I will eventually become a god through sheer hard work.

After memorizing the route on the map, Xue Jing put the map back in his backpack and then stretched.

"Let's go."

……

Five hours later, it was already dark.

"Ow—"

A dragon's roar filled with fear and despair resounded through the sky, and a giant dragon with wings on its back and scales as rough as tree bark fell from the sky.

"boom--!!"

The giant dragon crashed to the ground like a meteor, causing the earth to tremble and exploding into a mushroom cloud of dust.

Xue Jing, panting slightly, his black tactical uniform tattered, held a somewhat dim Serpent Slayer claw in his hand as he jumped off the dragon's back.

"The last one, done."

He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"After three days, all the dragon species in the border region have been wiped out."

……

Thank you so much, Boss Dalong, for the 5,000 reward! I haven't checked the backend in a long time, I just saw it. Thank you so much, Boss! You're so forgetful!

Chapter 162 Superhuman Speed, Extreme True Dragon, Skill Specialization, Hidden Dragon Ruyi Force! (4K)

"This fight was quite thrilling."

The person in the mirror inside the bracelet spoke.

"I didn't expect it to be a life-type dragon species specializing in physical strength... It's also very cunning, without any of the arrogance of other dragon species. Instead of choosing to fight you head-on, it engaged you in aerial combat the whole time after learning that you could only stay in the air by relying on Shadow Flame and were not very agile."

Xue Jing ripped off his tattered black tactical uniform, revealing a muscular upper body sculpted as if by divine intervention.

"I originally wanted to save my strength and try to kill it without using my claws, just like the last one. But in the end, I had no choice but to use it."

He looked at the sharp claw he was holding; the silvery-white light on it had dimmed somewhat.

This last guardian dragon had truly given it his all. His [Shadowflame] was completely depleted, with not a single point left. The name in his skill bar had turned completely black and was slowly recovering.

Most of the dozen or so Dragon Thunder Plant seeds that were contracted through the 【Plant Contract】 were destroyed in the battle.

He himself suffered numerous injuries during close combat, but he managed to recover by forcibly using his mental energy to activate the flame of life.

Even with such a desperate effort, it only managed to deplete less than half of the guardian dragon's life force before feeling that it had reached its limit and had no choice but to use the Serpent Slayer's sharp claws to deliver the final blow.

The person in the mirror crossed their arms and said, "This is already the best result under normal circumstances. That crested dragon was just an unexpected bonus. You have done your best."

"Three and a half claws... The half you saved might be the last straw to defeat a pure-blooded dragon."

Xue Jing stretched, feeling a rare sense of fatigue in his body, and said:

"I need to rest for a day or two to recover and prepare for the upcoming battle against pure-blooded dragons."

Today marks the fourth day since he entered the border area.

The U19 knockout stage has a seven-day break. The day he set off was during a match, so it doesn't count. He arrived at the border crossing the next day, so his arrival time coincided with the match break.

In other words, if they want to get back before the competition starts, they must kill that pureblood dragon within the next three days and break its core in order to escape the border area polluted by the [Mirror World].

Looking at the sky, which had completely darkened, Xue Jing squatted down and opened the panel.

[Slaying a special creature possessing divinity grants +359 divinity]

[Possessing Divinity: 746]

[...Fitness experience points +1920]

[...Health Preservation Experience Points +1088]

【……run……】

The final battle with the last guardian dragon was tough, so the experience points gained were plentiful, with a large number of experience points displayed on the panel reaching four digits. However, Xue Jing raised an eyebrow.

"...It feels like there's not enough."

This was already quite a good result, but after such a long and arduous struggle, he felt that it should have been more than that.

After thinking about it, Xue Jing vaguely understood.

"It seems that the final victory was achieved through trickery... We won by using the Serpent Slayer Vanguard, not by relying on our own strength."

"Did you deduct some experience points because of this?"

Xue Jing shook his head. "Aban, you are really strict."

He scrolled the panel prompts to the bottom.

[Running speed increased to Lv9 (290/8000)]

[Hidden Dragon Strength upgraded to Lv8 (364/11000)]

[Riding skill upgraded to Lv6 (657/3000)]

Three more skills have been upgraded.

Even Xue Jing, who had gotten used to a lot of skill level increases in the past few days in the border area, couldn't help but have his eyes light up.

Although it was tough, the feeling of getting results after working so hard was just so satisfying.

[Run], one of the earliest skills he activated, has finally caught up with the other skills and reached Lv9, just one step away from the limit of Lv10.

At this point, he already possessed two Lv10 skills: [Fitness] and [Charm].

