Chapter 113: Taking action personally

Arthur paused before delivering his final words.

"I am standing at the front."

For a moment, silence spread across the world.

Then a player standing beside the fortress wall clenched his fist.

"If Darklord is willing to stand at the front, why should we give up?"

A soldier straightened his back and raised his weapon.

The fear hadn’t disappeared, but humanity finally had something to hold on to.

Hope.

Arthur didn’t wait for their reactions.

The Origin Cube inside his body transformed, condensing into a dagger that materialized in his hand.

The next instant, he disappeared.

BOOM!

A tremendous sonic boom erupted above Aurora City.

Arthur passed through the defensive barrier and appeared outside the fortress, a pair of magnificent wings made from multicolored mana unfolding behind his back.

He hovered beneath the night sky, calmly observing the countless monsters roaming the land.

The radiation struck his body continuously, but it couldn’t penetrate his skin.

Arthur remained completely unaffected.

His movements were being recorded by a special camera, allowing the entire world to witness his actions through the projections.

Suddenly, a piercing cry tore through the darkness.

"Screeeeech!"

A colossal ancient bird emerged from the sky, its enormous wings sweeping through the clouds as it accelerated toward Arthur at supersonic speed.

A terrifying aura erupted from its body.

Arthur immediately recognized its approximate strength.

A Level 30 Legendary Boss.

The Wind Roc.

For the current generation of players, such a creature was practically a calamity. Even fifty powerful players working together would struggle to defeat it.

Across the world, countless viewers held their breath.

"That’s a Level 30 Legendary Boss!" a player shouted after checking the information displayed by the special camera.

"Can Darklord really defeat it alone?"

Even experienced players who had killed Legendary Bosses in teams watched with sweaty palms.

They understood how dangerous the creature was.

Yet Arthur remained motionless as the Wind Roc charged toward him.

BOOM!

Another sonic boom erupted.

Arthur vanished from his original position and appeared beside the enormous bird.

His dagger flashed.

The Wind Roc was vaporized on the spot.

The entire exchange had taken less than a second.

Silence descended upon the watching world.

"Did... did he just kill it with one strike?" a player muttered.

Inside a military command center, a general stared at the projection before giving a bitter smile.

"We need to throw out our entire assessment of Darklord’s combat capabilities and start again."

Arthur barely reacted to the system notifications.

[Ding! You have killed a Legendary Boss, the Wind Roc. You have gained 120 points.]

[Ding! The 10,000x multiplication effect has been triggered. You have gained 1.2 million points.]

He was already familiar with the system’s rules.

Killing monsters in the real world rewarded players with points instead of ordinary in-game currency. These points could be used in the System Shop but couldn’t be used to level up. Players still needed to enter the game to increase their levels.

The system had deliberately maintained this distinction to ensure humanity would continue relying on the game for growth.

One point was equivalent to one unit of the game’s gold currency.

Arthur dismissed the notifications and turned toward the monsters surrounding Aurora City.

He had two objectives.

First, he wanted to give humanity hope by demonstrating that even terrifying monsters could be defeated.

Second, he needed to eliminate as many creatures as possible before they reached the fortress walls.

The defensive barriers weren’t invincible. If the monsters gathered in sufficient numbers and attacked continuously, even the strongest fortress cities could eventually fall.

Arthur had no intention of allowing that to happen.

He moved.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

His figure flashed across the night sky like lightning.

Everywhere he passed, monsters vanished.

His speed was so incredible that the special camera struggled to keep up. On the projections, he appeared in one location before disappearing and reappearing somewhere else, leaving countless dead monsters behind.

"I can’t even follow his movements!" a player exclaimed.

An experienced assassin standing nearby shook his head.

"Even if I could see where he’s going, my body wouldn’t be able to keep up."

Arthur raised his hand.

In an instant, the night sky erupted with light.

Countless fireballs materialized around him. Swords formed from condensed light filled the sky, while heavenly thunder rumbled across the clouds. Lightning descended upon the monsters, and a terrifying ice storm swept across the battlefield.

