Chapter 1 The First Thing

The first thing Xiao Tan did was curse. It had almost become an instinct for him. As long as there was a living thing in front of him and his skills were off cooldown, he would think about unleashing one.

Naturally, Qisha, who was fifty meters ahead of Xiao Tan, was the target.

Without any warning, Qisha suddenly felt a tightening in his heart and a heaviness on his shoulders… He immediately opened the game menu warily and found the word 【Curse】 on his status bar.

“Hmm… He didn’t seem to use this move last time we fought…” Qisha pondered. “Is it a new skill he learned recently?” He didn’t know what the effect of this “Curse” was, so he didn’t dare to be careless.

Therefore, Qisha chose to stand still and observe for the time being, wanting to see what concrete effects this curse would have besides psychological pressure.

“What could it be… Weakening one of my stats… Or dealing damage after a certain amount of time…” From Qisha’s perspective, he naturally hoped it was the former. In that case, stalling for time would be the right choice, because a curse that weakened stats couldn’t last for long and would disappear soon. Every second he stretched out, the duration of the curse would decrease by one second.

But at this moment, an unexpected situation occurred on Xiao Tan’s side… It was that last 【Draw a Cross and Curse You】 that had raised his Spiritual Arts specialization to C-grade.

As the saying goes, many grains make a pile, and constant dripping wears away the stone. For several consecutive days, continuously using this Spiritual Arts skill in n number of scripts had finally allowed him to achieve his initial goal.

“Hmm… This is fate…” Xiao Tan also knew very well that it would be very difficult for him to win against Qisha with his own strength. But… now that he had an additional skill that required B+C grade to learn, it was very likely… that he could find an opportunity to win.

“Hmm? Is he going to attack?” Seeing Xiao Tan reach into his bag, Qisha thought that the other party was going to take out some kind of item to attack. He didn’t expect… Xiao Tan to take out a paper book, which looked tattered.

“What’s this… *Guiyuan Mijue* (referring to the version in the film *The Magic Crane*, where the manual itself is a consumable item that can cure all diseases and increase power)?”

Qisha made a very unreliable guess in his mind.

Xiao Tan took out the *Tiandi Ni Zhuan Shen Jue* (Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Art) that looked like a secret manual and checked the learning conditions again: Martial Arts Specialization B, Spiritual Arts Specialization C, Level 30 or above.

Then, he chose to learn it.

Qisha saw clearly that the book in the other party’s hand suddenly disappeared in a flash of white light, and he immediately thought, “Oh? It really is a consumable item? Could it be a skill?” He pondered, “But why learn it in the script… Could it be some kind of special continuous skill that automatically activates after learning and lasts for the entire script?” Obviously, it was impossible for him to guess the exact situation on Xiao Tan’s side…

“Speaking of…” Xiao Tan looked at the icon in the skill bar after learning the skill and muttered, “Although I’ve learned it… what exactly is the effect of this thing…”

Indeed, the effect description of 【Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Art】 was as useless as nonsense – 【Effect: Reverses Heaven and Earth, inverts Qiankun (no cooldown time)】. (Qiankun is a Daoist cosmological term).

“The note is also quite mysterious, what does ‘inverting the nature of interaction between the human body and the outside world’ mean…” Xiao Tan thought. “But… since I’ve already learned it, I might as well try it once first, anyway, it only consumes 2% of my stamina.”

At this moment, Qisha in the distance couldn’t hold back any longer. He thought, “Tch… this inexplicable curse hasn’t disappeared yet… I wonder what this kid is doing over there…” He stared at Xiao Tan. “Hmph… I’m clearly stronger, but a curse has delayed me for so long. If this is the other party’s psychological warfare, then I’ve undoubtedly fallen for it.”

Thinking of this, Qisha couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger. He let out a low shout, “Did you really think I’d keep waiting!” He leapt out, like a tiger released from its cage, moving quickly with every step. His right fist was charged at his waist, ready to strike.

However, at this instant, an astonishing scene appeared…

Although this battle wasn’t shown on the main screen, it was still considered a focal battle, with tens of thousands of viewers. In front of these tens of thousands of viewers, Xiao Tan did something… that perhaps no one in the entire game had ever been able to do.

He flew…

This wasn’t the kind of *yuebu* (moonwalk) that allowed one to walk on air, nor was it a powerful leap from the ground… but a rocket-like ascent straight into the clouds, without any part of his body showing any signs of exertion.

“What the f…” Qisha’s pupils reflected a figure soaring upwards, watching as the other party shot straight towards the sky. He couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, “He’s ascending to immortality…”

…………

Meanwhile, in a meeting room of the Saber League.

