Chapter 411: Penalty Shoot-Out

They finally realized that it was not Minhyuk who was stupid, it was them. Minhyuk had completely deceived them and his actions had told them about how foolish they were for assuming that he was just a nobody. He was also telling them that he would now start to play this game seriously by finally using his buff skill. At this moment, the players felt…

‘He’s the most dangerous person right now.’

‘He’s more eye-catching than the other players from Korea…!’

This was because they could tell that the stadium would be rife with screams the moment the game reached the thirty minute mark. By that time, most of the representatives’ skill had reached cooldown and would be struggling to somehow get the ball to move, with just their basic attacks.

In fact, most of the rankers present had already used 50% of their skills and abilities. The worst part was that their HP and skill cooldown would not reset with the start of the second half.

Then, what about Minhyuk?

‘He has only used two skills so far. He had just used his buff skill and that mysterious skill where he triggers a bloody lightning bolt with each strike.’

‘Korea is even in first place…!’

Minhyuk only used his basic attacks to score countless goals earlier. He was fully aware that the other players would immediately exclude him from their list of hostile and dangerous targets. So, he silently scored goals and took advantage of their errors in judgment.

The players all broke out in cold sweat after realizing how much of a huge disaster Minhyuk poised to be. However, what they failed to notice was the fact that those bloody lightning strikes with explosive power created from a spark from Minhyuk’s sword was not an ‘active skill’.

Then, Helion, one of the members of the France National Team and a player known to have a high HP reserve, stepped forward and took the lead. Their common enemy now was the Korean Team. Plenty of them had judged that their own country would not be able to win that gold medal, so they decided to not let Korea, a country that they mocked and sneered at, win any medal at all.

Helion, who stepped forward to lead the attack, was hailed as France’s Tanker God. He was originally a paladin class and had plenty of special skills attached to his class. And one of those skills was:

[Shield of Nullification]

[Neutralizes all of the damage that the opponent’s active skill could incur.]

This was Helion’s special skill, a skill that everyone in the world knew about, the Shield of Nullification! This skill had even nullified a legendary class monster’s active skills, which allowed him to successfully hunt the monster and gain a lot of attention. Yes, that was right. They were also that kind of existence. One should not forget that these were also rankers that represented their own countries.

“The Shield of Nullification…!”

“That’s right! If it’s that power, then…!”

If they could stop the Food God from using his active skills, then they, the majority, would be able to kill him. As long as the Food God was left in a state where he was literally shackled by that skill, they would be able to easily kill him.

Everyone charged at Minhyuk with fierce momentum. At the same time, the Lightning Explosion branded on Minhyuk’s sword disappeared and changed into Lightning Destruction. Then, Minhyuk swung his sword to stop the rushing Helion.

“You won’t be able to deal with me with just your basic attacks!” Helion shouted as he continued to rush forward with fierce momentum. Then, his sword collided with Minhyuk’s sword.

Claaaaaaaaang—

Helion clashed a few times with Minhyuk and was able to see the red sparks start to form in Minhyuk’s sword.

“Your active skills are useless…!”

But then…

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

Eight bloody lightning strikes struck Helion in one go.

“Keuaaaaaaaaaaaack!” Helion shrieked as his HP dropped by 40% in an instant. Alas, the shocking notifications did not end there.

[You have been stunned for two seconds.]

Helion’s pupils shook wildly as he stared at Minhyuk in shock and disbelief. There were two reasons why he was in disbelief. First, Minhyuk’s damage was tremendous. And, second…

“It’s, it’s a passive skill?!”

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“…?!”

“…?!”

“…?!”

“…?!”

The players, who worked together with Helion believing that Minhyuk’s active skill would be neutralized, stopped in their tracks.

The explosive speed and power that Minhyuk packed into the balls that he sent to the goal was not an active skill, but a passive skill! Helion trembled wildly when he realized this. However, fear did not brew in his mind for long, as he died with a swift and painless stab to the neck.

Collapse—

Helion slowly collapsed. With his death, the total number of players that the Korean Team had logged out had increased to two. However, the most shocking part was the fact that both of the players that they killed were players that had been deified by their own countries.

