Chapter 326: Atlas, The Territory with the Strongest Defense

In the battle for the Berdk Attack Base.

At first, it seemed like the Korean players were doing quite well. The top rankers stepped forward and boosted the morale of the soldiers and the other players as much as possible, doing their best to lead them. However, the Chinese rankers were very formidable too.

This was a continental war, and both sides were proud of their strength and power. The battle seemed to be in perfect balance with the Korean rankers showing that they were not easy opponents for the Chinese players.

That was until Hu Yitian appeared. His appearance brought a crisis to the Korean rankers gathered in Berdk’s vicinity.

[Emperor of the Sword’s Carnage]

[An additional 250% damage will be added to your quick sword attacks.]

Carr immediately used his skills the moment he saw Hu Yitian appear. Carr was one of the main dealers in South Korea. He had a high level and high attack. Even his artifacts and skills could deal additional damage to his opponents. In a blink of an eye, his sword had unleashed around thirty strikes. But, something surprising happened…

Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash―

[Your attack has failed.]

[Your attack has failed.]

[Your attack has failed.]

[Your attack…]

“...!”

Carr’s eyes widened in shock. His attacks would only fail if the stats difference between him and his opponent was that of over a 100-level one.

Carr did not know this, but Hu Yitian had a skill named

‘The One who Evades’

. It was a newly-acquired skill that reached half-pinnacle and had given Hu Yitian a 400% increase in his evasion rate. But that was not the end. A black light slowly covered Hu Yitian’s daggers. Then, in a blink of Carr’s eyes…

[Dagger of Death!]

[Immediately narrows the distance between you and the enemy, allowing you to stab the enemy in the chest with 800% additional damage.]

Stab―!

…a dagger was already right in front of him! The attack was so fast that Carr did not have the time to react and stop Hu Yitian from stabbing him in the chest with one of his daggers!

“

Keuaaaack!

”

Carr’s HP immediately dropped. Thankfully, he was still in good condition. Seeing this, Hu Yitian spun the daggers in his hands and triggered another skill, making both of his daggers fly in the air.

[Phantom Daggers of Death]

[Hundreds of phantom daggers move on their own and target the enemy]

Shwaaaaaaaa!

The two daggers floating in the air suddenly split into hundred images and flew towards Carr.

[Emperor of Sword’s Guardian]

[Can see through the enemy’s attack and defend against it.]

The Emperor of Sword’s Guardian was a skill that was solely focused on defense, and there had never been an attack that Carr could not stop with the help of this skill. But while he was staring at the daggers and preparing to defend…

Shwiiiiiiik―

…the daggers changed their trajectory. They moved sideways, then forward, and then backward, changing direction over and over. It was as if they had a will of their own. The daggers moved swiftly and fluidly as they attacked Carr.

Clang!

“Shit…!”

‘Do these daggers have a mind of their own?’

Carr thought as he struggled to defend against the dagger strikes. The daggers were unbelievably fast and hard to track, and Carr ended up suffering from some of the attacks that landed on his body.

“Keuhaaack!”

[Ah!!! Korea’s official number one ranker, Carr, is losing ground!!!]

[Are there no players out there that can stop Hu Yitian?!]

Then, the Assassin of the Moon Lucia and the Blacksmith of Steel Ruwan took advantage of the gaps from the daggers’ attacks to rush forward.

“Ha!” Ruwan shouted as he hurriedly slammed a large square shield in front of them. The square shield stretched and turned into a dome that covered their bodies.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang―

“Go… god damn it…”

“Our situation is not good. While Carr is busy fighting Hu Yitian, our forces are being pushed back.”

“SHIT!” Carr cursed loudly.

“We have to retreat.”

“What is this bullshit?!” Carr shouted, the veins on his neck popping in anger after hearing Ruwan’s words. His

‘retreat’

literally meant

‘escape’

.

Carr had always been on top. No, that place had been taken away from him once, but that did not mean that the word

‘escape’

suited Carr, a person that stood at the top.

But then, Lucia said, “Carr, you’ve done well already. Our fellow citizens will not blame us. If you continue to be stubborn and die here, not only will you lose access for three days, you will also be banned from entering the Continent Cloud.”

