Lex had been extremely focused on taking care of the Inn as much as he possibly could in the few moments of lucidity he had every time he woke up. But he had other plans as well which were just as important. One of them was bringing Leo, the owner of the Gamer's Den, back. After all, if anyone ever guessed that Lex worked at the Inn, he would use Leo to explain that identity. Now was a good time to make his comeback, and he intended to come back in spectacular fashion.
He scanned the Inn once and instantly picked on something interesting. After learning the details surrounding what was happening Lex couldn't help but be amazed. Sometimes, things just aligned up too perfectly. He teleported away.
*****
"I told you for the last time, I can't fight any Nascent realm cultivators," said Z in an exasperated tone. It had been days since he last watched any decent anime. It was work this, responsibility that. After all that had happened, he hadn't even had any time to rest.
As if that wasn't enough, some of the regulars at the battle arena started to come and bug him. Z had quite the reputation, and fought many battles.
But while he had a near perfect win streak, it was within limits. He could not fight Nascent soul cultivators, as he could barely fight against Golden core cultivators if he used all his strength and bloodline abilities.
Yet those regulars did not seem to care, as they kept trying to convince him. After all, it was just a little gambling. The good thing about the Inn was that the fights weren't to the death, unless stated in the beginning, so there was no farm. The Recovery pod had been good enough to heal all combat wounds so far.
"Think of it as training. Come on chap, if you only ever fight easy opponents, how will you ever grow? Even defeat can teach a valuable lesson."
"If you think it's easy, you fight them," said Z one more time. Though they were annoyingly persistent, at least they weren't insulting or blackmailing him into fighting, which is why he kept tolerating them. Otherwise, all he needed to do was tell old man Gerard they were bothering him and they would be taken care of. Security had been very strict about safety lately.
"Come now, don't be like that. Just one fight. Think about how impressive you'll look in front of all the ladies."
Z sighed and was about to respond again, when he heard a voice that he hadn't heard in a long, long time!
"Stop bothering my cute little employee. If you want someone to fight, I'll do it."
Z and the men begging him to fight all looked over to see Leo. He was dressed very casually, in a black T-shirt and blue jeans, and the expression he wore was that of a smug smile. Since he was wearing Clark Kent glasses he was in disguise, but it only changed his appearance without changing too many details. Yet, despite how ordinary he seemed, for some reason, the feeling Z got was not casual whatsoever. Instead, he felt that right now, Leo was very, very dangerous.
The system was suppressing the aura of his laws, since no one here was an immortal and could not tolerate it without getting hurt, but the natural intimidation carried by Lex's body was allowed to flow freely.
He looked athletic, but his body was not bulging with muscles like that of body builders or, in some cases, body cultivators. Yet that did not mean that the strength of his body was not completely overwhelming.
Lex released his Foundation realm aura to show them that he wasn't too strong either. Since he scanned the Inn, he knew that there was a group of gamblers who had gathered together to try and get Z to fight a nascent realm fighter. They didn't have malicious intentions, or else the system would detect it. They were just ordinary gamblers who had been blinded by Z's endless victories, and wanted to bet big. After all, they had yet to see him fail so far, so they believed he was capable of anything. Lex decided to make use of the crowds attention to declare his return.
"Who are you?" one of the gamblers asked. Unlike Z, who was honed in battle, they did not pick up on 'Leo's' dangerous aura at all.
"Leo, I'm Z's boss, and…" he disappeared from right in front of them, and reappeared in the arena.
All the screens in the arena, as well as everywhere else in the village, turned to show Leo standing in the arena alone, his aura on full blast.
"I'll accept as many challengers as you want, Nascent realm and below. You can come at me together, but you only have 60 seconds, as I'll stop accepting challengers after that. I'll personally put up a pot of 50,000 MP. Anyone who beats me can get it."