Minhyuk’s gaze turned cold as he watched his opponents look helplessly at each other. Then, he opened his mouth and spat, “Wow. Look at that…” Then, a cold smile lingered at the corners of his mouth as he continued to say, “…I’ll force you all to log out.”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

Minhyuk’s smiled brought fear and terror to his opponents. They did not even dare to imagine how much strength and power was hiding behind Minhyuk’s cold and ruthless smile.

“Hi… hiiiiiiiik…!”

“Crazy bastards! There are only three of you!”

Indeed, there were only three players in the Korean Team, while they were still in the dozens. Besides, the fact that they were their own countries’ representatives would not change. They also had their own ‘one-shot kill’ skills and powerful AOE skills. They believed that they would be able to kill them, as long as they hit them hard enough. After all, talent alone would not allow the three of them to hold out against their numbers.

The problem was that they also needed to save some of their skills. They might be rankers, but they were also players participating in this game. They also wanted to leave some room for themselves to score goals for their own teams.

However, Ali also started to join in scoring goals for the Korean Team. It was as if they wanted to set their opponents’ antsy hearts on fire.

Crackle, crackle, crackle—

Crackle, crackle, crackle—

The other players watched as dozens of sparking spheres flew up in the air. These spheres were none other than the manifestation of Energy Bolt, the most basic magic spell in a mage’s arsenal.

However, the effect of this magic was entirely dependent on the mage that was using it. And Ali, with the help of the Mana Heart’s power, had an unbelievable amount of magical attack.

Just like that, dozens of Energy Bolts flew straight towards the falling balls.

Baaaaaang—

Baaaaaang—

Baaaaaang—

The Energy Bolts accurately struck the balls and gave them a powerful boost that brought them straight towards the goal posts.

“He can use Energy Bolts to move the balls?!”

“What the hell?! How high is his magical attack?!”

The players found themselves in another difficult predicament. They were fully aware that mage players were the ones that could score the most in this game.

If that was the case, what would happen if that very same mage player could easily score goals just by using low-tier magic?

Simply put, they could score even more. However, in reality, this was an impossible feat. Even the official world’s number one mage, Alex, could not move the balls with a low-tier magic like Energy Bolt. But, Ali could do it. Taking into consideration the amount of mana that he has, the players could already tell that he would be able to cast thousands of Energy Bolt in one go.

Then, suddenly, a man holding the fan that could call forth storms, an artifact hailed as a disaster artifact, stepped forward. Seeing this man make a move brought a small smile to the players’ faces. Yes, that was right. They were just cooperating with their opponents for a while. And the opponent that they cooperated with was none other than the owner of France’s Rothschilde Family, Calauhel.

Calauhel, the player that became one of the Summit Five not too long ago, was the head of the global Athenae alliance ‘Blackstone’. Also, as the owner of the Rothschilde family, he had plenty of money and assets in his hands. Naturally, the value of the artifacts on his body were beyond anyone’s imagination. Yes. He literally stood at the peak using his money.

‘Our power will be enough to deal with him if we fight together with Calauhel.’

‘No. It would even be an easy feat.’

The players looked completely funny with their noses high up in the sky, acting all conceited and proud.

The first to move was France’s Antoine, a player on the same team as Calauhel in the Penalty Shoot-Out game, wielding a sturdy and tough iron mace that could easily allow him to whack his opponent into a stunned state. Antoine raised his iron mace up with all his might and swung it strongly towards the Korean Team. This was the first shot.

Fwoosh—

“Lightning God’s Wrath!”

A powerful lightning bolt fell down from the sky as another player raised his spear and pointed it to the skies.

Crackle—

The attack brought forth an extremely formidable momentum! With those attacks acting as signals to start, dozens of attack skills poured down on the Korean Team.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—

Ali hurriedly casted one golden shield on top of the other in front of the Korean Team.

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

Despite the dozens of attack skills that fell down on them, Ali’s golden shields did not break. In fact, he even had time to quickly cast another AOE spell, Fire Field.

Fwoosh, crackle—

Blazing heat caused by the Fire Field spread out widely under the feet of their opponents.

Crackle—

Then, tall pillars of flames erupted from the ground, forcing the other players to disperse. Root also took advantage of the gap as he raised his bow and shot the approaching enemies with his arrows. Root looked exactly like those elven marksmen that were depicted in movies as he shot two arrows with every draw of his bow!

