"Boss, are we really going to just sit here like dumbasses and wait for Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand to show up?" asked a magic knight looking to his party leader.

The Level 191 berserker wielding a fiery red warblade and sitting at the center of the group grinned. "I don’t get what you’re saying? We’re just taking a break at this nice little spot, aren’t we?"

The magic knight lowered his voice. "Can you tell me what the hell is happening to us? Why were we transferred from Era of Strife and into this temporary ‘Descent of the One Hundred Gods’ guild?"

"To kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand!"

"Then why aren’t we searching for him right now?"

"Hmph, we’ll only die faster that way. Didn’t you see what happened to Tail Feather Palace’s group?" The berserker’s eyes flashed with intelligence. "There is a Chinese saying called ‘watching from the walls’, and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now. If God’s Domain and Asuka Period want so damn much to play the national heroes and kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, we’ll let them. Our only priority here is to not die and preserve our strength. Don’t forget that you’ll have to restart from zero if we die in this goddamned Final Duel Valley. Us Era of Strife at least cannot afford to lose our players willy-nilly like that."

"I see. You’re a wise man, boss. Our guild leader is too!"

"Heh!"

……

I considered my options after listening to the entire conversation. I knew that this Descent of the One Hundred Gods guild couldn’t be fully united. The Top 10 guilds of Japan might’ve put some of their best forces together to form this guild, but just like the guilds in my own country, they all had their own devious little plots and schemes. For example, these 20+ Era of Strife elites were planning to "watch from the walls" while the main bulk of their army did their job for them. I saw no reason to leave them alive, so I decided that they might as well be my first kills after I had slipped behind enemy lines.

That being said, it was never wise to attack without a plan, so I did exactly that. First, I would release the apparition and made it use Earth Escape just like me. Then, I would make it ambush the assassins and attract the mounted players’ attention. Once they were sufficiently distracted, I would launch the real attack and kill them as quickly as I could, giving them no chance to activate their invincibility skills assuming that they had any!

Now that I had thought up the plan, I took control of three characters—myself, my apparition and the Phantom Wolf King—at once and carefully snuck my way to their side. I waited until the enemy’s archers’ Skypiercer was on cooldown before moving myself and the Phantom Wolf King closer to the main bulk of the party. After everyone was in position, I unearthed the apparition and made it use Purple Dragon Howl immediately! If there was one skill that one-shot everything it hit, this would be it!

Roar!

The purple dragon easily annihilated the two assassins.

"Fuck! It’s a sneak attack! That boy is over there! Kill him!"

The mounted players on the hills immediately rose to their feet and summoned their mounts.

This is my chance!

I jumped out from underground and kicked off the real assault with Burning Blade Slash. Before they could react, I followed up with Thousand Ice Slash + Ancient Seal combo that nearly flattened the entire hill!

After all 7 mounted players dropped dead and dissolved into specks of white light, I mounted up myself and sent the eighth and last low-health magic knight to Level 0. At the same time, the Phantom Wolf King launched its own attack and tore through the archers it was targeting like paper. The triple multitasking and sneak attack scared the shit out of the top players of Era of Strife. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear!

"Stun him now or it’ll be too late!"

The mages barked out some orders, but the Phantom Wolf King was constantly harassing their Magic Shields, and I was dodging the archers’ shots left and right. While doing this, I fired a couple of Dragon Slaying Slashes that forced the archers to use Leap to dodge out of the way. Before three archers could land though, I tossed my weapon at them and used Coiling Dragon Revolution!

Pu pu pu...

The spinning blade easily cleaved through their chests and one-shot them all. Caught completely off-guard, the first-rate players of Purple Grape City were unable to unleash their true strength at all. However, my killing of the archers finally gave the mages enough time to scorch my Heaven-burning Armor with their Touch of the Dragonkiss, dropping me to 27% HP in an instant. If nothing else, their attack power was nothing to scoff at.

After that, I kept using Tenacity of the Dead the second it went off cooldown and ran rings around the hill. My HP never went above yellow, but I was able to keep myself alive again and again by playing with the mages’ line of sight using obstacles and killing them whenever the opportunity presented itself. Both the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition had died at this point, but the enemy party only had two mages and one archer left by then.

The archer first!

I took a few quick steps forward and threw my sword with lightning speed. It easily pierced through the archer’s chest and killed him where he stood. Tsk tsk, the likes of him couldn’t dodge my attack when I put my mind into it!

The two remaining mages continued unleashing their magical storms as I weaved in and out of the forest. A sharp turn later, I caught the returning Purple Ying Sword and charged toward the mages in a zigzagging pattern. At the same time, I unleashed three Ancient Seals that crushed their Magic Shields before they could do anything about it and swung my sword twice! In the end, my speed advantage was too big for them to overcome, and they both died!

Twenty-four super experts from Era of Strige died on this nameless hill just like that, leaving behind most of their equipment on the grass. However, it came at the price of the Phantom Wolf King and the apparition’s life, and my own HP had dropped to 9%. There were many times I could’ve died had I made a mistake. It didn’t feel good to dance on the knife’s edge, that’s for sure.

I claimed all the loot as my own. The equipment pieces alone numbered around 110 or so. Considering that there were only 24 of them, I would be surprised if any of them managed to keep their pants.

After everything was ready, I checked the minimap just in time to see a swarm of red dots heading my way. I needed to leave now, or I could very well die here.

