"Alrighty then, here are your consoles." Karni handed out all the little Gameboy-like consoles. "I made the cases easy to put on and off, if any of you want to change the colour or something like that, but otherwise, it's the same thing as mine."
Each of guys who wanted one got one. Everyone seemed either happy or curious. There was one oddity between them however. Xie Xie was looking at it like a challenge. He was seeing it as a one-way ticket to his love. Karni could only wish him luck.
As soon as he distributed the consoles, they went to the arena. Another bout of one vs one combat. Then one another this week, and next week would finally be the time to get into group stage part of the competition.
… … …
Karni was in the air, crashing down toward a deep blue bubble. Almost as deep as the sea.
He sent a Drumstick filled with Sound up to the 36th Disordered Drumstick Resonance. The upper side's bubble—filled with water, almost like a bubble of sea—got crashed into like someone threw a giant rock in the sea. Karni rotated his other Drumstick in accordance with the Resonant Spiral Drumstick just before the crash and entered the bubble.
His eyes glowed gold and purple. Then they lit up further, looking at the figure inside. He looked at the sapphire eyes of the young man, and the man's bubble became unstable, easier to move through.
Karni moved in close with the Drunken Ghost Dance and grabbed him using CCCD. The grappled man tried to shake him off, but along with Karni's Jade Hands holding his neck sturdy and confusion of his mind, he quickly passed out.
The bubble of water finally collapsed, and Karni was free. He breathed a sigh of relief.
The opponent this time around was a good counter against his main attacks of Sound. He knew how to control the water, how to isolate it into layers. Normal water usually made things easier for Karni and his Sound, but with this bubbled layout, the Sound had trouble penetrating through the defences. The fact the bubble acted like a tiny domain also did not help. In the end, he could only use Sound to break through the bubble and rely on his Tang Sect abilities to finish the job.
It was the one weakness Karni saw throughout the match; his opponent was not physically strong. While Karni could not compare to strength type Soul Masters in strength, Tang Sect gave him more than a good enough foundation to face even those with techniques. At least the average ones. Not to mention his current body was built like a Strength type's in their base state.
He had also noticed that the Soul Masters facing him recently adapted themselves to fight him specifically. This man for example used that bubble skill predominantly, which also clearly encumbered the rest of his skills. It was clear it was not his usual way of fighting. If Karni had to guess, the bubble was likely usually used as a temporary shield.
This made Karni not look forward to his next match. On some level, he understood this proved Karni was strong and had a presence now, but it would still mean he would have to find ways around his usual style of fighting.
Oh well, nothing he could do. He picked up his stuff and said goodbye to the rest of the team that had matches today. They even had a team match later on, but Karni was busy today. Today Hu Jie would take him to that project connected to the Human Augmentation Project. His master was never willing to fully explain.
All Karni hoped was that it would give him the chance to craft the Greatsword in an efficient way.
… … …
Inside the 10th underground floor of the Tang Sect Hu Jie would wait for him. Karni stepped out of the elevator. He was met with a familiar smell of metal and sound of constant metalwork. It was definitely a Mecha workshop. Except… Karni looked closer. Those mechas were not the usual type. At times they were too human, especially in their limbs, at others, they were so far removed from the human shape they might as well be vehicles.
"Ah, Karni. You came. They're waiting." Hu Jie welcomed him in.
Hu Jie took him through the whole workshop, which was basically a Mecha warehouse. He noticed that almost all the Mechas had weapons embedded inside them, or part of their arms or legs were more animalistic or vehicle like. One of the mechas even switched from truck-like bottom and split it apart, then became legs. It was brilliant. It was like seeing the beginning of transformers, except they were incredibly simple for now, and not all mechas had these functions. There were multiple fields of study going on here. How had he not thought of using Mechas like that before? Transformation, animals—both could have useful functions to mechas.
Hu Jie led him to a sort of conference room. In it were three people. Hu Jie introduced them.
"Karni, these are the Human Mecha Manager, Vehicle Mecha Manager and Soul Beast Mecha Manager. They lead the subdivisions within this project."
The three greeted Karni. They seemed quite polite. Hu Jie continued. "I happen to be the Assistant Manager of the whole project. The lead of our Star Luo Branch."
"Oh? Was this a Douluo Branch project initially?"
Hu Jie nodded. "Indeed. Take a look at what we have so far."
Karni did. There were a lot of blueprints shown on the table. The transformations of legs into more mobile version, or hands into weapons, or inserting weapons seamlessly, or the use of animalistic shapes. A lot of fresh ideas, and quite an anomaly in today's latest Mecha research.
