Chapter 405
This sense of security comes from the gathering of players. Even if you manage to grab an airdrop, its light can only illuminate a few people at most. How can you escape the pursuit of two epic-level players in the Dark Night Tide?
The king has no need to borrow the tiger's might, because he only has a torch on him, and the light is extremely bright. This thing cannot be hidden in the storage space. Moreover, given the Nameless King's character, it is even less likely that he would come out to run errands and hand over important items to the weak.
Two epic-level characters?! Two epic-level characters!?
Reason is the foundation of a player's survival. Many people are starting to think about whether to back down, or what conditions they can get in return for backing down, such as signing a ceasefire agreement.
Suddenly, the gray sky brightened, and a ball of light fell from the sky. This was the airdrop from the Reincarnation Game, which could not be touched before it hit the ground.
It wobbled and swayed, but actually fell very quickly. The players quickly ended their brainstorming session; time for negotiation was running out.
"Nameless King, can we gain your protection? Can we form an alliance with you?"
"Are you kidding me? If anyone's going to form an alliance, it's us."
"You know about the 'Golden Tree' in the End World, right? I've worked with the goddess's subordinates before. What makes you think you can compete with me for it?"
"Idiot, the Golden Tree and the Lord of Cinder are enemies."
Chaos erupted at the scene. There were more than a dozen players from different factions, each with roughly the same strength. Naturally, they would try to curry favor with an epic-level player.
The sixth point clearly states that only three factions can remain; if you latch onto a strong faction, others won't have any to cling to.
It's a mess because the Flower Sword team wasted too much time, preventing the Slothful Bishop from becoming the leader. How can negotiations proceed without a leader?
"Enough. I will not take any of you with me, nor do I need to form an alliance with you. Read Prompt Six carefully again; there is an opportunity to bring back all the remaining players."
[Hint 6: You can only return if you uncover the secrets of the night and defeat the King of the Night, or if only three factions or only one player team survives.]
Destroy the King of the Night, without killing each other?
Hmm, with an epic-level player involved, it might actually be possible.
Many people's eyes lit up. They weren't fools; one powerful Soul Lamp was enough. Why collect so many? There must be a reason. But until now, they knew nothing about the secrets of the night, let alone had time to study them.
Is it true or false?
Many hesitated. The Nameless King was a formidable figure; surely he wouldn't lie to them? But empty promises offered no reassurance. What if someone wanted to eliminate the King of the Night, but also take their lives?
The opportunity has arrived.
The Slothful Bishop suddenly realized this was a good opportunity to gain a voice, and his frantic expression disappeared.
At this point, simply stepping forward would allow him to become the leader among these junglers, and since they had cooperated before, the Nameless King would likely also lend a hand.
He opened his mouth, but before he could utter the first syllable, his bulging eyes suddenly widened.
The airdrop landed, and two figures rushed forward instantly, immediately escalating the slightly relaxed atmosphere into a tense one.
Someone's trying to steal the airdrop!
A single move can have far-reaching consequences. The slightest action by Flower Sword and Akiha Tohno brought the players, who had been deliberating, back to reality. There were no guarantees, no negotiations, and not even any consensus. Everyone's goal remained the same—
Seize powerful Soul Lamp to gain an advantage in the upcoming dungeons.
It's like someone false-starting in a track and field race; the athletes on the adjacent lanes will instinctively follow, and depending on their reaction speed, each person's choice will be different.
Some directly activate Transcendental Grade abilities, such as Space Blink, to appear directly next to the airdrop.
Some used special props to create dozens of identical phantom lights on the ground.
Some even pulled out hand cannons and attacked the players charging at the front.
Others stood frozen in place, still pondering the Nameless King's words.
There's no need to speak or do anything superfluous. A true master of rhythm simply seizes the opportunity, focuses on executing their choices, and leaves no time for others to consider.
There's only one powerful Soul Lamp. How should it be distributed among the dozen or so factions? Don't forget, they were originally planning a great battle so the winner could claim it.
How foolish! Don't they use their brains?
The Slothful Bishop may have been verbally abusing the situation, but his body was instinctively leaning forward; the incident had simply returned to its original course.
The players gathered here not to listen to his empty talk, nor to join forces with the Nameless King, but solely to seize the powerful Soul Lamp.
If his proposal had been accepted earlier, and the bishop had negotiated with the Nameless King, the chaos would never have occurred. But—
Didn't he just not have enough time?
Boom--
Lightning flashed, and the Nameless King made his move. He too had come for the light, and he couldn't let any player take it and teleport away. The safe zone was becoming increasingly dangerous, and once he got the light, he would have to return to the Tide.
Golden lightning fell from the sky, piercing through a giant robot tens of meters tall, which was reaching out to grab the airdrop.
