Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 129: The snipe and the clam fight, the mantis catches the cicada

Chapter 129: The snipe and the clam fight, the mantis catches the cicada

"Go on, keep fighting."

Anna was immensely grateful for her actions; it was Li Aozi who had angered Du Zexin, not her.

Even though she was using someone else to do her dirty work, Du Zexin might not be too happy when he finally confronted her. But as long as she offered some benefits and compensation, it would be water under the bridge.

Li Aozi’s combat prowess was completely beyond her expectations. For a moment, her resolve wavered incredibly, and she seriously doubted: Was this really the "Level Five Infected" the professor had talked about?

But she quickly shook her head and dismissed that thought.

Ersha Theory was fundamentally flawed. The professor already had the research on Ersha Armament and Arcane Awakening’s potions, along with the psychic communication adopted by the military. Why not focus on these three projects and study them thoroughly?

Why was he so obsessed with Ersha?

For the sake of Ersha, he had abandoned his humanity and even sacrificed potential benefits. Was it worth it?

Anna was very clear that her faith and worship of science had long faded with the passage of time.

Researching science had only caused her to lose her youth, wasting it in a harsh place without enjoying anything. Even half of her face had been ruined.

But what about wealth and power?

Anna began to feel incredibly fortunate that she had accidentally killed the professor.

Although she would temporarily bear great risks, even putting half of Mingji at stake, in return, she had almost assumed a comprador-like dominant position.

As long as she continued to lead the Mingji Humanity in their research, her power and wealth would become more stable. Eventually, when her efforts scaled up, she could establish a separate company, go public, and seek social financing. She wouldn’t need to do anything and would instead become an elite making money from money.

At that point, what she could achieve would far surpass the professor’s accomplishments. She might even consider... immortality?

The word was filled with romanticism and nihilism, but to make it a reality, it required capitalism.

The lights and shadows of Li Aozi’s sword, the thunderous roar of Du Zexin’s cannons, it seemed that transcendents were nothing more than beasts with greater power. A careless moment could turn them into slaves of their strength, how ignorant, how naive.

"You should see all of this, teacher."

Anna sighed.

If the professor had skillfully utilized Frost Plated’s power, he could have brought Mingji to an incomparably exalted place.

Alas, history never allowed for what-ifs.

Buzz—

A strange low hum rapidly approached. Anna suddenly realized that time seemed to slow down immensely.

The Third Rule agents around her, who had formed a tactical formation, seemed to cramp up all at once. They twisted their bodies one by one, either tossing their firearms high and firing aimlessly or toppling over in all directions.

By the time Anna raised her head and focused her eyes, a sphere suddenly collided into her chest.

"Eh?"

She instinctively lifted the sphere in her arms. It was the head of a Third Rule agent with a face mask. His eyes were filled with terror, and his eyelids even twitched slightly.

Clang—

The clamor of a sword’s cry immediately seized her attention. Li Aozi’s fierce blade continuously slashed, tearing open the necks of agent after agent. His technique was swift, his moves fierce, precise, and clean.

The seemingly ordinary longsword sparked brilliantly when it struck a military rifle, neatly slicing through alloy and engineering plastic.

No one could raise their heads to look at him. He seemed like an ancient king descending upon them, forcing the agents to bow and expose their gleaming necks to him, allowing him to skillfully and effortlessly take their lives like a chef slicing salmon or roast duck.

If this were a slaughter, it would be far too easy.

It was essentially an industrialized assembly line massacre, with movements devoid of any excess. Like precise machinery, each slash was perfect, not one extra, and even the position of each cut almost matched up.

If a human could achieve machine-like precision, it would be called art.

If machines could be as dexterous as humans, they would be called perfect.

The swordsmanship before Anna’s eyes combined the advantages of both man and machine—more precise than a machine, more agile than a human.

The burnt aura of the War Spectre entwined the Simple Slash, and as it savored blood and carnage, a layer of purple flames faintly appeared on the blade.

She recognized this flame—when Nodley executed a burst of Qi, this phenomenon would also rise from his body.

It was the momentary surge of a martial artist’s Qi Energy from their physique. The high temperature and pressure of the Qi Energy twisted the air, causing refracted light to leave a flaming trail.

This was merely an ordinary optical phenomenon, but it mercilessly segregated transcendents from ordinary people.

Ordinary people, without the guidance of master teachers or the aid of potions, could train for decades and barely step into the hierarchy. The privileged and the elite kids might reach Alpha Stage by the time they reached adulthood.

Since the advent of civilization, talent became secondary; anyone with enough money could get an education, while ordinary folks could only suffer through endless toil to barely reach the starting line of others.

But now, it seemed different.

