257 Aquatic Monsters
"I'll take you," just as I had no aerial resistance, or even any fight from the ground forces against my chariot, I reached the side of the first gate easily.
Yet just before I could get close enough to touch it, I felt a weird pulsating energy wave coming from a direction to my side.
It wasn't a simple wave of energy, but something so strong to even make me frown. Still I didn't keep my chariot and moved closer, enough to touch the gate by just stretching out my arm.
And at this moment, a change happened so fast.
This energy pulse appeared again, this time it wasn't a wave but like a torrent. It came from the direction of the lake nearby, making me feel like tens of thousands of eyes were focused over me.
*Splash!* *Splash!* *Splash!*
The situation started to evolve so damn fast! From the direction of the calm surfaced lake, a series of giant and clashing waves erupted out of nothing.
Then I could see many dark spots coming up from the bottom of the lake. I looked closer and this time I was pretty much sure… There was something flashing in the depth of that lake, something bringing forth such dense numbers of monsters in such a short time.
A gate! A sixth gate appeared here out of the blue, and in no other place but the depths of that lake.
A place that was way out of my reach!
"First you come to papa," even if I had such an unexpected development, I didn't hesitate to shut down that gate in the sky.
At least I'd get rid of one of the threats, leaving the gate under the lake for later.
*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*
Yet my actions seemed to enrage the monsters coming from the lake. They seemed to expect my full attention focusing on them. Monsters with pride? That was nothing related to any normal or common monster in the apocalypse.
Taking the gate would require at least half a minute. It wasn't much time to be honest, but compared to the closely packed hostile forces coming from the lake, it was too much.
*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*
Just before I could control half of the gate, I heard the whistling air before lots of projectiles hit my chariot's shield.
*Crack!*
I looked in surprise to the deep and rapidly spreading cracks of my shield. I never expected such things to hold such violent power, enough to even bring my sturdy shield to such a state.
"Activate full power," but I was only using a medium powered version of my chariot. I didn't even think for a second and activated the fully powerful version of my chariot.
And with it, the shield that was on the verge of collapsing amended itself in a flash of light, returning to its fully intact and all powerful state.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Yet the attacks never ceased for a single second. From my place I spotted thousands of octopus-like monsters coming out from the lake. Each had six arms and two thick and curved arms that acted just like the tail of any scorpion.
"Hybrid monsters?!!" It soon hit me when I saw the attacks coming from these two arching thick arms of these monsters. Each arm shone in a dangerous looking black and red way, releasing even a small cloud of dark red gas with every attack.
They looked like cannons, firing their missiles without a moment of rest. With the arrival of the first thousand hybrid monsters to the border of the lake, much more dark spots appeared from the depth of the lake, coming up as well.
The surface of the lake kept trembling, showing many holes as the monsters from down below didn't even wait to reach the surface to attack me.
At some point, the lake surface churned and rolled up, forming giant pillars of waves that extended for tens of metres.
The scene looked weird and dangerous. The attacks that were enough to crumble my medium powered shield were now coming in many folds in numbers, and it was also getting more with each passing minute.
Even if this wouldn't pose any threat to my shield and chariot for now, I couldn't keep going like this. I knew if this was under my control at this moment, after five or ten or even thirty minutes, the situation would be really threatening.
"Unleash everything at those bastards," the gate was now closed, and I was relieved from one problem for the time being, "hit those coming from water as well as those on the surface."
The lake was now hardly described as one. It turned from the pure blue coloured waters into all dark, filled with endless monsters.
And with my orders, my forces unleashed their deadly strikes over the lake and the ground around it.
The first place I expected to fall was the ground around the lake. The attacks landed there and wiped out large numbers of monsters in the early few breaths.
But just before I could be totally relieved, I felt a sudden pulse of energy coming from no other place but the centre of that lake.
That gate… Something or someone was trying to intervene in this battle. All I saw was a gust of energy that stopped just a few metres on top of the remaining monsters, protecting them.
My boys' attacks landed, and I saw that energy shielding the monsters down below from their attacks.
This couldn't continue! If someone was trying to secure these monsters, then I should play safer and fly away for now.
I got one gate sealed. But that gate in the depth of the lake would prove to be hard to get. Yet I never expected to see a sixth gate in any city.
To summon this gate, someone had to pay a considerable price for that. I never expected someone to be ready to pay such a price, but it just happened here.
258 Promise This City To Me
"Keep firing," yet even if I decided to retreat from here and go towards another gate, I had to see how strong this shield of energy really was.
After all, I'd have to come here and fight against this hard to crack opponent.
*Boom!* *Bang!* *Boom!*
The attacks of my boys rumbled in mighty explosions while the projectiles of those monsters landed with bangs over my shield. This fight turned in no time to a war of attrition between our two forces and the two shields.
In fact I knew I would win in the end. After all, even if these attacks kept consuming lots of my stat points stored in the chariot, they soon reached a limit they couldn't exceed.
That energy shield seemed to have limited area of coverage. At any moment a single monster bypassed the area of its defence, that monster would be instantly annihilated.
So after the tough early minutes, things started to stabilise later on.
But no matter how much my forces attacked, that damn energy shield never cracked open. From what I saw, this shield wasn't as simple as I first imagined.
With each landing attack, the surface of that shield would show a small pulse wave that would extend outwards. It looked like my attack was in the end a few rocks thrown at the surface of a calm lake.
And that feeling wasn't good at all. I never faced something like this. But even if it could resist my attacks for a long time, eventually it would crack and crash.
"Just wait," after wasting almost twenty minutes attacking with my full might, I said, "I'll come to kill you bastard soon enough."
I turned my chariot and headed directly towards the next gate. Yet midway there, I had to stop in my tracks.
"Damn! How many gates did they summon here?"
I already was aware that all the gates here overlooked a small lake. But what I never expected was for each lake to produce such an underwater gate.
During my fight against the first underwater gate, it seemed the other lakes produced their gates and released large numbers of monsters.
They didn't act until I started moving, a smart little move that told me a lot about the real one hiding behind this scheme.
He wasn't a normal person, but someone with great intelligence and lots of war experience, enough to make him control the monsters and other races and hide their strength until the right moment.
He was patient, knowing exactly what to do and how I usually fought. That bastard… What race did he really belong to?
One race popped into my mind, Selvators. Dragons were vicious and violent, and had such wealth to sustain summoning these extra gates here.
But they never enjoyed anything related to patience. They were also famous for their poor tactic skills. Compared to Selvators, compared to the one mastermind behind this scheme here, they lacked a lot.
But Selvators active in this region were under the control of Fang. What was going on exactly here?
[I want to know who is active in a city called Worcester, in Massachusetts state] I sent to Fang directly without any hesitation, [Are they one of your forces? Are they part of your Selvators?]
[My boys aren't active at that place at all] he instantly responded, [All Selvtator forces in the region belong to me, and I won't act against you]
He was so smart to sense something wrong was going on here. [Then try to find out who is meddling with my business here]
[Why not seek it yourself?]
[That dude… He is so smart and cunning, vicious, and has strong relations with the Succubus race. He also is very wealthy, enough to call for five extra gates in this city]
[Five more cities? No way! I want that city!] Against what I expected, that dude seemed to be stirred up with what I just said.
[No way!] My answer was swift. After all, this place was so close to my heart of operations. I would never risk delivering this city to any other race by humans.
[You don't get it, the extra gates here would help in making another mega gate!]
[And?] I sent without even considering his quest, [You can't spend enough to even form one mega gate]
[I'll be able to, once that big battle at the centre is concluded]
That dude… He was truly aiming towards upgrading his rank through that big war. He believed in our victory and his chances so much that he started putting plans for the future after upgrading his rank.
What a dude… If he was a human, I'd put him really in better use.
[Hmm… When time comes, you can always seek me. You know how I do my deals] I didn't close the door in front of his face for now, yet I didn't say yes as well.
[Just don't tell that Berserker thick headed dude, and promise me to give me a priority]
These two were still on bad terms. Anyway I would seek my benefits in any deal no matter what. [If you gave me a proper offer, one that won't let me say no, I promise to give this city to you. But now, I need to know which dude is behind this]
[Give me ten minutes]
I closed the messages and paid my full attention towards the fight here.
Things were escalating at a very frightening rate. During my chat with Fang, the number of monsters coming towards me just grew in several folds already.
And with each lake, I could see a large bubble covering the area. That bastard was making sure to protect the sources of trouble here.
"Alright, let me first take part of the trouble away," I knew going directly against these monsters wouldn't do anything good to me. I spent twenty minutes trying to crush the first gate and yet failed. And I wouldn't repeat that mistake again.
"Keep firing," even though I decided to go against the gates in the sky first, I still let my forces loose against those monsters.
259 Calling Aid From Albany City
Even if that bastard worked to protect his underwater gates for now, he left lots of his monsters unprotected.
