Infinite Realm

Sato's headless corpse on the arena began to disintegrate into starlight. The head that still had a stunned expression also broke down and turned to brilliant dust particles. The spilled blood on the stage also began to mysteriously disappear.

10 or so seconds later, there was no sign of Sato's headless corpse or head anywhere. The stardust had disappeared alongside any clues of a dead body. At the same time, a flash of brilliant white light shone a few feet away from the arena for less than a second. With the disappearance of the white light was the appearance of another figure. The revival mechanism had brought Sato back to life but it did so at a much faster rate than in the outside world. 

Normally, Sato would have noticed this but his attention was placed on the duplicate on the arena. Sato's body slightly shook as he laid his gaze on the copy with an incredulous expression.

"You know martial arts?" Sato couldn't believe his eyes.

In VR games, the advantage certain players, especially the experts, held over NPCs, monsters, and even other players was their knowledge of martial arts. As VR games were able to replicate the moves one could perform in reality, the essence and stances of a majority of martial arts could also be performed by players in VR games. This ended up becoming another trump card and fighting style for the players, apart from the class skills.

This was why with the increasing popularity of VR games, martial arts also benefited from it. The same also happened as martial arts tournaments gained more fame. In the end, a few of these tournaments were even performed in VR games, due to the limitless capabilities and incorporation of fantasy within these games. One good example was the annual "9 Dragons Martial arts Tournament" that was held last year in a Top 5 VR game, 'Dynasty'. As a result, the two industries of VR gaming and Martial arts became interrelated with one another. Of course, they weren't the only ones connected by interest.

However, no matter what, it was usually only the players that were aware of and could perform martial arts. Apart from a few exceptions like NPCs that practiced martial arts in the game or VR games directly related to martial arts, no other NPC or monster could do so. But before Sato, was one who could.

This normally wouldn't be enough to stun him as there were a few NPCs even in IR who could perform martial arts, like the strongest mercenary in Riverdale town, Deval, who was a fist arts practitioner, however, the martial arts the clone just used was different; especially the last move it used to behead Sato. 

The technique the duplicate used to sneak an attack on Sato was a high-level martial arts skill that only Master level practitioners were able to perform. As for the last move it used, that was Sato's signature technique, the 1st form of the Lotus sword art, Swift Kill. This was the source of Sato's shock and astonishment as he began to wonder where it might have learnt it.

'Don't tell me it also has my memories?' Sato's face became grim.

The possibilities of that happening was quite high, after all, the Entry Trial read Sato's memories and produced a scenery where Sato had what he desired most. The first challenge of the Main Trials also had a monster with the capabilities of reading its opponent's memories and taking on the form of a person from it; having both their skills and personality. Sato didn't doubt that the clone in front of him was something similar and it might also be aware of all his martial arts techniques and skills, especially since it was supposed to be another him. Consequently, it would be difficult for Sato to get an upper hand against it. 

'Wait, no. That technique it used to change the tides of the battle, I never learnt that. Heck, I don't even know what it is.'

If the duplicate was aware of a martial arts skill that Sato didn't know of, this meant that not only did it have the skills in his arsenal but it also had a bunch of its own. Therefore, as it was already aware of martial arts, it seemed that the duplicate was actually pretending to be suppressed by Sato's attacks before, just to make him drop his guard and retaliate when he least expects it.

'Crafty, skillful, and dangerous.' Sato attached 3 words to the duplicate's personality.

"Hahaha. That was a nice one. You really think you got me back then?" The duplicate spotted the revived Sato and laughed.

"I told you from the very beginning; I'm much stronger than you. Also, guess what? I only defeated using 40% of my abilities. Isn't that amazing? A clone surpassing the original by far. Haha." The duplicate guffawed.

"Laugh while you still can because you soon won't have a mouth to do so." Sato spoke with an irritated tone.

The words of the duplicate were not only aggravating but its personality seemed to make one just want to beat the sh*t out of it. Even Buddha might not be able to tolerate the crap it spewed.

The duplicate grinned at Sato's reaction as it seemed to expect that from him.

"Oh yeah? While don't you come on up let's have another go. Come on, I don't bite." 

Sato ignored it and stopped paying attention to the duplicate. Even though he was vexed by it, it didn't mean that he had lost himself to anger. No matter how infuriating and provoking the words of the duplicate spoke, it mostly consisted of the truth. Currently, Sato wasn't its match. Going up one more time would just be asking for a beating. And on the matter of it holding back by 60%, Sato felt that it was true. The movements and attack patterns of the duplicate were too lax. It could have simply finished Sato off from the very beginning but decided to play around with him. From this, one could see that the duplicate wasn't afraid of losing because it simply didn't see that happening.

Nonetheless, Sato had still achieved a bit from the last fight and he had gotten to know more about the duplicate's fighting ability.

'The third challenge is a contest of strength. However, it doesn't focus on overwhelming power but skill. My martial arts had reached a bottleneck since it's very hard for me to find a worthy opponent. If I use this opportunity properly, my skills could improve. I guess this is a good thing for me.'

. . .

At the edge of Black Grill's cave, a multitude of players had gathered and set camp around the place. The flags of a few guilds were hung in front of the bigger tents while the smaller ones just had a simple party or an individual staying in them. This large mass of players consisted of the players and guilds from Black Mountain town, Riverdale town, and Salt Springs town. While it wasn't exactly every player from these towns, they still consisted of a majority of them.

Lined up in front of these tents were various players, kitted up for battle. Their disciplined stance, orderly arrangement, and the uniform dressing they had on made them have an imposing momentum that scared off some of the other players. They were the trump card team of one of the 1st tier guilds of Black Mountain town, the Howling Wolf Battalion.

In front of this team stood a middle-aged man in black armour. A great-sword hung on his back as he glanced at his squad before turning towards Black Grill's Cave. He steeled his gaze at the entrance and he radiated a bloodthirsty aura around him. From this alone, one would realise that such a player was not one you could mess with. Chances were that he was even a veteran soldier who had retired to gaming.

The middle-aged man then opened his mouth and yelled in a deep voice.

"Everyone, advance!"

(Check AN for announcements.)