Chapter 148: Crown's Abilities
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"Instant movement scroll! Everyone with it, use it!"
As expected of skilled players, they quickly assessed the situation on the battlefield and made quick decisions. With their positions scattered and mages in the rear captured, the enemies immediately focused on retreating and surviving.
Thanks to teleportation, over twenty players escaped the battlefield, while the rest turned their backs and fled desperately. Of course, they weren't naive enough to let them go that easily.
Thanks to Seo-woon, who followed the fleeing enemies in all directions with Blink, severing their heads from their bodies, and thanks to Ki-chan and Juriell, who focused on casting status-depleting spells as they advanced to the front lines, most of the enemies were eliminated.
When the battle ended, Berus, who had been approaching Seo-woon, suddenly changed his expression and drew his sword. His new form dashed in the direction where Seo-woon had first appeared.
Just as he was about to slice the black German sedan in half with his sword, Seo-woon appeared in front of his sword.
-Kang!
The clash between aura and powerful energy ended with a faint explosion, and Berus's eyes narrowed. He'd watched her movements, but they were on a completely different level than the last time he'd seen him.
"You surprise me every time I see you. But why did you stop him?"
"Hee's our assistant."
Seo-woon's words surprised Ki-chan and Li Ling-wei. They'd heard the assistants were coming, but they'd been in such a hurry that they hadn't been able to contact them. At those words, a man emerged from the shadows behind the sedan. He was a large man wearing a mask with three holes cut out, a black military uniform, and combat boots.
"I'm sorry for exposing myself."
Seo-woon had recognized him when he first entered the map, but since he hadn't revealed himself, he'd ignored him. He hadn't paid much attention to him, thinking he'd just follow and collect loot if there was a fight. He'd been moving quickly because of the situation with Khatz, so it appeared he'd just arrived and been detected by Berus's senses.
"If he's our opponent, there's nothing we can do."
Not many skilled fighters could hide from the Crown's Sword Emperor without being detected. Not in the middle of the night without using an invisibility cloak.
"Go loot. We've killed about half of them."
At his words, the man moved nimbly despite his large size and joined the other players busy collecting loot, starting with the blue coins. Seeing this, Skers approached and opened his mouth.
"Meticulous. Even if you're not a player, it's still a game, isn't it?"
"I'm joining the game as an epic monster. I have to take what I can get."
Finishing his words, he turned over a tattered sack and swept the spilled items into his subspace.
"You being here means Kwang-gun is nearby, right?"
Berus frowned, seeing Seo-woon speaking without looking at him.
"The other empires say so, but we don't much like that name. There's no reason you, from another plane, should be called that."
The brothers were speechless. That was the biggest problem, actually. Senluk was a king who didn't care about public opinion. There were etiquette and a royal lifestyle for royal family members to follow.
However, their king, Senluk, abolished any tradition he deemed inefficient or unprofitable. This tendency became even more pronounced when he entered the imperial war, violating the laws of war between countless empires to win.
From that point on, the other empires began calling Senluk the Mad King. Of course, many nobles who had long served the royal family also called him that. His closest confidant and loyal brother was not pleased.
"Where is the Mad King?"
Berus answered his wordless brother's question.
"His Majesty is near Beverly Hills, leading local battles against the enemy."
"We've confirmed that the enemy is gathering, but they're avoiding combat and keeping a low profile. We're scouring the Beverly Hills area, where there are a lot of refugees, to see if they're moving to other areas to hunt civilians."
Seo-woon listened intently to their words, then relayed what he'd heard. When the mist shaman told his brothers what he'd heard from Quad, their expressions changed radically.
"Khatz?!"
"If three meteors hit…"
Scurr activated the map to measure the size of Beverly Hills, and his words were cut short. "Beverly Hills will be reduced to ashes. No one will survive inside."
Berus opened his mouth in disbelief.
"But that's just smoke prophecy. It's not definitive."
