Chapter 131

I knew I would eventually encounter this monster. It wasn’t just some vague plan or goal; it was inevitable as long as I lived in Ardenia. However, I didn’t expect it to happen now, and certainly not at this location.

“Is…isn’t that a Phantom Dragon?”

The other party members noticed the identity of the newly appeared enemy.

“A Phantom Dragon Repli…”

“Yes, its appearance is exactly like what we saw in textbooks.”

Sungjae hastily rose, gathering his Magic Power while asking Lia, “Lia! Do you know which game it’s from?”

The Phantom Dragon, named after the Apocalypse Project that reduced District 34’s population from over 6 billion to 500 million, has since been featured across various media such as novels, movies, and dramas. Its presence in games goes without saying.

It was obvious that the Phantom Dragon had been used as a game monster before.

“The Phantom Dragon often transcends boundaries depending on the game…!”

Unfortunately, Revenge fell into this category.

Suddenly, Sungjae sensed the surrounding air being pulled upwards. His face turned pale as he gathered his Magic Power.

“T-The mana around us is…”

Lia also screamed out loud.

“Ah! The spell has been broken! Mana is being sucked away!”

Looking up, they saw an unknown darkness gathering within the mouth of the Phantom Dragon floating in the sky.

“Hide behind the horse-drawn carriage!”

“Use all your defensive abilities!”

As everyone hastily moved…

Repli exhaled, and darkness began pouring forth from above.

[O Flower that bears fruit by consuming darkness…]

Everything happened within a split second, as if time was divided into hundreds of fragments. A flower with a diameter of several hundred meters bloomed like an illusion and swallowed up the descending dark energy.

[Judgment Flame]

Then a white flame covered Repli’s body.

Zzzz!

The overwhelming coldness transformed into a huge ice sword.

Clang!

It cleanly cut off Repli’s neck.

Thud!

When the massive body of Repli hit the ground, it caused a dust cloud akin to a bomb explosion. Its exit was surprisingly anticlimactic compared to its terrifying entrance.

“Ultimate Magic! It’s Five Dragons!”

“Yes! O-Dragon is watching! We have our own Transcendent!”

“Wow! Did you capture that just now? Did you get it? Well, communication was cut off but not the camera…! Wow, this is amazing!”

Unlike the cheering people around me, I couldn’t be happy.

‘It’s coincidental.’

The monster crisis caused great damage throughout the macrocosm, yet there were no reports of any Transcendent monsters involved.

‘But here, a Transcendent monster appears, and it happens to be Repli from Revenge?’

It was coincidental. Too much of a coincidence.

“W-We need to meet with the others first! What about communications?”

“Not yet! In emergency situations, we agreed to gather at the pier.”

“Then let’s move!”

“Everyone, stop.”

As the group prepared to move together, a figure appeared before them.

A woman with long green hair, wearing a tasteful one-piece dress and holding a wand adorned with a large emerald stood before them.

Boram recognized her immediately. “Lady Flower? Why…?”

“It’s not over yet.”

Hwoosh!

At that moment, amidst swirling dust, the Phantom Dragon raised its head. Its body was severely burned, and its neck appeared hastily repaired by black energy, making for a grotesque sight. Yet, it continued to move.

Rumble!

Dark clouds rapidly gathered in the sky. In the blink of an eye, lightning as thick as a house struck toward Repli.

Kraak!

However, accompanied by an immense sound, the lightning split apart.

“The lightning…was split?”

Suddenly, a man appeared above Repli’s head. Lia groaned when she saw him late.

“T-The Sword King Hyperion! The final boss of Blade & Magic! Grand Sword Master!”

That wasn’t the end.

Goo-ooh… As dark energy spread out, Repli’s damaged body was restored. Lia laughed bitterly.

“Dark Messiah…”

“Do you know about this game?” I asked, and Lia nodded.

“Dark Star is a mobile game released by Detroit Galaxy Federation last year. It hasn’t been serviced in District 34 yet, so I could only watch the cinematic videos. It was highly anticipated but…I never expected to meet the Season 1 boss in reality without playing the game.”

Lia’s words made Boram incredulous. “Wait, all the final bosses are gathering today? Is it some sort of collaboration event?”

The presence of three Transcendent enemies was unprecedented and beyond common sense, leaving everyone stunned.

Amidst this confusion, I felt disappointed.

‘Oh, come on. They aren’t targeting me.’

Then I paused, questioning myself.

‘No, am I crazy? Why am I feeling disappointed?’

