Chapter 422: The Players of the Fourth Calamity (Part Two)

Su Chen stared at the interface before him.
It was a vast microcosm of a world. He stood suspended in mid-air, a pop-up number appearing before him.
【Register as a player?】
【A talent will be randomly drawn upon successful registration. Once drawn, it cannot be reselected.】
Su Chen clicked "Draw".
The interface before him flashed.
【Congratulations, player, for obtaining the King-rank talent: Extreme Combat】
【Extreme Combat (King): Can be actively used, burning energy to unleash powerful strength. After use, the user will gradually fall into a weakened state.】
Su Chen estimated that his talents in this life were roughly at the King-rank level, so drawing a King-rank talent was quite good.
Just as he was about to confirm, the displayed King-rank talent suddenly changed.
【Diligent Learning (Venerable): All experience gain +10%】
Su Chen was astonished. This was amazing!
His talent suddenly jumped from King-rank to Venerable-rank, a leap of two ranks.
This was far more practical than Extreme Combat.
"I didn't expect someone to have their eye on me so quickly."
Su Chen naturally didn't believe that the Fourth Calamity had taken pity on him and modified his talent.
In this world, there are countless item cards. Su Chen guessed that some lucky person had been reborn. Rebirth wasn't uncommon for Su Chen... Perhaps a powerful being was scheming, afraid of getting involved in karma, or perhaps a lucky person was swept up in a war that shattered spacetime, survived the aftershocks, and fell into the river of time, returning to the past.
Clearly, the brief future experienced by that lucky person was the same as his present. In the future, he would quickly become a top-tier powerhouse, leading that lucky person to believe he possessed some unparalleled talent, and used an item card to swap their talents... Unexpectedly, that lucky person's talent was even stronger than his awakened talent.
A failed attempt at stealing a chicken resulted in a loss.
This amusing situation made Su Chen want to laugh.
His rise in this life wasn't due to any player talent... but rather his own efforts!
........
Xu Le's heart was filled with trepidation at this moment.
The talent before him was rapidly changing.
[Congratulations, player, on obtaining the Venerable-level talent: Diligence]
"Just like in my previous life."
Xu Le was somewhat disappointed. Although a Venerable-level talent was already quite good—one in a thousand years in Da Rao City—it wasn't enough for Xu Le, who had seen the world. Far from enough.
Saint-level, Emperor-level, Super Emperor-level...
The possessors of those talents were all more monstrous than the last, so monstrous that Xu Le could only look up in awe. Diligence was merely the lowest-grade Venerable-level talent, even inferior to most Emperor-level talents. Faced with those monstrous talent possessors, he could only humbly look up in disdain.
But those talent possessors also looked up to one person.
Xiao Chen!
A legend, an unreplicable legend, who completely overshadowed those Saint-level, Emperor-level, and Super Emperor-level talent possessors!
Suddenly, the talent before Xu Le disappeared, replaced by another talent.
Excitement, trepidation, unease
Xu Le stood frozen in place.
This wasn't some Emperor-level, Super Emperor-level, or even Super Super Emperor-level talent.
[Extreme Battle (King): Can be used actively, burning energy to unleash powerful force; after use, the user will gradually fall into a weakened state.]
Xu Le rubbed his eyes.
He rubbed his eyes again.
He rubbed his eyes once more.
At this moment, the scene before him transformed into a small town.
"Damn it, this is infuriating!"
A heart-wrenching scream echoed from within the small town, a sound that saddened all who heard it and brought tears to their eyes.
Xu Le coughed up blood and fainted.
Even a trashy Venerable-level talent is still Venerable-level.
How could he possibly accept going from Venerable-level to King-level?
.......
Su Chen was unaware of all this.
He had already left the small town and begun his 'game'.
Playing games naturally involves fighting monsters, leveling up, and defeating bosses.
Just like playing an online game.
For many newbies, they were still outwitting and outmaneuvering a rooster and a rabbit.
Su Chen directly encountered his first boss.
The Shadow Wolf King.
The Shadow Wolf King looked at the oblivious little human.
"Perhaps it's time for a snack,"
The Shadow Wolf King thought to itself.
Su Chen remained calm.
He casually picked up a twig from the roadside and placed it against his chest.
"This human seems a bit dim-witted. Will eating it affect my intelligence?"
He thinks he can stop him with just a small twig?
Truly laughable.
At that moment, a notification appeared on Su Chen's screen:
[Congratulations to player Xiao Chen for mastering the level??? skill: Sword Dao Supreme]
[Congratulations to player Xiao Chen for defeating the beginner boss, Shadow Wolf King]
[Congratulations to player for gaining a large amount of experience and breaking through to the second tier, level three]
This boss, almost at the third tier, was instantly killed by Su Chen.
"Killing mobs is nowhere near as fast as leveling up by defeating bosses!"
With a casual flick of his wrist, the twig in Su Chen's hand had already turned to ashes.
However, the twig's purpose was fulfilled; a greatsword wreathed in black energy appeared before him.
Su Chen continued on his way, carrying the greatsword.
He'd defeated the starting village boss, and now he could travel to other areas to fight other bosses and level up.
........
[Player Xiao Chen from Village #88888888... has successfully defeated the starting village boss, the Shadow Wolf King. All players from Village #88888888... can now leave the starting village and head to the city.]
The system's merciless notification rang in the minds of the player still struggling against the pheasant and rabbit at the gate.
"What? We haven't even left the village, and you're telling me someone's already taken down the boss?"
"Admin, admin, I'm reporting this guy for cheating! He's not even pretending anymore!"
"Cheating? This isn't your average game. There's not even a pay-to-win interface. Where are you going to cheat?"
"Bad review, I have to give it a bad review! Terrible experience! Can I quit this game?"
"..."
As the notification sound of Su Chen defeating the newbie village boss rang out, the newbie players instantly erupted in chaos. They had never heard of anyone being so powerful, instantly killing the boss right after arriving in the newbie village?
It made them suspect cheating... but this wasn't an ordinary game. Even the Greatest Federation didn't know, so how could anyone be cheating?
Xu Le, who had just woken up, was dazed upon hearing the news of the newbie boss being defeated. Anyone who didn't know better would think he'd slept for months.
Listening to the clamorous discussion around him,
Xu Le smiled bitterly.
Cheating...it certainly exists.
He himself was a cheater, arriving here with a future treasure, enough to dominate and give him a head start over countless others.
But now...it seemed he had encountered an even bigger cheater!
"How could this be?"
"How could Xiao Chen's talent be just an ordinary King-level talent?"
Xu Le still refused to believe it.
"Xiao Chen must have used some method, or obtained some item; he has more than one talent!"
Xu Le couldn't believe that someone in this world could comprehend a Super Emperor-level skill in an instant.
He stubbornly believed that Xiao Chen must have relied on unparalleled talent or a treasure to be able to kill the newbie boss so quickly!