Bottleneck Breakthrough! Players Appear!

Chapter 13: Breaking Through the Bottleneck! Players Make Their Entrance! "Call Me Demon Lord."

A majestic voice echoed through the pitch-black mine shaft, like scorching wind blowing across pale, bloodless faces.

Chris dropped to her knees with a thud, her pupils filled with terror. Gone was her earlier composure.

After so many years as an adventurer, this was the first time she had ever seen the legendary Demon Lord.

To stay alive, she cast aside her dignity and pressed her forehead hard against the ground.

"D-D-Demon Lord... I was blind and ignorant. P-please show mercy and just let me go..."

She had no idea what this guy had done. Perhaps it was some Necromantic Magic she did not understand.

All she knew was that she could not muster even the slightest bit of strength, to the point where she could barely stand.

Tears, snot, saliva... they kept streaming out uncontrollably.

And that was not all.

Following her buddy Greyhound, she too wet herself without any surprise.

That seemed to be a side effect of "Soul Extraction." When too much life force was drained, one simply could not hold it in.

Besides, his Faith Points had stopped rising.

"Looks like there's a limit to how much one person can contribute... Maybe it's related to Soul Level as well."

As he pondered this, Leon's gaze passed over Chris and the rest of the Silver Scimitar group.

That opening line had been less for the small fry before him than for enhancing the players' sense of immersion.

Just moments ago, the instant he pulled out the crystal ball, the online player count for "Calamity Online" began shooting up.

After discovering that they could see again upon entering the game, those idiots came flooding back from the Official Website.

'Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!'

'What's going on?!'

'Are the servers opening?!'

'Let me out! Let me out already!' (screaming)

Their noisy clamor actually made them seem rather like homeless undead.

Leon glanced over the adventurers groveling on the ground, then turned his attention to the Skeleton Soldiers in the distance.

Those were monsters he had summoned through the Demon Lord Territory core—exactly one hundred of them, no more and no less!

At that moment, they stood there dumbly, waiting for his orders.

As the lowest-level summoned creatures in Necromantic Magic, the Skeleton Soldiers' initial stat panels were not even as good as those of an old imperial farmer: only 2/3/1/0/0.

Lacking intelligence, they could only carry out simple commands, so they were generally used as cannon fodder to draw enemy fire on the battlefield.

However, according to the Calamity System, he could inject the players' Soul Mirror Images into these skeletons through a sacrificial ritual.

That way, these skeletons would gain the same growth potential as undead born under natural conditions—that is, they could not only level up, but also carry out more complex and specific commands.

As for what he would do if they refused to listen? Leon did not have a better solution, either.

It was his first time being some kind of Demon Lord—and the Dog Devs behind "Calamity Online."

He would just have to take things one step at a time!

"...I hope you'll prove useful."

As he spoke, he opened the suitcase and took out the Magic Crystal Chalk needed to draw a Magic Array. He first drew a perfect circle on the ground, then filled in the lines within it before placing the crystal ball on top.

A faint ghostly green light began to glow, casting an eerie atmosphere over the entire space.

Chris stared wide-eyed in terror, wanting to know what was happening but not daring to speak.

Just then, Leon clapped his hands and stepped back from the green-glowing Magic Array.

"Come forth—"

"My minions."

Hiss—

Sparks raced once along the Magic Array's patterns before suddenly bursting into fireworks that filled the air!

Specks of firefly-like light flew toward the Skeleton Soldiers, striking each of their skulls with unerring precision.

The skeletons struck by the green light shook violently as though electrocuted, their joints creaking and clacking.

Looking at the mining pick held against his neck, Greyhound, lying on the ground, felt his heart leap into his throat. He was terrified that these deranged undead would give his head a whack too.

Fortunately, the strange condition did not last long, and the Skeleton Soldiers soon returned to normal.

But—

That so-called normalcy lasted only a few seconds.

In an instant, every skeleton in the mine shaft erupted into a frenzy, producing a chorus of teeth-grating noises.

"OOOOOH!"

"Dog Devs, you're awesome!!!"

"It moved!! I can move!"

"Fuck! Why am I a skeleton?!"

"Where's the succubus?! I don't want a skeleton! I want a succubus!" (voice cracking)

"One-star review! Why don't I have a dick!"

"My pants... wait, where are my pants?! Fuck! How am I supposed to take them off if I'm not wearing any?!"

"Waaah... it's actually real! A fully immersive VR online game... I actually got to play one in my lifetime!"

Those Skeleton Soldiers seemed possessed, clattering away as they leaped and danced about inside the mine.

Of course, Leon could understand what the players were shouting, and he had more or less expected their excitement.

After all, he had personally baited this hook.

In contrast to Leon's upturned lips, the Silver Scimitars lying on the ground were in an entirely different mood.