The city changed now and the entire ruins outside the central parts were covered in densely packed monsters. Of course I watched how these monsters acted against the humans in the centre.
Weirdly enough, those humans never got attacked by those monsters. It was really weird. Since when monsters ignored humans?
That made me doubt those humans. If not for the sheer numbers there of humans, I would suspect they were traitors.
But I'd look for that issue later on. For now I'd just work towards reducing the enemy influx.
The sky gates didn't pose any threat towards me. The only attacks came from the aquatic monsters and their continuous projectiles.
After taking control over the five gates in the sky, the attacks coming at me looked like there was a black cloud over my head, raining projectiles like a flood, not water.
But my shield was still standing against such attacks. At this moment, the consumption rate swelled up and exceeded one million stat points per minute.
It was a really terrifying rate, something I never saw except against strong and deadly foes.
"This can't continue like this," I noticed that with limiting the strength of my forces, the kill rate diminished to a dangerous level.
Even with the presence of my deadliest forces attacking all the time, the number of monsters kept increasing, not decreasing.
At this moment, I had to choose what to do. Either I'd set my forces free, attacking as they saw fit, and risking losing the human forces at the centre.
Or I'd find another way around. The first thing that popped in my mind was to retreat, and kill the monsters that would follow.
Despite this seemed like a good plan, I saw it was a passive one. After all I'd remain all the day here attacking and killing without acting to dominate the city.
The best action was to find a way to reach the down below lakes gates. If not, then I'd fight meaningless fights here.
Another choice was to go and seek another city to attack. But the mere idea of leaving such a cancer in the heart of my territory wasn't pleasant at all.
So what should I do? I kept my chariot moving, trying to evade the incoming attacks as much as possible. But that didn't help much, as the attacks came in a dense way that made it impossible for me to avoid.
Also the projectiles came in a strong momentum, enough to let them rise for hundreds of metres above the ground. Even if I tried to let my chariot fly higher, it wouldn't make any difference.
"Hmm… They are coming from a big circle around the city," I started analysing the situation better, in a much calmer mood, "they have to wait to bypass the central region first, then come and attack me."
From what I noticed during the past few minutes, these monsters seemed to purposely avoid the central region. Was that intentional? Was that a trap set by that bastard?
I had three options now, either to retreat outside the city, keep roaming the city, or go towards the central region.
The idea of going to the central region was just alluring to me. I found the presence of that central safe zone irritating to me. But I couldn't tell if that was a trap or not.
After all, if I went there, and that bastard was doing this show on purpose, then I'd be trapped from all directions. Coming out from this attack would cost me a lot.
I had to shut down a few gates before going to the central zone. But I tested my chariot against everything, yet I never put it to test against water.
I didn't know if my shield could prevent water or not. Also going to the water meant I'd be the target of every single monster around the gate, even those still pouring out from the gate under water.
I didn't know how long each gate would take to close up. Would they be like the surface gates? Would they take less than a minute or longer?
Well… there was no way to tell but by putting this under test. Yet Going there without preparations was a suicide act.
"Soulers… Attack!"
As I decided, I called upon my soulers outside the city. These dudes were so terrifying, and such a fight they would excel at.
The first response came in a mighty war cry that came from their direction. I saw waves of my soulers flashing in their black fog, flashing through the bodies of these monsters.
Yet as I watched closely, I was surprised to see the monsters not falling after the passage of any soulers through their bodies. It looked weird in fact, reminding me of a similar situation that happened not long ago.
"I'll summon them," as I recalled those strong badass folks, I opened my profile and went directly towards the section of summoning those monsters.
[You are the owner of Albany city]
[You can summon up to one hundred thousand monsters to fight by your side]
[Each monster will need one hundred Yewan energy points or one thousand equivalent stat points]
[How much do you want to summon?]
Looking at this dire situation here, I decided to summon one tenth of these monsters. "Bring me ten thousand monsters."
[Ten million stat points are deducted from your inventory]
[Where do you want monsters?]
"Here," I raised my glaive and added, "scatter them across the city in groups of a thousand."
[Done]
In a series of flashes, ten places shone in bright white light before a large number of monsters appeared. Their bodies weren't that bigger than the aquatic monsters, but these were ground monsters.
Earth was their turf and home. Once they appeared, they roared in succession before attacking all the monsters around.
Like my soulers, these monsters flashed through any aquatic octopus-like hybrid monster, killing them in a flash.
260 The Hectors
My soulers needed ten attacks to take one down, but these monsters only needed one. The difference was clear, and that made me hope for more.
[You can give them orders through this message interface]
Just as they launched their first attack, a window popped in front of my eyes. It was lined with bright silver white light, with nothing there written at all.
It looked slightly dim until I touched it with my fingers. It flashed, like it returned back to life.
"One group of you move towards the closest lake and try to take down the monsters under water," this was the test I looked for.
If they could just sustain the water, and keep part of the monsters occupied, I could go directly and shut down that portal down there.
As I said that, I saw my words appearing in the window box before it changed into strange and alien looking language that I never recognized. After that the writings vanished and the chat window turned dim again.
I knew the system would deliver my words to these monsters, so I waited. I greatly anticipated their performance at the lake battle.
The group moving towards the lake wasn't that far away from me. I moved my chariot fast and got near them. "Clear the path towards the lake," I shouted and my forces scattered everywhere moved to execute the order.
I had to shield this burden off them, hopefully they could bring me some kind of a surprise.
And just as I was waiting for them to reach the lake, and the world was filled with the noise of bombardment from my forces at the area adjacent to that lake, I got a message from Fang.
[The one attacking you isn't just one person, it's an elite group sent from somewhere else]
I looked at this message and frowned. A realisation hit me fast as I asked, to make sure I got what he said right:
[You mean from another apocalypse?]
[They didn't come from that apocalypse directly] he sent, [But from a world controlled by a race taking part in another apocalypse than us]
I paused as I was shocked by this discovery. As for Fang, he kept his silence for one long minute before finally asking:
[What did you do to attract such hatred from another race? As far as I know, even the paragons of my race are intrigued and frightened by this move]
[It's not common to happen?] I asked, trying to get more info about that.
[Not at such an early stage of the apocalypse at least] he sent, [As I got from my paragon, the ones attacking you have paid a hefty price. They won't just stop here it seemed, as that entire world got an exclusive access to our apocalypse]
The more he spoke, the more shocked I became.
[What race are they? Giants? Shaders? Or Grounders?]
Of course these were the three races I had in my mind right now. I acted against these three, and they were the mightiest three out of other races I brought here.
But If I had to place my bid over a race, it would be giants. That race was the mightiest. Then I'd select Shaders, they looked vicious and acted brutally enough to do something like that.
[None, what the heck did you do?!!!]
[Nothing major, at least] I sent, [But which race then?]
[A terrifying race called the Hectors… These dudes aren't a joke. You have to stop whatever you are doing to them. Damn! I always thought the most troublesome dudes in my apocalypse would be the dragons and Berserkers. Never took humans to be such trouble makers!]
Hectors? What the heck was that race supposed to be? And what was my relation to them?
Then it hit me out of nowhere!
[Whatever… Now with your actions, another race that wasn't supposed to be here is. You have to take responsibility for this. This race… It's really something scary, a behemoth you shouldn't stir by anyway possible if you wanted to survive this sh*t here!]
[I can't do anything for now] I helplessly sent to him before adding, [I'll try to stop the invasion here]
[You still don't get it… They won't stop at your pathetic city. They will target everything. That race is as greedy as Dragons, as cunning as us, as vicious and brutal like Berserkers]
That was like my dream team in the apocalypse gathered into one single race! Damn! How could such a race target me?
[At least they want me, not you]
[They won't stop at just taking you down] he seemed to be so much agitated, even more than myself, [They will finish you then go towards everyone else. They paid a hefty price not just for your sake! They will invade, aim to take control of our entire apocalypse]
That was really a bold race worthy of my admiration. But that didn't mean I'd resign to just passively defend. [How can I close that link to here?] I asked, and the answer it came wasn't that hopeful at all.
[If you have enough strength and forces strong enough to go into their world and control all the gates linking to here, then you can. Otherwise, you can only pray]
I didn't know if he was acting hopeless or being sarcastic. Yet what he said was true. I wasn't strong enough even to dare and invade any world of the few races in my apocalypse.
Not to mention I had to go and face such a terrifying race.
[I'll find a way then] I only sent that, with no intention of doing so. What if I bought a scary foe here? After all, weren't all these races having their fun fighting against us?
Let them come, at least these races would be threatened by a new enemy they never expected or planned against. Despite this situation looking much darker at first, I knew it wasn't that bad, at least for humans.
261 This Fight... Must Be My Win
We were the lowest race in this apocalypse. What if a new predator came into the picture? We wouldn't lose our pathetic last place anyway.
As for those strong races here, let them have their trouble. That might change a lot of things, hopefully creating new scenarios for me and my humans to thrive.
