Capítulo 4: A Badass Nobody (3)
Had it been any other situation, could Lin Zhi have instantly decapitated the middle-class Devil?
Lin Zhi knew very well just what exactly allowed him to kill off the Devil. The external force that augmented Lin Zhi's strength was the Arbiter's "outstanding combat ability that can deal with the unexpected." If it was a frontal onslaught that one can see from far away, then the Arbiter's ability to deal with the 'unexpected' would not have activated.
Lin Zhi could've died right there and then!
When they got ambushed, Lin Zhi had immediately thought about fleeing. What was the point of fighting against a squadron of people who were roughly anywhere from 50%-200% stronger than you were? His decision to flee was only cemented by the telepathic voice that commanded him to retreat.
However, at the same time, he remembered that he had to become a 'Badass Nobody!' So Lin Zhi decided to pull off the Cobra Turn, a variation of Pugachev's Turn. The Cobra Turn was an advance aerobatic maneuver that he had watched on Voutube back on his original planet!
Imagine two aircraft are flying parallel to each other in the same direction, with one pursuing the other. Could the aircraft being pursued instantly turn around and fire back?
No!
Due to the existence of momentum, it would take both time and energy to stop immediately—much less turn around! It's the same as slamming the brakes on a racecar going full speed or trying to turn 180 degrees while going full speed, you'll immediately be subjected to force great enough that'll send you flying out of the car!
So what was the best way to handle such a situation? One can dive downwards and hopefully try to escape, but in the end, they're still being pursued.
One can only fight back in such a situation! Missiles (and by proxy, magic) can't shoot backward, the only way they would be able to attack back is to be behind them!
How can you go behind someone who's already behind you?
You slow down and let them go past you! But momentum exists, if you try to slow down when you're flying 300 miles per hour, you'll have to fight inertia while also being a sitting duck during the entire process.
'You'll have to do it quickly.' That was the thought that went through Lin Zhi's mind. He had to do it in less than 2 seconds or else he'd be dead.
The quickest way is to exploit nature. Make as much surface area as possible face towards the winds pushing against you! The best way to do so is to change one's orientation from a " — " to " | ", this way one uses nature as a force to slow them down!
Normally one would stop at 90 degrees angle, facing towards the sun, but they have to continue until they reach 120 degrees in the form of a " \ " so that you can abuse nature even more!
The wind, or air resistance, would now push the bottom of the aircraft rather than the top! Meaning that the winds would push them back into their original orientation of a " — "!
By the time this happens, the pursuer who is still locked in full speed has now surpassed you!
The hunter becomes the hunted!
Of course, the wings of the three factions are not like fighter jets!
They have more flexibility which means that anything that can be adjusted would immediately be adjusted. Lin Zhi had realized that during his 'fleeing' his wings had started to become even more flexible!
This was the Marauder's dexterous trait expanding into the wings as well!
Otherwise, why else would he have risked it?
A moment later, a prompt appeared in his vision.
[You've received 25 EXP for defeating a Middle-Class Devil!]
[Class: Justiciar Level 1 (50%)]
[Class: Marauder Level 1 (50%)]
[Ability: Absolute-Terror Field Level 1 -> Level 2)]
[Hidden Side Quest Objective Fulfilled!]
[Hidden Side Quest]
[A Nice Surprise.]
[Difficulty: C]
[Objective: Defeat someone stronger than you on a 1-on-1 fight.]
[Reward: 15 EXP]
[You've received 15 EXP to all classes and abilities!]
[As per the first mission bonus, all level requirements have been halved during this Mission!]
[Class: Justiciar Level 1 -> Level 2 (1%)]
[Class: Marauder Level 1 -> Level 2 (1%)]
[Ability: Absolute-Terror Field (6%)]
[Integrating Justiciar and Marauder abilities...]
[Justiciar]
[Theme: Enforcing Order.]
