All-Round Tower King

There was a fundamental difference between reaching the three-hundredth floor once and being able to stay there.

Teacher Gu, the head of security, and his four teammates were clearly far stronger than ordinary guards.

Even the Mirror members who charged in from every direction, striking to draw blood, couldn't last more than a few moves against the five of them. One after another, they were hit in the chest and abdomen, spat blood, and collapsed.

After two rounds, Teacher Gu had enough strength to help defend the other directions, rescuing his struggling companions who weren't strong enough to reach the three-hundredth floor.

But the Mirror members were numerous. Apart from the twenty Wang Wen had taken out with his powerful move, there were still over a hundred.

By comparison, the guards, who numbered just over forty, seemed woefully few.

What was more, most of them were individually weaker than the Mirror members.

Teacher Gu could take down four or five Mirrors in minutes, but when he looked back, even more of his own people had fallen in the same amount of time.

Some of the enemy didn't care who got caught in the attack. They used a World Tower area-damage item, crushing both sides into bloody pulp.

The number of guards dwindled rapidly in a matter of seconds.

One of the weakest lines of defense had already been breached. An ordinary teacher was dragged out of the protective circle, his throat slit as he struggled helplessly.

The students in the cafeteria, who had been watching for fun, were all stunned.

Living in their ivory tower, they had never imagined they might one day come so close to death.

Some of the girls in the crowd called the Regional Security Department in tears, begging for help.

But when the department heard that the attackers were the Mirror members of Tiansheng Group, they hemmed and hawed, saying they had to report to their superiors before they could make a decision.

The students hung up and called their families for help instead.

This time, they got a response. As soon as their parents learned their children were in danger, they rushed over without a second thought.

Unfortunately, help from afar couldn't arrive in time.

In the meantime, another section of the guards' protective circle was breached. The Mirror members charged into the crowd, their faces shifting between twisted excitement and cold, blank stares as they slaughtered indiscriminately.

Then Teacher Gu rushed over, snapped their necks, and tossed them outside the circle.

Seeing this, Wang Wen's forehead was slick with sweat.

His body was under enormous strain. After using his mental power repeatedly throughout the day, his brain had reached its limit.

He was no longer the World Tower champion who had once dominated the world, unrivaled beneath the heavens.

In his previous life, he had started with a huge advantage. After graduating safely from the Academy, he had joined the First Consortium.

Under the First Consortium's protection, he could grow in peace, free from outside interference.

Without the First Consortium to protect him in this life, he had finally seen how fragile the lives of those at the bottom could be.

Even a place like the Academy meant nothing to the major consortia. Could they really kill people whenever they pleased?

Wang Wen's fingers trembled. He frowned and asked the man across from him, "You've gone this far. Aren't you worried about the consequences at all?"

Shen Rushuang didn't answer. He was busy examining the first Mirror members to fall, his voice full of admiration. "A master of mental power? I never would've imagined it. Everyone underestimated you, Wang Wen. You've given me a tremendous surprise."

Wang Wen panted a few times and felt a little better. He said, "Tell your people to stop. Whatever you want, I'll agree to it."

"Too late." Shen Rushuang hauled up a Mirror member who had taken the impact head-on but was still alive, then smiled at Wang Wen. "They can kill Tower Climbers who've reached the two-hundredth floor or so at most. Once someone reaches the three-hundredth floor, they can wound them, but not kill them. Good thing I didn't give you time. Otherwise, you'd have been a real problem."

"Whoosh!" Wang Wen had only been talking to buy time to recover. The moment his body felt a little better, he attacked.

A visible horizontal shockwave, shaped like a tornado, slammed straight into Shen Rushuang.

Shen Rushuang casually lifted the half-dead Mirror member to shield himself. The shockwave drove him out of the corridor and sent him crashing onto the sports field.

When the shockwave passed, Shen Rushuang stood up from the sandy ground in tattered clothes. He casually tossed away the mangled human shield and smiled at Wang Wen. "I'm fine. Give me another."

This time, blood seeped not only from Wang Wen's nose but from the corners of his eyes as well.

He bent over with his hands braced on his knees, his head throbbing as he swayed unsteadily, barely able to stand.

