Champion and Adventure

Hiro’s POV:

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We entered the Virtual Reality and an enormous arena appeared in front of us. There was an elevated place, which was supposed to be ours. But upon seeing it, Alice only sighed as she randomly turned melancholic, while I was naturally affected by her thoughts and feelings.

[Sigh… I feel stupid after these days. We played around and acted like stupid gods. Well, to be more exact not really us but me, though it’s not like you have never felt like this. I guess it was my time at the moment? Why do we want to be famous? Why are we seeking the attention of others? Even though it doesn’t even matter if you think about it.]

[I was behaving like a little kid… I know that you found it cute and I also know that you understand me, but it’s still weird now that I think back about it. Just thinking about these past few days makes me feel hollow and empty. It’s as if I would have been only a shadow of my former self. The light is indeed dangerous… Once we taste it, we can forget how it was to live in the dark or the gray.]

[It felt funny that everyone feared me and those faces they made whenever I did something… but I can’t help and think about how stupid I was. That fuzzy shining feeling when you fill yourself with stupid thoughts. Thoughts which make you believe that you are different and that everyone is looking up to you. But those are only hollow and empty words, respects, feelings.]

[You can taste the light, but you have to be careful. You must leave because you are going to forget your real self in that case. And that would be terrible. Because… people might change, their feelings might change, others might change, but there is one thing that is always going to stay constant in this ever changing messy Equation. And that is you, me, and our never ending love~]

Alice finished her monolog with such words, which warmed my heart. Although she has been rampaging and playing around a lot with the poor mortals, but I didn’t really mind it. I knew that she would notice herself. I was here for her too. She could rely on me for anything, at any time, and at anywhere. And she knew this all too well.

Since they cared about doing such a place for us, we sat down on the elevated seats, in one chair. Alice sat on my lap, feeling content with only that much. I hugged her sexy body into my embrace, feeling truly happy. So much love~ I wonder what would be our story like if one were to be written about our life. No, not lives.

[It would be filled with hot sex~] Alice answered my question, which made me chuckle. I wanted to give a kiss on the back of her head, but since she knew what I wanted, she turned around. Our lips met and I felt our feelings pouring through our kiss. This time, we had different powers. Since we were just watching, our strength and abilities were set to be the same as in the outside world. Which meant complete control…

Alice snapped her fingers and everyone appeared in the arena. Since the pods read our thoughts, the system knew what we wanted to do. Hundreds of millions of small rings appeared in the arena. Since our eyesight was back, we could see everything clearly. With a snap of my finger, they appeared on those stages in pairs. Countdowns appeared in front of all of them and upon hitting zero, they were supposed to jump at each other’s throats.

Of course, that wasn’t the case. How would these new hatchlings turn into cold-blooded killers in just a month? Although they went through life and death battles, but it didn’t have any real risks. They slowly started circling around each other and then they started fighting slowly. Though, this wasn’t the case everywhere. There were people who attacked immediately as the countdowns hit zero. We were pleased with those people.

After the first round came to an end, we repeated the same process numerous times. Since there were many rings, the number of humans were dividing by two, continuously. As their numbers kept decreasing, we also increased the sizes of the rings. We felt bored… These low-level battles looked boring. They used the elements, which were at least nice, but nothing big, nothing great! We were like that as well…

This championship continued on in such a way before finally reaching its end. It might look pointless, but with rewards in front of them, anyone would work harder. We wanted to use that element to make these mortals work harder. The champion was called Shi Fu, the second was a woman, called Esther Tu and the third one was again a guy, called Adam Henzler. These people were visibly martial artists, who cared about such things even before us.

After leaving the virtual reality, we made small storage rings and put their rewards into it. We have done the same thing for every human who took a good place on the rankings. Although we couldn’t do such things outside, but in our own world? Creating matter was as easy as breathing and cutting off a chunk of space was just as easy. Even locking space was possible. The only thing which was impossible for now was changing the flow of time. We will have to learn the laws of time to apply those to our own world.

That will be the time when we can truly quicken these people’s cultivation speed. The rewarded people were happy to see their prizes, while the others made envious faces. We found these ratings, rankings, and such things to be ridiculous. Were we really just things to be indexed with numbers, with rankings? Were living beings something we could rate? Weren’t we all just intelligent animals?