Despite our bewilderment, the situation continued to unfold rapidly. Flower, who had blocked our path, kept her eyes fixed on Repli and the other monsters as she spoke, “It will be difficult for me to protect you completely. Stay close to the horse-drawn carriage whenever possible.”

Whrrr!

With these words, a huge tree grew beneath her feet and lifted her into the air. In an instant, she became distant from us.

“No, what is this situation? What happened?”

“A Transcendent…the Phantom Dragon with Hyperion…”

Kwahkwa-Boom! Boom!

We watched the battle that seemed to shake heaven and earth, feeling devastated. The problem was that three new monsters had appeared, not just one Transcendent.

“Kuooooh---!”

“Illuminate fire! Affirm dreams! Overturn the world and plunge it into ruin!”

“Burnnnn, darkness of the Knightt Desstter!”

Dozens—no, hundreds of corpses had merged to form a golem, there was a vampire dressed in priest robes screaming wildly, and a death knight covered in black armor. These monsters resembled creatures straight out of various games, each one distinct from the next. The only commonality among them was that they all belonged to either darkness or death attributes.

“Form ranks! Fight with your backs toward the horse-drawn carriage!”

“Olia and I will take the front, so protect us from behind! Hye-young-ssi, please watch for any gaps!”

Having already fought together throughout the day, we skillfully dealt with the incoming enemies.

“I’ll strengthen the barrier around the flower carriage! You have to hold on!” With those words, Boram disappeared. She had used up all the energy her clone possessed.

Wooong!

The barrier surrounding the flower carriage thickened considerably, resembling a castle wall. Olia and I stood at its entrance, akin to the gateway of a fortress. Strengthening the barrier limited attacks directly, making our fight significantly easier.

The barrier around the flower carriage became thicker, resembling castle walls surrounding us. The position where Olia and I stood was like the castle gate. Due to the strengthened barrier limiting frontal attacks, the battle became much easier.

“Sungjae! It seems like a good time to use your class 7 magic.”

Sungjae’s specialty was wood attribute spells, but there was one spell that differed from this situation. It wasn’t his own spell but something he had acquired by chance. Coincidentally, its attribute was light. However, Sungjae shook his head.

“It has been too long since today started! At least three hours of sleep is needed before…”

“Why does it matter how long today has been?”

“I told you, it isn’t my original spell!”

I didn’t know what he meant but it seemed we couldn’t use the bow. Apparently, he always used certain conditions when filming movies with this bow.

“Ah, nothing is easy.”

We continued to grumble and fight. The number of monsters increased, but there were no special individuals like the transcendent monster appearing randomly.

‘If I stay calm, I can kill them all within an hour.’

That’s what I thought at first. However, after 20 minutes, 40 minutes, one hour… Then two hours, three hours passed, and I had to admit my judgment was wrong.

“Pant…Pant…Teacher…I’m hungry, I can’t anymore…”

“It never ends… They keep appearing even if you kill them?”

“My mana…”

The waves of monsters were endless. Fortunately, they could withstand them as the creatures blindly charged instead of employing any tactics or strategies… However, their future looked bleak if this relentless battle continued unabated.

If only the Five Dragons could defeat those three transcendent monsters and come to our aid.

Kaboom! Bang! Boom!

Unfortunately, the explosions echoing from afar showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Shhhk!

Hye-young emerged from the shadow of one monster, severed its leg, causing it to topple over, then retreated inside the protective barrier around the horse-drawn carriage. Her face was deathly pale.

“I can’t…maintain the spell for much longer…”

The situation grew more dire by the minute. Although the number of monsters had decreased significantly since earlier, there were still well over a hundred remaining.

From jae-yeon’s perspective, they seemed like small fry compared to enemies he had dealt with by the thousands…but there was still a problem.

These guys aren’t pushovers.

Each one was bizarrely powerful. In terms of Revenge, these creatures were hero-level enemies that couldn’t be defeated easily with just a few swings of his sword; instead, it required multiple clashes or aiming for a fatal blow using Land Breaker.

However, the real issue lay elsewhere.

I can’t use Pursuit of Life or Heaven and Earth Sword here!

The skills involving basic attacks weren’t controllable. They were designed from the start for PvP conflicts in Revenge. In Ardenia, jae-yeon could avoid accidentally harming allies within the same party or guild, but things were different on Earth.

Instead of using the Heaven and Earth Sword… if Pursuit of Life was used incorrectly, it could cost my allies their heads.

‘Ah, if only I had another Mythical besides the Sword God, then I could switch to fight with that.’

