911: Chapter 897: Strange Path 911: Chapter 897: Strange Path [Ding, congratulations Host, the initiation ceremony is completed, you have acquired the job rank ‘Circus Affairs’.]
[Career modification: Reflex slightly increased, perception traits slightly enhanced, spirituality subtly amplified.]
Truth be told, the hardware feedback from the initiation was so faint as to be almost non-existent, but…
“…You only know if you try,” he said.
The courtyard was always bustling, especially the familiar gym, where, given it’s Undying-nature, people constantly engage in ‘life-and-death duels’.
“Clang!”
At this mont, a boy and a girl were locked in battle with each other.
Blade clashed with blade, the golden ocean collided with the black coins, the tallic girl on full offense showcased her nearly perfect high-speed attack and defense.
“Clang!”
Another round of sword dance, and this ti, what danced were the five flowing Sharp Blades.
The mature “Golden Sand” had been through countless battlefields, she no longer pursued the boundless, wave-like consecutive attacks of the past, but instead focused on knitting her own net of blades.
Two longswords, one left and one right, appearing as though twin blades flew in unison, were in fact deceptively vicious.
The left blade, one blade three shadows, could split into two additional blades at any mont, while the right blade was even more treacherous, each swing subtly hinting at a burst of needles…The most uncomfortable part was actually the pair of variable-length blades, constantly changing their reach.
The boy struggled to defend, the more he focused on these flowing twin blades, the more his attention was diverted.
The twin blades were the main attackers, while the two hair-like whips were both tough and penetrating, completely ignoring rules as they changed direction at will, smashing or whipping with great force and weight.
If the twin blades were the distraction, then these double weapons were hamring on the opponent’s body, disrupting the challenger’s balance…
“Ah.” Lu Ping’an, having lost his balance, quickly retreated trying to regain control of the space.
But, it was already too late.
Neither the swords nor the whips were the deadliest, the greatest threat was always the hanging ponytail!
As the surrounding hair danced, the constantly descending ponytail was, in fact, always gathering strength.
When the opponent exposed a flaw under the whip-like hair, when the opponent guarded against the left and right Sharp Blades, that ponytail…scorpion-tail spear, would suddenly strike accompanied by a vibration of the body.
One flash, a mont’s blur.
Swiftly, very fast…
as testified by the pierced heart of Lu Ping’an!
Lu Ping’an’s eyes widened in disbelief…
“Co on, co on, Lu Ping’an has lost ow, the Cat takes it all!”
“Damn, Boss, can you even fight?
Put on heavy equipnt.”
“…That doesn’t count, right?
Ping’an isn’t finished yet.
In a standard fight, even if he’s pierced, he could still play with Fla explosion and take Xueyi down directly.
My bet on mutual destruction is the right one.”
“That’s in a normal fight, he could recover with a sip of his own and continue fighting…”
Seconds later, Lu Ping’an, who had ‘revived’, twisted his neck as he recovered from the shock of being ‘killed’, caressing his chest where a large hole had been pierced just monts before.
‘True deathmatches’ in the gym were one of the sources for the club mbers’ rapid growth, as other professionals couldn’t engage in life-threatening combat every day to enhance their real combat experience and skills.
“…Wait a second, besides Shuiyun, there was another person betting on Lu Ping’an to lose…
Hey, Lu Ping’an!
You actually bet on your own loss!
That’s going too far.”
Lu Ping’an just smiled, collecting the bounty money and shook his head.
“I didn’t throw the match, I really didn’t expect senior’s improvent to be so great…”
“But you can’t bet on your own loss, that’s scamming people.”
“Firstly, the money from these small bets isn’t even enough to cover my training costs, so there’s no way I’d throw a match.
Secondly…
did any of you say you can’t bet on your own loss?
This is a lesson for you, rember to plug the leaks.”
Tucking the al voucher into his pocket, Lu Ping’an sumd up his gains and losses as he walked away.
Lu Ping’an had considered that he might lose—casting aside his heavy equipnt, Fla Skill, Life system abilities, and excessively extravagant gear…
wielding only a pair of daggers, relying on his Basic Attributes and Battle-profession abilities, to fiercely contend with Hua Xueyi, who was nearly at the fourth-tier.
“Is this what it ans to not use your own hobbies to challenge the profession your opponent relies on for their livelihood?”
In fact, if it had been the Lu Ping’an from their last encounter at the school, even with a stick he could have easily toyed with Xueyi…
but while he had been making rapid progress in the “Life system”, Hua Xueyi had made even more striking advancents in her own area of expertise.