The several-meter-thick Gundanium Core was melted, leaving a large hole. The residual electricity shattered several layers of energy fields, turning a player from the 'Machine Intelligence' faction into molten iron.
The battlefield fell silent for a moment as epic-level players unleashed their full power, unstoppable by any Monster IV. Fortunately, everyone on the battlefield entered combat mode, all looking up at the thunderclouds in the sky.
"Deal with him first!"
It's unclear who shouted this, but it jolted the bewildered players awake from their daze.
Yes, there's no contract, no negotiation, no guarantee now. The Nameless King is just another player here to grab airdrops, so what's there to say?
Let's join forces first, defeat the strongest player, and then divide the spoils.
This triggered a chain reaction, with all sorts of skills and items flying everywhere, leaving the seemingly most frantic, but actually the only one who hadn't made a move, the Sloth Bishop, speechless.
How did it turn out like this?
He glanced at Flower Sword, who was hiding in the crowd, and Akiha Tohno, with her full head of red hair. These two had been shouting the most enthusiastically and charging the fastest, but when it came to actually fighting, they were playing dirty tricks.
The bishop twitched his nose; he sensed a conspiracy.
Chapter Fifteen: Epic Metamorphosis - The Soul King!
It's finally out.
The airship floated in the air, with turbulent thunderclouds and various energies intertwined in the distance. Even though it was far away, the aura of destruction was still extremely strong.
If the civilians had not been evacuated in advance, the chaotic battle involving so many players could have wiped out all life forms within a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Stray bullets streaked across the sky, landed in the town, and then with a 'boom,' not a single building in the town remained intact.
Someone stirred up a storm, forming a distinct wall of air in the sky, like the hand of Giant striking down, erasing the forest from the map.
Some transformed into giant mechs, unleashing lasers and missiles that swept across the ground like a meteor shower, leaving behind large craters.
Someone pulled a mountain from afar, with immense force, causing the earth to tremble continuously.
Dozens of players at Monster II or higher engaged in a chaotic battle, a first in this dungeon. They were divided into more than a dozen factions, disregarding friendly fire, and unleashing their full power, destroying everything around them.
In places unseen, skills like curses, instant death, time reversal, and spatial rupture are more discreet, yet more deadly.
Fighting to the death for the powerful Soul Lamp that just fell is an inevitable choice for survival. Whether it's Monster II or Epic, all players have an equal chance of survival, and they have long since formed small groups.
Who would willingly entrust their Destiny to another? In such situations, the balance created by epic players with absolute strength is extremely fragile. As long as one person takes the lead and goes all in, the other players will follow suit.
The airdrop was bait to lure players, but the real target wasn't the Slothful Bishop, but this epic player.
Yuki sat quietly in the high-backed chair, watching as rings of golden lightning spread out, forming vortex clouds, and then perhaps hundreds of meters thick lightning pillars connected the sky and the earth, burying all light.
Boom--
The Dark Night Continent trembled as layer upon layer of air walls slammed down, clearing away everything in their path.
Yuki saw the city turn to ashes and see the air ahead filled with fine lightning streaks. Even hundreds of kilometers away, the airship was shaking violently.
Epic Tier I, roughly equivalent to the final state of the Witch God.
Having traveled this far, Yuki has witnessed two epic battles and even faced the Witch God directly. In the Reincarnation Game, destructive power is only one aspect of his strength, which is inversely proportional to the structural strength and material science technology of the world he lives in.
This thunderbolt, if placed at the Outpost of the 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,' would at most destroy half of the Tenshukaku, and its power lies not in destroying a star or shattering a continent with a single blow.
Putting everything else aside, the direct-effect range of Shiki Ryougi's power is less than 100 meters. Can you say she isn't powerful?
"It's the Nameless King of the 'End World,' an Epic Rank I player." Emiya recognized the other party's identity at a glance. Epic-level players are extremely rare in the Reincarnation Game, and each one's qualitative transformation is different, making it very difficult to mistake.
It's him! Looks like I'm in luck too.
Yuki paused for a moment, then realized that this was the Lord of Cinder from 'Dark Souls'. No wonder Flower Sword and the others had such a good rhythm.
The Nameless King didn't utter a single word in the game, but a king should be arrogant, and he never expected someone to dare to steal his light right in front of him. If it were Yuki in the same situation, he would appear relaxed on the surface, but secretly keep a close watch on everyone.
Anyone who dares to cause trouble will be immediately and annihilated to intimidate the other players.
"That's certainly exaggerated, but there are dozens of players there, all of them monster-level, and they're in a state of combat readiness. It won't be easy for Him to devour them all at once."
Yuki muttered to himself, but no one responded. The atmosphere inside the airship cabin was very strange. From Emiya to Illya, everyone's expression was different from before.
Previously, they felt both apprehension and admiration towards Yuki, but now they felt mostly fear, and the reason was quite simple:
This Lord Raymond is also a 'He', and is qualified to make judgments.