[Description: The Justiciar class is strong at setting laws and punishing lawbreakers. They can set up rules that will inflict punishments if broken, directly attack minds and souls, recognize people supernaturally, detect abnormalities, and use all kinds of weapons and explosives.]
[Level 1 (Name: Arbiter): An Arbiter has a convincing charm and considerable authority, causing people to be more likely to believe and obey them. They have outstanding combat ability that can deal with the unexpected.]
[Level 2 (Name: Sheriff): As long as a Sheriff has seen someone, even if it was a painting or photograph, with a supernatural intuition the Sheriff will always be able to discern the person even if the target had completely changed their identity. A Sheriff is good at tracking and tracing people. Just from seeing the details of a case, they will have a supernatural sense of how to find the target. A Sheriff also has a keen intuition for monitoring others and detecting other's monitoring. When a Sheriff is close enough, they can detect things related to evil, chaos, and madness as long as there is no external influence such as barriers/shields.]
[Level 3 (Name: Interrogator): ???]
[Marauder]
[Theme: Stealing.]
[Description: The Marauder class is good at stealing from others. They can trick others through illusions, steal their opponents' abilities (temporarily), and steal reasoning and attacking intentions.]
[Level 1 (Name: Marauder): a Marauder has enhanced speed and nimbleness. They have an unnatural level of intuition for the location and value of treasures/items. They also have increased wrist and finger flexibility and dexterity for quicker stealing.]
[Level 2 (Name: Swindler): A Swindler take part in fraud investigations. They gain enjoyment from swindling. They can create illusions to trick and deceive their opponents. Everything from Level 1 Marauder has also been upgraded by 50%.]
[Level 3 (Name: Cryptologist): ???]
Why did the upgrade of the Justiciar class give so much while the upgrade of the Marauder class gives so 'little'? That was the first thought that immediately came to mind.
'The Justiciar class seeks to give me the 'whole array' of the Justice system! From Arbiter to Sheriff, to Interrogator, to...' He stopped, trying to think of what comes after. 'Judge?'
But what comes after Judge? The equivalent of the Supreme Court? 'No, that'd just be redundant...'
'If the Justiciar class is a jack-of-all-trades that encapsulates the Justice system, then the Marauder class appears to be a 'master-of-one' centered on the concept of stealing! However, what does Cryptologist provide then?'
[Absolute Terror Field]
[Origin: Neon Genesis Evangelion]
[Description: Abbreviated as the A. T. Field, it is a nearly impenetrable force-field barrier that Angels and Evangelions can generate. Conventional weapons are effectively useless in penetrating an A.T. Field. There are numerous ways of destroying the A.T. Field, examples include overwhelming the Host with raw strength or projecting another A.T. Field against the Host. At higher levels, the Host can use the A.T. Field for more than just defense purposes, as the A.T. Field can be reconstructed into laser-like beam blasts or even the reconstruction of one's limbs.]
[Level 1 (Human): The Host can project a weak A.T. Field that is nearly invisible to the naked eye. It can withstand at most a single attack from a cold weapon and a single projectile from a firearm.]
[Level 2 (Peak Human): The Host can project a little semi-weak A.T. Field that is nearly invisible to the naked eye. It can withstand at most 5 attacks from a cold weapon, 3 projectiles from a firearm, or 2 low-ranking spells.]
[Level 3 (Angel - Germinal Stage): ???]
Lin Zhi gasped at the name of the next level. 'Level 3 is a massive qualitative change for the Absolute Terror Field!'
This is the initial stage towards possessing an A.T. Field equivalent to that of an actual Angel! Not that Angels of the DxD world but the Angels of the Evangelion world! Those Angels could survive nukes being thrown at them!
'Wait.' He stopped, his newfound supernatural sense told him something was off!
'I'm being watched!' Due to the Sheriff's abilities, Lin Zhi immediately knew that someone was watching him! It wasn't the 'audience' of the Angels or the 8 middle-class Devils converging upon him!
