691 – Shocking Confession (9)
Don Nemuoja was overflowing with confidence.
Combat power that surpassed Sinchang.
He effortlessly achieved the strength he had strived for his whole life.
Losing his cherished subordinates was regrettable.
But now, their combat powers lived on, merged with his own.
The dead subordinates must have happily been devoured as growth materials for the Armor of Greed to repay the leader who helped them grow.
“As long as the Armor of Greed is with me, I am the strongest. Let me test that strength.”
Right now, in the Golden City Zone 2, beyond the tower, the Sniper of the Gate is no longer something to fear.
With the captives I took absorbing treasure for resources, there’s no need to lure in bait to cross deeper zones.
Most of the human forces in the Golden City focused on that one person—what is there to fear?
“The only ones left are that man who stood on the latest Non-fair Flight and that eerily cheerful girl.”
Their composure really irked him.
Even when he thought about it again, he couldn’t assure himself he’d have the same composure.
If he activated the Mana Barrier, it might be possible for a while.
As long as the mana lasted, it could somewhat cushion the shock from high-speed movement.
However, the faster he moved, the exponentially shorter the duration of the mana barrier.
“Enduring is already a problem.”
Even if he did endure, he would have to be flat on the ground to minimize his exposed surface area and the barrier’s size, without the leisure to smile or move his hands.
The Don who had 530,000 combat power could manage that, but not the one with 5,240,000.
“It doesn’t compare. What kind of leeway can 5.24 million combat power allow?”
The strength not built by himself but forcibly absorbed was hard to gauge in scale and might.
This only inflated his pride further.
He recalled the only being he could compare himself to from the unusual party he had just witnessed.
“Guakjo.”
Guakjo was a notorious villain in this field.
It wasn’t common for someone so evil to be imprisoned in the Gift Academy’s Great Prison.
The fact that he roamed freely indicated that even the Gift Academy had failed to contain him.
“How strong is Guakjo?”
“His personal combat ability is no more than that of an ordinary member. His danger level lies in his cruel plots and cunning that ravage the human heart.”
“Oh? Are you suggesting he seduced the Chief Guard with that cunning?”
“The guard wouldn’t have even listened. Any ordinary human in his presence would lose their soul as a servant within an hour.”
“So, there was an accomplice who helped him escape. Was it that man who stood on the non-fair flight?”
“I don’t know the identity of that man, but I can guess who the other passenger on the non-fair flight was.”
The Observer carefully uttered a name.
“Velocasio.”
As if fearing the world’s curse would strike him for speaking that name, the clouds would part and his soul would be thrown into the flames of hell, the Observer was on guard.
Just as he barely exhaled a sigh of relief, the leader appeared uncharacteristically flustered.
“What kind of being is that for you to fear so much?”
“Velocasio is the true reason for Guakjo’s liberation. He is a tremendous great villain who infiltrated the Great Prison alone, killed all the guards within, and left a huge response of dark mana akin to the Demon King’s Four Kings behind.”
“Incredible…! Such a strong being would dare to invade the Gift Academy of his own accord.”
“Every escapee is a minion of Velocasio, a highly calculated psychopath that no one realized the danger of beforehand. Guakjo’s emergence must undoubtedly be a scheme orchestrated by the great villain Velocasio.”
“Indeed. Thinking so makes sense. Also, that beyond measure strength.”
With the Observer’s words, the leader felt regret wash over him.
If he had recruited Guakjo before his capture, he could have snatched a strategist that even great villains desired.
Perhaps even those strong allies around Guakjo might have fought for him.
“No, that’s too result-oriented a thought.”
In reality, if such strong beings had appeared in the past, he wouldn’t have maintained the leader’s position.
This was not a world that recognized a weaker person as the leader.
Just as Velocasio, the great villain, ruled over Guakjo, he too needed to possess the traits of an absolute strongman to avoid rebellion from the stronger ones.
It was overly ambitious to covet now.
A major villain who had already become a big shot wouldn’t be swayed to join another organization.
No matter what they offered, he would never be satisfied, and even if they somehow reached a compromise, the organization he belonged to wouldn’t allow it.
“The great villain Velocasio. It’s not sensible to have an unrivaled genius as an enemy.”
The beings right before him were already beyond measure, how could the current leader evaluate the true strength of the true strongman who overshadowed them?
If he were to evaluate them, it would be only after absorbing them as food for the Armor of Greed and becoming even stronger.
“Desire for ascendance, but never crossing the line. Greed that exceeds one’s means is a direct path to death.”
In the Golden City, those who couldn’t control their greed met their demise first.
The endurance to survive years in such a city once again restrained the leader’s desires.
