On the city walls, the players of World Server 616 were utterly dumbfounded.
They had expected a grueling, desperate siege.
They were prepared to fight to the death.
Even if they died, it would be gloriousâthey would not let the other-world server bastards laugh at them!
But the scene before them made all their preparations feel completely unnecessary.
A monster horde invasion?
No, no, noâthis was clearly Faustus alone, slaughtering five billion monsters!
And growing stronger with every kill.
"I... am I dreaming?"
A warrior muttered.
"If youâre dreaming, so am I."
The mage next to him looked equally dazed.
"Are we... dreaming the same dream?"
"Stop talking!"
Sunborn bellowed, "What are you standing there for?"
"Faustus-sama is killing up ahead! We canât slack behindâthose are free dungeon points waiting for us!"
"Right! Kill monsters, grab points!"
"Charge, brothers!"
Thousands of players poured off the city walls, crazily diving into the horde to mop up the monsters Faustus had missed.
The scene looked like a pack of lion cubs following a lion king: the king hunted, and the cubs ate the meat.
[Global Live Stream · Faustus Channel]
[Hahaha, this is killing me! World Server 616 can clear this while lying down!]
[Faustus-sama kills upfront, they clean up behind himâperfect coordination!]
[Thanks, other-world server guys, for the free gift!]
Meanwhile, World Server 1213 was deathly silent.
Utter silence.
After a long while, someone shakily typed:
"Did... we do something wrong?"
No one answered.
They all knew the answer.
They had done wrongâthey should never have gifted Faustus five billion monsters!
Danielâs assault hardly paused for a moment.
Every arrow he loosed became a torrent, sweeping away countless monstersâ lives.
[Ding! Permanent buff gained: Skill Replication (legendary-grade)!]
[Notice: Your buff stack has reached the dungeon maximum (40 stacks). Increase your character level to unlock higher limits.]
The system alert sounded constantly in his ears, but he had no time to care.
With Skill Replication, each arrow effectively shot fifty identical attacks at once!
A single Aetherlance meant ninety golden streaks tore through the air, trailing scorching tails into the horde.
Area-of-effect skills were even more terrifying.
Arrowstorm and Shattering Comet were already hundred-meter-range skills, but with fiftyfold replication, they intertwined into a domain of death comparable to a forbidden curse!
Wherever the arrows passed, monsters could not even leave ash behind.
If the system did not restrict his firing speed, Daniel could likely annihilate all five billion monsters in no time.
But on second thought, the restriction hardly mattered.
After all, no matter the enemy, a single Aetherlance could end everything.
Once he reached level 150, he could study the true forbidden art, Skyfall Cataclysm!
With Stellar Wrath in hand, each skillâs power would doubleâmaking forbidden skill damage unimaginable.
And as Stellar Wrath grew, these numbers would continue to climb.
Half a day passed. Daniel looked up, and the once ocean-like flood of monsters had been partially slaughteredâover one billion down.
Yet the remaining monsters still surged toward the city walls.
Flying beastsâ wings blocked the sky, hovering above the fortress, intercepting arrows and spells.
Melee players on the walls could only helplessly look up at their airborne enemies.
Their blades could not reach the sky, and shields could barely withstand diving attacks.
The siege monstersâ rank far exceeded ordinary wild monsters.
Without Daniel holding the line, the remaining players alone could never have defended the city against the tide of five billion monsters.
...
[World Server 250 · Main City]
The commander of World Server 250, Johnson, sat atop a silver-white unicorn, inspecting the perfectly arrayed legion before him.
On the distant horizon, heaps of siege monster corpses formed mountains, and the air was thick with the scent of blood.
"Besides World Server 616, the other serversâ castle defenses should all be completed."
Johnson asked his adjutant quietly.
"Correct. I hear only World Server 616 is still fighting desperately."
The adjutant replied calmly.
A satisfied smile crept across Johnsonâs face.
The five major servers had pooled resources, drastically increasing the siege difficulty for World Server 616.
No matter how godlike the monster called Faustus was, the players of World Server 616 would surely suffer severe losses this time.
"Such an opportunity cannot be missed," he murmured, a cold gleam in his eyes.
"If we can seize this chance to capture their castle and eliminate them completely..."
He straightened, facing the ready legion, his voice echoing across the field:
"Warriors! Glory belongs to us! Crush World Server 616 under our feet!"
Behind him, tens of millions of players shouted in unison:
"Glory belongs to us! Crush World Server 616!"
"Freedom and honor together!"
Meanwhile, World Servers 1213, 82, 840, 38, and 700âsix major servers in totalâmarched simultaneously toward World Server 616âs castle.
A grand army of 500 million players!
Their only goal: to wipe the castle completely off the map.
...
The next day, World Server 616 Castle.
[Ding! Item obtained: Teleportation Scroll (Rare) Ă1!]
[Ding! Item obtained: Teleportation Scroll (Rare) Ă1!]
Danielâs bow never paused, turning the last stubborn monsters to ash.
Aetherlance!
-4,288,566!
-4,549,686!
-4,665,658!
...
Fifty golden streaks tore through the air, impaling the remaining monsters onto the scorched earth.
No large monster clusters remained; only scattered stragglers struggled under the walls, soon eliminated by defending players.
Daniel exhaled slowly.
"The first stage of the dungeon... finally over."
For others, this battle was intense; for him, it was a rebirth.
Permanent buffs stacked layer by layer, exponentially increasing his strength.
Now, each attack dealt over four million damage, just shy of the five million threshold.
He opened his backpack, eyes falling on a few archaic-looking scrolls:
[Teleportation Scroll (Rare)]
Restriction: Only usable in the dungeon
Effect: Teleports the user to any castle in any world server
Description: A special item for the Battle of Desperation event; it disintegrates if removed from this dungeon
Daniel traced the runes on the scrollâs edge, a cold glint in his eyes.
Perfect timingâthis was exactly what he needed.
One scroll meant one chance to descend straight into the enemyâs lair.
And what would happen after arrival...