Chapter 176

The order to kill every user entering the New Continent rang out to all the monsters residing there. And, like fanatics, the monsters followed that command without any care for their lives. Before the message, the monsters fought each other, but after the users appeared, every species joined forces and started a war against the newcomers.

“Ah, we’re taking on more damage than I initially anticipated. Luckily, the flying shuttles have combat properties….” Hanma muttered.

Adol gave a bitter laugh after Hanma suddenly approached and spoke.

“Right. Besides that, the average level of these monsters is quite high. I haven’t seen a single level 5 monster yet,” Adol responded.

In various parts of the sky, members of the avian species were attacking users, and once in a while, a super high-level monster would appear and take down a few flying shuttles with it. The number of users who participated in the event was enormous, and the flying shuttles could be said to be powerful magic machines. So, the fighting was tense and at a standstill, but in terms of combined power, the attacking monsters’ force was superior.

Bang!

“Ugh! Who is it this time… ah?”

Hanma was advancing with power visibly emanating from his muscular body when the deck rumbled loudly, and he stopped. Suddenly, a blonde beauty with eight fluttering tails was standing on the deck.

“Eight tails?”

“OMG! Shit! What level is that lady?”

“Take on raid formation! It’s at least Level 14 or higher- ack!”

The swordsman was screaming orders just moments ago when they were pierced by a beam of light and instantly collapsed. Heavenly Flower, the eight-tailed fox, exuded magic power with an impassive expression.

“Insignificant things.”

Adol saw Heavenly Flower throw an amulet, and soon, a ghastly aura began to spread around her. Adol felt that the attack was dangerous enough to smash his flying shuttle.

‘Hmph! If she acts like that from the start, there’s no need to hesitate!’

Adol stamped on the flying shuttle’s iron surface, and after the metal slightly crumpled under his feet, he used the reaction force to rush forward. With the Thousand Hammer Strength technique making his body extremely heavy, he also injected internal energy into his shield, which caused it to give off a powerful aura of energy. He was planning on crushing the enemy through a head-on collision.

“Hmph.”

However, the moment Heavenly Flower waved her hand, heavy pressure from gravity crashed down on Adol’s head. Rather than a feeling of higher gravity spread across his entire body, it was more accurate to state that Adol felt as if his head was a nail being struck by a hammer. And with that one shot, all of Adol’s bones screamed out in pain and seemed to creak, but even so, Adol accelerated.

Boom!

Adol rushed forward, ignoring the mighty energy that was crushing his head. His footprints were imprinted on the ground after every step he took, illustrating just how much pressure he was under. Yet, he didn’t seem to care.

“I’ll join you!”

Hanma’s body changed into a brownish-black color as he rushed toward Heavenly Flower. He didn’t imbue himself with any energy. The only thing he used was his own body. However, though he didn’t possess any attributes, he could resist all foreign energies to a certain extent. Hence, despite being covered in wounds, Hanma could continue forward and break through Heavenly Flower’s defensive barriers.

“God of Courage! Give me strength!”

As he activated and utilized divine power to protect his body, Adol imbued his shield with five cycles (300 years) of internal energy. Having been overwhelmed by Heavenly Flower, when the other users saw Adol and Hanma reach Heavenly Flower in an instant, they started exclaiming.

“Dude, they’re great. I guess they are qualified to go around with Cruze.”

“Their titles as the best tank and aggro[1] weren’t just for show.”

Alas, Adol and Hanma’s attack fell short.

“The enemy is too strong!”

As one of the users previously stated, a Level 15 monster was too strong for the likes of them to deal with. Adol and Hanma used everything at their disposal, but the moment they closed the distance, Heavenly Flower’s amulet burned bright blue.

“Away with you!”

Whoosh!

When the energy generated from the amulet resonated with the surrounding atmosphere, a formidable magic power was released. It was an attack capable of destroying the flying shuttle beneath their feet. But then….

“My body is robust and unbreakable!”

Hanma’s two hands, which went through the huge force, penetrated the deck of the flying shuttle and became stuck. His body, which had been brownish-black, had returned to its original state, but the aura he emitted felt stronger. Hanma’s body could scatter the force from any attribute, and it started to combine these properties into the flying shuttle. Soon, Heavenly Flower’s energy was pushed back and dispersed.