Scurr nodded at Berus's words. "If it's just that information, I wouldn't care. The thing is, when you combine the unexplained movements of those men with Khatz, everything falls into place perfectly."
As players began hunting the civilians gathered around Senluk, the enemies scattered in all directions, continuing to hunt civilians to avoid them. Naturally, the local battles that had been raging throughout LA had now intensified near Beverly Hills due to the actions of enemy players.
"I thought there was something fishy going on, but I never expected it to be Khatz… We need to notify the Lord immediately."
While Berus focused on the team voice chat, Skurks looked at Seo-woon and asked. "You're both Crowns, so what's your secret? The coin difference can't be that big."
When Skurks asked a secret to his improvement, Seo-woon calmly replied. "The difference in playstyle."
Skurks didn't fully understand, but that was all Seo-woon could say. Throughout his time playing the game, he hadn't just fought for survival.
He had always guessed the game's intentions, He had anticipated the next game and fearlessly challenged the battles he needed to avoid in order to survive.
Through these battles, he had acquired items others could only dream of. These items had accumulated, one by one, making him what he is today. There was neither a loyalty nor a time to recount all of this with gusto, so those were the only words he could utter.
Berus, who was in the middle of team voice chat, looked at Seo-woon. "Can you guess the enemy's location?"
Seo-woon looked at the ping marked on the map and told him the location. After hearing all five locations, the brothers' faces contorted simultaneously. The locations Seo-woon had reported matched certain areas that had recently been heavily defended. The likelihood of the Mist Tribe shaman's smoke prophecy being true had increased. "Tell Kwang-gun. I'll take care of the two nearby locations, you focus on the remaining three."
With that, Seo-woon left the two behind and joined his teammates. The assistant, having finished collecting loot, began secretly following the four. Seo-woon took out the headphones he'd stored in his subspace, put them on his ears, and started running along the crowded road filled with cars.
"Can you hear me?"
- Yes. Continue.
"The current situation is..."
There was no response from the other party for a while even after Seo-woon finished speaking. "...So you're saying that a wide-area effect spell called Meteor will fall on Beverly Hills?"
"Yes. Probably certain. We'll do our best to stop it, but we can't be sure."
- This is Control Tower Commander Sanderson Miller. Let's confirm once again. Is it true that the enemy is trying to cast a spell powerful enough to destroy Beverly Hills?
Seo-woon spoke through the translator. "I can't be 100% sure, but considering the circumstances, a lot of things seem to fit. We'll soon arrive at the location where they'll cast the spell for the first time. We'll know for sure when we get there."
- Understood. Please let us know when you confirm the situation. We'll do everything in our power to support you. After the conversation ended, Seo-woon stopped the group.
When the group's gaze focused on a tall building in the distance, Ki-chan's eyes turned green. "There's something strange going on. There's a lot of mana moving, but I can't sense any human energy. It's probably a high-level illusion spell."
"More... Are you sure?"
When Seo-woon finished speaking, his left eye started to turn red. When he closed his right eye and concentrated, the roof of the building came into view. Dozens of mages stood on the roof, covered in intricate pentagrams. When Seo-woon confirmed their presence, his eyes returned to normal.
"I'm sure. They're standing on the roof."
Juriell's expression changed at his words. She had secretly hoped the Smoke Prophecy was wrong. "Okay... Are we going in?"
Seo-woon looked around and nodded at Ki-chan's question. "This is a big base, so we don't know how many people are waiting behind the illusion. Watch your backs."
When Seo-woon finished speaking, Li-ling-wi took out the poison she hadn't used before and poured it into her mouth. Juriell also pulled out an item she hadn't used yet from the vending machines.
The green doll on Juriell's shoulder opened its eyes as if it were about to run away and began muttering a spell. It appeared to be the same type of item as the floating doll she'd seen earlier. When they were ready, Ki-chan threw lightning bolts he'd gathered in both hands forward.
-Crack! Noise!
