Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Martial Artist

Olympic Champion—upon wearing this title, you can designate a sporting event and gain a related skill. For example, choosing running bestows “Sprint,” or choosing long jump creates “Leap.” As for I Am Legend, it too allows you to select a sporting event when worn.

But this doesn’t grant a skill—it bestows a profession.

The World Modulator’s personal panel does not include a “profession” category. Unlike some games in which a profession directly grants skills, here it enhances your comprehension and ability to learn that discipline. Simply put, it lets you master something rapidly! For instance, say a Modulator unlocks the Arcane Missile spell with magical genes and would normally need ten days to learn it. But with a certain title that grants the “Mage” profession, it might take less than a day.

Yan Luo surveyed the available options.

He discovered that these events matched those of the ancient Olympic Games—specifically, the ones he’d participated in himself. There weren’t many choices.

For example, picking running would yield the profession “Runner,” and choosing horse racing would grant “Jockey.” Among these, boxing and wrestling were undeniably strong choices: Boxer and Wrestler—practically combat professions.

Yan Luo’s attention was drawn to one event: Pankration.

In name, Pankration combined boxing and wrestling, but in reality, anything went. Competitors could use all sorts of methods—stomping toes, poking noses, yanking ears, breaking fingers, choking—utterly merciless, every underhanded martial trick allowed in pursuit of victory.

Thus, Pankration effectively meant mixed martial arts—unrestricted hand-to-hand combat.

Choosing Pankration would grant the profession—

Fighter.

This was a dilemma. Yan Luo, in this world, had already obtained the practical “Bronze-grade Warrior,” which let him swiftly master a set of staff techniques. With his weapon, the Coiling Dragon Staff, his destructive power with a heavy weapon was ten times greater than empty-handed.

Moreover, his main reason for learning Wing Chun was for its Eight Slashing Knives and Six-and-a-Half Point Staff techniques.

But as a Fighter, specializing in unarmed combat, weapons would have to be set aside. His main goal for learning Wing Chun would be lost. The Twin Mandarin Duck Swords and Coiling Dragon Staff—buying both would be pointless.

In other words, the “Bronze-grade Warrior” and “I Am Legend” titles not only conflicted, but also forced Yan Luo’s initial path into contradiction.

The value of the Fighter profession was undoubtedly far above basic staff technique—almost on par with a “Master” gene—but at least in the early stages, the advantage of a heavy weapon was overwhelming! Even if Yan Luo quickly learned a martial art, he couldn’t hope to fend off himself wielding a 62-pound Coiling Dragon Staff, executing the Six-and-a-Half Point Staff technique.

After weighing it all, Yan Luo abandoned the Bronze-grade Warrior and kept the I Am Legend title.

As for why—even with his enhanced physique, wielding a 62-pound Coiling Dragon Staff was still too taxing at the early life stage. With the “Power of Words” skill, his verbal projectiles were like bullets, offsetting the disadvantage of empty hands. The Fighter profession offered broad possibilities—he needn’t be limited to staff techniques.

And if he ever wanted to use weapons, he could always seek out a war-themed inner world in the future and earn a “Thousand-Man Slayer” or even a “Ten-Thousand-Man Slayer” milestone.

Having kept the “I Am Legend” title, Yan Luo realized something else: only because he’d entered the ancient Olympic Games was Pankration an option. In the modern Olympics, a “Fighter” profession would never exist!

Modern Olympics have boxing, wrestling, judo, and taekwondo—all subcategories of fighting. In fact, fighting encompasses many disciplines not in the Olympics, like sumo or sanda. The value of this title was immense.

Amidst the cheers of the arena, inside the Soulless Doll, his emotion level once again hit 100.

The fusion still failed, but he obtained a 10% fragment.

The mask of the Heroic Soul was now at 70%.

It was evening before Yan Luo returned to his quarters. He’d finished all his tasks in this world and secured a triggered side quest. Both Dongwei Wang and Xiaoyong Zhu, with their “Olympic Champion” titles, were overjoyed.

Only the closing ceremony remained.

Dongwei Wang and Xiaoyong Zhu chatted excitedly, while Yan Luo closed his eyes, resting and pondering his future path. Now that he had the Fighter profession, choosing a form of unarmed combat had become urgent.