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping—

But then, Calauhel stabbed Ali’s golden shield with his sword.

Crack, crack, crack!

Small cracks started to spread from the golden shield. There were more than a dozen shields overlapping to create that one huge golden shield, but the shields could not withstand the attacks of Calauhel’s, one of the Summit Five.

Clang!

The shields broke helplessly from Calauhel’s attack. Dozens of players took advantage of this and rushed forward.

For the first time since the start of the game, Minhyuk cast an active skill. His first target? Calauhel.

“Sword of Absolute Death.”

***

Atlas, the City of the Skies.

Three thousand people from Rocard Kingdom, who had outstanding abilities and were well-versed in farming, migrated to Food God Minhyuk’s territory! They did not need any guidance as they started to plow the fields and sow the seeds on their own. Thanks to their efforts, Atlas Territory’s fields’ growth rate increased by 30%. Even the variety, special abilities, and quality of their crops increased by 40%.

Slowly, the people of Rocard Kingdom got used to living in Atlas Territory. And just like them, there was also one man trying to adapt and get used to living in Atlas. This man was none other than the one in charge of raising livestocks.

Mercenary King Brod, or perhaps it would be more apt to call him Livestock King Brod now, was greatly disappointed when he first arrived in the territory and received the task of raising livestocks. However, as time went by, his thoughts gradually changed.

The first change happened after he had a taste of Minhyuk’s food. It tasted absolutely divine. It was so tasty that he even thought about it in bed. Before Minhyuk left for the competition, Brod said to him, “My lord, your cooking is truly delicious. Will you please cook for me again?”

“Those that do not do work will not eat. Sir Brod, what task are you given?”

“To… To… raise livestock…?”

“That’s right. Please think about it carefully and don’t stray too far away from your task. Then, I will give you a very sumptuous and valuable meal.”

Nevertheless, Brod still could not understand why he, the king of tens of millions of mercenaries all over the world, had to raise livestock! But, regardless of his doubts, the temptation of whatever food Minhyuk would give him was too great, that he still ended up trudging to where the pigs, cows, and chickens were being kept.

Brod sighed deeply as he looked around the pigs, chickens and cows. But eventually, he found peace of mind from the pigs: ‘

Oink, oink, oink,?oink~?hwiiiik!’?

and the cows: ‘

Moooooooo~’

while he fed them and gave them water.

For some strange reason, he felt calm and at peace amidst the livestocks noises. Brod had been struggling and fighting for a long time. Although he did not realize it, he had already grown tired of that life. Besides, the pigs, cows and chickens that surrounded him did not have an ‘evil mindset’ like those ‘humans’.

“Oinkies, eat lots and lots today too.”

“Moos, what will we do if you guys poop a lot today, huh?”

“Cluck-clucks. It’s all thanks to you that we’re able to get up early in the morning!”

Brod gradually adapted to his role and even began ‘communicating’ with the livestock. But then, that day finally came. The day when the Atlas chefs had to drag his Oinkies away with the ropes in their hands.

“How… how dare you…!” Brod shouted, almost pulling his sword out. But then, he suddenly realized something as he listlessly looked at the place where his Oinkies were before.

‘That’s the law of nature…’

If necessary, a king would choose to kill tens of millions of people for the good of all. Wolves devour the cute and fluffy sheep, but no one would speak ill of them.

That was right! Food chains existed everywhere. And he was speaking with utter sincerity when he said that he realized how precious these beings were. They were born in a cage and raised in their confines only to die for the people. That was when Brod made a solemn vow.

‘I promise to find a way to make you guys live more freely.’

Yes. He was now aiming to challenge a new method of raising livestocks. Since these livestocks were living to give them nourishment and a better life, he ought to try and let them live more freely and comfortably. Then, the notifications rang for Brod.

[You have gained an understanding of the laws of nature.]

[You are trying to guide the animals and livestock to a better path.]

[The God of Livestock, Aevalin, has shown an interest in you.]

[You may be able to reach a shocking level in the livestock industry.]

That was right. Mercenary King Brod was now approaching the peak of the livestock industry. And although he was still unaware of it, he would also be able to raise dragons in the distant future.