Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 6 Bottleneck Period

One month later, you became a planetary gladiator in the Giant Axe Arena and began your first duel.

[After another month and ten life-or-death battles, you have earned the title of Planetary Warrior]

In your forty-seventh battle as a Warrior, you finally succumbed and perished.

[This simulation has ended]

Please select the inheritance direction.

[1. Material Inheritance (Through repeated battles, your life potential was unleashed, successfully breaking through to the third level of the planetary realm)]

[2. Soul Inheritance (Deepened understanding of the essence of wind, moderate increase in combat experience)]

3. Forgo the profits from this simulation.

"Choose 2."

This was another simulation, and apart from slight changes in the recorded numbers, the process and results were largely the same as the previous simulation.

Through the simulation, Hunzhen also understood the true purpose of the Black Oak Company's assassin training camp—to cultivate gladiators.

When the answer was revealed, Hunzhen was not surprised at all.

Given the scale of Black Oak Company, it is at most a force controlled by a cosmic-level powerhouse.

For people at this level, training gladiators is undoubtedly one of the options with high returns and low risks.

As for the company's promise of "freedom to play a thousand games"?

Hunzhen, however, wouldn't believe even a single punctuation mark.

Without a signed agreement in the virtual universe, a mere verbal promise is utterly unreliable.

Hunzhen guessed that the most likely scenario was that he was subjected to a soul enslavement technique by the company's higher-ups when he was about to reach the stage of becoming a Giant Axe Warrior.

If the person about to become a Giant Axe Warrior is at the cosmic or even epochal level, they might be rescued by the Giant Axe Arena.

The actions of Black Oak Company were considered provocative and were therefore eliminated.

But planetary-level beings... there are countless in this boundless universe. Anyone who can be classified as a cosmic citizen is a planetary-level being, and it's impossible to manage them all.

Unless their talent is terrifyingly extraordinary, such as reaching the realm level at the planetary level, they might attract the attention of the five major powers.

The current Hunzhen is clearly not included in this category.

Even if there were sharp-eyed individuals, the Black Oak Company personnel could have easily recognized his talent long ago and transformed him into a soul servant.

This is beyond our control, or rather, no one has the ability to manage the level that Black Oak Company operates at.

After all, they were originally chip slaves, belonging to their personal property.

Even if the Giant Axe Arena recognizes talent, the opponent has already been transformed into a soul slave. A planetary-level Giant Axe warrior with only average aptitude is not worth their concern.

With this design, a highly talented planetary-level giant axe warrior was successfully recruited.

With Black Oak Company's capabilities and assets, creating a powerful, cosmic-level enforcer with a little training would be a piece of cake. Using similar methods, over a long period, they might even be able to acquire soul servants at the domain lord level.

Of course, these are just Hunzhen's guesses. He doesn't know the specifics of how it was done or how it was done in secret, but the general methods and direction of the operation should be pretty much the same.

If ordinary people knew about such a future, they would be filled with despair, unable to see any hope of breaking the deadlock and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

But Hunzhen breathed a sigh of relief.

It took a year to arrive on Black Oak, two years for onboarding training, and now it's already been three years.

According to simulation records, a planetary-level giant axe gladiator fights about once every three days, and it would take at least a year to win a hundred matches and become a "fighting king".

If the Martial King were to arrange more martial arts duels, the frequency would naturally decrease, and ten years would be the shortest time to become a "Giant Axe Warrior" with a thousand consecutive victories.

The Black Oak Company will not use soul enslavement to control them too soon, nor too late.

Each person can only control a limited number of soul servants; the weaker the servant, the fewer the number, which inevitably makes the caster more cautious.

It's impossible not to observe patiently.

Even if someone displays exceptional talent, they might not dare to act prematurely without undergoing a period of practical testing.

As long as there is a buffer period, Hunzhen is not worried.

He will surely be able to detect the opponent's timing in advance.