Just as the Reincarnation Game issued a notice calling for players to gather, Yuki completed the final step in the Night Capital City.
With 10 specialization points invested and the Void Eye combined, 'Soul Corruption' was raised to LV2, kicking open the final door.
At that Night Capital, the hearts of millions of residents in the city stopped for a moment, no matter what they were doing. The bustling daytime became as silent as the night.
An indescribable, insurmountable fear lingered in everyone's heart, as if the gods had opened their eyes and were peering into everyone's soul.
He kicked open the door with a soul-type skill, allowing his entire body to enter a completely new realm. Just as Shiki Ryougi taught him, this made his qualitative change controllable, and he obtained the power he wanted.
[Epic Metamorphosis: Soul King]
[Description: The soul is the origin of all living beings, even Machine Intelligence, and you are the king of the soul; this energy is your authority.]
[Soul Extraction: For creatures below monster level, except for those with special protection, their souls will be converted into pure energy for your use. The larger the coverage area, the lower the extraction intensity.]
[Soul Mimicry: Soul energy is one of the fundamental energies. You can freely transform this energy, turning it into elements, particles, ether, and other forms.]
[Void Conversion: Converts any type of energy into soul energy for absorption and utilization. The stronger the enemy, the lower the efficiency; the farther the distance, the lower the efficiency.]
It's done.
Yuki clenched his fist. Since the return of the Wizard's Tower, he had fought a faction war and participated in half of the dungeon, all for this moment, to make the qualitative change as effective as possible.
If you accumulate 32 specialization points and raise your physical attributes to LV9, you can advance to Epic rank, and you will most likely become a melee specialization.
If you invest heavily in the Night Furnace and can take that step as well, you'll become a player who relies on item-based strategies.
If you upgrade Demon Possession to LV6, you may become an epic-level demon.
There are many paths, but thanks to Shiki Ryougi's advice, Yuki had already chosen a path—the most versatile one that allowed him to connect most of his skills and items. Looking back now, the benefits have been immense.
The Demon Heart is no longer sufficient, the Blood-Burning Heart is unsustainable, and the Regenerative Tail consumes a huge amount of energy each time. These problems will be resolved through a qualitative change.
If he wanted, he could instantly Soul Extraction of half the residents of Night Capital. With so much soul energy combined, not to mention anything else, the Insect Demon Armor would become incredibly tough. Even if it were pierced, how many times could the Regenerative Tail repair itself?
There's also the Hunter's Blunderbuss, and the puppet strings generated by the LV2 'Soul Corruption'. Based on my previous strength, taking on two or even three opponents wouldn't be a problem.
"This is a qualitative change, this is an epic, and this is just the beginning."
The path to qualitative change can continue to deepen, increasing the intensity, efficiency, and coverage distance of Soul Extraction and Void Conversion, and may even generate a fourth or Gojo function.
Yuki smiled, a gentle smile that sent chills down the Emiya and the others.
They've seen epic-level players, but they've never seen anyone resist the temptation of power. Even those who level up haphazardly are still pursuing epic-level status throughout their lives, because the prerequisite of 'epic achievement' is too difficult to obtain.
Once they achieve an achievement, many players will go into seclusion and concentrate all the resources of their faction, eager to advance immediately.
"You deliberately waited until now?" The red-clad hero's mouth was dry.
"Yes, a top-tier Night Watchers can approach epic level, but absolutely cannot be epic, otherwise it would unite all the players." Yuki nodded slightly. Everything had been planned long ago. To put it bluntly, he never wanted to be the first to stick his neck out.
Some people become arrogant after reaching the Epic level, thinking they are invincible, but Yuki is different; he always maintains a humble and cunning heart.
Gurgle.
Emiya swallowed hard. There was nothing more to ask. This guy was a top-notch schemer, an absolute ruthless person. If it were him, he wouldn't be able to resist either. Who wouldn't want to wipe out the enemy in a crushing victory?
"Mona, do you think I'm qualified to operate on two fronts now?" Yuki turned around and saw the girl roll her eyes, giving him a 'you're awesome' look.
It was disrespectful to face a 'He', but Yuki laughed instead. He hated the feeling of loneliness at the top and constantly reminded himself not to be misled by the increase in power and get too caught up in the Reincarnation Game.
He is a player, but he doesn't want to be a player; he is Taiyi, but he never wants to become Taiyi.
The trump card will only be revealed at the most opportune moment, and the main character will only step onto the stage when the music starts.
The distant thunderous tides Yuki listened intently to this symphony of death and destruction, and slowly stood up.
"Enough with the small talk, everyone get ready for battle. The stage is set, it's time for a grand show. Oh, and I need to adjust the plan a bit."
Yuki glanced at [Soul Mimicry], and because of the qualitative change, he had a new inspiration.