There was an immediate ruckus, as the gamblers who had surrounded Z ran to enter the arena and place their bets! Even Z could not help but make his way to the arena. After all, someone would be needed to carry his irresponsible boss' unconscious body after the fight.
60 seconds was not a lot of time, yet the incentive of 50,000 MP was enough to cause people to run, especially when Lex was displaying his Foundation realm cultivation. Within 1 minute, over 300 contestants entered the ring, all of them in the Nascent realm, and over 10,000 people placed bets on how many seconds 'Leo' would survive the fight.
As soon as the 60 seconds was over, the fight began and the desperate contestants didn't hesitate to attack Lex. After all, based on logic, whoever struck first would be the winner to 50,000 MP!
But from start to finish, Lex did not move. Instead, below his feet, a massive array started to form. Yet because it was on the ground, no one noticed. They only watched as the first attack approached Lex, and then landed.
𝓁𝑖𝘣𝘳ℯ𝘢𝘥.𝒸ℴ𝑚
Immediately, it was followed by hundreds more. All the attacks landed within 1 second, and everyone stopped as they began looking around, waiting for the winner to be declared. Yet the declaration didn't come.
Instead, when the smoke cleared, they found Leo standing still, completely unharmed. This time, instead of a technique, he had used an array to defend himself. Now, he would also use an array to attack.
The sky suddenly darkened, casting a large shadow over the arena. When everyone looked up, they saw an array several times the size of the arena itself, floating up in the sky, gathering energy.
In the horrified silence that filled the arena, the sound of loud cracking woke everyone up. Lex was cracking his knuckles. He gave himself 5 minutes for this fight, before he had to get to his other tasks, so he should really stop dilly dallying.The feeling was electric. It sent tingles down his spine and made the hair on his body stand up. The heat from 300 Nascent level cultivators bodies filled the arena air, yet Lex felt as fresh and awake as if he was breathing in crisp air up in the mountains.
It was strange because in his mind he felt devoid of emotions, as if they had been stripped of him, yet his body was humming with excitement. His heart was not racing, but he could feel that it was beating faster than normal. Though he was standing straight, he felt his muscles loosen and tighten, as if warming up for the battle.
𝙡𝙞𝒃𝓻𝒆𝓪𝒅.𝓬𝒐𝒎
Adrenalin had already begun pumping through his veins, and the anticipation was heating up his body. Yet, as if completely detached from his body, he watched everything with a cool head. Today was about venting his frustrations, yes, but it was also about so much more.
It was about the return of Leo. It was about making a statement. It was about protecting his workers. And, it was about finalizing his Foundation through his actions before he could no longer suppress his breakthrough.
The thing about arrays was, they did not have a designated strength level. The amount of strength they produced was entirely up to the array made.
So then how would the strength of an array be measured? Of course, using appropriate characters to form an array affected its strength. Moreover, the characters naturally occurred in space, and directly produced results from the universe itself for simply existing, so the better, or rather, more appropriate character one used, the stronger the array would be.
Another metric to measure the strength of an array was usually the size or complexity. But this too was not always the case, for an ingenious array could provide the same feedback as a large more complex array.
All in all, there were no firm rules to declare how an array could be strengthened, and unlike formations, which had clearly marked levels to denote their strength, arrays had none.
Still, it was not hard for Lex to come up with ingenious ways to use arrays. His background in programming helped, to a degree, and his understanding of science also played a role. For example, if he was creating an array to burn something, he didn't forget to create a necessary fuel as a part of the array to keep the fire burning long after the array ran out of energy.
But, in certain ways, his deep dependance on human understanding of the universe derived from Earth restricted him and his imagination. After all, while he had a scientific background, he lacked a cultivation background.
In his current state, however, it was no longer an issue for his subconscious was playing a large role in his actions, and his subconscious was also being affected by the hallucinations.
He was only in the Foundation realm so his perception of time should not have been as good as the Nascent cultivators that surrounded him, yet practically speaking that did not seem to be the case.