Such were my questions, but I knew the answers. At least, my own answers based on my own thoughts. Yes, we could rate anyone based on our own taste. It could also provide others with an easier way to pick out the ‘better’ among the ‘worse’. Such was the tragedy of humanity. Once you’ve got marked, there would be an infinite cycle repeating itself. It’s good that I wasn’t a human. [No, you are my mate and an unfair, foul monster at that~ I love you the most, dear!] Alice said while rewarding me with a kiss for nothing.

I slapped her ass as a reward and then we teleported to the border of the mortal sector. We made a huge formation around it, which would turn the Universe Energy backward. It was called Reverse Formation. Obvious names with obvious reasons and uses…

After doing so, it was time to start! Using the captured souls of the dwarves, we turned the normal animals into more powerful monsters. How would they evolve? We had no idea. If something too dangerous were to be born, we would simply seal it or kill it. Managing our own world wasn’t that hard… since we felt everything in it. For example…

[P- Please, please, please!!! Can I do it? I- I really want to look at his face!] Alice started pleading upon feeling something ‘funny’. Truth be told, I wasn’t all that happy about it. No male would be happy about such a thing. But Alice wasn’t a guy. She found it funny. I slumped my shoulders and sighed in answer, waving my right hand.

“Go ahead… stupid girl,” I answered her pleading, which was impossible to refuse. She jumped up in her happiness, already thinking about her prank.

“Rin! Come, we are going to scare someone!” Alice exclaimed as she swung her whip in the air, which appeared out of nowhere.

[What are you? A cowboy? But they have lassos…] I thought in my mind, while still having a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Rin jumped up from the ground and stopped beside Alice. They teleported away to a different place…

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In a dark house… only the projector was making some light. Alice appeared in that dark room. There was only one person in that room. A teenager guy, who had nothing better to do than to *cough* fap *cough* on a picture of Alice…. There were pictures of us since there were news and such… Everyone knew our faces, but for that shitty mortal to use Alice’s picture like that? I’m not saying that I’m going to kill him.

I’ll let him live his tiny little mortal life and then drop dead of old age. But my Alice! [Ahn~ Please stop whining, I’m yours only. Now let me concentrate on his face. I want to see it! Hahaha,] Alice was already laughing in her mind. All the guy felt was a terrible aura pressing down on his body, but since he was sitting, he probably thought that he was tired.

Alice stopped right behind his big chair, with Rin beside her. After patting Rin’s back, she purred in a low voice. Hearing such a deep purring sound beside his right ear, he quickly turned around with a surprised face. And then it happened. At first his mouth turned into a huge ‘O’ and then his eyes opened widely. Alice was looking at his face in slow motion, examining every detail.

He raised up his brows, along with his arms in his surprise. His face turned completely white as he jumped backward in his chair. He screamed out loudly in his sudden surprise upon seeing Alice and a black panther standing right behind him, which was even bigger than him. His fearful face made even me laugh. I couldn’t help but hold my stomach upon seeing his reaction. He crashed into the backrest of his chair, which fell over as a result.

He continued on with his screaming, while Alice held onto her stomach, laughing. The guy fell under his table, with his legs pointing towards the ceiling. Alice didn’t even bother with looking at him anymore as she left while laughing. His surprised face was truly worth money. Alice’s words and laughter echoed in the room as she left, thanks to her using our world.

“Next time you shouldn’t use me as a material. Remember that I’m only your god’s possession~ Haha~”

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I facepalmed while shaking my head sideways upon seeing Alice return. It couldn’t be helped. We were connected. She found this thing to be laughable and she was in a good mood after scaring the shit out of the guy, but it affected me as well. I couldn’t stop grinning and chuckling while standing there like an idiot. Her emotions and laughter were affecting me. I decided not to bother myself with it and I too started laughing. It was better released than being held in.

