Chapter 1236 Rank 108

"Fuck."

The word escaped Michael almost immediately.

At nearly the exact same moment, somewhere unimaginably far away within the Origin Battlefield, the same word left another mouth.

"Fuck."

The second Michael was currently standing inside a completely different arena.

One hand was wrapped around the throat of a strange humanoid creature with smooth pink skin, a narrow waist, and delicate features feminine enough that Michael had initially struggled to determine its gender.

The creature's feet hung several centimetres above the ground. Its hands were gripping Michael's wrist, desperately attempting to pull his fingers apart.

Michael had been moments away from ending the fight when the announcement appeared.

[Universal Milestone Announcement]

[Congratulations, Michael Norman, for accomplishing an unprecedented feat by successfully breaking all universal borders!]

[Title Acquired: Universal Pioneer]

Michael stopped moving.

The pink-skinned man hanging from his hand stopped struggling for half a second as well, apparently equally shocked by the sudden universal announcement.

Michael stared at the panel with a darkened expression.

Another announcement? Again?

For a moment, he forgot he was even fighting.

If there was anyone in the universe who wanted less attention than Michael currently did, he genuinely wanted to meet them. Because this was getting ridiculous.

His activities during his previous entry into the Origin Battlefield had already spread across multiple realms. And now this.

The Origin Will had apparently decided that every mildly important thing Michael accomplished needed to be announced to the entire universe. At this point, it was beginning to feel less like an impartial universal existence and more like an enthusiastic gossip who couldn't keep his name out of its mouth.

Michael's grip unconsciously tightened.

The pink-skinned man immediately began struggling again.

Only then did Michael remember the creature was still there. He loosened his fingers slightly but didn't release it. His attention remained fixed on the announcement.

Had he known establishing a subsidiary territory would trigger something like this, Michael genuinely would have reconsidered his approach and waited to allow someone else to discover the function first.

Let another Awakener connect two worlds. Let that person receive the grand universal announcement and all the attention that came with becoming the first. Then Michael could have quietly established his own immediately afterward.

Same result. Far less trouble.

Instead, he had somehow managed to become first again.

The Michael floating above the newly created anchor in the Land of Origin wore almost exactly the same irritated expression.

Michael's attention finally returned to the creature struggling in his hand.

This was his ninth opponent since beginning his climb.

Rank 108.

More importantly, this was the first opponent Michael had encountered before any of his undead had even appeared.

Normally, Michael wouldn't have approached someone ranked this high alone. The people within this range of the leaderboard were simply too unpredictable and too strong. Even if Michael was confident in himself, there was no reason to abandon one of his greatest advantages by refusing to summon his legion.

This time, however, circumstances had been different.

The pink-skinned man had clearly only recently finished another battle before accepting Michael's challenge. Even now, faint injuries remained across his body. His aura was unstable, his breathing uneven, and several parts of the priestly garments covering him had already been torn.

The strangest part was that he was apparently a priest.

Michael still didn't fully understand how a priest had climbed all the way to Rank 108. But after everything he had seen from Awakeners and being one himself, he also wasn't particularly surprised.

That was one of the biggest differences between Awakeners and more traditional supernatural systems.

Traditional paths usually had clearer limits. A knight fought like a knight. A mage fought like a mage. A priest supported, healed, purified, or relied on divine arts.

Awakeners were far less restrictive. With Classes, Skills, Attributes, Titles, equipment, racial traits, Talents, and countless other factors layered together, someone could effectively build themselves however they wanted. Two people with the exact same Class could end up fighting completely differently. It was closer to constructing a game build than following a fixed supernatural path.

Apparently, this priest had built himself well enough to enter the Top 110.

There was a reason Michael hadn't killed him but wanted the other party to surrender instead.

The first was the battlefield.

The arena the priest had selected was almost entirely saturated with darkness. Dark clouds covered the sky, the earth was black and cracked, and streams of dark elemental energy constantly drifted through the air like mist.

For the priest, it was a bizarre choice, since this was only beneficial for his opponent.

The second problem was the priest's behavior.

Michael had caught him off guard almost immediately after the match began. Yet even after Michael's hand closed around his throat, the man had focused entirely on trying to break free. He hadn't attacked. Even now, his hands were only wrapped around Michael's wrist as he struggled to loosen the grip.

The third clue was the most obvious.

He had accepted Michael's challenge despite clearly being injured from his previous match.

Taken together, the situation wasn't difficult to understand.

This man hadn't accepted because he wanted to fight. He wanted something else. A conversation, perhaps. Maybe a deal. Or maybe some kind of cooperation.

Michael didn't particularly care which. He had entered the ranking battles for one purpose. To climb as high as possible while he still had challenges available. Stopping in the middle of that to discuss business with a stranger wasn't part of the plan.

Still, since the priest had shown no intention of killing him, Michael had no reason to respond with unnecessary brutality either. He only needed him to surrender.

Michael's fingers tightened slightly again.

The pink-skinned priest's expression immediately became strained.

Michael watched him calmly. He had already made his intentions clear enough through his actions. This wasn't going to become a negotiation. One of them was leaving the arena with a higher rank. And Michael had no intention of being the one who forfeited.