Ethan was seen with 2 Awakened battling 5 Sacred Ant King beasts. The two were at peak-level Awakened, so they maintained their ground with the Sacred Beast.
Ethan, on the other hand, was fast—the Sacred Beasts couldn't keep up. Ethan could have finished the beasts, but he was using them to practice his First Dragon Subduing Palm without using mana, and the force crippled the beasts wildly.
The First Dragon Subduing Palm was complex, almost impossible for anyone to understand. Combined with Ethan's speed, it was like a blur.
One of the Awakened looked at Ethan with surprise. She sensed no mana output from him, yet he was beating the Sacred Beasts to a pulp.
Of course, Ethan's mana remained at 10, but he could have taken a mana potion. Instead, he was trying to sense the mana from the surroundings more.
[ Sacred Beast Ant King Level 9 killed ]
[ 20 exp gained ]
[ Sacred Beast Ant King Level 9 killed ]
[ 20 exp gained ]
[ Sacred Beast Ant King Level 9 killed ]
[ 20 exp gained ]
[ Sacred Beast Ant King Level 9 killed ]
[ 20 exp gained ]
"Ah, much better. Now time to go into hiding again," Ethan said as he turned to a blur.
[ Name: Ethan Sylvester ]
[ Aspect: Space and Time ]
[ Rank: Awakened Level 10 Exp 600/20000 ]
[ Attributes: Strength 80, Agility 68, Stamina 70, Speed 75, Mana 70 ]
By this time, more exterminators poured in with advanced weapons. It took the Awakened about 12 hours before the battlefield finally died down.
Palm View City had now been reduced to rubble. Smoke and fire were still raging. BAFC (Battlefield Cleaners) marched in.
The Awakened just sat on the ground panting. This was their first long battle, so they were pretty beat.
Flying military-grade MVPs moved towards the field as numerous military personnel rounded up the area.
"Eh, what's going on?" someone asked.
"I don't know," a woman who looked 19 shrugged.
"Hey, have you seen that black-masked guy?" someone asked.
"No, but one thing is certain. He helped us defeat most of the Sacred Beasts. I'm grateful," the girl said. Turned out, she was the arrogant girl from earlier. She admired strong men and trained harder every day to surpass them.
Ethan had changed his clothes and smudged himself with blood, also dying his hair with it. Passing the group that were talking about him, he chuckled.
"Attention, Awakened. Everyone has to round up for inspection," the speaker boomed across the city.
Ethan remained calm as he proceeded to the checkpoint. He could have just used space teleportation to get out of here, but he sensed a formidable aura in the air. Although weak, normal Awakened couldn't sense it.
"Eh, you wanna catch me? You have to do better than that," Ethan smiled.
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"Ethan Sylvester, low-rank Awakened." An examiner, about 30 years of age, looked at Ethan's passport and turned his eyes to the beat-up Ethan, smudged with blood and guts.
"The system said you came in late. What happened?" the examiner asked.
"Well, I ran into some trouble at home, sorry," Ethan chuckled.
"Did you sight the guy people here called Blur when you were fighting beasts?" the examiner asked.
"Eh, Blur? I don't know anybody by that name. I don't see who fits that description," Ethan said.
"Blur? What kind of ass name is that… I'll have to take care of that later," Ethan thought, smiling at the examiner.
"Eh, okay, that's it. You can go. You're not looking attractive anyways," the examiner said, covering his nose.
Ethan just passed the gate without saying anything. Bringing out his phone, he decided to call Freddy.
"Hey buddy, how about we go for a toast tonight? All bills on me," Ethan said.
"Hey Ethan, it's been long! How's it going?" Freddy asked.
"Fine buddy, just Awakened. I have super strength now," Ethan lied.
"No way! No wonder you want a toast tonight. Sure man, it's a memorable thing to celebrate," Freddy laughed. Judging by his tone, he was happy.
"Thanks buddy, I'll see you tonight," Ethan said.
"I'm happy for you," Freddy said.
"Yh, I can see that," Ethan replied.
"Who are you talking to?" Ethan heard a familiar voice behind him.
"Eek! Freddy, I'll see you tonight. Bye," Ethan quickly shoved Freddy goodbye.
"Eh, who's there?" Ethan turned as if surprised. He then saw Gloria, and he quickly stood calm.