A nearby Mirror member saw his chance and eagerly swung a blade-hand down at Wang Wen's head.

"Bang!"

A wisp of blue smoke drifted by.

The Mirror member staggered and touched his shot abdomen, then sneered. "A gun? You think so little of me..."

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"

Before he could finish speaking, gunshots rang out one after another. Wang Wen unhesitatingly emptied the entire magazine into his body.

What was terrifying was that the man dodged only the bullets aimed at his head. He ignored all the rest.

He let the bullets punch through his body. Even with one heading for his heart, he stubbornly struck out with his blade-hand, clearly intent on trading his life for Wang Wen's.

Wang Wen sighed inwardly. No wonder the Guard Department was so frustrated. Small-caliber firearms were practically useless against Tower Climbers.

Unless a single shot could smash a body to pieces, at this range even a cleaver would work better.

He raised his silver pistol to block the incoming blade-hand.

Even after using his technique to deflect the force, his wrist still tingled with pain.

There was quite a gap between their physical abilities.

Rather than retreat, Wang Wen surged forward, driving into his opponent's centerline. He lifted his wrist, struck beneath the arm, and locked onto the waist with a Sky-Piercing Cannon.

A series of continuous attacks, delivered at tricky angles and with pinpoint accuracy, left the Mirror member gasping and numb through half his body. As the man's guard opened and his footing faltered, Wang Wen slipped into his embrace and finished with a fierce, precise Mountain-Crushing Lean.

The man rolled all the way across the sports field's sandy ground and stopped at Shen Rushuang's feet. He opened his mouth but made no sound, only spitting blood and foam. Before long, he lay still.

Shen Rushuang glanced at the corpse by his feet. At last, he couldn't keep smiling. He licked his lips with a vicious look and said, "Not just a master of mental power, but a master of combat, too? With skills like that, it's hard to believe you're not a Tower Climber!"

Wang Wen looked at him and calmly reloaded his pistol.

Then he raised the gun, took aim, and pulled the trigger in one smooth motion.

The bullet tore through the air and shot toward Shen Rushang's nostril. He easily dodged it with a tilt of his head.

"Using a gun to bully Mirrors on the two-hundredth or three-hundredth floor is one thing," Shen Rushang barked. "Do you even know what floor I'm on?"

Before he could finish speaking,

the bullet he had already dodged suddenly exploded beside his ear.

A strange cloud of yellow mist burst outward and enveloped his head.

Shen Rushang's expression changed. He hurriedly ducked, lowering himself to avoid being covered by the mist.

The moment he dropped down,

several long, thin steel needles suddenly sprang from the corpse at his feet, shooting straight toward his neck.

Shen Rushang was horrified. His reaction speed was astonishing; he thrust out his rear and swiped several times, managing to catch every single needle.

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, tiny needles shot sideways from the steel needles' centers, forming crosses. In an instant, they left his palm drenched in blood.

Gritting his teeth, Shen Rushang pulled the needles from his palm, then moved well away from the corpses. He stood in front of Wang Wen and glared at him. "A master of Mechanism Art? Seeing you like this, I'm in no hurry to kill you anymore! Show me everything you've got. Make this trip worth the trouble!"

Wang Wen looked at his palm and gently shook his head. "That's not all. I'm also a master of poison."

Shen Rushang abruptly looked down at his palm. A patch of blue-black was spreading rapidly.

He let out a pained howl, then waved his seemingly empty hand at Wang Wen.

Wang Wen's ears twitched. He gently leaned aside several times, and behind him, not far away, brilliant flames burst into bloom one after another.

"Also," he said softly, looking at Shen Rushang, "let me tell you a secret. I'm pretty good at Scientific Deciphering, too."

By now, Shen Rushang could no longer stand. He clutched his arm and slumped to the ground. As Wang Wen approached, he struggled to ask, "Who... are you?"

"Mechanism Art, mental power, combat, poison, Scientific Deciphering." Wang Wen stopped in front of Shen Rushang and looked down at him. "I don't know what you call it here. Where I come from, people like me have a rather unpleasant name: the All-Round Tower King."

"Boom!"

The ground beneath Shen Rushang caved in amid an earthquake-like collapse, as if some transparent prehistoric beast had stomped down with all its might.