Chapter 1 The Word is Cheap

That tactic could be summed up in one word: cheap.

But you have to admit, Feng Bujue’s plan was foolproof.

Copernicus and Galileo understood Feng Bujue’s plan in three seconds. They had the same idea, retreating almost simultaneously and shouting to the three from Order, “Those without halos, retreat with us first!”

Valiant Invincible and Ye Zhi hesitated, both looking at Meng Jingchan. As the captain of the Order trio, he had to make a decision.

“You guys retreat further with the two GMs.” Meng Jingchan was relatively calm. “Mad Bro and I will stay.” Seeing his teammates about to speak, he added, “No need to say more. Even if I die, it won’t cause Mad Bro’s halo to disappear, it’s not a big deal.”

While they were talking, K3, standing ten meters away, noticed something. He didn’t want them to communicate any further, and charged forward.

Since this was the Sakura Town side of the world, K3’s strength was not comparable to when he fought in the Necropolis, but the speed and power he displayed were still amazing, even better than the GMs’ movements.

But unexpectedly, someone blocked him with his own strength.

Meng Jingchan, the guy who spent all his game coins on smoking, drinking, and perming his hair, leaving him with only the default newbie outfit besides the guild-issued cape. In this instant, a cold, suffocating light flashed in his eyes.

His figure moved, his fast sword trembled, his wrist exerted ingenious force, and he launched a diagonal attack.

Meng Jingchan’s move seemed rushed, but it was actually flawless. He not only stopped K3’s advance, but also launched a slash at a tricky angle that was difficult to avoid, forcing K3 to raise his right arm to block the blade.

From a combat perspective, the degree to which a player can precisely and skillfully execute actions within the limit of their reaction time is the standard that measures the gap between a true master and an ordinary person.

Of course, this is just the difference between a master and an ordinary person, not between masters. If you put aside all external factors and luck, in a sport with rules, the top masters will ultimately compete in… talent.

“Oh? Interesting.” K3 just moved his gaze to Meng Jingchan’s face. “Can players also do this…” Before he could finish, another change occurred. Two arms stretched out from behind, passing through his armpits on both sides, and locked his shoulders in an upward curve.

It was naturally Feng Bujue on the other side who used this Lu Shan Kang Long Ba Qi Shi (a move from Saint Seiya) posture. He had activated [Spirit Sense Gathering Technique], so he could complete this action before the other party reacted. Feng Bujue didn’t care about the loss of survival points, anyway, he couldn’t die with the halo. He was afraid that without this skill, his current character’s physical skills wouldn’t be able to suppress the opponent at all.

“Go! Are you looking to die!” Feng Bujue strangled K3, then turned his head and roared at the other four.

Valiant Invincible and Ye Zhi quickly exchanged glances, then finally started running. Seeing them finally moving, the two GMs quickly turned around, rushed to the front to clear the way, and led them to retreat.

“You two think this is fun, huh?” K3 sneered. “Or are you trying to be heroes here?” His expression suddenly darkened. “Oh, no, heroes die, and you’ll only be teleported away.” The second half of the sentence was completely contemptuous.

“We just want to talk to you.” Feng Bujue tilted his head and said to Meng Jingchan, “Right, Chan-ge?”

Meng Jingchan was a little late to realize it. He deeply understood Feng Bujue’s cunning…

Feng Bujue’s plan, on the surface, was for him to obtain the protagonist’s halo, engage in a contest with the Derivative under the condition of being invincible, and help the GMs with the cleanup work. But in reality, another benefit of this plan was that it could divert other teammates, allowing this kid to contact the Derivative alone. With the GMs gone, he could try to negotiate, and it wouldn’t be too late to fight if the negotiations failed, anyway, he had nothing to fear with the halo.

Meng Jingchan wanted to gather information. For him, communicating with words was naturally better than with fists. So he followed Feng Bujue’s lead and replied, “That’s right, this… Derivative Mr., if you’re willing to stop for now, and talk to us…”

But K3 interrupted their back-and-forth, “My relationship and position with you… is like the lobster in the restaurant’s fish tank and the customer who comes in to eat… is there really a need to say too much?” He emphasized his tone, and an astonishing Qi erupted from his body in an instant, not only breaking free from Feng Bujue’s restraint, but also pushing away Meng Jingchan’s sword at the same time. “Do I have an obligation to answer your doubts!”

Meng Jingchan was fine, he was just pushed back a few steps by a Dou Qi-like energy, but Feng Bujue was right behind him and took the brunt of the attack. He was flung away by the force of the break, crashing into the pillar of a torii (a large wooden archway in front of a shrine) not far away.