But first I'd need to find a way and shut down these gates. This fight turned from a brutal fight to take control over the city to a much fiercer battle that would send a clear statement to those new enemies.
A statement where they'd know that I wasn't that easy prey, not the easy one they thought I'd be at least.
If I lost here, then it would be like an invitation for them to come and target me at any place I'd be at. It would turn my life into a nightmare.
But if I won, they would realise they couldn't take me down. At least they needed to better prepare first, find themselves a strong foothold here before acting against me again.
That wouldn't only buy myself valuable time, but also would forcibly add more races to the picture. They would expand their area of activity, clash against more races and start having trouble.
Either the races here or that new race, both should have trouble. During which I'd just lay low, play safe and build my forces, waiting for the right moment to attack.
I'd simply turn the tables around with my victory here. The prey would turn to a predator, and the new race would be chased and I'd turn into a hunter.
So it all came down to here and to my monsters I summoned from Albany city. They were already at the shore of that lake, fighting brutally against their foes.
Yet they didn't struggle, not until the first waves of them fell into water. I couldn't see clearly what was going on, but I could see them moving in a nervous way, like drowning.
Damn! I didn't want them to drown! Just as I panicked, I found a weird thing happening. Each monster emitted a weird light while a message popped in front of my eyes.
[Your monsters ask for temporary gaining support from the city aquatic building. Do you accept this request or not?]
[To extend the effects of this building over each monster, you have to pay one thousand stat points]
[Do you agree?]
"Do it!" without even thinking about it I agreed. Damn! I never remembered the presence of such a building at all in the city.
Where was it? Wasn't it in the central region or what?
[Stat points are deducted]
[The effect is extending now over your thousand monsters]
[You paid one million stat points]
[The effect will last for one day]
I didn't hesitate to click over the dimmed chat window as I said:
"Come to the lake near my chariot's location, get into water and help in killing all the monsters there."
If I was going to do it, if I had a slim chance of success, then I'd go with all my might!
"Turn this area into a piece of hell!" reaching this stage, it wasn't time to hold back anymore, "use your full power, attack as you see fit but try to not harm the incoming monsters or the central zone as possible."
*Roar!*
My warriors roared before they started their spree of brutal attacks.
This time the area around the lake turned into a real piece of hell. Fire expanded all over the area, alongside terrifying sounds of explosions.
From all directions, my scattered nine groups of monsters came. As they approached here, my warriors did as I ordered, controlled their attacks to avoid them.
Yet that didn't help too much for the central part. Many attacks landed there, causing considerable damage to humans fortifying themselves at that place.
I didn't feel much towards them. After all I held my own doubts towards what they stand for.
I shifted my attention fully over the lake. The monsters that arrived first and got the blessing now stabilised and were fighting brutally against the aquatic monsters.
They kept flashing, killing lots of monsters there. But gradually I started to feel that the lake would be obliterated totally with these bodies if this continued.
"Two groups will work together to drag bodies outside the lake, the rest will fight and kill," as I feared such a situation would happen, so I decided to let some of my monsters act like sweepers and cleaners.
Just before they could arrive at the lake, the enemy of mine seemed to sense what I wanted to do. Monsters from all over the city roared and started to move in unison towards here.
"Keep them away," I simply gave this order before adding, "half of the fallen gods will disembark, the rest will follow me down there."
I knew this chance was created by an element of surprise. Waiting more might endanger my plans. Who knew what those Hectors could possibly do if given enough time to think.
So I decided to move alongside my monsters once they entered the lake. They would keep the monsters busy while I'd dive down below and secure that damn gate.
As for the breathing under water problem, I just hoped that a building of mine would help me in this regard. If it could help other monsters to breath and move in the waters without any problems, it also could help me.
The monsters arrived in less than a minute. They went directly to water while more were still pouring here.
"I agree," in the middle of all the violent clashes and fights going on, I received a message from the system asking my permission to extend the building special effect over my monsters.
Of course I agreed. And with a flash of bright white light, all my monsters gained the support of that building.
And then it was time for me to follow.
*Splash!*
Just the first thing that happened was for water to come fiercely against my chariot's shield. The shield worked its magic and kept the water away, yet there was still one major problem I faced.
Mobility!
262 The Fight Under Water
I never thought about it. My big chariot fell into the lake waters like it was a dead big piece of rock! The water never entered through the shield, yet I couldn't control the free fall of my chariot.
This way I'd end up closer to the gate, unable to even touch it. What a frustrating feeling this was!
[Do you want to acquire the blessing of the aquatic building?]
[You'll need to pay a price of one million stat points to use this ability on you]
[You'll need to pay ten million stat points to use the effect of that building over you and over your mount]
[Do you want to pay?]
"Pay ten million!" I shouted without any moment of thinking. At this critical moment, delaying a second would make a difference between life and death.
Just as my chariot started its journey to sink into the lake, I realised the reason behind me not being able to see things clearly down there.
The bottom of this lake wasn't as superficial as I thought! It ended up in the shallow bottom for most parts, leaving behind a deep big hole that extended for a couple hundred metres in radius.
From that hole I could see herds of monsters coming forth from that shining gate deep there. From the look of it, my chariot would end up almost five hundred metres away from the edge of that hole.
That meant I'd be like a sitting duck if that building didn't do its magic quite soon!
Just diving down for a few seconds told me a lot about how hard this fight would be. Water worked its magic and dealt a great blow to my warriors' strength.
The attacks that could rumble the ground turned into much weaker forms down here. Even if I had all my forces with me, this fight wouldn't be as easy as I thought.
As I kept shaking down below, the number of aquatic monsters coming at me directly swelled up to a terrifying figure. The lake was like a bottle, the surface was narrow and the depth was wide.
With such width, I knew that my ten thousand monsters working together wouldn't be enough to shield my chariot off the incoming hostile monsters.
The only way for me was to dive directly towards that deep hole, aiming for the gate and shutting it down.
With this the influx of monsters here would be cut, and this fight wouldn't take much time to be concluded.
[Ten million stat points are deducted from your inventory]
[You now enjoy the blessing of the aquatic building of Albany city for one day]
[If you want to extend the duration, you'll need to pay similar fee per day]
*Fwoosh!*
Like my chariot was breathing underwater, giant bubbles appeared out of nowhere, engulfing my entire chariot. I could see turbulent currents of water roaring fiercely around my chariot, while a bright wave of white light emitted from it.
The blessing worked, and now it was time to put it under testing.
"Move forward!" The first thing I did was control my chariot forward. Unlike every other time I used it, I didn't limit it to thinking alone.
I didn't know if this blessing needed verbal orders or what, but there was no time to test it. I could see many monsters jumping into the water, coming from the other four gates inside the city.
Even with my warriors standing on guard up there, their numbers seemed too much to control. If this kept going for just ten more minutes, I'd be doomed to fail this attempt here.
Failure wasn't an option here. I wasn't fighting to secure this city, but for my futuristic battles, for my future.
I didn't know what worked, but the chariot started moving. Its speed wasn't anything compared to its speed in the air. But at least we were moving.
The currents of water created by my chariot was enough to send away any hostile monster coming at us from the sides and back. That left a lot of pressure over my forces, and I gave them the order to focus all their attacks over the front.
By this, all the incoming monsters didn't pose any threat to me. Yet when I got near that hole, my chariot was bombarded with lots of heavy attacks coming from monsters defending the hole.
These monsters looked different. They were slightly bigger in shape than the other ones, almost double the size. They got three arched arms, very tall and thick seven octopus-like tentacles. And they had a layer of pure red energy surrounding their three arms.
Their projectiles were much fiercer than the others. And they had enough numbers to exceed a couple of thousands. They were floating just below the hole, forming a series of completed circles down there.
"You prepared a welcoming party for me? How rude I didn't bring gifts," I snorted back while pushing my big girl directly towards the hole.
Attacking with more advanced and much stronger monsters? It wouldn't make any difference pal. This gate of yours would fall, and soon others would follow as well.
Once I reached the hole, the number of monsters killed by my forces was enough to block the entire lake as I expected earlier. But thanks to the expanding parts of it here, they only filled a small part of the ground.
"Energy pulse!" As I reached the hole, it was my priority to cause a disturbance at the defensive forces first. These bigger monsters seemed to keep coming from the portal down below, increasing in numbers by almost one thousand during the last few minutes.
Yet when my chariot unleashed the pulse wave attack, all the projectiles crashed and were forced to fall back. It wasn't only the projectiles, but also the defending monsters were hit as well.
Part of them wasn't ready, it seemed, got carried away with my pulse wave. As for the projectiles, a good part of them fell over their heads, causing more injuries and losses to these monsters.
"Keep firing," and amidst all that, I moved my chariot through the hole, finally passing into the much bigger cavity underneath.
