The Vigorous One

  Gravity defle forward—60 times acceleration!

  【Soul Sword Saint ? Battle Demon】

  The long sword emitted a sharp scream, tearing through the air instantly.

  With 60 times gravity acceleration, Li Aozi burst out a soni cloud on the spot, his speed instantly breaking through 588 meters per sed. To him, bullets moved as slowly as snails spiraling forward.

  He simply held the sword with both hands, leveling the bde, and relying oerrifying speed, he sliced through their metal armor.

  Sparks flew, but the cuts on flesh were eerily calm.

  Due to the equal and opposite rea, after enduring such tremendous speed, Li Aozi minimized his movements and carefully adjusted his Omega Energy, keeping himself in a stant state of weightlessness and acceleration to prevent his own Omega Energy from killing him.

  Whoosh—

  Li Aozi stopped abruptly, turned, and sheathed his sword.

  g.

  The row of biochemical soldiers behind him tinued firing, but their heads were thrown high, their brains ianks quickly losing vitality, boung joyfully like hydrangeas.

  Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—

  pared to Li Aozi's swift and cuts, Du Zexin's bat was plex and intricate, a dispy of micro-operations.

  He first threw two e-grenades, and the instaromagic pulse disabled the rushing biochemical soldiers, crushing them uheir own exoskeletons.

  The meical backpack of the [Beautiful Wishes] armor deployed into a tracked vehicle, popping out a shield to form a mobile barrier, blog ining heavy fire.

  With the anti-gravity system destroyed by Li Aozi, Du Zexin couldn't tinue flying and had to rely on these methods to advaeadily.

  He unched a high-explosive grenade, sending a row of biochemical soldiers and their cover into the air, then turned and fired the Magnum explosive gun at cle. With the mobile barrier and armor shielding him, he wasn't afraid of heavy fire, breaking through the defenses smoothly.

  "Warning! High-energy targets invading! Warning! High-energy targets invading!"

  Arms bred in the factory as Li Aozi and Du Zexin tiheir sughter.

  "Save some ammo!"

  Li Aozi amplified the gravity tenfold, the Battle Demon's aura being almost tangible. With both hands, he cleaved a biochemical soldier in half and twirled the sword, stabbing another soldier attempting a sneak attack from behind. Activating 【Iterative Move】, he instantly teleported behind a distant sniper, grabbing the sniper's head.

  【Directed Explosion】

  Spt—

  The sniper's brain iank burst instantly. Before the blood spttered on Li Aozi, he activated 【Iterative Move】 agaiurning to his inal position.

  He pulled the long knife from the corpse aended a from his right arm, swinging it to slice the approag biochemical soldiers in half.

  "How many of these are there—was the White Fang Gang not attag because of the professor's pns?"

  Li Aozi lowered the as more biochemical soldiers fired at him. Some even recklessly used rocket unchers and grenade unchers, not g if they hit their own.

  These attacks didn't matter mu. Gravity field defle could repel all bullets and explosive fragments, but this prevented him from using other Omega Energies, slowing his advance.

  "These biochemical soldiers aren't ted as Abyss Humanitarian members, yet they act so uniformly—are they es? Or iionally adjusted? Whatever, it's not important."

  pared to these biochemical soldiers, Li Aozi was more ed about the professor's feigned death earlier.

  Was the purpose to eliminate dissidents?

  Or to escape Frost-Pted surveilnce?

  Or to duct secret experiments more effectively?

  Li Aozi parried a biochemical soldier's bayo with his sword and raised his left hand, releasing 【Brilliant Sunlight】. The intense white light burhe biochemical soldiers' bodies.

  He ched his fist, and the burning soldiers were lifted by invisible gravity, rolling doweps with his hand's movement.

  "—Maybe, it's all of these reasons."

  After all, avoiding Frost-Pted was for secret experiments, using the White Fang Gang to eliminate dissidents was also a purpose, and the Abyss Humanitarian being looted could directly support the White Fang Gang. Their rise would help the ibals collect babies.

  Even if the Abyss Humanitarian was severely damaged, the professor probably anticipated Anna tag Frost-Pted for prote.

  Frost-Pted wouldn't sit idly by. Nowadays, researstitutions all vie for funding, but only Abyss Humanitarian provided tangible results.

  Iing the professor's mantle, Anna would undoubtedly e to the sed basement ohe situation stabilized. Everything she coveted was here... army, force, biochemical factory, secret experimental data.

  —And the professor.

  g!

  Li Aozi pierced the st biochemical soldier's armor seam, pinning him to the wall. He removed the soldier's mask, pg his palm on the brain iank, activating 【Cease Life】. Neural tendrils sprouted from his palm, draining the remaining life.

  "Phew... these guys are really stressful."