If he no longer intended to practice staff techniques, Wing Chun could also be set aside—not that Wing Chun was weak, but its strengths lay in defense, and its most powerful attacks depended on the Eight Slashing Knives and Six-and-a-Half Point Staff.

In “Ip Man 3,” the fight with Mike Tyson showcased Wing Chun’s style, but with his bio-enhanced stats, why should Yan Luo fight defensively? That was far too passive.

“Bajiquan seems quite ferocious...”

“Wait!”

Yan Luo had a thought—the inner worlds included all sorts of genres. There must be worlds akin to Tiger Gate, Storm Riders, or even Saint Seiya and Fist of the North Star—fantastical martial arts realms. Why not seek out a mystical martial art?

“I wonder how much bio-energy I’ll earn after this world ends—will it be enough to buy a martial arts manual...”

A sleepless night passed in Olympia. Dongwei Wang and Xiaoyong Zhu, anticipating their return home the next day, could hardly sleep for excitement. The Greeks, too, were restless with excitement—especially now that news had spread throughout Athens of Yan Luo’s six Olympic championships and his unmatched rhetorical victory over the city’s finest minds.

Socrates, still in his thirties, was not yet famous outside his city, but Herodotus, Euripides, and Sophocles were national treasures of Greece! In this era, scholars were held in the highest regard.

Just as in ancient China, where the top scholar was thought to be a star descended from heaven, these men were regarded by ordinary Greeks as quasi-divine.

At the Olympics, Yan Luo had defeated all Greek champions; before the Parthenon, he’d bested Athens’s greatest sages. Not even heroes of the Bronze Age could claim such feats.

If, until now, only some considered Yan Luo a demigod, by now the Greeks truly saw him as a demigod born into the Iron Age.

It was truly awe-inspiring.

After a chaotic night, dawn arrived.

The three donned pure white linen robes—today was the closing ceremony, and they were to receive the Olympic Champion’s prize: an olive wreath. Xiaoyong Zhu felt a pang of regret; though he had his phone, it couldn’t take photos in the inner world.

Otherwise, even a single photograph brought back to the real world would astonish all.

Odysseus of Croton also donned a linen robe. Though he’d only won the chariot race, which Yan Luo hadn’t entered, he was all smiles—how fortunate to be a champion at such a legendary Olympic Games! He was certain that, thanks to Yan Luo—the “demigod hero” who’d swept the Olympics—he too would be remembered for centuries.

A chorus of boys aged thirteen to fifteen sang hymns to Zeus. Led by the priests, Yan Luo and the others proceeded toward the Temple of Zeus, flanked by a crowd of spectators and athletes. No one cheered or shouted—it was a sacred moment.

You sense powerful emotions:

Reverence +1

Excitement +1

Anger +1

...

Reverence was for Zeus, King of the Gods; excitement, the crowd’s awe at Yan Luo, the “demigod hero”; and anger, the resentment of athletes—after all, many had come to compete, only to be overshadowed, with some friends even injured or killed.

Yan Luo set absorption limits:

Excitement: 30 points

Anger: 30 points

Reverence: 40 points

All three emotions steadily increased as Yan Luo and his companions arrived at the Temple of Zeus.

No one spoke; all eyes were fixed on him. Though three others stood beside him—two from the team chariot race, one from horse racing—none were as important. Yan Luo alone had claimed six championships and bested Athens’s sages in debate!

A young woman in a white robe approached, carrying a tray laden with olive wreaths.

At once, the eyes of both spectators and athletes burned with fervor. Though these were merely symbolic crowns of woven olive branches, they represented the greatest glory in all Greece: peace, happiness, and victory.

Excitement, anger, and reverence surged ever higher. As the high priest placed the olive wreath upon Yan Luo’s head, the emotion meter inside the Soulless Doll hit 100.

Unlike before, Yan Luo had set the division at ten points per unit: three units of anger, three of excitement, four of reverence.

Red, yellow, and white light merged. As Yan Luo stood upon the altar before the Temple of Zeus, crowned with the olive wreath, the mask in his mind finally took shape—a broad mask covering his whole face, with two sharp protrusions on either side near the top.