After finally stopping, I closed my eyes and concentrated on Gaia’s formation in that secret place. After crushing it, we also let the Universe Energy flood this one. The Universe Energy rushed through the gates of our world and filled up everything in just a moment. It was interesting to see how quick it was. It appeared everywhere almost instantly. Just as we planned, the mortal sector was unaffected. It was time to make a speech once again… I hate speeches…

“Hello, hatchlings! Universe Energy is all around you, so you can start cultivating anytime. But not here… this is our place. Now go,” I said as I waved my hand and teleported everyone back where they were originally. I felt that there were sweet family reunions with little children and wives who didn’t want to step on a dangerous path. But most of the people came in pairs, so there was nothing big.

We felt that a few of them - the top three as well - started cultivating immediately. Knowing that this was a long process, we didn’t bother with them anymore. We can always come back and guide them or help them in case it is necessary. But we had to focus on something better!

While we were living in the outside world by using our clones, quite a lot of things happened. When it was the guys’ talk in the hot spring, Max told about himself as well. He loved his wife dearly and Melleri was the only thing left of her. This only caused him to love his daughter even more. When the universes mixed and he finally had a chance to communicate with her, he had to find out that he couldn’t!

He felt despaired through weeks. But two days after we left, he was finally able to contact Melleri. He found out that she was in the final chambers of a dungeon, which had separate spaces. She spent her time there and that was the reason of why she couldn’t be contacted. Max proudly told us that she actually finished a dungeon which was at her level! This meant that Melleri was a genius. We weren’t surprised by that since she was advancing quite quickly even when we were in the third realm.

We also had to take part in a celebration party… but after welcoming Melleri and spending there a few minutes, we left. We had… other things to do. *Cough* [Pfft, haha, don’t worry. It’s completely normal, isn’t it?] Alice remarked with a laugh as we left our world.

[Honestly? No, not really… but it was much better than a shitty party~] I answered her as such with my hands on my hips and a proud smile on my face. She rewarded me with a big smooch. Naturally, we had sex instead of the party… Rin climbed between our legs in her cub-sized form and then suddenly enlarged her body. While sitting on her back, she took us to the class. The other big thing was that… there was going to be an expedition!

I felt like a kid who was about to go on a trip when I heard it. We appeared at the usual place, which had trees around it in a circle, while the center was a plain with a few big boulders. Usually, we were sitting on top of those boulders while the others were fighting and we weren’t. Examining their battles also had its effects. This time we were the last to appear and a few seconds later, Elder Genotan also arrived.

He waved his hand, indicating that we should follow him. We flew after him, towards the portal. To our surprise, we noticed that there were many more classes and cultivators. It seemed like ours wasn’t the only class going. It made it all the better! While being at the academy, we had also got to know the name of the director. She was called Sedna.

Right above the Star Formation, a beautiful woman with blue hair was standing high in the air, looking down at everybody. She had small round hazel colored eyes with a curvy body. If not for having Alice, then most likely I would have turned horny. Her aura probably had a powerful pressuring effect, though we didn’t feel things like those. The sweaty foreheads of our classmates were also a testament to that. She was none other than Sedna, the director.

As more and more people appeared, the place around the Star Formation was slowly filling up. Everyone was only at the fifth level, except the elders and Sedna. We weren’t able to sense the exact strength of the elders. All of them were at the seventh level. We were able to differentiate only the difference in our strength. That was why we knew when someone was at the Temporary Law Realm or the seventh level, or at an even higher level. We simply sensed the gaping difference.

Sedna raised her hands and everyone turned silent. Literally. Our voices didn’t leave our mouth. [Not like we were talking aloud…] Alice remarked, which made me laugh. Without a sound…

“Hello, everyone. Today is the day for a short test of yours. We have many talented cultivators, but many of you are lazy. Once you get in, you think that you can take it easy and enjoy the benefits. You new ones are wrong. As long as you are a member of this academy, you’ll have to work hard. Although you don’t know it, but our elders are monitoring your progress. We found many of you, who barely advanced anything in the last thousand years, which is ridiculous.”

“I can’t even understand how you dare calling yourselves geniuses. Pathetic people… no more. The exceptions have my respect,” She added while looking at a few people one by one, also stopping her gaze on our class. It didn’t have as many members as the other classes, but everyone here was a ‘monster’ in their own category. I guess we were monsters among monsters… I never thought in my past life that I’d have the chance to enjoy such a lifeform.

