Chapter 62: The Correct Way to Earn Merits
The black sphere slowly descended. When it was three meters above the ground, it shattered, forming a line of text in midair.
‘Outer perimeter of the ancient ruins, east side of the wasteland area, settle life and death.’
This was Lan Jue’s declaration of war. That guy didn’t want to fight Su Xiao in the chaotic battlefield, so he chose a relatively remote location.
This could be a challenge, or it could be a trap.
Su Xiao thought for a moment, then stood up and walked toward the natural maze ahead.
The natural maze was ring-shaped overall. At this moment, a large number of contractors were scattered throughout the maze. Su Xiao walked in a direction with fewer contractors.
The inner side of the maze was occupied by Reincarnation Paradise contractors, while the outer side was occupied by Apocalypse Paradise contractors. The two sides were locked in fierce combat.
Su Xiao delved deeper into the maze. Soon, a seven-person team blocked his path. They were contractors from Apocalypse Paradise.
The seven looked at Su Xiao and gradually spread out, forming an encirclement.
“Take him down within a minute. The defense is weak in this direction; there’s a chance to break through.”
“This guy looks kind of familiar?”
“Don’t think about that. Breaking through is the priority.”
A Mage Lord pointed his staff at Su Xiao, elemental wind energy surging around him.
“Running into us alone? Tough luck for you.”
The Mage Lord had barely finished speaking when—
Boom! Gravel flew everywhere.
Clang.
A blade aura five meters in diameter shot toward the group.
“This guy’s not right!”
The tank at the front of the team roared. He had just raised his shield when a sound of wind cutting through air reached him.
A dazzling blade light flashed before his eyes. His pupils even ached faintly, as if injured by the light itself. As the blade light appeared, his hand felt lighter—the shield in his grasp had been sliced diagonally in two. Converted to Reincarnation Paradise’s grade system, this shield was a Purple-quality item. How could a Purple-quality shield block the slash of a Light Gold-quality Dragon-Slaying Flash? Moreover, Dragon-Slaying Flash’s attributes were no weaker than a Gold-quality weapon, and in terms of sharpness, it completely crushed Gold weapons.
“Impossible...”
The tank tried to leap back, but it was too late. Su Xiao’s blade was too fast. Even Agility-type contractors couldn’t dodge it, let alone a tank.
The blade edge struck the tank’s throat. The long sword cut through his body’s defenses without any resistance.
With one slash, most of the tank’s throat was severed. When he saw the battle log, he was utterly despairing.
[Warning: Your armor has been breached.]
[Affected by an unknown energy erosion, your mana has been devoured by 160 points.]
[You have taken 240 true damage (unknown energy damage) + 64 true damage (Demon Mark) + 175 slashing damage + 217 edge damage + 166 fortress damage (throat cut).]
[Warning: You have entered a near-death state.]
[Warning: Your health is at 6%.]
[Prompt: You are under a debuff effect. Judging...]
[Warning: This effect ignores judgment. You will be immobilized for 2.2 seconds.]
...
The tank’s body stiffened midair. The next moment, darkness consumed his vision.
From drawing his blade to severing the enemy’s head, Su Xiao took no more than two seconds. Just as he killed the enemy tank, his body crouched. The remaining six contractors’ attacks had already arrived—three wind-element energy spikes and two bullets.
Shunpo.
With a whoosh, Su Xiao vanished from his spot. Dodging the attacks, he had already charged in front of the Mage Lord.
This was a Wind-element Mage Lord, strong in both offense and survival.
“Wind Rider Surge!”
The Wind-element Mage Lord tapped his staff on the ground. A gale formed around him, blowing outward in all directions continuously.
Su Xiao was caught in the blast. A pushing force hit him. He thrust Dragon-Slaying Flash into the ground, half-crouching as he slowly slid back.
Zzzz—
The Realm Severing Thread shot out. The hook at its tip gleamed with cold light. After the thread was enhanced to +10, the hook had also been strengthened.
The hook pierced through the gale, striking the Wind-element Mage Lord with lightning speed.
The Wind-element Mage Lord was in the middle of casting. If he activated a defensive skill or dodged, his large-scale knockback skill would fail.
