"Ruler of the world, Supreme Being of World City, most exalted Majesty, please forgive your subordinate for arriving late."
Roy had only just arrived at the arena and had yet to begin his experiment when the guardian of the sixteenth floor, the arena's master, the undefeated Martial God-Kagura Inori-instantly appeared before him.
She knelt on one knee, looking deeply remorseful.
Before Roy could answer, Veronica rebuked her:
"Kagura, you are indeed at fault. As the administrator of the sixteenth floor and a senior official of World City, you failed to greet him in advance after I sent word."
"What if the dragons had attacked at that moment?"
As the all-purpose Butler, Veronica could contact everyone in World City at any time to convey Roy's orders.
The moment Roy said he was going to the arena, she had notified Kagura. But Kagura had still been carrying out Eve's first order, putting everyone on alert, and had forgotten how fast Roy could teleport.
Instantly.
Only after Roy had successfully teleported did she hurriedly appear. To Veronica, this was undoubtedly a dereliction of duty.
It showed far too little respect for the Supreme Being.
"Yes, Lady Veronica, please punish me!"
Kagura Inori offered no excuses, but Roy waved a hand and said:
"My teleportation magic isn't something yours can compare to."
"Remember this lesson. There's no need for punishment."
Veronica could not help saying:
"You are far too forgiving, Supreme Being."
"The dragons are brazenly occupying World City's entrance, yet a guardian cannot manage her time properly."
"That is utterly unacceptable."
Roy would not undermine Veronica's authority. He simply smiled and said:
"Nika, you can hold training classes for them later and teach them what they need to know. Don't be too harsh."
"I saw that the arena's traps have already been activated and security is on alert."
"They still aren't as good as you at assigning duties, Nika."
Veronica's ability allowed her to understand Roy's needs and attend to him at any moment, twenty-four hours a day.
This was an ability the other NPCs lacked.
Roy hoped the different NPCs could share their skills and break through the level-one-hundred limit.
That way, the tens of thousands of NPCs Roy created would become an ever-growing force.
For example, if Roy went to the world of Hunter x Hunter, everyone could learn Nen Abilities.
That would be a force even more terrifying than the Chimera Ants.
Roy would never fight alone. He would wage war with an army.
Veronica blushed slightly and said with great delight:
"Thank you for your praise, Supreme Being. I will spare no effort in teaching them how to serve you properly."
Roy nodded with a smile:
"That's settled, then."
"Kagura, there will be no punishment."
"Activate the most durable arena immediately."
"Yes, Supreme Being!"
Kagura Inori rose, two demonic horns protruding from her head, and swiftly activated the strongest protective barrier, enclosing the entire arena before changing the terrain.
Kagura Inori was one of the few people in World City utterly devoted to martial arts.
She was the guardian of the sixteenth floor, and even in World City, which teemed with experts, she ranked among the top hundred.
Name: Kagura Inori Racial levels: War Ghost: Lv15 Mara: Lv10 Class levels: Inner Qi Monk: Lv15 Outer Qi Monk: Lv10 Qi Master: Lv5 Martial Lord: Lv10 Fist Saint: Lv10 Martial God: Lv5 Gladiator: Lv10 God of Arena Combat: Lv5 Asura: Lv5 Racial levels 25 + class levels 75, total level 100.
She was built purely for combat, a terrifying boss-tier NPC. With her two demonic horns, she belonged to an exceptionally rare race: the War Ghosts.
This was a strange race born on battlefields.
They were the souls of fallen soldiers whose thirst for battle kept them in the mortal world, transforming them into ghosts known as War Ghosts.
Unwilling to depart, the War Ghosts retained their formidable fighting strength. Eventually, they gathered together and formed the Land of the Dead.
The commanders of the Land of the Dead, or rather, its most outstanding War Ghosts, were Mara.
Kagura Inori was one such War Ghost.
This was a deeply hidden class in the game. War Ghosts would only appear on a battlefield where at least a million living beings had died, and players had to defeat them to unlock the corresponding race.
Indeed, Roy had unlocked War Ghosts in World City. Otherwise, he could not have obtained this special race.
In terms of individual stats, War Ghosts and Mara were not much stronger than dragonkin.
Kagura Inori's racial stats gave her only a slight advantage. What truly placed her above dragonkin monks was her devotion to martial arts and her fervor for battle.
