Chapter 82 - : Everything is a Weapon
Even though they had a pair of green eyes, Illusion Cats were famous for their hearing. They were great at listening.
Meng Chao’s slash arrived at the spot on the back of an Illusion Cat, which was where their hearing nerves were gathered.
Even though the tip of the saber only cut off a thin layer of skin, the poison quickly seeped in. Pain flared up, and at the same time, the Illusion Cat lost its hearing and balance. Its limbs twitched, and it staggered back.
Meng Chao seized the chance and dealt another slash at its soft throat. He accurately cut its windpipe and jugular vein, but he did not touch a single bone. Even so, he managed to take the creature’s life.
At that moment, the two other Illusion Cats had already arrived behind him.
Meng Chao did not even look at them. He kicked behind him with one leg and then another and sent the two Illusion Cats flying.
He executed the future One Hundred Saber Techniques and brought out its full power at the two creatures’ stomachs. They were cut open in a flash.
The two Illusion Cats did not even have time to scream in pain. They lost their lives while in midair.
Meng Chao’s saber continued shining as brightly as before. Not a single scratch was left on it.
Only a crystalline drop of green cat blood slowly slid down it.
“Those are some good saber skills.”
Many teachers and recruiters gasped in surprise in the monitor center.
This examinee from Ninth High School had brought them a lot of shock.
For a period of time, they could not quite tell whose saber technique was better, Meng Chao’s or Luo Hai’s.
“This feels great!”
A thick, bloody scent wafted into his nose, and Meng Chao sneezed twice. He felt like a fish in water, and his fighting spirit lit up.
“There are too few Illusion Cats here. Should I go in further?”
He took a stroll among the broken walls.
Quite a number of Illusion Cats had already smelled him, and they kept on crawling out of the darkness to attack him, but he dealt with all of them in a few casual flicks of his saber.
When he appeared at the entrance of the first department, his camouflage uniform was drenched in cat blood, but it evaporated because of the heat on it and turned into wisps of bloody fog.
His saber was still as sharp as a needle. Not a single tough monster bone had cracked it.
Meng Chao was now in the designated hunting ground of Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng.
It was their ground not because they acted like tyrants and refused to let the others come in, though.
It was because they had gathered more than one thousand Rapid Biting Rat carcasses, and it attracted a lot of Illusion Cats to “feast”.
The examinees who were weak would just be asking for death if they entered the first department. In just a few minutes, they would be covered in wounds and brought out of the test area because they had lost too much blood.
When Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng saw Meng Chao stroll in with a saber on his shoulder, their pupils shrank.
They no longer dared to look down on this peer of theirs who came from a key high school in the region and had been a nobody in the past.
At that moment, their points were about the same with each other. Even though they won over Meng Chao because their cold weapons were sharper, they had used up a lot of their strength because of the nonstop shooting and killing.
Their eyes were red, their muscles twitched, and they felt as if their lungs were stuffed with gunpowder. Every breath they took caused them great pain.
This was a sign that they had overworked themselves and should sit down in their stances to regulate their breathing. They needed to remain like that for around twenty minutes before to recover around eighty percent of their strength.
But Meng Chao was relaxed, and his eyes burned brightly with energy.
‘Just how did he manage to get nearly one thousand points? Isn’t he tired at all?’
Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng exchanged glances with each other. They just could not understand it.
Meng Chao’s body was covered in the pungent scent of the Rapid Biting Rats, and he attracted the attention of all the Illusion Cats.
The small feline-type monsters’ bloodlust was stirred up. They arched their backs and polished their claws while releasing brutal hisses.
Luo Hai, Fang Da, and Xie Feng had wanted to rest a long time ago, but they were held back by the Illusion Cats and could not find a chance to do so.
When they saw that all the “firepower” had been attracted by Meng Chao, they finally released a sigh of relief and took a few steps back to sit down on the ground.
They felt that their limbs were numb, and they could not raise them even if they wanted to.
‘Let’s see just what skills this guy has!’
