The Highest Bounty

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Biggie stayed in the forest for a full twenty-nine days.

After his fight with Halley, he managed to awaken his combat effectiveness within him. He no longer hid in corners, rather, he went around searching for powerhouses to fight.

During this time, Biggie came head to head with many people who had Monster Rankings just like Halley; they were all able to bypa.s.s several ranks in battle. Among them were a.s.sa.s.sins who hid in the dark, gunners who performed ferocious attacks, and close combat powerhouses who had outstanding combat effectiveness. Nevertheless, none of them were spared from Biggie"s sword.

Biggie finally took down his last opponent with his sword after twenty-nine days before his surroundings changed once again.

The black-robed man appeared once again. “Biggie, I have to admit that your performance was an eye-opener. Even though not many died under your sword, almost all of them were excellent fighters. You did not ma.s.sacre them blindly and did not turn into a complete killing machine. However, you"ve only managed to pa.s.s the first round of this game. The second round is only about to begin.”

“Do you know this? I created a thousand forests, exactly the same as the one you stayed in. That means that there are nine hundred and ninety-nine victors just like you. One of them even performed outstandingly, succeeding in ma.s.sacring eight thousand three hundred and thirty-five people with his own hands in less than five days. Evidently, he has managed to proceed to the second round. You"ve killed the least number of people and were the slowest in terms of getting to the second round. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that you"ve improved greatly.”

“The second round of the game is very simple. All one thousand of you will be locked up in a sealed room. However, only one of you can come out alive. There won"t be any food or water in that sealed room. Additionally, under the condition that one thousand people will be breathing in that room at the same time, the oxygen in the area will only last for about an hour. I think all the players involved in the game know what they have to do,” Biggie"s surroundings started to change once again in the blink of an eye once the black-robed man had finished talking.

Biggie looked around him and found that he was in a large building. Besides that, he was in a huge ‘birdcage" and was hung in mid-air just like the others around him.

The ‘birdcages" slowly began to descend to the ground and finally touched down after two minutes.

Next, the door of the ‘birdcages" sprung open without warning at almost the same time, and Biggie dashed out of his ‘birdcage". It was impossible to move freely within the cage. Hence, if Biggie b.u.mped into an opponent who utilized long-range attacks, he would become a living target.

Everyone else made the same move instantly.

It was no wonder those people were the crème de la crème of the ten thousand people who had fought for survival in the forests. Their survival skills were incomparable.

Biggie had just run out when two people nearby laid their sights on him. That was because Biggie was the smallest in size among the one thousand people and exterminating the weak would leave more oxygen for the others. It was the main source of motivation for most of them.

There were a few who were against bullying the weak. They felt sorry for Biggie and wondered if he had good or bad luck to have pa.s.sed the fight for survival in the forest that involved ten thousand people. Judging by the size of his body, most of them had the idea that he had been lucky because all he had to do in the forest stage was hide well; his size was quite advantageous. It was not impossible for him to have sat back and collected the win when the last two powerhouses had wounded each other.

Hence, not many were of the opinion that Biggie had managed to get through to the current round with his abilities.

Nevertheless, what happened next made everyone change their opinion of Biggie.

The two people proceeded to attack Biggie from different directions. However, the moment they got close to him, only the glint of a sword was seen before everything ended.

Biggie only slashed his sword once, and both of them were severed at the waist. His silver sword had shown itself like a bolt of lightning and immediately vanished right after. Biggie"s sword was already in its sheath the next instant. Biggie stood quietly on the spot, and his cold gaze swept across the battlefield.

His lightning-like attack managed to shock many people, enough to discourage most of them from targeting him. Nevertheless, a few powerhouses with strong abilities became excited upon seeing Biggie"s swordsmans.h.i.+p and immediately went into a crazy killing frenzy.

It only took less than an hour before the room was left with only seven people out of the initial one thousand.

Biggie had gotten used to killing. The floor was filled with corpses, broken limbs, blood, internal organs, and the wafting stench of corpses. Nevertheless, none of those factors affected him.

The other six people had different reactions. Two of them looked especially excited. They must have killed too many people, and their ma.s.sacre had affected them psychologically.

Biggie"s gaze fell on a young man who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen-years-old. The person was the youngest there besides himself, and he was using a sword as well.

The young man also looked over at Biggie when he noticed the latter staring at him. He had been aware of Biggie"s existence from the very beginning. Biggie had only made three moves in the half an hour that had pa.s.sed, and each time he moved, it was to retaliate. Biggie"s moves always killed his enemy in one swing. As a Monster Ranking martial arts pract.i.tioner who was gifted in Kendo, the young man could clearly sense that Biggie"s swordsmans.h.i.+p was of a high level. It was difficult for him to accept that someone younger than him had actually managed to attain such enlightenment in swordsmans.h.i.+p, even surpa.s.sing him. Hence, the young man had a will of fire to fight Biggie. That fire was ignited the moment Biggie made his first slash.

Biggie could also tell that the young man"s enlightenment in Kendo could not compete with his own. Nevertheless, it did not mean that the young man could not compare to him as there was no way for him to evaluate his combat abilities. Biggie"s sword was used to ma.s.sacre people, it was domineering but simple. All it did was take human life. As for the young man"s sword, there was a vague sense of n.o.bility to it and an aura of graciousness. Anyone capable of such swordsmans.h.i.+p had to be of extraordinary ident.i.ty.