"Miss Gloria, you're here? Strange, I didn't see you on the battlefield. Were you at the back with your bodyguards?" Ethan asked.
"What—what do you take me for? A newbie?" she almost screamed.
"Well, you just Awakened," Ethan said as he continued to walk forward.
The BAFC squads entered with their hovering special vehicles.
"Eh, I was about to ask you the same thing," she said.
"Well, as you can see, I was in the center of the battlefield, battling with my life." Ethan cleared the blood from his body.
"Have you seen that guy with the black mask they call Blur?" she asked.
"Blur? Who the fuck has that ass-freak name?" Ethan asked, interested.
"Well, people called him that because of the way he moved in the battlefield, especially when he confronted that humanoid beast. I could feel the calm in his eyes," Gloria said, turning pink.
"Eh, are you crushing on him?" Ethan asked jokingly.
"Eh, no way. He's not my type," she said.
Ethan almost choked. After appearing calm, he said, "Well, I guess he wouldn't like you too."
This choked Gloria—did this guy know how many men were begging her for a date?
"Talking about looks, you sure have changed a lot," Gloria said, looking at his fine-tuned muscles and skin.
"Yh, I've been gyming lately," Ethan said.
"Good. I heard you want to go for a toast tonight. You've become a full Awakened. Turns out I just became a fire user myself. Mind if I joined?" she asked.
"Sure, why not. Just don't attract much attention," Ethan said.
Bang!
Gloria hit Ethan's head. "Hmph, arrogant," she said as she turned to leave.
"What a bossy girl," Ethan sighed. "Well, I have to get home quick and change fast."
------------------
10 minutes later, he boarded the train and arrived home. His sister had already arrived home and gone for extra lessons. His mother was still at the restaurant working. By this time, the restaurant was bustling with customers. His mother had also employed workers—all female.
Ethan washed himself and rested in a hot bath. Putting on his headset, he played his favorite music as he swiped his phone up to check the latest events and entered the common market where he could sell his soul cores for a good amount.
Checking the internet, Ethan was shocked to find numerous videos of him dressed in his black mask—all tagged with "Blur" and "Overpowered Awakened." The posts were trending everywhere, and major news outlets were interviewing some Awakened from the battlefield. Ethan clicked one of the interviews.
"You've got to see it yourself! The guy looked underage, so there's no way he's an Ascended. The way he slaughtered the humanoid Sacred Beast was peak. His techniques are so strange, most top-step technique masters don't understand it," a middle-aged guy said to the interviewer.
"So he was given the nickname Blur?" the interviewer asked.
"Yh, the name is OP bro," he said.
On the comment section, Ethan saw numerous people praising "Blur."
> "He saved me from those Sacred Ant King beasts! You've got to see him. I couldn't see his strike." – User Dunkee
"Eh, that name Blur is boring."
"If it weren't for Blur, the humanoid Sacred Beast could have killed the whole Awakened squad."
"I like Blur, he's handsome."
Ethan, seeing this, almost coughed blood. Him? Handsome? He was just a kid… Or so he thought.
"Eh, all this noise, I don't need it. Too much attention most times leads to harm," Ethan said as he switched to the common market app that had over 50 trillion downloads.
Ethan finished downloading it and used the username Emperor Ming (wisdom or intelligence in som culture).
"Now that's more like it," he said.
After that, Ethan went to the soul core market interface. There were the weapons and armor interface, soul core market interface, and the combat technique interface.
When Ethan checked the combat technique interface, he only saw low-level techniques that weren't worth his eyes.
When he went back to the soul core market interface, he tapped on Sell and typed in Void-Eyed Hound Beast (Mutant Level). For some reason, it showed as true, because it had been seen on the marketplace. Placing an order, he tapped x100, and the amount he saw burst his head.
Because of its rarity, one was sold for 300k Ace Coins. All in total: 30 million Ace Coins.
"Damn!" Ethan was amazed as he ended up putting an order for 50. After waiting for some while, he decided to place another order.
Searching Wailing Worm (Mid-Level Sacred Beast), Ethan found no match.
"Fuck," Ethan cursed as he just moved forward.
After 6 hours of waiting, night had already come. Changing to his best clothes, he decided to head to Snow 5-Star Restaurant.