The three boys sat down to regulate their breathing, but their eyes were wide open as they watched Meng Chao with great loathing.
Meng Chao did not hold back and strode into the center of the department.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Dozens of Illusion Cats showed their forms in the air, and like black blades, they pounced on his vitals.
Meng Chao instantly took note of the angle of their jumps, their speed, and their arcs, and all sorts of figures and formulae raced through his mind like a waterfall cascading down a cliff.
He executed the future version of the One Hundred Saber Technique until it was only a silver blur, which covered a circular area of three meters around him. The attacks were so tightly linked that not a single drop of water would have been able to escape.
All the Illusion Cats that invaded the area instantly released pained cries.
Since the slashes were densely packed together, it was only natural that not all cuts were fatal.
But against the three elites’ expectations, the injured Illusion Cats staggered back as if they were drunk. Their muscles twitched, and they even foamed at the mouth. In less than half a minute, they lost their ability to fight, and Meng Chao easily took their lives.
“Were they… poisoned?”
The three young men gaped at the sight. They had just witnessed Meng Chao using a Lightning Saber, which they knew was the most common saber in the city. It was not a sharp weapon with a poisonous property. Besides, it was not as if they could buy a poisonous and domineering cold weapon during the practical test for university entrances.
So, did he spread poison on his own blade?
But where did the poison come from?!
The more the trio thought about it, the more confused they became, and they really wanted to shout “Sirs, he’s hacking— No, I mean, he’s cheating!”
Of course, it was impossible for him to cheat, because there were more than ten unmanned aerial vehicles that flew in through the window to monitor his kills from various angles.
This meant that Meng Chao had already stirred great interest in the chief invigilator, and the attention he received was higher than the attention received by the trio.
When they thought of this, the trio felt upset.
“He’s just using a saber with powerful poisonous properties. When he uses up all his poison, we’ll have recovered our strength. He won’t have any other tricks up his sleeves by then!” Second High School’s Xie Feng said with gritted teeth.
But Luo Hai retained his solemn expression.
His father was a saber master, and hence, Luo Hai had extraordinary judgment when it came to saber techniques. He could tell that even though Meng Chao seemed relaxed and did not seem to be attacking the vital spots, he was actually using the fighting style that would preserve the most strength.
If he could use only thirty percent of his strength to kill an Illusion Cat, he would definitely not use forty percent to do it.
Such restraint was much more rarely seen compared to cutting a cat in half.
‘When he finishes using his poison, will he have other cards up his sleeve?’ This question rose in Luo Hai’s heart.
Reality showed that he did.
Once Meng Chao killed dozens of Illusion Cats, he gradually finished up his poison.
He then immediately changed his fighting style. He intentionally exposed his vitals and let the Illusion Cats tear into him.
Rip!
An Illusion Cat bit down into his outstretched arm.
A huge tear was left behind on the gel fighting suit, and a large amount of gel oozed out.
Thud!
Meng Chao seized the opportunity to cut into the cat’s chest, and with a twist, its heart was crushed.
Another Illusion Cat bit into his shoulder, and its fangs practically pierced through his gel fighting suit. It resulted in great pain and pressure on his collarbone.
But he did not even frown. He reached out and grabbed the Illusion Cat’s neck. He executed Reckless Bull Force and rammed the cat against the ground. Then, he found the most precise angle and crushed its spine with a stomp.
He traded their lives for a few injuries. His peerlessly brutal fighting style caused his hunting efficiency to be higher than that of the three elites, and his points as well as his rank kept shooting up.
“Luo Hai, this guy’s saber technique doesn’t seem to be that much more outstanding than ours, so why is his killing efficiency so high?” First High School’s Fang Da gasped in amazement.
“He’s draining away the defense of his gel fighting suit. His fighting suit is already done for.” Second High School’s Xie Feng scowled.
Luo Hai wanted to say something, but did not. Instead, he thought, ‘This guy’s saber technique isn’t at the point where it “doesn’t seem to be that much more outstanding than ours”.
‘At the very least, it’s much more outstanding compared to both of yours.’
