Chapter 356 - Sorry, I’ve Got You All Surrounded!
After the gods fell and forced the foreign races to enter the wasteland in search of God-transcending items, it was obvious that not only had their ability to develop and strengthen themselves suffered a serious blow, but their combat awareness and capabilities had also declined to an absolutely deplorable state.
Su Mo hopped into the sea at four fifty-five in the morning after the OS informed him that the last major squad had taken up its position. The sea washed off the blood of the foreign races left behind on his Simba onesie.
The foreign races were too weak, or perhaps it was the case that not even Su Mo realized how powerful he was.
He had started by taking on one at a time, then two at a time, and then three at a time.
When Su Mo realized the foreign races could not fight back against him despite spotting him, he started being more bold and unrestrained in his fighting style.
Just five minutes before, he had taken on a foreign races' scouting squad consisting of sixteen members on his own. He faced virtually zero resistance as he ran his weapon through them all!
The foreign races' usual dexterity and agility became a hindrance as they clumsily fumbled around while trying to avoid friendly-fire.
The foreign races were landlubbers and, while on the sea, had no means of utilizing any of their physical advantages except for some of their odd powers.
However, the large squad of foreign races situated in the rear did not retreat after losing their scouts. Instead…
They became even braver!
The unknown was always the most terrifying. The squads had already gotten the information they were most eager to discover after Su Mo deliberately let off two of the foreign races' scouts who were observing from a distance.
After the mysterious lion warrior shed the mysterious veil that shrouded him, they now believed that the "King of Lions" was now something they could take possession of easily!
"OS, prepare to pull the anchor up. Activate first-level combat readiness state!"
"Copy that!"
Su Mo quickly rowed the lifeboat forward and climbed back up the ladder onto Hope One. After closing the door to the escape passage, the foreign races' squads also hastened their steps to arrive at a spot thirty kilometers away from Hope One.
Moreover, these greedy foreign races would not come at him from only one direction. Instead, they had adopted a pincer attack method that would strike at him from the front and rear at the same time.
Eight thousand and five hundred troops assembled due south of the ship's rear.
Whereas as many as thirteen thousand troops of the foreign races that relied on their strength had gone around Hope One and placed themselves due north of where Hope One was headed. They had formed a pocket that stopped Hope One from traveling any further.
"Chief, they've taken up their positions. Shall we begin the live broadcast stream?"
"Yes, of course. We'll wait until everyone arrives before we turn it off and beat them to a pulp!"
As Connie walked up to Su Mo nervously, he waved dismissively before striding into the bridge.
Numerous red dots were scattered across the fire-control radar's display panel.
At a glance, the green dot that represented Hope One looked like Little Red Riding Hood surrounded by a bunch of hungry wolves.
However, only Su Mo knew…
"Sorry guys, you're not the ones who have me surrounded. Instead, I'm the one who has you all surrounded!"
Su Mo used his authority as ship captain to activate the special-level combat readiness state coded into the OS.
The OS would function at full capacity and supply all the data for the upcoming battle.
After the first second of activation, the air cooling and water cooling systems on the computer, which was equipped with arguably the highest specifications a personal computer could have, began operating in sync with a thrumming rumble.
"Based on the trajectory calculations done by the OS, if I attack the strength-based foreign races, I have a 67% chance of killing everyone."
"However, if I turn the ship around and attack the ragtag group behind me first, I have a 95% chance of annihilating everyone!"
The OS instantly listed out the several possibilities available and ranked them from highest to lowest in terms of probability of success.
Su Mo had created the OS, so he immediately understood what it had planned without the OS elaborating further.
The insect clan behind them moved extremely quickly. If he did not get rid of them immediately, there was an extremely high chance that they would escape successfully after witnessing Hope One's terrifying firepower.
Moreover, these troops were not loyal soldiers. There was no way they would stay behind if they faced defeat, and would most likely abandon the strength-based foreign races to escape.
"Connie, head to the stern and begin the live broadcast stream. We won't use any weapons when the first squad of foreign races begins attacking."
"I want them to see…"
"Hope!"
Su Mo picked up his three-pointed two-edged sword and looked at the small whirlwind that appeared on his hand. A cold smile spread across his face beneath the lion mask as he closed the bridge door and strode toward the stern.
When he obtained the lion clan's wind ability, Su Mo had imagined various scenarios in which he would use this wind ability to defend himself if enemies ever broke into the shelter.
However, Su Mo had never expected that the lion clan's wind ability would get its chance to shine while he was at sea, and not when he was back at the shelter!
"From today onward, the Oreo clan is going to be famous!"
A storm seemed to brew in Su Mo's eyes as he gazed at the calm sea waters.
At the same time, he focused mentally and summoned an ancient and peculiarly-shaped horn. As Su Mo was wearing the Simba onesie, the horn appeared in Su Mo's furry hands.
Since he was in the form of a lion warrior, Su Mo did not plan to expose any of his human technology capabilities.
However, this did not mean that Su Mo was devoid of any methods. He had picked up a magic trick or two after all this time.
This rare Sea Wave Horn was a reward he obtained from the gold airdrop, and Su Mo had brought it out here to give the foreign races a…
Gift!
Su Mo took his mask off and hung the horn around his neck before he put it back on.
Su Mo noticed Connie had begun her performance from her spot on the ship's stern, and a thought occurred to him. He hid in a corner and connected to Connie's shelter core and tuned into the live broadcast stream.