I spurred the Armored Ice Qilin Horse forward and raced along the edge of the mountain range. Along the way, I encountered a couple hundred-man parties and defeated all of them in unstoppable fashion. Obviously, I only cut down those players who were directly in my way. I was running away after all. Moreover, the Armored Ice Qilin Horse’s speed advantage proved to be incredibly powerful in guerilla warfare. It ensured that the only ones who could really keep up with me was cavalry, and there was no cavalry in the world that I couldn’t beat. I killed countless from range using Dragon Slaying Slash and Coiling Dragon Revolution.

Almost 4 hours later, my bag was close to reaching max capacity, and my level had risen to 202. I was slowly but steadily making progress toward Level 210 where my eighth promotion awaited. I was very happy.

……

The commotion I caused was like a stick that cleaved a hornet’s nest in half. There were only too many Japanese players who were searching for me. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know that Sophie had an undead supply spot at the edge of Dragonbone Mountain Range. The fact that Sophie had kicked their ass and claimed Purple Grape City for herself meant that they wouldn’t provoke her troops or venture deep into her territory unless they had a good reason to. Barring exceptional circumstances, I was as safe as I could be at that supply spot.

"Aha, you’ve come to us again, young undead! What have you brought us this time?" the NPC captain greeted me affectionately and slapped my shoulder like we were long lost brothers or something. Of course, I knew that he was just coveting after the equipment in my bag, the shameless bastard.

I gave him a nod and walked up to the blacksmith, exchanging most of my equipment except the 30 or so exceptional items that I decided had better uses elsewhere, like refinement points. After that, I checked my Purple Ying Sword’s evolution progress again and noted that it was now sitting at 59%. It was wonderful. I resolved myself to kill even more people and evolve it to a Divine Armament by tomorrow at the latest.

My heart shivered with happiness as I repaired my equipment and set up my test. It was time to rest. It was already evening in real life, and I hadn’t even eaten lunch today. It was time to invite Chaos Moon out for dinner again.

……

I logged out of the game, but didn’t hurry to knock on Chaos Moon’s door immediately.

I logged into the China forums to look at things, and, as expected, I was still the headline—

"Purple Grape’s Descent of the One Hundred Gods attempts to hunt down the Little Heavenly King, but Lu Chen kills 37 and just barely escapes with his life!"

My duel against the players of Purple Grape City in Final Duel Valley had undoubtedly captured the eyeballs of everyone in China, no, the entire world. Almost everyone was looking forward to the outcome of this duel. Some people were worried thinking that I would hit my limits sooner than later under this level of pressure. Some people also ridiculed me for believing that I could challenge the entire Japan server alone.

The comments below the news post were never-ending—

1st comment (Player "Mei Ran’er"): Do your best, Lu Chen! You must live! I love you!

2nd comment (Player "Killer Gaze"): 1st poster is a love-struck fool confirmed. I’m the same though! I may be a man, but I love Lu Chen all the same! So cool!

3rd comment (Player "Warsky"): Live, Lu Chen!

4th comment (Player "Loved By All"): OMG, isn’t the 3rd poster the guild leader of Warsky Alliance? Is this what you do all day, staring at the forums instead of grinding? I knew Warsky Alliance was a trash guild!

5th comment (Player "October Rain"): ...

6th comment (Player "From Water"): Lu Chen...

7th comment (Player "Wind Fantasy"): Do your best, Little Cheat!

8th comment (Player "Water Moon Gazing"): Holy shit, the 6th and 7th posters are… Wife, get the camera! A pair of goddesses are in the sky!

9th comment (Player "Gui Guzi"): Boss Broken Halberd, hold out just a bit longer! We’re coming!

……

My heart warmed at the sight of the familiar IDs. I might be alone in Final Duel Valley, but I wasn’t fighting alone. All the brothers and sisters at the Center were doing their best to clear my name and take me home. And I would return to my Sky City one day.

Speaking of which, Gui Guzi and the Bloody Mercenaries hadn’t received any retaliatory punishment despite having conquered Sword Lord of Jianghu’s territory. This probably meant that some of the people within the VR department had clamped down on Tang Long’s activities. After all, it was perfectly normal to occupy another territory in the game. If he dared to abuse his power again and punished them the way he punished me, he would just be putting himself in even greater trouble.

This also meant that Tang Long wouldn’t dare to punch back as long as the action that was taken against him was technically within the rules of the game. Gui Guzi must know this too, and I could already see him plotting to wipe out Sword Lord of Jianghu completely from the surface of Sky City. It was what I was hoping to do myself if I could. This guild should have never been established in the first place!

……

It was at this moment my phone rang. It was a call from Li Chengfeng.

"Chengfeng?"

"It’s me," Li Chengfeng said in a steady voice. "You’ve probably already guessed this, but there’s a reason Tang Long did what he did to you for destroying Purple Grape City. Right now, I’m doing our best to uncover evidence of Tang Long’s corruption through my connections in the MPS and the MOS, and Eve is making a breakthrough with one of her older contacts, a vice president of the GGS. All I want to say is…"

"Yeah?" I smiled.

Li Chengfeng smiled too before continuing, "All I want to say is don’t die in Final Duel Valley. Only by staying alive will our sacrifices not be in vain. We all understand the sacrifices you made and the humiliation you endured for us. We promise that your efforts will not go unanswered."

I laughed. "You don’t need to say it. We’re lifelong brothers, aren’t we?"

"Haha. Have you eaten dinner?"

"Nah…"

"Then what are you waiting for? Don’t forget to down some alcohol too. It makes the killing much more enjoyable…"

"Damn, you’re a monster…"

"Haha!"