Luo Hai was filled with curiosity toward Meng Chao’s strategy.
In just a few minutes, his fighting suit was rendered useless, so how was he going to fight next?
When Meng Chao harvested dozens of Illusion Cats’ lives in one go, he stopped to catch his breath.
Upon seeing the elites watching him from the corner curiously, a thought appeared in his heart.
If the three boys were in this test area, it meant that they had a bit of potential. Since he was free anyway, he might as well provide them with some guidance. Even if he could not get a lot of contribution points from it, he would still be considered to have contributed to Dragon City.
“Bullets and cold weapons aren’t the only things that can be considered as weapons,” he said faintly.
“What?” The trio was stunned. ‘Is he talking to us?’
“During a real fight, aside from guns, bullets, fists, and cold weapons, every part of our bodies, a branch, a can opener, and even a pair of chopsticks can be weapons.”
Meng Chao swung his saber and accurately stabbed the blade into the gap between the third and fourth vertebrae of an Illusion Cat. He then continued his explanation without even turning his head around.
“I can see that you have already finished up your cartridges. I don’t think that there’s an idiot around who would leave behind a bullet and not use it so that they can return it to the education department after the test ends, right?
The trio looked at each other at a loss. ‘What’s he doing? Is he giving us guidance while taking the test?’
Even though everything in the practical test for university entrance emulated a real fight and it was not cheating for “comrades” to talk to each other, wasn’t he acting with a little too much conceit?!
“But why are you treating only your guns and bullets as weapons? Why didn’t you think that your gel fighting suit is also a very precious weapon? When the test ends, there’s no difference between handing in a brand new gel fighting suit that is not the slightest bit torn and handing in a cartridge that is full of bullets.”
Meng Chao ignored their gazes and continued without holding back. “Illusion Cats are characterized by their speed and ability to hide themselves. In complete darkness, it’s impossible to catch them, and they become just like real illusions.
“I’m sure that you wasted a lot of strength to track down these Illusion Cats, which is why you ended up having to catch your breath after killing them. Because of that, you now have to sit down in a stance to regulate your breathing.
“But I’m using my gel camouflage uniform as bait and intentionally letting the Illusion Cats bite me. This allows me to get rid of their greatest advantage, so it’s only natural that my killing efficiency is much higher than yours.
“As for the damage to the gel camouflage fighting suit, it doesn’t matter. It’s not as if I’m going to get any points deducted for it.”
The trio gaped at him.
‘He’s seriously giving us guidance!
‘He’s just someone from a key high school in one of the regions, but he’s providing guidance to three elites from key high schools from the main district during the practical test for university entrances.’
The situation was too strange, and for a period of time, the trio did not know how they should react.
When they finally wrapped their heads around it, they flew into a rage and wanted to shout ‘You don’t have a poison blade anymore, and you don’t have a gel fighting suit either. How are you going to fight next?’
Before they could ask the question, Meng Chao showed them the answer.
Riiip!
He thought that the gel fighting suit that was already torn to shreds and completely ruined was a bother, so he just got rid of it. It revealed his sturdy body.
The lines of his muscles were clear, and they rose and fell like waves. Coupled with his slightly protruding spine, he seemed to have explosive strength contained in his body.
When another Illusion Cat pounced on him, Meng Chao used his arm to block it once more. A few deep gashes were immediately left behind on his arm.
As for the Illusion Cat, it got clamped down by the arm, and Meng Chao slit its throat.
He used the same strategy with the next few Illusion Cats. He used his body as bait and lured the monsters into biting. Then, with an explosive wave of power, he killed each and every one of them.
Whenever another wound was added to Meng Chao’s body, another monster died.
He fought brutally like a lunatic.
The three elite teenagers who came from aristocratic families found themselves unable to say anything, because they felt chills crawling down their spines as they watched.
“I told you, everything is a weapon on a real battlefield, including our bodies. It’s worth it to get injured if you can kill another monster for it,” Meng Chao said in a voice as calm as a cold saber.
He then narrowed his eyes, from which killing intent spilled out.