As soon as us activated the skill, his right arm—holding his sword—lit up in mes that burned fiercely for a second before calming. Once they settled, an armed guard made of orange-red fire with patterns of dragon scale appeared around his arm.


    "Much better," us muttered before shing his sword forward. This time, a fierce arc of fire cut through the air with intense energy.


    Boom!


    The Mecha, intending to use the me Circle to trap us, now found itself locked in ce by the powerful attack. Forced to defend with its spear, the Mecha lost its grip, and the weapon was blown away, pushing it back three meters.


    us grinned, then began bombarding the Mecha with more attacks.


    The skill he used was one of the two abilities the dragon had imparted to him when he used the golden energy to upgrade it.


    After awakening the ughter aura, us used the technique Number Three gave him to help the dragon absorb the golden energy and finally level up. It has undergone an upgrade.


    The golden energy was meant solely for us to absorb. However, after a near-fatal attempt to awaken the ughter Aura, us received a glimpse of his past, which enabled him to discover a method not only to awaken the aura but also to upgrade his fire element.


    When the Dragon underwent its first upgrade, us received two new skills. The dragon, meanwhile, not only had its existing skills upgraded but also gained two additional skills. us couldn''t wait to finish the trial so he could go on another hunt and explore them.


    The first skill he received, ording to the system interface, read:


    [Chaotic Nirvana me: Dragon Arm Guard: When activated, dragon scales made of the Chaotic Nirvana me will materialize around your arm, granting a 120% increase in all fire-type attacks unleashed with that arm.]


    [Consumption Rate: 10,000 Qi per second of activation.]


    [Note: This skill has no cooldown and can be used as long as you have sufficient Stamina and Qi.]


    As soon as us read the skill description, he instantly knew how to use it. His Moon sh skill allowed him to imbue his elemental Qi into any weapon he held, enabling him to unleash a crescent-shaped arc made from the chosen element.


    This was like instead of forming the element in his hands, he could just use his weapons for more direct and precise attacks.


    The first attack he unleashed was only a fraction of his current potential. But with a 120% power boost, the impact alone sent the Mecha staggering back. Still, it wasn''t enough to destroy the killing machine Lucil had devised.


    Thus, us began bombarding the Mecha with increasingly powerful fire attacks, using only 50% of his strength, which was amplified by the 120% power boost. By the time the timer hit 55 minutes, the Mecha had utilized about 90% of all the skills Lucil had given it.


    However, us never switched his attacks. The Mecha countered many times, but us was just too unreasonable—his attacks were simply too powerful.


    Yet us noticed something: although they had fixed Oracle, it still didn''t meet the standards of real-worldbat. The thrill of knowing that a single mistake could cost him his life—permanently—wasn''t the same in Oracle.


    In his eyes, this made it 10% less effective, and somehow it led him to believe that to truly enjoy the thrill, he would need to venture into the wild. Of course, he knew that in the real world, a Tier 8 monster would be a different story.


    After all, in the real world, a Tier 8 monster is a Pseudo Beast. Battling one would be many times more dangerous than fighting in Oracle. Still, he didn''t see the need to pass up the chance to test his two skills.


    He knew people were watching, but he hadn''t even used a fraction of his skills yet. So no matter how much they wanted to learn about him, they were far from understanding his capabilities. Plus, watching him now would reveal one thing: just how many skills and techniques he had under his belt.


    ''Time for the second skill,'' he thought inwardly before raising his sword.


    "Chaotic Nirvana me: Fiery Dragon w!"


    A couple of meters above in the air, a fire circle resembling a spell circle appeared, about two meters in diameter. It looked elegant; however, what was contained within it was far too dangerous to admire when it wasing your way.


    us pointed his sword at the Mecha charging toward him.


    From the circle, arge, fierce w with menacing talons emerged. The moment it appeared, a great pressure descended on the arena, halting the Mecha in its tracks.


    The w moved, and before the Mecha could make any defensive maneuvers, a fire arc appeared, forcing it to split its defense between the w and the fire arc. It tried using the Razor Disc, but the Void Piercing Needle was in the way.


    Boom!


    The two attacks connected with the body of the Mecha, sending it flying. The wnded squarely on its body, propelling it backward. The fire arc struck the ice defense it had raised, cutting through beforending on its body too.


    "You can die now," us dered, swinging his sword several times.


    Wide arcs of me erupted, eachnding on the Mecha''s defenseless body, instantly vaporizing it under the sheer force of the attacks.


    Well, it was more like the Mecha had lost too much stamina to contend with us, who wasn''t even tired. Although there were some aches here and there, he felt fine.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Ha, in the end, the real world is still better than the virtual," us sighed, and then his vision darkened. The next second, he found himself back in the real world.


    ***


    At the same time, the rankings were immediately disyed, snapping the attention of the 1,999 viewers who had witnessed us''s sudden dominance over the Tier 8 Mecha Zombie back to reality. The rankings took precedence.


    Those who saw their names at the bottom fell silent. Those in the top 500 felt pleased, the top 200 began celebrating, and the top 100 were over the moon. As for the top 50, they became celebrities.


    Not to mention the real contenders—the top 20. However, not everyone ranked at the top was happy. This was especially true for those from the Central Region and the other regions.


    In the top twenty, 15 spots were upied by the Eastern Region. In fact, the top 50 had 35 individuals from the Eastern Region.


    Everyone was shocked.


    The reason was simple: the Eastern Region was the smallest among the five regions andcked resourcespared to the others. So While the other regions had always dominated the trials, this time it was different.


    The reason, of course, was us.


    His presencepelled them all to aim higher and perhaps hope to surpass him. This was particrly true for Miguel, who wanted nothing more than to grow stronger so he could get back at us for the humiliation he had put him through during the Felin Youth Ball.


    So instead of acting like the strongest simply because they were above-average Awakens, they all started pushing harder, and the results were outstanding.


    The Eastern Region entered with 1,000 disciples, and 575 made it into the academy.


    The look on the faces of the three Legacies said it all. Normally, the Legacies were among the top five, but this time, none of them made it into the top five. It was a huge blow to their egos, and what was even worse was that if us was the monster they all knew him to be—


    Then who the hell was Hanna Kendrick, who took the second spot?