Laser Cannon

"Hmm, there's someone within ten kilometers. What a coincidence." Sett saw an enemy marked 9.8 kilometers away on his watch.

Ao Planet had a diameter of twenty thousand kilometers. Even if only half of it was considered safe, the area was still enormous—much larger than Earth's entire surface.

And what luck: he'd run into an enemy after just one day.

"Since fate's brought us together, let's see what you've got." Sett grinned.

He hadn't been satisfied after punching the Star Level exotic beast with a whole pack of monsters to death. Now that someone had shown up nearby, how could he not give them a good show? He'd be letting his audience down otherwise.

"Oh? He's coming my way. Does he think I'm an easy target?" The man nine kilometers from Sett carried a giant axe on his back and looked wild.

He stood two meters tall, and his giant axe was also two meters long.

Anyone who dared enter this competition naturally had confidence in themselves.

"I've just grasped a sliver of the Law of Metal. It's only a tiny bit, but it's nearly doubled the power of my axe." The man with the giant axe had recently comprehended a domain, and had signed up for the Golden Giant Axe Warrior competition without hesitation.

The man carrying the giant axe smiled confidently.

Anyone who could grasp even a trace of a law at the Planetary Level was a genius.

When he'd entered the Giant Axe Warrior competition, he'd only just grasped a domain. Some of his early opponents hadn't even had one.

That had made him very confident in his own strength. Even though the others were Giant Axe Warriors, he'd made obvious progress since joining their ranks, and naturally believed in himself.

The two were only nine kilometers apart. At their level, they'd meet in the blink of an eye.

Sett sized up the burly man with the giant axe. He stood two meters tall and was covered in muscle; with that enormous axe, he had an imposing presence.

"Hmph! You can call me Axe Emperor. You're going to die anyway, so I'll let you know my name. At least you'll know who killed you!" the burly man, who called himself Axe Emperor, said first.

His voice boomed like rolling thunder, exploding beside Sett's ears.

"Can you keep it down? You're deafening me. And Axe Emperor? You think someone like you can call himself that?" Sett wasn't about to back down. He infused his voice with a trace of the mysteries of the laws, making it even louder than Axe Emperor's. It exploded beside Axe Emperor's ears.

After all, the strongest member of the Human Race was only called Giant Axe. Sett was quite displeased that this man had gone and called himself Axe Emperor.

The man's booming voice made even Axe Emperor press his hands over his ears. It didn't help, but his instincts made him cover them anyway.

"So you've grasped a trace of the Origin Law. No wonder you dared charge over here to die. But don't tell me you think you're the only one who can comprehend a law!" Axe Emperor said as he straightened up.

"Sky Opener!" The giant finished speaking, grabbed the giant axe from his back, and swung it through the air.

The blow was blindingly fast, like a flash of lightning. It cut through the air, leaving behind a mark and forming a ten-meter streak of light that shot toward Sett.

The streak carried astonishing force, as if it could cleave apart anything in the world.

"Hahaha! I just came up with that move. It's infused with my Law of Metal, so watch out—don't get chopped in half!" Axe Emperor shouted.

The streak of light reached Sett in an instant. "Hmph! Pathetic trick." Sett snorted, his hand glowing with golden light.

With his two domains controlling the space around him, Sett struck directly at the devastating streak of light.

Bam! Bam!

The two simple punches contained astonishing force. Like the charge of an ancient behemoth, they shattered the streak of light.

"That's all you've got?" Sett said coldly as he landed.

Haymaker!

Sett didn't waste time. He unleashed his Innate Secret Technique.

Enhanced by the Law of Metal, his enormous fist erupted with dazzling golden light. Like a star, it crashed toward Axe Emperor.

"What is that?" Axe Emperor's eyes narrowed. Seeing the enormous fist rushing toward him was like looking at the most dangerous thing in the world.

"Earth Splitter!" He didn't hesitate. He immediately unleashed his most powerful secret technique to counter it. Otherwise, he'd have almost no chance of surviving if that enormous fist hit him.