With a cracking sound, Feng Bujue’s body broke the solid pillar, which was so thick that one person could barely hug it. His survival value instantly dropped to 1%, causing the [Spirit Sense Gathering Technique] to automatically deactivate. And the torii also lost its support due to the broken pillar, collapsing diagonally and smashing towards where Meng Jingchan and K3 were standing.

At this time, the moonlight was quite clear, and the surrounding scenery could be seen within a certain distance without the aid of lighting equipment. Meng Jingchan clearly saw Feng Bujue spit out a large mouthful of blood in an exaggerated manner. The painful expression on his face showed that it would be good if this kid just fainted. In addition, with the destroyed large object next to him as a reference, K3’s fighting power was truly despairing.

Meng Jingchan was covered in cold sweat at that moment, thinking: If this kid didn’t have the protagonist’s halo, he would have been killed in one hit.

Of course, he had no time to care about others. The torii was falling towards them, and he had to get out of the way first. Meng Jingchan kept his guard up against K3’s movements not far in front of him, and jumped back, arriving at a distance where he could attack or defend (at least he thought he could).

K3 didn’t care and watched the other party retreat. And he had no intention of dodging the wooden archway falling on his head.

It was estimated that K3 wanted to open the eyes of the two players around him, so he deliberately didn’t choose to avoid it. He raised his right hand, pressed his index finger against his thumb, and then flicked his thumb upwards…

Boom—

A blast-like effect occurred in a range directly above where K3 was standing. The power of this flick spread upwards in a funnel shape, blasting the upper part of the collapsing torii into countless pieces.

“This combat power… it’s basically a normal-sized Toguro Ototo…” Feng Bujue leaned against the broken half of the pillar, supporting himself to stand up, and even had a smile on his face. “I’m getting more and more curious about how the halo can keep me from dying against such an enemy.”

K3 stood coldly, slowly turned his head, and looked at Feng Bujue. “Huh? You’re not done yet?”

“Heh… I knew I shouldn’t have spoken. So you thought I’d be done after that last hit.” Feng Bujue said.

K3 really thought so, and the reason was simple. As a Derivative, he observed players on a data level and could roughly calculate the other party’s survival value range. The move he used just now should have been enough to make Feng Bujue go over, so he didn’t even look there after he flicked Feng Bujue away. Who knew that this kid would actually stand up and say something right away. This feeling… was like you used a global ultimate skill against an enemy in the shadows on the map, thinking that the other party would definitely turn into money, but the other party reappeared with low health a few seconds later.

“Hmph… actually, I’ve mastered a martial arts masterpiece, the Undying Divine Skill…” Feng Bujue was preparing to imitate Duan Fei (the protagonist in The Sarcastic Amazing Cop) to bluff and stabilize the situation first.

Unexpectedly, K3 didn’t listen to him at all. He raised his right arm and flicked his finger, launching a flying knife-like air blade towards Feng Bujue.

Buzz—

A sound similar to that of a lightsaber being swung entered Feng Bujue’s ears, but he only felt a breeze on his cheek and suffered no damage.

“What…” K3 looked puzzled. The logic calculation module told him that the last attack couldn’t have been a miss on his part, but the visual information clearly showed that the player in front of him hadn’t made any fast, wide-ranging avoidance movements.

“What did you do?” K3 seemed to suddenly be interested in Feng Bujue. “Did you distort space? Or interfere with my vision?” He speculated according to common sense and asked.

Feng Bujue gave a nonsensical answer: “I just tilted my head elegantly and dodged your attack that was as slow as still.”

“Is that so?”

When K3 said “Is,” he was still seven or eight meters away from Feng Bujue, but when the word “so” came out, he was already in front of Feng Bujue. “Speaking of which… your power and speed when you attacked earlier did exceed the data limit, at least twice as strong as I expected. It seems you’re not simple either…”

“Bullshit, I turned on a skill just now, so it’s more than twice as strong.” Feng Bujue thought to himself, but he pretended to be profound and said, “Ah… that’s nothing. It’s meaningless to evaluate other people’s fighting power based on data. Our Earthlings’ cultivation methods are different from yours. We can usually hide our Qi, and only release it completely at the moment of fighting.”

“He shamelessly said the Dragon Ball setting…” Meng Jingchan was completely shocked.

Seeing that K3’s face was seven parts dazed and three parts curious, Feng Bujue continued, “Don’t look at me like this now, I used to be quite reckless too… I used to do hellish training on a small island at sea for several years, climbed a flying saucer-shaped tower that was hundreds of thousands of meters high along a totem, drank a drink that could stimulate human potential but could be fatal, and successfully saved the Earth from aliens several times…”

“Hey… he not only directly copied my catchphrase, but also started telling strange stories to the AI…” Meng Jingchan exclaimed, and instinctively took out a bottle of beer from his knapsack, took a big gulp, and calmed himself down.