263 A Hard Earned Victory
It was shocking to realise that this cavity wasn't as small or shallow as I expected. Its depth extended for almost half a mile down below. And its size was really colossal.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this cavity extended all the way down the city, even extending far beyond it.
And in the depth of this gigantic space, I saw not only one portal but five!
The five were the five underwater gates summoned here. It seemed they were all together, and that explained why there were so many numbers of those monsters coming every time my forces cleared a big deal of them.
They weren't coming from one gate, but five! "You saved me time, pal," I chuckled after absorbing this shock. The defensive elites of these hybrid aquatic monsters were just limited to this hole I just passed through.
And as they were sent all over the place, I didn't delay and started hunting them down.
After all, they were the only ones posing a real threat against me. Just from their attacks during the past few minutes, they cost me almost one hundred million stat points to keep my shield intact.
Damn! They were much fiercer than even that archlord of illusionists or even the tear god weapon of the same race!
"Keep killing them," I only needed to control my chariot and left the rest to my warriors. Per my presence here, I became public enemy number one.
All the monsters coming from the five gates turned around and came in my direction. This might seem hard to resist, but thanks to the torrents of water currents created by my chariot, many of these dense numbers were thrown away before even reaching me.
They either rolled far away, or even hit more monsters coming towards me. This helped in relieving lots of pressure, giving time for my forces to do their job.
Yet I didn't miss the real target here. If I kept doing this for aeons, the fight wouldn't conclude unless I shut down these annoying gates.
But I had to wait until my forces killed most of those big dudes first. It took them ten minutes to clear them all. They tried to regroup, but each time they did they were met with my shocking pulse wave attack.
If everything else was affected by the water, my pulse wave luckily wasn't. Instead I noticed its strength became much fiercer than before, and its range became much wider as well.
"Let's go," as we killed most of those annoying big octopus, it was time to seal the leak and close these gates. "Keep focusing fire at that gate."
I selected the closest one from me. I'd close this and then jump over to close the rest. The hardest step was closing the first one. After that with each gate closed, less monsters would pass and I'd end up facing easier times.
"Fire your grenades," at this moment, it didn't make any sense to let my boys all over the chariot idle. I didn't use the grenades or the many machine guns scattered across my chariot.
I wanted to save these until the decisive moment. And here it came.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Mighty explosions occurred. We were under water, so explosions here didn't have the same effect as on the surface. Most it did was to create violent currents that would throw more monsters away.
Yet against my blessed chariot, and its mighty shield, these currents never posed any threat at all.
"Hmm… So you aren't that green weed we thought you'd be… Interesting!"
Just as I finally reached the first gate, this deep and domineering voice came from that gate. I didn't know how it travelled across water, but it appeared clearly inside my chariot.
"You dared to invade my territory, then it's normal for you to face my retaliation," I shrugged, acting as if this fight was kind of a breeze to me.
"Humph! Big words coming from such a mediocre race. Even if you are a mighty figure in your race, against us you are nothing."
"And that nothing just crushed you here," I extended my arm towards the gate, fearing he was buying time for something crazy. "Let's see how you'll do against other mightier races than humans. I bet you will be crushed every single time."
"We are Hectors! We never lose!" he shouted in a roaring way. Yet all it did was to drive a long laughter over my face.
"Sure, you lost to me, a weakling race hero. I'm sure you can do better against much stronger forces."
"We'll see about that," he harrumphed but his words were cut as the gate was finally closed.
This one was brought down, and the other four were lying in wait.
Despite this useless talk, that bastard didn't decrease the intensity of the monsters passing through the other gates. Until I managed to close the last gate, five hours were wasted and I lost one hundred million stat points defending my chariot and myself inside.
He didn't only summon normal hybrid monsters, but also the much bigger ones as well. Even if they all ended up slaughtered, that seemed to not stop that dude at all.
It gave me a glimpse over how terrifying this enemy was. He wouldn't stop at anything to achieve his victories. And even if this ended up with my win, I had to admit that I paid a hefty price for it.
Not only resources, but also time. I wasted a lot of time fighting here, almost close to twelve hours. Damn! If he kept nagging me at every corner, I wouldn't be able to move freely and do what I wanted.
I hoped my chat with him would force him away from me for a while. I tried to irritate him, feeling these Hectors were such a prideful race, or hoping so.
If they were, then he would take the bait. I knew they weren't stupid warmongers like the Berserkers, but hopefully they would place their pride over anything else, just like dragons.
The big fight was over, yet there were still lots of monsters here and up there. I had to kill them all, bring them to the surface, hopefully I'd end up with more gains to compensate me for this loss.
264 Meeting The Suspicious Humans
The easy task to clear the city turned into such a long and drained chase between me and those monsters. Those bastards kept running amok all over the place, finally attacking the central zone.
They seemed to act on the orders of their master. That bastard wanted to lure me to the central part, hoping to surround and entrap me.
Luckily I didn't lower my guard towards this scheme. Yet that proved these humans were innocent of all the false charges I had in my mind.
Sigh! I was sure a big part of them was killed or injured during the past fight. As for now, they fought bravely against monsters, perfectly using the advantage of castles and emblems to their benefit.
It took roughly six hours to finally clear the entire city and its lakes. I used everything I got, even summoned more dragons and fallen gods to help.
From this battle alone, my gains in regard to souls was substantial. I never imagined that the number of monsters killed here would be in millions!
This looked insane! Yet when my boys brought the bodies out of the water, I realised that most of these were killed in the long aquatic fight down there.
The bodies piled to form massive mountains outside the city, giving a very dark and terrifying scene to anyone looking at it.
Yet I didn't hurry to claim my gains. I first had to see what was going on in this central region of the city.
Humans surviving here wasn't a joke. They must be some form of elites or something. Or might be traitors, who knew?
As I finished the fight, I took a short break of rest where I ate and drank, extending my body over the surface of my flying chariot for almost half an hour.
Then I moved towards this central zone, with tons of questions for the humans there to answer.
What was remarkable about the central zone was its emptiness of any lake. When I went there, I saw a large number of surviving humans, boys and girls, mostly in their early twenties.
"Who is the leader here?" I stopped my chariot just a hundred metre away. I kept it flying for almost twenty metres off the ground, giving a more intimidating feeling about myself.
"It's us," three youths stepped forward, two boys and one girl. From the first look I noticed they wore almost everything possible from gears.
"Come on board," I said while throwing my rope, "use this to climb up here."
"Are you afraid of us or what?" The girl spoke in a loud and confident tone.
"With these? Come on, be a little serious please," I laughed while motioning my head behind, pointing at my scattered forces that were still gathering the killed bodies of aquatic monsters.
Girl… If I didn't keep off them most of the time, you wouldn't be even standing here acting this arrogant.
"Then we have to ask your word to ensure our safety," one of the two boys, one with slightly darker skin, said.
"You are safe," I simply promised, "as long as you aren't my enemies."
I had to state it clearly for them, for all of the humans down below. If there was any traitor here, then he would know about my way of doing things for sure.
If not, then this place would be his grave no doubt.
"Welcome on board," I said in welcoming the three once they climbed up my chariot. I had to make things happen this way, to ensure my superiority and show my authority over them.
Humans were such a hard race to deal with. If you gave anyone a metre he would ask for a mile from you. So I had to show them how arrogant and cold I was, making them climb like they were worth nothing.
After all, the one to clear and claim this city was none other than me.
"This chariot… It looks amazing!" the yellow haired youth said while examining my chariot.
"It reminds me of the fairy princesses' rides, like that of Cinderella," the girl said.
"It gives me the vibe of Santa Clause," the dark skinned youth said, reminding me of Leo when I first met him.
"First you'll have to undergo a small test," I took out one of my compasses before throwing it to the girl, "use your blood and throw it back to me."
"What is this?" Unlike anything I expected or experienced before, this girl showed great interest in my compass.
"A tool to determine the allies from foes," I didn't hide the truth of this compass, "just use the blood of the one you wanted to test, and it tells you all about his intentions."
"Is it for real?" the yellow haired white skinned youth said while jumping much closer from the girl.
"John, stay away from me, I already warned you many times before!" Yet the girl jumped to the side, stepping away from that youth called John.
"Come on Lilith, I don't harbour any ill intentions towards you," John tried to act innocent here but something told me he was lying.
"Humph, tell me about it," Lilith rolled up her eyes before she took out a curved sword and pricked her skin with it.
"Here," she threw the compass back and the compass showed she was clean.
Then the other two underwent the same test, all were clean.
The black skinned youth was called Will. he was the least speaking one among the three. The other two looked like any two lovers, fighting over the smallest things once they got the chance, pickering at each other at every possible corner.
"Now, tell me what happened here," I asked once I made sure they were clean.
"What do you mean by that?" Will asked in an aggressive way that I totally ignored.
"Any place I visited after the start of the apocalypse had miserable stories for humans. But here…" I turned around, "you look so fine to me."
"Disappointed?" Will asked again and I ignored him.