“This test round is being held with a reason. If you can’t reach the necessary requirements, then you will have to leave the school. We don’t need lazy people! The upcoming war with Angelwood Academy is also an important one. I’d rather support those who are worthy of it. So work hard to reach the top! I shall open the Crazed Run of this year!” She exclaimed with her arms opened widely, while we felt our voices returning. Many of the people started applauding, while some of them had worried or bothered faces.

Genotan waved his hand and we went towards the Star Formation. Our class was the first one to leave. Although there were classes which had only cultivators at the ninth stage in them, but quality wise, ours was the best. As the darkness disappeared, we found ourselves in a similar clearing. All around us was a huge jungle with enormous trees. After us, the other classes started appearing as well, but Genotan was already explaining things to us.

After knowing what we had to do, we were the first to jump into the jungle. This place was different than what we thought. This was a four-star planet, which wasn’t all that big considering the size of a seven-star planet. Why was this place different? It was because we couldn’t use our mind powers! After asking Genotan, we learned that this was made by Gaia when she was the director. It’s a mysterious formation, which origin of no one knows. It sealed only the people’s mind powers.

This meant that we won’t be able to use Hydro Mind. We couldn’t fly either… At least our Bolt of Silence will still come in handy. This planet was filled to the brim with huge monsters. Their strengths varied from the third to the ninth stage and there was a chance that there were a few at the sixth level as well. This place was dangerous. What was our test? We had to kill at least one hundred monsters - which have to be at least at the same stage as us - and bring back their heads.

We had only four days to do it, which was very short! Although if we started a mass genocide, then we can do it, but it would also invite a lot of trouble. Most of the cultivators went in groups. In case someone were to meet a too powerful monster, a stronger member of their party could kill it. Not wasting our times, we left behind everyone with Rin in tow. While running like mad, we jumped into the air with a somersault and then landed on the ground. But not in our human or battle forms…

It’s been a long time that we truly went on a rampage. It was time for a bloody battle in our true forms! Rin pulled up the skin on the sides of her mouth, showing her razor sharp teeth. She started growling and then roared loudly, feeling happy. Her scales also grew out and covered her body. All of us were twelve meters tall. I and Alice were fifty meters long, while Rin was only thirty.

The ground was trembling under our weight. We were like monsters on a stampede. Naturally, we caught the attention of the monsters immediately. To my happiness, there was an Ape, who signed its death! It grabbed onto the trunk of a tree with its left hand, while jumping out of the lush jungle. It rolled its right hand into a fist. It was a monster at the sixth stage, which could be dangerous.

Rin jumped ahead of us with her jaws opened widely - towards the throat of the ape - but it was expecting that much. It moved the trajectory of its right arm slightly upward, wishing to catch Rin. We trusted Rin’s abilities. She reacted quickly and turned into a shadow. The Ape opened its eyes widely in its surprise because it hit the air. We also arrived on time and its fist struck my chest, but most of its strength was already gone. I barely felt anything as I bore my teeth into its arm.

Two of my heads penetrated its arms, while I quickly snapped the other ones towards its shoulders, chest, and head. Knowing that it would die, it quickly tore off its own arm and jumped backward. Alice suddenly jumped out from under the ground, right under it. The Ape was in the air and since no one could fly here, it couldn’t either. It started flailing its arms and legs, wishing to escape its impending doom.

Its right feet barely touched the ground before Alice, but it sadly had to find out that it was paralyzed. My poison took effect quickly. It simply fell into Alice’s jaws, who snapped them on its body without any hesitation. Rin also took out her part by tearing out a chunk of its chest. I had so many heads. Would I just look at the feast? Using my advantage, I tore the Ape into pieces. We quickly stored away its head in my Hydra’s Storage.

Just as I turned around, I noticed that the same kind of huge apes, with silver colored fur, were coming out of the bushes. While looking at them, we used Bolt of Silence on the crushed Ape to make its death sure. After doing so, we stored its ‘flying’ soul in our soul storage.

[Well now… that’s an interesting setup.] I remarked while feeling excited. With so many Apes, we could fight a really good one! Although we couldn’t use our mind powers outside, but we could use them in our own world! Wonderful herbs were also littering the ground, which would be perfect for concocting. While sizing up our enemies, we also plucked a lot of them and stored them in our own world. Using one of our minds, we started concocting a few pills.