They could not understand what those skeletons were saying. In fact, they did not even realize the skeletons were speaking. To their ears, the rattling sounds were nothing more than bones grinding against one another.

Watching the chaotic scene of demons dancing about, Greyhound, who had only just calmed down, had fear written across his face once more. He strained with all his strength to put as much distance as possible between himself and them.

Chris was the same.

Especially when she saw several skeletons gather before her, their jaws clattering as though they were about to devour her, she was so frightened that her soul nearly left her body.

Her SAN value finally dropped below its limit.

Chris rolled her eyes back and finally fainted.

The game was unexpectedly realistic—to the point that the NPC had fainted from how ugly they were. The players gathered around her were deeply wounded by this.

Boar-Headed Knight: "Fuck! I think we scared her unconscious!"

Minotaur Warrior: "It's all your fault for being so ugly!"

Boar-Headed Knight: "The hell? It's not like you're any handsome!"

Minotaur Warrior: "%￥#@!"

The two skeletons clacked their jaws, spraying each other with nonexistent spittle.

Elsewhere, someone discovered Bond's corpse.

Looking at the mangled pile of minced flesh, several skeletons with weak stomachs instinctively retched, though a few bolder ones crouched down to inspect it with great interest.

"Bleurgh!"

"That's disgusting!"

"This game doesn't even censor anything?!"

"Dog Devs, get out here! Someone says your censoring is gone!"

"Still, this guy died horribly."

"Wait... there's blood on my mining pick? So I was the one who killed him???"

Just as the skeletons were passing judgment on the corpse, one of them suddenly cried out in delight.

"Look what I found!"

The other skeletons all turned to look. That fellow was holding up an antique-looking Flintlock Pistol... presumably dropped by the guy lying on the ground.

"He should have bullets on him!"

"Quick! Search for them!"

Only after someone had taken the lead in picking up equipment did the skeletons realize that they had been playing far too cautiously.

Coming to their senses, they immediately began rifling through the corpse on the ground. In no time at all, they had stripped that pile of meat clean.

Perhaps some sort of filter had been applied, but these players were not the least bit scared or disgusted while "looting equipment"... which saved him, the Demon King, quite a bit of trouble.

Remembering what he had been like when he first learned Necromantic Magic, Leon found himself rather admiring these idiots.

But now was not the time to worry about them.

At the instant the final player logged into the game, a Dark Green dialogue box appeared before Leon.

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Mission: Prepare freely controllable bodies for players (100/100) (Completed!)

Reward: 10,000 Faith Points!

Ten thousand Faith Points had arrived! Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Leon opened his status panel without hesitation and selected the advancement button behind Soul Level.

The instant he pressed the button, a surge of Dark Green energy burst forth from the void and immediately poured into his chest.

The pleasure of his soul being filled made Leon let out an involuntary groan of satisfaction.

Amazing! It felt fucking incredible!

Both physically and mentally!

Under the players' watchful eyes, Leon stood amid a green radiance and completed his advancement from a Bronze-level soul to a Steel-level soul.

And the overflow Experience Points sent him straight from LV30 to LV31! He had broken through the bottleneck he had never been able to overcome!

ID: Leon

Race: Human

Soul Level: Steel (Level Cap LV50)

Level: LV.31 (+1)

Experience Points: (0/310,000)

HP: (1300/1300) (+500/+500)

MP: (3600/3600) (+1000/+1000)

Constitution: 13 (+5)

Strength: 13 (+5)

Agility: 13 (+5)

Intelligence: 35 (+10)

Spirit: 36 (+10)

Looking at his completely renewed status panel, Leon was so excited he nearly burst into tears.

Eighteen years!

He had finally taken off that damned Bronze hat!

Leon could no longer clearly remember what year he had reached the peak of Bronze, nor did he want to waste time reminiscing about it.

He only wanted to savor this moment, quietly feeling the vast power filling every cell in his body.

It might have sounded a little exaggerated, but that was exactly how he truly felt at that moment.

"...I never expected breaking through from LV30 to LV31 to grant not two attribute points, but a total of twenty-five points across all attributes!"

"I wonder how much attribute growth breaking through the Steel-level bottleneck will bring!"

His Spiritual Power had surged tremendously!

He could hardly wait to try the Steel-level magic he had learned long ago but had never been able to use because his Spiritual Power was insufficient! Just as Leon was grinning from ear to ear, an unremarkable Skeleton Soldier suddenly scampered up to him, dropped to one knee with practiced flair, and let out a creaking sound from its mouth.

"Honorable Lord Demon Lord! I am your most, most, most loyal servant, 'One Leaf Knows Autumn'!"

"This humble one already understands our mission. Please skip the plot explanation and directly bestow a quest upon me!"