bullyxtreme Chapter 3 : A Familiar Feeling
Chapter 3 : A Familiar Feeling
A Familiar FeelingNo matter how much she refused to admit it, the former Chen Zixuan had already vanished from this world forever.
So, it was better to move on, quickly accept this brand-new identity, and grow stronger in better form, to take revenge on the four high and mighty Angel.
At this moment, great ambition swelled within Chen Zixuan's heart.
It was as if a balloon had reached its limit, bursting from an invisible force—just like breaking through a bottleneck in a wuxia novel. With a barely audible sound, system Miss's voice suddenly echoed in Chen Zixuan's mind.
"System notification: Side quest [Search for the Lost Self] completed. Ten [distributable attribute points] have been awarded to the player's panel. Player [Cecilia], please collect them in a timely manner!"
Was this... fully automated real-name verification?
While guessing at the system's intentions, the silver-haired girl opened her personal panel—sure enough, the number of available attribute points had increased from 2 to 12.
From today on, my name is Cecilia.
Feeling a slight trace of melancholy, she closed the panel. She didn't head to the arena on the east side of the city but instead chose a small alley, making her way to the abandoned building from her memories.
At level 15, the Vampire Prince class would gain access to two incredibly powerful ultimate skills: the level 15 skill [Fearful Bloodshadow], and the level 14 [Sky Fission]. Coincidentally, it was now 9 p.m., and she had enough distributable attribute points; she intended to learn these skills at the abandoned building first.
Otherwise, if she waited until tomorrow, she would have to wait until after 9 p.m. to learn them again.
A few minutes later, Cecilia arrived at the old district. That familiar abandoned building still stood silently beneath the night, its third-floor window glowing weakly yet warmly—a light guiding the way.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the pitch-black doorway, her small figure instantly swallowed up by the darkness.
"Please select the skill you would like to learn."
By the dim candlelight, the black-haired woman with cracks running across her face still wore the same stone-faced expression, speaking without emotion.
Rolling her eyes silently, Cecilia opened the panel for learnable skills, searching for the ones she needed.
She had intended to learn both skills this time, but since [Sky Fission] required [Enhance: Claw (Right)] as a prerequisite, she had to spend an extra skill point learning a generally useless skill.
But she didn't consider learning [Enhance: Claw (Right)] a waste. In the late game, many major skills required this series as prerequisites.
She would have to learn it sooner or later. Now that she'd just obtained ten skill points, she could spare one.
So, let's take a look at the new skills.
Lv.14, [Sky Fission], active skill. Leap high into the air, reveal your mythical creature form, and deal 200 (+1.5 magic) magic damage to all enemies within a 20-meter radius, inflicting fear for 3 seconds.
Mana Cost: 110
Cooldown: 600 seconds
This was a powerful AoE (Area of Effect) skill, plus 3 seconds of crowd control—a godly skill for clearing maps. Though the cooldown was extremely long, spending 2 attribute points to learn it was still worth it.
Lv.15, [Fearful Bloodshadow], active skill. Enter a state of invisibility for 10 seconds, gaining a 20% bonus to attack and agility. Launching an attack will reveal you for 0.5 seconds. During this time, every unit you kill extends the effect by 3 seconds, up to a maximum extension of 15 seconds.
Mana Cost: 90
Cooldown: 240 seconds
Compared to the previous skill, this one felt truly overpowered.
It not only provided substantial stat boosts but also the extremely rare persistent invisibility effect in the game. While not endless, a maximum duration of 25 seconds was enough to turn the tide of any battle.
Having learned her skills, she left the abandoned building. Following the shortcut she'd used previously, she hurried straight for the arena.
With thousands of agility points, the journey of over ten minutes was forcibly shortened to less than five.
When she stopped on a rooftop and looked ahead, she saw a towering, fortress-like building glowing with lights—right in front of the maid-clad girl.
Arena, I'm here!
Although it was already past 9 p.m., the players' enthusiasm remained high. News of the Legendary title had spread to the forum, making tonight's arena especially lively.
Who didn't want to be the most dazzling star on the whole server?
The moment she landed on the street, the girl's unique outfit instantly drew the attention of a swarm of players.
After all, a combination of a maid outfit and white stockings was simply irresistible, and with labels like "Battle Loli,"
"Human-form Boss Guide Girl,"
"National Server's Strongest Carry," and "World's Number One Player,"
Cecilia's fame was expanding steadily across the globe.
Luckily, the lessons she'd learned last time were still fresh. Before the players around her could start getting weird, she quickly activated the brand-new skill she'd just learned, [Fearful Bloodshadow], and then...
