The comntator’s voice echoed through the arena as Adrian was hurled backward, the shockwave of his own Resonant Fist rattling his bones.
He corrected his flight with a burst of thrusters, hovering in the air, his eyes locked on the colossal eye.
Seeing its opponent stagger, The Watcher reacted with a terrifying speed. The veins on the sickly yellow sclera bulged, pulsing with a deep, blood-red light.
The pupil constricted to a pinprick, gathering a vortex of chaotic psionic energy that made the very air scream.
A beam of concentrated, crimson psionic force erupted from the eye. It was wider, faster, and infinitely more potent than the first wave. It wasn’t just a ntal attack; it was a physical lance of telekinetic pressure designed to crush both mind and matter.
The beam engulfed Adrian. The arena held its breath. The red light burned for a solid ten seconds, scouring the spot where the human had been hovering. When it finally faded, everyone expected to see nothing but dust.
Instead, they saw Adrian.
He was standing in mid-air, completely unscathed. He brushed a speck of invisible dust from his shoulder, his expression one of mild annoyance.
The psionic component had shattered against his ntal fortress, and the telekinetic force had been absorbed by his suit’s shields without even scratching the paint.
A new object materialized in his hand. It was a sleek, angular weapon that humd with a power that made the air around it shimr.
The Mana Gun. Its barrel began to glow with an intense, blinding white light as Adrian poured his raw dantian mana directly into the chamber.
Adrian soared into the sky, a streak of blue light ascending towards the sky of the arena. The Watcher, now genuinely panicked, fired a frantic barrage of smaller beams, but they harmlessly splashed against Adrian’s aura.
Once he was high enough, a single, bright star in the dark sky, Adrian aid.
"This should do," he whispered.
He pulled the trigger.
A lance of pure, concentrated white mana erupted from the gun. It looked like judgnt from above, a pillar of divine light that crossed the distance in an instant. The Watcher blinked rapidly in fear, a sight no one had ever seen before, but it was too late.
~KRAA-KOOOM!~
The beam struck the center of the pupil. There was no rebound this ti. The beam pierced through the diamond-hard surface, drilling deep into the creature’s core before detonating.
A massive, white shockwave erupted from the center of the arena, obliterating the ground and sending a cloud of dust and debris rolling towards the shields.
When the dust finally cleared, there was nothing left. No body. No gore. Just a smoking crater.
[Congratulations! You have killed an Oculon!]
[Would you like to harvest its Void Crystal?]
The crowd roared, a sound of pure, unadulterated shock and awe.
Adrian floated down, staring at the empty space where his opponent had been. He was genuinely surprised. He hadn’t intended to kill it; it was a sentient being after all.
’Well, I can’t do anything about it now,’ he thought with a ntal shrug. ’On the bright side, I’ve finally got my hands on a Void Crystal.’
"Harvest," he commanded. A small, shimring crystal appeared in his [Inventory].
He didn’t waste ti. He willed himself to leave the arena, but instead of returning to the lobby, he issued a second command. "Visit Factory."
He appeared in the familiar, sterile white space of his workshop. He walked straight to the Deconstruction Matrix.
The circular platform in the middle had been upgraded recently, now larger and humming with more processing power.
He materialized the Void Crystal in his hand. It was beautiful, a jagged shard of crystallized nothingness that seed to contain a swirling galaxy within its depths. He admired it for a mont before tossing it onto the platform.
[Target Identified: Void Crystal. Proceed with Complete Deconstruction?]
[Cost: 10,000,000 TP]
[Notice: Target cannot be Recovered after Complete Deconstruction.]
It was a tough decision. Ten million TP was 80% of his reserves, and finding another Void Crystal would be difficult. But the potential knowledge locked inside this crystal was the key to his next leap in technology.
"Proceed."
[Affirmation Confird. Complete Deconstruction in progress.]
[Ti Left: 1:59:58]
[Would you like to spend 1,000,000 TP to accelerate this process to 2 minutes?]
"Tch, no," Adrian hissed at the System’s greed. Two hours was a long ti, but he wasn’t impatient.
"I’ll use this opportunity to keep climbing," he decided. "Let’s see how far I can go."
He exited the Factory and returned to the Silver League Lobby. His rank was now No. 1, and he also t the requirents for a Promotion Challenge.
He walked to the priority terminal, ignoring the stares of the other fighters. He scanned the list of Gold League opponents available for a challenge. A smirk touched his lips as he made his choice.
[FIGHTER PROFILE: DreamWeaver]
[CIVILIZATION: Drear (Tier-7)]
[LEAGUE: Gold]
[RANK: 2]
[WINS: 119 | LOSSES: 5]
[KILLS: 7]
A Rank 2 Gold fighter. A massive jump. He looked at the receptionist, a weary-looking insectoid. "Can you give a tip about this one?"
The alien didn’t look up. "That’ll be a hundred credits."
Adrian sighed and transferred the amount.
The alien checked its console. "Well. As you can see, it’s Rank 2. That alone should tell you its strength. Physically, it’s weak. Frail, even. But its real power lies in its ability. It can seize control of a mind and trap the consciousness in a ’Dreamscape.’ Inside, you’re at its rcy. Most challengers simply... stop moving after that, then they either resign or die." The alien looked up. "I wouldn’t advise you to fight against it."
Adrian nodded. "Hmm. Is it stronger than The Watcher?"
The alien stared at him blankly. "That’s another hundred."
Adrian transferred the bribe without a word.
"That’s a difficult one," the alien admitted. "They have different strengths. The Watcher was a brute force psionic. DreamWeaver is subtle. But in a direct confrontation... The Watcher could pose a good fight, maybe even win if he struck first."
That was all Adrian needed to hear. "Nice. I’ve sent the challenge."
The receptionist shook its head, its mandibles clicking in disbelief. "Are you sure of this? You might have defeated The Watcher, but luck runs out. DreamWeaver is a different kind of monster."
"Nah, I’ll win."
The receptionist sighed and processed the request. Seconds later, the notification flashed.
White light consud him, and Adrian found himself standing on the sands of a new, massive arena, thriving with millions of aliens once again, ready to witness the rookie’s next impossible feat.
Reviews
All reviews (0)