ă€ŠMy King Systemă€‹


 Chapter 1 - Loss

    "Well, this is the end I guess, there''s no going back now."

    These were thest words uttered by 15-year-old Yuki Kaito''s mouth.

    In the dead of night, he leaped off the 29th floor of the apartment he lived at with his mother. While plummeting to his doom, a single thought came to his mind.

    "I''ve always wondered if your life shes before your eyes when you pass on."

    Right as he thought those exact words, his mind went nk. His first memory was when he was 6 years old. The school year had just begun and he was about to be in the 1st grade. He was at the entrance of the school and was holding as tight as he possibly could to his mother''s hand. His mother recognized that he was nervous and quickly reassured him that everything would be alright.

    "It''s okay Yuki, you''ll be fine here, it''s an amazing school and you''ll have lots of fun."

    Her hazel eyes looked at him with such kindness that all of his anxiety disappeared. Rin Kaito was a single mother that lived in a townposed mainly of Japanese people in the United States with her only son Yuki Kaito. Her boyfriend had left her when she got pregnant because "he was not prepared to be a father".

    While that experience scarred her, she began getting her life back together as she had a baby to take care of. She eventually found a well-paying office job that could support herself as well as her son. In exchange for having the ability to provide for her family, she lost the right to spend time with her child. This meant that Yuki was usually stuck with babysitters.

    Yuki reluctantly entered his ssroom and was greeted with lots of excitement along with some curious faces. The suddenrge amount of attention given to him made Yuki extremely nervous however, his teacher quickly came to the rescue.

    She was a short, skinny middle-aged asian woman with blue eyes and blonde hair. She crouched down and looked at Yuki Kaito with the biggest smile.

    "Hello my name is Ms.kana, why don''t you introduce yourself to us."

    Yuki regained his confidence once again.

    "My name is Yuki Kaito."

    The ssroom pped simultaneously.

    "Now what do we say, ss?"

    "Hello Yuki Kaito." the ssroom replied.

    "Okay Yuki, you can sit right over there." Ms.kana said as she led him to a seat near the back of the ss.

    A boy was sitting next to him with short brown silky hair.

    "Hi Yuki, I''m Riku Tadashi, nice to meet you."

    "Nice to meet you too," Yuki responded.

    The day progressed like any other day at an average school. After a long day in the ssroom, it was finally recess. Riku and Yuki had made some new friends and made a group of 5. They decided to y "Tag" as it was the only outdoor game they knew.

    They agreed that they would race from one end of the school field to the other and thest one there would be ''it''. Yuki, Riku as well as Haru, and Ren made it to the finish line. This meant that Yuuma was going to be ''it''. Each day, they did this until they eventually grew very close to each other.

    They would spend hours in each other''s houses any chance they got. They yed games, watched TV, and yed outside together. They had be inseparable. This also caused their mothers to be acquaintances. While the mothers talked together, the kids would go elsewhere to y.

    Even though the goodbyes were miserable, they knew they would see each other the next day. This gave them something to look forward to each day. Yuki''s life was perfect. He had everything he ever wanted or needed. His perfect life continued for some time until one day a disturbance entered his life causing it to crumble to dust.

    Yuki had just arrived home from a normal day at school like he always had. Unlike other days, his mother was sitting on the couch. She would usually be at her office as she worked many hours during the week to pay for their living expenses. Yuki noticed that something was off. He tried to approach her to confirm if everything was alright.

    "Hey mom, are you okay?"

    The light that once shined bright in her eyes was gone, she looked like a train wreck.

    "Huh, oh yes sweetie, everything will be alright." his mother replied.

    "Corporate said that they needed toy someone off because they didn''t need arge workforce any longer."

    "Out of everyone they chose me even though I do more work than anyone else just because I''m a female."

    "Sorry, I can''t help myself from ranting. Anyway, dinner will be ready soon so go do your homework."

    Even though Yuki''s mother was emotionally exhausted, she tried to put up a brave face for her child. On the other hand, she despised men. She still had a subconscious hatred towards men because of the way her boyfriend abandoned her when he found out that she was pregnant. That hatred had dulled down overtime as she saw her beautiful son grow up to be a gentle and kindhearted person. Now that she had supposedly been fired from her job because she was a woman, that hatred was reawakened.

    The actual reason she was fired wasn''t that she was a woman, the manager didn''t know who toy off so he picked someone at random and that person ended up being her. However, Rin Kaito had misunderstood the situation and wanted to find someone to take out her anger on, which unfortunately was men.

    She tried looking for a new job but not many ces were hiring. Over time she grew to resent men for their existence and the power they hold over society. Every day she grew to hate men even more than she had the previous day. It had been around 3 months since his mother had lost her job, Yuki had just got back from school with an A+ on histest test.

    "Hey mom, look, I got an A+ on my math test."

    "That''s nice honey but we need to talk."

    "Well ever since I lost my job we have been barely able to pay our expenses and I think we might need to move to an apartment until I can at least get a well-paying job again."

    The second he heard those words Yuki threw a tantrum.

    "What about my friends, moving means that I can''t see them again."

    "I would have to make new friends."

    "It''s not fair, IT''S NOT FAIR!"

    Right as he finished his sentence his mother pped him across the face as hard as she could. Yuki began to cry hysterically. Every word that Yuki said wounded her far more than any de possibly could. She had sacrificed so much for him just because she wanted him to have a perfect life. Those words broke her heart but gave her an outlet for her umted pain.

    "You ungrateful child."

    "I''ve done everything for you, you never had to worry about food or shelter."

    "The only thing you ever have on your mind are your stupid little friends."

    "You only think about them every single day while I work from morning until night to make a living."

    "I don''t care about your friends or what you have to say, you are going to listen and obey me!"

    "And will you stop your goddamn crying, you are so annoying!"

    As she said those words, she pped Yuki once more. Yuki looked into his mother''s eyes but could only see anger and hate in them. She was no longer the same gentle and loving person he knew. She was a monster now. It seemed as if her sharp gaze could look through his soul. As Yuki continued to stare at her she appearedrger than before, demonically staring at him like he was an insect and she was the devil himself.

    His mother had never hit him in his life. Even when he did something wrong, she would try to help him understand his mistake so it wouldn''t happen again. This was new to him. He felt powerless against her, one single move and he could die. He had unlocked a new emotion: fear.

    Before his mother got another chance to hit him again, Yuki quickly ran upstairs to his room as fast as he could. Yuki felt conflicted. He had never seen his mom act this way. He tried to hate her because of the way she treated him but he couldn''t, after all, she was still his mom. A few hourster she came to his room.

    "Heyˇ­ dinner is ready,e downstairs and eat before it gets cold."

    He obeyed and they ate dinner in silence.

    The next day at school Riku noticed that something was wrong with Yuki. He tried to ignore it but Yuki looked worn out. Nevertheless, Riku decided to confront him.

    "Hey, you don''t look so good."

    "Is everything alright?"

    "Not really, my mom lost her job and now we have to move somewhere else until she finds a new one."

    Riku didn''t want Yuki to leave him but he needed to be understanding of the situation.

    "Well it''s only until she gets a new job so it''s ok, you''ll be back before you know it."

    "There''s no reason to get upset."

    Hearing those words broughtfort to Yuki.

    "Thanks, I feel much better now."

    Just like that, life returned to how it was before. Yuki and his mom returned to how they were previously and awaited the day they moved to their new apartment.

    On thest day at his school, Yuki''s ss held a goodbye ceremony for him. Almost everyone was crying.

    "Hey, promise me you''lle back to us," Riku said.

    "I promise!" Yuki replied.

    Unbeknownst to Yuki, he would never get the chance to uphold the promise he made that day.

    A few dayster Yuki and his mother moved to their new apartment. It was located in a small metropolitan city, the building wasn''t in the best condition but it didn''t pose any threat to their lives. It was clear that they weren''t going to be living in a neighborhood however, at that point Yuki didn''t care. He was too tired to think about anything other than resting. Yuki had finally made it into his new home. Right as he entered, he copsed from the exhaustion he umted over the past few days.

    [Next Memory]

 Chapter 2 - Despair

    [Next Memory]

    Yuki woke up in thefort of his bed. He couldn''t figure out how much time had passed since he dozed off. He quickly ran to look out his window but couldn''t see a single thing. It was night time which meant that he was asleep for over 12 hours. They had arrived early in the morning but now the sky was pitch ck. He was amazed that it was possible to sleep for suchrge amounts of time.

    After spending nearly 30 minutes staring at the night sky, he decided to go back to bed.

    He tossed and turned in his bed for a couple of minutes before finally concluding that it was near impossible for him to go back to sleep.

    "Man, this sucks."

    All Yuki wanted to do was get some rest because it was going to be his first day at his new school tomorrow.

    With no other choice, he went back to his window to stare at the sky. This time, however, something was different. The dark sky was no longer empty. The clouds were now gone which allowed the stars to be visible. Yuki was mesmerized by the shining stars. He stared at them until it was finally sunrise. While watching the sun emerge from the darkness, he could perceive many different colours. It was by far the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He continued to look at it until his eyes seemed to get heavier. Yuki was struggling to stay awake. He fought the urge to sleep for some time until he eventually gave up.

    "Hey, wake up."

    "Wake up."

    Yuki was startled by his mother''s voice.

    "Where... am I?"

    Yuki hadn''t realized that he had passed out on the floor after his star gazing session. He was starting to remember the events that took ce that night.

    "You have a big day ahead of you."

    "You don''t wanna bete, do you?"

    The calling of his mother made him remember that he needed to get ready for school. Yuki quickly got ready and ran to school. Before entering his new ssroom, he took one deep breath and exhaled.

    As he passed through his ssroom door, he realized that he didn''t feel the least bit nervous. He just assumed that it was because he was used to the process already. Introductions took ce as expected. Yuki eventually started to blend in with his ssmates.

    There was nothing special about him. His academic scores were a little higher than the average. Even his physical capabilities were mediocre. He had no interests or hobbies.

    Yuki had made some new friends at his new school but missed his old ones very much. Over time, he forgot about them and started epting his new life. During school, there was always something to do. On the other hand, when he returned home, he was all alone again.

    Yuki often daydreamed about how his life would''ve been if he didn''t move to an apartment. He would spend several hours each day doing this as he didn''t have anything else to do. When he wasn''t daydreaming, he was watching TV.

    Nearly six years had passed since Yuki moved into his new apartment with his mother.

    Yuki missed his mother all the time but understood that she needed to work. Rin Kaito had found a job at a local coffee shop. Unlike her previous job, she now had to interact with hundreds of people per week. While many were kind, others ruined her day. Even when customers harassed her, she wouldn''t do anything as it could very likely make her lose her job.

    As a result of her umted stress, she started consuming alcohol. Right as she arrived home, she would go to the fridge, take out a beer and get drunk on the couch while watching TV. If Yuki tried to talk to her while she was in this state, she got furious at him, asionally going as far as hitting him.

    As this cycle went on, they grew distant. Rin stopped making food altogether and would leave Yuki with some money to spend on his lunch. Yuki hated his life at home. He was constantly neglected, abused and belittled.

    One day, he decided to ask his mother if there was any food because he was hungry.

    "Mom is there an-"

    Before he could even finish his sentence, Rin pped him and knocked him to the floor. He was confused. Yuki didn''t do anything wrong. Why had she hit him?

    Tears came from his eyes but nothing from his mouth. He had reached his limit.

    "Why did it have to be me?"

    "What did I even do?"

    He was having a mental breakdown. A multitude of emotions engulfed Yuki''s heart. Those being: hate, fear, anger, and disgust.

    Yuki wanted to fight back but knew it was hopeless. If he tried doing anything, his mother would just hit him more. He concluded that it would be best to give up. Yuki was in a state of despair. He found no worth in his own life, causing him to be numb.

    Yuki no longer cried. He made himself believe that he deserved the pain and that he had no right toin.

    When he went to school, he put up a fake persona so that his friends wouldn''t get worried. His face was full of smiles at school. There was no possible way to find out how Yuki felt.

    When he arrived at home, he would rx and lock himself in his room. He yed games most of the time or watched Tv. However, before he did anything he enjoyed, he made sure to finish his chores to avoid confrontation with his mother. He had be ustomed to this schedule.

    The school year was finally over. He had just finished being a 7th grader. Yuki didn''t hate school in the least, though he preferred staying in his room all day. Yuki nned to spend every day of his summer-break locked up in his room.

    [Next memory]

 Chapter 3 - Two-Faced

    Having spent his entire summer ying video games and watching anime in his room, Yuki grew ustomed to living independently. His mother would usually spend the majority of her time working. Yuki would sometimes forget to eat. However, he was aware of it when he felt nauseous or dizzy.

    Yuki didn''tin about his living conditions. All he had to do was wake up, rx, and eat instant ramen whenever he felt hungry. While others, if put in the same situation would feel lonely. Yuki didn''t even think about spending time with his friends. He was always alone anyway. Yuki was an only child that lived with his single mother. He didn''t even get to spend time with his mother because she was working almost all the time.

    After the long vacation, it was time to start going back to school. Yuki didn''t expect anything special. He was going to aplish as much as he could while conserving his energy.

    As per usual, the teacher made everyone introduce themselves. Ms. Anna was taking attendance when a new student came running into the ssroom. It was a girl with long ck hair. She was wearing the school uniform which was a button-down shirt alongside a skirt, leggings included.

    "Do you have a reason as to why you arete?" Ms. Anna asked.

    "Sorry, I forgot to set my rm." the girl replied.

    Ms. Anna gave a perplexed look.

    "I''ll let it pass since it''s the first day. Don''t let it happen again."

    The new girl took a seat and Ms. Anna continued taking the attendance.

    "Finn?"

    "Here," Finn replied

    "Serina?"

    "Here," Serina replied

    "William?"

    "Here," William replied

    "And finally, Yuki?"

    No answer

    "Is Yuki here?"

    Still no answer

    "This is thest chance for Yuki Kaito."

    "Huh..., that''s me. I''m here."

    Yuki quickly turned red. He was embarrassed because he zoned-out during ss. However, Yuki was abruptly reminded by the constant calling of his name by Ms. Anna.

    He didn''t expect anything special to happen that day. To his surprise, he had found someone that caught his eye. The new girl''s beauty was astonishing to him. Whenever he looked at her, his heart began to beat a lot faster. His face would turn red as a tomato and wasn''t able to think straight.

    After Ms. Anna finished taking the attendance, she made the ss y a couple of introduction games to help the students to get to know each other. It turned out that the girl Yuki liked was Sophie. She had just transferred to the school because her parents wanted to move to a new house.

    Yuki was never interested in anything before. He epted his boring life for what it was. Never having the ambition for anything, Yuki never pushed himself to achieve above and beyond.

    This time, something within him triggered. He wanted to do anything to impress Sophie. All he wanted was to gain her attention. He was going to push himself beyond his limits.

    He started studying every day for multiple hours. He was no longer the same energy-conserving pessimist he once was. His academic scores improved drastically.

    One day in October, Ms. Anna decided to assign a group project. She randomly selected three students per group.

    "In group four, Aria, Sophie, and..."

    Yuki wished that he could be in the same group as Sophie. It would finally allow him to talk to his crush. Right as he thought that Ms. Anna finished her sentence.

    "... Yuki, you three will be a group."

    He couldn''t believe what he had just heard. Yuki couldn''t be more delighted.

    Before they started working on the project, they exchanged contact information because they wanted to work on it at home. This wasn''t entirely necessary as Yuki already nned to spend the entire day making the presentation for their project in hopes of impressing Sophie. He went home that day and created the perfect slideshow. It went above and beyond all of the teacher''s expectations.

    The next day, Yuki showed his work to his group members on the ssputer. As expected, they were astonished by his work. There wasn''t a single error in it.

    "Wow, you did all of this in one day?" Sophie asked

    "Y-ya, is it good?" Yuki replied

    "Are you kidding? It''s perfect!"

    Yuki was surprised that his crushplimented him. Sure, he spent 5 hours making and editing it, but he never thought he would get a reaction as big as this.

    "I have to agree with Sophie on this one. Though I am confused, why finish the entire project in one day? We still have a week left." Aria asked

    Yuki had been caught off guard. He couldn''t admit that he spent hours working on it to impress his crush. That would be too embarrassing.

    "Um, I wanted us to get a head start on the project. I was kinda hoping that you would give me some advice."

    By reversing the question, he had avoided any need for him to expose his true intentions. As expected, Aria didn''t have anything back to say.

    At the end of the week, they presented their slide show and received tremendous positive feedback. When all the marking was finished, their group ended up being the only one to get a perfect score. Just like that, his precious time with Sophie was over.

    Fearing that he would never have the courage to speak to her again, he prepared himself to confess his feelings. He ran hundreds of simtions through his head. "What''s the worst that could happen? If she doesn''t feel the same way, all she''ll say is no." he thought.

    After weeks of debating if he should confess, Yuki finally came to a decision. That day he texted Sophie.

    "Hey, I know this is sudden but are you free today?"

    "Ya, I''m not doing anything special right now, do you need something?" Sophie texted back

    "Is it okay if you meet me at the library near the school? I need to tell you something." Yuki replied

    About an hourter Sophie arrived at the library. Yuki arrived 30 minutes earlier than the arranged meeting time so as not to miss his chance to confess.

    "What did you need to tell me?" Sophie asked

    Yuki''s heart started to beat faster and faster.

    "This is a bit embarrassing for me but, I like you. I like you a lot."

    "...And I was wondering if you would go out with me sometime."

    Silence filled the air.

    Yuki was scared but he at least managed to convey his feelings. "Even if she doesn''t like me back, the worst she''ll say is no," he told himself as a way of reassurance.

    Suddenly, Sophie let out a smallugh.

    "Ew, no way".

 Chapter 4 - Humiliation

    Silence filled the air.

    Yuki was scared but he at least managed to convey his feelings. "Even if she doesn''t like me back, the worst she''ll say is no," he told himself as a way of reassurance.

    Suddenly, Sophie let out a smallugh.

    "Ew, no way."

    "There''s no way I would go out with someone like you."

    Yuki''s heart shattered. He thought that nothing she said would surprise him. He couldn''t even speak.

    "First of all, you''re ugly." Sophie continued.

    "Second, you''re a nerd that tries too hard."

    "Lastly, what made you think that out of everyone, I would go out with you? Are you stupid or something?"

    Yuki couldn''t say anything. Sophie seemed so kind. He would have never expected her to insult him like this. He felt defeated. No tears wereing from his eyes. Yuki hadn''t epted what he heard.

    "Although, I''m not entirely evil."

    "Be my little doggie and I''ll think about going out with you." Sophie proposed.

    "I''ll let you ask me out again on Valentine''s day."

    Yuki thought he found hope. Another chance to prove himself worthy of Sophie. He was prepared to do anything. He had reached the lowest level of desperation.

    He quickly agreed to the conditions Sophie had made and they went their separate ways.

    From that day on, Sophie used Yuki as if he were her ve. She made him do all her homework. Carry her books. Degrade him whenever she was bored. Yuki had be her toy. Every once in a while, she would get close to him. She wanted to remind him that he never had a chance.

    "If you keep cking off, I don''t think I''ll be able to go out with you," Sophie said.

    She liked ying with his feelings. However, Yuki took her remarks seriously and pushed himself even further. Sophie took notice of this and continued toying with his heart.

    People mocked andughed at him. Throwing insults like "what a moron."

    Yuki didn''t care. As long as he could be with Sophie, that''s all that mattered. He cut off all his friends and peers. Yuki could no longer be considered a person. All he was now was a puny ve.

    Valentine''s day was fast approaching. Knowing this, Yuki prepared himself to make his second confession. He had done everything Sophie ever asked of him. There was no reason for her to reject him.

    Feeling confident, he woke up very early in the morning. He took an extra long shower, brushed his teeth until they glistened,bed his hair and wore the fanciest outfit he had. Nothing was going to stop him from winning Sophie''s heart.

    The day progressed like any other school day. Some people made their confessions in the morning. However, Yuki was going to wait until the day was over to make his move.

    He waited and waited. It seemed as if the day was longer than usual. After what felt like weeks, the bell rang signalling that the day was over.

    Yuki quickly ran to the washroom because he was getting nervous again. He couldn''t back away now. All of the humiliation he suffered was going to pay off. He gave himself a pep-talk and got out of the washroom to make his confession.

    Right as he got out, he saw something that rocked his world. Time began to slow down until it eventually stopped. Sophie was kissing a guy from his ss. Yuki recognized him as the Captain of the basketball team but couldn''t remember his name. He stared at them for what seemed like an eternity.

    The guy kissing Sophie noticed this. He pulled away from Sophie and looked at Yuki. He grinned at him and went back to making out with Sophie.

    This brought Yuki back to reality. The shock from this event shattered Yuki''s heart. The pain from his first rejection had returned. He had forgotten about it because he thought he had a second chance with her. Now, he had to deal with his previous pain along with his new one.

    Yuki had been manipted, humiliated, betrayed, then finally thrown away like a used-up doll. He couldn''t ept what had just happened. He smiled and went home. It was the only thing he could do.

    "I told you so." Yuki heard in the distance as he walked away from the school.

    When he got home, he went to his room and hid under his nkets. He still hadn''t fullyprehended what took ce an hour ago. He thought that he could finally be happy with his crush.

    Minutester, he got a text on his phone. It was from Sophie.

    "Maybe she wants to tell me that I misunderstood."

    "Maybe he forced himself on to her," he told himself.

    He slowly opened the notification. The text message read as "I don''t need you anymore."

    Yuki finally epted it. He never had a chance with her. Tears came from his eyes endlessly. He didn''t want to cry anymore. After all, she wasn''t obligated to feel the same way about him. Even though he wanted to stop crying, he couldn''t. Tears flowed from his eyes like water.

    He decided to skip a week from school. He didn''t want to face his ss, his old friends and most of all Sophie. Yuki''s mother didn''t care. His grades were already high, skipping a week wouldn''t do any harm.

    During his week of recovery, he couldn''t eat anything. If he tried eating, he would feel nauseous. He didn''t want to live anymore. He saw no purpose in his existence.

    Soon after, Yuki returned to school. He didn''t bother trying to find new friends. He had already epted that he would be alone for the rest of the school year.

    Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he arranged a n with his guidance counsellor for him to go to a high school far away. In doing this, there would be little chance for him to find people from his middle school. He would get a fresh start to life.

    [Next memory]

 Chapter 5 - The End & The Start

    After suffering a humiliatingst year at his middle school, Yuki had finally made it into the high school he had wanted. He chose it because it was a lot further than his middle school. By doing this, he wouldn''t have to remember his humiliating past.

    Yuki didn''t want to be aughing stock anymore. All he wanted was to be an average high school student. The least Yuki wanted was to stand out from the crowd. Everything he did was to stay average. Sometimes he would purposely get questions wrong on a test to match the ss average. Luckily, he had made some new friends meaning that he wasn''t an easy target for bullies.

    Yuki had experienced a lot of that already, he didn''t need any more of it in his life. Getting tossed around by everyone, not having any friends to talk to, then constantly getting reminded of the most embarrassing moment of his life. Yuki didn''t want to remember a single detail of his previous life.

    To aplish this, he needed to avoid any confrontation, try not to get in the way of others, and most importantly, not be seen with a girl. During the early days of high school, everyone is nervous. If someone were to be seen breaking the existing tension, it would attract a lot of attention. This was thest thing Yuki needed.

    Yuki managed to keep this facade of his for some time. Everything went downhill one day. As he was going to his next ss, Yuki bumped into Chad. He was known for his short temper and ability to start a fight quickly.

    Noticing his mistake, Yuki tried apologizing quickly. He couldn''t afford to get into a fight. Everything was going so well for him. If his reputation were to get shattered, everything would return to how it was in middle school.

    "Please forgive me, I didn''t see you there," Yuki said.

    Right as he said those words, Chad grabbed Yuki by the head and mmed him to the wall. Yuki struggled to breathe and was gasping for air. It turned out that Chad was having a bad start to the day, so it was the worst possible time to make him mad.

    Barely being able to stay conscious, Yuki tried to stand up. That was a fatal mistake. Just as he managed to get his legs to work, Chad gave him a deadly uppercut to the jaw. To deliver the final blow, he went in for a punch targeted at Yuki''s stomach. It was a critical hit.

    Yuki barely managed to stop himself from puking. He couldn''t think straight. He felt dizzy while also feeling the excruciating pain of Chad''s hits. He was going to pass out. However, Chad said somest words before that could happen.

    "That''s what happens when someone tries to get in my way."

    After he had worked so hard, all his reputation was gone. He worked so hard to earn the respect of others. All Yuki wanted was to be considered normal. Now all of his hard work was going to go to waste because of a self-absorbed narcissistic bonehead.

    Momentster, Yuki woke from his slumber. He recognized the ce as the nurse''s office. The nurse was sitting next to him, anxiously waiting to ask him what had happened.

    "Oh, so you''re finally awake."

    "Do you remember what happened before you were unconscious?"

    Yuki knew everything that took ce vividly.

    "No, I don''t. Did something hard hit my head and knock me out?" he lied.

    The nurse sighed

    "No, it''s nothing." The nurse suspected that Yuki might''ve been lying but she couldn''t say so for sure because he had been recently knocked unconscious.

    There was an unspoken rule that if you get in a confrontation with Chad, no matter what happens, you can''t inform teachers. This wasn''t to protect Chad. This was made to protect yourself.

    If Chad found out someone hadined about his behavior, they would receive the most painful beat down of their lives. It didn''t matter how much a person hated him. If they valued their sanity, they would stay out of his business.

    Yuki knew about this which is why he had lied to the nurse. He thought that if he had lied about the event, he could go back to his old average life However, he would be proven wrongter that day.

    As Yuki was leaving the school, he was stopped by a group of guys from another ss. They quickly swarmed him. Two of them held him down while the others took turns beating him.

    He didn''t question them, this was the natural order of things at his school. Those who stand out and can''t defend themselves be a target. Yuki was going to return to the lonely boy that no one wanted to talk to once again.

    After months of him getting beaten daily, he decided that he had enough. Nothing good ever happened to him. His life was just an endless cycle of bad luck. He was going to end his own life.

    Yuki never understood why people cared so much about suicide. "Everyone would die at some point, so why bother if someone doesn''t want to live anymore." He thought. People go around telling others that they are loved and cared for. This made absolutely no sense because if a person had people that cared about them, why would they give up on life.

    It was the constant feeling of loneliness and despair that drove people to such lengths.

    That night, Yuki decided that he had given up on life and that he didn''t want to exist anymore.

    "Well, this is the end I guess, there''s no going back now."

    These were thest words uttered by 15-year-old Yuki Kaito''s mouth.

    In the dead of night, he leaped off the 29th floor of the apartment he lived at with his mother.

    Within 3.65 seconds, Yuki hit solid ground shattering all his bones including his skull.

    "Wee back, Master."

 Chapter 6 - Revenge

    "Wee back, Master."

    [Lives lived: 100 billion/100 billion]

    [Years umted: 9.416 trillion]

    [Years missing from the high score: 27]

    Those were the words Yuki heard when he had awoken from his slumber.

    "Where am-."

    Before he could say anything, Yuki was interrupted by the voice he had heard previously.

    "Would you like to begin the tutorial?"

    A screen popped up in front of Yuki, presenting two choices.

    [Yes] or [No]

    "Please press either to continue," the unknown voice continued.

    Yuki had many questions to ask. He wanted to learn more about where he was.

    After hesitating for a few minutes, he selected a button.

    [Yes]

    "Great choice, Master."

    "I know you have many questions that you want to ask. Don''t fret, all of them shall be answered by the end of this tutorial."

    "Let me tell you a story."

    "There was a being that existed surpassing all logic. That being wasn''t born. On the other hand, he couldn''t die either. To help you understand, he could stand and sit at the same time. You might think that is impossible but that creature surpasses all thews of physics and logic. It''s better if you don''t overthink it. You could spend eons trying toprehend it and still not be able to due to the small capacity of your brain."

    "Out of boredom, that creature created a game. In it, he would be reincarnated billions of times as an ordinary human. Once he had been reincarnated 100 billion times, the gamees to an end. The number of years he got to live get added up and create a score. Then the cycle goes on. He created me for the sole purpose of talking to the reincarnates once they have died.

    "You, Yuki are that creature. Well, right now you are only a reincarnate of him. I could return your memories to you but I feel that you want to do something before that. Would you like to return to your previous life with the power of destruction?"

    The strange voice had somehow managed to read Yuki''s mind. Yuki had resented the world for the way it treated him. He wanted revenge. Although Yuki hated the world, he had learned that nothing he did would matter. His life was just part of a game. Nothing he did would have any significance.

    Even while knowing that, he still wanted to take out his anger on someone. He took a long deep breath and prepared himself to answer the strange voice''s question.

    "Yes, I would like to return to that world right before I jumped from my apartment."

    "But before I leave I have onest question."

    "What do you look like?"

    There was a long pause.

    "I don''t have a physical form, I am an entity with only one purpose," the voice answered.

    Yuki was disappointed with the answer he had received.

    "Oh, ok I guess. Then what should I call you?"

    "You can call me Zero," the voice responded.

    Yuki smiled a little.

    "Okay, Zero, please return me to my world for a bit."

    "I''ll say your name once more when I''m finished for you to bring me back to this ce."

    "I understand, Master. Farewell."

    Yuki was now back on the balcony of his apartment. Even though he had expected this, he was still surprised. While not fully understanding how this was possible, Yuki began to calm himself. He only had one goal and he was going to achieve it.

    ording to Zero, Yuki should have some power. Realizing this, Yuki wanted to test something. He closed his eyes and tried to focus. He tried imagining himself floating. Suddenly, his feet began to feel lighter. Still having some doubts, Yuki opened his eyes slowly.

    When he looked at his feet, they were no longer on the floor. He was astonished by this phenomenon.

    Next, he tried moving while he was in the air. It was remarkably easy. It was as if he had done it for years. Yuki was now more curious than before.

    Yuki once again jumped off his balcony, however this time he didn''t fall, instead, he flew towards the sky.

    When he reached his desired altitude he froze. Now that he had an open area, he was free to test out his new powers. He spent the whole night learning about his abilities. Yuki was able to do anything he wanted.

    Before he had realized it, it was morning already. Yuki quickly flew back to his apartment. He sat down on the couch in his living room, awaiting his mother to wake up.

    About 9 minutester, his mother walked into the living room. She took a nce at him and gave a look of disgust. This wasn''t foreign to Yuki, he knew his mother had grown to hate him. Usually, he would feel ashamed or angry. This time, Yuki didn''t feel anything. Her life did not matter, she was just part of a game just like everyone else.

    Yuki stood up to put his n into motion.

    [Summon: Knives]

    Out of nowhere, knives appeared beside Yuki. He gave his mother a look of pity.

    "Go!"

    Knives stabbed every inch of his mother''s body just making sure to leave her alive. He wanted her to feel helpless for once.

    [Summon: Tape]

    Right before she could scream from her agonizing pain, he taped her mouth.

    "How does it feel to be helpless for once, mother?"

    She tried to scream but nothing came out of her mouth, all she could do was cry.

    Yuki didn''t feel any remorse, after all her existence wasn''t real. In his mind, all of his actions were justified. It was just a game.

    Yuki sighed.

    "I''m not a demon so I''ll be kind to you."

    Yuki went up to his mother and touched her forehead.

    [Disintegrate]

    Slowly, his mother''s body dissolved into particles until finally, there was nothing left.

    "Well, that takes care of that," Yuki said as he left the apartment.

    After he had just tortured and murdered his own mother, Yuki still didn''t feel anything. He no longer considered her or anyone else as people. They were all pieces of a game in his eyes.

    With the necessary justification and power given to him, Yuki was now able tomit immoral actions without feeling any sense of guilt.

 Chapter 7 - Goodbye

    Yuki was now outside his apartment. He had taken care of one of the people that made his life a living hell. Yuki felt satisfied more than anything. There was no guilt nor sadness in his heart.

    Feeling aplished, he prepared to take out his revenge on his next target.

    [Teleport: Chad''s house]

    Yuki disappeared from his current location and appeared in front of Chad''s house. Wasting no time, he rang the doorbell.

    A middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes opened the door.

    "Do you need something?"

    Putting up a fake smile, Yuki responded to her as calmly as he could.

    "Yes, ma''am, I''m looking for Chad. Would he happen to live here?"

    Her boring face quickly lit up. No one had ever asked about her son. She had believed that no one wanted to talk to him.

    "Yes! He''s inside getting ready for school. It should only take him a few minutes."

    "By the way, I''m Chad''s mother but you call me Ms. ire. Thank you fo-"

    [Summon: Sword]

    Before she could finish her sentence, Yuki swiftly sliced her head off clean.

    "Thank you for the information. I don''t need your assistance anymore."

    Right as Yuki finished speaking, Chad starteding downstairs.

    He froze at the sight of his mother''s lifeless body with her head detached.

    "Perfect timing Chad. I wanted to show you something."

    Yuki slowly walked towards him. Chad tried to move away but his legs wouldn''t stop shaking. Yuki lightly touched his shoulder.

    [Immobilize]

    Now Chad couldn''t move a single muscle.

    "If you think this is bad. Just wait for what I''m about to do."

    Yuki walked back to Chad''s mother.

    [Resurrection]

    The lifeless body on the ground began to rise. Her head began to rise as well until it was connected again. Yuki had brought Chad''s mother back to life. Chad was perplexed but he was happy because his mother was no longer dead.

    [Summon: Sword]

    This time, Yuki stabbed Ms. ire right in her ribs. With a smile on his face, Yuki turned around and grinned at Chad. His eyes filled with tears, Chad couldn''t do anything but watch as his mother''s body fell to the floor.

    [Resurrection]

    Yuki resurrected and killed her multiple times. All to cause Chad an endless amount of pain.

    After he had killed Ms. ire for the 17th time, Yuki began to feel bored.

    [Resurrection]

    On the 18th resurrection, he prepared himself to kill her permanently.

    "Now Chad, pay close attention."

    [Disintegrate]

    "She''s not going toe back."

    "How does it feel, Chad? To have your perfect end in an instant."

    "When you knocked me out that day you said ''That''s what happens when someone tries to get in my way''"

    "How the tables have turned."

    Yuki walked towards Chad once again.

    [Release: Immobilization]

    Right as Yuki released the binding spell, Chad fell to the floor. All he could do was cry. He couldn''t even let out a single word.

    "You won''t be getting the luxury of death. I''ll let you bathe in the pain."

    "Goodbye, Chad," Yuki said as he left the house.

    Now Yuki only had 2 things left to do before he would be satisfied.

    [Teleport]

    This time he teleported to his highschool. Since the school day was about to begin, everyone was present on the school grounds. This also included everyone who had bullied and tormented him.

    He teleported to each one of them, breaking one bone and teleporting to the next person. Once he finished his attack on every person, he would go back and break another bone. By doing this, they would feel the pain for a long amount of time. Yuki had created a cycle to torture every one of them to the fullest.

    He dislocated every joint and broke every bone in their body. He made sure to put them in a state where no amount of hospital care could fix.

    Now, there was only one thing left.

    [Teleport: Sophie''s current location]

    Yuki again disappeared from his current location and appeared somewhere else. This time, he was in a school hallway. In front of him were Sophie and the captain of the basketball team from his middle school. They were holding hands while heading to their ssroom.

    Yuki was filled with anger and jealousy. He would''ve gone to extreme lengths to be in ce of the guy Sophie liked.

    "It''s okay, they aren''t real. Everything is just part of a dumb game anyway," Yuki told himself.

    He was once again calm andposed. He teleported beside Sophie grabbing her by the forehead. He moved her aside and put his focus on the guy beside her. Before he could even react, Yuki put his finger on his chest.

    With a calm demeanor, Yuki killed him.

    [Life Removal]

    By using this ability, Yuki could kill a person but their physical body would remain. Next, he put his gaze on Sophie.

    "Before I kill you, I want you to answer some of my questions."

    "If youply and answer truthfully, I''ll let you live."

    "Yes! I''ll do it! Please just don''t kill me," Sophie replied without hesitation.

    This brought a smile to Yuki''s face.

    "Okay then. What''s that guy''s name?" Yuki asked as he pointed to the guy she had been holding hands with.

    Sophie was confused as to why he asked such a boring question. However, she knew that hesitation could mean the end of her life.

    "His name is Todd, Todd Logan."

    "Next question," Yuki continued

    "When did you start liking Todd?"

    Sophie was now even more confused. Reluctantly she answered.

    "Since the first day of school in 8th grade."

    Yuki sighed.

    "If you already had someone on your mind, why did you manipte and humiliate me?"

    Sophie didn''t have an answer. She had never thought about how Yuki felt. She just wanted to have fun.

    "Nevermind. I don''t need an answer to that question," Yuki said in a bored tone.

    "So am I free to go?" Sophie asked.

    "Goodbye, Sophie."

    Believing that she was going to escape, she started running to safety.

    [Summon: fire]

    "Incinerate," Yuki said with tears of pity in his eyes.

    Sophie was burned to death.

    "Okay, Zero, I''m ready to leave."

    Yuki had once again returned to the spatial dimension.

    "Wee back, Master," Zero greeted him.

    "Do you have anything you would like to do now?"

    With a grin on his face, Yuki replied.

    "In fact, I do."

 Chapter 8 - New World

    During his short stay in the mortal world, Yuki had tried toprehend the concept of all life being a part of a game. It was such a fascinating but depressing phenomenon. People kept looking for a meaning to life but could never find a conclusive answer. After all, you can''t find what doesn''t exist.

    Just like the entity that created the reincarnation game, Yuki nned to create a game of his own.

    "Hey, Zero. I have a small favor to ask of you," said Yuki.

    Yuki briefly exined to Zero what type of game he would like to create and asked for his assistance.

    "So would you be able to do that for me?" Yuki asked.

    "Of course Master, your wish is mymand," replied Zero.

    "It shall only take a moment."

    After saying that, Zero''s voice disappeared.

    Suddenly, earth began to change. Every structure was removed. Next, the oceans became reced by solid ground. Lastly, all creatures except human beings left the. It was as if the had restartedpletely from scratch.

    After all the preparations were made, Zero set up a hologram of a cloaked man within every 500-meter radius. Once he had acquired everyone''s attention, he made each one of the holograms speak simultaneously.

    "Wee to your new."

    "Your main goal here is to defeat the monsters scattered here as well as looting dungeons."

    "Each monster you kill gives you a certain amount of exp. You''ll earn more exp the stronger a monster is. The exp you earn will allow you to level up which in turn will increase your stats. The maximum level you can achieve is 100, however, the first person to reach it breaks their limiter. They will be able to level up an infinite amount of times if they choose to do so, making them stand above all others."

    "This is basically like an open-world video game. You will also have a special ability. You can choose what you want it to be and how it functions. However, it will be limited depending on what level you are at. This ability can be changed every 2 weeks and never before that cooldown ends."

    "Onest thing you should know is that if you die, there is no respawn option. Death still works the same as it used to previously."

    "You can figure out the rest on your own. Happy hunting!"

    After giving his speech, Zero made all of the holograms disappear.

    Everyone was left with a nk face. They still hadn''t fully understood what their situation was. They still had so many questions they wanted to ask. Their lives werepletely disturbed.

    Some tried to riot in hopes of making the holograme back. To no avail, nothing they did made a change. All they could do was obey the rules set up. Many began to look for monsters to kill. Everyone wanted to level up as fast as possible because they wanted to reach level 100 first. After all, the one to do so would be unparalleled in power.

    Once everything was set into motion, Zero returned to the spatial dimension.

    "I have made my return, Master," Zero announced.

    "Everything is prepared as you asked."

    Yuki looked pleased.

    "Thank you, Zero."

    "I would''ve wanted to regain all of my previous power and knowledge however I am eager to join the game myself," Yuki said.

    "I would like for you to take back the power you gave me and return me to that world."

    Zero obeyed and teleported him back to earth.

    "I await your return once again, Master."

    Once Yuki had returned to the world of the living, he began setting his n to be the strongest into motion. He hade prepared, after all, he was the one who designed the game.

    He started by setting his ability right away.

    "Open settings"

    [Set ability: Clone]

    [Set capability: Attacks when provoked]

    In front of him, a screen popped up saying "would you like to confirm ability. Abilities cannot be changed for the next 2 weeks."

    Yuki pressed the "confirm" button.

    Right after he did that 2 clones of him appeared. He could only create 2 clones as he was only a level 1.

    Yuki quickly sent them both to the deep forests as they had a high spawning rate for weak monsters. He had a clear advantage over all others because he knew all the game mechanics. He knew the fastest and most efficient way to progress through that world. Yuki also allowed Zero to add in some rules of his own to make the game more enjoyable for Yuki.

    While his clones went to collect exp for him, Yuki went around to gather information from people. The weak usually tended to gather together to form an alliance. If he managed to find a group like that, he could blend in with them and not attract any attention to himself for the time being.

    [+100 exp & +100 silver]

    [+100 exp & +100 silver]

    [+100 exp & +100 silver]

    [+100 exp & +100 silver]

    [+100 exp & +100 silver]

    Yuki kept receiving notifications of how much exp he was earning through his clones. He would reach level 2 in no time.

    While asking around for information, Yuki learned a few things.

    Like any other game, there were NPC (Non-yer characters) who sold items.

    Everyone still needed to consume food and water which were sold by the NPC.

    You could add people to a friend list if you wanted to contact themter on.

    These were all rules added by Zero. While Yuki came up with the basic mechanics of the game, Zero decided to add in some of his own to bnce the game.

    The existence of a friend list meant that you could have allies at your side. Once arge number of people were in it, it could ssify as a small army.

    Yuki knew that finding strong allies would be his next goal, even if he didn''t n on staying with them for very long. As he kept gathering information, he received a puzzling notification.

    [+2500 exp & +3000 silver]

    yer Name: Yuki Kaito

    Level: 1 [3600 / 10000 exp]

 Chapter 9 - Allies

    Yuki knew that finding strong allies would be his next goal, even if he didn''t n on staying with them for very long. As he kept gathering information, he received a puzzling notification.

    [+2500 exp & +3000 silver]

    Confused by the strange notification, he decided to investigate it further. He didn''t know of any methods by which a yer could gain so much exp this early into the game.

    "Open mail"

    [+2500 exp & +3000 silver]

    [Acquired from killing yer: Jason]

    [Method of kill: Ability]

    Yuki had just killed someone without intending on it. He tried thinking of all the ways this happened. Since he was an over-thinker, Yuki quickly came to the most urate conclusion.

    For starters, when Yuki set up his ability, he made it so that his clones would attack anything that provoked them. His intention was for them to kill monsters that attacked them first. By doing this, the clones would have a higher chance of survival.

    This seems perfectly fine until the conditions set are looked upon very closely. The conditions were "attacks when provoked" which meant that his clones did not see a difference between monsters and humans.

    While the problem of how this happened was solved, there remained one more puzzle. Why had that yer''s life given Yuki 2500 exp?

    There were two possible solutions to this. The first one being that each yer''s life is worth exactly 2500 exp. The second and more likely solution would be that when a yer gets killed, all their exp gets transferred to the murderer. This would be highly likely as it wouldn''t make sense to implement a way to earn that much exp so quickly. This hypothesis is further solidified by the fact that each yer should''ve gathered about that much exp by that time. He suspected that Zero had also added this hidden aspect to the game.

    Yuki was excited beyond belief. All he wanted to do was kill as many people as possible to level up faster than anyone. After all, there were no rules set against yer killing. However, Yuki soon realized he couldn''t change his ability because it was still on cooldown. Even so, Yuki could go and kill yers himself however that was too dangerous and he needed to secure a position in a strong group.

    While he was a bit angry for not being able to get an early head start, he knew that it was better to gain the trust of others so he could use themter on.

    After looking for nearly 3 hours, he found the perfect group. They had 7 membersposed of 5 men and 2 women. He could easily recognize that their base stats were already high. They had a long line of people trying to join them, however, nearly everyone was rejected.

    Everyone at the spawn point hadn''t gained any exp which meant that they were judging based on base stats. While Yuki didn''t have the best base stats, he had an advantage over everyone. That being his clones which were farming exp for him and since there were 2 of them, he had double the average exp a person hunting monsters would have.

    Most people when presented with the option to get any power they wished would pick the first thing that came to their mind. Arge number of yers had picked powers such as control over fire, ice, or another ability because they thought it was "cool".

    When Yuki entered the line, many peopleughed at him and made insulting remarks at him such as,

    "Get lost kid, this isn''t a ce for you."

    Yuki was already used to this type of treatment. He spent the majority of his previous life as an outcast. Theirments just made him more excited for his turn. He wouldugh at them hysterically once he was epted into the group.

    After much anticipation, it was finally his turn to get judged. As soon as they saw him, the group had simultaneously decided to reject his application. Yuki had already been expecting this. Before they could even say a single word, he made his move.

    "Show yer information"

    yer Name: Yuki Kaito

    Level: 1 [6400 / 10000 exp]

    All 7 members were dumbfounded. They never would''ve thought a scrawny teenage boy would be capable of earning so much exp.

    "How did you earn that much exp?!" they asked in unison.

    "It''s a secret, but I''m willing to make an offer. Allow me to join your group and I''ll tell you," Yuki responded.

    With no option left, they epted his proposal. They were so eager to learn about his exp earning technique that they closed all applications.

    Before they left, Yuki gave the crowd one look and smiled at all the people that made fun of him. They were all infuriated however they couldn''t do anything to him because he was surrounded by a strong group of allies.

    Once they had arrived at a secluded location, Yuki prepared to tell them how he was so close to level 2.

    "Okay now tell us how you gained this much exp!" one of the 7 asked Yuki.

    "It''s simple. There are a lot of weak monsters in the deep forests. They give anywhere from 100-500 exp. All I did was go there and kill as many as I could."

    "Only a few monsters appear in open areas."

    All of them looked at him with eager eyes. They wanted to learn as much as they possibly could. However, Yuki was not going to mention what his ability was. If he were to do that, they would all make clones and start gaining exp at an exponential rate. Yuki was worried that since their base stats are higher than his, they would kill more monsters than him which in turn will make them surpass him.

    "So all we have to do is go to the deep forests and we''ll be able to level up faster?" another one of the 7 asked.

    "That''s exactly right," Yuki responded.

    After their short discussion, they prepared to find a home base before they explored the deep forests as it was getting dark.

 Chapter 10 - Shack

    On their search for a home base, the 7 started to introduce themselves to Yuki. Each one showing their skill and uses. However, Yuki didn''t care about what any of them said or did. All he saw them was as exp.

    [2500 x 7 = 17500]

    That amount could easily help him get him to level 2 and a good way through that. He would easily be one of, if not the highest-ranking yer in the world. Even though he was excited about this, Yuki wondered about something that could put him at a severe disadvantage. This was the uncertainty that other yers could see that he wasmitting murder. Most video games wouldn''t allow friendly fire and those who do always expose yers who kill others.

    While he knew this to be fact, Yuki also knew that this wasn''t like any normal video game. This was real life, Yuki was in a world where he had more knowledge than anyone else. The basicw of nature is that knowledge is power and there was nothing Yuki craved more than the immense power the new world had to offer.

    The crew finally made it to a shack that had a "stay the night here" sign. It looked cheap so they entered.

    The inside looked clean however there were no customers there. There were wooden circr tables and chairs ced everywhere with a cashier stand in the front. Behind it stood a middle-aged buff man with a beard. He was surprisingly tall and intimidating. With no other choice, the crew started approaching him.

    "We saw your sign outside, does that mean you offer a ce to stay?" One of the seven asked. Yuki didn''t even bother looking at who spoke. All of them just looked like moving shadows with a tag on them that said "2500 exp".

    "Yes! How many rooms would you like?" The shack owner replied.

    "We would like 8... 8 rooms." One of the seven spoke again.

    Yuki was confused, it was an odd request. The shack looked like it could have only a maximum of 2 rooms. Did they n on harassing the owner for not being able to amodate their needs? Surprisingly, Yuki was correct, that was exactly what the 7 were nning to do.

    "Of course, each room is 50 silver so in total that will cost you 400 silver," the owner replied.

    "Wait, you better not be messing with us! There is no way you have more than 2 rooms in this rundown shack!"

    Each one of the seven began pestering the owner. The weirdest part was that the owner didn''t change his facial expression. He wasn''t surprised, angry, or scared. He was just smiling. Now that Yuki thought about it, his mouth hadn''t moved since they entered. They had only heard a voice but it wasn''t from him. This fact sent a chill down Yuki''s spine.

    "Don''t worry, I am not lying to you. You can go upstairs and see for yourselves that there are indeed more than enough rooms," the owner said once the yelling from the seven died down.

    With a grin on their face, the seven began marching all together upstairs. They were so sure that there weren''t enough rooms but to their surprise, there were exactly 8 rooms. Perplexed, they marched back down to awkwardly pay.

    "You said it was 400 silver right?" one of the seven asked.

    "Yes, 400 silver for 8 rooms." the owner replied.

    They knew that none of them had the money. Suddenly one of them got an idea. He looked back at Yuki with a grin.

    "Hey, Yuki. You''ve gotten pretty far in this world, that must mean you have a bit of silver on your hands right?"

    Yuki knew where this was going. They were going to use him as their money spewing machine. He hated being used, however, he didn''t want to start anything with them. Even with his clones, there was no way he could take down all of them.

    "Yes, I have enough to pay," Yuki replied.

    All of the seven looked at him with a big fake smile and simultaneously said "Thank you!"

    Yuki didn''t look even the slightest bit concerned that they were using him. He went up to the counter and prepared to pay.

    [Open wallet]

    [Extract: 400 silver]

    As he said thosemands, exactly 400 silver appeared on the counter.

    "Thank you for your service!" the owner said as he took the money.

    The seven walked upstairs and went to their separate rooms while Yuki stayed downstairs. After he heard the 7th closing of a door, Yuki began to speak.

    "You''re an NPC, aren''t you Mr. owner?"

    "What gave it away?" the owner replied.

    "First of all, your mouth wasn''t moving as you talked which was odd. However, that should''ve been noticeable but for some reason, no one questioned it. Most likely it was a weak hypnosis spell set up so that no one gets worried. Secondly, when you were getting yelled at by those idiots, you didn''t move and your facial expressions didn''t change the entire time. I wouldn''t have noticed if I had any ulterior motives here like the rest of them." Yukimented.

    "You most certainly have excellent observational skills. You guessed everything urately." The shop owner continued.

    "Well, almost everything. I''m not an NPC. I am someone''s ability. My main purpose is to collect as much silver as possible for my master. This shack has an infinite number of rooms. A new room will appear for every new customer. While this ability is somewhat overpowered, ites with its fair share of drawbacks."

    "For starters, we charge 50 silver per room but we only receive 40 silver as a drawback. Secondly, If anyone figures out my hypnosis spell, I have to tell that person everything that is going on here. Lastly, the shack looks run down because my master is still at a low level, as he grows in power, the better this ce will look, in turn increasing the number of customers and money we earn."

    "This is my master''s power known as INFINITE HOTEL"

 Chapter 11 - Level 2

    "This is my master''s power known as INFINITE HOTEL"

    Yuki was astonished by what he was hearing. It was such a genius strategy. Setting up an infinite source for money was by far the smartest thing anyone could''ve done. The previous world had been ruled by money so it wouldn''t be unreasonable to assume that history would repeat itself in their new world. Yuki concluded that whoever set up this ability didn''t n on changing it anytime soon. This meant that as soon as that person''s identity was uncovered, it would be a wise decision to kill them as fast as possible. Someone who had the money to hire other strong yers as mercenaries could prove to be arge threat.

    After Yuki finished his conversation with the owner, he went upstairs toe up with a n to strategically kill off every member of the seven as well as the user of "INFINITE HOTEL".

    When he entered his room, he was weed to the ndest room in all of existence. It was just a small rectangr room with 1 bed. There was nothing special about it. It made sense as to why it was so cheap. Yuki figured that it was probably because of the concept of this ability. It made him wonder if each room would look like arge castle once the user reaches level 100. He also wondered how much the rent would cost and if you could pick what type of room you wanted. There were so many possibilities that could be explored.

    After hours of thinking, Yuki finally came to the perfect n. Within 13 days, he would kill every single one of the 7 as well as the master of "INFINITE HOTEL". Once he had everything nned out, he went to sleep to get some rest.

    The next day he was awoken by the screaming of the seven. It looked to be the buff guy of the group. All Yuki saw him as was a shadow, there was no need for him to waste his eyes gazing at a lowly human. After all, he was the master of the universe.

    Yuki got ready to take the seven to the forest where his clones had been farming exp for him. He showed them the way to kill the monsters in the forest and how to navigate their way through the terrain.

    For the next twelve days, the crew constantly killed as many monsters as they could. Each day felt like a living hell for them. At noon of the 13th day, Yuki was confronted by one of the seven. It was a smaller shadow that looked like it could not harm a fly.

    "Hey, Yuki, I need help with something. Can youe here for a second?" asked the smaller shadow.

    Reluctantly Yuki decided to follow it. They began walking and traveled for what seemed like hours. Once they were isted, the shadow began to speak again.

    "Hey, I''ve been wondering, could you show me how much exp you have right now?"

    Yuki was confused as to why they need to be alone if that was all that was required of him was. Nevertheless, he showed his profile.

    [Open stats]

    A screen popped up in front of Yuki.

    yer Name: Yuki Kaito

    Level: 1 [8900 / 10000 exp]

    "Oh wow, you''re so close to leveling up, you''re so cool Yuki," the shadow continued.

    "Well, it would only be fair if I told you what my ability is since you showed me your profile."

    "My ability is called ''AREA INFORMATION'', just like its name says, it gathers information on an area I want, however, it has one drawback. That being, I have to explore 70% of an area to learn everything about it."

    "During these past two weeks, I''ve been trying to explore as much of this forest as possible and I''ve learned something. In this forest, you can only gain 10,000 exp every two weeks. That''s exactly enough for one yer to level up and enough time for them to reset their ability if they set it up on the day of the spawn of the monsters."

    "Each one of us seven has over 1000 exp which of we round down get 7000 exp in total. That means if killing monsters was the only way you gained exp, you would only have a maximum of 3000 exp."

    "Very odd don''t you think Yuki? So how did you do it?"

    Yuki couldn''t believe that he was found out. This was the end for him, or so he thought.

    [Timer requirement has been met]

    [Ability: resettable]

    This message brought a smile to Yuki''s face. Now, he was the one with the upper hand.

    "I have to congratte you. I never thought it would take such a short amount of time for me to be exposed," Yuki said.

    As he said those words, his clones came to his aid.

    "So that''s how you did it! You made clones of yourself and made them gain exp for you in other forests while you kept us here so we couldn''t advance in this world as fast as you!" the member of seven continued.

    Yuki knew that this was a lie, but he decided to y along.

    "That''s exactly right!"

    The member of seven pulled out a knife from its pocket and began charging as Yuki. They exchanged a few blows before one of Yuki''s clones was stabbed and killed. Before any more damage could be dealt to him, Yuki quickly disarmed the member of seven and held it to the ground using his clone.

    "Well this is the end, farewell," Yuki said as he prepared to stab the member of the seven.

    "Stop right there!"

    Someone had called out to Yuki in the distance. When he looked back he saw the rest of the seven. He couldn''t let them stop him. Before they could get any closer, he stabbed the member of the seven he already had on the ground.

    [+2500 exp]

    yer Name: Yuki Kaito

    Level: 2 [1400 / 40000 exp]

 Chapter 12 - Regret

    A transparent blue screen appeared with golden text on it.

    [Congrattions yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: Achieved]

    A surge of power seemed to flow within Yuki. He felt lighter, faster, and stronger. He had gained an immense boost to all his stats.

    There was one simple reason as to why there was exactly enough exp for only one yer to reach level 2 in each forest. That being: Anyone who reaches level 2 gets a massive advantage as it proves that a person has be ustomed to the new world.

    As the rest of the seven saw Yuki killing one of their members, they were enraged. It was as if they were sprinting towards Yuki as fast as they could. However, due to his increased stats, they looked to be in slow motion.

    They all took turns hitting Yuki. They did all they could. Throwing punches, kicks,bo attacks, however, nothing they did seemed to work. It was as if they were fighting an Iron wall. Yuki''s defense and resistance stats were so high that it didn''t matter how many times they attacked, there was toorge of a power difference between them.

    Yuki enjoyed having power over others. It fueled his godplex. Once he had his fun, it was time to end things. Yuki nned on ending this with one hit.

    [Set ability: Invisible domain: Incinerate]

    [Specifications: Can only be applied within a 2-meter radius]

    [Draw back: Each use of ability causes 1-hour extreme chest pain]

    When the process finished, Yuki''s remaining clone vanished as he hadpleted his purpose.

    As the 6 remaining members prepare to deal the finishing blow to Yuki, he also prepares to finish them. They all start charging at Yuki from different directions. Yuki knows that he only has one shot at this.

    He lets all of them make contact with him. It wasn''t a big deal to him anyway since they didn''t do any damage to him.

    "Activate ability-" Yuki began to y his trump card.

    Before he could finish, 5 out of the remaining 6 began to activate their abilities.

    "Activate ability: +2 multiplier damage"

    "Activate ability: +2 multiplier damage"

    "Activate ability: +2 multiplier damage"

    "Activate ability: +2 multiplier damage"

    "Activate ability: +2 multiplier damage"

    They had set up a 10 times multiplier in the damage they would inflict. As they made contact with Yuki, they broke many of his bones. Yuki''s mind began to go crazy from the pain. While he was in agony, he couldn''t let this chance escape him.

    "Activate ability: Invisible domain: Incinerate"

    A sphere began to form around everyone. From the outside, it was invisible. No one would be able to see what would go on in the next few seconds. However, from the inside, it was pitch ck.

    Right at the sphere finished forming, the second part of the ability activated. Fire enveloped everyone in it except Yuki. All of them burned to their deaths, or that''s what it looked like to Yuki.

    Once the sphere began to fall apart, he heard a voice.

    "Activate ability: Wish of undying: 5 seconds"

    "NOW ACTIVATE, MONSTER LURES!"

    As that sentence finished, he heard a body fall to the ground.

    [+15000 exp]

    [yer name: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 16400/40000]

    Yuki began walking outside the sphere as it continued to deform. When he looked, all he could see was green gas. It was probably all the monster lures that were activated.

    "What was even the point of that? I already killed every monster here," Yuki said out loud.

    "Required time: 2 weeks passed since the death of the first monster"

    "Monster respawn"

    Just then, exactly 100 fell from the sky. Each one worth 100 exp which would equal 10000 exp.

    "Oh shit!" Yuki said.

    He knew why this was happening. It was perfectly coordinated and set up by the seven. They had all expected to die today at the hands of Yuki. They knew that Yuki would have a severe advantage over them once he had leveled up which was why 5 of them had made their abilities a damage multiplier. Even if that didn''t work, they made a monster lure trap which was why thest member''s ability was a life-saving one. There was no way of knowing the respawn rate without the assistance of the first member of the seven Yuki had killed. It was such a magnificent n. There should have been absolutely no ws. Unfortunately, the world isn''t fair to everyone.

    Giants, goblins, wild animals, and ogres surrounded Yuki. It seemed as if there was no way that he could escape let alone survive. He was ced in the center of a perfect trap. Technically an almost perfect one.

    Yuki used his ability 10 times consecutively. He knew that he would pay for itter on but that didn''t matter to him, all that mattered was his survival. Yuki had killed so much that it had be second nature to him. He enjoyed erasing creatures from existence. The sensation of removing someone and their legacy from the world brought him a certain type of joy. As he killed every monster, he began to smile then giggle until it had finally turned intoughter. He felt like he was at the top of the world. There was nothing that could stop him. Within merely 20 minutes, he had annihted every monster that had appeared.

    [Monsters killed: 100/100]

    [Silver earned: 10000]

    [Exp earned: 10000]

    yer description:

    [Yuki Kaito]

    [Level: 2]

    [Global Rank: #1]

    It had been confirmed. Yuki was truly at the top of the world. Right as he began catching his breath, the announcement voice began speaking.

    "Achievement unlocked: Monster hunter"

    "Reward: Lucky Sword"

    From the sky, a silver sword with blue energy emanating from it fell at a straight angle, making it sink into the ground.

    Yuki pulled it out and gave it a quick look before cing it into his inventory.

    While Yuki had acquired an abundance of happiness that day, he regretted one thing. He wanted to properly meet every member of the seven again. He had ignored their capabilities and thought of them as nothing more than fodder. If he wasn''t the person who carved the new world, he surely would''ve been killed that day.

 Chapter 13 - Plan

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 26400/40000]

    Once Yuki had finally managed to kill every monster, he wanted to return to the shack to rest. As he tried to take one step, he felt his body copse andnd face-first to the ground. He had overdone it. The sun began to set and Yuki decided he would rest in the forest for the day. As he began to close his eyes, he felt a sharp shock in his lungs. The drawback to his ability had begun to activate.

    In exchange for such an overpowered ability, Yuki sacrificed his sanity. He had used his ability a total of 11 times that day. This meant that he would have to deal with that excruciating pain for 11 whole hours.

    He began to roll around on the ground in hopes of easing the pain but that seemed to have the opposite effect. His body was already past its limits which meant that if he tried to move around even a little, the pain he would experience would instantly increase dramatically.

    Yuki lied down on the ground dealing with the extreme pain within his chest all night long without moving in the slightest. He had not gotten any sleep but at least the stars in the sky made him a little happy.

    Once the 11-hour pain timer was finally done, Yuki began making his way to the shack. After arriving, he paid for 1 room and headed upstairs, and copsed on the bed.

    Yuki slept like a baby for the next 48 hours. Once he had awoken from his slumber, it was as if he was born again. His entire body was back to its peak form. While he did feel regenerated, he was very hungry. When he got out of his bed, he could barely stand let alone walk. Regardless, he went out to look for any shops that might sell any food.

    The street was full of stores all for different uses. Yuki had not been able to admire them before as he had been focused on solely leveling up and getting as far in the game as possible while being as efficient as he could. After walking for what seemed like hours, he found a ce that looked like a fast-food store. It wasn''t fancy which meant that it couldn''t be a restaurant and it wasn''t noisy either which meant it couldn''t be a bar.

    When he entered, there were about 10 people inside already. They were eating greasy junk food which meant that his suspicions were correct. Yuki went up to the cashier register and ordered everything on the menu. Thedy behind the register looked confused.

    "Sir, I don''t think you understand how much it''ll cost," she told Yuki.

    Yuki hadn''t realized it yet but from her perspective, he didn''t look like he had a lot of money. All his clothes were torn apart and the pieces that were left were dirty.

    "How much will it be?" Yuki asked.

    "About 200 silver, we don''t negotiate here!" thedy replied with anger.

    Yuki didn''t care that she was giving him an attitude. All he wanted was his food.

    [Extract: 300 silver]

    "Keep the change, hope your day gets better," Yuki said as he walked away to sit at one of the tables to wait for his food.

    On a normal day, he would''ve been agitated however, all Yuki wanted to do at that moment was to eat. He didn''t care what he had to do to get his food.

    Within 30 minutes, his food arrived. Thedy from the register was not able to look Yuki in the eye after how she treated him. She ced his food on the table and walked away without saying a single word.

    Yuki ate all the food presented to him without hesitation. He didn''t care what others thought of him. All that mattered to him at that time was the food.

    Once he finished, he felt as if he couldn''t move. Even though he didn''t want to take another step, Yuki knew that he still had some unfinished business to take care of. He threw out his garbage and began to head back to the shack.

    Once Yuki had arrived back at the shack, he headed right to his room and began nning a way to kill the master of "INFINITE HOTEL". A person who can easily adapt to a new environment and set a n into motion for a long time of sess is dangerous to Yuki. There was no need for someone who may pose a threat to Yuki to continue to exist.

    Yuki began to analyze the type of person the master would be.

    "He''s most likely weak as he relies on money instead of strength. Likely, he hasn''t leveled up yet and is choosing to stay out of danger so he could gather as much money as he possibly could," Yuki thought to himself.

    "It can be assumed that he won''t be a threat to me personally, however, if he is even the least bit intelligent, he would hire bodyguards or mercenaries toe to his aid if anything were to happen to him," Yuki continued.

    "While that would be scary, I shouldn''t have to worry about that either since I''m one of the few people who would know about the forest of monsters, let alone be at level 2. The stat difference between level 1 and 2 is just toorge topensate for even with arge group of people. However, I should be careful just in case someone who''s at level 2es to his aid," Yuki finished.

    Once he had finished gathering his thoughts, Yuki prepared to look for a couple of weapons to assist him in the battle. Worst case scenario, the master of the shack would have an army with him so it would be better to carry an abundance of weapons.

    "I should probably also wait for my ability reset timer to end as well, If it turns out there''s someone who can stand against me, I can change my ability topletely overpower them," Yuki said as he went throughout the city to look for new weapons.

 Chapter 14 - Knowledge

    During his short journey throughout the city, Yuki learned some very interesting things about his surroundings. For starters, the outer parts of it were constructed of 30-meter walls which all intersect to form a hexagon. At each intersection, there was a cylindrical tower which measured to be 50 meters. At the pinnacle of each tower, there was an archer stationed to shoot any monsters that might try to enter the city. Yuki already knew that each archer was an NPC that could kill any monster by adjusting its damage output to the exact HP a monster had. This meant that the city was a safe zone in which no harm could reach a yer.

    On the inside, the city was a bit nd. It was somewhat medieval since it only had small shops which sold weapons and potions. There were plenty of trees and fountains all around however, there was nothing that particrly stood out. It was like every other starting vige in an average video game. Everything was made to be simple and easy to navigate which made sense as the entire had changedpletely.

    After passing by many stores, Yuki arrived at a store that he deemed worthy of his money. From the window, there was a golden sword with a red aura emanating from it. It seemed to call for Yuki. He waspletely enticed by its beauty. The ancient text written on it made him want to buy it even more. Without a second thought, he rushed into the store to buy it.

    There was an old guy in the store, no one else seemed to be there. He looked at him impatiently.

    "Hey, how much is this sword," Yuki asked as he pointed to the golden sword.

    "That''ll be a hefty 30000 silver young man," the old replied to Yuki, expecting him to back off since what kind of kid would have that much money.

    Yuki stood there and thought about it for a bit. He only had 36,900 silver. If he were to spend a majority of his money on something, it should be on grenades and smoke screens as well as healing potions. He was expecting to fight someone with unparalleled intelligence.

    "Make it 25000 and I''ll buy it," Yuki retaliated.

    "27500, take it or leave it," the old man had made his final offer.

    "Deal!" Yuki said.

    [Extract: 27500 silver]

    Yuki handed the money to the old man and began walking towards the sword.

    Although he had wasted a good deal of silver, he managed to haggle down the price of something he wanted. This satisfied him. The basic sensation of victory was a human''s primal instinct for happiness. To feel as if you are the one creature that stands above all others. This feeling was what all humans desired.

    As he took the sword out from the disy, another one that seemed to be the same reced it. While this startled Yuki, he knew why this had happened.

    "Hey, are you an NPC?"

    "Yes, you are correct in assuming that," the old man replied.

    Yuki began to calm down. Everything in the store was an extension of the world. It functioned like any other game store in which every item would be infinity restocked. Now that Yuki had acquired this revtion, he wanted to go to other stores and see if any of them had the same concept as this one.

    Just around the corner, Yuki spotted another weaponry store. He was hoping that he would find some smoke grenades in there for his uing battle.

    Once he entered, a smile came across his face. There was every type of grenade he could ever need or want. There were other weapons such as axes, swords, guns, and spears as well. However, Yuki already bought the melee-type weapon he would use and he was very proud of that fact. Although, what excited him the most were the potions in the store.

    Within the store, a middle-aged man was wearing a ck suit. He looked to be in his 30s and had a very serious expression on his face. Everything seemed to be organized neatly. Other than the cashier, 2 other people were shopping in the store. Yuki didn''t mind them, all he wanted was his weaponry.

    "Good afternoon, can I have 10 smoke grenades, 4 HP regeneration, 2-speed boost, and 3 damage boost potions?" Yuki asked with a smile.

    "Will that be all?" the man replied.

    "Yes, that''ll be all for today," Yuki said anxiously.

    "Okay, your totales to 190 silver," the cashier said with a dull voice.

    [Extract: 190 silver]

    Yuki handed the man the money and waited as the cashier went around the store taking the items from the shelves. As he removed each item, a new replica reced it. This confirmed Yuki''s suspicions. However, this phenomenon made sense. In a world where you could wish to have any superpower you want, why would anyone choose to have an ordinary shop?

    Yuki concluded that Zero automatically filled out each city with the necessary things to help humanity continue to exist. This helped reassure him that everyone won''t die of starvation or from ack of materials. While this brought ease to his mind, he feared one thing. That being; the construction of a government.

    Having a higher power existing would mean that people begin to lose their freedom. The government would eventually introducews that will "protect the people '''' but are meant to keep the higher-ups in power. It will create a world in which everyone is a machine again. History would once again repeat itself. This was why he wanted to reach level 100 first. By having his limiter broken, he would preside over the world as its one true ruler and would forbid any system which tries to take away people''s freedom by making them dependent on others. When someone is dependent on others, they lose the freedom to lead their own lives and in turn achieve their true dreams. Unlike everyone else, Yuki didn''t want to be the strongest for a selfish reason, he could have everything he ever wanted. He was the king of all creation and stood at the pinnacle of everything that has existed and will exist. All he wanted was to give humanity the freedom it never had.

 Chapter 15 - Cycle

    Now that Yuki had gathered all the materials he needed for his uing battle, all that was left was to wait. He needed to have his ability timer fully recharged in case of an emergency. In the meantime, he continued to explore the city as he learned everything he possibly could about the terrain on which he will be fighting on.

    While on his exploring journey, Yuki wanted to see how the people in the city were interacting. To his surprise, many people were in peace. They had gotten used to their new lives and had even started making friends. They spent their days either bating in the sun or talking to their friends. Most people had epted the fact that they wouldn''t be the first ones to reach level 100 so they instead decided to enjoy the freedom that they were given for the time being. After all, once someone reaches level 100 and breaks their limiter, that person will be the monarch of the new world, and anything they want would be thew. There would eventually be a point where that person levels up so much that no matter how many people are put up against them, they would win by easily speed blitzing them.

    While they knew that this was inevitable, they also wondered what would happen once the monarch had died. Better yet, could people die of old age in this world and if so, did that rule apply to the person that won the "game". There were so many unanswered questions left within people''s hearts however many chose to ignore them. It wouldn''t matter what the answer was, at the end of the day, they can''t change the oue. They had finally found peace, why should they stress over such futile matters. No one had to work, they didn''t have to pay bills, no one had to go to school. It was as if the world had transformed to its original form. The freedom that the people had gained just proved how much of a gue humanity was to the. A species that would never be satisfied with its aplishments. Pushing itself further and further each day while it burns through all its resources. To be put into basic terms, humanity was just a waste of space. Without it, the would be much better. There was no pollution, war, or sadness. All that remained was the question "when will those things eventuallye back", after all, history always manages to repeat itself.

    A system will eventually be in ce to control people. Something that can put people in an endless cycle of constantbor and in exchange for it people get "avish life". At the end of the day, life is only as enjoyable as how a person defines it. Some find peace within small things like a movie with friends or family, while others find it by being alone and appreciating the world. While this is true, the definition can be twisted and changed to fit a corporation''s ideals. That is the reason why advertisements are made. They help create a false reality in which corporations benefit and the people waste their time. While those items cause temporary happiness, those emotions won''tst forever because they aren''t real ones. To cure that empty feeling in people''s hearts, thoserge corporations will create another advertisement so you could feel that happiness once again. The maniption of others was what led people to sess. Sacrifice others for your own good. While Yuki wanted to avoid that, he also knew that was the quickest way to get to the top.

    He already had manipted 7 people and caused their deaths just for him to gain exp. In turn, by doing that Yuki had levelled up to level 2 and managed to get to #1 global. This goes to show that his previous theory was indeed correct.

    Out of boredom Yuki went up to one of the people that were having a casual conversation with their friends.

    "Greetings, would it be okay if I spent some time with you guys?" Yuki asked.

    While at first the group he approached seemed confused by his question, they decided to give him an answer right away.

    "Of course you can, there''s no need to be so formal. We''re all friends here," they replied.

    "You can call me Katsumi," one of them said. He had broad shoulders and seemed to be a professional bodybuilder.

    "My name is Ruiji but you can just call me Rui," another one of the group said as he introduced himself. He was very young and slim, Yuki guessed that he was around 14 or 15 years old. His face was so calming and gentle that it started to look like he nicest soul in the. There was no negative emotions within his heart. It almost made Yuki tear up for no reason.

    "And you can call me Jobon," the man that Yuki first talked to said. There was nothing special about him. He was as nd and average as a person could be. He looked to be about 5''8, no muscle but no fat either. "He would make the perfect background character in an action basedic," Yuki said to himself.

    Yuki smiled and joined into their conversation. After a while they began talking about their thoughts of the new world.

    "Honestly though, I really thought that this ce was a curse. We had everything taken away from us and we couldn''t enjoy life anymore, but instead it feels as if I''m finally happy for once," Jobon said.

    "Everyday, I had to deal with my boss micromanaging my every move then once I got home, I would have to deal with the constant nagging of my wife. All I wanted to do was escape that life but we still needed to pay our mortgage so I waspletely trapped. I don''t know how much longer I could''vested until I would finally break down. I don''t know who ever created this new world, but if you''re listening, thank you, I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart," Jobon continued.

 Chapter 16 - Presence

    Hearing everything that Jobon said, Yuki felt happy. The appreciation that was given to him indirectly made him feel special. It was as if he had saved someone''s life.

    "I can''t rte to that but it doesn''t matter. All that you have to think about is your freedom. Nothing can hold us back anymore," Rui said trying to cheer everyone up/

    "He''s right you know. We all had different lives before but now, we''re together so cheer up will you?" Katsumi told Jobon.

    The entire time, Yuki was smiling and makingments. He truly felt pure joy for the first time in his life. It was as if something was tugging on his heart. A sensation that he never wanted to let go of.

    "So this is what it means to be happy, I''ve been missing out on this my entire life. I don''t want to ever lose this," Yuki thought to himself.

    As he began zoning out, Rui called out to him.

    "What about you Yuki? How was your life in the previous world?"

    His mind went nk. He started remembering all the times his mother beat him for no reason, the feeling of constant loneliness, all the humiliating times he experienced, all the events that had driven him to suicide had been brought back to his mind. However, he couldn''t allow himself to relive his previous life.

    "Nothing special honestly, basically school and hanging out with friends," Yuki lied.

    "No way, you at least had a crush on someone right?" Jobon replied.

    Just as he heard those words, he remembered Sophie. The way she had rejected him, humiliated and controlled him before she finally threw him away like trash. Yuki also began to remember the way he tortured and killed everyone that had driven him to his death once he had been reborn. Yuki had be so desensitized to death since he knew that all of them were just part of a game. Now that he had a chance to think, it made him sick to his stomach. Yuki pretended to choke on his drink to give Jobon an answer that would be fitting of a 15-year-old.

    "N-no way! That''s disgusting. I would never do such a thing," Yuki replied.

    The other 3ughed and continued talking for hours. Once they tired themselves out, Katsumi, Rui, and Jobon all passed out. Before Yuki did the same, he gathered himself and went back to the shack to stay the night.

    "Well, that was one amazing day. I wish I could''ve spent more time with you guys. I need to take care of something right now, once I''m finally done, I''lle back. I promise!"

    When he had finally made it to his room, Yuki went to sleep right away. When he would finally wake up, he knew that there would be very little time for him to rx.

    The very next morning Yuki went to buy energy potions and food since he wouldn''t be able to sleep for the next week.

    Once everything was ready, he took all his supplies and stationed himself at the roof of the ice cream store next to the shack. The store was a bit bigger than the shack but only because there were no customers at the time which meant it wouldn''t be able to increase its size.

    "Okay, I have about 1 week left before my ability timer resets. I''ll try to ambush the master of "INFINITE HOTEL" within that time but if he doesn''t show up, I''ll resort to n B," Yuki said to himself.

    For the next week, he watched the shack constantly. Whether it was morning or night, he didn''t get distracted for even 1 second. All his attention was given to the shack.

    It was the final day before his timer restarted, Yuki was disappointed but he knew what he had to do.

    [Timer requirement has been met]

    [Ability: resettable]

    Yuki sighed and climbed down from the store roof.

    He walked into the shack with full knowledge of everything that was going to take ce.

    "Wee back dear customer, d to have you back! Would you like me to register you for a room?" the man behind the register said.

    "Hey, I have a question. Since you''re someone''s ability if someone stronger than you came here, would they be able to kill you? If so, your master will be alerted right?" Yuki asked, expecting himself to be correct.

    "Well, not technically. If you were to attack me, my master would be alerted however I would take no damage. I''m part of this shack which means as a person, I don''t exist," The man behind the counter replied with a nk face.

    While Yuki was a bit irritated that his guess wasn''t urate, he got the information he needed.

    He quickly jumped to the man behind the counter and punched him. As expected, he didn''t move a flinch. Yuki had hoped that his master got the message but he didn''t know for sure. Just to make sure he did, every 5 minutes, Yuki punched the man behind the counter on the face. Finally, after 30 minutes a man walked into the shack.

    "What do you want?" the man said. He looked to be around 40 years old. He was a tall man wearing a suit with a red tie. He had his hairbed back. He was as professional as a person could be. Beside him stood two people wearing cloaks with hoods on top.

    "Should I take it that you''re the master of this shack?" Yuki asked.

    "You would be correct in assuming that. Now please answer my question before I get these two to get physical with you," The master replied.

    Before anyone could even process what was happening, Yuki grabbed a dagger from his pocket that he had found in the forest while he was killing monsters and sprinted to the master. To everyone else, it looked like he teleported because of the massive speed boost that he had gained after he leveled up.

    Yuki put the dagger close to the man''s neck and simply sighed.

    "Look, I''m the one who''s asking the questions here!"

    Without even trying, Yuki had made his menacing aura known throughout the shack.

 Chapter 17 - True Power

    "Look, I''m the one who''s asking the questions here!"

    Without even trying, Yuki had made his menacing aura known throughout the shack.

    "I apologize, I''ll give you anything you want, please just don''t kill me," The master said.

    Yuki began to rx and moved away from the man''s neck.

    "Okay for starters, what''s your name?" Yuki asked.

    "My name is Demosthenes Maxim, I''ll answer any questions you have, just please don''t hurt me!"

    Before Yuki could ask another question, both of the guys that were standing beside Demosthenes moved and tried attacking Yuki with a small de. As if by instinct, Yuki reached into his pants'' pocket and grabbed another dagger. He easily stopped the first de then moved his other hand to deflect the second de. Without a second thought, he pushed the small des from both their hands and jabbed their arms with his daggers.

    "Okay, so that''s how you want to y!" Yuki said with anger.

    He grabbed Demosthenes by the neck and began dragging him outside. Yuki pulled Demosthenes''s head back and got ready to smash it to the shack''s outer wall. As if right on queue, a spear that was covered in lightning came in front of Yuki''s face. Right before it made an impact, Yuki let go of Demosthenes and did a backward flip in turn dodging the attack. Right as Yuki began to get back on his feet, he was arge mobing towards him. They looked to be protecting Demosthenes.

    "This is the end for you kid, you should''ve finished me off when you had the chance," Demosthenes said as heughed at Yuki.

    Yuki was frustrated, it was as if he was the generic viin at wastes time exining his n, and right as he finished, the heroes woulde to defeat him. He was tired of being treated like a lower species.

    Yuki took 2 other daggers out of his pockets and charged at the mob. He cut down anyone who tried getting in his way. Yuki made sure that he didn''t kill anyone as he didn''t want to bebeled a murderer. He needed to keep a good reputation. All he did was cause a small cut on their skin or if some got too close to him, he would cause a serious cut on them but not enough to kill them. No one could stop him since all of them were at level 1. There was just toorge of a difference in their strengths. When Yuku began letting his guard down, a group of them piled on top of him which made him use his ability.

    "Activate ability-"

    Before he could finish, he stopped himself. He had almost killed all of them. Instead, he used his strength to push them all into the air. Once he finally managed to make all of them submit to his will, he began walking towards Demosthenes.

    "So you paid all these people to fight your own battles? How pathetic!" Yuki said.

    "You don''t deserve to live anymore, people like you are a gue to humanity, I''ll free all these people from your curse," Yuki continued. He wanted to sound like a hero and in turn, make some of the mercenaries follow him out of their own free will while also killing off the one person that scared him. "Kill two birds with one stone," Yuki thought to himself as he smiled.

    This was a lot easier than he thought. He was going to remove the one threat to his rule over this world.

    "Goodbye-" Yuki began saying his farewell to Demosthenes.

    However, before he could finish, another lightning spear attacked him. This time, he managed to deflect it using his dagger but when he looked down at his de, it was shattered.

    "What a pain," Yukiined.

    He looked up in the direction that the spear came from. At the top of a 3 story-building stood a man with white hair. The rest of his body was covered with a cloak. Yuki just assumed that Demosthenes made all of his trusted mercenaries wear a cloak, it still made no difference to Yuki as he was determined on ending Demosthenes'' life.

    The white-haired man jumped down from the building and cracked the ground.

    "Goddammit," Yuki said.

    He knew right away that the man he will be facing was a level 2 yer since no level 1 yer could survive a jump from that high. He couldn''t be a level 3 since Yuki was the yer with the most exp umted in the world. Even so, Yuki would have a lot of trouble dealing with him.

    They began exchanging blows, every once in a while the white-haired man would jump high in the air and throw a lightning spear down at Yuki. Once Yuki had blocked it, the white-haired man woulde back to the ground and bombard Yuki with endless hits. It seemed as if there was no way Yuki could get out of this situation. People had gathered around to watch the fight but no one interrupted because they knew that they were simply not in their league.

    Yuki had be exhausted and was running out of options.

    "Hey, is throwing lightning spears your ability," Yuki asked.

    "And why would I tell you that?" His opponent replied.

    "I mean, you''re going to win this battle anyway so I want to know at least that before I die," Yuki lied.

    "Fair enough, yes it is. In exchange for it, I consume a lot of stamina however I have enough left to finish you off so it doesn''t matter," The white-haired man replied.

    Yuki sighed and started getting ready to finish things up.

    [Open inventory]

    "I don''t want to change my ability just to beat him so it''ll be myst resort. I spent a lot of money on you, you better helped me win this battle," Yuki thought to himself as he pulled out the golden sword he bought for nearly 30000 silver.

    He felt power coursing through his blood. There was a tremendous amount of power within that sword. Yuki brought the sword in front of himself and began yelling right as he was about to attack.

    Just then, his sword''s red aura exploded and began filling the sky with its color. Portals started opening all around Yuki which contained unbelievablyrge swords which had the same ancient writing as the sword Yuki was holding, all of them pointing at his opponent.

 Chapter 18 - Friends

    Each sword that came from the portals was at least 50 feet long. Yuki could very easily take on an army of giants by himself if he ever wanted to.

    Each portal shrieked as it arrived into the world. Once they had fully materialized and came out of the portals, it could be perceived that red glowing chains were still holding them to the portals. All the swords floated in the air, awaiting Yuki''smand. Realizing this, Yuki pointed the tip of his sword at his opponent''s body. Instantly, all the des pointed right at him and began charging onto him.

    He fell to his knees as there was nothing he possibly could''ve done to survive. Even Yuki didn''t fully understand what was going on.

    In the blink of an eye, all the swords crashed into the white-haired man and killed him off.

    [+2500 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 28900/40000]

    "The world truly isn''t fair. By all logic, you should''ve won this battle. The stat boost from each level is the same which means that all it came down to was our base stats. Your base stats were most likely higher than mine which means that you should''ve won without question. I want to feel sadness for you right now but I can''t, all I feel for you is a pity," Yuki said goodbye to his opponent.

    "Well, all that''s left now is you, Demosthenes. There''s nothing you can do to escape, your fate is sealed," Yuki continued even though he was extremely exhausted.

    "Activate ability: 100 times multiplier"

    Demosthenes began tough.

    "You really thought the master of "INFINITE HOTEL" would show up? How foolish, well it doesn''t matter anymore. For exactly 1 minute, I be 100 times as powerful as I usually am, you will die here today!" Demosthenes spoke as heughed hysterically.

    Yuki was scared. Could he really survive against Demosthenes? he thought. Just then a genius idea came to his mind. He quickly opened his inventory and drank all the positions he had bought for the battle. Now he had regained his stamina and boosted his overall stats for a short period of time.

    "And next," Yuki continued.

    [Set ability: Sword boost]

    [Specifications: Gives arge boost to the overall damage of the golden sword he was holding]

    [Draw back: Drains a lot of stamina]

    "THIS IS AN ALL OR NOTHING GAMBLE!" Yuki yelled.

    Yuki wouldn''t have known at the time however, he didn''t need to boost himself to face Demosthenes. The spatial swords were already more than enough to take him down easily.

    Once again, the swords pointed at Yuki''s opponent which was now Demosthenes. This time, they glowed red like the gates of hell. The amount of power they carried from all the status amplification given to them by Yuki made them unbelievably strong. They had made the ground tremble in fear.

    Full of ego, Demosthenes began to rush to Yuki. Right before he couldnd a hit, one of the spacial swords came flying from the sky and sunk to the ground, in turn blocking Demosthenes. Before he could try to attack a second time, another one came flying and cut off his legs. One by one, each de continued to cut at Demosthenes until his body was unrecognizable.

    [+2500 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 31400/40000]

    Once Yuki finished his fun with Demosthenes, we put his attention towards the shack.

    "Since you wanted to waste my time, this is what you get!" Yuki yelled in anger.

    He made the spatial swords float up to the sky once more and brought them down at the shack.

    "It doesn''t matter if you don''t feel the pain, no matter your ability, the obvious power gap between us is undeniable. I can at any time negate your ability," Yuki continued.

    Once the shack waspletely destroyed, Yuki rxed his arm which made the swords go page into their portals and ended his sword''s ability.

    Right as he prepared to put away his sword back into his inventory, he noticed that the red glow it once had was gone.

    "I''ll deal with youter," Yuki said before finally passing out from exhaustion. As he fell to the ground, a familiar hand caught him. It was Jobon.

    "It''s okay now, I don''t know what''s going on but we''re in this together. No matter what hardships we face or what events wille to haunt us from the past, we''ll always stick together," Jobon said.

    For the next 3 days, Yuki slept like a baby. All his wounds were healing constantly. He had fought a small army all of his own and exhausted so much energy, especially since he activated the full capabilities of his golden sword.

    Once he had awoken from his slumber, he was greeted with the eager faces of Katsumi, Rui, and Jobon.

    "d to see you alive!" they said simultaneously.

    "You know it''s rude to ditch your friends without saying a word to them right?" Rui lectured him.

    "Wait, are you guys mad at me?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes we''re plenty mad, in fact, I''m furious right now, but all that matters now is that you''re safe and sound!" Katsumi said.

    "I''m curious, I thought that you were a nobody like us but you proved me wrong. You''re crazy strong! If you don''t mind me asking, what rank is your sword?" Katsumi continued.

    "What do you mean rank? Weapons can have ranks?" Yuki said in a confused tone.

    "Yes! How are you that strong and don''t know the very basics of this world?" Katsumi said.

    "When you double-tap on any weapon, a screen shows up telling you everything about it," Katsumi continued.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out the golden sword from his inventory and held it in his hand. Just like he remembered, it had lost its previous red aura. Nevertheless, he double-tapped on the sword, and just like Katsumi said, a screen popped up.

    [Weapon type: Sword]

    [Name: Fallen angel of hell]

    [Rank: ???]

    [Description:???]

 Chapter 19 - Moving Forward

    [Weapon type: Sword]

    [Name: Fallen angel of hell]

    [Rank: ???]

    [Attack: ???]

    [Description:???]

    "Is this supposed to happen?" Yuki asked.

    All of them gave a confused look. They had no idea what was going on.

    "This is weird. Usually, all thebels would have some information included on them, however, for some odd reason, this sword doesn''t have anything other than its name. This probably had something to do with its strange power," Katsumi thought out loud.

    "Where did you get this sword from?"

    "I got it from a small shop in the city, it cost me about 30000 silver. Even though it''s a lot of money, a sword like this should be valued at a higher price," Yuki replied.

    "Can you still use the sword and summon those portals again like before? If so, you might genuinely be able to be the first person who will reach level 100 with ease!" Jobon said.

    "Honestly, I would love to say that I could but I''m pretty sure that I won''t be able to. The ominous red aura that it once had is now gone. I don''t feel the extreme power surging within it anymore," Yuki replied.

    Nevertheless, he went outside and tried to summon the power of his sword. Just as he expected, nothing came from the sword.

    "Hey, I have an idea. Why don''t we go back to the store I got the sword from and check what''s wrong with it. The shop owner was nice to me before so I don''t think it would be a problem if I were to ask him some questions," Yuki proposed.

    The others agreed and the 4 of them began walking to the shop. Yuki''s sense of direction was incredible. He had taken exactly every turn he took the day he first went to that store. However, once he had arrived at the location, there was nothing there. It was just an empty store. There was no sign or even an object in it.

    "You sure this is the right ce Yuki?" Katsumi asked.

    "Yes! I''m positive!" Yuki said. He was confused. Yuki hadn''t gone in the wrong direction since he saw the other stores he sawst time.

    "Well, there''s nothing we can do about it now, if it''s gone, it''s gone," Jobon tried to cheer him up.

    "How about we go to an enchanting store. I bet they have something that can fix your sword!"

    Yuki sighed but agreed nevertheless.

    They walked for about 20 minutes before they found an enchanting store. It was a decent size, it wasn''t too big but it wasn''t too small either. They entered the store with the hope of finding something that could easily fix Yuki''s sword.

    "Wee!" the shop clerk said.

    "Hello, could you please take a look at the broken sword we have? We think you might have the thing we need to fix it," Jobon said.

    "Sure, I would love to," the clerk replied.

    Yuki pulled out his sword from his inventory and handed it over to the clerk. The clerk looked over it for about 5 minutes before finallying to a conclusion.

    "Sorry kiddo, I can''t help you with this one. I don''t know where you found this but take good care of it. It''s very valuable, with the correct user, it can be the most powerful item in this world. It seems to be a stamina-consuming weapon and by the looks of it, no one under level 60 will be able to use it. If you want to make full use of it, you''re gonna need to train a lot harder," The clerk told Yuki.

    While the other 3 were disappointed, Yuki was excited. He was just happy that he could one day wield the power topletely overpower anyone.

    "Will that be all for today?" The clerk asked.

    "Yes, thank you for all your help!" Yuki replied.

    The other 3 hesitated since they wanted to learn if there was another way to get the sword to work since they never dreamed that they would even get close to level 60.

    Once they had left the store, Jobon wanted to talk to Yuki.