A streak of light, even larger than the first, surged forward.

The earth split with a rumble, a deep fissure carved into it by Axe Emperor's attack.

Rumble!

The fist's afterimage collided with the light cleaved out by the axe, setting off a violent explosion and blasting a crater into the ground.

The center of the blast blazed like a supernova.

"Damn, coming here was worth it. Look at those two—they've both grasped the secret of the Law of Metal."

"Impressive. They're only Planetary Level, but already this strong. With proper training, they could both become World Lords."

World Lords had long lives and immense strength. Destroying a planet was effortless for them.

Becoming a World Lord could earn you an entire star system and make you a powerful figure.

Every major realm in the universe was a huge threshold to cross. Anyone who became a World Lord was a genius.

For a Planetary Level fighter, becoming a World Lord was still a long way off. That was why the man had said they could make it with proper training.

"Right. Anyone who can comprehend laws at the Planetary Level has a real talent for understanding them. As long as they keep at it and get enough experience, they'll make it."

The two people watching from the spaceship came from a holy land in a mid-level Universe Country. Profound Law Marks adorned their foreheads, marking them as World Lords recognized by the Origin Law.

World Lords were powerful, but those recognized by the Origin Law were the most formidable among them.

Both men were exceptionally powerful even by World Lord standards. They had founded their own organizations, which ranked among the eight greatest powers in their Universe Country.

Naturally, when they saw a genius, they wondered if they could recruit him, train him into a powerhouse, and have him repay their investment.

"What a pity. With talent like theirs, they could've joined my organization and been trained as its top genius, but instead they entered a competition this bloody and brutal." One of them clicked his tongue.

"Haha, aren't we the sort of people who enjoy watching this? And they're only Planetary Level. They still have a long road ahead of them, and they might die in the universe at any moment. There's no point feeling sorry for them," the other man consoled him.

"True. They're only Planetary Level. Let's keep watching and see which of them survives."

"Hahaha, that was great! Again!" Sett saw that the enemy's secret technique had matched his Innate Secret Technique, and his fighting spirit surged. He was ready to have a proper fight with Axe Emperor.

Pummel!

Golden light surged from Sett's hand as he charged forward like lightning.

"Damn, this guy's crazy! He's charging into close combat without a weapon. Isn't he afraid of my axe?" Axe Emperor was startled. He hadn't expected Sett to rush him bare-handed.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The two clashed at high speed. Both had grasped the Law of Metal.

Metal was unyielding and fierce, carrying enormous force.

Anyone who didn't know better would've thought two Star Level powerhouses were fighting. Even the shock waves from their battle could easily kill an ordinary Planetary Level Martial Artist.

"Now this is fun!" Sett's fighting spirit soared, and he grew stronger with every exchange.

"I can't hold out much longer!" Axe Emperor grew frantic as he watched Sett grow more and more aggressive.

When you couldn't win, you ran. The two-meter-tall giant threw everything he had into forcing Sett back, then turned and fled.

Axe Emperor became a streak of light and sped away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sett hadn't expected the seemingly straightforward giant to turn and run in an instant. He immediately gave chase.

Obviously, there was no sense in stupidly continuing a fight you couldn't win. As long as you lived, there was always hope. Running for your life came first.

"Damn, how's he so fast? I can't catch him." Sett chased for a while, realized he couldn't keep up, and stopped rather than waste his strength.

The giant axe shot over a thousand kilometers in one breath before landing in a forest, where he hid.

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"Good thing I learned Streamer, a secret technique that lets me boost my speed by fifty percent for a short time. Otherwise, that kid would've beaten me to death." Axe Emperor panted.

Though he spent most of his time studying the giant axe, he'd made sure to learn an escape technique.

This time, he'd used the Streamer technique against Sett and escaped danger. He'd been lucky to save his life.

"That freak—good thing he wasn't fast, or I'd be dead. I let my guard down. Anyone who becomes a Giant Axe Warrior must have something going for them. I can't be so stupid next time." Axe Emperor was still shaken as he thought back on the fight.

