Pu pu pu!

Incredible pain ripped through my chest as three fiery cones pierced it. They were Barrier Breaks, and they dealt a sizable amount of damage—

69209!

72672!

62922!

My HP hit rock bottom in an instant, but thankfully I didn’t receive any more attacks during these two seconds. The assassin who had stunned me in the first place couldn’t really hurt me unless he used his Bloodbreak skills. I did have an insane amount of Defense after all.

The second I recovered, I immediately hit my surroundings with War Crush + Ancient Seal combo. At the same time, I used Tenacity of the Dead to recover 25% of my HP and downed a Saint Spirit Potion. After killing the three cavalrymen, I zigzagged in and out of the forest and purposely chose spots with thick brambles. They bought me the time necessary to recover my HP.

At this point, both my wolf and my apparition were dead. This meant that I could only rely on myself.

The worst part was that my goddamned HP just wouldn’t go up a certain threshold no matter what I did. At least ten archers were bombarding my location constantly with Skypiercers; their tactic to make sure that my HP loss would always be higher than my HP recovery. What could I possibly do with little to no HP? If the Purple Ying Sword didn’t have 10% lifesteal, I might’ve lost a long time ago.

Pa!

I sped up and arrived in front of an assassin. He spun around with steely eyes and used Blade Vortex.

I easily smacked aside his attack with the Dragon God Shield before pressing a point-blank Pardon to his chest. Then, the Purple Ying Sword burst into indigo flames, and I thrust the weapon forward using Universe Break. The series of action had been completed in a second, so there was no chance he could escape this!

Pu!

389002!

+38900!

It was a critical hit! Not only did the skill kill the poor assassin outright, it gave me almost 40k HP. I left the spot quickly without bothering to pick up the equipment.

Outside the forest, I heard Copper Spear, the guild leader of Era of Strife, shouting, "Asura Period, you know Shogunate gave me temporary command over you all, right!? Hmph! All Giant Buck Cavalrymen, get off your mounts, unsheathe your weapons and surround the forest right now! Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand is inside the forest! Either you kill him, or you all commit seppuku for failing to do so!"

Murphy’s Law. If something can go to shit, it will.

I glanced around quickly and saw a gigantic horde of Giant Buck Cavalrymen swarming me from all sides. Copper Spear himself was among the group. The cavalrymen had gone so far as to give up their mount advantage just so that they could enter the forest and join in on the hunt. Tsk tsk, they thought too highly of me! Did they seriously think I could fight hundreds of thousands of players alone!?

The vice leader of Descent of the One Hundred Gods, an axe-wielding berserker, shouted, "Don’t use your skills willy-nilly! We need to stop the bleeding before it gets worse! Fuck, where the fuck’s our guild leader?!"

A stealthed assassin said in a low tone, "The guild leader was killed by his Divine General Skill at the very beginning. How did you only notice it now?"

"Fuck!"

I searched around some more and noted that there were less than 20 Descent of the One Hundred Gods players left. Very well, time to kill a couple more people and scare the shit out of them!

Swhoosh!

I managed to find an opportunity to slip underground and regenerate my HP. It wasn’t enough for me to slip away, but I could ambush a couple more first-rate players with it.

Everyone seemed to have gone crazy with bloodlust. The archers kept shooting Skypiercers all over the place under the berserker’s command, and a couple of cavalrymen even summoned their mounts, and Charged left and right even though the brambles wounded them.

……

A few minutes later, I returned to full health thanks to Regeneration of the Undead and found another good point of entry. Seven archers were approaching me without knowing. It was my chance!

Just do it!

I burst out of the ground and threw my sword. I didn’t even need to aim because I had made all the calculations in my head beforehand. Then, I slapped 11 Ancient Seals around me. When else am I going to use the Divine Energy Points I have accumulated in the past couple days if not now?

Boom boom boom!

The falling golden seals were evident to all players close or away from the area. The forest itself was shaking from the impact of the blast. All seven archers including four unfortunate assassins died to my sneak attack and indiscriminate bombardment. Now, there were less than 10 players left in the entire Descent of the One Hundred Gods!

Pa! I caught my sword and ran right past the berserker vice leader. I turned around quickly and tore his back open with Burning Blade Slash. However, he was able to assume a Guard stance just in time to survive the skill with a sliver of HP left. He glared at me, but I simply responded with a stern-faced Crushing Blow!

He hurriedly canceled his Guard stance, but what he saw next caused his face to turn white. "Fuck, you tricked me…"

Indigo flames surrounded my sword, and Universe Break ended his life once and for all!

……

Just like that, Descent of the One Hundred Gods lost the leader, the vice leader and all their corps commanders. Even the 6 players who had survived up until this point were too scared to fight me. After all, dying here meant losing everything, and it wasn’t a price most people could accept.

"Fuck, you bunch of trash!"

Copper Spear’s shout came from the edge of the clearing. A short while later, a long, long line of magic knights appeared from the edges, summoned their Giant Bucks, raised their shields and slowly entered the forest. If it wasn’t obvious enough, they were planning to overwhelm me with sheer numbers.

I gritted my teeth as I stared at the Ancient Divine Dragon still slumbering around my arm. The son of a gun was at an infuriating Level 99 and 54% mark; just 46% away from reaching Level 100. If I could mount the Ancient Divine Dragon right now, I could take to the air and escape from these bastards with ease. But I couldn’t! It was so close yet so far!

