First Battle

First Battle. Jie Jian now felt power coursing through every inch of his body.

"System, can I test my abilities here? I want to try out my technique."

"Yes, but time will not reset here. If the host has an accident here, there will be no redo. It is recommended that the host conduct experiments during challenges."

Jie Jian's face lit up, and the cursed energy he had been about to circulate stopped at once.

"Had to be you, bro. You're so thoughtful!"

The system's reply remained emotionless, showing no reaction to Jie Jian's praise.

"Would the host like to begin a new challenge?"

"Start, start, start!" Jie Jian waved a hand grandly.

"The twelfth challenge has begun. Good luck, host."

A familiar flash of white light passed before his eyes, and the sensation of weightlessness returned. Jie Jian felt himself taking flight again.

But this time was different from before. He was no longer the same inexperienced nobody!

Looking at the ground a hundred meters below, Jie Jian curled his lips into a disdainful smile.

The next moment, his unique lightning cursed energy activated, arcs of electricity dancing over his body.

A massive amount of lightning cursed energy wrapped around Jie Jian's body, raising his physical defense to an unimaginable level.

At that moment, Jie Jian did not even curl up into an impact-resistant posture.

He simply stood straight in the air, like a Sword of Damocles, plummeting directly toward the ground!

Several seconds later, Jie Jian's body slammed fiercely into the ground.

Centered on his body, a powerful shockwave swept out in all directions.

Beneath Jie Jian's feet, he had smashed out a circular crater several meters wide.

Jie Jian shook out his hair, dusted off the dirt on his body, and spoke to himself with an admiring expression.

"As expected of me. This landing style is seriously top-tier!"

Of course, that was only Jie Jian's own idea of perfection.

If any proper jujutsu sorcerer had been present, they would have criticized his landing method.

Wasn't it just falling from the sky?

Did he really need to waste that much cursed energy?

A trained jujutsu sorcerer could have landed lightly on the ground. Who would make it look like a missile strike like he did?

But none of that had anything to do with Jie Jian.

As a jujutsu sorcerer who had only just started out, he did not understand all those twists and turns.

Save cursed energy?

Cursed energy needed saving?

Wasn't it something that could never be used up anyway?

After basking in his own strength for a while longer, Jie Jian began inspecting his surroundings.

This spawn point was an amusement park. He had never spawned here before.

Eager to test his technique, Jie Jian had no intention of hiding himself as he had before.

He spread his arms wide and shouted boldly.

"Hey, hey, hey! Anyone camping the spawn point? Come out and spar with me!"

Jie Jian's voice echoed through the empty amusement park.

Unfortunately, no one answered his call.

He scratched his head helplessly. "Nobody? That shouldn't be right. How could no one be camping the spawn point?"

Jie Jian's reasoning was not wrong. There were indeed people camping spawn points, just not right now.

Today was only the first day of the Culling Game, and many jujutsu sorcerers were still figuring things out.

Other than a few spawn points, most did not actually have jujutsu sorcerers lying in wait.

Just as Jie Jian thought the amusement park was empty, a shout came from a corner.

"Hey, stop shouting. Other than me, there probably isn't anyone else in this amusement park for now."

Jie Jian's heart leaped with joy, and he looked toward the source of the voice.

He saw a foreigner in a suit standing not far away.

"Huh! A foreigner, too."

Jie Jian's reaction did not upset the foreign man. Or rather, he was already used to receiving extra attention because of his face.

He pointed at himself. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Charles Bernard."

"Charles Bernard?"

Jie Jian muttered the name under his breath, feeling that it sounded familiar.

The next moment, he suddenly remembered.

"Ah! It's you! You're the manga artist Charles Bernard!"

The man before him was none other than Charles Bernard, the modern jujutsu sorcerer who had fought Kinji Hakari in the story!

When the other person called him a "manga artist," a flicker of surprise crossed Charles's face.

"You... you've read the manga I drew?"

Charles knew very well that although he considered himself a manga artist, he had not officially published any manga so far.

Strictly speaking, he did not even qualify as a rookie manga artist yet. He could only be considered a manga enthusiast.

By all rights, this person should not have known about him.

Naturally, Jie Jian could not say that he knew him from the story.

He quickly took several steps forward and came before Charles.

"No, I haven't read your manga, but the words 'manga artist' are written all over your face."

Charles subconsciously touched his face.

"Do I... really look like a manga artist?"

"You don't just look like one. You are a manga artist!"

"Really?!"

Jie Jian's words filled Charles's face with a smile. This was the first time he had received such a high degree of recognition from someone else.

Seeing Charles's delight, Jie Jian hurriedly stated his goal.

"Since we're both here, if you've got nothing else to do, how about we have a spar as jujutsu sorcerers?"

Jie Jian's words pulled Charles out of his manga artist dream. He scratched his head, looking rather troubled.

"A spar? But I don't want to fight people."

Charles was unlike those jujutsu sorcerers who enjoyed fighting everywhere. He had joined the Culling Game only because the rules forced him to.

If possible, he did not want to take part in this battle royale game called the Culling Game.

Unless something unusual happened, Charles did not want to fight anyone.

Especially since the person before him was one of the rare people who recognized him as a manga artist, Charles wanted to fight him even less.

Charles's refusal left Jie Jian a little stiff.

He was not some bastard like Hajime Kashimo, who would rush in and fight people without caring whether they wanted to or not.

At the beginning of the challenge, Jie Jian had decided that he would only fight people who came looking for trouble with him.

If Charles did not want to fight him, Jie Jian really could not just attack him directly.

Jie Jian scratched his head for a long time before asking in confusion.

"Charlie, you only became a jujutsu sorcerer after the Culling Game started, right? Don't you want to try out your technique?"

Jie Jian's words made Charles fall into thought, and he spoke with some difficulty.

"I've thought about it, but I really can't think of any reason to fight you."

Seeing that his words had worked, Jie Jian struck while the iron was hot.

"I just gained my technique too, and I want to find a place to test how effective it is."

"Just consider it fulfilling the wish of one of your future fans. How about sparring with me?"

The word "fans" completely shattered Charles's last line of defense.

"What are you saying? You're already my fan, so what else is there to say? Let's spar!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about, brother! Let's do this!"