Chapter 66 | Time Shift Talent! Beating Xavier
Chapter 66: 66 | Time Shift Talent! Beating Xavier
"A-Rank Talent, Time Shift."
Time accelerated around Xavier. His body moved three times faster than normal, his reactions sharpened, his thoughts processing at incredible speed.
At the same time, the flow of time surrounding Andrew slowed dramatically. To Andrew, it felt as though the world itself had become sluggish and he was in inside an ocean.
To Xavier, everything had become three times faster. He could see Andrew’s movements in perfect clarity, could predict where he would be, could react to any action with plenty of time to spare. It was like fighting in slow motion, an overwhelming advantage that made him nearly unstoppable.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Xavier became nothing but a blur as he moved so fast that his body left afterimages, ghostly copies that lingered in the air for a fraction of a second after he had already moved on. The blur circled Andrew, tracing a path that was too fast to follow with normal vision.
Soon, it looked as though twenty different Xaviers were surrounding Andrew from every direction. Each afterimage was slightly transparent, but from a distance, they were nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.
Laughter echoed throughout the forest, coming from multiple directions as the afterimages seemed to speak in unison.
"Hahaha! Can you even see me? You look like a fucking snail! You’re too slow! Too weak! Too pathetic!"
"This is what true talent is!"
Xavier roared into laughter, his voice, bouncing from multiple directions.
Andrew quietly watched everything. His remaining eye one eye didn’t bother to look for the real Xavier. He was just lazily standing and pondering.
But he was genuinely surprised.
The Time Shift talent was remarkable, far more sophisticated than what he assumed.
It could actually steal the opponent’s time speed and grant it to the user.
"What an incredible Talent..." Andrew murmured, his voice too quiet for Xavier to hear. A faint smile slowly appeared on his face. "I want it."
If he could kill Xavier inside Heaven’s Domain, extract his Talent, then invest enough points to evolve Time Shift from A-Rank to SSS-Rank, combined with other speed-enhancing abilities he possessed, his speed would become utterly monstrous. He would be able to move so fast that even Time users couldn’t track him.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t extract Talents inside this virtual environment. The simulation replicated physical abilities and mana, but it didn’t create real souls or real talents that could be harvested. He would have to wait until they met again inside Heaven’s Domain to take what was his.
’Yup, anything that interests my eyes is mine. Otherwise, why was I given the system and not anyone else.’
He licked his lips in excitement and couldn’t wait to pluck Xavier.
Xavier’s laughter continued, growing louder and more confident as the seconds passed without Andrew making any move to defend himself.
"Do you finally understand the difference between us? You can’t even keep up with my movements! You—"
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly appeared directly behind Andrew
His hand whipped through the air like a bullet as he slapped Andrew’s face with astonishing force. He didn’t want to finish Andrew fast, he wanted to thoroughly humiliate him and make him beg on his kneels.
"Come, come, kneel for daddy!"
But at that exact instant, Andrew turned around.
Smack!
His hand effortlessly caught Xavier’s palm. The impact was soft, almost gentle, as if Andrew was catching a ball thrown by a child. His fingers wrapped around Xavier’s wrist casually.
Everything became silent.
The afterimages flickered and faded as Xavier’s stopped. The time distortion wavered, then collapsed entirely.
Xavier froze. His eyes widened in disbelief, his mouth falling open, his body going rigid with shock and horror.
"W-What... Impossible... How did you—"
Andrew smiled faintly. "You talk too much."
Before Xavier could react, before he could reactivate his talent or pull his fist free or do anything at all, Andrew threw a single punch.
Boom!
His fist pierced straight through Xavier’s chest before emerging from his back.
Blood sprayed across the virtual battlefield.
Xavier looked down in disbelief at the gaping hole in his chest. His hands reached toward the wound, as if trying to hold his body together, but there was nothing to hold.
His mouth opened. No words came out.
As a Level 5 Ultra, his body couldn’t withstand a single direct punch from Andrew. The simulation replicated their real-world stats accurately, and Andrew’s stats, even without his equipment and bloodline abilities, were simply too high for a Level 5 player to withstand.
His consciousness rapidly faded. The virtual world began to dissolve around him, pixels breaking apart, colors bleeding into each other, the forest fading into blackness.
Andrew slowly pulled back his bloodstained fist. The virtual blood dripped from his knuckles, but he barely noticed it.
Xavier’s lifeless body collapsed onto the ground.
"Thud!"
Andrew looked down at the corpse for a moment before calmly kicking it aside.
"You really..." he said, his voice flat and unimpressed. "...talk too much."
A notification appeared in his vision.
[Victory!]
[Opponent: Xavier (Level 5)]
[Result: Knockout]
[Combat Rating: S]
[Returning to lobby in 5... 4... 3...]
Andrew stood in the virtual forest for a few more seconds The fight was disappointing. Xavier’s Time Shift talent was impressive, but Andrew’s talents were out of this world. Not to mentions his skills, his talent could burn through the air the time shift zone.
The virtual world dissolved around him, and Andrew’s consciousness returned to his body in the pod. The hatch hissed open, letting in the real-world light of the Virtual Environment Facility.
He sat up slowly, his expression unchanged from before the match. Around him, other students were emerging from their own pods, some looking triumphant, others disappointed, a few looking shaken from intense or difficult fights.
"He cheated!"
Xavier’s scream echoed through the entire hall as he glared at Andrew.
Everyone turned around in confusion.
The instructor frowned and glanced at Xavier who was just came out of his pod.
"What’s the matter?"