The oldest blueprint was only three to four months old. Karni made some quick calculations. He'd been on Star Luo Continent for a month and a half. This project got started when he was on the ship.
The newest designs have started fusing the human aspect, the transformative aspect and the animalistic aspect into one. The weapons were included in all sorts of unique ways as well. From being hidden inside arms, to legs transforming into blades, to mechas built specifically to focus on a single weapon type. It was progressing quite nicely.
Then a name caught his eye. The author of the vehicle blueprints particularly.
"W-Wu Siduo?" Karni couldn't help but exclaim.
"Mm. She's only fifteen. And from Douluo Continent. She's the reason this project started. She's the Vice-Manager of the whole project as well. After the animalistic aspects started being integrated, and transformation joined on top of that, it had gotten big enough that the main Science Division of Tang Sect had gotten involved." Hu Jie explained.
Then he paused. He looked at Karni again, just now realising the kind of tone Karni spoke in. "Oh? You know her?"
Karni nodded with an awkward smile. "Well yes. She's…" Karni couldn't help but crack a wide smile. "My girlfriend." He smiled even wider when he said it. Somehow it felt like fate. Her hard work on Douluo Continent had reached this place just when he got here.
The room fell silent, then Hu Jie started laughing. "Looks like we'll have a power couple in our sect in the future. No wonder she was so easy to adapt to the Human Mecha idea."
Karni nodded, feeling both a bit sad and happy. Hu Jie took his shoulder. "Hey, you're here for only a year. Might as well send her a message by contributing here, eh? You said you wanted to be here for weapons research. Tell us. That's the research that had been the most simplistic so far."
The other two looked at Karni expectantly. More so than when he first came in. It turned out that being the boyfriend of a co-founder of this project gives you respect. He now knew how Siduo felt when he was the main researcher of the AR Glasses project.
Karni turned to the postal system inside Tang Sect. These were in tubes within the building to give a quick and secure messaging system. Almost like the banks storing money.
He accessed his account and called in his project and blueprints. The tube arrived in a matter of seconds.
From the tube he took out a spatial ring and out of it he took a Greatsword. "This is my next project." He then showed the blueprints.
"The idea is to actually make it somewhat similar to the Battle Armour. If Battle Armour is the Armour of the Martial Soul, this would be the weapon. Though due to the nature of Martial Souls themselves, and the complexity needed, I was thinking of increasing the size because it was easier to design something big with a lot of complexity, plus, it could be a new avenue in Mecha battles."
Karni summoned his Martial Soul for a demonstration and explained what he was doing. "Now of course, Battle Armours boost the body and are compatible like support for the Martial Soul. Battle Armour strengthens the Martial Soul and inadvertently the Soul Rings as well. But since this is the weapon…" Karni activated his third Soul Ring.
The Greatsword stayed the same, yet it clearly flowed with the Sound Karni was releasing, as if it was released from the Martial Soul itself. Like all of his tests before, the Sound was a tad more powerful than it should be. He still hadn't figured out why, but that was why he was here. They didn't know about this weird little kink. What mattered was that…
"It works, right?" Karni smiled, then switched his Soul Ring to the first one. The Greatsword just stayed the same. "Well, only for that one Soul Ring. My first Soul Ring is neither transferred to the weapon, nor does the weapon strengthen it. Because it cannot."
The Human Mecha Manager quickly understood, since his field was somewhat similar in nature. "Because you're not just going for the boost but have to adapt for the weapon's shape and role."
Karni nodded. "In fact, I think going for the boost is the wrong path in my opinion, despite the Greatsword as it is now doing exactly that to my Soul Ring. That should be given way to just…" He searched for the right word. "Fusing? Combining Soul Rings within the weapon? You get the gist. It would allow for those with Martial Souls like swords or beasts to easily switch to a Mecha, still keeping their skills through those weapons. At the moment, most of those with Mechas are elemental types, since elements are easily fused into weapons."
The four adults all nodded in agreement. That would indeed be a good development for Mechas. Might even bring them to the level of Battle Armour.
Hu Jie especially looked at Karni. "He might actually one day fuse the two."
Karni looked at him questioningly.
"It's nothing. So, what is your suggestion for the next step."
"I think getting multiple Soul Rings on it first is the right path. By that I mean make them compatible with the weapon, and then work backwards. It is likely to end up similar to the core formation of Battle Armours, but its fundamentals will likely be different. Ideally, we can then use those fundamentals on the mechas as well." He pointed a finger to one of the in-progress Mechas.
