CHAPTER 264: CHAPTER 74: GRUDGES

In the rest cabin, Su Xiao leaned back on the recliner, feeling somewhat tired.

"It’s getting harder and harder."

With a sigh, Su Xiao glanced at his current ranking.

[First Tier Ranking: 21st place, eighty-four consecutive wins.]

At this rank, the opponents Su Xiao encountered were all tough. Just now, he faced a mage who used only one skill, the Small Fireball Technique.

Logically speaking, the Small Fireball, being a basic magic, shouldn’t be strong. However, the opponent had leveled up their Small Fireball to a very high level, causing immense damage.

More importantly, the mage’s Small Fireball was special. Sometimes it was one fireball; other times, two or even five fireballs were cast simultaneously.

More shamelessly, these Small Fireballs also had a tracking capability. If Su Xiao weren’t adept at dealing with mages, he likely would have been defeated under the continuous bombardment of five Small Fireballs.

There is no shortage of strange and unusual people in Reincarnation Paradise.

After several arena matches, the feeling of power being out of control disappeared once he enhanced his attributes.

[Matching opponent, please wait.]

Su Xiao yawned. This matching had already taken almost half an hour. The higher the rank, the fewer the opponents, and the longer it took to match.

He suspected that if he broke into the top ten, matching might take one or two days. After all, the opponents in the top ten would prefer to choose within top ten, and if they couldn’t, it would match within the top twenty.

After dozens of arena matches, Su Xiao found that the arena’s rules didn’t require defeating a specific rank to increase his ranking. The arena used a point system, which prevented the top ten from slacking, sitting on their laurels.

Defeating an opponent ranked higher than oneself would earn many points, and vice versa. However, if the opponent’s rank was much lower, no points would be gained.

These points cannot be viewed and are calculated by the arena.

After matching for one hour, Su Xiao canceled the match, preparing to end today’s arena session, when suddenly a prompt appeared.

[Prompt: The arena competitor ranked 163,333 challenges you.]

Su Xiao closed the prompt. The opponent’s six-figure ranking made him uninterested even in crushing a weak opponent.

Such challenges occurred often. After all, with Su Xiao now at the 21st rank, he was attracting attention.

[Prompt: The arena competitor ranked 163,333 challenges you.]

Su Xiao frowned and closed the prompt.

[Prompt: The arena competitor ranked 163,333 challenges you.]

Closing the prompt once more, it was rare to see such a persistent newcomer.

[Prompt: The arena competitor ranked 163,333 challenges you.]

Cold light flashed in Su Xiao’s eyes, considering the possibility it might be an arena informant. Choosing to accept, the sensation of teleportation appeared.

There were no spectators around the circular arena, as observation was prohibited in this mode.

Looking around, Su Xiao saw a scantily clad woman standing on the arena.

"Hello, I’m..."

The woman’s voice was soft and seductive, her seemingly unintentional movements were enchanting.

Before the woman could finish speaking, a shadow flashed before her eyes, and her neck tightened, causing a feeling of suffocation.

"Wait..."

Su Xiao paid no attention to the woman’s nonsense, not even drawing his knife. He simply grabbed her throat with one hand.

Crack.

The woman’s neck twisted unnaturally, and her body gradually dissipated.

"Three strikes and you’re out. I don’t care what your purpose is; informant, if you challenge me again or if we meet in a Derivative World, I’ll chop you up and feed you to dogs."

The woman’s body disintegrated after only saying five words. She was the chairman of the ’Athletic Guild’: Mei Ji.

Su Xiao had heard of this situation. Informants, for their own benefit, would often entangle endlessly, leaving no room for negotiation.

In a luxuriously decorated rest cabin, Mei Ji slumped on the floor, gasping for breath, her body trembling.

Even knowing she wouldn’t die in the arena, the man’s aura was terrifying. At the moment he charged forward, Mei Ji was frozen with fear.

"To treat me like this, just you wait."

Mei Ji gritted her silver teeth, her beautiful face twisting into a fierce expression.

"The arena’s code name is Bai Ye, which means his alias in a Derivative World is also Bai Ye."

Mei Ji used branding to contact her old friend, her fierce expression fading, and touched up her makeup in the process.

The connection was made, and a man in golden armor appeared on the screen; it was a video call function.

The golden-armored man had a dignified appearance, exuding an aura of natural authority. He was someone accustomed to high positions.

"Divine King, I was bullied."

Mei Ji looked aggrieved.

"Oh? It’s Mei Ji. Who bullied you?"

The man, called Divine King, had a loud voice, but his tone was somewhat perfunctory. Mei Ji didn’t mind this.

"A guy named Bai Ye."

"Bai Ye? Seems I’ve heard of him."

The Divine King fell into thought. After a long pause, he recalled something: their team, God Emperor Adventure Group, had invited this person. The God Emperor Adventure Group and the Phantom Troupe were arch enemies.

After very brief consideration, the Divine King decided not to get involved; only the God Emperor Adventure Group could handle the Phantom Troupe. Their God King Adventure Team’s involvement would just be handing them Scarlet Cards.

"I’m busy; we’ll talk later."

The Divine King ended the call, leaving Mei Ji stunned.

"What does this mean...?"

Mei Ji’s fist gradually clenched, her long fingers piercing into her flesh.

"Slept with me, and won’t even help with this little problem?"

Mei Ji took a deep breath, knowing she couldn’t afford to offend the Divine King.

"This cannot end like this."

Mei Ji continued to contact other ’friends,’ but once they learned Su Xiao’s arena rank was 21, they all politely declined.

The connections she painstakingly built were now fragile and crumbling.

Ten minutes later, Mei Ji stopped contacting anyone. She understood that apart from the Divine King, no one else could stand up for her.

It wasn’t a blood vendetta; Mei Ji just wanted someone to teach Su Xiao a lesson.

"They’re all unreliable. Perhaps I should leak some of their secrets—it’s also an income."

Things had evolved beyond a simple show of force.

In fact, her original plan was not just about getting back at him. If she could introduce an arena competitor ranked 21 to a large adventure team, and they joined successfully, Mei Ji would earn tens of thousands of paradise coins.

"Looks like I’ll have to seek that guy..."

Mei Ji appeared troubled; she had one last option, but this man had a penchant for torturing women. Before, just a night with him required spending thousands of paradise coins for recovery.

Mei Ji hesitated, but thinking of the lucrative reward, she gritted her teeth and contacted someone.

...

Such is the world. Even if Su Xiao doesn’t provoke anyone, as his strength grows, trouble will surely follow.

Interest is the source and end of all conflicts; most feuds and grudges are simply a process of seeking and obtaining interest.

In the rest cabin, Su Xiao gave up after matching for an hour. Reincarnation Paradise gave him a prompt: currently, only six of the top fifty are in the arena, with the most people expected in the arena twenty-four hours later.

Su Xiao left the arena. He continued to elevate his ranking because there were special rewards for the top ten, and the higher the rank, the richer the rewards.

He checked his remaining paradise coins; there were 11,947 paradise coins left.

Su Xiao needed to quickly convert these into combat strength. He had two choices: the first was to enhance equipment, and the second was to summon mirror images in the Trial Field.

Su Xiao wasn’t planning to enhance his equipment for now. Ten thousand paradise coins wouldn’t enhance many pieces; he planned to enhance all his gear once he had over fifty thousand paradise coins.

He didn’t expect all to be +7, but at least all should be +5.

Su Xiao walked quickly toward the Trial Field; he hadn’t summoned mirror images for a long time.