MIGHT AS WELL BE OP-Chapter 969: Different
Anthony arrived at the sky where the spectators were sitting, Kingsley coming to a stop right behind him as they had both basically arrived at the same time.
"What’s with the stares and the look?" Anthony spoke as he stared back at everyone with his sky-blue eyes. "I know I’m handsome and tall, but I’m not into men," he added with a smile as his narcissistic side seemed to kick in, his tone light and deliberately exaggerated, clearly attempting to shatter the thick tension that still lingered in the air after the previous exchange.
Everyone casually ignored the last comment he made as none of them looked at him in such a light, and all the more he was merely joking around to lighten the mood.
"I’ve said this before and I will say it again, you seem way too knowledgeable for someone who came from such a low-level planet, how did you even acquire such knowledge?" Aaaninja asked as he was indeed genuinely curious. As someone who had spent a significant portion of his life reading the books within his family library, absorbing countless records, histories, and forbidden texts, he had never once heard of the lore Anthony had spoken about, nor anything even remotely similar to the depth of information he casually displayed.
Anthony’s sky-blue eyes shifted toward Aaaninja as he was about to lie that he had acquired the knowledge from an ancient civilization ruin, but on second thought, why should he lie, and more importantly, why should he even reply to Aaaninja’s question at all when explanations were unnecessary burdens that only complicated matters further.
"I’m Null Anthony, there is nothing more or less to it," he stated as he sat with a calm expression, crossing one leg over the other with a relaxed smile on his face, as though that answer alone was sufficient and required no elaboration, his presence radiating an unfathomable certainty that discouraged further probing.
Kingsley didn’t speak, he simply sat down on his floating seat, and the moment he did, congratulations flooded in from every direction, after all, he had achieved two consecutive breakthroughs in such a short span of time, and anyone with eyes could understand how ridiculous such progress was, something that would normally take years had been compressed into minutes.
Anthony sat with a faint smile as Lucian and the rest started to ask him if he could awaken the Martial Rhythm for them, hence saving them the time and the effort, their voices half-joking yet half-serious, but Anthony only shook his head.
Yes, he could achieve what they wanted with little difficulty, but he wouldn’t grant them their request even if they paid for it. If he did, then the gift he had given to Kingsley might as well become meaningless, and he had no intention of cheapening something that precious.
Lucian couldn’t help but click his tongue in frustration, because if this were a normal setting, he would have simply copied the Martial Rhythm with his Absolute Copy without hesitation, but everyone here was an anomaly that defied logic and common rules, which meant his ability might as well be unreliable, so he might as well just give up.
He sighed at the thought, because whenever he met this group of people, his so-called Absolute Copy didn’t seem so absolute anymore, and that fact irritated him more than he cared to admit.
Anthony’s sky-blue eyes shifted toward Klaus, who sat with the calmness and demeanor of an Emperor, his leg crossed over the other, his eyes closed as though he were in an extremely focused state. He didn’t make any comment or say anything, which was usually unlike him, as he always had some remark after every spar, whether praise, criticism, or dry humor.
Amara, who knew her husband well, simply stared at him for a moment then shook her head as she knew this husband of hers was up to no good, because that particular silence of his always meant that he was either scheming or on the verge of doing something absurdly outrageous. A few seconds passed, and Klaus’s eyes opened ever so slowly as his black pupils graced reality once more, steady and unreadable.
He raised a hand, and the next moment, it came, the same colorless glow that Anthony had shown the crowd for the first time and had taught Kingsley by pushing him toward death’s door, a faint yet unmistakable radiance that seemed devoid of energy yet filled with indescribable presence.
Klaus, a man more mysterious than anything else in creation, had seemingly grasped it by simply listening, watching, and understanding it, as though the concept itself had willingly revealed its secrets to him without resistance, bending naturally to his comprehension.
Klaus sat as though it were the most normal thing in the world as he displayed a feat which anomalies of this generation couldn’t perform. "Pretty nice," he finally spoke, his eyes still on the Martial Rhythm. Klaus himself didn’t know how Anthony had come into contact with such knowledge, but it didn’t matter in the slightest to him, because results alone were what he cared about.
Every eye shifted toward Klaus as though he were now a god amongst men. None of them could understand how he had pulled it off, they didn’t know what he had done. Wait, had he really even done anything at all? The man simply sat there with his eyes closed, then awakened the Martial Rhythm as though it were breathing.
Klaus seemed to solidify his position even more as he made it known that even amongst a group of anomalies, he remained one of a kind, an existence that stood quietly above the rest without the need for proclamation.
"Don’t overthink it, it’s nothing you can’t achieve. I’m just more experienced," Klaus spoke with a small smile as he glanced at everyone who was staring at him, his words casual yet carrying the weight of undeniable confidence.
Aura Nova, Aaaninja, and Lucian suddenly had determination burning within their gazes as they stared at the colorless glow on Klaus’ palm, their competitive spirits ignited, refusing to accept the gap so easily.
’As expected of the most overpowered character in the novel,’ Lucian thought to himself as he stared at Klaus in awe, ’I wonder if the author has revealed his background yet,’ he fell into his thoughts as Klaus was the most overpowered being the author had introduced, of course with exceptions like ??? and Romulus, beings that were still shrouded in mystery.
[Host, don’t bother learning the Martial Rhythm, you won’t awaken it. Anthony and Klaus are different]
The mechanical chime of the system echoed within his mind. Lucian paused his thoughts for a moment, then shook his head, the system’s words were merely suggestions, nothing more, and he had never been the type to accept limitations so easily.
"Let’s continue the spar, I hope we get to see something even more interesting," Klaus’s voice echoed as the colorless glow around his palm vanished completely, dissolving into nothingness as though it had never existed.
With that, the screen flared up, the usual five numbers appearing on it, then it began to shuffle through the digits rapidly as it made sure not to display exactly two numbers that had been displayed together previously, the anticipation quietly rising amongst everyone.
Soon, it came to a halt as two numbers appeared.
Two Versus Three. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
Lucian Darkheart Versus Aaaninja Chronisynth Eternos.