World City had many special classes that could only be acquired by meeting extremely demanding conditions.
For example, becoming a God of Arena Combat required a hundred thousand arena victories.
Even players particularly enthusiastic about duels could almost never achieve this.
Kagura Inori had earned this supreme honor entirely through her results on the test server.
As Roy studied Kagura Inori's information, she finished activating the strongest arena and bowed:
"Supreme Being, preparations are complete."
The largest arena came with a small pocket dimension that perfectly contained all power within it, so Roy had no fear of anything being revealed outside.
However, activating this arena required one condition.
Two people had to engage in combat before the power of its rules would fully activate, though either side could surrender immediately.
Roy wasted no time and unleashed Silver Bullets of Allure directly at Kagura Inori.
Five, four, three, two, one!
As the countdown ended, the billion gold coins Roy had prepared vanished in an instant.
Countless magic circles appeared above the arena. They absorbed the vast quantity of gold coins and forged them into terrifying projectiles.
Gold was one of the magical conducting materials with the lowest resistance. Channeling mana through gold did not cause significant mana loss.
That was why mages liked both gold and silver, and why they were hard currency in magical worlds.
As Roy let his thoughts wander, analyzing gold's importance in any world, the golden bullets rained down with terrifying power.
They automatically aimed and locked onto their enemy.
An excited expression appeared on Kagura Inori's face.
Come on. Let's dance.
She actually met the terrifying golden bullets in the center of the arena, moving as though she were dancing as she avoided as much damage as possible.
The golden bullets fell one after another, blasting countless craters into the arena.
A full-power strike from Silver Bullets of Allure could flatten a town.
The entire arena was bombarded into a pitted wasteland. Astonishingly, Kagura Inori dodged through this storm of bullets, reducing the damage to a minimum.
Good.
Although the skill still took too long to activate, Roy could use a paid item to skip the casting time instantly.
At the same time, Roy's mana had not decreased at all, proving that the skill best suited to him still retained its special effect.
He only needed to spend gold coins to attack his opponent from every direction.
Even more delightfully, the many golden bullets remained where they had landed in the arena instead of disappearing, unlike in the game.
This meant Roy could recover a large amount of gold rather than waste a billion gold coins on a single skill.
Likewise, the skill's destructive power had changed.
Originally, the damage dealt by Silver Bullets of Allure had been fixed. Although it allowed players some room for maneuver, no player could possibly dance around the golden bullets and reduce the damage to a minimum.
Roy had come to the arena to test it on Kagura Inori precisely to verify this.
The undisputed queen of the arena, a martial prodigy without equal.
She could spot the weakness in any skill.
This could not possibly be a new online game, or even a brain-in-a-vat simulation, because Kagura was simply too fast.
She needed only 0.03 seconds to cover a hundred meters, allowing her to dodge the various golden bullets with ease.
"Kagura, how much health did you lose?"
Sure enough, the damage had been reduced considerably.
Roy had experimented on Kagura before. If she failed to escape Silver Bullets of Allure's attack, she would lose roughly a third of her health.
Kagura Inori was an undefeated demon god, similar to Sebas, but with a different specialization.
Her main strength was speed. Health and defense were not her strong suits.
Yet in actual combat in the New World, she could withstand four shots.
Albedo of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, who specialized in defense, could withstand at least three of the strongest attacks thanks to a special mechanic.
That did not mean Kagura Inori's defense surpassed Albedo's.
Rather, dodging had become a meaningful factor.
Damage was uneven.
In the game, the damage dealt by a large-area skill was generally fixed.
Dodging within its area would not reduce the damage dealt.
But reality did not work that way.
The same knife inflicted markedly different damage when driven into a heart rather than an arm.
As World City's strongest god of combat and a legend of the arena, Kagura Inori excelled at evading damage in battle.
Anyone who blindly applied gaming experience to reality would suffer dearly for it.
Roy could feel the surging power within him, but he could not control it as perfectly as Kagura could.
When NPCs crossed over, the game's settings and the combat experience distilled by their AI instantly transformed them into true experts.
Tempered through countless trials.
Roy was different.
Like Bone King, he was merely relying on his game account to turn its power into reality.
So his first objective was to make these powers truly his own as soon as possible.
I need a lot of actual combat.
Before you continue