Chapter 136: Countdown (12), Target: 1 Billion


    ?


    Aleron arrived in the bustling Zion''s shade hub where he had registered himself and even had taken 84th rank in the Hub Leaderboard.


    Ruinex had been the talk of the hub for a couple of days before it died down since he was not online even once after that.


    However, as he just returned to the game and his status turned online, Aleron was


    immediately flooded by a bunch of notifications, all being messages from various people!


    Aleron opened the mail and it expanded into tens of small screens before him, each disying a message. And this was just the first page.


    ''What''s going on?'' Aleron blinked as he swiped the page and quickly nced at messages.


    Most of their messages were him getting invitations to join a party for some activity, event, or guild.


    ''How did I get this famous out of nowhere?'' Aleron wryly smiled and closed the mailbox.


    [Gachapi: Master, let''s go to the Combat Lord center of this hub and ask about the ce with time dtion.]


    ''Yeah.''


    Aleron teleported and arrived in front of thebat lord center''s vast gate, the same one in which he had taken thebat assessment the previous time.


    But a calling notification abruptly rang as he stepped inside.


    [Aoi Dragon is calling you. Would like to pick up the call?]


    Aleron was surprised. ''People can even call me? How?''


    [Gachapi: Probably because of your name in the leaderboard, they can call.]


    He picked up the call after a moment, ''Well, I can just ask this yer about stuff as well. Maybe he will help me.''


    [Aleorn: Hello?]


    [Aoi Dragon:...]


    [Aleron: Mic testing one two three...]


    [Aoi Dragon: cough, I apologize. I wasn''t expecting to get my call answered. Anyway, Mr. Ruinex, I would like to invite you to a certain event. I see that you haven''t joined a guild yet, so if your performance is satisfactory in the event, you can join the strongest guild of this Zion''s shade hub-Colored Mayhem Guild.]


    [Aleron: I can''t join any Event right now due to limited time on my hands, but can you tell me the best training ce or activity ce avable in this game? Preferably, I want a ce with a time dtion phenomenon.]


    [Aoi Dragon: There is a ce with time dtion phenomena, but it''s only avable in the one and only Warlord Hub. If you want to ess that hub, you have to achieve a Combat Power of 1 billion.]


    [Aoi Dragon: Haha, surely, you should know how hard that is for those below Ascension-rank lifeform.]


    [Aleron: Thank you for the information. I''ll go and see if I can reach 1 billionbat power. I will contact you again if you don''t mind. Bye.]


    Aleron cut off the call as he didn''t want to waste time and hurried towards thebat assessment hall before entering an unupied door.


    His current registered Combat Power in his Combat Card was 34 million from what he disyed in the Combat Assessment room after clearing 132 Waves.


    [Combat Lord Ruinex]-Profile.


    -Hub: Zion''s Shade.


    -> Leaderboard Rank: 84th.


    -Combat Power: 34 million.


    -Waves Cleared: 132.


    ''It seems that I''ll have to be faster this time.''


    [Monster Wave 133]


    Aleron saw the scenery changing as thendscape became full of blizzards and fifty icy monsters manifested a kilometer away from him on all sides, half ground-type and half


    flying-type.


    ''Let''s begin,'' Aleron''s eyes looked focused and fiery, his hand holding the Astral Reaver Scyth as he quickly conjured a skill after marking all fifty monsters.


    ''Gravity Bomb.''


    In the second, he conjured Gravity Bombs at their locations using the Space sybus. A Gravity Bomb was a structured space matter condensed in the center, designed as a sphere with extreme gravitation pull filled with greatly concentrated vtile me energy with multiple modules of other Arcane sybi to boost it and execute it in a certain way.


    All monsters were pulled towards the sphere and the moment their bodies touched the sphere, the Gravity Bombs triggered, inversing their structure and repelling all concentrated power into the monsters, obliterating them in a second.


    ''Next. Hurry up,'' Aleron''s eyes shed as he entered unlimited cooking mode to kill the monsters as soon as possible no matter the kind of monsters.


    While Aleron started clearing the waves, his rank once again rose up.


    Somewhere in a lush forest, near a waterfall, was a giant aesthetic treehouse. Unlike other treehouses, this was not built on branches, but the tree itself was turned into a house, with its trunk acting as staircases and halls on each floor due to its massive size and other rooms and things on branches.


    This was the guild headquarters of Colored Mayhem Build. On one of its branches stood a blue-haired man with draconic scales and a thick sky blue-scaled dragon tail.


    "Ruinex...so how strong is he actually?" Aoi muttered as he looked at the leaderboard ranking.


    In the next second, he saw Ruinex''s name jumping up again.


    ''Will he get into the top 50?''


    At 48th rank was his own name-abat lord with 274 millionbat power.


    Ruinex was already at 62nd rank.


    In just half a minute, he had seen Ruinex reaching 62nd from 84th.


    ''This means he is clearly waves within seconds,'' Aoi''s eyes shook. ''So he just merely stopped


    in his previous attempt, not that he failed to clear the wave.''


    Within the next minute, the entire Zion''s Shade hub was in uproar with everyone watching the Leaderboard.


    ...


