Popularity is everything; I play a super genius

If everyone goes to Phase Two, who's afraid of whom?

Of course, thinking about these things now is of no use.

Saki quickly refocused all his attention on the battle in front of him.

……

Only after seeing this in the live chat did viewers realize that Qi Ji's attack had actually contained a hidden secret.

Immediately, comments featuring his name appeared, jumping in to praise him without any regard for the consequences.

"Holy crap, that's impressive! I thought he was just a stuntman who relied solely on stats in sports!"

"Hilarious! You really think you can achieve an undefeated record just by relying on stats?"

"+1! Hagi's battle IQ has never been bad!"

"That's true, but often the numbers are enough. Why bother thinking so hard?"

……

Because she was provoked, Chiho Kamishiro became slightly serious!

Then, the eight spider spears behind her stretched out slightly.

Then, she lifted herself up, using her four spider spears to support herself on the ground, making her appear exceptionally tall!

Qi Ji naturally dared not be negligent in this regard.

He reached down to his collar and ripped off the tie that had been formed from the Silver Prayer.

Then, he wrapped the Silver Prayer around his right hand and clenched his fist tightly.

The corrosive power stored within the [Silver Prayer] then flowed out.

In an instant, the tie material seemed to melt, turning into a flowing, liquid silver substance that covered his right hand.

In the next instant, a large number of silver-white crystals appeared out of thin air from Qi Ji's fist and half of his arm!

It shimmers in the sunlight, like shards of ice embedded in the skin!

If my sister were here, she would recognize me at a glance.

This is undoubtedly a symptom of "echo erosion".

Sakiji unfolded the first form of [Silver Prayer], the Gauntlet Form—

【Bound Silver Grip】!

Almost at the same time that Saki completed his conceptual armament, Kamishiro Chiho's four spider legs suddenly pushed off the ground, and she instantly disappeared from his sight.

Are we comparing speed?

To date, Saki has never lost to any opponent in terms of speed.

The two figures disappeared into the alley almost simultaneously, and when they reappeared, they had both crashed into the audio equipment store.

Chiho Kamishiro pounced from behind Saki, her four spider spears piercing his neck, head, back, and groin from four different angles.

With the help of the mirror's reflection, Saki caught a glimpse of Chiho Kamishiro in an instant.

Chiho Kamishiro was fast, but he wasn't slow either!

Saki's body twisted at an incredible angle!

Then, he pushed off the ground with his right leg, which propelled his waist and hips!

Twist your waist and hips, which will engage your shoulders and arms!

Equipped with the [Binding Silver Grip], her right fist, enveloped in wind pressure, slammed fiercely towards Chiho Kamishiro.

Facing Saki's powerful punch, Chiho Kamishiro scoffed and did not dodge.

Because it is not needed.

No, we simply don't need it!

The simplest way for a fourth-tier Echoer to win against a third-tier opponent is to use high-tier armor with unreasonable defense to withstand all of the opponent's attacks.

Then, when the opponent attacks with all their might and neglects their defense, they retaliate with even higher-level damage!

A third-tier Echoer cannot damage the armor of a fourth-tier Echoer, but a fourth-tier Echoer can easily break through the armor of a third-tier Echoer with a single blow.

In an attack-on-attack scenario, a Tier 3 Echoer has absolutely no chance of winning!

This is the crushing power of different realms!

However, when Chiho Kamishiro's four spider spears struck Saki, all that was heard was the sound of countless shattered lenses.

In that instant, the mirror-like armor on Qi Ji's body seemed to come alive, and all the mirror lenses surged toward the part that was being attacked.

Several layers of mirror armor instantly stacked up at the four points of force!

The mirror armor burst open layer by layer, and was patched up layer by layer.

With each layer that explodes, the force on the spider spear weakens by one point.

The explosion continued until the seventh floor, when Chiho Kamishiro's four spider spears stopped simultaneously.

"How is this possible?!" Chiho Kamishiro exclaimed in shock.

Her attack, which suppressed her level, even without using Echo, was definitely not something a third-level Echo user could withstand unscathed!

This guy's armor could never possibly have such power!

Absolutely impossible!!!

Seeing the other party's shocked expression, Saki had expected this.

How about it?

My armor set is pretty strong, isn't it?

—It was obtained through a loan!

Loans are the most powerful ability of [Silver Wish]!