"Indeed." Said the Beast Soul Mecha Manager. "If we could apply the fundamentals you discover in the future on the mecha itself, it could help with beast shaped mechas as well. Especially for Beast Type Soul Masters. Wu Siduo from the Douluo Branch had recently started checking out Tiger shaped designs as well, despite her until now dabbling mostly in vehicle types."
Karni lit up and was about to ask for more details, but Hu Jie saw this would get off track and clapped his hands. "Well then, let's get on making a mock blueprint with your weapon as the basis, what do you say?"
Hu Jie smiled and told Karni through a Sound Transmission. "You'll have time to ask about your girlfriend later. We need to get some basic information exchange done first."
… … …
Three days later, Karni was signing off the first blueprint. He stopped at the end of his name… and added a heart.
The progress had been smooth. He was especially active in the Human Mecha Subdivision, as he had great knowledge on prosthetics. Here he had to make them giant sized while adding the function of transformation at times, based on what they were testing. It had been an interesting challenge.
The blueprint he was sending to the Douluo Division had been made with two Soul Rings on the weapon. The first connection between the two had been established. This connecting Soul Array should later become the core of this new weapon type.
Karni put the blueprint in a special tube that meant whatever is in it would get copied and sent to the other continent. He asked if he could sneak a message in it, but any contact between the continents was strict and checked thoroughly due to the number of resources it took to have communication between them. Only the higher echelons of the sect could easily call each other. Satellite technology had been developed already, but it was still strictly monitored.
Karni used to find it weird how technology worked in this world. It was developed very differently to Earth. On one hand they had mechas which were far beyond Earths technology and on the other they had barely started with commercialised TVs and computers, while flight technology or even space technology were not even known yet to the general public.
Today, he understood the reasons behind it. The lack of commercialised use was the consequence of Soul Masters running most of the progress, and because of that developing it in a way that Soul Masters could use it first. As for things like space travel? That aspect Karni found more interesting.
Douluo Planet was not just a planet, but a plane with its own unique laws; laws which one escaped when they went off the planet. This made space technology especially difficult to develop.
From this, he developed further curiosities. Was Earth actually normal? Without any laws of its own? He knew of other universes connected to Douluo Divine Realm in the books, which worked on different systems than Martial Souls. This begged the question: if Earth is in the same larger universe, shouldn't it have its own laws? And if so, why had he never seen them?
Unfortunately, the most he could do with that question was to have thought experiments. He had no way to confirm or deny anything.
With that he ended his work for the day. He had a team match scheduled. He was going to try a cooperative strategy with Xu Xiaoyan. They were facing a difficult opponent today.
… … …
The opponent was in fact not difficult. Karni and Xu Xiaoyan put together were too overwhelming. Their control was impeccable. And this was an academy that was known to be rivals with the Star Luo Royal Academy, the people that his companions met briefly, while Karni barely had any interaction with them.
Karni did not even remember the name of the academy they just beat. Blue Blood or something like that. They were apparently made of some ancient clans and academies of the old Douluo Continent.
Either way, who would have thought that Shifting people into Xu Xiaoyan's shackles would be so effective. It was a "Send to Prison" card from Monopoly. Except the prison could be broken into by Karni's companions to beat the shit out of the prisoners.
With this, the team competition was about to take a big break, because after the end of the week, the group level of the Singles Competition would start. And that was where things got interesting for the audience—where the viewership and the prices started to rise. The team competition would get into its tournament stage immediately after the Singles Competition was over.
He had two days of wait time to get ready for his final match in singles competition before the group stage began. He was both looking forward to it and dreading it due to last few opponents trying to find ways to counter him.
… … …
Karni walked into the arena. The opponent on the other side was an attractive young woman, who clearly wore some revealing clothing to confuse her opponents. She was full of confidence.
It was a shame Karni had Siduo in his heart. And only Siduo. In fact, part of Karni was kind of offended that this young woman was trying to lead him astray.
The match started and Karni immediately Shifted, not letting his guard down. He would not be disqualified in this last match before the group stage.
"Wait!" The girl suddenly screamed, and Karni stopped, though he soon realised the danger and was about to Shift.
"Won't you forfeit?" The woman smiled sweetly, sending a small kiss over the air.
Karni looked at the kiss… a visible kiss. And just… swatted it like a fly.