In their brief exchange, the two had traded hundreds of blows. Sett had no weapon, yet every punch carried tremendous force, as though he were wielding a pair of sledgehammers to pound Axe Emperor.

His fists glowed gold, and with his powerful domain, he'd driven Axe Emperor back step by step.

Axe Emperor had thought close combat would give him the advantage, only to be beaten into fleeing by Sett's fists.

"I'd better recover. That freak's punches feel like getting rammed by a beast." Axe Emperor hid in the forest and took the chance to recover.

Sett had landed two punches during their fight, badly affecting Axe Emperor's strength. That was why he'd decided to run.

"Man, I wish I'd learned a secret technique like that. Now I can only watch the enemy escape. So annoying," Sett thought.

He'd always fought in arenas before. A ten-kilometer arena sounded enormous, but it was only a second's flight at full speed.

Naturally, running away had been difficult, and no one usually tried.

That had made Sett forget about movement techniques and the like, letting Axe Emperor get away.

"If I were Star Level, I could just use Facebreaker to grab him and bring him back," Sett thought of his Star Level Innate Secret Technique.

Who could've imagined that an ordinary human would be awarded four Innate Secret Techniques? The only downside was that he could only obtain one with each major breakthrough.

Still, Pummel and Haymaker were already powerful. They'd left Sett eager to get his hands on the other two.

"Once I win the Golden Giant Axe Warrior title, I'll be able to reach Star Level." Sett had been stuck at the Planetary Level for more than four years. He was growing tired of it and longed to reach Star Level soon.

"Forget it. I'll head to the safe zone first. It's only a thousand kilometers away; I'll be there soon." Sett shook his head, clearing away his stray thoughts.

Following the zones marked on his watch, he found that the first safe zone wasn't much smaller. Half of Ao Planet was still left.

After flying quickly into the safe zone, he saw no one else marked on his watch.

There were so few people spread across the entire planet. It was only natural that running into someone wouldn't be easy.

After entering the safe zone, Sett moved a little closer to the center so he wouldn't have as far to travel next time.

"Hmm, the safe zone's shrinking. I wonder when the next one will appear." Sett watched as the areas outside the safe zone gradually turned red on his watch. The red indicated that the Giant Axe Arena would kill anyone in that zone.

"Quick, quick, quick! The red zone's about to catch up!" On the other side of the planet, a Giant Axe Warrior flew as fast as he could.

He was traveling at ten kilometers per second, which was incredibly fast. But the safe zone was too far away. As it shrank, the red area quickly caught up. Seeing it about to engulf him, he grew frantic.

His eyes had turned red, betraying how desperately he wanted to live.

He'd always thought death was nothing to fear, but when the Grim Reaper really came for him, he realized just how badly he wanted to live.

"I should've gone straight to the safe zone. Why did I bother with those exotic beasts?" That was all the man could think before he died.

No matter how frantic he got, he couldn't move much faster. Soon, the red zone swallowed him up. A spaceship hovering in orbit had already locked onto him.

This was the Giant Axe Arena's weapon. It used numerous spaceships to cover the planet, and any contestant outside the safe zone was immediately targeted with a C9-Level Laser Cannon.

The C9-Level Laser Cannon was devastatingly powerful. It could even kill a Level Nine Universe Level fighter outright.

The Giant Axe Warriors, who were only Level Nine Planetary Level, didn't stand a chance. On top of that, the Giant Axe Arena restricted the contestants' equipment, so none of them had defensive gear capable of withstanding a C9-Level Laser Cannon.

"Fire!" The moment the red zone engulfed the man, the spaceship that had already locked onto him received the order to fire.

"Roger. Firing!" A Giant Axe Arena staff member pressed the launch button.

A dazzling beam of light emerged from the spaceship, ten meters in diameter, and shot toward the planet.

The spaceship had to be enormous to fire a C9-Level Laser Cannon.

Like a cannon firing at a mosquito, the enormous laser beam struck the contestant and vaporized him instantly, leaving not a trace behind.

