Eryke took a big gulp, his eyes narrowing as he stared intently at the system in front of him.
A blue panel hovered before him, filling him with intense curiosity.
[Travel to Another World: 100,000 (Cool down: 1 day)]
"The cool down has decreased by so much?" Eryke couldn't contain his excitement.
He didn't even need to farm anymore. If he could send his clone to every single world, he could rake in a crap ton of destiny points just by using this.
"Is this what cheating feels like?"
The world was an unfair place. From the moment you were born—heck, even before that—your limits were already decided by your genes. Some were born with superior intelligence. Some had the perfect athletic genes and didn't even need training.
Eryke felt like he was at the top of the cheater rankings now.
"Hmm?"
His thoughts shifted to Eryke the Fourth's perspective... (P.S. His second and third had died fighting the monsters and the first is in the Dragon and Telekenitic World.)
A battered and tattered village stretched before him. The huts were broken, and people wore rough, torn clothes as they walked through the streets.
Some of them paused, glancing curiously in his direction before going about their business.
Eryke the Fourth lay on the streets like a beggar, his strange clothes drawing surprised stares from everyone who passed by.
"An ancient world?" he thought filled with curiosity.
Suddenly, he heard a strange "clunking" sound of metal a little further away.
"I wonder what it is?" Eryke the Fourth muttered to himself, walking toward the source. His pupils quivered as he took in the sight.
A gruesome and gory scene unfolded before him. People were being butchered and hung as if displayed for a gruesome showcase. Their agonizing cries were chilling to the heart...
This scream should have chilled the heart of every mortal present, but...
The people walked by without a glance, casual as ever. Even the children snickered and threw rocks at the victims.
"Such cruelty," Eryke the Fourth muttered under his breath.
Eryke the Fourth realized that this was a far darker world than he could have ever imagined.
In that moment, he understood just how cruel this world truly was. The dragon world, with its relatively advanced technology, wasn't this brutal. But here... it was different.
***
Eryke frowned in the real world.
"I should let the clone explore for now. I need a clone to protect myself just in case, so I must level up my talent. For that, I'll need to raid dungeons."
He whistled as he walked through the forest, quickly emerging from it. After searching to his left for a while, he finally found the bushes where he had hidden his precious baby—his secondhand, rusty fifth-gen Chevrolet Camaro.
"I know you're old," Eryke said, his hand gliding smoothly over the car's surface. "But you're the best."
He got in and drove off, a fleeting thought distracting him.
"I need to get my ranking evaluated in a month."
Four days had already passed since Eryke awakened, and there was still plenty of time, but life doesn't wait for anyone—and it certainly doesn't cooperate.
"Today's a joy, tomorrow's bright~
But rain may come, so prepare for a fight~"
Eryke whistled as he drove his trusted rusty fifth-gen Chevrolet Camaro.
Meanwhile, Drayken found himself in trouble.
***
Complete darkness!
A pin-drop silence!
Drayken was here, standing in this lonely place with his eyes closed.
His muscles were tense, and cold sweat dripped down from his forehead.
Suddenly, his small wings tingled, and his body glowed with aura. He rolled on the ground, starlight glittering in his hand as he punched into the darkness.
Bang!
He heard a crunching sound, but that was about it. There was no further sound, and his tense muscles gradually cooled off.
But before he could relax, his ears twitched, and his Draconic instinct flared!
All he heard was a whistling sound before an arrow directly hit his chest.
"Cough!" Drayken violently coughed, golden blood spilling. His veins were being destroyed rapidly.
An arrow that could slice through his Draconic skin, combined with skin fortification!
And a strange energy that was destroying his veins!
Unfortunately, Drayken wasn't given the opportunity to catch his breath as another arrow tore through the air and blew his ears out.
Drayken fell to the ground with a scream, blood gushing from his injured ears.
Another arrow shot from the ceiling, directly at him.
"Man," he hurriedly dodged by a hair's breadth. The arrow landed on the ground, causing cracks to appear.
"This… this…"
He muttered with a bitter heart and then danced like a monkey to dodge all the arrows sent from his right, left, below, and above—everywhere you could imagine.
Drayken was like a chicken, a Draconic chicken, trying to flee everywhere to dodge all the attacks from the arrows, all while his vision grew blurry and his limbs weakened more and more.
"You might be wondering why I'm in such a situation."
It was just yesterday that he had been sitting on a warm bed, resting comfortably while training his mana.
But then Lilia appeared and told him the news that he was going to be selected for the Academy tournament, giving him some time to prepare for it.
Drayken was obviously startled at heart. Now he needed to fight a group of people? He could smell the trouble from a million miles away.
"How do I prepare for it?" he asked.
"Hmm, you want to prepare?"
Lilia gave him the most innocent smile possible, like an angel. But little did Drayken know, he was descending into hell itself!
"How is this supposed to be training!?"