    "Hey, are you sure that you''re fine with this? I mean I know that you''re confident in your own abilities but level 60 is going to be so much work," Jobon asked.

    "What do you mean? Of course I''m okay with it. It''s not like I''ll be alone, you guys wille with me. We''ll advance in the world together," Yuki said as he smiled back at Jobon.

    Yuki was always ahead of them but they wanted to one day stand beside him.

    At first Yuki didn''t want to ept it but now there was no mistaking it. Being around Jobon, Rui and Katsumi made him happy. The feeling of joy that he never got to experience in his previous life was just too much to let go of. Instead of continuing as a solo yer, he decided to finally allow himself to trust others. Even so, he still found it wrong. There was something which didn''t add up for him, the only problem was that he didn''t know what that something was.

    "<strong>Go on, Yuki, trust them. They''re different from the rest</strong>," a dark and sinister voice said in Yuki''s head. While Yuki didn''t know where the voice came from, he didn''t question its words. It was like he waspelled to follow them, and so he did. Yuki began to genuinely believe that his new so-called friends were good and kind people without questioning why he felt that way. If that sentiment was true... only time would tell.

    ...

    Yuki didn''t really know what he wanted to do now. There was no way that he could find the master of "INFINITE HOTEL" since he was too cowardly to face Yuki. All that he could do now was look for new ways to level up. Hunting monsters would be no good since he''s past the point where 100 exp doesn''t mean anything to him.

    While that didn''t mean anything to him, he knew that the rest of his team would need the experience which meant that he would have to teach them everything he knew. Of course he couldn''t let them know that he killed innocent people to get his exp. If he did that, they would most likely abandon him, if not tell everyone to stay away from him, in turn making him an outcast.

    It''s not that Yuki minded being alone, in fact he was already used to it so it wouldn''t make a difference to him, he just wanted a strategic advantage over others or was that just a lie. For a mere moment, Yuki felt as his head began to split into two parts, each one having a different personality. It was like, there were 2 Yukis.

 Chapter 20 - Forgotten Souls

    For the next few days Yuki taught Jobon, Rui, as well as Katsumi how to hunt and kill monsters for exp. Most of them were small goblins which were no danger to any of them. Each and every day, they hunted monsters non stop until their body couldn''t move anymore.

    "So this is what you''ve been doing everyday to get so strong?" Rui asked Yuki.

    "Ya, basically. You get used to it after a while and your body does everything instinctively," Yuki replied.

    "To be honest, if we could one day do all the crazy stuff you did that day, doing all of this work will be worth it," Katsumi said.

    "Having huge des under yourmand as you state your dominance over the world. That sounds like a cool superhero power," Katsumi continued as they allughed together.

    As the days passed, Yuki eventually became bored of the forest. All he did all day was follow his team around as they killed monsters and gained exp. They now knew how to survive on their own which meant that they didn''t need his assistance anymore. Even if he wanted to kill some monsters, he knew that his team needed the exp more than him.

    "Hey, you guys have been getting used to the forest now. For the time being I want to go find a better way to get exp. Remember on our first day in the new world, the cloaked man mentioned dungeons. I want to see what they have to offer," Yuki proposed to his team members.

    "Sure, but only on the condition that wee with you! We can''t let you leave us again," Rui demanded.

    "I promise I won''t leave you guys again, I''ve learned my lesson. Plus, it would be much better if you 3 stayed here and gained some more exp. I don''t know what kind of dangers we may face in the dungeons. The fact remains that I should be the one to go and explore it. Once I finish, I''lle back and we can go through it together," Yuki tried to reason with the others.

    "You promise toe back?" Rui asked.

    "I promise!" Yuki replied. He could see a small light within Rui''s eyes. Yuki didn''t want Rui''s innocence to disappear. He was a younger version of himself. A person who hadn''t be corrupted because of the cruelty of others. Yuki saw himself as an older brother to Rui even though they were around the same age.

    That day, Yuki said his goodbyes to his team and headed back to the city to stock up on food and equipment before finally heading out to look for a dungeon. He already knew exactly where the closest dungeon to him was located. While he didn''t remember the specifics, he knew the very basics of everything about the new world.

    After walking for what seemed like hours outside the city, he reached the dungeon gate. It was located at the side of a mountain. The gate itself had a dark green glow to it. Without even entering Yuki knew which n ruled this dungeon. Nevertheless he entered with no hesitation, after all, he had people awaiting his return.

    [Wee to the dungeon: Forgotten Souls]

    [Level rmended: 1-5+]

    "There are 10 stages within this dungeon. After each stage, there is a save point. After you have reached it, you can leave the dungeon ande backter on to continue your quest here. If you choose to leave without reaching the next save point, all the exp you''ve earned after your previous save point will be lost," The robotic exnation voice said.

    "If you agree to these conditions, please step forward to begin your quest," The voice continued.

    Yuki opened his inventory and pulled out "Lucky Sword" since he didn''t want to use "Fallen angel of hell" until he was level 60+. Only then would he find himself worthy to wield its tremendous power.

    Without any second thoughts, he walked forward. Just as he took one step forward, skeletons starteding up from the ground. Each one was wearing armour which made them look like an undead army. Yuki didn''t care, all that he needed was to exterminate each and every one of them.

    Before he began the massacre, he wanted to see if he could see "Lucky Sword''s" information chart. Just like Katsumi had taught him, Yuki double tapped the sword and just as he expected a chart came up.

    [Weapon type: Sword]

    [Name: Lucky Sword]

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 35]

    [Description: Power: Item drops, including exp from any monster would be doubled if they are yed with this sword. "The greed of the monsters umted overtime. Once it had reached a certain point, it manifested itself into existence. The greed of the monsters turned into a weapon which would harm them instead of assisting them."]

    "Such a sad story but this sword could actually be of use to me," Yuki thought to himself.

    Yuki took a deep breath and began to y the skeleton monsters. He cut down each one of them with one slice. They were simply too weak to actually do any damage to him.

    This murder streak went on for about 15 minutes before Yuki finally noticed something wrong. There were only about 50 monsters around him, even if they carried a sword and a shield, it didn''t matter as Yuki would cut through them like butter. However their numbers didn''t decrease, there seemed to be exactly the same number of monsters as there were once he started the battle.

    His first thought was that there were an infinite amount of zombies but that didn''t make any sense since it was a dungeon for level 1-5. It would be way too difficult for a level 1 yer to fight this many zombies and defeat them. He kept ying the monsters until a sudden thought came to him.

    [Open: profile]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 31400/40000]

    This had proved his second theory, since Yuki hadn''t gained any exp, it meant that he hadn''t actually been killing the zombies. All he did was cut them but they regenerated just as fast as they were cut. This meant that Yuki needed to hit them at a specific spot to kill them permanently.

    ...

    While Yuki was busy in the dungeon, Rui, Katsumi and Jobon continued to hunt monsters in the forest, not relenting for even a moment as they needed to make their leader proud. After a while though, they grew tired and took a little break at which they sat down together and began to eat the lunch they had brought for themselves.

    As they continued to take their break, a shadow emerged from the woods. It was a man who wore a dark brown cloak which barely even showed his face. All the 3 of them could see was hisrge smile which looked to be more of a grin.

    "So I hear that you have a connection with someone called Yuki," the cloaked man said.

    "Yes we do... so what of it?" Jobon hastily replied which brought the cloaked man to grin more.

    "He''s being suspected of murder, I suggest you hand him over to the authorities," the cloaked man said.

    "... W-we don''t really know where he is right now. We''ll get back to youter when we see him again," Rui replied while clearly lying.

    "How about this... if you help us capture him, I can offer you more silver than you''ll ever need during your lifetime. You must hate going around hunting monsters like you''re some kind of cavemen. So just hand him over and you''ll never have to work a day in your life," the cloaked man offered.

    Hearing his words clearly infuriated Rui however, Katsumi stopped him from saying anything while Jobon stood up from the log which he was sitting on before shaking the cloaked man''s hand with a gentle smile on his face.

 Chapter 21 - Stage 2

    Now that Yuki knew that he was doing something wrong, he began to analyze his opponents. He thought of the first thing that happened once he entered the dungeon. He remembered the screen that popped up. "[Wee to the dungeon: Forgotten Souls]". How could he forget. The dungeon was called "forgotten souls" which meant that it had something to do with souls.

    Yuki took a guess that their weakness would be their soul. The mostmonly believed ce with a soul resides in is the heart. With nothing to lose, Yuki pulled his 30-inch sword and jabbed it within the chest of the skeleton in front of him. After what seemed like just a second, the skeleton turned into dust.

    [+50 exp X 2 = 100 exp]

    [Open: profile]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 31500/40000]

    Now Yuki knew that he could actually kill the undead skeletons. He kept jabbing all of them in their chest and made sure they crumbled. While doing this, one of the skeletons brought its sword and prepared to swing it at Yuki. Instinctively, Yuki quickly reached into his pocket with his left hand and pulled out a dagger he had bought before he came to the dungeon. Since his right hand was upied, he stopped the skeleton at his side with the dagger and killed the one that was upying his right hand. Once he had his dominant right hand free, he swung his "Lucky Sword" at the skeleton which he was holding back with his dagger,pletely slicing it in half and making it crumble to dust.

    Yuki continued his massacre until he finally managed to make every monster turn to dust.

    [+2450 exp X 2 = 4900]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 36400/40000]

    "That was a lot harder than I expected," Yuki said to himself as he took deep breaths.

    [Stage one: Complete]

    [Regretful Soldiers: defeated]

    [Item drop: Crystal tear]

    Curious to find out what the item he found was, Yuki double tapped on it to look at it''s information chart.

    [Item type: Crafting]

    [Name: Crystal tear]

    [Rank: D]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: marital used to create the potion of "crying rain". When the king of a humble kingdom forced his subjects to war and let them to their doom, all their regret and sadness formed this crystal teardrop. Their souls still reside within this world until they are finally freed.]

    Yuki wondered if the descriptions on each item was true or if it was just made up. They had such sad stories behind them which made Yuki feel pity for them.

    Once Yuki had managed to kill all of the monsters, he finally had a chance to take a look at the dungeon properly. It was a circr inclosed space with pirs attached to it. There were many sharp engravings within the wall which glowed the game colour as the gate entrance. The parts of the wall which didn''t have engravings on them were made of dark blue stone. Since the ceiling was enclosed as-well, there were purple torches ced around the pirs.

    Right in front of Yuki was a gate looking structure which looked to be the save point as well as the entrance to the 2nd stage of the dungeon. To test his theory out, he walked towards the gate and stood there.

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 2nd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 2 difficulty: level 1-2]

    Yuki was very exhausted but he knew that he needed to continue. He needed to be the strongest person in the world so that no one could harm him or his allies. Yuki took out 1 out of the 10 "full status recovery" potions he had bought for this dungeon. It cost him 200 silver for each one but they turned out to be a lot more useful than he thought. He regained his strength and all the stamina he had consumed in the previous stage.

    Yuki took another deep breath before walking through the gate to the 2nd stage of the dungeon. As he walked through the gate, he noticed that the area was muchrger than the previous stage. While the first stage was basically a graveyard with a diameter of only 50 feet, this stage was arge forest which rivalled the size of the forest which Jobon and the others were at.

    He didn''t know what monster he would face now so Yuki had his guard up as he slowly walked deeper within the forest. From the side of his eye, he spotted red eyed staring at him from a distance. He quickly turned around to get a better view of them but when he looked in that direction, they disappeared.

    Yuki signed and turned back to the direction he had been facing before, to his surprise, he waspletely surrounded. In front and to the side of him were 8rge zombified wolves which all looked like they wanted a piece of Yuki. Two of them leaped at him but right before they could attack him, he swung "Lucky Sword", slicing both their heads in half. Right as they dropped to the ground, they turned to dust.

    [+100 exp X 2 = 200 exp]

    [+100 exp X 2 = 200 exp]

    "Good, at least there aren''t any tricks in this stage," Yuki said to himself in relief.

    He prepared himself to take on the other 6 zombified wolves but instead of attacking him, each of them made a pair and started moving closer to each other until they started turning into light and began deforming. After a few seconds, the light blob began taking shape into a wolf. However once the light disappeared, the wolfs were no longer the in grey they once were, instead they had taken on a new colour. Now there were only 3 red wolves which looked a lot stronger than they used to.

    Yuki could sense their power just by looking at them. Before he could even make the first move, all 3 of them leaped at him. Yuki tried slicing their head off like he did previously, however, the best he could do was deflect them. The wolves were now much stronger and faster than before. They could now keep up with Yuki.

 Chapter 22 - Unlucky

    "I wish I still had my previous ability, now I can''t do anything to win this," Yuki thought to himself.

    He suddenly remembered the specifications of his ability. "[Specifications: Gives arge boost to the overall damage of the golden sword he was holding]". This meant that even if he couldn''t summon the spatial des, the damage his golden sword would cause was huge. Especially since his ability amplifications are higher because he''s a level 2 yer.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced "Lucky Sword" back into his inventory and took out "Fallen angel of hell". While he would miss the doubling effect the sword had, Yuki knew that his other sword was the only way he could survive this.

    "I don''t care if I''m worthy to wield you anymore! The fact remains that if I die here, it won''t matter anymore," Yuki spoke to his sword.

    The sword felt a bit heavy but Yuki was fine with it. Just as the 3 merged zombie wolves leaped in to attack for the second time, Yuki brought his sword over his head and sliced one of them in half. However, in exchange, the other two bit his legs.

    [+100 exp]

    Yuki felt the agonizing pain as their sharp teeth pierced into his skin. He wanted to scream but knew it''s too foolish to yell in case there were other wolves nearby. He didn''t want to fight anymore of them right now, especially in the condition he was in now.

    Before the 2 wolves could bite him again, he spun his sword around and with all the anger he could muster, Yuki sunk his de into the wolf that was biting onto his right leg.

    [+100 exp]

    "You like torturing people don''t you?" Yuki asked the wolf, biting on his left leg.

    "How about you experience it yourself," Yuki said as he sunk his de into the back of the wolf then onto the ground in turn pinning the wolf. This way, the zombified wolf would feel the pain but wouldn''t die.

    Yuki crawled to a tree and put his back against it while he healed his leg. First he poured an "anti status effect" potion on them just in case the wolf''s teeth had special effects such as paralysis or poison. Once he had done that, Yuki tore off the sleeves of his sweater and used them as makeshift bandages.

    For the next 2 hours hey there waiting for his body to recover as he watched the wolf he pinned to the ground struggle to escape. Every once in a while, Yuki would take a dagger from his inventory and throw them at the wolf to provoke it. It didn''t really matter to Yuki since he already had plenty of daggers and they were cheap to purchase as well. After he had bought potions for his dungeon journey, he spent everyst bit of silver he had on daggers. Yuki was a bit over-prepared for this quest.

    Once Yuki''s leg finally fully healed, he prepared himself to finish this stage without any more breaks. He walked up to the zombified wolf and kicked it in the face for making Yuki waste his time. As it tried to fight back, Yuki grabbed the hilt of his sword and dragged it to the ground which slowly sliced the wolf in half until it was finally dead.

    [+100 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 37100/40000]

    Now Yuki didn''t care what he had to do. He had the resolve to kill anyone if it meant that he could get through this stage of the dungeon.

    "Honestly though, this isn''t fair. How do I kill monsters that are this strong and only get the same exp as the small fry I used to kill in the forest beside the city," Yuki thought to himself.

    He walked for some time before finally seeing something that looked like a gateway.

    "Is this really it? Maybe I was too harsh in judging this stage," Yuki said out loud.

    As he passed through the gate the smile on his face faded and resentment was the only thing he felt.

    "Why is my luck so horrible. I can''t have a single good thing happen to me!" He yelled.

    In front of him were 92 zombified grey wolves.

    He sighed and began rushing towards them. Before they could reach him, Yuki jumped high into the air and took out as many daggers as he could from his inventory before he threw them at the wolves on the ground. Before he alsonded, he threw his sword down at the ground, killing a wolf while also creating a small crater.

    When hended on the ground, Yuki pulled out "Lucky Sword" and began the massacre of the wolves. While dual wielding his des, Yuki killed the zombified wolves while also blocking their attacks. He could barely move, it was taking all his strength to stay awake as his body automatically fought against the wolves.

    "Why are there so many of them! All of these worthless animals keep getting in my way!" Yuki said as he used both his des to slice the head off thest zombified wolf left.

    "Honestly, what a pain. At least I didn''t give them a chance to merge. God knows what would''ve happened to me if I had to face 41 merged zombie wolves and still only get the same exp that I would''ve gotten from a regr wolf," Yuki continued to rant to himself.

    [Lucky Sword kills: 23 zombified wolves]

    [+2300 exp X 2 = 4600 exp]

    [Fallen angel of hell kills: 69 zombified wolves]

    [+6900 exp]

    [Total exp: 11500]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 3: 8600/50000]

    Yuki once again had leveled up. The sensation of power flowed within his blood. While it wasn''t as strong as when he had reached level 2, it was still a decent amount. The stat upgrade after level 2 after moderate. The only reason there is such arge increase when one reaches level 2 is because it is proof that the person has epted their new life in this world.

 Chapter 23 - Stage 3

    Now a bloodied Yuki Kaito began walking to the second save point. He felt sick to the core, the exhaustion and mental fatigue that he had suffered during the first 2 stages of the dungeon.

    "Man, this sucks!"

    [Stage two: Complete]

    [Zombified Wolves: defeated]

    [Item drop: Shining Wolf]

    Just as he did to the crystal tear, Yuki double tapped the shining wolf fang out of curiosity to read its information chart.

    [Item type: Crafting]

    [Name: Shining Wolf Fang]

    [Rank: D]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: marital used to create the "moonlight sword". A female wolf once had many children at once. When she couldn''t take care of them, she abandoned all of them to starve. Once they died, they became reincarnated as zombie wolves. Since they couldn''t bear being alone, they stuck as a group all the time which made some of them fuse together.]

    It had been about 5 hours since Yuki had entered the dungeon. All he wanted to do was eat food and go to bed in the city. He missed having people around him. The loneliness was finally getting to him.

    "Okay look, I''ve already cleared 1/5 of the dungeon already so all I have to do is repeat this 4 more times then I can go back to my team with pride," Yuki told himself.

    As he entered through the gate way he heard a familiar voice.

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 3rd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 3 difficulty: level 2]

    "Nah, I''m done for the day. I need to get some rest anyway," Yuki said out loud.

    He lied down on the ground of the gate way and fell into deep slumber.

    Once he had woken up, Yuki felt a lot better.

    "I guess your healing abilities also improve as you level up. At least I can have an extra full status recovery potion with me," Yuki said to himself.

    He did a couple stretches and walked through the gate.

    "What is that smell? It reeks here!" Yuki said.

    Right in front of him was a pile of bones everywhere and a weird creature which had a bent back. As he kept walking, Yuki identally broke one of the bones on the ground which made a loud cracking sound. The weird creature turned its head around and looked straight at Yuki with its red eyes. In its mouth was a human hand which still had some flesh remaining. Yuki had to use all his strength not to vomit.

    "First it was skeletons then zombie wolves and now ghouls! I can''t catch a break," Yukiined.

    The ghoul jumped off the pile of bones and leaped towards Yuki with its mouth gaping wide open.

    "Straight to the battle, huh?"

    "That''s fine, less wasted time for me."

    [Hungry Ghoul: Allison]

    Above its head was a title just like the other monsters Yuki had faced in the dungeon. It also contained a name beside its title like the first stage.

    "Well, I guess I''ll have to finish this fast."

    Yuki grabbed "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory and prepared to block the attack. Feeling a bit more confident since he reached level 3, Yuki had let his guard down which was a big mistake. The ghoul bit down on the sword and kicked Yuki in the stomach which made him lose his grip on his sword. Yuki was now knocked back and also had no sword.

    "What a pain."

    Yuki pulled out two daggers from his inventory box and held a fighting stance. The ghoul threw "Fallen angel of hell" into the distance and began to rush towards Yuki. As it opened its mouth once again to take a bite, Yuki blocked it with his de. However, the ghoultched on to the side of the dagger and cracked it to pieces.

    "I can''t win this fight without fallen angel of hell, I need to cause a distraction so I can go get it," Yuki thought to himself.

    As the ghoul went in for another attack, Yuki stayed in the same position and waited for the right opportunity. Just as the ghoul got close enough, he ced his second dagger tip-upward, in the ghoul''s mouth and kicked its jaw. The tip of the dagger pierced through its inner skin and jammed itself within the ghoul''s head. Wasting no time, Yuki rushed towards his de. As he sprinted, he sensed the presence of the ghoul behind him.

    "I won''t have enough time to turn around to counter once I get my sword back. I guess I have no other choice," Yuki said to himself.

    He reached down for his sword and instead of turning around to face the ghoul, Yuki spun his sword around, making the de face backwards and pushed it with all his might. He felt the sword jab something and suddenly he couldn''t feel the bloodlust presence that was behind him any longer. Yuki let out a sigh of relief and fell to his knees.

    [+2500 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 3: 8600/50000]

    "Please tell me I don''t have to face more of them that strong, this monster was just as strong as the level 2 white haired mercenary I faced. Now that I think about it, this ghoul was probably stronger because it didn''t fear death which made it able to attack relentlessly."

    "I mean, the exp gained is a lot but fighting monsters that strong all day is too much work. Seriously though, why is this ce so big?"

    As Yuki walked in the endlessnd of bones, he spotted two more ghouls in the distance. Their red eyes glew within the darkness.

    "This has to be a joke. Why are there so many of these annoying creatures?!"

    Yuki pulled out "Lucky Sword" from his inventory and held both his treasured swords in hand.

    "I''ll need both of you to help me in this fight!"

    For 30 whole minutes, they exchanged blows, as each second passed, Yuki became more exhausted. The only thing that helped him keep doing was the adrenaline rush. Right as he was finally getting used to the movements of the two ghouls, he saw 7 sets of red eyes in the distance.

    "Shit!"

 Chapter 24 - Stage 4

    Even before getting a chance to analyze the figures in the distance, Yuki knew just by the red glow in their eyes that 7 more ghouls had shown up.

    "I could barely hold off two of these monsters, now I have to deal with 9 of them?!"

    "This is so rigged!"

    "That''s it! I was going to save this forter on in the dungeon but clearly, this dungeon doesn''t like me!"

    Just as he said that, Yuki opened his inventory and pulled out 1 speed, attack boost, and HP regeneration potions. He cracked each ss capsule with his bare hand as he drank the liquid flowing from them in the air.

    [+1.5x speed]

    [+1.5x attack]

    [5 minute automatic HP regeneration]

    As blood continued to flow from Yuki''s bitten shoulder, he smiled and rushed to one of the ghouls.

    [Hungry Ghoul: Trini]

    Yuki quickly sprinted towards it with his sword at his side and cut the ghoul in half using an upper cut slide. He had made a perfect slice which caused one half of the ghoul to fall to the ground before the other as it turned to dust.

    "Now! Who would like to go next!"

    [Hungry Ghoul: Alon]

    Yuki set his eyes on another ghoul, without a second thought, he threw "Fallen angel of hell" straight at it like a spear. The sword hit the ghoul right in the neck which instantly killed it.

    "I can''t drag this out any longer! I need to finish the rest of them with one blow!"

    Yuki held both "Lucky Sword" and "Fallen angel of hell" forward. With a single spin, Yuki cut down all the remaining ghouls.

    [Notice: Lucky Sword was used simultaneously with another sword. Effect: negated]

    [+22500 exp]

    "Well that sucks, I was hoping I would double the exp I earned. I guess it''s only fair that such an overpowered abilityes with its fair share of drawbacks."

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 3: 33600/50000]

    "Damn, I guess this dungeon isn''t actually all that bad. Even though it keeps giving me near impossible challenges to beat, it''s pretty rewarding."

    "If I''m getting this much exp from stage 3, the amount I''ll earn in stage 10 will be insane!"

    [Stage three: Complete]

    [Hungry ghouls: defeated]

    [Item drop: Scroll of Summoning: Ghoul]

    "Oh, so it''s just a piece of paper. I want to see what it does."

    Yuki double tapped on the scroll to open its information chart.

    [Rank: D]

    [Attack: ???]

    [Description: Power: able to summon a ghoul to fight for the user of the scroll for up to 5 minutes. The kingdom of Ligeia was once a cheerful and rich ce. However, once the king''s greed led their economy to crumble, the citizens began eating each other to survive which caused them to turn into ghouls. They were willing to do anything for food. So much that their subservience turned into this scroll.]

    "What a pathetic way to die."

    "Finally, I''vepleted the 3rd stage! I can''t believe that there are still 7 more of these painful stages toplete."

    Yuki began walking, which looked more like limping to the next gateway.

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 4rd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 4 difficulty: level 2-3]

    Yuki grabbed a full status recovery potion and drank it.

    "This feels much better!"

    "Well, here I go again." Yuki said as he walked forward into the 4th stage of the dungeon.

    The terrain was a desert. It was extremely hot which made Yuki sweaty and ufortable.

    "I guess this ce doesn''t run out of surprises. I wonder what kind of monster I''ll have to face now."

    From under the sand, creatures wrapped in some kind of white material started to appear.

    [Fortified Mummy: Mano]

    [Fortified Mummy: Inga]

    [Fortified Mummy: Ebba]

    [Fortified Mummy: Timur]

    [Fortified Mummy: J¨®na]

    [Fortified Mummy: Zsuzsanna]

    "I should''ve guessed. The only monster that coulde from a desert would be a mummy. Well, here Ie!"

    "Wait, shouldn''t undead monsters have less intelligence than average. I think this might actually work," Yuki thought to himself.

    There were about 6 mummies in front of Yuki. He quickly ran towards the mummies and grabbed the linen covering one of them. Linen in hand, Yuki ran around in circles and tied up the 6 mummies.

    "Well, that was a lot easier than I thought."

    "All that''s left is to kill them."

    Yuki grabbed "Fallen angel of hell" and swung it right at their neck in hopes of slicing all their heads at once and ending it with one blow. Instead of doing any damage, the sword defected off of their skin and wobbled. It was as if they were made of an iron wall.

    "So that''s their specialty is the defense attribute. How irritating!"

    "I guess I''ll have to use this again."

    Yuki once again opened his inventory and took out an attack potion. Before the mummies could escape, he quickly drank the potion. They kept struggling to escape from the linen so Yuki knew he didn''t have much time to finish this.

    [+1.5 attack]

    "Okay, how about now!" Yuki said as he swung his sword once again with all his might. This time, it caused a small scratch on the mummy.

    "Really? This was the best a 0.5 multiplier on my attack could do?" Yuki said with an irritated tone.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki grabbed 5 more attack potions and drank them all at once.

    "If this doesn''t work, I don''t have any hope of defeating this stage."

    Yuki pulled his sword back and swung it onest time with all his will power and strength. This time it worked, he cut through the mummies like they were a stick of butter.

    "Maybe I overdid it with the attack boost," Yuki thought to himself.

    [+600 exp]

    "Oh no, they only gave a small amount of exp. This means that either there is an army of them or..."

    Just as he said that, a giant figure appeared behind him

    "Or a mini boss monster will appear," Yuki finished.

    [Fortified Mummy Mini Boss: King Raza]

 Chapter 25 - Pharaoh Raza

    [Fortified Mummy Mini Boss: King Raza]

    In front of Yuki was a 15 feet giant mummy.

    "Just my luck, of course I had to face a giant mummy. Knowing the conditions of this stage, he''s probably level 3 just like me. However, he has his defense stat boosted."

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 4 more attack boost potions. Just like he had done previously, he opened the capsules as fast as he could and drank them all.

    [Yuki''s current attack boost: x5 multiplier]

    "I can''t keep wasting attack boost potions. This is only the 4th stage and I''ve already used 10 of them here. I need to use the 15 left wisely."

    Confident in himself, Yuki grabbed "Fallen angel of hell" and began charging towards king Raza. At the same time, Raza swung his arm at Yuki however, Yuki easily dodged it.

    "I see. So in exchange for an insane amount of defensive power, they decrease their stats in everything else."

    Once he dodged the attack, Yuki swung his de at Raza''s right arm in hopes of immobilizing his movements.

    To his surprise, Yuki had actually made a dent in Raza''s arm.

    "Wow! I doubted myself there for a second. I guess this is what a 5 times attack multiplies does."

    Before Raza could fight back, Yuki pulled his sword upwards and struck again, this time sessfully cutting off Raza''s hand.

    "Please don''t have any special abilities. For the life of all things good within this world, don''t have any special abilities!"

    Just then, Raza roared in pain.

    [Wrath activated]

    [Fortified Mummy Mini Boss: Enraged King Raza]

    The linen from Raza''s cut off hand began extending until it reached his shoulder and connected the separated part together. As Raza continued his ramage, he started banging on the ground, causing it to shake.

    "What a pain. I''ll have to finish this quickly."

    Yuki began to walk towards Raza as he prepared to finish the fight. Once Yuki was in his range of attack, Raza quickly threw a punch at him. Expecting the attack to be weak, Yuki attempted to block him with just one hand. Unexpectedly, Raza easily overpowered Yuki and sent him flying.

    Yukinded, back facing the ground into the sand. He felt all of his bones shattered. There was no way he could beat Raza.

    "Why is he this strong? I thought that he would lose most of his attack power because of his increased defense. Unless..."

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out another full status recovery potion and drank it.

    "I''ll have to leave the dungeon and stock up on potions. There hasn''t been any silver dropped by monsters here which means that I''ll either receive it at stage 10 once I finish the dungeon or if I''m lucky, I''ll get it at stage 5 for making it to the halfway point."

    Yuki began walking back to Raza. Once Raza noticed him, he began running towards Yuki to inflict more pain on him. As he ran, Yuki stood there waiting for the right moment. Just before Raza couldnd a hit, Yuki took a deep breath and jumped as he dodged Raza''s swing. Yukinded on Raza''s arm and used it to propel himself toward Raza''s neck.

    "Please let this work!"

    Yuki spun around in the air, cutting through Raza''s neck like butter and decapitating him.

    Therge figure began to lose its shape and all the linen covering it fell to the ground. Yuki sighed in relief and began making his way to the next gateway.

    "I thought so. When Raza went into his enraged state, he lost his defense and increased his attack."

    Just as Yuki began to rx once again he heard the sound of moving sand. As he turned his head, he saw the 15 feet monster to take shape once again.

    "At this point I''m not even mad. There''s no way I can win the battle."

    Yuki sat down and epted his fate. He didn''t have the will power to admit defeat and retreat. Right as he closed his eyes, a sudden thought came to his mind.

    "I should''ve thought of that before!"

    "Sometimes even my own genius frightens me," Yuki said out loud as heughed.

    [Open Inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Lucky Sword" and a speed potion. He drank the potion and held both swords forward. He quickly struck the des of his swords together to cause friction and start a fire. Thanks to the speed potion he consumed, it only took one try to cover both his swords in mes.

    "It''s too bad that you had to face someone who''s as intelligent as me Raza, maybe if it was anyone else you could''ve lived on. Goodbye, it just wasn''t your lucky day."

    As Yuki finished his speech, Raza alsopleted his regeneration process. As he began charging at Yuki for revenge, Yuki threw both his des at Raza.

    "I''m not risking more damage. Even if you block the swords, you''ll still catch on fire."

    As he expected, Raza blocked the swords thrown at him. Nevertheless, he still caught on fire and the mes spread quickly.

    "Burn! Burn to the ground!"

    Yuki still had arge amount of stamina left since he used a full status recovery potion so he was able to make his way to the next gate way with ease.

    "It''s been almost 2 days since I entered this dungeon. Each stage has been a living hell but I can feel it. I''m getting stronger with each passing second."

    [Stage four: Complete]

    [Fortified Mummies: defeated]

    [Fortified Mummy Mini Boss King Raza: defeated]

    [Item drop: Linen of life]

    Yuki double tapped on the scroll to open its information chart.

    [Rank: E]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: Improves health regeneration. The hunger of the ancient Ygyptians for immortality drove them to extreme lengths in which they believed that covering their dead body would preserve their body. However, the linen instead absorbed their life force and contained it within itself.]

    [+25000 exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 4: 9200/50000]

    "When I said I was getting stronger by the second I didn''t think I would level up. I mean, I''m notining."

    Once again that familiar sensation of power surging within Yuki''s blood came back. It was an addicting sensation which brought the yer immeasurable satisfaction. It was as if it was programmed to make the yer want to level up as fast as they could.

    Yuki finally walked through the 5th gate. The white glow blocking Yuki from viewing the next stage began to unveil just as it had previously.

 Chapter 26 - Stage 5

    The white glow blocking Yuki from viewing the next stage began to unveil just as it had previously.

    The new terrain was a dark forest. The wind was cold which made Yuki realize how much he was sweating in the extremely hot temperature in the 4th stage.

    "It''s almost magical the way the weather changes so drastically within each stage."

    The 5th stage reminded him of the 2nd stage in which the wolves resided. However, in this forest, the trees were much bigger, some even looked to be 100 feet tall.

    "I wonder what monster I''ll have to face now."

    In the distance he spotted around 30 figures. All of them were limping even though they were 15 feet or taller. Muscr giants which looked like they would dominate the wrestling field.

    "So it''s giant zombies now? This ce never ceases to amaze me."

    "Fallen angel of hell" in hand, Yuki began rusting towards them.

    "Come to think of it, this ce is really huge. I should take advantage of the terrain."

    Yuki instantly dove into the side of the forest, in turn making him invisible to the zombies.

    "A zombie''s weakness is the brain. All I need is one solid strike to their heads and they''ll fall to the ground."

    As he closed the distance, Yuki silently leaped onto the branch of the tree and used it as support to gain the height advantage.

    [Zombie Soldier: Kieran]

    Yuki jumped high in the air and without being noticed, he stuck his sword right in the skull of the zombie.

    It instantly fell to the ground and disintegrated.

    [+50 exp]

    "1 down, 29 to go."

    Yuki once again leaped to the other side of the forest before the zombies could close in on him. He kept using the branches to boost his momentum and strike down each zombie at a time. Once he finally took down each one of the zombies, Yuki noticed that he was extremely fatigued.

    [+1450 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 4: 10700/50000]

    "That took a lot more stamina than it should''ve. It was better than facing all of them at once though. They''re extremely slow, dumb, and easy to kill. That only leaves strength. One hit from them would probably do an insane amount of damage. I have to avoid getting hit at all costs."

    "The most frightening part of this is that I''m barely getting any exp from them. That probably means that there is an entire army of them waiting for me."

    Yuki kept moving forward without a single thought within his mind. His face was nk. His body was in auto pilot, all it hungered for was exp.

    After walking for some time, he noticed the smell of rotten flesh.

    "I guess that I made it."

    There was still an abundance of trees which limited Yuki''s movement however the entire area was littered with giant zombies.

    "Sneaking around likest time won''t work. I need a new strategy."

    Yuki quickly jumped on a branch of a tree and kept leaping from one brand to the other until he had reached his desired height of 60 feet. From there, Yuki held his sword, tip facing the ground and pinned it on the head of a zombie.

    "This is gonna be a living hell."

    Before the giant zombie fell to the ground and disintegrated, Yuki jumped from its shoulder andnded on his next target.

    [Zombie Soldier: Travers]

    Yuki sliced off its head before moving towards his next target. He did this countless times but no matter how hard he tried, It seemed as if there was an endless amount of them. Yuki let his guard down for a bit to catch his breath which was the worst thing he could''ve done. From the side, a giant palm pped him with the force of 20 trucks. He was instantly sent flying and crashed into a giant tree.

    [Zombie Soldier: Ewart]

    As the giant zombie reached down at the lifeless body of Yuki Kaito as he prepared to eat him, he felt his point of view change. For some reason, everything was upside-down and felt like he was falling. His head had been cut off so fast that he hadn''t realized it. To him, he was right about to enjoy a tasty meal.

    [Emergency skill: Wrath]

    [When more than 10% of the yer''s HP is lost due to a single attack, yer speed is boosted 10 times]

    Yukinded on his own two feet. He didn''t quite understand what was happening as his head still hurt a lot from being smacked to a tree. All he knew was that he felt a lot lighter and faster. As he took one step, he instantlynded at the shoulder of a giant zombie. For an unknown reason, it irritated him. From its enormous figure to its weird torn clothes and uncoordinated motion. All Yuki wanted to do was y all of them.

    "I don''t know what I''m feeling right now but I''ll just ept it. I don''t feel any fear or fatigue. I feel so light, it''s as if I''m being swallowed by the softest pillow in the universe."

    Yuki brought his sword to his side and made himself stop from thinking. His body went into automation. Once again he took a step forward however when he looked back, there was a trail of 10 dead zombies.

    "Did I really do that?"

    Without hesitation, Yuki kept moving forward. Each step he took left a trail of dead zombies which disintegrated into nothingness after a few seconds.

    "Am I really this strong? There''s no way I would be able to do this. If I was really this strong, I would''ve cleared the dungeon on my very first day here."

    "It doesn''t matter now, even if Ie to a conclusion, it doesn''t change the fact that I''m unbelievably strong right now. The best thing I can do is to take advantage of the opportunity I''ve been given."

    With a calm and gentle expression Yuki took down each and every single one of the 170 giant zombies standing in his way.

    [+8500 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 4: 19200/50000]

 Chapter 27 - Nuno

    "Was that all of them?"

    Yuki could no longer see a single zombie standing in his way.

    "Wait, thest stage had a mini boss, since this is a higher stage, shouldn''t it also have.."

    Just them a loud bang sound echoed all throughout the forest.

    "... a mini boss of its own."

    [Zombie Soldier Mini Boss: Nuno]

    A 40 feetrge zombie had fallen from the sky. It made all the previous zombies look like antspared to itself.

    "Just my luck. Wait, due to its increased size, it''ll be a lot slower than the zombies I''ve faced. On the other hand, it''ll also be much stronger. My only choice is to attack without getting hit a single time. It could probably kill with one hit. The faster I end this, the better."

    As Yuki began to get ready to attack, Nuno put his hand on the ground as his palm faced the trees and began moving arge group of them towards Yuki. To Nuno, it was just a group of skinny sticks.

    "This one seems to be different. He knows that he''s too slow so he''s taking advantage of his strength. He could be more of a threat than I thought.

    Yuki easily dodged the wall of giant trees by moving out of their way. Next, he ran as fast as he could to Nuno and sunk his de into his rotting flesh.

    "My sword isn''t long enough topletely cut through his hand. I guess I''ll do whatever I can to slow him down at least."

    While the sword was stuck in Nuno''s skin, Yuki held the hilt of his sword and ran horizontally as he tried to cut off Nuno''s arm. Since he expected to fail, when he started losing his grip because of gravity, Yuki pulled out his sword from Nuno''s arm and held it forward above his head. As he continued to fall, he waited until he reached Nuno''s thigh and stabbed it. Yuki managed to slow down his fall as he cut through Nuno''s thigh vertically.

    "Two birds with one stone!"

    Enraged by what had just urred, Nuno grabbed as many trees as he could and threw them all in the air.

    "Is he nuts? Maybe I made him too mad. No matter, I can easily dodge them."

    Before Yuki could take another step, Nuno held his hands together and started banging on the ground as hard as he possibly could which made the ground shake.

    "So this was your n? I took you too lightly."

    As Nuno continued his rampage, his right arm fell off due to the cuts Yuki had made before. Unable to move as he wished, Yuki was bombarded with an endless amount of giant trees until he was barricaded within them. Many of them had made direct contact with him which caused a lot of damage. Even with all that happened, Yuki didn''t feel any pain. All he thought was regret. He was too cocky due to his increased intelligence. He thought that just because he was smarter and faster, he could win the fight with ease.

    "Why does it always end like this?"

    [Emergency Notice: Retreat]

    [The yer had taken serious damage and seems to be unable to continue. Would you like to retreat? Under the condition you retreat, you will lose all exp earned on stage 5.]

    [Yes or No]

    "Is this really it? Was this the best I could do?"

    "I mean it''s always been like this. There was never anything special about me. I was always a second rate human. Everyone has been better than me. What gave me the right to think that I of all people would reach level 100 first? All I am is a worthless creature."

    "Stop! Even if I wasn''t special before, right now, I''m single handedly the strongest human in this world. Even if I were to lose my life in this world, I would return to being the strongest creature that has ever existed and will ever exist. While my luck wasn''t the best in my previous life, I won''t let the same thing happen to me again! I will be the first person to reach level 100 and rule the world!"

    Yuki selected no.

    [Emergency Skill: Life Support]

    [Under the condition that the yer is in a dungeon and has 5% of their maximum HP remaining, all physical capabilities are boosted 20 times]

    Yuki easily pushed away the trees that were holding him down with one hand.

    Nuno was walking away when he noticed Yuki''s presence. He turned to look at Yuki and grinned.

    "Even if you are able to think of a good strategy, you can''t recognize when someone is superior to you."

    Yuki stepped forward and was instantly standing at the shoulder of Nuno.

    "Now, fall before your king!"

    Yuki stopped on Nuno''s shoulder with his right leg which made Nuno''s legs sink into the ground. Yuki stepped off Nuno andnded on the ground with ease.

    Without any more control over his body, Nuno fell on his back.

    "How does it feel to be weak? To bepletely overpowered by someone. To have your destiny controlled by someone other than yourself. Now, be enveloped in despair!"

    For the first time, Nuno felt fear. He was no longer the king of his domain. An intruder had killed his subordinates and now was tormenting him.

    Enraged at his situation, Nuno brought his legs out of the ground and stood up to exact his revenge on Yuki. He began to scream to make his presence known throughout his forest.

    "How pitiful. It doesn''t matter how strong you may be. I stand above you. Zombie Soldier Mini Boss: Nuno, you are nothing but an insect to me."

    Before Nuno couldnd a hit, Yuki jumped high in the air. He held "Fallen angel of hell" in his hand and threw it down at Nuno like a spear. The impact of the attackpletely obliterated Nuno''s head. Atst Nuno fell to the ground and disintegrated.

    [Zombie Soldier Mini Boss Nuno: defeated]

 Chapter 28 - Stage 6

    [Zombie Soldier Mini Boss Nuno: defeated]

    [+20000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 4: 39200/50000]

    [Item drop: Pot of greed]

    Yuki double tapped on the brown pouch to open its information chart.

    [Rank: X]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Contains 200000 silver]

    "So no back story for this stage?"

    Just as he said that an object dropped from the sky.

    [Item drop: Coat of rotten flesh]

    Yuki once again double tapped on the scroll to open its information chart.

    [Rank: B]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: makes the user of this coat invisible to undead monsters. In a world unknown to all, there was a horrible war in ce. As ast line of defense, the losing party forcibly mutated their soldiers to be giant fighting zombies for them. In their hurry, the serum was iplete which caused the zombies to turn on their masters.]

    "Guess I spoke to soon."

    "A B ranked item might actually be the best thing I can find here. It''s probably only a B rank because of its stealth abilities. Other than that, it''s just a piece of fabric that smells like dead skin."

    Yuki walked forward like he had done multiple times over the past 5 days until he reached the 6th gateway of the dungeon.

    [Stage five: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 6th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 6 difficulty: level 3-4]

    Yuki opened his inventory once again and drank a full status recovery potion.

    "Here I go again. Once more I''ll put my life on the line for my dreams. I''m starting to enjoy this."

    As Yuki walked through the gateway, the white light blocking his view of the next stage began to disintegrate.

    The new terrain was a grassy field that went on as far as the eye can see. It was a refreshing sight. There were butterflies and other beautiful creatures.

    "Is this some sort of a mistake? Why does an undead dungeon have something this beautiful?"

    As Yuki walked through the grassy field in hopes of finding the monsters on this stage he spotted a dark figure in the distance. It was a human sized shadow figure. It seemed to not have a physical form. As each second went by, the shadowy figure would lose its shape and reforms.

    Yuki put on the "Coat of rotten flesh" to hide his presence and observe. As he continued to watch the shadow he noticed that around the figure, there was a perfectly made ck circle. Once some time passed, a butterfly approached the figure and attempted tond on it.

    "How sweet, maybe he''s just another harmless creature from this world."

    Just then, the butterflynded on the figure. First it began to dry up, next it turnedpletely ck and shattered into hundred of pieces.

    "Of course you break too, you should''ve nevere to me. All I can do is destroy. I would be better dead," the shadow figure thought.

    Yuki was hearing the thoughts of someone else.

    "Who is that?!" Yuki began to panic.

    "There''s only one suspect, it''s probably the shadow. So it''s a self hating unstable phantom now?"

    "How does it count as an undead though? Maybe because it''s dead inside?" Yuki began to analyze.

    "It doesn''t matter, either way that thing is a threat. I shouldn''t be careless around it."

    When Yuki took a closer look at the shadow, he noticed something above its head.

    [Corrupted Soul Mini Boss: Meurig]

    "Wait so he''s a mini boss? No wonder he''s so strong. I guess there aren''t any small fry to deal with after stage 5. This makes my job a lot easier."

    Yuki opened his inventory tab and pulled out two daggers. Using his index finger and his thumb, he threw one of them as fast as he possibly could at Meurig. To Yuki''s surprise, it was easily caught by Meurig and the dagger began to turn ck and disintegrate.

    "Where did thate from? It doesn''t matter now, I deserved to be stabbed by it, I wish I didn''t stop it." Meurig thought to himself.

    Yuki continued to hear Meurig''s thoughts.

    "Is this part of the stage? Should I be able to hear him? And why does he hate himself so much?" Yuki thought.

    Yuki pulled out another dagger from his inventory.

    "How about we try this now." Yuki said.

    Two daggers in hand, Yuki threw the first one directly at Meurig once again. However since he knew that he would catch it on instinct, Yuki sprinted to the side and threw another dagger which was aimed at the left hand of Meurig. Yuki did this all while staying invisible due to the effects of "Coat of rotten flesh".

    While Meurig managed to block the first dagger, however the second once hit him directly in his left arm. Meurig started to scream in pain while he cried. He began running around uncontrobly. As he took each step, a one meter diameter would lose all its life force and disintegrate, the grass would turn ck and the animals would die.

    "So he''s basically a ss cannon. He has immense power but all it would take is one solid hit to kill him." Yuki thought.

    "Even if this seems easy, I''ll have to be careful around him. All he also needs is one solid hit to kill me as well."

    "I wanted to learn more about him, but my safetyes first."

    Yuki quickly sprinted towards Meurig. He jumped high in the air, dagger in hand and tied to stab him. Meurig was surprised but he caught it. A sudden chill went in Yuki''s spine. The feeling of death. He had felt it once before when he jumped off his balcony and ended his life. Unlikest time, the feeling remained.

    "I''m not going to die here!"

    Yuki used the hilt of his sword to repeal himself before it disintegrated. His breathing had be heavy. He had almost died. All he wanted to do was puke because of the shock.

    "I need to end this as fast as possible, I don''t want to continue fighting this thing any longer."

    His legs were shaking in fear.

 Chapter 29 - Meurig

    Unable to move his legs due to his fear, Yuki stood still as he watched the shadow.

    "I''m so lucky I put on this coat. Without it, I would be dead."

    "I can''t use ''Lucky Sword'' or ''Fallen angel of hell'' since all it would take is one tap from him to make them disintegrate."

    "From the looks of it, it can''t see my des until they leave my hand. Secondly, I can actually do damage to him using any object. However after 1 second it''ll disintegrate. I''ll have to continue to rely on my daggers."

    Yuki opened his inventory once again. He took out as many daggers as he could hold, which was 8 daggers within each gap in his fingers. He threw 4 of them all at once to serve as a decoy. Next, Yuki ran behind Meurig at incredible speed and threw 3 more daggers and left one behind just in case.

    Meurig caught all 7 daggers and made them turn to dust. Enraged that all his efforts went to waste, Yuki charged with hisst dagger.

    "You can hide your body but not your intent to kill," Meurig spoke.

    Meurig grabbed onto Yuki''s arm with his left hand and removed the dagger in Yuki''s hand with his right arm and made it disintegrate.

    "I guess I was too cocky. And just when things were beginning to get fun."

    Instead of disintegrating, Yuki''s body fell to the ground.

    "Why are you trying to kill me? What did I ever do to hurt you?" Meurig asked.

    Yuki was still recovering from the attack he had taken.

    "How am I not dead? Does that mean he can control his ability and why is he keeping me alive?" Yuki asked himself.

    "Right! I need to calm myself down. He still can''t see me which means that the only way he can sense me is by detecting my emotions."

    Yuki took some deep breaths and began to formte a n. He needed a way to kill Meurig without having to sacrifice a treasured de. As Yuki continued to evaluate his choices, Meurig decided to give up on finding out who his attacker was.

    "Why is he sitting down again? Is this part of his strategy?" Yuki began to panic.

    "I don''t understand why you would attack someone you''ve never met. Do you get some sort of enjoyment from murder. Is that your secret fetish?" Meurig said out loud.

    "Am I seriously being lectured by a monster? Why is he trying to reason with me? Isn''t his only purpose to try to kill me?" Yuki thought.

    While Yuki was still suspicious of Meurig, he couldn''t sense any bloodlust or other evil intentions behind his words. Yuki wanted to learn more about Meurig and the dungeon as a whole. While Yuki knew the basicposition of the world, he didn''t quite understand everything. He had only informed Zero what he had dreamed of. All the specifics were dealt by Zero himself.

    Yuki hesitated but nevertheless he decided to incinerate a conversation with Meurig.

    Yuki: Why aren''t you trying to kill me?

    Meurig: What do you mean? Is it normal to go around killing anyone without having a reason?

    Yuki: But you''re a monster. It''s your job to kill the yer and it''s also the yer to kill you.

    Meurig: Who said it was my job to do that?

    Yuki: The system did! Zero is a fragment of my supreme form. I know for a fact that he didn''t make any mistakes when he was making this world!

    Yuki: Matter of fact, give me a second.

    "Zero! Heed my call! Speak to me at once!"

    ...

    "Yes master, how may I be of assistance to you at this moment?" Zero replied telepathically.

    "Did you make a mistake when you created the 6th stage of the undead dungeon?" Yuki asked.

    "No I have not. I have made it so that there is not a single mistake within this world," Zero answered.

    "So why isn''t this monster trying to kill me? Exin yourself!" Yuki was beginning to get irritated. Even though Zero was infinitely stronger than him, Yuki had gotten used to looking down on Zero.

    "Yes my master. It would be an honour to exin how this stage works," Zero replied.

    "Meurig is a monster which is able to make anything disintegrate under the condition that they are weaker than him. This was why you stayed alive instead of turning into nothingness like your daggers. Under normal circumstances you would either kill him or be killed depending on who''s stronger. The problem is that you have a different outlook on this world. While others will ignore his pleading, you decided to analyze him. This wasn''t because you are generous, it was just a simple matter of understanding. If you didn''t know about the configurations of this world as well as having me as a backup n, you would have surely killed Meurig with no hesitation."

    "Was that exnation to your liking master?" Zero asked.

    Yuki pretended to understand what Zero had said.

    "So what you''re basically saying is that Meurig is just a psychological trick?" Yuki replied with a question of his own.

    "You could say that." Zero replied.

    Yuki now turned his attention to Meurig.

    "Before I finish you off, I have one question for you. Why are you so sad all the time? For some reason I can hear your thoughts and you think so negatively about yourself." Yuki asked while he didn''t understand why he could do so. His first and only hypothesis as to why he was able to do so was because he was telepathically speaking to Zero and in doing so while keeping his attention on Meurig, he was able to speak telepathically to Meurig as well. Another simpler thought would''ve been that it was just part of the stage.

    "Master, I might have the answer to that question." Zero spoke.

    "When creating this world, I created a history for it which never existed. All the creatures, including NPCs, have false memories imnted into them. I thought it would bring more realism to this world."

    "Well done Zero! You never disappoint me!" Yuki congratted him.

    "I greatly appreciate your words. It is an honour to be praised by you." Zero replied.

    Yuki thought for a couple minutes. He didn''t want to waste the opportunity to gain something powerful. While it would be considered cheating, Yuki didn''t care. Why should he not take advantage of the privilege he had?

    "Hey Meurig, what would you say to being my ally? You can leave this dump and explore the world with me and we''ll also find a way to cure you of your unreasonable sadness," Yuki asked.

 Chapter 30 - Stage 7

    "Hey Meurig, what would you say to being my ay?" Yuki said as he lifted the coat which made him invisible.

    Yuki knew that the purpose of Meurig was to be a monster that would eventually be killed by the yer to gain exp. However, Yuki wanted to take advantage of the situation. He knew that Zero could make anything possible including, giving Meurig a human conscience.

    "Why do you want me to be your ally?" Meurig asked.

    "Personally, having someone who can make anything disintegrate as an ay sounds pretty cool. While you do have to be stronger than your opponent to activate it and your defense is pretty weak, I''m willing to make the exception for you," Yuki replied.

    "And what will you do if I refuse your offer?" Meurig asked.

    "I would kill you even if I had to use all my daggers and im the exp that I would get before going on to the next dungeon," Yuki humbly replied.

    "Sounds like I have no choice in this matter. I''ll join you as your ay," Meurig agreed.

    "Great!"

    "Hey Zero, I have one more question. Meurig only needs to be stronger to activate his ability which means that if I weaken the enemy first, he can activate it right?" Yuki asked.

    "You would be correct master. The condition is that Meurig needs to be stronger than his enemy at that time to activate his power," Zero replied.

    "Thank you for all your help. Please give Meurig a human conscience. However, don''t change his physical form. I find it quite mysterious and amazing. Once you have done that, you can leave," Yuki told Zero.

    "As you wish, master."

    Suddenly Meurig''s mind went nk and he fell to his knees. Momentster, he stood up like nothing had happened.

    [yer: Meurig]

    [Level 3: 20000/40000]

    "I have also given him the knowledge of the mechanics of this world. It''ll make him much less of a burden on you master," Zero said.

    "I shall take my leave now."

    Yuki was now feeling much better than he had before. Now that someone who could literally kill anyone in an instant was on his side, he didn''t need to fear for his life any longer. All he needed to do was weaken the enemy and Meurig would take care of the rest.

    "Okay, we should start heading to the next gateway," Yuki said.

    "And before I forget, take this."

    Yuki said as he took off his coat of invisibility.

    "I''ll weaken the enemy and you''lle in and finish them off with your ability. We''ll divide the exp. It doesn''t matter how much damage each person does, the exp will be automatically divided equally amongst all contributing members," Yuki informed Meurig.

    "How can you be so sure of that?" Meurig asked.

    "I trained other people to fight monsters, when they got in trouble I came in to save them. Once I had killed the monster, everyone got the exact amount of exp," Yuki said as he remembered Jobon, Rui, and Katsumi.

    "I wish I could see them again, I''ll return safely to all of you!" Yuki said to himself.

    Yuki and Meurig both walked to the next gateway together.

    [Stage six: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 7th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 7 difficulty: level 4]

    "Before we enter the next stage, I want you to remember, don''t be scared. Undead monsters can''t see you as long as you''re wearing that coat. If I need any assistance, please look out for my back," Yuki said as he smiled back at Meurig.

    Yuki and Meurig walked through the white light blocking their view from the 7th stage. The new terrain was a dark cave. Instantly, bats started to fly in their direction. Meurig quickly went in front of Yuki and stuck his palm out. As each bat made contact with him, it began to turn to dust. The disintegration activated a chain effect. When a bat that had already begun to disintegrate made contact with another bat, the effect transferred in turn creating a chain of destruction.

    "Thanks, they could''ve gotten very annoying to deal with," Yuki said.

    Meurig nodded back to him.

    "I''m pretty sure I have a good idea of what we are going to face in this stage," Yuki told Meurig.

    Just then arge figure wearing a ck cape started flying towards Yuki and Meurig. With barely enough time to react, Yuki moved in front of Meurig and pulled out "Lucky Sword" to block the white hand that was reaching for Yuki''s neck. While the figure was targeting Yuki, he would''ve attacked Meurig instead since he was in the front.

    [Royal Vampire Mini Boss: Hugo]

    "I thought so! You''re a vampire!" Yuki said out loud.

    "Meurig move back," Yuki whispered.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory.

    "I know what I need to do. I''ll finish this before you can even begin to understand what''s happening to you," Yuki told Hugo.

    "I''ve already wasted so much time in this dungeon, I can''t start to bezy. I''ve alreadye too far,"

    Just like he had done in the 4th stage of the dungeon, Yuki began to rub the edges of the two swords together to cause friction. He didn''t need to use a speed potion likest time since he boosted his speed stat when he leveled up.

    It only took Yuki 1 try to set both his des in mes. The vampire began to get tired of just standing there. While levitating, Hugo elerated himself and grabbed hold of Yuki''s head and mmed him to a wall. Yuki nearly went unconscious in an instant. Yuki hated the feeling he was having. The extreme pain in his head wouldn''t go away.

    "Don''t you have any manners?!"

    Yuki began to stabilize himself. Both of his treasured swords in hand, he buried his feet in the ground and used them to propel himself at incredible speed.

    "Burn!"

 Chapter 31 - Hugo

    "Burn!" Yuki said as he plunged his swords into Hugo.

    He didn''t understand why he was mad. All Yuki wanted to do was torture and kill, this wasn''t the case for Hugo only, it applied to everyone in the dungeon and some outside. Anyone who tried to attack Yuki would pay for it with their lives.

    "You like that? Don''t ever try to attack me again, you''re a second rate creaturepared to me!" Yuki said as he moved away from Hugo''s burning body.

    After only what seemed like a few seconds, a figure walked forward from the mes.

    "I gave everything I had into thatst attack, there''s no way that he''ll be alive." Yuki said.

    Before he could catch his breath, Hugo punched Yuki in the stomach as hard as possible. Yuki struggled to breath, before he could even perceive what was happening, Hugo lifted his leg above Yuki''s head and kicked his head down. Yuki hit the ground and created a small crater which was the size of his head. His eyes were going ck, he could hear a voice but didn''t understand what it was saying. Just then he remembered that Meurig was watching him.

    "Stay back and wait for my signal!" Yuki yelled out loud.

    "Who were you talking to?" Hugo asked.

    "You can talk?" Yuki replied with a question of his own.

    "Of course I can talk! I am literally a better version of a human!"

    "You know what, forget it. I''ll first kill you then kill whoever you were talking to."

    Hugo strengthened his fist and prepared to crush Yuki''s skull. Right before Hugo''s attacknded, Yuki rolled out of the way and stood up.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out an HP recovery potion and drank it.

    "I can''t be using the rest of my full status recovery here, I still have 3 stages left which are guaranteed to be harder than this one."

    "I''ll have to weaken him down then rely on Meurig to disintegrate him once he''s been worn down," Yuki told himself.

    One again Yuki rubbed the edges of his des together and let mes consume them. For the next 4 minutes Yuki and Hugo exchanged blows. The only thing that kept Yuki going was the adrenaline rush.

    "I don''t know how much longer I canst, I''ll have to y dirty," Yuki said to himself.

    Using his left hand which was carrying "Lucky Sword", Yuki made a fake attack. He pretended to put all his strength into that de which made Hugo smile. As expected Yuki''s attack was blocked.

    "You fool, I''ve won!" Hugo said out loud.

    For some reason Hugo felt himself getting shorter or it was Yuki who was getting taller. When he looked down he saw that his legs were missing and Yuki''s other sword "Fallen angel of hell" was covered in blood. Hugo began to connect the pieces when he suddenly began screaming in pain. Hugo was now facing the ceiling. With absolutely no hesitation Yuki cut off both of Hugo''s arms.

    "Now!"

    Meurig took the hint and came rushing towards Hugo. Meurig kneeled next to him and ced his palm on Hugo''s chest.

    "Disintegrate" Meurig said out loud. To both Yuki and Meurig''s surprise, Hugo''s limbless body was still there.

    In less than a second, Hugo bit on Meurig''s arm. Even though he couldn''t see him, he could sense Meurig''s natural death emitting aura. Meurig had been trying to suppress it however it wasn''t useful when he was centimetres away from his enemy.

    Hugo began to slowly suck on Meurig''s arm. Yuki knew that the vampire could regenerate using blood however the real question was if Meurig even had blood. Meurig was just a shadowy figure withrge white eyes.

    Hugo''s limbs began to levitate in the air and moved towards Hugo until they had finally connected back to the main body.

    Yuki could see Meurig''s body wobble as he lost most of his strength. Before his body shrivelled up and turned to dust, Yuki grabbed Meurig and moved him to the side.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out a full status recovery potion and poured it into Meurig''s mouth.

    With rage in his eyes Yuki marched forward with the intent to kill.

    Yuki returned "Lucky Sword" back into his inventory.

    "I''ll need my ''Fallen angel of hell''. I swear by my name and pride I will make you pay." Yuki told Hugo.

    As Yuki walked forward, Hugo also did the same until they reached a standstill. Hugo was quick to throw the first attack. He threw a punch straight at Yuki''s face. Yuki didn''t bother to block it.

    "Is that the best you got?" Yuki taunted Hugo/

    Before Hugo could move his hand away, Yuki sliced it off so fast that Hugo didn''t even see the de. As Hugo began to panic, Yuki sliced off his other arm. Then his right leg, next was his left leg. Hugo''s body was once again on the floor as blood flowed out of him like a stream.

    "Don''t ever mess with me!" Yuki screamed at Hugo.

    "How is it fair that youe through my domain with the full intention to murder me and when I try to defend myself I be the vin? I actually have a reason to kill you, what''s yours? Are you the one here who is being attacked for no reason?" Hugo asked with anger and despair in his eyes.

    Yuki didn''t have an answer for any of Hugo''s questions.

    "For a monster who''s part of a game, he has a veryplex thought process. Is this also Zero''s doing?" Yuki asked himself.

    "I''m sorry, I don''t have an answer for any of your questions. I came here to achieve my dreams. I don''t care what kind of actions I have tomit to get them, I''ll keep moving forward regardless of whates through my way." Yuki responded.

    "May you rest in peace," Yuki said as he sliced off Hugo''s head using "Fallen angel of hell".

    [Royal Vampire Mini Boss Hugo: defeated]

    Yuki began walking back to Meurig. Just as he had expected, Meurig looked as healthy as he could be. It was only natural since he had used a full status recovery potion.

    "If I may ask, how were you able to defeat him? No offence but it looked like he had the advantage for most of the battle until the end when you easily beat him," Meurig asked Yuki.

    "Oh, that''s simple. Remember when I gave you the full status recovery potion? I took out two attack boost potions and drank them. Without them, there''s no way I would''ve won," Yuki replied.

    [+30000 exp to Yuki kaito]

    [+30000 exp to Meurig]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 5: 19200/60000]

    [New skill unlocked: Faker]

    [Faker: Ability to hide or augment any personal information]

    [yer: Meurig]

    [Level 4: 10000/50000]

 Chapter 32 - Rest

    [Item drop: Potion of vampire blood]

    Yuki double tapped on the item to open its information chart.

    [Rank: E]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: pouring the potion on an injury causes instant physical body healing however this item does not recover HP. The gift of immortality is something which everyone desires. God once gave this gift to a group of humans, however with everything good, there''s also evil. In exchange for the ability to live forever, the gifted humans had to eat other humans. These gifted humans became known as "vampires''''. The vampires quickly became outnumbered and ughtered. In fear, the vampires began to hide and only attack at night in which the human forces were weakened. The life force (blood) gained from killing the vampires was used as medicine to heal the ones that needed it most.]

    Yuki and Meurig both walked to the next gate way together which took them about 2 hours. The stages were getting bigger as they went on. This wasn''t surprising as the dungeons were designed to take a long time to clear. For an average person who was casually trying to level up, it would take them at least a year to clear one dungeon. Since Yuki was trying to avoid having to waste time, he wanted to spend no more than 2 weeks in the dungeon, however it was getting eerily close to that time frame since he had entered the dungeon.

    "Even if I take longer than 2 weeks, I still have an advantage over the rest of the world since only a few people should be lucky enough to find a dungeon," Yuki thought to himself.

    [Stage seven: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 8th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 8 difficulty: level 4-5]

    "Want to take a break here?" Meurig asked.

    "Sure. I don''t want to use my remaining potions here. I want to save them until thest stage or at least the stage before that," Yuki replied.

    "I can''t continue to rely on these potions, all they do is cover my weaknesses. Just because they can help me now, doesn''t mean that those weaknesses don''t exist, they just be invisible for a short period of time," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Sorry to ask but what should I address you as? I''ve just met you and we haven''t had a chance to talk so I wanted to take the opportunity to get to know you if you''re okay with that," Meurig said.

    "I don''t mind at all. You can just refer to me as Yuki."

    "Now that I answered you, I want you to answer my questions," Yuki proposed.

    "I''ll try my best," Meurig replied.

    Yuki: You must know by now that each monster here gives a special item. That item has a special power to it, however, what I''m interested in is the stories behind them. I didn''t kill you which means I never received your item, in turn not learning your story. Who are you?

    Meurig: I am Meurig. I used to have a family which consisted of my mom, dad, and younger sister. I never really spent time with them, I was more of the distant type. Before I realized it, I was spending most of my days alone.

    Yuki: How did you get here?

    Meurig: To be honest, I don''t know. I went to sleep one day and woke up here the next.

    Yuki: How long has it been since you came here.

    Meurig: The ce I was in never had a day cycle. The sun was always up which made it hard to tell when the day had passed. It felt like I had spent years or even decades there.

    Yuki: Wait! I want to try something.

    Yuki: Do you see a small gear at the top right corner of your line of vision?

    Meurig: Yes. I was wondering what that was. No matter where I go, it always seems to be there.

    Yuki: Good. Try tapping it

    Meurig: Okay.

    Meurig: A giant screen popped up in front of me. There are so many options here.

    Yuki: Don''t worry. Now, do you see something that says "Profile"? If so click on it.

    Meurig: Okay. I see some other things now.

    Yuki: Do you see something that says "Age:"

    Meurig: Yes I do! It says 16.

    Yuki''s heart skipped a beat.

    "I figured so," Yuki said out loud.

    "You were probably right. You probably spent eons in that stage. The problem wasn''t you, it was Zero. He isn''t confined by thews of space and time which allows him to augment anything within this reality. How scary! If he only has a fragment of the power I once had, I wonder what kind of creature I was previously?" Yuki was saying his own thoughts.

    "Yuki I don''t get it. You keep talking about all this nonsense, is something wrong?" Meurig asked with concern.

    "Don''t worry about it. I was just thinking out loud. There are only 3 stages left in this dungeon and we can finally leave this ce! Aren''t you excited?" Yuki asked with a big smile on his face.

    "Of course I am!"

    "More importantly though, sorry for holding you back earlier. I shouldn''t have let my guard down," Meurig apologized.

    "Hey, don''t worry about it! We got out of there and that''s all that matters!" Yuki replied.

    "You''re pretty strong you know. Anyone would be jealous to have that power. You have that insane power and also have an ability slot on top of that! You should be more happy and proud. I''ll need your help in the future, don''t let me down!" Yuki tried to cheer Meurig up.

    Yuki and Meurigid down on the stone wall which was part of the gateway leading to the next stage. The gateway was about 10 meters long, 4 meters wide and 5 meters high. There were deep engravings all across the hallway. The engravings lit up light blue, they seemed to calm the mind. Yuki and Meurig began to get sleepy. They talked through the night until they finally fell asleep.

 Chapter 33 - Stage 8

    Yuki and Meurig eventually awakened from their slumber. They organized themselves and prepared to head into the next stage of the dungeon.

    "Ready?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes. I''ll try my best to assist you!" Meurig responded.

    One again they stepped through the gateway and as the white light began to disintegrate, the 8th stage became visible. It was arge castle structure. There are many pirs holding up the structure. At the top of each pir, there was a pole which was responsible for hanging up a red g. At the side of the walls there were podiums which had arge structure on top of them. The structures looked like hollow armour shells. Even before having a chance to observe the new terrain properly, Yuki knew what his new enemies were going to be. Just as Meurig walked through the gateway with his cloak, tworge swords immediately sunk deep into the ground in turn blocking the gate way.

    [Courageous knight: Tobias]

    [Courageous knight: Wim]

    "Meurig, stay back!"

    As the hollow statues began their attack, Yuki skillfully dodged them and retaliated. It had be muscle memory by now. It wasn''t the first time he was fighting against creatures that were muchrger than him.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a dagger as well as "Fallen angel of hell". He threw the dagger at Tobias but it simply deflected off of him.

    "It''s no use, I''ll have to use a different strategy," Yuki said.

    He could see about 20 other knights in the distance closing in on him. As he continued his 2 on 1 fight, he tried toe up with a n as fast as possible so he could get out of this mess.

    "The mini boss isn''t even here so I can''t afford to waste all my energy with them," Yuki said.

    Just then a brilliant idea popped into Yuki''s head.

    "Meurig! Once I knock down a knight, close in on it as fast as you can and make it disintegrate!" Yuki yelled.

    Meurig nodded back to signal that he had gotten the message. He couldn''t talk since he didn''t want to give away his location.

    Yuki leaped into the air andnded on Tobias''s head. With no remorse, Yuki kneeled down and punched Tobias''s head as hard as he could. As the hollow knight began to fall to the ground, Yuki jumped off andnded on Wim''s shoulder.

    "Now!" Yuki yelled.

    Without wasting a single second, Meurig rushed to Tobias and ced his palm on the knight''s arm. Within mere milliseconds, Tobias disintegrated. Before Meurig could rest, he heard a loud crashing sound. When he looked forward, he noticed that Wim''s body was on the ground.

    "Already?!" Meurig said to himself.

    Reluctantly Meurig sprinted towards William before he could get up and made him disintegrate. This process continued for over half an hour. While Meurig wanted to stop, he understood that Yuki was working much harder than him. While all this was going on, Yuki realized something was off.

    "Hey Meurig! Have you gained any exp since we entered this stage?" Yuki asked.

    Meurig shook his head from one side to another to signify that he hadn''t.

    "I thought so. Stay back for now, don''t disintegrate the knights anymore," Yuki told Meurig.

    Yuki knocked down one more knight before running back towards Meurig.

    "Please tell me this will work!" Yuki thought to himself.

    He quickly got under the clock and wrapped himself around it. The knights looked into his direction but then turned away. Yuki let out a sigh of relief and began thinking of a new n.

    "There''s no need to attack them any longer. No matter how many we kill, more of them will just show up. It''s probably someone''s ability."

    "Wait! Monsters can''t have abilities. Could it be a spell of some sort? I know that NPC mages could use spells but could that rule apply to monsters as well?"

    "It''s safe to assume that there is someone controlling these knights. In a medieval setting, there would be a monarch in the form of a king which rules over the kights. Even so, how is it possible for a king to have an infinite amount of manpower, it''spletely insane," Yuki thought out loud.

    Yuki was stressing himself out trying to figure out a way to get through this stage of the dungeon. As he continued to lose himself in thought, a hand grabbed his shoulder. It was Meurig. Yuki almost fell out of the coat which would make him an easy target for the on looking knights.

    "It''s okay. You''re overthinking this, all we have to do is walk right past them. We''repletely invisible to them," Meurig whispered to him.

    "I don''t know how I could be so dense. I''m probably just exhausted from all the constant fighting," Yuki responded.

    They both smiled at each other and began to slowly walk past the knights. They made sure that they didn''t make a single sound as it would mean the end for both of them. Yuki hadn''t realized it before. The castle was extraordinarilyrge. The hall which contained the hollow knights alone took 10 minutes to walk though. To the left of it was a dining room the size of a mansion. While everything else was big, the dining table was built for a human. It was long enough to host 40 people but it was short enough that ordinary humans could dine in it.

    "Is this ce built by giants so that a human could live in it?" Yuki asked sarcastically.

    Heughed it off and took a look at the right side of the castle. While it wasrge, it was very odd. Yuki had just noticed that the entire castle was lit up by torches andnterns. He just assumed it was the designer''s choice to not include any windows. Yuki and Meurig continued their journey throughout the castle. The entire ce was filled with knights however they couldn''t spot the two intruders as they were invisible to them. After what seemed like years, Yuki and Meurig arrived at a giant wooden 2 doored entrance. They both knew that behind it was the throne room.

 Chapter 34 - King

    Yuki and Meurig looked at each other and nodded before finally opening the door. Whatever was behind it, they were going to face it together. Right in front of them was a red carpet which led up to a staircase that held the throne. Sitting at the throne was a bearded man with long ck hair with a crown at the top. Without a doubt, he was the king. At his side were two other men with full gold armour which shined brighter than the sun. Their chest te contained red engravings which were there for design purposes. When looked at from the right angle, they began to glow. In front of the king was a fully iron armoured guard. While his armour wasn''t as fancy as the two others behind him, his sword emanated a terrifying aura. It was sunk into the ground just like the stories of Excalibur. At the top of the king''s head was abel like all other monsters.

    [King of humanity Mini boss: Lydie]

    The golden guards at his side also hadbels.

    [Trusted golden guard: Evert]

    [Trusted golden guard: Oedipus]

    Yuki finally turned his attention to the iron armoured guard.

    [One man army: Kenan]

    Wasting absolutely no time, Evert flies toward Yuki, fist facing forward. On instinct, Yuki moves his head out of the way. He grabs Evert by the arm and kicks his elbow using his knee. Yuki had easily dislocated Evert''s arm. While this was an aplishment, Yuki''s attention was on Kenan. Yuki began to approach the throne while he left Evert on the ground. As he moved forward, Yuki was hit right across the side of his face and sent flying to the wall making a crack. When he began to regain his vision, Evert was looking down on him as his arm continued to wobble from being broken. Annoyed by it, Evert twisted and removed his broken left arm with no hesitation.

    Right before Evert couldnd another punch to Yuki, a foot kicked him from his side and sent him flying as well. Meurig was the one looking at Yuki now. He held out his hand and helped Yuki get back on his feet.

    "The golden guards are most likely attack boosted undead monsters, it''s better if youpletely incapacitate them yourself. I can''t use my attacks on someone with a higher attack than me. The only way I would be stronger than them is if you remove all of their limbs, at that point you could just kill them yourself," Meurig said.

    Yuki hadn''t told Meurig before, however, he didn''t feel that Meurig was capable of being any help to him. That was why Yuki tried to do everything on his own and leave the weak creatures to Meurig. Now that Meurig was finally showing some initiative, Yuki felt a lot better about their situation.

    "Sounds good! No one in this dungeon can see you other than me since you''re still wearing that coat so you should try to sneak up behind the king and kill him."

    "Once the head of the operation is defeated, his henchmen begin to lose form," Yuki said.

    "How can you be so sure that if we kill the king, his guards will also die? Wouldn''t it be safer to take out his guards first then attack the king together," Meurig suggested.

    Evert began to rise from the rubble and started attacking Yuki. While doing hand to handbat, Yuki continued his conversation with Meurig.

    Yuki: Remember how the knights we were facing before didn''t drop any exp?

    Meurig: Yes... what does that have to do with this?

    Yuki: Can you feel their presence anymore?

    Meurig: No I can''t. I don''t understand what you''re getting at.

    Yuki: Each stage within this dungeon after the 5th one only contains one monster known as the mini boss. It doesn''t make any sense that this stage has more than 1 monster.

    Yuki: Unless you assume that they aren''t monsters and they are instead part of the mini boss''s power.

    Meurig: Even so, why can''t we take down the guards first and attack the kingst.

    Yuki: This brings me back to my first point. I''m pretty sure the king dissolved the knights and created these 3 guards.

    Yuki: This means that the king only has a certain amount of power, he can divide that power into as many pieces as he wants but theirbined power is still the same. Even if we do defeat one of the guards, the king will simply dissolve it andbine it with another guard or create a new one.

    Yuki: That''s why my job here will be to be the decoy as you go and finish off the mastermind of this stage.

    Meurig nodded and began to move closer to the king. As Yuki began to gain the advantage in his fight with Evert, Oedipus as well as Kenan joined in the fight. Yuki sent an uppercut to Evert and managed to hold on to Kenan''srge ck sword with his thumb and index finger, he wasn''t able to stop the kick to the back by Oedipus. Yuki fell to the ground face first however he knew he couldn''t afford to die there. Yuki quickly flipped backwards while avoiding the sword sh from Kenan which would''ve sliced him in half like a loaf of bread.

    "I need to get even faster," Yuki said.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out two speed boost potions and drank them before the 3 guards could attack him.

    "I''m getting sick of these really quickly!" Yuki said.

    He had eaten some of the food he had brought with him; however, his diet mostly consisted of potions since he had been getting into life threatening positions multiple times within the dungeon.

    Once Yuki had finished drinking the potions, the 3 guards attacked him simultaneously. Yuki disappeared and appeared behind them. He kept moving faster than they could attack and would asionally attack them slightly so that they would get agitated and focus on him.

    In the distance, Meurig had managed to get close enough to the king. Yuki nodded at Meurig to signal that he could disintegrate the king.

    [King''s Rule]

 Chapter 35 - Tag Team

    [King''s Rule]

    Right before Meurig could touch Lydie with his palm, Oedipus disagreed. Instantly, a circr wall of arrows began to form, separating the king from Meurig.

    "Move away!" Yuki yelled at Meurig.

    Behind the king were 40 archers all focused on protecting the king. While the archers wore low quality armour, their numbers more than made up for it. They continued to fire arrows upwards, in turn creating a wall out of falling arrows until the king finally pointed at Meurig. All the archers pointed their bows at Meurig and began firing at him non stop.

    "How does he know where I am?" Meurig asked himself.

    He turned his eyes at the head of the king. Just like before, there was abel above his head.

    [King of humanity Mini boss: Lydie]

    However even above hisbel was anotherbel in big ck text.

    [King''s Domain: Absolute Knowledge]

    Just by reading thebel, Meurig got an idea of what was in y. Before he could do anything though, 80 arrows hit him directly. Each only barely piercing his skin before disintegrating a secondter.

    "Good think I was wearing this coat, even though it''s not made for defending, it did a pretty good job at it," Meurig said.

    Meurig tried to analyze his situation as he tried dodging the arrowsing at him.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Lucky Sword" as well as "Fallen angel of hell". He threw "Lucky Sword" to Meurig.

    "Use the side of the de to deflect the arrows. It''s pretty wide and sharp so use it wisely!" Yuki told Meurig.

    Meurig caught the de and used it for defending himself as he continued to think.

    "Just by thebel above his title, I can tell that he''s using some ability to know my location. Would ''Absolute Knowledge'' also grant him knowledge of my next moves as well?" Meurig asked himself.

    "That doesn''t matter, either I make all of his attacks useless or I destroy him before he could even react," Meurig continued.

    Just then, a genius idea came to Meurig''s mind.

    [Set ability: 0 Second Disintegrate]

    [Specifications: The disintegration effect which Meurig takes 0 seconds to apply]

    [Draw back: Attack power will be divided in half for 30 minutes once the intended purpose of ability activation had been fulfilled]

    "Activate ability: 0 Second Disintegrate" Meurig said.

    A new round of arrow fire wasing toward Meurig. He dropped "Lucky Sword" on the ground and began moving forward. Before a single arrow could touch his face, Meurig pped all of the arrows with his right hand. Each and every single arrow turned to dust midair.

    The king began to get worried. He made all of his archers disappear and began to bring back Oedipus. As Oedipus started to form from the ashes of the archers, Meurig quickly ran to the body and kicked it.

    "If I kill you before you can even be born, you aren''t a threat to me," Meurig said.

    "It''s over king Lydie!"

    Without batting an eye, the king made Evert as well as Kenan disappear. Lydie began to form a new creature which was in a league of its own. Both Yuki and Meurig could feel its menacing aura even before it could form properly.

    Meurig was too terrified to move which gave the new guard enough time to form.

    [Man''sst hope: Ourbanos]

    A 10 feet guard with gold armour and iron lining appeared. He quickly ran to where Yuki was standing and grabbed the de that Kenen was using. It was a long de which waspletely ck. However, when Ourbanos held it, the ckyer cracked and fell off to show the transparent blue sword hiding underneath.

    For an odd reason Ourbanos began to get weaker by the second. Yuki and Meurig continued to stay still from the shock of seeing the menacing creature. Just then icepletely covered the sword Ourbanos was holding as well as some of his arm. The ice looked unstable and it continued to form. There were many shards on the sword as if the sword had a mind of its own.

    Before Ourbanos would lose all control of his sword, he sprinted towards Yuki and tried slicing his head off. Yuki blocked the sword with his own "Fallen angel of death", however he was still knocked back 10 metres.

    Yuki''s head was now rushing, there was no way he could possibly beat this monstrous creature. Meurig quickly ran towards Yuki before Ourbanos could attack again.

    "You hold back this guard for just 20 seconds. That''s all I need to reach the king and kill him without having to worry about anyone blocking me," Meurig said to Yuki.

    Yuki nodded and with his legs shaking, prepared himself for the most hellish 20 seconds of his life.

    Ourbanos leaped into the air and swung his sword downward at Yuki. Yuki managed to block it however his feet sunk into the ground in the process.

    [15 seconds]

    Yuki tried to swing at Ourbanos''s side for a change however it was easily blocked him. "Fallen angel of hell began to turn cold until it began absorbing the ice from Ourbanos''s sword.

    [8 seconds]

    Yuki moved his sword away from Ourbanos as it was close to beingpletely covered in ice. The king began to notice what Meurig was nning. Lydiemanded Ourbanos toe back to his side telepathically.

    "Come back!"

    [4 seconds]

    As Ourbanos turned his back to go to his king''s rescue, a sword stabbed his left thigh.

    "This is payback for all the torture you made me go through. Didn''t anyone teach you not to turn your back to an enemy?" Yuki asked Ourbanos.

    [3 seconds]

    [2 seconds]

    [1 second]

    [0 seconds]

    Meurig finally made contact with the king and made him disintegrate.

    "I thought so, even if your minions are strong, you yourself are weak," Meurig said to the king.

    Yuki walked towards Meurig and gave him a high five.

    "Nice job!" Yuki said.

    "Thank you for relying on me," Meurig replied as he smiled.

    "That''s what I''m supposed to do, we''re a team after all!" Yuki replied.

 Chapter 36 - Loot

    Meurig proceeded to return "Lucky Sword" back to Yuki.

    "Wait why hasn''t my sword disintegrated yet? I thought everything that was weaker than you disintegrated," Yuki asked.

    "I thought the same however I figured out that anything that if I don''t have ill intentions towards something, it won''t disintegrate," Meurig replied.

    "That''s a life saver! Now I don''t have to worry about you getting stronger than me, not that it would happen in general," Yuki said as they both broke intoughter.

    [+35000 exp to Yuki kaito]

    [+35000 exp to Meurig]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 5: 54200/60000]

    [yer: Meurig]

    [Level 4: 45000/50000]

    [Item drop: King''s Crown]

    Yuki double tapped on the item to open its information chart.

    [Rank: C]

    [Weapon type: Helmet]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: Contains the ability to make a single undead monster follow the orders of the user under the condition that said user is 2 times stronger than the undead monster. Long ago lived a king with a pitiful kingdom. As hisnd began to die out and his subjects began to leave, in ast minute effort, he turned to gain power from necromancy. He had seeded and managed to make his kingdom prosper. Feeling overjoyed, the king became distracted and allowed himself to be betrayed and killed by one of his fellow monarchs. The council of monarchs had decided to execute the king as his ways of necromancy were seen as vile and disgusting. Now all he knows to do is give out orders, not allowing himself to experience joy. ]

    "What a horrific story," Yuki said as he read the description.

    As Meurig and him began to leave another object fell from the sky. It was the same giant sword that Oedipus and Ourbanos used. However, now it waspletely ck and had chains around it.

    "Are you kidding me? What am I going to do with this piece of junk?" Yuki asked out-loud in an angrily tone implying that he was mad at the stage.

    Out of curiosity, Yuki double tapped on the shackled sword.

    [Item drop: Niflheim''s holy treasure]

    [Weapon type: Sword]

    [Name: Niflheim''s holy treasure]

    [Rank: ???]

    [Attack: ???]

    [Description:???]

    "Wait no way! Another sword like ''Fallen angel of hell''?"

    "This world just keeps getting better and better!" Yuki said as he smiled eagerly at Meurig.

    Yuki continued inspecting his new treasured sword until he remembered something.

    "Meurig, do you want this sword? You''ve been a great help and I want you to have a cool sword like mine!" Yuki said.

    Meurig gently smiled back.

    "No thank you, I prefer the method of fighting which I''m currently using. Plus, you seem to really like the sword yourself," Meurig replied.

    "You got me there," Yuki chuckled.

    As they bothughed in joy, Yuki''s "Fallen angel of hell" which was in his right hand began to shake and glow red. Yuki dropped it on the ground from shock but before he could go and grab it, ittched on to "Niflheim''s holy treasure". In mere seconds, the chains that it was confined by broke then the ck outeryer began to crack. The transparent blue sword began to shine through the cracks. It was like seeing a butterfly hatch out of its cocoon.

    Once fully open, Yuki and Meurig admired the beauty of the sword.

    "Can you try making ice appear from the sword like Ourbanos did?" Meurig asked.

    "I doubt it but I''ll try," Yuki replied as he put "Fallen angel of death'''' as well as he proceeded to put "Fallen angel of hell" as well as "Lucky Sword" back into his inventory.

    Yuki ced both his hands at the hilt of the transparent sword and began to concentrate. He closed his eyes and tried to envision anything that was cold. For a couple minutes nothing happened. He had begun to lose hope but just then, he could feel the sword getting colder. Yuki continued to concentrate on bringing out the full potential of his new sword. Nevertheless, his sword ignored all his efforts, it stayed at the same temperature regardless of how hard he tried to make ice appear. Seeing how frustrated Yuki was bing, Meurig decided to give an input on the situation.

    "Hey it''s okay, maybe take a break then try itter," Meurig said.

    "I would but I really want to apply the ice aspect of the sword, I wonder how Ourbanos managed to aplish it. If it''s all based off of attack strength, he should only be 2-3 times stronger than me."

    "If that was true then I should at least be able to create a bit of snow," Yuki said.

    "Then it''s probably not about strength, do you have any other guesses as to why it''s not obeying you?" Meurig asked.

    "Well I have a hypothesis but I don''t know if it''ll work," Yuki replied.

    Yuki handed Meurig "Niflheim''s holy treasure".

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory. Just like he had done with "Niflheim''s holy treasure", Yuki ced both of his hands at the hilt of his treasured sword. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate on solely drawing out the immense power hidden within "Fallen angel of death". Slowly, the silver sword with red linings all across it began to glow. The red linings shined brighter than the sun and reminded Yuki of the day in which he managed to draw out the full potential of his de. He was secretly hoping that it would happen once again. It was a sight to truly behold.

    "I thought so," Yuki said.

    "Mind exining what you mean?" Meurig asked.

    "Well the sword I''m holding now and "Niflheim''s holy treasure" both have all their information hidden. "Fallen angel of hell" is much more powerful than this, ording to a mage, its full potential can''t be drawn out until the user of it reaches at least level 60," Yuki replied.

    "Then how do you know that it''s so powerful?" Meurig asked.

    "I don''t know if it was by fluke but I was able to draw out it''s innate power not long ago. The problem is that ''Niflheim''s holy treasure'' could hold the same abilities as ''Fallen angel of hell''."

 Chapter 37 - Practice

    Meurig and Yuki continued to talk as they took a break from theirtest fight with the king of the 8th stage.

    "Wait, so you''re saying that these swords are capable of imesreuble feets?" Meurig asked in confusion.

    "That''s exactly right," Yuki said as he continued to be overjoyed by the discovery of him finding out that he could muster up some of the power from his des.

    "So why can you only use a tiny pit of their power while Ourbanos was able to use a lot more of it?" Meurig asked.

    "That''s the problem I have with this. He should have only been around my level and even if he was an attack based monster, the gap with the swords wouldn''t be thisrge."

    "The second problem is the dual item drop. All stages except the 5th and 10th stage should only have 1 item. The only reason the halfway point as well as the end point have 2 item drops is because of the initial stage item as well as the silver," Yuki replied.

    Yuki continued to think.

    "Well to me it looks like you already have an idea but you''re choosing to hide it," Meurig spoke.

    "You read me like a book. Well I have a hypothesis that would make perfect sense but it could also be incorrect," Yuki replied.

    "Just say it, what are you scared of?" Meurig mocked Yuki.

    "I first got ''Fallen angel of hell'' from a small equipment shop. I thought it was cool so I bought it out of curiosity. The weird part was that when I went back to the store to ask about its mysterious power, the shop waspletely gone. Then now, for some reason the mechanics of this stage are broken which caused a dual item drop which is very simr to ''Fallen angel of hell''."

    "In conclusion, I''m pretty sure that this world has a virus," Yuki said.

    "So what are we going to do about it?" Meurig asked.

    "What do you mean ''So what are we going to do about it?''. We aren''t gonna do anything. The virus is helping us attain more power. We should be happy," Yuki replied.

    "I guess that would make sense but I have 1 more question. Why do you want so much power?" Meurig asked.

    "That''s such a simple question. I want to get strong because that''s what you do in a video game, what kind of stupid question is that?" Yuki replied.

    Yuki had just realized that he exposed himself.

    "What do you mean ''video game''? Are you okay?" Meurig started to mock Yuki once again.

    "Well there''s no point in hiding it from you. We have to trust each other if we''re gonna be teammates," Yuki sighed.

    Yuki went on to exin every event that had taken ce until they had met.

    "Prove it then!" Meurig demanded in disbelief.

    "Who was the one who finally allowed you to leave the 6th stage?" Yuki asked rhetorically.

    "Fair enough. So you''re basically god?" Meurig asked.

    "Not really, while the way God is described and how my true form is pretty simr, I''m not held by any moral rules and don''t choose to have people worship me. I''m more of a greater being. Someone that stands at the peak of everything," Yuki began to brag.

    "I think you''re getting a bit distracted mr. higher being" Meurigughed.

    "Wait, so you don''t fear me?" Yuki asked.

    "Why should I? First of all you don''t seem like you want to kill me and even if you do, there''s nothing I can do about it. The only thing I can do is enjoy my time with you and be grateful that you''re my ally and not my enemy," Meurig replied.

    "I envy your stupidity," Yuki mocked Meurig.

    "That wasn''t funny," Meurig rebudled.

    "By the way, do you mind that I look this? I mean my appearance isn''t exactly the best," Meurig asked.

    "I honestly don''t. On the contrary, I find it pretty cool. Plus, I enjoy yourpany more than anyone else," Yuki replied.

    "You can stop being cheesy now," Meurig said.

    The two yers had managed to learn many things about each other. It was one of the most enjoyable days Yuki had experienced. He secretly knew that he enjoyed spending time with Meurig more than his 3 other team members outside the dungeon. However, to Yuki, it wasn''t apetition, as long as his new friend can get along with his other friends, that was all that mattered.

    "Okay we only have 2 stages left. Let''s recover our strength for now and head to the next dungeon," Yuki suggested.