    Ten minutester...


    [Monster Wave 249]


    Aleron faced a variety of giant ape monsters standing 50 meters tall, their aura at Peak Primeval rank as they pulsed with a powerful Mythical-rank bloodline.


    ''Big body, massive mass...if I need to finish them off quickly, I need to target their weakness


    and destroy their cores,'' Aleron''s brain swiftly analyzed them while alsoing up with a solution, all within a single second.


    In the next moment, those monsters began their attack, with some swinging their glowering giant fist and some releasing various long-range attacks.


    But just as they had begun, Aleron executed his makeshift skill.


    ''sma Pierce.''


    100 Vtile ck spears made of space with smic purple re brightly concentrated within them conjured above Aleron before vanishing into space and appearing before the chest of


    every monster and piercing in.


    *Boom!*


    Upon impact, each spear exploded with a terrifying power in a perfectly spherical shape of a 10-meter radius,pletely obliterating their core with the spear''s dreadful pure offensive


    power as they died instantly.


    Two secondster, the next wave began.


    [Wave 250]


    ''Rain ck Ruin,'' Aleron waved his scythe as it glowed and the Astral Flow also triggered, but


    it didn''t matter this time and Aleron didn''t resist it.


    The number of monsters was high in this wave, reaching 10,000 in number, so Aleron created


    a wide-area skill that dropped ck rain, with each drop like a ck hole containing concentrated pure offensive power mixed with Fire, Lightning, and Ice that would explode in


    arge area of 50 meters radius.


    He adjusted those elements'' structure in Magic Board in a way to bring out the most vtile and offensive reaction when those three elementsbined using various Magic Symbols designed from his Arcane sybi knowledge and structured imagination.


    But the shocking thing was he finished these designs within 1 and a maximum of 2 seconds tops and each of his skills was in the realm of SSS-rank!


    Naturally, he had been using his Symbios Gear since he began fighting and resisting the Astral


    Flow trait effect of his gear.


    Astral Flow: Your perception of time and directions in aprehensive sense will be disoriented regrly, but if you are able to resist and act properly, you mayprehend the


    Astral Flow concept eventually.


    The sense of direction changing was dreadful because it affected him from his very consciousness. If he failed to sense it before it triggered, his attack wouldpletely fail the mark, thereby wasting time, unless he used an area-of-effect attack.


    But as he continued to clear the waves and sh with the Astral Flow trait, something


    happened during Wave 298.


    As Aleron was designing the skill swiftly, he was suddenly drowned deeper in it without realizing and three seconds passed by instead of the usual one.


    The monsters'' attack reached him, exploring his barrier, and only then did he snap out.


    [Astral: Ayo, Master. It''s happening now.]


    Aleron quickly killed monsters with an existing suitable skill he created on floor 253rd to kill


    these flying monsters instantly.


    ''What''s happening?'' Aleron frowned. ''I''ve never felt like this before.''


    [Gachapi: This concept is no normal concept, so you are getting affected by it in a true sense


    now that you''ve resisted its basic effect so far.]


    [Astral: Big brother over there said it right, Mastah. Gotta be careful now, but also in focus.]


    [Gachapi: Yes, Master. From now on, you''ll be able to sense this Concept''s power in a true sense, so you need to begin to understand it as well.]


    ''Alright, I understand.''


    [Wave 299]


    ...


    "This can''t be happening!"


    "Holy shit! Who is his new Apex?"


    Not only the entire Zion''s Shade hub, but other Hubs were also in uproar by now!


    "The yearly Warlord Esport Event is around the corner and this guy is entering the field now!


    Who is he?"


    "Was he living under a rock or something toe out now? He is obviously a fucking apex Primv-rankbat lord. How did he reach here without even entering the game once?" "Rank 2...do you think he will take that top spot?"


    Naturally, the shock of people was understandable. Combat Lords was a game that was the core of Radrata Cosmos, involved in every person''s life regardless of their race.


    It was the main source of people''s training and resources once they began their path to power


    and reached the Adept-rank lifeform.


    Unless one was born into a well-fare family with resources and riches, which was usually 5%


    of people out of 100% on every, the other 95% of the poption earned their resources


    and got strong with Combat Lords VRMMO!


    Moreover, reaching the peak of Primeval-rank without even once appearing on the leaderboards was a strange thing, almost unheard of because it was simply deemed impossible with how most of the resources were tied to Combat Lords VRMMO-after all, this


    game was the manifestation of Radrata cosmos'' will to make its people stronger by providing them opportunity andpetitions.


    Thes in this cosmos didn''t havebyrinths or dungeons, and such phenomena were


    filled with resources, but they had Combat Lords VRMMO.


    Meanwhile, Luoshak Cosmos, which housed Ardentia World where Aleron was, providedbyrinths and dungeons ons for resources.


    As such, the shock brought by Aleron was justified to the people of this game...as they finally


    witnessed Ruinex taking the top spot on the leaderboard.


    Rank 1-Ruinex - Combat Power: 860 million.


    "Is he really going to reach 1 billion and enter the League of Combat Warlords just like that?"


    Aoi muttered with a nk expression. He thought it was a joke when he heard that!