Chapter 81: I Also Want Face
[You have entered the arena, please select a mode.]
[Competition Mode / Spectator Mode.]
Su Xiao selected Competition Mode.
[Competition Mode selected, please select the detailed competition format.]
[Individual Battle / Team Battle.]
He chose Individual Battle. Although he could also select Team Mode and be randomly matched with teammates, he was more accustomed to fighting alone.
Just as Su Xiao finished selecting the mode, Bubu Wang squeezed over from the side to peer at the screen ahead. This goof had followed out of curiosity.
[Matching a Hunter with an opponent...]
[Hunter's current ranking: 1230 (Second Rank).]
[Match successful. The Hunter will be teleported to the arena in 5 seconds. Please prepare.]
After five seconds, a teleportation sensation occurred. Bubu Wang, still in the rest chamber, immediately selected Spectator Mode.
Light and shadow flickered before Su Xiao's eyes. When his vision cleared, he was standing on a square arena platform measuring 50×50 meters. A transparent energy barrier surrounded the platform, and beyond it was a tiered spectator stand.
Since Su Xiao was competing in the Second Rank bracket within the top 5000, the spectator stands were nearly full.
"Wind King, I love you!!"
"The Knight is the coolest!"
Female screams rang out. Su Xiao turned his head to look at the spectator stand and was surprised to find that over 80% of the audience were young women. He might have run into another arena celebrity—this had happened many times before.
Arena celebrities earned considerable income. Contractors with good looks and decent strength could easily become arena stars.
Su Xiao looked at his opponent, who was about ten meters away. The opponent was a handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes, clad in a set of gleaming silver armor. At his waist hung a knight's longsword inlaid with several gemstones, though the gems were purely decorative. This arena celebrity's shoulder-length blonde hair was meticulously groomed, and a short beard on his chin added a touch of ruggedness to his fair face.
"Hello, I am Wind King."
The knight Wind King gave a slight bow to Su Xiao, wearing a pair of white gloves on his hands.
The moment Su Xiao saw him, he felt something was off. It wasn't that the opponent was putting on airs; from his speech and demeanor, it was clear that even if he wasn't a prince of some small kingdom, he came from a family with a long historical legacy.
This strange feeling puzzled Su Xiao. He tilted his head and stared at the opponent.
Wind King kept a smile on his face. With about ten seconds left before the competition began, he waved to the girls in the spectator stands, eliciting another round of screams.
Though Wind King seemed to be greeting the audience, he was actually watching Su Xiao out of the corner of his eye. A sense of unease welled up in his heart.
A man with the lower half of his face covered by a crimson metal mask was staring at him sideways. Although the man hadn't said anything threatening, those calm eyes made Wind King's throat go dry.
"A guy as bloodthirsty as my elder brother, huh? Not good."
Wind King muttered under his breath and silently drew the knight's sword at his waist.
The moment Wind King drew his sword, Su Xiao finally realized why the opponent gave him such a strange feeling. The opponent had no 'scent of blood' on him—none at all.
The 'scent of blood' here didn't refer to the smell of fresh blood, but the special aura generated from prolonged killing.
Most contractors had a faint 'scent of blood.' Su Xiao's was the kind so thick it was terrifying. That was precisely why contractors in derivative worlds rarely provoked him, and those who came to challenge him to their deaths had never existed.
[Competition Start!]
Several large characters appeared in the air above, and the restrictions around Su Xiao were lifted.
Dragon-Slaying Flash appeared in his hand. Su Xiao stomped the ground beneath him, launching himself like a cannonball toward his opponent, sending crushed stones flying.
Boom!
It was as if a bomb had detonated on the arena platform. Su Xiao's ferocious aura made the surrounding spectator stands fall silent.
Su Xiao's figure vanished. In Wind King's eyes, he was nothing but an afterimage. With 60 Agility points plus the equipment effect of the Acute Combat Boots, 'Rush (Passive): Running speed +27, kick technique execution speed +13,' Su Xiao's speed was ghostlike. He finally understood why Feitan from the Hunter world, despite having similar Agility, was so fast.
Sensing the oncoming wind pressure, Wind King immediately raised his knight's sword, but it was too late.
A pale blue energy shield slammed into him. With a bang, Wind King staggered back, nearly cutting himself with his own sword.
Wind King saw stars. As he instinctively swung his longsword forward, a sharp pain erupted in his lower abdomen. It felt as if a steel-forged foot had sunk into the soft flesh of his belly.
Wind King let out a 'wah' and vomited a mouthful of stomach acid. Just as he was about to unleash a big move, his right arm went numb and then lost all sensation.
Bang!
Wind King crashed onto the arena floor, rolling backward like a tumbleweed. At that moment, his only thought was that this opponent was definitely not at the level of the Second Rank's 1000th place—100th place, no, even the top 30 wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Wind King had considerable fame in the arena, with a large fanbase of female followers. So, he made a decision: losing in a hard-fought battle was acceptable, but being beaten like this was absolutely not. He also wanted face!
Wind King's backward rolling slowed. Just as he prepared to execute a kip-up and rise gracefully, transforming into a one-armed fallen soul knight, a chill suddenly touched his neck, and his vision began to spin.
Su Xiao flicked the blood off Dragon-Slaying Flash. Before the blood even hit the ground, it dissolved into specks of light.
This combo of his wasn't actually that complicated. First, he charged at high speed toward the opponent, activating an energy shield in front of him to ram into them.
When the opponent braced for the impact and prepared to defend against the energy shield, he immediately dismissed the shield, kicked the enemy in the abdomen, used Realm Severing Thread to bind the arm wielding the weapon, and severed that arm with a single slash.
With the enemy's arm cut off, they were kicked flying. During the enemy's flight, Su Xiao reached their landing point first. The moment the enemy was about to get up, there would be a brief opening, allowing him to render them incapacitated.
In Su Xiao's view, incapacitation came in three levels.
First level: Decapitation. Safety index: Five stars.
Second level: Severing all four limbs. Safety index: Four stars.
Third level: Cutting through the waist. Safety index: Three stars.
...
On the arena platform.
Su Xiao had so cleanly and decisively finished off his opponent. The girls in the spectator stands didn't erupt in anger or rejection; instead, cheers rang out.
A teleportation sensation occurred, and Su Xiao returned to the rest chamber.
[Individual Battle concluded.]
[Result: Victory.]
[Sixty-first consecutive win!]
[Hunter's ranking improved: From 1230th (Second Rank) to 1180th (Second Rank).]
Although Su Xiao had achieved 61 consecutive wins, the ranking increase wasn't significant. The Second Rank was different from the First. It could be said that the First Rank allowed contractors to adapt to Reincarnation Paradise, while the Second Rank was where things truly began.
Su Xiao was full of energy at the moment, and his strength had greatly improved. Naturally, he wanted to continue climbing the rankings.
The top ten in the First Rank received rewards, and the same applied to the Second Rank, with even richer prizes. The reward for tenth place was 3 freely distributable attribute points, and the higher the ranking, the more generous the reward.
This kind of reward could only be obtained once, and since cheating in the arena was impossible, the competition was even fiercer.
If someone fought from tenth place to first, the attribute points gained would be higher than the yield from an entire derivative world.