  The shriveled corpse fell to the ground. Li Aozi exhaled a breath of turbid air and tossed two pressed biscuits into his mouth.

  —By the way, did I steal too many of Yavanna Huskisin's biscuits back then? After intense ption post-battle, I still haven't fihem.

  Li Aozi looked at Du Zexin, who had just smashed a biochemical soldier's head with his fist, the radiating brain matter making the se no less gruesome than Li Aozi's side.

  "How does it feel?"

  "These biochemical soldiers react much faster than humans. If it weren't for the AI reminders, I might not be able to aim properly."

  Du Zexin pulled out his fist, extrag a chip and frowning, he said to Li Aozi:

  "This is a Laifu Light Industries military chip..."

  "The ons are still VK-74. These military ons, Abyss has plenty of them."

  Li Aozi was indifferent.

  "It's hard to imagihat Abyss Humanitarian turn ordinary people into soldiers nearing Alpha rank. They've even overe the inflexibility and poor obstacle-breag capabilities of maery."

  Du Zexin opened his facepte, his gaze plex as he stared at the chip.

  On one hand, as a human, he was disgusted by the use of patriots as ons. Oher hand, as a 【Meic】, he admired the professor's experimental products.

  He had to admit, the professor indeed deserved Frost-Pted's support. If ethid boundaries were disregarded, he, as the president, would also support Abyss Humanitarian's research.

  Du Zexin shook his head and pocketed the chip.

  They had sughtered through the biochemical factory, killing how many biochemical soldiers? 400? 500?

  Du Zexin couldn't t—such a force, equipped with professional meized vehicles and ons, could pletely repce a ventional army.

  But at that point, could a fully brain-in-a-jar army be trusted?

  Li Aozi didn't think that far. He never added points to 【Intelligence】 (【Willpower】); high IQ people lived very painfully.

  "Focus on the battle. Your style and realm clearly haven't adapted to Beta rank's power."

  "You tell I just leveled up?" Du Zexin was surprised, "Is it that obvious? I thought my firepower was already at the pany level."

  "Very obvious. At Beta rank, life has already undergone a prehensive sublimation. You should sider ging your mihinking from a transdent perspective, not with mortal cepts—mortals still debate firepower supremad armor uselessness. you think that way?"

  Li Aozi gave a simple hint. Du Zexin pondered, but whatever he came up with was his own business.

  Everyone has different ideas. Du Zexin, a renowned problem-solver, didn't eag; give him a dire, and he would figure out the answer himself.

  Starting from Beta rank, one must sider personal style and genre.

  At Alpha rank, it wasn't obvious. For instance, 【Warriors】' fighting style was still primarily about fast guns at le and fast punches in close bat.

  But at Beta rank, near-sonic or supersonic as became on, and bullets, at sonic speed, might not even catch up to someone running fast. At this point, a style ge was necessary.

  【Meics】 have many gehere are those like Du Zexin, the masked rider type, and those piloting Gundams, multi-turret cultists, and so on.

  In trast, 【Mutants】' genres were uable due to the "mutation" factor. Though highly pyable, creating a suitable Omega Energy system was challenging.

  Li Aozi thought of the blood demon style because of tless pyers' experiences. It might not be the most powerful, but it certainly had the highest survivability and the greatest margin for error.

  The two rested briefly and then headed towards the biochemical factory's exit door.

  Du Zexin g the closed door and immediately stepped forward, his wrist projeg a s:

  "The door is locked. Let me hato the system—"

  Before he finished speaking, Li Aozi felt the hair on his neck stand up.

  "Move!" he shouted, his body reag faster than his words. Using gravity defle, he yanked Du Zexin to a safe er.

  Whirr—

  A bck bde tore through the door, the sharp ripping sound mixed with sparks sending chills down their spines. Apanied by a loud g, Li Aozi felt like he was hit head-on by a train, instantly sent flying.

  Damn, what is that!

  Li Aozi didn't even have time to activate 【Iterative Move】 before he was grabbed by the colr and thrown towards the biochemical dissolution pool.

  His rea speed was far behind his oppo's attributes. By the time he regained trol of his limbs and activated gravity to stabilize himself, a strong sense of oppression hit his spine.

  "Beta rank—this isn't some newbie like Du Zexin, this is an old Beta rank, strohan the ibal!"

  Li Aozi didn't dare stay in the air. He immediately activated gravity to return to the biochemical factory's corridor. Just as he nded, a familiar female voice sounded in his ear:

  "Missed me? My level five iee."

  A sharp cw rested on his shoulder, the cold bde pierg his flesh, instantly triggering battle mode.

  【Entering battle mode, assessing...】

  【Primary attribute assessment passed】

  【Based on your attributes, you will see the following information about the enemy:】

  【Name】: ‘The Vigorous One’ ???

  FAL