[Equivalent Prayer 2: At the cost of "Thousand Faces" being infinitely weakened for the next month, infinitely increase the strength of "Mirror Image" for the next 10 minutes!]

The price paid here still hides a small, ingenious idea from Qi Ji.

At the moment Sakiya initiated the prayer, something occurred to her—

Does the infinite weakness of 【Thousand Faces】 also include the "frequency imprint" left by the sea of ​​consciousness on the 【Thousand Faces】 card?

If so, this price is not a weakening factor for Saki, but rather a strengthening factor!

Because an infinitely weak "frequency imprint" is equivalent to no imprint at all!

This also means that for the next month, Qi Ji will be able to log into the sea of ​​consciousness infinitely without being restricted by the "frequency imprint"!

Unlimited stock!

Just before the academy competition, I'll get two more enhancement fragments and then complete the strongest awakening. It'll be a piece of cake!

Therefore, when Saki took out the loan, he did not hesitate at all!

There was no need to hesitate!

……

Of course, no prayer can be completely detached from reality.

Even if one prays for "infinite strength," this "infinite" strength is ultimately "limited" in the face of the fourth-tier Chiho Kamishiro.

Although Sakishiki withstood Chiho Kamishiro's attack, twenty-eight pieces of his mirror armor shattered instantly.

This is what exists between third- and fourth-order Echoers—

An insurmountable gap!

If you only defend, you will never win!

Saki knew this better than anyone, so he had to attack!

His attack must be able to harm Chiho Kamishiro!

In the instant that Chiho Kamishiro was stunned, Saki's fist slammed into her lower abdomen.

At first, Chiho Kamishiro paid no attention to this, raising her four spider spears again, preparing to launch the next attack...

However, the next moment, she sensed something, and her expression suddenly changed drastically.

"No! Impossible! What did you do?!"

The instant Saki's fist touched her body, Chiho Kamishiro felt a portion of her vital energy vanish into thin air...

Of course, it didn't actually disappear; instead, it turned into silvery-white crystals that precipitated out on Chiho Kamishiro's lower abdomen, beneath her cloak.

Chiho Kamishiro's heart essence did not disappear; it simply changed into another form to accompany her!

Clearly, Chiho Kamishiro was unaware of this.

For a moment, she found it utterly unbelievable.

Although the missing portion of her vital energy was extremely small compared to her vast total amount of vital energy, such a thing was unheard of and should never have happened!

This masked imp's attack was actually able to devour her vital essence?!

Are you kidding me?!

Chiho Kamishiro felt a physiological aversion to the feeling that her heart energy was being devoured!

Therefore, despite possessing a second-stage armor and absolute defense, she surprisingly began to subconsciously dodge Qi Ji's attacks.

On the contrary, it seemed that Saki had become the one with the second-stage armor—

Facing the oncoming spider spears, he neither dodged nor avoided, each strike carried out with the belief of exchanging injury for injury.

Because Saki can see Chiho Kamishiro's status panel at this moment.

Above her head, a line of small words was floating:

【Erosion level: 1%】

This is another special effect of [Silver Prayer] in the [Bound Silver Grip] form—

Absolute damage that ignores defense!

Each successful hit leaves a 1% erosion mark on the target.

Once the erosion reaches 100%, the target will be subjected to irreversible erosion and crystallization!

In other words, what is commonly known as—

Kill!

Ignore health! Ignore defense! Ignore level difference!

Of course, there are also costs involved.

Activating the [Binding Silver Grip] form, the corrosive crystals not only harm the opponent but also Qi Ji himself.

He was losing blood every moment and becoming weaker every moment.

But there's no better way, is there?

Since conventional methods are no longer effective—

Let's take a gamble!

Let's see if Chiho Kamishiro is completely corrupted first, or if Saki herself is the first to succumb to the damage from the [Binding Silver Grip]!

In an instant, shelves collapsed and glass shattered in the audio equipment store!

The two fought from one end of the store to the other, the speakers becoming the accompaniment to their brutal punches.

This fight scene got the viewers' blood pumping:

"Holy crap! This fight! This timing!"

"The production quality of this episode is phenomenal!!!"

"Wait... Hagi is bleeding... If I remember correctly, this is the first time I've seen him bleed, right?"

Yes, the first time.

This was the first time that Saki had ever looked so disheveled in front of the camera.