    Meurig nodded in agreement and began toy down on the stage''s ground as he was exhausted from the stage 8 trails. Yuki on the other hand returned "Fallen angel of hell" into his inventory and took back "Niflheim''s holy treasure" from Meurig. He closed his eyes and began to slowly take deep breaths.

    "Seriously? You already know that you can''t bring out more of the sword''s full power until you level up. The only reason you can even tap into a small amount of it is because you reached level 5. Just take a break," Meurig lectured Yuki.

    "For your information, that''s not what I''m trying to do. I want to draw out their power while I''m moving. Right now I can only summon their innate power if I''m fully concentrated on doing that alone. However, I want to use their power while I''m in battle," Yuki replied.

    "Suit yourself, just don''t make too much noise. I actually want to regain my strength for the next battle unlike a certain someone," Meurig said.

    "Don''t worry princess. I''ll make sure I stay quiet so you can get your beauty sleep," Yuki continued to ridicule Meurig.

    "Say that again and you''ll be the next person disintegrating," Meurig said with frustration.

    "Oh how scary." Yuki tried to stop himself fromughing.

    "Don''t worry, I''ll be careful as to not disturb you," Yuki reassured Meurig.

    All through the night, Yuki put all his attention on "Niflheim''s holy treasure" and made full use of all the power he could manifest from it. Each try drained arge amount of stamina from him. Nevertheless he continued, all he wanted was to get as much strength as he possibly could. Yuki finally managed to take 20 straight steps before finally breaking concentration and passing out.

    "Idiot," Meurig said before he also fell asleep.

 Chapter 38 - Stage 9

    The next morning Meurig awakened, fully prepared for the day. He had gotten a good night''s rest and all of his fatigue went away. Yuki on the other hand was still dead asleep as heid on his stomach.

    "Get up, don''t you wanna finish this dungeon soon?" Meurig said as he began to shake. Yuki in hopes of waking him up.

    "I will make you unleash your true power," Yuki mumbled half asleep.

    Meurig grabbed Yuki by the cor and began dragging him across the stage floor until he finally woke up.

    "What was that for?!" Yuki spoke in protest.

    "It''s not my fault a certain idiot overdid a little ''practice''," Meurig mocked Yuki.

    "Well at least I''m notzy," Yuki rebudled.

    "We don''t have time to argue, get yourself ready and let''s enter the next stage," Meurig said as he calmed himself down.

    Yuki stretched for a few minutes and began heading towards the gateway and Meurig followed suit.

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 9th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 9 difficulty: level 5]

    "Let''s give it our all!" Yuki said to motivate the two man team.

    "Yeah!" Meurig repied.

    Once again, Yuki stepped through the white light and the new stage became visible. The terrain was a graveyard which was very simr to the first stage, however, this one was muchrger.

    In the sky was a levitating figure wearing a dark cloak with a hood. The figure was holding arge scythe. It also had a skull for a face.

    "I should''ve guessed it was something like this," Yuki said.

    [The ruler of souls: Grim Reaper Calypso]

    "Should I attack him first?" Meurig asked.

    "Nope, we aren''t going to waste time here. I have a better idea," Yuki replied.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki proceeded to pull out 6 attack boost potions.

    "Drink up!" Yuki said cheerfully to Meurig.

    "Seriously?" Meurig replied.

    "I''m being dead serious, I want you to take a lead on this stage. Of course, I''lle in at the end to tap the enemy so the exp share will be activated but other than that, he''s all yours," Yuki exined.

    "Thanks, I won''t disappoint," Meurig replied as he began to drink the capsules of attack potions as quickly as he possibly could.

    He began to run as quickly as he could towards Calypso.

    "All I''ll need is one clean hit on him and we can proceed to thest stage. I''ll win this for the both of us!" Meurig said to himself.

    Before the shadowy figure could even touch him, Calypso activated his stage ability.

    [Soul Switch]

    Instantly, Meurig''s body fell to the ground. However something was off. Meurig could see his own body fall to the ground. For some odd reason, Meurig couldn''t move and he felt shorter.

    As Meurig pieced together everything that was happening, Calypso went in to attack Meurig''s unresponsive body. He lifted his scythe high in the air and began to bring it down at Meurig''s neck. Just then , Yuki came rushing with "Lucky Sword" and blocked Calypso''s attack.

    After exactly 5 seconds of confusion, Meurig was facing the ground.

    "Get away from him Yuki! His ability is to switch people''s bodies with objects. I''ll need to find an opening, so cover for me while his ability is active. It looks like he can only keep it active for about 5 seconds," Meurig exined.

    "Got it! Once you regain your body, give it all you have. Don''t worry, I''ll create an opening for you to attack," Yuki replied.

    Meurig began to rush towards Calypso. Knowing that his ability still needs to recharge before it can be used again Calypso began attacking with his scythe, making sure to not give Meurig a chance to counter. Yuki tried to interfere however, Calypso easily avoided all of the attacks while focusing on Meurig.

    [Soul Switch]

    Calypso once again activated his ability, and made Meurig switch bodies with the gravestone.

    "Don''t worry," Yuki said as Meurig''s body fell to the ground.

    Calypso continued to make attempts at decapitating Meurig''s head. However, each attempt was easily stopped by Yuki. After exactly 5 seconds had passed, Meurig returned to his body. As he began to get up, he prepared to finish the fight off.

    "Yuki, give me an opening now!" Meurig shouted.

    "You got it!" Yuki replied as he gave a thumbs up to Meurig.

    Yuki swung "Lucky Sword" at Calypso''s scythe. Even though Calypso tried to gain control over the fight once more, Yuki didn''t let up.

    "Now''s your chance! Give it all you got!" Yuki yelled to Meurig.

    With all the power and determination Meurig had, he put everything into his fists. He clenched his teeth and punched Calypso right in the ribs. Both Yuki and Meurig could hear bones cracking. Meurig smiled at Yuki midair and continued to plummet himself into Calypso. Meurig made his enemy fly and crash into the stage walls. Calypso''s body made a dent in the wall.

    "Nice!" Yuki said as he high fived Meurig.

    "Thank you for allowing me to prove myself," Meurig said as he smiled.

    [+40000 exp to Yuki kaito]

    [+40000 exp to Meurig]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 6: 34200/70000]

    [yer: Meurig]

    [Level 5: 35000/60000]

    [New skill unlocked: Faker]

    [Faker: Ability to hide or augment any personal information]

    [Item drop: Scythe dagger]

    Yuki double tapped on the silver dagger which had an abnormally long de.

    [Rank: D]

    [Attack: 45]

    [Description: Power: When a critical hit isnded on the enemy, the dagger makes contact with the target''s soul for a few seconds, causing them to get nauseous and confused. Greed often leads to the corruption of a person''s soul. While most are greedy for money, Calypso on the other hand was greedy to live. He enjoyed the simple things in life and didn''t want to let go of it. Even after the death, Calypso''s soul resisted moving on to the after life. The gods cursed him for his betrayal and made him be a servant of death in turn being responsible to lead souls into the afterlife. Never being able to enjoy life once again, Calypso began taking out his anger on the souls of the dead. Once the gods found out about his injustice, they cast him away in the dungeon.]

    "I thought there were no gods?" Meurig asked after looking over Yuki''s shoulder to analyze the description.

    "There aren''t, all the descriptions are made up by Zero to make this world seem more interesting," Yuki replied.

 Chapter 39 - Stage 10

    "Hey what''s this burning sensation I feel every time I level up?" Meurig asked.

    "I don''t know either, I find it soothing. I just assumed the system put it in ce to make yers grind through the world," Yuki responded.

    Yuki and Meurig began walking to the next gateway.

    "Hey, wanna take a short break before we head into thest stage of the dungeon," Meurig proposed.

    "No need for that, I have a reliable n for the next dungeon. Just trust me!" Yuki replied.

    "Whatever you say chief," Meurig said as he rolled his eyes.

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 10th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 10 difficulty: level 5+]

    [Warning: You cannot retreat from this stage]

    Ignoring the warning, Yuki and Meurig stepped through the white gate. Meurig instantly regretted his decision to follow Yuki. In front of them was arge dark castle. Right at the entryway stood 500 skeletal monsters. Their leader was in the back. It was another flouting figure, much like the grim reaper he wore a cloak. However he did not carry a scythe. Instead, he moved his arms, creating glowing green spiritual patterns in front of his palms. When Yuki got a closer look at the monster, he could see that it was a skeleton with arge big smile on its face with glowing green eyes.

    "So our final enemy here is the ruler of the undead, the one undead that stands above all others!" Yuki spoke.

    [The immortal undead king of the undead Final Boss: Lich Feliu]

    "So what''s the n now genius?" Meurig made a sarcastic remark at Yuki.

    "I told you that I got this. Just stay back and watch," Yuki replied with a confident smile.

    [Open inventory]

    "Your n is to drink a couple potions?" Meurig mocked Yuki.

    "Not really, I n to drink all of them," Yuki replied.

    "ARE YOU INSANE?" Meurig asked as his mouth opened wide.

    "Maybe, I don''t know for sure," Yuki replied as he continued to pull out all the potions he had stored in his inventory.

    "First of all don''t you feel sick when you drink them? Secondly aren''t they crazy expensive?" Meurig tried to convince Yuki not to follow through with his n.

    "For your first question, yes but I got used to it. For your second one, yes they are expensive and I wasted most of my money on them but it''s okay, I earned more than enough from the 5th stage of the dungeon. This stage should also reward me forpleting it too," Yuki replied as if everything was normal.

    Yuki began drinking all the potions as fast as he could while the skeletal infantry began to approach them.

    "Do you want me to hold them off until you''re finished drinking?" Meurig asked.

    "No need, you already contributed a lot in thest stage, leave this to me!" Yuki replied.

    Just before the first skeleton soldier could make contact with him, Yuki pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure" from his inventory and seemingly disappeared from Meurig as well as everyone else''s vision. About 2 secondster, every skeleton head fell on the ground simultaneously. Feliu began to get a bit worried which caused him to activate his ability.

    [Cast Spell: Regenerate]

    As if ying a video in reverse, all of the skeletal heads rose from the ground and attacked back on to their respective bodies. Yuki sighed and once again disappeared from everyone''s vision. He sliced off each one of the skeletal heads however this time, he also attacked Feliu. Yuki sliced the lich seemingly hundreds of times.

    "That should be the end of them," Yuki thought.

    However when Yuki turned back, he could see the infantry heads rising and reattaching themselves. Before Yuki could even react something pierced through his chest.

    [Cast Spell: Fire]

    It was a de made out of mes. Yuki quickly moved away from his enemy. Luckily the whole made on his chest began to heal automatically because of all the potions Yuki had consumed.

    "I forgot you were immortal," Yuki told Feliu.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory and just as he had done previously, he rubbed the edges of his two des and engulfed them in mbes. He quickly teleported to Feliu and struck him with his two burning des.

    "How do you like that!" Yuki eximed.

    [Cast Spell: Regenerate]

    Yuki already knew that his n had failed. Before Feliu could get a change to strike back, Yuki began to think of a strategy to defeat his opponent.

    "The solution has to be provided within the dungeon or the purpose of the dungeon fails, even though Raza was immortal too, there were multiple ways to make a fire burn him. Think Yuki think!" he told himself.

    Just then an idea came to him.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki quickly returned both his precious swords into his inventory then proceeded to take out his newest de "Scythe dagger".

    "What is he thinking? that dagger is way weaker than his other des, even without seeing their stats, it''s clear that it is nopetition," Meurig said as he watched from a distance.

    Yuki quickly leaped on the wall of the entrance gate to therge castle. He propelled himself right in front of Feliu. While the lich tried to put up his arm in front of his face as protection, he was too slow. Yuki held the dagger with both hands as the tip of the de faced Feliu. The dagger slid into Feliu''s skull like butter. There was a dy for about 3 seconds until the lich''s entire body began to crack and break. The skeletal infantry followed suit and proceeded to turn to dust.

    "What happened? What did you do? How did you do that?" Meurig began to bombard Yuki with questions.

    "What do you mean? It was simple, can''t you read or something?" Yuki mocked his friend.

    Meurig began to get visibly angry.

    "Okay okay, rx I''ll exin."

    "If you read the power of the dagger you would know that it makes contact with the target''s soul when it inflicts a critical hit."

    "Since the lich is immortal, if something makes contact with it''s soul and inflicts damage to it, a paradox is created and it forces the lich''s body to self-destruct. Well at least that''s my theory," Yuki exined.

    "One more question, how were you able to inflict a critical hit on the first attack?" Meurig asked.

    "Are you able to think properly? I stocked up on potions for this dungeon, of course I would have a critical rate boost potion. How else would I be able to do something like that?" Yuki replied.

    "Even though you can boost your physical capabilities, no amount of potions could give you a functional brain," Meurig replied.

    "Anyway we should be celebrating, we can finally leave this dumb!" Yuki said as they began to exit the dungeon.

 Chapter 40 - Awaken

    [+45000 exp to Yuki kaito]

    [+45000 exp to Meurig]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 7: 9200/80000]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Meurig]

    [Level 6: 20000/70000]

    [Item drop: Magician''s book]

    "Wait, why did I gain exp? I didn''t do anything in this stage," Meurig asked in a confused tone.

    "I guess the rules of the outside hunting grounds and the dungeons are different," Yuki said as he turn his attention to the item drop.

    Yuki double tapped on the brown book with golden linings and arge green glowing orb in the middle.

    [Rank: D -> ???]

    [Attack: ???]

    [Description: Power: Contains every spell which the lich ever learned. New spells may be avable depending on the user''s level. The lich was once an ordinary magician which trained every single day of his life to be acknowledged by the world. Once he had achieved all his goals, the magician grew bored of life. Out of boredom, the magician began to involve himself in dark magic, especially necromancy. Addicted to his new found power, the magician eventually turned into a lich. Once the world had gotten word of his tretury, they created an alliance and gathered their strongest forces to defeat him. Unable to kill the lich, the magicians cast him away in the dungeon while sealing almost all his magic in the book.]

    "Rather a dark story, don''t you think so too Meurig?" Yuki asked his friend.

    Meurig nodded in agreement.

    [Hidden achievement unlocked: King of all kings]

    -Be the first human to clear a dungeon: Cleared

    -Complete the dungeon without the assistance of any human: Cleared

    -Complete the dungeon all in one try: Cleared

    Reward: King''s Crown Awakening

    [Open inventory]

    Without Yuki asking it to, his inventory opened on its own and the crown he had been keeping flew out of it. It began to glow and all the rust it originally had from its old age disappeared. It began to glow within the stage as it levitated and fell back down on Yuki''s head at a crooked angle.

    "A messed up crown, for a messed up king. How fitting of you," Meurigmented.

    Yuki sighed and shrugged it off. Before he put the crown back into his inventory, an idea came to him. He quickly double tapped the crown and a smile instantly popped up on his face.

    [Weapon type: Helmet]

    [Name: King''s Crown]

    [Rank: ???]

    [Attack: ???]

    [Description: Power: Absorbs all the monsters of a dungeon that has been cleared. The monsters absorbed must defeat monsters on their own to grow and level up as to be helpful to their king. All absorbed monsters will start off at the level that they were at in the dungeon. While multiple versions of the monsters can be summoned, each monster is in charge of leveling up on their own. The king''s subjects are liable to death and while they may be able to be reconstructed with the same figure, their level restarts. The King''s crown acts like a gateway between the dungeons and the real world. The king and only the king can rule over his subjects.]

    "What an awfully long description, however, it does sound interesting," Yuki said.

    Crown on his head, Yuki pointed his right palm forward and tried to summon a monster. No matter how hard he tried nothing he did worked. As he began to lose hope a notification popped up.

    [Notice: To activate King''s Crown Awakened''s effect select a summoning phrase]

    [Summoning phrase: _________]

    "Serve your king"

    [Summoning phrase: Serve your king]

    [Thismand cannot be changed. Confirm for activation to ur]

    [Yes] or [No]

    Yuki pressed on yes.

    [Command had been selected]

    "Let''s try it now," Yuki said out loud as Meurig watched behind him in awe.

    "Serve your king!" Yuki said.

    Yuki began to think about summoning the lich and without even having to concentrate, his wish was granted.

    [The immortal undead king of the undead Final Boss: Lich Feliu]

    [Servant level: 6]

    Yuki began to smile however before he could do anything, he fell to his knees. He had lost nearly half of his stamina all at once.

    "I guess that''s the price I pay for summoning someone that strong," Yuki acknowledged as Meurig caught him by the arm and stopped him from falling face first to the ground.

    This lich saw his king in distress and began to try to help.

    "I already know what you want, don''t worry I''ll give it to you," Yuki said to the lich.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out Magician''s book and handed it to Feliu. The lich bowed and epted his king''s gift.

    [Cast Spell: Regenerate]

    Feliu began to slowly but surely heal Yuki.

    "If only I still had my original power, I would be of more use to my king," Feliu thought to himself.

    "It''s okay, you''re plenty useful as you are now," Yuki reassured Feliu.

    "My king, you can understand me, but how? I lost my ability to speak to humans directly as a sacrifice to gain my abilities as a lich," Feliu asked.

    "Although I don''t know for certain, I''m pretty sure this crown allows me tomunicate to my servants," Yuki replied.

    "Thank you so much, I am so grateful to be able tomunicate with my king," Feliu spoke as if he was tearing up while he said those words.

    "Hey rx, there''s no need to cry. If you really want to make me proud, get as strong as you possibly can. I''ll need a strong mage at my side when I take over the world," Yuki spoke.

    "I won''t disappoint you my king," Feliu replied with a burning passion in his eyes.

    "That''s all for now, can you return to the crown now?" Yuki asked.

    "Your wish is mymand!" Feliu replied as he began to deform and get absorbed into the crown.

    "You get weirder and weirder by the day," Meurig said.

    "Are you jealous that an immortal mage is only being loyal to me or something?" Yuki mocked his ally.

    "Come on, let''s leave this ce. I want to see the sun and the sky already," Meurig ignored Yuki''s remarks.

    "Ya, you''re right," Yuki replied.

    Right before they reached the gateway, Yuki sensed several entities and so did Meurig.

    "It must be humans," Meurig spoke.

    "How do you know?" Yuki asked.

    "Unlike monsters which instinctively hide their aura, inexperienced humans usually don''t know how to do the very basic things," Meurig replied.

    "I''ll take your word for it."

    "Anyway, can you also go into my crown since you still have the properties of a monster?" Yuki asked.

    Before Meurig could even answer, he began to deform and get transported into the crown.

    "Guess that happens automatically whenever I ask a monster to do it," Yuki said as he ced the crown and all of his belongings in his inventory.

    Yuki began to head to the exit of the dungeon with his dirty ck sweat pants and red sleeveless sweater as he put on his hood.

 Chapter 41 - Greetings

    Yuki finally reached the final gateway after walking around the walls of the castle.

    "Looks like I''m finally here," Yuki told himself.

    Just as he entered the 10 meter diameter range of the gate, the system began to bid him farewell.

    [Stage 10: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [Dungeon: Forgotten Souls | Status: Complete]

    [Reward: Pot of greed]

    Yuki double tapped on the brown pouch to open its information chart.

    [Rank: D]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Contains 1 Million silver]

    "Well I guess I won''t have to worry about running out of money from now on," Yuki said in joy.

    Yuki finally walked through the gateway which made the white light begin to disappear, in turn making the outside visible. Despite expecting to exit out of the other side of the dungeon, Yuki could recognize himself leaving from the exact way he had entered.

    "Why am I not at the other side of the mountain? It''s not like I walked in a circr loop. I was walking straight the entire time."

    "Guess it''s one of the magical powers of the dungeon," Yuki thought to himself.

    Once he had walked down the stairs of the dungeon gate, he recognized a few familiar faces. However, Yuki didn''t recognize the other figures that were seemingly waiting for him.

    "What took you so long?!"

    "We were worried sick!" Rui eximed.

    Jobon as well as Katsumi nodded in agreement.

    "You have some exining to do," Katsumi spoke.

    Yuki had been caught off guard, however he was happy that his friends were concerned about him. Just as he was about to tell his friends about his adventures in the dungeon and about his awakening, he quickly noticed a few things wrong which caused him to turn up his guard.

    "Why are there other people here? It should only be myrades."

    "If they knew me, they would at least say something, there''s something going on here," Yuki thought to himself.

    [Activate Skill: Faker]

    "This is perfect for the asion!" Yuki told himself.

    Yuki took a deep breath and prepared a fake story to tell hisrades. He trusted them but he knew that there was something going on in the background.

    "All I did was explore the first stage of the dungeon," Yuki said.

    "That''s gotta be a lie. How could 1 stage take you 3 whole weeks?"

    "Did you at least beat it?" Jobon asked.

    "Nope! It took me quite a while to discover the weakness of the skeletal monsters. Even after I did, I ran out of supplies so I couldn''t defeat them," Yuki lied with a smile on his face.

    "And you still say it with so much pride," Katsumi rolled his eyes.

    "Anyway we should go and catch up," Rui suggested.

    "Wait, don''t forget Rui, Yuki should talk with the judicial association first," Jobon said with a half hearted smile.

    Yuki assumed that Jobon was talking about the people that were waiting in the back, there were about 15 of them however 1 stood out. He was a slim man with sses which was a bit taller than Yuki. The man with sses began to approach Yuki.

    "Greetings Yuki, I am Carmi. I havee from the newly formed judicial association and I have presented myself today to ask you a few questions," The man with sses said.

    Yuki just nodded back from confusion.

    "The official questioning will take ce in the kingdom however, we would like to confirm something first, would you be so kind as to present your yer profile for us?" Carmi asked, however, he sounded like he was demanding.

    Yuki wasn''t usually the argumentative type but he wanted to test some things out.

    "And what if I refuse?" Yuki asked.

    "While we have just been sent to the mysterious world a few months ago, it seems like many of the things work the same as our previous. The world is starting to be like the previous one. Just like on that, refusal toply will end up with you apprehended for treason."

    "Was that a satisfactory answer?" Carmi asked.

    Yuki already knew that he was much stronger than all of the people present, however he did not want to start any more problems. However, he was a bit disappointed in his so-called friends.

    Yuki nodded andplied.

    [Open: profile]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 2: 31400/40000]

    Yuki couldn''t smile in front of all these people but he was happy that his skill activation worked.

    "Thank you, we greatly appreciate your cooperation," said Carmi.

    Carmi took out a book from seemingly nowhere and started writing in it.

    "Now if you''ll follow me. We will head back to the kingdom for your official interrogation," Carmi said.

    "Wait, what did I even do?" Yuki asked.

    "You don''t get to ask any questions here. I am the interrogator here," Carmi tried to silence Yuki.

    "There are only a few people in the world who are level 2, who do you think you are talking to me?" Yuki began faking an act in hopes of answering some of the questions that he had.

    "It seems like you don''t quite understand what kind of position you are in. Let''s start walking to the kingdom and I''ll exin as we head there," Carmi proposed.

    Yuki agreed and began walking alongside him while everyone else followed from behind.

    "While you were gone in the dungeon, several witnesses came out and have used you of murder," Carmi spoke.

    "But that was for self defense," Yuki rebudled.

    "Even excluding the two people you murdered out of so called self defense, what about the 7 allies you had teamed up with? Isn''t it odd that all 7 disappeared without a trace however, you''re still alive?" Carmi continued.

    "There would be no way that you killed all 7 of them all by yourself, you must have had an aplice. That would be what a normal person would think. However, we have recently learned that there is a huge strength gap between level 1 and 2."

    "The current theory is that you levelled up as quickly you possibly could then murdered all seven of them."

    "So why did you do it? For fun?..."

    Carmi quickly turned around, grabbed Yuki by the cor and stared into his eyes.

    "... or does the killing of a yer provide a reward?" Carmi asked.

 Chapter 42 - Interrogation

    "So why did you do it? For fun?..."

    Carmi quickly turned around, grabbed Yuki by the cor and stared into his eyes.

    "... or does the killing of a yer provide a reward?" Carmi asked.

    Yuki didn''t know what to say, he had been taken by surprise. However, Yuki knew how to keep hisposure. After all for many years he had dealt with a tyrannical mother as well as the experience of getting bullied. Even though he hated every second of those times, he was grateful for them as he had learned how to deal with situations like this.

    "Isn''t that too serious of a question to ask a 15 year old? Especially one that has only recently exited a trauma inducing dungeon," Yuki replied.

    Carmi let go of Yuki and continued to guide him towards the kingdom.

    "I guess that''s fair, you''ll have plenty of time to gather your thoughts until we return to the kingdom," said Carmi.

    The group continued on their journey, all while Yuki tried toe up with a hypothesis as to what was happening as well as what would happen.

    "How was I found out so soon? Even if they did manage to uncover my murder streak, I can easily escape or even kill them here instead."

    "Wait, that wouldn''t be too smart, it is possible that someone else is controlling them. It wouldn''t be unreasonable to assume that there is a judicial system in ce already."

    "If that''s true, it won''t be much longer until a government is put in ce."

    "Dammit, did I waste too much time in the dungeon? Even so, the damage has been done, I''ll need a way to slow down the progression of humanity," Yuki thought to himself.

    "We''re here," Carmi told Yuki.

    Yuki had been so lost in thought that he didn''t realize how much time had passed.

    Carmi guided Yuki to a ce which seemed like a police station. When they went inside Yuki instantly knew it was an NPC building. Carmi talked to the NPC and led Yuki down stairs to where the prisoner cells were. Carmi grabbed Yuki by the shoulder and ced him into the cell. Yuki didn''t resist a single bit. Before Carmi exited the cell, he began informing Yuki of a few things.

    "You are under suspicion for the murder of 9 individuals. Your interrogation will begin in 4 hours and then you will be taken to court for your official hearing."

    "Do you have any questions or concerns before I leave?" Carmi asked.

    "I only have 2. My first question is if I will be able to receive food here. My second is if I may bring some of my items from my inventory out so I can y with them," Yuki replied.

    "For your first question, yes, a guard will try to amodate for your needs. Now for your second question. You may bring them out however, any attempt of escape will be taken as an act of treason which will cause you more trouble. You yourself are only a level 2 yer."

    "On our side, we have 5 level 2 yers, which consist of Jobon, Rui, Katsumi as well as 2 others. The two remaining yers are from a neighbouring kingdom and have been summoned as part of a treaty between the kingdoms."

    "If you even try to escape once, all 5 of these skilled yers wille after you with no hesitation," Carmi exined before finally leaving.

    Yuki waited for the group to leave the police before finally beginning to set his n into motion.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "King''s Crown" and ced it on his head.

    "Serve your king!" Yuki said as he thought about Meurig and Feliu.

    Instantly, white liquid began flowing from the crown and formed the two undead monsters.

    "What happened?" Meurig asked.

    "Basically I was found out by the kingdom. They figured out I killed people for exp and now I will get sentenced," Yuki spoke casually.

    "You deserve that! But I don''t really care, I owe my life and freedom to you so I''ll follow you till the end."

    "So do you have a n to get out of this Mr. killer?" Meurig asked.

    "Of course I do, but the n doesn''t involve me getting out of here as fast as possible," Yuki replied.

    "First of all, are the enemies strong?" Meurig asked.

    "Not really, they''re pretty weak. I disyed fake stats using the skill I earned after I reached level 5. Now that they think that they''ve got me under control, I can destroy them from the inside," Yuki replied.

    "Are you sure you''re not a psychopath?" Meurig asked sarcastically.

    "You can assign me any task my liege, I will do anything you ask for," Feliu spoke.

    "At least someone here is respectful," Yuki said as he stared at Meurig.

    "Right now all I need is to admit my crimes and try to get along with everyone by volunteering formunity service. After that I keep a low profile."

    "As I continue to work , I will gradually summon more undead monsters using my crown to have a small army," Yuki began to exin.

    "But why my king, I would be more than enough to kill your enemies," Feliu interrupted.

    "I already know that, if it was a matter of strength, I would have dealt with it already. Anyway..." Yuki continued.

    "The reason I need an army of weak undead monsters is so that it seems like they came from the forest and not an external cause. Even if some die, the main goal is to cause as much destruction to the kingdom as possible."

    "Once that happens, the kingdom will be forced to hire more workers like me. Since they''ll have so many problems to deal with, they''ll eventually forget about me and I can make my escape," Yuki exined.

    "But I still don''t get it. Why are you choosing to opt for such aplex n when you can just kill all of them and leave?" Meurig asked.

    "This kingdom has already made a treaty with another kingdom. Even so, I could take out both of them by myself. The real problem is afterwards. What will I do if someone stronger than me finds out about what I have done and doesn''t agree with my motives?"

    "That''s the reason I need to deal with this in the most civil way I can," said Yuki.

 Chapter 43 - Judge

    "So what are you going to do when those peoplee back?" Meurig asked.

    "Don''t worry, I already have that covered. You two can go back now, I only summoned you two to inform you that it might take a while before you can roam around the world freely," Yuki responded.

    "Can you go back to the crown now?" Yuki asked.

    Without having to respond, both of Yuki''s undead summons returned to the crown.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced the crown back into his inventory and awaited the return of his interrogator. Even though he had informed his friend that he had a n, that was false. Yuki quickly needed toe up for an excuse as to why his seven allies had died in a way which was believable.

    "How did they even find out about them in the first ce."

    "I had made sure that I incinerated all of their bodies so that there was no proof. The only way they could''ve found out was through someone''s ability."

    "Using the same weapon I created to defeat me, how fitting."

    "However, my legacy has just started, no amount of research will bring me down!" Yuki thought to himself.

    He continued to think for a bit over an hour until he decided on the perfect story to tell. Once he had aplished that, Yuki patiently awaited his questioning. After what felt like weeks, Carmi finally arrived at the cell. Behind him were 3 figures which Yuki assumed were the people he once thought of as friends. Carmi entered the cell and closed the door behind him. He had brought a book as well as a pen to write down notes with.

    "The 4 hours you had been given have passed. The interrogation shall nowmence," Carmi said.

    Yuki nodded his head in agreement.

    "I only have a few questions so please be cooperative so this process takes a lot less time and we can move on with our day," Carmi sighed.

    "What is your exnation for the death of the 2 victims you had killed in the kingdom who went by the names of Demosthenes and Kumara?" Carmi asked.

    "Oh so that''s what the white haired man''s name was," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Well I only killed them as a form of self defence, I didn''t have any other choice," Yuki said.

    "ording to witnesses, you were attempting to harm Demosthenes, what do you have to say to that," Carmi asked.

    "The whole altercation started within the shack, Demosthenes''s group came in and tried to assault me and everything that took ce after that was me defending myself," Yuki protested.

    "Where would that shack be now?" Carmi asked.

    "Well, I kinda destroyed the entire thing when my sword''s power went on a rampage," Yuki replied.

    "Can you demonstrate that so-called power?" Carmi asked.

    "No I can''t, it was apparently an ident and I will need to reach at least level 60 to use those powers at will."

    "Well at least that''s what a mage told me," Yuki replied.

    "Thank you for all your corporation, that''ll be all for today."

    "Your court hearing will take ce tomorrow morning, get well rested," Carmi advised.

    Carmi stood up and walked out of the cell and the 3 figures that were waiting for him outside the cell followed suit.

    "Great, everything is going just as I expected," Yuki said to himself.

    It was night time so Yuki lied on his cell bed and closed his eyes. He instantly fell asleep. Yuki hadn''t realized how exhausted he had been from the dungeon.

    The next morning, Yuki was awakened to the sound of knocking from outside his cell. Yuki stood up and when he looked, he recognized Carmi. Behind him were Katsumi, Jobon as well as Rui. He didn''t say a single word to them and neither did they.

    With no resistance, Yuki began to follow Carmi out of the cell.

    "So no handcuffs?" Yuki asked.

    "There would be no point to them, every level 2 yer is strong enough to break one of them like a twig. We could ask another level 2 yer to dedicate their ability into creating custom handcuffs for an asion such as this, but that would be a waste of resources as level 2 yers are few and far between at this time. The world needs more time to develop and cultivate strong people so we can use the abilities of others freely," Carmi replied.

    "No need to overplicate things, I got the point," said Yuki.

    Yuki continued to follow Camri until they finally reached the courthouse. Yuki kept walking until he reached the courtroom. There was a judge and 2 people standing at her side. Yuki assumed that they were the other level 2 yers Camri had mentioned. Other than that, there were also the mercenaries that Yuki had beat up which worked for Demosthenes.

    "All rise. This court is now in session," the judge said.

    "Now Yuki, is it true that you have murdered 9 people so far. Yes or no?" The judge asked.

    "Yes, but-" Yuki began to say.

    "I only asked for a yes or no," the judge interrupted him.

    "Now you im that 2 of the 9 murders were against self defense. Let''s say that were to be true, how do you exin the other 7 killings?"the judge asked.

    "Your honour, I would like to say that I did not kill them on purpose," Yuki argued.

    "What do you mean? Exin yourself at once!" the judge demanded.

    "Well one day as we were hunting monsters in the forest, me and one of my so called allies got separated from the group. As we continued walking through the forest, a bunch of monster incense activated and brought tens of monsters all to us. I had just recently reached level 2 and my ability timer had also reset which allowed me to change it into an AoE type ability. I went on a rampage and destroyed all the monsters in my way, however as a consequence I identally killed my beloved allies as well," Yuki exined.

    [Activate Skill: Faker]

    Yuki began to make himself fake cry at will which made the judge feel sympathy towards him.

 Chapter 44 - Verdict

    Seeing Yuki in tears, the judge couldn''t help but side with the helpless 15 year old kid.

    "Order!"

    "The judge hase to a verdict."

    "As we are still new to this world, there are many things that we may need to change to be ustomed to it. As such ourws and regtions will also need to be augmented. However, this doesn''t change that fact that murder is wrong."

    "In the case of Demosthenes as well as the Kumara, the defendant has been found not guilty."

    "In the case of the 7 allies which aligned with the defendant, there is insufficient evidence to support either side. The defendant has been found guilty and will serve life in prison until found innocent with parole," the judge said.

    Yuki couldn''t unveil his true intentions so he continued to cry. He needed everyone to believe that Yuki thought his entire life was over.

    "Wait, before I leave, may I ask 2 questions?" Yuki asked.

    The judge sighed and epted his request.

    "Sure, you can have that as your final request from this court," the judge responded.

    "First of all may I volunteer to work around the kingdom such as mining as a form ofmunity service?" Yuki asked.

    "I don''t know what your intentions are but it won''t make your sentence shorter," the judge replied.

    "That''s fine. Now for my second question, why did Rui, Jobon and Katsumi abandon me, I thought we were friends," Yuki continued his fake act.

    Yuki directed his eyes at his previous friends which were sitting with the jury which were just the mercenaries he defeated when he fought with Demosthenes.

    "Well-" the judge began to talk.

    "I can take it from here your honour," Jobon interrupted as he stood up from where he was sitting.

    The judge nodded in eptance of his request.

    "It was for money Yuki, we were offered arge sum of money to assist in the arrest of you," Jobon told Yuki.

    "Is money worth giving up your friends? The only reason I went to the dungeon is so I could get strong enough to look out for you!" Yuki replied as he began to get hysterical.

    "How nieve! Even though Rui is younger than you. He''s a lot more mature. It doesn''t matter how many new worlds we get transported to, money will always rule over the world!" Katsumi joined in the conversation.

    "Well answer me this at least, who paid you to do this, the judicial association?!" Yuki yelled as he asked his final question.

    "Actually no, it was one of the guys here. They said their boss told them to give us the money so we could bring you to justice," Jobon replied awfully calmly as he pointed at one of the mercenaries that worked with .

    Just then, all the pieces fell in ce.

    "It must''ve been the master of ''INFINITE HOTEL''. No wonder this n was so well executed. From forming a judicial association to paying the level 2 yers the money. Only that person has the resources and intelligence to do that. Well yed." Yuki thought to himself.

    "He or she could''ve effectively destroyed my future if I wasn''t who I am right now. I underestimated them, I''ll need to be a lot more careful from now on,"

    "For now, I''ll continue my n and escape," Yuki continued to think.

    "Come on, I''ll guide you back to the prison," Carmi said as he stood up and grabbed Yuki by the arm.

    Once they had arrived at the cell Carmi let go of Yuki and prepared to leave.

    "Before I forget, the necessary arrangements will be made for you to start yourmunity service by tomorrow."

    "And one more thing, what was the range of the AoE ability you used in the forest?" Camri asked.

    "It only had a radius of 5 metres however I used it excessively which is what caused me to identally kill my allies," Yuki said.

    Camri didn''t question Yuki, instead he nodded and left the cell.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and ced it on his head slightly crooked on purpose.

    "Serve your king!" said Yuki.

    Just then Meurig came out of the crown. Feliu stayed in the crown as Yuki didn''t intend on summoning him.

    "So how did it go?" Meurig asked.

    "Better than nned," Yuki replied.

    "What happened?" Meurig asked curiously.

    "Well my n was to escape the predicament which I was in but now I even managed to figure out who was behind it."

    "I thought the world already managed to advance so far so fast but that wasn''t the case. The judicial association was only formed thanks to the user of ''INFINITE HOTEL''."

    "I also think that the treaty between the two kingdoms was only formed because he was acting as the middle man. I guess I was worried for no reason. There was no way humanity can advance so much within such a small time regardless of if they have magical powers," Yuki said.

    "So did you change your n because of our new circumstances?" Meurig asked.

    "No, the n will still move forward as I nned previously but I''ll need your help at the end of all of this."

    "Since I''ve made a formable enemy, even if I manage to escape this kingdom, it''s almost guaranteed that he''lle after me. That''s when you''lle in, since you have an average yer''s system, you can set your ability to specifically find his position."

    "Once you do that, you as well as Feliu will simultaneously attack him and effectively terminate him from this world!" Yuki exined.

    "Sometimes you''re the smartest man alive and others you manage to be stupider than a fish," Meurig mocked Yuki.

    "This is serious!" Yuki yelled at Meurig.

    "Wait... are you actually scared of some random person?" Meurig asked Yuki.

    "Of course I am! You''ve seen what that ''random person'' is capable of," Yuki replied.

    "Rx man, you''re an extraterrestrial being that exceeds all of existence, even if he or she does manage to get the better of you. You can juste back in your true form and annihte them," Meurig said, trying to cheer Yuki up.

    "Ya I guess you''re right, I''m stressing over this too much," Yuki smiled.

 Chapter 45 - Mining

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki made Meurig return to the crown and ced the crown back into his inventory. Once he had done that, Yuki pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure".

    "I guess I have some free time now so I guess I''ll practice my concentration," said Yuki.

    Yuki began to take deep breaths slowly. He calmed himself and began inserting stamina into his de. Yuki could slowly feel his sword getting colder. This continued for a few seconds until shards began growing from the sword. While they weren''trge, Yuki was still impressed by them.

    "How did this happen? It''s not like I have increased in level since thest time I tried to use its powers, unless..." said Yuki before passing out from the exhaustion from using up too much of his stamina at once.

    *Knock Knock*

    Camri was at the cell door for Yuki.

    "Please put your weapon away before I am forced to call for reinforcements," Camri said.

    "My bad," Yuki said as he cleared his eyes.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced "Niflheim''s holy treasure" back into his inventory before finally leaving the cell.

    "So where are you taking me?" Yuki asked as he followed Camri out of the prison.

    "Well, I managed to secure you a position with the mining core, your job there is to mine in the cave all day. This will be taken as an act of good service to the kingdom and will aid you in the future if the court chooses to give you a second chance," Camri exined.

    "Thank you very much, your efforts on me will not go to waste," Yuki replied.

    Once they had left the prison, Yuki could admire the bright sun.

    "Wait, has it been a whole day since you left me at the prison?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes, is there a problem with that?" Camri asked back.

    "No not at all," Yuki mumbled.

    "Was I really unconscious for almost 24 hours. It was around this time of day yesterday when I returned to the prison, I guess my theory was correct."

    "The virus system doesn''t rely on levels, instead it relies on solely stamina. It assumed that if it drained too much stamina from mest time, I would die but since I made it ustomed to me, it trusts that it won''t kill me. However, in exchange for that, it drained almost all my stamina all at once, I need to be careful when I use it," Yuki thought to himself.

    Camri and Yuki finally arrived at the digging site. There were orange cones and yellow safety tape all around the area. Camri gave a quick look at the director of the ce and nodded before leaving Yuki there all by himself.

    "I guess you must be the rookie that''s supposed to work for me without pay," the fat man said.

    Yuki nodded back as he was intimidated by therge man. He was a few inches taller than Yuki. The man was wearing a white tank top andrge blue jeans.

    "How stereotypical," Yuki said to himself.

    "Okay, my name is Haskel, but you can just call me boss," the man said.

    "And I go by Yuki," Yuki reposned.

    "Nice to meet you Yuki, I won''t waste your time, I''ll exin to you what you need to do then you can move on with your day."

    "I will give you a pickaxe as well as a safety helmet and other materials which you will need as you work here. You will work here 9 hours a day with a one hour break every 4 hours before you are finally allowed to leave for the day. Do you understand?" the boss asked.

    "Yes!" Yuki replied.

    "Now, do you have any questions about the job?" the boss asked.

    "Well it''s not about the job but I want to know why you started this operation," Yuki replied.

    "Once we had been transported to this world, I saw how much I could contribute to society so I dedicated my ability to creating a miningpany which will gather resources for the kingdom for a very reasonable price. I just simply want to do good in this world," Haskel said as he smiled at Yuki.

    "What a load of trash, we both know that''s not the truth. You saw that once the world restarted, it wouldn''t be long before miningpanies take over the world. Seeing the opportunity, you made the investment into the oil, gold and other underground resources. No one ever truly wants the best for anyone or anything other than themselves," Yuki said to himself. He knew that it would jeopardize his n if he were to say something like that.

    "Remember Yuki, there''s no need to get into pointless arguments. Right now, all that matters is your escape n," Yuki said to himself as he began to calm down.

    Haskel gave Yuki a pickaxe, a safety helmet as well as a safety belt before he began to lead Yuki to the cave which he was supposed to dig in. At the entrance was arge elevator which was supposed to help Yuki get where he was supposed to work.

    "I assume this is also part of your ability," Yuki said to Haskel.

    "Actually it''s not, it is my brother''s ability. Since we are only level 1, there isn''t much we can do without abilities. My ability is to create mining drones which do the work for us," the boss responded.

    "Oh, how very wise," Yuki replied.

    Yuki and Haskel both entered the dirty grey elevator and began going down. It was almost 2 whole minutes until they reached the intended level for the digging. Once Yuki exited the elevator, Haskel patted him on the back, giving him a small push and said "good luck!" before taking the elevator back up.

    "If I wasn''t a prisoner, I would have killed you too," Yuki mumbled.

    "Well it doesn''t matter anyway, his existence is not an issue. He doesn''t n on leveling up rapidly to be the first yer to reach level 100 so I shouldn''t concern myself with the likes of him," said Yuki.

    Yuki grabbed his pickaxe and began walking until he found the mining drones. They were all humanoid robots which looked to be made of stainless steel. There were only 4 of them, as expected from a level 1. All around the cave were traditional torches which gave the ce a weird vibe to it. Nevertheless, he followed the example of the drones and began digging.

 Chapter 46 - Summon

    Yuki could hear the screeching sounds of a moving elevator. Yuki was covered in sweat and all he wanted to do was go back to his prison cell and sleep.

    "Your shift is over, you can go home now," the boss yelled.

    Yuki dragged his lifeless body towards Haskel. He entered the elevator and awaited his arrival to the surface floor. Once the elevator reached its destination, it opened and allowed Yuki to view the outside world for the first time in 4 hours. Right in front of him was Camri who was waiting to pick him up.

    Camri and Haskel exchanged a look and handed Yuki over before walking back towards the mine.

    "So how was your first day?" Camri asked.

    "Exhausting," Yuki replied.

    "I can imagine how tiringbour can be," Camri tried to sympathise.

    Yuki wasn''t tired because he had to do mining work all day. In Fact that was probably the easiest part of his day. Once Haskel had left him underground, Yuki summoned two "King of humanity Mini boss: Lydie". That drained him of nearly all his stamina but he needed to continue mining. Even with almost all his stamina gone, Yuki was easily capable of doing the work he was assigned. To him, it was like ying with a toddler''s toys, however, he couldn''t inform Camri of that.

    Once Yuki''s lunch break came around, Haskel hade down to pick up Yuki and bring him to the surface so he could eat in peace. After he was recharged, Yuki headed straight back to the mine. Haskel thought that Yuki was enjoying it because of his smile, however, Yuki was only excited because he had the strength to summon two more "King of humanity Mini boss: Lydie". After torturing his body for a whole day, Yuki could finally rx.

    Once Yuki reached his cell, he dropped on top of his bed, face first and pretended to sleep. Camri saw the helpless Yuki and left the prison, making as little noise as possible. Once Yuki couldn''t hear the sound of footsteps, he got up to move on with his n.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki brought out "King''s Crown" from his inventory.

    "Serve your king!"

    Yuki thought about Meurig and just as expected, his friend was summoned.

    "Why are you drenched in sweat?" Meurig asked.

    "That''s the first thing you think of saying when you see me after so much time?" Yuki asked back.

    "To me it''s only a few seconds, I''m pretty sure your crown removes the concept of time for anyone who''s in it," Meurig repied.

    "How odd, well that''s not important right now," Yuki responded.

    "Were you able to gather your so-called undead army?" Meurig asked.

    "Well, yes and no. It wouldn''t be hard to summon arge wolf or skeleton army. The problem with that n is that I can easily be tracked down since the monsters will be leaving from this cell," Yuki replied.

    "So how are you going to cause damage to the kingdom?" Meurig asked.

    "My luck is truly spectacr. From the 10 stages in the undead dungeon, there was at least 1 monster which was able to create fighting drones," Yuki replied.

    "So you managed to summon the king from the 8th stage?" Meurig asked.

    "I think you mean kings. If though I went through hell to summon them, my 4 kings will serve me well. Even if all the level 2 yers that reside in this kingdom right now were to team up, they would only be able to defeat 1 or 2 courageous knights," Yuki responded.

    "Do you seriously n on releasing 80 courageous knights to demolish the kingdom?" Meurig asked in fear.

    "Of course not, I only n on sending out 4..." Yuki spoke.

    "Oh that''s much better, with 4 courageous knights you can cause some damage so that they need more workers but it won''t jeopardize the safety of the civilians," Meurig said as his heart began to calm down.

    "... 4 ''Man''sst hope: Ourbanos''..." Yuki finished.

    "Are you insane Yuki?! You''ve seen what that beast is capable of, even you could barely keep up with him," Meurig protested.

    "Well it''s a good thing that they''re on our side."

    "Look, I only n on destroying buildings and machinery, I promise that no one will be injured. I''m already tired of mymunity service, I need to get out of here as fast as I possibly can," said Yuki.

    Meurig sighed and epted Yuki''s new n.

    "So when should I set my new ability?" Meurig asked.

    "Preferably now," Yuki responded.

    Meurig nodded and began the ability setting process.

    [Set ability: Tracker]

    [Specifications: Find the location of anyone that the user is thinking of as long as the user''s level is higher than the target.]

    [Draw back: Each minute that the ability is active for drains arge amount of stamina]

    "Okay, now that you''re done, I can move on with my part of the n," said Yuki.

    "Serve your King!" Yuki said as he closed his eyes.

    Yuki thought about the king from the 8th stage of the dungeon that he had recentlypleted. Once Yuki opened his eyes, kneeling in front of him were 4 "King of humanity Mini boss: Lydie ''''.

    "How ironic, a king serving another king."

    "Well we can''t activate the n now, we still need some time until it gets a bit darker," Yuki said.

    Until the desired time arrived, the 4 kings kneeled and awaited amand.

    "I think it''s about time now."

    "Each of you, summon an "''Ourbanos''," Yukimanded.

    They all nodded and followed their order. White liquid just like the one from the crown began toe out of the ground and take shape until it resembled the one known as "Man''sst hope". Now in front of Yuki were 4, 10 feet guards with gold armour and iron lining.

    Yuki pointed at one of the guards.

    "Go outside the cell and check if the shack I destroyed is still in the same ce," Yukimanded.

    The guard began to deform until it could go outside the cell then reform before rushing out of the prison.

    "Wait, how does it know where the shack is? It''s not like any one of us from the dungeon have been in the outside world," Meurif asked.

    "Oh so you don''t know..."

    "The crown allows the monsters I summon with it to be an extension of my brain in their body, everything I know, they have knowledge of it as well," Yuki replied.

    "And let me guess, I don''t have that because you gave me a human conscience?" Meurig asked.

    "That''s exactly right," Yuki said as he smiled sarcastically.

 Chapter 47 - Demolition

    "I have returned my king. The shack continues to exist within the city," one of Ourbanos said.

    "Has it changed a bit since thest time I saw it?" Yuki asked.

    "No it hasn''t my king," Ourbanos responded as he kneeled before the monarch.

    "Thank god, now that I know the user of the ''infinite hotel'' ability hasn''t progressed, I can move on with the n," Yuki mumbled to himself as he sighed in relief.

    "I''ve been meaning to ask, when are you going to get new clothes? You''ve been wearing the same sleeveless hoodie and pants since we were in the dungeon," Meurig asked.

    "I guess you''re right. I''ll buy some new ones after this mission," Yuki replied.

    Yuki prepared himself onest time before everything went to hell. In the dark night, hemanded the 4 kings he had summoned to unleash their guards into the kingdom. One of the Ourbanos went for the 6 towers of the kingdom. Each one being the vertex of the hexagonal shaped wall which guarded the city. The grey structures were almost instantaneously destroyed. While Yuki couldn''t see what was happening outside the prison, he knew that everything would go ording to his n.

    As one of the guards attacked the walls, the others were destroying random structures around the area. It didn''t matter if they were grocery stores, or simple homes, as long as no one was upying them, they would get demolished.

    "Wait why are you not monitoring their every move? You promised me that no one would die here," Meurig asked.

    "First of all no one will die, and second, why would it matter if I killed someone, it''s not like it would be my first time doing it," Yuki replied.

    "Just because you''ve done it before doesn''t make it right," Meurig rebudled.

    "What a goody two-shoes," Yuki said under his breath.

    "And what do you mean ''no one will die'', how can you be so sure?" Meurig asked.

    "When I was designing the world with Zero, we decided to spread out humanity all throughout the world. In the previous world, humans decided to gather and makerge clumps, inturn increasing the density in one area which made living conditions unbearable," Yuki replied.

    "Then why would humans go to ces which had too many people?" Meurig asked.

    "Either because they were following the trend or were looking for better opportunities. The more people there were in an area, the more opportunities there were however, there would be just as muchpetition if not more," Yuki responded.

    "I think I understand. The most important thing now is the safety of the people within this kingdom, if you can guarantee me that, I can rest at ease," Meurig said.

    Yuki gave Meurig a thumbs up to indicate that they have a deal.

    After just 30 minutes, all 4 of the guards returned to the cell. They had to deform and reform whenever they wanted to pass through the gate but it was only a slight inconvenience.

    "We have finished our assigned task," they all said simultaneously.

    "What about the guard which watches the staircase that leads from the top floor to the cell chamber?" Yuki asked.

    "He did not see a single thing, he was sleeping the entire time," the guards exined to Yuki.

    "Thank you for all your help, you can go back now," Yuki said.

    "We do not deserve your kind words, our king," the 4 Ourbanos said as they disintegrated.

    "You can go back to the crown," Yuki said to the 4 kings.

    Without getting a chance to reply, they all began to deform and return to the crown.

    "Well I guess I''ll try to get some sleep for Camries and tries to use me of the damage to the kingdom," Yuki said to Meurig.

    "You can return to the crown too," Yuki said as Meurig nodded and deformed.

    The next morning Yuki was woken up to the sound of loud banging at the cell. He tried to act as natural as possible.

    "What do you want? Is it already time for my work shift?" Yuki said as he cleared his eyes so he could see better.

    "This isn''t time for jokes! The entire kingdom was raided and we have you as the top suspect!" Camri yelled.

    "Calm down man, I just woke up," Yuki said as he yawned.

    "What''s the situation outside?" Yuki asked.

    "Many structures including the guard towers have been destroyed," Camri replied.

    "Any casualties?" Yuki asked.

    "None so far..." Camri began to slow down.

    "Now, what is the crime that I have been sentenced for?"

    "Murder...." Camri began to think about his reasoning.

    "But that doesn''t matter, you are the only criminal here," Camri said.

    "Well that''s a bit biased but let''s analyze this a bit more," Yuki said.

    "Let''s say that I was the one who did such a horrendous act, what would be my main motivation for it?" Yuki asked, trying to break down Camri''s logic.

    "Maybe you were angry about how much you had to work yesterday and wanted to take out your anger on someone, after all, you were sweating an awful lot yesterday," Camri tried toe up with an excuse as fast as he could.

    "Then why wouldn''t I have attacked either the boss or the mining site?" Yuki asked.

    "We don''t know everything yet which is why we n to interrogate you," Camri replied, now having a smile on his face because he believes that he defeated Yuki.

    "Now to finally put the nail on the coffin. Did the security guard of the prison see me leave the facility?" Yuki asked onest question.

    Sweat began to fall from Camri''s face. He quickly rushed off upstairs then came back down.

    "The guard said that you''ve been here since I dropped you off and that he hadn''t seen anyone leave the ce," Camri said with a sad face.

    "Oh really? I can''t believe that there is no evidence supporting your allegations," Yuki said as he mocked Camri.

    Camri''s face was now bright red.

    "And once extra thing, if I was angry about the mining job, I would have harmed thepany and not the city, it wouldn''t make sense to create more opportunities for the person I hate," Yuki said as he looked at Camri with an eerie smile.

    Camri was right about to explode at Yuki. Just before he could get out his first word since Yuki began humiliating him, Camri was interrupted.

    "Of course I am willing to help as much as I can to rebuild the kingdom," Yuki said.

    "Th-thank you," Camri replied before stomping off.

    "Well that was fun, everything is falling right into ce," Yuki said to himself.

 Chapter 48 - Escape

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and ced it on his head as he began the next part of his n.

    "Serve your king!"

    The white liquid began to pour out from the crown and would eventually morph into Meurig.

    "Is it safe for you to be using the crown in broad daylight?" Meurig asked as he looked at the metal bars which acted as a cage so that Yuki couldn''t escape.

    "It''s fine, don''t worry about it. It''s time for you to act. Before you leave, know that the master of ''INFINITE HOTEL'' will have guards around him for protection."

    "Even if he didn''t hire them, the kingdom would as he is arge contributor to the kingdom''s economy," said Yuki.

    "Got it, what about the security guard upstairs?" Meurig asked.

    "Now that you mention it, he does seem to be a problem."

    "Just run past him, he''ll see your shadowy figure and will assume that you''re the monster which destroyed the city," Yuki said without an ounce of remorse in his eyes.

    "Whatever you say I guess," Meurig sighed.

    "Great!" said Yuki as he began to set his eyes on the cell bars.

    His grabbed hold of two of the bars and with his raw strength began pushing them apart which made a loud creaking sound.

    "Is that normal?" Meurig asked.

    "Quick heads up, you might not realize it since you spent so much time in the dungeon, but this is kid''s y for anyone over level 2."

    "Don''t identally over do it," Yuki warned.

    "Activate ability: Tracker" said Meurig as he began to focus.

    He closed his eyes and began to stand still. However instead of seeing nothing like a regr person when they close their eyes, the precise location of the man Yuki was looking for appeared in his head. Meurig also knew how to precisely get there as if he had done so many times before.

    "I''ll be leaving now," Meurig said his goodbye.

    As Meurig ran upstairs, he was spotted by the warden of the prison. The abnormal shadow figure scared the security guard and made him freeze in fear. Meurig ignored the man and left to go look for his target. However, right as Meurig exited the building, the warden, who was the only person in the prison left to inform Camri about what had just happened.

    Seeing the opportunity, Yuki himself began to leave. As he reached the entrance to the prison, he was stopped by the person who had been pestering him since Yuki had left the dungeon.

    "And where do you think you''re going," Camri asked.

    "I saw that terrifying monster and was going to chase after it."

    "Being one of only 6 level 2 yers within the entire kingdom, I feel that it''s my duty to protect and serve my homnd," Yuki began to spout lies.

    "That doesn''t give you the authority to exit your cell, we already have 5 others who are just as capable as you," Camrimanded.

    "Never-mind, forget what I said," Yuki sighed.

    [Open: profile]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 7: 9200/80000]

    "That''s got to be a lie! You were merely a level 2 yer a few days ago!" Camri tried to make up a story to fit his ideals.

    [Activate Skill: Faker]

    Right in front of his eyes, Yuki''s stats began to change.

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 1: 0/10000]

    "How are you doing that?" Camri asked as he began to move further away from Yuki.

    "It''s a skill you gain at level 5, it''s over Camri, you can''t win against me," said Yuki.

    "But how? You had spent 3 weeks in the dungeon since you were stuck on stage 1," Camri asked.

    "First of all, how do you know about the stage system in the dungeon?" Yuki asked curiously.

    Camri began to regain his confidence.

    "Well unlike you, we had ced all 5 of the yers who are currently level 2 in the dungeon all at once. If you had read the instructions in front of the dungeon gate, you would have known that you are supposed to bring a raid party with you to the dungeon," Camri began to exin.

    "Oh so that''s why the difficulty of the dungeon stages did not make sense," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Unlike you, who spent 3 whole weeks inside the first stage of the dungeon and couldn''t even manage toplete it. The raid team we sent inpleted it within 1 week and even managed to gather a few information on the second state as well as manage to get to level 2 each, so you better back off before I call on them," Camri began to get cocky.

    "Well it does make sense as to why they had to retreat. Since the exp is divided between the participants, the more members there are, the less exp there is for each yer," Yuki mumbled.

    Consumed by delusion, Camri continued to spout nonsense.

    "I scared you so much that you can''t speak properly can you?" Camri began to mock Yuki.

    Yuki finally turned his attention back at Camri.

    Yuki instantaneously moved closer to Camri. So much so that it looked as if he had teleported to the naked eye.

    "This isn''t a joke, you better keep quiet about this or I''ll destroy the entire kingdom," Yuki threatened.

    "Well it''s toote for that now. My ability just happens to be one which allows me tomunicate with people telepathically," Camri began tough hysterically as the 5 level 2 yers began to approach the prison entrance.

    Yuki sighed.

    "Camri, I want you to watch what''s about to go down," Yuki instructed.

    Yuki exited the prison entrance and began approaching Katsumi, Jobon, Rui and the other two yers from the neighboring kingdom.

    "You''ve done enough damage to the kingdom criminal!" Jobon yelled at Yuki.

    "Always trying to y the role of a hero, how sad," Yuki said as he looked at all of them with pity in his eyes.

    Yuki seemingly disappeared. Before any of them could look around and find him, their eyesight began to get blurry. They all felt weak and as if they were falling asleep.

    "Sweet dreams," Yuki said as he delivered a swift chop to each of their necks, effectively knocking them out.

 Chapter 49 - Confrontation

    "Do you now understand how much of a gap in strength there is?" Yuki asked Camri as he stared at him through the clear ss prison entrance doors.

    Camri was at a loss for words, he simply stared at Yuki in fear and disbelief.

    "Oh right, I should''ve sent Feliu with Meurig."

    "Whatever, it''s not like he needs any backup anyway," Yuki said as he shrugged off his responsibility.

    "I should really start leaving now," Yuki thought to himself.

    As he began heading for the kingdom''s entrance/exit gate, he turned around to send off hisst message to Camri.

    Camri now outside the prison building was looking at the criminal escape. He just stood there, unable to utter a single word.

    "If you try to capture me, I''ll kill everyone in the kingdom," Yuki said as he smiled and waved goodbye.

    Now even more perplexed, Camri began tough. His whole world had been shattered. He who once stood at the pir of the kingdom''s chain of power was obliterated by a teenager.

    Elsewhere, Meurig finally managed to locate his target. Meurig had stopped in front of a double door which reeked of booze. He just assumed it was a cheap bar for people to get so drunk that they passed out. Nevertheless he entered the facility.

    "What are you looking at?" a drunk fat man that was sitting near the counter asked Meurig.

    He looked to be in histe 40s. Meurig didn''t pay any attention to him as he was no threat to his mission. Meurig continued walking toward a cloaked man which his ability informed him to be his target.

    "Didn''t anyone teach you to respond when someone is talking to you!" the fat drunk man yelled at Meurig.

    The man grabbed an axe that was under the stool he was sitting at. He stood and began to swing right above Meurig''s head, in hopes of cutting the monster in half. By then, everyone in the bar stopped talking. Even those who were drunk had regained their sense and were focusing on Meurig. Even if they were half unconscious, they at least knew that a monster wasn''t a good thing to be around.

    Before the axe could make contact with him, Meurig turned around and grabbed hold of it with his bare fingers until it eventually disintegrated.

    "I don''t have time to waste on people like you."

    "Sit back down and drink your booze before I also made it disappear," Meurig told the fat man.

    Everyone else within the bar also followed the instructions that Meurig hadid out. They knew that he was in another league and that even if they all attacked at once, it wouldn''t make a difference to someone capable of freely capable of disintegrating objects without consequences.

    In the very back of the bar, a small group of yers could be heard talking a bit louder than everyone else.

    "Hey man, I dare you to attack that monster," one drunk man said.

    "You''ve seen what he''s capable of, I''m not gonna risk my life," hispanion replied.

    "Come on, don''t be a buzzkill. He can only disintegrate weapons, there''s nothing to be afraid of," the drunk man continued to push hispanion intomitting into something that would get him killed.

    Meurig sighed as he overheard their conversation. Instead of trying to exin the power gap between him and everyone else present at the bar. He deemed it would be much more efficient to show everyone all at once. Meurig walked up to one of the two pirs which were holding up the bar. With a nk expression, he ced his palm on the pir and disintegrated it. This act caught the eye of everyone and made all themotion stop.

    "Don''t bother trying toe after me, the next time anyone tries to do something foolish to me, the other pir is gone. If that happens, the roof will fall on everyone here and you''ll all die."

    "Do I make myself clear?" Meurig asked.

    No one dared to respond as they all feared for their lives. Meurig ignored what had just happened and began to walk towards the staircase which led to the 2nd floor of the bar. It was a U-shaped structure. The stairs which were directly on the opposite side of the bar counter were the middle point of the structure. Once ascended, the person walking could either walk towards the right or the left side. On both sides were 6 tables, in-turn creating more space for customers as well as making the ce look better.

    Meurig passed by the second pir and walked straight towards the stairs. Once there, he took a right turn and sat at the same table as the cloaked man.

    The cloaked man sighed.

    "I assume you''re working with Yuki?" the cloaked man asked.

    "That would be correct," Meurig replied.

    "And what has he sent you to do?" the cloaked man asked.

    "To kill," Meurig gave a simple response.

    "Now tell me, why do you follow him. Is he paying you? If so, I can offer you double whatever he is paying," the cloaked man began trying to negotiate.

    "Believe me, he has more money than you, however, that isn''t why I choose to follow him," Meurig began to rebuttal.

    "Preposterous!"

    "But let''s say that what you are saying is true."

    "Why do you work for him then? If you were to work for me instead, I could offer you decent pay as well as fame and glory. What good is it to stick around a murderer?" the cloaked man was beginning to ask the questions which had been on Meurig''s mind for some time.

    "I don''t work for Yuki, what we have is more of a friendship," Meurig replied.

    "How unfortunate, I guess this is where our negotiation ends," the cloaked man announced.

    Just then smoke began to rapidly appear all around the area which Meurig was sitting at.

    "A smoke screen?" Meurig shouted.

    Meurig tried to look for the cloaked man however he couldn''t find him.

    "Even if there was a smoke screen, I should at least be able to see a bit of him as it had just recently been activated," Meurig said to himself.

    "Unless..."

    "I should''ve known, he could at any time change his ability if the situation ever got this bad. I was too careless," Meurig began to get enraged.

 Chapter 50 - Exit

    "I should''ve known, he could at any time change his ability if the situation ever got this bad. I was too careless," Meurig began to get enraged.

    Before he made any more reckless decisions, Meurig halted.

    "Hold on, I can still use my ability to find his location, I was worried for nothing," Meurig thought to himself.

    "Activate ability: Tracker" said Meurig as he began to focus.

    Instantly, Meurig fell to his knees. His breathing was now aggressive as if he was hanging on for dear life.

    "I guess the drawback is catching up with me," Meurig said to himself.

    Behind him, two people stood up and seeing the opportunity, stabbed Muerig in his shoulders before kicking him to the ground.

    "That''s what you get for trying to assassinate our master," one of the men behind Meurig said.

    The des disintegrated as expected but they had already done their damage.

    "If only I hadn''t wasted so much of my stamina, I could have stopped the des with my sheer defence," Meurig said.

    He knew that draining an immense amount of his stamina would also jeopardize his other stats but he was fine with that. Meurig didn''t expect things to go so wrong.

    "I shouldn''t have underestimated someone who made Yuki concerned," Meurig gritted his teeth.

    Now limping, Meurig began to slowly leave the bar. There was no point in chasing after his target anymore. If he were to activate his ability again, he would just end up wasting stamina. They probably had created arge between Meurig and themselves. It was useless to go after them.

    As Meurig got down the stairs, he noticed that everyone was quiet and on edge. One of the people in the back stood up as if issuing a challenge to Meurig.

    Meurig didn''t care anymore. He was once human, at least in his made up memory. He wanted to feel sympathy towards others. He didn''t want to kill anyone. Meurig believed that life was sacred and that it should be protected. However, in that moment, Meurig forgot all of that.

    The man from the back came forward and was now facing the limping Meurig in the middle of the bar. Everyone watched with suspense.

    "Even if he''s a strong monster, he has been weakened. The monster can be defeated!" the people in the crowd believed.

    The man facing Meurig was buff and looked to be in his early 20s. He was wearing a navy turtleneck and ck jeans.

    "Go back to where you came from!" the man in front of Meurig yelled as he threw a punch.

    Before the attack could make contact, the man froze in ce. The exhausted Meurig had managed to ce his palm on his shoulder. Meurig had managed to control his disintegrating ability and stopped himself from bing a murderer. However, it didn''t stop the side effects it carried.

    The man began to sweat profusely. It was as if he was breathing from a string sized tube. His heart began to beat at tremendous speeds. His head began to get heavy until he could only see back and hear a beeping sound. Finally the man fell face first into the floor.

    Everyone sat silent as this event took ce before Meurig exited the bar and went on to meet Yuki at their rendezvous point.

    As Meurig continued on his journey to the entrance/exit gate of the kingdom, he grew ever more exhausted. Before long, he was unable to control his presence. A death inducing aura began to surround him, anyone who tried to get close to him would instantly stop where they were standing or pass-out.

    Seeing a monster within the kingdom made the civilians uneasy. Those who were brave enough to challenge him passed out before they could get close enough to him. Even bystanders had to force themselves to stop from puking. The menacing aura which Meurig was emanating was unheard of.

    "What happened to you?" Yuki asked.

    Meurig was shocked to hear his friend''s voice. He hadn''t realized that his body had gone into auto pilot and managed to get him to the ce which he and Yuki were supposed to meet.

    "Are you really even concerned for me or did you just say that so you couldter ask about the details of the mission?" Meurig asked in an irritated tone.

    "You know me too well," Yuki smiled.

    "I''m kidding, while I am intrigued at what would cause this much damage to you. Right now, I need to focus on healing you," Yuki suddenly turned serious.

    This was unexpected as Meurig had thought that Yuki only saw him as a weapon and not as a friend. Even though he tried to tell himself that Yuki and him were friends, deep down he believed that a murder could never have enough emotions toprehend the concept of friendship.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion and handed it to Meurig.

    "Drink up," Yuki smiled once again.

    Meurig took off the rubber lid that was covering the capsule and drank the lime coloured liquid inside. Meurig instantly felt better and managed to fix his posture.

    "I thought you used up thest of your potions in thest stage of the dungeon," said Meurig.

    "I did, I just restocked on supplies after I escaped. It would save time since you were busy dealing with the user of ''INFINITE HOTEL''," Yuki replied.

    Meurig was satisfied with the answer.

    "So where do we go now?" Meurig asked.

    "To be perfectly honest, I haven''t decided yet."

    "I''m pretty sure the filter has already been applied by now, it''s been about 3 months since the new world began," Yuki responded.

    "What do you mean ''filter''," Meurig was confused by what Yuki had said.

    "I meant that all the people who aren''t willing to sacrifice everything to reach level 100 are gone."

    "It only takes about this long for people to get bored of something new. The human mind always yearns for what it doesn''t have. As such, they''ll get bored of the concept of getting stronger and give up on it, only a handful of people will have the will power to continue this journey," Yuki replied.

    "Even then, I still have the advantage since I have more knowledge on this world than anyone else. More and more people will begin to get filtered out, it''s gonna be a survival of the fittest," Yuki continued.

 Chapter 51 - Caravan

    "Your people sound pretty stupid," Meurigmented.

    "I don''t think you have much ce to talk, since you''re a monster," Yuki replied.

    Yuki sighed.

    "I wanted to spend more time exploring and rxing but we seriously need to continue leveling up. We should start looking for the next dungeon," Yuki suggested.

    "Why can''t we just go back to the dungeon and keep clearing it for exp?" Meurig asked.

    "It would be easier since we''re strong enough to easily clear most of the early stages but the amount of exp we''ll need to level up will keep increasing, at some point we would reach a point where it bes a waste of time and energy to clear it."

    "Even then, it would still be more efficient to look for the next dungeon since it offers more exp. On average finding a new dungeon and clearing is more efficient than redoing a dungeon. Plus, I''m pretty sure the ''virus'' has ced more amazing swords at each dungeon," Yuki exined.

    "There''s no point in asking you anything, you over exin everything. How about I ask you an easy question this time. How many dungeons are there in total?" Meurig asked.

    "Around 20, I''m pretty sure," Yuki replied.

    "Now that''s better," Meurig smiled.

    "Okay, we''ve wasted enough time, let''s start looking for the next dungeon," Yuki said as he began walking further away from the kingdom gate.

    Behind him was Meurig, following without a hint of doubt as he ced all his trust into Yuki. The two walked through the grasnds. Eventually they had reached the forest in which Yuki first went to gain exp.

    "Man, this ce brings back memories," Yuki thought to himself.

    They kept walking deeper and deeper into the forest. Yuki began to get nervous.

    "This ce seems to be bigger than it previously was," Yuki said under his breath.

    Just as he said those words, a loud moving medieval caravan could be heard. On instinct, Yuki leaped on the branches of arge maple tree and hid within the leaves. Meurig followed suit.

    "Why are we hiding?" Meurig whispered to Yuki.

    "I don''t know, I heard something so I instinctively hid," Yuki replied.

    Just as they prepared to get down from the tree, the caravan came in their line of vision.

    "We got a nice catch today, these will sell for a lot," one of the two men in front of the caravan said. The other one which was sitting beside him looked to be drunk and barely conscious.

    "How cliche," Yuki mumbled.

    Unbeknownst to Yuki, Meurig had heard what he said.

    "What do you mean?" Meurig asked.

    Yuki had been caught off guard as he had made thement as a remark however he was still going to exin to Meurig what he had meant.

    "Human traffickers, the lowest level of humans. The most despicable group of creatures to ever exist," Yuki said with a disgusted face.

    "We have to stop them!" Meurig said, almost loud enough to be heard by the traffickers.

    "Shhh, be quiet, they almost heard you."

    "Let''s just pretend like we didn''t see anything and move on with our day," Yuki suggested.

    "Are you serious?! Are you really going to ignore something so inhumane?" Meurig asked, now angry at Yuki''s beliefs.

    "I hate people like you, always thinking that the world is so simple."

    "Do you think that there aren''t hundreds of others working in the same business. Even if you stop these ones, what makes you think that the victims won''t get targeted once again? How do you know that there isn''t arge crime syndicate working behind this? Let''s say that you manage to rescue some people today, how do you know that the traffickers won''t bring others with them to hunt you down? This isn''t a heroicic story, this is real life!" Yuki asked all of these rhetorical questions, he didn''t understand why people always thought that criminal activity could be stopped so easily. If it were that easy, they would have been shut down long ago.

    "But we can''t ignore this, we at least have to do something. We can contribute the bare minimum," Meurig protested.

    "There''s no point in arguing with you. This will just turn into a sh of ideologies, how about we make a deal."

    "I''ll allow you to go down and stop them, you can kill them if you choose to do so. In exchange for this, you will never stop hunting monsters so you can grow as strong as possible so that you can defend yourself from anyone who may seek revenge," Yuki proposed.

    "Thank you," Meurig smiled.

    The shadowy figure jumped from the tree andnded right in front of the caravan. Meurig purposely let this presence loose. He had pent up anger stored from his encounter from the user of "INFINITE HOTEL" and his subordinates. The horses that were moving the caravan instantly passed out. The terrifying and strong stench of death had overpowered their will. All around Meurig, everything he was around turned ck or disintegrated.

    The men on the caravan had been so self centred that they hadn''t noticed Meurig.

    "What are you cking for?!" the man that had held over the ropes which were responsible for guides the horses said as he kicked the two animals.

    Meurig began to get closer to the two men. Just as he reached the perfect range, their attention instantly directed to the monster.

    "Hey, what''s that?" the drunk one of the two asked in a shaken and terrified tone.

    "Quick grab the gun," the drunk man told the guide.

    The man responsible for guiding the horses turned around to grab the shotgun thatid behind him. However, when he turned back around, the monster he had been looking at just a second ago was gone.

    "Where did he go?" the man with the shotgun asked his drunk aplice.

    When he didn''t get a reply, he looked to his side, he could see why he didn''t get a reply. The person he was working with had passed out. Without having a chance to analyze what had just happened, the man fell to the floor. In confusion he looked around, to his surprise the caravan which he had been sitting on hadpletely disappeared. Behind him was the shadowy monster. Meurig was now helping the victims by unteing them. It was just 2 young girls which looked to be no older than 20. From the dark circles under their eyes, they looked to be quite exhausted and sleep deprived.

    "What do you want from us?!" the man asked in desperation as he pointed his shotgun at Meurig.

    Meurig stared at the man with rage as he directed all of his presence towards him. As expected the man passed out from fear.

    "You''re too noisy," Meurig said as he turned to the two girls and smiled.

 Chapter 52 - Search

    "You''re too noisy," Meurig said as he turned to the two girls and smiled.

    When the two girls saw Meurig, they instantly yelled for help. After all there was arge monster in front of them. Seeing themotion that Meurig had caused, Yuki jumped down from the branches of the maple tree he was stationed at. He gently stepped in front of Meurig and held a helping hand to the two girls.

    "Don''t worry about my friend here. He may look scary but he''s surprisingly soft on the inside," Yuki exined.

    He put his palm forward and put up a fake smile to get the girls to let down their guard.

    "How about you two get on your feet and we help you return to wherever you came from?" Yuki proposed.

    The girls sniffed through their nose as if they had been crying for many hours.

    "There''s no need to be afraid. Everything has been taken care of, you can go back to your families now," Yuki assured them.

    The two girls looked at each other, gave a nod and stood up with the help of Yuki. Before Yuki could even ask them what had led them to the position they were in now, the two girls sprinted in different directions.

    "Well, you can''t me them for not trusting us," Yuki sighed.

    "We should go after them, what if they get kidnapped again?" Meurig began to panic.

    Yuki gave him a weird nce and chopped his head lightly.

    "Leave them alone, you''ll just look like a creep," said Yuki.

    "But," Meurig tried to argue.

    "You''ve done what you could and this is the dissuasion that they have chosen. Everyone must face their consciences to their actions as they are the ones to me," Yuki exined.

    Meurig wanted to present his reasons for his beliefs but it was clear that Yuki was making the right call. Instead of pestering him, Meurig began walking behind Yuki as they continued their journey through the forest.

    "This ce seems a lot calmer than I remember. There''s something off," Yuki mumbled.

    "Meurig, you have your disintegrating ability, but you''re also able to create an aura which incites fear into others. How does your base ability work?" Yuki asked.

    "Well there''s my initial disintegrating ability which as it says, disintegrates anything which is weaker than me. But it also has a side effect. You know how certain animals can sense danger? Because my ability invokes death, it has an aura which imitatesrge amounts of danger and fear," Meurig exined.

    "Then why don''t guns have that aura? They also can cause death," Yuki asked.

    "I''ll assume that you and your people don''t know what a presence is. Basically, a presence is like body heat. Everyone has it and can emit it. However it isn''t possible to control it. That was why once we hadpleted the 10th stage of the dungeon, we could sense the people who were waiting outside for you."

    "My theory is that once someone levels up, they automatically learn to control their presence. So if they were to be an assassin, they could minimize their presence so that they wouldn''t get noticed by others. While minimizing your presence is easy, realizing it is when it bes difficult. Of course, as you level up, the extent to which you can control your presence increases and you''ll eventually be able to emit arge presence. The reason my presence is so potent is because I am subconsciously merging my disintegrating ability with my presence. Since I am not touching my target, it only knocks them out instead of removing them from existence," said Meurig.

    "So I won''t be able to knock people out by just looking at them?" Yuki frowned.

    "You can dedicate your ability to doing that but I doubt that would be a smart use of your ability. It would be better to just wait until you level up to the point where you can do that at will" Meurig reassured Yuki.

    "So that''s why the monsters haven''t been attacking us. His presence must be keeping them away. Even brainless monsters know to stay away from death," Yuki thought to himself.

    After some time, the sky began to get darker until it finally turned pitch ck. The only source of light was the moon.

    "Wanna take a break now?" Yuki asked Meurig.

    "Sure, there''s no point in continuing to walk now. We can barely see a single thing," Meurig replied.

    "You can go to sleep, I''ll keep watch," said Yuki.

    Meurig nodded in agreement andid on the cold grass of the forest. It was surprisingly soft. When Yuki had created the new world, the environment had also been reset. There was no pollution and thend wasn''t disrupted because of construction operations. However, it wouldn''t be much longer before the greed of humanity leads up to mass deforestation and other environment harming events.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki activated his storage system which was a clear blue hotbar. The hotbar had 5 open slots per row and had a seemingly infinity extending columns. He pressed the crown icon and pulled it out using his index and thumb. As he pulled his hand from his hotbar, the "King''s Crown" began to erge until it returned to its original size. Once the crown returned to its original size, Yuki ced it on his head and began to activate his next n.

    "I really should''ve thought of this before, I ended up wasting a lot of time," Yuki thought to himself.

    Yuki began to think of the zombified wolves which he had faced in the 2nd stage of the dungeon. Summoning many of them wasn''t hard as they were part of the early stages of the dungeon. After Yuki had summoned 25 of them, he directed them to look for the next dungeon. Once they had received themand, the wolves went in different directions as fast as they possibly could, in hopes of being the one to be the most useful to their king.

    "I don''t get it, why do you push yourself so much? You still have your whole life ahead of you, you''re still young. Why do you intend on using your early years on purely agonizing training?" Meurig asked.

    "Couldn''t get any sleep?" Yuki said as he sighed.

    "Well it''s simple. No matter how many times I tell myself that I am doing it to bring peace to the world, my real goal is selfish."

    "I want to be the most powerful so I never feel helpless ever again. I don''t want to ever feel below anyone. I want to undeniably be the strongest," Yuki stated.

 Chapter 53 - Supplies

    Yuki stood up from his cross legged sitting position and began to stretch. He had been exhausted however he also didn''t want to rest.

    "Where are you going now?" Meurig asked.

    "I''m gonna go explore the forest a little," Yuki lied.

    Yuki had already thoroughly explored the forest. There was nothing that he hadn''t seen before. The real reason he wanted to get away from there was because Yuki wanted to hunt some monsters. Even if they didn''t give him much exp, Yuki still wanted to kill monsters. The overwhelming feeling of excitement he receives when he kills was too great to let go off. He knew that he enjoyed killing humans more than monsters, but he didn''t want to gain the attention of major righteous groups so he decided to settle for monsters.

    Yuki leaped on to the nearest branch he could find to gain the high ground. Once he had done that, Yuki jumped from one branch to the other as he hunted down the gobins which roamed the forest. Yuki thought about using one of his swords however he scratched that idea as he would enjoy killing with his bare hands. The look of helplessness from other''s eyes as they beg for mercy fueled his godplex. The Yuki in front of Meurig and the one which hunted monsters werepletely two different people. There was no trigger for the sudden change in attitude, Yuki just knew to suppress his emotions around others. That was how he managed to survive in his previous life. All of the rage he had bottled up during that time began to leak and take out its resentment on others.

    After only 40 minutes, Yuki killed thest monster within the forest using his bare fists. Just as he had done that, one of the zombified wolves approached him.

    "My king, I have found the next dungeon," the wolf telepathicallymunicated to Yuki.

    "Are you sure it''s the next one on the list of dungeons? There is a level gap between all of the dungeons, if we don''t follow the right order, I could end up dead," Yuki exined to his servant.

    "Yes my liege, I have entered and left the dungeon myself to make sure I haven''t got it wrong," the wolf proudly replied.

    "Good job," Yuki congratted the wolf.

    The zombified wolf was beyond overjoyed. A simplepliment could invoke so much emotion. The crown was truly a terrifying object. An item which can not only make monsters obey someone but also allow them to have conversations and simte fake emotions. It was beyond broken.

    "Now take me back to Meurig and we can start heading to the new dungeon," Meurigmanded the wolf.

    The wolf nodded and lowered itself so Yuki could sit on it''s back. The rotting flesh of the wolf did smell horrible however Yuki had gotten used to it after spending 3 whole weeks in a dungeon full of the undead. The wolf used its strong sense of smell to return Yuki back to the ce which Meurig was stationed at.

    Sleeping on the ground was the kind and righteous shadowy figure. He was sound asleep, probably having the best dream of his life. Meurig didn''t want to show his emotions in front of Yuki however, he was thrilled that he got to see the outside world. Meurig wanted to explore the world and enjoy its many wonders however his self centred partner was only focused on constantly leveling up.

    "Well I guess he really is asleep. I''ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to leave," Yuki said to the wolf once they had arrived at the location.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "King''s Crown'' from his inventory and ced it on his head. He telepathicallymanded all of the zombified wolves to return to the crown except for the one that had found the location of the next dungeon. The zombified wolves did as they were told and began to deform to a white liquid as they began to return to the crown.

    Feeling aplished, Yuki sat down on the ground to catch his breath.

    [Open profile]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 7: 13500/80000]

    "Only an increase of 4300 exp, that''s a shame," Yuki sighed.

    While Yuki was disappointed at the exp he had earned, he was satisfied as he had aplished his main goal which was to let out some steam. Yuki returned his crown back into his inventory before going to sleep himself.

    The next morning, Yuki was awakened to the light tapping of someone''s fingers. When he readjusted himself to see who it was, he could see the face of his shadow friend.

    "We should get started early," Meurig told Yuki.

    Yuki yawned as he was still tired but he knew that Meurig was right.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 2 toothbrushes as well as 2 toothpaste. Yuki also pulled out two water bottles so they could wash their face and clean up. He gave one to Meurig and took one for himself.

    "I got some extra supplies before we left since our journey will be a long one," Yuki said.

    "Thank you," Meurig replied.

    "Did you happen to get a tent as well? It was a bit too coldst night, if I have to do that one more time, I might catch a cold," Meurig said.

    "Nope," Yuki said as he smiled with an evil expression.

    "Why? How could you forget a tent but remember toothbrushes?" Meurig asked.

    "It wasn''t on my mind at the time. If it''s really that important to you, I can send the king from the 8th stage to go get extra supplies while we''re in the dungeon. He''s basicallypletely human unlike the other monsters so it''ll be fine," Yuki suggested.

    "Thank you... again," Meurig was a bit embarrassed as he demanded a lot of things from Yuki.

    "Don''t worry about it, think of it as my way of thanking you for helping me in the dungeons," Yuki honestly smiled at his monster friend.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and called out for 1 of the 4 kings he had pre-summoned before for his operation to escape from the kingdom.

    "Serve your king!"

    The humanoid figure began to form as it kneeled before it''s king.

    "How may I serve you today my liege?" the king asked.

    "We just need some extra supplies. For now just go back to the kingdom and get us a tent, you should know the directions since our minds are shared. If we need anything else, I''ll telepathically contact you," said Yuki.

    [Extract: 10000 silver]

    Yuki handed a pouch full of silver to the king before finally sending him off for supply shopping.

 Chapter 54 - Unforgiving Hell

    Lydie epted the pouch and began his journey to the kingdom. Facing the other direction, Meurig and Yuki sat on the zombified wolf. Once they had made sure they werepletely ready for the next dungeon, Yukimanded the wolf to take them to the dungeon gate. Hearing the order, the wolf sprinted as fast as it possibly could. While at first it caught Yuki and Meurig by surprise, they quickly grew ustomed to it until it eventually felt rxing. The warm breeze was soothing to the skin, the birds were chirping. For once in a long time, Yuki got a chance to admire the world he had built, with the help of Zero of course.

    After nearly 5 minutes of straight running, the wolf came to a stop.

    "We have arrived," the wolf telepathically informed Yuki.

    As they disembarked from the wolf, both Meurig and Yuki got a look at the dungeon gate. A 5 metre tall and 2 metre wide double door. Spiral engravings which glowed bright red. A suffocating stench to boot.

    "So what do you think?" Yuki asked Meurig nervously.

    "I don''t want to go but I already know I don''t have a choice in this, let''s just get through with it already," Meurig replied.

    They both exchanged a look and pushed open the double door. Once inside, the door automatically closed behind them and the initiation sequence took ce.

    [Wee to the dungeon: Unforgiving Hell]

    [Level rmended: 6-10+]

    "There are 10 stages within this dungeon. After each stage, there is a save point. After you have reached it, you can leave the dungeon ande backter on to continue your quest here. If you choose to leave without reaching the next save point, all the exp you''ve earned after your previous save point will be lost," The robotic exnation voice said.

    "If you agree to these conditions, please step forward to begin your quest," The voice continued.

    "So we''re starting where we left off," Yuki said.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out "Fallen angel of hell" as well as "Niflheim''s holy treasure".

    [If you would like to move to the 1st stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 1 difficulty: level 6]

    Without a single doubt in his eyes, Yuki stepped through the white light which led to the first stage. The terrain was extremelyrge. Unlike the previous dungeon, you couldn''t see the walls which enclosed the space except for the high ceiling. The ground was made up of dried dirt which was cracked overtime. The cracks themselves radiated heat and if looked at closely, one could observe magma in them.

    Standing on the ground was an army of nearly 500 humans which were engulfed in mes. On both their arms and legs were chains however they weren''t binding them.

    [Human torch: Demelza]

    [Human torch: Luliana]

    [Human torch: Tanja]

    Each of the 500 monsters had a different name but all had the same status.

    "Well, we better get started," Yuki said before rushing off into the crowd as he dual wielded his swords.

    Using his new attained agility from leveling up, Yuki swiftly and quickly cut off the heads of the human torches. After 1 straight minute of constant massacre, Yuki was hit on his left arm with a chain. He expected it to be a light hit since he had overpowered all his previous enemies, however the chain had managed to fracture his arm. In addition, it also managed to leave a seemingly permanent scar as it has absorbed the heat from the monsters.

    "Dammit, I hate when this happens. I end up getting over confident then I suffer the consequences," Yuki said as he went on defense using his right arm.

    "Why do I care, I can just use a full status recovery potion. It should even be able to regenerate limbs," Yuki told himself. ''

    With an evil grin on his face, Yuki ced "Fallen angel of hell" back in his inventory and decided on a one hand fighting strategy. Now, more confident than ever, Yuki went on a murder streak. Previously, his attacks were more dignified and quick. Now, Yuki didn''t care about getting through the dungeon quickly, as long as he got to enjoy himself, that''s all that mattered. Using "Niflheim''s holy treasure", Yuki cut anything in his way. When the monsters got close enough, he would aim for any opening, whether it be their arms, legs or chest. As he went on, Yuki jabbed his sword into the head of one of the human torches. When he tried to pull it out, Yuki realized that his weapon was stuck. Instead of trying toe up with a logical way to gain control over his de, Yuki ced his foot on the dead human torch and pulled his sword out as he pushed the monster to the ground. The scorching heat of the fire that covered the monster meant nothing to Yuki. Pain stopped registering in Yuki''s body. All it knew was to kill.

    Once Yuki managed to regain control over his de, one of the monsters grabbed the chain which was attached to its arm and wrapped it around Yuki''s arm. Seeing this, Yuki pulled on the chain and forced the monster toe closer to him. Once it was in his range, Yuki grabbed the human torch by its face and smashed it to the floor. Its skull instantly cracked and the monster stopped moving. Instead of continuing with his sword fighting tactic. Yuki ced his de back into his inventory.

    Yuki smiled at the rest of the monsters maniacally as he began to unveil his new fighting method. He grabbed the monster which he had just killed by the chain that stuck to its arm and began to swing it in circles. Yuki used the body of the dead monster to take out multiple crowds of monsters. Once he got bored of fighting like that, Yuki began fighting using hand to handbat. Shoving his fist in the faces of all the monsters as they fell to the ground brought a sense of overwhelming power to him. However, Yuki didn''t stop at killing the monsters, he enjoyed going further beyond. Yuki began to transition to his ulterior personality. He would keep pummelling the monsters with his fists, breaking every single bone in their body. Even then, he would kick and step on them. The agony he inflicted onto them was immeasurable. The human torches were no longer the monster in the dungeon. The role belonged to Yuki and Yuki alone.

 Chapter 55 - Stage 1

    "This is great, I can finally let loose again," Yuki said as he finished crushing the skull of another human torch.

    When Yuki looked at both his arms, he could see that they had turnedpletely back from the fire that engulfed the monsters. Even touching them would be too much for the average human. Yuki however had built resistance as he continued to level up. Each level brought an increase to his defense stat as well as his other stats.

    "Now where was I.." Yuki said as he stood up from his knees. Under him was the monster he had beaten to a bloody pulp. To Yuki it was just a came. It was totally okay to kill the monsters in a video game, people do it all the time. There was no reason for him to be judged for his actions.

    Yuki quickly ran to another human torch and put his arm around his neck, putting him in a choke hold. Before the monster could fight back, Yuki pushed the monster to the ground as he brought his knee upward, breaking the monsters back and leaving him immobilized.

    [Open inventory]

    "The fun never ends. There''s an endless stream of these guys. Sorry but there are stronger enemies waiting for me at the next stages," Yuki said as he once again pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure" as well as a stamina boost potion.

    Yuki opened the cap on the potion capsule and drank it all in one go. Once he had done that, he began to focus all of his energy into the sword. The blue transparent sword began to turn cold until it eventually became shrouded in ayer of ice. While the task drained Yuki, he was far from finished.

    With both hands grasping on the handle of the sword, Yuki ran once again into the crowd of monsters. Cutting as many as he possibly could at once. Whether it be horizontally, vertically, cutting off the arms or legs, even making uncalcted attacks, as long as the monsters died and disintegrated, that was all that mattered. Yuki was like a demonicwnmower and the human torches were a group of overgrown grass. No matter how many of them there were, Yuki would cut them down.