He must not aim for unattainable treasures.
Tuwong—
Like the Sniper of the Gate, who fires arrows at that fierce non-fair flight.
“That crazy adventurer, can’t he even tell front from back?! Provoking a being one should never touch!”
The Vice Leader had every reason to be horrified.
The internal sniper was an overwhelmingly powerful individual compared to the adventurers who had previously raided the Black Gold Order.
A massive gate that could alternatively replace the Golden Bridge.
While he could skip five bridges, it was also a military key position housing countless Golden Guards.
Someone who defeated all the Golden Guards originally stationed there and proclaimed themselves a new guard.
A being that could rain arrows on every invading enemy, ready to turn them into a hedgehog—it could only be the Sniper of the Gate.
However, this Sniper of the Gate, while acknowledged as an area boss, wasn’t as strong as the current leader.
The leader, who couldn’t guarantee his own victory, was provoked and fell to shock!
Flick
The arrow bounced off helplessly.
What if the non-fair flight were to turn around and swoop down right now?
Would they survive if it rained magic bombardment all over the area out of frustration?
“…”
“…”
“Did it leave?”
“It just flew away.”
Anxious, they sighed in relief as the non-fair flight continued to soar into the distance.
“Please just disappear forever!”
As they went to find the non-fair flight, the Vice Leader inwardly hoped the terrible beings would simply vanish, allowing the leader to waste his trip.
The moment it reached there, if the leader recognized his limits, he would attempt to devour him.
A variable occurred then.
Kwaaang!
With a loud explosion, the non-fair flight suddenly plummeted!
“Oh my God.”
“Leader. That distance…”
“…Right. It’s a place we passed through.”
Considering the movement speed, it had traveled a tremendous distance in a short time, but for those strong beings, it wasn’t so far out of reach.
Observing the terrain closely, they found that another strong being lay hidden, capable of shooting down that extraordinary non-fair flight.
“This is why we can’t leave the Magical Territory. Even in this narrow Magical Territory, strong beings continuously show up; how many would be hiding outside?”
Not knowing the secret of the sudden stops, the Black Gold Order thought there was a hidden strong person who shot down the non-fair flight.
With a strong individual no less than the Dark Gold Order and the Sniper of the Gate lurking, the Isolation of the Spirit’s Magical Territory certainly had deeper zones beyond the city.
Indeed, the Magical Territory wasn’t a place humans could survive.
Seeing the non-fair flight struggling to rise again, they watched Guakjo’s party, who had defeated such a strong being and were now on their way.
“…I give up on confrontation.”
“That’s a wise decision.”
The Vice Leader was genuinely pleased with the leader’s choice.
They survived.
There would be no offering as a sacrifice now.
Just as they felt relief, a massive shadow loomed over them.
It wasn’t just the head.
Between the buildings.
The entire street.
The whole city was engulfed in shadow as if night had fallen.
When they lifted their heads and looked back, a giant figure filled their vision.
“What… what in the world is that?”
The answer was known to those beyond, on the non-fair flight.
*
A colossal Golden Colossus rose.
“Wow, because Rosinante was whining, the area boss of the Magical Territory has appeared!”
In the special dungeon, the Golden Colossus was a gimmick that debuted after a set number of turns, typically when opponents had engaged in combat for way too many turns or when they were avoiding bridges in the city.
It was essentially a being that made winning nearly impossible and was expected to die under normal circumstances.
For novices hoping to grab treasures with average specs and manage to find an artifact to level up their specs and change their lives, this was a nightmare that pushed them towards quietly logging out, starting over, or regenerating their character through re-rolling.
“I can catch it if I want!”
“Are you serious?”
Alpha looked on in disbelief.
“That being… is a strong foe that even a party of previous heroes on the verge of retirement would target. Do you truly believe you can defeat such an existence?”
“Why not? You don’t think there’s only one strong being in the world, do you?”
Alpha expressed pure admiration.
“I’d love to see that skill.”
“But I want to save my mana, so I’m gonna hide!”
[Invisibility]
[Hiding]
[Concealment Barrier]
[Mana Shield]
[Silence]
[Stealth]
[Silence Zone]
The functions triggering in succession flawlessly masked Rosinante, the biological-type golem combat vehicle, and the being riding atop it from the regards of the Golden Colossus.
The Colossus, which had stood up to repel intruders, began executing follow-up commands upon our disappearance.
[Target Redefined]
[Searching for the Second Threat…]
[Search Complete]
[Entity Name – Don Nemuoja]
The previous area boss—completely unintended—was now marked by the final boss.
But it was the one lurking nearby that was at fault, not him!