Previously due to the supposed leader's command to leave Lin Zhi for himself, the other middle-class Devils scattered about to inflict as much damage as possible. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise as now Lin Zhi has some breathing space.
There were 12 seconds left before they reached Lin Zhi, reinforcement would approximately arrive in 8 seconds if the telepathy was to be believed...
With the mind of a Sheriff, Lin Zhi immediately began to backtrack the events. A moment later, he realized what was out of place!
'To maintain the invisibility for so long without the stronger Angels realizing it means that the one casting it must be strong or specialized in invisibility! However, no sides would send forces that strong yet, this is supported by the System's introduction before my transference. That meant that it must be someone who specializes in invisibility. Taking another step back, why exactly did they send this squadron straight into us? Did they intend to send these middle-class Devils straight into their death like a one-time-use item? They have used this tactic before as the rest only focuses on using spells that cover a wide area... There's no way they would willingly through them away, which means that they must have an escape plan! The caster has to be hiding somewhere so that when the rest is done, they can escape together!'
With a Sheriff's keen intuition, his head snapped towards a particular direction 100 meters away from him. 'There!'
Energy flowed throughout his body, holy light started converging upon his right hand as it shaped itself into the shape of a double-ended spear.
Reminiscent to that of a Spartan, Lin Zhi gritted his teeth in pain as his muscles forcibly tightened before shooting the spear out as if it was an arrow!
Vsssh!
His pupils constricted as the spear missed!
Blood started eerily dripping from 'nowhere' as a voice cried out in pain. "Shit!"
The appearance of a Devil with purple leather gear, the same color as the underworld sky, started to 'color' itself into existence as he held his right leg in pain. Glaring furiously at the Angel who somehow managed to force him out of hiding!
Lin Zhi, whose lips had previously turned down in disappointment slowly started to curve upwards, forming a smug grin!
He had used the Swindler's ability of illusion to misdirect the invisible Devil into staying in place as Lin Zhi had planned for the fake spear to miss from the very beginning! Why would anyone dodge an attack that was going to miss to begin with? The real one shot towards the actual location with his newfound Swindler ability to cast illusions that blended with the environment!
Content with the injury he had caused, Lin Zhi flew towards the reinforcement as they'll hopefully do the rest. There was no need to finish off the Devil—since Lin Zhi couldn't even kill him off anyway. Even with his new abilities, there was no way he would be able to surmount the gap that existed between the two until maybe level 3.
With the increased speed from the level up, Lin Zhi was roughly 30% lower than the middle-class Devils converging upon him. Three of them separated Lin Zhi from the incoming reinforcements while the rest started pursuing him from behind. Lin Zhi knew that they wanted to kill him for revenge. Since his appearance was no different compared to the rest of the Angels, as long as he reached them then they can blend back into the masses!
'My A.T. Field allows me to survive two low-tier spells, compared to the Devil's torrent of spells that they can unleash, it's the equivalent of blocking 2 pellets from a shotgun round! I require at least 10 more of these middle-class Devils for the next level... Unless forced to, I don't want to use the pill...'
Due to the qualitative upgrade of each level, the gains from leveling from 2 - >5 is less than a fraction of 5 -> 6! Imagine if he had used the pill from 7 -> 10?!
'I need to save it for later.'
[New Side Quest Unlocked!]
[You dug your own grave, now lie in it(?)]
[Difficulty: C+]
[Objective: Survive.]
[Reward: ???]
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Robot9001
Robot9001 Short maths: 25 EXP gained, split between two classes so 12.5 for each. Then 15 Exp is added onto each, so they reach 27.5, 25 of that goes into the level up while the remaining 2.5 goes into the next level.
A lot more delayed than I had expected it. The 8-hour long art analysis exam really burnt me out from writing, if you see errors please do one of those chapter comments or whatever they call it.
Thank you for waiting, it'll get better from here now that I'm recovering from my burnout.
Estado de energía semanal
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