265 Gamers
"Will, stop acting this hostile to any new one!" Lilith hit him with her elbow, showing how better her relation with Will than John.
"It's just weird how humans didn't cope with all this," she said and I nodded for her to continue, "I mean… Just look at this? Isn't this like any game popular in our time before this sh*it happened?"
I realised from her words who they were. "So you are all gamers?" I asked and the three nodded.
"We came here to play in a competition," John explained, "all of us are either players or fans of popular games. So when the apocalypse came, we found it easy to live through what happened."
"People are just retard! They missed the chance to train over the apocalypse years before it happened," Will snorted, said in his usual aggressive tone, "if they didn't mock us back then, saw us as nerds with everything we did, then they might have a better chance in surviving."
"Not all the people mean this, Will!" John seemed to not be on good terms with Will, and I could tell why.
"Will is right," Lilith nodded, as she took the side of Will in this argument, "I was mocked many times thanks to my cosplay. See now? If not for my hard working hours in making these outfits before, how could I even use any gears or adapt to any of this? They just missed their chance, and we were ready for it."
"So you fought and survived using the game info only?" I jumped over this debate. After all I wasn't literally someone from their time. I couldn't relate to any of what these three said.
"Of course!" Lilith said in confidence, "we played games for most of our lives. These games always had harsh scenarios and poor environments where people had to survive using many skills and abilities."
"Playing games saved my life," Will admitted, "saved all of our lives."
"Good," I decided to close this meaningless talk, "I want you to go down there and do what I did to you with them," I threw my compass again towards Lilith, as she seemed like their acting leader.
"You…" Will was the one to object, yet Lilith said, interrupting his words:
"We will scan them," she paused before adding, "can I have this marvel?"
"It's yours," I still had many stored in my inventory.
"What about me?" Will asked, despite showing zero interest before in my compass.
"Your force will have only this piece as a gift," I said before adding, "it's sold in the market. You can work hard and pay for its price with your own money."
"Humph, stingy," John muttered but his voice wasn't that low to not be caught by my ears.
"Just don't think yourselves this special because your survived so far," I shrugged, pouring cold buckets of water over their heads without mercy as I added:
"You didn't do the world a great favour by staying alive. If you were like me, having such a mighty force behind you, then you might be enough to speak to me as my equal. But compared to me, you are still noobs in any game you play."
"And you?" Will asked with a tone of mockery.
"A veteran," I replied before taking out my glaive once again, "if you aren't convinced, then I welcome any fight anytime. But I have to warn you…"
I paused as the eyes of Will and John flashed with desire to fight, "I only fight life and death battles, not the kind of time wasting friendly sparring fights."
The shining in their eyes instantly dimmed when they heard my last words. "We will descend then," Lilith said, putting an end to this experience of them.
"Ah, I forgot to tell you this," before they would descend from my chariot using the rope, I stopped them as I added, "the ones who join me will have to sign a loyalty binding contract."
"All of us?!" John was surprised.
"That's absurd!" Will objected in his usual aggressive way.
"If you don't want to, then I can't help you at all," I shook my head, acting all helpless here, "after all this city is mine. If you don't plan to join my forces on my terms, then prepare to leave as fast as possible."
"You…" even Lilith seemed surprised with my attitude. But I turned around, raising my fist in the air as I said, ending this debate before it even began:
"Go down there and think about it. You have half a day before my real forces come here. And a piece of warning…"
I walked towards my big ballista, caressing it like I was treating a pet or something, "my forces are much larger, far stronger, more experienced than the noobs players like yourselves."
"You…"
"Don't say it again!"
"Stop it!" Lilith shouted, stopping the other two from turning this situation into a disastrous one, "we will discuss it among ourselves, and give you the answer."
"Cool."
I watched them descend while laughing inside myself at them. I knew they wouldn't accept such a thing if I showed any mercy.
They had to know this world wasn't a free meal to anyone. If they wanted to join me, then they had to pay the appropriate price for it. After all this was my only way to guarantee my safety.
"Players… Hmm…" but from the second interaction with the player community, I started to grow much interested in them. I never read anything remarkable about gamers before in any records of my time.
Yet from what I saw so far, either from Leo's actions or theirs here, I could tell how special this community was.
"Like a hidden gem in the dirt… I just need to work a little harder and gather them from all over the world," my eyes shone brightly when I thought about that.
If I had no way to get to that community, I still had Leo. he stayed with me long enough to gain my trust. That boy, he was a real playboy. Jumping over from one beauty to another.
266 Special Monster Cores
Yet he was dependable. So far he worked so well with my team, never heard a single comment or complain about him and his gaming force.
I might have a little talk with him later, trying to get better knowledge about this gaming community and how to get them to my side.
As for the half a day limit I gave to the gamers here, I knew they wouldn't spend all this time thinking about my offer. I bet in a few hours they'd come and show their agreement.
If not, then they were welcomed to leave my entire territory, seek another land to fight and try to survive at. Good luck for them if they chose that.
"Now it's time to reap the benefits," as I finished my business here, I left half of my dragons flying around the central zone. I gave them instructions to kill anyone trying to run away during the next couple hours.
They'd be traitors. I also wanted to leave a threatening reminder of my power, seen by all of them all the time. This way their agreement would be much easier and a lot faster.
I led my chariot and went towards the large mountains gathered from the dead bodies of these monsters. The mere sight of such astronomical numbers of monsters made me realise how hard that fight was.
Just thinking about the tactics these Hectors used here left me wary and speechless. They were big spenders, even much wealthier than the Dragons.
Dragons used to spend much over themselves, very stingy if they were faced in the same situation like the last battle I had. If they knew the fight would be a loss, they would instantly retreat, or at least try to cut short their losses.
But these Hectors… They kept sending off these monsters like they were throwing sand from a desert! They aimed to wear me down, much delaying my march at all costs.
That was a goal I could understand, but what was really terrifying was their readiness to pay anything to achieve their goals. Even throwing out wealth and forces like these monsters was nothing in their eyes.
One had to know these monsters weren't simply common monsters from the apocalypse. They were hybrid aquatic monsters, a very special kind of monster.
Hybrid monsters wouldn't appear before quest seven or eight. As for hybrid aquatic monsters, they would appear roughly at quest eleven and twelve.
That meant they paid a hefty price to get such monsters this early on. After all the apocalypses at the twenty realms were running at the same pace.
Anyway, I had such a big harvest. Just the materials and cores coming from these would be enough to bring a fortune to me.
When I arrived there, the first thing I noticed was the different colours of the monster parts. The entire body was formed from a giant trunk, a globular shaped head with two rows of vertical eyes, and six tentacles like octopus.
The colour of all these parts was similarly pale red, much closer to being pink in colour. But the two thick and arched tentacles that were used to launch projectiles were in deep purple colour.
From the first glance, the special part of these monsters was the big thick arms. I recalled how they kept firing at me deadly projectiles without any rest, defying any logic or common sense.
I had to see what caused such innocent looking arms to be so deadly in battles. I took out my light weighted glaive, and started cutting through the body of the first monster I found.
The first thing I noticed was the strange structure inside the body of that monster. The two thick arms were attached to the back of the trunk. From there, I found two tube-like structures coming together at the central part of the trunk, ending at a complicated structure there.
It looked like a beehive, something complicated and organic based. In the centre of it, there was the main core of the monster. It was a big oval shaped dark purple coloured core, looking like a big black purple egg or something.
When I grabbed it, it felt like I was cutting through tissue connecting this core with the structure it lay within. When I grabbed it out, the dark purple colour of the arms vanished, and replaced with pale red colour like the rest of the body.
"So you are still providing energy to these arms… Interesting!" I grabbed it in my hand and tried to see what was special about it. Just as I was doing this, this core touched the glaive in my hand, and then an interesting thing happened.
My glaive vibrated, shook out of the blue while emitting dark purple colour. In a reflex I moved it away, and then that black purple colour vanished as if it wasn't even there.
"Hmm… So you can provide your energy to other gears… Let's see what effects you'll give to my glaive then," this time I attached it on purpose with my glaive.
The glaive felt as if it was much lighter than before. I took out some rope to bind the two together, turned to the edge of my chariot and simply waved it.
My warriors gathered the dead bodies of the monsters outside the city. The closest part of the city to here was filled with ruins, nothing more.
My glaive was a sharp weapon, enough to cut through the thick skin of my enemies. But it had to be held and had to attack directly to cause such an effect.
I tried more than once to throw it and the result was satisfying. Yet I had to go and acquire it again, something that made me refrain from using such tactics a lot in any fight.
But now? Just as I waved my glaive, its dark purple energy gathered at its sharp blade before releasing a crescentic shaped energy arc that travelled so fast towards the ground.
*Boom!*!
267 Ok Big Guy With Big Fists, We Comply!
The explosion was really shocking. I blinked twice, looking again at my glaive. Damn! These cores were really something else!