The resounding blade traced a chilling path as it glided along the wall, effortlessly tearing open a grotesque streak.

Doctor Anna wanted to say something, but Li Aozi casually threw a bundle of chains, binding her up tightly.

Excellent, killing two birds with one stone; a quick interrogation would complete Settlement Condition C as well.

But first, he had to check in with Meibei.

Li Aozi gave his blade a light shake, fresh blood scattered like rain, the recent carnage executed with elegance, imbued with a certain gory poetic charm.

But killing was killing. Li Aozi looked at the experience points being tallied and finally exhaled a breath of turbid air.

"Looks like this Arcane Energy is pretty useful..."

[Soul Engraving Swordsman - War Spectre] provided considerable enhancement to his swordsmanship, akin to a high-level specialty for a martial artist’s advanced progression.

Not only that—Li Aozi clearly felt that wielding the sword was an entirely unique experience.

Different from playing games before... he could truly comprehend the tactile response of the sword’s movement, genuinely listen to the sword’s song, even feel himself flowing with the blade.

Sadly, there wasn’t time to relish it. He had just wiped out the 25 agents.

"Whew... refreshing."

At this rate, [Soul Engraving Swordsman - War Spectre] would soon reach a new level of evolution.

He glanced at the purple flames curled around his blade. Simple Slash was just an ordinary Sky Ring-imported sword, well-crafted but still a standard weapon. Now, however, the Sword Soul was beginning to awaken, no longer just a mere killing instinct.

Although a Cauchy Level (Ξ, the fourteenth Greek letter) grade was somewhat lacking, its low energy consumption and effective performance were commendable.

With the last agent killed, the system prompt appeared:

[You have completed a Settlement Condition. Based on your team bonus, the actual yield is 225%...]

The previous kills of those Mingji nurses and physicians were too low in level to count, and a rough scan showed that his current remaining experience was barely enough to reach Level Six.

Even though his leveling speed was already considered outrageous among players... it still wasn’t fast enough for the current combat situations.

The leveling mode in "Starry Abyss" was quite unique; experience calculations were updated with each version patch, leading to initial data inflation, which would be recalculated in later updates.

Li Aozi’s system patch was already the final version, and since he was on an NPC template, he didn’t need system updates, so version changes didn’t affect him.

The upside was that he didn’t have to deal with the complex experience calculation formulas; the inflated data would adaptively accommodate units.

Li Aozi also wouldn’t be limited by version constraints that capped player levels.

The downside was clear, as this would affect his level-up speed, essentially switching to an NPC growth mode.

He hadn’t felt it before, but now Li Aozi suddenly realized that for him, the late-version experience accumulated by veteran players was far more valuable than the petty amounts of new players’ experience.

"When players hit the level cap at the end of a version, they just stack massive amounts of experience with nowhere to spend it. New players’ experience is a mere drizzle to me... Looks like I need to cultivate a batch of elite players."

Li Aozi wasn’t in a hurry—Alpha testing had already started, and the closed beta wasn’t far off.

Once players saw his ad (bounties), if even one out of ten sought him out to spend experience learning knowledge or skills, he’d be swimming in profit.

This was the essence of monetizing traffic.

With this in mind, Li Aozi decided not to continue capping his level, reserving twenty-five thousand experience to refresh mutation options. The rest he invested directly into [Sovereign].

[Main Profession Mutation upgraded to lv.26]

[Based on your specialty, you gain the following benefit: Charm +3.]

Li Aozi shivered. Soon after, he felt his senses become richer, and the external cold and damp seemed to barely affect him physiologically.

With a hint of thoughtfulness, he began to gain new insights into the Arcane Energy he had mastered.

Gravity coiled effortlessly around him, and he distinctly felt his control becoming more precise. Once he mastered the related knowledge, Li Aozi could foresee the potential of this ability becoming even more vibrant and versatile.

"This feeling is unprecedented. Despite not having activated it, I can sense Nomi’s arcane energy healing faster—"

Li Aozi paused before shaking his head and shifting his focus elsewhere.

As a result, his basic attributes reached 50 points, with accessories adding 3 points and the Perpetual Love Hunting specialty effect yielding 130% of the benefits.

The final result amounted to an actual yield of 68.9 points.

This level was already approaching the upper limits of the Beta Rank.

Li Aozi had a niggling feeling that if he centered his mind, the world seemed to whisper to him. But his foundational stages were still insufficient to bear such murmurs, so he diverted his attention to avoid listening.

The key point wasn’t this, but that Du Zexin certainly didn’t have his main attribute in such a grand scale.

Even with the anti-gravity system, he could still hammer him.

Li Aozi shook his neck, picked up his longsword, burst forth with gravity, and charged toward the hall.

"Come on, Meibei!"