It was only five in the morning, and it would be a long time until sunrise. The moon still hung high in the sky and shone her light upon the wasteland.
Although plenty of them were still asleep, it only took three minutes before the number of people watching Connie's live broadcast stream reached the scary number of…
680 thousand viewers!
Even if you assumed that every clan had only 100 members, it still meant that over 6.8 million members from the foreign clans were represented within Connie's live broadcast stream!
When Su Mo joined the stream, he was surprised to see that, not only had the Five Royal Clans instantly begun watching the live broadcast stream, but the foreign races that had strength ratings higher than 8 were all present as well.
They all seemed to have received some mass message, but had also made it seem merely like a coincidence.
No one had chosen to tell the Golden Lion King that the Five Royal Clans were going to hunt her.
Even her partner-in-crime, Snow Soaring Bear, had maintained his silence.
Before being accepted into the Five Royal Clans as the sixth clan, the Golden Lion King was a ticking time bomb for the foreign races.
However, after gaining the Thunder Monkey King's approval, even if Connie had not changed and the Oreo clan had not become royalty yet, to these people…
Their status had already changed!
They would not stop a sixth royal clan from forming but, at the same time, they would not provide any assistance!
The Golden Lion King and Oreo clan would need to get through this hurdle before gaining their approval.
If they did not succeed?
Then they would pretend nothing had happened!
The cruel animal kingdom was a much simpler place than the human world with its varied plots, as well as twists and turns.
"After last night's live broadcast stream, I thought the brothers and sisters from the ordinary foreign races could join forces to form a resistance against the Five Royal Clans and stand our ground on this wasteland. However, my heart aches tonight."
"Even before we've gotten rid of this evil human, Old Devil Su, many of our brothers among the foreign races have already decided that we'll be their next targets."
"It has only been one night. The sun has not even risen, but the lion clan's strongest warrior, Simba, has already taken down no less than eighty of our people who harbored ill intentions."
"Is that a good thing? No, it is not!"
"The foreign races should emphasize harmony, fairness and unity. We should not be fighting amongst ourselves!"
Connie's "heartbreaking" performance was very convincing. Despite the distance between them, Su Mo could sense her grievances through the live feed!
Su Mo knew that there was a possibility that Connie was taking things seriously this time!
Some of the things she said might be fake, but there were also some statements that… came from her heart.
Compared to the united humans, the foreign races were announcing their defeat in advance by getting into an internal conflict even before they had obtained a clear advantage.
Perhaps they had never thought that they would succeed in the first place.
After all, everyone's task and objective had never been to annihilate humankind. Instead, it was the…
God-transcending item!
Everyone could be an ally, but they could also be an enemy. This meant that even foreign races who were on friendly terms would not collaborate without an ulterior motive.
The comments on the screen reflected this sort of thinking to its very core!
"Holy sh*t, how dare someone even think of attacking the King of Lions? Are they crazy??"
"That mysterious lion warrior is named Simba. I can sense a majestic aura from his name alone. Do those people not fear anything in life?"
"Did anyone realize that the Five Royal Clans are all watching this stream at this time of night? It feels a little fishy."
"I've got a massive scoop! The King of Lions has been attacked! The Oreo clan is going to cease to exist soon!"
"Really? That's amazing. Oh, wait, no, all the best to Golden Lion King!"
"..."
Although the change in hierarchy was only reflected in conversation, the comments screen was unforgiving as it fully displayed the foreign races' low intelligence quotient.
Connie shook her head slowly as she read through the comments.
"I know that the foreign races' squads have their eyes on us."
"I don't know why they're here, nor do I know why they're coming for us. But do you really think…"
"They can defeat us?"
After Hope One turned around, the strength-based squads at the back would be in trouble if they could not chase after the ship, and the ragtag squad in front would be in trouble if they were caught.
Although they maintained their traveling speed at five knots, it only took around ten minutes before there were less than ten kilometers between them.
On the other hand, they ensured that they were always 25 kilometers ahead of the strength-based squad behind them.
Based on their current speed, even if the strength-based squad experienced a sudden burst of power and rowed even quicker than dragon boat racers, it would still take them around half an hour before they could arrive onto the battlefield.
During these thirty minutes, Su Mo could stay on the battlefield and do whatever he wanted!
The Five Royal Clans and powerful foreign races remained silent even as they read the comments flying past on the screen, acting as if they had nothing to do with this.
Su Mo immediately stepped out of his hiding place after leaving the stream.
Compared to that afternoon, when he was intentionally showcasing his aura to scare off any potential enemies, he seemed much more docile.
However, none of the foreign races watching the stream dared to look down on this lion warrior who was almost as tall as they were.
"Get ready, Connie. We need to teach these enemies a lesson that they'll never forget!"
Most of the foreign races' leaders had a basic grasp of human languages, which meant that they no longer needed to rely on the game's lousy translation function.
Thus, they would usually opt to use human languages instead of their native languages during most public conversations.
As such, they did not question why mysterious lion warrior Simba would be speaking in a human language. Instead, they assumed that he was being considerate of the audience and quietly gave their approval.
"Alright, I'll help you!"
Connie placed the broadcasting device on Hope One's highest point before she bounded forward and stood next to Su Mo.
The next second, as nearly one million of the wasteland foreign races' leaders watched…
A slight breeze began to blow.
Then, in the time it took to take a breath, it turned into…
A tornado!