I looked at this dark purple core, and then at the big number of monsters here. At this moment, I hoped if these monsters were in the hundreds of millions and not only a couple of millions.
Cores that could generate energy to upgrade the power of any gear? That was a treasure trove! Just thinking about the applications I could have used made my head spin already.
Aside from using these over the years of my special forces, wasn't it possible to arm the human arsenal with these cores?
The big issue that rendered the human firepower useless was the weak energy each missile or bullet carried. Humans used powder to ignite explosions, enough to drive the bullets and missiles as far and fast as they could.
But they missed arming these with energy. In the end, these projectiles were all but mere useless metal. They couldn't penetrate any armour or even scratch the thick skins of any monster.
So if I added these cores instead of using a complicated mechanism to drive energy from the user themselves, wouldn't that solve almost half of the problems in that process?
Damn! Just thinking about that made my blood boil. I grew much impatient, wanting to just go and try this theory as soon as possible.
But I had to wait and reach MIT campus before doing so. Anyway, I had a lot of work to do here.
The monster I dissected wasn't left alone. I worked my glaive supported by that core and cut it into pieces.
Each single piece of it was considered a treasure. Even the hard shell-like rough covering was indeed worthy to be stored.
As I stored everything, I ditched the idea of selling these. After all, I'd need lots of materials to transform the human arsenal into something useful.
So instead of struggling to seek materials later on, why not try and use these hard things and see how it would fare.
I did the same at the next monster. Yet this time I didn't grab the core out from that weird structure, but I grabbed the entire structure out with the core fixed with it.
I wanted to see what this structure could do. After all, it seemed a bit special. Through my work at the first monster, I failed to find any mechanism to generate projectiles other than this weird structure here.
The core would generate energy, but this energy needed something to transform it into the deadly projectiles. I held that disc shaped beehive-like structure in my hand, trying to see how it worked.
All I could find was that it was tightly connected. Each piece of it seemed to play a role, and the end would be the two tubes coming out from one side of it.
I tried to press that core, stir it using my energy, even hitting it with my glaive. Yet nothing worked. I sighed while thinking about what I should do with these.
Should I ditch these structures and only care to gather up all the cores? Or would I be missing something important here by doing that?
One had to know that once I took out that core from the structure, I failed to return it again there. The connection between the two seemed to be on a cellular level, and couldn't be amended once broken.
After pondering for a few minutes, I decided to play safe. I decided to store the cores with their structures. If I ever needed cores then it wouldn't be too late to grab them out from the structures and use them.
Like this I'd guarantee that I wouldn't lose any chance here. Who knew, I might come across someone or something that might help to unravel the mystery of this structure and how it worked.
Starting from here, I worked hard to grab all the cores and their structures very carefully. I even stored away the two thick arched arms intact without dissecting them.
But when I first met one of those much bigger, three armed monsters, I found an interesting change.
The cores and their structure became much bigger, mostly double in size. The dark purple colour was much darker, even having long black strands here and there.
I tried one of these cores with my glaive, and I was thrilled with the result. The glaive sent not only one arc, but three. The three moved one after another like they were chasing each other, hitting in succession the target and causing much more devastating damage than the normal cores.
"You are going to be stuck forever with my glaive, pretty girl," I caressed it like it was some sort of a precious gem. Yet the rope used to bind it wasn't that tight or safe.
But it was the best I had for now. Anyway I continued what I was doing, storing intact thick arching arms and the cores alongside their complicated organic structures.
This process took much longer than I expected, extending beyond the twelve hours limit I gave to those gamers. Midway though, the three leaders came and I totally ignored them.
They stood there, not speaking, not moving, only watching me doing my business. I was totally absorbed in cutting the monsters until I became so proficient in doing so.
If this was another situation, I might have asked for the help of my warriors or even those humans. But I didn't guarantee their efficiency or if they'd be as careful as me in dealing with these cores and structures.
After I finished, the entire place looked empty after taking all the monsters away. I couldn't enjoy any moment of rest, as those three moved in unison, while Lilith was walking a step ahead of the other two.
"You seem very much interested in these monsters," she said and I simply smiled and changed the topic as I said:
"What's your decision?"
"What else?" Will said in his usual harsh way, "you didn't give us a choice here, right?"
"That's the truth of this world," I didn't change my smile or attitude as I added, "in this world, only ones with bigger fists can give conditions and make all the talk."
"Ok big guy with big fists, we comply," Lilith sighed, "what shall we do now?"
268 I'm A Tycoon
"Have you scanned your people first?" I asked before seriously adding, "any traitors?"
"None," yet the unexpected response came from her, "we scanned everyone and all are clean."
"All?!!" I couldn't hide my shock from that. Even in the best situations there were one or two traitors in each group I met.
What was wrong here? Why did this place seem like an anomaly in all the places I visited so far in the apocalypse?
"What's wrong?" John asked in doubt, "isn't it something good?"
"It is," I sighed, "now you are going to have contracts with me."
"All of us?" Will asked and I simply shook my head.
"Only the three of you are enough," I said, took out three contracts and signed them, "here, just sign your names and it will work."
"Is it enough?" Lilith gave me a sceptical look. Of course going over and making everyone sign a contract was something good but it would consume much time.
Plus if I got the leaders, what was there left to fear?
"Do you know if there are any gaming groups nearby?" I asked without much hope. After all they were just new to join my forces.
"Do you want to add more players to the game or what?" Will snorted but I ignored him. Lilith spoke, and she was the most rational and practical one among the three to be honest.
"We have some sort of connection system with many players," she said, and her words reminded me of what Leo once said.
He told me that there was such a connection before. But I got super busy delving deeper into this matter. "Like a common chat room or something?" I asked and she nodded.
"We can talk to each other, add one another as friends, or even block some annoying toxic dudes," she said and I noticed how tired she was when she said the last part.
"Some dudes are just funny as hell, only with blocking them one can live in peace of mind," Will said and I couldn't relate to what he was complaining about.
"So you can talk to each other? Can you write something that all of the players can see?"
"We have something like a forum," she nodded, and I couldn't relate to what forums even meant.
"It's a place where anyone can write anything and be seen by others," she noticed my puzzlement and decided to explain in detail.
"But this forum is super crowded and busy with many posts per hour!" John shook his head, complaining about this forum.
"We can still pay to make our post pinned to the top," Lilith said and the other two showed different reactions.
John's face darkened and Will just snorted. "This will require us to pay one million coins. Come on, who can have such a wealth in this f*cking apocalypse?"
"Me," I innocently raised my hand while adding, "I can give you this and make that post pinned."
The three looked at me like they were hungry wolves looking at a fat sheep or something.
"What? Do you think I got this power while being poor?" I shortly laughed before adding, "without wealth, one can't be strong no matter how special or hardworking he was."
This wasn't an attempt from me to boast or something, it was mere reality. Bitter or not, this was how things ran in this world.
"Just like our damn shitty past world," John laughed before he added, "alright filthy rich man, give us two million coins and we'll help you make this post."
"Wasn't it one million?" I frowned and he kept laughing and shaking his head, as if I missed something simple and obvious.
"It's called fees bro, haven't you ever heard about that?" he said and I knew what he was aiming for.
"So you are trying to gain from me?" It was my time to snort and laugh. That dude… he was still very green in this apocalypse compared to myself.
"Sure, there is nothing wrong about doing that," he added, while the other two kept their silence.
"Have you read the contract you just signed? Or don't tell me you are illiterate!"
"What?!!!" his face suddenly changed while my laughs went louder.
"It's just I have total authority over you," I shook my head, mimicking the pathetic act he just did, "I hold all the authority in ordering you to do something. Hell, even if I ordered you to go and beg others to gather these coins then you'd have no other choice but to comply."
"You…"
"John, shut up please," at this moment, Lilith couldn't tolerate his stupidity. I watched her and Will reading through the contract before signing it.
These two realised how deeply bound they were to me. When John tried to do his little act here, I was pretty sure they were laughing at him inside their minds.
"I will do it," Lilith said, "but what do you want to tell these people?"
"A chance," my eyes flashed with determination, "a chance to not only survive but thrive with me. If anyone is willing, even if he or she is living away from here, they can still join my forces."
"The same conditions?" Lilith asked.
"Can you help them in times of need? Even with the great distance between you and them?" Will asked the most important question, and I simply smiled in confidence in return.
"I just told you, didn't I?" my smile went wider as I added, "wealth is the true power of this world. I can't help them directly with my forces, but I can give them the means to become strong and mighty in this apocalypse."
"You are going to sponsor them?!!" Lilith and Will said in the same breath, while John kept his silence, acting like a naughty kid that just got reprimanded by his father.
"Why not?" I said, "if they are going to sign the same contract as you got, promising to follow each and all my instructions, plus vowing to work as hard as they could to help other humans survive this sh*t, then why wouldn't I help them?"