Creak….

With his arms sunk into the deck of the flying shuttle, Hanma posed like a sprinter waiting for the start signal. It was the pose that Dongyun had used, the werebear knight who once fought Cruze. And as soon as he looked up, his thigh muscles seemed to swell significantly, and steam rose from his body.

“Eight Ways of Fighting.”

His legs were outstretched as he spoke in a growling tone and gritted his teeth. He had become a spring that was compressed to its limit and was about to be released.

“Earthly Thunder Strike.”

Rumble!

Hanma flew forward like an arrow- no, more like a bullet. A 192-centimeter-tall human who weighed nearly 300 kilograms shot forward so fast that he exceeded the speed of sound. He clearly couldn’t achieve this before. He penetrated everything at once and advanced, crushing the mass of magic power that was gradually accruing and expanding. Hanma swiftly arrived right in front of Heavenly Flower. He laughed out loud, feeling the coursing power that surged from within his body as if it was about to explode.

“Hahaha! What do you think? I am Oh Hanma, a man who evolves while fighting!”

“Shut it!”

Bang!

Yet, a golden ray of light flared out and struck Hanma, knocking him down. Hanma’s level had risen due to a momentary spark of growth, but even if he climbed leveled up multiple times, he still wouldn’t catch up to Heavenly Flower, so the result was inevitable. However, the moment Hanma fell, Adol finally reached Heavenly Flower and collided against her with the accumulated magic power that he’d charged till now.

Boom!

“What?”

Surprisingly, Adol’s Shield Charge didn’t disperse Heavenly Flower’s monster power like Hanma’s attack. Instead, Adol’s shield charge [Pushed] her monster power. Adol had shoved Heavenly Flower’s monster power toward her, causing severe injuries. If her gathered monster power were in its original form, Adol’s actions would have been pointless, but she had already used some of the monster power to fend off Hanma’s last attack.

“Kyak!”

As she was unable to endure the monster power forced against her, Heavenly Flower screamed and fell off the flying shuttle. It didn’t seem she’d be back anytime soon.

/Your defense skill has increased to A Rank!/

/You have acquired the title, ‘Defense Master’!/

/You have acquired the special ability, ‘Returning to the Heavens’!/

Adol collapsed on the deck and felt his body overheat from releasing five cycles of internal energy in an instant. Soon, inner qi materialized and started swirling around his shield.

“I can block any attack from now on.”

Adol had reached the Master level.

***

Imagine that 100,000 randomly selected individuals run a 200-kilometer marathon, a marathon where there’s a reward if the participant reaches the destination but no penalty if they don’t.

Undoubtedly, most people would give up before they even started or do so after running for a while. In general, considering that the longest marathon was 42.195 km, a 200 km distance wouldn’t make much sense. However, if there were many participants, there would surely be an outlier that finished the race. If a participant had a strong will and continually moved forward without overdoing it for an extensive period, they would be able to finish.

If participants finished a race, that means that there were people who reached the finish line faster than others. Different people move at different speeds and possess different levels of stamina, so it wouldn’t be abnormal for some to have exceptional speed and stamina, allowing them to reach the finish line much earlier than others.

In DIO, Arthur, Cruze, and Merlin were part of this exceptional group. In terms of the race, everyone else was running barefoot, but these three were riding a motorcycle. When others viewed these three, the observers would naturally respond with, ‘Is that even allowed?’

And the next group was users like Lancelot, Arc, and Ilyia. Although they weren’t part of the leading group, they had an outstanding foundation of common sense and logic.

“Finally… I’m finally an archmage!”

“Hahaha! Is this what sword qi feels like?!”

“Done! Hahaha! Done! I created my first Death Knight! From now on, your name shall be Hades!”

And finally, the third group arrived. Unlike the Irregulars, people who could be considered mutants, and the few who narrowly followed close behind, this third wave of Masters was considerably vast. Even though they were fully qualified to become Masters with their knowledge and skills, they had hit a wall, as they couldn’t attain spiritual enlightenment. However, now, they were jumping over that final wall simultaneously.

“I was ahead of them for a moment, but I guess that gap has been closed.”

Lancelot watched the scene unfold with a bitter smile. Of course, he always knew it was going to be like this. He thought he could perhaps work harder and move forward, maintaining that small but significant gap. Yet, unfortunately, that was all an illusion.