    On the other side of the battle field. Meurig swiftly punched each human torch in the gut, weakening them before finally cing his palm on their head to disintegrate them. Meurig''s method of fighting was a lot more dignified and thought out. There wasn''t a moment which got wasted. Even though that was true, it had nearly been 12 hours since they entered the first stage of the dungeon. Each human torch took 1 minute topletely incapacitate. Their defense was the real problem. They could rival someone which attained the level 4. While ideally it would take 10 seconds, if the monsters tried to defend themselves, it would dy the process. Even being an ascended human or monster, it would be insane to be in constant battle for 12 straight hours. They needed to take at least a 5 second break in between. This was no problem as the movement speed of the monsters was extremely slower than Yuki''s or Meurig''s.

    After what seemed like an eternity, thest human torch fell to the ground as Yuki''s ice de struck him through the chest, ending his life. The burned and blooded Yuki stood on the stage, looking at the ceiling, his mind now nk. Breathing heavily as he thought about absolutely nothing. Yuki waspletely in the zone.

    [100 exp X 500 = 50000 exp]

    [25000 exp to Yuki Kaito]

    [25000 exp to Meurig]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 7: 38500/80000]

    [yer: Meurig]

    [Level 6: 45000/70000]

    Meurig nowid on the ground,pletely exhausted, out of breath and only wanted to sleep.

    "And this was only the first stage, why did you make this world so difficult?" Meurig asked Yuki, having to take short breaks in between every couple of words.

    "I didn''t think it would be this exhausting to clear each stage. This is gonna be one annoying journey to get through."

    "There are about 20 dungeons in total. With each consisting of 10 stages. There would be 200 stages that we have to clear. Including this stage, we''ve only gotten through 11 stages. 11 down, only 189 stages left," Yuki said as his voice trailed off when he tried to imagine the unbelievable grind that woulde.

    Right before Yuki passed out where he was standing, an object fell from the ground.

    [Item drop: C-ss Orb of fire]

    Yuki double tapped on the red orb which was warm to the touch.

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: An item capable of enchanting a weapon with the me attribute, while is capable of doing this, its efficiency is lower than higher grade items capable of doing the same. All those who chose the path of evil during their time in the overworld are sentenced to an entire life in the underworld. Those whomit evil deeds are deemed to be either worthy of the pity of Hades, in turn allowed into his domain, or seem as despicable creatures that don''t deserve the slightest amount of forgiveness. Even the lord of the underworld sees them as worthless pieces of trash who are merely a waste of space. Those people are left to rot outside the domain. Any attempt to enter will be halted by the guard dog "Cerberus". It is within this area which terrorists and mass murderers serve their sentences.]

    As Yuki finished reading the description of the orb, Meurig came up behind him out of curiosity, so he could read it himself.

    "It sounds like you would fit right in with them," Meurig said.

    "You shouldn''t joke about stuff like this," Yuki replied.

    "The way you were killing those monsters, my statement wouldn''t be a joke," Meurig said.

    Yuki shrugged off thements that Meurig made, it wasn''t anything he should be concerned about as the ruler of everything.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki returned the sword he had on his hand and pulled out 2 full status recovery potions, handing one of them to Meurig.

    "Drink up," Yuki said as he and Meurig open their capsules at the same time. Right as the first drop of the serum made contact with Yuki''s stomach, he began to recover. His arms, legs, chest and head all began to return to how they were previously. All the scars and burns Yuki had attained during the battle disappeared. As for Meurig, there were only slight burns on his arms as he was more cautious during the battle, however they were alsopletely healed.

    After they drank their potions, both of them copsed and fell into deep slumber. While their physical exhaustion may have been healed. The mental fatigue was still too great to deal with without rest.

 Chapter 56 - The Devil And Angel

    "So you''re finally awake," Yuki heard the voice of Meurig.

    "How long was I out for?" Yuki asked and he yawned.

    "1-2 days, I can''t quite tell the time in dungeons," Meurig replied.

    "So much for getting through this as fast as possible," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out 2 cup ramen as well as 2 water bottles from his inventory.

    "What are you doing?" Meurig asked.

    "Getting our food," Yuki replied as he gave a look of "what else would I be doing?".

    "And how exactly do you n on cooking that?" Meurig asked.

    "Hmm, I didn''t think about it that far," Yuki said as he tried to think of something he could use to heat up the water.

    Yuki considered setting the cups on the ground and let the underground heat do the job for him, however he realized that even if he could withstand the stage heat, it didn''t mean that ordinary objects could do the same. Each stage difficulty is set to inform what level someone should be to survive the stage. Unless the cup ramen magically level up into a level 6 yer, it would melt in an instant. While that in most instances leaves the heat radiation as a usable source, in this case, it waspletely useless. The ground heat only reaches up to Yuki''s ankles, the stage specifically made it to hinder the yer''s movement speed.

    "I guess that only leaves one choice," Yuki sighed.

    [Set ability: Fire control]

    [Specifications: Allows the user to create and control mes to a certain extent depending on yer level]

    [Draw back: Gradually drains the stamina of the user]

    "Are you seriously using an ability for food?" Meurig asked in an angry tone.

    "Ya, what''s the problem with that?" Yuki asked.

    "I think you hit your head too hard when you passed out," said Meurig.

    Ignoring Meurig''s remarks, Yuki opened his cup of ramen in his left hand and took off the water bottle cap in his right hand with his teeth. Using his new ability, Yuki created a small hoop of fire on top of the cup. As he poured the water into the ramen, the heat from the fire would instantly make the water a lot warmer, in turn cooking the noodles. Of course, Yuki added in the seasonings as well.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out two stic forks from his inventory, one for himself and the other for his friend. Yuki repeated the cooking process for Meurig as well and once that was done, they could finally enjoy their meal.

    "Man, this is seriously good," Meurig said.

    "You think so?" Yuki replied.

    "What do you mean? Don''t you think so too?" Meurig asked.

    "Well of course I do but it doesn''t mean it''s generally good," Yuki replied.

    "I''m not quite sure what you''re getting at, can you borate?"

    "Well I don''t remember where I heard it but I just call it the theory of absence."

    "When someone is deprived of something for a long period of time, their mind and body decide to settle for the bare minimum. As such the effects of anything rted to what they have been deprived of be amplified astronomically. The reason you think the cup of regr ramen noodles is so good is because you haven''t had anything to eat in 2 days after a 12 hour fight," Yuki exined.

    "Nerd..." Meurig said under his breath, just loud enough for Yuki to hear him.

    "I''ll pretend that I didn''t hear anything," Yuki said.

    After finishing their food, Yuki and Meurig both took the garbage they had left over and threw them in the cracks within the ground which stored magma.

    "Now that that''s finally done, we can move on to the next stage," said Yuki.

    "Why can''t you just summon and tell your monsters to clear the dungeon for us?" Meurig asked, feeling exhausted from the fight with the human torches.

    "Our main goal is to level up, not to clear the dungeon. Even if we get the monsters I summon to help us, it doesn''t change the fact that exp distribution won''t ur. In the outside world, exp is divided equally if both people have done damage to the same monster. However in the dungeon, it doesn''t matter how much damage each yer does, as long as the yer is present in the dungeon, they count as a member of the raid party. Exp will be divided equally amongst participants, regardless of if the amount they contributed," Yuki exined.

    Seeing the exhaustion in Meurig''s eyes, Yuki decided to make the difficult discussion that had to be done.

    "Let''s just get to the gate so we can take a break," Yuki said to Meurig.

    Fully recharged and ready for battle, they both marched towards the save point. Yuki had a look of determination, as if nothing could get in his way. Once they reached the gateway tunnel, Yuki took a deep breath.

    [Stage one: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 2nd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 2 difficulty: level 6-7]

    "A raid party member would like to exit the dungeon!" Yuki said out loud.

    "Which party member would like to exit?" the system asked.

    "yer: Meurig," Yuki replied.

    "Save point has been reached, exp will not be taken away once the yer exits. Press ''Confirm'' to finish the process," the system said.

    In front of Yuki was arge rectangr blue projection which said "Confirm", beside it was a red projection button which could be pressed to cancel the transitional process.

    Before Meurig got a chance to intervene, Yuki pressed the "Confirm" button.

    "yer: Meurig shall be removed from the raid by party leader''s order," the system said.

    "Enjoy your life outside the dungeons, you deserve it, good bye," Yuki said.

    Meurig had been caught off guard, he was at a loss for words. Once he was returned outside the dungeon gate, he tried to run back into it.

    [A yer is already in the dungeon, please wait until the raid ispleted to enter]

    "Dammit, why?!" Meurig yelled.

    Inside the dungeon, it was dead silent. Yuki didn''t know what to do or how to react to what he had done.

    "It was for the best, I shouldn''t be controlling. That''s thest thing I want to be, I experienced the pain of being someone''s puppet.

    "Zero, can you do me a favour?" Yuki said out loud in hopes that his guardian would respond.

    "How may I be of assistance to you master?" a voice in Yuki''s head said.

    Tears from Yuki''s eyes began to flow like water.

    "...."

 Chapter 57 - Cerberus

    "Zero, can you do me a favour?" Yuki said out loud in hopes that his guardian would respond.

    "How may I be of assistance to you master?" a voice in Yuki''s head said.

    Tears from Yuki''s eyes began to flow like water.

    "Give Meurig a normal human body and grant him a normal human life. Please erase all memory of me from his mind as well," Yuki replied to Zero.

    "At once sire," said Zero.

    Outside the dungeon entrance gate, sitting on the grassy field, Meurig was teleported somewhere else. There stood a 6 year old kid on the yground of his school. Completely zoned out from everything going around him, the ck haired boy stared into the sky.

    "Hey Meurig, want to build a sandcastle?" his friend asked him.

    The ck haired boy stood wondering where he was and why he was there. He knew that he was waiting for something however, no matter how much he thought about it. The pieces never connected until his attention span finally broke.

    "Meurig are you listening to me?" the ck haired boy''s friend asked.

    "Yes, let''s build a sand castle," the human Meurig agreed.

    Joining his friend, Meurig began living a normal life. Nothing was a bother to him, he had a normal family and a normal life. Even in a world which allowed people to gain superhuman powers and grow at an astronomical rate, many chose to use the opportunity for everyday purposes. Using their ability for mundane things such as washing the dishes or making food, soon the concept of supernatural abilities would be incorporated into the boring ordinary life.

    Being in the peak of the transitional period, human Meurig was never bothered by the concept of abilities and leveling up. To him it was an ordinary thing, as for all kids they learned and adapted to it easily.

    "Will that be all master?" Zero asked after aplishing the task that he had been assigned.

    "Yes, thank you. You can leave now," Yuki replied.

    "Farewell," said Zero.

    Yuki wiped the tears from his eyes and walked through the white light which allowed one to enter the next stage. The second stage was much like the first one. The heated surface which contained many cracks which urred due to being dry for many years. Nearly a hundred hell hounds which were the size ofrge dogs. Behind them stood the guard to the gate of the underworld. Known throughout hundreds of legends, Cerberus.

    A fear invoking sight, however to Yuki it was just something boring.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out three defense boost potions from his inventory and drank them all in an instant. Instead of thinking logically and getting a weapon to fight, Yuki walked into the crowd of hell hounds bare handed. Yuki didn''t fight back, he let each and every single one of the monsters bite into him. He could experience the pain from each bite, the hellhounds chewed on him as if he was the first meal they had received in millenia.

    "I once heard that to make pain go away, you just have to make yourself experience a greater pain so you can distract yourself. I guess that wasn''t true, the pain of losing someone precious can never be beaten..."

    "OW OW OW! That hurts so much! What was I thinking? I sound like a fake depressed emo kid that pretends that their life is over for validation."

    "I need to get my act together," Yuki said as he kicked and punched the hell hounds away. His cloths, nowpletely torn apart.

    As he began to gain control once again, he readjusted his shoulders.

    "Man that was so painful," Yuki smiled.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "King''s crown" and "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory. His crown on his head and sword in his right hand, Yuki looked something that seemed to be a courageous king fighting for peace.

    "Hey, Lydie while you''re shopping make sure to get me new clothes. Just estimate the size of clothing. The dungeon is ruthless so I doubt that there will be much fabric left when I finally finish this dungeon," Yuki telepathicallymunicated to the king that he had previously sent to buy extra supplies.

    "Your wish is mymand," The king replied.

    Once Yuki finished his request, he ced the crown back into his inventory all while fighting the monsters.

    "Okay now that I finished all other business I can get to you," Yuki gave an evil smile as he looked behind him at the hellhounds.

    Running towards one of them as fast as he possibly could, Yuki prepared to strike the hell hound with his sword. Ready to dodge, the monster moved away from the de. However that was what Yuki had wanted the entire time. Before getting a chance to react, Yuki kicked the hell hound right in the jaw, dislocating its face.

    "Look at you now? You''re so dumb, how did you fall for such an easy trick?" Yukiughed menacingly at the hellhound, now whimpering on the ground. All of the other monsters began to get angry at Yuki, seeing what he had done to their brother. As Yuki began to consinuasly kick the helpless hell hound, he noticed the evil presence that the collective group of hellhounds were emanating.

    "You want to have a turn too?" Yuki''s evil smile grew bigger. His eyes now wipe open, as if they stared into the souls of anyone they looked at.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Yuki activated his ability and made a medium sized fireball which incinerated the hellhound which he was beating.

    "Don''t worry all of you will get your chance to experience hell," Yuki told the hell hounds.

    Seeing the demonic creature in front of them, the monsters began to slowly move away from Yuki. Even an animal knows not to enter a fight it can''t win.

    "Where do you think you''re going" Yuki whispered inside the ear of one of the hellhounds. Even if it couldn''t understand the words, it knew that death was inevitable. Yuki had closed the distance in a matter of seconds, having moved faster than any of them could see. It would be no use to run away, all that''s left was to ept their fate.

    "Don''t worry, once this dungeon is cleared, you''ll all be reborn and serve me as your true king," Said Yuki. Now the perfectbination of a masochist, sadist and narcissist.

 Chapter 58 - Stage 2

    "Don''t worry, once this dungeon is cleared, you''ll all be reborn and serve me as your true king," Said Yuki. Now the perfectbination of a masochist, sadist and narcissist.

    When Yuki finished whispering in the ear of the hellhound, before it could move away or retaliate, Yuki kicked it in the cut. Temporarily immobilized from the pain, the hellhound froze in ce as Yuki clenched both his hands together and hit him the top of his head, crushing its skull. Now dead from the damage it sustained, the hellhound disintegrated.

    "Who should I take in next," Yuki mumbled to himself.

    His eyes red at the monstrouslyrge 3 headed dog.

    [Guard of the underworld mini boss: Cerberus]

    "A mini boss right at the second stage? Interesting," Yuki said to himself.

    Yuki leaped on one hellhound onto another, using their backs for propulsion until he could finally reach the head of the 3 headed monster. Within the second that Yuki was at the height level he needed to be to look the dog in the eyes, time seemed to stop as their aura shed. Seeing the arrogance in the monster''s eyes, Yuki decided tond on its lips and grab hold of its left fang. Using all his strength, Yuki bare handedly pulled the fang out by force. Cerberus, now enraged, began going on a tantrum. However, before it could aplish anything significant, Yuki ran from his mouth onto its shoulder then eventually on its head.

    Yuki held the fang he had just forcibly removed with both his hands and jabbed it into Cerberus'' head. To go even further beyond, Yuki jumped on top of the fang and stomped on it to permanently engrave the fang into the monster''s head. Cerberus, now barely conscious and put into a weakened state could only watch the uing events to ur.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 4 attack boost and 2 stamina boost potions and drank them all as the hell hounds growled at him.

    "Don''t worry, it''s almost over," Yuki grinned at them.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Using his mes, Yuki made himself levitate. Due to his increased strength from drinking the attack boost potions, he was able to lift Cerberus alongside him with only one hand.

    "Now watch this spectacr event," said Yuki.

    Pointing his index finger from his right hand to the ceiling, he made a small fire form on top of it. It gradually grew and increased in size, quickly draining arge amount of stamina from Yuki until it eventually resembled a small sun. Now that the fire ball had reached the size Yuki desired, he made it fall like a meteor on top of the rest of the hellhounds, all while forcing Cerberus to watch. Incinerating each one of his servants in front of him, Yuki forced Cerburus to experience the immense pain of losing everyone you care about.

    After the fire died down, Yuki returned down to the ground.

    "So how did that feel?" Yuki asked.

    "Oh wait, animals can''t talk," Yuki mocked Cerberus.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel on hell" and held the hilt with both arms and began to concentrate. Red glowed from the engravings embedded into the sword. As the sword''s aura began to increase, wind pressure formed around it. Using all his might, Yuki sliced Cerberus''s head off clean.

    "I guess the stamina potions do help in bringing out more of the sword''s potential."

    "That was more exhausting that I thought," said Yuki.

    [+60000 exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 8: 18500/90000]

    As per usual, an object fell from the sky as Yuki hadpleted the stage.

    [Item drop: Cerberus'' fang]

    Yuki double tapped on therge fang which was white and gleamed in the stage.

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: Item used to craft any 1 equipment from the set "Demon dog shield". Contrary to Cerberus'' origin, his story is much sadder. There once were 3 kind dogs. Cursed with horrible luck, they were abused and treated harshly by their owner. Enraged one day, their owner beat them to death with a bat. As they crossed into the underworld to be judged, Hades himself took pity upon them. No matter how harshly they were treated, they stayed loyal to their owner. Learning what had caused their death, he merged them into one creature so they wouldn''t have to feel alone anymore. Enhanced their strength so that they would never be beaten ever again. Once he had done that, Hades sent Thanatos to kill their owner and bring him to be judged. Hades instantly sent him to Tartarus without a second thought. Cerberus, wanting to repay the kind actions of Hades devoted himself to guard the gate of the underworld.]

    "Seriously? Was this the best origin Zero could think of?"

    "Well, whatever. It doesn''t matter anyway," Yuki said as he ced the item in his inventory. While his inventory is still open, Yuki grabs an apple and "King''s Crown". After he ced his crown on his head, Yuki sat on the ground, resting his back on one of the boulders in the stage as he ate his apple. Even though he was eating Yuki didn''t feel anything, he was still hungry. Noticing this, Yuki kept taking out more apples from his inventory. No matter the amount he consumed, Yuki still felt empty.

    He hadn''t gotten over the pain of losing his close friend. While he regretted what he had done, Yuki knew it was the right thing. It wouldn''t be right to force someone into doing what they didn''t want. Meurig now had the ideal life he never got to enjoy.

    "He was bound to leave you sooner orter, there''s no point in getting sad over him. He would eventually be a liability."

    Yuki had tried to numb the pain by letting out his anger out on the stage monsters but that clearly hadn''t worked. Unlike other times Yuki didn''t cry. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn''t. It was as if he ran out of tears.

    "Serve your king!"

 Chapter 59 - Summon

    Yuki felt himself get drained of arge quantity of stamina. As he used the crown to create a new summon, Yuki thought about his shadowy friend. Although their time together was short lived, it had engraved itself into Yuki''s memory. Remembering all that they had gone through brought a smile to Yuki''s face.

    The white glowing flowed out of "King''s Crown" like water until it began to form a figure. Slowly but surely, the shadowy monster appeared in front of Yuki. Right as it was brought into existence, it kneeled before it''s king.

    "How may I serve you my liege?" the monster asked.

    "I''ll send you outside this dungeon, once that has been done, go find the first dungeon that I cleared and constantly level up there until I tell you to stop," said Yuki.

    "What makes you so confident in me?" the new Meurig asked.

    "Oh right. I forgot how sad Meurig used to be when we first met," Yuki thought to himself.

    Yuki thought for a bit until he coulde up with the correct words to say.

    "Well it''s because I believe that you could be one of my most useful allies. Do not disappoint me!" said Yuki.

    Catching Meurig off guard, the newly formed monster could do nothing but nod furiously in agreement.

    Seeing as how everything was going ording to n, Yuki walked towards the gateway as he needed to set his save point. As he entered the tunnel which led into the next stage, the engravings on the wall began to light up white.

    [Stage two: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 3rd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage three difficulty: level 7]

    "A raid party member would like to exit the dungeon!" Yuki said out loud.

    "Which party member would like to exit?" the system asked.

    "Summon: Meurig," Yuki replied.

    "Save point has been reached, exp will not be taken away once the summon exits. Press ''Confirm'' to finish the process," the system said.

    In front of Yuki was arge rectangr blue projection which said "Confirm", beside it was a red projection button which could be pressed to cancel the transitional process. As he had done so previously, Yuki pressed the confirm option. Now teleported outside the dungeon, Meurig instantly set out on his journey to aplish the goal given to him by his king.

    "Okay, that felt good. I can have a new Meurig that won''t abandon me," said Yuki as he walked through the gateway, unveiling the next stage.

    Theyout was simr to the previous stages however in this one,rge bridges and towers were in ce. Stationed at every tower was an archer, under each one were a group of demon guards for abined total of 5 archers and 50 infantry units.

    "What a pain, even if I take out the infantry, getting the arches at the top will take an excruciating amount of time," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Just as Yuki reached in to grab a potion, an arrow pierced through his hand, getting stuck in it. As he rived in pain, Yuki continued to try to grab hold of a potion. Each attempt was halted by a fury of arrows from all directions, stabbing through his skin and draining his stamina and health. Before he could be killed off in mere minutes, Yuki''s brain went into a fight or flight mode allowing him to think of a simple but spectacr idea.

    "Serve your king!" Yuki said as he summoned the lich from the 10th stage of the first dungeon.

    "How may I be of serve to you my king?" Feliu asked.

    "I''m kind of in a pickle. Do you mind tanking the attacks for me while I grab a potion since you''re immortal and can only be defeated by the use of a soul damaging item?" Yuki asked.

    "It would be the greatest honour to do that," Feliu said as he stood in front of Yuki, taking in all the arrows from the arches. Tired of sitting on the sidelines, the dark red skinned infantry unit began to march towards Feliu. Large-two handed swords in hand, they all began attacking at once. The lich smiled as he was overjoyed to be protecting his king. Even if he would have taken damage from their attacks, Feliu would''ve epted the request without a second thought. However it wasn''t himself who wanted tomit such deeds, the awakened crown forced this obligation onto any monster summoned using it. Their emotions would be manipted and augmented to fit the user''s desires.

    Therge humanoid infantry unit began to push Feliu further and further back. While they couldn''t do any direct damage to him, it didn''t mean that they weren''t capable of causing knock back.

    Seeing as the situation was getting even worse, Yuki reached into his inventory hotbar and grabbed a full status recovery potion, along with 3 speed boost and an attack boost potion. Now having drunk all of them at once, Yuki felt fully refreshed and ready for battle.

    "You can go back now," Yuki said as Feliu deformed and began to return to the crown. Wasting no time, Yuki ced the crown back into his hotbar and took out his favorite weapon, "Fallen angel of hell". Closing his inventory tab, Yuki red at the crowd with an evil look which made it seem as if arge after image of him stood behind him. All frozen where they stood, they heard a breeze of wind pass them as Yuki disappeared from their eyesight. Less than a secondter, they heard a loud *bang* sound behind them. Yuki had leaped too fast and engraved his feet into the direction which he had hoped to climb on foot.

    "I guess over using potions can cause confusion of how your body actually functions," said Yuki as he pulled his feet out of the cylindrical tower walls andnded back on his feet. Eagerly awaiting his revenge, Yuki began to walk on the walls of the tower. Soon the walking turned into running, impatiently eager to do all kinds of horrific actions to the demon archer. Right as Yuki reached the top of the tower, he stood there, allowing the monster a chance to admire the menacing presence of the revenge seeking monster it had created.

    "Let the fun begin," said Yuki as he stepped off the battlements of the tower andnded on the keep.

 Chapter 60 - Stage 3

    Grabbing the archer by the head, Yuki lifted the humanoid demon in the air, slowly crushing his skull. After a few seconds of torment, Yuki mmed the archer''s head into the battlements of the tower. Constantly repeating this process, lifting the monster''s head every few seconds to look at his bloodied face before mming it once more.

    "Now, don''t you think it would''ve been a better idea to let me drink my potions in peace?" Yuki asked.

    While a fair question to ask to a yer, this was a monster he was talking to. All actions it had, and will take were out of its control. It had simply beenmanded by the system. Was it really fair to punish someone for actions they hadmitted without them intending to? However on the other hand, the demon archer was still a threat to others. Even if it can''t be med for its actions, the fact remains that it must be disposed of. It is the method of disposal which may be brought into questioning.

    As Yuki continued his torturing process, an arrow pierced through his left arm. Annoyed by the interference, Yuki subconsciously clenched his right arm harder. Feeling the excruciating pain, the demon archer tried to use its hands to free itself from the demonically strong clench of Yuki''s hand to no avail. Yuki, ignoring what was happening as he still had his attention focused on the other archers who struck him, he inevitably crushed the demon archer''s skull. A loud cracking sound echoed through the stage as everyone went quiet. Yuki felt a warm liquid on his hand. When he turned around to see what it was, he noticed the action he hadmitted. In his hand''s monstrous grip was the unconscious body of the monster. From its skull the red liquid which Yuki recognized to be blood flowed.

    Frozen where he was standing, Yuki couldn''t say anything but watch as the system recognized the demon archer to be dead and disintegrate him. Yuki had killed mercilessly many times before, however this time was different. It felt purely wrong. There was nothing behind it. Yuki mainly killed as a way to relieve his stress as he derived pleasure from killing those who had used or abused him.

    However he had now killed with no purpose, Yuki hadn''t even realized what he had done until he had turned around.

    "What a waste," Yuki said as he let go of the body.

    "Fallen angel of hell" in hand, Yuki infused his weapon with his stamina and he jumped off the tower to meet the crowd of demons. Right as hended on the ground, a small crater formed from the impact of Yuki''srge presence colliding with it. An angry Yuki armed with a stamina infused treasured sword was one of the scariest things to see in the world. While Yuki didn''t understand why he was feeling that way, all he knew was that killing people who stood in his way always made him feel better. Yuki was now addicted to murder. It was his only escape from his mind''s agony.

    As the angry crowd of humanoid demon infantry unit began to charge at Yuki, some holdingrge two handed swords, others holding axes. All armoured with leather equipment. As theirrge muscles shined on the stage. On the other side of the battle field stood a 15 year old with a one handed de. Closing his eyes, Yuki held the hilt of his sword with both arms as he made the edge of the de face the wall behind him. Yuki began to breathe slowly as he ced all of his stamina into his sword. As the engravings on the middle of the sword began to glow red, Yuki felt himself lose more of his stamina. Putting every ounce of will power into his sword, the red glow began to twist and reform until it formed a red guard around the sword, much resembling the 50 feet long spacial des Yuki had summoned the first time he had unleashed the true power of his sword.

    As the small army of demon infantry began to approach Yuki, he also stepped forward to greet his enemies with the wrath of his de. Only stepping forward once, Yuki instantly closed the distance between the two parties of the battle. Before any of them could react, Yuki brought his de to their necks and sliced them off clean. Instantly 3 of the demon infantry unit were taken out. The monsters'' head in the air after the impact, their brain tried to tell their body to retaliate however nothing happened. Themand could never be delivered as the nerves connected the body and mind had been severed. Slowly the monsters that had just been killed began to feel tired.

    "I''ll just take a quick nap," they thought to themselves as they closed their eyes to never open them ever again.

    Yuki went through the crowd one by one, slicing each and everyone one of their heads off clean. As some tried to fight back and attack Yuki, they ended up striking each other as by the time they had swung their des of fists, Yuki had disappeared and the only thing to receive their attacks were theirrades. None of the monsters from the infantry unit that Yuki had killed felt pain. All of his attacks were swift and clean, no time or energy was wasted. He couldn''t afford to do that as the sword continued to drain his stamina at an exponential rate.

    Once Yuki had mowed down the crowd ofnd demons, he turned his attention to one of the archers in the tower. The towers were in a pentagonal shape. Each one connected through a long sky stone bridge. Within the boundaries of the pentagonal shape were the infantry unit which had just been massacred by Yuki.

    "You''re next!" Yuki said to the archer he had set his attention to.

    As expected, the archer became overwhelmed by fear as it had seen what Yuki had done to the other archer. Ignoring Yuki''s remarks since they had no reason to be concerned, the other archers aimed their bows at Yuki. However Yuki had nned for this to happen. Instead of going after the archer he had said he would kill next. Yuki sprinted towards the archer tower beside it. Caught off guard by this, the new target of Yuki fired its arrow at Yuki without any aim. Luckily for the archer, it was headed directly for Yuki.

    As the archer smiled in joy, Yuki leaped in the air, slicing the arrow perfectly in the horizontal direction.

 Chapter 61 - Crumble

    As the archer smiled in joy, Yuki leaped in the air, slicing the arrow perfectly in the horizontal direction.

    Yukinded back on the ground like nothing happened and continued running towards the tower. Seeing the monstrous yer continue his hunt of demons like nothing had happened made the archer on edge. Losing any hope of winning the fight now, the archer climbed on the battlements of the town and jumped off onto the other side of the tower. Once Yuki climbed the tower by simply running off its walls andnding on the keep, he noticed what the archer had done. Feeling cocky, he looked down at the archer which was running away on the ground. Even though the stage was vast, Yuki knew like all other stages, this one also had an end to it.

    Yuki wanted to torment the archer, making it run around like a mouse as Yuki followed him slowly. Giving the demon the slightest hope that it would survive. However Yuki didn''t have any time to enjoy tormenting his enemies. Soon, his sword would drain him of all his stamina and knock him unconscious.

    cing one foot on the battlement of the tower while holding "Fallen angel of hell" like a spear, Yuki used all of his might to throw it at the demon archer with pinpoint uracy. Cutting through the air like butter, the red aura enforced de stabbed the demon through the back and stuck itself into the ground just from the force that was put into the throw.

    Finally understanding what had happened, the demon archer dropped its bow to the ground as its body began to lose all of its power. Slowly but surely its red body began to disintegrate from horns up to its feet.

    "Bullseye" said Yuki as he jumped off the keep of the tower to regain his sword.

    Grabbing hold of his sword''s hilt, Yuki pulled out his treasured red sword from the ground. Seeing as there were only 3 archers left, Yuki began to feel confident once again. Putting his de on his shoulders as he began to walk slowly toward his enemies.

    Instantly Yuki''s knees felt weak as he fell face first into the ground. The red aura shrouding his de disappeared. Yuki began to breathe heavily and gasped for air. He had drained all of his stamina without realizing it. Nowpletely immobilized, Yuki could do nothing but watch as the remaining archers began to take aim at his body. With the sound of cutting wind passing his ear, Yuki felt as 3 objects pierce through his legs.

    "Aiming for the least vulnerable part huh?" Yuki said.

    He understood that just like how he tormented their allies, the demon archers were going to torment him as well. Having no escape from his dire situation, Yuki prepared for his final resort and any situation.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki began to reach into his inventory to take a healing potion however that was quickly stopped by 3 consecutive arrows embedding themselves into his right hand. Now Yuki waspletely cornered.

    While it may have seemed that Yuki was in a hopeless situation, that was not the case. To many, he may seem stupid because of the actions he takes when he gets too cocky however, Yuki knew how to instantly get out of a bad situation. All of the times he had to quicklye up with excuses and solutions to avoid his mother''s wrath. All the many hours he spent trying to figure out ways to avoid running into his bullies were finally paying off.

    For nearly 15 whole minutes Yukiid on the ground, constantly being bombarded with a fury of arrows all aimed at his lower half of his body. All waiting for the perfect moment.

    "All I need to wait is for the right moment. Once they exhausted their supply of arrows, they have to reach into their barrel to grab another refill of them. They all have a different rate of firing speed. When they all are refilling their supply of arrows I can reach into my inventory and take a potion of healing."

    "Wait, that would be too risky. It''s safer to opt for a full status recovery potion. Since my body is fatigued all my stats have decreased drastically, a restoration in my health won''t change anything as they can just chip away at it again," Yuki thought to himself.

    Getting constantly hammered by the arrow made Yuki''s legspletely dumb. Yuki felt himself getting sleepy, all of his strength began to fade as he grew ever more tired. However, he forced himself to stay awake, closing his eyes would mean the end of his life. No amount of blood lost could destroy his will power. After waiting for so long, Yuki noticed all of the archers turn their heads at the same time to refill their arrow case which was hanging on their back. Seeing his time finallye, Yuki gave a big smile.

    [Open inventory]

    As his right arm was nowpletely paralyzed from the arrow attack it suffered thest time Yuki tried reaching into his inventory. Yuki used his left hand to pull out a full status recovery potion from his inventory as quickly as possible. Using his teeth, Yuki bit off the lid of the ss capsule and drank the liquid it carried inside.

    Regaining all of his strength, Yuki stood up from the ground engulfed in rage. He knew that he was going to take out all of his anger on them. Instead of taking the fast route of killing them in an instant, Yuki decided to use a different method of fighting to finish them off.

    Yuki ced "Fallen angel of hell" back into his inventory, and pulled out 4 attack boost potions. After drinking from each capsule, Yuki used his hand to crush the ss bottle. Once he aplished that, Yuki grabbed a bunch of the arrows at a time from his back and pulled them out with no care. Seeing as he began to bleed from them, Yuki pulled out a heath recovery potion from his inventory and drank it.

    Yuki began to slowly walk to one of the towers which a demon archer was stationed at. Instead of climbing the tower itself, Yuki clenched his right hand and punched the tower itself, instantly crumbling the tower and demolishing the half of the two bridges that connected it with the other towers. As for the demon archer which was stationed at it, as he fell from the sky, Yuki clenched his fist once more and punched it as hard as he possibly could, flinging it hundreds of meters away from where Yuki was.

 Chapter 62 - Demon Bow

    Continuing to follow the orders of the system, the remaining 2 archer demons resumed their fire of arrows at Yuki.

    "Don''t worry, your time hase," said Yuki.

    Yuki ran towards 1 of the towers and once again punched it to the ground. As the demon began to fall from the tower, instead of punching it like he had done to the other demon, Yuki caught it by its head. As he dragged the demon archer with his left hand, Yuki began walking to the final remaining archer tower which was upied. Yuki once more struck the tower with this force of the bare right fist. As the final demon archer lost its bnce and began to fall, Yuki caught it right before it could fall to the ground and die.

    "This is what you get for torturing me with your arrows," said Yuki as he squished their heads together and crushed them. Once the deed was done, Yuki dropped their bodies to the ground and took a look at his hands.

    "Such filth," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a water bottle from his inventory and used the water contained inside to wash his hands. Unlike many may think, Yuki didn''t feel sad or regretful because of his actions. On the contrary, he had felt aplished like a teenager who had just beaten a hard level in a video game. In truth that was what had basically happened, as such, there would be no reason for anyone to criticize his actions.

    [+50000 exp from infantry unit]

    [+12500 exp from archer demons]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 8: 81000/90000]

    "Looks like level 9 isn''t that far away," said Yuki.

    Yuki felt excruciating chest pain as he fell to the ground, instantly making his smile fade away. Every single cell of his body ached. His head was in so much pain that Yuki stopped thinking about anything, his eyes began to smell as he bled from his nose. Yuki yelled in pain as it was the only thing he could do.

    "I knew that using the potions came with a draw back but this is too much," Yuki said as he rolled around the ground, clenching his stomach with all his strength as he held on for dear life. While many others would''ve learned their lesson from experiencing this amount of pain, Yuki chose another way of dealing with it. The tolerance for the human body, regardless of their level, was 10 potions a day. Having to face many foes all by himself during the short time he had spent in the dungeon caused him to resort to consuming potions to close the gap in power. Each level difficulty was set up to let the yer know what level they needed to be to survive, not defeat the stage. Regardless of the yer number, if they did not meet the level requirement, their change of survival would drastically decrease.

    "Zero I need help here," said Yuki, knowing that his guardian would reply.

    "Yes master, how may I be of assistance. You seem to be in quite a lot of pain," replied Zero.

    "Just heal my body back to how it was before," said Yuki.

    "Before I do that, I would like you to know that if I were to do that, I would be giving you external support in this video game-like word. To put it simply, you would be considered a cheater, master," said Zero.

    "I don''t really care. Why should I let my pride get in the way of me being sessful? If I have the ability to benefit myself whenever I wish for it, why should I prevent myself from using it?"

    "Just hurry up and heal me," said Yuki.

    "As you wish, master," Zero replied.

    A green aura began to shroud Yuki, instantly healing his wounds and recovering his internal organs from the stage they had been put in due to the overuse of the potions.

    "Thank you for the help, you can go away now," said Yuki.

    "Farewell master," Zero replied.

    Now feeling refreshed, Yuki stood up from the ground and began to walk towards the gateway leading to the next stage of the dungeon. Seeing the tunnel made Yuki sick to the stomach. He couldn''t imagine going through endless hell 7 more times. It was unbearable for a teenager to get through 1 stage of any dungeon, let alone 13 stages. There had been many times when Yuki wanted to give up on his quest and enjoy the rest of his life. Even as a level 2 yer, anyone would live afortable life within the world. Only some would continue the journey of leveling up after having put their life on the line once, let alone as many times as Yuki.

    While he was reckless, Yuki had every right to be the way he was. If he were to ever die, he could resurrect himself through Zero. He basically had a respawn button at his disposal. While this may have been the case, many would have chosen to bring allies with them to clear dungeons. While this might have been a good option if all the person wanted was to earn the silver offered at the half way and end point of the dungeon. However the exp share feature would mean that the more yers there were, the more time it would take for Yuki to level up. Along with the emotional strain that woulde if one of the raid party members were to die during the raid. It wouldn''t be umon for such urrences as the only time the system offers a yer to exit the stage is if a minute amount of health is remaining. As such if said yer were to take an immense amount of damage all at once, the notice would not appear and they would die.

    As Yuki continued walking toward the tunnel which led to the gateway, an object dropped from the sky.

    [Item drop: Demon bow]

    Yuki double tapped on the bow which had a very detailed shape. Most of it was the colour red which resembled the skin of the demon archers. However the ends were ck and textured like the demon horns.

    [Rank: E]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: A bow which can only be used by the demon race, depending on the demon, the damage and rank will either increase or decrease. The very finest and skilled archers were hand picked by Hades himself to serve in his demon army. To each was given a special bow which can only be used by a demon. As such if the archer were to lose its bow, the next person who found it would find it to be useless. However the archer who had lost the gift given to them by the ruler of the underworld would lose its life. Losing something that had been given to you personally by Hades would be considered a sin, as such you would receive the punishment he chose for you.]

    "Hmm, interesting. It would be fun to have the ruler of the underworld be my personal archer," said Yuki as he ced the bow into his inventory along with the other items he had taken out during the dungeon.

 Chapter 63 - Golem

    [Stage three: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 4th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage four difficulty: level 7-8]

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out and drank one more full status recovery potion before he headed into the next stage of the dungeon. However, right before he could enter the next stage of the dungeon, Yuki passed out and fell to the floor. He hadn''t realized how much energy he had wasted as he cleared two consecutive stages all on his own. To add to the exhaustion, he hadn''t taken the time to properly sleep once he had cleared the 2nd dungeon.

    Nearly 29 hourster, Yuki finally awoke from his slumber. He had naturally awoken with a bit of confusion as to what had happened. He quickly realized that he had passed out from exhaustion, after all, it wasn''t the first time it had happened. Feeling hungry before his next fight, Yuki made the wise choice of eating cup ramen once again. It would be simple to make and only took a maximum of 3 minutes. After he had his meal, Yuki felt a lot better and confident in himself.

    "So what will it be this time," said Yuki as he pushed his hand through the white light which blocked his view of the next stage. Right as he palm passed through the light, the white object that blocked the view began to deteriorate.

    As Yuki began to look through the tunnel to the other side, he could see a small mob of golems made of solid rock. It seemed to be the same as the stage floor. As their shape was unstable, within the rocks which they were made of had cracks. The cracks however the cracks themselves glowed the colour of magma.

    [Magma golem: Ravi]

    [Magma golem: Hoder]

    In total, there were 15 golems which stood in Yuki''s way. Each one looked fearsome enough to challenge Yuki in a one on one fight. Yuki''s heart told him to run, it signaled to him that there was no way he could defeat them on his own, however Yuki had long stopped listening to his heart. Instead he grinned at his enemies as he sweat from the stage''s heat.

    Instead of reaching for a weapon from his inventory, Yuki sprinted towards his enemies bare handed. nning to fight with his fists alone as he demolished anyone is his wake. As he approached the first golem, Yuki clenched his arms as he pulled them back and began punching the golem at rapid speeds. However once his attack was finished, all that was left was an unharmed golem standing in front of him, waiting for the chance to kill Yuki. However Yuki on the other hand had suffered severe burns to his hands from the contact of the golem''s magma body.

    "Oh no," said Yuki as the golem prepared to retaliate.

    This time, the golem clenched its magma fist and began to plunge it down at the small human standing below him. Instinctively, Yuki brought his left arm upwards to block the attack. However he instantly regretted the decision as he heard his arm shatter from the impact of the attack. Yuki managed to hold back his tears and jumped backwards.

    "A defence and attack boosted opponent, their speed is drastically lower than mine however it doesn''t seem like they take any damage from my attacks, what a hassle," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion from his inventory to recover from the damage he sustained to his left hand. It had been broken, however the potion was able to reverse any damage to the physical body. Yuki felt it as his bones reversed and went back to their previous shape. He stretched his body to make sure everything in his body was fully functional before he headed into the battle field once more. The golems were constantly following Yuki however due to their slow movement speed, all Yuki had to do was take a couple steps to avoid their attacks.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure" and held it in his palms, swinging it in circles to getfortable with using it.

    "It''s been a while since I''ve used you, serve me well," said Yuki.

    Yuki closed both his eyes and began to concentrate all of his stamina as he redirected it towards his des. As the small ice shards began toe out of the sword, Yuki felt a cold breath in his ear. It was slightly unnerving which caused him to open his eyes and look around for the culprit. However when he turned his head, there was no one there.

    "Was it..." Yuki interrupted himself as the golems were closing the distance.

    Yuki leaped into the air and held his sword forward. As he dove straight down towards the first golem that caught his eye, Yuki aimed directly for its neck, in hopes of severing it in one shot. However as the attacknded, he realized that defeating the golems was a much harder task than he had first thought. The ice sword had done absolutely no damage to the golem, on the contrary, the ice shards began to melt from the golem''s manga cracks. Yuki quickly pulled back as he clearly needed a new strategy for this battle. Yuki quickly ran away from the golems into the depths of the dungeon stage.

    Yuki hadn''t taken the time to admire the stage when he had first entered it. The stage had many statues which were made out of the same material as the golems. However, of all of them, the most intriguing one was of course thergest object present. Large spikes which emerged from the ground all around the stage, creating arge spike forest. All containing cracks which were extremely hot and glowed red velvet because of the magma they stored within them.

    Yuki was at a loss for words, he didn''t imagine that Zero would go to such extents to create the stages. As the difficulty of the stages increased, their size followed suit. Yuki couldn''t see the walls of the stage, the only way he knew where the save point was because whenever the yer was far from the save point, it would glow bright enough for the yer to see and navigate their way to it. As the yer moved closer to it, the white light would start to fade until all that was left was the white light gate which blocked the yer''s view of the next stage.

    "Wow," said Yuki as he continued to be followed by the mob of slow golems.

 Chapter 64 - Stage 4

    "Wow," said Yuki as he continued to be followed by the mob of slow golems.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 2 attack boost potions along with 3 stamina boost potions. He knew very well that there would be no hope in fighting without the assistance of the magical items he carried. As he drank each potion, he felt himself be overwhelmed by the wealth of power flowing into him. It was like being super changed every time he used them. The sensation of being unstoppable was a feeling Yuki could not get over. "Niflheim''s holy treasure" in hand, Yuki prepared once more to do battle with the golems.

    As Yuki charged and struck the left arm of a magma golem, he managed to cut it in half but was not able to fully sever its arm off. Yuki was rather disappointed in himself. He had hoped that with drinking those potions, he would at least be able to have a fair fight however he was mistaken. Frozen in ce as he contemted his decisions, Yuki was struck down by the magma golem''s arm. As he had his guard down, Yuki nearly passed out from one single attack to the head, however he at least managed to gain something. The iron truck of an attack that Yuki had withstood forced his mind into a state of hyper activeness. Still clenching to the hilt of "Niflheim''s holy treasure" which was stuck in the middle of the magma golem''s hand, Yuki concentrated his stamina as he made it flow into the de. Unlike the other times he had done this, Yuki changed his approach this time.

    Instead of distributing his stamina into all parts of the de, Yuki focused it on the part making contact with the golem. The transparent de began to turn colder than it had ever done. Instantly,rge shards of ice began toe out from the de, as the shards were focused on the part which was making contact with the golem, they wererger and stronger than the small ones which would usually appear. The shardes began to pierce through the golem until eventually the arm was severed off and it fell to the ground.

    Bleeding from his head, Yuki grinned at the golem to infuriate him. It was an arrogant decision to make considering he was barely conscious.

    "It''s okay to let loose now. No matter how exhausting this may be, there is an endpoint waiting for me. I''ll look back on this and be d I did it," said Yuki as he began to prepare himself for the uing hellish torture he would have to endure.

    Yuki leaped backwards andnded on his feet as he dodged the retaliation attack from the golem. As he roared in anger, Yuki waited for his opportunity to attack. As the golem went on a rampage, it began attacking the group seriously, punching any statue in its way. All in the state of desperation for revenge it was ced in because of Yuki. Even though it wanted to exact its revenge, its movement speed was too low to catch Yuki. As such it took its anger out on its surroundings, only showing mercy to itsrades.

    As the golem clenched its fist to punch the ground, Yuki took notice of the opportunity to attack. Disappearing from all the golem''s eye sight, Yuki seemingly teleported beside the one handed golem. "Niflheim''s holy treasure" in hand, Yuki swung his sword with all his might. However once more, it wasn''t enough. The sword was only able to cut through 1/4 of the golem''s body. With frustration in his eyes, Yuki pulled out the sword from the golem''s body as he did a 360 degree turn and struck the monster from the other side.

    This time, Yuki''s attack prevailed over the golem''s monerous defense. As Yuki began to smile from the joy of taking down the golem, a hand behind him reached for his head. The hot stone made hand pulled Yuki up from the ground and held him in the air. As Yuki dropped his sword to use both his hands to break free of the golem''s grip, another golem struck Yuki with a powerful punch right in the chest. Right after Yuki sustained the attack, his helpless body was dropped to the ground. All the golems surrounded him to inspect the puny human. Once they grew bored of staring at him, one of them aimed for Yuki''s head and sent a punch towards the ground. However Yuki hadn''t given up. Even though his chest burned and each breath he took caused an immense amount of pain, Yuki nned to get through the stage no matter what happened.

    Yuki quickly rolled away so as to not be hit by the golem''s attack. Before it could pull away, Yuki stood from where he stood, grabbing hold of his sword and running on top of the giant golem''s arm, finally reaching its broad shoulder. One his first task was aplished, Yuki leaped off of the golem''s shoulder. While in the air, Yuki threw "Niflheim''s holy treasure" at the back of one of the golems. To Yuki''s delight it struck the dead centre of its head.

    "Another one goes down," said Yuki.

    However that was not the case, the golem which had the sword in its head, turned around to face the unarmed Yuki.

    "But why? Is it only their chest that takes damage?" Yuki asked himself.

    "That would make no sense, if their vital points were the same as a human then an attack to the head would be lethal," Yuki tried to think about what had allowed the golem to survive Yuki''s attack.

    As he continued to think of a possible reason that event had urred, the golems began to close the distance. Yuki allowed them to do so as he dodged any and all attacks they made at him. He even managed to pull the sword out from the golem''s head. Just then it all made sense to him.

    "The golem''s inside is made of magma and the sword releases ice when stamina is poured into it. When ice melts, it creates water which when enough of it is produced, it is enough to extinguish the magma. As such the source of life for the golem disappears."

    "Even so, the ice produced when melted shouldn''t be that much. Wait..."

    "Unless the quality of ice/water increases due to the level increase of the user, then it would make perfect sense,"

    Yuki looked at the golem standing in front of him as he continued to dodge the attacks of all the other golems.

    "Let''s test this theory out," said Yuki.

 Chapter 65 - Extraction

    Onest time, Yuki poured as much stamina as he could into "Niflheim''s holy treasure". As it turned colder, the small shards began to appear from the de. Wasting no time, Yuki plunged his sword into one of the golems remaining. As it went through the golem''s chest, it pierced through its back but now the ice shards began to melt and the sword was once more stuck. However Yuki had been expecting this. Just as he had done previously, Yuki began to gather his stamina energy and pour it specifically on the area which was making contact with the golem. The concentrated stamina formedrger shards and melted in the body of the golem. All while making a loud sizzling sound.

    "This isn''t going to work, I already put a majority of my stamina into the de to defeat the first golem."

    "Come on, just let me take another one down," said Yuki as he strained even more to put in all of his remaining stamina.

    Finally after what had seemed to be a hopeless struggle against time, right before the golem''s retaliation punch ready Yuki''s face. The golem stopped in its tracks, slowly the engravings began to lose their red light and the golem began to turn much colder. Soon after it lost its shape and fell to the ground, now all that was left of its body were a pile of rocks.

    Feeling exhausted from releasing so much of his stamina, Yuki fell on his bum, breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath. However, the rest of the golems weren''t going to allow this to happen. Yuki had just killed two of theirrades in front of them. As they all threw their enormous fists at Yuki simultaneously, creating a somewhat magma wall, Yuki quickly rolled out of the way.

    "Why are these stages so hard toplete. I get that it was supposed to be a lifelong journey across the world. Exploring the unknown and expanding my knowledge but this just seems like torture. There is nothing fun about this. If this were to be a video game sold at stores, it should be called ''the evil game which gives yers a hard time''," Yukiined.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 2 stamina boost potions as he would at least need that much increase in stamina to be able to keep up with his enemies. However Yuki didn''t want to fight using his swords. While he enjoyed looking at them, Yuki couldn''t use them to their full capabilities due to him not being a high level yer. They were more of a liability than an asset. They did have their moments which were useful, but those times were few in number.

    Yuki put away "Niflheim''s holy treasure" and drank the stamina boost potions. However this wasn''t because he was going to fight his opponents with his bare fists. Yuki had somethingpletely different in mind.

    "How about if I do this?" Yuki asked himself

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Yuki created 3 fire swords at his side. He wanted to see what would happen if the magma golems were attacked by a me sword instead of an ice one. The obvious answer was that they would either do no damage or charge the golems to be an even more fearsome opponent. As the swords all flew to 1 single golem, the pierced through its stone shell then began to get absorbed by it.

    "Good, now I can move on to the next stage of the testing process," said Yuki.

    Yuki continued to create many fire swords and directed them at the golem. Every once in a while he would aim for the other golems as well, just to knock them back so they wouldn''t interfere.

    After continuously pummeling the golem for a while, its colour began to change into a deeper and much darker red. It looked to grow in size and looked a lot more angry than before. It''s eyes were the same colour as the engravings on its shell. After sustaining so much damage, the magma began to leak from its eyes. Making it look to be crying.

    "Come on, just break already," said Yuki as he began to throw the fire swords at a much quicker rate than he did before. All while keeping his distance, Yuki began to get annoyed at directing the des mid air instead of touching them himself. Yuki now began to create them using his ability and fired them using his hands. It would be much faster and more efficient to rely on his hands to put in some effort as it would save him some stamina in the process.

    Grabbing each de was no problem for Yuki as his ability could not harm him in any way shape or form. However his strategy to overcharge the golems wasn''t going anywhere. Yuki had assumed that just because they could absorb the fire, it meant that they would have a limit and once they had reached it, they would copse. Unluckily for Yuki, that was not the case and he had just created a foe that he himself could not defeat without the consumption of arge amount of potions.

    "I still have a lot of potions left since I stock piled on them using the money I earned frompleting the first dungeon but I still don''t want to rely on them too much. Even if I can use Zero to heal me, the few seconds which I have to experience the overdose effect of the potions is absolute hell," said Yuki.

    Yuki was now focusingpletely on dodging the supercharged golem''s attacks. The boost from all of Yuki''s fire swords had made him a lot faster than before, which covered for the one weakness it had.

    "There''s still one thing I have left to try," said Yuki.

    Yuki made himself flout in the sky by counting his shoes in mes and propelling himself by pumping more fire into them. Unable to be harmed, Yuki could now try thest thing he had in mind.

    "Activate ability: me control"

    Yuki began to concentrate on the super charged golem, raising his palm and making it face the monster. However Yuki didn''t n on sending an attack towards the golem, on the contrary he nned to do the exact opposite. Fire began to exit the super charged golem''s body, making it shrink in size.

    Yuki nned to extract the one thing that kept his enemies alive.

 Chapter 66 - Gears

    Yuki nned to extract the one thing that kept his enemies alive.

    Yuki was no longer getting exhausted from the battle as he did not need to create mes using his ability in exchange for his stamina. The essence for all things in the new world to survive was stamina. It acted like an energy system in exchange for being used to attack, defend, run, or use an ability, it would consume a certain amount of stamina from the yer. As a solo yer in a dungeon full of enemies he could not defeat without pushing himself to the brink of death each and every time, Yuki had to exhaust a lot of stamina all the time.

    Even with the use of potions, it would drain away quickly when he was faced with a strong enemy. As such, he had toe up with creative and efficient ways on the spot to survive. As he had done previously, Yuki had seeded in finding a way to survive and move on with the stages.

    Yuki activated his ability once more, draining the life energy of the other golems around him. Each one losing its shape, getting smaller by the second. As their mes continued to drain, the clutter of rocks which formed their body began to fall off, now only leaving a group of baby golems.

    Now above Yuki was arge ball of fire. Much resembling the one he had created in the previous stage to destroy the hell hounds and mentally scar Cerberus before finishing him off as well. Unable to drain more mes from the golems as it would cause therge fire ball to lose its shape, Yuki thought of another brilliant idea.

    Since he wouldn''t be able to leave the stage until he had defeated the remaining golems, Yuki needed toe up with a way to defeat the tiny golems while the fire was still contained in its ball-like shape. If it were to be undone, the golems would just return back to their previous form. Yuki was in a stalemate as the golems couldn''t harm him but he couldn''t harm them either. It would just be a waiting game, however since Yuki was slowly draining his stamina because of the mes that were keeping him in the air, he would eventually lose the battle.

    Topromise, he thought to turn the golems'' power on them. Seeing the rocks that fell off from the deceased golems as well as from the living ones which had dropped when their magma core weakened due to Yuki draining them. Yuki began to use the mes that he had been storing in the ball to reassemble a golem bybining them with the dark rocks. Each and every second, the golem grew in size. Intaking thebination of rocks and fire until it had finished all of the supplies. Still left with a bit of fire, Yuki decided to still pump it into the golem.

    Now arge supercharged golem stood on Yuki''s side, all its movement controlled by its master. Yuki began to use the golem as his personal servant, ordering him around by pointing at the small golems left on the ground. As Yuki pointed at the target, the super charged golem aimed and crushed the baby golems.

    Once all of the left over golems had been taken off, Yukinded himself back on the ground.

    "How exhausting. It would''ve been a lot easier if I knew to do that from the start," said Yuki.

    Seeing no use for his super charged golem, Yuki decided to activate his ability once more and drain the fire within it, turning the golem back to a pile of useless rocks.

    Once he had extracted the mes, Yuki once again had arge fire ball above his head. Not knowing what to do with it, he threw it in a random direction of the stage. Since he had finished the stage''s challenge, Yuki no longer cared about what would happen to the stage.

    Yuki was now finally done with the 4th stage of the dungeon. Feelingpletely drained, Yuki fell to his knees. Almost unable to feel his legs or arms, Yuki realized something. The only reason he''s been making it out of every stage alive was because of the adrenaline rush in his body. In constant fear, his mind temporarily changes his state of mind to get him out of the predicament. The consequence for it was always an extreme amount of strain ced on both his body and mind. Nearly making him unconscious after every fight.

    "Now I understand why Meurig wanted to leave. This ce is truly hell," Yuki said.

    All he wanted to do right now was leave and never enter another dungeon again. The only thing Yuki wanted in life was to be normal, he didn''t want to be an outcast.

    "When did I be like this? Why do I even want to get stronger?" Yuki asked himself.

    Then it came back to him. The flood of terrible memories from his past life. Yuki indeed never wanted to be more powerful than all others. All he wished for was a normal life, as a kid he had thought that he was robbed of that because he would have to move which caused him tosh out at his mother, not understanding how much worse of a position she was in. Now he realized that he was wrong, however what kind of a reaction would an average child have to being told to suddenly forget about the few friends they had.

    While he was wrong for his actions towards his mother, it wasn''t necessarily his fault. This goes back to the ideology of if it''s wrong to condemn a person for something they had done without them actually meaning to cause the damage. The roles had been reversed. As a kid Yuki was much simr to the monsters in the dungeon and in the outside world. While his actions weren''t the best, he still had done them as he didn''t know better. Much like the monsters which only know of chaos.

    On the other side was his mother who had more power and could choose which method to use to discipline her son. In this world, the one responsible for disciplining/executing the monsters were the yers, more specifically in this case was Yuki. Not realizing it, Yuki had be exactly like his mother.

    There were no excuses for his actions. His reasoning for allowing himself to run wild was because he experienced a horrible life full of humiliation and bullying. His mother on the other hand was a single mother who was left by his deadbeat father to raise Yuki on her own. Both of their reasoning and actions were wrong. There was no other way around it, no matter how much you try to sympathize with them. No amount of understanding could turn their evil actions into acts of righteousness. Those who try to kill a monster will eventually be a monster themselves.

    That of course is because no one ispletely good or evil or even bnced. The scale of good and evil change in an instant due to the circumstances which the world puts them in. Much resembling a clock with many gears, as one turns, the others who are connected to it be affected.

 Chapter 67 - Blind

    While all of this was clear as day, Yuki failed to notice it. It wasn''t a mistake either. Many fail to realize their own mistakes but are quick to call out others for theirs. People turn a blind eye to things they don''t want to see, as such people will ignore their faults which was precisely what Yuki was doing.

    "When did I be like this? Why do I even want to get stronger?" Yuki asked himself.

    "I remember now, it was so I don''t have to endure hell just because I''m weaker than others," Yuki lied but somehow managed to tell the truth at the same time.

    Yuki truthfully didn''t want to be bullied or humiliated ever again which was part of the reason as to why he originally wanted to get so powerful. However his goal had changed over time. Yuki grew to be more selfish. He was addicted to the sensation of being more powerful than all others. To simply defeat anyone with ease was something he didn''t want to let go of. This served as more motivation to push himself to battle more of the dungeon stages. More exp meant more levels, the more levels he earned meant more power he would gain.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a pull status recovery potion from his inventory and drank it to regain his past strength.

    "I wish there was a potion to increase mental fortitude," said Yuki.

    Even though he had managed to regain his physical strength, Yuki had beenpletely worn out in the head. He felt dizzy and nervous. Even though his injuries had healed, his legs wouldn''t stop shaking. Feeling no reason to fight it, Yuki sat on the ground in hopes of regaining control over his senses.

    As he sat on the ground, an object fell from the stage''s ceiling.

    [Item drop: Magma stone]

    Yuki double tapped on the strange shaped rock. The rock seemed to be a miniature magma golem as it had the same engravings and glow to it. However, that idea was quickly dismissed as the rock didn''t move around.

    [Rank: D]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: Martial used to enhance a swords power and also contains a 12.5% chance of adding the enchantment "magma core". A mage''s ultimate weapon is always a tank. Due to sacrificing themselves to be people who can create powerful spells, many mages end up being weak when ites to defense. There was once a time when the world was ruled by magic. Of course due to the circumstances any disputes were settled by a duel in magic whether it be friendly or to the death. However there was one mage that decided to take a different route than others to cover his weaknesses. It was custom for mages to increase their speed to dodge attacks however this mage thought of something creative. He didn''t focus on his speed, instead he choose to create a wall of defense using his magic, in turn leaving himself in a better position to attack. When the other mages learned of this, they deemed it sphemy as it was different from their traditions. As such, they chose to execute him and cast away his creations in the dungeons.]

    "How weird, they could have had a strong ally amongst them. Well, it''s a made up story anyway,"

    "How long had it been since I slept?" Yuki asked himself. However before he could even think about it, he copsed and fell asleep. He had finally reached his limit after battling for so long. Seeing absolutely no point in fighting it, Yuki allowed himself to rx and allow his mind to heal. The average 15 year old would either be at school with their friends or at home ying video games. As for Yuki, he was participating in near death experiences almost daily all for his goal.

    Elsewhere in the world, everything continued to progress rapidly. Yuki didn''t realize it yet but he was growing to be one of the most well known yers in the new world.

    "How could the n fail?! You were armed with a gun and there were two of you!" a shadowy figure spoke in a concealed room. The figure was sitting on a one person sofa as tworge men stood beside him as his bodyguards. In front of him were the two men who were trying to kidnap the girls in the forest and sell them off. They both begged for forgiveness as they tried to exin what had happened.

    "We were attacked by a crazy strong shadowy figured monster. Without it even touching us, its mere presence was enough to knock us out," the one that had been knocked unconscious said.

    "How do I know you aren''t lying to me?" the figure asked.

    They had been caught off guard, there was no way to prove that they weren''t lying, just then one of them remembered something.

    "Mr. Y sir, I think I remember something," the man that had tried to use the gun on Meurig said in desperation.

    "Go on," the figuremanded.

    "I don''t remember properly but after I was knocked out, only a few secondster I was conscious for a little and I saw something you might want to know. There was another figure beside the shadow monster, he looked to still be a kid or a young teenager with ck hair. I think it might be Yuki Kaito," the gunman exined.

    "What a hassle, if you''re right we have to mobilize our full forces and even pay for a high level yer to help us," the figure looked worried.

    "No matter, we can''t let anyone who gets in our way escape unharmed," he continued.

    "Hey one of you, bring me the newspaper from 4 days ago," the figure told one of his officers who was in the room.

    Without saying a word, the officer left the room and quickly came back with a newspaper in hand. Giving it to the figure while bowing down. The figure that sat menacingly on the chair looked at it and flipped open to the next page. A full page of it was dedicated to Yuki.

    It was titled "Beware Of The Level 7 Mass Murderer: Yuki Kaito"

    "Already at level 7, I just hope that you haven''t reached even greater heights by now," said the figure.

 Chapter 68 - Retaliate

    [+67500 exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 9: 58500/100000]

    Yuki woke up feeling satisfied. He was confused for a second as to why that had happened however he quickly remembered the effects of leveling up. After a yer attains a new level, the system automatically gives them an extreme amount of satisfaction and happiness. There is no root or reasoning for it other than to encourage the yer to progress through the world more. The more a yer levels up, the more they be addicted to it, much like a drug.

    However, on the other hand, the many yers will be sensible enough to stop battling monsters to level up due to their difficulty increasing which has a great likelihood to cause trauma. This world was a double edged sword, it all depended on the yer to decide if they choose to use the de.

    Now well rested, Yuki prepared to enter the halfway stage of the dungeon.

    "Almost halfway there. It''ll all be worth it once I gain all those levels. Learning to adapt to different situations quickly is also a pro, so it''s not all that bad," Yuki told himself as he walked towards the gateway to the next stage. As he walked closer to the tunnel containing it, the white light began to dim until he could only see the white shine emanating from the actual gate.

    [Stage four: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 5th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage five difficulty: level 8]

    Yuki lightly touched the white light, opening up the gateway towards the next stage. In doing so he agreed to the conditions.

    ...

    Once more we take a look at the crime syndicate that had their operations halted by Yuki and Meurig. Now the figure was in a different room, sitting behind a dark oak table. In between his fingers was a cigarette to help relieve his stress. Unexpectedly, he stood up from his office chair as he crushed the cigrate to put it out.

    "Did you manage to contact them yet?" the figure asked.

    "We have only recently found their location. We are preparing a travel team to make the necessary negotiations. However due to their fame, it seems that we might have to pay a hefty sum to acquire their assistance," one of the figure''s subordinates replied. He was dressed in a ck suit with ck tinted sses and ck shoes.

    Therge ss window allowed the sun to shine into the room clearing up the scenery. The floor was covered in red carpet. At each corner of the room were nts, as for the walls, they were filled with paintings all for decor. Facing forward from therge window was the figure''s seat and desk. At both sides of the wall were four chairs in ce, each one seating a district leader. Like any good crime syndicate, they didn''t use their real names. Instead, they chose to use roman numerals to identify themselves.

    At the top of the chairs they were seated at, in pure gold were engraved their respective number.

    "Well send them already. I know at least 2 of our henchmen have an open spot to change their ability. So just make them teleport a group to negotiate and while their ablility''s drawback takes ce, make another henchmen teleport the mercenary team back to us," the figuremanded.

    "I shall inform them at once," the subordinate in the ck suit replied.

    "One more thing, find another henchman who has an open spot to rece their ability. We need to find the precise location of Yuki," said the figure behind the desk.

    "That shall also be taken care of," the man in the suit replied before leaving through the double door of the room.

    "Now for the rest of you..."

    "Mobilize all your squadrons which either have a support type ability or can change their ability to support the attacking squad."

    "It would''ve been wiser to wait until everyone had their ability reset-able so we could attack with our full force but unfortunately for us, our enemy is rapidly increasing his strength, we can''t afford to wait much longer.

    "Understood!" the division leaders replied. Once the meeting had been concluded, they all excused themselves from the room and left to partake in their own activities while also following the task they had been assigned.

    There would soon be either the downfall of the mass murderer: Yuki Kaito or a one sided massacre.

    Back into the kingdom which Yuki had faced his trail at, the citizens were still recovering from the attack Yuki hadunched using his crown right before he had escaped his cell room. The king from the first dungeon which Yuki had sent to buy extra supplies had just finished shopping and began heading towards the second dungeon gate to wait for Yuki.

    "We have to do something about him. Ignoring his existence will lead this world to an early downfall. There''s something definitely wrong with him. Have you seen the evil look in his eyes?" Carmi tried to exin.

    He was sitting at a circr white table with a group of high ranking individuals. Amongst them was the cloaked man which contributed so much to the kingdom''s economy. He is the one known as the user of "INFINITE HOTEL''''. After Yuki had destroyed his ablility''s form when he had used "Fallen angel of hell"''s true power, the cloaked man had to sacrifice all of his stamina to rebuild it which drained him of all his stamina. This task had ced him into a two weeka due to his low level.

    "At ease. We already have warned people to stay clear of him and also offered to give a kingdom to anyone who can bring his head to us. If all fails, in 2 months we will use our final card, no matter how strong he may be, he''ll be powerless against it," another man from the circle replied to camri. His most notable feature being hisrge clear sses.

    "Wait, we can''t do that. That would be morally wrong, killing that many people for the sake of killing one. I refuse to support a decision like that," another one argued.

    "It doesn''t matter, many more would die if we were to leave him be. Plus, they deserve their fate anyway," the man in sses argued back.

 Chapter 69 - Decision

    "Wait, we can''t do that. That would be morally wrong, killing that many people for the sake of killing one. I refuse to support a decision like that," another one argued.

    "It doesn''t matter, many more would die if we were to leave him be. Plus, they deserve their fate anyway," the man in sses argued back.

    "Murderers don''t deserve the right to continue living, after all, they were the ones who decided to cut other people''s lives short," he continued.

    In the circr table were 10 people, all carrying a rtively important status in their own respective areas. First there was Carmi, he was still holding a grudge against Yuki for humiliating him. To his right was the cloaked man responsible for a majority of the kingdom''s funding: the user of "INFINITE HOTEL ''''. To Carmi''s right was the man in sses, while his attitude wasn''t the best, he knew what decisions to make.

    The rest of the city/kingdom council wasposed of the 5 level 2 yers who had recently reached level 3. After Yuki demolished their pride, they swore to grow stronger and take out their revenge on him, however they were far from that goal. It would be a surprise if they managed to aplish that goal. At the rate Yuki was developing, it looked to be an impossible task.

    Finally, thest two members of the council were the judge that had been in-charge of Yuki''s trial. Alongside him was the representative from the neighbouring kingdom which had borrowed the two level 2 yers to bring Yuki to justice. After the peace treaty had been formed, the two kingdoms have been on good terms with each other. They had nned to sooner orter negotiate with another neighbouring kingdom to ally with them however the troubling matter of Yuki came up.

    Of course this only meant that they put their n a little behind on their schedule. There was no way they would allow another kingdom to ally with someone else. In the early stages of establishing a colony, it is always important to gather as many allies as possible. And if the kingdom were to refuse the offer to ally themselves, well the answer was quite simple. They would be conquered and forced to submit to the power of thebined power these two kingdoms held.

    "But isn''t sacrificing that many people just a bit too excessive?" Joban asked.

    "It''s only about 300 prisoners on death row or having a life sentence. They would just rot away, it''s better to let them have one redeeming quality before they die. We would be doing them a favour by sacrificing them," said the man in sses.

    "I cannot align myself with something so gruesome. Isn''t there another way of stopping that mass murderer?" Rui asked.

    "You are still too young toprehend the magnitude of the problem we have at hand. The longer Yuki Kaito continues to live and grow even stronger, the harder it''ll be to stop him," the man in sses continued to debunk all of the others'' arguments.

    "Could you once more exin how the n will take ce so we can fullyprehend what we are getting ourselves into?" the representative from the neighbouring kingdom asked.

    "With pleasure."

    "We''ll first have to make contact with Rey Moon since he is the one holding the ability we need for this n to seed. We first heard of him from a roomer that said he would sacrifice anyone and in exchange he could kill anyone of his choice."

    "However weter learned about how his ability really worked after he was featured on Boran-Daily''s newspaper. We were quite lucky since they only deliver their news to a select few kingdoms."

    "Rey moon had an ability which could kill anyone for a sacrificial life, just as the rumor said. However there was some missing information which the rumors didn''t cover. For starters, the instant draw back from acquiring this ability was that he would lose both his eyes. Second, he can''t use anyone as a sacrifice. The people have to say ''yes'' before he can use it."

    "Now, the ability allows him to drain exp from anyone he chooses to. It is when he has managed to drain all exp that the target has that it kills them. Since you can''t go below 0 exp, the system takes the person''s life in exchange."

    "It is due to that fact, we must use so many people as sacrifices. The more Yuki levels up, the more people that''ll have to die as sacrifices. He''s quite the troublesome enemy," the man in sses exined.

    "And how do you n on making 300+ people agree to sacrifice themselves to kill 1 teenager?" Katsumi asked sarcastically.

    "I already have a n for that, if you would all agree to set this n in motion, we could permanently remove Yuki from this world with little to no problems."

    "All we need to do is gather all the prisoners from as many kingdoms as possible who are either on death row or have a life sentence. Next we gather them all to a secure location as they wear blindfolds where we couldter get rid of all their bodies. Once we have done that all we need to tell them is ''when our high ranked supervisores up to you, just say yes. We need to use your stamina to finish our n to make the world a better ce. Since we''ll extract so much of your stamina, it''ll cause you to pass out, however when you wake up, you''ll have something great waiting for you. In exchange for you giving up your stamina, we''ll set you free as we believe you all deserve a second chance in the new world''," the man in sses exined.

    "So lie to them and make them believe that when anyone dies, it''s just them passing. This gets rid of any worries they may have and the n will go smoothly. A well calcted n if I do say so myself," Carmi replied.

    "Let''s get on with the vote now. If you choose to follow through with the sacrifice n if Yuki can''t be brought down within a month, raise your hand. If you disagree, don''t raise your hand," the representative from the neighbouring kingdom said.

    "3"

    "2"

    "1"

    Each and every member of the council raised their hand in agreement. Even though some didn''t like the idea of it, they couldn''t deny its effectiveness.

    "That''ll be all for today," the man in sses said as everyone left the room. They were in the castle shaped building which stood in the centre of the kingdom. As they didn''t have a monarchy or government in ce, they collectively agreed to using it as the council''s temporary meeting ce.

 Chapter 70 - Female Warriors

    As Yuki entered the 5th stage of the dungeon, he was caught off guard by the sudden change in scenery. Throughout the previous 4 stages of this dungeon, the terrain was simr with the asional change in structures and design. However this one lookedpletely different.

    For starters, the area was much smallerpared to the others. Yuki could easily see the tunnel towards the next stage of the dungeon without any problems. All that stood in his way were the stage opponents. A group of demon female warriors, all heavily armed.

    They were waiting for him in the middle of the stage. The dark bronze color scheme of the stage seemed odd. While the 5 female warriors were what Yuki had to defeat, there were hundreds of other demons. They all sat on the seats which continued to be elevated as they went further behind. The main structure of the stage was cylindrical shaped and looked to be ancient. That was when everything connected, Yuki was going into a battle coliseum.

    "A battle royale?" Yuki asked himself.

    He hoped that only the 5 demons standing on the colosseum floor would be the only opponents he faced. Yuki wasn''t scared of the demons observing the battle ground or the female demons he was about to face. He waspletely sure that he was capable of taking them down. However, Yuki didn''t want to bother dealing withrge groups of enemies as he''s bound to get hurt during the process.

    Even though he could heal from any injuries, what bothered Yuki was getting injured in the least bit, no matter how insignificant. To him it was like a paper cut. While it wouldn''t do any serious damage to him, it was still annoying to deal with.

    "Well here we go again," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki knew that he enjoyed dual-wielding his des, it would be a liability in a stage such as this. It wouldpromise his movement speed and it allowed space for more openings. It was a strategy meant only for attacking. If he was confident that he would take little to no damage, he would have chosen to wield both his treasured des however it wasn''t the time for that.

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" and began to pour some of his stamina into it. By quoting his de in stamina, it allows it to be much sharper and stronger. However, Yuki didn''t put in so much of his stamina where it would quickly drain him of all his energy. As such, the de only emanated red aura.

    Yuki began to walk out of the gate tunnel from the other side, nearing the actual entrance of the stage. Yuki took onest deep breath before sprinting towards the colosseum battle ground. Yuki leaped high in the air before crashing down in the middle of the group of demons. Not wasting a moment, Yuki gripped his sword with both his hands and prepared to spin in a circle, however that n came to a sudden stop.

    Another steel sword stuck itself into the battleground, causing Yuki''s spin attack to halt before it could even begin. Seeing the predicament he was in, the other female demons prepared to attack Yuki with their weapons. However, Yuki didn''t n on losing anytime soon, before they couldnd a single attack on him, Yuki leaped in the air and created some distance between him and them.

    Yuki took a closer look at his enemies, they all looked to be the same but with just different weapons and a few changes between their body structures.

    [Female Demon Warrior: Liraz]

    The sword wielding demon which had stopped Yuki''s spin attack. She was slim yet fearsome looking. She wore an iron chest te and leggings. Her arms were red however, below her shoulders was a thickyer of hardened material which acted as some sort of heavy duty glove. Its dark violet colour scheme made it more fearsome in the stage light. While the stages were closed off from the outside world, they all had internal lighting to help the yer''s navigate their way.

    [Female Demon Warrior: Saki]

    The sickle using demon. While a bit shorter than Liraz, she made up for it in her agility. Due to her specialty being speed, her clothing was more casual than the rest of the demon warriors. Much like Liraz, she also had the hardened arms. It seemed to be connected to her body which just added to her fearsome appearance.

    [Female Demon Warrior: Marlen]

    Marlen was much different from the rest of the group. She looked to be twice the other female demon''s size. However her weight didn''t matter as her skill in battle more than made up for it. Marlen carried arge shield and axe. The red look of anger in her eyes was enough to put Yuki on edge, much less a regr yer. Just like all the female demons, she also had hardened demon glove hands.

    [Female Demon Warrior: Nico]

    Nico also had a unique physique. A tall and muscr woman. Only one look would be needed to know that she would beat almost if not all world records that existed in the previous world by at least 200 times. Her weapon of choice was a Warhammer. Just like her, the hammer itself looked menacing on its own. As if it were to hit the ground with full force, it would cause the entire colosseum to crumble. Her armour only covered her legs beyond her knees and the top part of her chest. Leaving her head, stomach, arms and thighs exposed. However, that was just a deception. Her body looked to be more durable than the armour itself.

    [Female Demon Warrior: Miley]

    Lastly, there stood Miley. She had the same light weighing clothing underneath her armour, however, she also chose to wear the full set of armour itself. Completely covering her entire body. She looked much skinner and fragilepared to the other demon girls. Her weapon of choice was a small dagger which Yuki only spotted due to its gleaming appearance.

    A fearsome group of individuals in front of Yuki stood there, expecting their seemingly guaranteed victory. However it wouldn''t be that simple. After all their opponent was a nearly insane masacosist, sadist and narcissist who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Yuki had lost nearly all sense of reason which allowed him tomit to his goals no matter how despicable they seemed. The only thing that mattered to him was his goal, no amount of moral guilting could change his outlook on life.

 Chapter 71 - Stage 5

    Yuki restablized himself and began to charge at his enemies one more time. Yuki aimed to take down Liraz, the sword wielding demon as she was responsible for the failure of his previous attack. Sprinting at top speed, Yuki prepared to plunge his sword into her. However, Marlen wasn''t going to allow that to happen. Even if Yuki could move at tremendous speeds, she could still block his attacks with her shield. Which was what he did.

    Wasting no time, Marlen ced her enormous shield in front of Liraz. While this had upset Yuki, he knew how to adapt to new situations quickly due to the experience he had gained in the previous dungeon stages. Quickly changing his target. Yuki stepped to the right and aimed for Saki''s arm. With a spin, Yuki lifted his sword in the air and brought it down on his new target''s arm. Right as Yuki began to think that it would be a manageable battle, he realised why each demon had weird forearms. Saki''s hardened arms easily blocked the attack from Yuki.

    Preparing to retaliate, Saki, wielding her dual sickles, aimed to slide off Yuki''s head. Seeing this, Yuki leaned back to lower himself and dodge her attack. However Yuki wasn''t going to leave this exchange of attacks without dealing any damage. Before Saki could attack again, Yuki kicked her in the gut as hard as he possibly could then creating distance one again.

    Now enraged by the actions Yuki had done, the entire female warrior group began to charge at Yuki. An all out attack to bring him down and show off their strength. While it seemed to be all of them, there was one female demon missing. Miley chose to stay behind. Yuki assumed that she might have been too afraid to attack him. That was fine by Yuki as he liked to pick off his opponents one by one.

    In a one vs four battle, Yuki was surprisingly good at dodging the attacks of others. Every movement the demon warrior made didn''t go unnoticed. His pupils moved effortlessly as they tracked down each demon. No matter if it were a sword, a war hammer, an axe or a sword. It wouldn''t be able tond a hit on Yuki.

    With each attack the demon warriors threw at Yuki, he would make sure to retaliate back, aiming for whatever he could. As the battle raged on, the crowd began to cheer. They clearly were enjoying themselves. Unable to contain his excitement even in a deadly situation, Yuki began to get morefortable with his fighting style. He allowed his instincts to take over a bit.

    Seeing an opening on Nico, Yuki leaped into the air and kicked at her face. He unknowgly kicked her too hard which knocked her to the ground. While it wasn''t his intention to do it, Yuki didn''t care what kind of cheap methods he had to resort to if it meant he could achieve his dreams. Seeing what had happened to theirard, all of the other female warriors began to boil in rage. However, out of all of them, Liraz was the most affected.

    Yuki could sense the bloodlust oozing from her body. All Liraz wanted at that moment was Yuki''s head. Almost instantaneously, she aimed to cut Yuki in half. Due to his instincts alone, Yuki leaned back once more to dodge her attack. However, that was the wrong move. Yuki could feel something piece his back.

    At first he assumed it to be a sword however he soon realized that it was too small, meaning that it was a dagger. Yuki could feel the blood leaving his body as he began to feel dizzy.

    "I was too careless," said Yuki.

    The fully armoured female demon Miley pulled out her dagger from Yuki''s back as he pushed him up, allowing him to stand on his feet. She had only seemed to stay out of the battle as to strike when Yuki was open. He had been set up. However before Yuki could get angry or ever retaliate, Marlen''s giant fist punched him, almost causing him to go unconscious. Yuki instantly bashed into the ground, his body creating a small crater on the colosseum floor.

    Yuki thought to open his inventory and pull out a full status recovery potion. That way he could regain the blood he had just lost, however Nico wasn''t going to allow that. Now right in front of him. She continuously pummeled his face, shattering his nose and dislocating his jaw. When she had finally finished with him, Yuki''s face was unrecognizable.

    Saki was now standing above him with a smirk on her face. It looked much too simr to the smirk Sophie had. Even if he couldn''t fully understand the situation he was in because he was going to pass out at any second, Yuki did know one thing. That smirk annoyed him.

    Liraz allowed Saki to wield her sword, just to allow her to kill Yuki. After all she deserved the finishing blow the most out of everyone. Saki held the sword with both of her hands. Preparing as if she was going to start a ritual. As the sword began to move down at Yuki''s chest, he began to ept his fate.

    Death didn''t bother him at all. If he were to die, all he would have to do was ask Zero to send him back where he left off. The concept of dying forever was an unfathomable concept to Yuki. However, right before Yuki could die, he took onest look at Saki. He deserved to know who would be responsible for killing him.

    The evil grin hadn''t left Saki''s face. Yuki had thought it was his imaginationst time, however now that he took a good look at her, he realized that he wasn''t imagining it. It was the exact same face Sophie had made after he humiliated him. Yuki began to regain his energy, just the pure adrenaline rush from seeing the one face he thought he had destroyed allowed him to continue the battle. Yuki''s eyes widened as he prepared to unleash true hell on his enemies.

 Chapter 72 - Fire Quoting

    Yuki''s heart began to beat faster as the seconds went by. His head, now cleared of all thought, had one goal in mind, destroy. Yuki''s ears could only hear the pumping sound from his head until they were eventually stopped by an eerie squeaking sound. That continued for mere moments until it came to a halt. It was as if everything stopped in its tracks.

    Before Saki could plunge the sword into Yuki''s heart, her eyes red at the sword which he held in his palm. Thinking it could be valuable, she stopped her attempt to end his life and reached for "Fallen angel of hell". Right as she made contact with the de, Yuki''s consensus returned to his body.

    Without even realizing it, Yuki activated his ability, engulfing his de with fire which burned Saki''s hand. Enraged at not being able to take the sword for herself, Saki aimed for Yuki''s head in hopes of finishing the battle right then and there.

    However, before the de could cut off Yuki''s head, it became enveloped in a yellow fire. This was much differentpared to Yuki''s previous mes. All of them had a deep crimson colour to them. Yuki didn''t care as to why they had changed colour, all that mattered was if they were effective. Luckily for Yuki, they were. The new yellow mes instantaneously melted the sword which Saki was carrying.

    Since Yuki couldn''t stand on his own, he used the mes from his ability to lift him from the ground and support him. Unable to createrge amounts of yellow mes, Yuki caved in and went back to using his deep crimson mes. While not as effective as the yellow ones, they were enough to help him regain bnce.

    Yuki created a full set of me armour with the help of his ability, allowing himself to control his damaged body.

    [Open inventory]

    Now having control over his body, Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion from his inventory and drank it to recover all of his broken bones. Seeing as how his face recovered, Yuki dispersed the mes that made his helmet for the fire armour set. Instead, Yuki created a fire constructed crown that levitated above his head.

    Finally being able toprehend what had just happened, the female demon warriors began to charge towards Yuki. They weren''t going to allow him to harm any of their otherrades. Just as Marlen''s fist neared his face, Yuki lifted his sword in the air. As if he was carrying a heavy axe, Yuki dropped the fire enveloped de on Marlen''s arm, instantly cutting it in half. Still carrying her axe, her decapitated armid on the ground as it slowly began to lose its strength. All she could do was watch in horror as her blue blood poured out from it.

    "Why you!" Nico said as she leaped in the air, Warhammer in hand, prepared to m it on Yuki''s head.

    Yuki, now cleared of all thought, raised his de upwards towards the ceiling of the stage once more. Right before the Warhammer could strike Yuki''s head. Yuki sliced off the handle, causing the top part to fall behind him, as Nico held what remained of her weapon.

    Not nning to waste any more of his time, Yuki targeted each one of the demon warriors. Slicing off anything in his line of vision. Yuki was now aiming to kill Saki as she was responsible for invoking this side of him. That disgustingly familiar grind made him hate everything that existed. As the sword neared her body, arge shield came in its way. Marlen hade back to exact her revenge on Yuki for cutting off her arm. At least that was what it seemed to Yuki, however Marlen had other ns.

    She had epted her fate of dying that day. A one armed warrior was the same as a useless one. It would be a more heroic fate for her to die on the battlefield than to leave with permanent damage which would cause her to be a liability to her team. That was why she had intended to save the other members of her team. However Yuki had managed to either heavily injure or cut off a limb from everyone except Saki.

    Yuki had nned to save the best forst. Seeing Marlen in his way just made Yuki even more angry. Gripping his sword with all his strength, Yuki cut Marlen''s shield in half. Losing all hope of survival, Marlen used her remaining hand to throw one final punch in hopes of ending Yuki''s life. Even though it was evident that she would have little to no effect on him, she still tried.

    Seeing this Saki leaped near Marlen''s ear and whispered something in her ear which caused her to stop in her tracks. As Yuki began to swing his sword towards Marlen to end her life, a sickle interrupted him. Even though the de was covered in mere crimson mes, it was enough to cause the sickle de to begin to melt.

    Getting tired of having to deal with multiple interruptions, Yuki clenched his right hand as his left one held "Fallen angel of hell" in a standstill between him and Saki. Without giving time for Saki to react, Yuki punched her as hard as he could, sending her towards the rest of the female warriors.

    Next, Yuki levitated in the air, grabbing Marlen by her hair and swinging her towards herrades. Yuki nned on finishing the battle in the very following moments.

    Each of the female demon warriors stood up in their final moments. All of them without a doubt in their mind that they were going to die. They all embraced each other as they closed their eyes, awaiting the inevitable.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 5 stamina boost potions and drank them all as he knew he needed arge supply of stamina to end the battle. Yuki applied half of his stamina into "Fallen angel of hell", allowing it to gain its red quoting. However, in addition, Yuki quoted his de from his ability''s white mes by condensing it into a small amount.

    Yuki leaped into the air and threw his de into the circle of female warriors. Each one holding onto another in their final moments. Yuki''s de sunk into the ground, right in the middle of them. Only a secondter, it exploded, creating a red mushroom cloud which burned everything in its way.

    "Goodbye," the female warriors said to each other simultaneously. They all died with a smile on their face.

 Chapter 73 - Level 10

    Once Yuki had killed the female demon warriors and caused them to disappear, the rest of the demons which were watching the battle on the colosseum seats disappeared as well. After his hard battle, Yuki was now exhausted. He instantly deactivated his me armour and began to breathe heavily.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced his weapons back into his inventory. Once he had done that, Yuki pulled out 1 full status recovery potion and 2 stamina boost potions. Even with him regaining his full strength, Yuki needed extra reserves of stamina just in case he couldn''t use his inventory in the next stage.

    Just as Yuki finished drinking all his potions, he went into a state of paralysis, all he could feel was pure agonizing pain. Right away, he knew that he was facing the consequences of drinking too many potions from the system.

    "Zero!" Yuki called out.

    Without having to respond to Yuki, Zero healed him as it would be much more efficient than trying to talk to an immobilized human in extreme pain.

    "Thank you," said Yuki once his body was cured from the paralysis. Yuki could''ve asked Zero to make him immune to the system''s consequences however, Yuki enjoyed the thrill of having something penalize him for overusing the new world''s materials. Yuki deemed that the excruciating pain he felt once he had drank too many potions which only lingered until Zero healed him was more than enough of a consequence. He knew that he was abusing his power and he frankly didn''t care because it was his. However he subconsciously tried to justify his actions, no matter how wrong they seemed.

    [+70500 exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 10: 29000/200000]

    Yuki could feel an insane power-surge flowing through his veins. He had never experienced such pleasure and power all at once. He felt like he could take on the entire world at once. Yuki thought his skin was deteriorating from being unable to contain its new found power.

    "Who knew that gaining 1 level could be this amazing," Yuki said to himself.

    While he knew that reaching level 10 was arge milestone in the new world, along with all the following stages which ended with 0. Yuki hadn''t expected it to be to this degree. It was as if he was getting cheered on by the entire world after he had received a gold medal for each category in the olympics. The sense of pridefulness the systems falsely created was just too much to bear for one person.

    Seeing how well he was getting treated for achieving the milestone only motivated Yuki to push himself to even greater lengths. Yuki nned on receiving this sensation of joy 9 more times when he would reach level 20, 30, 40... and so on until level 100.

    [New skill unlocked: Scale]

    [Scale: Able to determine the likelihood of the user being able to defeat their enemy. Green: Easy, Yellow: Medium, Red: Hard, Purple: Impossible]

    [Disimer: Items such as potions and weapons can ultor the scale]

    "And a new skill to boot? Today just keeps getting better," said Yuki to himself.

    Just as Yuki began to celebrate, an object dropped from the stage ceiling.

    [Item drop: Demon Sickle]

    "Well, nevermind," said Yuki in disappointment as he looked down at Saki''s weapon. He would never use the weapon of someone that resembled Sophie. He despised both of them.

    Yuki double tapped on the item to open its information chart.

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 60]

    [Description: Power: The curved short handed de which is ideal in closebat situations. Each year, every one of the 5 ns of the demon race picks their very best female warrior to send out to serve their lord: Hades. With each npeting to see who can serve their king the best, they grew to hate each other. As such they would force the young females of their n to undergo harsh training regiments in hopes of cultivating the ultimate warrior. Each year this takes ce and on new years eve, the chosen warriors leave their vige to meet with Hades. Unknown to their ns, Hades always forces the chosen 5 to work in a team to serve as part of his army. Now the females have to work alongside the ones they were taught as a child to hate. However as time goes on, the members be ustomed to their new life and begin to care for each other. The ultimate irony.]

    "So basically maniption into bing a warrior robot?.. Lame," said Yuki as he shrugged his shoulders. He couldn''t be bothered to feel sympathy towards those who have tried to harm him or he just hated.

    Just as Yuki finished reading the description of the sickle, another item fell from the ceiling. Yuki already knew what the item would be as he had reached the halfway point of the dungeon.

    [Item drop: Pot of greed]

    Yuki double tapped on the brown pouch to open its information chart.

    [Rank: X]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Contains 2 million silver]

    "This is more than I''ll ever need in this world, I''m basically set for life," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced the new items that he had just received and began to walk towards the save point. The white light was much closer than it usually was which meant that Yuki didn''t have to walk for hours trying to reach it.

    [Stage five: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [Stage 6 difficulty: level 8-9]

    [If you would like to move to the 6th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    Yuki passed his hand through the dungeon gate, allowing the white light to disintegrate. Looking out from the tunnel which led to the new stage, Yuki couldn''t see any monster lingering around which he thought was weird but didn''t think much of it.

