Nero was very confident about asking Jing Yuan for pocket money.
Judging from his life after returning to the Xianzhou, Nero felt that Jing Yuan was an elder who was easy to talk to.
After finding out that he was staying directly in the Sleepless Marquis teahouse, he even helped arrange a place for him to live.
Saying that General Jing Yuan is a good person is absolutely not an exaggeration.
Besides, compared to spending his own money, spending someone else's money is obviously more comfortable, and he wouldn't need to hold back.
After returning to the Xianzhou, Nero got along very well with the "locals" and made quite a few new friends.
For example, Yanqing. Every time the Artisanship Commission released a new flying sword, he would throw all his money into it.
Although Yanqing would usually struggle for a while before buying a flying sword, the result never changed.
After buying the sword and running out of money, this little genius would always say a carefree line of wisdom, "Eat from the General, use the General, pitifully beg the General..."
Nero was someone good at learning. Of course he would learn such a useful method.
Besides, wasn't what he was doing much more reasonable than Yanqing? He was only asking for some money and even giving them a wanted criminal in return...
Below, Blade looked at Nero, confusion rising in his heart.
Looking at him now, this kid seemed to be distracted.
But being distracted in the middle of a fight was a bit too...
Blade frowned tightly, but suddenly felt a chill on his back, as if something had locked onto him.
So he understood.
Sure enough, he was pretending to be distracted to lure the enemy in... 'This kid might be young, but he had plenty of schemes.'
Speaking of which, the current Luofu General was also someone full of schemes...
Blade didn't know that Nero had already made up his mind. Although he remained alert, he did relax his stance slightly. Matters in the air should be left to those capable of dealing with the air.
This mission wasn't something he came to handle alone.
After this mission ended, he still had to pretend to cause some trouble to attract Jing Yuan's attention... one mission after another...
But first, he had to focus on the matter at hand. It wasn't time to retreat yet.
Before Nero could move to capture Blade, a burst of gunfire rang out. A large number of bullets poured toward Nero.
The wind turned into a silent, invisible barrier, blocking those bullets. It looked as if the bullets simply ran out of strength midair and fell on their own, but only heaven knew how strong the wind around Nero had been just now.
Noticing the attack, Nero turned his head and saw Kafka holding a submachine gun.
Seeing this, Siberian Duck immediately shouted, "Mom!"
The bullet comments scrolled even faster. As a deeply sinful woman, Kafka's popularity was extremely high.
But relying on bullets alone made it rather difficult to deal with Nero.
While Nero's attention was drawn to Kafka, a blaze shot into the sky. The mech warrior wrapped in flames was the main damage dealer in this encounter.
Sam was extremely fast. The thrusters roared powerfully, flames howled, and an iron fist blasted toward Nero almost in an instant.
With a loud bang, Nero's figure was sent flying backward, but he quickly steadied himself on the ground.
A pitch black blade blocked in front of him. Sam's punch had just hit Black Cutter.
Nero leaned out and took a look, "..."
'Blade, Kafka, Sam. I'm fighting the Stellaron Hunters? Seriously?'
Black Cutter also looked left and right, even though no one knew where this sword's eyes actually were.
"...Shattered Sword... and full body armor. Good stuff!"
Black Cutter was clearly excited. At the same time, to show its loyalty in protecting its master, it said to Nero, "How about I animate their weapons? I'll capture them in minutes and execute them on the spot. What do you think?"
Black Cutter was a weapon forged from a Stellaron. Besides being hard and sharp, it had some special traits, such as the ability to animate weapons.
It wasn't that Nero couldn't use this ability after obtaining it. It was just that Nero was too strong, so the ability wasn't needed.
It was hard to imagine how Argenti fought against Black Cutter before meeting Nero. Maybe at that time he was holding an animated spear while fighting. If you want a comparison, it would be like Nero using Stelle to jump slash.
Nero shook his head and rejected Black Cutter's suggestion.
Compared to exploiting information gaps to deal with the Stellaron Hunters, he would rather capture them and exchange them for money, or throw them into his Fragmentum factory to work.
Maybe he should capture Kafka too and let her have a "mother and daughter reunion" with Stelle. That sounded pretty good.
Nero narrowed his eyes, a few more little thoughts appearing.
All these thoughts flashed by in just an instant. A fight was still a fight.
Elio had said he wanted to observe how Nero would react when faced with a series of sudden situations. From what they had seen so far, this was a very calm and caring person...
But would this kind of contact allow Elio to observe Nero's future?
Sam had doubts in his heart, but while thinking, he had already shot toward Nero like an arrow with the power of his thrusters and armor, lifting his leg into a knight kick.
Nero dodged with a backhand motion, then slashed back with a sword.
The sword move he used was just learned from Blade moments ago.
The blade collided with the armor with a loud crash. Black Cutter's terrifying weight combined with Nero's astonishing arm and wrist strength sent Sam flying, returning the punch from earlier.
Holding a grudge meant taking revenge. Otherwise it wouldn't feel right.
Sam spun in midair, steadied himself, then turned to look at Blade.
He could tell whose move that sword strike resembled.
Sam expressed condemnation toward his irresponsible teammate.
But Blade was also shocked. After all, it was a one to one replica of the sword move he had just used. He was more familiar with it than Sam.
'This kid really is a damn genius.'
Thinking back to how he had learned swordsmanship from that woman... forget it, better not bring up the past.
In the brief moment of distraction, Nero had already leaped high into the air with his sword and brought down a heavy jump slash.
Kafka stood to the side harassing. Although she had no intention of killing, at least not at this level of combat, she still fired quite a few bullets, but none of them affected Nero.
Facing the heavy blade coming straight at him, Blade instinctively wanted to raise his sword horizontally to block, but quickly reacted and suppressed his muscle memory, rolling aside to dodge.
The next moment, the ground split apart.
Blade had strength in his arms. In normal exchanges, blocking with one hand or knocking away an opponent's weapon wasn't uncommon for him.
But trying to block a heavy sword like Black Cutter this way would be pure wishful thinking.
No one knew where this person got such strength. He could swing that heavy sword with one hand as if it were part of his arm.
Seeing such a promising junior from the Xianzhou Alliance, Blade's feelings were complicated, but he quickly let it go.
No matter how outstanding the junior was, it had nothing to do with who he was now.
If it were in the past, he would probably have gladly forged a handy weapon for him...
Who knew how much Elio understood. Anyway, Blade himself had many emotions.
Here, taking advantage of the moment when Nero's old strength had not yet faded and new strength had not yet risen, Blade stepped forward and slashed down with his sword.
On the other side, Nero actually lifted his leg to kick the sword, then quickly returned the exact same move.
The two weapons with obvious differences collided. As expected, the Shattered Sword in Blade's hand flew out of his grip.
The next second, Nero kicked the blade again. Black Cutter shifted sideways and, using its blade, smacked Blade flying.
In this exchange, neither of them used their full strength. Relying purely on physical ability and sword moves, it was clear that Nero had the upper hand.