As Kaden and the contestants continued to kill their way towards the undead king, they began to suffer more and more casualties, with at least one contestant having to use their badges every minute.

But the losses the undead suffered were much more numerous, as every contestant had taken at least a dozen of them before exiting the battlefield.

And despite the undead creatures' seemingly infinite numbers, the contestants were steadily approaching the undead king at an even pace, as it merely watched such happenings with little interest as more and more undead threw themselves between the contestants and itself.

It was no surprise that the first people to reach the undead king were Kaden, the humanoid bear, the white-haired elder, and the eye-patched middle-aged man.

Unfortunately, only a handful of surviving contestants managed to keep up with them, as the rest had to use their badges and prematurely exit the battle.

The undead king looked at its challengers, screeching loudly with its arms spread apart, causing two of the surviving contestants to fall to their knees, clutching their heads and screaming while bleeding from their eyes.

Though Kaden and the rest reacted to the skeleton's screech as well, their reactions were much milder and limited to frowning or holding their foreheads in pain as the previously mentioned two activated their badges and disappeared.

Looking at the remaining contestants, the undead king reached to the side with a bony hand, and a royal undead emerged from the zombie horde, carrying a red, great sword and handing it over to the skeleton.

The undead king gave it a few practice swings to get a feeling for its weapons, immediately disappearing and appearing behind the group as it cleaved three more contestants, forcing them to use their badges.

Kaden was the first to react as he pounced towards the skeleton with his hand glowing in a red aura, but the undead king quickly dodged, causing the clone to hit the ground and create an enormous crater in the process.

The elder, number 99, made his move next, disappearing and appearing next to the undead king, promptly swinging his short sword, which the undead king blocked with no effort, punching the elder and sending him flying.

The eye-patched man, number 234, charged next, throwing one of his axes and running behind it as the undead king swatted the thrown weapon away with one hand and used the other one holding the great sword to block number 234's axe that was aiming for its skull.

The humanoid bear, number 82, made use of the chance, promptly jumping towards the undead king and swinging both of its claws downward in an attempt to crush the skeleton into a bone meal.

But the undead king quickly received his attack with its free hand, locking him in place, and it was at this moment that Kaden, the white-haired elder, closed the distance again, attacking with an aura charged a fist and a sword swing, respectively.

Looking at this scene, the eye-patched man smiled while gesturing with his hand and causing his second axe to fly back towards the undead king's skull.

The skeleton noticed that it was surrounded and screeched, causing a ripple of purple energy to explode from its skeletal body, sending Kaden and the rest flying away as it caught the eye-patched man, immediately breaking his neck.

It took several seconds for the contestants to gather their bearings after the undead king sent them flying, and the skeleton made use of that time to close the distance between himself and the white-haired elder, immediately cutting him in half horizontally.

"It's either do or die now, 82!" Kaden exclaimed through gritted teeth. "We either put it down now, or it will come after us and kill us later when we run out of badges!" He added as he began, covering himself with aura armor.

"Hold it in place, and don't let it go no matter what!" Kaden instructed hurriedly, and number 82 sighed, immediately charging towards the skeleton after a second's fraction of hesitation.

The undead king received number 82's attack, locking it in place as Kaden immediately charged towards it, covering himself with aura armor, causing the skeleton to screech again, releasing the same purple energy in an attempt to throw off the duo.

Number 82 roared in pain, but he kept the skeleton locked in place until the very last second where his badge activated itself, sending him away.

Kaden didn't have time to worry about number 82, as he kept applying new aura shields every time they broke until he reached the undead king.

"Time to die pitch!" Kaden exclaimed with a maniacal grin as he engulfed the skeleton in a hug, deactivating his armor and exploding all his remaining energy in an enormous explosion that destroyed everything within twenty-five meters radius.

With his shields down, Kaden also became affected by the undead king's purple energy, causing him to disappear from the area, leaving behind nothing but smoke and dust particles floating in the vicinity and obscuring the scene.

The dust cleared off after several seconds, revealing the still standing figure of the undead king. It was missing many of its bones, with its armor shattered, seemingly beyond repair, but still stood none the less.

The undead king looked around it, seeing the destruction left behind by Kaden's last attack, and began cackling creepily, but it suddenly stopped as a figure landed in front of it.

The figure didn't waste words, immediately brandishing a baseball bat and swinging it at the skeleton's head, smiling as black flames began engulfing the undead king's bones.

...

I smirked as I looked down at the burning undead king as I moved to deliver the killing blow, feeling immensely satisfied at how perfectly my plan went.

Though I did not plan for things to go this way at first, it all changed when I accidentally discovered the undead king's hiding place yesterday, and that's when inspiration suddenly struck.

Then it was merely a matter of working out the details, choosing a location for the meeting or ambush, in this case, killing everyone who refused to join the discussions, and finally luring the undead king towards the contestants while my clone kept them busy.

However, the last step was easier said than done since the undead king initially refused to leave its hiding spot, forcing me to resort to extreme methods such as flushing it out with fire and assassinating many of its royal undead subordinates.

But my efforts did not go to waste, as my aura clone successfully managed to trick the contestants into doing most of the hard work, and now I only had to deliver the final blow.

But how did I reach this area that is crawling with undead without being attacked, you might ask? The answer is simple; aura.

I had discovered that the zombies, being the dimwitted creatures they were, used the energy radiating from moving objects to identify and target the living as their sensory organs have long since rotted away.

So I merely lured the undead king and its army here, hid somewhere safe, and later emerged after changing my aura to emit similar energy to the one the undead radiated, bending into the undead heard.

However, I had to keep a certain distance from the royal and unique undead creatures, as they were smart enough to spot me clearly, but I digress.

I did not hesitate as I continuously bashed the already battered undead king with Bloodsport, crushing its bones and infecting it with more and more black flames.

"[email protected]#$%$#@, SOLOMON!" With this last screech in the undead's indecipherable language, the undead king was no more, causing me to frown.

'Solomon? How does thing know my last name?' I shook my head immediately, turning around to leave the area as soon as I received the notification about the undead king's death.

But I didn't manage to walk far as a tugging sensation began overcoming my body, dragging me somewhere as the announcer's voice reverberated all over the city.

"Contestant 69 had slain the undead king!" And that was the last thing I heard as my vision turned dark, only coming back after several seconds as I found myself in a bright white room, staring at a man in a colorful suit, wearing a clown's mask.

"Well, shit."

...

"Did you see that, Aloka?" Flatliner's boss asked with a loud laugh while watching Kaden deliver the final blow, finally defeating the undead king. "That was unexpected," Aloka replied with a smile as she appeared out of thin air, standing next to her boss.

"Flatliner wasn't wrong. The boy is definitely intriguing," she added with a thoughtful expression, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Did you investigate his background?" asked the man as he turned to look at Aloka. "I did, but I had our intelligence team investigate him again as they discovered nothing that would indicate the boy had any special power before joining the game," she added while shaking her head with a sigh.

"Good. Send me the report when the intelligence team finally discovers something interesting," the man remarked as he resumed watching the gigantic screen before him with interest.