The woman stared at him speechless, trying to say something, but her words couldn't find anything to say.
She raised her arms. "I forfeit."
""What?"" Karni and the referee said at the same time.
"I said I forfeit. It's the only thing I could try against you… but I didn't expect," she pointed at his still upright arm, "that."
Karni couldn't help but laugh. Not a genuine laugh. A frustrated one. That was… really? That was it? Oh, come on! He was looking forward to a challenging match! He didn't like people adapting to him, but not only did the woman try and do that, but he couldn't even properly beat her himself? Unfair!
"Don't be like that." The girl noticed his mood. "I'm a spiritual type as well, and I can tell when my opponent's Spiritual Power is above mine. I have no way to fight you."
"Yeah, but you could at least try?" Karni said with a groan.
"I don't enjoy being defeated in a single hit, kid." The woman huffed, then jumped off.
The referee looked at Karni helplessly. "If it makes you feel better. You did get a reputation among the referees that you win in a single move. It's likely the competitors know of this as well."
Karni stood in silence. That did not make him feel better. He walked off of the competition a bit ghastly. He locked eyes with Wulin. He almost wanted to ask him for a fight right here, right now. He was itching for a satisfying and difficult fight. An opponent that would try to exploit his weaknesses, but not be a coward about it. But, well, he really couldn't. Wulin's last match would come soon as well.
Wulin didn't say a thing. Karni was not a battle junkie, but it didn't mean he did not enjoy challenging battles. Especially so when he'd felt growth recently. His Spiritual Power had been at that bottleneck for a while, and his Sound felt like it was searching for a path forward. He was just looking for that one opponent that would finally challenge him enough to give him a breakthrough.
He sighed deeply, then the sigh turned into a groan. Damn it all! The Greatsword would also be completed soon! Likely by the time for the second group match! That would take precedence over his Spiritual Power, because he could only test out the Greatsword while the opponents weren't too strong yet. He couldn't use experimental technology against people that could easily exploit his weaknesses.
No matter. He walked out of the arena and toward the Mecha Augmentation Project warehouse. He had to continue working on the Greatsword. He did make a promise to fight Dai Yun'er with it.
… … …
The time to get sorted into groups was nigh. The groups would be completely random. This event alone brought in audience. People wanted to see what groups would be interesting to watch. What sort of upsets would happen?
Each participant would draw from a box themselves. That way they could ensure fairness.
The first to go were the Monster Academy. They got the honour by being known as the strongest. In the same vein, Shrek would go last. The first and the last had to be the most interesting. This way, they would also guarantee that the audience would stay for the full duration. It was a clever little money-making scheme.
Of the teams, Karni paid attention most to Long Yue and Dai Yun'er. Funnily enough, Su Mu was already out, having faced Tang Wulin once when Karni was working on his Greatsword.
Long Yue got sorted into group 8, while Dai Yun'er was in group 2.
Karni noticed that Hua Lantang—The Wolf King—also went up to draw the lots. Something felt wrong about that. If his memory served him right, The Wolf King was supposed to be beat up by Wulin so badly that he wouldn't have been able to continue. Or was that later? Wait no, wasn't that just two weeks ago? Gu Yue and Wulin knocked out Hua Lantang and Ye Zhi, who were a couple.
Yet Hua Lantang was fine. Was Hua Lantang more careful in the match due to Karni's non-specific warnings? What exactly went differently there? Could Karni influence these sorts of things just by existing? This was both interesting and worrying, but Karni wasn't about to stop his plans to challenge Long Yue and save Wulin a beating just because he feared changing little things. If anything, changes would happen more and more often as Karni grew stronger. He had to ready his mind and get used to these discrepancies.
The audience gasped when Hua Lantang pulled a group, despite the groups not being interesting yet. They were simply excited whenever one of the Monster Academy's people drew their lots. After the Monster Academy finished, it got a lot quieter. Karni only heard a few "ooos" whenever a person was sorted into the same group as the Eight Heavenly Kings of Monster Academy.
It quickly progressed to the academy before Shrek Academy. That was actually the Star Luo Royal Academy people. It was the younger generation, which was rumoured to also become the new Monster Academy generation. Karni only remembered one person from there. Hua Lantang's younger sister. The guy tried to, and failed to, pair her up with Karni before Karni even met her. Thankfully Yun'er jumped in.
He did notice someone familiar to Hua Lantang go pick up the lot. She was sorted into group 2 along with Dai Yun'er. The two girls actually hugged each other when they were sorted together. They were on friendly terms. This confirmed she was the Wolf King's younger sister.