It would take at least another thousand kills before I could level up the Ancient Divine Dragon to Level 100. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like I was going to get that opportunity.

Swhoosh!

I summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and mounted it. For the first time, I truly felt like I was going to die and drop to Level 0. There was still another 60 minutes until Shield of Evening came back online. I didn’t think I would last until then.

……

Copper Spear emerged from the group and watched me closely. "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, you have my respect for your peerless bravery and talent. Unfortunately, you are the enemy of I, Copper Spear, and the Japan server. You destroyed my home and shamed my people. This debt must be paid no matter what."

The Purple Ying Sword glowed with undead energy as I stared at him. "Do it, Copper Spear. I’ve killed enough people to be worth the return ticket anyway."

Copper Spear smiled. "You are outstanding, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand. It’s too bad that your own country has abandoned you, or you would’ve had the chance to use invincibility into return scroll back to your city, wouldn’t you?"

I shook my head. "Nope! Return scrolls are not allowed to be used in Final Duel Valley. You should always read the fine print, boy!"

The corner of Copper Spear’s mouth twitched once before he continued, "Hmph. So what if I didn’t read it? You’re still going to die here."

I checked my surroundings and saw even more players converging on this forest. I smiled. "Are you waiting for reinforcements, Copper Spear? Are you waiting for the archers, mages and assassins to come over? You are! You know these cavalrymen aren’t enough to kill me, don’t you?"

Copper Spear blushed in embarrassment after I pointed out his ploy. "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be doing this as a player, but I am first and foremost a Japanese player. No matter how despicable a tactic may be, the pride of my server comes before everything. Moreover, I value results more than I value fairness, and right now the result I want is the death of you, Little Heavenly King Lu Chen, in Final Duel Valley so that all the souls who died here can rest in peace!"

I smiled. "Very well. I guess I’ll farm your experience before the inevitable then!"

……

I raised the Purple Ying Sword and charged toward the weaker point in the defense line. I zigzagged around the rain of Trapping Nets falling my way and unleashed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash combo, regaining a ton of HP. I immediately switched targets though. I wasn’t kidding when I said a rain of Trapping Nets were falling toward me. It was to the point where it was literally impossible to avoid them all. The good news was that I was currently Level 205, my equipment was far superior to theirs, and I had Great Earth Transformation turned on, so their chances of immobilizing me when successfully landing Trapping Net were less than 1%.

I kept charging left and right, killing many Giant Buck Cavalrymen in the process. The Purple Ying Sword’s 10% lifesteal gave me the ability to fight a protracted battle, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I died. Even if the mental exhaustion didn’t get to me, I was losing equipment durability by the second, not to mention that more and more Japanese players—many among them being super powerful archers and mages—were gathering outside the forest. The moment all my equipment turned into trash was the moment I’d die.

In the end, it just wasn’t possible for one man to fight an entire server.

……

Boom boom boom!

Every time I executed a combo, countless Giant Buck Cavalrymen would drop dead and die. My experience was soaring, and even the Ancient Divine Dragon with its insane experience requirements was progressing slowly toward Level 100. Unfortunately, it was still too slow. There was no way I could survive until it evolved.

Crack!

After I lopped off a Giant Buck Cavalryman’s head and looked behind me, I abruptly discovered that I was alone within a 50-yard radius. Every Japanese player including Copper Spear himself had backed away in fear. My current HP was less than 40%, but the blood was literally dripping down the blade of the Purple Ying Sword like water. The amount of people I had killed during these ten minutes was frankly innumerable.

"They’re here, they’re here!"

The fighters abruptly parted to reveal a huge group of archers and mages. Worse, I spotted ten fucking ballistae with their deadly bolts all pointed at me.

I looked at the enemy and myself. The Heaven-burning Armor was drenched in blood, the Armored Ice Qilin Horse was drenched in blood, and even the robes beneath the armor were wet with blood and sweat as well.

The sound of tightening rope resounded in my ears as the ballistae were wounded up. I could fight any player no problem, but how the hell was I going to survive a ballistae volley?

A trace of reluctance flashed across Copper Spear’s eyes, but he steeled his resolve and declared, "Goodbye, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! Ballistae, fire!"

Thud thud thud!

The Dragon God Shield shuddered again and again from the impact. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out one last neigh before disappearing, its mount tenacity spent.

Thud!

I dropped to my knees with one hand still gripping my sword, and the other my shield. I glared at the enemy formation with defiant eyes, but there truly was nothing left that I could do. That one volley had taken me down to less than 5%. There was no chance I was going to survive another one.

……

Copper Spear gritted his teeth and growled out, "Don’t hesitate! Keep shooting!"

Twang twang twang!

The thick, black steel bolts flew my way, and I closed my eyes. I’m coming to join you, Chengfeng, Little Rain, Diamond Dust! [1]

Bang bang bang...

However, a series of odd noises resounded in my ears, and the whiff of a familiar scent passed through my nose. It was the scent of a certain girl. I opened my eyes and was greeted by the stunning back of a spear-wielding beauty and her long, white legs peeking in and out of her flapping white cape. She had somehow caused all the ballista bolts to bounce away using some sort of her glowing, domain-powered shield.

1. (T/N: dude wtf they’re not dead stop talking like they are jesus)