The four Lv9 skills are [Health Preservation], [Running], [Aiming], and [Melee], and [Soldier Strike Lv8] is about to be upgraded with about 2,000 more experience points.

"The Hidden Dragon Strength has also leveled up... Let's see what changes tomorrow. I'm too tired now, I need to rest first."

Xue Jing glanced at the giant dragon corpse beside him, and without caring about the surrounding environment, he lay down on the ground.

His Lv9 level of health regimen meant he was completely free from insomnia. Even when sleeping under the open sky, he would fall into a deep sleep within seconds of closing his eyes, emitting extremely long and steady breaths.

Even in death, the guardian dragon's corpse contains an extraordinary dragon's might, causing all wild creatures to flee in fear. Within a radius of several kilometers, not even a single insect is to be disturbed from its sleep.

The person reflected in the bracelet looked at Xue Jing, who was fast asleep like a baby, and sighed:

"...Good boy."

Silent all night.

……

The next morning.

On the quiet grassland plain, a figure darted past with incredible speed, the wind pressure it generated pushing the weeds along the way to both sides, creating a 'passage'.

A rabbit that was lying on the ground cautiously chewing on grass was swept several meters into the air by a figure that swept past it before it could react. The rabbit tumbled several times before crashing to the ground unconscious.

Xue Jing sped toward the place where he had agreed to meet Renia, feeling an unprecedented lightness as his legs stomped on the ground, his eyes filled with delight.

The wind no longer seemed to be an obstacle blocking him, but rather an aid.

As he ran, his body automatically adjusted its posture, adapting to the airflow and instinctively reducing air resistance to the limit.

"190? No, it should be around 200."

Xue Jing used the receding speed of the scenery within his field of vision as a reference to roughly estimate his current speed.

It can be basically confirmed that it has reached the 200 km level.

This is comparable to high-speed rail; it's a superhuman speed!

In other words, the speed is about 50 to 60 meters per second.

"If we exert all our strength, we should be able to improve it by about one-fifth more."

Xue Jing thought to himself.

The marginal effect of running speed diminishes dramatically due to air resistance.

In the past, the top track and field athletes on Earth made an extremely exaggerated improvement in their 100-meter sprint speed, with each improvement of 0.01 seconds being within 10 seconds.

Once you enter the realm of ten seconds or less, even if you double your physical abilities on the spot, it's hard to say whether your time will improve by even one second.

Xue Jing's current speed is truly incredible.

This is no longer just a matter of physical fitness; it involves the 'psychological interference with self-reality theory'.

A powerful mental will silently operated when he had the strong desire to be faster, interfering with his own reality. Combined with the speed boost from Lv9 running, this allowed him to reach his current running speed.

"Cool!"

Amidst cheerful shouts, Xue Jing's figure darted swiftly across the plain.

After half an hour.

The scorched earth was a mess, riddled with craters and covered with chunks of cooled black lava mud.

After Xue Jing hurried to the agreed location, he suddenly braked and slid forward for another ten meters or so, his toes carving a long ditch in the ground and kicking up a lot of mud.

It was still early, and Renia had not yet arrived.

"They didn't dispose of the body."

Xue Jing glanced at the corpse of the Flame Crying Dragon, which he had killed, and it looked exactly the same as it had two days ago.

"There are no other creatures in this border region that can threaten the dragon species, so it's normal that they don't know how to dispose of the corpses of high-level dragons. In addition, it seems that Renia's country worships dragons, so they naturally dare not offend her for the time being."

The person in the mirror spoke.

"Actually, it would be better to just give the flesh and core organs of this dragon species to their so-called 'Daruka' to eat. Dragon meat and dragon cores are great tonics for creatures in the border region, which can make them stronger quickly, and if they are lucky, they may even undergo bloodline mutations."

Xue Jing smiled and said, "I've killed all the powerful dragon species in this border region, and I didn't even care about their bodies... Doesn't this mean there are opportunities everywhere for the natives here?"

The person in the mirror nodded and said, "That's true... It just depends on whether there are any bold enough people who dare to seize these opportunities."

"If not, once the residual power of these dragon corpses dissipates, wild creatures will go to devour them... and a batch of powerful monsters should be born."

While chatting, Xue Jing leaped up several meters and landed on the head of the Flame-Tearing Dragon's corpse, where he sat down.

First, I opened the panel and glanced at the Divine Skills section.

After a whole night of recovery, the color of [Shadowflame] has recovered considerably. Although it is still somewhat dim, it should be able to fill up its mana bar soon.