CHAPTER 683: CEDRIC GOES VIRAL

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It was mean to end his opponent like that, using his own sword art against him. But in a sense, that was Cedric’s way to thank him for a decent match.

Yes, Cedric did learn that sword art in the middle of the match. It wasn’t really that hard for him, especially given how perceptive he could be. He even added a bonus and showed Faceless Blade the realm beyond the perfection of his sword art.

What Cedric valued wasn’t the sword art itself; it was the deeper secrets that hid beneath it. The flow of origin energy he saw when Faceless Blade was using the sword was optimized, and that made Cedric’s eyes light up with want; therefore, he learned it on the spot and was now dissecting it.

He’s discarding the parts of the concept he doesn’t have any use for, keeping only the useful parts.

Even though it wasn’t complete yet, it already shaved off at least 5% of his total original energy consumption when using sword arts.

Don’t underestimate that seemingly tiny amount, for it could prove very useful in the long run, especially in rough battles. Besides, it’s not complete yet. There is still plenty of room for improvements.

But it’s not going to be completed overnight. One way to accelerate this progress is by fighting against other swordsmen so that he can plunder their secrets.

Spectating could work, too, but direct confrontation was better, as he could see these secrets face-to-face.

Aside from this method, he could also use his gross amount of wealth to purchase all manner of sword arts in the market. This could work, but Cedric was a little unsure if he really wanted to do it.

It’s not like he could expect Sword Masters to sell their secrets out in the public that easily. He knew well enough that sword arts of the level he wanted were a well-guarded secret; some would rather die than disclose any information about them.

Finding a gem of a sword art amongst the pile available for public purchase sounds tiring too.

Another way he could rely on was to fill in the gaps himself. But again, this will take some time and a lot of trial and error. He could do this in his downtime, though.

With this in mind, Cedric queued up for another match, hoping to be matched with another swordsman again.

Alas, he was a little too hopeful.

Swordsmen, legit ones more specifically, are rare in the virtual arena. Even though the queue time was done in a snap of a finger, it’s completely random.

And it’s not like he could filter his matches so that he could only fight swordsmen. That function sounds nice, but sadly, it’s not implemented, and probably for a good reason too.

So, he is off to another match.

This time, the battlefield was a wasteland, a stark opposition to what the battlefield looked like in his match against Faceless Blade.

It’s as if he arrived in one of those waste processing planets, which could often be referred to as Cosmic Trash Bins—a place where the waste of the cosmos is taken and processed properly, usually home to poor and unfortunate people who could only seek out meager living from any available work there.

Fortunately, this was just a simulated battlefield, and he was spared from the stench. That said, it still looked gross, for he could even see large and far maggots wriggling everywhere he looked.

It would seem that he was in the bio-waste section; otherwise, he wouldn’t have seen these things.

But compared to his apparent dislike of the randomized battlefield generated for them, his opponent seems to feel the opposite.

He was up against a hunchbacked male, wrapped in a tattered and coarse cloak. His eyes gleamed with a sanguine glow, and he wore a crooked smile, displaying his gross and large set of teeth.

His face was wrinkled, and his nose was long. He seemed feeble, relying on a long wooden staff to remain standing; his legs even shook while standing still. It’s like a strong gust of wind was capable of toppling him over.

Not that Cedric was one to stereotype, but this guy wasn’t helping either, for his appearance truly blended well with their current environment.

"Ah, home sweet home~" he heard him say in a dry and quavering tone. He could even hear nostalgia and rich emotions from his words.

’Yeah, that doesn’t help. Like, at all,’ Cedric dryly commented inwardly.

He wasn’t one to profile anybody based on appearance, but what’s in front of him was speaking volumes, so he just can’t help it.

Anyway...

Cedric braced himself for a nasty fight against...

’Yellow Tooth? Seriously? Of all the available names out there? ’

Yes, he’s fighting against someone who named himself ’Yellow Tooth.’ Cedric didn’t even want to figure out if this was just an online persona or not; he’s really not interested to know.

The battle started soon, and it was within all expectations so far.

Poison, blight, and insects...lots of them. That’s what he had to deal with.

Cedric did his best to treat everything with a neutral perspective. He wanted to see this as a learning experience and not to be too grossed out with everything he saw, despite how difficult it could be.

And this ’Yellow Tooth’ certainly didn’t make it easy for him.

His poison looked and behaved like snot; his blight was slimy and nauseous too. And his insects were just too much. It didn’t help that he’s practically vomiting them all out to send them his way.

This was one of the times when his sharp eyesight backfired, because despite not really wanting to see anything Yellow Tooth could display, his eyes didn’t work like that, and he’d see them anyway, maybe even more than the other party intended to show.

Cedric could see that the potbelly stomach of Yellow Tooth was, in fact, just a large hive home to millions of insects. And some of those insects, mainly worms, centipedes, and maggots, freely roamed around his body. Some even burrowed into his tooth and made it their home.

Yellow Tooth was gross. That’s the long and short of it. At this point, even Cedric was convinced that this was no persona at all because everything the enemy had shown so far looked genuine and practiced...genuinely gross and practically terrifying.

Again, Cedric tried to remain indifferent here. He did his best to treat this as a learning experience, and somehow, he was able to. He did learn some things, ones that are not particularly useful to him, but lessons nevertheless.

But in the end, Cedric ultimately decided that Yellow Tooth offered nothing worthy for him, so he ended the match through means he saw fit.

And that is to burn him and everything here to nihility.

Cedric annihilated him so fast that even in Yellow Tooth’s last moments, that crooked and wicked smile on his face remained plastered. He probably didn’t even know how he died.

As soon as he was freed from that match, Cedric immediately blocked Yellow Tooth in his contact list. He also blocked him on the matchmaking queue, making sure that he’d never fight against him in the arena, ever. At least this function was available, though; he could only block a maximum of 10 people per day, and only 3 per day in the matchmaking section; therefore, this couldn’t be used as a reliable filter for matchmakingeither.

He decided that he needed a deep cleanse after that match.

Even though none of Yellow Tooth’s poison, blight, or insects even came close to him, Cedric still couldn’t help but feel like he was dirtied and sullied after that fight.

So, he took a nice and relaxing bath. And even though the part of him that’s exploring the Primitive Universe was just a clone, the sense of sanity and cleanliness was shared through all, so a bath really helps.

As he was relaxing in his luxurious bathtub, though. Cedric was unaware that his codename, Dawnbringer, was beginning to gain even more popularity within the Immortal League Circle.

It wasn’t his, so far, splendid win-to-lose ratio that made this possible, nor was it his mysterious identity.

It’s because someone who spectated his match against Faceless Blade posted the highlights of their match to an online community. And it just so happens that this person turned out to have a massive online following; therefore, anything he posted was bound to garner a lot of attention.

’[Match Highlights] - Faceless Blade vs. Dawnbringer’ was the title of the video.

The poster’s massive online community and the clickbait being Faceless Blade caused the video’s views to skyrocket incredibly fast. By now, it’s been viewed by at least 10 million people, and it hasn’t even been three hours since it was uploaded.

The comment section was flooded with disbelief and doubts because of how the match ended. Most people thought that the fight was staged because they refused to believe that Faceless Blade was defeated by someone using the fundamentals of the sword.

And to further add to the video’s hype, one famous swordsman in the virtual arena liked and shared the video.

Things just snowballed from there...