This tactic could be described in a single word: cheap.

But it had to be said, Feng Bujue's move was foolproof.

Copernicus and Galileo took three seconds to grasp Feng Bujue's plan. Their thoughts aligned perfectly, and they retreated almost simultaneously, shouting at the three from Order, "Those without halos, retreat with us first!"

Valiant Invincible and Ye Zhi hesitated, both turning their gazes to Meng Jingchan. As the captain of Order's three-person team, he had the responsibility to make a decision at this moment.

"You guys follow the two GMs and retreat further away." Meng Jingchan's attitude was still relatively calm. "Mad Bro and I will stay." Seeing his teammates about to speak, he immediately added, "No need to say more. Even if I die, it won't cause Mad Bro's halo to disappear. It's not a big deal."

In the time it took to say these few words, K3, standing more than ten meters away, had already sensed something. He didn't intend to let the other party continue communicating. He took a step forward and charged.

Since this was the Sakura Fruit Town side of the world, K3's strength was incomparable to when he fought in the Nether Kingdom. However, the speed and power he displayed at this moment were still very astonishing, even surpassing the movements the two GMs had shown earlier.

But unexpectedly, someone managed to block him with their own strength.

Meng Jingchan, the guy who spent all his game currency on smoking, drinking, and getting perms, leaving him with only the default newbie outfit besides the guild-mandated cloak. In this flash of lightning, a cold, suffocating light flashed in his eyes.

His figure moved, his quick sword flickered, his wrist exerted clever force, and he unleashed a slanted upward strike.

Meng Jingchan's response seemed rushed, but it was actually impeccable. He not only stopped K3's advance, but also launched a slash from a tricky angle that forced K3 to raise his attacking right arm to block the sword's edge.

From a combat perspective, the degree of precision and skill that a player can achieve in their actions within the limits of their reaction time is the standard for measuring the gap between a true expert and an ordinary person.

Of course, this is only the difference between experts and ordinary people, not the difference between experts and experts. If all external factors and luck are put aside, in a sport with rules and restrictions, the thing that top experts ultimately compete on... is still talent.

"Oh? Interesting." K3 had just shifted his gaze to Meng Jingchan's face. "Can players also reach this level..." Before he could finish speaking, another change occurred. Two arms stretched out from behind him, passing under his armpits from both sides, bending upwards, and locking his shoulders in place.

The one using this Mount Lu Ascending Dragon style posture was naturally Feng Bujue, who was standing on the other side. He had already activated [Spirit Consciousness Convergence Technique] at this moment, allowing him to complete this action before the other party could react. Feng Bujue didn't care about the loss of Survival Value now, since he couldn't die with the halo anyway. He was just afraid that without this skill, his current character's physical skills wouldn't be able to suppress the opponent.

"Go! Are you trying to die by standing there?" Feng Bujue shouted at the other four after restraining K3.

Valiant Invincible and Ye Zhi quickly exchanged glances before finally taking steps to escape. The two GMs, seeing that they had finally moved, quickly turned around, rushed forward to clear the way, and led them to retreat.

"You two think this is very fun, don't you?" K3 sneered. "Or are you acting like heroes here?" His expression suddenly darkened. "Oh, no, that's not right, heroes die, but you'll only be teleported away." The last half of his sentence was completely in a tone of disdain.

"We just want to talk to you." Feng Bujue tilted his head and said to Meng Jingchan, "Right, Chan-ge?"

Meng Jingchan was only now beginning to realize Feng Bujue's cunning...

On the surface, Feng Bujue's plan was for him to obtain the protagonist's halo, compete with the Derivative in an invincible state, and help the GMs with their cleanup work. But in reality, another benefit of this plan was that it could distract the other teammates, allowing this kid to contact the Derivative alone. With the GMs gone, he could try to negotiate. It wouldn't be too late to fight if the negotiations failed, since he had nothing to fear with the halo.

Meng Jingchan wanted to gather information. For him, communicating with words was naturally better than communicating with fists. So he followed Feng Bujue's intention and replied, "That's right, this... Derivative, if you're willing to stop temporarily, and talk to us..."

But K3 interrupted their exchange, "The relationship and position between me and you... is like the lobster in the restaurant's fish tank and the customer who comes in to eat... Is there really a need to say too much?" He emphasized his tone, and an astonishing Qi force suddenly erupted from his body, not only breaking free of Feng Bujue's restraints, but also pushing away Meng Jingchan's sword at the same time. "Do I have an obligation to answer your questions!"

Meng Jingchan was fine, only being pushed back a few steps by a wave of Dou Qi-like energy, but Feng Bujue was right behind K3, taking the brunt of the attack. He was sent flying backwards by the force, crashing into the post of a torii (the large wooden gate in front of a shrine) not far away.

