VRMMO: The Unrivaled

Chaos Moon dashed toward Wind Spirit as the sinister-looking image of a Greedy Wolf appeared around her blade. Greedy Wolf Howl increased her Attack by 75%, so the blow dealt over 190k damage and one-shot the archer where she stood. That wasn’t all though. The gold stealing effect activated, and around 18k gold vanished from Wind Spirit’s pockets and into Chaos Moon’s pockets with a golden flash!

"What the fuck…"

I was stunned, obviously. In a sense, this Greedy Wolf Howl was the best taunt skill in the entire game. All Chaos Moon needed to do was to PK other players in Sky Forest for a day or so, and the next day she would surpass me and become the new public enemy No. 1!

……

Whoosh whoosh...

Swirls of fire danced around Chaos Moon’s sexy body as she floated in midair. Angel-like wings still spread out behind her back, she shot me a smile and said, "How does it look, Lu Chen? This Heavenly River Transformation is gorgeous, isn’t it?"

I nodded wholeheartedly. "Yes it is!"

Crack! The wolf king bit down on my head and dropped my HP below the 25% mark at this exact timing almost as if it was voicing its agreement. Too bad I couldn’t care less about its opinion. Enraged, I punched it off my skull and executed Burning Blade Slash. After pushing myself away from its attack range using the knockback effect, I pointed my palm at it and landed a very lucky God Binding Art.

It was at this moment that Chaos Moon strode toward us. Ripples appeared beneath her footsteps as if she was walking on water. I bet her ability to suspend herself in midair was also an effect of the Domain part of Heavenly River Transformation.

After scoring a hit on the boss's head, Chaos Moon shot me a smile and said, "You’re not killing this boss, right Lu Chen? In that case, I’ll cover for you while you make your escape!"

"Great! Let’s meet again in the southern forest 1000 yards away from here!"

"Okay!"

……

I ran like crazy until both the boss and Chaos Moon had vanished completely from view. Eventually, I could only hear faint howls from time to time. Chaos Moon’s Attack and Defense stats had grown massively after she entered the Heavenly River Realm, and she even gained the ability to fly. This meant that her survivability was now as good as mine. Even if the wolf king managed to kill her, it didn’t matter because she had already acquired her Ancient Divine Skill. To put it bluntly, my life was more precious than hers right now.

A few minutes later, Chaos Moon met up with me in her normal form and said smilingly, "Alright, I’m going back now that my job is done."

"Oh? That fast?"

"What, you think I want this? Any player who’s learned an Ancient Divine Skill will automatically be teleported out of the Ruins of the Gods 10 minutes later."

"That’s a shame. I was hoping that you’d become my bodyguard for the trip…"

"Heehee. Take care!"

"I will!"

……

Chaos Moon took out a guild return scroll and teleported straight back to Dark Moon City. After she was gone, I checked my surroundings for danger before resummoning the Phantom Wolf King and my apparition. Then, I continued onward to the unknown. I now knew that the Divine Wolf ruins I just explored were but one of the many, many minimaps of Ruins of the Gods. I wasn’t going to stop until I finally found what I wanted!

A while after I dashed through Cold Wind Forest, Dark Pupils revealed more red dots in front of me. They were mobs. The moment I emerged into a clearing, I saw a bunch of broken walls that resembled the ruins of an empire stowed away inside a great canyon. The fantastical structures had long lost their vitality, and the streets were overrun by undead soldiers with empty eye sockets. They wielded halberds, knives, iron swords and more.

I gripped the Purple Ying Sword tightly and snuck forward. Then, I locked my eyes onto the closest undead soldier—a spear wielder with glassy eyes, hoarse-sounding screams and simple armor—and read its stats—

Ancient Undead Soldier (Fiend)

Level: 270

Introduction: These undead soldiers used to be elite soldiers of an ancient empire. Together with their master, they conquered many lands until they became known as an invincible army. One of their most notable achievements was defeating over 200000 enemies with minimal losses in an ancient war. They were praised by the world as the Holy Army.

……

I pursed my lips. The description was pretty telling on its own, but what made me feel certain that these undead soldiers were a parody of a certain conqueror’s army in real life was the star symbol on their shoulder. They had to be the army of Alexander the Great. According to history, the 40000-strong Holy Army engaged Persia’s 160000 troops and killed over 100000 at the cost of only 5000 soldiers. During the B.C. era, assuming that Alexander the Great hadn’t given up his conquest of India halfway, he would’ve come face to face with the Warring States of China. It would’ve made for a most interesting history for sure.

In this game though, only one fate awaited Alexander the Great’s invincible army, and that was player fodder. I was also pretty sure that the Ancient Divine Skill Scroll of this map would be related to Alexander the Great in some ways. I wondered what the connection would be though?

Multiple considerations passed through my mind, but in the end I decided to grind the mobs at the edge of the mountain range. The plan was to delve deeper into the map while keeping as low a profile as possible. However, I had no plans of actually using the Ancient Divine Skill Scroll of this map even if it did fall into my hands. The reason for this was very simple: as one the first players to enter the Sky Vortex, I had an ample amount of time to explore the Ruins of the Gods and find an Ancient Divine Skill that was truly of my liking, and ideally I wanted to obtain an Ancient Divine Skill with origins from an ancient Chinese myth. Obviously, Alexander the Great’s Ancient Divine Skill didn’t fall under this criterion.