That was right. Carr was just upset over the fact that the attack base would be taken away and victory would tilt towards the Chinese side. But what was important right now was their survival. Only if they survive would they be able to plan the next steps that they could take in the future. If all of the top rankers died here, then all hope would be lost. In the end, Carr hid behind Ruwan’s shield and gave his order.

“Retreat!!!”

“Retreat!”

“Retreat!”

[Ah!!! In the end, Korea chose to retreat.]

[But this is the correct decision. If they lose more of their forces here, then our country’s defeat will be the only outcome.]

[What do you think caused their defeat?]

[There are two reasons. Hu Yitian, who are keeping the rankers' hands tied, and the Chinese NPCs. They

account for a significant portion of their forces.

]

[The Cairon Continent is much larger than our country’s continent. That’s the main reason why the number of their NPCs is overwhelming and why they have a lot of strong NPCs. In fact, they even deployed the ‘The Black Knight Order’ in this war.]

[The Black Knight Order is the personal troop of the Arcas Empire’s Emperor, and is considered to be the best order of knights in China. Their levels range from Level 500-530. There’s also the fact that once our country’s rankers die, they won’t be able to enter the Continent Cloud anymore. On the contrary, even if China’s NPCs die, they will still be able to send out more strong NPCs from their huge reserves. There aren't that huge level restrictions on NPC tickets too.]

The viewers described it simply as…

[Even if the rankers from Korea and China are on the same level, we can’t win because of the gap between the NPCs…?]

[The truth is the land in China is really larger and there are more opportunities there. How can we even win with this…]

[There’s a really huge gap between our NPCs…]

Yes, it seemed that it was truly the case.

Meanwhile, the Korean rankers chose to retreat to minimize their damage.

“Run!!!”

All of them started to run without looking back, but the problem was that the Chinese rankers did not want to leave them alone.

“After them!!!!”

“Don’t let even a single one of them survive!!!”

The Chinese players chased them with great fanfare. But then…

“Firestorm! Firestorm! Firestorm! Firestorm! Firestorm!”

Crackle!

…huge whirlpools of fire appeared in the middle of the battlefield stopping the advance of the Chinese rankers.

[Ah! There’s only one person that can use magic like this!]

[It’s Black Mage Ali!]

Just like they expected, Ali appeared in front of them using Blink. He said, “Go.”

“How, how can you deal with them alone…?!”

“Run. The plants will show you the way. So, run.”

“...?”

“...?”

“Run along the path that they show you. You will find the way for our country to win there.”

“...Alright,” Lucia answered with a nod. She could not understand what he meant but she still followed his words. Then, after running quite a distance, she heard his voice again.

“Frieeeeeeeeeeeend!!!”

“...”

As she continued to run, Lucia thought,

‘Is he trying to make us not feel grateful with that?’?

Lucia had just been moved by Ali’s sacrifice, but it seemed like that feeling had quickly started to disappear.

“You think we can’t kill you when you’re all alone?”

But then, a hellfire and an ice spear suddenly appeared in Ali’s hands.

“...!”

“...!”

“That’s impossible!” One of the high-leveled mages from China’s camp shouted in shock. What was even surprising was the fact that Ali cast both spells in a short amount of time. No mage had achieved such a feat yet.

“Double casting?!!!!”

“Not a single one of you rats can go past me to get to my friends.”

At that moment…

Crack!

…a gigantic snake of over ten meters in length appeared from the ground.

Slither!

The giant Predatory Snake flicked its tongue and glared at the opposing rankers. Watching this scene, Ali thought,

‘Friends, there’s a path to our victory.’?

The viewers of Korea and the world did not know which guild Ali belonged to right now. But this mysterious Ali just began to shoot his magic spells towards the thousands of enemies in front of him.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The magic was so strong that even Hu Yitian could not escape from the attacks. After all, Ali did not spare any of his MP as he defended his fellow citizens from the enemies.

***

[South Korea’s player Black Mage Ali has tied up the feet of our country’s rankers and soldiers!]

[We have no choice but to acknowledge the strength of that player. Even that gigantic snake by his side could dispel the mages, archers and warriors’ skills!]

[He’s amazing!!!]

Three Chinese people were sitting together in front of the TV.

“Hu Yitian has done a lot, right?”

