40-No Escape for the Arrogant
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"So what if it's me?! Do you really think you and that rabble behind you are a match for me?
Sure, you've taken down a few Silver-ranks, but you need to understand—the gap between Silver and Silver can sometimes be bigger than the gap between a man and a dog!
That said, I'll give you this—you're a genius. If you hadn't run into me, forget the district exam—you'd have scored decently even in the national one.
But too bad for you—you just love the spotlight too much!"
As Qi Xiaotian finished, a longsword flashed into his hand, and in the next instant, his figure vanished.
[Clang!]
The sword clashed against Su Mo's body, sparking faintly. Both their expressions shifted.
"Such strong defense!"
"Such insane speed!"
[Whoosh!]
A white blur streaked by, and Qi Xiaotian reappeared at his starting point.
Now, his gaze toward Su Mo held a trace of caution, but a smirk crept onto his lips:
"With defense that tough, no wonder those Silver-ranks fell to you—they didn't lose unfairly.
But hear this—if that's all you've got, you're out of chances! Sword Art: Return of the Wanderer!"
He drew his sword back slightly, then thrust it forward with force. His body turned into a streak of sword light and vanished again.
99 white sword beams battered Su Mo relentlessly, shredding his clothes into rags in an instant.
Yet Su Mo stood there, unmoving.
These sword lights had no substance—pure energy—and their speed was blinding. Even if he wanted to strike back, he had no way to.
With his speed attribute at 410, he still couldn't keep up.
Maybe it was the guy's skill, or maybe his speed stat far outstripped Su Mo's!
Either way, Su Mo didn't care. I'll stand here and let you hit me—I can screw up a thousand times, but you only get one!
Your speed's higher than mine—so what? You can't break my defense, but I only need one hit to break yours!
Right then, Su Mo just wanted to grab that skill from the Great Xia Chamber of Commerce ASAP.
20% attack rebound—with this guy's damage and attack frequency, if he had that skill right now, Qi Xiaotian would've been dead in seconds!
If Su Mo had any weakness now, it was his lack of energy-based attacks.
Against intangible enemies, he could only stare them down.
But with the Attack Rebound skill, even formless monsters wouldn't faze him.
Still, Su Mo had noticed one flaw in his absolute defense.
It could block every attack—energy, physical, poison, curses, even soul strikes—but it couldn't stop someone's trash-talking mouth.
Basically, no matter how invincible your defense, if someone wanted to curse you out, you couldn't stop them!
Verbal abuse technically counted as a personal attack, right?
Though it didn't deal damage!
But it sure as hell pissed him off!
So when that happened, Su Mo figured he'd just have to reluctantly chop them down.
***Whoosh whoosh whoosh~***
The sword lights faded. Qi Xiaotian stood at a distance, clutching his chest and panting, his face twisted in frustration, muttering to himself:
"No way—absolutely no way! How can I not break his defense?! I don't believe it…"
Su Mo stood in place, his clothes now tattered strips on the ground, baring his chiseled upper body.
Not far behind him, two female classmates rushed up, blushing, and draped two pieces of clothing over him.
Saber in hand, Su Mo stared icily at the heaving Qi Xiaotian and said coolly:
"Done hitting me? My turn now, right?"
With a roar, Su Mo launched forward like a meteor, his Zhanmadao slashing ahead.
[Mountain Collapse, Earth Shatter] activated instantly. Sensing danger, Qi Xiaotian turned into sword light again, fleeing into the distance.
"Still trying to run?! Lin Zixuan, protect them—I'll be right back."
With that, Su Mo leaped forward again, each swing of his saber turning everything in a fan-shaped area ahead into dust.
Qi Xiaotian's face paled further as he saw the sheer terror of Su Mo's attacks.
What kind of monster was this Su Mo?! His defense was unbreakable—fine—but his attacks were this horrifying too?
Was this really a Level 9 newbie?!
[Boom boom boom!]
[Rumble rumble~]
Massive echoes thundered across the sky as Su Mo unleashed his skill like it cost nothing.
Since boosting his physique to 390, he could spam [Mountain Collapse, Earth Shatter] over 30 times without stopping.
Slow it down a bit, and it became a nonstop cycle.
Qi Xiaotian halted 50 meters away.
He'd figured out Su Mo's group attack skill only reached 20 meters. After catching his breath a few times, he faced Su Mo with a serious look:
"Su Mo, I'll admit you're strong. But even so, you can't touch me. My speed attribute's over 500. How about we call a truce?"
"500, huh? Well, sorry about that!"
Su Mo had thought the speed gap was massive, but now it seemed it was just a measly 90 points.
Since entering the dungeon, he'd mostly killed people—who didn't grant free attribute points—but over time, he'd racked up 130 from miscellaneous small fry.
He pulled up his panel:
[Name: Su Mo]
[Level: 9]
[Awakened Abilities: Absolute Defense, Heart of Slaughter]
[Strength: 1,016]
[Defense: MAX]
[Speed: 410]
[Physique: 390]
[Critical Chance: 14%]
[Mental: 26]
[Skills: Mountain Collapse, Earth Shatter; Devastating Strike]
[Free Attribute Points: 132]
No hesitation—132 free attribute points, all dumped into speed.
His speed stat shot straight to 542.
As for physique, he'd deal with that later!
Seeing Su Mo stand still for a while, Qi Xiaotian assumed he'd agreed to the truce.
After a couple more breaths, he said:
"Since you're cool with it, I won't hassle you later. Consider this a favor I owe you."
With that, Qi Xiaotian turned to leave.
But just then, Su Mo's figure flickered several times and appeared right in front of him.
Qi Xiaotian, already pale, jumped in shock at the sudden figure:
"I never said I agreed to your terms!"
As he spoke, Su Mo raised his Zhanmadao high and brought it crashing down.
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