The moment the match began Lex entered his Overdrive state and took note of all his enemies. There were only about 44 humans, while the rest were either beasts or from other races Lex hadn't really paid much attention to.
Their attacks would no doubt be extremely strong, and carry a bit of their element, not to mention they probably had some aspects to them Lex did not understand yet. After all, his own realm was far below them.
'Hmm, it would be much easier to just negate the attacks, or send them somewhere else rather than defending against them,' he thought.
An array started to form beneath his feet, as he casually thought about how to react. The first Nascent was forming its attacks and Lex's instincts started screaming, but he did not move.
'Maybe I should form a realm around myself…' the array around his feet grew, formed of characters Lex never even learnt. 'No, that's not a good idea.' The array shrunk back in size, the previous characters disappearing
'A direct crash is not a good idea for I'll need to create a barrier stronger than all of the attacks and the cumulative force. I know, I'll create a barrier around myself that can accept any kind of energy and use the energy to continue to exist. It should not have the ability to suck in any energy itself, or that could cause me problems instead. The activation energy should be high enough so that the ambient energy can't keep it active, and only the nascent attacks coming my way can keep it running. Yes, excellent. So long as it has 100% efficiency in absorbing all energy, I won't suffer from a single attack, but the barrier will also fade quickly once the attacks stop, so it won't become a prison for myself.'
Lex's thoughts all occurred quicker than a single instant, and the array on the ground formed at the same speed. The barrier formed just in time to absorb the first attack seamlessly. Honestly, there should have been no explosion or loss of energy of any kind had all the attacks landed on it, yet due to the tight space and narrow target, the 300 attacks kept hitting each other and exploding prematurely.
Still, none of it mattered to Lex. His mind was already focused on the next array.
His actions would form his Foundation, or something like that - he couldn't remember. Some would argue that his actions were immense enough even if they only considered everything he achieved in the Crystal realm, let alone the fact that he decimated an entire religion from the entire realm after coming back.
The truth was, when he heard that his actions would reflect in his Foundation he decided to build it by using an array to defeat impossibly strong enemies. He was so focused on that single thing that he completely forgot… he had long surpassed it!
A shadow covered the arena as an array covered the entire visible sky. The spectators' minds shut down as they tried to process what they were seeing, while the competitors were trying to absorb the fact that Lex was completely unharmed by the previous bombardment.
Lex on the other hand, was thinking of ways to endlessly increase his firepower while making his array as precise as possible.
He also had to give a large part of his focus onto the array itself as well. While the characters that formed arrays were found in the universe, making them reappear was not magic. Lex had to expend his own spiritual energy to form them, which is usually why when he formed arrays they were close to his body. After all, the shorter distance his energy had to travel before forming the characters, the less energy he would have to expend.
This over the top performance right now was necessary not because Lex wanted to be a show off, but because he wanted to take out 300 of his opponents at the same time, without killing them, and without causing the damage to spread. Those extra few requirements made the array much more complicated, but that did not seem to be an issue for him at the moment.
There was just one drawback. Since he was channeling all his spirit energy into the sky, he could use none of his techniques. So until the array was complete, he would have to survive without them.
But just because Lex's mind was unusually intune with arrays, and this was his special moment - in his mind at least - it did not mean his opponents would allow him to continue his performance unimpeded.
One of the beasts recovered from the shock and dashed towards Lex to attack him up close and personal. It did not understand what was happening and did not care. One solid hit was all it would take to end the fight.
ραпdα Й?νê|(сòm) A massive toad appeared before Lex and smashed down hard.
BANG!
*****
BANG!
A body flew out and crashed into a pile of corpses, but it moved instantaneously and did not take any time to rest. He couldn't. Even the briefest of moments for respite could spell the end for him, since on this galactic battlefield, Alexander Morrison was nothing more than cannon fodder.
His peak Golden Core realm strength placed him on the lower end of the spectrum on this battlefield, and he should not have been so deep behind enemy lines. But who cared about such things during war?