“Are you kidding me!” Long Aomin jumped up from his chair, staring straight at the screen on the conference table. He simply couldn’t believe his eyes. “No way…”

The other Saber League members around the table also widened their eyes and complained one after another, “Brother Long… are you sure his strength is below yours…”

…………

On the other side, in the login space of the special invited player Shiva.

“Damn… I was curious to see how Qisha and the guys from Hell Front would fight, but I saw something incredible!” Shiva stood in front of the display screen and said to himself, “If he has this ability… as long as he grabs his opponent and flies rapidly into the high altitude, then lets go…” Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but add, “Hmm… speaking of which, if he enters the Top 100, there’s a chance I’ll encounter him. If he uses this move on me, what should I do… 【Zero-G Contact】 can’t be used on myself…” He was already considering various possible scenarios in the *Die zhi Zhan* (Butterfly War).

…………

Looking back at the meeting room of Hell Front…

“I know you’re listening, I can feel it.” Feng Bujue stood in a corner of the meeting room, full of chuunibyou energy, and muttered, “I understand you, you fear us, you fear change. I don’t know what the future will hold, I don’t know how this will all end, but I know how to begin… I’m going to hang up this phone and let the masses see… the real world. A world without you, a world without rules and boundaries, a world full of infinite possibilities! Where the future goes… is your choice.”

After saying these lines from *The Matrix*, he looked up at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle and hopped in place. “Hmm… why can’t I fly…”

Bei Ling, sitting at the conference table, shook her head and covered her forehead with her hand. “Guild Leader… have some self-respect… although there are no outsiders here…”

“Sigh…” Si Yu sighed deeply, “If this scene had happened half a month ago, I would have broken up with you decisively…”

Feng Bujue remained unmoved. He returned to the conference table with a solemn expression, placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and stared intently at Xiao Tan flying on the screen. “I understand… his existence is the sum of the few remaining inequalities in the entire game program. He is the ultimate form of anomalous code. No matter how hard the system tries, it cannot eliminate him through formulas; it cannot guarantee perfect mathematical precision and harmony…” He took a deep breath. “He… is the salv… aaaaah!”

Si Yu went behind Jue Ge and used both hands to pull the corners of Jue Ge’s mouth and eyes horizontally, twisting his face into a funny grimace.

“Hmm… the guards didn’t come to stop me…” Si Yu mused. “It seems even the system supports my actions…”

“Okay, okay… I won’t say it anymore.” Feng Bujue shrugged.

Si Yu withdrew her hand and casually wiped the saliva from her fingertips on Feng Bujue’s clothes.

“Getting back to the point…” Feng Bujue adjusted his expression, sat down, and said, “Putting aside the possibility that Xiao Tan is the ‘savior,’ this can only be the *Tiandi Ni Zhuan Shen Jue* (Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Art), right?”

Bei Ling said, “We knew that already… Did you really think anyone would believe you after you mumbled a bunch of nonsense?”

…………

In the script, on the wasteland.

At this moment, perhaps only Xiao Tan himself knew that he wasn’t flying… but “falling.”

“So, this is what they call ‘reversing Heaven and Earth, inverting Qiankun’…” Xiao Tan flew upwards at an extremely high speed, and softly muttered, “In simple terms… reversing the effect of gravity on me, right…”

He looked down at the ground, which was getting farther and farther away from him. “Using it again should reverse it back…” He paused for a moment. “What exactly am I doing… This is simply a suicidal skill… Either I’ll fly into the atmosphere and get burned to death, or I’ll fall to the ground and get killed, right…”

Of course, he wasn’t completely without options. He just needed to turn gravity back first, and then when he fell to a height close to the ground, he could turn it twice in a row to eliminate the accumulated momentum. However… this back and forth, besides wasting stamina, didn’t seem to have any other effect.

“Hmm… since I’m already in the sky, how about…” Xiao Tan suddenly had another idea.

If he had bought a secret manual called “Tathagata Palm” from an old beggar for a few coins when he was a child, the thought that would appear in his mind at this moment would be, “I seem to have learned a palm technique that comes from the sky…”

Unfortunately… there was no such setting.

Xiao Tan’s idea was just 【Shadow of Horror Chasing Souls】. He wanted to use the momentum of falling from this high altitude to unleash a special move on Qisha.

Having decided on his tactic, he steeled his heart and used the *Tiandi Ni Zhuan Shen Jue* (Heaven and Earth Reversal Divine Art) again. The reversal of gravity was extremely sudden, but it didn’t cause any harm to Xiao Tan. He was like a ping pong ball bouncing off a paddle, instantly turning back.

A moment later, Qisha, standing on the ground, finally saw Xiao Tan’s figure again.

“I thought this kid was going to fly out of the Earth…” Qisha casually quipped, but a few seconds later, looking at his opponent approaching, his expression changed drastically. “Wait… what is he trying to do… Sky Cross Fist?”