A crater over a thousand meters deep was left in the ground, blasted by the laser cannon.

"Tsk, tsk. The Giant Axe Arena came up with this? They're using a C9-Level laser cannon against a little Planetary Level fighter. What a waste. A B9-Level one would've been enough," said one of the people aboard a spectator's spaceship, clicking his tongue at the beam of light.

"Haha, dying to a C9-Level Laser Cannon is an honor. Even a Level Nine Universe Level powerhouse could be killed if he let his guard down," the other man agreed.

As wealthy men, they had no time to cultivate. Simply spending money on all kinds of rare treasures was enough to give them considerable strength.

They had little interest in cultivation, but they loved competitions this thrilling. Seeing a Giant Axe Warrior get blown away by a single shot was satisfying.

What was the point of watching if it wasn't exciting? As long as it was thrilling enough to make your eyes pop, that was all that mattered.

The warrior who'd been shot dead had encountered a large pack of exotic beasts two days earlier, just after landing.

He'd spent a long time fighting them, and only after finally killing them all did he realize he'd been unlucky enough to end up over ten thousand kilometers from the safe zone.

But the fight with the pack had gone on too long. He'd had chances to leave earlier, but the exotic beasts had enraged him, and he'd wasted a great deal of time killing them all.

He'd failed to reach the safe zone and was killed by the laser cannon. The Giant Axe Arena used this method to make the danger zone live up to its name: if you were in it, you were dead. It couldn't get much more dangerous than that.

"Hm, what's that?" Sett saw an enormous beam of light tear across the sky before striking the ground in the distance.

"Judging by where it landed, that's the danger zone. Could that be the Giant Axe Arena's weapon?" Sett wondered, thinking of how bright the streak had looked against the night sky.

Once the first safe zone had finished shrinking, his watch marked the location of the next one.

"Looks like the safe zone's been cut in half again. We only have two days to move. Hmm, it's three thousand kilometers away. That's a bit far." Sett checked the watch.

The safe zones didn't simply reappear in the very center. They appeared randomly within the designated area, so no one could predict where the next one would be.

That meant there was no way to simply run to the center and hide.

"Time to move. It's nighttime, so it'll be easier to travel." Sett didn't hesitate and hurried toward the safe zone.

Two days wasn't very long, and he still had to travel three thousand kilometers. If anything unexpected happened, he wanted time to spare.

"Man, this is so boring at the start. Only a few people have died in two days, and two of them got eaten by exotic beasts. What a drag. I'm so bored I'm nodding off. I'll go sleep for ten days and come back when the safe zone shrinks." A spectator aboard a spaceship yawned repeatedly.

There was no helping it. The place was simply too vast. They were lucky to see a few fights. Sometimes, no one fought for days on end.

Meanwhile, the Giant Axe Warriors, dashing all over the place, frequently ran into exotic beasts.

They could fly through the air, but so could the beasts. Some bird-like exotic beasts were especially good fliers, and not only were they fast, they were even stronger in the air.

"Those damn birds think I'm an easy target, don't they?" Sett had already run into several groups of bird-like monsters along the way.

Some traveled alone, while others flew in flocks.

Luckily, these exotic beasts were only Planetary Level. Sett blasted them to death with Haymaker, and they landed on the ground as food for other beasts.

Haymaker!

Sett threw a golden fist-shaped afterimage at the giant bird-like beast behind him.

The beast had four wings and had reached Star Level. It was one of the rulers of the skies on this planet.

Despite its enormous body, which was over twenty meters long, it was astonishingly agile in the air.

But Sett's Haymaker was too fast. The beast couldn't react at all. It was hit in an instant.

Rumble!

The beast died on the spot. Its enormous corpse slid through the air for a short distance before crashing to the ground.

As far as Sett was concerned, those bird-like beasts were an incredible nuisance. If they hadn't been in his way, he'd have reached the safe zone long ago.

At last, just before dawn, he made it into the second safe zone. After a brief rest, he recovered some of his Origin Force and mental energy.

He had to stay in top condition on this planet.

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