Through twists of fate, various coincidences, and a lot of bad luck, Alexander found himself facing death at every corner, and now it was his job to make it out alive.
Behind him, four others moved with remarkable cohesion, and supported each other to the utmost to survive the onslaught. They were Alexander's team, and he was their captain.
Oddly enough, his was the only team that hadn't suffered a single death so far, but it was not a coincidence. Alexander used every ounce of his skill, strength, technique and resources to make sure that none of them would die. Often enough, he intercepted attacks that would have killed them and suffered the damage in their stead to keep them alive.
Many assumed he was just an emotional leader, but the truth was, out here, he was so outclassed in every sense that if his team suffered even the slightest drop in strength, they would not be able to survive.
So to live, he had to keep his team alive so they could support him, and to keep them alive he had to face every danger that came their way. But it could not be helped. He was not a lucky protagonist who would get saved every time he encountered danger, nor was he the golden child of destiny. Out here, in the battlefield between humans and Fuegans, he was not even qualified to be a footsoldier. It would take his whole team to fight a single enemy.
But as he gathered his energy and dodged more attacks, the look in his eyes was not one of a wounded animal, or a desperate man. The look in his eyes was one of hunger. He was hungry to grow stronger, and not just by breaking through a higher realm. He would be the best of the best.
The six swords floating behind him aligned with his moves and attacked the enemy in front of him.
BANG!
*****
BANG!
Aegis' body smashed deep into a mountain. The armor he had been wearing had crumbled away. No it had crumbled, and then pressed into Aegis's body. But Aegis himself did not seem to notice. He gathered strength in his body, the mountain breaking around him, and pushed himself into the sky.
Surrounding him were hundreds of monsters, all of them immortals. All of them had hidden in the dark corners of the realm for millions of years to achieve the strength they had now. So why would they besiege him now? It was because of the Blue Crystal Essence in the necklace around his neck.
He brought it out to attract Zagan, but he would have to fend off waves of other monsters till Zagan arrived. But he was not afraid. They called him the strongest in his generation, but how could they not hear the insult in that statement? He was not satisfied with just his generation. He would be the strongest of all generations.
The crown prince zoomed off to punch a monster the size of Mount Everest in the face.
BANG!
*****
The competitors were not only attacking Lex, they were even fighting with each other to get a chance to land a hit on Lex. They had no cooperation or cohesion, but that only worked in Lex's favor. After all, he just had to survive long enough for his array to be completed.
It was much easier said than done, for not a single spot of his body remained uncovered in blood.
As strong as his instincts were, he was not able to avoid all attacks effortlessly. Yet that did not matter, for Regal Embrace was finally showing what it was worth. Directly or indirectly, he had suffered hundreds of attacks already in the last 4 minutes, but while he suffered numerous wounds, not a single bone in his body broke.
A cat the size of a house appeared before Lex and tried to stab him with its claws but missed. It wasn't because Lex dodged, but because Lex stopped running altogether which caused the cat to misjudge where to attack.
This could also count as dodging, but the reason it did not count as such…
He looked up at the sky with a bloody grin. The array was glowing, and it began to rumble. Thunder rumbled in the sky then, in an instant, 300 golden bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, landing on all the contestants without missing a single one.
BANG!
ραпdα Й?νê|(сòm) Could one quantify an attack that was powerful enough to completely and safely defeat a Nascent realm cultivator, human, beast or otherwise, without actually killing them? It had to be remembered that the rebels on Earth had to plan for decades, and resort to nuclear and hydrogen bombs to threaten merely 5 Nascent level cultivators, all of whom were stuck at the very start of that realm.
Yet now, Lex was facing 300 of them. In fact, he had taken their beating not only without dying, but without breaking a bone. Sure, the interference from the other competitors made it so none of them were really able to focus on Lex properly, but he took a beating nonetheless. Of course, the fact that the Lotus had been basically reestablishing his foundation again and again, and in the process nourishing his body, also played a significant role in his survival.