    Yuki had been memorized by the many towers that stretched from the ground, all made of ck stone. The stage looked to be vast with an endless path of cracked stone flooring. All around the stage there wererge white pirs which looked to be half their original size due to them cracking over time.

 Chapter 74 - Stage 6

    Expecting no surprises, Yuki walked through the tunnel leading to the sixth stage. right as he passed through the tunnel which was a part of the wall that blocked off one stage from another, Yuki was grabbed by something and taken high up in the air. When he looked up to see what it was, Yuki was shocked to see a green fire-constructed phoenix clenching onto Yuki''s shoulders with its legs.

    Before he could even react, the phoenix spun in the air and swung Yuki down to the ground, creating arge crater. Yuki quickly stood on his feet to try tobat his opponent, however before he could make a move, a green fireball came in his face and exploded. While he put his arms up to protect his face, it didn''t stop the fire from doing damage.

    As Yuki looked forward to trying to spot his enemy in the air, he was surprised to see nothing. Just then he thought to look behind him however it was much toote. The phoenix attacked Yuki''s back with its fire made wings and knocked him to the ground.

    "Can you stop for 1 second!" Yuki yelled in anger.

    The phonex''s moves were too quick and strong for Yuki to handle. Even though he had just gained arge increase to his overall strength due to him reaching level 10. It didn''t matter in theter stages of the dungeon. Each monster which was from stage 5-10 was a mini boss on their own but also had arge boost in power.

    Being bombarded by the constant attacks of the phoenix brought Yuki into a stage of pure anger. He hated being constantly attacked but not being able to strike back.

    "So that''s how you want to do things?" Yuki said as he grinned.

    "Activate Ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki created a small but heavy fire dome around himself so as to not be interrupted by the Phoenix while he began his preparations for the battle.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 7 speed boost potions and 2 attack boost potions. With a smile on his face, Yuki drank each one, growing ever stronger by the second. Yuki cracked the capsules which carried the potions one he finished with them. After he had consumed all of them, Yuki stepped on the already broken ss capsules on the ground, crushing them to dust.

    Yuki took down his fire constructed dome which the phoenix had been attacking furiously the entire time.

    "Your time hase," said Yuki as he prepared to pass judgement on his enemy.

    "Activate Skill: Scale"

    Feeling a bit curious as to how he stacked up against his enemy now, Yuki used his new skill. As expected, the phoenix''s title was green, meaning it was easy to defeat. Getting a bit cocky, Yuki activated his ability to create a phoenix body for himself. Allowing himself to be covered in his crimson mes, Yuki began to fly towards the sky.

    "Let''s see if you can touch me now," said Yuki.

    Yuki propelled himself towards the phoenix at extremely fast speeds, so much so that the green firebird couldn''t see Yuki. Yuki charged in and kicked the green bird in the chest, causing it to fly down to one of the white pirs,pletely smashing through it and taking down two more before stopping at the 4th pir behind it.

    The phoenix could barely manage to fly after just one hit. Not only were Yuki''s attacks amplified because he drank attack boost potions, the speed potions also added to his strength as when the momentum he had gathered crashed into an object at such high speeds, it would do catastrophic damage.

    Not allowing the phoenix to catch a break, Yuki charged at its head first, right into its chest once more, driving it through tens of pirs. Just when Yuki began to slow down, Yuki used his mes as an engine, creatingrge bursts of mes, allowing him to continue.

    Feeling bored, Yuki moved away from the green phoenix then kicked it in the face with his own bird feet, causing the green phoenix to crash into the ground.

    "How the tables have turned," said Yuki.

    Yuki continuously went down to the immobilized green bird, attacking it endlessly with his wings and legs. Yuki continued to torment his enemy until it looked to be a pitiful and helpless animal getting harassed by a psycho.

    "It''s your own fault for throwing a sneak attack right when the battle began. If you yed fairly, maybe this wouldn''t be happening to you," said Yuki as he stepped on the phoenix''s head, almost crushing its skull. However Yuki wasn''t finished having his fun. It would take much more than that to satisfy an angered Yuki.

    Yuki deactivated his bird form and went towards one of the white pirs. Using his ability once more, Yuki createdrge me hands to assist him in picking the pir up. Yuki carried the pir up to where he had left the nearly dead phoenix. Yuki had begun to lose his grip on the pir as it was much heavier than he had thought.

    Deciding that it was time to end the battle, Yuki created mes on his legs as well to propel himself in the air. As his final attack in the battle, Yuki threw therge white stone pir at the green phoenix.

    As the pir hit the stage, it caused arge bang sound. That waster followed by the sound of many cracks in the ground as if an avnche was about to ur. Now where the phoenix oneid almost dead was arge hole, inside it was red magma which seemed to be capable of melting anything it touches.

    Feeling aplished, Yuki went down to the hole to inspect it. As he looked closely, he could see something green reaching for the stage floor. When he took a closer look, Yuki noticed it to be the wing of the stage phoenix.

    "It''s over, give it up now," said Yuki as he stepped on the green phoenix''s wing, causing the bird to fall into the magma and seemingly die.

    Deeming the stage to be cleared, Yuki began to head towards the gateway. Just then Yuki heard a loud rumbling sound behind him.

    Something wasing.

 Chapter 75 - Heavenly Hell

    As the hot magma fell from its new white body, the phoenix which Yuki had seemingly had arisen from the dead. Its eyes gleamed in the stage as it looked at Yuki with the intent to kill. It was as if it hadpletely changed from what it used to be.

    "A vitality skill? Or could it just be part of the stage''s programming?"

    "It would make sense I guess, haven given me such a boost in strength should also mean I should face stronger enemies. However this is a bit too far. Even with 9 potions to help boost my stats, it looks like it could match me if not annihte me if wepare our strength," said Yuki to himself.

    "Activate skill: Scale"

    When Yuki used his ability to check how hepared to the new and improved phoenix, he was shocked.

    "I mean, I expected arge increase in power but this is too much," said Yuki.

    [Eternal Phoenix Mini Boss: Juventas]

    Yuki stared at the red title of the monster in front of him. Yukiughed in fear as it was the only thing he could do. He couldn''t believe what he saw. How was he supposed to defeat such an absurdly strong enemy?

    The white phoenix charged towards Yuki at top speeds, instantly ramming its head into his chest and pushing him towards the ck stone towers which stemmed from the same point on the ground. Yuki experienced excruciating pain as he crashed into the ck stone towers, crushing everything with his back as he kept getting forced into them by the phoenix. Yuki felt himself about to cry from the pain, clenching his teeth so as to not show weakness.

    The phoenix finally pushed Yuki into the central tower. The main tower was muchrger than all the other ones. While the surrounding towers stemmed from the same point, they all pointed to a different direction. However the central one, pointed directly to the ceiling of the stage. Once the phoenix reached the central tower, it engraved Yuki''s body into it before moving away for a mere moment.

    As Yuki opened his eyes to gain control over his movement, all that he could see was a giant fireball 5 inches from his face. Before he could even block it, it exploded right in his face. Yuki fell down from the halfway point on the central wall. He rolled around on the ground, constantly rubbing his eyes. Every single inch of his body hurt. His face and arms werepletely burned.

    Yuki thought for a second to take a full restore potion and recover his body however he quickly scratched that idea. Instead, Yuki walked towards the central tower, both eyes closed and banged his head on its wall as hard as he possibly could.

    "I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN ALLOW MYSELF TO BE BEATEN MERCILESSLY," said Yuki as he remembered all the times he would stand still as his bullies beat him. Even though every punch and kick he took was agonizing, Yuki never spoke up in fear that he''d just be harassed more.

    "I WON''T GO BACK TO BEING AFRAID," said Yuki as he opened his eyes. In truth Yuki wasn''t scared to be beaten or die as he had already gotten over those fears. What he feared the most was getting left behind, he didn''t want to be looked down upon and have nothing to live for. A life without meaning is worse than being dead.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    "Heavenly Hell!" Yuki said at the moment. He had just randomly spoken out as he was under a lot of stress and pressure which exposed what he had truly wanted. Yuki was always eager to have a named attack like in the video games he yed or the cartoons he had watched. It made him feel like he was cool and important. The exact opposite of what he had been in his previous life. Yuki seeked to be the person he had always wanted to be.

    Pulling both his arms back as he stretched them, Yuki enveloped both his palms in his deep crimson mes, continuously pumping them with his ability, Yuki was able to use them as a methrower.

    A direct hit.

    Maybe it was because Yuki was so excited and exhausted at the same time but his attacknded perfectly. Not letting the opportunity go to waste, Yuki covered his feet in his mes and propelled himself towards his enemy, crashing head first into the phoenix''s new white body.

    Wasting not a single moment, Yuki wrapped his arms around the white phoenix and activated his ability once more. Even though the phoenix''s body burned him, Yuki didn''t care at all. He could instantly regenerate it with a potion so no injury was permanent. Using his ability, Yuki engulfed himself as well as the phoenix in a solid fireball. While the phoenix''s mes burned him, Yuki''s own ability never caused damage to him.

    "ROT IN THESE FLAMES," said Yuki engulfed in rage.

    Once he had finished using his fire ball technique, Yuki began to move on to the next step of his named attack.

    Pulling away from his enemy by only 2 metres for a mere moment, Yuki clenched his hand as hard as he could as he covered it in mes. Yuki got on his knees and punched through the ground as he pumped his mes into it. After a few moments of waiting, the ground began to rumble as it had done when the phoenix was reborn.

    The ground broke open, allowing Yuki''s mes toe out of it and envelope the phoenix in a solid dome of mes. Yuki stood inside the dome as well as he had no reason to fear his own powers. Once the mes died down, Yuki began to breathe heavily.

    "A cool movebo attack but it can use some work. I''ll stick with the name though, heavenly hell sounds cool," said Yuki.

    "Well it''s time to finish this off," he continued.

    Yuki walked towards the immobilized white phoenix.

    "All that for nothing," said Yuki as he grabbed the phoenix by the neck.

    Without wasting any more of his breath, Yuki punched the white phoenix with his right arm, and then his left. Constantly pummeling his enemy with no mercy. Once his arms began to grow weak, Yuki rxed both of them and allowed the phoenix''s head to hit the ground. However Yuki was not finished. Yuki pulled his head back and without any hesitation, he smashed it into the phoenix''s head, counseling the battle once and for all.

 Chapter 76 - Phoenix Feather

    Even while beating the half dead phoenix to a pump, Yuki hadn''t had his fun yet. With hisst bit of stamina left, Yuki thought of adding another sequence to his named attack "Heavenly Hell".

    "Activate Ability: Fire Control"

    Using his ability, Yuki enveloped both himself as well as the phoenix in a tower of hot mes. Gripping as hard as he could to the phoenix so it couldn''t run away in pain. Yuki''s head looked towards the ceiling as his mouth opened wide as he gasped for air in the middle of his attack. Quickly, his mouth closed and turned into a smile. While he grew ever so weak, Yuki still enjoyed every moment of it.

    As the mes died down, Yuki let go of the white phoenix and fell on his back.

    "It''s over," Yuki said as the phoenix distentigrated.

    [Open inventory]

    As Yukiid down on the ground, he grabbed a full status recovery potion from his inventory. Opening the lid with his mouth, Yuki chugged the liquid as if he was a child who hadn''t had anything to drink for the 3 weeks.

    He instantly regretted that decision as he felt the excruciating pain of the new world''s rules. Yuki had passed the 10 potion limit once more. Yuki hated the pain. Even though he enjoyed short amounts of pain which allowed him to go past his limit, this was different. It was just pure agony. It didn''t allow him to move or feel anything other than pain.

    "Zero!" Yelled cried out.

    Wasting not another moment, Zero healed Yuki''s body. Since Zero was not confined in the dimension which Yuki was currently in, he could heal him without having to make direct contact with him.

    "What a pain, I hate it when this happens, but at least it prevents people from leveling up too quickly. Well... almost everyone, I''m basically cheating so it really doesn''t make a difference," Yuki said to himself.

    [+80000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 10: 109000/200000]

    "Almost halfway through? The leveling up pace has slowed down, but it''s not that bad," said Yuki to himself.

    Just like every other, something fell from the stage ceiling. However, unlike many of them, it didn''t fall at a quick rate. As it came down, it swung in the air until it eventuallynded on Yuki''s palm.

    [Item drop: Phoenix Feather]

    Yuki double tapped on the item to open its information chart.

    [Rank: A]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: allows the user to use emergency state "vitality". A mythical bird known as the Phoenix. A creature that was a symbol of renewal and rebirth. ording to legend, each Phoenix lived for 500 years, and only one Phoenix lived at a time. Just before its time was up, the Phoenix built a nest and set itself on fire. Then, a new Phoenix would rise from the ashes, in turn restarting the cycle. However, one phoenix chose to follow another path. Afraid of its eventual death, it entered the underworld to not die and be reborn. In this realm, it wouldn''t have to die in the first ce. Immortality was what it seeked. However as a consequence for its selfish desire, the world would lose a precious creature which would eventually be forgotten about. Due to its long stay in the underworld, the phoenix became corrupted by the souls of the dead which caused its orange colour to change into a dark and gloomy green. Only changing into white when killed and forced to be reborn as a pure creature. ]

    "An A ranked item?!" Yuki was beyond overjoyed.

    "It could be usefulter on," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced the feathor into his inventory and began to walk towards the save point. Yuki at this point had gotten used to this task. He would walk through the dungeon gate. After that, he would either beat the dungeon easily or almost lose his life. Then rinse and repeat that process. His goal was to create a fun video game-like world, however it seemed to be a job which he had to go to every single day.

    If Yuki wished to, he could enjoy his life as a level 10 yer. There were no easy feet which meant that he would be one of a kind. However, that wasn''t the problem. Yuki knew that while many would give up on the journey to reach level 100 first, there were those who were more desperate for that title than himself. Those who craved absolute power over the world, so much so that they would easily experience hell many times over. That was what Yuki feared and allowed him to push himself even further beyond.

    Just like how in the previous world, money was what ruled the world. In this one, power rules it. "The rich keep getting richer". If changed to fit the new world ideals it would be "The strong keep getting stronger". This also meant that the strong would do everything in their power to prevent the weak from reaching a strength that wasparable to theirs. After all, there isn''t anyone in the world who wants someone better than them.

    [Stage six: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [Stage 7 difficulty: level 9]

    [If you would like to move to the 7th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    Yuki''s eyes were tired. It looked as if all he wanted to do was sleep for eternity, however that was much different from what he actually wanted. More than anything, Yuki wished to continue to grow. When he reached a new level, the pure joy that is pumped into his brain was more than enough motivation for him to continue. But on top of that, Yuki also wanted to test his theory out. He wanted to see if each stage would grant him a new "broken/overpowered" sword. Lastly, there remained the ability of "King''s Crown". Yuki still aimed to build an army out of all the final bosses which the dungeons offered.

    Yuki already enjoyed having the lich on his side, however, Yuki was still eager to see what the second dungeon''s final boss looked like. There also remained Meurig #2 which Yuki had sent out to get even stronger. There were so many things going on which Yuki couldn''t allow to go to waste.

    "One more time," said Yuki as he touched the white light blocking his vision from the next stage. As his finger tips made contact with the wall, it began to disintegrate.

 Chapter 77 - The Emotionless Killer

    "So will it just be the two of us going for the negotiation?" the representative from the neighbouring kingdom asked?

    "I suppose so," the user of "INFINITE HOTEL" replied.

    Both of them were in a caravan as they passed through the empty grassynds. They had nned to make the negotiations with the 3rd kingdom which they wanted to align with after they had defeated Yuki, however they changed their mind after they learned he was in the second dungeon already. He was growing to be too much of a danger to the world. Even they knew that they needed as much power as they could get.

    "How many people did we bribe to use their abilities to give us information on what we need by now?" the representative.

    "About 20-25 people in total. Since most people are only now beginning to reach level 2, their abilities are limited. It''s sad when you think about it. This world is just a game of luck. Many people end up losing their limbs or see theirrades getting eaten in front of their eyes all in the hopes of leveling up. Once they experience that, they retire and end up living by asionally hunting small monsters," the user of "INFINITE HOTEL '''' replied.

    "Sorry, I haven''t properly introduced myself. I go by Scar. I''ll be keeping my name a secret as it could help someone defeat it if they need my actual name to do so," the user of "INFINITE HOTEL" continued.

    "That''s fine. You can just call me Jing. I don''t really think that being so careful is good since it causes so much stress. Plus, it''s not like I''m the head of my kingdom. I''m just a representative" Jing said with a disappointed look on his face. It seemed to be yearning for more.

    "Something seems to be on your mind. Spit it out already," said Scar.

    "Well it''s just that I thought I had finally gotten a break from being someone''sckey. In my previous life, I was treated like a servant by everyone. My boss, my family, even my friends. I could never bring myself to say no to any of their requests. All I got for it was getting treated like a dog," Jing vented.

    "Well, that life is behind you. What matters now is what''s ahead of you in this world. You should learn from your past mistakes and improve upon them now," exined Scar.

    "That''s the problem. I really did try to change. I refused the offer but the actual ruler of the kingdom ordered his guards to imprison me for ''treason''. That''s how I ended up in this position in the first ce," said Jing.

    "A dictatorship? How problematic," Scar thought to himself.

    "How about this. I''ll offer you my protection, in exchange, you work for me. You will have freedom almost all the time and can leave whenever you wish. However while you are working for me, you will have to run asional errands for me. It''s not a bad deal since if the ruler of your kingdom tried toe after you, they''ll be interfering with me, and since I''m one of if not the highest contributor to my kingdom''s economy, they would be starting a war which I doubt anyone wants to do since all of the kingdom''s main focus is strengthening their forces for now," Scar offered.

    "Would you really do that for me?"

    "Thank you so much," Jing epted the offer happily.

    "Don''t worry about it. It''s the least I could do to pay you back for all your hard work. Even if it does benefit your kingdom as well, we are still grateful for you," Scar replied.

    "By the way, has your kingdom decided on a name for itself?" Scar asked.

    "They actually have. I''m pretty sure it''s called ''Lyanna''. I doubt any thought went into it. They probably picked the name which came to their head first," Jing said.

    "What about yours? Have you decided on one yet?" Jing asked.

    "Unfortunately we haven''t. It''s taking us much longer than we had thought," Scar replied.

    Just then, the caravan came to a sudden stop. Realizing that they had arrived at their destination, they both took a deep breath and got out of the vehicle.

    As they walked through the double gates of the kingdom which they had arrived at to do business with, they were created by nearly a dozen guards, all lined in a straight line, six on each side of the gate. In the front was their guide which was responsible for showing them to the negotiations room.

    Once they arrived in the negotiation room, the guide exited the room and left the 3 representatives to speak alone.

    "Good afternoo-" as Scar began to do introductions, he was interrupted by the representative from the kingdom which they had arrived at.

    "Let''s get right to business. I''m pretty sure I know what you came here for, and if I am correct, we can''t afford to waste time," the representative said.

    "Your right. We want assistance in the form of human soldiers to help us defeat Yuki Kaito," Scar exined.

    "I thought so. They''ve started calling him ''the emotionless killer'' for his streak of turning on those who trust him. He''s a master of deception and quick killings. We''ve also learned of his rank as a level 7 yer. You seriously expect us to join you in a suicide mission?" the representative asked.

    "We thought it maye to this. First of all, its not a suicide mission. We n to keep the casualties to a minimum. Secondly, I will personally offer you as much silver as you wish for your cooperation. Andstly, if you refuse out kind offers, our two kingdoms willbine our forces to wipe your kingdom off this new world. Without your help, we''ll probably all die. But with you on our side, we have a fighting chance. We cannot allow that monster to roume free in this world. He''s a human gue," Scar replied.

    The representative sighed.

    "I don''t have much of a choice here. You''ve backed me into a corner."

    "On behalf of this kingdom, I agree to an alliance with your two kingdoms to bring down Yuki Kaito," the repsentative said as he shaked the hands off Scar and Jing.

 Chapter 78 - Reminder

    Once the representative from the 3rd kingdom agreed upon the conditions that Scar and Jing had set, he began to walk towards the door which the two representatives hade through. Outside stood two guards, each fully armoured and carrying a spear. They held their spears in a cross-like manner to prevent anyone from entering the conference room.

    As the representative walked out from the room, they each lifted their spears from the position it was in previously and held it so it would face the castle ceiling.

    "You..." the representative of the 3rd kingdom said as he pointed towards the guard on the right.

    "Inform the other guards to leave their positions and forcibly recruit as many men into the military. Refusal will end with public execution. We can''t afford to waste any time," the representative of the hosting kingdom continued.

    Without any dy, the guard ran off towards the stairs to inform the others about the news. It was evident that they feared their ruler.

    "I don''t mean to interrupt, however I do have a question. Would this kingdom also happen to be under a dictatorship as well?" Scar asked the ruler of the kingdom.

    "Of course it is. In the early stages of establishing any colony, it is essential to take control and make decisions quickly. A democracy is just a waste of time only made to please the people," the representative replied to Scar.

    Jing tried to stop himself fromughing at what the ruler of the hosting kingdom had said. While the ruler didn''t know it, the kingdom which Scar resided in chose to work as a democratic kingdom. On the other hand Jing''s kingdom chose the route of dictatorship just like the 3rd kingdom.

    The ruler of the hosting kingdom went back into the conference room, making sure to lock the door behind him.

    "Okay, now that we''ve gotten the main task out of the way, let''s get down to the minor details. You can just call me Theophill. I am the ruler of this kingdom and serve as its monarch. As such, anything I say goes. I came into power after I reached level 2 as fast as possible. Having unmatchable power allowed me to take over this kingdom. I hope that answered all your questions," Theophill said.

    "I presume you''re the type to waste no time when having to aplish a task. No matter. Our names are-" Scar began to speak however was interrupted by Theophill.

    "No need to state your names, I already did research on your profiles before you arrived here," said Theophill.

    "I thought so," Scar sighed.

    "Have you gathered your armies yet?" Theophill asked the two representatives from each of their respective kingdoms.

    "I''ll have to discuss the topic of a military with the rest of my kingdom''s council beforeing towards a definite conclusion," Scar replied

    "As for me, I''ll speak this over with the monarch of my kingdom," said Jing.

    "Weaklings... are you both just pawns? Do you want to be used like mere tools by others for the rest of your lives? You''ve been given a second chance at life in the form of this magical world. At least aim for something greater than a mere object," said Theophill in a slightly louder tone to express his anger.

    "I am not a tool!" Jing tried to argue back.

    "Don''t tell me that. Show me instead. All I can see are two meremunication tools, telling me what they were told to pass on," Theophill argued back.

    There wasn''t much Jing could say back to Theophill. After all, he was 100% correct in what he said.

    While Jing thought about what Theophill had said. Scar was still busy thinking.

    "When did I be so caught up in helping others? This wasn''t the n. I need to change my approach to things," Scar said to himself.

    "We''re grateful for doing business with you today. We''ll contact you once more beforeunching ourbined attack. Be prepared at all times just in case we decide to act suddenly," Scar said as he grabbed Jing by the arm and headed out the castle.

    "What was that for?" Jing asked once they had stepped out of the building.

    "This n is too slow and will most likely fail. I''ll act on my own from here on out. You of course will join me if you want my protection," said Scar.

    Once they both entered the caravan which was there to help them return to their kingdoms, Jing began to ask more questions.

    "But why the sudden change in attitude. I thought you were a good and righteous man?" Jing asked.

    "At first that was my cover up story. I don''t know exactly when but I eventually began to take my fake pressona seriously and it became one with my real identity. I never meant myself to be an ally to your kingdoms. I n to rule the world on my own," Scar replied.

    For the rest of the ride, both of them stayed silent. Even after they arrived back at their own kingdom, they didn''t say a single world to each other. They quietly passed through the kingdom until they reached the castle tomunicate with the rest of the council.

    "How did your mission go?" the man in sses asked in a serious demeanour.

    "A sess. They have agreed to our conditions and are currently nning to secure a formidable army to aid us in this raid," Scar said.

    Right as the council''s faces began to light up in joy, Scar began his big announcement.

    "I''ll be leaving the kingdom now. I will also be removing any ns for funding this kingdom after Yuki Kaito has been taken care of. I''ll be taking Jing with me to his kingdom and take over it as its new monarch," announced Scar.

    "How can you be so sure that you''ll be able to aplish that?" the man in sses asked, still keeping hisposure.

    "Money can buy a lot of things, whether it be in the previous world, or this one," Scar said with a grin on his face as he walked out the conference room. Jing followed suit as that was all he could do.

 Chapter 79 - Resolve

    Jing followed Scar out of the conference room. Scar had left everyone speechless as he had dropped the unexpected news. Since he was one of the most reliable sources of ie to fund the kingdom''srge projects, it was a let down and a disappointment to see him leave. Without him, the progression of the kingdom would slow down drastically.

    Jing didn''t have anything special about him. That also meant that his outfits were in. He wore a pure white shirt and a sage coloured vest over it. His pants were ck jeans and his hair was messy. He was a bit shorter than Scar but that would most likely be attributed to his poor posture.

    "Are we seriously going to Lyanna?" Jing asked once they were outside the building.

    "You heard what I said back there. I don''t like to waste time," Scar replied.

    Once they exited through the kingdom gates, they once again entered the caravan and began to head towards the kingdom of Lyanna. It was where Jing hade from to serve as a representative by force.

    Jing didn''t want to go back to his kingdom as he despised it. He doubted that Scar would be able to defeat the monarch of his kingdom. To him, Scar was just some rich guy who had an odd godplex. While he didn''t want to ve the rest of his life away as a servant, Jing had long lost hope of having freedom in his new life.

    Jing sighed in disappointment as he looked up at the caravan''s ceiling.

    As the caravan began to move, Scar reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked to be a flip phone. When Jing looked at the object, he was left speechless. There was no way that a person could obtain suchplex technology at this point. Even with having the knowledge of how to create a cellphone, it would take an extremely long time to gather the resources needed and to finally construct the object for only one person.

    "It''s not his ability because his ''INFINITE HOTEL" is still active. How did he get his hands on that thing?" Jing asked himself.

    While Jing was busy overthinking what he was seeing, Scar put the flip phone to his ear and began to speak.

    "Group Message: Meet me at the Lyanna Kingdom within 24 hours. If you don''t know where it is located, ask Judd to use her ability to guide you. Prepare for arge-scale attack," Scar said to the phone before closing it and cing it back into his pocket.

    "Who were you just speaking to?" Jing asked.

    "Just some of my friends. Well, it wasn''t technically speaking. It was more of a voicemail sent to all of them," Scar replied.

    "Oh, why''d you call them? Is there something special going on?" Jing asked.

    "Don''t pretend like you didn''t hear what I just said on the phone. I''m nning to take down the monarch of your kingdom along with his subjects so I can rule over it instead," Scar replied.

    "But why? What do you gain from it?" Jing asked in desperation.

    "Power? Fame? Glory? I can have anything I want. I''m ying this ''game'' for the long run. I knew from the second that the rules of this world were announced that I wouldn''t be the person to reach level 100 first. If I can''t rule over the entire world, the best thing to do is rule over at least a few parts of it," said Scar.

    "You know how some countries have a federal, provincial/state, then a municipal government? I want to serve as either a municipal or state like government while the person who breaks their limit due to them reaching level 100 first bes a sort of federal government," continued Scar.

    "Don''t act all high and mighty. This world is forcing everyone to expose their true colors. No one in our species ispletely pure. There''s always something that''ll be strong enough to make usmit unspeakable things. For some it''s money, others, it might be love. No matter how long you try to deny the truth, it''ll always be unraveled," Scar finished speaking.

    Left speechless, Jing didn''t utter another word for the rest of the ride. He continued to think about what Scar had said. Was there something that would push him tomit horrible crimes? There wasn''t much he cared for in any of the worlds he had been ced into. He always did what he was told and didn''t have much to look forward to. Or at least he thought. There was a time where he had ambition to strive for the things he wanted. Just like everyone else around him, Jing had dreams and aspirations of his own.

    "How did I end up like this? When did I be so submissive to others that I lost sight of my beliefs and goals?" Jing asked himself.

    More than anything, Jing was angry at himself for letting it get this bad. He could''ve prevented all the events that had transpired all his life. If he decided to gain strength through leveling up, he could''ve refused the offer to be a representative for his kingdom. In his previous life, Jing could''ve said no to the requests of others or at least came up with an excuse as to not be treated like a servant.

    "You said if I ever wanted to leave you to aplish my own goals, I could do so, right? Of course that would mean that I would no longer be under your protection," Jing asked.

    "You are correct. That was what I had said," Scar replied half heartedly. His thoughts were more focused on the attack that''ll transpire within a day or two.

    Hearing the answer that he had wanted, Jing took a deep breath as he strengthened his resolve. He no longer cared about the small details in life such as why Scar had a flip phone with him or what would happen to him if he betrayed his kingdom.

    "I''m all alone. No one else will be there to help me seed. I will only rely on myself and myself alone. No one will stand in my way," Jing told himself as he had a new look on his face.

    He was finally bing the person he always wanted to be.

 Chapter 80 - Lyanna

    "We''ve arrived," said the caravan driver.

    Momentster, both Jing and Scar stepped off the vehicle. Scar stepped forward and began to walk towards the entrance gates of the kingdom known as Lyanna. Jing followed behind him however unlike the previous times, Jing had a n.

    "I''ll act as his subordinate for now, if he fails to take down the monarch of this kingdom, I''ll pretend like I was forced to work under him. On the other hand, if he does manage to defeat the monarch, I''ll stay with him for a bit longer then leave to establish my own kingdom. I won''t be someone underling any longer," Jing thought to himself.

    Right as Scar stepped in front of the horses that were moving the caravan, he was interrupted by the driver.

    "Excuse me for the interruption but you haven''t paid for your ride all day," the driver said.

    "Oh, I thought I already informed you. You can collect your payment from the kingdom''s castle we just came from. Just tell them ''Scar'' sent you and you should receive your payment," Scar replied.

    "But aren''t you scared I''ll lie and take more money than I''m supposed to?" the driver asked.

    "Believe me, you wouldn''t want to do that," said Scar as he made a sinister smile towards the driver.

    Seeing that Scar wasn''t so forgiving, he understood the memo and left to go back to his kingdom.

    Scar now put his attention towards Jing.

    "How does it feel to be home?" Scar asked.

    Jing ignored the question which had just been thrown at him. He knew that Scar was just saying that to get on his nerves. They both knew that Jing despised the kingdom of Lyanna. The only reason he returned was because there was no safer ce for him other than beside Scar.

    "Let''s just get this over with. So, what''s the n?" Jing asked.

    "You''re awfully rude for someone who is under my protection. Anyway, we just have to find a ce to stay for now. I already contacted the people who will dispose of the monarch. He lives at the kingdom''s castle right?" Scar asked.

    "Yes he does. The king doesn''t do much nowadays. He just lives afortable life and forces people to give him what he wants. Back to the topic of dealing with him. So you''re saying that all we have to do is stand and watch as your ''people'' do all the work? That sounds too good to be true," Jing replied.

    "Whether you believe me or don''t, I don''t really care. I''m just here to aplish my mission which is exactly what I will do," said Scar.

    As tensions rose, the both knew they had to stop arguing. Starting a fight right now wouldn''t be in the best interest of either of them. While they were intelligent on their own, they still had a lot of pride and arrogance within them which sometimes got in their way of achieving their goals. There were only a few people in the world who had no pride left. Without having that liability, their sense of mrity would be altered and they would eventuallymit actions which would be considered pure evil. Such was a path that Yuki undertook.

    Both Jing and Scar began to walk through the kingdom of Lyanna. It was sunset already and they needed a ce to stay for the night.

    "You don''t happen to know an inn here by any chance?" Scar asked.

    "We can just go to my house for the night. Of course if you''re okay with that," Jing proposed.

    "Sure I guess," Scar responded.

    As they continued to walk towards Jing''s house, they were both silent. It was weird since they had been sort of friends for the past few days. Ever since their encounter with Theophill and what he said to them, they haven''t been able to go back to how they were before. Getting bored of the silence, Scar tried to make small talk.

    "Don''t you think this world is weird?" Scar asked.

    "How so?" Jing replied.

    "I mean look at it? It''s basically a video game with real monsters and magic. However unlike a video game, if you die here, you''re really dead. We''re given amazing powers to defend ourselves but we have to face even more fearsome foes. Not only that but there''s so much we don''t know about this world. Such as how many dungeons there are and how they work, the full capabilities of an ability and the overall system. How is there a house for each person which is assigned to them? What will happen when there are new children born? I want to learn everything this world has to offer," said Scar.

    "I think you''re getting a bit ahead of yourself. It hasn''t been that long since we arrived in this world. We still have plenty of time to explore whatever we want," said Jing.

    They had lost track of time while they were talking. It was now pitch ck. The only source of light were the kingdommps and the moon.

    As they finally arrived at Jing''s house, Jing used his keys to open the door and they entered the ce before Jing turned around to close the door behind them.

    His house was pretty average. There was nothing special about it. There was a couch and a dining table and a bed upstairs. Jing wasn''t the materialistic type and only bought what he needed. Most days he would eat out which meant that there wasn''t much food in his house.

    "I apologize for the nd look of my ce," said Jing.

    "No, it''s fine. We aren''t here to y around anyway. All that I needed was a ce to stay, which you provided so I''m notining," replied Scar.

    Jing sighed in relief.

    You can go upstairs and sleep on the bed, I''ll stay down here and sleep on the couch since you''re my guest.

    Scar nodded and headed upstairs. Right as his body touched the bed, he passed out. The mental exhaustion from the past few days had taken its toll on Scar''s body and it needed time to recover.

    The next morning Scar was awoken to the sound of ringing. Scar pulled out his flip phone and put it to his ear to listen to a message.

    "Message: we''re here."

 Chapter 81 - Raid Squad

    Scar instantly got up and began to run down stairs to wake up Jing. He had just received the news he had been eagerly awaiting. Scar could finally move on to continuing his kingdom domination n. It would be best to strike as early as possible as to not allow the king''s forces to grow even stronger.

    Back at Scar''s original kingdom, the council begin to discuss their future ns seeing as they had just lost one of their most valuable members.

    "What are we supposed to do now? Even if we do defeat Yuki, how are we supposed to recover from the economic crises we''ll be in due to overusing our resources?" Carmi asked.

    "Why''d he have to leave at the worst possible time? Why couldn''t he just help us out a little while longer?" the man wearing ssesined.

    "Well no matter, we still have to deal with Yuki Kaito first. How are the preparations going for Rey Moon''s ability?," the man wearing sses asked.

    "We at least have good news. We have managed to gather 500 prisoners from many kingdoms. All it took was a little bribing using Scar''s money and the kingdoms happily gave their prisoners to us. We managed to gather 486 prisoners in total," replied Jobon.

    "That''s great! Even if all else fails, we can rely on Rey Moon to finish off the job," the man wearing sses joyfully replied.

    "Rui, you''re still young. It would be best for you to stay out of this battle," said Katsumi.

    "I can''t do that. I want to bring down Yuki before we''re forced to use Rey Moon''s ability. Secondly, I can''t allow myself to abandon my duties. Even though I may be young, I''m still one of the strongest in this kingdom," Rui replied.

    "You sound like you''ve matured quite a lot in these past few weeks. I won''t stop you, do whatever you want," Katsumi said as he sighed.

    "Well it sounds like everything is prepared. I''ve taken the liberty of gathering all the men of the kingdom to join the army. We can''t be lenient about the matter at hand so I didn''t give them a choice. Women and children shall be spared from the draft though," said Carmi.

    No one bothered to argue with his decision. All the members of the council knew that many would die in the battle which was the reason they needed as many troops as possible.

    "If there are no objections, we''ll move towards the dungeon which Yuki is located at and await the moment he exits from it. It would be perfect to ambush him from the moment he leaves since he''ll be exhausted and weak," said Carmi.

    "How does going there in 2 days sound?" Jobon asked.

    "That sounds good. I''ll inform Rey Moon to be prepared as well," replied Katsumi.

    All the members nodded in agreement and began to exit the meeting room.

    In the kingdom of Lyanna, Jing and Scar greet the people that Scar had called to assist him to bring down the king of the kingdom.

    There were only 5 of them there. Just like a proper raid party, there was 1 tank, 2 swordsmen, 1 mage and 1 healer. The tank was a tall and buff man, although he looked scary because of his body figure, his grin was more joyful than anyone else''s. While one of the swordsmen carried a long sword, the other one carried short daggers thatid on his waist belt. As for the mage, she carried arge wooden wand with arge blue orb stuck to it at the top. Finally, the healer was a tall woman with her long hair tied in a ponytail. In her left hand, she carried a messy dark brown book.

    "So, what''s the mission?" the swordsman carrying the longsword asked.

    "Straight to the point much? Whatever, I just need you to assassinate the king and make me the new one of this kingdom," replied Scar.

    "Why did you decide to take over this one instead of the one you originally spawned in?" the healer asked.

    Scar gave a joyful smile and grabbed Jing by the shoulder.

    "Well you see, my friend here happens to be a sort of ve to the king. So I might as well kill two birds with one stone. I can kill the king and also get a kingdom of my own to rule at the same time. It also saves you guys time," said Scar.

    "When do you need this mission to be finished?" the mage asked.

    "Preferably right now," Scar replied with an insincere smile.

    "Sounds good. He should be in the castle right?" the tank replied.

    Scar nodded in agreement.

    Without wasting any more time, the squad began to walk towards the castle to aplish their mission.

    "So are they your friends or something?" Jing asked.

    "You could say that I guess. They''re more of paid mercenaries but we get along so there''s no need to be afraid of them," Scar replied.

    Jing swallowed his saliva as he began to contemte his n to leave Scar''s side to rule over a kingdom of his own. Even if Scar did seem kind at times, his emotions can fluctuate easily which would mean the death of me.

    Scarid his back on the kingdom''s entrance gates and began to slide downwards until he was sitting on the ground.

    "You should take a seat too. It won''t take that long for them to defeat the king. I''ll say about 30-50 minutes tops," said Scar.

    Jingplied and sat beside him. While Scar was confident in his mercenaries abilities, Jing thought otherwise. While he wanted to believe that he would be free from the grasp on the current king of Lyanna, he doubted it. He had been let down so many times that he didn''t bother getting his hopes up. However, he decided to wait.

    Nearly 40 minutester a loud voice could be heard all throughout the kingdom.

    "Test... test," the voice of the squad''s tank began to speak.

    Just hearing that made Jing''s face light up in joy. It was as if a dream hade true.

 Chapter 82 - The New King

    "This might be a bit sudden but we just killed your previous king. A new king wille to rule over you. Don''t fret as he is kind and will not abuse his power. That''s all I have to say, bye now," the tank of the squad said.

    Scar was expecting the entire city to go on a rampage. He expected swarms of people going towards the castle to protest andin. However, he was let down. Not a single person seemed to care. In fact, the people seemed overjoyed more than anything.

    "Is this supposed to happen?" Scar asked Jing.

    "Ya, don''t worry about it. The king was a jerk that didn''t do anything other than asionally order civilians around," Jing replied to the question.

    Not wanting to waste any more of his time, Scar began to head towards the castle to proim himself as the new king of Lyanna. Jing followed behind him like he usually does.

    Elsewhere in the new world, the crime syndicate continue to prepare their revenge n against Yuki.

    "I presume you''re the one they call Mr. Y," said ady wearing a red long shirt and wrap bust shirt. At her hip, a sword which looked to be a katana was tied. Her dark silky hair was tied in a bun to allow her to see more clearly.

    "Yes, that would be me," the figure sitting in the chair answered.

    "Have my subordinates informed you of the mission that I wish for you to carry out?" Mr. Y asked.

    "Yes, we''re fully aware of it. We agree to take on the mission however, you must know that we''ll need to bepensated quite heavily with silver.

    Behind the woman were 3 other people.

    "Don''t worry about the money. Believe me, we have more than enough money topensate you for your hard work. All we need is the head of Yuki Kaito. The moment you present his head to me, you''ll be rewarded with the desired amount you would believe to be befitting of the task," Mr. Y reassured them .

    "If I may ask, what level are each of you and what do you specialize in?" Mr. Y asked.

    "Sure, I don''t mind that. Each of us have reached level 4. We have 1 attacker, 1 speed booster, 1 debuffer and 1 healer. I happen to be the attacker but my role doesn''te into y until both the speed booster and debuffer have cast their spells. You should''ve guessed by now but they''re both mages. After they finish casting their spells, Ie in and attack. In most cases, the enemy would have been taken care of; however if they aren''t dead by this point, our healer replenishes our stamina and we redo the process until we''ve defeated the enemy," the woman exined.

    "Sound like a foolproof n. I''ll intrust you with this mission. Do not fail me. There should be a guide waiting outside for you. His ability is to find the location of Yuki Kaito. Follow him and dispose of your target," Mr. Y exined.

    Hearing this, the squad agreed and began to leave the mansion which was located in the middle of nowhere. Just outside the mansion doors, an average looking man in a suit was waiting for them.

    "Good afternoon. I am your guide today. Please follow me to Yuki Kaito''s location," without wasting a single moment of breath, Mr. Y''s subordinate established what he was there for. It was as if he was forced to act like a machine.

    Hearing his words, the squad agreed and began to follow him. It was a bit awkward but they were only there to aplish their mission so they didn''t bother asking any questions about the way he addressed them.

    "Say... how were you able to create such arge building in the middle of nowhere in such a short amount of time? I mean it hasn''t been that long since we were all suddenly brought into this world," the debuffer asked the guide. The debuffer''s attire was more casual than most. He was a male which stood a bit shorter than the attacker. He carried arge staff and nothing more. He wore a grey hoodie and ck sweatpants. He looked to be going for a run in autumn rather than going to battle one of if not the strongest person on the at the moment.

    "It''s really nothing special. It''s just someone''s ability. The boss has so many workers that he often just ends up using them to aplish mundane tasks. For example creating a base of operations or finding the location of a single person," the guide said as he was referring to himself.

    "At least it pays well right?" the healer asked. The healer of the squad was a much shorter femalepared to everyone else. Her clothing was much more different than everyone else''s. She decided to wear a witch''s hat. As for the rest of her clothing, it was much simr to the traditional clothing of magical elves.

    "Ya I guess, but it''s still quite boring. The worst part of it is when the boss gets angry. It''s best to stay away from him at those times. Getting in his way when he''s like that could mean an instant death sentence," the guide let out a littleugh.

    "Do you ever think about leaving this job and doing something else with your life?" the speed booster of the squad asked the guide. The speedbooster was by far the most cautious one of the squad. He was wearing a full body armour set. His headgear alone was the only part of the armour set he could move when he needed to speak.

    "Well of course I want to. I n to leave within a year or so. It would be best to leave before any major government has been established. Once I gather enough money to live afortable life, I think I''ll try to find someone to spend the rest of my life with," the guide replied with a slight smile on his face.

    "I apologize, I ramble too much. Please forgive me," the guide said.

    "Don''t worry, we don''t mind at all. It''s better than being quiet the entire time," replied the attacker.

    "I guess everyone is truly caught up in their own dreams," the attacker of the squad thought to herself.

 Chapter 83 - The Strongest Demon Soldier

    Yuki finally entered the seventh stage of the dungeon. He knew that he would have to face only 1 mini boss but it would be an extremely challenging fight. The stage in itself was a bit nd. It was an empty dry field with cracks scattered all around. Inside those cracks were hot magma which added a glowing effect to the stage. What was special to this stage of the dungeon was that there were small pirs scattered all around. Each one, onlyrge enough to allow one person to stand on them. Unlike the previous stage, Yuki wouldn''t get snuck up on as his opponent stood right in front of him.

    Proudly standing in front of Yuki was his opponent. Arge demon man which had fangsrger than a wolf. This chest was naked, all that stuck to it was an orange fur pelt around his neck. His hair was a light ck which in the stage light made it look a rusty brown. His hand held a falchion sword which looked to be made of titanium steel. Heid the back of his sword on his back, awaiting Yuki to finally cross out of the gateway tunnel.

    "The logical decision here would be to drink potions and then cross the tunnel," Yuki thought to himself.

    Getting exhausted from having to drink multiple potions at each stage, Yuki sighed.

    "No point in debating this," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory and nothing else. This would be a horrible decision to make. Not because Yuki didn''t stand a chance in a fight. When Yuki begins to make reckless decisions, it usually means that he''s about to allow himself to let go of his limitations. He would gracefully ept any amount of pain and will resort to any method to win. However, when he does reach the point where he is winning the battle, Yuki will torment his opponent. That was his true nature.

    Yuki began to sprint towards his enemy. Right as he exited the gateway tunnel, Yuki leaped as high as he possibly could. Both his hands grasping on "Fallen angle of hell", Yuki prepared to strike down his opponent from the head. However, that n of his would backfire. Yuki had left the rest of his body open for any attacks.

    Instead of blocking Yuki''s attack, the man-demon aimed for Yuki''s waist and swung his sword at him. Seeing the demon''s movements, Yuki let go of his sword from his right arm. Now carrying "Fallen angel of hell" with his left hand only, Yuki flicked the handle of his sword using his right palm so it would face downwards. Even then it wouldn''t block the demon''s attack in time. Within those milliseconds, Yuki''s brain was put in a state of hyperactivity due to the fear of death. Thanks to that, he was able to instinctively hit the bottom of his sword with his right hand once more, elerating the speed which it went down at and allowing Yuki to block the man-demon''s sword swing.

    While Yuki did manage to block the attack, in turn saving his life. Yuki was still knocked back a few meters. Now barely able to stand on his feet properly, Yuki looked more excited than ever. His true self enjoyed the thrill of putting his life on the line. It made the victory all the more sweeter.

    Not wanting to allow a chance for Yuki to recover, the man-demon began to fall from the sky. Yuki hadn''t seen him jump into the air so he was quite surprised by it. There were only a few seconds before the demon wouldnd right in front of Yuki. Within those few seconds, Yuki put his sword in front of himself to block the iing attack. Right above the demon was his tag.

    [The Strongest Demon Soldier Mini Boss: Martyn]

    "I should''ve figured someone this strong would have a crazy title like that," Yuki said to himself.

    Right as he thought that, Martyn mmed into the ground. He quickly struck at Yuki''s sword with his own de, causing Yuki''s bnce to be unstable. Not wasting a moment, Martyn kicked at Yuki''s chest, causing Yuki to be knocked back even further.

    Even after that, Yuki didn''t fall.

    "Why do you stand?" Martyn asked.

    "You can talk?" Yuki replied.

    "Answer my question," Martyn replied.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure" from his inventory and held both his treasured des.

    "Because it''s fun," Yuki grinned.

    This angered Martyn. The demon began to rush towards Yuki with the intent to kill with a single blow. Martyn swung his sword at Yuki so fast that his sword almost became invisible.

    "If I can''t see his sword, I''ll just focus on his body movements," Yuki thought to himself.

    Seeing the direction in which the demon moved his de, Yuki intercepted the attack with "Fallen angel of hell" and counterattacked with "Niflheim''s holy treasure. Although it was a direct hit, Yuki''s attack didn''t do much damage.

    Martyn pushed away Yuki''s de and began to bombard him with a barrage of attacks. Yuki was barely able to keep up even with two des in hand. Martyn somehow managed to find an opening and kick Yuki in the face.

    Now on the ground, Yuki tried to refocus his vision so he could see what was going on. Right as he looked up at Martyn, there was a de right in front of his face. Before his face could be cut in half, Yuki rolled out of the way and stood up on his feet.

    "I can''t go on like this. My heart can''t stop beating rapidly in fear," Yuki said to himself.

    In an attempt to unnerve himself, Yuki whacked the bottom of his swords'' hilt on his arms.

    "Now the only thing I have to focus on is the pain in my arms," Yuki thought.

    While a dumb strategy, it helped Yuki regain control over his body. Yuki charged towards Martyn at top speeds and began to go on the offensive. Constantly attacking with either his des and not allowing his enemy to regain control of the battle. Every opportunity he got, Yukinded a clean attack on Martyn.

    "Come on, just a little left," Yuki said as he continued to give everything into his attacks.

 Chapter 84 - Stage 7

    As Yuki continued his barrage of continuous attacks, Martyn grew bored of being on the defensive. Martyn blocked both of Yuki''s des at once before pushing him back. Yuki''s arms spread open from the push back of Martyn''s sword. Seeing the opening, Martyn clenched his right arm and punched Yuki in the nose. Blood began to flow out of Yuki''s nose like a water tap.

    Yuki instantly fell to the floor. He was unable to see clearly, let alone think of a n to win the battle.

    "Well, I can always use the potions in my inventory," Yuki thought to himself.

    All the while, Martyn began to walk towards the immobilized body of Yuki Kaito lying on the stage floor. His sword dragging on the floor, Martyn deemed the battle to be over. All that was left was to plunge his de into the heart of his enemy.

    "I hate this feeling. I can either call for Zero, drink potions, or ask the dungeon to let me exit. All of them force me to rely on others. I hate feeling helpless, it''s always better to do things on your own. That was why Meurig left. If I hadn''t relied on him so much, maybe he would''ve stayed," Yuki sighed as he continued to think.

    Yuki grunted as he stood up. His legs wobbled because of how much blood he had lost. Even he didn''t fully know what he was going to do next.

    "Why do you insist on continuing this battle? Even if your fighting technique is phenomenal, there''s only so much technique can make up for. The difference in our strengths is just too great. Just ept your defeat and die with honour," said Martyn.

    Yuki began tough hysterically.

    "You''re kidding right? Why in the world would I work so hard to clear all the previous stages so I could die like a moron here. I don''t know what people like you see in dying with honour. Is your pride that far gone that you would rather give up your own life to please others? A warrior''s honour is utter garbage, it''s just an excuse the weak make for their defeat," Yuki exined.

    "I don''t care if I lose a couple of limbs, I have to find some way to win this without relying on anyone or anything. I can''t allow morons like him to continue living," Yuki thought to himself.

    Yuki steadied himself before charging towards his enemy once more. Using "Fallen angel of hell" as a decoy, Yuki specifically aimed for Martyn''s de. Now that both des were in a stand still, Yuki spun "Niflheim''s holy treasure" around so it would face the side of Martyn''s abdominal area. In hisst attempt to finish off the battle, Yuki sunk "Niflheim''s holy treasure" into Martyn''s body.

    Once he had aplished that, Yuki gave a grin of utter joy as he body began to copse and fall to the ground, all that was in his hand was "Niflheim''s holy treasure". Just when Martyn began to let his guard down from seeing the helpless body of his enemy, Yuki began to pump as much stamina as he could into his de. Due to the sudden influx of power Yuki received when he reached level 10, Yuki was able to create sharp ice shards without having to consume stamina boost potions.

    As the ice shards continued to destroy Martyn''s body from the inside, the demon spewed blood from his mouth.

    "Quite a clever n," Martyn said before kicking Yuki in the air.

    Yuki was barely conscious at this point which caused him to lose grip of both his treasured des.

    "This sucks. Why am I so weak? I gave everything I had into my attacks. So why?... WHY CAN I WIN?" Yuki said out loud.

    For the first time in a while, Yuki''s eyes began to tear up. They weren''t tears of pain. All they were was a symbol of sadness which he felt for himself.

    "I thought I was strong. I thought I could finally stop feeling weak. I thought I didn''t have to be looked down upon anymore," Yuki thought to himself.

    All while he had his inner monologue, Martyn continued to walk slowly towards him.

    "I already told you this. You can''t make up for the difference in strength with simple techniques. Submit now, the battle was already over before it even started," said Martyn.

    "You know... I seriously hate people like you. Why are you so self absorbed? I can literally drink a few magical random items and shatter your skull in a matter of moments," said Yuki as heid on the ground.

    "Feel free to do whatever you think will allow you to survive. Under any circumstances, I will always be stronger than you," Martyn replied.

    "You know what, sure. I''m tired of seeing if I could survive on my own. I ADMIT IT, I AM WEAK. I DO NEED POTIONS AND ZERO TO SURVIVE. YES I WILL USE THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE I HAVE OVER EVERYONE ELSE," Yuki yelled out.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion, 3 speed boost potions and 5 attack boost potions. That was his usual potion set up. He would first replenish all his stats until he was back to normal, Next he would increase his speed and attack only. He ignored his defense because he didn''t n on taking any more attacks from his enemy. It would just be a one sided massacre.

    Yuki opened the capsule lid of the full status recovery potion first and drank it as if he hadn''t drank water for a whole month. The lime green liquid inside was gone in a matter of seconds. Yuki next stood up from the ground and drank the rest of the potions he pulled out from his inventory.

    "Should I go retrieve my swords?" Yuki thought about running behind Martyn and grabbing hold of his treasured swords so the match would end faster.

    "That doesn''t sound like it would be fun," Yuki scratched that idea.

    Yuki charged at Martyn at insane levels of speeds. Before Martyn could even react. Yukiid his left hand on Martyn''s shoulder.

    "It''s okay. You can rx. This will be over soon enough," Yuki whispered in Martyn''s ear before finally reaching for Martyn''s sword with his right hand and breaking it with his bare fingertips into many pieces.

 Chapter 85 - Heartless

    Now having broken Martyn''s sword, Yuki quickly clenched his right hand andnded a clean punch right in the middle of Martyn''s chest.

    "What happened to all that heroic talk?" Yuki asked.

    Martyn leaned forward to try to catch his breath as he wrapped his arms around his chest in hopes of easing the pain. However Yuki wouldn''t allow that to happen.

    Yuki grabbed hold of Martyn''s head with both his arms before smashing his knee into his head. Now feeling dazed from taking the abnormally strong attacks from Yuki, Martyn could barely understand what was happening. However, Yuki was just getting started.

    Yuki then clenched his left palm and punched Martyn''s jaw, causing the man-demon to be knocked back a few meters.

    "Where did you gain this strength from?" Martyn said while stuttering as he tried to regain focus.

    Not wanting to waste time, Yuki quickly ran towards Martyn instead of answering his question. Without uttering a single word. Yuki once more punched Martyn''s chest. However this time, he directed Martyn''s body towards the stage ceiling.

    Martyn''s body mmed into the ceiling, causing it to have a permanent dent. Martyn''s body then returned to the ground as his helpless body fell face first into the ground.

    Yuki then walked slowly towards Martyn. As the man-demon began to stand up, Yuki pressed his foot on his head, in turn causing him to copse once more. Even though Yuki had already beat up his enemy, he wasn''t finished having fun. Yuki continued to press his foot on Martyn''s head, constantly moving it ever so slightly as to cause more pain.

    "How does it feel to be the one on the ground for once?" Yuki asked.

    Martyn didn''t reply to Yuki''s question. However, more than anything, Yuki was pleased by this.

    "That''s fine, you don''t need to reply," said Yuki before leaping into the air andnding on Martyn''s back.

    Martyn let out arge gasp for air as Yuki''s legs crushed his ribs.

    "Just give up the knight in shining armour act. Everyone has their own selfish desires. Not a single person or creature is ever truly pure. The corruption within humanity is what makes it truly beautiful, there''s no need to be ashamed of it," said Yuki.

    "What do you want from me?" Martyn asked as he gasped after each word.

    "My real mission here is to kill you so that I get exp and move on to the next stage, however I want something else now. Your attitude really annoys me. So... get on your knees and admit that you''re weak," Yuki replied.

    "I would rather die right here than say those used words from my mouth," Martyn replied.

    "Suit yourself," said Yuki before walking away to grab his treasured swords.

    "Are you going to kill me now? Thank you. I can die with honour," said Martyn.

    Now walking back to Martyn''s body after retrieving his swords, Yuki sighed in disappointment.

    "I guess you win, you can have the honorary death you''ve always wanted," said Yuki.

    ...

    "Just kidding," said Yuki as he gave an evil grin towards Martyn.

    "You''re not getting out of this without admitting defeat," said Yuki as he plunged "Fallen angel of hell" into Martyn''s left arm, using it to pin him to the ground.

    "Do you wanna give up now?" asked Yuki.

    "I will never submit to you," Martyn replied.

    Hearing this, Yuki gave a nk stare and plunged "Niflheim''s holy treasure" into Martyn''s right arm just as he did to his left.

    "How about now?" Yuki asked.

    "Never.." Martyn said as his voice trailed off as if he was dying.

    "Where do you think you''re going?" Yuki asked as he kicked Martyn''s face, snapping the demon back into reality.

    "You seriously won''t let me at least die in peace?" Martyn asked in an irritated tone.

    "No I won''t, not until you say the exact words I told you to," Yuki replied.

    Martyn went silent which caused Yuki to get annoyed. There was no fun in torturing someone if they didn''t cry and beg for mercy.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out about 10 daggers which he had stocked up on after hepleted the first dungeon. Yuki then slowly walked around Martyn''s body as he stuck a dagger into the demon''s body one at a time. Yuki waited until the demon tried to stop himself from yelling before sticking another dagger into his body. Each dagger caused an immense amount of pain however Martyn didn''t yell out once.

    "You''re quite tough. I''m starting to really think that you''re never going to give up," said Yuki before letting out anotherugh.

    Yuki once again went around Martyn''s body, this time he bent the already stuck daggers ever so slightly at a diagonal. It made it so they would cut through the demon''s skin but would still keep him pinned to the ground.

    Yuki thought about asking the demon to give up once more but he knew that Martyn would just ignore him. So instead, Yuki once more leaped on Martyn''s back and stomped on it rapidly. Yuki did this for so long that he began to get caught up in the act. At some point, Yuki snapped back into reality. He could hear the agonized scream of Martyn. Hearing that, Yuki quickly jumped off his body.

    "Are you finally done?" Yuki asked.

    "...Yes.." Martyn replied.

    This answer brought a smile to Yuki''s face.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki quickly pulled out both his treasured swords as well as all the daggers from Martyn''s body. Yuki ced all of his des back into his inventory. All except one, which was "Fallen angel of hell".

    "Now, announce your weakness to me," said Yuki.

    The bloodied Martyn brought himself to his knees and bowed in front of Yuki.

    "I AM A WEAK DEMON AND DO NOT HAVE ANY PRIDE LEFT. I HAVE NO HONOUR LEFT WITHIN MY BODY OR SOUL. I WILL DIE HERE A SHAMEFUL DEATH," Martyn yelled out before falling face first into the ground from the blood loss and exhaustion.

    "Good job," Yuki said with a smile before walking towards Martyn''s chest and plunging his foot through his heart, instantly causing Martyn to die.

 Chapter 86 - Morality

    "I really don''t understand why these monsters have so much to say. I thought this was just a game. I think Zero overdid it with the programming of these dungeon monsters," Yuki thought to himself.

    Outside the dungeon, the group of mercenaries that were hired by the crime syndicate continue to follow their guide to the dungeon gate which Yuki will exit out of. They continue to walk through the tall green grass as they pass through the endless field of emptiness. All in sight were more grass and trees.

    "This world is quite boring. There''s almost nothing to do here, all we do is hunt and kill monsters for fun. I wish there were at least theme parks or something else we could go to to enjoy ourselves," the attack specialist of the mercenary group said.

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. This ce is wonderful. Do you really wanna go back to living a life where you had to constantly work arge amount of your days just so you could survive? I mean look at this ce, even just killing a few weak monsters could get you through a week in this world," the debuffer replied.

    "I get what you mean, but still. It''s so in here, there''s just a whole lot of emptiness. I guess the kingdoms are pretty lively but they''re all separated by 15-50 miles of grassy fields each," the attacker continued.

    "You''re right but that just gives the kingdoms more room to expand theirnds. It''s not like they have to stay put in the kingdom walls. Anyone can leave and enter, on top of that, we have the freedom to do anything we want in here. Just try to be more positive about life," the debuffer rebutted.

    The attacker of the raid squad sighed as she knew what herrade said was true. The world was pretty nd. At least that''s what it seemed like to most people as they couldn''t explore and truly observe the rest of the new world. Let alone realise how much it had transformed from its previous state.

    Their previous had beenpletely cleansed of all its man made structures and materials. It was as if it had been ced back to its original state-before mankind began to change it for their benefit.

    While the had been set back to how it first was, there was nothing that would stop humanity from rebuilding it. In fact, this would allow them to rebuild the world much better than they had done previously since they now didn''t have to go through the process of elimination to learn what to do and what not to do. With the help of their abilities, humanity would be able to make the new world unrecognizable within just a few years. For all anyone knows, they could make even better technological advances than they had done in their previous world.

    With all those positives also came the negatives of this world. Corruption would be easy. Criminal activities could go unnoticed. very and forcedbour would be arge possiblility. No matter how many times people try to ignore the evil that courses through humanities viens, they can never stop their greed. As such history will always repeat itself. Hence humanity''s w bes unveiled. No one truly cares about being good or even evil. Everyone just wants to gain what they want through any method necessary.

    Moralility, justice and other phenomena are only made up to indoctrinate people into believing what the power holders want them to believe. Chivalry and pride simply shouldn''t exist. In nature, everyone wants what''s good for them and only them. It is not their responsibility to sacrifice their happiness for others. However, that same natural instinct is thought to be evil and wicked in modern society.

    While what is portrayed as good goes against every natural instinct, it is what has helped humanity advance so much and has allowed the species to flourish. In truth, those same false beliefs that were created and embedded through generations were not made to control people. On the contrary, they were created to help humanity escape from what they truly are. To create a species of civilized creatures which continue to work and develop constantly as they dream to aplish something which they don''t know to even exist.

    By humanity going against what it fundamentally is, it was able to achieve something extraordinary. Through this, lies and deception can never truly be deemed wrong as it was how humanity''s sess was formed. If all morals andmon decency were to be removed from life, humanity would return to its natural state of being simple minded creatures and would eventually create those same ideologies once more over time.

    Humanity was given a brain capacity muchrger than other creatures. With them having the capability toprehend their surroundings, they will seek to learn more of it. After all, they are eager creatures filled with greed. Some are greedy for knowledge, others money and some are greedy for power. Each can be justified or deemed as evil. All it depends on is who''s judging and condemning those types of greedy desires. A judge can only deem something good or evil based on what is the societal norm.

    The new world serves as a testing ground to expose how humanity will act in their natural environment now that they don''t have anything distracting them from their goals and ambitions. Of course this is unknown if it were Yuki''s full intentions to create a world such as this. For now, Yuki''s main focus was getting as strong as he possibly could so that he-himself would achieve his own personal goal.

    "How could Martyn speak about honour like he would know anything about it? That doesn''t exist in this world, after all would the same people which you called your friends and bonded with betray you just for a little money and falsified glory?" Yuki said in a bitter tone as he thought about Jobon, Katsumi and Rui.

    Yuki had tried to ignore them and think to himself that they meant nothing to him and that he knew he could never trust them. However, Yuki had finally felt like he could have a half normal life. Just for all of that toe crumbling down because of money. That just solidified his beliefs and only allowed his trust issues to grow.

 Chapter 87 - Game Mechanics

    [+90000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 10: 199000/200000]

    Yuki stood still as Martyn''s body disintegrated from the system acknowledging that the stage''s mini boss was defeated. Yuki stared at the stage ceiling, waiting for his prized item to drop for it. Just as it had always, dim white light particles began to form and gather as they connected to each other and formed the item which were to be awarded to Yuki. The light began to dim even more until it waspletely gone and unveiled the item.

    The floating item descended from the air and fell to the ground right in front of it. Intrigued by it, Yuki bent down and picked it up. It was a brown ne with many beads on it. In the very middle of it was a sharp but jagged tooth which looked to belong to arge animal.

    "Another item from a set?" Yuki asked himself before double tapping the item to open its information tab.

    [Item drop: Demon ne]

    [Rank: B]

    [Attack: +275]

    [Description: Power: Item that belongs in the set "demon soldier: 2nd category". The strongest demon soldier only exists because of the ones who molded it into existence. No one-be it human nor demon ever wishes to sacrifice their entire life training just to please others. As such, the ones around them are what influences someone to train and push past their limits. The story of the strongest demon soldier is no different. The title is bestowed upon the one who is uncontested in strength throughout all demons who reside in the underworld. That specific demon is the one who will earn the honour to be bestowed with such a title from the lord of the underworld Hades. There is only one demon who is bestowed the title at a time and only when the current holder of the title is defeated that another one shall be selected. Some gain strength through hatred, others seek it to protect the ones they care for. These characteristics influence their attitudes but no matter what, they still obey their ruler with no questions asked.]

    "Not a half bad story but that''s not the important part. It says +275 instead of just 275 like a normal dagger or sword. Does that mean that it adds to my personal attack power? I should probably ask Zero- actually, I''ll just figure it out myself," Yuki had felt a little guilty as he called on Zero for even the most minor things.

    "More importantly, I see he included the subcategory part. Let''s see... the main set includes, helmet, chestte, leggings, boots, shield, and weapon. Then in the sub category it has a ring, ne and book. I could try and equip some of the items I have... that would be just a waste of time, most of them are barely useful," said Yuki.

    "I''ll juste back here once I''ve reached a higher level so that they''ll offer me a higher ranked item with more power. That''s only if Zero included that part of my request as well," Yuki said as he sighed and began to walk towards the white light indicating where the stage''s gateway was.

    "Oh wait," Yuki interrupted himself.

    Yuki stared at the icon which was always positioned at the top right of his eyesight. It was always there, no matter how much he dried to look away from it, it was always right where hest saw it.

    Yuki pressed on said gear like icon to open his settings. Right as he did so, arge blue screen popped up in front of him. The blue screen was transparent and had a lot of different icons and texts on it. To the left side of the blue screen were the main icons. The first one was a person-like icon which activated the [Open profile]mand. Right below it was a backpack-like icon which activated the [Open inventory] icon, which was what Yuki was looking for. While there were other icons for Yuki to explore, he didn''t care much for them

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki had tapped the backpack like icon, allowing his hotbar for items to be opened. As Yuki moved the ne he had received from the 7th stage of the dungeon as a reward closer to the hotbar, the item began to shrink in size until it was just a 2-D object which fit perfectly into one of the many empty boxes in Yuki''s 2-D inventory hotbar.

    Once Yuki had aplished what he had wanted, he continued to walk towards the stage''s gateway tunnel. The ck walls with their deep engravings which gleaned the colour blue contrasted well with the white light which blocked Yuki''s vision of the next stage.

    [Stage seven: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 8th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage eight difficulty: level 9-10]

    "Hey Zero," Yuki called out before he passed through the gateway.

    "Yes, master. How may I be of assistance," Zero replied.

    "Can you reset my tolerance of potions back to 0?" Yuki asked.

    ...

    "It has been done," Zero replied.

    While the boosting effect which the potions have deactivated after the initial goal that they were used for is aplished, their drawbacks remained until 24 hours had passed. For the position tolerance of a person to return back to 0, they needed to have refrained from consuming any potion for said amount of time unless they wanted to experience the punishment of the system. This was the precise reason Yuki asked zero to return the position tolerance to 0 and not the effects. The effect themselves were already back to 0 since Yuki had defeated his enemy. Yuki knew this because he both felt his state of overpowered-ness leave his body and the fact of him knowing most of the game mechanics remained.

    "Here we go again," said Yuki as he passed through the white light. In the moment where he touched the white light and it began to disintegrate, a single thought came into his mind.

    "Why do I feel so happy, yet feel like I''m missing something at the same time?"

 Chapter 88 - True Nature

    Back at the kingdom which Theophill ruled over, the guards continued to rally as many men as possible to fight in the battle against the emotionless killer known as Yuki. They needed as many troops as possible as a battle against such a high level yer would not go over well if they didn''t give it their all.

    "How many warriors have we gathered so far?" Theophill asked one of the guards which was stationed in the throne room.

    "Roughly 1000 warriors. We''ll continue to look for any who are hiding to avoid the draft," the guard replied.

    The throne room was much like the 8th stage''s throne room from the first dungeon which Yuki had cleared. Therge pirs with banners stuck to them with the use ofrge spears. A long red carpet that stretched from the double door entrance all the way to the ruler''s throne. It was the epitome of royalty. It was hard to imagine that each kingdom had a structure which resembled a castle.

    Creating each one of the kingdoms was an easy task for Zero. However, since Yuki requested them to be spread out all over the world, the global poption had to be split up. A metripolition would not be able to exist for many years toe due to that fact.

    While some kingdoms had the luxury of being in warm climates which contained rich soil to grow crops, there were many that didn''t have that. As such, the people would have to resort to harsh measures to survive. The wild life flourished in the new world as the habitats of many animals weren''t destroyed due to human greed yet. This allowed the humans who were able to grow their own crops to return to their ancestral traditions of hunting.

    Outside the castle doors of the kingdom which Theophill ruled over, one of the royal guards had found someone who was attempting to escape their military duty. It was a bearded man with medieval clothing and messy brown hair. He was attempting to conceal himself in a barrel right outside his house. His n was to avoid the royal guards which would look through every person''s house. So he figured that if he hid outside, he would avoid them.

    Unfortunately for him, the guards checked the entire house and made sure to interrogate his wife. In her hand was her child which looked to be no older than 1 years old.

    "Where is the father of that child?" the guard asked.

    "When we were brought into this world, his father told us that he was tired of being stuck with me and left us both alone so he could explore the world and feel free," the woman began to sob.

    "N-no," the guard said as he stuttered thinking that he made her cry.

    "Sorry for bringing up a bad memory," the guard said as he began to exit the 2 story home.

    As he left, he felt infuriated.

    "How could someone leave such a beautiful wife on her own," the guard grunted.

    The woman followed behind the guard to close the door once he left. However, that would be a mistake.

    As the guard walked out of the door, he spotted the barrel which was stationed to the left of the house door. Without thinking, the guard kicked the barrel in anger. The guard had kicked the barrel a bit harder than he intended to, which caused the barrel to fall over, in turn exposing the woman''s husband.

    At the sight of the husband, the guard''s face turned red in anger. His traditional medieval armour seemed to overheat just from it. The guard turned around to face the woman, slowly turning his head. As he looked behind her, her face looked whiter than a ghost. She didn''t know what to do as she never expected her n to fail.

    "This wouldn''t be the so called husband that left you.. would it?" the guard asked slowly however he added an irritated tone to it which made it seem as if one wrong answer could mean the end of her life.

    The woman waspletely frozen in ce. She didn''t know what to say. Even if she were to say that the man that fell out of the barrel wasn''t her husband. She would then have toe up with an excuse as to why he was in there in the first ce. Furthermore, if she were have been found lying twice, her punishment would be even more severe.

    "What do I do? I''ll surely be executed. Then what will happen to my baby?" the woman scrambled to think of something, however she did not have any n to help both her, her husband and baby escape all together. A sacrifice would have to be made which she fully recognized.

    The woman opened her mouth to speak and at the exact moment she did so, her husband, who was in the barrel stepped out of it.

    "That man is not my husband. He came to me and forced me to help him hide or he''d kill both me and my baby. Please help us," the woman lied.

    Right as she finished her sentence, the man began to sprint towards the kingdom''s gate as to escape his fate.

    This was not part of their n. They both intended to live together happily for the rest of their lives. They hadpletely believed that they loved each other and would sacrifice the world for one another. However, that was clearly not the case. The wife knew that if she lied about who the man was to her, he would either be sent to the battle or worse, executed. On the other hand, her husband fled in fear for his own life. At that moment, hepletely forgot about both his wife and child. All that mattered to him was his own life.

    As this was the human''s natural greed. Nothing was more important to a person than their own life.

    The guard attempted to chase after the man however the armour which he wore made him a lot slower than the man, as such, the woman''s husband was able to escape. However, this sparked new concerns which led to the kingdom closing it''s entrance/exit gates so no one would escape the draft. This of course should have been done sooner from a military perspective however, the ruler of their kingdom was not elected but enforced upon the people.

    As for the woman, she faked her tears and wasforted by the guard temporarily and wouldter live alone as he took care of her son alone.

    This same scenario was not a rare one as events such as these urred and would ur both in their previous and new world.

 Chapter 89 - Gathering

    In the castle looking structure which Theophill resided in, the preparations for the battle were nearing their end. Theophill walked around back and forth in worry. While he didn''t personally care for losing people''s lives. He cared about how their kingdom''s economy would be impacted if they were to alot arge amount of casualties. It would lower worker morale as well as have the potential to set back the kingdom''s growth for a whole generation if they weren''t able to increase their poption.

    Theophill scratched his head in anger and sat on his bed. He was in one of the castle bedrooms which he decided to make his own.

    "If we refuse to cooperate, the two other kingdoms will merge forces and attack us. However if we do go to assist them in the battle, we''ll lose a lot of people as well," Theophill said to himself.

    "Which one would allow us to develop more? If we were to help them and win, it could lead to great trade rshintions as well as having the opportunity to have them help us rebuild? But how do we deal with the emotional scars that the death of their loved ones will cause to the women and children?" Theophill asked himself.

    "Sacrifices must be made," said Theophill as he sighed with hope in his eyes.

    Right as he said that, he heard a knock at the door. Theophill quickly stood up from his royal bed and began to walk towards the door. As he opened it, he was greeted by one of his guards.

    "The preparations have beenpleted, sire," the guard said to Theophill.

    "I''ll be there shortly," said Theophill before closing the door and equipping himself with his personal armour. Once Theophill was fully armoured, he left the castle-like structure before getting on a horse that was already waiting for him outside. Without exchanging words with anyone, Theophill rode the horse to the kingdom gates. The order to open the gates had been given that day as to allow the kingdom''s military to wait outside.

    Theophil passed through the small army which he had gathered to fight in the battle. However he and one other person were the only two people on horseback.

    "You can lead us to Yuki using your ability, right Fulco?"Theophill asked.

    "Yes sire," Fulco replied.

    Hearing this, Theophill raised his sword in the air before bringing it down to point forward. This signaled to the small army that it was time to start heading towards the battle ground in preparation of the uing battle.

    "The note Scar sent said that Yuki should still be in the dungeon for a few more days. That would be in the best case scenario. Let''s just hope nothing goes wrong for us," Theophill said to himself.

    "All this trouble for one kid. This world is much more painful to deal with than I anticipated," Theophill thought to himself as they continued to slowly ride their horses-following Fulco to the dungeon gate which Yuki would eventually exit out of.

    Elsewhere, Arge group of people sat down cross legged on the grass. Each one of them wore a white blind fold. They were the grounds that were to be executed by Rey Moon. They didn''t know that event would ur. All of them assumed that they would be let roam the world freely once more once this had gone by. While some had grown bored of waiting for the day when they would be allowed to live freely once more, a majority of them still awaited eagerly.

    A figure sat down with his legs stretched out and back leaning on arge tree which was near the end of the cliff with his eyes closed. That man was Rey Moon. Other than him, 2 other people were there to make sure that no one escaped. One was a woman which looked to be in herte 30s. Her clothing was nd as it just regr ck sweatpants along with arge turtle neck. Her fashion sense was clearly bizarre. In her hand an Astra A-60 pistol.

    The other person who stood there was a man who looked to be no older than 23. He wore a chief costume as such he was most likely the one responsible for providing food for the prisoners as well as Rey Moon and the guarddy.

    No one spoke for most of the day. Everyone who was located on the cliff usually kept to themselves. The only sound they heard was either the wind whistling or the birds chirping. On Rey Moon''s chest sat a flip phone which closely resembled the one which Scar had. Rey Moon was waiting for Scar to give the message tounch the n into action.

    Scar himself was busy at his own kingdom which he recently took over. Scar, along with Jing and the group of mercenaries which were hired were conversing in the conference room which each caste structure had within every kingdom. It closely resembled the conference room which the kingdom''s council had used to n their attack strategy in the kingdom which Yuki, Scar, Carmi and the others were originally from.

    "Jing will stay here with me for now. The rest of you-go and find anyone who looks to be useful in battle. If they refuse, just demonstrate therge gap in power between you and them. Force them to join if you have to," said Scar.

    "I have to end things here. I''ve tried multiple times before but this is thest time I''ll allow him to speak down to me. I''ll bring him down myself if I have to," Scar thought to himself as he grit his teeth.

    Hearing hismand, the mercenaries left the room and ran around the kingdom as they recruited anyone who looked to be capable of fighting. Scar never specified whether it had to be a male or female however the group of mercenaries chose to spare any woman and children of the duty of battle. This wasn''t because they saw them to be less valuable in the battle however because the children would be the future of the kingdom and the woman would raise those same children.

    Everything wasing together. It wouldn''t be much longer until Yuki would have to face all the enemies he had made.

 Chapter 90 - Battle Of Flames

    Right as Yuki passed through the gateway to the 8th stage of the dungeon, his knees began to feel weak. Within an instant, Yuki fell over andnded face first into the gateway tunnel ground. The gateway itself was located in the middle of the tunnel however, the square shaped tunnel was a bridge-like structure which connected the previous stage with the next one. It was ced in the bottom-middle of the walls which blocked off one stage from the other. These walls were indestructible as they were forced to exist objects by the system of the world.

    Yuki had fallen over due to the exhaustion from the past few battles which had taken ce over the span of a couple days. He had forgotten about taking a break or sleeping due to him putting himself in scenarios in which his life was in danger. In turn forcing himself to be in a constant state of fight or flee mindset. Luckily for Yuki, the stage mini boss or any monster couldn''t attack Yuki even if they wanted to.

    Yuki had fallen into a deep slumber. However it was the best thing for him at that time. When he had awoken 14 hourster, his heart began to beat profusely. He was shocked and confused as to what had happened. Once Yuki began to calm himself, he remembered what had happened.

    "Man, I must''ve been pretty tired," Yuki said as he yawned.

    Yuki began to walk towards the actual stage where he would meet his next opponent. All that was on the stage was an empty armour case. No one looked to be wearing it which was odd and confusing. However, as Yuki stepped out of the tunnel he began to realize why it was there.

    As Yuki walked out of the tunnel, a loud igniting sound could be heard. When Yuki looked at the chest area of the armour, he could see a bright light shining from it. Momentster, that light began to grow in size and expand until it fit the size of the armour. Unlike a regr armour set, this one did not have a helmet. The mes took the form of the armour however when it came to the head, it formed arge facial structure with wide spiral horns.

    "Seriously?" Yuki sighed.

    "There''s only 3 stages left including this one. <strong>We</strong> can get through this," said Yuki to himself.

    Yuki looked up at his enemy so he could learn his name.

    [Commander of the mes Mini Boss: Kostas]

    "Wait, I can use my skill to see how I stand against him... actually that would take too long and it''s a waste of time. It wouldn''t change the fact that I''ll have to face him," Yuki said to himself.

    Yuki began to charge towards Kostas bare handed. He still had some scars left from the previous battle.

    [memander]

    Yuki saw arge text above Kostas. Without having to think twice, Yuki knew what it meant.

    "I forgot that thest 3 stages'' mini bosses all have a special ability of their own. This is gonna. be much more of a pain than I thought," said Yuki.

    Yuki quickly turned away from Kostas to consume potions so he could at least be a match for him. He knew that without amplifying his strength and speed, he would have almost no chance of defeating Kostas. It wasn''t like Yuki could rely on some secret martial arts technique which he picked up from many years of training. There was nothing special about him. He was no hero nor viin. He was just a random kid who got lucky and received the power to do whatever he liked.

    Making sure to keep his distance, Yuki began to move his finger towards the gear like icon which opened up his inventory. However, before he could do so, multiplerge spiral mes almost made a direct hit on him. Before they could burn the flesh off his face, Yuki ducked and rolled over to the right. He now realized that a moment of hesitation could mean the end of him. Before another attack could be made, Yuki opened his inventory.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out exactly 8 attack boost potions. As he finished closing his inventory tab, antor attack of spiral mes were approaching him. Kostas was still standing where he was at when Yuki first entered the stage. He hadn''t moved one inch since the so-called start of their battle. As Yuki ran around Kostas, he continously consumed the potions as Kostas wasn''t going to give him time to do so on his own.

    As Yuki drank thest attack boost potion and threw the ss capsule on the ground-causing it to shatter, Yuki came to a stand still.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki intercepted the uing me spirals which Kostas directed at him with his own fire spirals. This was a direct challenge of strengths.

    Seeing this Kostas changed the shape of his mes to look likerge me arrows. Kostas created seemingly 50 of theserge me arrows all around him before firing them directly at Yuki. However, Yuki was not going to allow himself to be defeated. Using his ability, Yuki created an evenrger me arrow for each one of the ones that Kostas created. Yuki fired each one of his own arrows to sh with Kostas''s arrows. However, since Yuki made his arrowsrger than Kostas''s ones, Yuki''s arrows were left standing.

    Instead of backing down and calling back his arrows so he could defend himself for another attack, Yuki pointed his palm forward and made all of the me arrows merge together and create one massive fire arrow which he fired at Kostas.

    The mini boss of the this stage would not give up so easily either. Using his own special ability, Kostas created a dense fire wall whichpletely blocked off the arrow which Yuki had fired at him. While it seemed as if they were both equal, one side was holding back a lot so as to make it seem more fair than it actually was.

    This of course was Yuki. His different emotions be prominent at different times. During this battle Yuki''s sadist-like persona would be his main drive to fight.

 Chapter 91 - Stage 8

    Yuki was now getting interested in the battle. His eyes widened as he prepared to counter any attack that would be thrown at him. Better yet, he nned to inflict double the damage.

    "You think you can block my attacks? How about you try blocking this," said Yuki as he pointed his finger towards Kostas-twirling it in the air as if he was creating a circle.

    In fact, that was what he was doing. As Kostas brought down the me wall he had created, he was greeted with manyrge fire circles surrounding him. While he was confused at first, he would soon realize why they were there.

    Yuki used his ability to sprout morerge me arrows out of the fire circles which surrounded Kostas from all directions. As they fired at Kostas, the armoured fire demon created a dome like shield which blocked off all the arrows-or as he thought. Yuki was already anticipating this to happen. The arrows which Yuki created began to sink and mix with Kostas'' mes. Yuki''s mes were a deep crimson colour while Kostas'' mes were orange. Even when those mes mixed together, they did not create a new colour. Instead, there were rough patches of both colours on Kostas'' dome-like shield. However, momentster, Yuki''s mes would be more prominent.

    As Yuki''s deep crimson mes began to overtake the orange ones, Kostas began to stress as he tried to push them away. Yuki didn''t n on letting up any time soon. With arge push, Yuki took over the ulterior of the dome shield. While Kostas had the interior of his shield covered in his own orange mes, it didn''t matter anymore.

    Yuki gave an evil smile before beginning his n which he had been setting up. He began to hold his palm upwards as if he was holding on to a spherical orb. Yuki began to grab hold of that imaginary orb. Yuki looked to be struggling for some odd reason, however, it was because of the dome shield. As Yuki continued to crush the imaginary orb, the dome would contract as if it were about to break any time soon. Yuki was using his ability to try to crush Kostas in his own dome.

    Kostas was at the losing end of this exchange of strength. As Yuki persisted, Kostas had no choice but to give in. Kostas let go of his barrier which caused the friction between the two forces to die out. However, instead of normally being absorbed by the mes, the sudden release of the existing friction caused Yuki''s mes to explode, in turn doing much more damage than he had intended. Kostas was sent flying and crashed down back at the stage ground.

    While Yuki had been surprised at first and left with a gaping mouth. Thatter turned into a slightugh of mockery. Yuki had been expecting Kostas to attack him in agro as most of the monsters within the dungeon were full of pride, however that was not the case. Kostas was much calmer about it.

    Kostas stood up from where hended. He didn''t care about the damage that had been done to his armour or about the fact that Yuki wasughing at him. Kostas stood once again like a statue.

    [memander]

    Kostas used his special ability to create me clones of himself. While they didn''t have the armour which he wore, Kostas didn''t care as their purpose wasn''t to be a decoy but to be a fighting army. Kostas'' army charged at Yuki from all directions. Although it was a bit hard for Yuki to keep up with them at the start, he began to get used to their movements. Yuki used mes of his own to keep arge majority of the clones at a distance by creating fire arrows and fire tornadoes. As for the ones who he couldn''t block, Yuki engulfed his fists in his crimson mes and began to exchange in hand to handbat with the clones.

    It only took either 1 or 2 hits from Yuki to take down a clone due to the increased strength from the attack boost potions. As Yuki continued to have the advantage between the fire clones, he failed to realize something. A small fast shadow passed through Yuki''s line of vision. He just assumed it to be just his imagination so he decided to ignore it.

    Yuki was in a 2 versus 1 match up with two of Kostas'' clones at the moment. One of the clones had thrown a right hook at Yuki which he ducked down to dodge. The moment he did that, a metal fist made contact with his jaw, causing him to be sent flying.

    Yuki assumed it to be Kostas who had snuck up behind him, however when he looked down at the position where Kostas wasst seen, Yuki was surprised to see him still there. Still in the air, Yuki then looked at where he had been struck from. Standing there were the two clones which he had been fighting; however, beside them was a 3rd clone. He looked exactly like the rest however, his fist looked to be covered in the same metal which made up Kostas'' armour.

    "Where could he have gotten that from? Kostas didn''t have an object covering his arm. So where did he get it from? Unless.." Yuki thought right as he crashed into arge pir which was made from the same material as the stage floor.

    Yuki quickly stood up from where he was knocked into. Unexpectedly, Yuki fell to knees and was forced to look down at the ground. His eyes had been tearing up and his nose was bleeding.

    "When did this happen?" Yuki asked himself. He soon realized that he hadn''t taken any defense boost potions which meant that any damage he would take would still have a great effect on him.

    "I''ve got to end this quickly. Any more hits like that could sway the battle into a direction where it would be impossible for me to win," Yuki thought to himself.

 Chapter 92 - Grind

    "From the looks of it, there isn''t anywhere to get the armour that Kostas was equipped with. If it were only him who had it, it wouldn''t be a problem. However, one of his clones also had it. It most likely isn''t actual armour. They are probably mes which have been concentrated and modified to resemble armour. That would exin why Kostas appeared inside the armour as if he was summoned. Instead all he would''ve done wase out of his shell like a turtle," said Yuki.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki used his ability to create 4rge hands extending from his back. Using each one simultaneously and without remorse, Yuki destroyed all the clones which Kostas had created. In retaliation, Kostas created arge barrage of fire balls which he directed at Yuki at top speeds. Even with his best efforts, Kostas could not get past Yuki''s line of defense. Each fireball was either wacked away by Yuki''s fire made hands or they were caught and squeezed until they were vanquished by Yuki''s fire constructed hands.

    "There''s one thing I can try but it''ll take too long to set up. On the other hand I could take a risk but there''s no guarantee that it''ll work... There''s no point in contemting, I might as well give it my all," said Yuki.

    "Yuki brought his 4 fire-constructed hands in front of him. The two palms at the bottom faced the bottom two palms-each one at a slight angle. Yuki created more mes that sprouted from his fire hands to create arge ball-like structure. The crimson ball began to grow and continued to grow until it reached an immense size. At that point Yuki had to make all his palms face the stage ceiling as it could not be contained within their arm span.

    Kostas began to get worried at the size of Yuki''s uing attack. While he did have pride and honour of his own, Kostas wasn''t foolish. It would be stupid to let Yuki gather his power until it was strong enough to destory him. The best course scenario would be to attack and kill him while he was open, which was what he nned to do.

    Kostas pressed into the stage''s ground so hard that it caused it to have a dent in it. Using that dent Kostas propelled himself at high speeds towards Yuki. Seeing this happen, Yuki shrank the size of his fire ball within an instant. Before Kostas could even reach Yuki, the ball had reached the size of a bubble gun ball. However this time it was gleaming white. The consentated ball would surely kill Kostas if it were to make contact with him. Luckily for the armoured me, he was able to see where it was clearly.

    Wasting no time, Kostas dodged to the right of Yuki. Now at his side, time began to move slowly as Kostas covered his arm in fire andnded a direct hit which clearly destroyed Yuki''s guts. Due to the sheer impact of the attack, Yuki was sent flying. Yuki had idently dropped the condensed fireball. or at least that was what Kostas thought.

    Yuki had been wanting Kostas to attack him instead of him being the one to attack. Kostas would be able to dodge any attack which Yuki attempted as Yuki had not increased his speed stat but only his attack stat. As such, Yuki would need Kostas to fall into a trap. The only way to do that was to trick him into believing that Yuki had been nning to use his trump card and finish the battle in one final attack. However that was not the case as Kostas would soon learn.

    As Yuki continued to fly in the air, the white ball also continued to fall towards the ground in slow motion. After what seemed like an eternity, Yuki crashed into the stage''s wall which was arge distance away from where he and Kostas had been fighting. Yuki''s crash caused him to be submerged into the stage''s wall like a painting. However, even in his condition, Yuki was able to smile. With a ck eye on his face, Yuki cracked a crooked smile as he brought his right hand forward and snapped his fingers.

    *BOOM*

    The moment Yuki snapped his fingers, the white ball exploded from the inside right under Kostas'' feet. At that moment, arge dome-like explosion cloud formed. The heat which radiated from it did not affect Yuki as it was done by his own ability. While to other people, it would''ve burned off their flesh and bones, to Yuki it felt like a warm breeze.

    As Yuki fell down from the stage wall face first into the ground, he couldn''t help but feel happy. Yuki sat up to open his inventory. To no surprise, he began to cough up blood. His left arm waspletely immobilized. Even due to all of this urring, Yuki didn''t feel any pain from it.

    "Did my pain tolerance increase or something?" Yuki asked himself before shrugging it off as he was exhausted.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion from his inventory and drank all of it at once. His body began to recoverpletely in the matter of seconds. All the bruises and cuts on his body began to disappear.

    Once healed, Yuki stood up straight and began to stretch his arms just to make sure everything was working perfectly.

    "Just 2 to go. After that there''s only 18 other dungeons.. Why did I ask Zero to make so many dungeons?" Yuki groaned in annoyance at himself.

    "Rx Yuki, just one step at a time. I don''t need to rush things, I should still be ahead of almost if not everyone in the world. I mean seriously, who would be able to keep their sanity after excruciating battles such as these. Honestly, I''m not sure if I''m even sane myself," Yuki thought to himself.

    "No point in wasting more time. I can get through this now so I can enjoy myselfter. If I don''t work hard now, I''ll just be someone''sp dogter," Yuki said as he began to walk towards the gateway which led to the next dungeon.

 Chapter 93 - Loyalty

    [+100000 exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 11: 99000/300000]

    As Yuki continued to walk back to where Kostas'' body was before he took the impact from the explosion, many lines of white light began to gather near the ceiling of the stage where Yuki stood-confirming the defeat of Kostas. Once they finished gathering the white light began to disappear and the object became more clear. Once it fell in front of Yuki''s feet, he could look at his reward properly. It was a grey steel glove like object with extending golden linings across the ends and edges.

    Yuki double tapped on the glove like object to pull out its information chart.