However, there was still one way out.

“Log in.”

I entered Ardenia.

“Sigh.”

Firstly, I let out a sigh. The landworm asked, [Hey, how long will you wait here? Aren’t you going up?]

“Ah, I’m busy now so later.”

[How can you be busy when just standing still?]

“Anyway, I am busy.”

The landworm and I were at the Lower Flower Shop. If we continued digging upwards, we would encounter the special boss, Flame Monarch. However, the situation on Earth was urgent, and I couldn’t afford to expand this battlefield further.

[Then just stay here?]

“Either quietly stay or turn north and create a path nearby.”

After roughly speaking these words, I slowly formed hand seals. It had been a while since I last did this, so I was slightly confused but there was no need to rush, allowing me to calmly complete them.

‘Forming the hand seal… Ahgoh. Now it takes nine seconds.’

Instead of simplifying the speed, it has even regressed, but it isn’t a problem. Lately, I have been considering ways to increase the power by using more hand seals.

Cold Air. Sage Gate. Strike. Gatekeeper. Open.

Ice Slash.

After completing the spell, I now utilized my inner energy.

Crunch! Crunch!

The muscles all over my body swelled up.

The compressed and streamlined muscles became exaggeratedly large like those of a strongman or a physical cultivator. The zenki flowing through my body extracted the maximum strength, pushing me beyond normal limits.

Then without hesitation…

“Log Out.”

I swung the sword.

Land Breaker.

It cut horizontally across the arm of a giant charging towards me. As I continued forward, swinging the sword imbued with coldness and sword energy, it poured forth like a waterfall.

Slash!

Roaring monsters were instantly sliced apart. All enemies within a fan-shaped area around me died. It was a massive slash that didn’t even need critical damage!

But that wasn’t the end.

Zzzzzip!

The pouring coldness caused the shattered bodies to freeze rapidly. The excitedly approaching enemies collided with sharp ice spikes, causing them to bleed profusely.

The cold air poured forth, freezing the shattered bodies. The enemies that were rushing excitedly collided with sharp ice and bled profusely.

“Log in.”

I transferred to Ardenia and collapsed on the spot.

“Ku…ah!”

Tremble tremble-

My body was bruised all over.

“Ah, this doesn’t change even if my physical strength increases.”

Currently, my life force had increased dramatically, making me durable enough to withstand being shot while sleeping. However, my strength stat was higher than my powerful vitality. This was due to the direction of growth, so it always ended up like this when I exerted full power.

[You have consumed High-Class Songpyeon! For four hours, your recovery and mana recovery will increase by 100 points!]

I sat down briefly and my body gradually recovered. My recovery was already quite high so increasing it by 100 points made a big difference.

“Ah, I am getting used to one-hit kill methods. One blow with only 1/10 of my total Inner Force…”

After resting for a while in the landworm’s pilot seat, I moved back to Earth.

“Log out.”

When I returned to Earth, everyone looked at me with dazed expressions.

“W-What is this? This level of attack requires fourth-class costly magic… no, just fifth-class destructive magic. Is it okay to use such attacks with your Inner Force? The efficiency won’t be high…”

“It’s okay! We can fight for quite some time like this so everyone take a break! Olia! You should also eat something and get some sleep!” My words caused Olia to become flustered.

“But there is nothing to eat…”

At her words, I turned forward again. Since I was at the front, nobody could see my mouth.

“Ardenia. Heavy Gate. Open.” I whispered softly while opening my chakra. Now, I was quite proficient at taking items from the inventory.

“Summon. Songpyeon.”

Pak!

A plate of songpyeon appeared in my hand. Instead of just summoning food, I summoned songpyeon because Olia’s body was covered with wounds unlike me. However, instead of worrying about her injuries, Olia became confused by the appearance of the songpyeon.

“What…why Songpyeon suddenly…? And with a plate too?”

“Eat it.”

I threw it back, and Olia caught it accurately despite her confusion. Then she became perplexed.

”…What? I can’t eat this! It just melts in my mouth?”

“Oh, darn.”

I clicked my tongue at the failed attempt. Regardless of how it turned out, it seemed like I would have to consume them all myself.

It would be convenient if others could eat Songpyeon.

As soon as that thought crossed my mind…

(86,404,030 won)

Beep!

(86,141,220 won)

The purchasing power displayed on the side of my vision changed.

”…?” Initially puzzled, I heard Olia’s exclamation nearby.

“Ah! Now I can eat it! It’s delicious!”