Finally, it was Shrek's turn. The first to go was Tang Wulin. He was sorted together with Dai Yueyan, the Crown Prince. It was interesting, but Karni knew Wulin would just withdraw from that match, so he didn't pay much attention to it. Unless there would be a change there as well, like it was with Hua Lantang.
The first interesting one for the Round Robin stage was Yue Zhengyu. He got sorted into Long Yue's group. They would have a chance to check Madman Long's skill. Even Karni was curious about it.
Within the groups were ten participants, of which only four would progress to the round robin stage. It was based on points. 1 for a draw, which rarely happened; 3 for a win; and 0 for a loss.
Unfortunately for the audience, the rest of Shrek Academy wasn't sorted into interesting groups.
That was until Karni went up to get rolled. He pulled out group 2. He locked eyes with Dai Yun'er. Their match would come sooner than expected. And based on the way they pulled out the lots, their match would be last in the group.
He smiled. He would get to keep the promise. It should be just enough time to finish his blueprint. A whole two weeks of time.
Meanwhile he turned to look at the Wolf King's younger sister, who was to be his first match.
And seeing that the arena was already getting prepared, his turn would come today.
… … …
An hour later the arena was ready. 8 smaller arenas for 8 groups. There would be two matches in each group today, two matches next week, and two matches the second week. That way proper rest and efficient scheduling was guaranteed.
Of group 2, Dai Yun'er was the first to go up. Her opponent was another girl who looked nervous.
And the match… was not really worth mentioning. The girl was likely lucky to get to this stage at all. She was really unlucky with the opponents she had in the group. But proper respect was to be given, for she did try to fight Yun'er, despite not having a chance at all.
This meant that Karni was quick to start his match as well. He walked onto the stage, looking at the girl. The Wolf King's younger sister.
She looked at him, completely calm. The referee said start.
"I forfeit." She exclaimed before Karni could even summon his Martial Soul.
"Huh?" Karni was confused. "Why?"
"Because I would lose."
"You didn't even try." Karni said, just like he did a few days ago. He felt immensely frustrated. Of all the things he should do, he never expected he would have to convince someone to fight him. He usually had to do the opposite. And this happened twice in a row as well!
The girl sighed and summoned her Martial Soul. A deep purple Katana, its blade filled with scales and its handle filled with deep purple, slightly red fur. "This is my Dragonwolf Katana. It is purely physical with some ranged abilities. You completely counter it, because my Spiritual Power is weak, and I have no way of dodging your attacks. Satisfied?"
It was rare for a Soul Master to belittle herself like that.
She dismissed her Martial Soul. "I would rather get prepared for a fight with Sister Yun'er than fight you who would likely instantly defeat me. I wouldn't even get valuable experience, while I would also likely have to recover from spiritual damage. No thanks."
She walked off the field with that.
And Karni… never before had he felt like his Martial Soul was holding him back because it was too strong. He did now. What was that stupid album or song called from that one dude back on earth? Suffering from success. He always laughed at it. He still would. But… he could now add himself to a list that understood how it felt.
He looked at Wulin when he returned, just like he did last time someone forfeited. "I wish I would have a Martial Soul like yours."
Wulin looked at him speechless. He didn't know what to say to that. In some ways, he even understood how Karni felt since he was a battle junkie.
Karni once again left the arena and returned to the workshop.
He walked to his table and saw a blueprint tube there with a message attached to it. It was signed by Hu Jie.
"This blueprint is meant for you."
Karni took out the blueprint. It consisted of parts of his Greatsword, and what he could improve on. A lot of small modifications and optimisations that would make adding more Soul Ring Arrays easier. The style was also… familiar.
He quickly looked at the author of the blueprint. And he couldn't help but smile radiantly. It was signed with: Wu Siduo <3.
He almost wanted to hug the blueprint. This really cheered him up. The day was instantly better.
He looked the blueprint over, before noticing that there were more parts to it on other papers. On one of them was a simple name: Guardian.
Karni's mouth was left hanging open. The Guardian Greatsword. Did he ever talk to her about the name he was going to give it? The Guardian. Defence and Offense combined in one.
The name was just like the one back on Earth. It was just right. It was just what he wanted to name it. Even though they were a whole ocean apart, their minds were still connected. Karni took the name and put it on all the papers. It was time to complete the first prototype of his new project. The Guardian Project. Dai Yun'er would get to see what Karni and Siduo cooked up.