“Hu Yitian’s head is getting bigger. He thinks he’s really strong just because the people call him a hero.”

The three of them laughed at that. These three people were unofficial Chinese rankers. They were part of a group of fifteen people. However, unbelievable as it might be, Hu Yitian could only rank tenth among these people. The three people watching the TV were all ranked first to third among their own group and they could completely overpower Hu Yitian.

“But the real big shots in Korea have not appeared yet.”

“Well, it’s the same for us too.”

None of the unofficial rankers in Korea, like Kaistra, have appeared. The same was true for them. These unofficial rankers from China were called

‘Black Dragon Order’

, a group of dark gamers that only moved for the money.

“He’s going to escape the moment he runs out of MP.”

Just like what the man said, Black Mage Ali used Blink and escaped. The members of the Black Dragon Order continued to watch their TV leisurely.

***

Meanwhile, Minhyuk stood still, not understanding what was happening.

If someone asked him, ‘

Do you think of Ellie as an NPC and not as a person?’,

his answer would be no. Minhyuk, with his eating addiction, had built several connections as he played

Athenae.?

Among those connections, he could say that he valued his relationship with Ellie the most.

Even though Ellie sat in a high position as the Empress of an empire, she treated Minhyuk kindly and cared for him as if he was her younger sibling. Back then, Minhyuk firmly believed that he did not have any friends in reality, so he was very grateful for Ellie’s love and care.

However, that same loving noona of his was now pointing her sword coldly towards him and said, “Minhyuk, grab your sword. Attack me as if you’re going to kill me.”

Minhyuk just asked her, “Why?”

“Because I judged that you’re the only one that can help us overcome our current situation,” Ellie answered, smiling bitterly.

Ellie knew that it was something that she could not do. However, she believed that Minhyuk could do it. Even though it was only temporary, Ellie was aware that Minhyuk had performed the Pinnacle of Ellie’s Swordsmanship before. So, he was better than her in that case. But she had to experiment and see if he was qualified to get something of that caliber right now.

Ellie continued to say, “I will check your power and tell you a way to become stronger.”

Hearing her words made Minhyuk think and reflect. Did he have to fight Ellie desperately to become stronger? Minhyuk thought for a while before shaking his head and saying, “Then, I won’t do it.”

But Ellie just smiled after hearing his words. It was as if she had expected this to happen. She asked, “Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I won’t do it!”

Then, Ellie called for her aide, Ruth, who came in with a golden treasure chest in his hands. When she opened it, a small and mysterious stone was lying inside.

Ellie said, “This is the Wishing Stone. This Wishing Stone can be used in the place that you will be going, and I will only give this to you if I acknowledge your strength in a fight against me. Also, this Wishing Stone allows the one that will use it to set anything that they want.”

Minhyuk looked a bit disappointed so Ellie continued to explain, saying, “For example, you can set ‘artifact materials’ as your reward for completing a trial. If you do that, you will get excellent materials every time you clear a trial.”

“...”

Minhyuk’s expression started to change. Like a sly fox, Ellie’s eyes gleamed. She said, “That’s right. If you set cooking ingredients, it will give you ingredients every time you break and clear a trial.”

Then, after her explanation, Ruth immediately closed the treasure box with a snap. Ellie continued to speak, “I was going to give it to you if you showed me a satisfactory result, but… What. A. Pity.”

Despite the tempting reward, Minhyuk still hesitated. No matter how much he liked food, he was not someone that would attack his noona after all.

‘He’s still hesitating. I have to use my last resort.’?

Ellie did not expect that Minhyuk would hesitate despite being offered food. She still felt happy about it. This just showed how much Minhyuk cared about her. It was also because of his love and care that Ellie had no choice but to use her last resort.

“Listen well.”

Minhyuk obediently perked his ears up to listen.

“Minhyuk, I ate the egg that you saved for your cold noodles last time.”

“...!”

“I also only asked for a bite of ramyeon, but ended up eating everything.”

“...!!”

“I was eating sweet and sour pork, but I poured the sauce and made it soggy without asking.”

“Dieeeeeeeee!!!”

Minhyuk charged at Ellie with the intent to kill. That was right. This was Ellie’s dignity and pride as someone that had reached the pinnacle level in her Minhyuk-Training skill!