Zheng Zha’s heart stirred upon hearing this; he too possessed self-created skills, having created two of them. He wondered if this middle-aged brute had also created such a potent skill, or perhaps something even stronger.

“Then… a fight will tell us. You know as well as I do that talking is pointless. Since your team initiated the attack on us, aiming for our complete annihilation, mercy in this battle is irrelevant… Tell me, if we had lost just now, would you have spared the one or two innocent members of our team? Everyone who enters these horror movie reincarnations has their own story; no one is entirely blameless… Dare you say that little girl never intervened in the battles between our teams?”

Zheng Zha looked at the middle-aged man and said quietly, “If you seek rich rewards, you must accept commensurate danger. Now that you have failed, stop dreaming of impartial kindness from Central Continent Team. Come, defeat me. Use me to threaten the others in the Central Continent Team, and that might save your group. Otherwise, accept the fate of your failure.”

Before the middle-aged man could react, the Caucasian man roared and charged furiously toward Zheng Zha. Judging by his physical condition, he was about three to five times stronger than an average person. As he closed the distance to Zheng Zha, the man gradually calmed down, his eyes growing vacant. Upon reaching a distance of ten meters, he had fully unlocked his Gene Lock. Simultaneously, crackling sounds of thunder and lightning emanated from his hands, electric arcs flickering between them, creating a momentarily terrifying spectacle.

Zheng Zha watched the approaching Caucasian man coldly. He abruptly drew the Tiger Soul Great Blade from his storage ring. The moment this staggeringly impressive great blade was drawn, both the middle-aged man and the Caucasian man flinched. These two had heard detailed analyses of the weapons in the ‘Main God’ space from Neos. Especially regarding the powerful legendary magic-grade weapons, the Tiger Soul Blade looked unmistakably like one of the supremely powerful legendary magic-grade weapons. The Caucasian man’s courage faltered before the attack even began, but he was at least in the unlocked Gene Lock state. As the Tiger Soul Blade swung horizontally, he managed, in the nick of time, to push off the ground and leap backward, narrowly avoiding being sliced in two.

The Caucasian man’s face grew even paler. He urgently demanded, “What kind of weapon is that? My premonition warns me that approaching it will…” Before he finished speaking, a sound of tearing flesh and bone echoed. The Caucasian man stared blankly as his arm was severed cleanly and neatly. The wound dug down three parts below his left chest, narrowly missing his lung.

The Caucasian man clutched his severed arm and screamed in agony, “Why? I wasn't hit! Is this legendary magic weapon a wind-controlling weapon? Like how I control electricity, does this one control wind? Damn it, Richard, if I die, you won’t live long either—we have to attack together!”

The middle-aged man had been meticulously observing Zheng Zha’s movements. Only when the Caucasian man shrieked did he speak, “He injected energy into the blade just now… What hit you wasn't wind, but an invisible, tangible layer of energy… Hofer! Absorb the flagship’s energy! If you don’t absorb it now, you’ll lose the chance. He is too terrifying; his strength surpasses both of us combined. Damn it, forget everything else—let’s give him one last combined fight!” With that, the middle-aged man suddenly held a massive double-bladed great axe. This axe was more than twice the size of the Tiger Soul Blade, its sheer scale comparable to a small man, as if the brute was holding a human aloft.

The Caucasian man, still howling while cradling his spurting arm, wailed, “Richard, my Rumble-Rumble Fruit hasn't been fully enhanced to the final double-A level yet! Absorbing any more energy now won't allow me to electrify, and absorbing too much energy will cause me to self-detonate! You want to kill me! It hurts… My arm hurts so much.”

The middle-aged man sighed, saying no more. Instead, he let out a tremendous roar, and surging golden light erupted from his body, enveloping him entirely. The brute instantly resembled a golden statue, and the entire double-bladed great axe began to shimmer with golden light. However, as time passed, this golden light slowly sank into the middle-aged man’s body. The muscles on his body began to convulse violently at a rate visible to the naked eye. The middle-aged man’s loud shouts turned into moans of agony.

Zheng Zha watched with curiosity. He couldn't tell if this was the middle-aged man’s self-created skill. While his own ‘Explosion’ and ‘Destruction’ skills carried severe side effects, their use wasn't this agonizing; or perhaps, the middle-aged man was suffering a critical failure while using his skill?