……

Chiang chiang!

Metallic sparks flew off the undead soldier’s torso as I landed a strike on its shoulder. Despite its tattered appearance, the mob was so tough that not even the Purple Ying Sword was able to penetrate its Defense completely.

However, I wasn’t daunted because the mobs provided an equally generous amount of experience in return. Currently, my plan was to cut my way through the canyon and make it to the red zone directly in front of me. The redder a zone on the map screen, the stronger the guardian boss, and the better the quality of the Ancient Divine Skill.

I fought for almost two hours until I heard the sound of someone speaking. Dark Pupils immediately revealed to me that three people were coming my way!

I immediately stopped grinding and jumped behind a shrubbery to hide myself. A while later, two magic knights and one mage with the emblem of Elephant City floating on their shoulder entered my view. I even recognized the guild emblem. All three players belonged to Dark Clouds, the strongest guild in Elephant City, and the only other super guild that could go toe-to-toe against Natural Flow. Among the trio, one of them was a corps commander, and the other two were the elites of the guild as well. I knew that a ton of Elephant City players had passed through Sky Vortex, but these three still got insanely lucky to have encountered each other so soon.

"This is the place…"

The leader of the group, a magic knight said with a smile, "According to Little Cat’s intel, this is the resting place of Alexander the Great. Apparently, the ancient emperor had ascended and become a god after conquering this land. However, even gods weren’t immune to death, and Alexander the Great’s Battle Axe is said to be somewhere on this map…"

The mage voiced his confusion. "Alexander the Great’s Battle Axe, you say?"

"Yep. Well, it says it’s an axe, but it’s really a skill. The Eternal Moon’s Indian branch mentioned that it has incredible offensive power, but that was it. Even they weren’t informed of its exact coordinates, skill, stats and more. One thing was certain though, and that was the Ancient Divine Skill was SS Rank. Do you understand now how lucky we are to run into this map so soon?"

……

I hid my surprise. Alexander the Great’s Ancient Divine Skill was SS Rank?

I had read up on the publicly released info before logging into the game, so I knew that there were 9 SSS Rank super Ancient Divine Skills, 20 SS Rank Ancient Divine Skills, and 70 S Rank Ancient Divine Skills. For example, Chaos Moon’s Greedy Wolf Howl was an S Rank Ancient Divine Skill. Logically speaking, locating an SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill and actually obtaining it should be as hard as trying to grab the moon from its reflection, so an SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill Scroll was a good compromise for most players. And thanks to these players, I now knew for certain that this ruin was hiding an SS Rank Ancient Divine Skill Scroll. How tempting!

The leader of the group ordered, "Come on, we’re going to make our way in from the edge and avoid the mobs at the center. Dark Night and I will be the tanks, and you, the damage dealer. Only attack those I aggro, and make sure you don’t OT, understand? I need you to bring your A-game to this fight. We cannot afford to fuck up with so many enemies around here."

The mage nodded. "I understand!"

……

The trio began grinding. I was just about to ambush them when suddenly, another four dots entered my radar. Dammit!

I reined in my impulse and remained hidden inside the forest. It would be a bad idea to rush out in a hurry. The Ruins of the Gods were a huge map, but quite a number of players were making their way into this map as well. At least five to six hundred eighth-promotion players of various nationalities had entered the Sky Vortex at first notice, but the large majority of them hailed from the Northern Alliance, Cyan Earth City or Elephant City. Long story short, there was a much higher chance I would encounter an enemy than an ally, and everyone here was an elite eighth-promotion player. The last thing I wanted to do was to get careless and suffer the price of my arrogance.

Some time later, four figures appeared from behind a bush of swaying Jimsonweed. As I thought, they hailed from Asuka Period, Purple Grape City. Their guild leader and mage, Shogunate, strode in the middle while accompanied by two cavalrymen and one archer. It was the perfect grinding party.

Shogunate abruptly raised his scepter and said, "Wait!"

"What’s wrong, boss?"

"Look. There’s a group over there. They’re from Elephant City!"

A sneer immediately sprung to a magic knight’s lips. "Elephant City? Hehe. During the War of Sky City, these so-called ‘allies’ of ours only knew to send us against Dragonlight Cavalry as cannon fodder. I’ve been wanting to fuck them over for a long time. Let’s kill them, boss!"

However, Shogunate shook his head and said, "Patience. We only have one chance on this map, so don’t underestimate our opponents. I heard that Copper Spear is out of the game already…"

"Copper Spear? But Copper Spear is so strong! How is that possible?"

"There’s no such thing as impossible. He must’ve been taken out by someone who is stronger than him."

"What should we do now then?"

"This canyon cuts through the entire map, so I suggest we fight our way over and hopefully reach Alexander the Great’s Ancient Divine Skill Scroll before our competitors. Once one of us has ascended to the Heavenly River Realm, our chances of defeating our opponents will naturally skyrocket. Anyway, we’ll grind the mobs until we reach the boss location. Once we’re there, we’ll find a way to wipe out the Elephant City group. Oh, remember to change your attack mode to Nation War attack mode, okay? You can’t form parties here."

"Yessir!"

……

I smiled. There was a saying: the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Today, I would be the oriole. I had no fondness for the Ancient Divine Skill especially after I heard its real name, but simply surrendering it to my opponents wasn’t my style either. It was time to put my bag of trickery to good use...