Chapter 49 - 50- Woah! I defeated myself

Chapter 49: Chapter 50- Woah! I defeated myself In front of her stood herself. Same body shape, size, hair colour, everything to the tea. "Umm...Voice, where is my opponent?" Eva asked as she called out to the mechanical entity. But silence greeted her. "Haha... Very funny, now the jokes over—" Eva quickly dodged her doppelganger’s attack. Eva noted it was the same way she attacked and became speechless, she could only focus on dodging. Every time Eva landed a blow, her doppelganger was able to counter it effortlessly. Eva was depressed and filled with anger, how was she going to win when her moves were being read to the tea? She could only dodge while racking her mind for any new moves she’d learned. Recalling Julian’s sword moves, Eva swung her sword barely managing to execute the strike, but it was enough to disorient her doppelganger and land a hit. Her sword tore through Its shoulders, leaving a gash. Then Eva was able to notice the difference between them. The fight continued this way, Eva bringing random moves on the spot; she was some genius. How could she be this good? With a smug look on her face, she jumped, launching a forceful leg kick on its sides. "Crack!" Eva didn’t feel any physiological pressure and caused harm to it. It can look like her, but in fact, a different being entirely. Eva took some hits as well, it couldn’t be avoided due to its skillful way of reading her every move. She healed herself while fighting, clashes of human flesh and bones cracking filled the arena. After hours of fighting, Eva healed herself at the first sign of exhaustion, while her doppelganger’s expression remained vacant. Its body bled but showed no signs of healing or retreating from pain. Eva looked at its unkillable behaviour and huffed in frustration. She wanted to go back to Julian and Ethan, but this test kept dragging on and on. Eva’s eyes darkened, her anger bubbling beneath the surface. And her attacks became ruthless, her sword severed the other hand clean from its shoulder blades. The force of its punch made her stomach churn as she was sent crashing to the ground. "Bang!" Eva flipped to her feet, healing herself in mid-move. Blood seeped through the corner of her lips as she severed another part of its body with a trade-off of an attack on her person. Such a trade-off continued; Eva’s legs and arms hung loosely from dislocation, but the doppelganger was in worse shape. It had no hands or legs to fight on and could only lay in the arena. Eva heaved, healing herself and resetting her bones in the process. "Hm..." Moans and gasps left her lips as her bones snapped back into place. "Haa! I’m so tired." Eva muttered shakily, staring at her doppelganger stuck in the middle without movement. "Woah! I defeated myself, I...feel so inspired or not. What emotions am I supposed to feel ( ̄\_(ツ)_/ ̄ )." She held her chin, muttering to herself. In those cultivational novels, one would feel inspired and filled with growth and wisdom. But her mind was blank feeling nothing but exhaustion. "Ah, forget about it. It will come to me later." She shrugged it off and brought out a roasted meat from her space bag. "Voice San!" She called out and took a big bite of her meat while waiting for the Voice to declare her a winner. Her cheeks were full as she chewed but the voice was playing hard to get—not answering her. She sat there and brought out different roasted meat and a bamboo cup filled with water. Meanwhile, Ethan and Julian were facing their Endurance test. They were shocked by such a landscape, having never seen such a thing as a volcano. Back in the forest, their mind was vested in searching for Eva, and they didn’t notice the sun wasn’t artificial like the underground Cities. But this was so big that they couldn’t ignore it, and their hellish test began; they walked forward like Eva, dodging rocks being thrown at them and moving without stopping. Their minds were already honed by the dungeon, so they felt no mental pressure, only physical ones. But they pushed forward; the thought that Eva might have faced such a situation made them feel distress and urgency to get to her. The hoped she would quit if she couldn’t handle it. Unaware she wasn’t made aware quitting was an option. The person they were thinking of was walking around her opponent with confusion as she poked her body. "Tsk....they didn’t do my breast proportion right. How is this medium size? Even the butt’s way smaller." Eva poked around Eva 2 body. She was bored; the voice didn’t want to answer her and she was stuck here with a vacant, unresponsive body. Should she end its life, it looked quite pitiful, staring into space like this. Humming at her thoughts, she brought out a sword and severed its head, putting her hands in a praying motion. "Rest in peace." "Competition ended." At its words, the figure of her doppelganger shone bright; Eva covered her eyes to shield the bright light. After a minute, it dimmed, and Eva blinked and removed her hands. A silver ring was placed in the middle of the arena. Eva’s gaze darted around cautiously, and she poked the ring with the tip of her sword to be safe. Seeing nothing sprang out to attack her, she squatted and picked up the ring. Feeling the cold metal on her finger, and felt around it with her face filled with a question mark. ’Wasn’t she sent to another location, has the test ended?’ her mind was filled with questions as she slipped the ring on her finger. "Ow! I was careless!" Eva felt the ring pinch her skin, sucking on her blood. She panicked, thinking the ring was about to drain her, and was ready to cut her finger off. Her sword was already raised high, but the ring’s actions stopped as quickly as it came, causing Eva to feel relieved. She really hoped to save her finger. She was about to pull it off, but the ring was stuck, no matter how hard she yanked. She put her finger into her mouth, trying to pull it off, but it was useless. Instead, she ended up hurting herself with her efforts. An idea came to her and she opened her space bag to bring out a piece of meat. She squeezed the leftover oil on her fingers and was about to pull when she suddenly vanished. Blinking she found herself back in the floating room. Her actions of pulling the ring were forgotten. "Voice! Come out here! I promise not to hit you. We are only going to talk." Eva’s voice was gentle but her teeth were grinding with hatred when she thought of the sufferings and near-deaths situations she faced in the test. Voice: "Congratulations to the Competitor; you’re the first of your kind to finish the test." Its mechanical voice echoed through the room. If one could make a difference between its voice they would hear schadenfreude and respect at Eva’s competition after watching the whole process. Her Improvements, her not giving up and still retaining her annoying character. "You were rewarded a living space ring, for being the first to finish the test without giving up." A mechanical voice interrupted Eva’s murderous thought. Eva: \⁠(⁠°⁠o⁠°⁠)⁠/ .