    [Item drop: Demon Gauntlet]

    [Rank: E]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: Decorative item. The ruler of the underworld chooses to create multiple obstacles for those who wish to reach him. Each one being more difficult than the previous one. His favorite creation has to be themander of the mes. The one creature that isn''t one sided and doesn''t have motivation of its own. It is much like a robot in the sense that it only does what it is told. It''smand was to defeat anyone with minimal effort exerted which is why it chooses not to move unless it is told to do so. It''s me powers were a gift bestowed upon it by its maker-Hades. All it knows is gratitude and loyalty, however it only shows those emotions to the ruler of the underworld alone. To anyone else, it is quiet and strict with its judgement. Themander of the mes is indeed the best servant to have.]

    "More and more boring stuff. I miss the stories on the items from the previous dungeon. They were at least horrifying to think about. Isn''t this ce supposed to be the underworld.. where the most evil creatures are punished? It seems too happy to be like that," said Yuki.

    "At least I leveled up though," Yuki sighed.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced the "Demon Gauntlet" into his inventory as he didn''t see much use for it.

    "Seriously though, a decorative item? I hate this. So much work and all I get is a useless prize. Well... not technically. Each monster <strong>We</strong> defeat bes a part of my collection. At least I''ll have Kostas battle for me in future battles," Yuki said.

    Unlike the previous times, Yuki didn''t walk towards the gateway. Instead, Yuki fell on his back in a star-shaped position.

    "How much longer do I have to keep doing this? It would at least be fun if I had other people around me to help me every once in a while, or at least to even talk to me. This is just a boring hell. No, literally, this is a boring hell," Yukiughed a little at the connection he made.

    "I guess being alone isn''t that bad either. There''s no one to argue with or fight with because of loot sharing. You also don''t have to worry about people betraying you for no reason," Yuki said in an irritated tone as he thought about Jobon, Rui and Katsumi.

    "I mean seriously, how could they just betray me and even try to have me imprisoned using the power I allowed them to gain? They left me just for a little extra cash, well too bad for them, if they stayed with me, the dungeon loot I''ve gained could''ve been theirs as well," Yuki said in a louder voice.

    "On top of that, they could''ve reached much higher levels with me around to guide them. They lost all of that just for a few silver," Yuki yelled into the stage.

    "It sounds like I''m more mad about this than they are. I should''ve learned my lesson fromst time. Friendships are only temporary for me, the world will never allow me to have happiness through friendship. Well, if I can''t have friendship I''ll just have to be happy with gaining power," Yuki said as he jumped up from the ground andnded on his feet.

    Yuki now finally began to walk towards the gateway to the 9th stage of the dungeon. Yuki had done this so many times that he began to go through the dungeon subconsciously without any fears. Looking back at his previous self which contemted going past the gateway and wanted to achieve a simple life in the new world, Yuki had truly changed. Whether it be for better or worse only time would tell.

    Outside the small hill which carried the dungeon entrance gate was the king from the 8th stage of the first which Yuki had cleared. He sat on an oak log-awaiting the return of his king so he could deliver the supplies which he was tasked with buying for Yuki.

    As for the new Meurig which Yuki had summoned using the power of "King''s Crown" after he allowed the first Meurig to enjoy a peaceful life, he was still busy in the first dungeon. Yuki had sent him there to gain exp so he could level up and be a helpful ally to him. Yuki had simply done this out of respect for his only true shadow friend. Based on strength alone, the lich from the 10th stage of the first dungeon would have been much more optimal to send out to grind as he would have more strength and more experience in battles. Along with the various spells which he would unlock once more after he leveled up.

    Although all those points were factual, the new Meurig nned to not disappoint his king. That was the shared goal that was imnted into all the monsters Yuki summoned however Meaurig was the only one as of that current moment to be allowed to take the time to grow himself and exceed the expectations Yuki had set for him. He would prove that by his strong resolve which he was currently showing in the heated battle against the lich of the 10th stage. While in the first dungeon of the new world, Meurig had gone into one battle after another without taking a break. He didn''t need sleep but just like any living thing he needed rest so he could recover his health.

    Even though that was true, the new Meurig chose to ignore that and go on a constant streak of battles.

 Chapter 94 - Stage 9

    [Stage eight: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 9th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage nine difficulty: level 10]

    Thesemands were announced by the stage system. The same robotic voice Yuki heard when he eitherpleted a level or was asking to allow a party member to leave.

    Once Yuki had passed through the gateway, he was greeted with the marvelous sight of his next enemy. It looked to be arge slender figure. The monster in front of Yuki had little to no fat to the point where he looked to be starving, however, even while looking like that all of his muscles looked to be in peak form. Just like the 7th stage''s mini boss, this one also had red skin.

    Instead of eyes, the monster had horns pointing outwards from both its eye sockets. It''s armour looked to be make of bones. Even his weapons, which were ws stretching from his fists that looked to be made of bone. The monster breathed heavily, however, it had arge smile on its face as it looked downwards.

    The terrain was slightly different from all the other stages. The ground waspletely ck, as for the cracks which each stage had due to being dry for decades or centuries or even mellina, they were filled with more magma than the previous stages. So much so that some point of the stage hadva leaking out of their cracks. Unlike any of the previous stages, this one didn''t have any small boulders or other structures, it was just an open field.

    While this may have been terrifying to many, Yuki didn''t think much of it. Even though his strength increasing potion effects had worn off, Yuki still walked through the tunnel. As his foot stepped out, the scrawny demon began to wobble from right to left. After doing so for a few seconds, the demon looked to fall, however instead of falling to the flood, he disappeared from Yuki''s line of vision.

    This made Yuki go into a state of distress. He didn''t know what was happening and he didn''t have any way of knowing when and where his enemy would attack. To me the situation was worse, Yuki kept hearing the sound of slicing. He wasn''t quite sure if it was from the demon cutting through the air itself or if it were its movements. All Yuki knew was that it wasn''t a good thing.

    Even as Yuki moved his eyes in every direction, he wasn''t able to pick up any movement. Not even a shadow passed by his line of vision. Just as a drop of sweat dropped from Yuki''s head, he was struck with a sharp pain in his chest. In front of Yuki was the demon, continuing to look down at the ground. Its mouth opened even wider as it smilied. A small smoke cloud left its mouth as the demon continued to breath heavily.

    Yuki fell to his knees as the demon removed its bone constructed long ws from Yuki''s chest. As the demon did that, Yuki fell on his face to the ground-blood leaking out of him at an extremely fast rate.

    "I can''t die, not yet. I got lucky, I''m pretty sure it missed my heart so I can hold out a bit longer. I just have to stay put for now until it leaves me alone. I need to drink a full status recovery potion immediately. I don''t know how much longer I can hold out for," said Yuki.

    As Yuki continued to try to hold on for his dear life, it became increasingly harder for him. At the rate he was losing blood, it wouldn''t be much longer until he would die of blood loss.

    "Don''t close your eyes or you''ll die. Don''t close your eyes or you''ll die. Don''t close your eyes or you''ll die," Yuki repeated to himself.

    No matter how many times Yuki tried to hold on, it was impossible. His eyes grew to be as heavy as tons. As they began to lose their colour and Yuki''s eyelids began to close on their own, Yuki''s ears picked up the sound of shing once more.

    "Are you kidding me? You''re seriously going to attack me even though I''m basically dead," these were the words Yuki thought of.

    In pure anger, Yuki summoned the courage to sit properly and take out a potion from his inventory.

    "Just you wait. Let me boost my speed and attack and we''ll see who''ll beughingst," Yuki said.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion as well as a speed boost potion from his inventory. The full restore potion being a lime green liquid while the speed boost potion being sky blue.

    "I was hoping for some magical vitality or desperation state to rescue me and help me defeat you like I was a main character in some tv show. Well too bad, I guess I have to earn everything on my own," Yuki yelled out as he opened both the potions and drank them at the same time.

    While Yuki did recover from his initial injuries, he was ced into a state of pain which wasparable to the one he was just in. He had reached the maximum amount of potions he could consume within the assigned time limit of 24 hours.

    Yuki rolled around in the ground in pain as he held his arms around his chest in hopes of easing the pain.

    "ZERO!" Yuki called out.

    Within an instant Yuki''s pain was taken away. While Yuki did wonder why Zero only recovered his body when he was asked, however, even he knew the reason. Yuki wanted to do everything on his own and hated relying on others, but due to him needing to rely on people since he was in life or death situations all the time, Zero only helped Yuki when he was asked.

    "Thank you," said Yuki even though he didn''t know if Zero heard him.

    "Now where were we?" Yuki asked rhetorically.

    The demon which had almost killed Yuki moments ago struck once more. It had taken him a long time tounch his attack but it didn''t matter since Yuki couldn''t keep up with him.

    However right before his w could reach Yuki, it was pushed away by Yuki since the speed boost potion he had just drank allowed him to at least see the demon right before he attempted his attack.

    "This is gonna be fun," said Yuki.

 Chapter 95 - Unconscious Breathing

    Realizing that his attack was blocked, the demon which was battling Yuki leaped back before vanishing from Yuki''s line of sight. Even now after drinking the speed boost potion, Yuki couldn''t keep up with his enemy. The best he could do was see the demonnd on the stage ground and leap once more in the air as that was the only time there was a dy in the monster''s movements.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out 6 speed boost potions along with 3 attack boost potions from his inventory-drinking each one as fast as possible as to not get attacked when he was open.

    "Thank god I used so much of the silver I earned from the first dungeon to stockpile on potions. I don''t know what I would''ve done without having these magical liquids with me. Al though, I do wish there was less liquid inside them, it''s hard to drink so much without feeling sick," said Yuki

    As Yuki finished drinking thest potion, he threw the ss capsule down at the ground, effectively breaking it into pieces. Yuki liked to do this to symbolize that he was ready for a challenge.

    Yuki was now able to see the movements of the monster he was facing. On top of that, he could actually read its title and name.

    [Sessful subject #1: Apostol]

    "What a weird name. It fits him well too," said Yuki before propelling himself off the ground to stop Apostol midair.

    Yuki raised his right fist forward and forced Apostol to block with his w. Even against the sharp ws Apostol had, They weren''t able to cut through his skin.

    "Well that''s weird. I epted at least a paper cut. At least this confirms that his strength is only his speed. The most likely reason he was able to pierce my skin earlier was because he used his speed to his advantage. That would also exin his crazy long charging time. Too bad, it''s a shame," said Yuki before breaking the midair stalemate by pushing Apostol back and smashing him to the ground using the shear strength of his arm.

    Attempting to regain control over the battle once more, Apostol stood back up as fast as he could and began his sequence of moving around in random directions to disappear from Yuki''s sight. However, right before hended on the ground to propel himself once more in the air, Yuki rushed towards Apostol before clenching his fist once more and punching Apostol in the face-causing him to be knocked down to the ground. In doing this, right after getting knocked into the ground, Apostol''s body came back up due to the sheer force used in the first ce.

    Seeing the opportunity, Yuki punched Apostol in the face a second time as if the first one wasn''t brutal enough.

    "This is far from over," said Yuki.

    Not allowing Apostol to recover, Yuki grabbed Apostol by the white horns which stuck out from his eye sockets and threw him towards the stage ceiling. Apostol hit the stage ceiling with such force that some of it began to fall down with Apostol''s body.

    As Apostol began to fall down from the ceiling, Yuki began to prepare himself to attack Apostol with his so-called finishing blow.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki covered his right knee in concentrated yellow mes and used that knee to hit the falling body of Apostol. In that same moment Apostol''s face turned pale as he looked to have died for a moment.

    Yuki was now looking down at Apostol''s body.

    "Come on. What happened to all your fast movement? Aren''t you going to try to smile while you try to kill me again?" Asked sarcastically.

    "Get up," said Yuki as he kicked Apostol at the side of his ribcage which Yuki had mercilessly kicked with his me-enhanced knee.

    Yuki next jumped on Apostol''s back and kept jumping up and down, just to cause more pain to his enemy. While he could''ve ended the battle, Yuki continued to torment his enemy like usual. He disappeared being tormented himself, but Yuki enjoyed tormenting others. The sense of overwhelming power he felt as he destroyed the pride of other''s was too enjoyable for him to let go of.

    [Unconscious Breathing]

    Just as Yuki looked down to see the letters appear next to Apostol''s head, the demon disappeared from Yuki''s sight. Even with him having enhanced speed which allowed him to perceive much faster things, Apostol had somehow managed topletely disappear. During the span of milliseconds which took ce with Yuki jumping off Apostol''s back and attempting to back on him, Apostol had gotten away and created such arge gap of space between them.

    "Awh, that''s a shame. Just when I started to have fun," said Yuki.

    Just then, Yuki heard the sound of air slicing once more. Unlike the other times, it was just a faint noise that urred once. Yuki stepped to the right-barely dodging Apostol''s ws which were aimed at Yuki''s head.

    Apostol crushed his feet into the ground as he prepared to use them as a propulsion device. However, right as his feet left the ground, Apostol was quickly knocked back down with the force of a steel truck.

    "You''ve gotten a tiny bit too dangerous to be taken lightly. This ends here," said Yuki.

    Yuki grabbed Apostol by the horns once more and threw him in the air-not quite hard enough to reach the stage ceiling. Yuki then leaped into the air and smacked Apostol''s body towards the ground at a diagonal with a single punch. However before Apostol could hit the ground, Yuki sprinted at top speeds to intercept the falling demon and kick him horizontally.

    Once he had done that, Yuki prepared to finish the battle once and for all.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Using his ability, Yuki propelled himself to go in front of Apostol''s flying body. Now awaiting Apostol''s limp body to reach him, Yuki covered his right palm in concentrated mes and caught Apostol by the face before plunging him to the ground.

    "Goodbye," Yuki said as he created arge explosion of mes,pletely obliterating Apostol.

 Chapter 96 - A Madmans Laugh

    "Goodbye," Yuki said as he created arge explosion of mes,pletely obliterating Apostol.

    That was what Yuki thought, however when the smoke cleared, Apostol''s body was still mostly intact. His left horn had been blown off; however, that was the most visible injury he had sustained. Apostol stood up from the ground as Yuki let go of his face. Yuki stepped back to keep a distance between him and his enemy.

    Apostol now at his limit, he ced one of his 3 ws which stretched out from his left and before breaking it off as the edge. Apostol put his left hand back down and carried his own sharp w in his mouth as if it were a de. That was when Yuki noticed that he had actually done a lot of damage to Apostol. He had doubted himself as hepletely believed that he had annihted Apostol with his previous attack. When Apostol stood back up, it had brought worry to Yuki. Now that he realized that he wasn''t in dager anymore, Yuki began to feel confident once more.

    [Unconscious Breathing]

    Yuki saw therge text once more which indicated that the enemy was about to use his special ability once more. As Apostol leaped into the air as to create his sequence of moves before attacking his enemy, Yuki also leaped toward the demon to stop him midair as he had done so multiple times.

    Yuki propelled himself like a slingshot towards Apostol, however when he was supposed to make contact with Apostol, Yuki passed through him like there was nothing there.

    "What-how did I miss?" Yuki asked himself. It was as if Yuki had passed through an after image.

    As Yukinded back on the ground and turned around, he was greeted by a de that was swinging right to his face. In pure instinct, Yuki stepped back and held his right arm forward to block the de. However, it had the opposite effect of what Yuki had intended. Yuki watched as his right forearm fell to his feet. In Front of him was the bloodthirsty Apostolughing with his de in his mouth. Unlikest time, Apostol wasn''tughing for the sake of tormenting Yuki. Hisugh was drived by nothing. It was a madman''sugh.

    Even though this had happened, Yuki was unfazed by it. He had kept a straight face because he knew what he had to do. Yuki wouldn''t allow this opportunity to pass.

    "May the heaven''s forgive you," said Yuki as he leaped in the air-floating right above Apostol''s head.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki clenched his left first as he engulfed it with concentrated mes. However, due to Yuki losing his right arm moments ago, his concentration had disturbed. This caused his mes to flow out of his arm and extend above him. Nevertheless, Yuki prepared to finish what he couldn''t before. Yuki closed his eyes and took onest deep breath before opening his eyes gaping wide and mming his ming fist into theughing Apostol''s head-instantly crushing his skull.

    The fight was now truly over.

    Yukinded back on his feet as if he was in slow motion.

    "Only one to go," Yuki said as he prepared himself to take on thest stage of the dungeon.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion from his inventory and drank it which allowed him to instantaneously grow back his right forearm and heal any other injuries which he may have sustained. While Yuki was happy to have recovered from his injuries, he knew something just as bad wasing.

    "Zero-" Yuki tried to call out for Zero before it began, however just as he spoke arge heartbeat could be heard all throughout the stage. It was Yuki''s heart. Yuki instantly fell to his knees and he struggled to not scream in pure agony. This pain onlysted for a few moments as Zero had received the memo and allowed Yuki to get past the system''s punishment for consuming 10 potions within the 24 hour timer.

    "This is seriously getting old. Why is it so painful each time? Does it automatically adjust the pain so that it''s still excruciating no matter the yer level," said Yuki as he stood up from the ground.

    "More importantly, I should get ready for the final boss fight. I should be prepared to give it my all. Any dy in movement or action could have severe consequences," Yuki told himself.

    While Yuki nned to battle against the 10th and final stage of the dungeon, the 3 kingdoms which had united to take down Yuki were waiting outside the dungeon gate.

    "An armyposed of over 3000 people versus 1 phyco kid. I think we over prepared for this. On top of that we have the 500 prisoners which will be sacrificed if all else fails. I kinda feel bad for the kid, even if he tries to run away, his death is guaranteed," said Carmi.

    The mercenaries who were hired by the crime syndicate managed to blend in with the crowd as they awaited the perfect moment to slide off Yuki''s head and make a run for it so they could receive their payment.

    The king, who was summoned by Yuki, was forced to exit the premises by one of the soldiers as he would get caught in the crossfire and die. The kingplied as he knew that his king would enjoy the battle against all of them if he were to fight on his own. He knew that if he were to use "Man''sst hope: Ourbanos", the battle would end quickly as not many people would know that he was the one controlling that beast.

    "Just you wait. It won''t be much longer until you all meet your doom. My king doesn''t even need to use half of his mighty power to bring an end to all your pitiful lives," whispered Lydie.

    Two of the soldiers looked back at the king which was summoned by Yuki with a confused face.

    "What''s up with that guy?" one of them asked.

    "I think he''s lost it. He was escorted here so he wouldn''t die in the crossfire. For some odd reason he was sitting on a log right in front of the dungeon entrance gate," the other one replied.

 Chapter 97 - Hades

    [+110000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 11: 209000/300000]

    Once more, Yuki began to walk towards the final stage of the dungeon. He felt a sense of danger and fear however at the same time he was happy. He enjoyed the thrill of getting ced in seemingly helpless situations. Even if it did mean that he had to cheat to get out of the with the help of Zero.

    As he reached the halfway point of the stage, Yuki was stopped by an item falling from the stage ceiling.

    "Let''s see now," Yuki said as he picked up the item. It was the w which Apostol had in his mouth. even though it looked to be a simple bone, it was much sharper than any de Yuki hade across in the previous world.

    Curious as to see its properties, Yuki double tapped the item which he had received as a reward for defeating the stage mini boss.

    [Item drop: Hiltless de]

    [Rank: B]

    [Attack: 160]

    [Description: Power: A de capable of cutting through stone like butter. An item such as this can only be crafted by a sessful experiment. A sessful experiment is a rarity which many can''tprehend. The many souls that were gathered and experimented on to be modified to create the perfect servant are uncountable. The sheer amount of suffering and agony they were put through by the dead souls of scientists who were under the servitude of Echidna was immeasurable. Unspeakable numbers of dead people were forced to be broken in hopes of creating even one human soul which surpassed all so it could be forged into the ultimate demon. While after many failed attempts, one had been sessfully constructed, it was mentally broken and only knew how to kill. Even in its sleep, murder was the only think on it''s mind.]

    "Apostol couldn''t even be that strong with a will on his own? What a loser," Yuki scoffed.

    "That is not funny, I shouldn''t beughing at that," said Yuki as he corrected himself and began to open his inventory.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced the de he had received into his inventory and began to walk towards the gateway tunnel.

    [Stage nine: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 10th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage ten difficulty: level 10+]

    [Warning: You cannot retreat from this stage]

    Yuki was now looking at the white light which clouded his vision of the next stage. He couldn''t help but smile. In Yuki''s eyesid a deep re on sorrow as if his soul wished for a different path in life.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" out of his inventory as he doubted that he would be able to defeat the final boss of a dungeon without a crazy amount of potions along with a good de.

    "It''s been a while since I''ve used you. Serve me well," said Yuki as he looked at his sword before inserting it through the white light. Noticing that something had passed through the gate way, it made the white light which acted as a sort of door to disintegrate as Yuki walked through it.

    As Yuki looked at the terrain of the next stage, he couldn''t help but stare in awe as he admired what was in front of his eyes. It was the pr opposite of the previous 9 stages. It wasn''t a wild terrain of continuous rocks and pirs or towers. It was made of glittering ck obsidian, with a ck marble portico, and the entry hall had a polished bronze floor. A red carpet stretched from the exit of the gateway tunnel all the way to an empty throne.

    "I actually paid attention in literature ss. Hades is probably wearing his Cap of Invisibility. I have to be careful," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out 3 attack boost potions, 2 speed boost potions, and 2 defence boost potions from his inventory. He made sure to leave space just in case he needed to consume another potion or two.

    Yuki drank each one as he mentally prepared himself to analyze the terrain and dodge an enemy which he couldn''t see. Yuki took onest gulp as he drank thest defense boost potion before smashing it to the ground.

    "Here it goes, it''s all or nothing," said Yuki as he walked into the battlefield.

    Yuki had been expecting an attack from the back or from the side so to deal with that, Yuki closed his eyes and began to concentrate on listening for movement in any direction so he could block any attack. However the attack that would beunched at him was not the type he was expecting.

    "Hello there, how may I help you? I mean you did make the effort to clear all the previous stages just to see me right?" whispered an evil and eerie voice to Yuki''s ear, causing Yuki to have goosebumps. Such a sinister and suffocating presence would cause anyone to run away for their lives, however it was not possible here. No matter how many times a person may try to escape, it would be pointless.

    "Do you even know why you''re here? You''re driven by anger which you should''ve resolved long ago. Yet you continue to fight an enemy which doesn''t exist. When are you going to realize that what you''re doing is pointless. This isn''t what you wanted at all, this is just a recement-a temporary solution to help you escape your worries-a drug which could help you forget your pain. You keep getting mad at monsters or even humans for something they didn''t do. Get angry at yourself for once," said Hades.

    "No matter how many times you level up in the stupid game you created, no matter how strong you may get, you''ll always be that same weak helpless child which no one wants to look at. Admit you''re worthless," Hades continued.

    Those words directly hit Yuki''s heart and soul. They were more painful than any de. Yuki began to remember all those horrible times in his previous life. He remembered as everyone began to leave him. All those times he was neglected and bullied and manipted. No matter how much time he spent ignoring them, Yuki couldn''t deny that those experiences were a part of him as they were what made him into what he was now.

 Chapter 98 - Bident

    "Snap out of it Yuki," Yuki told himself.

    "What can I do to defeat him?" Yuki asked himself as he tried to think of any possible way to win against an enemy he couldn''t see.

    "Why do you continue to change the subject? There''s no need to rush, let''s talk things out here then we can deal with the fightingter," said Hades as he removed his Cap of Invisibility.

    "You see, there''s no need to be wary of me," Hades said as he began to be visible to Yuki.

    Hades was a tall bearded man-standing at around 12 feet tall with a muscr build. He wore a white toga as he carried his bident which was a two-pronged implement resembling a pitchfork in his right hand. Hades carried his Cap of Invisibility in his left hand as he began to walk towards the enormous throne which was specially constructed from him.

    "You can see me now so there''s no point ining up with a strategy to defeat me while I''m invisible," said Hades.

    As Yuki looked up at the giant which now sat on his throne, he couldn''t help but admire his courage. Even though Yuki had defeated all the previous stages and looked to have not a single scratch on his body due to him drinking a full status recovery potion, Hades was unfazed. Yuki looked over Hades'' head to see what his title/tag was.

    [The ruler of the underworld Final Boss: Hades]

    "What do you want from me?" asked Yuki in an aggressive tone.

    "To be frank with you, I just want you to be dead. I mean you did kill all my subordinates including Cerberus. Even though that sounds fun and all, I think I have a better way of aplishing that than killing you myself," replied Hades.

    [Mind Break]

    Yuki saw arge text other than the title/tag of hades which could only mean that his enemy was using their special ability.

    "You can probably tell from just the name of my ability that it had to do something with mind control or something. I won''t waste your time so I''ll just briefly exin what it does. It allows me to go through your memories and perceive your thoughts. That''s about all it does so it''s useless on its own. However, I can use the information that I get from it to mentally destroy you. The reason I''m telling you this is because you can''t do anything about it. No matter how many times you tell yourself that I''m lying, it''s utterly pointless. Anything that I say to you is the truth," exined Hades.

    Yuki sighed in disappointment.

    "Well to be honest myself. I actually don''t care. I already know that I have my faults. I learned the hard way that I just might never be able to interact with others. Even if there''s something wrong with me which pushes others away, it doesn''t matter now. I''ll keep rejecting them instead of feeling sorry for myself. I mean take a look at me, I''ve shunned everyone including myself which has allowed me to gain this immeasurable strength. I don''t want to fit in a mold which suppresses me and doesn''t allow me to grow just to please people who don''t even care about me. Any ideology which you may try to force onto me is pointless. My ears have be immune to others telling me things just so they could control me. Let''s just get this fight over with," said Yuki.

    "For someone who says they don''t care about other people''s opinion, you were pretty adamant about exining your own opinion. Nevertheless, suit yourself, but know this, no matter the amount of times you try to escape reality and believe that nothing will bring you down, there will be something which will defeat you. You-just like everyone including me have a weakness. If someone were to take advantage of that weakness, you''ll break and shatter to the point of no possible recovery," replied Hades as he stood up from his seat.

    While Yuki didn''t understand what his enemy was trying to get at, he didn''t care. All that mattered was defeating Hades, getting exp and getting out of the dungeon as fast as possible.

    Hades quickly leaped towards Yuki-not giving him enough time to react, Hades used his bident to pin Yuki''s sword to the ground before spinning his bident in a way which caused Yuki to lose possession of his de. The spin move which Hades had done with his bident caused "Fallen angel of hell" to be sent flying.

    "Don''t think that I don''t know about <strong>You</strong>," said Hades as he looked down at Yuki.

    Yuki just believed that Hades was bbering off so Yuki ignored him. The only thing on his mind was to get back his de and drink potions as quickly as possible. He had avoided consuming the potions earlier because he wanted to see what the abilities of his enemy were so he could effectively counter them.

    "A couple of speed and attack potions should do. Maybe a defense one as well, just in case something goes wrong," Yuki said to himself.

    Right as Yuki jumped off the ground to attempt to leap towards his de, Hades kicked him towards the stage wall. The stage wasn''t as vast as the previous stages since it wasn''t meant to be a fighting ground.

    As Yuki mmed into the wall-causing a mark to be left into it with the shape of his body. Even though Yuki had sustained a direct attack, he quickly removed himself from the wall and sprinted towards his de.

    Right as picked up his de, Hades leaped towards him and attempted the same bindent spin attack he had done so he could unarm Yuki. However, Yuki had learned his lesson and quickly leaped backwards-in turn avoiding the attack.

    "I haven''t tried this yet but it seems to be my only hope if I want to win this. It doesn''t look like I''ll be able to drink my potions without him constantly interrupting me," said Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki opened his inventory however since he knew Hades would follow him, Yuki began to run as he took one potion at a time from his inventory.

 Chapter 99 - Thirst

    As Yuki sprinted as if he was running for his life, he continued to pull out a potion before drinking it and repeating the process. By the time he was finished he had been a lot faster than when he started. In total, Yuki had consumed 4 speed boost potions, 2 defence boost potions, and 3 attack boost potions-making for a total of 9 potions which left him right below the maximum a person could consume without being punished by the system.

    Once Yuki had finished drinking his potion, he turned around to face Hades who was right behind him. With a quick leap in the air, Yuki brought down "Fallen angel of hell" towards Hades'' head. Seeing this, Hades brought up his bident to block Yuki''s attempted attack. The sh between their weapons seemed to go on for hours as none of them were going to lose control over the battle.

    Feeling bored of the stalemate, Yuki used "Fallen angel of hell" to push Hades'' bident away instead of pushing it forward. In doing this, Yuki managed to propel himself towards Hades'' head. With a swift spin, Yukiughed a devastating kick to Hades'' neck. However, it was stopped with a block from Hades'' left forearm.

    Both of them seemed to not even be the least bit tired. Filled with vigor in both their eyes, they charged towards each other once more. Just likest time, once the stalemate had gone long enough, one of them pushed the other one back before charging at each other once more.

    "What''s up with this guy? I''ve drunk as many potions as I could and I still can''t beat him," said Yuki.

    "Wait, I forgot I had this," said Yuki.

    Yuki managed to close his eyes and concentrated on flowing his stamina from his body into his de as the current stalemate between him and Hades continued. "Fallen angel of hell" began to glow crimson red as its aura became more visible. The tides of the battle changed as Yuki began to push Hades even further back. Now that Yuki was getting more invested into the battle since he had just managed to see himself overpower his enemy, he pushed himself even further and inserted more of his stamina from his body into his de.

    As a consequence, Yuki felt slightly dizzy as he began to breathe heavily. He had identally ced more stamina into his de than he intended. However, thanks to that, the ss-like crimson red aura shell managed to form around "Fallen angel of hell". As such, Yuki was easily able to push Hades away.

    Although Yuki had managed to push Hades back, the ruler of the underworld wasn''t going to back down that easily. In rage, Hades plunged his de into the stage ground. Once inserted, Hades slightly twisted his bident and caused the ground which Yuki stood on to spit in half.

    Getting caught off guard, Yuki almost fell into the crack, however he managed to hold on to the edge of the crack.

    "This is bad. I won''t be like those viins who get their hands stepped on and fall off a cliff," said Yuki as he quickly lifted himself up with his left hand since his right hand had been carrying "Fallen angel of hell".

    Seeing Hades in front of him-ready for battle made Yuki''s blood boil. It wasn''t that Yuki was angry. On the contrary, Yuki was too excited like a kid on coffee. Yuki''s eyes opened wide as his pupils became smaller to the point where they were just a dot. Yuki''s breath grew more violent as if it was the breath of a tiger. Yuki dug his feet into the ground as he looked Hades in the eyes. The pure bloodlust that oozed from Yuki''s body was enough to suffocate an army.

    "I want him," said Yuki as he charged towards Hades at top speeds. His movements were nearly invisible as he blitzed through the air like a rocket ship.

    Hades managed to bring out his bident in front of Yuki to block the attack. However, Yuki didn''t even perceive Hades as a threat anymore. Something had changed between the few moments where Yuki was about to fall into the crack which Hades had created and when Yuki managed to get out of there.

    Yuki realized that he wanted Hades in his collection of monster servants. He didn''t care to what extent he had to go through. Yuki would go to any lengths to have Hades serve him.

    Seeing the bident in front of him, Yuki reached out to it with his left hand-twisting it out of Hades'' hands and moving it out of the way before plunging "Fallen angel of hell" to Hades'' side.

    "Where did this powere from?-" Hades asked.

    However he would not receive a response from his enemy. Yuki''s mind had gonepletely nk. He looked to be so thirsty for murder. Hades, now on his knees look up at Yuki. However, this time he didn''t see the same hopeful kid who wanted to battle him like a video game. There was just an evil figure with the strongest stench of pure death and evil.

    Yuki looked down at Hades as his mouth opened gaping wide, drool flowing from it like water as if he was going to eat Hades at that moment. It was as if Hades was getting suffocated with just Yuki''s presence until he realized something.

    "So it wasn''t him but you," said Hades just to be ignored once more.

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" from Hades'' side and prepared to slice off Hades'' head. However, before his attack couldnd, Hades raised both his palms upwards and grasped hold of the de. In that mere moment, Hades leaped backwards before Yuki could push down on "Fallen angel of hell".

    "It won''t be that easy to take me down," said Hades.

    Yuki looked as if he was going insane. There was nothing he wanted more in that moment than to kill. As his eyes swirled in confusion Yuki prepared to finish the battle.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

 Chapter 100 - New Beginnings

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki used his ability to engulf his de in his crimson mes. However, due to him being mentally unstable, the mes extended out of the de upwards, as if creating arger sword inbination with "Fallen angel of hell".

    Yuki leaped off the ground to strike down Hades with his enormous me sword. However, Hades wasn''t going to back down without a fight.

    "If I''m going to die, I''m taking you with me!" said Hades as he plunged his bident deep into the stage ground to the point where only 3 inches of the hilt were visible. Hades held the remaining part of the hilt with both his palms as he kneeled down to twist it as hard as possible. He looked be struggling as if he was opening a jar of tightly sealed pickles. However all of his struggles paid off as the stage ground cracked and split into manyrge sectors. It was almost guaranteed that Yuki would fall into them. To make the situation worse, there seemed to be no pit tond on as they were extremely deep.

    Even with this, Yuki ignored what Hades had done andnded on top of Hades'' shoulders with his fiery de in hand. Without a moment of hesitation, Yuki cut Hades in half, starting from his head. As Hades began to fall to the ground due to his death, Yuki pushed his legs off Hades'' shoulders and propelled himself tond on Hades'' throne which was the only object which wasn''t affected by the bident''s power.

    Yuki sat on the throne-de in hand as his head tilted from exhaustion. The stage began to recover and reform itself now that it had recognized Hades to be dead. The ground began to stretch as it came back together and stitched itself. The red carpet began to regrow and sow itself together. Any of the other objects also did the same as they returned to their original state.

    "We did it," said Yuki.

    "I can''t believe I did it, I really did it. I cleared the second dungeon!" said Yuki in pure joy as he raised his hands in the air. However as he was enjoying himself, a shockwave was sent to his brain. Yuki could now sense the presence of over 3000 people outside the dungeon. He instantly knew that they were after him. However, instead of being sad or scared, Yuki became more overjoyed.

    "The fun never ends," said Yuki with a vinish grin.

    Outside the dungeon, the king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon stood up from the ground-sensing that his king''s arrival was approaching. Behind him, the king carried arge bag full of the items which Yuki had requested for him to bring.

    "Where do you think you''re going?!" one of the soldiers asked the king in an angry tone.

    However instead of replying back in anger himself, Lydie summoned "Man''sst hope: Ourbanos". This was more than enough to make the lower ranked soldiers tremble in fear. While many didn''t know the full power of Ourbanos, it was clear that the figure which walked behind Lydie was out of their league. The only ones who could match his strength and even hope to win were the mercenaries from Scar''s group or the mercenaries which were hired by the crime syndicate. Even though they had that power, it would drain them of nearly all their energy so it would be best if they avoided any fights, especially with opponents that strong.

    Lydie walked past the army as they split to allow him to pass through in fear. After walking for so long Lydie sat back down at the log which he was at previously. Now he awaited his king as it wouldn''t be much longer until Yuki would appear in front of these people and make them regret challenging him.

    Back inside the dungeon, the throne began to disintegrate as it revealed the exit to the dungeon which would lead him outside from the same gate he used to enter. Yuki stood as he watched the throne disappear.

    "This doesn''t feel real at all. I mean beating up monsters for exp and items. This would be any teenager''s dream. Well, unless they get into a bad situation and end up getting traumatized," said Yuki.

    [+120000 exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 12: 29000/400000]

    Yuki felt the satisfying feeling which was automatically generated by the system when a yer leveled up. It was pure bliss. It was the greatest joy anyone could ever attain which was why it was so hard to achieve.

    Once Yuki began to calm down from his state of joy, he noticed an object fall from the stage ceiling towards his feet. It was the bident which Hades had been carrying during the fight. Yuki double tapped on the bident to look at its stats and description out of curiosity.

    [Item drop: The underworld''s holy weapon]

    [Weapon type: bident]

    [Name: The underworld''s holy weapon]

    [Rank: ???]

    [Attack: ???]

    [Description:???]

    "So you finally did decide to give the de which doesn''t have full stats?" Yuki said as he began to smile.

    "At least this confirms my theory that each stage will give me a weapon like ''Fallen angel of hell''," Yuki said to himself.

    Just as he finished his sentence, another item dropped from the stage ceiling. It was the Cap of Invisibility which Hades had worn in the very beginning of their encounter. I wonder... Yuki said as he double tapped on the helmet.

    [Item drop: Cap of Invisibility]

    [Rank: A]

    [Weapon type: Helmet]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: Has the power to make the user of this item invisible for as long as they want. The Cap of Invisibility was forged for Hades by Elder Cyclopses after he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon freed them from Tartarus. Hades then used this helmet to great effect during the Titanomachy and was instrumental in routing the Titans. Hades only ruled over the underworld due to him drawing the shortest stick in a draw which was held to determine which domain each of the brothers ruled over. For someone who ruled over the underworld which was supposed to be evil and scary, Hades was a stern and just ruler.]

    "Oh, so it''s a better version of the coat from the first dungeon since it doesn''t have any limitations," said Yuki as he finished reading the description of the helmet.

    Lastly, the final item dropped from the ceiling was the silver which was awarded at the middle and end of a dungeon.

    [Item drop: Pot of greed]

    Yuki double tapped on the brown pouch to open its information chart.

    [Rank: X]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Contains 5 million silver]

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced all his items into his inventory and began to walk towards the exit of the dungeon.

 Chapter 101 - HeavenéĄćŞš Sun

    As Yuki opened the double doors to the dungeon, he was greeted at the sight of an entire army waiting for him. Every person tensed up at the sight of the dungeon entrance/exit opening. However, once they saw who exited out of them, they rxed and some evenughed. After all, what was the most a kid could do to a whole army.

    Unbeknownst to Yuki, nearly all his clothes had been shredded in the dungeon. He waspletely shirtless and the only thing he had left were his trousers which now looked like shorts which had been bitten by a lion. Yuki had only realized this when he exited the dungeon gate as the cold breeze made contact with his body. The temperature in the dungeon was so warm that it made up for Yuki losing his garments, however that would not be the case in the outside world.

    As Yuki looked at his chest, he was taken aback by it.

    "When did I get so jacked?" Yuki asked himself as he looked at his chiseled abs.

    The king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon instantly walked up to Yuki before kneeling down to greet him. The army stood with a nk face as they saw this event go by. They thought that everyone who heard of Yuki would either fear or hate him. So seeing this was quite perplexing for them.

    "You can get up. There''s no need to be so formal," Yuki said as he helped the king get up. The king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon began to take out all the supplies he had bought from hisrge bag. Yuki smiled as he was quite satisfied with the purchases the king had made.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced all the items which he had received from the king into his inventory. However, as the king took out thest item from his inventory. He said something to Yuki.

    "You didn''t ask for this my liege but I thought it would be befitting of you," said the king as he pulled out a red cape with white fur lining and golden pins. Yuki was taken by surprise as he hadn''t expected this. Even if it was bought with his own money, it was the first time in a while since he had received a gift of any kind. Yuki simply smiled as he tried to hold back his tears of joy and wore the cape which the king bought for him.

    Yuki pulled out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and ced it on his head. Seeing Yuki look like a proper king made the king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon fall to his knees.

    "Thank you. You can go back now," said Yuki, and with that the king turned into white liquid before being pulled into the crown after his long journey in the outside world.

    "Now..." Yuki said as he looked at the army standing in front of him in a crescent moon formation.

    "Oh that''s great. At least he''s here," Yuki said as he sensed the presence of someone familiar.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki leaped into the air and with the assistance of his ability, he was able to jump from the gateway entrance all the way to where the person he sensed was at.

    "Long time no see," Yuki said as he gave a fake smile at Carmi.

    "You wouldn''t happen to remember what I told you thest time we saw each other right?.." Yuki asked sarcastically to help Carmi remember the warning Yuki had given him.

    "You can kill me if you want but know this, you''ll die here today," replied Carmi as hundreds of people turned their attention to Yuki-prepared to sacrifice themselves to win this battle. However Yuki didn''t care much about what the weaker people did. The weaker people in Yuki''s eyes, being nearly everyone. He did however sense the presence of 9 people which wouldn''t be a challenge for him but would be fun to toy with. Those being the 5 level 4 mercenaries from Scar''s group and the 4 level 5 yers which were hired by the crime syndicate.

    "Oh I''m so sorry," said Yuki.

    "It''s toote to apologize. You''ll pay for your crimes here and now," replied Carmi.

    "Wait no. I''m apologizing for not making it clear how pointless this is. Please forgive me for not showing you this earlier," said Yuki.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "I just thought of a name for this move. Please turn your heads towards the sky, I like to call this ''Heaven''s Sun''" said Yuki. Even though only the people close to him could hear him, as one person looked up, the rest followed suit.

    As each person looked at the sky, they were able to watch as an enormous sun-like object began to break through the clouds. The size alone was scary enough that nearly everyone gave up right then and there. It was bigger than the entire armybined.

    "You see now, I tried to warn youst time.Now everyone will die here because of your reckless decisions," said Yuki.

    Engulfed in fear, a couple of people tried to run away which caused a butterfly effect which made nearly all the soldiers try to run for their lives.

    "I don''t think so..." said Yuki as he created a 50 feet tall, crescent shaped fire wall which looked to be 4 meters thick.

    "This isn''t fair. How were we expected to defeat a monster like this? He doesn''t even look tired. He has every single one of us cornered and can finish us off with a single attack when he wishes to do so," said one of the soldiers as he fell to his knees and began to break down.

    Someughed as they lost hope, others cried as they missed their family or friends. This was the end for them, it was a suicide mission. Even the level 4 and 5 yers began to look a bit concerned.

    "These fools. Even at level 12, I wouldn''t be able to create such massive solid structures. Good thing they aren''t solid but hollow. They just have to buy my bluff and I''ll let them live. Though I don''t mind killing them and getting the exp, it would just ce more attention on me and attract more mercenaries. I can use this as an opportunity to set an example out of them.

 Chapter 102 - Swordswoman

    "So what do you think, Carmi? Was it really worth it to bring all these people just so they could die?" Yuki asked.

    Carmi began to stutter and fumble his words as he looked up at the giant sun which Yuki had created. It was unfathomable that just a single person could create something so fear mongering.

    "P-please call off your attack. We''ll retreat at once. I give you my word that we won''t ever attack you ever again," said Carmi as he pleaded for his life.

    "I warned you once and you didn''t listen. Why should I give you a second chance so you can grow and attempt to kill me once more?" Yuki asked.

    Hearing these words brought Carmi to realize how hopeless the situation was. He had really messed up. Their n was to strike while Yuki was still weak, however that was not the case. While Yuki had just recently reached level 12, in the grand scheme of things, he was a rtively low level yer. However, due to everyone else being an even lower level than Yuki, to them, Yuki was no different than a level 100 yer. Either way, they would all perish. Realizing this, Carmi instantly fell to his knees and lowered himself as he looked at Yuki''s bare feet and began to beg for mercy.

    "I do not deserve your kindness. I was stupid to think I could defeat you. Please have mercy on us onest time so we can learn from our foolish mistakes. This shall never happen again," said Carmi as he cried for mercy.

    Yuki seemed to be enjoying the humiliation which Carmi had put himself through. It was fun to look at the person who had tried to get revenge on you and instead of them aplishing that, they would beg for your mercy. This brought an evil grin to Yuki''s face.

    "That''s so nice of you to say. Maybe I''ll let you live this once. Get your people out of here and don''t let me see you ever again," said Yuki as he snapped his fingers-causing both "Heaven''s Sun" along with the fire wall he created to disappear.

    "Thank you so much," said Carmi as he got up from the ground.

    Seeing as everything had been resolved with no one getting hurt, Yuki began to walk away from the army. The second Yuki turned his back, Carmi''s eyes began to open wide and his mouth even wider as he grinned while pressing the button of a flip phone in his pocket. It was the same one which Scar had been using.

    "Now that I''ve sent the memo, Rey Moon should begin his preparations. It won''t take much longer for you to die, Yuki Kaito. You really thought I would ever give up on hunting you down. Letting me live was your fatal mistake," Carmi thought to himself.

    Beside him were all the other representatives of the kingdom which Yuki originally spawned into. That included the man in sses which was speechless due to what events had taken ce. Jobon, Rui, Katsumi along with the other 2-now level 3 yers which hade from the kingdom of Lyanna which was now being ruled over by Scar. Seeing as they no longer had a home in Lyanna, they decided to stay with Jobon and the others. The judge from Yuki''s trail was also present there-however, they were only present there to be a figure and not battle as all the remaining members of the kingdom council would need to be there to boost morale.

    These 8 ruled over one sector of the army which came from their kingdom. The kingdom council''s army was at the right side of the crowd which was in a crescent moon formation in red and silver armour. As for Scar and Jing, they were stationed in the middle of the crescent moon formation as they were the head of their own army. Of course they had their 5 mercenaries beside them to assist in the battle. Scar''s army was dressed in royal blue and golden armour to differentiate themselves from the others.

    Lastly, the 3rd kingdom''s ruler who was there alone was Theophill. He stood on his own as his army stayed behind him in the left side of the crescent moon formation. His army also had a signature colouring of their own being yellow and bronze armour.

    All these people lined up as they had been awaiting the moment where they could bring down theirmon enemy being Yuki. However as Yuki had proven, it was all pointless. Not a single person could match his strength let alone defeat him. However out of all of these people, there was a certain group of people who did have the courage to stand up to him. While their courage was driven by greed, the mercenaries which were hired by the crime syndicate were able to force themselves to move towards the front line as they walked through Scar''s army which was where they were hiding. While they didn''t have the armour which everyone else had, they were able to go unchecked as they threatened to kill anyone who said a word.

    "It''s time. We have to engage him in closebat. There''s no point in doing a sneak attack since it could backfire on us and he might try to kill everyone here. Let''s just debuff him and make sure he doesn''t get a chance tounch anyrge scale attacks," said the swordswoman. Behind her were herrades which were the debuffer, speed booster and healer. All of them acted as back up to help her easily defeat her enemy. While they seemed to be just an addition to the swordswoman, those 3 contributed a lot more than she did since if it weren''t for them, she wouldn''t be as effective as he was.

    Once they all reached the front of the army, they were greeted by Scar, Jing and the mercenaries which worked for them.

    "I don''t recognize you. You''re not wearing our armour, so who are you?" Scar asked as the mercenaries which worked for him prepared to attack them.

    "Believe me, we''re not here to start a conflict with you. We just want to take out that kid. So move out of our way," replied the swordswoman.

 Chapter 103 - Shell

    Seeing as how it wasn''t in the best interest of anyone to fight, Scar allowed them to pass through him. As long as they didn''t attack him or his subordinates, he didn''t care what they did.

    "If that''s the case then, be my guest, you may pass by me. Whatever you choose to do with your lives is none of my concern," said Scar. Scar wasn''t the type of person to dress to impress. His attire was a simple ck trench coat with ck jeans and tinted ck sses. It was as if he was trying to either hide himself or make himself the centre of attention with his odd sense of style.

    Getting the word that they could head forward, the hired mercenaries began to walk towards Yuki. While all this went on, Yuki was peacefully walking up the small hill towards the dungeon gate. The green grassy ins were too beautiful for the asion as they made light of the circumstances everyone was in. The gateway itself was much farther away than where the army stood. It was embedded into another unclimbable hill because of how steep it was. The sudden change of elevation from the gate''s bottom to the top was odd as it was where the tilted ground began and stopped. It was as if two meniscal tectonic tes crashed, causing a small dull mountain to form.

    Seeing as how Yuki waspletely open. The mercenaries which were hired by the crime syndicate thought of it as the perfect opportunity to attack.

    "Simeon, why don''t you start us off?" the attacker of the group said as she looked at the speed booster.

    "Sounds good!" the speed booster replied.

    "Activate ability: Speed Increase"

    A giant blue magic circle appeared below the feet of all the members of the group. Once there, it began to glow as it infused them with magic-allowing them to move faster.

    "Now, Lou!" ordered the attacker.

    "Heard you loud and clear Tanya," the debuffer replied back.

    "Activate ability: Stat decrease"

    This time as well, a magic circle appeared. However unlikest time, it was red and much smaller and instead of appearing on the ground, it appeared on top of Yuki''s head. A red glow began to merge with Yuki as it made him fall to his knees from confusion.

    "Rina, back me up from behind," said Tanya as he charged towards Yuki.

    As she charged towards her enemy, Yuki stood still as he showed his back to her. He waspletely open to any attack which maye at him. During that moment, everyone began to gain hope as they thought a sneak attack could work on him. If they were to kill him now without him being able to threaten all their lives with hisrge scale attacks, maybe they could win. While it may have been considered cheap or dirty to do that in a battle, it waspletely okay in the eyes of everyone there as Yuki was a potential threat to all of humanity.

    "Poor kid. He can''t even get up. Don''t worry, I''ll make this swift so you won''t have to experience any pain," said Tanya as she unsheathed her katana and approached Yuki''s head. She aimed at Yuki''s neck so she could slice it off in one attack.

    The moment before her de could make contact with Yuki''s fragile skin, her attack was intercepted. Within those milliseconds, Yuki turned around and blocked her attack with "Fallen angel of hell". Yuki smiled as he red into Tanya''s confused eyes. She had fallen into a trap.

    Wasting no time, Yuki pushed his de to the side which did the same to Tanya''s katana and in turn made her open to Yuki''s attacks. Yuki quickly lifted his leg and kicked Tanya''s chin, causing her to be sent flying back to herrades.

    "What did you think would happen? Did you honestly believe that you could defeat me just because you decreased my stats a little bit?" asked Yuki as heughed while looking down at Tanya.

    "I could''ve died back there. If he had another sword or even a tiny dagger, he could''ve aimed for my neck and sliced it off. He''s just toying with us," Tanya said as her face looked to be engulfed in pure fear.

    "Why do you look like that? That can''t be the first time you''ve been nearly killed.. right?" Yuki asked her.

    If she could speak, she would''ve said yes. It had been the first time Tanya was almost killed. Due to her being part of a squad which boosted her and weakened others, she had the luxury of easilying out victorious in every battle since she spawned into this world. Even in her previous life, Tanya had always been treated with respect and had the privilege of living life in luxury. Being born into a rich family meant that she could get whatever she wanted. However unlike many, she wasn''t spoiled. She also reciprocated respect towards others and was humble. It was due to this that she was able to avoid the harsh outside world. Her father had sheltered her from the world as he believed that she shouldn''t have to live as a part of that evil society. Instead he raised her with her mother in theirrge estate. To keep herpany, he hired 3 kids who were the same age as her and ordered them to protect her and guide her. She was the sole ruler of everything and everyone she had interacted with.

    It was due to that fact, that Tanya couldn''t ept someone who stood in her way. Even in the new world her friends followed her as her servants as it was the only way of life they knew. They helped her cut through her obstacles with ease both in her previous life and this. As such when all her ns failed, there were only a few people she could me.

    "Hey, what''s wrong with your ability? Are you sure you cast it properly?" Tanya asked while yelling.

    "Y-yes," the debuffer replied. It had been a long time since any of them had seen Tanya mad at them . They were used to the gentle side of her which took charge of them. However, that was just a shell she had created.

    Now that Yuki had destroyed her perception of the world, that shell of hers would eventually crack.

 Chapter 104 - Monster

    "If you cast your ability properly, why am I having trouble defeating him? Let''s just say that you did manage to debuff him, don''t you think he would be slower and weaker than he was originally. For god''s sake, he''s only a level 7 yer. There''s only a 2 level difference between us. A debuff should easily make his stats around a level 5 or 4 and with us having extra speed, I should be able to take him down easily. But no, that didn''t happen so the only exnation for that is that your ability doesn''t work!"

    "Do. You. Get. That?" Tanya said as he spoke slowly to Lou to emphasize that she thought he was stupid. Tanya didn''t for once consider anyone else''s feelings because she thought that they didn''t have any. Being the daughter of a rich household meant that she had the privilege of speaking down to people. While she tried to humble herself, her true nature was starting to be exposed.

    "But-" Lou tried to argue.

    "I won''t ept any excuses! Get yourself together and prepare tounch another debuff," Tanya ordered.

    Lou sighed as he couldn''t do anything about the situation. It wasn''t even his fault that Yuki was still stronger than Tanya. He had done what he was asked to do, which was to cast a debuff spell. Even with that done, since Yuki was too strong, Tanya ended up believing that Lou was at fault. Yuki watched as this went on with a confused look.

    "I mean I thought I was a bad teammate. At least I can feel better about myself while I look at her," said Yuki to himself.

    Tanya once again prepared tounch an attack on Yuki. Sword in hand, Tanya sprinted towards Yuki as fast as she possibly could. Yuki stood there as he watched her get ever closer to him.

    "Now!" Tanya yelled.

    Getting the message, Lou cast a debuff on Yuki once more.

    "Activate ability: Stat decrease"

    Once more the red magic circle appeared above Yuki''s head and weakened him. Seeing this, Tanya jumped off the ground as he prepared to slice off Yuki''s neck. This time shepletely believed that her efforts would lead into sess. However just to make sure she would kill Yuki, Tanya spun midair and using the momentum, she was able to bring her de towards Yuki''s neck. For a moment it looked like she had actually done it. However, right before her de could make contact, Yuki intercepted it.

    "Too slow," Yuki sighed as he held her de within his finger tips. Without a moment of hesitation, Yuki bent her de until it broke into multiple pieces.

    Seeing this caught Tanya off guard. She had been so close to achieving her goal, it would''ve only taken 1 more second for her to be able to go home with the head of her victim.

    "Why won''t you let me kill you already?" Tanya said in an agonized tone. The effects of Yuki''s existence began to take a greater effect on her. Tanya was getting closer to breaking.

    Hearing this made Yuki burst outughing.

    "You expect me to let you kill me? You genuinely believe that I would give up my own life for your precious convenience. Do you realize how stupid you sound," While Yukiughed, he was more annoyed than anything else.

    "Does she realize how hard I worked to get this strong? While she had those guys help her out, I had to do it alone. It was probably a walk in the park for her. Having her ves weaken her enemies so she could swoop in like the fake hero and take all the glory. That''s why I refuse to work with people like her," said Yuki as he grew even more angry.

    Tanya held out her broken sword in fear as she looked at the menacing figure known as Yuki. All that was left was the hilt and 1/3 of the de that wasn''t shattered. While Tanya did this to seem like she wouldn''t, Yuki didn''t care.

    "Come on Tanya! You can do it. You''re everyone''s hope here. Give it everything you got and take down that monster!" Rina yelled out as she tried to encourage herrade. Soon after everyone else began to cheer for her. She was their only hope. Bringing down Yuki would allow them to never have to sleep in fear wondering if he''d randomlye to their home and kill them along with their family. Tanya had be humanity''s light in the darkness known as Yuki.

    Tanya now feeling confident once more took a step forward as she began to get absorbed into her delusions. Before her foot which she stepped forward with couldnd back on the ground, Yuki quickly leaped towards her. With a sh, he punched Tanya with his bare fist, causing her to hit the ground with a shock. The sheer impact of the blow caused the ground near her to break apart.

    This caused everyone to quiet down. The thing which they entrusted their lives with had been defeated within a blink of an eye. It was as if they were watching their own hearts shatter.

    "Now what? Did you really believe that you could defeat me? I''ve shown you what I can do once before. Maybe it was too generous of me to allow you to live," Yuki said as he gave an evil grin.

    Yuki watched as those words passed through the army''s ears. Slowly watching as the despair and fear overtook every single person there. There was nothing called hope left for them. All that awaited them was death.

    Scar sighed in disappointment.

    "We still have Rey Moon left. Do you guys wanna give it a shot before we resort to that?" Scar asked the mercenaries who worked for him.

    "I guess we can try," the tank of the group replied as they walked towards Rina, Lou and Simeon.

    The tank of the group ced his palm on Lou''s shoulder as he reassured him that everything would be alright.

    "We won''t be able to take that monster down on our own. How about we merge together for the time being and defeat him with ourbined strength?" the tank asked.

    Lou along with hisrades nodded in agreement.

    "''That monster''? You''re awfully rude," said Yuki in a sarcastic tone as he overheard their conversation.

 Chapter 105 - Realization

    While Yuki had his attention directed towards the group of 8 mercenaries, Tanya managed to get up from the ground and leaped back to join the group. It was a group of the best which all 3 kingdoms had to offer. If they couldn''t take down Yuki, no one could.

    "So what''s the n?" asked Tanya as she breathed heavily.

    "How about we try something like this," Simeon spoke up.

    "Otta the tank of the group goes and holds off Yuki for just about a minute or two. Next, I boost each swordsman or swordswoman''s speed here. That would include Tanya and the 2 others from the group that just merged with us. If I remember correctly Porcia is the swordsman that carries the long sword and Jules is the one that wields daggers. Once we have you guys going, Lou can debuff Yuki once again. Lastly, the mage-Erika can support with long ranged attacks and our 2 healers Mare and Rina can help cover for any damage we sustain. That should be all... I think," Simeon exined.

    "Thank goodness we did introductions before. Sorry Tanya, you were stillying on the ground when that happened," said Rina.

    "I don''t mind. Just heal me so I can go back to fighting at my peak once more," ordered Tanya.

    "Hey, no need to rush into things. You''re not working alone anymore. You have to work together with everyone. Even if the stat boosters and debuffer don''t directly fight in the battle, it doesn''t mean they aren''t contributing. It can be argued that they''re working even harder than you since without them, you wouldn''t be able to move so fast and kill your opponents with ease," said Otto as he tried to correct the ways of Tanya.

    "Who do you think you''re talking to?!" Tanyashed out at Otto.

    While it had caught everyone off guard, Otto was the most calm about the situation out of everyone. Procia, Jules and Erika had been prepared to kill Tanya at that moment. However, Otto looked at all 3 of them and signaled that everything was alright. Without saying a single word, Otto walked towards Tanya andid his palm on her fragile shoulders. He leaned his mouth towards her ears and whispered something to her.

    "I may try to act nice around you but remember this. At the end of the day, I''m a businessman. Don''t try to start a fight within the workce. I just want my money just like everyone else. So get off your high horse and start acting like you''re part of a team or else..." Otto said as he put pressure on his palms which seemed to crush Tanya''s shoulder.

    Once he had got his point across to Tanya, he let go of her shoulder. Due to Tanya''s extremely weakened state, when Otto let go on her shoulder, she instantly fell to her knees. Nevertheless, Otto smiled and began to walk towards Yuki, who was now sitting on the grass of the shallow hill.

    "Are you guys finally done bickering?" asked Yuki.

    "Hey. Tell me something kid. What made you do something so horrific that all these people are after your head?" Otto asked.

    "Well I just killed a couple of people for exp. After that, I was caught and put in prison for my crimes so I escaped. I warned Carmi-the guy which had originally put me in prison that if he came after me that he would die. Now here we are," replied Yuki.

    "A kid as young as you managed to kill a person. Not just one but a couple and still talks about it like it''s nothing. This generation is messed up," said Otto.

    "Well, that''s quite a dumb analogy. ming a whole group of people for the crimes of one is pure idiocy. It doesn''t matter what a person''s age, height, gender or anything else. If theymit a crime, they should be solely responsible for it. Why should a whole group of people that did nothing wrong be criticized?" Yuki asked.

    Otto was left speechless. He was usually a well spoken person who could get a person to let their guard down with his words but this time, he was the one who was forced to let his guard down.

    "But-" Otto tried to speak while he faced the ground from pure confusion.

    However he was cut short by the sight of a small kid underneath him which stared into his eyes. Caught by surprise once more, Otto stubbled a few steps back however it was toote. Yuki jumped upwards until his foot was above Otto''s head and within a moment, Yuki kicked Otto in the head-causing him to fall face first into the ground. As the icing on top, Yuki smoothlynded on Otto''s back and sat on him as he yawned to symbolize his boredom.

    "You were probably going to say something about how it isn''t right to kill people no matter the circumstance. Then you would tell me to go and serve my time and ask for forgiveness," said Yuki.

    "But it''s true," Otto brought his head out of the group as he gasped for air and advised Yuki.

    "You''re acting like you aren''t nning to kill me if I refuse. The only reason you''re trying to advise me is so that I magically give up and turn myself in. If that fails, you''re still buying yourades enough time to try to attack me when our conversation is over. If that was your n I have something to tell you. That won''t work," said Yuki as he grinned.

    "Come on kid. It''s 9 against 1. Even with a 2 or 3 level advantage, you''re outmatched in numbers so that we can make up for the strength difference," Otto began to give up hope that Yuki would turn himself in so he started talking like how he would talk to a normal criminal.

    "Wait.. 2 or 3 levels? Ooooh, you probably think I''m still at level 7. No wonder all of you are so overconfident," said Yuki as he smiled with his angelic expression-trying to hold back augh.

    "So you''re not a level 7 yer?" Otto asked as he thought of the worse.

    "No no my dear. I just recently reached level 12. And just like when you reach level 2, once you reach level 10, there''s a huge increase in stats," Yuki said as he smiled at Otto.

    Yuki watched as the tank''s face turned pale as he began to be engulfed in fear.

    "Onest thing. I n on toying with yourrades a bit longer so don''t say a word if you want to keep on living," said Yuki

 Chapter 106 - The Weakest Link

    As Yuki unveiled his secret to Otto, everyone else was preparing to engage Yuki in battle. Rina healed Tanya''s wounds as she would be needed in the attack core of the group which included Tanya, Porcia, Jules and Erika. Simeon had already cast his speed boost ability and it was finally Lou''s turn to debuff Yuki.

    "Activate ability: Stat decrease"

    Once more the red circle appeared above Yuki''s head as it spread its glow on his body to weaken him. While Yuki pretended like nothing was happening to him, he could feel himself getting weaker. Even with arge increase to his stats once he had reached level 10, it didn''t make him immune to a debuff type ability.

    "Well, I think they''re ready for me now," said Yuki as he began to slowly walk towards the attack core.

    Even with her de broken, Tanya stood tall as she prepared to attack Yuki with full force. Still holding a grudge against Yuki for the way he had humiliated her, Tanya charged at him first. Yuki stood there as he awaited for her to attempt her attack. Tanya charged straight ahead with her de as she aimed to gouge out Yuki''s eye. However Yuki wouldn''t allow that to happen. Right as Tanya attempted to sh Yuki''s eye, Yuki quickly ducked down as he spun his feet-effectively making Tanya fall face first into the grass once more.

    Tanya once again tried to get up from the ground and attempt to attack Yuki. However before she could get back on her feet, Yuki ced his foot on her back and pushed her down into the ground once again. Seeing this, Porcia and Jules charged into the scene. Both of them attacked Yuki simultaneously as they tried to hold him back until Tanya could recover. Although Yuki could''ve killed both Porcia and Jules, he decided to y along and move away from Tanya. Yuki still had "Fallen angel of hell" in his palm, as such, that was the de he used to deflect any attacks he couldn''t dodge. Every once in a while, Yuki wouldnd a clean hit on either of the two swordsmen to show them how much more superior he was but also to try to enrage them.

    Once Tanya was ready to continue fighting, she seamlessly joined in with Porcia and Jules as all three of them attacked Yuki simultaneously. Each de within Yuki''s vicinity was easily deflected and the user of said de would receive a punch that caused twice as much damage as their de would''ve caused to Yuki. After all, Yuki was only trying to toy with them, it wasn''t in his interest to kill them yet. He even had a secret n which he would useter on to torment them and crush their will.

    Exhausted from the endless barrage of attacks which had done nothing to their enemy, the three de wielders broke out in a triangle formation as they tried to do a perfectly in sync attack. Tanya leaped off the ground as she aimed to plunge her de into Yuki''s skull while Porcia and Jules attacked from both of Yuki''s sides.

    "They''re leaving me with no form of escape or retaliation. I guess I''ll have to make one myself," said Yuki as he sighed.

    Yuki ducked down to the ground to give himself more time before Tanya could reach him. Once he had lowered himself, Yuki reached out to Porcia''s foot with his right palm and dragged him down before swinging him to make Jules lose his bnce and fall down as well. Lastly, a moment before Tanya could reach him, Yuki reached out with his left palm and grabbed her by her wrist and mmed her down to the ground a little harder than he had intended to.

    Within a matter of seconds Yuki had disarmed his opponents. Even with a perfectly in sync attack, they were weak against him. It was as if a group of little kids were fighting an adult. No matter how many times they tried to attack him, all of it was in vain.

    Yuki got up on his feet once more and began to walk away from them as if he didn''t care what they tried to do to him.

    "Is that all you''ve got? I was kinda expecting a little more impressive from the group that was supposed to be humanity''sst hope. Well, not humanity, it''s more of the 3 kingdoms''st hope," said Yuki. Yuki had only known that there were 3 kingdoms present due to the army''s different attire.

    Yuki turned back around to face the group as they sat on the ground trying to recuperate.

    "Come on now, try onest time. I''ll even go easy on you. If you kill me, you''ll be able to go home as the heroes of thousands of people," said Yuki as he mocked them.

    Hearing this, Tanya began to grow even more enraged. However her rage wasn''t directed at Yuki. After all, why would anyone me someone who is clearly superior to them? When human''s fail to recognize their own or their superior''s weakness, they always me those who seem weaker than them.

    "It''s all your fault. Why isn''t your ability working Lou! Are you working with the enemy? Are you trying to sabotage us?" Tanya yelled at the debuffer.

    It didn''t matter to her if Lou said that he used his ability to debuff Yuki. As long as she wasn''t able to kill her enemy in a single blow, it meant that it was someone else''s fault.

    "Did you ever consider that it might be your fault? My ability has never failed to debuff someone. I''ve always been loyal to you so why can''t you trust me now? Did you even think that you might be the weakest link of the group?" Lou argued back.

    "What did you just say to me?" Tanya said in an angry tone as she slowly began to walk towards Lou with death in her eyes. No one had ever spoken back to Tanya before, let alone her friend, nay, her ve. It was an act of treason that should be punished by death, she thought.

 Chapter 107 - Past Self

    Right before Tanya could p Lou, a hand reached out and stopped her.

    "Don''t you think you''re being too harsh on your friend here?" said Yuki while he held Tanya''s wrist.

    "Go away you delinquent, it''s not like you would know anything about having friends. Even if we don''t kill you, someone else will. That''s how the world works. Good always ovees evil," Tanya was just ranting in anger, however those words had been taken seriously by Yuki.

    Yuki''s grip on her hand had loosened due to him hearing those words. He thought about the possibility of that actually happening.

    "Could I actually die here? Even with all the knowledge I have, would it be possible for someone who''s my equal or stronger than me to target me and kill me for fame and money? No! I won''t die. I''ll make sure it''s not a possibility," Yuki told himself.

    While Yuki was having his inner monologue, Tanya had managed to escape his grip and p Lou for his misbehaviour. The loud smacking sound of Tanya''s palm hitting Lou''s face brought Yuki back to reality.

    "I''ve had my fun for today. Fooling around like this is a waste of time. I''ll let the new Meurig continue to train but maybe I''ll make him move to the 2nd dungeon while I go on to the 3rd. He should be finished by now I think."

    "I''ll call him once this is over," Yuki said to himself as he grabbed Tanya by the back of her head and lifted her in the air.

    "Hey! What do you think you''re doing to me!" Tanyashed out as he tried to break free. Everyone else watched as that was all they could do. Whether be a swordsman, tank, healer or mage, they all knew that they didn''t stand a chance. It would take a couple dozen debuffs to actually bring down Yuki.

    Lou stared at the agonized Tanya as he cried for Yuki to let go of her.

    "So what do you think?" Yuki asked Lou.

    Lou was caught off guard by the fact that Yuki was speaking to him but he responded as it was the best thing to do at that moment. He didn''t know what Yuki would do if Lou had ignored him. Even death was a possibility for Lou.

    "Sorry, I don''t quite understand what you mean," replied Lou.

    "I''ll make this simple. Kill her and everyone else gets to leave here without a single scratch. I advise you to think long and hard about this. There won''t be a saviour which wille to rescue you along with everyone else if you refuse to do so. This isn''t a superheroic. It''s either her life or everyone else''s. So what do you say?" Yuki asked.

    The choices given were unfair. Even if Lou did kill Tanya, there was no guarantee that Yuki would actually keep his end of the promise. However even with that, it would be better to kill Tanya to at least give them a small chance of survival if a little bit of kindness remained in Yuki''s heart. Right before Lou answered the question, someone spoke out.

    "Either no one dies or we all die!" Rina yelled to Lou as she tried to convince him to not kill Tanya.

    Hearing her words made Yuki angry. Lou''s decision was supposed to be a test to show how he truly felt. If his answer were to be influenced by pressure through friends, the test would be meaningless.

    "Oh, is that so? Then let me give you a choice as well," said Yuki.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki used his ability to create chains around Rina''s arms and tried her to the ground using said fire chains.

    "You can pick the response which Lou has to pick then. If you bear those mes for 1 minute, I''ll let everyone go, including Tanya. However if you yell even once during that 1 minute, Tanya along with you will die. Lastly, if you want to be let free from the chains, just tell Lou to kill Tanya and you''ll be set free and be allowed to live," exined Yuki.

    "Sounds good? Then, start," said Yuki without allowing Rina to answer.

    The moment Yuki increased the heat to his mes, Rina''s eyes were filled with tears as she couldn''t bear the agonizing pain which was being inflicted on her. She felt as if she was being suffocated by thousands of magma constructed snakes. Each one plunging its fangs into her skin at the same time as it released its venom into her. Not even having 4 seconds pass, Rina yelled out to Lou.

    "Kill her already! I can''t bear this pain anymore," Rina yelled.

    Hearing this made Yuki burst outughing. He had expected her to give up eventually but not that soon. It was almost guaranteed that Rina would give up as the temperature of Yuki''s fire constructed chains would drastically increase every 10 seconds, however even before the first increase had urred, Rina had given in. Even hypothetically, if she had the willpower to hold out for the full 1 minute, she would die as that was what Yuki had programmed the fire chains to do.

    "A wise choice. So what do you say?" Yuki asked Lou.

    "There''s no need to over think this. You''ve seen the way she mistreats you. She had absolutely no respect for you. She humiliated you in front of all these people. Imagine if she was in your shoes. Do you think she would''ve thought about letting you live? No. She would''ve killed you without a moment of hesitation," Yuki told Lou.

    As much as Lou wanted to deny the words that came out of Yuki''s mouth, he couldn''t deny the truth. It was as if the same scene from the final stage of the 2nd dungeon was taking ce once again. This time Yuki was Hades while Lou took the ce of Yuki.

    "But why me? You could''ve ced this burden on anyone else so why me?" Lou asked for an exnation.

    "I hate that question. In most cases I wouldugh at you and tell you that there''s nothing special about you. However, this time there is. I see my old self in you. I don''t want to look at that pathetic thing or anything resembling it ever again. In other words, I''m trying to make you evolve so you don''t get treated like a lowly dog," replied Yuki.

 Chapter 108 - Heavens Gun

    Rina, nowid on the ground with extreme burns all over her body, began to drag herself across the grass as she attempted to reach Lou. Once near Lou''s foot, Rina advised her friend.

    "Just get it over with already. It''s her life versus ours alongs with thousands more. It''s for the best," Rina said as he caught her breath.

    "But, Tanya is our friend. How am I supposed to kill someone so dear to me," said Lou.

    Yuki began to get annoyed by the way Lou spoke. It was the same old generic good guy act. Most would say that 1 life is worth the same amount as a 1000 lives. That was just how society was structured. No one was more important than anyone else. Each and every life was precious and should be treated well. However, it didn''t matter how many times that message got drilled into someone''s mind. In any scenario in which any sane person would have their life in danger and they could sacrifice someone else to save themselves, almost 100% of the time, that person would pick to save themselves. As such, it would make sense why Yuki would be upset at Lou.

    Right before Yuki could say his offer onest time before he gave up and just killed everyone instead, Lou did something that surprised Yuki. Lou had begun tough.

    "I''m just kidding. I don''t have a de of my own so I''ll need to use yours and how should I kill her? Her head sliced off? Or would you prefer it if I stabbed her chest?" Lou asked as he replied joyfully.

    "What happened to you? You were scared and confused just a moment ago," said Yuki as he was now the one who was confused.

    "Come one. Don''t tell me you bought into that act as well. I''m a literal grown man. Do you really think I would have trouble answering a question as simple as that. Of course I would kill her. Even if she was my closest friend, I would kill her. I not only get to save my life but everyone else''s as well-effectively being known as a hero. Plus it''s Tanya. I would dly kill her for half of a cookie. I mean, have you seen the way she talks to us?" said Lou.

    "Ya but still. Isn''t she your friend?" asked Yuki.

    "Friend? We were hired to be her friends but ended up bing more of her ves. Even when we came to this world, we stayed with her in fear that her family might rise to power once more and make an enemy of us if we took out our pent up anger on her," exined Lou.

    "Well. I don''t have much to say. I''ve misjudged you," said Yuki as he smiled while giving his de to Lou.

    Lou took onest deep breath before plunging "Fallen angel of hell" into Tanya''s heart. However Lou went even a step further.

    "I''m not risking anything. I can''t rely on the possibility that I can trust him or not. I have to guarantee this," said Lou as he pushed "Fallen angel of hell" past Tanya''s heart and into Yuki''s head.

    "Nice try. I''ll give you credit for effort but you get rid of me that easily," said Yuki as he popped his head out from the side. Yuki was now holding "Fallen angel of hell" with his index finger and middle finger from his left hand as he held Tanya with his right palm. Now that she was dead, Yuki let go of her body and she dropped to the ground.

    Yuki gabbed "Fallen angel of hell" by force from Lou''s arm and grinned at him to show that within the following seconds, everyone would experience true hell.

    "You were so close to getting out of this mess without any trouble but of course you had to mess it up for yourself as well as everyone else. You clearly saw me dodge attacks which were impossible to dodge. So what exactly went wrong in your head to assume that you could defeat me without any boosts or debuffs left on me?" asked Yuki.

    Lou fell to his knees as he tried to beg for mercy. However, it was already over. Yuki wasn''t the type to die in a cliche way. He knew that Lou had already broken their trust once, so what would stop him from doing it again? As Lou kneeled down to kiss Yuki''s feet and ask for mercy, Yuki kicked Lou by the chin.

    "What should I name this attack," Yuki asked himself as he tried to think of a name for a move which he would use in the moments that followed.

    Even while kicked away like a dog, Lou got up from the ground and began toe back as the brainless dog he was. Hope still left in his eyes, Lou once more kneeled to face Yuki''s feet, however this time, Yuki kneeled on one feet as he ced his index finger on Lou''s head and pointed it like a gun at him.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Gun," said Yuki as he sprouted mes from his index finger tip and directly inserted those mes into Lou''s forehead. It quickly spread in his body as it burned Lou from the inside. When all was finished, a smoke cloud exited Lou''s mouth as his eyes turned pure white and fell face first into the ground.

    "I was wrong. You''re nothing like the past me. You''re pathetic. You hide and wait to attack your enemies like a snake. Come on, I''m not the most courageous in the world but even I''m not that shallow," Yuki said as he stood up from the ground.

    "Well let''s see. There were 9 of you at the start. Now 2 are dead and your tank over there can''t move," said Yuki as he pointed at Otto.

    "So what''s the n now? Maybe abined attack with all 6 of you or maybe join back with the rest of the army and try toe up with a new n? Whatever it is, just do it quickly cause I''m getting bored over here," said Yuki.

    [+2500 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 12: 31500/400000]

 Chapter 109 - Rey Moon

    "What do you even want from us?" Erika asked.

    "You just keep fighting with us but continuously show us how much stronger you are than us. Don''t you think it''s a waste of your time? You could just kill us right now, so why do you choose to torment us instead?" asked Erika.

    "Oh well you''re right. Sorry, I got caught up in the moment and forgot about my goal here. Well, say your goodbyes now," replied Yuki.

    This caught Erika off guard. That wasn''t the response she was expecting.

    "Wait, that''s not what I meant-" Erika began to speak before she was cut off by Yuki.

    "What''s this now? Why would you remind me that I didn''t kill you and expect me not to do so? Wait, don''t tell me, were you hoping to negotiate with me," Yuki gasped sarcastically.

    "Well, you would be correct," said Erika as she blushed from embarrassing herself in front of the enemy.

    "That''s a shame. I don''t take back my word. Like I said, you''ll all be dying here so say your goodbyes," replied Yuki.

    "Just kidding," Yuki added, which made Erika sigh in relief.

    "Please, isn''t there anything we could do to make you reconsider. The 3 kingdoms wille together and give you as much money as they can offer. Just let us escape with our lives," pleaded Erika.

    "I literally told you that everyone could go home with their lives but of course those 4 decided to try and attack me," said Yuki as he referred to Tanya, Lou, Rina and Simeon.

    "Even after showing them how helpless the situation really was, the rest of you decided to join in as well. If you couldn''t stop me when I created that sun and fire wall, what made you think you could defeat me momentster? All of you did this to hold onto your pride and look where it has gotten you. You''re all going to die here. It''s over!" Yuki said, now tired of all the fake promises.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Sun"

    Yuki once again covered his feet in his mes as he elevated himself in the air. His finger raised into the sky, Yuki created arge sun like ball which was much smaller than the previous sun as he created a solid ball this time. Even if it were smaller than the previous ball, it would still be able to kill at least 1/3 of the army.

    "Are the preparations ready?" said Scar in a calm tone as he spoke to someone through the phone.

    "Yup. Just give the signal when you''re ready," replied Rey Moon, who was now standing on top of the cliff with all the prisoners which were gathered. Every single one of them was knocked out however they would not wake up as they were killed. Rey Moon''s ability allowed him to lead people to their deaths and in exchange for their lives, he could use them to kill someone else.

    "Actually, now would be a perfect time for you to use your ability," replied Scar.

    Without replying, Rey Moon ended the call and began to chant the words which would lead Yuki to his death.

    "Activate ability: Lives for Life"

    Once Rey Moon chanted those words a moment of silence took ce as everything seemed to go quiet. A gust of wind reached Yuki and his profile screen popped up. He saw as his exp began to decrease faster than he could see the numbers move. Once it reached 0, a level would be deducted and the next level began to get erased. After only 12 seconds, Yuki saw as the veryst of his exp drained from level 1.

    "What is happening?" Yuki asked as he panicked.

    Before an answer could form in his head, Yuki heard a loud continuous beep sound. His line of vision turned upside down as he began to feel as if he was falling like a feather. Even through the confusion, Yuki felt Joy as he died.

    "I remember this familiar feeling. It''s death. I never thought this would happen so soon. When did I get killed?" Yuki asked himself as hended head first into the ground.

    Yuki was dead.

    Seeing this was a momentous asion. The good guys had won. Yuki had tried to tell them that they wouldn''t win the battle but in the end he was the one in the wrong. Everyone cheered and cried as they celebrated the death of theirmon enemy.

    "I can go back to my family! I really thought I would die here," some of the soldiers said.

    Others dreamed of going back to the bar and passing out as they celebrated. Even if their future goals were different, they all had something inmon. They all celebrated as their evil enemy died.

    Even at a time like that, Rina began to head towards Yuki''s body to slice off his head and take it to Mr. Y so she along with Simeon could im the reward and split it amongst the two of them instead of the previous 4 members.

    Far off in a dark ce, Yuki awoke from slumber.

    "Hey there," a familiar voice said. However, it wasn''t Zero''s voice. It was Yuki''s voice.

    "Do I go to a different ce every time I die?" Yuki asked sarcastically as he couldn''t wait to make Zero respawn him back into that world.

    "What do you mean ''die''? You must''ve gotten the wrong idea. <strong>We</strong> aren''t dead," replied the voice.

    "Why did you change your tone when you said we? Are you some demon that is supposed to help me recover from helpless situations and get me out of ces where I should''ve died while apanying me to be the best hero in the universe which takes ce in a cartoon?" Yuki asked.

    ....

    "Wait, don''t tell me that I''m right," Yuki corrected himself.

    "No you''re not. I''m not some second entity. I am your emotions which have been amplified. Do you remember when Zero gave you a little bit of godly power? When he gave you that, since your mind was still human and not the one from your original form, your emotions became amplified to an extreme extent as well. I am not some other person or creature, I am your true darkest and deepest emotions," replied the voice.

 Chapter 110 - Jing

    "That doesn''t exin why I''m alive though. How can emotions control life and death?" Yuki asked.

    "A fair question to ask but don''t fret. I have an answer for that as well. I don''t know," the voice replied.

    "What do you mean you don''t know?! What is going to happen to me now?" Yuki asked.

    "Like I said, I don''t know. Use your deductive reasoning. I am literally you. If you don''t know, how am I-who is part of you as well, supposed to know? Maybe use your ears to listen when someone is talking next time," said the voice.

    "You''re absolutely useless. I''ll just think of something on my own," said Yuki.

    "By saying that I''m stupid, you''re technically calling yourself stupid as well," replied the voice but was ignored.

    "Okay let me think here. If he''s able to intrude my thoughts while being part of me as well using the powers that Zero had given me before... could he be the thing that''s giving me the different special des?" Yuki asked himself.

    "If that were to be the case then I would be lucky. I wouldn''t have to worry about him being my enemy. The real question is if I can use him to my advantage," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Hey! The random voice in my head. Tell me what your abilities are," Yuki called out.

    "Have some manners. Don''t treat me as if I''m an animal. All I can do is read your thoughts and speak when you''re talking. But you don''t notice so it''s fine," the voice replied.

    "You do what?! That''s an invasion of privacy," Yuki yelled.

    "How am I supposed to invade the privacy of myself. Just because you''re talking to a voice doesn''t mean you''re talking to another person. Think of it as if you''re talking to yourself like a madman," said the voice.

    "You should''ve said that from the beginning. That makes more sense. Let''s see. I should probably call you something since I can''t call you Yuki. That would just be wrong," said Yuki.

    After some thought, Yuki decided on a name to call the voice.

    "How about I call you One?" Yuki asked.

    "Was that the best you could do? You''re seriously going to name me a number?" said One.

    ...

    "I''m just kidding. I know what the reason was since I can read your thoughts. You named me One because you wanted to continue the trends of numbers from Zero. It soundsme but when you understand what it''s based on, it doesn''t seem so bad," replied One.

    "Do you n on adding other members to your arsenal any time soon? I mean I can read your thoughts and your perception of me along with Zero are tools for your convenience," One asked.

    "Maybe. I don''t know for sure. I was thinking about having numbers from 1 to 10 then having a jack, queen andstly me be the king. Obviously, Zero would be my Ace," replied Yuki.

    "Not a bad idea. It''ll be hard toe across being that would fit that title but good luck," said One.

    "Now, going back to the main task. Since I''m not dead, how do I go back to the new world? I have some business to take care of," asked Yuki.

    "I don''t know if this will work or not but I''ll try my best," replied One.

    "Wake up!"

    Yuki screen popped up as his exp began to increase until it was back to what it originally was before closing once again.

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 12: 31500/400000]

    Yuki''s eyes opened wide as he breathed in as hard as he could. He began to cough as if he had been drowned and had just received CPR. Rina, who was walking towards Yuki''s body, stopped right in her tracks. She wasn''t stupid, she had seen what Yuki was capable of. Without a moment wasted, Rina began to run away from the area as fast as she could. She didn''t tell anyone what was happening as she was too worried about herself. Anyone who saw her run away thought that she was running away in joy to greet her family. However, that was not the case. She was running away from the impending doom which everyone would face.

    "<strong>Death!</strong>" said One from Yuki''s mouth.

    Yuki''s skin began to crack like ss. Within those cracks, instead of blood flowing out, an orange glow gleaned from them .

    The moment which One had said that word, everyone went quiet as his presence overtook everyone. An invisible line rippled across the entire army as his sheer presence alone made everyone fall to their knees. Yuki''s eyes turned pitch ck as he began to raise in the air using his fire controlling ability.

    "What happened? This wasn''t part of the n. Why is he still alive? He was supposed to die and leave us alone!" said Scar as he began to panic. While not in his nature to act in such a manner however under a situation such as this, anyone would break down.

    "So it''s really over. We lost. Even with all the preparations that we had done. All the people we had gathered. The different strategies we had... all of them went to waste. No matter how hard we try, he won''t let us win," said Carmi on the other side of the army.

    "Not yet. I won''t allow this to go to waste. We have to win!" Yelled Jing.

    "Activate ability: Convey"

    Jing used his ability to make sure that everyone in the army heard him. He nned to give everything the army had left before they would go down.

    "Listen everyone! Change your ability to an attack boosting ability and give your boosts to the mage Erika. She''s the female who is standing confused near Yuki. Let her be the one to direct our final attack at Yuki," Jing yelled out to everyone.

    "Hey Erika, listen up. I know you''re a mage of some sort so cast your strongest spell and direct it at Yuki once you receive all the boosts from everyone!" Jing told Erika.

    Within a few moments almost everyone had changed their ability to the type to boost Erika''s attack power. It had been more than 2 weeks since most people had changed their ability so they were able to change it to what they desired.

    "Now!" Jing yelled out

    All throughout the army, everyone began to activate their ability as they created red magic circles that kept stacking on top of Erika''s head.

 Chapter 111 - Hell Splitter

    "Activate ability: Attack increase"

    "Activate ability: Attack increase"

    "Activate ability: Attack increase"

    "Activate ability: Attack increase"

    "Activate ability: Attack increase"

    ...

    Each person from the army used their ability to createrge magic circles on top of Erika''s head. As the red glow from the magic circles began to seep into Erika''s body, she could feel her strength grow at astronomical rate. Her hair began to flow in different directions from the sheer strength that she had received. Her mind had been put in an extreme state of excitement as she couldn''t wait to use her magic. Her skinny wand in hand, Erika began to use her ability.

    "Activate ability: Gust Control"

    Within a mere second, Erika created hundreds of thousands ofrge green tridents which looked to be transparent. Each one was pointed at Yuki as the line of tridents spanned over the entire army. Everyone looked up at them as if they were seeing stars in broad daylight.

    As her eyes glowed lime green, Erika began to smile as she began to fly. She didn''t even feel the least bit tired after creating so many tridents. What else could''ve been expected from an attack boost from nearly 3000 people.

    "I feel so powerful! I''m going to go insane if I don''t put this power to good use," said Erika as she pointed her finger at Yuki which made all of her trident fly towards Yuki at top speeds. Yuki was still in a state of unconsciousness. Even though he stood there with his skin cracked as he glowed, Yuki couldn''t move or talk.

    Each and every single trident hit Yuki with pinpoint uracy. As the barrage continued, a cloud of smoke began to form, in turn making it impossible to see what was exactly going on. Nevertheless, Erika didn''t n on allowing to get lucky once more and continue to live.

    Using her ability, Erika created enormous spears, swords, bidents, tridents and every weapon she could think of as she directed them all at Yuki. With all the power she had, it seemed like she could go on endlessly. Still having stamina to spare, Erika created hundreds of wind constructed green balls which each equaled Yuki''s "Heaven''s Sun" in size. However, instead of throwing them at Yuki, shepressed their size until they were the size of a gum ball. She had done the exact same thing that Yuki had done while he was in the 2nd dungeon. Once she had gathered her hundreds of small balls, She directed them to the ce where Yuki was standing but now was covered with smoke.

    Once the small balls hit the ground, Erika snapped her fingers and made all of the hundreds ofpressed air balls explore. Everyone watched in amazement as they saw the hundreds of giant explosion clouds. Even when the situation seemed dire, they had managed toe through and through their hard work defeated their enemy-Yuki Kaito. They had killed him once before so it only took a little extra hard work to defeat him.

    ...

    At least that was what they thought. Once the smoke cleared, the bleeding body of Yuki Kaito showed itself. He stood where he had been standing before Erika''s barrage of attacks. While she did manage to injure him badly, Yuki didn''t care-or more so feel anything.

    "I still have more of where that came from!" Erika yelled out as she prepared tounch another barrage of attacks.

    However before she could do so, Yuki''s ck eyes began topress and change back into a pupil. Yuki finally began to move even as his body bled and cracked. Yuki quickly directed his eyes at Erika.

    "<strong>Stop!</strong>" said one as he was the one who was speaking out of Yuki''s mouth.

    Erika instantly stopped right in her tracks and froze up as she fell back to the groundnding as if she was a rock. She had been overtaken by fear and couldn''t do anything about it. While most people''s presence wouldn''t be this potent, One was able to do this due to him being an extreme version of Yuki''s emotions-powered by a minuscule amount of Zero''s power.

    "<strong>Activate ability: Fire contro</strong>l"

    One propelled himself high in the air using Yuki''s ability. He looked down at everyone else as if they were insects. One stood in the air as pped his hands together as hard as he could-not letting go of them. One slowly shifted his right palm lower. While this seemed like an innocent move, this caused the ground which the army stood on to crack in half as one side lowered itself. Instantly, a fiery st emerged from the crack between the two sides as it exploded in front of everyone. It was like watching a tsunami however it was made of fire and it separated into two sides which drowned the entire army. Not a single person could escape the attack.

    Once this had been aplished, Yuki fell down to the ground as he passed out from exhaustion. Yuki continued his slumber for 38 more hours. When he had finally awoken it was the night of the next day. Yuki had awoken to the sight of over 3000 people dead at his feet. They werepletely unrecognizable as Yuki''s mes had burned off their skin and all that was left was bone.

    3156 people had died due to the final move One had used.

    "Don''t you think you overdid it?" Yuki said as if talking to One but didn''t receive a response.

    [+7.89 million exp]

    [+9.468 millon exp]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [LEVEL UP]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 21: 658500/10 million]

    [New skill unlocked: Poison Immunity]

    [Poison Immunity: Ability to be unaffected by any type of poison]

    [New skill unlocked: Paralysis Immunity]

    [Paralysis Immunity: Ability to unaffected by paralysis inducing objects, people or anything of such sort]

    "Wow! You really did go overboard!" Yuki said as he felt the immense pleasure which the system granted when a yer reached a milestone-that being level 20. That along with all the previous levels he had just acquired at the same time gave Yuki a feeling which words couldn''t describe.

    "Thank you!" Yuki said as he fell to the ground from joy.

 Chapter 112 - New Kingdom

    "9 whole levels at once? I''m surely the global #1 yer as of now. But still, it came as the cost of the lives of all these people. Not that I care but... is the reason I feel no remorse when I kill because One pushes my emotions to the limits in turn making me numb?" Yuki asked himself as he sighed.

    "It would''ve felt better if my actions were caused by me and me alone. Having someone be there to secretly take all the credit ruins all the fun. Well, it''s not like it matters now anyway. It has already happened so I''ll just have to ept it and get over it. Getting hung up on small details such as these just wastes time which I don''t have. Not technically... with a level increase thisrge, I''ll be able to have some free time on my hands," Yuki said to himself.

