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By my fifth round of losing horribly to the point where I began to question my own sanity, a strange rumbling suddenly caught my attention, as if there was stirring beneath us.

“Do you hear that?” I turned off the holographic screen in front of me, gripped the table and got up to have a look. “I hear something strange and it’s getting closer by the second…”

“Big brother, you can’t just change the topic like that, Qiaoqiao knows you’re about to lose!” The moment I pulled the holographic equivalent of flipping the table, Qiaoqiao immediately glared at me. “You promised you would draw a funny face on yourself if you lose this time! Big brother, you can’t just back out like that!”

While it might be true that my impending loss was going to be an embarrassing one, but…

“Qiaoqiao, your big brother wasn’t trying to back out at the last minute, he really heard something.”

“Hmph, Qiaoqiao is not going to be fooled that easily!” Qiaoqiao reacted by pouting. “If there’s really an enemy nearby, those Inferno Talisman should have activated by now…”

Yet before she could even finish speaking, the ground shook violently, forcing her to lurch forward with a quick yelp into my arms. She grabbed onto me tightly, her hands shaking and her face white with terror. “Earthquake? We’re not going to be buried alive, are we?”

A loud rumble later, the earth started shaking even more violently.

Still in the midst of working on the second exosuit, Bitong and Lixiang stopped working at the same time. The two exchanged a confused look before scanning the room for the source of the quakes.

“Everyone, prepare for combat.”

Being a seasoned ace pilot, Floater was the first amongst us to take up arms. She sent a signal to her suit, causing it to immediately open up as if to welcome its pilot back. Upon entering the suit, all twelve of her detachable bits shot out of her back and started scouting the vicinity.

“Qiaoqiao!” Bitong yelled. Upon seeing the little girl shivering in my arms, Bitong pointed at one of the exosuits that had just been finished and said, “Get on.”

“But there’s only one completed exosuit, if Qiaoqiao boards it, what about sister Bitong and Lixiang?”

Despite there being only one completed exosuit that was coated in blue and looked suspiciously like a foot soldier’s equipment – which wasn’t actually important right now – Qiaoqiao riding on that exosuit would mean that Bitong and Lixiang would have to fight naked. Which, on second thought, might not be particularly apt to describe a pair of girls, but it was accurate enough in this situation.

Before Bitong could answer, our enemy reared its ugly head. This time, the enemy did not pass through the walls to strike at us. Instead, it came from beneath us…

Roughly ten meters away within an employee’s lounge which happened to have a glass window to look through, a gigantic hole suddenly appeared from beneath. The hole was a massive one, measuring seven to eight meters in diameter, and could probably cause an entire cafe to disappear in its gaping maw…

From within that endless abyss, a gigantic skeletal monster stuck its head out…

The creature had a serpentine appearance. Through its skull, its Soul Flames could be seen lighting up the surroundings in an eerie green glow, made only worse by its rows of sinister-looking teeth…

“That’s a giant Sirenidae skeleton!”

Floater immediately recognised the monster for what it was.

“Ding! Mission update…”

Mission: The Invader from Underground
Requirements: Slay the giant Sirenidae skeleton.
Rewards: 2000 points and the Flying Feathers skill
Comments: The monster is strong, but not as strong as you.

What the heck is Flying Feathers? Actually, who cares about that – 2000 points is nothing to scoff at. I’ll take this mission!

“Floater, Qiaoqiao, I need you two to guard the others. I can’t be sure if there are any more hiding in the shadows, but leave this monster to me.”

For the time being, this giant Sirenidae had my entire attention.

Without waiting for the giant skeleton to make its first move, I drew out Icy Inferno from my inventory. There were roughly ten meters and a door separating us and the monster. But there was no time for niceties now. I rammed right through the glass window and into the lounge, opening up right away with a mighty chop of fire and ice!

The blade of Icy Inferno was so sharp, I doubt there was anything in this world that could possibly take a full on attack from it. Yet the moment I swung my sword down, the ground beneath started to act up.

The ground tore apart as a gigantic bone hand reached forth and tried to grab me…

Because of the sheer abruptness of this attack, I was nearly caught and ended up missing my attack in the process. Thankfully, I still had a high mobility skill in Revolution Slice. I immediately activated it when I felt the ground beneath shift. Throwing my body around in an almost impossible angle, I did a furious rotation, appearing a second later five meters to the left.

However, that wasn’t the end of my troubles either. Barely a moment after I touched down, the ground tore apart once more and another giant bone hand tried to grab me.

Steeped in the heat of battle, I quickly realised that this was the monster from before, using both its hands to try and ambush me. I had fallen for its clever ploy and was now stuck fast in its grip…

I felt my body lurch upwards as the bony cage around me soared. In spite of that, I wasn’t flustered in the slightest. The thick-as-pillars fingers that trapped me threatened to close in on me, but I knew that remaining calm was the only right answer now.

“HAH!”

With no time to lose, I spread my purple wings open with a flare. In the process, I diverted all the SP I had into Icy Inferno to launch another spinning attack. This was my fastest attack, and as it spun around like a deadly wheel of fire and ice that threatened to engulf the entire world, I sliced through my bony prison in an instant!

Free, I promptly kicked off the bony palm using the tip of my toes, launching myself onto the head of the skeletal Sirenidae with a boost from my wings. The time was nigh. I was ready to draw the curtains on this sudden battle with a decisive blow.

The giant Sirenidae skeleton tried one last time to shake me off, doing its best to toss me into its mouth in the process. Unfortunately for it, ever since learning Revolution Slice, I was able to control my body movements mid-air.

A flap of my wings later, I was up in the air once more, and with a quick C-shaped swerve, I easily dodged its bite.

By the time the monster realised it had failed to bite me, I was already diving into its eye sockets, Icy Inferno aimed straight at the eerie mass of green flames before me!

“Taste my wrath!”

The moment Icy Inferno stabbed into the ghostly flames, a bright flash of light engulfed the scene, culminating in an explosion of sparks, only to dissipate before ever touching the ground.

“Ding. Mission complete. Rewards have been dispatched, please confirm…”

I won? Wait. That’s it? Shouldn’t this giant Sirenidae skeleton be a mini-boss of sorts? What kind of mini-boss just dies in a couple of hits?

And when did I become this strong?!

“Woooah! Big brother won!”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE