My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 368 A chess player who breaks through to the third rank, Xia Pingzhou VS Black Sun Demon (Seeking monthly votes)

August 19, the underground bar "Grey Raven".

As dawn broke and the cicadas began to chirp in the trees, the bar's signs and television screens simultaneously went dark.

The glasses were still scattered haphazardly on the bar, filled with the leftovers from last night, and the British-style jazz music was still playing non-stop.

At this moment, a girl in a red dress with light makeup on her eyes and a boy in a jumpsuit were standing side by side at the entrance of the bar, each carrying a suitcase.

"The train leaves at nine o'clock. Come to think of it, it's been a long time since I've taken a train."

The bloodline put down his suitcase, smiled, and stretched.

“There’s nothing I can do. Haifan City is a small place, and there’s no airport.” The hacker looked down at his phone. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t want to take that old green train. It’s smelly and rotten.”

"You're in charge of waking up the kitten and the young lady."

"Who cares about them..." the hacker shrugged. "Don't worry, if the little cat Casanova doesn't get up, he'll definitely get stabbed to death by the Ripper. Then he'll be woken up, and the young lady will wake up too."

"That makes sense. Our electronic pets really do have a keen eye for people."

"Don't I know what kind of people they are?"

"What has the commander said recently?" Bloodline asked casually.

"He didn't say anything, just told us not to be late," the hacker said casually, looking up from his phone.

After chatting for a while at the entrance, the two pulled their suitcases and headed to the train station first, leaving only Ripper, Ayase Origami, and Xia Pingzhou in the bar.

After a while, they woke up one after another, washed up, and left the private room.

Today, Origami Ayase changed into her ochre-red kimono, carrying a small bag in both hands, and leaned against the door frame at the entrance. She seemed to be half asleep, as if her eyelids might close at any moment.

Enma Rin was still wearing her black and white Japanese school uniform, her long, smooth black hair cascading down her back to her waist. A tennis racket cover hung on her shoulder, inside which was a scabbard.

Xia Pingzhou wore a black hoodie and covered the raven tattoo on the back of his right hand with gloves.

He packed his belongings, stuffed his clothes into his brown backpack, slung the backpack over his shoulder, and then dragged Ayase Origami's suitcase toward the door.

"Let's go."

Origami Ayase gave a barely audible "hmm," and then walked out of the bar side by side with him.

Xia Pingzhou glanced at the black glove on her hand, then at Yan Molin walking at the end of the corridor. She pushed open the metal keypad door, and sunlight streamed in, illuminating the entire underground corridor and dispelling the darkness.

When the three of them walked out of the alley and came to the main street of Lijing, Xia Pingzhou suddenly paused.

A chilly wind blew across the tall neon sign, and then a dark shadow suddenly fell over it.

"A demon?" Xia Pingzhou murmured.

"There's no escaping it," the Ripper said.

At this moment, the entire street was shrouded in darkness, as if night had fallen. From the billboards on the high-rise buildings to the telephone poles on the roadside, and even the faces of passersby were darkened.

Cries rose and fell in the darkness.

The pedestrians were stunned and looked up, only to be met with a black sun.

Indeed, this black sun had obscured the original sun, and at its center was the face of a drunkard. Its features were almost contorted, and a chilling smile hung on its face.

Anyone who sees a giant smiling face hanging in the sky will feel a shiver run down their spine.

At the same time, at the edge of the sun, black arms stretched out one after another, like the tentacles of some kind of insect.

These tentacles descended from the sky, entangled the skyscrapers, and then snapped them in half.

Amidst deafening roars, the magnificent buildings collapsed one after another.

Dust and shards of glass swept in like a flood. The deafening roar of an earthquake mingled with the screams of people, creating an apocalyptic scene.

Xia Pingzhou raised an eyebrow and looked up from his phone, but his first glance fell upon a huge red question mark in the sky. Undoubtedly, this was a symbol of the card incident.

[The event for card number 15 in Lijing—"No Light in the World"—has been triggered.]

[Event Details: Killed a Cataclysmic Demon – “Black Sun Demon”.]

Complete the card event within the 10-minute time limit to obtain a corresponding "Event Card".

He looked away from the text panel and observed every corner of the city: fountains in the park bursting, billboards on the street malfunctioning, and carousels in the amusement park spinning wildly. The whole world seemed to be staging an apocalyptic chorus.

This disaster came too suddenly and was impossible to guard against. The new batch of strangely dressed outcasts in Lijing had not yet arrived.

Besides, demons are something that should be dealt with by exorcists, not by outsiders. In the end, if an outsider of the "Silver Devourer's" caliber were to come to the rescue against such a catastrophic opponent, they would probably just be cannon fodder on the battlefield and die instantly, without even having the effect of delaying the enemy.

