Matthew Atkinson
Oxford, United Kingdom
After eating his lunch, Matthew returned to his dormitory.
It appeared the principal wasn't at the university at the moment, and their meeting was scheduled for tomorrow after classes.
That wasn't a problem for Matthew. He could meet with the principal whenever he was available. After all, the next eighth layer wouldn't open for a year.
Right now, Matthew had more important things to attend to.
Then, with a thought in Matthew's mind, suddenly the void in front of him flickered, and two golden boxes appeared out of thin air, enveloped in a ball of light, floating in front of Matthew.
Extraordinary Treasure Chests.
One of them was a reward Matthew received for finding a bug in the eighth layer of the Supernatural Realm. He got it today.
And unlike the other chests he'd received so far, this one had "special reward" written on it.
The other one was the extraordinary treasure chest he won from the seventh layer of the supernatural realm.
It was supposed to be distributed in the eighth layer of the supernatural realm, but since the eighth layer was a virtual world, Matthew had to wait for the layer to finish before he could collect the chest.
The same thing happened when they first entered the OASIS world on the fourth layer. So, Matthew wasn't particularly surprised.
Matthew first reached for the chest marked "Special Reward" and opened it.
Inside the chest was a card.
[Amnesiac Protection Card: This card, once used, will allow you to remember your experiences in the Amnesiac Layers.]
[Note: This card requires the user to have been a Supernatural for at least 10 months to be effective.]
Frankly, Matthew wasn't particularly pleased with this reward.
Governments and other organizations might go to great lengths to obtain this card. After all, it could give them an advantage over others.
But individually, this reward wouldn't add anything to Matthew's power.
Matthew thought it would be better to give the card to an official organization. After all, he hadn't even been a supernatural individual for ten months.
If a veteran used the card, they could obtain the necessary information faster. Moreover, they could also learn the information about the Amnesiac Layers Matthew would need to enter in the future.
After all, if someone who had reached the higher layers used this card, much more about the amnesiac layers would be revealed.
Matthew was just about to consider Natalie's father, Grand Magister Russell, as the right person to deliver this card when the card in his hand suddenly transformed into a beam of light, traveling to his chest and merging with him.
Apparently, the Supernatural Realm wasn't considering giving Matthew that chance.
Matthew simply shrugged. He would figure out what to do next when he had the knowledge from the amnesiac layers.
Matthew reached out to the other treasure chest and opened it without hesitation.
Inside, there was a scroll.
As Matthew picked up the scroll, a prompt appeared in his left eye.
[A supernatural skill has been discovered...]
[Skill: Danger Sense]
[Skill Effect: When danger is about to emerge, the user of this skill can sense it in advance.]
[Note: This skill can sense danger but does not specify what it is.]
Matthew's eyes lit up when he saw the skill on the scroll.
This skill was pretty good. Although it seemed to have little use, Matthew was quite satisfied.
With this skill, his survivability had clearly improved significantly. And that's exactly what Matthew wanted.
He knew this skill because he had used it in the fourth layer at OASIS. Thanks to this skill, Natalie's life was saved, and they managed to achieve a perfect score in Artifact Hunt.
Although Matthew now possessed Supreme Level Observation Haki, these two skills were not the same.
First, Observation Haki had a limited area. It couldn't sense anything outside its domain. And even if he sensed an attack with Observation Haki, he couldn't know if it would be fatal for him.
Trying to block, deflect, or dodge the attack was up to his judgment.
But thanks to Danger Sense, he could sense which attack posed what level of risk. This significantly increased his survival ability.
He possessed a Kryptonian physique. So as long as he survived, he would undoubtedly become an unimaginably powerful figure in the future.
Perhaps this skill would only become useless when he became completely invincible.
Without much thought, Matthew tore open the scroll and successfully obtained the "Danger Sense" skill.
Oh, by the way, the reward he received for the sixth layer of the Supernatural Realm was a defensive ring called "Ivan's Protection".
Matthew received it in the seventh layer of the supernatural realm.
According to the description of "Ivan's Protection", Ivan was a powerful magician who had engraved a miniature defensive magic circle in the ring, which could provide the wearer with a certain degree of protection.
The higher the wearer's mental strength, the greater the protection.
Matthew already had the Superman Battlesuit, Armament Haki, and a Steel Body, so he had no shortage of defense.
Therefore, he gave the ring to his fiancée, Natalie.
After gaining the ability of "Denger Sense," Matthew couldn't wait to test it out.
He glanced at the time. It was a little past one in the afternoon. He left the campus and wandered into a deserted, desolate area.
Then he leaped up and flew into the sky.
-Boom
A tremendous sonic boom occurred.
A large number of air currents instantly appeared around Matthew.
At this moment, his flight speed had reached 2.5 times the speed of sound. This meant it was 2.5 Mach.
This appears to be based on his agility attribute, which determines the corresponding flight speed.
Given that his current agility attribute was 2550, Matthew assumed that every 1000 agility would give him a flight speed of 1 mach.
The ground beneath his feet seemed to recede further and further away from Matthew.
At this moment, Matthew was rising rapidly, soaring to new heights.
He didn't dare to venture beyond the atmosphere when he was testing the flight before.
Now that he possessed "danger sense," he felt more confident and wanted to see for himself what lay beyond the atmosphere.