“Stop clamoring and start defending!”

Brr!

Cruze had installed a Vulcan cannon on her flying shuttle, and she pulled the trigger and shot bullets nonstop. When she ran out of ammunition, Cruze used her aura, loaded some data, summoned more bullets, and continued to fire. She did this repeatedly. Each bullet had immense power, and once it hit the target, even high-level monsters were at risk of dying. Furthermore, Cruze’s Vulcan cannon had an effective range of 3.5 kilometers. In truth, the entire battlefield was within her cannon’s range.

“Die, human!”

“Sorry, but that’s not going to happen!”

Obviously, Cruze’s strategic advantage during battle was enormous, comparable to Arthur’s. In terms of firepower alone, she was more powerful than Arthur, as she could launch a powerful attack over a massive range. Though her Vulcan cannon lacked accuracy, she could pour out 30mm bullets at a rate of over 6,000 rounds per minute, so she could mow down countless monsters in no time.

“Go, Destruction and Moonless Blade!”

The body of Ohje, the dual-wielding swordsman, momentarily became blurry as two sharp sword strikes cut through the body of an avian species swordsman.

“Hades! Kill all approaching enemies!”

[Woo-!]

“Ugh! Is the link still weak?”

Scorpion clicked his tongue and raised his right hand when he saw Hades just standing with a blank expression. A blue magic circle appeared in his right hand, and when the magic words engraved on it lit up, Hades started wielding its massive scythe and attacked all approaching enemies.

Boom! Boom!

Lancelot stabbed out with his spear in a precise, mechanical motion. Since the battle was nearing the end, the number of enemies was dramatically lower than at the beginning.

“It’s a Drake! A Level 15 monster!”

“Wow! Why are there so many high-level monsters here? Didn’t we just face a high-ranking demon earlier?”

“Without Arthur and Cruze, we would have surely been wiped out. No, wait, did they adjust the difficulty level because Arthur and Cruze are here?”

Even though monsters appeared who could tear the users apart with one blow, no one panicked; they just continued to do what they could to the best of their abilities. Although their skill levels were relatively low, they were all adept at fighting. They hadn’t hunted monsters for only a day or two.

“Besides, such a large flying target is the type of monster that Cruze likes the most.”

Soon, 30mm bullets started pouring out at the Drake, which was hovering in the sky and about to attack the flying shuttle.

[Kyak!]

The Drake was startled and tried to evade, but Cruze was the worst enemy that it could face. This was because, while the Drake needed to turn its enormous body to avoid Cruze’s attack, Cruze could swing the Vulcan cannon’s muzzle and continue firing at will in every direction.

In addition, Cruze hit her target 80 percent of the time while firing the Vulcan cannon. In other words, when she fired 600 rounds per minute, 480 hit the objective. She could even maintain this lofty percentage for moving targets.

Brr!

At that moment, the gigantic whale, Moby Dick, let out a deafening cry, and the monsters, which were fiercely attacking the users, retreated. The users also chose to stop fighting rather than give chase, as they suffered significant damage. However, to be honest, they were too afraid of the super-giant monster Moby Dick.

“That was difficult. By the way, how many users were logged out?”

“About a quarter. Since they all qualified to be here, they’ve reached a certain level. I’m sure they’ll feel a little sore about having their stats permanently reduced.”

Finally, the battle was over. The remaining users began to collect the corpses. The only disappointment was that out of the ten or so high-ranking monsters that participated, only two were defeated: the Drake, killed by Cruze, and the high-level demon felled by Arthur.

“By the way, I don’t know if this change that leaves an entire corpse intact is good or bad.”

“I think users who specialize in production will like it because much more ingredients will be available.”

“Still, someone has to process the corpse to get those ingredients. No matter how one feels about a carcass, slaughtering and butchering are difficult, no?”

“If there’s money to be made, people will do it.”

Users were gathering the corpses here and there while talking loudly. There were several differences between Dynamic Island and the New Continent, one of which was that monsters died and left their corpses instead of dispersing and dropping items. In addition, if anyone were injured, monster or user, they would bleed blood instead of gold-colored smoke, so it was difficult to upload a video right away after recording.

1. a slang term for the role of distracting monsters so that they’re preoccupied ☜