Back in the white room within Power Fighters, Quinn was beaming.
Although the shockwave was nowhere near as big as the one in the video, Quinn was still happy with the result.
Quinn decided that there was no longerany need for him to delay any longer.
He accessed the Power Fighters mainframe, and clicked on the "search" option.
For his first match, Quinn wanted to go up against someone with the same Ability Level as him.
Thus, he searched for a Level 1 Ability User.
Technically, Quinn knew that he was beyond a Level 1 Ability User.
If he were to guess, he had the strength comparable to a Level 2.5.
But for his first match, Quinn wanted to make sure of a few things.
The game had found him an opponent, and he was immediately teleported to the arena.
It was exactly like the one Quinn had seen yesterday, a circular arena surrounded with stands.
Only this time, Quinn was the one in the arena.
Once the countdown had finished, it was time for the match to begin.
The student standing opposite of Quinn lunged towards him, getting in close.
Quinn then watched as the boy's left arm transformed into that of a tiger.
Seeing this, Quinn's eyes widened.
'Wait, isn't that…?' Quinn thought.
Seeing the transformed hand brought flashbacks to the first person Quinn had ever fought, a Level 1.2 who was bullying Peter on the first day of school.
Quinn narrowed his eyes, and activated his Inspect Skill.
However, instead of showing the boy's information, it showed nothing but lines of question marks.
It was just like the time he tried Inspecting the dried blood in the assembly hall after Vorden's altercation with the Second-Years, and when he had tried to Inspect Leo.
In the case of the dried blood, Quinn had quickly realized that he needed to Inspect someone in-person to Inspect their blood.
And with Leo, he summarized it was because of the enormous power gap between the two of them.
However, neither of those reasons were applicable here.
The boy was a Level 1, and if he was correct, he knew exactly who this boy was.
And he had Inspected him before.
Kyle Main, a Level 1.2 student with a Beast Transformation Ability.
Now realizing exactly who the boy was, Quinn found himself wishing that this fight was taking place in the real world, and not in VR.
If this fight was real, Quinn would be able to drink Kyle's blood after he beat him to gain a stat point.
Originally, when Quinn had first beaten Kyle, he had received his first"Optional Quest" to drink blood.
However, he was still fully human at that point, and thus, his morality had found that idea repulsive.
Kyle reached out his arm in a swiping motion.
Due to the vast improvements between now and when Quinn had first fought Kyle, he appeared to Quinn as if he was moving in slow-motion.
He could easily dodge.
However, Quinn let Kyle hit him, as he wanted to…test something.
Kyle's claw dug slightly into Quinn's skin.
Quinn felt a slight sting, like being stung by a small insect.
It was far lesser than the pain he had felt the first time Kyle had sliced him, where he had felt as if a blade was slicing through him.
Glancing up at the health bar above his head, Quinn saw the bar decrease ever so slightly.
Quinn then instantly began his "test", and tried to activate his Blood Bank Skill.
The result was exactly as Quinn expected, as a System message popped up in front of him.
[HP is currently full. Blood Bank cannot be used.]
It was as Quinn thought.
Due to this all being in VR, Quinn's body was still perfectly fine.
With his suspicion now verified, Quinn was ready to end the match.
He dashed forward towards Kyle, and when he was close, he threw out a point-blank Blood Swipe.
Kyle lifted up his arm to block, but the second the lines of red aura made contact, his claws were shattered, as the Blood Swipe sliced through Kyle's hand like a hot knife through butter, just like how it had completely mangledFei's hand.
Quinn then followed it up with a second Blood Swipe.
Looking at Kyle's health bar, Quinn saw his health decrease by one-fourths, or 25 percent.
Although Quinn could have easily ended the match with a barrage of Blood Swipes like he had finished off Loop, he chose not to.
His original plan was to use the game to train his fighting skills, and in the real world, Quinn wasn't able to use his Blood Swipe Skill indefinitely like he could in here.
As Quinn got in close, Kyle's claws had already regenerated.
