Cheat Awakening

As Myne opened his eyes again, this time he didn't teleport outside the arena to some desolate area miles away. Instead, he appeared directly before the altar with statues of the five monarchs who seemed to have created this cosmic arena.

Beside him stood a two-hundred-meter-tall blood servant, an updated version of the blood babies, who appeared to be in charge of this trial arena.

Just as Myne was about to ask the system to start the battle, the blood servant beside him suddenly fell to its knees and stared at the statues before it, as if receiving some kind of oracle from them.

A few seconds later, it stood up, looked at Myne, and began speaking in an unknown language. Myne obviously had no idea what it was, but thankfully, the system was there to help him with the translation.

[ The Blood Servant has received the will of the monarchs. They have prepared a special trial for the host. If the host wins, you will receive a higher level of blessing from them. ]

"It can't be that simple, right? I don't think I've done anything to gain such special treatment. Tell me, what's the main part you haven't told me?" Myne, who already understood the system's character, didn't let greed affect his mind. He narrowed his eyes with suspicion, already smelling a conspiracy.

[ ...Host has to fight against official gladiators. ]

"I knew it. Those bastards want to see me killed. How can there be a free gift in the world? Refuse them. There's no way I'm going to fight against official gladiators who have received, who knows how many blessings and benefits from the cosmic arena."

"What if he instantly kills me? Don't forget, I'm an intruder here. Once other monarchs realise I'm cheating, who knows what they'll do to punish me? I'm not going to risk my life for momentary benefit," Myne firmly refused the monarch's request. What a joke, this is obviously a blatant trap for him. There's no way, for the sake of that damn merchant's gambling, who called himself Hell Lord, he's going to risk his life."

[ Considering the risk involved in this battle, the great Hell Lord took pity on the Host and increased the reward. If the host wins, he can permanently learn any one of his real-world skills and use them in-game or any other place outside his world.]

"..."

"F*ck! That bastard got my weakness..."

Myne cursed while clenching his fist and falling into deep thought. If he could bring any one of his skills into the game, his life-saving ability and efficiency in clearing dungeons would greatly increase. He would no longer have to play safe or rely on his pets to save his ass.

"Damn it, what should I do?" Myne walked left and right, pondering hard, but he couldn't make a decision. The risk involved in this battle was a bit too much. Although the benefit outweighed the risk, he feared those bastards would again play some trick behind his back.

After all, they could do anything for fun; it wasn't a big deal for them to make him suffer by providing his already powerful opponent a home-field advantage. Just in the second round, if the battle venue hadn't been a goddamn active volcano, could Magmascorch, the small red goblin, still have made waves before him? He could have beaten him to death within a minute.

"F*ck, alright, I'm taking this special trial... Hopefully, I won't regret this."

In the end, under the temptation of a better future, Myne couldn't stop himself from jumping into the trap. For him, who possessed many cheat-like skills, being able to use any one of them in the game was enough to reduce the difficulty for most dungeons by half.

It was truly too difficult for him to let go of such an opportunity. God knew if there would be any reward in those random lottery boxes from which he could bring his skill into the game, so there was no way he could miss this chance.

As his voice fell, the surrounding scenery began to change again. Myne felt a sense of weightlessness. When his feet landed on the ground, he was already standing on rocky terrain with all kinds and sizes of rocks and boulders around him. Many of them looked like sharp spikes growing from the ground; anyone falling on them would definitely not end up well.

The wind whistled for half a heartbeat—then a flash of light flared, and his opponent appeared ten strides away from him.

This time, his opponent looked like a tyrannosaur trimmed to a humanoid shape: three meters tall, chest as broad as a wagon's axle, hide the colour of baked clay and the texture of weathered basalt. Thick cords of muscle writhed beneath each scale, and an iron-hard tail dragged behind, its ridge chipped like a mason's chisel.

Two slitted amber eyes peered from a shelf of bone; they glittered with cunning but squinted, as though distance itself were an enemy. He wore simple leather pants and an open shirt. On his three-fingered hands were what looked like metal gauntlets.

Before the lizardman could finish its first hiss, Myne dashed forward, speed blurring the rocks beneath him.

Myne, even without guidance from his special ability, could already see that his opponent was much stronger than him, so he wanted to start the fight before giving the other party time to react. At least this way, his opponent would have less chance to counterattack with its full power.

He slashed, and his knife screeched along the stone-hard skin of the lizardman, leaving only a thin pink line. His opponent's defence was much more solid than he had expected, which made Myne's expression ugly.

The lizardman, after feeling a slight pain in his waist, counter-attacked by slamming his fist hard on Myne's small body. He wanted to blast his little head like a watermelon, but Myne was thankfully much faster than the lizardman and quickly backed away.

However, the lizardman obviously didn't want to let him go so easily. He scooped up a boulder the size of a carriage wheel and hurled it toward Myne like a ball.

Myne, seeing the massive boulder coming toward him with unbelievable speed, opened his eyes wide and quickly jumped aside. Just then, the boulder passed by Myne at an extremely close distance and smashed through two outcrops and vanished in an avalanche of dust.

"F*ck! How can he be so damn powerful? Are all gladiators this strong?" Myne cursed, looking at the damage his opponent caused with a casual throw of a boulder, in which he didn't seem to have put much effort into.

Just as Myne was complaining, with a whoosh sound, a figure two toward him, and a heavy object struck him.

Wham!

Air boomed as the lizardman's tail blurred past him. Myne rode the wind of it, boots skidding. He flicked his free hand at the lizardman's face, who was ready to punch him.

"Holy Palm Eye!"

A geyser of white light erupted from his palm straight into the lizardman's amber slits. The lizardman covered his eyes instantly and roared loudly like a wounded and irritated beast. With one hand clawing at its scorched vision, he waved the other in front of him to catch Myne, wanting to bite off his head.

But right after blinding the lizardman, Myne had already moved behind him.

He raised his knife and with lightning speed, carved a dozen quick cuts on the backside of the lizardman while avoiding the other party's damn tail.

Blood beaded but did not pour; the hide was too thick to give any deep cut. This made Myne curse five monarchs a few more times. Just then, the lizardman's vision also started recovering, and he had already realised that Myne was behind him.

Snarling, the lizardman first swung his tail to force Myne away, before starting to attack him with his fists. The ground flowed high as with each strike of the lizardman, a small hole appeared on the solid rocky ground, making Myne sweat hard. He wouldn't dare to be careless for a second; just a single hit from his opponent on his poor, small body, and he would be done for.

Just as he was hiding behind a rock to take a breath, he suddenly heard the sound of wind breaking. Myne, without thinking for a second, jumped aside with all his strength. The next moment, the five-meter-tall rock behind him smashed into pieces, and a big rock flew from it, and smashed into another rock some distance away.

"Cough-cough..."

Coughing, Myne fanned away the dust and looked at the lizardman, only to find him smiling, while toying with a big round rock in his palm, and the next moment he threw it at him.

"F*CK!"

Cursing helplessly with tears in his eyes, Myne started fleeing while holding his head. He didn't expect his opponent to be so cunning, and those f*cking monarchs would again play tricks on him and give his opponent his favourable terrain.