With a crack, Feng Bujue's body actually broke the solid post, which was thick enough for one person to barely wrap their arms around. His Survival Value instantly dropped to 1%, causing [Spirit Consciousness Convergence Technique] to automatically deactivate. Moreover, the torii lost its support due to the broken post and collapsed diagonally, falling directly towards where Meng Jingchan and K3 were standing.

At this time, the moonlight was quite clear, and it was possible to see the surrounding scenery within a certain distance without the aid of lighting equipment. Meng Jingchan clearly saw Feng Bujue spit out a large mouthful of blood in an exaggerated manner. The painful expression on his face indicated that the kid would be lucky if he only passed out. In addition, with the large object being destroyed nearby as a reference, K3's combat power was truly despairing.

A cold sweat broke out on Meng Jingchan's forehead. He thought to himself, *If this kid didn't have the protagonist's halo, he would have been instantly killed just now.*

Of course, he had no time to worry about others. The torii was falling towards them, and he had to get out of the way first. Meng Jingchan, while wary of K3's movements not far in front of him, leaped backwards, arriving at a distance where he could attack or defend (at least he thought he could).

K3 didn't care, watching the other party retreat. Moreover, he had no intention of avoiding the wooden gate falling on his head.

It was estimated that K3 wanted to let the two players around him broaden their horizons, so he deliberately chose not to avoid it. He raised his right hand, pressed his index finger against his thumb, and then flicked his thumb upwards...

*Boom—*

A blast-like effect occurred in a range directly above where K3 was standing. The power of this finger flick spread upwards in a funnel shape, blasting the upper half of the collapsing torii into countless fragments.

"This combat power... is basically a normal-sized Younger Toguro..." Feng Bujue leaned against the broken half of the post, supporting himself to stand up, with a smile still hanging on his lips. "I'm getting more and more curious about how the halo will protect me from dying in the face of such an enemy."

K3 stood coldly, slowly turning his head and looking at Feng Bujue. "Huh? You're not done yet?"

"Heh... I knew I shouldn't have said anything. So you thought I'd be finished by that attack just now." Feng Bujue said.

K3 really thought so, and the reason was very simple. As a Derivative, he observed players on a data level and could roughly calculate the other party's Survival Value range. The move he had just used should have been enough to end Feng Bujue, so he didn't even look in that direction after flicking Feng Bujue away. Who knew that this kid would immediately stand up again and say something. This feeling... was like you using a global, targeted ultimate move on an enemy in the shadows of the map, thinking that the other party would definitely turn into money, but a few seconds later, they reappeared with low health.

"Hmph... Actually, I've already mastered a martial arts masterpiece, the Undying Divine Skill..." Feng Bujue was preparing to imitate Duan Fei (the protagonist in *The Legendary Ranger*), to spout some nonsense and stabilize the situation first.

Unexpectedly, K3 didn't listen to him at all. He raised his right arm flatly, flicked his finger, and launched a flying knife-like wave of air towards Feng Bujue.

*Buzz—*

A sound similar to that of a lightsaber being swung entered Feng Bujue's ears, but he only felt a light breeze brushing past his cheek, without suffering any damage.

"What..." K3 looked puzzled. His logical calculation module told him that the attack just now couldn't have been a miss, but the visual information clearly showed that the player in front of him hadn't made any quick or significant dodging movements.

"What did you do?" K3 seemed to suddenly become interested in Feng Bujue. "Did you distort space? Or did you interfere with my vision?" He asked questions based on common sense.

Feng Bujue gave a nonsensical answer, "I just tilted my head handsomely and dodged your attack that was as slow as standing still."

"Is that so?"

When K3 said "Is," he was still seven or eight meters away from Feng Bujue, but when the word "so" was uttered, he was already in front of Feng Bujue. "Speaking of... the power and speed of your attack earlier did exceed the data limit, at least twice as strong as I expected. It seems you're also not simple..."

*"Nonsense, I activated a skill just now, so it's more than twice as strong."* Feng Bujue thought to himself, but he pretended to be profound and said, "Ah... that's a small matter. It's meaningless to evaluate other people's combat power based on data. Our Earthlings' cultivation methods are different from yours. We can usually hide our Qi, only releasing it completely at the moment of fighting."

*"He shamelessly just said the Dragon Ball setting..."* Meng Jingchan was completely shocked.

Seeing that K3's face was seven parts confusion and three parts curiosity, Feng Bujue continued his efforts, "Don't look at me like this now, I used to be quite reckless too... I once did several years of hellish training on a small island at sea, climbed a flying saucer-shaped tower hundreds of thousands of meters high along a totem, drank a beverage that could stimulate human potential but might be fatal, and even successfully saved the Earth from aliens several times..."

*"Hey... he not only directly copied my catchphrase, but he's also starting to tell strange stories to the AI..."* Meng Jingchan exclaimed, instinctively took out a bottle of beer from his backpack, and took a big gulp to calm himself down.