    Yuki watched as the sun rose back up as heid in the soft grass. He thought about what his next moves would be. While on paper it would seem that he hadpleted 1/5 of his journey to be the first level 100 yer, he knew that that was far from the truth. Just like in any video game, the progression rate begins to increase. Those who have managed to get past the fact that they have to face death each and every day will continue to progress. However, once they reach a point where it takes weeks up to months to reach the next level, that''s when only a few will remain.

    "Wait, I can probably use ''Fallen angel of hell'' a little better now. Along with being able to draw out more of its true ability, I should be able to be unstoppable for a while," Yuki said as he stood up from the grass.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced "Fallen angel of hell" back into his inventory as he hadn''t done that until that point. He would''ve tried to use the de once again however he knew that if he did do that, he would end up wanting to go back to the dungeons.

    "I want to spend a few months exploring the world. Even 1 month would be enough. I can''t be using up all my time in dungeons like a caveman. Human interaction is important since I''ll have to use it when I''m eventually King," Yuki tried to make excuses for himself as to why he was abandoning his quest of endless grinding.

    "Wait, what about people who are in raid parties? Nevermind. Most people who would choose to work in a raid party wouldn''t seek the first level 100 title. There could only be one person who will break their limits so while you can level up faster in said party, it''ll always end in bloodshed if even one of them is seeking to be the first level 100 yer. As for solo yers, I doubt many would even grind to reach my rank by the end of their life times let alone within a few months. Most people have already tried the ways of bing a yer but they either quit from exhaustion, trauma or having other desires," Yuki said to himself as he tried to even out the choices people had in the new world.

    "Even those who do have the will power to continue fighting will eventually crash because of the expectations they set for themselves. Having to live with the fact that other people are working as hard or harder than you to break their limiter has got to be tiring... that sounds like what I''m doing. No point in overthinking it, I''ll just go through with this," Yuki told himself.

    "Hey Zero," Yuki called out.

    "Yes, master. How may I be of assistance to you?" Zero asked.

    "Just teleport me to another country within this world. Staying here would be a bad idea. The news of me killing all these people will spread like wildfire. While I would like to kill more of them and gain more exp, that would just continue the cycle. I want to get away from here for now," Yuki exined.

    "Your wish is mymand," Zero replied.

    Within a blink of an eye, Yuki was at the doorstep of a kingdom which he hadn''t seen before. While it was very simr to the one which he had spawned in, the people werepletely different. To add on to that, the civilians had started to turn the outside of the kingdom as a farm of some sort. They had begun to expand theirnd and began to develop their tools and resources.

    "Wait, what about thenguage barrier?" Yuki asked.

    "I had already taken care of that when this world was created. Everyone only understands and speaks the englishnguage," Zero exined.

    "Well, thank you for all the help. You can go now," Yuki dismissed Zero.

    Yuki quickly realized that he was basically naked while he wore his ripped pants which now looked like shorts and his royal cape. Yuki quickly ran to the side of the kingdom''s outer walls and opened his inventory. Yuki took out the clothing which the king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon had bought for him. It was a light white t-shirt and ck pants. The king also made sure to buy Yuki a new pair of white sneakers which came in handy since Yuki had burned off his shoes in the dungeon.

    Yuki smelled himself and realized that he smelled horrid. He had forgotten to take a shower because he was stuck in the dungeons for so long. For other sanitary needs, Yuki would call upon Zero to bring him to the spatial dimension which he resided in and created a bathroom which Yuki would use when he needed to. However, due to him being excited to enter the next battle as quickly as possible, Yuki would often forget to take a shower.

    "I''ll just have to find a ce to take a shower at in this kingdom," said Yuki as he walked through the giant double doors which led him to the kingdom.

    "I''ll have to keep a low profile here for the time being," said Yuki as he red at all the people in the kingdom. It looked so peaceful and quiet. It was the ideal kingdom to be spawned into.

 Chapter 113 - News

    News about Yuki''s victory against thebined power of the 3 kingdoms spread around the world like wildfire. At first it was just the neighboring kingdoms however by the end of the first week of that event, nearly the entire country had received the news. 3000 lives were ended in a day. Those lives had been taken by some random teenager. The true power of the world became evident as the news spread. No matter who or what you are, if you have the willpower to push yourself past your limits, you could over power a whole army on your own. While to some that seemed to be like a fantasy, to most it was terrifying. First there were the asional outside world monsters which differed in strength depending on region but now they had to fear humans as well. In fact, it could be argued that humans were more dangerous than monsters.

    The monsters'' strength never changed. If it were weak one day, it would be weak the next. However, if you were to give a human determination, they could attain unfathomable strength within weeks.

    Yuki had begun to explore the vast kingdom in search of something even he didn''t know of. All he wanted to find was something more meaningful in the new world than leveling up constantly. While he would eventually find that what he sought, when Yuki first passed through the kingdom gates was like a lost kid in a mall. He didn''t know where anything was and also didn''t know any of the people. Just like a small town, due to the small poption of civilians per kingdom, theirmunities had be tightly knit together. Most people already knew each other and getting into thosemunities was hard, especially when you''re an outsider. However, Yuki wasmitted to making a humble fake life for himself for the time being.

    While on his search for meaning to the world outside the dungeons, other events were taking ce across the world. Without realizing it, Yuki had be an important figure in the world. To some-mostly criminals, he was a hero who fought for what he wanted and won. While to others, he was a devil incarnate.

    The new world had a rtively simple structure. In total there were 8 diamond shaped continents when all started at the same point but they expanded outwards like an 8 finger w. Within the spaces of the ws/continents flowed water. Within one of the continents, a group of people continued their conversation. The building they were on much resembled the inside the house ofmons. Many individuals were present in ck suits as they discussed important matters.

    "We can''t possibly ignore this. This is a breach of all human rights. We must stop him at any cost!" one spoke out.

    "But you''ve heard what he''s capable of. I mean a whole armyposed of 3000 people all taken down in minimal effort. Did you even look at the diagrams which are circting of the damage he had done to the ground?" another man replied.

    "Then how do you propose that we deal with him?" the first man asked.

    "Well, the sad truth is, we can''t. He''ll soon grow to be a treat to all of humanity. If the theory that you gain exp for killing people stands to be true. We''re even more helpless than we thought. An exp gain from killing all those people single handedly would''ve leveled him up a couple of levels. To add to that, there are rumours that he cleared the second dungeon of this world. How can we evenpete with that?" the second man replied once more.

    His words left everyone speechless as they tried toe up with ways to defeat Yuki.

    "What about an instant kill ability where it doesn''t matter how strong he is, he still dies?" a man from the back seats spoke out.

    "I''ve got some news for you if you think that''ll work. Apparently the group that was sent out to kill him had someone by the name of Rey Moon which had an ability simr to what you described. In the end, that still didn''t work. We need to take him head on with a small group of highly ranked yers. If we were to send an army after him once again and he were to kill even more people, he would just keep gaining exp, in turn growing even stronger," another man replied.

    "That''s easy to say but where do we even find people like that?" another person asked.

    ...

    "How about enving people and forcing them to clear dungeons?" someone spoke out after getting tired of the silence.

    Within the first seconds after the man had said those words, everyone began to speak over each other. Some yelled, others tried toe up with reasonable ways to implement said methods or find another method of defeating Yuki Kaito.

    Feeling uneasy, the man mmed his hands on the long wooden table which spanned throughout the aisle and stood up from his seat.

    "Why do we need to argue about the ethics of this? We all know that we have to make harsh decisions. How else are we supposed to defeat such a powerful enemy? But don''t fret. We can keep this a secret between us here only and no one else would know about it. I mean, look at the history of the old world. People in ancient times did a lot of hical things but in the end, everything worked out. They managed to hide most of the details and granted humanity prosperity. If we go along with this, sure we''ll be seen as viins now but we''ll be renowned heros in the future, and that''s only if this information slips," the same man exined.

    "Look, at the end of the day, we''re doing something ''evil'' for the greater good. Yuki ismitting evil deeds just to be evil. Sacrifices need to be made," the man continued.

    ...

    "Since no one has anything else to say, I think we can all agree on this," the man said before sitting back down.

 Chapter 114 - Pity

    As Yuki passed through the double doors which lead into the kingdom he had been teleported to, he was amazed at how peaceful it was. It wasn''t that his kingdom was any different. It was simply because he hadn''t gotten a chance to rest from the endless battles he was in. The dungeons had be his new home even though they were designed to take much longer to clear than Yuki had spent in them. Most would''ve needed to go outside the dungeons to replenish their strength, however, Yuki just abused Zero''s power for his own desires. He was like a pay-to-win yer while everyone else was a free-to-y yer.

    There was an endless array of small wood constructed shops which were owned by yers who had started their own stores to make money instead of killing monsters. The route of supplying goods was much safer than having to risk your life. Everyone had picked a different path to lead their life in this world. While some still chose to hunt monsters, others picked up providing goods or services to survive. As long as they could continue living, that was all that mattered to them. All the people that sought to be the first level 100 yer had either given up hope or went off on their own to gain exp.

    Yuki snapped himself back to reality before too many people could stare at him looking dazed at a in kingdom. It would''ve been best for Yuki to try and explore the kingdom before it got dark so he would at least find a ce to stay. While walking by all the houses and stores, Yuki spotted a small diner. It looked to be pretty popr which drove Yuki away at first nevertheless, he went in there as he had no reason to be scared of anyone. If anyone wanted to get in his way, he would simply teach them a lesson.

    The store was a rtively small but average looking one floor diner. The porch side had 3 wooden tables with 3 chairs each. Every single seat had been taken by customers as they talked to each other about mundane things. The inside of it was no different. As Yuki looked through the ss windows from afar, he could see the long line of people who were waiting for their meals. Even though there were seats inside the store as well, they had beenpletely filled out and people had begun to resort to ordering takeouts.

    Yuki finally walked in the store-eager to learn as much as he could from eavesdropping on people''s conversations. Yuki stood in the long line behind at least 20 people. Even though there was only one person who was tending to the customers, the line was moving at a rtively decent rate.

    Even though Yuki had been hoping that he could at least learn a few special things such as who was in charge of the kingdom but he was unlucky in his quest. All the people talked about was their boring lives and gossip about other people. Yuki had been waiting in the line for what seemed like hours as he stayed quiet the entire time. After waiting for so long, thest person in front of him moved out of the way so Yuki could order.

    "What can I get for you?" the store owner asked.

    ...

    While Yuki had entered the diner, he never actually nned on getting anything from there. It was odd because he had waited anxiously for his turn but when that time finally came, Yuki was left speechless. The only option he was left with was to order something but he didn''t know any of the items on the menu.

    "What do you offer here?" Yuki asked as he didn''t know what to get.

    Right as he said that, everyone in the store gasped in disapproval. It was as if they were telling him how dare he not know. This had caught Yuki off guard as it shouldn''t be abnormal not to know what a store offers when you enter it for the first time.

    "Did I do something wrong?" Yuki asked as his voice trailed off when he finished his question.

    "You must be new here.. right?" the store owner said as he looked rtively concerned.

    "It actually is," Yuki replied truthfully to get out of the situation. The people there had made it seem like Yuki hadmitted a federal offense. However, just as the people heard Yuki''s words, they let out a sigh of relief.

    "Well that exins it. We''re all good here then," the owner said as he let out augh.

    "Hey kid, where are your parents? You should definitely bring them along with you next time youe here," said the owner of the store.

    While most in Yuki''s situation would''ve been angry at the words that the owner had said, Yuki was actually really calm about it. However, he needed toe up with an Alibi. He couldn''t tell the owner that his dad was a deadbeat father and his mother mentally and physically abused him for years until he eventually killed her. Yuki was already used to making lies on the spot, as such this situation was no different.

    "My mother died of sickness when I was a little boy. As for my father, he''s in a dungeon right now. He often goes there to earn us enough money to survive," Yuki lied.

    Everyone who heard Yuki''s lie was moved by his story. They couldn''t help but feel pity for him. This was the best oue Yuki could''ve hoped for. When people pity others, they tend to be much kinder to them. That was the reason Yuki had tried to let go of any of his pride. Pride was one''s weakness. Pure arrogance wouldn''t get anyone anywhere. However, letting go of it allowed people to use trickery to achieve what they wanted. This was precisely what Yuki was doing.

    "Don''t worry kid. This one is on the house. You can get whatever you want from here. How about starting out with a rice omelet? You can get anything else you want after that from our menu," said the owner with tears in his eyes as he gave Yuki a menu while his food was being prepared.

 Chapter 115 - Owner

    Once Yuki had finished eating all the food he was given, he began to get ready to leave. He had been sitting on one of the stools at the side of the cashier stand while he ate the food that was given to him by the owner of the diner.

    "I can''t believe that even though he''s a level 2 yer, he chooses to use his ability to make food. I can''t me him though. His business is good and his food is even better," Yuki thought to himself as he stood up from his seat.

    "Thank you for your kindness," Yuki said as he bowed to show gratitude.

    "Don''t even worry about it. I''m happy to help those in need. By the way, since you said you''re traveling with your dad and he''s in a dungeon right now, I''m assuming you don''t have a ce to stay," the owner of the store said.

    "Jackpot," Yuki said to himself. Yuki tried to stutter to make himself look embarrassed. The more helpless he looked, the better.

    "At the moment that would be correct. Could you direct me to an inn or hotel where I could spend the night?" Yuki asked in a soft tone.

    "Nonsense. You can live with me for free for the time being. It hasn''t been that long since we were brought into this world. The way we can continue to survive is by helping each other. You can stay at my ce for the time being, no fees required," the store owner said.

    "Well... this wasn''t what I was looking for but it''ll do," Yuki thought to himself.

    "I''ll have to refuse. There''s no way I could leach off of you after you''ve shown me such kindness," said Yuki. It was better for Yuki to refuse the offer first to see if the owner really did mean what he said. If he was telling the truth, then it would be fine. If he were to retract his offer, Yuki could just ask directions for a nearby hotel or inn. It was a win-win situation for Yuki.

    "Don''t be ridiculous. What kind of person would I be if I were to leave a kid to wander all alone in this unknown world. Plus, it''s only until your father gets out of the dungeons right? So it''s fine," the owner replied to Yuki.

    "How can I rey you mister? I feel guilty practically stealing from you," said Yuki.

    "That''s enough out of you kid. When someone offers to help you, you don''t reject it. You just simply say thank you," the owner of the diner said in a slightly angry tome.

    "T-thank you," said Yuki as he continued to y into the act he had set up.

    "But if you really would like to help, I would appreciate it if you helped me out with all the dirty dishes in the back," the owner suggested.

    "I would be happy to help," said Yuki as he headed to the side of the cashier table. There was a small door made of soft dark oak wood which the owner opened to let Yuki pass through. Behind the owner had a door which led to a back section of the store which was closed off from the rest of the store. Since the owner could create meals with his ability, a kitchen wasn''t necessary for cooking but only for cleaning dishes.

    Once Yuki walked through the door, he was greeted with a mountain of dishes. There had to be at least 12 stacks of tes of all different sizes. It would be impossible for a single person to clean this in a day.

    "Has he been leaving these tes here? I mean I understand because he''s working alone and he has to tend to the customers but seriously, with the money he''s making, he could hire at least 2 other employees," Yuki said to himself as he made his way to the sink.

    "Well, let''s see... it should take only 1-2 hours for me to finish this if I were to use my ability. I can''t let anyone see me using it though since they''ll get suspicious that I''m lying about who I really am. From their perspective I should be only a level 1 yer. At that stage, with my ability, arge fireball should be all I could do without fainting from over exhaustion. Usingplex techniques would damage my image which I''ve built up for these people," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki created multiple fire hands which worked simultaneously to wash and dry the dishes. Yuki had greater control over his ability due to him leveling up so much. Due to that, Yuki was able to make it so that the mes didn''t burn the tes and bowls which he was assigned to wash.

    Just to insure that no one would walk in on him as he did this, Yuki stood at the door and blocked off the door just so that no one could intrude on him. Yuki needed to hide for the time being, not because he was scared but to have fun. Him being so over leveled didn''t make any sense to most and they would assume he did the worst of actions which in fact he did do. Hiding his identity was the best way for him to enjoy his made up life for a while.

    "Being a dishwasher doesn''t seem so bad. At least I can try to make some new friends while I''m here as well," Yuki thought to himself.

    After about an hour, Yuki hadpletely finished washing the dishes. It had taken him almost no time to finish the task he was given. He had underestimated himself due to him not realizing how much power and control over his ability he had due to him reaching past level 20.

    As Yuki sat on the ind table while ying with small fireballs which he had created with his ability, the owner of the store walked in. The owner wore an ordinary chief''s clothes. His most distinguishable characteristic was his pointed brown moustache and his silky brown hair. He walked into the kitchen with a stack of dirty dishes-expecting Yuki to have cleared at max 1 out of the many piles that were there. To his surprise, not only were the tes and bowlspletely cleaned, the kitchen itself was spotless.

 Chapter 116 - Talk

    Once Yuki along with his new family had finished dining, Yuki helped Elpis take the dirty dishes to the sink which was located in the kitchen. Right as Yuki began washing the dishes out of habit, Elpis stopped him and took the te which was in his hand away from him.

    "Don''t worry about that. I''ll be washing the dishes. After all, you''re our guest here. You can go back upstairs and go to sleep now. You need to get some sleep," said Elpis.

    "Oh-okay ma''am," Yuki said as he began to walk back up the stairs to the attic which also acted as his temporary room.

    Right as he passed through the dining room which Marcell and his daughter were still sitting at, Marcell called out to Yuki.

    "Hey Jack, if it wouldn''t be too much to ask of you. What would you say to working under me at my diner? I know it''s a lot to ask of you since we''ve barely just met but you''re a hard and efficient worker. I doubt I''ll ever find anyone who possesses the skills that you have for any amount of money," Marcell asked while looking away from Yuki''s eyes as if he was ashamed of what he had said.

    "Of course I would. I thought we already established that. You''ve done so much for me, there''s absolutely no way I could refuse. Plus, it''s not that much work," replied Yuki.

    Marcell looked at Yuki with the biggest smile on his face as he couldn''t believe the words which Yuki had just uttered from his mouth.

    "Do you really mean that?" Marcell asked with tears barely holding back in his eyes.

    ".. Yes? Why would I lie about something like that?" Yuki asked with a confused face.

    Marcell instantly went to hug Yuki. Marcell wrapped hisrge arms around Yuki as he continuously thanked him. While to Yuki it was just a simple task he would do without even having to work on his own since he used his fire constructed flying hands to wash the dishes, to Marcell, it was life saving. He had oftene home muchter than the store had closed due to him having to clean up after closing hours. Now that Yuki was there, he could sell as much food as he wanted and stille home to his family at a reasonable time.

    "It''s really not that big of a deal, you can let go of me now. You''re suffocating me," said Yuki.

    "Oh, sorry. I couldn''t help it. I really thought you were going to say no to my oundish request," said Marcell.

    "Of course I would say yes. However, I''ll need toe clean about something," said Yuki as he made a serious face.

    "What is it? You can tell me anything," Marcell reassured Yuki.

    "I trust you so I''ll tell you. The reason I was able to wash those dishes was because I''m not an ordinary kid who happened to end up lost here. I''m actually a level 3 yer. I used to go into the dungeons with my father in the beginning because he was too scared to leave me alone. So, he took me with him into the dungeons. Soon after, we leveled up to level 2 then 3. However, soon after, I started to get left behind. I wasn''t able to keep up with him. In the end, he became addicted to the feeling which people feel when they level up and decided to leave me alone in the dungeon once he had cleared it. I tried to look for him within the dungeon but he was nowhere to be found. After spending so much time looking for him, I soon realized that he had left me for good. I ended up running far away from that ce and began to look for a new ce to stay at. That''s how I ended up here. All I wanted was to find an inn or hotel for the time being but you stayed persistent and wouldn''t let me go. So, if you would like, you can kick me out," lied Yuki. He knew exactly what he was doing.

    Hearing Yuki''s "true" story brought Marcell toughter.

    "I''m sorry I shouldn''t beughing. It''s just thest part which sounds ridiculous. You can stay with us for as long as you would like. After all, you''ll be helping me out at the diner. I''ll just have to talk to Elpis about it first. I''m sure she''ll agree so don''t be scared. You can go to your room now," said Marcell as he gave Yuki a thumbs up.

    "And now we wait," Yuki said to himself as he began to walk towards the stairs which led to his room. Yuki went up the stairs and used his ability to open the attic door after making sure that nobody was around to see him since he was toozy to get the broom and open the door on his own.

    Once inside, Yukiid on his bed. Unlike most other times, Yuki didn''t have anything on his mind. He was just rxing since he hadn''t gotten the chance to do something as simple as that in so long.

    A few minutester, Yuki could hear the sound of crying from downstairs. At first he thought they were tears of anger and disappointment however, momentster, everything had been cleared up. Yuki could hear muffled speech which went along the lines of.

    "I can''t believe he had to endure all of that. Of course he can stay with us. It''s not like he would be a liability to us either. After all, he''ll be working at the diner with you," said Elpis.

    "How do they fall for such a simple lie? This has to be too good to be true. Well, at least I''ve secured a ce where I can stay for the time being. However I can''t be too dependent on them. I should always have my guard up just in case," Yuki thought to himself.

    Just like a skilled magician, Yuki had managed to trick everyone without letting a single person know his true intentions.

 Chapter 117 - Friend

    "When did you get time to do all of this?" asked the owner of the store.

    "It was really not that much work. Would you like me to help you out with anything else as well?" Yuki asked.

    The owner of the store set the tes down the marbled countertop which glistened in the kitchen light. The smell of fresh cleaning soups reeked from the kitchen as he admired the sight in front of him. The kitchen looked better than when he had first got it. He couldn''t believe what his eyes showed him. For all he knew, it was an illusion. The tes and bowls which Yuki had cleaned were stacked neatly on the kitchen table as their white texture sparkled.

    "But how? It would''ve taken me at least the whole day to finish cleaning all of them. Most of the dirty dishes have been there for a while. I just never had the chance to keep up with them. I mean look at this. You even cleaned the kitchen itself. Are you real?" the owner asked in amazement and confusion. Of course he would be confused. A kid basicallyes into your store and does what you couldn''t do in days in a matter of a few minutes.

    "Like I said. It really wasn''t that much work. I could do more if you would like?" Yuki said.

    "Well.. if you''re offering, could you wash these tes as well?" the owner said as he referred to the pile of dirty dishes he had brought in from the front of the shop. He would usually let them umte there and bring them to the back once there were enough. It allowed him to continue selling his products without wasting much time. Most people didn''t mind either since it wasn''t ordinary for people to have a "civilized" way of life at that time. Society had be more lenient on the small details of everyday life as there were much more important things to take care of. As such, manners weren''t of the utmost importance or evenmonce in most houses.

    "With pleasure. You can go back out there and focus on serving the customers. These dishes will be cleaned in no time," replied Yuki as he gave an innocent but hard working smile. While his emotions were fake, the owner seemed to believe them so it wasn''t a bad thing. Hearing Yuki''s words, the owner reached into the dark oak constructed cabs to grab a new stack of tes and bowls out of instinct.

    "I don''t think you need to do that. You can take the ones I just cleaned," Yuki reminded the owner. The owner had subconsciously reached into the cabs out of habit however, he quickly moved his hand away before reaching from the clean stack of tes to bring along with him to the front side of the store.

    Once the owner took the stack on clean white tes to the front, he returned once more to take a clean stack of bowls as well. From the expression on his face, the owner seemed more joyous than before. This allowed Yuki to be proud of himself, seeing as he hadpleted his task extraordinarily well. Yuki subconsciously smiled before going back to creating his fire contracted hands by using his ability to help him wash the dishes one again.

    The cycle of the ownering into the back and Yuki cleaning the dishes urred about 6 more times. Each time, the owner looked happier than thest. It just happened to be that before Yuki had arrived, he had been purposely taking more time to create the meals for the customers on purpose due to him not wanting to have more dishes to washter on. However, now that Yuki was there, he could make as much food for the customers as he wanted without having to worry even a single bit.

    As for the customers, they also had their own sources of ie. Arge majority of the kingdom''s poption dined at the owner''s store due to his food''s quality being one of the best for a decent price. Since most people decided to rely on trade to make their money instead of hunting monsters, they would eventually make their money back. After all the saying goes "what goes around,es around".

    Once Yuki unknowingly finished washing thest batch of dirty dishes, he sat in the kitchen bored, awaiting the next batch. However, it would note. The owner of the store was cleaning up before leaving the store and had forgotten to tell Yuki. However, once he finished, the owner walked into the kitchen to inform Yuki that it was time to leave.

    "Hey kid. It''s time to leave?" the owner said as he popped his head through the door.

    "Wait what? Aren''t there more dishes to wash?" Yuki asked.

    "Oh right. I forgot to tell you. This store closed about an hour ago. I was just cleaning up and I forgot to mention that information. The good news is that we can go now," the owner replied.

    "That''s fine. I don''t really mind. I''m still grateful to you for showing me so much kindness. It really does mean a lot," said Yuki as he continued to y into his role.

    "Come on. You can drop the formal talk. We''re practically friends now," replied the owner as he rested his hand on Yuki''s neck.

    Yuki had made himself a lot more fragile than before while he was in the kitchen by using his skill "Faker". This profile also included his stats which meant augmenting them also changed his physical attributes. Yuki had continuously changed his stats each time the owner went in little by little so as to not raise any suspicion of what he was doing. While in reality he couldpletely demolish the entire kingdom in one single attack, Yuki made himself look like a helpless homeless teenager.

    "Thank you for your kind words. I''ll appreciate every act you''ve done for me for the rest of my life," said Yuki as he walked with the owner through the streets to his house.

    "By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Marcell, what''s yours?" the owner asked.

    "Y-, Jack, my name is Jack," Yuki replied.

 Chapter 118 - Family

    Yuki had lied about his name just in case word about his battle against thebined forces of the 3 kingdoms got out faster than he had expected. It was a reasonable precaution to take as he couldn''t be sure who to trust. Most people would give in and betray their closest friends for the right amount of money. As such, that same rule would apply to anyone else such as Marcell. No matter how kind he was towards Yuki. If someone were to tell Marcell about the crimes Yuki hadmitted, he would surely turn on him and lead him to a trap.

    Under any circumstance, Yuki couldn''t allow himself to grow trusting or attached to anyone as it would always lead him to heartbreak and betrayal. Yuki at first med this quality on himself as he had been left alone by many people in his life. It wasn''t as if Yuki couldn''t get along with people. In fact, Yuki was a great person to be around when he was putting up his fake personality. His n was in and simple. All he had to do was smile and agree with the people he talked to. That worked out great for him, however when his true self slipped out, people began to distance themselves from him and eventually shun him away.

    No one was to me for either side''s actions. No one had an obligation to ept one another for what they truly were. It was a simple game of who ever managed to abide by society''s standards the longest. If both managed to hold up their fake persona''s for eternity, they would manage to be friends. Those who managed to break past thews of society would be best friends, but even best friends had boundaries which if broken would end the friendship. Unfortunately for Yuki, he had to figure out those things on his own as both his parents weren''t present for most of his life for their own separate reasons. This caused Yuki to rely on the process of trial and error to learn what to do and what not to do until he figured things out. Well... that was before. This time, Yuki couldn''t afford to take any chances, he had to be as cautious as possible.

    After walking for what seemed like only a few minutes, Yuki and Marcell reached their destination. It was a 2 story house which was rtively big. It had the same medieval theme which every other house had with the wooden supports and stone tile roof which every house within every kingdom had. These were of course because of the original design of the world. Each kingdom was given the basics which they needed. It was an open world so they could do whatever they wanted to do with the world. They could destroy the houses and rebuild them, paint them or add on to them. There were no restrictions ced on the people which made the world have the potential to grow and turn into a diverse world which contained many different cultures and ways of life just like their previous one. While that was arge possibility, time would also factor in. It would either happen rtively quickly or after a long time, there was very little leeway to it.

    Marcell walked up to the door and opened it. To Yuki''s surprise there was a light turned on already. Right as the door opened, Yuki could hear the sound of running from afar. Just a momentter, a small figure leaped on Marcell and gave him a hug. It looked to be a small girl which Yuki assumed to be Marcell''s daughter. As Marcell embraced his daughter, another figure walked towards the door. It was a woman who looked rtively young to be a mother. However, seeing the way she took Marcell''s daughter in her arms made it clear that she was the mother.

    "She probably just has good skin," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Sorry honey, I forgot to tell you. Would it be okay if Jack were to stay with us for a while? He doesn''t have a ce to stay. His mother died when he was a just a kid and his father is busy in the dungeons. I just couldn''t let him struggle on his own," Marcell pleaded.

    "... I didn''t expect him to fall for my lie and take it this far. This is just embarrassing, I should stop him," Yuki said to himself.

    "I''m really not all that helpless, I would be fine if you were to direct me to an inn or a hotel. I still have money which my father gave me from his quest in the dungeons," said Yuki.

    By that point, Marcell''s wife had tears flowing from her eyes as she pitied Yuki as she tried to imagine her daughter in the same position as Yuki. Without a thought she handed her toddler daughter to Marcell before hugging Yuki as tofort him.

    "Of Course you can stay with us as long as possible. We''ll be your family until your fatheres to pick you up," the mother said while bawling her eyes out.

    Even in that moment, Yuki couldn''t help but think about all the men he had killed in the battle field. Each and every single one of them was mercilessly murdered without a second thought. Many of them probably had families to return to. Many people were probably grieving because of the decision Yuki had made that day. Even though that was true, Yuki couldn''t help but think that he was correct.

    "I warned them many times. They should''ve listened when I told them to retreat. I gave them so many opportunities to run away. If they hadn''t been so stubborn, they could''ve seen their family once again," said Yuki to himself as he tried to convince himself that he was correct in his decision. More specifically, One''s decision.

    Once the greetings had taken ce, Yuki and Marcell entered the house as they began their new life as a family. Marcell didn''t mind Yuki at all since he was a polite kid and there was also the perk of him being able to be an efficient dishwasher which Marcell informed his wife about in secret which helped solidify her decision to allow Yuki to stay with them.

 Chapter 119 - Attic

    Once Yuki along with Marcell had entered the house they both took off their shoes and Marcell''s wife led Yuki up the stairs. Their house looked to be in just like every other one however for some reason, Yuki could feel a slight coziness emanating from it. While Yuki did wonder if every other house looked like theirs, he kept his mouth shut as it wasn''t a priority. After all, the only thing he had to worry about at that moment was if he was rudely intruding on another person''s life. For someone who had actually killed people without mercy, Yuki''s manners were impable.

    "So, I heard Marcell call you Jack. That would be your name right?" Marcell''s wife asked.

    "Uh- yes ma''am," Yuki replied. He was snapped back into reality too quickly which made him stutter a bit.

    "What a lovely name. You can just call me Elpis," said Marcell''s wife.

    "Sure. Is it really okay for me to stay here though. I feel as if I''m intruding," said Yuki.

    "Of course it is. It''s dangerous for a young boy like you to be all alone in this world. Haven''t you heard? The crime rate everywhere has increased drastically. Laws and a proper justice system have yet to be implemented in most kingdoms. I can''t allow you to be hurt in the outside world. I don''t know, I''m probably just rambling. When I see you, I imagine my daughter in the same situation and can''t help but feel sympathy," said Elpis.

    "Dangerous? I''m the danger that criminals should fear, but sure I guess. I''ll y along with this for now," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Once again, I am ever so grateful for your kindness. I''ll repay you one day for all you''ve done for me," replied Yuki.

    After walking up the stairs, Yuki was greeted by a hallway of sorts. In total he could see 3 white doors. 2 on the right which were most likely the bedrooms and one of the left end of the hallway which Yuki assumed to be the bathroom as it would make the most sense out of any otherbination. To the side of the bathroom''s wall were the bars which closed off the staircase which Yuki hade from.

    Elpis reached up to the small door on the ceiling of the hallway which Yuki hadn''t seen and opened it by pushing down on the square door handle. Once Elpis had done that, the door opened and let out a staircase which led to the attic.

    "Sorry but this is the best we can offer you. I hope you don''t mind," Elpis said as looked back at Yuki.

    "No, of course I don''t mind. In fact I''m just happy I got a ce to stay," Yuki reassured her.

    Elpis held Yuki by the wrist and helped him walk up the stairs to the attic. As Yuki reached his head up into the attic to look inside, he was surprised to find that there was already a bed inside there. Yuki had thought he would be sleeping on the floor or at best a futon but never an actual room.

    "I guess I''ve be too ustomed to the dungeon life. I forgot that stuff like this was normal in the outside world," Yuki thought to himself as he climbed up the stairs and stood on the floor of the attic.

    "So what do you think?" Elpis asked as he looked up at Yuki from the second floor of the house.

    "It''s-it''s wonderful. This is better than anything I could''ve asked for," replied Yuki as his eyes glew in excitement. After all, it had been so long since he had gotten a chance to sleep in a proper bed.

    After Yuki entered the first dungeon, he had to sleep on the stage floor every night. Even after he got out of there, he was sent to prison where the beds were rock hard. Once he had escaped prison, Yuki had hoped that he would at least be able to get one good night''s rest but instead he went into the 2nd dungeon in his quest for unmatched power. To make it worse, once he had cleared the 2nd dungeon, he fought a war on his own. For Yuki, it was likeing back home after years of servitude in the army. He was finally home.

    "I''ll let you get ustomed to your new room for now. Dinner will be ready soon. There should be a couple towels in the closet. Grab one and clean up by then," said Elpis.

    "Oh right, I forgot how much I reeked. Well this is embarrassing," Yuki thought to himself as he blushed.

    He turned on the attic light before quickly walking towards the wooden closet which Elpis had informed him about to grab a towel. It was surprisingly easy to find as it was ced on the long shelf which spanned from one side of the closet to the other. The shelf itself was on top of the hangers for clothes. On top of the shelf was a full set of towels of all different sizes. Yuki just grabbed the one at the bottom as it was the one that would most likely go around his body.

    Once Yuki had grabbed the towel which he wanted, he closed the wooden closet and began to walk down the stairs towards the bathroom so he could take a shower. The attic itself was pretty nd which Yuki liked but it seemed odd. It had a bed, closet and night table.

    "Did they add this as a sort of guest room and I just happened to take it?" Yuki asked himself.

    "Well, there''s no point in thinking about something which I might not get an answer for," Yuki said to himself before knocking on the bathroom door to make sure no one was in there. Once he didn''t hear a reply from anyone, Yuki deemed it safe to enter.

    Once inside, Yuki turned on the lights to allow himself to see the room clearly. There was nothing special about the ce. It had a sink, toilet, and shower just like any ordinary bathroom.

    "I don''t even know what I was expecting," Yuki said to himself.

 Chapter 120 - Elpis

    Yuki locked the door to the bathroom before turning on the shower to the desired temperature. Yuki began to remove his clothes and get in the steaming shower. He watched as all the dirt left his hair and body. His silky ck hairid back as he washed his face. Yuki took the soap and shampoo whichid on the embedded shelf of the shower before scrubbing his skin. By the time Yuki got out of the shower, he looked like a whole different person.

    "Looks like my hair has gotten a bit too long. I''ll have to cut it soon," said Yuki before drying himself off with the towel which he had brought in with him.

    Yuki wrapped his towel around his waist before getting out of the shower. He had deactivated his skill "Faker '''' as it was pretty much useless. He had been paranoid due to the possibility of someone learning that he wasn''t as weak as he made himself look like, however there was no actual way to know if someone was using their skill. To add on to that, a simple lie would get out of any situation of someone were to question his physique.

    As Yuki exited the bathroom he was greeted by Elpis who was standing in the hallway right front of thedder which led to the attic. As she looked at Yuki, she had been caught off guard as she had thought he was much more slim than how he looked as of that moment. Seeing Yuki''s physique made her freeze up.

    "Oh no, did she notice? I knew I should''ve kept up my skill. My new life here has ended before it even began. What was I thinking?" Yuki told himself as he began to panic.

    "Did you get a little taller in the short time that I left you alone?" Elpis asked.

    "... never mind then," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Have I?" Yuki asked himself while also using that short phrase as a reply to Elpis.

    Yuki stood up straight as he fixed his posture and looked to grow a whole 2 inches. He had been leading forward which made him look shorter than he actually was. In doing this, even Yuki noticed himself grow in height.

    "You''re right. Sorry, my posture is horrible. I''ll try to stand up straight more often," replied Yuki.

    Elpis had only mentioned his height to change the subject due to her being caught off guard; however Yuki had taken her quite seriously.

    "What was I going to say? Right! Do you have a change of clothes which you could wear until the ones you were wearing get washed and dry?" Elpis asked.

    "I actually do," replied Yuki.

    "That''s great then. Give me your clothes now," said Elpis as she took Yuki''s clothes which he had been carrying out of the bathroom from his left hand.

    "I-," Yuki tried to say something as he was surprised but decided to stay quiet as it was for his own good.

    Once Elpis was gone, Yuki walked back up to the attic. After getting inside, Yuki pulled thedder back up and closed the attic door.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki searched through his inventory as he looked for another t-shirt and pants he could wear. However, he coincidentally found something else. He spotted a in ck hoodie which looked morefortable than any t-shirt which he could find. Along with that, Yuki also took out ck sweat pants as well as undergarments.

    "Lydie really did a good job on shopping, maybe I can rely on him more often," said Yuki as he dressed himself. If Lydie were to hear the words Yuki had just uttered, he would''ve died from joy. Unfortunately for him, he was stuck in "King''s Crown".

    Once fully dressed, Yuki went andy down on his bed. It looked to be a queen size. The in grey sheets matched with the nd colour scheme of the room. As Yukiid his head down on it, he couldn''t help but think to himself.

    "Why are these people so nice to me? They''re treating me like one of their own even though I''ve just barged into their home. They''ve treated me better in the few hours I''ve spent with them than my own mother had treated me for the majority of my life. I guess it really justes down to luck," Yuki said to himself.

    As he continued to lose himself in thought, Yuki was brought back to reality to the sound of knocking on the attack door. It was Elpis. She was using a broom to knock on the door as it was too high for her to reach. The most she could do was open the door by tippy toeing however she didn''t want to barge in on Yuki just in case he was still changing.

    "Coming," Yuki said as he walked towards the door and opened it from the inside which let thedder down.

    "Dinner is ready," said Elpis.

    "Oh, okay," said Yuki as he walked down the stairs. His baggy clothes covered most of his body which made all his muscles invisible.

    "Did you enjoy your shower?" Elpis asked as she attempted to make small talk.

    "Yes, thank you, it felt really good," replied Yuki as they walked down the stairs to meet Marcell and his daughter. They were already sitting down at the dining table as they awaited their guest. There was a whole feast prepared which made Yuki both happy and ufortable as he hated being a burden on others.

    Elpis helped seat Yuki down before going to sit down on the other side herself.

    "Thank you for the meal," said everyone except Yuki. However, Yuki said those words after them as he didn''t want to seem ungrateful.

    "Must be a family custom. They could''ve at least told me. Now I look stupid," Yuki thought to himself.

    On the contrary, Elpis and Marcell were happy that Yuki was trying to be polite and follow their example which caused them to smile. Once everyone else began to eat, Yuki also did the same as he didn''t want to risk himself getting embarrassed from rushing to do something before the time was right.

 Chapter 121 - Robber

    After Yuki had heard the conversation between Marcell and Elpis which practically confirmed his stay at their house for the uing months or years toe, Yuki had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Sleeping on the ground or grass hadn''t been allowing him to sleep in peace so having a bed was a nice change of pace for him. He practically slept like a baby.

    In the middle of the night however, Yuki heard the sound of banging. He wasn''t really fond of hearing a sound that loud at night. Curious to see what it was, Yuki got out of his bed and began to walk around his room to try to see which direction it wasing from. To his surprise, it was from downstairs. It happened to be exactly where the door to the entrance of the home was.

    "A robber? Seriously? What is he trying to steal from here? It''s not like there are any valuables which they could steal from here. They can''t even steal silver since almost everyone has their silver stored in their "[Extract]" tab. Unless... they nned to force the money out of the people that lived here. That still doesn''t make any sense since Marcell is a level 2 yer and I doubt many people from here are level 2 or above. they all seem pretty weak," Yuki thought to himself.

    Of course, he was right in assuming that. After the great fire which lit in people''s eyes dulled down, only about 1 in 500 people reached level 2. That averaged about 4-5 people per kingdom which transcended their fears and fought to earn the power of the level 2 yer. Out of those people, only a few handful would actually continuously progress through the other levels. Of course that being at their own pace. As for the people that chose to remain at level 2 stayed there because of either fear of death or sheerziness. Either way, all it meant was lesspetition for Yuki.

    "So if the fact that only a few people should be able to match Marcell in strength within this kingdom stands to be true, why would they pick to rob this house out of the many others they could''ve picked. Wait... Marcell mentioned how he was usually away from home for long periods of time due to clean up duty. That would mean that if someone had been scouting this house for a potential robbery would''ve only seen Elpis with her daughter. As such, they were the perfect target. How unlucky," Yuki said as he chuckled.

    "What should I do then? Should I leave this for Marcell to handle or do it myself. What to do.. what to do," Yuki thought to himself.

    As Yuki continued to debate the choices he had, the robbers had already managed to unlock the door to the house and were slowly walking towards what they thought would be Elpis'' room. However they would identally go inside Marcell''s daughter''s room instead. As they turned on the lights to the room, they were greeted by arge nursery which was all. designated for the small toddler. Due to them turning on the lights, the toddler had woken up and began to cry.

    Hearing this, Elpis woke up and began to walk towards her daughter''s room. However, right as she exited her room, she was greeted by the robbers. They quickly covered her mouth so she wouldn''t scream for help. Although that didn''t stop Elpis from kicking the floor to make as much noise as possible. This of course had woken up Marcell who went to rush to the aid of his wife however he was greeted by the 3 robbers. All of them were inplete thief gear which included apletely ck outfit and mask. The one on the right held the baby at gunpoint and the one to the left had Elpis at gunpoint as well. Thest one had his gun pointed at Marcell.

    "Thank goodness we bought a 3rd guy with us. This worked out perfectly," said the one which was holding on to the toddler.

    Seeing this, Marcell put his hands in the air as he surrendered. He would give them anything as long as they returned his daughter and wife back to him. As this went on, Yuki was still debating his choices and couldn''t hear anything as he lost himself in thought. However, Yuki would be notified of the situation through the crying of Marcell''s daughter.

    "Please stay there Jack. Don''te down here or they''ll take what little money you have left," Marcell prayed.

    Unluckily or luckily for him, his prayers would note true. Yuki had opened the door to the attic to see what was happening. Caught off guard by this, all 3 of the robbers pointed their guns at Yuki. Seeing that as an opportunity, Marcell quickly ran towards the one which had his daughter at gunpoint and prepared to strike him down while he was distracted. However, before he could do that, the robber in the middle shot Marcell in the leg.

    "You really thought you could get out of this without paying anything for it? You''re dead wrong. First I''ll kill your precious child and then make you give us all your money for us to let go of your wife," said the one on the right as he gave an evil grin.

    While most would''ve used those words as a threat, the robber on the left wasn''t joking. Yuki could see everything in slow motion. Yuki watched as the robber slowly pushed on the trigger while Marcell''s eyes began to tear up.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Within those few moments, Yuki''s eyes opened wide as he pushed himself from the attic floor on the robber which had held the toddler. In doing this at such speeds made it seem as if Yuki was lightning itself. With his palm covered in hot mes, Yuki held on to the robber''s face with all his might as he couldn''t stop himself from almost crushing his skull.

    Yuki now had Marcell''s daughter in his left hand and was holding down the robber with his right as he ced his knee on the robber''s chest to stop his movements.

 Chapter 122 - Demon

    Now that Yuki had his palm on the robber''s head, Yuki dragged him across the floor as he continuously mmed his head on the ground. With every second that passed, Yuki grew in anger as he tried to imagine what would''ve happened to the toddler. In doing this, Yuki had grown so angry that he let his mes lose control and burn through the mask that the robber was wearing and reach into the robber''s skin. He had caused deep burns on his face, so much so that the robber began to cry, however Yuki still looked at him with an evil re. Only once the robber in the middle shot Yuki in the head with a pistol did Yuki snapback.

    The bullet which was fired at him obviously didn''t do much damage as Yuki was at too high of a level to be harmed by regr human weapons. The bullet just hit Yuki''s head and bounced off like a rubber ball. This had caused the one who shot Yuki to be confused.

    "Did I miss my shot? Ya, that''s probably it," the robber tried to reassure himself.

    Telling himself that he had missed his shot, the robber shot Yuki 5 more times, in turn finishing his round of bullets. To his surprise however, Yuki was still standing with no damage caused to him. Once the robber had finished his shots, Yuki looked back at him with his glowing red eyes as his presence crawled up the robber''s skin-giving him goosebumps.

    Before going to attack the remaining 2 robbers, Yuki had to finish what he started with the first one. Yuki held the robber which he had in his palm in the air and mmed him into the wall, in turn creating a hole in it which Yukiter realized he probably shouldn''t have done. However, the damage had been done so Yuki decided to move on to the next step.

    After letting go of the first robber he had dealt with, Yuki slowly walked past the robber in the middle which was now shivering in fear and handed Marcell with daughter. Even though his leg was bleeding, Marcell looked like the happiest person alive when Yuki gave him his daughter.

    "Now, let go of the woman you''re holding," said Yuki as he pointed at the robber who had his gun pointed at Elpis.

    "Or what? Take one more step and I''ll blow his woman''s head off!" the robber replied.

    "It seems that you don''t understand the situation you are in. I apologize for that. I''ll make things a lot more clear now," said Yuki as he allowed himself to rx.

    "One, could you take over and use your presence instead since it''s more potent," said Yuki to himself as he closed his eyes while trying tomunicate with One.

    "<strong>With pleasure</strong>," One spoke out of Yuki''s mouth.

    With a blink of an eye, One allowed his own presence to flow throughout the house. However, he had let too loose which made his presence leak out of the house and also enter into the houses of many others. Those who slept experienced their worst nightmares and as for those who were awake, it became hard for them to even breathe. One''s presence even affected Marcell, Elpis and their daughter. However, One had also affected his main target. Once he had done that, he switched back to Yuki.

    Seeing the robber in shock, Yuki slowly walked up to him. There was no point in Yuki rushing into this as his opponent was basically paralyzed. Yuki slowly moved the gun away from Elpis'' head and helped her stand on his feet before helping her to the side lines with Marcell and their daughter. After aplishing this, Yuki walked back to the robber which was now sitting down on the ground as he tried to run away from the monster in front of him.

    "Please don''t kill me, I''ll do anything," the robber pleaded.

    "Why should I let you live while you didn''t n on letting these people live? What makes your life any more important than theirs. To make it worse, you nned on killing a small kid which hadn''t even gotten the chance to grow up and experience the world. You''vemitted too many sins for your own good," replied Yuki.

    "I promise it won''t happen again. I''ll change my ways and be a better man. Just give me one more chance," the robber continued to plead.

    "Why should I trust someone who was willing to harm my family? I have every reason in the world to put an end to your pathetic lives," said Yuki as his eyes continued to burn.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Gun"

    Right as Yuki formed a gun-like shape with his fingers to blow apart the robber''s brain, he remembered that there were consequences for everyone''s actions.

    "What was I thinking? Thest time I killed even a few people, I was brought into war. I''m trying to hide my identity for a while. I should''ve let them rob the ce. Now that I''ve done all of this, the world will surely spread about my powers in this country as well. If they were to learn about my actions in the previous country, they would surely exile me," Yuki thought to himself.

    Thinking that there was still hope to save himself from a life of running away, Yuki pulled his hand away from the robber. While he was close to just killing him, Yuki stopped himself from doing something he''d surely regret in the future. Even if Marcell and Elpis were okay with his actions which they most likely wouldn''t have been, their daughter would still be scared due to her seeing someone killed in front of her eyes at such a young age.

    "Okay, I''ll let you escape with your lives. However, if I ever hear that you''re continuing your criminal activities, I''ll personally hunt you down and kill you," Yuki warned them.

    Not allowing Yuki to change his mind, the 3 robbers ran back down the stairs and left the house without a trace. To them, Yuki was the same as a monster-no, he was worse than a monster. Yuki was a demon.

 Chapter 123 - Truth

    Once Yuki managed to chase away the robbers, he looked back at his frightened and fragile family. Of course, he had no right to call them that. After all, he was just a random kid who crashed their ce and out of pity they let him stay. Even though these were Yuki''s thought''s, Marcell along with Elpis had thought of it differently.

    "Hey Jack... did you call us your family back there?" Marcell asked.

    Yuki didn''t know what Marcell was talking about. Maybe it was because he was half asleep but Yuki didn''t understand half of the stuff that came out of his mouth. However, after a few seconds of thought, Yuki remembered when he said those words. He had told the robbers ``''''Why should I trust someone who was willing to harm my family?" which when he thought of it now sounded silly.

    "Oh right I did. I''m sorry if it offended you. I didn''t realize what wasing out of my mouth since I was so sleepy," Yuki apologized.

    "No, don''t apologize. Why would we be angry at the person who saved us? In fact, we''re d that you''d consider yourself as part of our family," said Marcell while Elpis nodded her head in agreement.

    Marcell had forgotten about his leg injury. As such, he tried to get up to embrace Yuki however in doing so, he quickly fell back to the ground as he once again felt the sharp pain in his legs. Marcell had tried to hold back his tears from the sheer pain however his strategy to look strong wouldn''t hold up much longer.

    "Wait, I have something which can help you," said Yuki as he opened his inventory.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion and poured it into Marcell''s mouth as Marcell looked like he wouldn''t be able to do it himself. Momentster, Marcell''s wound closed as the bullet that was in his leg rusted then disintegrated. Soon after, Marcell was as good as new.

    "Was that a full status recovery potion?" Marcell asked in a concerned tone.

    "Yes?... is there anything wrong with that?" Yuki asked.

    "How did you evene into possession of something like that- wait no. First of all, why would you give me something so expensive? I heard those things cost 500-1000 silver," said Marcell.

    "What do you mean? They''re rtively cheap. Plus, it was to close a wound which would eventually cause an infection if not treated immediately," said Yuki.

    "Cheap? Are your from a family of nobles Jack? 500-1000 silver is not cheap. Well unless you''re an active dungeon raider which with that you''d be risking your life but would earn a good amount of money from it. Although it still wouldn''t make sense for you to have that kind of moneyying around to spend at your leisure unless you cleared a dungeon until the halfway point. Since exp is divided into a group, unless you were in a really strong raid party which was willing toplete and redo a dungeon, you wouldn''t have gotten to the halfway point. All that would leave would be the outside monsters which are mostly goblins which don''t drop arge amount of silver. So there should be no possible way for you to have that kind of money lying around," Marcell said as he analyzed every possible option Yuki had.

    Yuki had been cornered. He didn''t have a way to escape the situation without exposing his real identity. Yuki stood still as he tried toe up with a lie which would be satisfactory enough for Marcell and Elpis to believe.

    "Well you see-'''' Yuki had begun to speak, however he was interrupted by Marcell.

    "No more lies.. please. We''re your family now," said Marcell.

    "Does he really think my shell is going to crack with some emotional cliche sentence like that? Why do I care if I feel that I can trust them? I felt that way about Jobon and the others but look at where it''s gotten me. I can allow myself to trust when I''m at a point where it wouldn''t matter if I get betrayed, by that point, I''ll have enough power to take on the entire world. Only then will I trust people," Yuki told himself.

    "Although, I do need an alibi to get me out of this situation. I should make it emotional," Yuki said to himself.

    "Okay, I''ll tell you only a bit since I don''t fully feelfortable with telling you the entire story. All I ask of you is to keep this a secret," said Yuki.

    Hearing this, both Marcell and Elpis nodded in agreement as they eagerly awaited to hear what Yuki had to say. By this point, their daughter had gone back to sleep in Marcell''s arms.

    "Here it goes then... The thing about my parents wasn''t a lie. My mother had actually died and my father had left me. However, I wasn''t nning on leaving the dungeon until I cleared it. So... I might have cleared it along with a second dungeon... by myself," said Yuki.

    "Wait.. you''re joking right? Is that even possible?" Marcell asked.

    "I would think so since I did it. However it was no easy task, each battlested anywhere from 10 hours to almost 2 days. Sleep almost doesn''t exist there. It''s an endless war inside. The only reason I even cleared then was because I used a lot of my potions inside there to boost my stats. If I had gone in there with almost none of my potions with me, I would''ve surely died," Yuki exined.

    "Do you ever n on returning to the dungeons or have you retired from the raiding life?" Marcell asked.

    "Not really. I wanted to continue on to the next dungeon but some stuff came up and I decided to take a break from constantly putting my life on the line and have a little break. Of course I would be willing to leave if that would be your desire," Yuki said with an innocent face which didn''t have any lies hidden within it.

    "Heaven''s no, we want you to stay with us longer. What type of family would we be if we were to kick you out," Elpis stepped in which made Yuki smile.

    "Looks like they''re taking this family thing a bit too seriously," Yuki thought to himself.

 Chapter 124 - Mr. Chimo

    Once their conversation hade to a close, Marcell and Elpis headed back into their room after putting their daughter back into her room as well. As for Yuki, He climbed thedder which led to his room and went back to bed. While he didn''t need a lot of sleep to function, Yuki still enjoyed sleeping for the fun of it.

    Morning quickly rose and abruptly woke Yuki up from his deep slumber. While not happy about it. Yuki forced himself to get up from his bed.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a toothbrush and toothpaste which the king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon had bought for him on his shopping journey. While in most cases, Yuki would''ve called upon Zero to take him to the spatial realm to allow him to brush his teeth and do anything else that he needed to do, however, Yuki couldn''t do that now that he was living with other people.

    Yuki yawned and went back down stairs to go to the bathroom. Right as he stepped down thedder, he was greeted by Elpis who was leaving the bathroom after getting ready for her day.

    "Good morning. Did you manage to go back to sleep?" Elpis asked Yuki.

    "I actually did. How about you?" Yuki asked as it was the polite thing to do.

    "Not really, I guess I still didn''t quite get a chance to fullyprehend what happenedst night. Don''t worry though, I''ll be fine for the day," Elpis replied.

    "That''s nice. Good luck with your day," Yuki said as he went inside the bathroom to brush his teeth.

    As he did so, Yuki couldn''t help but feel excited to go back to Marcell''s diner. Even if he was alone in the kitchen, he didn''t have to do anything since his mes would take care of all the hard work. Then he would be able toe back and enjoy the rest of the day with his new family.

    "Why couldn''t they have been my actual family. Maybe I wouldn''t have gotten this far. Maybe I would''ve been able to enjoy a life of peace and quiet, thenter on in life I could have a family of my own," Yuki thought to himself.

    "There''s no point in thinking about what could''ve been. Right now, all that matters is what''s in the moment. If I keep thinking of the past or future, I''ll never be able to enjoy the present," Yuki said as he spat out the toothpaste in his mouth and cleaned his toothbrush before cing it back into his inventory.

    Once he exited the bathroom, Elpis was once again outside the door waiting for him. This time, in her hand was Yuki''s clothes fromst night which he had given to her for them to be washed. Now that they werepletely cleaned, Yuki could wear them once again to work with Marcell.

    "Thank you very much," said Yuki as he epted his clothes from her.

    "When you''re done changing, give me the clothes you''re wearing now so I can wash them for you," said Elpis.

    "Oh, okay. Will do," replied Yuki as he began to climb thedder which lead to the attic,

    "By the way, are those your only clothes?" Elpis asked.

    "Yes they are. I didn''t get a chance to properly go shopping yet," Yuki replied.

    "How about we go shopping on the weekend? The diner is closed on Saturdays and Sundays so you should be free right?" Elpis asked.

    "Sure, that would be great," Yuki replied with a genuine smile on his face.

    Once Yuki finished speaking to Elpis, he climbed thedder to the attic and closed the door to it before changing back into his old clothes. Yuki did enjoy his hoodie and sweatpants however he felt more free when he wore his t-shirt. After he got fully dressed, Yuki went back down thedder and handed his hoodie and sweatpants to Elpis.

    "I''ll be taking that," said Elpis as he took Yuki''s clothes.

    "Marcell should be waiting for you downstairs at the door," said Elpis.

    Hearing this, Yuki nodded and headed down the staircase to meet up with Marcell. Just as Elpis said, Marcell was waiting for him there with a smile.

    "I didn''t really get a chance to thank you for what you did for usst night. Without you, one of us would''ve been dead. You have my greatest gratitude," Marcell said as he bowed down.

    "Hey hey, stop that. There''s no need to thank me. I was just doing what any average person would do if they were in my position. But seriously, we should start going or you''re going to bete to open the shop," said Yuki as he wore his shoes and opened the door for Marcell.

    Feeling that there was no need to be so formal around Yuki, Marcell walked out the door and Yuki followed suit. Elpis, who was still upstairs when they left, began to descend down the stairs to close the door once she heard them exit.

    As Yuki and Marcell walked through the streets of the kingdom, Marcell was greeted kindly by many, which made Yuki assume that he was famous or something along those lines. While many only said a simple "hello", one of the people went above and beyond to ask about Yuki as well.

    "Good morning Marcell. Oh, who''s that boy that''s with you?" the old man asked.

    "Good morning to you too Mr. Chimo. This is my son Jack," Marcell replied as he lightly tapped on Yuki''s back which caught Yuki off guard.

    "Is that so? I always thought you only had a daughter. Well, that''s nice to hear. Will he be helping you at the diner today?" Mr. Chimo asked.

    "In fact, he will. He''ll be working at the back though so I''ll be stealing all the spotlight," replied Marcell.

    "Well, get going now. You don''t want to bete to open the store," Mr. Chimo advised.

    Hearing this Yuki along with Marcell continued their journey towards the shop. Although Yuki did wonder if there would be more asions where people would ask Marcell about who the kid that was with him was, Yuki just ignored the thought as he would figure something out when that time came.

 Chapter 125 - Spatial Gates

    Once Yuki and Marcell arrived at the store, Yuki walked inside the back where the kitchen was and Marcell went to flip the sign which said "closed" to "open" once they were ready to start business once again. Just like the previous day, Marcell woulde inside the kitchen about once an hour with a pile of dirty tes and bowls. However, unlike the previous day, the pile of tes which Marcel brought were muchrger than before. Since Yuki was able to clean up at an extremely fast rate, Marcell could let loose and use his ability to make as much food as the customers wanted without having to worry about stayingte to wash the dishes. As such, their profits would grow at an exponential rate as well.

    Once the first batch of dirty dishes came in, Yuki created his fire constructed flying hands and made them do all the work. While at first Marcell didn''t trust the mes to be able to clean the dirty dishes without breaking or burning them, Yuki quickly convinced him otherwise by presenting how clean the tes were. Yuki had set up about 10 me hands which all yed their role in cleaning.

    As time passed, Yuki continued to sit down on the chair which was in front of the ind table in the middle of the kitchen. At some point Yuki had grown extremely bored of doing nothing. It wasn''t as if he wanted to wash the dishes himself either since it would be a waste of energy and time. Instead, Yuki remembered something.

    "How could I forget!" Yuki said.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out "Fallen angel of hell" out of his inventory and hugged it. It had been so long since he had made full use of his de. He had been treating it as just a normal de instead of unleashing the power which made it special. Yuki once again held his de with both his palms as he closed his eyes and began to concentrate on pouring his stamina into it. Unlike before, Yuki was able to activate the red solid aura which shouded the de with ease. To add on to that, Yuki was able to create 2 small spatial gates using his de. From those spatial gates, Yuki was able to bring out 2 very small versions of the spatial des which appeared when Yuki had identally used the full power of "Fallen angel of hell". Although it was a big aplishment for Yuki at the time, in the grand scheme of things, it was minisquil to what he had done previously since the spatial des were less than half the size of the real "Fallen angel of hell".

    Right as Yuki began to have the de under control, Marcell barged in the kitchen to give Yuki the next batch of dirty dishes. Right as he walked in the kitchen, he was surprised to see Yuki wielding arge de with 2 other gates which had des of their own.

    "I can exin-" Yuki said before Marcell could get angry.

    "Don''t worry, there''s no need to say anything. As long as you don''t break anything and continue to do your job, I''m fine with whatever you choose to do with your free time," said Marcell.

    "Thank you for being so understanding. I''ll get my me hands started on washing the next batch of tes. The ones fromst time are already cleaned and dried so you can take them with you if you want," Yuki sudjusted.

    Hearing this, Marcell munovered across the room and took the clean tes and bowls with him to the front of the store. After all, he did have many more customers to serve. After taking the tes and bowls, Marcell closed the door to the kitchen and went back to work.

    Now that Yuki was alone once again, he could concentrate on what he wanted to do. Which at that time was to see if he could manipte the size of the spatial gates. At first, Yuki closed one of them and erged the size of the other one. In doing so, Yuki was able to increase the overall size of the one spatial de he had to match the size of the original "Fallen angel of hell".

    Once Yuki increased the size of the spatial gates, Yuki tried to make the de extend out of the gate like he had done the first time he used the spatial des. However right as the hilt of the de got out of the spatial gate, it stopped moving outwards. Yuki just assumed that the chains were clogged so he concentrated more and began to tug at the de to push it outwards however right as he did that, Yuki felt a sharp pain in his chest which caused him to fall on his knees. Luckily Marcell didn''t hear him as such he wouldn''t be worried about Yuki which was thest thing he wanted.

    "Well, I guess that''s my limit," Yuki said to himself.

    However, Yuki wasn''t done testing out his de just yet. Since he could increase the spatial de gate to a certain degree, there was no reason why he wouldn''t be able to decrease it as well. As such, Yuki once again closed his eyes as he began to concentrate and pour his stamina into "Fallen angel of hell". As the seconds passed, Yuki slowly but surely decreased the size of the spacial gate which also caused the spatial de to decrease.

    Yuki had decreased the size of the spatial de to the size of a toothpick which he couldter on use as a sneak attack tool. Even if he didn''t want to do that, Yuki could create a bunch of spatial des all around him which could act as a detecting mechanism to sense anyone else who might try to attack him. However, if he wanted to do something like that, Yuki would need to make the shape of the spatial de and chains a lot smaller which wasn''t possible for him at the time as it took a high level of concentration and stamina to create something so small but still have it keep its original size.

 Chapter 126 - Enemies

    As Yuki continued to test out his new abilities with "Fallen angel of hell", word about his battle with thebined forces of the 3 kingdoms had begun to spread. Mr. Y-the leader of the crime syndicate which Yuki hade across a while back had sent a group of mercenaries to defeat Yuki. Those people were Tanya and herrades; however, he would soon learn of their death, along with the deaths of everyone else who went to battle against Yuki.

    Mr. Y had sent the guide which apanied them to the location back to where he had dropped them off to see what was happening since they hadn''t returned within 48 hours of them arriving at the gateway which Yuki was supposed to exit out of. As such, Mr. Y was understandably concerned.

    When the guide which Mr. Y selected to go scout the area had arrived at the scene, he couldn''t help but fall to his knees in fear and disgust. The piles upon piles of dead bodies whichid on the ground was a horrible sight to behold. All that was left of their bodies were their bones as they had been burned to a crisp by Yuki''s ability. While it was One who technically did the deed, Yuki would still be held ountable for the action.

    The guide which was selected quickly ran away from the sight as he could help himself from trembling in fear. Only a demon was capable ofmitting such horrid actions. So many people had been instantly wiped out by a single person. Yuki was a living bomb. The second someone ticked him off, he would go off and be the cause of many deaths. As the guide continued to make a run for it from the battle field in fear that Yuki was still there, many other scouts from the 3 kingdoms also arrived at the scene to observe what happened.

    Those who came to visit their family members couldn''t even mourn the deaths of their loved ones as they couldn''t tell apart one skeleton from another. Yuki''s move was truly hell. It inflicted pain upon those who experienced it and even worse pain upon those who cared for the victims of that move. As the many cries echoed throughout thend, not a single person could give the least bit of reassurance to those who were grieving the deaths of their loved ones because it was clear that nobody could bring Yuki to justice as he was too strong for even an army to take on.

    All that anyone could do was cry about the situation and move on with their new lives. However, that was not possible. If it wasn''t for their tyrannical rulers who forced their loved ones to attend the battle, they wouldn''t have to grieve. It wasn''t fair for bystanders to be punished for something they didn''t do. As such was the injustice of the world. No matter who you were or what you did. If someone in power wanted you to do something, you can either do it on your own free will or they will force you to do it through any means necessary. However, the tyrannical government couldn''t be med since they were already dead. As such, the people needed to make apromise. If they couldn''t me the party which directly caused the death of their loved ones, they had one option left. That option was to me the one who started all of it. The reason the people they cared for were sent into the battle was to take down Yuki. As such, since he was the only one remaining, he would have to bear the me.

    "We''ll take down ourmon enemy. We''ll bring Yuki to justice and avenge our loved ones!"

    The people of the 3 kingdoms had solidified their message and engraved it into their hearts as they prepared to do anything that they could to bring down Yuki. However, they weren''t stupid. They''d seen what Yuki was capable of. Gathering the people which remained from the 3 kingdoms and sending them into another battle would just be arrogant and a suicide mission which would surely fail. Instead, they split up to inform as many other kingdoms of the news as possible. This strategy wasn''t created to create a small army one again. It was to ruin the reputation of Yuki. As such, Yuki would have an endless life of having people chase him around. The people who spread the news assumed that Yuki sought to be the first level 100 yer due to him being in a dungeon for the majority of the time. If that were to be true, it would slow his progression rate down and allow anyone other than him to attain that goal. Once there was someone who was stronger than him, the responsibility of taking down that demon would fall onto them.

    It was a risky n in case the person who would be the first level 100 yer were to be evil, however the likelihood of that was miniscule. On the contrary, if there was someone who could just simply be stronger than Yuki without reaching level 100 such as a situation where Yuki was a level 35 and his opponent was a level 40, they would still be able to get their revenge. In most scenarios, they would seed in their n to bring down the evil demon Yuki.

    The perception of Yuki throughout thends would eventually be vastly different. With the kingdom which he currently resided in thinking that he was a saint and the ones he had left thinking he was the devil incarnate. Although Yuki had "changed" for the better, he still needed to pay the consequences for his previous actions.

    Of course, Yuki hadn''t changed. Yuki only nned on staying with Marcell and the others for a little. Yuki was still going to go back to his "evil" ways as others thought of his actions that way. On the other hand, Yuki only thought of the people he killed as sacrifices to bring world peace. What was a few thousand people dead to billions of other lives which would get to live in a world where corruption wouldn''t exist?

 Chapter 127 - Mr. Y

    While the remnants of the 3 kingdoms continued to search for more kingdoms to inform of the horrible deeds Yuki hadmitted. The guide had managed to return to the base of operation in which his leader, Mr. Y resided. As the good underling he was he told Mr. Y exactly what he had seen.

    "Are you kidding me?!" Mr. Y said in anger which made the guide freeze in fear.

    "No, you can rx. I''m not angry at you. I''m just mad at the fact that those useless mercenaries died without bringing us Yuki''s head. At least we didn''t give them the money beforehand. We got lucky this time. We ended up not losing any of our actual members. Unlike those stupid rulers of the kingdoms which brought their own people to their doom. Matter of fact, could you go check on the situation of the kingdoms which participated in the battle?" Mr. Y asked the guide.

    "With pleasure," the guide replied before leaving to make his way towards each of the 3 kingdoms which participated in the battle.

    Once he had left, one of the 8 special members, who each had a roman number written across their chair depending which one of the 8 they were, spoke up.

    "Why did you send him to do that? The battle is already over, it''s just a waste of time to try and scout the area for new members," the one with VII (7) on his chair said.

    "Do you remember why I''m called Mr. Y?" Mr. Y asked.

    "...Because no one should ask you ''why''," VII replied as he swallowed his spit in fear.

    "That''s exactly right. Let this be a warning to you. I don''t want to be asked such a foolish question ever again," said Mr. Y.

    VII stayed quiet as he didn''t even bother asking what would happen if he didn''tply with the rules and regtions that Mr. Y had set up. To argue with him was the same thing as asking for a death sentence. There are 3 types of ways to rule the world, those being, wealth, fame, and power. What Mr. Y had neither power nor fame. The reason Mr. Y was able to control such a massive underground force was because of wealth. Mr. Y made the wise choice to ignore the route of being the first level 100 yer in the world and instead sought evesting wealth. The fastest way for Mr. Y to get rich was by getting involved in shady activities.

    "If you must know Seven (VII), I sent him to scout the area in case the kingdoms opted for an attack strategy which only forced the males of each kingdom. If that stands to be true, that only leaves women and children which if you don''t know what I''m getting at by now, we can kidnap and sell them. It''s the perfect set up," said Mr. Y.

    "Did you n all of this all along? Was it really a n to take two birds with one stone? While all the men were off to fight and die, you would go and kidnap the woman and children. To add on to that, you sent the mercenaries to fight off Yuki but instead of sending them to kill him, you only sent them to test his strength. In the end you knew the entire time that they would fail... right?" said the one seated at seat VI (6).

    "That''s exactly right. I nned for this all along," replied Mr. Y.

    "That was tooplex even for me to predict. I had done everything on a whim but these idiots still believed everything I said," Mr. Y thought to himself.

    Each of the 8 gasped as they couldn''tprehend the genius who was their leader. It was as if he could see into the future. An organization with a leader with such a high level of precognition would be unstoppable.

    "Wait, I really am a genius. This works out perfectly," Mr. Y thought to himself as he realized something.

    "I know you''re all wondering why I went to such lengths when the money we''re making is already a good amount and it was a waste of resources to send the people to test out Yuki''s power. However, I have a very good exnation for that. While they were sent to initially test out Yuki''s strength, I actually sent them to make Yuki think that we tried to get revenge on him but failed, as such, he''d let his guard down. Once he''s done that, we have to try to recruit him. After all, we''re one in the same since we''re all criminals here. As the icing on top, we would need arge sum of money to hire him, as such it would''ve worked out perfectly that all the kingdoms had selected only men to partake in the battle," Mr. Y exined.

    Everyone in the room was simply taken aback by the sheer intelligence which their leader carried. For all they knew, Mr. Y could''ve had another n which was set up 3 weeks ago which would unveil itself while they were sleeping. It was frightening to think that a single person could have such intelligence. At the end of the day, they were just happy that Mr. Y wasn''t their enemy.

    ...

    A few hourster, the guide came back storming inside the room which all the members had been waiting for him in. Although his entrance was a bit rude, the guide had a very good reason as to why he had done so.

    "Mr. Y, you were right. I checked each of the 3 kingdoms which took part in the battle and not a single grown man could be seen inside any of them.

    Right as the guide finished speaking, each of the 8 started pping. At first he was surprised but still a bit happy that he was getting recognized by the higher members of the crime syndicate. However, he soon realized that they weren''t pping for him, in actuality they were pping for Mr. Y who had exined the n while the guide was gone.

    "Well, that''s all we needed to hear. Each of you get your squadrons and kidnap as many of them as you can. I, II, III will go to one kingdom, IV, V, VI will go to another kingdom andstly, VII, VIII along with me will go to thest kingdom," said Mr. Y as they all began to leave.

    The guide stood confused as everyone passed him by as they exited the room.

 Chapter 128 - Ice Chain

    Back at the so-called graveyard where all the lives which had been lost during the great battle against Yuki, people continued to visit the bodies as they said their prayers. They all hoped that their loved ones would pass on to heaven as the lives they lived were too short. Even those who swore not to feel sadness and be strong to make the ones that died proud couldn''t help but cry as they mourned the dead. Each and every single one of them cursed Yuki to hell for taking away from them what they cared for the most.

    "What''s all that noise?" said Scar as he moved piles upon piles of dead skeletons from his face.

    "Oh right, I remember," said Scar as he turned around to face the sleeping Jing, who didn''t have a single major injury on his body. On the contrary, Scar''s hands along with his legs and chest were burned and scared. All that remained that wasn''t unrepairable was his face.

    "You son of a-" Scar said as he continuously pummelled Jing.

    Scar didn''t let up even though he felt an endless amount of pain from his burnt hands making contact with Jing''s body. Even though he was causing more pain to his body than to Jing, Scar continued his struggle until he could see blooding out of Jing''s face.

    "How dare you use my body to protect your own. Even after I offered to have you protected with my forces, this is how you repay me? By using my body as a shield so you don''t get burned yourself?" Scar asked as he continued his barrage.

    However, right before he couldnd another attack, Jing woke up. His eyes opened wide and for that second, his body was put in a state of emergency survival. Without thinking, Jing moved his head away from the first which Scar was throwing in his direction and retaliated by punching Scar''s wrists in turn causing extreme pain and immobilizing Scar.

    Once he was fully awake, Jing began to breathe heavily as he pushed Scar off of his body. Once he had done that, Jing leaped off the pile of skeletons.

    "Leave me alone. I was just trying to survive. It''s not my fault that you were the only one beside me, and don''t even act all innocent. You, yourself in the end reached for a couple soldiers and used them as meat shields as well," said Jing as he started Scar down.

    "That doesn''t matter. It won''t stop me from killing you here and now. Before I do so, give me one good reason not to change my ability and blow your brains out," said Scar as he anxiously awaited Jing''s next move.

    "Okay, just hear me out. I have a proposal which helps us both benefit," said Jing as he slowly walked towards Scar with his hands raised in the air to show that he had no ill intentions.

    "Fine by me, just tell me already. I don''t have all day," Scar replied as Jing neared him.

    Without a moment of hesitation, Jing clenched his fist as he prepared to punch Scar in the face as hard as he possibly could. However, before Jing couldnd his punch, Scar quickly spun around and kicked Jing before he could see a single thing.

    "I should''ve told you this before. No sneak attack from a level 1 yer will work on me. Before this battle had begun, I had taken the liberty of reaching level 2 to increase my stats in case something were to go wrong. Good thing I was right," said Scar.

    However Jing wasn''t nning on giving in either. Jing quickly did a foot spin attack while Scar was talking and knocked him down to the ground. Next, Jing quickly kicked Scar''s jaw and before he could retaliate, he also stepped firmly on the back of Scar''s palm. Even though he was a level 2 yer, Scar was basically a level 1 yer once again due to the state he was in. Almost all his body was extremely sensitive and even the slightest tap caused immense pain. As such, when Jing took advantage of those weak points, Scar was utterly weak.

    "I can''t let him get up. I have to continue pushing forward. Even the least bit of hesitation can be my doom. I of all people should know that most. I have to be firm and confident with my attacks," said Jing as he continued to throw one attack after another. Whether it was a punch or kick, as long as his hits connected with Scar''s face, that was all that mattered.

    For Jing, it was much more than a physical battle to see who woulde out on top. It was about him oveing his emotions as well. He was always forced to be lower than everyone. He was treated like ackey his entire life. Him oveing his fear of others and taking out the person who was above him would allow him to finally be proud of himself.

    "Onest time!" Jing yelled as he prepared to smash his fist into Scar''s face as his final attack.

    Even while on the receiving end of the most painful beating of his life, Scar still 100% believed that he woulde on top. Right before Jing couldnd his punch, Scar used all his might to punch Jing in the gut. As if he had been by a train, Jing froze in his tracks as he tried to gasp for air. It took all his might not to puke.

    "You''ve surprised me. I''m d you decided to stop being so scared to do anything about people who try to manipte you. For that, I won''t kill you," said Scar as he changed his ability.

    "Activate ability: Ice Control"

    Scar used his new ability to create handcuffs which were held together by chains around Jing''s arm. Even though scar was happy that Jing was stepping out of hisfort zone and learning how to fend for himself, it didn''t mean that he would allow him to be free. After all, Scar would need to reconstruct himself and establish himself in the world once again.

 Chapter 129 - Awakening

    Even after fighting so hard, Jing''s will was utterly crushed. He hade so far from where he originally was. However, just wishful thinking wouldn''t allow him to surpass those above him. He needed to also gain the power which was necessary to do so. After all, it was real life and not someic book in which the hero gets to beat the viin through the power of friendship. Each person had to work for what they wanted or either have unbelievably good luck which most people didn''t have. As such the route of hard work would be the road which most people would eventually take to aplish their hopes and dreams.

    ...

    Back at the kingdom where Yuki was helping Marcell with the dishes, it waste evening and they had finished cleaning up shop and were ready to leave. For some reason, Yuki looked a lot more sweaty than he had the previous day. However, it wasn''t because he worked for a few extra hours, it was actually because he was testing out what he could do with "Fallen angel of hell" the entire day and had ended up pushing past his limits. In doing so, Yuki drained arge majority of his stamina. To add on to that, Yuki didn''t n on using potions to assist himself when he was outside the dungeon as it would be a waste even though he had a near endless supply of potions.

    "It''s time to go," said Marcell as he greeted the tired Yuki, whoid his face on the cold counter top of the ind table in the kitchen.

    "Woah, what happened to you? Are you alright? Maybe this was a bit too hard for you," Marcell said as he looked concerned for Yuki''s health.

    "No, it''s fine. Work was easy. I put a bit too much of my stamina towards finding the best style to fight with my des and ended up tiring myself out. Believe me, washing tes is an easy task," said Yuki as he stood up and began to walk towards the door which led from the store to the kitchen. Right as he arrived there, Marcell took a hold of Yuki''s arm and helped him walk the rest of the way to their house.

    "Thank you for helping me. Sorry for being a burden, I''ll be careful next time when I try to use my de''s special ability," said Yuki. There was no point in hiding the information about his special de as multiple people had already seen it before so it really didn''t make a difference whether Marcell knew or not. The problem would arise if Marcell or anyone else were to find out Yuki''s other des "Niflheim''s holy treasure" or "The underworld''s holy weapon". If people found out that Yuki had more than 1 of those special des, they would grow suspicious or worse-envious.

    Once Yuki and Marcell had arrived back at the house, they were once again greeted by the running stomps of Marcell''s daughter, who hugged her father with open arms just as she did every other day. However, right after she finished hugging her father, she walked up to Yuki and looked up at his eyes.

    "Umm... hello?" Yuki said in confusion.

    Without saying a word, Marcell''s daughter walked back inside the house and Marcell along with Yuki followed suit. Marcell had taken the liberty of closing the door from the inside since Yuki had opened the door for him that morning. As such, it was a gesture to show that he had repaid the favour.

    "We''re home," Marcell said as he called out to Elpis.

    Hearing those words, Elpis came out of the home kitchen to greet Yuki and Marcell.

    "How was work today? And what happened to you Jack? You looked exhausted," Elpisments.

    "It''s a long story, I''ll exin it to youter. As for work, work was wonderful. With Jack at my side, we managed to make more sales than ever before since I was able to focus on just serving the customers all day," replied Marcell.

    "That''s wonderful. Well, dinner will be ready soon. Jack, you go upstairs and take a shower. Your clothes from this morning have been washed. Once you''ve changed make sure to give me your dirty clothes so I can wash those for tomorrow," said Elpis.

    "Thank you ma''am," said Yuki as he quickly walked up the stairs to take a shower. He couldn''t help but feel ufortable in his sweaty clothes.

    Yuki quickly went upstairs, climbed thedder to the attic, took his towel and rushed to take a shower. Unlike in the morning, Yuki took a cold shower to help himself focus more.

    "What was the deal with that kid? I''m not good with kids so I decided to avoid her. What did she even want from me?" Yuki asked himself.

    Yuki quickly washed himself and stepped out of the bathroom before going up to the attic to get dressed in his hoodie and sweatpants which were the mostfortable thing on the to Yuki in that moment due to him being in a state of tension and tiredness for arge majority of the day.

    Once Yuki got down stairs, he handed his clothes to Elpis which took them to theundry room which was a small ce which housed a washer and a dryer along with aundry basket which Elpis ced Yuki''s clothes in so she could wash themter.

    "I didn''t know you could buy a dishwasher in this world," said Yuki.

    "You can''t.. It''s Elpis'' ability. To make her day easier, she chose for it to be aundry machine and drier. She could do everything else at home on her own with ease so she chose a cleaning type ability," Marcell informed Yuki.

    "That''s actually a really smart thing to do," Yukimented before Elpis came back.

    Once everyone was present, they had dinner and everyone went to do their own separate things. Marcell went to the bathroom to take a shower himself. As for Elpis, she went to put her daughter to bed. Lastly, Yuki went to his room andid on his bed as he tried to go to sleep.

    "Hey Yuki. Just in case you care, the 3 kingdoms which you killed most of the male poption for are in danger," said Zero.

 Chapter 130 - Leave

    "Wait what? What do you mean?" Yuki asked.

    "Well, you remember Tanya, Lou, Rina, and Simeon right?" Zero asked.

    "Who''s that?" Yuki replied.

    "... the swordswoman, speedbooster, debuffer and healer from the first group which attacked you.. does that ring a bell?" said Zero.

    "Oooh, those guys. What about them?" Yuki asked.

    "Well, they were hired by the higher ups of the human trafficking group which you got in the way of a while back with the first Meurig. Now that the mercenaries they hired were defeated along with most of the male poption, the higher ups of that gang of sorts are going to kidnap as many people as they can and then sell them off," Zero exined.

    "Were they nning for this the entire time and I just fell into their hands?" Yuki asked.

    "Luckily no, it was just a coincidence. However, it doesn''t change the fact that hundreds of lives are in danger here," Zero exined.

    "Did they already start kidnapping people?" Yuki asked.

    "Not yet, that''s why I came to tell. It''ll get harder to stop them once they begin," Zero replied.

    "That''s great. Come back to me once they''ve started. Once they start their n and get a good way in, I''ll step in and be a hero for the kingdoms in turn making myself more likeable. This is more than just saving a couple lives. If I were to barge in before the gang attacked, I would be attacked by both the kingdom''s civilians along with the gang since the people don''t know what''s about to happen to them. Damage needs to be done so I can swoop in and save the day," Yuki exined.

    "As you wish master," said Zero before bing quiet.

    Now that Zero was gone, Yuki smiled as he couldn''t wait to enter battle once again. He had be addicted to the sensation ofpletely overpowering his opponents to the point where he barely had to do anything for them to fear for their lives. Once again, he would manage to engulf others in fear and desperation as he would make them beg for their lives.

    "Let''s see... even if I do go there, it would be best not to kill them. Just in case I don''t get along with the people that well, it would be good to allow the gang to attack once more so I cane in and save the day one more time. If I keep rinsing and repeating the process, I should be able to get all of them on my side," Yuki said to himself.

    "Wait, what about Marcell? I could change my ability to be a cloning one once again and leave that here while I go back to the kingdom. That would still be too inefficient. I need to make sure that the people can see my mes. They have to know I''m the one rescuing them, other than that, there''s no other way for me to be well known as the hero," Yuki thought to himself.

    "That only leaves me with one option. I''ll have to tell Marcell and Elpis that I''ll be leaving for a bit. They''re gonna get worried but it''s only temporary. Plus, the longest I''ll be gone is for a day or two. I seriously hope they don''t ask me a lot of questions," Yuki said to himself before falling asleep.

    The next morning, Yuki woke up energized and ready to take on the day. However, he knew that the sooner he told Marcell and Elpis about him having to go away for a little bit, the better. As such, Yuki went down stairs expecting to greet Elpis and Marcell and inform them.

    Once he went down thedder, he couldn''t hear anything so he decided to brush his teeth and get ready for the day anyway. Once outside the bathroom, Yuki was greeted by Elpis who had been awaiting him so she could give him his clothes which were washed for the day.

    "Did you have a good night''s rest?" Elpis asked.

    "Yes I did, what about you-," Yuki stopped himself.

    "I need to speak to you and Marcell about something. It''s urgent," said Yuki with a serious face.

    Elpis was caught off guard since he had been smiling like a joyful kid a second ago. The sudden change in expression and tone made Elpis think the worse. However, she managed to keep herposure and went down stairs with Yuki. Their daughter was still sleeping so she wasn''t present to hear the conversation.

    "So what was it that you wanted to talk to us about?" Elpis asked.

    "I would like to start off by saying how grateful I am for all that you''ve done for me. You''ve gone above and beyond to make me feel weed into your home. However, I will have to leave for about a day or two. Something came up and I can''t dy it either. I need to be present to witness it," Yuki exined.

    "I get that you''re notfortable with telling us a lot about who you actually are but still, we''d get worried anyway. Is there any way that we could apany you to wherever you''re going?" Elpis said.

    "Not really, it''s too dangerous for both of you toe," Yuki replied.

    "Dangerous? How are we supposed to know that you''ll be back safely if you''re saying that it''s dangerous?" Elpis asked.

    "Just trust me, I''lle back safely. That should be thest thing you should worry about. I know I look like just a kid but I''ve managed to level up quite a lot of times. I''ll be able to ovee anything that gets in my way," Yuki reassured them.

    "Well when are you leaving? We can at least do a couple of things together as a family just in case you don''t return," Elpis rmended.

    Seeing as she was in distress, Yuki lightly grabbed her shoulder.

    "Don''t worry, I''ll be fine. Nothing will happen to me," said Yuki as he tried to reassure Elpis.

    "... And you Marcell, sorry I can''t help you with the shop for a day or two. Just leave the dishes in the kitchen and I''ll take care of it when I''m back," said Yuki.

    "But wait, you haven''t told us when you have to leave," said Marcell.

    Just then Zero spoke to Yuki.

    "They''re there," said Zero.

    "Umm... right now," Yuki replied to Marcell.

    "Great, teleport me to any of the kingdoms," Yuki told Zero.

 Chapter 131 - Arrogance

    "Bye bye," said Yuki as he waved his hands before disappearing from Elpis and Marcell''s eyes.

    ...

    Yuki was now on the walls of the kingdom he was spawned into. He could hear yelling and screaminging from every direction. Banging and smashing could be heard as the first, second and third squadrons along with their leaders raided every home and forcefully kidnapped as many people as they could by force. If they resisted, it would be an instant beating. They didn''t care what methods they had to resort to as long as they got what they wanted. Once they found someone, they would ce them in handcuffs and line them up to be taken by therge group of caravans that they brought with them.

    "Oh wow, they''re actually doing pretty good. It shouldn''t be much longer until they have everyone lined up to be taken away," said Yuki as he looked down at the scatters of people who either were running or being run after.

    As he looked down, Yuki could see 3 people who were all talking amongst themselves as theyid back on the side of the kingdom''s inner walls. It was easy for Yuki to tell that they were the leaders of the people who were doing a kidnapping. It was an organized crime, however, it didn''t make sense to Yuki why there were 3 leaders instead of one.

    "An organization with 3 leaders? No, that doesn''t make any sense. If there were 3 leaders, each one would be in a different kingdom. They''re most likely vice leaders or captains," Yuki said to himself as he leaped off the giant kingdom wall and crashnded into the ground.

    This of course caught the the 3 numbers off guard. They instantly stood straight and held out their weapons as the prepared to battle. Each one of the numbers wore ck suits with ck tinted sses. The only thing differentiating them being their height and number that was sewed into the fabric of their suits.

    I (1), being the tallest one, II(2), being the shortest of the three and III(3) being the second tallest. 1(1) carried a revolver which was directly pointed at Yuki. The other two carried a dagger.

    "Woah there, that''s a weapon that can kill people," Yuki said as he walked up to I(1).

    "Take one more step and I''ll shoot," said I(1).

    I(1) began to sweat in fear from seeing Yuki. Even though he didn''t know that it was Yuki himself, he could tell that something was wrong. I(1) blinked for a second which was the worst thing he could''ve done.

    Right as his eyes opened, he couldn''t see Yuki anymore. He hadpletely disappeared from his line of vision. Just as he began to turn his head to the side to see if Yuki ran away, he felt something warm at the back of his head.

    "Rx, it''s going to be alright. There is no need to be afraid. Just close your eyes and ept your fate," Yuki whispered into his I(1)''s ears.

    Hearing those words, 1 broke down. He couldn''tprehend being defeated so easily. It didn''t even take Yuki a full 15 seconds to turn the tables on him and have him fearing for his life. If all it took was 15 seconds topletely turn the tables on him, what chance did anyone else stand against him.

    "Who are you? What do you want?" asked 1 as he kneeled on the ground without looking at Yuki.

    "You literally tried to kill me before asking me anything. Why should I answer your stupid question? Only I get to ask the questions here," Yuki said in a stern tone.

    "Activate ability: Bullet Barrage"

    1 activated his ability while Yuki was talking as it was the only way for him to survive. Behind Yuki, a couple dozen bullets appeared and plunged themselves into his back. However, instead of getting inside his body, they just bounced off like rubber balls. They only caused as much damage to Yuki as paintballs would''ve caused to a normal human. However, instead of getting angry and retaliating, Yuki decided to mess with their heads.

    Yuki pretended to be injured and fell to the ground as he closed his eyes. Hearing Yuki''s body fall to the ground, 1 got up from his knees and prepared to take his anger out on Yuki.

    "Who do you think you are? Did you honestly believe that you had any chance of defeating me? Let alone all 3 of usbined?" 1 mocked Yuki as he kicked Yuki''s stomach.

    Even though his attack didn''t hurt, Yuki pretended as if he had been receiving the beating of his life. With every kick, punch, stomp or bullet which was thrown at him, Yuki continued to pretend as if any of them were doing damage to him.

    "Please stop, I didn''t know who you were. I apologize for my foolish behaviour. I have a family here, I''ll do anything. Please stop hurting me," Yuki lied.

    "Oh that''s a shame," said 1 as he kicked Yuki''s face.

    "First of all, you''re not getting out of this without either being paralyzed or dead. Second, even if you did have a family, we''re going to take them by force and sell them. They''ll be worth a good amount of money," said 1 as he grinned at Yuki with the most evil smile in the world.

    Once 1 took a break from beating his enemy, Yuki got up as he shivered to make it as if he was past his limit.

    "I don''t care who you are. I will not let you hurt my family!" Yuki yelled out.

    Right as he said those words, 1, without looking at Yuki, pointed his gun at his head and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Yuki''s head directly and he was knocked to the ground.

    "What a stupid kid. He was too arrogant for his own good. Someone should''ve taught him at least some manners. Well, on the bright side, it looks like everything else is going up to n. We should be finished in a couple hours," said 1.

    As he said those words, Yuki began tough.

 Chapter 132 - Pillar

    "What was that? I thought you were dead. Well, it doesn''t matter either way. I''ll just make sure to beat you to death," said 1 as he began to walk towards Yuki who wasying down on the stone cold ground. I(1) really believed that he could defeat Yuki, even as he approached Yuki once again, he waspletely sure that he could bring an end to Yuki''s life in an instant.

    As he pointed his gun at Yuki''s head once again, he prepared to pull the trigger. There was no remorse in his eyes. Not a single bit of pity for the helpless child. It was so easy for him to take a life.

    "It seems you don''t truly understand how valuable a human life is," said Yuki as he activated his ability.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki instantly created a cylindrical wall which covered him and I(1) only. The cylindrical wall seemed to reach for the heavens as it stretched upwards beyond what anyone could see. In doing this, Yuki had managed to gather the attention of everyone in the kingdom as they saw the fire pir which stood in the front of the kingdom.