As a pure lee combatant and Beast Tar, confronted with the Boss’s capricious “assessnt”, Hua Xueyi naturally gave it her all and succeeded in defeating Lu Ping’an within a re two minutes.
But between life and death, Lu Ping’an had also obtained what he wanted.
“…So this is dance steps and rhythm?”
[The universal skill ‘Dance Techniques LV6’ has been converted into the Professional Skill ‘Funny Dance Steps LV4 (Please select a Mastery direction as soon as possible to achieve a breakthrough).’]
[The universal skill ‘Music lv3’ has been converted into the Professional Skill ‘Rhythm Perception lv3’.]
A Dancer also has two Professional Skills, the forr is the technique of dance, or rather, the technique of using the body.
The latter, perhaps, is the most elusive and unpredictable aspect of a Dancer.
“The Little Steps Waltz, The Rabbit Dance, The Crolly Fantasia, and what are the other two?”
“They’re this year’s popular new songs, lyrically thed for a female audience, you probably haven’t heard of them.”
“I see…
Your progress is really quite remarkable.”
When previously dueling with Hua Xueyi, she would use “dance steps” and “rhythm” to control the tempo of her attacks, endlessly varying her techniques mid-battle to achieve an assault as smooth as a sweeping water flow.
That was like an incessant storm of sand in a fierce wind…
but looking back now, it seems too monotonous and lacking emphasis.
Now, she has the ability to wield five weapons at once, activate five rhythms simultaneously, and perfectly display the terrifying assault of soone with the capacity of ten hands.
“How did you do that?
Can Dancers be so outrageous?
Don’t Dancers need to focus on specialization?”
“…
It’s not just as a Dancer.
I’ve taken on a part-ti job as a Weapon Master, which naturally possesses the traits of dual-wielding and multi-Weapon Specialization.”
Well, it turns out that “Dancer” “Weapon Master” is a pretty good path.
Lu Ping’an nodded in appreciation at her progress and was grateful for her ‘hard work’, which allowed him to glean a lot of experience.
The Dancer, as a Battle-profession, is actually quite special; its two Professional Skills are in fact contradictory.
Funny Dance Steps, or whatever other na “Dance Techniques” may go by, is the use of bodily techniques, the ability to chase the “rhythm” with the body.
Whereas “Music,” like Lu Ping’an’s Rhythm Perception, enhances the body’s perception of “music”…
more accurately, it is the trait of using “rhythm” to control the body.
These abilities might seem indistinguishable or even complentary, but within the professional system, they are completely opposing concepts.
The forr’s most famous evolutionary direction is the Dagger Edge Dancer, a perfect Combat Master.
The latter, the high-level “Jumping God” Strongman that Lu Ping’an saw in the Secret Realm, utilized dance steps to link heaven and earth as a “casting unit.”
“Are you cultivating both?”
“Hmm, originally I couldn’t manage it…
but after using tal Sli cells for finer control of my Body, I truly was able to cultivate both.
But, it should be mainly ‘dance steps’ right now, at least seventy percent, with ‘listening’ as a secondary, less than thirty percent.”
Having taken up the low-level Dancer profession, Lu Ping’an’s most apparent gain was understanding Hua Xueyi’s combat thods…
and then thoroughly exploiting her Professional Skill and practical experience.
For Lu Ping’an, creating a path from scratch was ti-consuming and laborious, so finding professionals to “sponge experience,” “sponge Professional Skills,” and “sponge Abnormal Abilities” from was his route to growth…
The Life Investor profession’s added Dividends from investnts ant that by finding just one or two trustworthy professionals, he could achieve genius-level rapid developnt.
With a foundation, objectives, a clear Professional Skill library, and the backing as a fourth-tier professional, advancing to 2-tier really wasn’t a challenge.
The difficulty remained in making choices because the Official materials also reflected the characteristics of the profession pathways of the circus.
“‘Aerial Acrobat’ probably involves the advancent in dance steps, ‘Playful Clown’ is about playing with music and rhythm, huh?
How can there be such a circular progression.”
Typical professional paths are one-way streets, but the circus path, right from the basic “Circus Affairs”, allows for free choice.
Choosing Aerial Acrobat, Circus Dancer, or Playful Clown, any two out of three, can constitute their second and third tier, with different choices leading to entirely different fourth tiers and future paths.
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