He didn't yet possess the Bio-Electric Aura ability. Therefore, he couldn't remain in a vacuum for long, but a brief step outside the atmosphere wasn't a problem.
-Whoosh, whoosh
A powerful gust of air swept past Matthew's ear.
Just as Matthew was about to break through the ozone layer, his expression suddenly changed, and he stopped.
Because, just now, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, and his hair stood on end.
This was clearly due to his Danger Sense skill, which let him sense imminent danger.
It was as if a deadly crisis awaited him the moment he broke through the ozone layer.
…
Back in the dormitory, Matthew was still shaken.
He was now almost certain of his previous guess. There must be something terrifying outside the atmosphere.
Matthew frowned.
He feared that terrifying being might suddenly descend upon their planet before his strength had fully matured.
That would be troublesome.
But there was no use worrying about that now. All he could do was work hard to improve his strength.
Realizing this, Matthew could only stop thinking about it.
However, the skill Danger Sense was much more useful than he had imagined.
With this skill, he could probably avoid many fatal crises.
Then Matthew took out his phone and went online.
Unsurprisingly, he and Natalie were trending on social media again.
Because this time, their achievement went far beyond simply earning an SSS grade.
Everyone who had previously participated in the eighth layer knew how difficult it was to finish the race to the first key.
And everyone who entered the eighteenth and twenty-eighth layers automatically failed the mission in those layers and returned without any reward.
Because they hadn't completed the race in the eighth layer and hadn't obtained the bronze key.
Therefore, they had lost the right to enter the second and third challenges.
Now, Matthew, Natalie, and the others in their party would not only be the first to win the first challenge, but they would also be the first to qualify for the task in the eighteenth layer.
"Holy crap. Did they finish the race? Really?"
"That's incredible. How did they do that?"
"What's so surprising about finishing the race? Many people must have finished the race before, right?"
"Just by looking at your comment, I can tell that you are an ordinary person who has no knowledge about the eighth layer. Since the Supernatural Realm existed, no one, not even the current experts, has ever finished that race."
"As far as I know, the race is full of dangers. Everyone has only one life. And no one has ever passed King Kong. How exactly did they manage that?"
"From what I've heard, Super Brain on their team has found a way to win the race. It's said he noticed something nobody else had noticed before..."
...
Countless netizens were discussing their latest achievement.
Amid these discussions, the number of supernatural beings speaking was significantly greater, because only they knew the true significance of Matthew and his party's success in finishing the race on the eighth layer of the supernatural realm.
When evening arrived, a video went viral online.
The video featured a foreign news channel reporting that Matthew had found a way to complete the race on the eighth layer.
According to their "reliable sources", Matthew had accessed information on the eighth layer that would allow everyone to complete the race.
The news channel appealed to Matthew, the University of Oxford, and the United Kingdom, urging them to share this information for the benefit of humanity.
It seemed that what Matthew had said on the campus training ground after returning from the eighth layer had been sold to news outlets by someone.
He didn't know if they were students or members of the university staff, and it couldn't be said he cared.
But this video attracted the attention of countless people.
"Really? According to this news channel, Matthew Atkinson has seen something that no one has seen in centuries, right?"
"Is there any information that will enable everyone to finish the race? That should be an exaggeration."
"If I remember correctly, wasn't the highest grade ever achieved an A-grade? Now someone has managed to get a grade three levels higher than the highest result?"
"Impossible. Isn't someone achieving such a feat essentially insulting our King-level experts? I hope nothing bad happens to them."
"I heard that the vehicles they build are of the SSS+ level. Is this information correct? I didn't even know such a vehicle level existed."
"What I'm more curious about is who finished the race first?"
"Natalie and Matthew have definitely finished the race. The foreign news anchor said that Natalie Russell herself said that Matthew Atkinson was the first to finish the race."
"It seems Matthew Atkinson is no ordinary person."
"It's nothing much. He must have had a stroke of luck and come across some new information. Maybe the supernatural realm lowered the difficulty level because no one finished the race for a long time."
"Mate, if that were the case, a lot of people would have to finish the race. It's clear Matthew isn't an ordinary person. I wish he didn't possess the useless Kryptonian Bloodline..."
...
It had to be said, the release of this video has drawn a lot of attention to Matthew.
Although Matthew's success in the eighth layer had nothing to do with his Kryptonian abilities, some people still focused their attention on that aspect.
Their logic was simple.
Since Matthew had the "most powerful brain" and was a smart person, how could he do something like exchange a top-tier Devil Fruit for a useless bloodline?
Many people now speculate that Matthew wanted to uncover the secret of the Kryptonian Bloodline.
Information about this was available online, and Matthew himself was aware of this.
However, he didn't pay too much attention to it.
As long as that old guy in South Korea didn't wake up, even if some people think he had uncovered the secrets of the Kryptonian Bloodline, it could only remain speculation.
And if no one among next year's freshmen acquired Kryptonian Bloodline, then Matthew's position would be secure.
Because two years was enough time for Matthew's strength to grow to an extremely terrifying level.
At that time, he would possess the singularity of the Kryptonian Bloodline.
So, the Holy Land would no longer produce Kryptonian Bloodline Cards.
---------------
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.159: Annual University Auction
Ch.160: New Goal - The Tremor-Tremor Fruit
Ch.161: A New Project