"But…" Lilith paused while Will continued:
"Many are living on other continents… Hell, I'm sure that almost half of them are in Asia and Europe!"
"That's not a problem," what he said didn't change my mind, "as long as they are willing, I'll welcome them all."
"Are you this wealthy?" John finally couldn't take it anymore, "if you are, then why did you act stingy just now with me?"
"You, pal, tried to outsmart me," I laughed, teasing him more, "leaning to such dirty and twisted ways won't work with me. If you just asked nicely and directly, you'd have ended up having even more than you dreamt for."
"This is bullshit!"
269 Closing The Deal With Gamers
"John, stop it!" Lilith gave him a sharp gaze that instantly silenced him. I simply ignored his mean attitude, hoping he would stop acting as a jerk or else…
"So are you going to support us as well?" she turned to me and asked with a very firm attitude.
"As long as you'll do whatever I say," I said that while focusing my eyes over that jerk, "then I'll promise to support you in ways you'll never imagine."
"Do you have stat points?" Will directly asked, and I nodded.
"How much do you need?" I simply said before adding, acting like a real tycoon, "tell me how much your entire forces need and I'll give these stats to you as a welcoming gift."
"Do you have gears as well?" Lilith seemed to gain more courage when I responded in such calmness over Will's request.
"If you needed a ton, I can provide two," I didn't hold back my big hand, "just state how much and I'll bring them out now."
"Damn! You are really that rich!!!" John's eyes were all wide opened, not only from his shock but also tainted with greed.
That jerk… he was seeking his own death faster than if he was fighting against herds of monsters.
"Alright, we will run the maths and tell you how much we exactly need," Lilith said with a cheerful smile that seemed alien to this bossy girl, "also give me the coins, I'll create that post now."
"Alright, first come here for a sec," I stretched my arm and with strange gazes towards me and the other two, she slowly walked towards me.
"Now accept my friend request," to tease John even more, I placed my arm not over hers but over her shoulders. It looked like we were a loving couple, and for a second there her face turned slightly red.
"Don't overthink it," I whispered in a voice she could only hear, "I already have a complicated relationship with two chicks that is already driving me nuts!"
She gave me such a weird look, part was filled with surprise, part with shyness, and the rest was filled with aggressiveness.
She was like a real tigress, and it seemed my words here stirred her arrogance as a girl without my intentions.
But on the side from that, John's face was dark ashened at this moment.
"Here, test your loyalty again," without hesitating more, I took out one compass and threw it towards that jerk.
"I… already did that!" with a darker face he said, yet I didn't accept the compass from him.
"Just do it," I grabbed my glaive with that core attached to it. My face was damn serious at this moment. Last thing I'd want was for one of my trusted aides to turn over me and work for the enemy.
"John… Do it," Lilith was already a few steps away from me, as she turned to that jerk and gave him a cold gaze.
She wasn't stupid, neither was Will. The two seemed to notice what I did just now. I was trying to hasten this jerk's betrayal. If he had a seed of it deep within him, then it should have grown to a big tree by what I just did with Lilith.
I noticed how he looked at her. It was love without doubt. And that love which gave him strength, was also the same thing that would cause his downfall without doubt.
How ironic it was!
Surrounded by all of us, that jerk had no other way but to comply. I held the compass and when I saw that short arm of it moving towards the hostile section, I moved my glaive faster than light and claimed his life.
"Ahhh!" he screamed out, asking for help from the other two. But it was too late buddy, my glaive was already faster and much more powerful than before.
"This…" despite knowing what was going to happen, the two's faces changed and dropped when their third friend fell in the middle of his blood.
I grabbed back my glaive to my side, used it as a stick to lean over. "He is a traitor, I won't tolerate anyone like that in my trusted people."
"…"
The shock was clearly visible over the two's faces. Yet I totally ignored this, opened the friendliest of mine, and sent five million coins to Lilith.
"This…" the next moment her face changed when she saw the amount she got.
"This is just a mere support from me," I shrugged, "now go back and write that post. From now on, you are going to be my personal agent inside that community of gamers."
"O… Ok," faced between the betrayal of her close friend and the rich reward I gave her, she had no other choice but to accept what I did.
I watched the two walking away after I asked them again to scan everyone and tell me how much they lacked. I promised to prepare everything I needed here before leaving.
As for the city, I decided to let them use it as their base. I also told her to specify this city as the main gathering place for all the allied and cooperative gamers.
This wasn't much away from Boston and Cambridge cities, the two I intended to merge and form a big and brand new city to be my kingdom capital.
So I had Albany city to act as the front fort and the strongest defensive city in the East. and I got this city here, Worcester, to act as the recruitment place for all gamers.
Now all I missed was to go to the two cities in the West, take control over it before thinking about what I should do next.
I had to send my troops around and claim the areas here. That looked like an easy task before the arrival of Hectors. Now I had to pay closer attention to this, hopefully these Hectors would bite the bait I threw at them.
If they did, then I'd be able to proceed with my dungeon plan. If not, then I'd only go once for the dungeon and hold back until I stabilise things here first.
270 The Post Went Viral
As I had to wait for these two messages, I opened my friend list and started warning everyone.
I asked them to notify me if strange things happened at any city or town they moved against. I also asked them to be extra careful, not to proceed and blindly attack like usual.
We had a new player in the game, and that player was already a deadly predator. Last thing I'd want is to lose any force of mine, not after going through all this trouble, time, schemes, and resources to nourish them.
The only one to ask for further details was that jumper. That bastard was a real pain in the as*, yet when coming to such fine details he was really superb.
He would never accept half assed info, always seeking for the full truth. That wasn't just part of his personality, but it was what made him all special.
I explained what happened without delving towards the reason. He was new to such a race, making me realise they came a bit earlier than usual.
Yet the one who recognised them was none other than Hilary. This chick already went through unifying the entire world before and failed at the later challenges.
[This race is a real trouble, don't lower your guard at all when dealing with them] she sent me only this before returning to her old self, [Last thing I want is for my man to lose his life over such a race. Just stay safe, and always know you are in my heart and my mind]
I closed the chat, chose to totally wipe out what she said off my mind. She was still fixated over repeating such unneeded stuff.
What? Were we kids or something? This wasn't the time to act this way.
In fact I wanted to ask her more about that race, considering that she recognised it from the first message. Yet I refrained from doing so. I knew she would keep bothering me with her attitude and flirting words.
I was fed up with her seduction ways. And that was while she was away. What would happen if such a loose sexy lioness was by my side?
My earlier confidence about my ability to block her away started to shake. She wasn't the kind of a girl to accept no for an answer, or even be silenced by shame or shyness.
Sigh, what did I get myself into exactly? Would I end up dying at the hands of one of my girls at the end or what?
I shook my head, powerlessly, while driving away such thoughts. It wasn't time to get distracted by these useless things.
I had to wait and see what those Hector's would do. If they decided to target me and my forces, then I'd have a hellish time to establish my kingdom here.
Even if I couldn't make my boys enter the dungeon for now, I still got lots of time in the upcoming two quests. The top priority for me was to secure the two cities and the area around them, and start my big plan to evolve the human arsenal.
I just hoped for the defensive contractors I contacted via Karoline to honour their words. If not, then I'd end up with another big problem without doubt.
Just after waiting for an hour, the two gamers came from far away. From the look over their faces, I felt that something great just happened.
"What happened?" I welcomed their big smiles with this question.
"The post… It went viral!" Lilith laughed in a sweet way before adding, "many recognised you from the video you once shared."
"Damn! I totally didn't recognise you at first," Will said and I could only helplessly smile.
Come on! I haven't changed that much since that video. I grew in strength, had much more forces following me as a personal army, but that didn't change anything in my features and looks.
"So many are willing to cooperate?" I asked and unlike what I expected, the two shook their heads at the same time.
"They want to know more about the conditions of this deal," Will said, "for example some asked if you are going to give them support only once or is it a repeated thing? Others are also wondering about the details of the work you'll ask them to do."
Pretty smart indeed. These guys didn't waste their time and asked the right questions from the start.
"First, do you have their locations?" I asked, as this was the first thing that I had interest towards.
As they asked what they thought highly of, I also had to ask what I regarded highly in return.
"Well… We didn't speak about such things," Lilith seemed to be startled when I said my question.
"Alright, tell them that I'll give them a welcoming gift, just like what I gave to you. Then according to their actions and achievements in the tasks I'll give them, I'll reward them accordingly," I started answering their questions, while the other two kept nodding as if they were recording or memorising what I was saying to the heart.
"As for the nature of the tasks, it varies from simple missions to seek more humans and save them, towards big missions as to take control over entire parts of the places they live in. they will have to take control over many cities and towns, tighten their defences and be sure they wouldn't lose anything they gained."
"That's all?" Will asked in doubt, and I shook my head.
"I can't really specify all the types of missions. After all there are basic things, and things that would pop up according to the current stage of the apocalypse and the events happening here."