The front looked as if cracks were forming in space. As the cracks spread, the space shattered like a mirror, revealing about twenty players behind him
. A player in the front, carrying a sword that looked larger than his body on his shoulder, opened his mouth with a relaxed expression.
"I thought the demon twins were coming. But the big fish himself has arrived. An epic beast and a fifth-ranked Crown Rank. Jin Seo-woon. You're younger than I expected."
With a single blink, Lilingwei's aura rose violently.
Even without him, the poison she'd swallowed was rising, writhing around him in a black aura visible to the naked eye. It looked as if a black snake were coiling around him and moving, giving off an unsettling feeling just by looking at it.
Except for two of them, the other players' faces showed no sign of tension. Seeing how confident they were in their abilities, Seo-woon opened his mouth. "Only twenty? The three of us can handle it."
Hearing his words, Juriell opened her mouth as if to respond. "That many people won't be a problem."
"Ki-chan and I are enough. There's no need for Juriell to join us.
Ki-chan smiled awkwardly at the two women's words. "Still, a quartet of witches is a bit disturbing. Let's not get excited, clean them up, and slowly head upstairs."
Seo-woon nodded at his words. "We don't have time to mess with them. Let's finish this quickly."
The moment Seo-woon finished speaking, a wire shot out from his back and instantly impaled itself on the top of the tall building. Gichan sighed and shook his head as he looked at the witch. "I really hate witches."
As if to ignore them, the twenty players grimaced and rushed forward. Three warriors and a knight among them followed Seo-woon and climbed up the building's outer wall.
Climbing to the roof with the help of a wire, Seo-woon suddenly pulled out a whip and raised it.
Smack!
In an instant, the players who had climbed the outer wall after Seo-woon parried the whip that was coming towards them like a snake and pulled up the corners of their lips.
As if to say, "Is that all?" A sharp woman's scream echoed behind them as they waited for Seo-woon's next attack.
"Kyaa! Protect her properly!"
The witches, who had been grinning with confidence when they saw their waists caught in the whip and being pulled up by Seo-woon, finally grimaced. The witches' bodies, their necks and limbs severed, fell on the men chasing Seo-woon with swords and daggers.
"Damn!"
Seeing their comrades' bodies shattered with a single clasp sent chills down their spines, and anger flashed in their eyes. "Watch out for that whip! It has a talent that pulls you in a way you can't resist!"
Ignoring their belated cries, Seo-woon leaped onto the roof, and five spears flew at him. -Kakakang!
Seo-woon blocked the five sharp spears that had broken through the barrier with his linked arms, and his body was pushed back.
The hidden enemies, invisible to Hwa-an-geum-jeong, sneered with satisfaction after finishing their decisive attack. They must have thought Seo-woon would fall to the ground, having been pushed back and lacking the ability to fly.
However, just as they were about to fall, wires shot out from Seo-woon's back and flew towards them, while Seo-woon's body was thrown towards them at the same time.
-Kagagak!
Seo-woon's eyes narrowed as he saw five players who could withstand his powerful energy. They were definitely a bit better than the players he'd encountered so far.
As he watched the knights, preparing for the next attack, four players jumped up behind him and aimed their weapons at his back. In sync with him, five knights armed with spears charged forward from the front.
-Hwa-rak!
In an instant, flames shot out from Seo-woon's fists, obscuring their vision and engulfing them, causing the knights to quickly scatter and retreat. And in a brief moment they waited for the unusual flames to disappear, an unpleasant sound was heard.
-Crack! Bang! Creak!
When the flames disappeared, the knights who were about to attack again froze in place. The four high-ranking members of the guild, known for their power, had been defeated by Seo-woon in a blink of an eye and were lying on the ground, so it was no surprise that they panicked. "Where is this epic monster?"
Their guild leader was a renowned mercenary captain even on the Daynon Continent. He held a rank of a Sword Emperor and a Crown. And two of the four players Seo-woon had killed were the guild leader's right and left-hand men, proud of their White Sword ranks as potential Crowns.