Clearly another quirk of the game.
As in real life, Kyle would have needed to be rushed off to the doctor's office to have his hand healed by Hayley.
Kyle swung his arm again.
But this time, Quinn ducked underneath the attack.
He then threw out a punch to Kyle's gut, followed up by a punch to his face.
Quinn finished it up with a cross-shaped dual Blood Swipe with both hands, him copying a move he had seen Tsukuru do against Brandon in the Beast Weapon Hall.
Instantly, a holographic screen appeared in front of him, and the feminine, computerized voice filled the arena.
[Winner, User ID Blood Evolver.]
Suddenly, a System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[25 Exp received. Exp: 355/400]
Quinn smirked at the message.
He had a feeling that he would gain Exp for winning fights in here.
After all, Tsukuru had gained Exp in that "Battle Arena" of his, and it used the VR Pods as well.
So why wouldn't he gain Exp in Power Fighters?
However, Quinn's eyes then narrowed.
'25 Exp…' He thought. 'Normally, I get 50 Exp whenever I defeat someone…'
Quinn glanced to the side, and brought his hand up to his chin, assuming a "thinking" pose.
'Is it because I'm NOT fighting in the real world?' Quinn thought.
This is something he'd have to discuss with Tsukuru later, to see if they both had this…handicap.
However, Quinn put that aside for the moment, and immediately went to search for a new opponent.
He decided to search for a Level 1 again, so he'd have an easy match.
A new opponent was found almost instantly, and Quinn got straight to work.
Rather than reserving his power like he had with Kyle, Quinn decided to just send out a massive barrage of Blood Swipes at his opponent.
And his plan worked.
Quinn had defeated his opponent so fast, that he didn't even have time to see what his opponent's Ability was.
The computerized, feminine voice announced his victory, and another System screen popped up in front of Quinn.
[25 Exp received. Exp: 380/400]
Quinn then picked another opponent.
This time, he was set up against a student with the Earth Ability, which was the most common on the base, as the military gave it out to anybody who didn't have an Ability when they arrived.
However, he was too slow to Quinn to actually activate hit Quinn with any of his Elemental Skills
Quinn simply just avoided the Earth attacks, and then when he was in range, finished off his opponent with a barrage of Blood Swipes.
A new System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[25 Exp received. Exp: 405/400. You have Leveled Up. Congratulations, you are now Level 4. Exp: 5/800.
You have received 1 Stat Point.]
For the first time, Quinn hadn't received a Skill for Leveling Up.
Although, he kind of expected that.
Seeing how Tsukuru had shown off that new "object teleportation" Skill that he had unlocked when reaching Level 5, Quinn had assumed that was when he would unlock a new skill as well.
Like before, Quinn put his new Stat Point into Agility.
A System message appeared in front of him.
[Agility 16]
Quinn decided to play a few more matches against Level 1s, just to get the hang of fighting in the game.
He played three matches back-to-back, and they were just as easy as Quinn's previous fights.
Quinn would quickly dodge their attacks, and when he got close enough, he would just spam Blood Swipes.
Of course, Quinn knew that he wouldn't be able to fight like this in the real world, as each Blood Swipe sapped his health.
But here in the game, he wanted to grind Exp as fast as possible.
As each opponent was defeated, a System message would appear in front of Quinn.
[25 Exp received. Exp: 30/800.]
[25 Exp received. Exp: 55/800]
[25 Exp received. Exp: 80/800]
As Quinn stood in the white room after his fifth match, he decided to open up his Status Screen to look at his new Stats.
[Name Quinn Talen
Race Halfling
Level 4
XP 80/800
Title —
___________________
HP 25/25
___________________
Strength 13 [+3]
Stamina 11
Agility 16
[Stat Points: 0] ]
Looking at his Status Screen, he also saw a small, horizontal System screen overlaying the very bottom of his Status Screen on the lower right.
[19:59]
This appeared to be a timer that displayed his remaining "rent time" in the VR Pod.
Apparently, he had already spent roughly forty minutes in the game.