The Caucasian man shrieked in terror, “Damn it, don’t just activate ‘Berserker’ without a word, I don't want to die yet… I get it, I get it! Absorb the energy? Absorb the warship’s energy? Captain of the Central Continent Team! You just wait! I’ll show you the terror of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit soon enough, hahaha…” The Caucasian man laughed hysterically while scrambling madly toward the exit of the central meeting room.

Zheng Zha merely watched the Caucasian man flee the room. His entire focus was fixed on the middle-aged brute before him. As the convulsions in the brute’s muscles ceased, a peculiar pressure settled between them. At this moment, he couldn't possibly attack the fleeing Caucasian man, so he remained covertly alert, ready to deploy the ‘Explosion’ skill at any moment.

The muscle convulsions on the middle-aged man finally stopped completely. When he raised his head to look at Zheng Zha again, Zheng Zha saw his eyes had turned completely crimson, filled only with bloodthirsty madness. The rationality and restraint that had been in his eyes were entirely gone. Then, the brute stamped his foot, leaving a small dent in the alloy floor; even Zheng Zha felt the ground tremble fiercely. The ten-plus meters separating them vanished instantly. Before Zheng Zha could fully recover his senses, the enormous double-bladed great axe was already cleaving down at him from the air.

(No retreat! This speed is incredible, nearly matching the velocity in the ‘Explosion’ state! And the power is even greater… Damn it, isn't this just a variation of the ‘Explosion’ skill?)

This thought was the only one that flashed through Zheng Zha’s mind. Then, he met the descending axe with his Tiger Soul Great Blade. Although the double-bladed great axe should also be a legendary magic-grade weapon, compared to the sheer sharpness of the Tiger Soul Blade and the absolute cutting power of its blade aura, the axe should be cleaved in two by one strike, Zheng Zha reasoned. However, the reality defied his expectation. Despite the brute’s seemingly frantic movements, he hadn't truly gone mad. On the contrary, his movements appeared far more agile than before. Just as the edges of the two weapons were about to clash, he deftly deflected the double-bladed great axe, striking the back of the Tiger Soul Blade. This action not only diverted the Tiger Soul Blade’s cutting edge but also allowed the axe’s own edge to graze along the blade's spine toward Zheng Zha’s arm, carving a long, deep gash into it.

Zheng Zha had also entered the Gene Lock state, specifically the second stage. As the deep gash opened on his arm, and seeing the middle-aged man bringing the great axe down toward his head again, Zheng Zha abruptly leaped into the air. Before the axe could connect, he planted his foot squarely on the middle-aged man’s chest, sending him flying several meters away. Simultaneously, he used that reactionary force to propel himself back several meters, finally creating some distance between them.

“Hiss!”

At that moment, a stream of blood suddenly erupted violently from the middle-aged man’s chest. In that fleeting moment of exchange, although the edge of the Tiger Soul Blade was deflected, the residual blade aura that extended beyond the blade’s physical length had ripped open the brute’s chest. While this single strike didn't bisect him, it did deeply injure his internal organs, particularly his chest and lungs, likely causing a major wound.

The middle-aged man ignored the injury on his chest as if feeling no pain. He raised the double-headed great axe and charged again. Furthermore, as he bled, his speed and power seemed to increase even more dramatically. Previously, Zheng Zha could barely keep up with his speed by utilizing the unlocked Gene Lock, but now he struggled to match it. As the vicious axe descended, he could only firmly block with the Tiger Soul Blade, only to be violently slammed against the wall by a powerful blow from the great axe. Before he could react further, the middle-aged man delivered another axe strike, then another, dozens of blows in mere seconds, each one imbued with terrifying, immense force. Finally, after several seconds, the alloy wall in that spot was brutally smashed through.

Zheng Zha was blasted straight through the wall. The hand gripping the Tiger Soul Blade had burst open at the base, and the double-bladed great axe itself carried an ice attribute. The deep gash carved into his arm had already accumulated a thick layer of ice crystals, making his arm stiff and somewhat inflexible. The Tiger Soul Blade was also coated in a thick layer of frost—the result of repeated strikes and impacts from the double-bladed great axe.

(Confirmed: his self-created skill also comes at a physical cost, trading it for a terrifying boost in power over a short duration. Its intensity is slightly stronger than ‘Explosion,’ but far weaker than ‘Destruction’… Then I’ll resolve this using ‘Explosion’!)

After being blown out of the meeting room, Zheng Zha watched the middle-aged man charge again. He roared loudly. A blood-red line shot down from his forehead, and a violent current of air surged upward from his core. The two forces finally converged at his heart.

“Explosion!” Jumping up—