Now, as if facing such an army was already not tough enough, Lex only had arrays as a viable option to do enough damage to counter them. In theory, arrays could be endlessly powerful. Theoretically, if a Qi training cultivator were given an unlimited supply of energy, they could eventually construct an array massive and complex enough to unleash attacks far more powerful than even nuclear bombs.
Yet in practicality, it was far from so simple. The first issue was that an array had to be drawn using spiritual energy. The supply of energy in the entire array, and each individual character, needed to be steady, and it also needed a constant until the array itself was formed. Now, as if that was not enough, the theory behind the array needed to be correct, but more than that, each character had to be the absolute perfect one to corroborate its behavior according to that theory.
There were hundreds of characters for fire, and each of them behaved differently. There were hundreds for air, hundreds for water, hundreds for abstract concepts like beauty, love, hate, anger and so much more. If the purpose of the array was to fuel the fire with oxygen, you would use a different kind of character, and if the purpose of the array was to birth a single ember, a different character would be used.
The more characters were used, the more the chance of contradictions forming there were. It had to be remembered that even an array gone wrong could fuel itself from energy from the universe. More than once Lex had formed arrays that collapsed, which resulted in explosions. In fact, Lex had even used failed arrays as last minute, desperate attacks back in the Crystal realm when he faced the Kraven.
So, based on Lex's understanding of arrays, it was even possible to form an array that had the strength of a Daolord. Practically though, he would need a mind powerful enough to comprehend and calculate arrays and characters on such a level. As for his accomplishments at the moment? Even he was not fully conscious of the fact that he had no idea how he was doing these things, though he himself was ultimately generating the ideas for what kinds of arrays to use.
Lex did not have a clear understanding of how much damage needed to be dealt to defeat these opponents, so he did not think in terms of damage. First he needed his attack to be fast enough so that they cannot dodge, regardless of their cultivation or race, hence he chose lightning. But it was not traditional lightning damage that he was relying on to defeat them. No, it occurred to him that he could replicate the unconscious state if he could temporarily disconnect the soul from the spirit. As it happened, there happened to be a kind of lightning with that kind of affinity. Moreover, quite conveniently for the motif of the Inn, it was golden in color.
With a bang the lightning struck, but instead of a devastating explosion, the only thing that occurred was all the competitors collapsed on the ground. Their eyes were still open and their bodies were unhurt, but they lay on the ground as unresponsive as corpses.
There were no wild cheers from the crowd, for with this unexpected victory, almost all of them had lost some MP gambling. Only the craziest gamblers who were hoping for a miracle bet on Leo ended up winning, but even they forgot to cheer. That was because the sight was too horrifying.
In the arena stood a man, drenched in his own blood, smiling at them with pearly white teeth showing. All around him lay the bodies of his enemies.
Even when the announcer declared Leo the winner he didn't really move, and swept his gaze over the crowds until he found the few specific fellows who had been bugging Z.
"I hope you enjoyed the show," the bloody man said, his smooth voice a stark contrast to the bloody scene. "There'll be more interesting things for you to see at the Inn, there always will be. So don't go looking for my cute little workers and force him onto the stage every time. Alright? It's not polite."
There were no threats in Lex's words, and at most there was a slight admonishment. Yet the spectators didn't feel that way, especially the folks Lex had been looking at. They completely forgot that they had lost their money. They forgot everything. The single thought in their minds was… forget Z, they had to bet on this Leo in the future!
Lex did not know what was going on through their heads as he teleported out of the arena and disappeared. He realized that people, the workers mostly, might be curious about why he could teleport in places whereas only people from the Security team should have the authority to do so.
It was not an issue he would address directly for it would be less believable that way. Instead, he would reveal things in a roundabout manner. It was time for Leo to meet Luthor.
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