Within moments of the beam of dark power exploding from the chest, players from the nearby city noticed it and became excited.
"Is someone attacking the city?!"
"This must be a special event!"
"I bet it's that person who keeps slaughtering the toll-keepers! Maybe we can livestream it happening!"
Most players had never seen a chest before, so they weren't aware of the explosive energy which came from opening a chest. Regardless, they excitedly raced through the city gate and into the forest, trying to find the destination of the explosion.
Before long, a large squad of players from the Gold is Good guild actually found Apophis.
Almost a thousand players were searching, but most of them hadn't gotten enough of a good look at the energy beam to know the exact location. The squad which found Apophis was about a hundred players in strength, including twenty who were at least LvL 5 and so had unlocked their evolution and class.
This group was led by a player named Joy, who happened to be the psychopathic man who leveled up after publicly executing the Tyotting who couldn't pay his protection money.
The squad stared excitedly at Apophis, who was standing still in the center of the ten-meter-wide crater. There had already been a rumor spreading in Omeya and the Gold is Good guild that Apophis was staying in their city, but most of them hadn't believed it before now! But since several guards had recently confirmed what Apophis looked like, it was obvious that this was him.
Joy slowly approached Apophis while the rest of the squad observed the scene. He inspected Apophis, whose eyes were tightly shut. He seemed to be taking very deep, slow breaths, though he didn't otherwise move.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼CHARACTER
║ ╰╼[Name]: Apophis
║ ╰╼[Soul]: Enclabossa
║ ╰╼[LvL]: ???
║ ╰╼[Rank]: ???
╚══════════════╛
Everything seemed normal, except "Soul" named Enclabossa. Joy had no idea what that might mean. The fact that he couldn't see Apophis's level and rank was normal. This simply meant that Apophis had enabled "hide strength" in the character menu, though this only worked against targets of a lower rank than him.
"Hello, Apophis," said Joy, stopping barely a meter away. "I'm the leader of the Omeya Sentinels, the peacekeepers of the Gold is Good guild. What happened here?"
Apophis opened his eyes.
Without a word, he grabbed Joy by the throat and raised him a meter from the ground.
Then he grabbed Joy's left leg with his other hand and tore the fool's body in two, showering himself with blood.
Joy screamed in pain before dying, but finally went silent.
The Omeya Sentinels were horrified by what they'd just seen! They drew their weapons and prepared to fight!
In Apophis's head, the new voice said, Good, My Lord! You showed that pathetic sadist the meaning of respect. Take care, for this guild is about to challenge you! Perhaps they too should be taught a lesson.
System: Quest Notification.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼[Soul Quest] Dominate the Defiant
║ ╰╼[Recommended Level] 8~12
║ ╰╼[Difficulty] F-
╟─╼[Summary] Your Soul, Enclabossa, proposes that you exterminate Gold is Good. Show them the cost of standing in your way and challenging your absolute power!
╟─╼[Objective] Expel the guild "Gold is Good" from the City of Omeya.
╟─╼[Reward] The title of [Punisher] and 99 points of Darkness.
╚═══════════════╛
System: Do you accept this quest?
"I accept," Apophis snarled. It wasn't much of a tangible reward, but he didn't care. The thought of slaughtering these insufferable fools, these weak idiots who thought that they had the right to rule anyone, filled him with a greater excitement than he'd ever felt in his life.
What surprised Apophis the most was how great he felt! During his studies, he'd tried cocaine at parties, which made him feel invincible. Somehow, this was ten times better! He felt ready to dominate all life in the universe.
Apophis clenched his fists and activated ~Firebending~.
He caught fire completely, black flames surrounded him! In a moment, a black sword of pure fire materialized in his right hand.
With his left hand, Apophis created a kind of black, flaming fluid, which dripped from his hand and spread quickly around him.
The rest of the Omeya Sentinels stared at him in fear.
Is this guy really in the same league as me? more than one of them thought. He looks like a Dungeon boss than a player!
"Who cares if he can rip apart one dude!" one of the highest-level players shouted. "This bitch is gonna taste the power of our guild!"
Before a single other player could speak, Apophis attacked.
In less than a second, he'd crossed the five meters to the edge of the crater, where everyone else stood, and cut two players apart at once. The black fluid he'd deployed swirled around him like a cloak and stabbed into his enemies!
The squad was completely disorganized. Within a few heartbeats, fifty-four players had already been charred to death or cut in half by Apophis's black blade of fire. All the rest fled at once. Slaughtering helpless NPCs was one thing, but they were completely unprepared for this! Their terror was so great that only a few of them thought to run back into the city, but the rest crashed deeper into the forest.
By this time, other players who had been looking for the source of the disturbance came upon the scene. Some of the first stood a far distance back and live streamed Apophis's brutality on the game's forum. These videos, of course, quickly drew everyone's attention.
Much to the dismay of the Gold is Good guild leaders, everyone began laughing at how pitiful the elite peacekeepers of the guild were, people so pathetic that they ran, screaming, from a single player.
Of course, once people realized Apophis was the one winning, the videos caught even the attention of the top guilds and SuperGuilds.
Ceasar, who had just reached LvL 11, watched one of these videos with jealousy. He'd barely rested over the past few days as he struggled to catch up to his rival, but it seemed that Apophis hadn't been slacking, either.
The players sending the streams were too low-level to see through Apophis's strength blocking settings, and so Ceasar had no way of knowing just how powerful Apophis had risen.
Ceasar wished he could be present to see for himself whether Apophis had perhaps even surpassed LvL 11… but all he could do was stare at the fight footage over and over with the goal of learning his rival's strengths and tactics.
Meanwhile, in the forest, Apophis looked around at the corpses of the players he'd just butchered. A few players hung back, streaming him, but they fled as Apophis glared at them.
Apophis smiled. Having proved his dominance over these weaklings, it was now time to go clean up the Gold is Good headquarters in Omeya.
And all the while, Enclabossa's voice whispered soothing encouragement into his mind.