————Yo, make way!
Once she entered invisibility, Cecilia dashed away, leaving behind a deafening roar from the crowd.
"She used stealth, chase her!"
"Is there a sharpshooter?! Use an anti-stealth skill!"
"Assassins are so cheap..."
"......."
The ten-second duration was short, but it was just enough—in the final instant, she slipped safely into the arena lobby.
Wasting no time, Cecilia found the NPC in charge of sign-ups. She was about to queue for a ranked match when she suddenly remembered something. Her right hand, poised to press the start button, stopped, and she opened her friends list, sending a message to both Yuewu and Dawn's Light.
[Cecilia: I'm going to play ranked—are you two in the arena?]
A few seconds later, Dawn's Light was the first to reply.
[Dawn's Light: I'm not there, go ahead and play.]
Just as she was about to close the panel, she remembered she still hadn't found a key material for forging her secondary weapon. She messaged Dawn's Light again.
[Cecilia: By the way, can you keep an eye out for where to find Heart of Bloodthirsty Tree?]
[Dawn's Light: OK.]
After closing Dawn's Light's chat, Yuewu's message popped up as well.
[Yuewu: Just finished a match. You go ahead and play, I'll take a break before playing more.]
She also mentioned the Heart of Bloodthirsty Tree to Yuewu, and then, closing her messages, Cecilia entered ranked queue.
"System notification: You've been matched with a worthy opponent. This process will take about 10 seconds."
With nothing better to do, this time she didn't take out the table knife to toy with, instead quietly playing with her twin-tails.
She wondered whether washing girls' hair was troublesome... and how much shampoo they would use...
While struggling with these boring thoughts, ten seconds soon passed, and she finally welcomed her first opponent of the night.
"Cecilia! I'm your fan!"
As soon as she entered the ring, the player opposite her began yelling excitedly. Looking at her hyperactive opponent, she helplessly covered her eyes.
Are all national server players like this?
Whatever... let's finish quickly...
One slash—throat cut!
In the blink of an eye, the ring was cleared. Her previously noisy opponent became just another number, swelling her win count.
Player: No. 0058, wins: 16
.......
Half an hour later, in the throng of the arena solo mode lobby, a dozen or so players huddled in a corner watching a transparent panel with expressions of awe. On it, the record of player [No. 0058] was displayed, drawing exclamations from time to time.
"Damn, another win!"
"Has it even been ten seconds?"
"No wonder she's my Goddess!"
"A 42-win streak tonight, the first legendary assassin on the national server is basically set."
"Again a one-shot kill, can't anyone survive her second strike?"
As soon as this topic came up, the crowd instantly got excited.
"Dawn's Light should stand a chance. After all, he's got the level and equipment; he's the national server's best whale."
"Aren't he and Cecilia acquaintances? I saw the two of them together just yesterday."
"Man, I wish I could... I mean, I wish I could cling to Cecilia's thigh for real."
"I doubt even Dawn's Light could handle Cecilia's strike. Her attack stat's probably already broken 500."
"500? Try 5,000!"
"Forget about it, they're friends anyway. Probably have friend slots, so the system won't match them."
.......
While the crowd debated fiercely, a mage player suddenly said: "Wasn't there another sharpshooter tonight with a 30+ win streak? Another cute girl. How about letting her fight Cecilia?"
"You mean Qinxiao? Forget it, too creepy, not my type."
"But she is pretty strong. I fought her this afternoon—lost an 18-game win streak," a disgruntled assassin said.
"If an assassin can't beat a sharpshooter, better dig a hole and bury yourself."
"Aren't you a swordsman? Swordsmen counter assassins—why don't you go beat Cecilia for me?"
They were all PVP enthusiasts—Player VS Player—referring to player-versus-player combat. Ever since the arena was unlocked with this update, they'd been camping out, grinding for records, analyzing who would snatch the server's first "Legendary" title.
So far, even though less than a day had passed, several players had drawn widespread attention for their terrifying win rates and match counts.
Among these players, in addition to the most popular and talked-about Cecilia, were Yuewu, Dawn's Light, and captains of several other teams—all familiar names to the community.
Apart from them, there were also solo stars, such as Qinxiao, that sharpshooter just mentioned—an unknown but formidable passerby.
While the lobby crowd was still engaged in heated debate, Cecilia was welcoming her next opponent on the ring.
It was a girl with sleek, straight long hair, a quiver strapped to her belt, holding a black longbow.
For some reason, Cecilia felt as if she'd seen this girl somewhere before.