Chương 8: One Man, One Gate

"All right—stick to the plan!" The corner of Ryan's mouth curled, and he was the first to stride out of Sunward Town. Violet and the others followed.

"You do exactly as I said. As for Slaughter the World—I won't be letting them out." Ryan planted himself at the town gate, his gaze sinking. Grinding monsters to level didn't work for him. If he wanted to level, there was only one fast road: kill other players and plunder their EXP. And Slaughter the World's two hundred players were, without question, already on his kill list.

[Name: Big Gunn] Level: 5 | Class: Non-Combat HP: 550/550 | Stamina: 100/100 Attack: 60 (+70) | Defense: 35 (+70) Attack Speed Bonus: 25% | Movement Speed Bonus: 15% — Combat Attributes — Strength: 60 | Constitution: 35 | Agility: 30 | Intelligence: 0 | Spirit: 0 — Fixed Attributes — Charm: 5 | Luck: 15 — Talents — Penetration, Block, Combo — Skills — Second Nature, Charging Wolf Decked out in Black Iron gear, Ryan's strength had exploded.

Against Slaughtercharge's crew—top level a mere 4—it would be like plucking something from his pocket. The ordinary players came pouring out of Sunward Town, while Slaughtercharge's people, having held the well earlier, lagged behind. That spared Ryan a good deal of trouble: he simply bottled all of Slaughter the World up inside the town. ROAR! A sky-splitting roar erupted.

At the far edge of sight, yellow sand kicked up, and a Boar King the size of a small hill came charging toward Sunward Town at the head of a thousand-strong army.

"Soak up as much damage as you can. Leave Slaughter the World to me!" Ryan reminded Violet, his gaze low.

"Big talk!" Slaughtercharge and his crew had reached the gate by now, and Ryan's words landed squarely in his ears.

"Whether it's big talk, I couldn't say. But your luck? Not so great." The corner of Ryan's mouth curled, a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"You're courting death!" Slaughtercharge's face darkened. How could he not hear it—Ryan was mocking him over the well. After all, one of his people had given in and tossed a coin to try it too, and pulled a Common-grade piece on the spot. That had cut Slaughtercharge deep—and now Ryan was rubbing salt in it. He could no longer hold his fury.

"Charge together! Kill this guy for me!" At his command, his men rushed out as one, bent on putting Ryan down. But the gate was only so wide—it let ten men out abreast at most. Which played right into Ryan's hands. The System already granted him 10x Attack Speed and 10x Movement Speed; paired now with his gear's speed bonuses, he held the gate alone. Sword rising and falling, ghastly damage numbers floated up over one head after another, and then—every one of them dissolved into a ball of white light and was gone.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. In moments, the town's exit was wreathed in dense white light. And in his ears rang prompt after blissful prompt. System: [Ding! Player slain! Plundered 100 EXP and 1 point of Strength!] System: [Ding! Player slain! Plundered 50 EXP!] System: [Ding! Player slain! …] … A hundred men, all cut down by Ryan in under a minute.

Slaughter the World's remaining hundred finally came to their senses, eyes full of terror, not daring to take a single step closer. Ryan frowned at the sight. So they weren't stupid after all—otherwise, wiping out all two hundred would've been enough to push him to Level 7. As it was, he'd only reached Level 6. Ryan's ferocity was a bucket of cold water over Slaughtercharge's head, jolting him awake.

"You really insist on making an enemy of Slaughter the World?" Knowing he was no match, Slaughtercharge fell back on the guild behind him.

"I'm just taking a man's coin to clear his troubles. If you want to blame someone, blame Clear Rain Pavilion." Ryan clearly wasn't buying it; his gaze cooled.

"Of course—if you're itching for grief, I'm happy to oblige to the end."

"… Hmph. We'll see." Slaughtercharge's face sank. He shot a reluctant glance at the hill-sized Jungle Boar King in the distance, then waved a hand and led his people away. This isn't over. There was venom in Slaughtercharge's eyes. In the Boar Woods, his side had struck first, so the protection mechanism had kept the System from revealing any of Ryan's info—and with Ryan having hidden his identity during the stall trade, they'd never gotten a read on him.

But just now, Slaughtercharge had played a clever card: when he ordered the charge, he disbanded the party. That way, some Slaughter the World members were killed by Ryan before they could register an attack—handing over his game name. Big Gunn? You just wait. A player this monstrous in the opening hours of the game was absolutely not normal. He must have used some trick to gain this kind of strength. Slaughtercharge's eyes narrowed, and a plan slowly took shape in his heart. …

On the other side, Ryan added his 2 free points from leveling to Luck, then turned and charged the Boar King. In a monster siege, the final rewards were redeemed with points. Killing monsters and dealing damage to the Boss both earned a measure of points. But point-redemption was only one part of it—killing the Boss and the monsters still yielded item drops. And compared to ordinary field Bosses, siege Bosses had far higher drop rates. That was why, in his last life, so many guilds had bled and brawled over them.

[Boss: Jungle Boar King] Grade: Black Iron | Level: 5 Description: Sovereign of the Boar Woods, commanding a host of ten thousand boars! HP: 99, 430/100, 000 | Stamina: 9, 900/10, 000 Attack: 100 | Defense: 60 Skills: Boar King's Charge, Boar King's Stomp, Boar King's War Roar. A 100, 000 HP cap—worthy of a siege Boss. In the open field, the Jungle Boar King's HP cap should have been a mere 10, 000; the siege had buffed it tenfold. Its attack and defense were doubled too.

Such stats were a nightmare for starter-village players—most were only Level 3, unable to survive even a single blow from the Jungle Boar King. On top of that, a horde of boars rampaged around it, throwing the field into chaos. Short of dying and reviving over and over to whittle the Boss down by sheer attrition, there was no other way. The game wasn't even four hours old; player levels and gear were still wretched.

"Fall back—now!" Ryan suddenly bellowed at the distant Violet. He'd seen the Jungle Boar King crouch low. BOOM! With a thunderous crash, the hill-sized Boar King leapt and brought its crushing weight down upon the earth. Boar King's Stomp! The ground convulsed; white light blazed out from around the Boar King. That single move instantly annihilated nearly three thousand players.

A starter village could hold a cap of fifty thousand players—so that one stomp had wiped out over one-twentieth of Sunward Town in a stroke.