"I understand," Lilith said but I hurriedly stopped her from writing anything at the forum. I just remembered an important issue.
"You have to warn them that during the upcoming two quests, any forces related to me will be punished by sealing their stat points and not gaining any quests from the system."
"What?!!!" The two literally jumped in fright.
271 It's Weird...
"Don't worry, I have ways to solve this problem," I said to reassure these two, "but whoever wants to join me now has to know this before deciding that."
"Will that offer stand for a limited time or…" Lilith was smart enough to jump over this point. While Will gave me the kind of look that things weren't done yet here about this matter.
"This offer stands for the end of time," I said with a short laugh before adding, "but the early to join will enjoy better treatment. Besides those joining me first will have a better chance in proving themselves to me, reaping more benefits and even have a higher chance in being in my closed circle of trusted subordinates."
"Are we in that circle?" Will's face tightened while asking this, and I simply nodded.
"What do you think you are then, dude?" I said before stating it clearly, "those in this circle will enjoy much better treatment than anyone else. To put it in simple words, I'm the king and you are my ministers. Think about it in light of this rule of thumb."
The tight expression over his face loosened. It was clear that I wasn't a normal human at all. The path ahead of me was paved with glory and great things.
Whoever would be in my close circle would enjoy lots of benefits later on. The two were smart enough to realise this, enduring little for now and gaining much later on.
I liked their quick witted minds. Hopefully the rest of gamers would be as smart as these two.
"Anyway, we also have the required numbers for stat points and gears," Lilith said before stating how much they needed.
They were really meticulous. They didn't just say we need one hundred thousand pieces of gears for example, but they stated their types as well.
They even went to the length of stating how heavy and big these gears should be. Numbers appeared in front of my eyes as she sent me a message containing everything I needed to know.
"Here," I simply opened my inventory, took almost five hundred thousand pieces of gears with the specifications they asked for.
The look of shock over their faces was priceless, and yet I had to apologise.
"I can't give all fine graded gears, as I don't have that much to meet your specific conditions," I said and the two were taken aback with my words.
"N… No problem, this is… very much enough for all of us for now," Lilith said while trying to control her excitement, yet she and him failed.
As the two took all the stat points and gears I took out, I looked at this city for the last time. The number of human forces here were close to one hundred thousand, a big number if you asked me.
After all, all of them were related to games, and they survived depending only on themselves. Just thinking about all this raised my hopes for this force off the roof.
And now it was time to go to the two cities I craved for such a long time.
As I was done here, I summoned back all my scattered forces. Just before leaving, I summoned another batch of dragons.
The more I thought about it, the more their role became bigger and important. The Hectors used aquatic monsters, never bringing to surface any flying monster.
That might be an underestimation from their part, also it might be their true force. Aquatic monsters might be one of their largest forces at their disposal currently.
Dragons weren't that weak, and they could easily fight through water as well. I summoned them and gave them enough stat points to reach level hundred.
And with it I was ready to move.
I let my Albany city monsters board the chariot with me. These folks were brutal and strong, but I couldn't treat them the same way I did with my summoned warriors.
The initial ten thousand monsters shrank to only six thousand now. The rest were lost during that fight, especially the last part of it.
I had no regret towards that. After all these monsters could be summoned again. Losing them here wasn't a big thing.
Not to mention I didn't summon all of the monsters from Albany city. There were still ninety thousand monsters waiting for me to summon.
According to the map I got, there were still three cities between me and my target. One was called Newton, the second was called Framingham, and the third one was called Marlborough.
Newton was the closest city to Cambridge, and Marlborough was the closest one to me.
I flew for almost half an hour before reaching Marlborough. Unlike Worcester, taking control over this city came without problems at all.
Hectors didn't appear there, and more strangely those succubi allied races didn't come as well. I didn't know if this was connected or something, but I hardly believed that.
After all Hectors were the public enemies of everyone, including the succubus race.
Anyway one was taken down and two were left to conquer. I sent a message to Lilith, asking her to send a force to take control over this city's castles and emblems.
A weird thing happened again. Framingham city looked like a city of ghosts, just exactly like the city of Marlborough.
Weird… One city was enough to make me doubt it. And now there were two of them… What was going on here exactly?
"You… Go this way and scout the areas around the next city," my guts told me something terrible was waiting for me up there. I didn't hope for Cambridge and Boston to turn into a brutal battlefield, not when I planned to use all the gears and equipment of MIT university.
"You… Go beyond the next city and scout the next two," I didn't feel reassured and sent more dragons to scout the areas around the three cities.
Then I stopped. The first thing I did was to check over my forces current locations.
272 The Cities Have Fallen
According to what they sent, they were advancing north and south of my place.
"The resistance vanished?!! Interesting!" that was what they all sent. The forces that were entangled at West came all the way to here, joined the forces of Karoline mainly with only Angelica's and the spearhead's forces joining Hilary.
Angelica's purpose of doing that was obvious to me. She wanted to check over the chick that dared to target me and fight against Karoline.
As for the spearhead… What was that dude's real aim? Wasn't he all in Isabella or what? Don't tell me he was sent by that jumper, to spy over my chick!
Well, anyway they were all gathered here. I sent them messages, giving them orders to be prepared at any given moment to come and help me.
I had a really strong force, but it was still limited in numbers. I also sent a message to the five generals of the three races via the contract, asking them to start moving towards here.
I left them behind with the purpose of defending my fortified Albany city. Yet at this moment, I felt the need for each ounce of strength I could muster.
I just left one army of the Grounders to defend the city. I thought about using the staff teleportation portal to bring them here, yet I felt my enemy wouldn't allow me to use it.
As for calling them here, I felt it would be a waste as their movement speed was much slower than myself.
It was best to let them come here by themselves. According to what I'd face, I'd plan things accordingly.
According to my rough estimates, my scattered forces here would take almost an hour to arrive at Cambridge or Boston. As for my five generals, they would take roughly three to five hours at most to be here.
The gamer forces me to leave as a last resort. After all they were good but not that strong or experienced like most of my forces here. I feared if I threw them first in the clash, they would crumble or have large losses.
As I prepared all my forces, I opened my channel and started to watch my dragons. The first group headed towards Newton city were almost this close to reach there.
Their speed was superb, making the scenery change as fast as flashing around them. I sent ten dragons per group, hopefully they would be enough to sustain any attack coming from any hidden forces in any of these cities.
Yet the moment they arrived at Newton city outer region, they stopped all of sudden. I didn't need to speculate, as the front was covered in a strange layer that seemed to be made up from yellow fluid.
It extended to form giant walls surrounding the entire city, extending even further upfront. This thing looked like a shield that was made out of waves, as the yellow walls kept trembling and moving like they were real waves.
The walls met up almost five hundred metres above the ground, forming a colossal dome that extended to the horizon.
"So this is what they were doing all this time," I muttered, narrowing my eyes while taking a closer look over this thing.
My dragons there didn't stop for too long. They started flying around, trying to find a hole or a gap to pass through.
Yet this shield thing was tightly closed. It also looked sturdy enough to sustain their waves of attacks when they tried to test it.
"Come back!"
Just as they attacked, I noticed a change at that shield. It was like some kind of force absorbed this attack, ending up gathering it and preparing to release it back.
Just before this would happen, my boys returned safely to my inventory. It was a great thing to have such a trick. Yet before they'd vanished from there, and while that part of the shield was doing its magic, the yellow colour dimmed and thinned from a great part of the shield.
And through it I could spot what lied within. The city inside looked pale and filled with ruins, yet one big wall was surrounding it with big towers and strong defences.
This Hector race… They were really hard to deal with! Just during these hours, they managed to fortify this city, spending large fortunes over this.
I also spotted a large number of forces, races, and monsters standing there cladded in heavy gear. They were ready and prepared for me.
Alright, one city was marked red for now. I just hoped they wouldn't touch my beloved Cambridge and Boston.
But soon enough I was destined to be disappointed.
The scenes coming from the other two groups told me how similar this situation was. That shield extended from Newton city, to go and cover the two jewels of mine.
Yet when the dragons attacked the shield, I could see that there was still a big fight going on inside the two cities.
My humans… My race was fighting back against the Hector invasion. But I knew they wouldn't hold for too long.
"Hmm… They missed that little city then…" just as I called back my last remaining group of dragons, I recalled the presence of a small city that was close to the southern borders of this shield.
I looked at the map and got its name. It was called: Brookline, reminding me of Brooklyn, New York.
[Gather up at Brookline city] I sent over to my scattered team and then briefed them about the current situation. They instantly responded, telling me their estimated arrival time.
The fastest to arrive was none other than Hilary with the other two with her. They didn't need to circle around that big shield like other troops.
Even for her, Hilary said she'd take almost one hour to arrive there. Anyway I had two important tasks to do. First I had to go to that city and control it, then I had to find a way to crack open that shield.