Even at Rainbow Wing's speed, it would take at least 10 minutes to get here at full speed.

"How to say?"

As Xia Pingzhou spoke, he put down his suitcase.

“There’s no need to meddle,” Enma Rin said calmly. “A demon of this size needs to be dealt with by Rainbowwing or Lake Hunter… and coincidentally, isn’t there a Rainbowwing there?”

As she spoke, she glanced out of the corner of her eye at a corner of the city, where she saw a white-haired girl in a black bodysuit riding on an extended ice surface, speeding towards the sky.

Xia Pingzhou followed her gaze and saw Rainbow Wings' "Ice Girl" Yuriel.

He was slightly taken aback.

It was only then that he remembered that there was such a catastrophic figure in Lijing—Yu Ruier had just gone to Gu Qiye's house yesterday just to take a look at Gu Qiye's bedroom.

Therefore, it's not surprising that she's still in Lijing today; she just happened to be there during this calamity.

At this moment, Yuriel bent slightly and walked on the ice. The glacier beneath her feet continued to extend upwards, carrying her over one collapsed high-rise building after another.

Like an elegant and swift figure skater, she rescued the victims from the high-rise buildings, guiding their bodies down the steep glacier.

The victims swarmed on the ice like ants, screaming as they slid down to the ground. It was a rollercoaster ride, but thankfully everyone landed safely and escaped in an orderly fashion under the organization of the police.

Yuriel also created ice spikes to tear apart the shadowy tentacles clinging to the surface of the tall building.

She slowly and calmly raised her head, her snow-white hair dancing in the swirling ice dust, her icy blue pupils reflecting the black sun.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Li Jing's signature outcast, "Silver Swallower," had also arrived.

He was dressed simply, wearing only a silver helmet and a pink pajama set. It seemed he was on vacation at home early that morning when he received a last-minute official notice and was forced to rush over without even having time to change into his combat gear.

At this moment, the silver-toned pajamas tore open, revealing a metal tube protruding from the back of his arms and calves. Flames and air currents spewed out from it, and the resulting impact propelled him soaring like a swallow.

"You bastard, this is my territory!"

He roared, biting off the metal fragments in his palm, which formed a giant steel hand more than ten meters long as he flew.

Swallowing Silver swung his right arm downwards, the massive steel hand sweeping across the shadowy street. He gathered as many citizens as possible, about to be crushed by the building, into his iron-gray palm and carried them away from the building's base.

Like Yuriel, his first thought was to save people, not how to deal with the black sun.

Xia Pingzhou withdrew his gaze from Swallowing Silver and turned to the Ripper, saying, "I need to kill a demon to break through to the third tier, and this demon seems suitable."

"You only reached the second tier half a month ago, and you're already at the third tier in just a few days. You can ask anyone, who would believe you?" Enma Rin asked casually. She stared directly at the black sun, her black hair dancing in the wind, the hem of her school uniform skirt slightly lifted, her expression still indifferent.

"Me," the girl in the kimono said abruptly.

“Her,” Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly.

"You might as well just say you want to protect that idiot," Enma Rin said indifferently, glancing at Xia Pingzhou. "You really like that Swallowing Silver that much?"

Xia Pingzhou was too lazy to argue.

Actually, he was completing his own card event and protecting Yuriel as well, so that Gu Qiye wouldn't be devastated and unable to recover after returning. Although, given Yuriel's strength, it wasn't his place to protect her.

Suddenly, Origami Ayase raised her kimono sleeve and instantly created a huge paper curtain in front of the three of them, blocking the dust and mist that rushed towards them.

A fierce wind swept across both sides of the paper curtain, shattering the glass on the high-rise buildings. The wind carried the stench of blood, and many people died in this sudden disaster.

"Fine, do as you please." Enma Rin said expressionlessly. "I'm heading to the train station now. If you miss your train, you'll have to find a way to fly over yourselves. Being late is your own problem."

After saying that, she glanced at the two of them out of the corner of her eye, then turned and left without looking back.

“That Rainbow Wing Ice Maiden went to rescue someone, we shouldn’t run into her.” Xia Pingzhou looked up at Yuriel, “Take me up there, I can take care of this demon.”

Origami Ayase nodded silently, then raised her ochre-red sleeve. The pages inside her sleeve fell like snowflakes, then coalesced into a giant butterfly and rose upwards.

The butterfly was enormous. It landed on the ground, and Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami stepped onto its wings. The butterfly spread its wings and flew towards the sky.

As the butterfly wings unfolded, they released invisible wind blades that sliced ​​through the oncoming shadow tentacles.

The Black Sun Demon then noticed their presence and cast his gaze down from the sky, his narrowed eyes reflecting the approaching paper butterflies.

At this moment, a black and white ring had appeared around Xia Pingzhou.

He had no intention of holding back or testing the waters.

