Infinity, The Arcade Age

Skill: Hadouken (Street Fighter World)

Skill Level: C-rank

Effect: Gather energy, consume mental power, and shoot an energy ball that deals damage equal to 2x your Strength.

Description: Hadouken!

Skill: Sonic Boom (Street Fighter World)

Skill Level: C-rank

Effect: Gather energy, consume mental power, and shoot an energy blade that deals damage equal to 2x your Strength.

Description: Sonic Boom!

Skill: Hyakushiki Oni Flame (King of Fighters World)

Skill Level: C-rank

Effect: Hands burst into flames, spinning and rising while dealing damage equal to 1.5x your Strength. Can knock opponents into the air.

Description: This is not a Shoryuken! Repeat, this is not a Shoryuken!

Skill: Blood Bite (Three Kingdoms World)

Skill Level: C-rank

Effect: Grab an enemy and perform a series of bites, dealing four hits of damage equal to your Strength.

Description: This is a strong crowd control skill, but it locks both the enemy and yourself in place. Not recommended during gang fights.

All four skills were C-rank, and their effects were solid.

Qin Ming's eyebrow twitched involuntarily as he looked at the skill books. After a moment of silence, he spoke.

"This is blue plot-level equipment."

The man across from him nodded quickly. "I know that, which is why I'm offering C-rank skill books. If you're still not satisfied, I can throw in an extra 2,000 points."

"I'll take 2,000 points, and I want two skill books."

"No way! A single C-rank skill book can easily sell for 6,000 to 8,000 points. Two of them would be at least 15,000! Your equipment isn't worth that much; it's not a fair trade."

The man hesitated as he looked at the armor on the stall, clearly tempted. The high defense and Constitution boost were perfect for a tank, and he couldn't let this chance slip.

After a brief pause, he pulled out another skill book and placed it on the stall, speaking in a deep voice.

"Pick one, and I'll give you this one too. Two for one!"

Qin Ming quickly glanced at the new skill book—and almost burst out laughing.

Skill Name: Essence Drain (Power Instinct World)

Skill Level: C-rank

Effect: Bite an enemy to drain their essence, temporarily boosting your attributes by 2 points each for one minute.

Description: This is the signature move of Kinta Kokuin from the Power Instinct series. With his unique bloodline, this little brat can absorb the essence of others to briefly grow stronger. Unfortunately, without the Kokuin family's bloodline, don't expect any transformations.

Kinta Kokuin? Power Instinct? Wasn't that the most ridiculous fighting game ever made, with characters whose moves were downright bizarre?

There were moves where characters farted, bit people, or swung turtle punches. The game's bloodline transformations allowed an old woman to become a young beauty and an elderly man with a cane to turn into a muscular brute. Oh, and Kinta Kokuin? A little kid who transforms into an adult—by biting his opponents, no less.

The most absurd part? When biting men or elderly women, Kinta would go for their heads. But when it came to young women or beauties, his bites would be, well, far more inappropriate.

And now, here was this guy offering that skill book!

Noticing Qin Ming's odd expression, the man scratched his head with an awkward smile.

"Look, I know this skill is a bit… unusual, and maybe the way you use it is weird, but hey, it's still a C-rank skill, right? It has some value. Plus, who knows? It might be surprisingly effective against certain female plot characters!"

"Deal!"

Even though the second skill was strange and had limited utility—it required biting the opponent and offered a mediocre buff—Qin Ming made the trade. After all, he wasn't desperate for the extra 2,000 points.

After selecting his two skill books and handing over the armor, Qin Ming pocketed his new skills and exchanged contact details with the man before leaving the stall.

As he held the two books in his hand, Qin Ming was initially tempted to fuse them into one. But his curiosity got the better of him, and he wondered what the useless biting skill might look like after being upgraded.

After some internal debate, he decided to hold off on fusion and first see if he could find other cheap skill books at the market.

With a bit of searching, Qin Ming managed to strike a deal: 6,000 points and four vegetable salad consumables got him two relatively worthless C-rank skill books dropped by elite mobs.

He then quickly fused the two books with the ones in his possession, and soon after, two newly upgraded B-rank skills appeared before him.

Skill Name: True Sonic Boom (Street Fighter World)

Skill Level: B-rank

Effect: Channel energy and unleash a wave that deals 2x Strength in damage. Can charge up to 4x damage.

Description: Guile never imagined that his signature move would one day be perfected by someone else.

Skill Name: True Essence Drain (Power Instinct World)

Skill Level: B-rank

Effect: Bite an enemy to drain their essence, boosting all attributes by 5 points for five minutes.

Description: Taste my bite! Slurp!

The newly upgraded B-rank skills were far more powerful than before. The difference wasn't small—it was a huge leap forward.

The second skill, especially, had transformed from a near-useless close-range biting move into a powerful debuff. The original 2-point attribute drain was now a hefty 5 points, and those points would be transferred to Qin Ming himself!

Looking at his newfound powers, Qin Ming was tempted to fuse the two skills into one. However, after some thought, he decided against it.

Having too high-level a skill might not be practical, especially when both these skills—one for ranged attacks, the other for close combat—complemented each other well.

He was currently lacking in close-range combat abilities, so keeping Essence Drain as a trump card seemed like a good idea.

If anyone dared to charge through his Sonic Boom or gunfire and try to take him on up close, he'd catch them in a hold, bite down, and drain 5 points from all their attributes. Their expression would be priceless.

While a skill like this might seem useless to high-level adventurers, where 5 attribute points wouldn't make much difference, it would be a devastating debuff against low-level adventurers.

Imagining the chaos he could cause with it, Qin Ming couldn't help but laugh to himself as he quickly learned the two new skills.

But just as he finished, a look of surprise crossed his face.

Even though he had already learned the skills, he realized that they could still be fused!

He could fuse skills that were already learned!

This… is a pleasant surprise!

(End of Chapter)