They had never imagined Seo-woon could slay such powerful enemies so quickly. "Brace yourself! Reinforcements will arrive soon. Just hang on!"
That's right. There were only four enemies. Dolasque's shield was an absolute shield that could never be destroyed. As long as they hid behind those shields, they were confident they could withstand even the strongest enemies.
The five knights wielding Dolasque's shields flashed their eyes, surrounding the mages who were muttering like fanatics with a red aura.
Not caring about his enemies, Seo-woon watched the sorcerers casting spells, sweating. The waves of mana generated by the magicians rose endlessly into the sky, and Seo-woon felt an urgent need to stop them before it was too late.
Noticing Seo-woon's gaze, the knights stepped in front of them, as if to protect them. The moment he stepped forward, his body began to multiply. Before he had even taken a few steps, the knights' eyes widened as they saw Seo-woon's body double in size.
-Suk!
As Seo-woon charged forward, a knight clutching his shield tightly to his body and thrusting his spear forward received five powerful blows to his back. If the shield was strong, all they had to do was dodge it and attack.
Seeing their comrades lose their lives so easily, the remaining knights rushed towards Seo-woon, but they couldn't gain any time against Seo-woon, who angrily unleashed his Myeongryong Hwanbo.
Items are only useful when you have a better weapon than your opponent. Their abilities and items were far inferior, so they were no match for Seo-woon from the start.
The last remaining knight, seeing eight Seo-woon rushing from all sides, was confused about his position, and he was confused before his head was cut off. As soon as the last one was killed, Seo-woon rushed towards the mages who had lost their focus and were focused on Khatz.
Under the crimson sunset, the mages were slaughtered by Seo-woon, their blood spattering redder than the sky. Before they could mount a single decent counterattack, the blood of those killed filled the roof.
Just as he was about to throw himself off the building, he heard Ki-chan's team voice. "Everything here is taken care of."
Hearing this, Seo-woon quickly took off his headphones and put them back in his ears. "I'm here. Khatz confirmed."
"...Understood. We're preparing Patriot missiles. Just in case, we plan to use interceptor missiles to counter the Meteor spell."
Hearing this, Seo-woon lost himself in thought. It was difficult to be certain whether Patriot missiles would be able to stop the Meteor. However, he concluded that it would be better than no preparations at all.
"Understood. We'll move on to the next area during the night. Friendly players in the remaining three areas will probably attack them as well."
"Yes, please do so. Jin Seo-woon. One of the Alpha Force agents assigned to the fifth wave will soon land nearby to assist your team."
"What? There's no need for that. If you have manpower, it would be better to use it for rescue operations."
"They've already started landing… If they can't help, we'll contact them and assign them to a separate operation."
As he was wondering about the start of the landing, he saw people flying in the sky. They were flying like flocks of birds, gliding between tall buildings, deftly avoiding them.
Seeing them soaring from the sky in special suits often seen in movies, he looked up again, but there was no plane in sight. "How high did they jump from?" It looked like they were jumping out of LA and flying inland.
The nine team members were circling around the building where Seo-woon was, floating towards the ground. Seeing them without a parachute, Seo-woon jumped off the roof.
- Thud! Seo-woon landed with a loud thud and rolled violently as he watched the other agents land. The nine agents quickly stripped off their clothes and ran towards Seo-woon.
"I'm Seven, the leader of White Force Team B. My Korean isn't very good, but please take good care of me." After saying this, he looked around and noticed the bloodstains on the ground and the empty space where a deputy had collected loot. Then he continued.
"It looks like there was a battle. It's terrible. If we had come a little earlier…" Seeing the agents say these things, Seo-woon opened his mouth.
"I heard a story. Your help isn't really needed here, so please proceed with the rescue operation." At these words, Seven and the team members, who had been watching the deputy gather their belongings, visibly frowned.
"Let's get this over with quickly."
Everyone nodded in agreement at Seo-woon's words, and the next stage began.