Chapter 42: Cerberus

"Ask him one last time, is he going to sign the contract of indenture or not!"

The voice of the High Heaven echoed in Dio's ears. The referee automaton scratched its ear and let out an electronic sigh.

"How could he possibly sign it..."

Complaints aside, a working-class robot still had to do its job.

Dio took mincing steps over to Lu Li, repeating the High Heaven's question with a helpless tone.

Lu Li gave the exact answer Dio had anticipated—

No.

Just as Dio was about to report this to the High Heaven and announce the start of the final duel, Lu Li made another request.

At the cost of one ton of refined gold, he asked Dio to buy him ten minutes of time.

Ten minutes later, the final duel would begin.

"Trying to take a breather to recover some stamina?"

Dio guessed in his mind.

Bribed by one ton of refined gold, he tacitly agreed to Lu Li's request.

Although Dio had long since concluded that Lu Li would die in the 100th duel.

And the promised ton of refined gold would never actually make it into his hands.

This did not prevent Dio from making his decision, however.

Because he was also curious—curious about what kind of preparations Lu Li would make to deal with the impending dead end.

To avoid arousing the High Heaven's suspicion, Dio deliberately lingered beside Lu Li, putting on an act as if he were still trying to persuade him.

However, the longer he stayed, the more Dio felt something was amiss.

Lu Li didn't seem to be resting at all; rather, he was utilizing his talent!

Corpse after corpse scattered across the arena rapidly shrank and solidified upon Lu Li's touch, transforming into crystals of pure elemental energy.

There were not only orange tier-three elemental crystals, but yellow and green tier-four and tier-five ones as well!

The final batch of defender corpses, whose levels exceeded Lv.20, even condensed into cyan tier-six elemental crystals!

No wonder Lu Li had specifically instructed him not to clear away the corpses in the arena before the match.

It turned out these bodies could condense into elemental crystals.

But what was the use of that?

Leveling up right before the final match started?

Yet Lu Li had clearly already reached the upper limit for absorbing elemental crystals, and he had to wait at least three days before he could absorb any more!

Why on earth was he collecting so many high-tier elemental crystals?

Under Dio's puzzled gaze, Lu Li piled the elemental crystals in front of him, sat down cross-legged, and picked them up one by one with his right hand to absorb them.

As the brightly colored elemental crystals rapidly turned gray and shattered, Dio's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.

He felt as though his central processing unit was struggling to keep up!

What the hell was going on here?

How could Lu Li bypass the restriction and forcibly absorb elemental crystals?!

"No wait! Having absorbed so many elemental crystals, why hasn't Lu Li's level changed at all?"

"Is it some kind of overdraft-type talent?!"

"This kid actually possesses multiple talents?!!"

An overdraft-type talent allowed a player to temporarily ignore the absorption limit of elemental crystals at the cost of being unable to gain level increases.

However, as long as the experience points exceeded the level cap, free attribute points could still be obtained.

Yet what good was that?

One had to remember the rule restrictions within the arena—

[Once the combat begins, the player's data panel will be temporarily locked, and players are barred from using the panel to allocate four-dimensional attribute points.]

Even if he acquired free attribute points, Lu Li's strength would not increase by even a fraction!

What on earth was he trying to do?!

By now, Dio had completely forgotten his identity as a referee.

He only wanted to know immediately what Lu Li was going to do next.

Having absorbed all the elemental crystals, Lu Li retrieved an item from his pocket and quickly tossed it into his mouth.

Immediately afterwards, under Dio's utterly shocked gaze, he opened his data panel and began allocating points.

"I never expected Huang Bin's useless talent to help me out at a critical moment. Absorbing all those elemental crystals actually gave me 10 free attribute points."

Silently marveling at his fortune, Lu Li poured all of his free attribute points into [Luck].

At this very moment, his base luck value had reached 25.8.

Combined with Alissa's [Goddess of Fortune's Favor], his total luck value had soared to an astonishing 85.8!

"The match can begin now."

Stretching contentedly, Lu Li climbed up from the ground and spoke.

"Y-You... how were you able to violate the rules..."

Dio looked like a rusted machine, the sound of grinding parts emanating from his entire body.

This was the manifestation of his extreme shock.

Terrified that the referee might crash from trying to figure it out, Lu Li hurriedly urged:

"Hurry up and start."

"Uh, right."

Dio nodded in a daze and reported Lu Li's refusal of the indenture contract back to the High Heaven.

"Useless trash, unable to handle even such a trivial matter! Since Lu Li is so unappreciative, let him die then!"

The final duel, begin!

This time, the iron gate of the passageway didn't even have time to open fully before it was melted away by the scorching temperature!

When the final defender stepped onto the arena, the entire audience seating area fell into dead silence!

After a long while, someone spoke with a trembling voice:

"C-Could that monster down there be a Hellhound?"

"It really is a Hellhound... and an adult one at that!"

"How can such a thing exist in the Hub Arena?! Have the administrators gone mad?!!"

"The demonic aura coming off this thing can suppress the vast majority of talents! No matter how strong Lu Li is, his power is bound to be heavily suppressed. How is he even supposed to fight this?!"

"Heh, I knew the arena wouldn't let a newcomer achieve a 100-match win streak. It would've been so much better if I'd followed my own bets. Regretting it now, aren't you..."

"Winning or losing isn't the point right now... The arena can even release a Hellhound; what on earth is wrong with these administrators?"

"Never mind what's wrong with them; the arena itself is strictly neutral, bound entirely by ironclad rules. Even if the administrator were a demon spy, it wouldn't affect us in the slightest."

"That's true, but doesn't that mean Lu Li is dead for sure?"

"Sigh, I suppose he can only blame his bad luck..."

Amidst the sighs and whispers, the final duel commenced.

Looking at the demonic hound in the distance, whose size rivaled a small hill, Lu Li's heart sank to the bottom.

He had not expected the arena administrator to dispatch a genuine demon in order to prevent a hundred-match winning streak!

Although it was only a low-tier demon, it was extremely tricky for Lu Li to handle right now.

Because he had not yet plundered any 'Divine-tier' talent!

The Hellhound's talent, [Domain of Broken Magic], could render any talent lower than its level completely ineffective.

Only 'Divine-tier' talents could crack it.

In other words, if Lu Li wanted to fight the Hellhound right now, he could only rely on items.

Yet up until this point, Lu Li had only ever used his [Blade Arms] and possessed no handy weapons.

"Wait, weapons?"

Lu Li froze, then suddenly remembered that he still had an unclaimed treasure chest.

Just three days ago, when the apocalypse had first descended, he had slain a Mantis Mother Insect, becoming the world's first player to kill a lord-tier creature.

To keep a low profile, however, Lu Li had not made a global announcement immediately and had chosen to postpone the reward.

Later, with so many things happening, he had simply forgotten about it.

With a thought in his mind, Lu Li immediately chose to make the global announcement.

A colorful treasure chest materialized out of thin air and dropped right in front of Lu Li.

At the same time, the Hellhound launched its attack!