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Chapter 77 - Bending Duel

It was already nighttime so the streets in the Expert District were mostly empty with little to no protection. Just like in Emerald City, one could use abilities and fight anywhere they want as long as they don't get caught by guards.

The light from the street lamps was enough to give them a nice view of each other though. Liu Ye couldn't see his face but from his body alone, Blood Devil looked like an average teenager with short black hair and sharp eyes. Any player with Black Leather Armor and a Bandana looked the same to him.

"Let's make it official, shall we?" Blood Devil suggested as he opened his profile. After a few taps, Liu Ye saw a virtual window appear in front of him. 

[Bending Duel]

[Player Blood Devil offered you a Bending Duel. The duel will complete once one of the players dies. None of the Players will lose their Experience or the Player Bag upon death. The winner of Bending Duel will also avoid gaining a PK Score for their kill.]

[Would you like to accept the duel?] 

Liu Ye only glanced at the details and rejected it on the spot. 

"If you dare to waste my time, you might as well bet everything for it," Liu Ye replied as he gulped down a Medium Mana Potion. "I'm giving you 20 seconds." 

"Tch and I tried to respect you," Blood Devil replied with a frown and hurriedly drank his own potion. He then cracked his boulder into tens of small fragments and added, "No matter how big your HP is, water is still much weaker than earth." 

Swoosh!

His fragments shot out like a machine gun and Liu Ye took him head-on. An Ice Wall blocked the initial onslaught before he sent multiple Water Jets at the target. To his surprise, Blood Devil was as nimble as him and dodged them with his movement alone. 

'Only 100 Mana so he must have invested in Dexterity as well,' Liu Ye thought. If Blood Devil spent his points only on Intelligence and Dexterity, he should also have 14 points boosting his agility.

That didn't change much since one needed to know how to use their agility to their advantage.

Liu Ye launched his own offense and immediately slapped with his Large Water Whips from both sides. Blood Devil stomped in response, prompting up four walls that locked him inside like a turtle.

-5

-5

His whips did almost no damage crushing in the walls but Liu Ye didn't need to destroy them. Blood Devil suddenly punched the walls himself, ripping multiple boulders from the middle that launched at Liu Ye like missiles. 

A creative plan but Liu Ye wasn't lacking in this aspect either. 

Thud! Thud!

-50

-50

The boulders crashed into another Ice Wall and destroyed it into bits but when Blood Devil peeked through the holes to locate him, Liu Ye was nowhere to be seen. 

He was already in the air, jumping inside the locked prison from above with his fingers covered in sharp Ice Claws. Before the Blood Devil could realize what was going on, Liu Ye crashed into him with his weight. 

"Sup?" Liu Ye asked playfully and stabbed all ten Ice Claws into Blood Devil's head. 

-62

-62

-62

-62

-42!

It only took five hits for a one-shot though and Blood Devil turned into pixels. Just as Avi said, fighting players was tricky since one mistake could cause your death. It wasn't even 10 seconds before Blood Devil has fallen in this instance and he wasn't even that bad. 

Liu Ye's experience with Avi upgraded his game tactics so he boosted his jump with an Ice Wall to surprise the nothing expecting turtle. It didn't compare with the catapulting with an Ice Pillar but he could still extend his jump and get inside. 

[Ding! You killed a Player: Blood Devil. You received 2800 Experience and a Player Bag. Due to the difference of 7 levels, you earned 700 less Experience.]

[Ding! You killed another Player outside of the designated Zone. Your PK Score increased to 1.]

"Oh, interesting," Liu Ye commented as he saw the Experience. He thought he would only get a small chunk of Experience due to the difference in their levels but he was wrong.

It seemed like there was a buffer of 5 levels before his experience would lower. Two more levels beyond the buffer cost him 20% of the experience. It still sounded unfair for the lower-ranked players but then he read about his PK Score. 

[PK Score]

[Your PK Score determines how often you kill other Players outside of designated Zones. Once it reaches 5, NPC will find it hard to trust you and once it reaches 10, City Guards won't let you enter any of the cities or use the Teleport Stations. Your PK Score will be lower by one every 10 hours.]

[Current Score: 1]

[Time Left: 09:59:46]

'I guess one can only kill in the Red and Death Zones or else they will get this annoying PK Score,' Liu Ye deducted.

The PK Score didn't entirely discourage players to kill and only restricted them a little bit. Liu Ye could kill two Players every day and his score would remain low so it wasn't that big of a deal.

[Ding! You opened a Player Bag.] 

Liu Ye didn't expect much loot after Blood Devil agreed to fight him so easily but he got pleasantly surprised. Besides a few potions, Liu saw one item but it was the most important one. 

His luck probably took part in it because he found a Black Leather Set sitting quietly in his inventory. He already deposited his own to gift it to Zhenzhen once they met again but now he got another one. 

Liu Ye couldn't help but check the map and ran over to the closest Respawn to meet with the fallen expert. Just as he thought, Blood Devil was cursing under his breath as he walked out of the Respawn wearing only his boxers. 

"You!" Blood Devil called out angrily the moment he saw Liu Ye and admitted, "I hate you but that was good!" 

"You have to train a bit if you want to challenge me," Liu Ye expressed with a shrug. "I want 50 gold for that outfit. Pay up or I will sell it in the market."

He didn't have time to entertain him and was trying to give him a favor by selling it back to him. One couldn't simply buy the Black Leather Set in the store so it was a deal. 

Blood Devil squinted his eyes but he didn't argue and withdrew a bag with gold. "I guess it's a good punishment for being too cocky. Thanks for humbling me." 

Liu Ye checked the bag and it was exactly 50 gold. That was exactly what he expected from a player with a good mentality. Although Blood Devil was mad that he lost, he acknowledged his weaknesses and focused on improving instead of revenge. 

If Blood Devil insulted him out of anger, Liu Ye would simply kill him again with no mercy and leave. 

"Here you go." Liu Ye passed him the outfit and left without wasting any more time. His quest was pending and he didn't plan on losing a level or his fame. 

"I will work hard and challenge you again! Just you wait!" Blood Devil called out, causing Liu Ye to smile. He welcomed such challenges as it let him know how far ahead was he from the other players. 

After a quick pit stop in the store to buy 3 stocks of Medium Mana Potions that cost him 30 gold, he departed straight out of the Capital. The roofs of the houses were mostly flat so he could easily avoid all the players on the streets all the way to the southern gate. 

He had a short thought of testing his luck with the Fire Stone before his mission but it didn't seem to matter much until he mastered all basics abilities from Waterbending. With his new items, it didn't make sense to use Firebending even if he awakened his new element.

Liu Ye found a lot of players on the way to the King Scorpion Lair but he simply walked past them. They were fighting monsters that wouldn't give him any Experience so he left them alone. He didn't plan on bringing a bad reputation to Red Dragon Guild or at least not before it was even created. 

[Ding! You found the Sand Canyon area. The King Scorpion can sense your footsteps, watch out!] 

It took him an hour just to travel to his destination but just as he received his notification, he spotted two players standing in front of the entrance of the Sand Canyon. 

[White Knight Evelyn - Lvl. 18]

[White Knight Brodin - Lvl. 18]

"Hey man, we are currently taking over this area. We would appreciate it if you found another place to farm."