I Became the Blacksmith NPC

"It seems you have no interest in making a deal with me." The Void Lord stepped forward at a measured pace.

Liu Kongkong shrugged. "I never said I wanted to make a deal with you."

At those words, the Void Lord let out a cold laugh. "You may not fully grasp the situation. Do you think you can just leave after you die? With the control I have over this space, even your corpse won't be able to leave this room. But that's fine — I'll kill you a few thousand times first, and once you've come around, we can talk at our leisure."

"Oh, go right ahead." The door had already been shut, and there was no point loitering by it. Liu Kongkong simply walked a few steps forward.

"Arrogant fool! Even though I am merely a single fragment of the Divine King's true self, dealing with an ant like you is — more than sufficient!" With that, the Void Lord gripped his staff in his left hand, seized the other end with his right, and with a sharp clang, drew a longsword nearly three meters long from within the staff!

Wait, this guy is a Warrior? Liu Kongkong blinked in surprise. Before he could think it through, the Void Lord suddenly surged forward at blinding speed!

So fast!

Liu Kongkong was shocked! Compared to their first encounter, the Void Lord was now even faster than him. But in a fleeting moment, Liu Kongkong noticed that while the opponent's speed had skyrocketed, his maximum HP had dropped to only 120,000!

Trading max HP for speed?

But there was no time to dwell on it. In what felt like an instant, the Void Lord was already right in front of him — so close that Liu Kongkong could feel the chill radiating off the blade!

Not good!

Liu Kongkong immediately realized he couldn't dodge this strike. But just as the opponent raised his arm to swing the sword, his speed suddenly dropped…

Huh? What's going on?

He didn't understand why, but if the enemy had slowed down, the first order of business was to get out of range!

Liu Kongkong sidestepped out of the attack's reach. A moment later, the longsword slashed through empty air and struck the ground, sending a shockwave so powerful it nearly knocked Liu Kongkong off his feet. He was also stunned by the sheer force behind the blow — judging by the pressure alone, that strike would have dealt close to a million damage. Looking up, he saw the Void Lord's maximum HP slowly recovering back to 1,200,000.

Ah, I get it now. His earlier unease faded as Liu Kongkong immediately understood the Void Lord's current state. That last strike had been fast and brutal, but it was all achieved by constantly reallocating his own attributes.

High HP meant poor Attack Speed and Attack; high Speed meant low HP and Attack; and Attack worked the same way — three modes cycling between each other.

He had no idea how the Void Lord was pulling it off, but if that was all there was to it… Liu Kongkong grinned.

The Void Lord, for his part, felt a quiet pang of regret. If that last hit had connected, the opponent would have been dead on the spot.

"Your speed is a bit faster than I anticipated." A note of appreciation crept into the Void Lord's voice.

"And you're a lot weaker than I imagined…" Liu Kongkong didn't spare his feelings in the slightest.

"Very confident." The Void Lord didn't seem bothered. His maximum HP dropped back down to 120,000. "But also very ignorant." With that, he launched himself forward like a shot.

Seeing the opponent attack again, Liu Kongkong focused sharply — but quickly noticed something was off.

Hmm? The speed was still fast, but noticeably slower than before. Did this guy have a fourth mode?! No, wait — I get it. This time he split his attributes between Speed and Strength at the same time! Liu Kongkong immediately figured out what the opponent had done. If that was the case, he wasn't worried at all.

"Not a bad idea — too bad you didn't think of it on the first attack. And besides…" Liu Kongkong smiled and twisted to the side; the Void Lord's longsword grazed past his face and plunged into the ground right in front of him.

The Void Lord immediately sensed danger and tried to retreat — but it was already too late!

"At this speed, you're no threat to me." Liu Kongkong threw a punch, once again consuming 200 Mana! The familiar 50x damage multiplier! A terrifying number flashed into existence!

-999,999!!

But just as before, the Void Lord's HP halted at 84,000!

Phase lock again.

"Ha! Fool — did you think lowering my HP would let you one-shot me? This body was crafted by Li Tiansheng himself, imbued with his Dao Laws. Even at a tenth of his former strength, it's not something you can destroy right now." Despite the bravado, his body was quite honest about it — he backed away a considerable distance.