Moreover, each additional day he gains is equivalent to thousands of times more time to become stronger.

His only worry was that he hadn't broken through to the next level of the domain despite both soul inheritances.

As the level of life evolution and the level of the soul increase, the understanding of laws and evolution will naturally improve, and a great leap will be achieved during the realm lord period.

He cultivated at the planetary level for several years in the simulation, and also had experience in dozens of life-and-death battles with enemies of the same level, which was several times or even more efficient than the apprentice level cultivation.

However, he still couldn't break through to the first level of the domain.

For the first time, he felt so clearly the bottleneck called talent.

He is a genius, but... just an ordinary genius from a planet, among the eighth-rank human bloodlines.

"In the original Earth, even planetary-level councilors who cultivated for decades failed to acquire a domain like Hong and Thor. My talent is probably far inferior to most of those councilors who were only briefly mentioned. Even with better resources, more worthy opponents, and fiercer competition, my improvement efficiency would at best barely catch up to theirs?"

Inside the room, Hunzhen was engaged in deep reflection.

"No, the simulation system is also one of my talents! I, Hunzhen, also possess talents that others cannot match!"

Even after trying to comfort herself like this, Hunzhen still felt somewhat defeated.

Because only you know what kind of person you are.

"No, why should I worry about this? I don't have to cultivate it myself. It doesn't matter."

The latest novel is first published here!

Having thought of this, he stopped reflecting and ceased his cultivation.

"It's set up."

He then pushed open the door and left.

Without any hesitation or attempt to conceal it, he headed straight for the entertainment venue. A bright light flashed quietly in the window of a building two or three hundred meters away from his residence, like a reflection in a mirror.

Hunzhen seemed oblivious to the secret surveillance and began his day's play.

The goal is to experience all the remaining attractions he's most interested in today.

As night deepened, Hunzhen left the renowned "Yekyuuken Cafe" in Night City with an excited expression. Suddenly, the tiles beneath his feet flew up, and the violent explosion shook the area for several meters, blowing open the facade of the Yeyuuken Cafe. Several tourists who had entered laughing and jokingly were cut to pieces by the shards of glass and tiles, screaming and collapsing to the ground.

A second later, the smoke and dust dissipated, but the body that should have been there was nowhere to be seen.

A beam of blue light shot directly from the eaves of the Wild Fist Cafe towards the opposite corner of the street.

Hunzhen stood firmly on top of the street lamp, and a throwing knife flew from his fingertips.

puff--.

As blood splattered, an anxious shout rang out.

"Let's attack together!"

Three figures, each wielding a different weapon, sped towards Hunzhen.

Since it's not a sneak attack, the threat of ordinary firearms is greatly reduced, so it's better to face the enemy head-on.

"Hoo hoo (interjection), instead of running away, you're moving closer to me?"

Hunzhen chuckled, then leaped down from the streetlight, laughing loudly, "Since you're all so eager to die, I'll lend you a hand!"

The three men surrounded him, and as Hunzhen made his declaration with a villainous expression, they were already close by.

They couldn't understand why this guy wasn't running away at this crucial moment, and instead kept saying things that didn't make sense, but they had no reason to let this opportunity slip by!

But then I saw—

Hunzhen reached out with his right hand and held a small knife, identical to the throwing knife he had just shot, as if it were a scalpel.

A slight movement from top to bottom.

The knife seemed to have stirred up a hurricane, causing the three people's attacks to change direction and miss their targets.

Puff, puff, puff.

No one could see when Hunzhen made his move.

Despite being on the defensive, he instantly severed the throats of three assassins.

Amidst the incredulous gazes of his three colleagues, Hunzhen turned and left without even looking at the sight of them falling to the ground.

Even though he was still at the level of artistic conception, he was already completely different from three days ago.

Three days ago, he might have accidentally capsized in a ditch.

But now, the chance of him making a mistake is less than 0.001%.

(End of this chapter)