Reality isn't like in comics, where you can fight from Super Saiyan 1 to Super Saiyan 5. The best approach is to unleash your ultimate move without reservation right from the start, catching the opponent off guard.

He summoned all the chess pieces in one breath: the king, knight, soldier, bishop, chariot, queen, and the shadows of these colossi flashed on the butterfly's back.

Immediately afterwards, magnificent and imposing figures rose from the ground, surrounding Xia Pingzhou. He slightly raised his head, his black hair swaying in the gale. "Copy demons," he commanded.

Then a small paper figure appeared on his shoulder and shakily jumped down.

This is Xia Pingzhou's second contracted demon. It can copy any of his chess pieces within eight seconds.

At this moment, Xia Pingzhou naturally wanted it to replicate the "King".

As the little paper figure landed, it instantly transformed into another colossal king statue, rising atop the butterfly's back, solemnly and majestically raising the cane in its hand.

"Sacrifice knights, bishops, two soldiers, two siege engines, and King's Flash," Xia Pingzhou then ordered.

His commands weren't directed at a single entity, but rather at the two kings atop the butterfly's back. A chilling, tearing sound accompanied the command, and a cold, solitary notification echoed in his mind.

[Sacrificing the "Knight Colossus" and two "Soldier Colossi" has fulfilled the King's power release condition—sacrificing three pieces on the field.]

[Hint: The ultimate power of the King's Statue—"The King's Flash"—has been unlocked.]

[Sacrificing the "Bishop Colossus" and two "Cannon Colossi" has fulfilled the conditions for releasing the clone king's power—sacrificing three pieces on the field.]

[Hint: The clone king's ultimate power—"King's Flash"—has been unlocked.]

In that instant, the two kings on the paper butterfly simultaneously raised their scepters high, pointing the tips at the black, smiling sun, and a black and white orb of light formed on the scepters.

The sphere sometimes expands and sometimes shrinks, as if it contains an entire chessboard world.

The Black Sun Demon seemed to realize something was wrong, and it grinned deeply. Thousands upon thousands of black tentacles stretched out from the edge of the sun, descending from the sky and covering the flying paper butterfly.

Looking down from underground, the scene resembled a black spider web descending and gradually encircling the snow-white butterfly. At this moment, Xia Pingzhou could no longer see the sun, and the same was true for Ayase Origami; their vision was completely black.

The girl in the kimono didn't show any expression and didn't bother to take out the Endless Manuscript to deal with her.

Because she had seen this scene before.

This second was very short and quiet, almost completely silent. Then, the black and white orb of light that was bobbing at the top of the two scepters suddenly shattered in the next moment.

It was as if the entire world had shattered, then transformed into wild, beast-like beams of light, erupting from that tiny point.

Contraction, expansion, explosion, fusion! The two beams of black and white light merged into one, transforming into a colossal pillar like the Tower of Babel, shooting straight into the sky.

In an instant, the shadowy tentacles, like a jungle, were torn apart.

The Black Sun Demon's smile twisted.

Suddenly, a Cambrian-like cold current swept in from afar, and the chill enveloped almost the entire city, even covering the glass curtain walls of tall buildings with a thin layer of frost.

The sudden turn of events startled Xia Pingzhou, who was perched on the butterfly's back. He then raised an eyebrow and glanced sharply to the side.

At that moment, a huge meteorite made of ice blocks hurtled straight down from the ground, passing by the paper butterflies fluttering in the air.

Immediately following, the meteorite, trailing a violent, icy current, crashed almost vertically into the black sun! A deafening roar spread like a tidal wave, nearly tearing apart the atmosphere and echoing throughout the world! The frigid air currents and the shattered meteorite fragments spread out together.

For the first time, the face at the center of the sun showed a look of pain. Cracks gradually appeared on the face of the Black Sun Demon, like a shattered mirror. The tentacles stopped extending outward and instead covered the ugly face layer by layer.

"Should I thank my sister-in-law for her help..." Xia Pingzhou murmured silently.

He looked away from Yuriel, reached out, and picked up a demon chess piece.

It was a rag doll holding giant scissors, wearing a gothic dress and a black and red bow in its hair. Buttons were sewn into its eye sockets.

This chess piece is called "Scissors Hand Demon," and it represents a demon race that often appears in the Tokyo area.

At that moment, the Scissorhands Demon, after being summoned, floated lightly onto the shoulder of the Queen's Colossus. The Queen turned her head and reached out to touch the doll.

Ayase Origami trusted Xia Pingzhou completely. He told her she didn't need to help, so she stood silently on the butterfly's back, motionless. The paper butterfly continued to fly at full speed towards the black sun, a scene reminiscent of a moth drawn to a flame, but on a completely different scale.

Xia Pingzhou stared directly at the black sun.

