Chapter 33: Talent Awakening
Wusan’s message was quite long, and Su Xiao began to examine it carefully.
Christmas (Rogue): “The one who uses a blade, Bai Ye? It should be you, no one else would address me that way. I don’t have many speaking chances left, so this message will be messy—understand it piece by piece.
First, three high-rank contractors have entered the Holy Grail World. I suspect they used items to get in. Their goal is unclear—maybe revenge, maybe something else.
But they will kill every contractor they can find! I witnessed them wipe out a small adventure group of twelve people.
Three people: two men and one woman. One male fire-type close-combat mage (has ranged abilities, I saw it myself), one male main tank, slightly chubby, and one female controller, likely charm-specialized, focusing on control systems.
My time might be running out, Bai Ye. You’re strong. Maybe… you can survive. Also, besides the three, there might only be us two contractors left in this derivative world. If the three used items to enter this world, they can’t see this message. (My remaining speaking chances: 1 time.)”
After reading this message, which could be considered a last testament, Su Xiao felt uneasy.
Judging from the derivative world contact platform, the likelihood of Wusan lying was low. After Wusan sent this message, the platform fell eerily silent.
“High-rank contractors, three of them, hunting other contractors…”
Su Xiao took out a cigarette. Just as he was about to light it, a weak female voice came from the doorway.
“Patient… no, you can’t smoke, okay~”
It was Matou Sakura peeking in from the door.
“Who told you that?”
Su Xiao looked at Matou Sakura. With Bubu Wang’s help, the little girl’s mental state had recovered a lot.
“My mother.”
“Did your mother tell you that peeping on others is wrong?”
“Seems… not. I peeped on Rin bathing, and she found me and invited me to join her.”
Matou Sakura tilted her head, her short purple hair falling to her cheeks.
“That’s not called peeping. Go play with Bubu.”
“Oh~”
Matou Sakura ran off. Su Xiao continued pondering Wusan’s earlier message. After a long while, he sent a message on the derivative world contact platform.
Bai Ye (Rogue): “How long can you hold out?”
A few minutes later, Wusan replied.
Christmas (Rogue): “At most one day (within 24 hours). They’re tracking me. How about we join forces?”
Wusan’s speaking chances were exhausted.
Bai Ye (Rogue): “Meet in the black fog in 20 hours.”
The “black fog” Su Xiao mentioned wasn’t a real place in the Holy Grail World; it was a descriptive term that only Wusan could understand.
In the trial world before, the Dark Forest was shrouded in black fog, so “inside the black fog” meant the forest. Near Fuyuki City, there was only one forest.
Su Xiao meant: meet in the forest outside Fuyuki City in 20 hours. As for why not go find Wusan immediately, it was because Su Xiao was recovering from his injuries.
With his physique + Bubu Wang’s aura + alchemically prepared potions, he needed at least 18 hours of rest to regain combat effectiveness.
Moreover, Su Xiao had only cooperated with Wusan once. People’s hearts were unpredictable—whether the other party was completely trustworthy remained to be seen. Wusan might have been captured and sent the message under duress. That possibility couldn’t be ruled out. If the situation in the Holy Grail World weren’t so bizarre, Su Xiao wouldn’t have chosen this.
“It seems participating in the Holy Grail War will be delayed again, but allying with other masters isn’t impossible.”
Su Xiao checked the remaining time for his main quest: 12 days in this world. If high-rank contractors had indeed used items to enter this world, fighting Servants would be suicide.
Now Su Xiao finally understood why he hadn’t seen any contractors before, making this derivative world feel like a “single-player game.” Those contractors weren’t hiding—they had all been killed.
What was the goal of those three? Simply killing all contractors to drop Scarlet Cards? Or clearing the Holy Grail World?
Neither possibility was likely. The Holy Grail World wasn’t suitable for hunting contractors; the Scarlet Card drop rate was only about 20–30%. Many second-rank worlds were better for that.
As for clearing the world for massive rewards? That was also unlikely. Su Xiao had seen items that allowed high-rank contractors to enter low-rank worlds once—they were terrifyingly expensive and rare. Moreover, high-rank contractors’ strength was suppressed in low-rank worlds. Large adventure groups usually liked to acquire such items.
If not for wealth, then for love or revenge. In Reincarnation Paradise, few people talked about love, so revenge was more likely.
Possessing items held by large adventure groups, seeking revenge, entering a derivative world without touching the main quest, and directly killing contractors—this might be to prevent the second-rank contractors in the derivative world from joining forces. So they picked them off one by one, not giving them a chance to unite. Decisive and ruthless.
Clues flooded Su Xiao’s mind. Though he didn’t like scheming, in Reincarnation Paradise, where old schemers were everywhere, not using his brain meant a short life.
“Feels like… they’re coming for me…”
Su Xiao exhaled a puff of smoke. This wasn’t him being paranoid; he met all the conditions above.
He had a grudge with a large adventure group (Blood Gate Adventurers), wasn’t weak, and if he allied with many second-rank contractors, the strength-suppressed high-rank contractors might die by his hand.
“Stan?”
Su Xiao was puzzled. Suddenly, a slight burning sensation came from his hand—the cigarette between his fingers was almost spent. He stubbed it out in the ashtray on the bedside table.
“If Stan came for revenge, how did they find me?”
This was what baffled Su Xiao the most. His number was a false number. Not only was it untraceable, but if anyone tried to track it, Reincarnation Paradise would immediately alert him.
Su Xiao hadn’t received any alerts. However, besides numbers, other things could be used for tracking—like an item in his storage space with a fixed coordinate, or his blood.
These could all be used for tracking, but the cost was high. Would Stan really go this far for a seed member, given his style?
Su Xiao began checking the items in his storage space. After examining everything, he found nothing suspicious.
If not items, then maybe they had obtained his blood and tracked him? That possibility existed but was slim.
Take Su Xiao’s financial resources as an example. If he spared no expense to track someone, using the most difficult method—blood tracking—he would have to sell all his equipment and cover the losses of two to three derivative worlds. More importantly, it was an iron law that high-rank contractors could only enter derivative worlds one rank below their own.
The situation was now a tangled mess, but Su Xiao had a feeling: if Stan really sent people to hunt him, this wasn’t just a decision by a large adventure group but involved a larger force.
Su Xiao stopped dwelling on it. If they came, he’d kill them. If he couldn’t win, he’d flee. If he couldn’t escape, he’d die. Nothing to fear. He had nothing to lose. If pushed too far, he’d directly counter-hunt the Blood Gate Adventurers.
Relaxing his mind, Su Xiao soon fell into deep sleep.
Fifteen hours later, Su Xiao’s fingers twitched. He sat up in bed and began unwrapping the bandages on his body.
The wound on his chest had mostly healed. As long as he didn’t engage in too brutal a fight, it would be fine.
Moonlight streamed into the room. Su Xiao yawned, and once his mind cleared, he checked the completion of his Talent Awakening quest.
[Talent Awakening Quest Completion: 95% (Extremely Excellent).]
[Note: 70% of contractors have a Talent Awakening quest completion below 40%, 20% have 60% or above, 5% have 70%, 3% have 80%, 1% have 93%…]
From the note, Su Xiao seemed to have exceeded expectations. As for reaching 100% completion, he never hoped for that—with his current strength, it was unrealistic.
“Paradise, awaken my talent.”
With a great enemy looming, Su Xiao needed to awaken his talent ability to strengthen his combat power.