Thank you, @Darknight for joining the memberships.
I'm truly grateful.
Bonus (1/1)
...
Chapter 95: Seito: "State Your Name, Warrior!"
....
BOOM!
CRASH!
"Ah! No! Stop!"
"Crap! I haven't even finished my quest yet!!"
"Forest King, you absolute idiot! Why did you have to act so tough and provoke him?!"
As the Forest King scrambled to dodge the incoming energy beams, a dark vein throbbed on his forehead. These ungrateful bastards! How am I the one acting tough?
This is literally the apocalypse! In an instant, Seito's relentless carpet-bombing leveled the playing field—quite literally. Of the original 500,000 players, a meager 9,000 remained standing, and even then, most were the high-tier elites who barely managed to pop defensive cooldowns.
Whish, whish, whish!
The floating cubes zipped back through the air, reassembling into the perfect Dimensional Cube beside Seito. He gripped the hilt of his Spatial Dragon Tachi, his eyes cold.
"Dimensional Slash!"
He swung. A massive, crescent-shaped rift of spatial energy tore through the reality of the forest.
KABOOM!
The remaining players were erased. Seito sheathed his blade with a crisp click and surveyed the silent, smoldering wasteland.
"Let's move. Time to regroup with Sora and Shiro."
He didn't need to be a psychic to know what was coming next. After a display like that, the majority of the remaining factions would likely form a "Grand Alliance" specifically to hunt down The Fatui. Their numbers would be staggering.
....
The Safe Zone.
Players who had been eliminated stared at the massive hovering broadcast screens, jaws dropping in unison.
"Damn Sei... he's gotten even stronger."
One player's voice shook with genuine shock. To wipe out half a million players single-handedly? If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have called it a developer hack.
"True," another player chimed in, leaning back with a grin. "But hey, at least he's on our side. When the server-wide World War starts, having the Big Three players in the Eastern Server means we're going to feast on rewards!"
The crowd began to buzz with anticipation. A World War... the quintessential peak of any VRMMO novel. With Seito leading the charge, they felt invincible.
.....
Second Floor of a Small Tavern.
Kaguya Shinomiya watched the broadcast through the window, her expression a mix of awe and lingering resentment. Her guild, Full Moon, had terrible luck this time. They matched with a tiny 5,000-man faction, failed to secure the Kingship, and were eliminated early by a rogue mob.
Seeing Seito dominate the battlefield made her think back to the "cheesy line" he'd whispered to her at school. Her pale cheeks instantly flushed a deep rose pink.
"I can't believe Hachiman-kun and Kazuto-kun actually jumped ship to Seito-kun's guild," Suzune Horikita remarked, sounding like she had a massive headache.
Hachiman was one thing, but Kazuto was a top-tier ace of Full Moon. To lose him was a heavy blow.
"Is it really that surprising?" Arisu Sakayanagi smiled playfully. "Our guild requires members to turn over a percentage of their raw resources. The Fatui doesn't. They operate on a 'Commission' model. Since their high-ranking members clear the hardest content, they provide the best gear to the lower tiers. It's a meritocracy."
The others turned to her. Yukino couldn't help but ask, "How do you know the specifics of their internal management?"
"I planted a mole," Arisu replied simply.
The group nodded. Everyone knew there were spies in The Fatui, but nobody dared act on the intel. Even if Seito was offline, the Blank siblings were enough to hold the fort. Most "spies" nowadays were just wealthy guild masters sending subordinates to buy high-end gear from The Fatui's internal market.
Thirty Minutes Later...
The three Main Strike Teams finally converged, along with two of the seven Sub-Divisions. The other five sub-teams had likely been overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the rival factions.
"Seito-nii~!"
~(￣▽￣～)~
Shiro's face lit up with pure joy as she lunged into Seito's arms.
"Easy there," Seito said, patting her head. "We've still got a tough fight ahead before we clear this event."
On the way here, Seito had encountered players from the 4th and 5th ranked factions. They weren't the Kings, but they brought a message: The Kings ranked 6th through 10th had formed a coalition to "Slay the Fatui."
As for the 4th and 5th? They were smart. They knew they couldn't beat Seito, so they were focusing on securing their current rankings. After all, the rewards for the Top 10 included three Red-tier materials—not worth losing over a suicide mission.
"Oh? And who exactly are we facing?" Sora asked, cracking his knuckles.
Seito summarized the intel. The coalition's player base was terrifyingly large.
"Let's go. We don't fear numbers," Seito said casually.
They marched forward. Since Seito's ranking was already locked at #1, he let Sora and Shiro take the lead on any smaller factions they encountered to boost their scores. Twenty minutes later, they hit the wall.
A literal army of players—at least 50 million strong—blocked the horizon. Seito stepped out from the line of Executives and walked forward.
"The Fatui has arrived, I see," the Magma King (#6) said coldly.
"Hehe, who gets to go first?" the Succubus Queen (#7) giggled.
The Night King (#8) looked back at one of his elite players. "Xinghe, go test their strength!"
"Understood." A high-level player wielding a silver spear stepped forward. His IGN was Xinghe.
Seeing the challenger, Seito drew his Tachi from its sheath, leveling the tip of the blade at the man's throat.
"State your name, warrior! I don't kill nameless ghosts!"
...
Thank you for reading.