Three days later.
John stood at a high point in Overlord City, tightly clutching a token in his hand.
It was none other than the Pass Permit.
During this period, in order to locate the main city of that Lord-Class Player from Zone 4, he had spent no small amount of time searching.
But hard work paid off. After all his efforts, he had finally locked onto the other partyâs location.
Now it was time to begin his counterattack.
He had not forgotten in the slightest how that man had crossed zones last time to interfere with Zone 5âs world-class quest.
A grudge from a past life could still be avengedâlet alone one from less than a month ago.
Especially since he had gone all the way to Boneforest specifically to craft the Anti-Magic Seal, all for the sake of seizing that Lord-Class Playerâs talent.
And now, at last, it was time for it to be put to use.
With a slight movement of his will, John activated the token in his hand.
A system prompt immediately popped up.
[Please select the main city of the zone to bind to.]
A selection of zones appeared before Johnâs eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, he chose [Zone 4]!
After that came the city binding for teleportation.
John thought for a moment, then directly selected [Storm City] of Zone 4.
[Binding successful. Beginning teleportation!]
Buzz!
The teleportation array activated.
Johnâs figure vanished from the spot as he headed for Zone 4.
...
Zone 4.
The Weathered Mountains near Storm City.
At this moment, more than ten thousand players had already gathered here.
Leading them were the players of Zone 4âs strongest guildâWar God Guild.
Although the overwhelming majority were solo players, they were all following this guildâs command.
At present, Zone 4 had already formed a guild alliance.
The guild leader of War God Guild was the allianceâs supreme leader.
This time, under the Alliance Leaderâs command, they had all come to the Weathered Mountains
to jointly besiege a Gold-Grade Boss!
At the edge of the core battle zone,
the Lord-Class Player Link stood atop a mountain peak, watching the fight unfolding in the gorge below.
His position happened to be perfectâclose enough to join the battle at any moment, yet still outside the attack range of the Gold-Grade Boss.
This was one of the privileges granted to him as one of the three players selected for Zone 4âs full-force cultivation plan.
Beside him, the Alliance Leader was calmly directing the battle, orderly commanding players forward in waves to chip away at the Bossâs HP.
"Archers, keep the damage going immediately! Donât let the Boss lose aggro!"
"Whereâs the second batch of shield warriors? Get up there now! Canât you see the mages are about to get caught in the crossfire?"
"Healers, quickly restore the shield warriors rotating out! Theyâll have to go back up again in a moment!"
The Alliance Leader showed not the slightest confusion while commanding a ten-thousand-man battle. Everything was methodical, disciplined, and under control.
Even though most of these players were merely ordinary players in their twenties,
under his direction, they had actually managed to slowly grind down the HP of that Gold-Grade Boss by sheer force.
The Gold-Grade Boss in question was no weakling.
[Abyss Wolf] (Boss)
[Level]: 40
[HP]: 190,000 / 200,000
[Attack]: 6000
[Defense]: 1678
[Skills]: [Abyss Wolfsmoke], [Frenzy], [Wolf Assault], [Devour Bite]...
[Description]: A Gold-Grade Boss from the Abyss, possessing extremely strong physical and magical attack power. Even among Gold-Grade Bosses, it belongs to the hardest-to-deal-with category.
...
Watching the Boss tear through one player after another, ripping them apart with its fangs,
Link felt his heart grow heavier.
As the only player in the entire zone who had made it into the top three,
the responsibility he bore, and the obligations placed upon him, far exceeded those of ordinary people.
But it was precisely because of that responsibility that the pressure on him felt overwhelming.
How difficult would it be to truly lead Zone 4 to claim that reward?
"...Sigh."
Link could not help letting out a long sigh.
At that moment,
the Alliance Leaderâwho had temporarily handed command over to the vice guild leaderâwalked over.
Unlike Link, whose face was full of worry, this Alliance Leader looked especially relaxed.
Smiling, he said, "Link, why the long face?
Donât like this Gold-Grade Boss?"
Link opened his mouth, but said nothing.
The Alliance Leader pointed at the Gold-Grade Boss and said, "Later, when those players grind that wolf down to its last sliver of HP,
you go in and land the finishing blow.
Thatâs the strategy in our latest cultivation plan.
That John has practically taken all the first-kill rewards for bosses of every grade.
We have to secure the first-kill reward for a Gold-Grade Boss before he does.
This round of the plan happens to be your turn, so youâll be the one taking the kill."
Link glanced at him, his brows still tightly furrowed. There was not the slightest trace of joy at being handed such an advantage.
Sensing that something was off, the Alliance Leader asked, "What is it? Is there a problem?"
Link shook his head and sighed.
"No. Iâm just wondering what exactly John is doing right now.
Other than the first-kill announcements, it feels like we have no information on him at all."
At those words, the Alliance Leaderâs brows also drew together slightly.
"Thatâs true. During this time, I arranged for some scouts to investigate.
Including those informants we planted in Zone 5.
But they havenât come back with any useful clues.
That John has never shown his face in front of them. No one knows what heâs been doing."
Hearing this, the weight in Linkâs heart only grew heavier.
He would never believe that Johnâs disappearance meant he was simply cultivating in seclusion.
As the only player who had personally crossed hands with John,
no one understood better than Link just how terrifying John was.
A monster of that caliber would see his combat power multiply with every day he remained alive.
On the surface, the Power Ranking showed both of them within the top three.
But the gap between first place and third place was like a chasm.
If they relied solely on this kind of strategyâfeeding finishing blows from Gold-Grade Bossesâthen who knew what year or month it would take for them to catch up to him.
"At present, all of Zone 4âs burden rests on my shoulders. But me alone is nowhere near enough to contend against that John."
Link had a very clear understanding of his own strength.
He knew he had absolutely no chance of winning.
...
Below them, the battle between the ten thousand players and the Gold-Grade Boss had reached its most intense stage.
With a single howl, the Abyss Wolf instantly hard-CCed a large number of players, and then, with one ferocious charge, it annihilated several hundred of them in an instant.
Even so,
the playersâ attacks continued raining down upon the Abyss Wolf.
[-100!]
[-200!]
[-100!]
Although each playerâs damage only amounted to a few hundred points, there were simply too many of them.
The Abyss Wolfâs HP had already fallen to ten thousand.
Seeing that the timing was about right,
the assassin players who had been hiding for a long time all revealed themselves, delivering the final round of damage.
[-500!]
[-500!]
[...]
This wave of assassins had been prepared specifically to harvest the Bossâs remaining HP.
Their sole purpose was to grind the Abyss Wolf down as low as possible.
After this round of attacks from the assassins,
the Abyss Wolfâs HP dropped straight to only a few hundred points remaining!