They unsheathed their swords immediately the moment they met each other"s eyes.

Their actions ignited a battle among the other five people as well.

The two people whose minds had been affected psychologically by all the killing were clearly attracted by Biggie"s ma.s.sacre-like swordsmans.h.i.+p. They lunged at Biggie while the other three started to fight amongst themselves.

Biggie did not display any panic when faced with three enemies at the same time. He swung his sword in a domineering way and slashed the throat of the young man who was right in front of him.

The young man tried his best to block Biggie"s attack, but the latter had swung his sword very powerfully. As a result, even though the young man managed to save his own life by blocking Biggie"s attack, he was forced to withdraw from the battle due to the backlash. Next, Biggie"s sword movements took a different turn as he attacked like an agile snake and went for the other two people"s throats. He had actually taken this move from Halley"s set of sword skills. It was an attack that curved mid-way and was capable of creating various attack angles without changing his initial move

The two who were completely under the control of bloodshed felt no urgency to defend themselves. They were walking down the path of fighting with the goal of complete annihilation; they did not care a single bit about Biggie"s sword that was coming at their throats. Hence, they continued to go at Biggie while waving a huge ax and hammer in their hands.

Biggie"s sword speed spiked in an instant the moment he noticed their actions. Then, a silver flash was seen and both their heads were thrown high up into the sky.

“Two stupid men!” Biggie gave his evaluation of them. He had attacked to test the young men. Biggie wanted to see more of their swordsmans.h.i.+p and did not give his all in his attacks. The other two men had not taken the time to understand their opponent"s abilities and decided to perform a direct attack without a care in the world of being wounded; they were obviously dumb people. Such forms of attack would end cause a difficult fight for their opponents if their abilities were of the same level. However, for those who were more powerful than themselves, it was equivalent to them welcoming their own deaths. In the end, they paid the price for it.

The remaining four started to become cautious of Biggie after the two men were killed because they had witnessed the combat effectiveness of those two people. Despite that, Biggie did not even swing his sword twice. It was clear that Biggie"s abilities surpa.s.sed everyone present in the room.

Even though the young man was reluctant to let others take part in his fight, after witnessing the speed of Biggie"s sword, he realized that Biggie had not given his all when fighting him. It meant that he was not on the same level as Biggie was.

The remaining four had the same thought after witnessing the incident. They had to work together to kill Biggie.

Biggie noticed their killing intent, but it did not bother him. He stood his ground as he waited for the others to attack.

A woman wielding a whip took the initiative to perform the first attack. Her whip was like a black, venomous snake as it went straight for Biggie"s right hand which he held his sword in. It was clear to everyone that Biggie was well-versed in swordsmans.h.i.+p. If they could restrict the hand he held his sword with, his combat effectiveness would greatly decrease.

Biggie did not attempt to stop his opponent from doing so. Rather, he allowed her to wrap her whip around his right hand.

No one had expected it to happen so smoothly. They were momentarily surprised but immediately rushed toward him.

Nevertheless, none of them had expected Biggie to flick his right thumb, which resulted in his sword to fall into his left hand. Lifting the sword with his left hand, Biggie slashed across with ease and two out of the three people rus.h.i.+ng toward him were immediately cut into half at their waists. The young man had sensed danger the moment Biggie"s sword changed hands. He managed to evade the lethal attack by ducking to the side.

The expression of the woman who wielded the whip instantly turned grim.

“I"m a chef. Both my hands have to be as proficient in wielding knives as the other,” Biggie explained.

The young man almost broke down in tears when he heard this. “You"ve got such good swordsmans.h.i.+p and yet you choose to be a chef. What does that make of me and my swordsmans.h.i.+p…”

“I"m sorry, you two. I need to quickly finish this training from that black-robed man. My captain is waiting for me to return and prepare dinner,” Biggie said as he dragged his sword toward them.

The woman with the whip ended up being slaughtered by Biggie after struggling to fight back. On the other hand, the young man with the sword ended up being killed by Biggie without hesitation after the former had used every sword skill he knew.

Having taken care of the young man with the sword and the woman with the whip, Biggie shouted into the sky, “Hey, I"m done with the second round. Let"s get on to the third round! I"m rus.h.i.+ng for time!”

“Good, very good! You haven"t been taken over by the urge to kill and have maintained your original self even after killing so many people.” The black-robed man appeared once again out of thin air.

“Stop wasting time with useless words. I no longer fear you. Just come at me with whatever sort of training you"ve got and send me back to where I belong immediately once all of this is done with,” Biggie stood face-to-face with the black-robed man. He no longer had any fear in his heart.

“Is that so? The third round is a stage of life and death. In this round, everyone will revert to their original rank. I"ve picked a hundred people, all of whom are people who managed to survive the training you just experienced. The highest-ranked person among them is a demiG.o.d. You"re required to go through ninety-nine battles and ensure complete victory before you can leave,” the black-robed man explained the rules of the following round.

“Why does it need to be so troublesome? Just get all ninety-nine people up here. I need to make it back in time to prepare dinner.” Biggie did not look like he was joking. He was serious about taking on ninety-nine people at once.

“If that"s the case, I"ll let you have your wis.h.!.+” The black-robed man stared at Biggie for a while and nodded after determining he was serious.