Instead of Beast Cores, we used Souls. It would probably turn even more powerful! This Soul Eater indeed had many uses! An ape, which was bigger than the others, also appeared in front of us. It had dark silver fur covering its body. After looking around us, we found out that there were at least a hundred of them. Rin wasn’t a member of the academy since she was a monster. But we could get more rewards if we were to over-fulfill the requirements.

If we were to kill all of these apes, then half of our exam would be done in just a few minutes! Or hours… The dark silver ape roared loudly and then every ape jumped towards us. We mixed our Qi and used Destiny’s Descent. As Infinis’ ability activated, which was amplified by Blank, everyone slowed down. We used the first move of the Twelve Chains of Bane with our tails, which swiped past these slow-looking monsters. Their chests were struck and deep cuts appeared on them.

But they still reached us. Upon so many of them crashing into us, both of us fell over and rolled on the ground. While rolling, we didn’t forget to bite into the apes. Although they too tried doing it, but they had no chance against our three-layered defense and apes weren’t famous about biting either. After rolling once, we sprung up from the ground, right into the air. Although we couldn’t fly with our mind powers or domains, but we had wings… The apes made surprised faces, but why?

What did they think? That our wings were for a show? Rin turned into a ball of shadow before any ape had a chance at touching her and flew into the air even before us. Of course, these monsters weren’t weak. With so much strength in their legs, they jumped after us into the air. That was what we wanted. They couldn’t move in the air, but we could! Using our second move, we swung our wings and started releasing blades of energies one after the other.

The Apes were cut into two halves one by one and then our bolts of silence helped them in leaving the ranks of the living. But after so many soul attacks, we felt our reserves being consumed quickly. Such being the case, we consumed the pills we made not long ago. Our soul forces restored almost immediately. The best was that these apes were filling our soul storage with souls! After seeing that about twenty of them died after a single jump, they realized that it was better to stay on the ground.

The dark silver ape growled angrily, knowing that its group lost the first round. Alice roared loudly and then flew towards the crowd of apes. They welcomed her with their punches, but her next move surprised them. She didn’t stop or slow down while charging towards them. Instead, she even sped up and started spinning in the air, with her wings pulled close to her body. At the same time, she also formed Destiny’s Descent into a thick, rotating mass of energy.

The fists, filled with strength and energy met Alice’s spinning, driller-like energy. Naturally, the apes’ fists were rubbed off, making even the bone visible. Thanks to Blank, her defense was even better. She crashed straight into the group of apes and crushed their bodies. Her wings did have a few grazes, but nothing serious. She poured her Dragon Qi into her wounds, which made it heal in just a moment.

After landing, she spun in a circle, her tail cutting, even more, apes into two halves. If I was in my human form, I’d have whistled. But instead of doing nothing, I used Hydra’s Breath and rained hell upon the apes. Beams of Hydra Qi bombarded many of them, crushing them, or making holes through their chests. With just a few moves, we killed at least another fifty of them. There weren’t more than thirty left. After another round of Bolt of Silence, we realized that our Soul Ring was starting to turn too weak to hold so many souls.

We used a few souls to strengthen its walls. As Alice’s spin stopped, blood splattered around her in a circle and even the dust was flying in the same manner. Suddenly Rin jumped out from behind the dark silver Ape and bit on its head. It made a startled and surprised face, but it was too late. Without literally doing anything, it died. Rin tore off its head and landed on her feet after spinning once in the air. I felt proud of her! I wanted to clap. But I couldn’t…

Even Alice stole away the limelight. Now, this is so sad… The apes started roaring fearfully. Now that most of them died and even their leader died, they turned into stupid, uncontrolled chicken. But they couldn’t do anything. Since they couldn’t fly, we had the advantage at such a place. I quickly jumped into their ranks and started decimating them. Legs, arms, heads were flying everywhere. We weren’t stupid enough to destroy their bodies completely. We needed their heads, so we stored away those.

It didn’t take much longer for us to kill off every Ape. With exactly a hundred and eight heads in our storage spaces, our first battle has come to an end. But our surroundings were filled with blood and all we saw were more monsters appearing. And those… weren’t at the fifth stage! We were in a bit of… trouble!