Infinite Realm

"Hey? Sato, are you sure this is where the Exit gate's supposed to be?" Fudo's faltering voice questioned with disbelief.

Just as Sato had predicted, the team took only 5 minutes to make it to the location of the Exit gate of the Outer region's 7th floor. However, upon arrival, they were stunned at the sight before them.

"The heck?!"

The Exit gate they had selected was located in a basin 800 metres wide and as they had just arrived, Sato and the others were at the edge of the basin.

300 metres away from the team was a horde of monsters gathered in one location. Earth snakes, Mud Bears, Ground Rats, and so on could be spotted with a random glance in any direction. The entire basin could be described as a washbasin, but instead of water being held in it, there was a whole swarm of monsters gathered within it. A simple glance and Sato estimated there to be at least 30-50 of these monsters. Just this amount was capable of taking down any single team in Black Grill's Cave, though they would encounter some troubles with the top teams.

"What the heck are you shouting for? Want to burst my ears with that freakish voice of yours?!" Yato snapped. It was common knowledge between the gang that these two figures didn't get along nicely. Rather, they were quite close, but their way of showing it wasn't the same as how regular people do.

"Why can't I yell? Can't you see those numbers? And what's this about bursting your eardrums? If this Emperor [1] wants to burst them, who are you to complain about it, huh? You should be grateful and grovel at my feet rather than whining so much." Fudo barked in retaliation and the way he said those words without an ounce of shame showed how thick his skin was.

"...bloody. I knew you were a pig but I didn't know your skin was that thick." Yato's face twitched.

"You...!"

*Bang* *Bang*

"Enough with the antics." Katsuo said right after he knocked the duo on their heads.

"You..." Yato turned over to retaliate but as he was faced with Katsuo's gigantic frame, his anger suddenly dissipated.

"Freakish giant." Yato muttered under his breath.

"I can't believe you're making so much fuss over these guys even though you're the second highest levelled player here." Seiichi glanced at Fudo with disdain.

Even though the team was some distance away from the monsters, they could sense the aura of the creatures. After going through countless battles and bloodshed, they could estimate the strength of the monsters based on their aura.

Seiichi, who had the best vision in the team even surpassing that of the [Assassin] Lu Zhen, was able to see more. He approximated that the monsters were only level 6 and 7, with a few level 8 mixed in between. Originally, such a lineup of monsters was overkill even for the Outer region's 7th floor. Monsters above level 6 could only be found in the Middle region, but with the Kobold king's previous campaign, the power structure and composition of every floor had changed. This was a special occurrence commonly known by gamers as a Dungeon's advancement [2].

Against any other team in IR, these monsters would prove a handful for them to handle and could even bring about their deaths. But when facing their team, these monsters were barely enough for a warm-up and this was because their numbers were bigger than usual.

"Tch. I obviously knew they are weak but their numbers mean I will have to put out much effort than often. That's too much for this Emperor." Fudo grunted.

While he wasn't a [Ranger] or an [Assassin], he was a mage player and an [Elementalist] at that. Identifying the strength of the opponent was easier for him than with the others as he could sense the mana fluctuations around the creature and approximate its level. While this wasn't so accurate with physical monsters (monsters that couldn't use magic), it was still better than nothing.

"True. We might be able to take them down but that will take some time. Who knows what could happen during then? Maybe we could suffer an ambush to another team that might suddenly arrive out of the blue." Lu Zhen commented.

"You seem to be forgetting something." Fudo gave a sly smile. "We have ourselves a bug[3]. Something the developers might not have even anticipated. Hehe."

At that moment, everyone turned their eyes towards Sato, their own personal 'bug'.

It should be known that Chesces' 10-man team had fallen prey to an ambush of 26 monsters with 4 kobolds leading them. Yet, Sato and the others, who totaled to just 6, were confident about handling more than 30 monsters. This was because they had a level 15 player with them; something unprecedented in the entire player society of Infinite Realm.

Sato's true strength was unknown, even to himself. However, the entire team knew that even if he were to face these monsters all on his own, he would still come out victorious; and this was with him being alone. Presently, however, he wasn't. He had help and his helpers weren't weak either. All these factors added together made it such that even if the number of monsters present was doubled, they would still stand firm and come out victorious.

'Even still, we need a good strategy to win quickly but with the least amount of effort.' Sato narrowed his eyes in thought.

"I'll attack from the left-wing while you guys attack from upfront. Katsuo, attract as much aggro as possible and only bother about healing yourself. Yato, focus on supporting Katsuo to the best you can and make sure that no monster gets past you both. Fudo, deal as much damage as you can to the backline of the enemies and cause as much of a commotion there as possible. But don't forget to assist the others since just the two of them holding up against this many monsters would be difficult. Seiichi, support the duo and make sure no harm gets to them too. Take down any monster that slips past them as quickly as possible. Lu Zhen, you try your best to locate the Exit gates. We shouldn't forget our goal, which is the Exit gate.

"No rule states that we have to kill these monsters to the last men so we should just focus on holding them back king enough and grabbing their attention while Lu Zhen sneaks behind them. If he can find the Exit gates and we can cross them, then we won't hesitate to slaughter our way in. If there's a criterion to be fulfilled to get through it, then we have to do so, even if it filling turning this entire basin with blood.. Now, let's move."