Watching the Void Lord retreat, Liu Kongkong didn't give chase. He smiled and asked, "Right now? So you know me well, do you?"

The Void Lord was momentarily at a loss for words. He had earlier tried to create a copy of Liu Kongkong, only to discover that the man's power had already reached the upper limit of this space — attempting a reckless copy would likely cause the replica to explode on the spot.

"I should also thank you." Seeing no answer forthcoming, Liu Kongkong stretched his limbs.

"Thank me? What do you mean?"

"Thank you for telling me that you can still be killed — as long as I break the Dao Laws Li Tiansheng bound to this body."

The Void Lord blinked, then burst out laughing. "Break them? Li Tiansheng may be weak now, but he is still a Human God. Your attacks may be terrifying among your peers, but against — wait, what are you doing?!" The Void Lord was mid-sentence when he saw light beginning to radiate from Liu Kongkong's hands!

"What if my Attack were even higher?" Liu Kongkong glanced at the Void Lord.

"Could it really… go higher? Wasn't that million-damage punch just now your full power?! But even if your Attack were ten times stronger, it still wouldn't be enough to—"

But before he could finish, Liu Kongkong was already standing right in front of him! If the Void Lord had still been in full-speed mode he might have dodged, but he had just converted all his attributes back to HP to recover!

"Ten times?" Liu Kongkong looked up with a grin. At that moment, his stat panel's Mana read 50,001/100,001. After drawing out fifty thousand Mana, he finally felt a faint, subtle ache in his body.

50,000 Mana! 5,000x damage! Let this one strike reveal just how strong Li Tiansheng was back then!

Before Liu Kongkong had even thrown the punch, the entire space began to tremble! The Void Lord sensed disaster and his true body frantically disengaged!

Almost simultaneously, Liu Kongkong's fist connected with the Void Lord's body. Compared to the terrifying buildup, the moment of impact was eerily quiet — as if space itself had frozen still.

Finally, after one full second, a trembling number appeared above the Void Lord's head.

-999,999!!

And the last digit — the final 9 — seemed to tremble, to struggle!

"Is even this not enough?" Liu Kongkong frowned with mild frustration.

Meanwhile, the Void Lord's true body watched from the shadows in horror. He could clearly feel the interior of his replica collapsing…

Finally, after two full seconds, the replica shattered! The damage number began climbing wildly!

One million!

Ten million!!

One hundred million!!!

At last, the number stopped climbing…

"…T-two hundred million…" Even the Void Lord hiding in the shadows was dumbstruck! He had expected Liu Kongkong's Attack to be high — but not absurdly, impossibly high like this! He turned his gaze to the perpetrator, who was cheerfully watching the stone door slowly swing open.

The boss had been killed, so naturally the boss room had opened…

"Oh, almost forgot about this." Just as he was about to leave, Liu Kongkong turned back and picked up the Guild Establishment Permit lying on the ground. That was a valuable item. Then he checked the warning timer — half an hour had already passed since he'd removed the ring. He didn't dare put it back on here, though, since the Void Lord's true body had escaped at the last moment.

"Wait." The Void Lord, lurking in the shadows, hurriedly called out as he saw Liu Kongkong about to leave.

"What, you want another round? Will you drop another one if we fight again?" Liu Kongkong waved the Permit at the room.

"In this place, you are not someone I can oppose." The Void Lord quickly declined.

"Then what do you want?"

"You don't have to make a deal with me, but I still want to give you one word of warning — do not trust Li Tiansheng…"

"Mm, noted. Thanks." Liu Kongkong pursed his lips, gave a brief acknowledgment, and turned to leave.

"Can you really not tell me your name?!"

The Void Lord seemed desperately curious.

Liu Kongkong let out a sigh. "I told you — my name is Lonely as a Song!"

At that very moment, somewhere deep in a Secret Realm, Lonely as a Song suddenly sneezed!

"Did I catch a cold? Why do I keep sneezing all of a sudden…"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!