Dark dragons emerged from swirling shadows, their enormous bodies tearing through the monster hordes.

Fire, light, thunder, ice, and darkness converged around Arthur.

Using his class’s original weapon, a staff formed from the Origin Cube, he unleashed devastating magical attacks with astonishing precision.

The battlefield transformed into a sea of destruction.

Players across the world stared at the projections in disbelief.

"Is he controlling all those elements simultaneously?"

An experienced mage shook his head.

"Look at the precision. Every attack is targeting a different group of monsters. He’s controlling the entire battlefield!"

Even the leaders of powerful nations struggled to comprehend the spectacle.

One official slowly removed his glasses.

"Am I really watching a single player fight an entire monster army?"

His colleague smiled bitterly.

"At this point, I’m not even sure we should call him a player anymore."

Arthur ignored their reactions.

His attacks served another purpose.

He wanted to attract the attention of Xaltherion, the supreme leader of the monsters.

If Arthur displayed enough power, Xaltherion would inevitably notice him and send its strongest minions to deal with the threat.

That was precisely what Arthur wanted.

The more powerful monsters that focused on him, the fewer would remain to threaten other fortress cities.

Meanwhile, the players could leave their defensive positions and eliminate weaker monsters before the situation deteriorated further.

Humanity couldn’t depend on him to fight every battle. If the players wanted to survive the apocalypse, they needed to grow stronger themselves.

Arthur’s attacks became increasingly ferocious.

His power had already reached the level of a powerful demigod, making him an existence that even the most terrifying monsters couldn’t ignore.

Finally, something beyond the battlefield noticed him.

"ROOOOOAAAAAR!"

A horrifying roar swept across the land.

The ground trembled, and the surrounding air shook under the terrifying pressure.

Inside the fortress cities, countless people covered their ears. Some players staggered, while others dropped to their knees.

Even experienced military personnel felt their hearts tighten.

"It’s that roar again." a soldier whispered.

Arthur paused briefly before smiling.

Finally.

Xaltherion had noticed him.

He continued slaughtering the monsters without the slightest hesitation.

Arthur knew that once humanity survived tonight, many monsters would retreat into the darkness during the day, giving the survivors time to recover and prepare for the next stage of the apocalypse.

But first, they had to survive the night.

Across the world, the projections continued broadcasting Arthur’s one-sided massacre.

The leaders of various nations watched with complicated expressions.

"So, this is the world’s strongest player," one of them muttered.

He watched Arthur annihilate monsters by the hundreds and gave a wry smile.

"At this rate, he could probably wipe out our entire nation’s conventional military forces in less than ten minutes."

Nobody attempted to argue.

Nevertheless, they were relieved to see the players gradually regain their fighting spirit.

Soldiers who had previously stood frozen in terror began issuing orders again. Players returned to their positions, and some started discussing how to cooperate against the approaching monsters.

Then something unexpected happened.

The powerful monsters roaming above and around the various fortress cities suddenly changed direction.

Instead of continuing toward their original targets, they began moving toward Aurora City.

A military commander immediately noticed the change.

"Wait! Why are the monsters moving away from our city?"

His subordinate checked the available information.

"They’re heading toward Aurora City!"

The command center fell silent.

The commander stared at Arthur’s projection and quickly understood.

Darklord was deliberately attracting the strongest monsters toward himself.

By doing so, he was reducing the pressure on every other fortress city.

"He’s taking the greatest danger upon himself..." an official whispered.

Meanwhile, the players watching the broadcast finally understood what Arthur was doing.

He wasn’t merely demonstrating his strength.

He was giving humanity a chance to survive.

Arthur hovered above the battlefield, his colorful wings shining as countless monsters gathered beneath him.

Then his voice rang out through the projections.

"Humanity, I will hold the sky for you!"

He raised his stuff toward the approaching monsters.

"But you must clear the earth beneath it!"

His gaze swept across the battlefield.

"Go out and fight! Protect your cities! Don’t let those monsters break through the walls!"

His voice grew colder.

"This is our world. We will not surrender it to these filthy bastards!"