absorption, extremely powerful absorption of curses. So to extract the curse power from it..."
At this point, Kaiser shook his head again: "This is... difficult to handle."
"5 ounces of Space-Time Power."
Su Xiao made an offer.
"At least 3,000 ounces."
"10 ounces."
"No, no, too little. Below 2,000 ounces, I won't take this commission."
"200 ounces."
"Deal."
"Cough~"
Fenny, who was drinking tea to calm her nerves, was successfully choked by the price difference.
Having received the payment, Kaiser was reliable. He took out a new generation of [Ouroboros Stone Tablet], then various bizarre items, and finally a large wooden barrel. He put all these things inside, slapped the Ouroboros Stone Tablet onto the outer wall of the barrel like mud.
He poured in a suspicious and murky liquid, took out a large club, and pounded the contents like mashing garlic. That wasn't the end. He poured the black liquid inside into a large cauldron. Seeing this, Su Xiao immediately stopped the Lord's Train.
Under a large tree on the grassland, Kaiser was busy in front of the bubbling cauldron. When the time was right, he threw the Curse Index Finger inside.
Did you think Kaiser's operation ended there? Of course not. This was just the beginning. Kaiser used a red dye to draw a sacrificial array on the ground. After thinking for a moment, he took off his shoes and placed one sock at the center of the sacrificial array. Before the unknown evil god opposite could react, he immediately chose to sacrifice this sock.
After a brief calm, the sacrificial array began to tremble. A twisted, multi-layered fanged maw emerged, opening in anger, emitting a roar that could shatter the souls of living beings. But just as the roar appeared, Kaiser threw his shoe inside.
Seeing this, Fenny, hiding inside the train, suddenly felt that this unknown evil god was a bit pitiful. The evil god, usually the perpetrator, had become the victim this time.
"Ugh~!"
The evil god's maw made a retching sound, then vomited violently. Kaiser joyfully stepped forward, holding a large magnet-like suction device. Several objects flew out from the filthy vomit and stuck to it.
With a thud, the evil god's maw collapsed to the ground, occasionally twitching with foam at the mouth. Seeing this, Kaiser quickly took out a large glass bottle, poured the now-cooled liquid from the cauldron into it, including the sealed finger.
Like an IV drip, Kaiser inserted several tubes extending from the bottom of the large glass bottle into the protruding veins of the evil god's maw. Due to the evil god's maw having an extremely powerful devouring ability, combined with Kaiser's treatment and curse extraction of the [Curse Index Finger], the dense curse power inside was drawn out through the viscous liquid and absorbed by the evil god's maw.
This time, the evil god's maw was truly unlucky. Attracted by the sacrifice, it didn't devour any souls, ate a smelly sock and Kaiser's exclusive weapon: Right Shoe, and was finally forced to drink a bowl of curse soup.
Crack, crack, crack~
The sacrificial array shattered under the evil god's maw's struggle. The maw sprayed green juice and quickly retracted into the sacrificial technique, disappearing. It seemed that in the near future, this unknown evil god would have psychological trauma regarding sacrifices.
"My dear friend, it's done."
"..."
Su Xiao took the [Curse Index Finger] and simultaneously traded 200 ounces of Space-Time Power to Kaiser.
[Prompt: Detected that your held mission item, Curse Index Finger, has been purified.]
[Detected that you have not executed the specified content related to this mission.]
[Your mission execution progress is 1.5%.]
[Your mission completion rate is 295% (Maximum purification of the curse power within the Curse Index Finger).]
[Judging...]
...
The prompts stopped here for now. It seemed that in Apocalypse Paradise, there weren't many who did missions like Su Xiao.
[Hidden Mission: Curse Origin: Second Ring (Completed).]
[Mission rewards have been accumulated to the next ring.]
[Hidden Mission: Curse Origin: Third Ring (Completed)...]
[Hidden Mission: Curse Origin: Fourth Ring (Completed)...]
[Hidden Mission: Curse Origin: Fifth Ring (Completed)...]
[Hidden Mission: Curse Origin: Final Stage (Activated).]
[Hidden Mission: Curse Origin: Final Stage.]
Difficulty Level: Lv.95++++
Mission Brief: Must hold this [Curse Index Finger] and go to the Curse Land: Decaying Blood Sea: Secret Island to activate the hidden mechanisms on the island.
Mission Time Limit: Activated upon entering the Curse Land. The mission time limit will then be 10 natural days.
Mission Reward: Determined based on the final accumulated completion rate.
Mission Penalty: Forced Execution.
...
It seemed that Su Xiao's peculiar way of opening this mission had caused Apocalypse Paradise's mission judgment to take a different approach as well. Otherwise, the mission penalty wouldn't have been Forced Execution.
When the group returned to the train, Fenny was still questioning life. The amount of strange knowledge was too much, and her mentality was cracking. Especially after personally experiencing skipping four entire mission rings, she really wanted to be alone. From her expression that seemed to say, "I'm not going to become a Violator, am I?", one could somewhat understand her feelings.
After Kaiser boarded the train, his eyes began to gleam with a green light. But since it was an old friend's stuff, he only admired it, not enough to be greedy. Sitting back in a recliner and enjoying himself was a must.
Su Xiao went to the bedroom, set up the mixing station, and began concocting a potion using the [Divine Blood Fruit]. After switching to the 'Miracle Maker' title, it only took a little over two hours to enter the cooling phase. A moment later, a potion with a dark red liquid and ice-crystal-like substances appeared.
"[Divine Blood Secret Medicine (Perfect): Permanently increases HP by 158,000 points upon consumption. Slightly improves physical constitution and wound recovery speed.]"
Su Xiao downed the [Divine Blood Secret Medicine] in one gulp. He felt as if he had drunk strong liquor. Just then, a prompt appeared.
[Prompt (Void Tree): Detected that the Hunter currently holds [Broken Origin] ×4 pieces. Before the relevant war branch mission is released, you have seized all [Broken Origin] pieces owned by the two major forces of this world.]
The first round of the World Struggle had been going on for less than three days. Logically, the first round, totaling 12 days, would have the first four days for participants to familiarize themselves and develop in this world. On the fourth day, the war branch missions for seizing the Three Elders and the Swamp King would be released. But the current situation was that by the third day, these native strongmen had either been killed by Su Xiao or had backed down.
[Prompt (Void Tree): You currently hold [Broken Origin] ×4 pieces. You may choose to accelerate the deployment time of this round's [Broken Origin] ×1 and [Rare Material]. If you make this choice, this round's deployment will be set for tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM (approximately 13 hours later).]
[If you choose to proceed with this early deployment, the corresponding [Rare Material] quantity will be increased by 100%.]
There was no need to choose. Given Su Xiao's current state, participating in the Grand Canyon struggle was no problem. Moreover, the train route he had set was heading towards the Grand Canyon.
[As the Hunter is the facilitator of this early material deployment, you may now know the types and quantities of the deployed materials. The total is as follows:]