Chapter 1376 - 87: Disgusting Rivals

Chapter 1376: Chapter 87: Disgusting Rivals

The countdown appeared above the arena, and the noisy spectator stands gradually quieted down.

The long knife was unsheathed, and Su Xiao observed his opponent several meters away. It was a burly man with dark skin all over his body, standing around 1.9 meters tall. He wasn’t wearing heavy armor, but his hands were equipped with metal claws, with blade lengths of at least 30 centimeters.

According to Su Xiao’s assessment, this was most likely an agility-type contractor. The opponent did not conceal the quality of his weapon, the golden light flickering at the claw blade, indicating the weapon’s meticulous craftsmanship.

[Match, start!]

As the prompt appeared, Su Xiao’s body crouched low, just about to dash forward when a loud explosion sounded ahead.

With a bang, Oliver, the burly man, lunged forward with impressive speed.

Almost in an instant, Oliver advanced to Su Xiao’s front. It must be said, this contractor who specialized in "beating weaklings" had some strength.

The so-called "beating weaklings" was actually a "commercial" act. Some contractors knew they had no hope of breaking into the top five, so their intent to rush into higher positions in the arena wasn’t strong. They would let matches go, causing their rankings to drop significantly.

Take Oliver, for instance. He could easily reach around 10,000th place in the fourth-tier arena, yet he let himself slide to around the 15,000th position.

Through a period of business operations, Oliver amassed an audience with unique tastes, contacting them through special channels whenever he started a competition.

Watching fourth-tier contractors being bloodily beaten was a gratifying experience for most workers, so they didn’t mind paying extra Paradise coins to watch.

Oliver was also smart enough to share part of the earnings with the fourth-tier competitors he defeated, avoiding conflicts.

While Su Xiao competes to accumulate combat experience, engaging with various enemies while aiming for a higher arena ranking, Oliver is entirely about immediate gains.

Anyone who can "beat weaklings," like Oliver, indeed has some strength, and he doesn’t want to offend anyone, so he fights earnestly, respecting his opponents.

Sound of rushing wind greeted Su Xiao as he sensed his mana value, recovering approximately 1500 points.

The brilliant claw gleam approached, with Oliver extending a hand to try and claw Su Xiao’s throat. Oliver frowned, inexplicably feeling unsettled since the start of the match.

Sharp metal claws closed in on Su Xiao’s throat; Su Xiao leaned back, trying to evade the claws. Oliver’s expression was somewhat impressive; this scene surprised him, wondering, ’Is a 15,000th-ranked competitor... this weak?’

As this thought emerged in Oliver’s mind, his forward-fetched claw grasped empty air. Simultaneously, a chilling crisis surged from behind him, causing him to instinctively shield his back with his left hand holding the claw.

His neck, left hand, and spine all received a cool touch before turning numb.

A crisp clatter sounded as the metal fell to the ground. Oliver felt his left hand partially lose feeling as a blood-red alert appeared.

[Warning! Your weapon (left) is severely damaged, and its durability has fallen below 15 points.]

[Warning! Vitality attacked; you have sustained...]

[Warning! Unknown energy invaded your body, 98% of your bodily tissues will be paralyzed for 1.9 seconds.]

[Prompt: Your life value has dropped to 1%, and you have returned to the resting room.]

...

Oliver stumbled forward several steps instinctively, raising his left hand, which had lost a third of its metal claw.

"Four strikes..."

Oliver’s face showed a pained expression. He wasn’t surprised that Su Xiao eliminated him in four strikes. From the moment Su Xiao suddenly vanished, Oliver sensed something was wrong; he was pained by the damage to his weapon, feeling it was a costly bout.

"Stepped into a trap, but the audience should still be satisfied. In some sense, this is also beating weaklings."

Oliver chuckled and chose to teleport out of the resting room to fix his weapon.

On the arena, a large field of light particles floated before Su Xiao, which Oliver had turned into upon defeat.

"Roar~"

"This match was entertaining."

The stands were lively. Initially, they showed slight surprise, but soon accepted the fact that Su Xiao had defeated Oliver in four strikes, without any shocking or stunned reactions.

These workers or contractors who came to watch the fourth-tier arena matches had been mixing in Reincarnation Paradise for a long time, aware of potential surprises within the fourth-tier arena.

Su Xiao returned to the resting room, his arena profile refreshed.

[Arena Competitor: Su Xiao.]

[Status: Good.]

[Rank: 14,790th (Fourth Tier).]

[Consecutive Win Count: 1.]

[Top Five Rewards: Not obtained.]

Due to fewer consecutive wins, the rank increase wasn’t significant. After a brief rest, Su Xiao continued to match opponents.

...

Within an abandoned construction complex.

Beep, beep, beep...

Urgent electronic sounds echoed beside Su Xiao, who had fought in the fourth-tier arena for over thirty hours, taking a nap and eating several meals during.

He fought for over thirty hours, raising his rank from 14,790 to 9,573 and maintaining 98 consecutive wins.

Relying on the Legendary Level +13 Dragon Slash and Sword Technique Master Level 48, Su Xiao pressed forward relentlessly. Among them, more than twenty contractors’ weapons and armor almost fell apart under Dragon Slash’s blade.

Dragon Slash was too sharp; equipment of golden quality could hardly withstand its cleave. Even unreinforced Legendary Level gear was no match for it, and the +13 enhancement level wasn’t just for show.

Upon reaching the top 10,000 in the fourth-tier arena, Su Xiao faced tougher opponents with increasingly annoying abilities.

Toxins that could grow after wounding enemies, transfiguration abilities, incredibly eerie psychic ability systems; Su Xiao even encountered a scholar mage, though the latter hadn’t reached mage lord status yet.

That scholar mage was practically a cannon, proficient in only three abilities: large fireballs about three meters in diameter, ground spikes extending over 10 meters, and thunder strikes from above.

Don’t underestimate the large fireballs as "low"; whenever that scholarly mage cast them, ten or more would emerge, while the spike range extended 200 meters, and thunder strikes were better in that three to five bolts would descend each time but could trace enemies, enabling turns over 60 degrees mid-descent.

After Su Xiao used Dragon Shadow Flash to break through and approach, the scholarly mage surrendered with just one slash. The brother returned to the resting room, drinking several cups of hot tea before recovering.

Even half an hour later, his hands still trembled uncontrollably, with an interesting message left for Su Xiao: "What kind of ghost profession is this, utterly a nemesis."

And now, Su Xiao’s opponent was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl. Don’t think girls of this age are cute; this fourth-tier girl was all gunpowder. If it belonged to her, it was explosive: clothes, severed limbs, even hair were mini bombs.

Beneath Su Xiao’s feet lay three bombs, biological bombs with some chameleon properties and complete perception concealment.

With Su Xiao’s intuition ability, he wouldn’t have stepped directly onto these things. Seconds ago, the girl kicked from ten meters away; this kick clearly couldn’t reach Su Xiao, but she flung her shoe, causing an explosion with a 300-meter radius, blasting Su Xiao above these biological bombs.

With mana drained, Su Xiao returned Dragon Slash to the storage space.

Boom!

The explosion enveloped Su Xiao, his body turning into a large field of light particles.

In the debris, a girl with only one remaining leg crawled out.

"It hurts so much..."

The girl grimaced. Though she won, she got half-beaten unconscious, unaware that before fighting her, Su Xiao had only 1460 mana points left.