Chapter 168 - Level Six His firm grip on the blade stopped its spinning immediately. Gustav quickly spun around and flung the blade back in the direction it was sent. Skkrrhhh! A loud metallic screeching sound rang out from up ahead. Booom! A small explosion rocked the trees a few feet ahead. A big branch of a tree was severed in two, and it fell to the ground along with a blue humanoid-looking machine. The left shoulder area down to the chest and the sides of its rib melted off. Gustav dashed out in a bid to finish it off the moment it landed on the ground. However, the instant he moved forward, he heard the sound of air being sliced apart due to objects moving at high speed across it. Gustav turned around and noticed three out of four similar-looking blades heading towards him from the left, right and center. Thoom! Gustav immediately leaped upwards to dodge all the projectiles. As his body ascended into the air, the spinning blades passed below him, but to his surprise, they stopped moving forward. The blades turned and headed for his body while he was still in mid-air. Gustav noticed another one headed for him from behind, bringing the total count of the blades to five. Swirl! Gustav suddenly spun his body repeatedly in mid-air and swung out his leg towards the first three blades that arrived in front of him. Bam! Bam! Bam! Gustav’s leg accurately slammed into the body of the three blades. His leg made contact with the surface of the blades sending them flying into the distance again. As they moved through the air, several branches were cleaved in two before the blades embedded themselves into three different trees up ahead. Due to the swinging of his leg, his body still spun towards the back, and he reached out his hand to grab the remaining two blades flying towards him. Clench! Clench! He landed with both blades in his hands and wanted to swing them out again when he noticed the blinking of yellow light speed up. Beep! Beep! Booom! Both of them exploded together, causing a radius of over sixteen feet to be engulfed in fire. Smoke spread across the environment, but the silhouettes of five humanoid-looking blue machines could be seen walking towards the point of explosion. They had glowing yellow lines on their arms and looked menacing. Earlier on, their arms had been stretched out towards Gustav’s position. Still, after the explosion, they didn’t seem to be on guard anymore. "SCANNING ENVIRONMENT FOR SIGNS OF LIFE!" A robotic voice was heard from one of them as rays of red and green light in the form of a net shot out. But immediately that happened, a silhouette dashed out of the smoke towards it. "SIGNS OF LIFE, DIS..." Before the robotic voice could complete its sentence, a tightly clenched fist drilled into the middle of its chest. Krryycchh! A small circular object blasted out from the back of the hole created in the machine’s chest. Trrooiinn! The glowing lines on its body dimmed immediately. The smoke cleared up, and Gustav’s straight-looking face was revealed. He neither had injuries, nor did he look ruffled in any way. Swoooshhh! Gustav withdrew his fist from the chest of the humanoid machine and dashed towards the left, dodging a green energy beam that was shot towards him from behind. He arched his arm backwards as he arrived in front of the humanoid machine on the left and threw it upwards. Bang! His fist collided with its jaw, causing it to be flung into the air. Gustav didn’t wait for a single second before swinging out his fist repeatedly. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! While still being suspended in mid-air Gustav’s fist rained down upon the body of the humanoid machine blasting apart several of its metallic body parts. Bang! The humanoid machine slammed into a tree on the other side, causing its body to break into bits and pieces. Gustav had already dashed towards the side again after successfully launching that attack. Swerve! Swerve! Swerve! Swerve! Gustav was moving at two hundred feet per second, so dodging the shots of the humanoid machines was really easy for him. His body moved across the place in a zig-zag manner. He arrived in front of another humanoid machine and rained down barrages of punches on it. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! In about a minute, Gustav was done dealing with every single humanoid except for the first one. All the Ais that fought with Gustav either lost one of their body parts or had their cores taken from their body, so their functions had shut down. Gustav gathered the cores and placed them in his storage device. ’Extra energy is always appreciated,’ He said internally as he walked towards the AI he didn’t finish off. "PARTICIPANT 00126 CAN PROCEED!" A robotic voice boomed out from the AI that Gustav hadn’t killed. "Hmm," Gustav nodded and dashed forward while throwing his arm out. Bang! His arm tore through the chest of the AI, and he grabbed onto its core before pulling it out with force. ’I won’t pass up on free energy,’ He said internally as the glow on the AI’s body dimmed as it fell to the ground. ’When the system absorbs the cores, the energy needed for the next upgrade will be reduced to a quarter,’ Gustav thought while storing the core in his storage device. Swoooshhh! He dashed forward after all was said and done, leaving the AIs in scraps. Gustav leaped to the top of a tree and started jumping from tree to tree after crossing a distance of seven hundred feet. ---- -Floor 617 (Watchroom) Gradier Xanatus stared at a particular screen at the top left corner of the holographic split screens. His eyes were laced with a look of disbelief and uncertainty. "Did that candidate just casually deal with a bunch of level six AIs without even activating his bloodline?" The shock in his voice was evident.