A second ago, the Mage Lord had witnessed the tank being one-shot. This Wind-element Mage Lord, who had a small mustache under his chin, swore to the heavens that he would never let this monster who could one-shot a tank get within ten meters of him. Once the skill successfully knocked back the enemy, he would immediately flee—because he didn’t want to fight a monster whose strength was on a completely different level.
Pfft.
The hook of the Realm Severing Thread stabbed into the Wind-element Mage Lord’s thigh. His expression didn’t change; this injury was negligible to him.
Su Xiao, who was being slowly pushed back by the wind pressure, activated Cyan Steel Shadow Energy. The skill description of Cyan Steel Shadow was: ‘Each melee attack burns 160 mana from the enemy and deals true damage equal to 1.5 times the burned mana.’ In this situation, it fell between melee and ranged attacks.
Cyan Steel Shadow Energy rapidly spread along the Realm Severing Thread toward the Wind-element Mage Lord.
“Electricity?”
The Wind-element Mage Lord activated a skill from one of his equipment pieces—a skill that temporarily increased fire and lightning resistance.
Cyan Steel Shadow Energy entered his body through the wound on his thigh. Just as he prepared to endure an electric shock, an unimaginable pain struck his brain.
The Wind-element Mage Lord’s eyes rolled back. Drool dripped from the corner of his mouth. His casting stopped, and his body flopped forward weakly. Before he hit the ground, a pale blue blade aura was already heading for his throat.
The blade aura cut through his throat, spraying a large amount of blood. The Wind-element Mage Lord didn’t even feel the pain. The Cyan Steel Shadow Energy that had invaded his brain was no longer just about true damage and control effects. It directly disrupted his mana circulation process, temporarily ‘crashing’ his brain.
Having taken down the two core members of the seven-person team, Su Xiao looked at the remaining five. These five had also been forced back by the Wind-element Mage Lord’s skill earlier. This was real combat—there was no such thing as teammate immunity. Sometimes, friendly fire from allies was more dangerous than enemy attacks.
At this moment, the remaining five weren’t even looking at Su Xiao. They were fleeing at full speed toward the exit of the natural maze, terrified by Su Xiao’s attack power.
Three minutes later.
A contractor lay on the ground, his face and hands covered in blood. Su Xiao had one foot on his back.
“Don’t, don’t kill me. I can give you...”
Shrrrk. A sharp object cut through flesh. The Slaughter short knife sliced open the throat of the contractor under Su Xiao’s foot. This guy’s abilities were very unique. Su Xiao couldn’t tell what world they came from—definitely not an anime-style world.
This was one of the five contractors who had fled earlier. Two of the five had escaped; the other three had been hunted down and killed by Su Xiao.
Several dozen meters away from Su Xiao, an Apocalypse Paradise contractor hid in a crevice between rocks. She was a petite girl—otherwise, she couldn’t have squeezed into such a small gap. She was a Perception-type contractor who could completely shield her aura.
At this moment, the Perception-type girl was trembling. She was one of the members of the seven-person team that had fought Su Xiao earlier.
Footsteps sounded, growing closer. The Perception-type girl’s heart was in her throat. Tears streamed from her eyes. She covered her mouth with her two pale little hands.
Recalling the scene from a few minutes ago, she wondered if she was dreaming. Her team had surrounded an enemy, thinking they could easily take him down. But seconds later, the nightmare began. Her teammate’s seemingly unbreakable shield was cut in two with one slash, and then he was decapitated. That wasn’t all—their team’s Mage Lord suddenly collapsed for ‘unknown reasons’ and was then killed.
The enemy never said a word from start to finish. Apart from killing, he did nothing unnecessary. He was ferocious, sharp, and gave no chance to beg for mercy.
While the Perception-type girl was trembling in the rock crevice, Su Xiao had already left the natural maze and was walking toward the edge of the ancient ruins.
“Sure enough, killing enemy contractors is the fastest way to earn Paradise merits.”
Not long after Su Xiao left the maze, Bubu Wang trotted out happily and followed him.
Walking along the road, Su Xiao checked his Reincarnation Paradise merits. Current merits: 22 points.
Back at the Black Earth Fortress, after fighting for so long, Su Xiao had only earned 3 merits. Now, with the contractor free-for-all just starting, he had already gained 19 merits.