I started repeating the mission, taking it nine more times to explore different directions in the forest and gain experience fighting various types of enemies.
By the time it was morning again, I had a hundred more Survival Points and so just as the plaza got crowded I entered the cafeteria ordering a full-course meal from the maid who was looking at me with intrigue.
Finishing my meal, I paid attention to the teams taking safer missions and found them all only performing Easy or Normal Missions. There was only one team, made up of secondary characters like Odelette Delphine and Hao Win that even attempted the Slightly Hard missions.
All teams only chose the missions that they had already done so that they wouldn't have to face anything new. And even if someone dared to choose a different mission, which was taken by a different team, they'd have a physical fight to decide who'd take it.
So the Neutral Zone had inevitably formed a hierarchy, with the teams choosing higher difficulty missions having more skills than those stuck choosing lower difficulty missions and constantly suppressing them under their thumb, not letting them improve.
Occasionally however teams did exchange missions of the same difficulty if they got bored doing the same thing repeatedly, but this was very rare. And I only saw about three or four teams doing so.
With my meal done, I stood up and walked into the Plaza, pushing myself through the crowd of people around it as I grabbed an Easy Mission.
[Survive the Assault of the Ape Dogs! (remaining number of attempts: 2/30)]
Fight three Ape Dogs in the jungle and survive!
Difficulty: Slightly Easy
When successful: +40 SP
When unsuccessful: Death
- Cooperation possible (up to 2 people)
It was a mission that someone was already doing but I didn't give a shit. They'd have to change missions eventually anyway once it finished, except as soon as I reached for the paper, someone placed their hands on my shoulder.
"What?" I asked calmly looking at the man who'd placed his hand on my shoulder.
"We've already taken that mission." the man said with a frown.
"Yeah no. Your name ain't on it buddy. So either let me go or I'll stuff your foot into your mouth."
Almost instantly the man's teammates pulled out a sword but I wasn't having it. Before they could react or even swing their swords, I smashed my elbow onto the man's chin rattling his brain before I pulled his hair and smashed my knee into his nose.
"AAHHHHHHH!!! IT HURTSSSS!!!!!"
Everyone was shocked by the brutality I'd displayed.
I looked at everyone and spoke calmly.
"I don't care what shitty schemes you're all cooking up to earn a thousand points to exit the Neutral Zone. I'll take your missions and I'll do them as many ever times I like. If you wanna fight me then I dare you to come at me. But be warned, I won't go easy on you."
Everyone frowned at once.
I just whispered, "Pussys." but the silence was so resounding that everyone heard what I'd said.
I turned around and picked the mission I'd picked and tore the paper in the same silence before vanishing from the Plaza.
The three dogs that I had to defeat looked more like gorillas than dogs, and I realised I couldn't just defeat them by punching them since they were way more muscular than me.
'How do I defeat these musclemen?'
I had an idea but I wasn't very sure it would work.
Using Key Insight I dodged their attacks and moved around to their blind spots. Then quickly forming hand seals I activated the minor healing jutsus to heal cuts and tears in the body.
As soon as my hands took on a dim blue glow, I jumped onto the backs of the gorilla dogs before placing my hands around their necks, to choke them.
Now I couldn't choke them even if I used all my strength since their neck was thick enough that my hand couldn't wrap around it fully.
But nevertheless, I used my healing jutsu to mutate their cells and create a thick blockage in their necks so that their windpipe was blocked and they couldn't breathe.
And it seemed to be working since the Gorilla dog used its clawed hands to get me off almost immediately, thinking that it could breathe again if it got me off its back.
I dodged the clawed hands and quickly moved away from the other two gorilla dogs before watching as the gorilla dog whose windpipe I had blocked collapsed onto the ground and began to claw the ground in hopes of breathing.
It wasn't a quick death and I felt a little pity for the creature.
The other two dogs saw their companion dying in such a pitiful way and became wary of me.
But given that the mission was Slightly Easy, the dogs weren't very intelligent and I got the opportunity to test new moves on them.
For the first of the remaining two, I used my healing ability to directly mutate the cells in its brain, giving it a quick death.
For the second one, I was a little cruel. I first worked on creating new cells all over its joints which caused it to feel a tremendous sense of pain each time it moved its joints before I finally mutated its brain and killed it.
With the three dogs dead, I was teleported back out to the Plaza, but before anyone could catch me to tell me anything, I picked up the same mission once again, taking its last use before I vanished.
I used the gorilla dogs to test various ways I could use my abilities since it wouldn't always be possible for me to be able to hang around my enemy's head long enough for me to 'heal' their brain or 'heal' their neck.
So I practiced fighting them by increasing the pain in their body each time my hands made contact with their body.
This didn't have quick results since for a few seconds it felt like nothing had happened. But it was only when several parts of their body began to ache and their movement became affected because of it, did they realise that I was doing something to them.
But it was too late by then since the pain mostly overwhelmed their senses at this point and I was given free rein to 'heal' their brains and kill them.
Finishing the mission granted me another forty points bringing my total to eighty.
'Damn…the higher missions are worth so much…something I spent about ten hours to do before now only takes me about ten minutes.'
But as soon as I was teleported back into the plaza this time, I was surrounded by an angry mob led by the guy whose nose I'd broken.
"What are you going to do now you fool!? Do you have what it takes to beat us all?" The man asked with his arms spread wide.
The group he had gathered to fight me was about thirty people large, while the rest of the people just chose to sit and watch from the sidelines.
I shook my head and spoke softly, "The question isn't if I can save myself from you. You've got this wrong. The question is if you can save yourself from me."
I then looked right into his eyes, ignoring his bloody and bruised nose, "Can you?"