"The bridge between humans and demons," he said silently.

[The "Bridge Between Human and Demon" has been activated, merging the two sides: the international chess piece "Queen Colossus" and the demon chess piece "Scissors Demon".]

A brand new chess piece, the "Puppet Queen," is about to be released.

As the chilling system notification faded, a phantom bridge rose into the air, simultaneously sucking in the figures of the Scissorhands Demon and the Queen Colossus.

When the queen statue opened her eyes again, she had transformed into a giant cotton doll.

Her eyes were adorned with red and black buttons, she wore a gothic dress, an elegant gothic hat, and held a ten-meter-long pair of scissors.

The "Puppet Princess's" power is: "To divide in two."

"Divide it in two," Xia Pingzhou ordered.

The Doll Queen's expression hardened, and she angrily leaped up from the paper plate.

Her figure was as light as paper, her gothic skirt billowing and swirling in the wind, her hands gripping a ten-meter-long pair of giant scissors, as she charged straight toward the black sun.

The scissors plunged fiercely into the sun's surface, causing the tentacles covering it to suddenly split open. Immediately afterwards, layers of hard, obsidian-like material splattered out.

In an instant, wisps of pitch-black turbulence erupted from the surface of the scissors. The black sun split in two, and after the demon let out a short wail, it completely disintegrated and vanished.

Warm sunlight streamed down, enveloping the entire world. The sky was as clear as if it had been washed.

At that moment, the Puppet Princess unfolded the scissors, sat on the cross-shaped scissors, and fell from above. She lowered her fluttering skirt and landed above the paper butterflies.

Xia Pingzhou retrieved it back onto the black and white ring around him, then secretly breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the giant butterfly's back. He glanced down at Tun Yin, who was wandering around the city rescuing people, and then at Yuriel, who was standing on the glacier.

At that moment, the Ice Girl seemed to hesitate for a moment about whether to catch up with them, but in the end she chose to turn back to rescue the refugees trapped in the ruins.

At this moment, Origami Ayase also sat down, looking up at the blue sky in a daze.

Xia Pingzhou leaned on her shoulder and looked up at the series of settlement panels that popped up in front of him.

[A demon of S rank or higher has been detected as killed. The cumulative kill count for the "Winter of the Wild Hunt" system has been updated to 138/140 (2 more kills are needed to complete this task)]

The current advancement progress of the Sky Drive "Chess" skill on Unit 2 is: 88% → 100%.

[Congratulations! The second mech, Xia Pingzhou's Sky Drive "Chess" has advanced to Tier 3! (Reaching the highest tier)]

[Advanced Reward 1: Gain a new Sky Drive ability: "Black King's Domain" (Expands a chessboard space, pulling enemies into it. Unless with your permission or by killing you, no one can leave the "chessboard" at will)]

[Advanced Reward 2: The chess piece "Bishop Statue" gains a new ability: "Holy Light" (frees any object from arbitrary control) (excluding mental abilities)]

[Advanced Reward 3: Obtain one Skyward Slot for contracting a demon.]

The current number of demons that can be contracted by this Skywalker is 1 (contracted demons: Shadow Demon, Copy Demon)

[Due to the passive skill "Soul Devourer," the "Queen Colossus" receives a slight boost to its attributes.]

[Due to the passive skill "Demon Hunter," a one-time use chess piece—"Black Sun Demon"—has been obtained.]

"Even after a cataclysmic demon becomes a pawn, it should still retain a near-cataclysmic strength," Xia Pingzhou thought. "What will be born after it merges with the Queen?"

[The 15th card event for Li Jing—"No Light in the World"—has been completed.]

[As a reward: One card has been added to your event card book.]

Xia Pingzhou raised an eyebrow, opened the event card book, found the event card he had just acquired in the slot, and clicked to view it.

[Event Card Name: The World Without Light]

[Event Card Number: Li Jing ①⑤]

[Event Card Effect: Allows you or your summoned creature to instantly absorb all surrounding sunlight, plunging the world into brief darkness.]

[Note: Event cards will disappear after use. You can also choose to sell the card for 1 skill point.]

"What's the point of this thing?"

Xia Pingzhou glanced at it briefly before closing the panel.

"Little cat, you've secretly gotten stronger again." The girl in the kimono glanced at him sideways.

"Oh right, I just remembered."

"what?"

"You said that once I'm better than you, we should switch places."

“…You’re breathing on it.” Ayase Origami looked away.

"As expected, you can't trust what women say."

Xia Pingzhou shrugged.

"Gone?" After a moment of silence, Ayase Origami asked.

“Yes, fly directly to the train station.” Xia Pingzhou said, glancing down at the time on his phone. “We still have time.”

"Oh."

After the girl in the kimono finished speaking, she controlled the paper butterfly to fly away into the distance.

(End of this chapter)