    "Fire? No... you couldn''t be. Are you the one who took on over 3000 men and still came out on top? Do you happen to be Yuki Kaito by any chance?" 1 asked as he began walking backwards in fear. Incidentally, he tripped andnded on his back. Even so, he continued to crawl while keeping his eyes on Yuki. He continued to shiver while Yuki began to stand up from the ground.

    "Oh, I''ve grown to be famous, I see. Well, that doesn''t matter now. Your fate is sealed," said Yuki as he looked down menacingly at 1.

    "I still don''t understand how easy it is for you to take a human life. You don''t feel the slightest bit of emotion when you end that person''s future just for what you seek. Even with the slightest bit of being provoked, you''re quick to jump to murder. Just because there aren''t anyws stopping you, do you feel that it is correct to kill?" Yuki asked.

    Hearing this made 1 quite perplexed. He didn''t understand what Yuki was saying as it made absolutely no sense. How could someone who mercilessly killed over 3000 in one day talk about the importance of a human life. It was a literal paradox.

    "What do you mean? Didn''t you kill a whole army on your own within the span of a few hours? What makes you think that a human life is precious? You above everyone else should be fighting against that ideology," 1 replied to Yuki.

    "What reason do you have to kill people? Did you even bother asking yourself that same question?" 1 asked.

    Yuki of course had his reasons for killing. Anyone in his way should''ve died. He didn''t kill just for the fun of it. Everyone he killed deserved their fate. On top of that, it wasn''t like they were important. Yuki had solidified that killing people was okay due to the fact that to him, they were just NPCs. What harm woulde from ending the life of someone who in the grand scheme of things wouldn''t achieve anything important. The world which Yuki had created was based on the belief he had. In the previous one, he wasn''t able to portray his perception of humanity, however, in this one, things were different.

    Yuki would be able to use the NPCs to help him reach a higher goal. Just like regr NPCs in a video game, humans would also serve their role to be Yuki''s tool. However, Yuki didn''tmit his horrific crimes just because he could do it. It wasn''t because he didn''t care about people either. In fact, he cared about humans a lot. That was why he was able to make the hard decision of sacrificing people for the sake of the greater good. In the end, if Yuki were to be the one to reach level 100 first, he would be able to govern the world in the best way possible.

    The reason for this was because he didn''t have any ulterior motives. Yuki only sought to better humanity as a whole. As opposed to anyone else which would have something that they sought to achieve through the power of removing their limiter. Why else would someone endure years of endless hell as they constantly leveled up? Once someone has something they want for themselves, they end up resorting to any methods necessary to achieve them. As such, they would bring corruption to the world.

    It made sense why Yuki would be the best candidate for the position of the first level 100 yer. He didn''t have something he sought. In the end, if he wanted something, he could ask Zero for it or let Zero turn him back into his original form. Yuki was the only one capable of saving the world from the problem he''d caused.

    Although all these facts stood to be true, Yuki couldn''t tell I(1) about them. Instead, he would have to lie his way out of the situation just as he had so many other times.

    "My situation is different. I have something I want to gain. I only killed all of those people because they wouldn''t get out of my way. In truth, I gave them multiple chances to run away with their lives. However, they were too prideful and in the end, they were dead," said Yuki.

    "And unless you want to face the same pain, it''d be best for you to surrender and leave this ce right now," Yuki continued.

    "But I can''t. Their boss will kill us if he finds out that we failed toplete our mission. Even though he seems nice a lot of the time, it''s best not to get him mad. Once he gets like that, he''ll do anything to torment and kill you along with anyone else you care about," 1 pleaded.

    "That''s really crazy. What''s even crazier is that I don''t care. Leave right now or I''ll kill you before he does," said Yuki.

 Chapter 133 - Disappointment

    Once he said those words, Yuki deactivated the cylindrical pir which he had created using his ability to corner I(1). Hearing the words Yuki had said broke 1 as he had nowhere to go. If he didn''t seed in his mission, he would get killed by Mr. Y. However, if he did try toplete the mission, Yuki would kill him. Either way, he would die.

    "I''m not going to give up. I can''t. I would rather die trying to live than to die with my will shattered," 1 said under his breath before signalling to II(2) and III(3) that it was time to give it their all. They would need to fight as if their lives were on the line because in reality, they were. Failing to defeat Yuki would mean death.

    "Activate ability: Bullet Barrage" - I

    "Activate ability: Sword Dance" - II

    "Activate ability: Second sh" - III

    1 once again used his ability which made bullets appear out of nowhere and surrounded Yuki in all directions before firing directly at him. However, 1 had learned his lesson from thest time. It would take much more than one round of bullets to take Yuki down. 1 raised his hand forward and pointed it towards Yuki and began to grip at air while seeming to struggle. In doing this, many more bullets appeared out of nowhere and continuously fired at Yuki, not allowing him a chance to retaliate.

    2 on the other hand began to appear and disappear from Yuki''s sight. However, once he reappeared, he was in a different location as to where he was before he disappeared. It looked as if he was teleporting. Right as Yuki blinked from being constantly bombarded by bullets, 2 would swoop in and sh Yuki with his dagger. Although he caused minimal damage, 2 continued to repeat this process as he hoped to eventually wear out Yuki.

    Lastly, 3 activated his ability which allowed him to sh the air and a momentter, a cut with the same force which he had used to cut the air would cut Yuki. It was a dyed ability which allowed him to attack his opponent from anywhere as long as they stayed in the same ce for long enough. Just like his 2rades, he continued reusing his ability as many times as he could in hopes of bringing down Yuki.

    After some time of this continuous barrage from 3 people went on, Yuki began to get bored. He had been expecting much more from the group of people who were supposed to be the vice captains of arge gang. Even with them having so many chances to take Yuki down, they still failed. Anything they threw at him barely caused a scratch.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Using his ability, Yuki melted any and all bullets which were directed at him by 1. Even though Yuki had rendered 1 useless, the other two still remained and they didn''t stop attacking. As such, Yuki spread his mes in arger area so that 2 wouldn''t get a chance to attack him either. Now that 2 of them couldn''t do anything but watch, all the responsibility of taking down Yuki fell onto 3. Even so, Yuki wouldn''t allow him to strike him any longer either. Using his ability, Yuki extended the mes which he had surrounded him onto the dagger which 3 carried, in turn melting it.

    "Now what? Was that it? Don''t you guys have a secret weapon which you''ve prepared just in case something were to go wrong?" Yuki asked as he mocked the three of them.

    "If that''s all, it''s best that you leave. Let everyone you kidnapped go free as well," said Yuki.

    "Please won''t you reconsider? If we go now, we''ll die," said 2.

    "It''s not my fault that you decided to work in that shady business. All you have to me is none other than yourself," replied Yuki.

    "But-" as 3 spoke, Yuki grew too irritated and interrupted him.

    "Maybe I gave you the wrong impression. I''m not here to negotiate. When I tell you something, you listen," said Yuki as he used his mes to propel himself and help himself flout in the air.

    With his finger pointed at the sky just as he had done so many previous times, Yuki created arge fireball in the air. This one, muchrger than the one he created in the battle field due to him leveling up so many times.

    "Heaven''s Sun"

    Yuki was nning to use one of his signature attacks if they didn''t leave. As such, each of the numbers called off theirckeys and let go of all the civilians. They didn''t even bother taking a single one with them in fear that Yuki woulde after them and actually use "Heaven''s Sun" on them.

    Once they had left the kingdom with their empty caravans, the three squadron leaders began to speak amongst themselves.

    "What are we going to tell the boss now? He''s gonna kill us for sure," said 3.

    "I just remembered. I should''ve offered him to join us. That was what the boss would''ve wanted," said 1.

    "What do you mean? You can''t mean... was he Yuki?" 2 replied.

    "Of course he was, how could you not tell? He would be the only fire user in the region who would be capable of demonstrating such power," said 1.

    "Well why didn''t you recruit him? If the boss found out about that as well, we''ll get double the punishment," said 2.

    "It''s not my fault only. Both of you could''ve reminded me. I guess we were just caught up in the moment. I mean who could me us. How could anyone possibly think straight when ced in a fight against that demon?" said 1.

    "We''ll just have to hope that the boss doesn''t find out about this," said 3.

    On the other hand, as everyone rejoiced that they were free from the kidnappers, Yuki called upon Zero and teleported towards the next kingdom. That was the best thing he could''ve done. Not because he wanted to be some shy hero, but because letting the people decide what to do with themselves after being saved by the person they hate the most was the best way for them to start changing their perception of Yuki. If he had remained there, they would''ve impulsively gotten angry at Yuki.

 Chapter 134 - IV

    Once again, Yuki teleported to the top of a kingdom''s walls. Standing there, Yuki was able to find the locations of everyone and see everything he needed. The scenery was much simr to the one at his own kingdom. He could see as people were forcibly being removed from their homes and dragged towards the front gate of the kingdom. Unlikest time however, Yuki was not greeted by 3 squadron leaders. Instead, there was only one. As Yuki looked down at his suit coat, he could see the number 4 in roman numerals which looked like IV. Seeing him, Yuki instantly leaped off the enormous kingdom walls andnded on the ground, in turn causing a small crater on the ground.

    "Would you happen to be one of the leaders of this operation?" Yuki asked IV(4).

    "That would be correct. Who might you be?" IV(4) asked.

    "Well that''s great. I''m Yuki, you should''ve heard of me by now. I''m just here to deliver one quick message. Pack up your things and leave and we won''t have any problems," Yuki replied.

    "That''s nice to hear. I can see where you''reing from but unfortunately we cannot do that. However, on the other hand, we would be willing to make an exception and leave this ce in an instant if you were to join our somewhat humble gang of sorts," IV(4) said.

    "You seem like quite the gentleman. Although I would like to negotiate with you a while longer, it is not in my best interest as of now. So do yourself a favour and leave. Remember this, this isn''t for my well being, it''s for yours," replied Yuki.

    "Well that''s a shame. Let''s see here. Could you go and deal with the other two squadron leaders for now. In the meanwhile, I''ll try toe up with apromise," said IV.

    "You''ve got yourself a deal. However, if your promise'' does not fit my expectation, you along with all your people will be burned to a crisp," Yuki warned IV before flying off using his ability to look at the other squadron leaders.

    As he looked around to find anyone else who might wear a ck suit with ck tinted sses, Yuki heard a lot of yelling in the distance. Feeling that IV(4) would need a lot more time toe up with a suitablepromise, Yuki decided that some time spent entertaining himself wouldn''t cause any harm.

    When he arrived at the scene, Yuki was greeted by one of the henchmen from the human trafficking gang. He was busy holding on to the wrists of a woman who was trying to escape from him. She tried to kick and punch but nothing she did worked. Even yelling didn''t get her any help. Feeling desperate, the woman who was in the process of being kidnapped bit the arm of her captor. Enraged at what the woman had done to him, the captor temporarily let go of her and punched her to the ground. Right as he did that, Yuki arrived at the scene to watch it y out. Hearing Yuki''s mes, the henchman turned around to face Yuki.

    "What do you want, kid? You wanna get punched too?" the henchman said as he began to walk towards Yuki.

    "Well, I guess that''s what happens when power gets to someone''s head. I should mess with him for a bit," Yuki said to himself.

    The moment before the henchman could punch him, Yuki gripped his palm together to create a fist and punched the man faster than he could see. Not understanding what had just happened, the henchman looked around to see the perpetrator. However, to his disappointment, there was no one there. Yuki continued to stand where he was so the henchman couldn''t put the pieces together.

    "Is there something wrong sir? You look troubled," Yuki asked as he mocked the henchman.

    "Will you shut up! That''s it. Since I can''t find the person who hit me, I''ll just take it out on you. Then let''s see what you''ll say, and that''s even if you can talk when I''m done with you," said the henchman as he prepared to strike Yuki across the face.

    Yuki sighed in disappointment and reached upwards with his left hand and redirected the punch towards the ground. Without a moment wasted, Yuki aimed for the henchman''s jaw and punched him once again before he couldprehend what had just urred.

    While the henchman continued to stay confused, Yuki walked past him to help thedy that was knocked down by him. However, the henchman turned around to sucker punch Yuki while he wasn''t looking. If Yuki was faster than him regrly, his best hope to catch his enemy would be to try a sneak attack. Unluckily for him, Yuki was immune to a sneak attack from a low level yer.

    Right as Yuki leaned down to help the woman get up, Yuki sensed the henchman. However, instead of looking back and deflecting the attack, Yuki thought he would humiliate the henchman instead.

    The second before the henchman could strike his enemy, Yuki quickly reached for the henchman''s arm with his left palm and twisted it while he punched him with his right hand which made him kneel over in front of the woman he had punched.

    "Excuse this fine gentleman''s actions. He truly didn''t mean to hurt and as such, he hade of his own free will to apologize to you," Yuki said to the woman as he mocked the henchman before pushing him to the ground.

    "So what did you think of that?" Yuki said as he reached his hand forward as he tried to help the woman get up from the ground.

    The woman, feeling that she could trust Yuki, epted his offer and got up on her feet. For some reason, Yuki was surprised to find that she was shorter than him. Yuki wasn''t used to being taller than a lot of people so it was a nice surprise.

    "Who are you and why are you here?" the woman asked.

    "I don''t think you should be concerning yourself with such minor details. You''ll know soon enough," Yuki said.

    Of course if she knew that he was Yuki Kaito, she would instantly hate him. As such, Yuki decided to hide his identity so she could have a little time to forgive her hero. At least, that was what Yuki thought.

 Chapter 135 - Pointless

    Once Yuki was done talking to the woman, he turned his head to look at the henchman who was still recovering from getting thrown by Yuki. The hatred which he had stored for Yuki was too much for a single person to bear. Not only had he beaten him, but Yuki also humiliated him in front of his prey. As he saw Yuki walk towards him, the henchman looked up at Yuki and gave him a re of death.

    "You shouldn''t look at people like that. Didn''t your mother raise you properly? Actually never mind, someone who would hit a woman most likely has a few screws loose. How about we go for a ride, just me and you," Yuki suggested.

    Of course no one had any idea of what Yuki was speaking about, it wasn''t like there were cars invented in the new world yet. Even with an ability, Yuki didn''t have a car with him so it made the henchman question if Yuki was an insane kid with just a lot of power.

    Without allowing the henchman enough time to get up on his own, Yuki reached for the top of his head and grabbed onto his hair as he lifted him in the air.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki used his ability to lift himself off the ground. Using his mes, Yuki continued to concentrate waves of mes to his feet and right as they reached out of his body, he would make the mes release, in turn causing them to push him higher in the air. Since Yuki was able to use his mes more freely, Yuki used his technique which he had been subconsciously using due to him using it so many times to allow himself to fly. Even while carrying someone with him, Yuki was able to execute his technique effortlessly.

    As Yuki and the henchman continued to go higher in the air, the kingdom became less and less visible until at one point, all they could see were clouds under their feet.

    "What do you n to do with me now? Let me go if you wish to keep your life. If you put me down now, the less punishment you''ll face," said the henchman as he tried to scare Yuki, however he waspletely ignored.

    "Hey, I have a question for you. Who are those guys who wear a suit and have the roman numbers on their coats?" Yuki asked.

    Hearing those words scared the henchman as he was surprised Yuki learned of the squadron leaders. What was more impressive was the fact that he had learned of them but was still alive.

    "Those are our squadron leaders. There are 8 of them in total and each one of them is a level 5 yer or higher," the henchman lied to scare Yuki off more.

    "No they''re not. Level 5 yers aren''t that weak. I''d give them level 3 or 4 at max. Someone''s gotta be lying to you," Yuki replied.

    "Wait... are you telling me you''vee into contact with a squadron leader and are still alive. Even so, how dare you call them weak, you probably ran away for your life at the mere sight of them," the henchman argued as he tried to protect the honour of his leaders.

    "No. Seriously, I took on 3 of them at a time and they were still pretty weak. Are you sure we''re talking about the same people here? The ones I met had the roman numbers 1,2, and 3. Each one was wearing a ck suit and tinted ck shades," Yuki exined in hope that the henchman would tell him that he was wrong and that the real squadron leaders were some devilishly strong people.

    "You''re joking right? You got their description perfectly. Who even are you?" the henchman asked.

    "I''m getting tired of people asking me who I am. I should seriously invest my time into making posters so everyone can remember me," said Yuki.

    "Wait... you have mes, brown eyes, and ck hair. You couldn''t be.." the henchman said.

    "You couldn''t be. Can you shut up. Do you realize how dumb you sound," said Yuki as he mocked the henchman.

    "Are you Yuki Kaito?" the henchman asked.

    "No I''m not. Does your entire organizationck the brain capacity to process basic information? Of course I''m Yuki Kaito, who else would be able to do this?" Yuki said as he grew enraged.

    "Well, there''s no point in hiding it from you any longer. I think I''m done with living. I''ll die here anyway so I might as well just tell you," said the henchman.

    "Tell me what?" Yuki asked.

    "Most people actually know exactly who you are due to your face being published in a local news article a while back then once again after the incident between you and thebined forces of the 3 kingdoms. That would also include our organization. Everyone in our organization was forced to memorize a protocol in which if we ever encounter you, we should act like we don''t know you and then once you''ve shown us your true strength, we would pretend you''re amazing by showering you withpliments and end up escaping with our lives. It''s quite the simple n but it would''ve worked, however, I''m too tired to deal with this. Just drop me here, I don''t have much to live for anyway," said the henchman.

    "How do I know this isn''t part of your n to escape. Actually, ignore that. I''ll grant your wish," Yuki said as he let go of the henchman.

    Yuki watched as the henchman fell towards the ground all while he had the face of someone who was satisfied. He really hadn''t been lying to Yuki. In fact, this was what he had wanted. He wanted Yuki to think that he was lying and in the end grant his actual wish.

    "Now I see. However, I won''t allow you to be satisfied. I don''t know what made you join such a shady organization but I''m d you realized that there''s no point in helping them," said Yuki as he propelled himself downwards. A momentter, Yuki was below the henchman. Just as he nned, Yuki caught the henchman and safely brought both of them down to the ground.

 Chapter 136 - Reality

    Once Yuki and the henchmannded back on the ground, Yuki let go of him and allowed him to get on his feet. From his facial expression, Yuki could tell that he was angry but also too exhausted to do anything. Yuki had rescued him from certain death but he just allowed him to continue his horrible life. Yuki had robbed the henchman of the opportunity to end his miserable life. Even though the henchman hated Yuki for his actions, it wasn''t like he could do anything about it. At the end of the day. Yuki could demolish everyone in the kingdom without even trying.

    "Why did you let me live? You realize that I''ll just continue to work for the gang and keep on doing horrific actions. At the end of the day, I don''t have anywhere to go back to. This life and the past, in both I''ll always be alone, I can''t rely on anyone other than myself. As such, this is the fastest way for me to secure a half decent life," said the henchman.

    "Money isn''t everything," Yuki tried to reason with the henchman who was now sitting on the ground from mental and physical exhaustion.

    "Yes it is. Look at the world Yuki. Everything is governed by money. We kidnap and sell people for money. We get paid money for our work just so we can spend it once again. Money is thew of the world. Even our organization is run by money. Our boss is just some ordinary guy, however since he started the gang, he earns arge majority of the money we gain from our sales," the henchman exined.

    "You''re right. I was too foolish to suggest something like that. I won''t try to control you, whatever you do with your life is your choice. However, you won''t be kidnapping anyone from here," said Yuki.

    As he continued to speak, behind Yuki, the woman which he had saved grew angry to the point where she was fuming. She couldn''t believe the one she thought of as her hero was Yuki. The one that had killed so many, including her father in the great battle. Her perception of Yuki turned upside down as she now viewed him as the devil. As Yuki continued to speak with the henchman, the woman charged towards him with a de in her hand which she had changed her ability and used her new ability to construct.

    Before she could make contact with Yuki''s body, Yuki put his hand back and reached for her wrist without even needing to look at her and pulled her in front of him. Yuki knew exactly why she wanted to kill him. Just as most people who hated him, she probably had hatred towards him due to him killing a loved one of hers or because of the perception of him which other people had.

    "Let go of me!" yelled the woman as he tried to tug her wrist away from Yuki.

    "Why should I? You just tried to kill me. Wouldn''t it be better for me to return the favour? I mean it''s the polite thing to do," said Yuki as he stared at her down with a serious look in his eyes.

    "It''s not fair! Why did you have to kill everyone?" the woman asked as she began to tear up.

    "She''s annoying, I should toy with her for a bit," Yuki said to himself.

    "To be quite literal, I only killed them because they came in my way. If they weren''t so stupid, they would''ve continued to live their peaceful lives," Yuki replied.

    "Couldn''t you just cause some minor injuries then let them off with a warning? Why did you resort to murder?" the woman asked.

    "She''s actually got to be stupid. Why wouldn''t I kill someone who tried to kill me first? Secondly, I had tried to give them a chance to escape, but no. They had to be stubborn and try to fight me. Well in my opinion, they got what they deserved. However, I can''t tell her that. She''ll just keep asking questions that get dumber by the second, I''ve got to end this now," Yuki told himself as he let go of the woman''s wrist.

    "To be perfectly honest, I''m just evil. I kill for fun. It brings me joy and satisfaction. I like to hear the sound of people begging for their lives. Now you know the truth, what are you going to do about it?" said Yuki.

    Hearing his words, the woman began to cry. She knew that he was right. It wasn''t like she could defeat him through judging him and telling him what to do. She would need to gain actual strength through gaining exp and leveling up.

    "That''s what I thought. You can cry your heart out but your loved ones will never return. Matter of fact, I''m feeling extra evil today," said Yuki as he took a couple steps away from the woman who was crying while she was on her knees.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki created arge hollow cylindrical pir which surrounded the crying woman. Yuki had trapped her just to show her how helpless she was against him. Once he had done so, Yuki helped the henchman to get on his feet and they began to walk around the kingdom in search of the two other squadron leaders.

    "Why did you lie to her like that?" the henchman asked.

    "I don''t know. She was very obnoxious. I thought about trying to change how people viewed me here since when I rule the entire world, I wouldn''t want all my subject to hate me, but if I have to deal with people like her, I would rather force people to like me," said Yuki which made the henchman chuckle.

    "Well, you can''t make people like you by killing their loved ones then telling them how much you enjoyed doing it. You need to have a little bit of patience," said the henchman.

    The henchman was apletely different person than he was before. Unlikest time, he didn''t have a short temper and didn''t jump to conclusions. This had solidified Yuki''s belief that he had really been acting like a basic grunt previously because he was forced to.

 Chapter 137 - Superiority

    "So where are we headed off to?" the henchman asked.

    "I''m going to go look for the other numbers of the gang. I''m going to defeat 5 and 6 then go back to meet with 4 so he could give me thepromise that he said he would if I let you guys continue. Too bad for him that I won''t be taking anything. It''s all pointless, I just wanted to mess with him and his other squadron leaders," Yuki exined.

    "That sounds fun. Do you mind if I tag along with you? I''m kind of intrigued to see how to battle against other people who might be able to stand up to you for even a little," asked the henchman.

    "Of course. I thought you would want me to leave you behind in fear that your leaders would punish you," Yuki epted the henchman''s request.

    "By the way, I never got a chance to catch your name," said Yuki.

    "You can call me Chares," said the henchman as he continued to use Yuki as walking support since he had hurt his arm pretty badly when Yuki twisted it and threw him away with the force of a truck. Yuki hadn''t meant to do that but he had identally let out a bit too much of his strength.

    Chares along with Yuki continued to pass by the houses where children and women continued to get kidnapped without doing anything. Yuki didn''t bother since it was a waste of time because sooner orter, they would be set free. It would also make them getting saved by Yuki more appreciative. All the screaming and crying was ignored by Yuki as he joyfully looked for any of the two squadron leaders.

    Luckily for him, Yuki. spotted one of them in their ck everything attire. Without caring if they were to be spotted, both Yuki and Chares continued to approach him. They had been ignored by the otherckeys because they weren''t part of the target demographic. However, the squadron leaders didn''t care who the person was. If they got in their way, they would have to be interrogated and stopped immediately.

    Seeing as how they were close enough, Yukiid Chares down on the ground beside a house so he could watch from a safe distance. As for Yuki himself, he continued to walk towards the man in the ck suit. At some point, Yuki had grabbed the attention of the squadron leader.

    "Who might you be?" the squadron leader asked.

    "Let''s cut down to the chase. I know about your stupid fake escape n. It won''t work because I don''t intend on killing you. I just wanted to mess around with you. So stop talking and start fighting me," Yukimanded.

    "Well that was quick. Sure," the squadron leader replied. The roman number that was sewn on his coat was VI(6) which meant that Yuki still had to look for V(5).

    "Activate ability: Spike World"

    Using his ability, VI(6) used his ability to surround Yuki inside a sphere ball in which spikes would plunge into Yuki''s skin. However, just like he had done to so many other people''s abilities, Yuki once again overpowered his enemy''s ability with his own. Using his own ability, Yuki formed a fire de which extended from his palm and used it to cut through the steel ball.

    "Is that all you''ve got?" Yuki asked VI(6) as he exited the wall which was now disintegrating.

    VI(6) grit his teeth and once again used his ability. This time, he ced both his arms forward as he connected his wrists together as his palms faced Yuki and began to struggle to bring his fingers together. In doing this, his ability formed an inverse spike ball once again which swallowed Yuki, however, before Yuki could break out of that one, VI(6) created a second ball which swallowed the first ball. Next, he created a third then a forth until he had oveid Yuki with 10 inverted spike balls.

    Once he was done, VI(6) let his hands fall down as he began to sweat profusely. It had taken a lot out of him to create so many oveys however it was worth it if they could defeat Yuki. However, that was a big if.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki activated his ability once again and let his mes run wild as they instantly burned through oneyer of steel after another. While it wasn''t a bad move, Yuki was just too strong for anyone to take on.

    "I guess all that torture in the dungeon payed off," Yuki said as he began to walk towards VI(6).

    "You did good. Actually, you did better than all the other squadron leaders I''ve faced so far. you''ve earned yourself a break," said Yuki as he lightly pushed down on VI(6)''s shoulder which made him fall to his knees just like a subject to a king.

    Now that Yuki had finished his battle with VI(6), it was time to look for V(5). As such, Yuki walked towards Chares and helped him get up on his feet once again as they journeyed through the kingdom in search of the final squadron leader from the kingdom of Lyanna which Yuki would have to face before going back to IV(4).

    "That was one hell of a show. Lucky for me, I got front row seats," said Chares as he joked around.

    While Yuki and Chares passed by all the houses, everyone moved out of their way in fear of what would happen to them if even a squadron leader was no match for Yuki. While it seemed that Yuki was weakpared to the dungeon monsters, he was d that he was strongpared to any human outside the dungeons.

    Even though Yuki was happy at where he was in his new life, it didn''t mean he would stop. For all he knew, someone else in the world was working much harder than he was and would eventually reach the rank of the first level 100 yer.

 Chapter 138 - V

    "Hey, Chares wait for me here. This might take too long so I''ll just fly up and look for the remaining squadron leader," said Yuki as heid Chares beside a house once again before suing his ability to go high in the air in search of V(5).

    While Yuki was busy looking for V(5), Chares was confronted by one of his previous allies. Another one of the henchmen who he had worked with. The person he once calledrade looked down at Chares as he stared at the pathetic human who had joined the side of the enemy. Disgusted at Chares, the henchman kicked Chares in the face, causing him to fall over from the way he was sitting.

    "Why did you do it? Why did you help that monster find one of our leaders? Tell me Chares!" the henchman demanded.

    "I didn''t lead him here. We just continued to walked until we found VI(6). I didn''t do anything to help him. He would''ve came here whether I joined him or now," Chares replied.

    "Is that how it is? You would leave us for him because it''s the safer option right? So does that mean you would also betray and abandon him once someone stronger came to you? You know nothing about the bond we built, you were just a spectator all along. You never cared about what any of us went through, all the days we shared were just an act for you, weren''t they?" the henchman began to get emotional.

    "That''s exactly right. I''ll always ce my life over anyone else. I don''t care what your views on me are. I have a better chance of surviving with him than if I were to stay with you. You''ve heard what he''s capable of, if he wanted, he could probably wipe out the entire organization in a single shot just as he had done so to the army which had gone to confront him," replied Chares.

    Hearing this made the henchmanugh. Not because what Chares was stupid, but because he was right and he couldn''t admit it. He didn''t understand why the world was the way it was. He couldn''t understand why it chose to tear apart friendships like it was nothing. If only he was stronger. Then maybe, they wouldn''t have to fear Yuki.

    "That''s your choice, but don''t me me for what''s about to happen next. Let''s see if Yuki will protect you now that he''s gone for a bit," said the henchman as he sat on Chares'' chest and began to endlessly beat the already exhausted Chares.

    Elsewhere, Yuki had managed to locate the final squadron leader from the kingdom of Lyanna. Just as Yuki expected, the man was wearing a ck suit exactly like his other squadron leader friends. On their suit coat was engraved the roman number V(5) which confirmed that he was the person who was searching for. Now that Yuki knew that he had found the one he was looking for, Yuki flew back down to the ground to face his enemy.

    Yukinded just a few metres away from V(5) just to make sure that he wouldn''t get ambushed or sneak attacked.

    "Hello there. I''m just looking for a quick sparring match. Don''t worry I don''t have the intent to kill so you don''t have to get worried," said Yuki as he began to walk towards V(5).

    "That doesn''t sound fun at all. I''ve always wanted to see what all the fuss about you was and now I have the chance to see for myself. Let''s make this interesting and make it a death match," V(5) replied.

    "Oh, he''s different. A bit overconfident but it would help perform his best if I continuously break his will slowly until he reaches his limit. Although, letting One switch with me and make him beg for life with my sheer presence would be funnier. However, I''ll just opt for the first option since it''llst longer," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Sure, that''s fine by me, but, just know that I won''t be holding back on you," lied Yuki.

    "Activate ability: Muscle Enhance"

    Just as V(5) activated his ability, he began to grow in size and every part of his body became extremely muscr. He had gone from a slim average guy to someone who broke bodybuilding records as a hobby.

    "So what do you think?" V(5) asked Yuki with his voice being deeper than the one before he used his ability.

    Although he had been asked a question, Yuki didn''t answer or care in the least. Instead, Yuki took one step forward and before his foot could touch the group once again, he disappeared from V(5)''s line of sight and appeared behind him.

    "You''repletely open to an attack," whispered Yuki which caused V(5)''s to get scared for a bit but that quickly changed to anger as he turned around and swung his arm behind him in hopes ofnding a direct hit on Yuki.

    However, before he could do that, Yuki went back to the exact position he was at before he had seemingly teleported behind V(5). Once again, Yuki took a step forward and just likest time, before his foot could touch the ground, Yuki seemingly teleported. Unlike the previous time, Yuki teleported to V(5)''s side.

    "Too slow," said Yuki as he karate chopped at V(5)''s arm.

    This time, Yuki didn''t wait for V(5) to get angry to teleport back. Once Yuki had finished his attack, he went back to where he was before he teleported however, this time he was one step ahead.

    Yuki continued doing this technique until he had reached V(5). With each strike, Yuki left a permanent bruise on V(5). No matter how angry he tried to get, V(5) couldn''tnd a single blow on Yuki. By the time Yuki had reached V(5) from his teleporting back and was taking a step forward each time, V(5) was on his knees.

    "Did I push him too far? Well, at least I got him to kneel to me without using One so that''s a win," Yuki said to himself as he ced his finger in a flicking position on V(5)''s forehead.

    "Your ability has a lot of ws. I was able to take you down with an improvised version of your ownrade-II''s ability. To add on to that, you''re arrogant. You have a lot of things to work on," said Yuki before flicking V(5)''s forehead, in turn making his head forcibly hit the ground.

 Chapter 139 - Weakness That Lies In The Strong

    Once Yuki had finished his battle with V(5), he left his enemy on the ground before using his ability to fly back to Chares. All while V(5) looked up at the sky as he watched Yuki fly away from him after he had just crushed his will.

    When Yuki flew back to where he had left Chares, he saw another figure sitting on his chest as he continually beat Chares. However, instead of interrupting, Yuki watched from a distance as he slowly lowered himself to the ground. No talking could be heard, all the sound Yuki could hear was the figure''s fist making contact with Chares'' face violently.

    At some point, the figure decided to look behind him to which he was greeted by Yuki. However, unlike what the figure expected Yuki''s facial to look like, which was an angry and vengeful face, Yuki looked to be intrigued more than anything.

    "Can I help you?" the henchman which had been beating Chares for a pulp for several minutes asked.

    "No, sorry, I didn''t mean to get in the way. I just wanted to watch as this yed out," Yuki replied.

    "Are you serious? You won''t help the man who abandoned all of us to join you. Instead, you''re going to watch as I continue beating him?" the henchman asked as he broke intoughter.

    "... Yes? I thought I made that clear. You can continue doing what you choose. I have nothing to do with it so I won''t interfere," said Yuki.

    "Of course you have something to do with this. If it weren''t for you, Chares would have still been on our side and we would''ve been well on our way to be filthy rich," the henchman argued.

    "I guess you do make a fair point. Well, I better make up for my mistakes," said Yuki as he prepared to use his ability.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Using his mes, Yuki created an intricate de which flouted in the air. Without a moment wasted, Yuki fired it at the henchman who was so surprised that he froze in ce as he watched the dee towards him at top speeds only to stop right before reaching his eye.

    "What''s wrong? I thought you wanted this. Why are you backing out now? You told me I should defend my newrade so I''m doing exactly that. You have no right to be scared," said Yuki as he began to walk towards the henchman.

    "But-" the henchman tried to speak.

    "Nope. You''ve lost your chance to be shown mercy. You''re so ungrateful that you don''t realize when someone is showing you mercy. You need to lose something for you to understand how valuable it truly was. Let me show you how much you actually treasure your life," said Yuki before snapping his fingers which made the fire de disappear.

    Before the henchman could get up from Chares'' body, Yuki went in from a clean punch in the face. However, that wouldn''t be enough. Yuki walked towards the henchman which was 2 metres from where he was previously due to being punched so hard and grabbed him by the head. Yuki lifted the henchman by the face and held him in the air as he walked towards a nearby house. Without any remorse, Yuki mmed the henchman''s head into the house''s walls. In doing so, Yuki had caused the back of the henchman''s head to bleed.

    "What''s wrong? Cat bite your tongue?" said Yuki before pulling the henchman''s head out of the wall. However, Yuki wasn''t going to stop there. Yuki continuously shoved the henchman''s head in and out of the house wall so much so that he broke down the wall itself.

    Engulfed in agonizing pain, the henchman grassed onto Yuki''s palm as he iled around-trying to loosen the grip of Yuki''s hand.

    "That''s what I thought. Next time, don''t say something unless you have the strength to back it up," said Yuki before throwing the henchman in the air. Once hended back on the ground, the henchman stopped moving. Luckily for him, he was still alive. Yuki knew this because he didn''t receive a notification that he had gained 2500 exp.

    Once Yuki had finished matters with the henchman, he walked towards the blooded and brushed Chares. However, both of them didn''t exchange any words. The both knew where they stood with each other. Yuki knew that Chares wasn''t actually on his "team". Yuki only nned to have Chares tag along with him until he was able to go and start a new life of his own. Yuki had actually been nning for Zero to send Chares to another country of continent in the new world. Yuki had opted for that option and in the end found a life which he was better than anything he had hoped for. The life of endless crime wasn''t meant for Chares, he just happened to be dragged into it.

    "So what now? I''m assuming you already took down V(5)," Chares asked Yuki.

    "Well, I''ve had my fun here. All that''s left for me now is to go up against IV(4). I hope he actually has a surprise for me. If not, I would''ve wasted all my time for nothing," Yuki replied.

    Even though Yuki had a suspicion that IV(4) was just lying to him to buy himself more time, Yuki didn''t care all that much. In the end, Yuki could catch anyone he wanted by either using his own powers or if he got desperate, he would call out to Zero for help. When Yuki first entered the world, he was reluctant to use Zero since he wanted to do everything on his own. He wanted himself to be strong enough to take on any challenge. However, through the time he had spent in the 2nd dungeon, he realized that no matter how much he tried to ovee the monster within it, he couldn''t do it without the assistance of Zero or potions.

    Yuki had wanted himself to be self-sufficient since he wouldn''t know when he would run out of potions or wouldn''t be able to reach out to Zero. If something like that were to happen, he would be utterly defeated. That was what Yuki had tried to ovee. However, it was proven to him that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to aplish anything without assistance.

 Chapter 140 - Unexpected Blade

    "Hey Zero," Yuki called out.

    "Yes, master. How may I be of service to you?" Zero asked.

    "Could you teleport Chares to a kingdom far away from him in about 1 minute," said Yuki.

    "I understand," Zero replied before going quiet.

    Once Yuki had done this, he turned his attention towards Chares who breathed heavily due to the injuries he had received. He could''ve chosen to fight back against his so-called previousrade however, Chares felt that it was only right that his friend got revenge on him for leaving them to join the enemy.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki opened his inventory and pulled out a full status recovery potion. Unlike Marcell, Chares wasn''t surprised that Yuki had that item due to him making so much money from being part of the human trafficking gang/crime syndicate. The money used to buy the potion was like pocket change to them.

    Seeing as how Chares was basically immobilized, Yuki had to open his mouth and force feed the potion to Chares. Just as the potion had done so many times, it allowed Chares to recover from the beating he had received from both Yuki and the henchman like it was nothing. His face which was bleeding a lot was as good as new and his arm was working perfectly once again.

    "Thanks for that," said Chares as he got up from the ground and began to stretch to see if he really hadpletely recovered.

    "Now we can-" Chares began to speak but was abruptly cut off when he was teleported. He hadpletely vanished from Yuki''s sight. As he began to look around his surroundings, he understood what had just happened.

    "So this was your n? I don''t know how you did this... but thank you," said Chares as he walked through the streets of the new kingdom which Yuki had teleported him to in hopes that he would start a new and better life.

    As for Yuki, he used his ability to make himself fly towards the entrance of the kingdom which IV(4) was supposed to be waiting for him. However, to Yuki''s surprise, he wasn''t there. Along with most of his henchmen and the caravans. IV(4) had gathered all their victims and taken them away before Yuki coulde back.

    "So that''s how you want to y?" Yuki said in excitement. This was exactly what he was hoping for.

    "One, switch with me and use your presence to search the area for where they are," said Yuki.

    "<strong>Sounds like a n,</strong>" One said.

    Within an instant, One expanded his presence. Unlike the previous times, he didn''t ce any malicious intent into it as he was trying to search but not kill. The reason Yuki chooses to switch with One is because of how a person''s presence works. The more emotion a person has, the more powerful their presence gets although someone''s presence can''t overpower a person who is clearly stronger than them. As One let his presence flow outwards, an invisible circr line shot across the area in a ripple effect starting from Yuki''s body as it searched for where IV(4) and the caravans would be.

    As for IV(4) himself, he was busy celebrating the sess of his n. He had managed to not only trick Yuki into giving him time to escape but also managed to seed in the mission. Sure they had left some members along with 2 of the numbers behind however, it wasn''t his fault. The situation was dire and he needed to make a harsh decision. As such, Mr. Y would most likely not get angry at him.

    "<strong>Found them,</strong>" said One as he opened his eyes wide in excitement.

    "<strong>Stop,</strong>" said One, which caused only the horses which carried the burden of moving the caravans to stop.

    "What''s happening? Why did we stop?" IV(4) asked as he began to imagine the worst.

    "We don''t know boss, these damn horses won''t move an inch," one of his henchmen who was responsible for driving the caravan replied.

    "No! No! No!" IV(4) began to yell in distress.

    IV, who was sitting in the back of the closed caravan which carried the victims of the operation, decided to stand up and see for himself what was going on with the horses. As he gazed at him, he could see that they were on the brink of going insane as if they had seen Satan himself. Just as he tried to calm the horses down, a bright light appeared in the gloomy sky.

    "Heaven''s Sun"

    Yuki was floating in the air as he carried his signature move which was a sun like ball which burned everything it touched to ashes. IV(4) couldn''t help but be amazed at the sight in front of him while at the same time regretting the choices he had made. If he had only listened to Yuki and let their victims go, they wouldn''t be in this situation. However, IV(4) wouldn''t be allowed to experience a peaceful and easy death.

    Yuki began to make "Heaven''s Sun" shrink in size which made the members of the crime syndicate believe that he would let them live. Unfortunately for them, Yuki was making a weapon that was much more dangerous than "Heaven''s Sun". Yuki had made a tiny ball which when detonated wouldpletely erase everything within the area which it struck.

    With everything he needed prepared, Yuki descended from the sky as he prepared to confront IV(4) about the lie he had told. Once on the ground, Yuki began to speed walk towards IV(5) to make it seem like he was angry when in reality, Yuki just wanted to intimidate his enemy.

    "So what happened to thepromise you promised me? Not only did you lie about that but you also took the people you kidnapped even though I specifically warned you. So tell me, what made you decide to go along with your stupid n?" said Yuki as he grabbed on of the henchmen which had surrounded him in hopes of bringing him down and gaining glory.

    "Might I add. If you lie, I''ll make your own henchman kill you. However, if you tell the truth, you along with everyone here can escape with your lives," Yuki proposed.

    "I-" before IV(4) could even say a single sentence, Yuki pushed the henchman with the de onto the unsuspecting IV(4), in turn killing him.

    "I forgot to say. If you can''t give me an exnation, you also die. Next time, pick the wiser option.

 Chapter 141 - Taken Aback

    Being that Yuki didn''t personally kill IV(4), he didn''t gain any exp. Even if he wanted to gain it through exp share, that only applied in dungeons. As such, Yuki didn''t gain any exp. Instead, the one that received the exp was the henchman who was forced to kill his own leader. Tears began to generate in his eyes as he couldn''t believe what he had done. They weren''t tears of sadness, they were tears of fear. Even if he was forced to kill one of his own, it was still a serious offence in the crime syndicate and as such, there would be punishment served which would equate to the crime he hadmitted.

    "Well, now that this business is finished, let everyone you kidnapped go and move along. I promise you, if even a single one of you decides to open your mouths and tries to negotiate with me, I''ll burn you all the ground," Yuki warned them.

    Everyone knew that although he was only a teenager, Yuki was a threat to all their lives. As such, no one bothered to argue and they all followed the task they were given. That being to release all the people they had kidnapped which only consisted of women and children. As the henchmen opened the doors of the caravans and let the people they had abducted free, the look of joy and happiness filled their eyes. However, as they saw Yuki, their facial expression changed to match that of anger and fear. Although Yuki would''ve liked to give them a chance to naturally forgive them, he wasn''t in the mood to be so generous anymore.

    "Listen up here. I don''t care if you hated me before because I killed the people you loved. I tried to warn them but they didn''t listen. What matters now is that I just saved every single one of your lives from being ves to some ill minded rich old guys. So y''all better be grateful because without me, you would''ve spent the rest of your miserable lives in this world''s version of hell," Yuki yelled out to all the people who made faces at him before leaving to head for the final kingdom remaining.

    "Hey Zero, teleport me to the final kingdom," Yuki said in his head.

    "Understood," replied Zero.

    Within the blink of an eye, Yuki teleported from the scene. All the people who were there were left confused as to what had just happened along with what Yuki had said. He was right that he had saved them from an eternity of very, however, how were they expected to ept the person who caused them so much pain as their hero?

    As for Yuki, for the third time that day, he was standing at the wall of a kingdom. However, this time, Yuki was teleported exactly at the merlon of one of the 6 guard towers which each kingdom had. The towers were all evenly spread to create a hexagonal shape which the perimeter was filled in by the kingdom walls. As Yuki stood on the embrasure of the tower, he gripped onto the merlon of the tower to avoid identally falling while he was still scouting the kingdom.

    As he looked down, Yuki spotted 3 figures, all standing in front of the kingdom gates just like how I(1), II(2), III(3) were in the first kingdom he had gone to. However, this time there were only 2 people wearing the squadron leader attire. The one in the middle was wearing apletely white suit with no tinted shades. His hair wasbed back with gel and had a cigar in his hand which he smoked as he talked with his aplices.

    "The one in white is either the vice captain of the organization or the actual leader. I might as well check it out," said Yuki as he leaped off the tower walls and did a flip in the air before crashnding right in front of them.

    Once Yuki got up from the ground, each one of them had their gun pointed at him. Although they had been frightened by Yuki at first, once they realized who he was after the smoke cleared, they all put their weapons away.

    "How rude of me sir Yuki. I''m Mr. Y, it''s so nice to finally meet with you," said Mr. Y.

    "Do I know you?" Yuki asked.

    "I don''t think so. I believe that this is the first time we met. Would it be okay for me to have a little bit of your time?" Mr. Y asked.

    "Here we go again. He''s going to ask me to join them in their evil n or something stupid along those lines. His reasoning will be that I''vemitted more evil actions so I should be okay with helping them out and he''ll ask for how much I want in exchange for my services. If I get this right, I''ll reward myself with a little more time with Marcell and Elpis," Yuki said as he prepared to gamble with himself.

    "I actually don''t. I have all the time I could need. Was there something you wanted to speak to me about?" Yuki yed along with Mr. Y.

    "There actually was. I was hoping that we coulde to an agreement. You see, we''ve heard a lot about your adventures and aplishments, especially the recent news of your battle against thebined power of the 3 kingdoms. To put it simply, we would like to recruit you into our syndicate. In exchange, we can guarantee to get you anything which your heart desires along with an upfront payment of four hundred thousand silver and a 15% ie bonus from what everyone in our syndicate makes. This is a lot for us to offer but we''re willing to make an exception for you," Mr. Y with a smile on his face as if he had guaranteed that Yuki would join them.

    "How generous of you. This is truly a breathtaking offer, however, I''ll have to decline," Yuki replied.

    "What?! Why?!" Mr. Y said as he couldn''t believe what he had just heard.

    "Well you see, I have a lot more than you could ever offer me. To put it into perspective for you, I have over 10 million silver. You''re in over your heads if you think I would give my services to you for such a small amount of silver," Yuki replied.

 Chapter 142 - Acceptance

    "Lastly, leave the civilians alone and get out of here. Don''t worry about your other squadron leader buddies, I only killed one of them, the rest are still alive and they''re headed back to your hideout or whatever you call the ce you meet with each other," said Yuki as he arrogantly shooed Mr. Y and the other 2 numbers.

    Hearing Yuki''s words, both VII(7) as well as VIII(8) raised their guns at Yuki once again. However, they were stopped by Mr. Y who raised both his hands to lower their guns.

    "There''s no point in negotiating with him. We''ve lost. Let''s just leave now. Call back all of your henchmen," Mr. Y told the two squadron leaders. While they wanted to ask why he had given up on recruiting Yuki, they knew that it would be in their best interest since he didn''t like being questioned. To add on to that, there was a high likelihood that he would just tell them when he felt like it.

    Once they both gathered their henchmen together, they began to head back using the caravans. As for VII(7), VIII(8) and Mr. Y, they each rode on separate horseback as they led the caravans back to the hideout.

    "You''re probably wondering why I didn''t bother arguing with him," said Mr. Y. Just as the two thought, he was going to tell them his reasoning anyway.

    "The reason I didn''t bother with the hassle was because he never nned to join us. He must''ve realized that while we might not be able to offer them a lot of silver right now but that''s only because we''re just starting and we would eventually have enough silver that a person couldn''t spend no matter how hard they tried. For someone who''s of his caliber should understand at least that. For him to reject my offer that quickly, he just wanted a reaction out of us. He''s not some ordinary kid, he''s really a monster that''s only after killing and tormenting others just for entertaining himself," Mr. Y exined as they journeyed back to their hideout.

    As for Yuki, once the people who were kidnapping the civilians of the kingdoms left, he realized that he still had the condensed "Heaven''s Sun" in his pocket. He had forgotten about it after his encounter with IV(4) since he had ced it in the pocket of his sweatpants due to him not needing it. Since Yuki was able to change the temperature of his mes, the condensed ball didn''t cause any damage to Yuki''s pants. However even if it had somehow managed to burn through the fabric, it wouldn''t have harmed Yuki since it was part of his own ability.

    "What should get rid of this but how? Wait... I''ve got the perfect idea," said Yuki as he began to increase the temperature of the condensed ball. Once it was ready, Yuki threw the ball in the air and allowed it to burst into fireworks. However, Yuki''s fireworks weren''t ordinary fireworks. The one he had made was engraved with a message. Due to the sky getting darker after the long day, the message was clear to the naked eye.

    "Yuki saved you. Cry about it!" although a rude message, it got his message across so he didn''t care. After getting his message across, Yuki used his ability to fly on top of the thick kingdom walls as he looked down at all the people who were either just d to be alive orining about how they were saved by their enemy.

    Yuki, exhausted after a long day of travelling, fell over andid down on the top of the kingdom walls. All he could think about was the new family he had made in the new kingdom. He never thought he would get so attached to them that quickly.

    "Why do I keep thinking about them? I''m just using them to rx for a bit, I don''t actually care about them... right?" Yuki asked himself. Although he was conflicted, deep down, he knew why he missed them so much. The majority of his life, he didn''t have anyone who treated him as well as Marcell and Elpis. It wasn''t his fault either, it was just pure luck. No one chooses to which family they are born into. Yuki just happens to be one of the unlucky ones who had a deadbeat father and an abusive mother.

    "I can''t stop ignoring it any longer. It shouldn''t be wrong for me to feel emotions. I never had the chance to experience something like this, I''ll just have to treasure the time I have with them forever," Yuki told himself.

    "Zero. Teleport me back to the front door of Elpis and Marcell''s house," Yuki called out.

    "At once," Zero replied before granting Yuki''s request then going silent.

    "Here we go. I hope I''m not bothering them," Yuki said before lightly knocking at the door.

    "Who could it be at this hour? I''ll get the door," Elpis said as he walked to open the door.

    Once she opened the door, Elpis froze where she stood as if she saw a ghost. It had been a long day for her and seeing Yuki was a nice surprise for her.

    "Hello?" Yuki said as he lightly waved his hand as a greeting.

    Right as Yuki did that, Elpis was brought back into reality as he quickly embraced Yuki. She had held on to him so hard that it became hard for him to breath as if she was suffocating him. However, Yuki didn''t stop her. For the first time in a while, Yuki was d to see someone. Yukiid his arms down as he allowed himself to be suffocated, although he made a slight change. Instead of being on just the receiving end, Yuki decided to hold Elpis as well as he was d to be back home.

    Once he entered the house, he received the same treatment from Marcell. Just like the previous times however, their daughter was stone cold towards him. After greetings had taken ce, Yuki joined his family for dinner as they began to catch up with him. Although he had only left for about a day, it had felt like an eternity to all of them.

 Chapter 143 - Return To Lyanna

    While Yuki was enjoying his time with his family, Jing and Scar had just returned to their kingdom. The kingdom of Lyanna had just been saved by the one who had killed the people they loved a few hours ago and now the person who led all those people to their deaths had just returned. Scar walked proudly into the kingdom as if he had won the battle. Behind him was Jing who followed as the ice chain still kept him restrained. Jing looked like just a dog who was following its master. As for the civilians of the kingdom, they wanted to beat Scar to death, however, most people knew that if they did, there was a high likelihood that they would face the same fate as their previous leader. Even if Scar''s previous guards had died in the battle, there was no way of knowing if he had more.

    Jing felt the prating gaze of the people as their hatred and blood lust for the both of them oozed through the kingdom. Although Scar had also noticed it, he didn''t care. He wasn''t tolerant of insubordination. The people could think or do what they wanted and Scar would allow them to get away scot free. A problem would only arise if they declined an order from him.

    As Scar and Jing continued to walk towards the castle-like building in the middle of the kingdom, they couldn''t help but admire the night sky. Through all the negativity surrounding them, all they could do was focus on the one positive thing.

    "What are you going to do now? All the people hate you for leading everyone they cared about to their deaths and not a single person from this ce will ever trust you. You really dug a whole for yourself," Jing said as he tried to spark up a conversation while also getting on Scar''s nerves.

    "Worry about yourself. I''ll figure something out soon enough anyway," replied Scar before turning his attention towards a woman who was walking past them.

    "Hey you. What happened here?" Scar asked.

    Jing was confused as to what he meant as everyone should''ve known what had happened, especially Scar. He was the one who forcibly drafted all the men from the kingdom. It was in cruel to ask someone about that event, even for Scar, that was a harsh thing to do. Although Jing thought that Scar was inquiring about the battle, he had not. Scar had noticed little marks and blood on the houses of the kingdom. Not to mention some bruises on people as well. To add on to that, the people seemed to be more cautious than angry. Scar had noticed that an invasion of some kind had urred.

    "The entire kingdom was invaded by a gang and they kidnapped all the women and children of the kingdom. Which happens to be everyone in the kingdom because you made the selfish decision to force all the men of the kingdom to go to a war which was meant to fail from the beginning. You lead them to their deaths knowing you couldn''t win," the woman spoke up.

    Although her words caught the attention of many, Scar didn''t seem to care. His expression hadn''t changed nor did he look like he regretted what he had done. All that remained was a dictator which only cared to satisfy himself.

    "If all of you were kidnapped, how are you back here?" Scar asked.

    "Oh, did I forget to mention? The same kid you gathered all those people for came and saved us. Even you, our leader, was made a fool by your enemy. How can you let the one you tried to kill save your kingdom for you? You''re pathetic," the woman replied, this time however, she had struck a nerve.

    "Activate ability: Ice Control"

    Scar said those words under his breath as he didn''t want people to hear. The ground around Scar began to freeze up as it became more slippery. Although there was no direct water to turn into ice, Scar''s ability allowed him to do so as it didn''t have any direct limitations due to how vast the ability can be expanded. The simpler the ability, the less the limitation and vice versa.

    "Thank you forplying with the questionnaire," said Scar before leaving to head towards the castle-like structure which was in the middle-back of the kingdom.

    "That must''ve been embarrassing," said Jing as he tried to hold in hisughter.

    "You realize that as my temporary subordinate, part of the me will also fall on you right?" said Scar as he looked back with a face of boredom but also a face which looked like it wanted to get back at Jing.

    "I never really thought of it that way. I''m just here because I''m forced to do so. None of this is my fault," said Jing as he tried to rebuttal Scar''s ims.

    "Whatever you say I guess. It won''t change the perspective of the people either way," said Scar.

    "We''ll see about that. More importantly, do you actually have a n to recover the state of the kingdom? Due to the way you decided to conduct the selection of the war participants, it looks like our poption will only continue to decrease from here on out," Jing asked.

    "To be honest. I do, but it''s risky... what do you say to ruling over the kingdom while I''m gone for a bit?" Scar asked.

    "What''s in it for me? Plus, I can just escape from here the second you leave," replied Jing.

    "I know you won''t leave this ce. What other kingdom will allow you to rule over it freely. Most likely, I''ll juste here once after a while then nevere back again, so you''re basically going to have this kingdom all to yourself," said Scar as he tried to convince Jing to take a bait.

    "This guy thinks I''m an idiot. While he''s probably not lying, he''s only doing this because he had something better nned for himself. Once he has enough power to attain it, he''ll go chase after it while I''m stuck in this kingdom. This isn''t about him seeding because he could just leave right now. This is more about me staying put where I am," Jing said to himself.

    Knowing that Scar just nned to leave the kingdom behind and chase after his own dreams, Jing decided to y along to allow himself an opportunity in which he could escape from the kingdom as well.

    "Where are you even going?" Jing asked out of curiosity. He had suspected where Scar would go but he just wanted to make sure he was right.

    "I''m thinking of going to the dungeons. I''m tired of relying on my intelligence alone. I was shown that no matter how smart I may be. No matter how many back up ns I have. If I open for any attacks for even a mere moment, those who seek my defeat will take advantage of that. As such, I have decided to train with a raid party that actively clears dungeons for a while," scar replied.

    "That''s understandable. I can''t understand how that feels. Will you be leaving soon?" Jing asked.

    He was purposefully avoiding asking Scar when he woulde back since if he had asked that, Scar would get suspicious. Asking when he woulde back would''ve implied that Jing was nning to do something within the timeline from when Scar was gone and when he returned. Jing needed to make sure that something like that wouldn''t happen which was why he was careful when he picked the words he chose.

    "I''ll be leaving within 3 days to a week. I would''ve preferred to leave today but the necessary arrangements will take some time. I don''t know when I''lle back though. Most likely within a year or two. I''ll be working every single day so I grow stronger," said Scar. He had been so caught up in thought and imagination that he let out the one piece of information which Jing was looking for.

    "This is perfect, I couldn''t have asked for anything better. I''ve won. I''ll leave the second you leave this kingdom. By the time youe back, it''ll be toote for you to find me. As for this dreadful kingdom, it''ll rot in hell! Without anyone being able to support the economy due to your mistakes, it''ll crumble to dust," Jing said to himself as he tried to stay as calm as possible.

    "A whole 1-2 years? That''s far too long. I won''t be able to handle the responsibility of managing a whole kingdom," Jing said to Scar as he tried to stay humble.

    "Cut it out. I know you''re excited to run things around here. This was what you wanted from the start right?" Scar asked.

    "You got me. I can''t wait for you to leave this ce. Do everyone a favour and never return. We don''t need someone here who''ll cut down our poption in half," said Jing as he continued to sell the idea that he was fine with the fact that he was going to actually stay in the kingdom and help build it up.

    "I don''t care how you feel. All that matters is that you help this kingdom get back on its feet," said Scar as he opened therge double doors of the castle-like structure to allow both of them to enter the empty castle.

 Chapter 144 - Answers

    As Scar began his preparations to leave the kingdom of Lyanna, in another country Yuki had finished his reunion with his family. Although they had been separated for only a day, to them, it felt as if it was the first time they''d seen each other in a millennia. Yuki had finally epted his feelings for his new family. No matter how many times he pretended to be a strong kid with no emotions, he couldn''t lie to himself. Even if others were tricked by his fake front, Yuki couldn''t trick one person. That being himself. No matter how many times he would try to himself, it was useless because he knew the truth. The truth was that he loved his new family and wanted to spend all his time time with them.

    As Yukiid down on his bed which was located in the attic, he couldn''t help but find himself in histe night thoughts in which he found himself drowning in questions about what was real and what wasn''t. He couldn''tprehend why his entire life had been rotten hell but suddenly, he''d been given the life he had always dreamed about. There were no bullies, no neglecting parents and he wasn''t a shut-in nerd who couldn''t speak up for himself. He was the exact opposite of the version of him 5 months prior to the new world being created. The only person or thing Yuki could turn to in his time of need such as now which he sought answered for his endless pile of questions.

    "Hey, Zero. Do you mind if I ask you any questions?" Yuki asked, knowing that Zero would just say yes.

    "Of course master. I will answer any question you may have," Zero replied telepathically as he had always done in the past.

    "Sounds great. To start things off, why was my previous life so horrible? Everything in it didn''t work out for me. I just can''t understand where this sudden change in my life began," said Yuki.

    "Well if you don''t mind, I''ll briefly exin without going out of line. Your previous life wasn''t up to par with the standard living conditions of the average person in the country you were born into, that being the United states. The problem started when you were only a little boy. Your mother was too kind and pampering for her own good. She wanted you to live a life where you were filled with happiness and love in hopes that you wouldn''t turn into like your father who had left her to care for you. That caused you to be a caring person in the beginning however, once you were forcefully removed from that style of life, it backfired. The only way you could cope with the experience was by throwing tantrums andining the entire time. You never truly considered your mother''s feelings during the entire thing, did you?" Zero asked as he continued to exin.

    "I didn''t," said Yuki. He was beginning to realize what had gone wrong in his previous life. It wasn''t his mother''s fault or anyone else''s fault that he ended up being pathetic. If he made smarter decisions in his previous life, he would''ve had an ordinary life. However, how was he to me for acting in such a way? It wasn''t his fault that he was raised in an environment where he was suffocated with love and treated like a king. While he was to me for the direct actions he had taken, Yuki couldn''t be med for the way he was raised. It was a trap the entire time. There was no way he would have seeded in life. Yuki had been set up to fail from the very beginning.

    "However, it was not only the rtionship with your mother which caused you to fail at life. There was also your rtionship with that girl Sophie. You may not like to admit it but the way you acted towards her in the beginning was beyond pathetic. How do you allow yourself to be the generic nerd who does his crush''s homework while she goes out with the school jock. To make it worse, unlike the generic nerd, you used to have actual friends before you met her. You still had a chance before you met her, but you just decided to blind yourself and walk into a life of emotional torture. She toyed with you like a dog, just as he promised you. Most wouldn''t have understood why you were so pathetic however, unfortunately for me, I had ess to all your thoughts, along with everyone else''s thoughts and actions as well. That''s why I don''t me you for what you did. You couldn''t control it but it still doesn''t mean that what you did was right," said Zero in hopes that Yuki would understand what Zero was getting at.

    "I do," Yuki replied. He in fact did understand what Zero was implying. He had been vaguely thinking about the events which had urred in his life and what led him tomit them while he was resting in the dungeons. Yuki had managed toe up with a conclusion on his own; however, Zero''s speech made it clear that his hypothesis was correct. The reason why Yuki tried so hard to impress Sophie was because he wanted to experience a new form of happiness. There were a few ways one could attain pleasure. Those beings, friendships, happiness derived from parents or guardians, rtionships and many more. Seeing Yuki gave him the idea to attain happiness through a rtionship with her. It was the first time he had felt that way about a person. Seeing her alone made him happy, as such, he couldn''t imagine how much pleasure he could derive from spending time with her as a couple. However, what made Yuki try much harder to attain Sophie''s affection was his subconscious thoughts telling him that he could make up for theck of affection from his mother by having Sophie. In thinking that, Yuki pushed himself past his limits.

    "That''s great. I''m d I was able to provide the answers for the questions you need to have answered," said Zero.

    ...

    Yuki thought about what Zero had said along with his own separate thoughts. He had been keeping his feelings repressed for so long that he began to lose himself as a person. Yuki had begun to forget about everything which he once sought. His thoughts had been clouded with revenge and murder alone. Although he had gotten revenge on the people that had hurt him both emotionally and physically, he still wanted to take out his anger on someone. Once he had killed the people he had initially wanted, Yuki couldn''t get enough of it. No matter if he killed a monster or a human, it was never enough. There was always a lingering feeling of dread. Yuki felt as if he was hungry but no matter how much he hated it, he could never get full.

    Yuki''s evil thoughts had begun to consume him from the inside out. All the things he wanted to do in his previous life began to get forgotten and would have soon beenpletely wiped from his memory if he hadn''t met Marcell and Elpis. They had woken him up from his life of his endless quest of seeking revenge. Yuki finally began to remember what he had promised himself that he would do once he got the chance. Now that Yuki could do anything he ever wanted with the help of Zero, it was the best time for him tomit to the promises he had made to himself so long ago.

    "Before you go, I have onest question. Actually I have 2 questions that need to be answered. I have been neglecting them for a while, however, I think I''m ready to finally ask them," said Yuki.

    "Go on then. I''m in no rush and it would be an honour to assist you," Zero replied.

    "Since you can look through my memories, do you remember my best from when I was a kid?" Yuki asked even though it had made him embarrassed to ask. He didn''t understand why he felt that way. For some odd reason, Yuki thought that he was asking a stupid and unreasonable request.

    "Ohh, do you mean Riku? That kid you met back when you were entering first grade. He was a nice kid. What do you need from him?" Zero asked.

    "I''m wondering about how he''s doing if that isn''t too much to ask of you," said Yuki.

    "Sure. That''s fine. I don''t mind answering any of your requests. Nothing is too much to ask. Let''s see... Riku, Haru, Yuuma, and Ren managed to stick together even after you moved. Even now in the new world, they''re still friends. They''ve formed a raid party/squad and they''ve recently begun to take the dungeons seriously. I don''t want to excite you but they haven''t forgotten about you, they n to search for you once they gain the ability to level up," said Zero which instantly brought a light to Yuki''s face.

 Chapter 145 - Learning

    "Are you actually serious? Are they really still thinking about me after all these years?" Yuki asked as he couldn''t believe what he had heard. It had been so long since he had moved away due to his mother losing her job that he had even forgotten the names of his old friends. It was like a reawakening, he couldn''t imagine all the fun things he would be able to do with them once they had met up again. Yuki imagined all the hundreds of hours to days to weeks to months and to years he would be able to spend with the one group of people that didn''t turn their back on him. They were the most loyal individuals Yuki had ever met.

    "I can assure you that they are looking for you. Nothing can escape my knowledge," Zero replied.

    "If you''re the one saying it, I have no choice but to believe you. Could you tell me more about them though? I want to learn a bit more before we eventually meet up," said Yuki.

    "Why not visit them yourself? It would be better for you to just talk to them now since your life seems to be at its peak right now," Zero suggested even though he knew the reasoning why Yuki didn''t want to do so.

    "That would be too risky. They would wonder how I was able to find them myself and ask a lot of questions about how I, a solo dungeon clearer managed to get so powerful. They would eventually find out that I''m doing something screechy. To add on to that, they would also soon hear about my battle with the 3 kingdoms. I mean, it''s one of the most bamboozling things to happen. It was like a cartoon oric where the viin kills a whole army on his own just to be defeated by some random guy who''s supposed to be the destined hero of the world. News such as that never manage to stay a secret for too long," Yuki replied.

    "You do make a good point. I can see why you would want to avoid going directly to them," Zero replied.

    "Hey Zero. I have another question. You keep asking me these random questions but it seems like you already know the answer to them. That would make sense too since you''re supposed to be able to know everything. So why do you bother asking me in the first ce?" Yuki asked.

    "Well to be perfectly honest with you. I don''t ask these questions for my own knowledge. It''s for them," said Zero.

    "Who are you talking about-" Yuki said before he was cut off.

    "That makes perfect sense. Back to what I was saying about my friends from the past. I''m just d that they''re alive. I can''t wait until I meet them once again," said Yuki.

    "If that''ll be all, I shall take my leave," said Zero before going quiet.

    Yuki couldn''t put his finger on it but he felt somewhat strange. It was as if for a mere moment someone had interfered with his concinouns. Yuki''s body subconsciously shook as he got goosebumps for no reason. Something was definitely off. However, as he continued to think that, Yukipletely forgot what he was going to do. In an instant, Yuki went back to just being happy that he would see his oldrades soon.

    "Wait. I was gonna ask Zero another thing. How could I forget," Yuki said to himself.

    "Hey Zero... I forgot to ask you something," Yuki said in his head, which called back Zero to answer him.

    "I am at your service," Zero replied.

    "I just want to ask something which I''ve had on my mind since I was a kid. I''ve always wanted to know this information but couldn''t get it from anywhere since very few people knew about it and even those who knew about it weren''t people I could turn to," said Yuki.

    "You should already know what I''m thinking about but I still want to say it. What happened to my father?" Yuki asked.

    "Are you sure you want to learn the truth about him? It seems you are not yet ready for it; however if you choose to learn about it, I''ll have no choice but to tell you," said Zero.

    "Yes I am. I''ve decided that I''ll need to ept any information which you inform me of. It doesn''t matter that much anyway since my life has gone well now. Even though it would''ve been better if he was present in my life before, things happened and now I''ve gotten over him," Yuki replied.

    "If you say so then I''ll just tell you. Your father wasn''t that much of a good person. He got into narcotics at a young age and had been fooling around when he met your mother. Without thinking, he impregnated her and left, never to be seen again. It was probably a good thing that he had left in the first ce. Having a person such as that would''ve only impacted your life for the worse. To make it worse, if he was forced to stay with your mother, he would''ve resented you more because you were the cause of his life going downhill. Even if you choose to not believe that his disappearance was a good thing, you can''t lie to me or yourself," Zero exined.

    "I see..." said Yuki. He hadn''t been expecting much from his father since he was a dead beat but Yuki''s father still managed to disappoint even when the bar was set so low. It was hard to believe that a single person was so useless and hopeless. However, the harsh reality of it was that it wasn''t only Yuki who was a victim of people such as his father. Many other people would leave their wives or girlfriends once they found out about them being pregnant to avoid having to settle down and burden the responsibility of caring for another person other than themselves.

    "So what''s he up to now? That really can''t be the end of his life right? He must''ve awoken from his delusions and started improving his life for the better... right?" Yuki asked as he tried toe up with an excuse to not be disappointed by his father. He had waited so long to learn about him and now, all you learned was that his father was a scumbag and a disappointment.

    "I''m sorry to tell you that Yuki. That was why I suggested this topic for another day. It was much too soon for you to learn about him. You shouldn''t concern yourself with him now. Just focus on yourself, after all, your friends wille and contact you soon," Zero tried to make Yuki forget about his dad.

    "It''s fine. I''m not actually hurt by the information. Just a little disappointed. Human life is so short yet he chose to waste every precious moment of it fooling around. He couldn''t even clean up after the messes he himself created. He just sounds like an overgrown baby to me. However, I do wish to learn onest thing about him. What is he like in this world? Is he a drug addict now as well?" Yuki asked as he prepared for the worse.

    "Your father really hasn''t changed from the way he used to be. He''s still the samezy man he used to be. In truth, you have to give him credit because he tried to change for the better. At one point, he tried to quit his habits of being azy bum and try to hunt monsters. However, that mission onlysted for barely a week. Once he realized how tiring it was, he went back to drinking all day. To make it even worse, he had ess to more money which he had earned in his one week of monster hunting," Zero replied.

    "It really does look like he''s a disappointment. I shouldn''t be surprised. Anyway, thank you for being so helpful. I''m d you were able to provide me with the information I sought," said Yuki as he sighed.

    "It''s my honour to serve you at any time and any ce," said Zero before going silent.

    ...

    Once Yuki was left alone. He was able to get a chance to finally absorb all the information he had learned from Zero. Although he was subconsciously disappointed beyond belief at his father, he didn''t think about him too much. Afterall, he had something to look forward to in the near future. To add on to that, he had the life he always wanted with Marcell and Elpis. It wasn''t a time where Yuki could be sad. He couldn''t allow himself to feel that way.

    ...

    The next morning, Yuki woke up with a smile and got himself ready for a day with Marcell. He would go to work in the morning ande home in the evening to be greeted with Elpis and her daughter. Yuki couldn''t possibly ask for something better. Life was so good for him, he began to eventually suppress his desire to go back to dungeons.

 Chapter 146 - Leaving Lyanna

    Back at the kingdom of Lyanna, Scar starts to walk towards the entrance/exit gates of the kingdom. He was being escorted by Jing as he was now stated to be the following ruler of the kingdom. Scar had taught him all he could''ve about how to stabilise the kingdom''s economy and how to get the people to be more invested in their work so the kingdom would elop faster before leaving. At the entrance gates of the kingdom, a group of 7 people awaited Scar. They looked to be rtively strong which made Jing assume that they were the people that would take Scar and ce him in their raid part/squad.

    "I guess this is where we part ways," said Scar as he looked back at Jing. Although he didn''t care much for the kingdom, Scar felt partly responsible for the decline in worker morale and their decline in economy. The less people that worked, the less money there would be in cirction. Since trade hadn''t been established yet either, there was no way for people to make a living if they didn''t work in some department in which they could make a profit. As such, Scar appointed Jing by force since he still sought revenge on Yuki. It was the only way for him to gain what he wanted but also fix his mistakes.

    "Thank you for teaching me all those things. I would''ve never guessed that you knew so much about these kinds of things," said Jing as he attempted to seem interested in what Scar did. He needed to make sure that Scar thought that he was cared for so that his worries would go away. Thest thing Jing would want was to have some guard appointed to him to make sure that Jing wouldn''t escape from the kingdom. It was essential that Scar wouldn''t suspect a thing and that he assumed that Jing will take up as Lyanna''s permanent ruler.

    "What do you mean by you never guessed that I wouldn''t know so much about ruling a kingdom? I''m by far the most intelligent person between the 3 kingdoms," said Scar. He was just trying to get on Jing''s nerves since he took what Jing said as a mild joke. As such, he wanted to do the same to Jing. It was only fair that he would also get a chance to tease Jing onest time before they parted ways for at least a whole year.

    "I mean, you don''t look like the type of person who would be smart. You look like some ruffian which only knows the ways of battle. As for your im that you''re the smartest person in the 3 kingdoms. If that was true, then everyone would be dumber than someone who allowed 3000 people to die a meaningless death," Jing added. He knew saying that was risky, however, he needed to make sure that Scar didn''t suspect anything. A joke that was hurtful towards Scar would either anger him or make him embarrassed. Either way, he would think less about the kingdom''s new ruler.

    "Ya ya. Whatever, it wasn''t like I was the only one who sent themand to go through with the battle. There were other people who were in the council including yourself. I think you should also bear the me if I do," Jing replied before saying his goodbyes and leaving the kingdom with his new raid party. It looked like he was satisfied with the way things turned out. After all, he had a fun conversation with the one person he thought of as a friend.

    "Great. Now that he''s gone, I can make a run for it. Wait..." Jing thought to himself. He knew the type of person Scar was. He wouldn''t have left without taking extra precautionary measures to stop Jing from leaving the kingdom.

    "Let''s see... just in case he had left some people to keep an eye on me in secret, I''ll have to have one way of stopping them. For starters, they would have to be stationed outside the kingdom since if I leave by changing my ability and climbing the wall from the back side, they would have no way of knowing that I left. That would be great since I can employ a no enter policy into the kingdom so they can''t enter. If they can''t enter the kingdom, they''ll have no way of replenishing their food supply. As such, they''ll be forced to leave at some point. Knowing the money Scar has, it wouldn''t be outrageous for him to hire them to look after me for a whole year or two," Jing thought to himself as he tried toe up with a way to escape without having to face any problems.

    "The best thing to do for now is actually do the job which Scar told me to do. I''ll have to help around the kingdom and make sure that everyone is working. However, in secret, I''ll change my ability to something that allows me to install hidden cameras around the outside of the kingdom so I can learn the replenishing schedule of the people Scar hired to make sure that I don''t escape the kingdom. That''s even if Scar hired people," said Jing as he began to head back to the castle-like structure of the kingdom so he could change his ability in secret.

    Once Jing hard reset his ability, he exited the kingdom''s castle-like structure and began to speak with the citizens as he tried to assist them with coping with the loss of their loved ones. Of course, he med Scar-their previous ruler for all of it. In doing so, he was able to make himself look like a better figure and assured everyone that they wouldn''t have to worry about losing a single person from that point on. This of course wasn''t true and was only said so that no one would get suspicious of him.

    As Jing continued his quest to get all the kingdom''s citizens on his side, he also used his ability which brought up screens which only he could see which monitored the outside of the kingdom. As he used his ability for the first time, Jing saw what he had expected to see. There were 10 people outside the kingdom walls, each one an equal distance from another. It was a good thing that Jing thought at thest minute that Scar wouldn''t have trusted him that much. However, this meant that Jing could escape and wouldn''t have to worry about Scar''s state of mind since his own guards would pass on false information to him.

    Once Jing managed to sway the hearts of the citizens, he made sure that the kingdom gates were tightly sealed. This ensured that no one would be able to enter unless they were about to break the many locks which the gate had as a precautionary measure. This wasn''t put in ce to protect the people from random bandits which may have entered the kingdom but to ensure that the guards which were assigned to Jing wouldn''t be able to keep an eye on him from every direction.

    After closing the kingdom gates, Jing managed to gather arge group of people which all changed their abilities to be one which put up an invisible dome gate around the kingdom which specifically blocked off anyone who tried to enter but would allow anyone to exit out of it. Jing managed to do this by telling the citizens that it''ll make the effects of the dome stronger by only focusing its effect in one specific area. This was true as the more specific an ability was, the more powerful. However, in some cases, it also carried a lot of drawbacks.

    "This is great! This is great! He really thought that he would imprison me in his hell hole while he grew to be a strong and powerful individual. That idiot, he never ounted for the fact that I would use the people of the kingdom to ovee any obstacle that he put in front of me. He had given me everything I ever needed to leave this ce permanently and no one would know about it.

    After a few weeks of monitoring the movements of the people who were set to stop Jing from escaping the kingdom, he realized that they would leave their duty to go somewhere else. every 3 days. That was most likely the day which they would go back to their kingdom or wherever they came from to attain supplies such as food. They wouldn''t dare try to ask to enter Lyanna because they would have to give up their identities.

    This worked out perfectly for Jing since he would have a full day to escape the kingdom without having to worry about the fact that other people were after him. However, as a final precautionary measure, Jing changed his ability into a cloning one where he would ce a clone of himself inside the kingdom so no one would get suspicious.

    The day of his escape, Jing created only one clone of himself. Due to there only being one, it''s body strength was inchanced. Jing knew it would be risky but he still went along with his n.

 Chapter 147 - The Past Cant Be Erased

    Using his ability, Jing forced his inchanced clone tounch him high in the air to the point where he wouldnd on the kingdom walls. While thending hurt like hell, Jing still moved on as if nothing had happened.

    "Now the only problem is to get down from here. Luckily for me, I nned for this," said Jing as he pulled out a robe andrge pin which were both strapped to his pants. Jing ced therge pin on the ground before deactivating his ability then shortly reactivating it. Using his ability, Jing made his strength inchanced clone stomp on the pin until it was tightly engraved in the wall. Once he had made sure of this, Jing tied the rope around the pin before slowly climbing down the wall-making sure that he made as little sound as possible.

    "Just you wait Scar, I''ll make sure you pay for making me your dog up until now," said Jing as hended on the ground of the outside world. Without a moment of hesitation, Jing sprinted in a random direction in hopes that he would eventually find a dungeon gate.

    ...

    As for Yuki in his own faraway kingdom, he spent a lot of time with his new family. Each and everyday didn''t go without him having a smile on his face. He couldn''t help but be happy. Yuki had finally achieved the life he had always wanted. At some point in his time with Marcell and Elpis along with their child, Yuki hadpletely forgotten his quest to be the first level 100 yer. He stopped caring about ruling the world as its absolute king. None of that mattered to him anymore. All he cared about was to live a happy life with his family. However, Yuki wouldn''t achieve happiness. It was never meant for him.

    [1 Year Later]

    As time passed on, Yuki''s hair eventually grew too long, however Yuki refused to cut it. For some odd reason, he enjoyed having long hair which stretched to his shoulders. It didn''t get in the way of his work so Marcell and Elpis didn''t mind. Most days, Yuki stayed in the back of the kitchen and he yed with his ability by creating a variety of fire constructed objects. To him, it didn''t matter what it was, as long as he could manage to distract himself for a while.

    The 16 year old teeneger was much calmer about how he handled situations. He didn''t instantly opt for the option of murder and torment when he met someone which got in his way. Instead, Yuki would try toe to apromise with others to deal with the situation by causing as little damage as possible. Even when pushed to the edge, Yuki managed to control his anger for the sake of his family''s honour.

    Yuki had truly changed within just a year. It was as if he was apletely new and different person. He managed to get along with others and actually had friends in the kingdom which he yed with on weekends since the diner was closed. This was one of Yuki''srgest aplishments yet. He had learned to be human once again. Unfortunately for him however, Yuki would still be haunted by the way he chose to act before he met Marcell.

    Once Marcell along with Yuki closed shop, they headed back towards their home just like they had done so for so long. They talked as they walked through the kingdom in the evening sky. Yuki as well as his father figure continued tough and smile until they reached the house. Due to the year that had passed, Yuki had grown in height which caused him to be around Marcell''s height. This also meant that he was taller than Elpis.

    Just as she had done so for so many days, Elpis opened the door when Marcell knocked. However, instead of greeting them with a smile as she did on the regr, she quickly grabbed both Marcell and Yuki by the arm and quickly dragged them inside before locking the door.

    "What''s the matter?" Marcell asked as if Elpis was ying a prank on them.

    "Shush. Let''s go to the dining room then we can talk," said Elpis as she dragged them both to the dining room which barely allowed them to take off their shoes.

    Once they arrived in the dining room, Elpis looked to have a genuine look of worry and distress on her face. She looked as if she would break down and crack if someone even slightly touched her.

    "You''re happy expression means that you probably haven''t heard yet," said Elpis.

    "Head what?" Marcell asked with a confused expression.

    "Well, a couple people in full knight gear showed up in the kingdom today. They went from door to door as they asked if people had seen or heard of a person by the name of Yuki Kaito," Elpis said.

    Just as he heard those words, Yuki heart sank. Everything seemed to slow around him before his heart began to beat at an extremely fast rate. He hadpletely forgotten what he had done previously. Yuki didn''t even remember that his name was Yuki Kaito due to him being addressed as Yuki Kaito. That wasn''t even his biggest problem. Due to him not being in dungeons constantly, Yuki was lost in the race to be the first level 100 yer. Even those who didn''t have that as their goal would''ve surpassed him in levels by now.

    "How could I forget about that? It was so important to me and now I''ve managed to get trapped. They''ll soon find me and kill me for my actions. This isn''t like how it used to be a year ago. I actually had the power to beat people no matter their numbers. Now, all it would take is one or two people to kill me. Of course they would have to be a rtively high ranking individual however they aren''t as rare as they used to be. For all I know, there is someone who''s at level 40 or even 50 by now. How can I escape this? Even my new family would give me up to the authorities when they find out about my actions," Yuki thought to himself as he began to sink in his own thoughts.

 Chapter 148 - Escape

    "Why do they want him? Is he a fugitive or something?" Marcell asked in confusion.

    "They said that about a year ago, he killed a few people right as this world started. Due to his crimes, he was sentenced to prison. However, he managed to escape and run away to a dungeon where he trained and leveled up. While he was doing that, 3 kingdoms aligned with each other andbined their forces to attempt to stop him once and for all. Unfortunately for them, all 3158 people were killed by a single attack which was cast by him," Elpis exined.

    "Do they have posters of his face we can look at so we don''t run into him?" Marcell asked as his face began to turn the same as Elpis''.

    "They nned to search for him here since their research department said that he was in this kingdom. However, the guards which came to our kingdom said that if they couldn''t find him, then they would ce posters all around the kingdom so if anyone saw him, they would report him to the authorities," Elpis replied.

    "We''re doomed if we ever meet him. Over 3000 men killed by a single person? For all we know, he could wipe an entire kingdom off of the map if he tried," said Marcell.

    "That''s it! We aren''t going to open shop until that monster''s been caught. We can''t afford the chance of running into that maniac and then getting killed by him for no reason. We''ll all stay at home and barely go outside. To add on, the option of going outside is only when we need something necessary," Marcell told both Yuki and Marcell.

    "Well, you must be pretty tired. You should probably go to bed now Jack," said Marcell, however he waspletely ignored by Yuki.

    "No! No! No! Everything is falling apart, I don''t have any more time with them. All it will take is just one day before the posters have been hung up. How am I supposed to say goodbye to the life I''ve enjoyed for so long and so little? Well, it''s not like I have a choice in a matter such as this. I''ll have to run away again, after all, that''s what I''m supposed to do. I really thought that I could live a happy life like nothing had happened. Happiness isn''t for me," Yuki said to himself as he continued to sink deeper into thought.

    "Jack?" Marcell asked once more as he was confused as to why Yuki wasn''t answering him.

    Before Marcell could call out to Yuki once again, Elpis got up from her seat and hugged Yuki as she didn''t quite understand why Yuki was frozen in time. From her perspective, she thought that Yuki didn''t reply because he was scared of the monster who killed so many people.

    "It''s going to be fine, there''s no need to be scared. The authorities wille and arrest that demon before he can hurt us. There''s no need to be scared," said Elpis, which brought Yuki back into reality.

    "Oh, I forgot that I was in a room with them. What should I do? I should just act just how they''re acting," Yuki told himself as he hugged Elpis back. This fooled both Marcell and Elpis and made them assume that Yuki was just scared. It was a good thing that Yuki didn''t tell them his name from the start. If he had, Elpis would''ve had the authorities wait for him at their home and attack him when he least expected it.

    "Sorry, I nked out for a second. I''m just having trouble processing the information I just heard. Please excuse me, I''ll be going to my room now," said Yuki as he slowly walked towards the stairs and then climbed thedder which led to the attic which also acted as his room.

    "Let''s see here, I have about 12-14 hours at best until morning. Within that time frame, I''ll have to make a run for it. I really hate to leave this ce but I''m left with no other choice. If I don''t get out of here now, I''ll get captured and face an eternity in prison. It''s not like I can escape likest time either. It was only possible back then because of my overwhelming strength. Now, I''m just an average dungeon raider," Yuki said as heid on his bed while trying toe up with a way to escape as soon as possible.

    "To make my situation worse, it wouldn''t be too far off for me to assume that they have guards which are surrounding this kingdom. The moment I leave this ce, I''ll be hunted down from every direction and it won''t be long before I get caught. How can I even escape from this?" Yuki asked himself. Any n he would form would have a weakness to it. It was nearly impossible for him to think of a n when under so much pressure.

    "Wait... I have the perfect n. First, I''ll create a body which is made out of fire using my ability. Once that''splete, I''ll make it reach the middle of the kingdom and make it fly high in the air. After that, I''ll just create ''Heaven''s Sun'' in the sky and have it act as a decoy. Something that big should definitely gain the attention of the guards which are waiting to hunt me down. Once they all make a dash towards my fake clone, I''ll sprint away from this kingdom as fast as possible. I can''t afford to look back at it. My best option is to enter a dungeon since once one is upied, no one can enter it," Yuki thought to himself.

    Yuki didn''t sleep at allst night. If he were to identally sleep too much, he would get caught without putting up a fight. He needed to make sure that everything went ording to n. If that meant that he would miss out on a few hours of sleep, so be it. Sacrifices needed to be made if he ever nned on getting out of the situation he had put himself in.

    The next morning, Yuki watched as the sun rose from the window in the attic. He awaited for the perfect moment. There needed to be a few people outside but not a lot. Once that time hade, Yuki could move on with his n.

    ...

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Once the time was right, Yuki used his ability to create a fire constructed body which flew out of his window to the middle of the kingdom. After the me constructed body had reached the destination, Yuki made it fly high into the air where it created arge ball of fire from itr''s hands. Within mere moments, "Heaven''s Sun" could be seen all across the kingdom. However, before "Heaven''s Sun" could be dropped on the kingdom, a group of people began to rush towards the fire constructed body. They knew that Yuki was a fire user so they came prepared.

    4 out of the 12 people began to create magic circled in the air which all sproutedrge quantities of water. It didn''t take much longer for "Heaven''s Sun to bepletely erased.

    "Now''s my chance," said Yuki as he leaped off the attic window andnded back on the ground without making a single sound. Once he hadnded on the ground, Yuki ran as fast as possible. It wasn''t like his previous runs though. When Yuki ran before, he didn''t put a lot of effort into it. Even when faced by death, Yuki didn''t care all that much since death didn''t mean that much to him. However, in his 1 year stay with Marcell and Elpis, Yuki learned to be more caring towards his own life. As such, Yuki ran as if he was actually running for his life.

    Once Yuki reached the walls of the kingdom, he quickly covered his feet and fingers in mes as he plunged them in the wall as he forcefully imed it. While it was painful, Yuki didn''t seem to slow down a single bit. With each step he took, the more ambitious his eyes looked. Yuki wasn''t going to allow himself to hesitate for a single second.

    After Yuki finally reached the top of the kingdom wall, he jumped down without taking a rest or even looking back at the kingdom onest time. All that Yuki could do was run.

    Yuki leaped off the kingdom wall and crashnded into the ground, however, without a moment wasted, Yuki pumped his feet with his mes and concentrated them before making thembust, in turnunching himself far away from the kingdom. Even for Yuki, he was having trouble seeing what was in front of him due the speed at which he was travelling at.

    Before Yuki could celebrate, a giant handnded on his head and knocked him to the ground with the force of a thousand trucks. Once Yuki''s body was on the ground, the person who had just knocked out Yuki picked him up with one arm and began to walk back towards the kingdom. In his hand was a flip phone which he spoke into.

    "I''ve got him."

 Chapter 149 - Second Investigation

    A man who looked to be twice the size of Yuki carried him with just one arm as he continued to bring him towards the kingdom which Yuki had escaped from. Due to him striking Yuki so hard, he caused him to temporarily pass out. While the man had arge de which he carried on his back, all he needed to use to take Yuki down was his bare fists. The man had identally hit Yuki harder than he meant to, however, he had his reasons to do so. Yuki''s skill and power was rumoured to be one of the greatest in the world. Due to those statements, he gave everything he had into his first strike. Unfortunately for him, he was disappointed to find that Yuki was much weaker than people had thought. Nevertheless, the man carried Yuki back to the kingdom, not so that Yuki could be punished but to regroup with his team.

    Once the man managed to make contact with his team which had defeated the fire constructed clone Yuki had created, they left the kingdom without saying a word. While it was early in the morning, some people had woken up early and managed to watch Yuki''s humiliating defeat. It wouldn''t be much longer until Marcell and Elpis would find out who their adopted son really was.

    ...

    When Yuki awakened from his slumber, he was greeted by bars which meant that he was in prison. However, before he could evenprehend everything that was around him, Yuki was stuck with a painful shock which was the lingering effect of the devastating blow he had received from the man that captured him. The pain was nothing short of pure agony, he couldn''t bear the pain any longer. If he were to do so, Yuki would just pass out once again.

    Although Yuki would''ve loved to call on Zero to help him get out of the situation, he thought it would be best to see what he was going to go up against. Even with his 1 year break from any dungeon raiding or monster hunting, Yuki was still stronger than most people in the world. On the other hand, there were definitely a lot of people who were stronger than him. Clearing dungeons with a party was much easier than solo clearing so most people gave up on the idea of themselves breaking their limiter and decided to settle for the easier path of being strong but not the strongest. Unfortunately for Yuki, a lot of the strong individuals gathered together as they prepared to bring him down if he retaliated.

    "Let''s see... where could I possibly be right now?" Yuki asked himself as heid down on the bed which was in his jail cell.

    "Let me break down everything first then I cane up with a n. For starters, I was captured and brought to a jail cell. That means that the people who captured me would be this world''s version of the police. This ce would obviously be this world''s prison. However, there is something which I need to know," Yuki thought to himself as he tried to dissect the situation he was in.

    "The only problem is if I was already sentenced or if I''ll have a trial. If I was sentenced to life in prison because my actions were so horrific that a trial wouldn''t be necessary, I''ll have to ask Zero to help me. However, if I have a trailing up, I''ll try toe up with an excuse and try to get less time before making my escape to the dungeons once more. I''ve done this before so it shouldn''t be that hard to do it again," Yuki said to himself as he tried to reassure his own escape.

    Yuki knew that escape would be unlikely. It would be nearly impossible for him to run away from a group of people who could knock him out before he realized what was happening. His only form of guaranteed escape would be through the use of Zero. Yuki hated relying on Zero a lot. It made him feel like a cheater. Which in truth was what he was doing when he called on Zero to help him in the world. On the other side was the fact that he had Zero as his own subject/tool so would it be considered wrong of him to use the tools he had been lucky enough to get? It was the same situation as kids who were born into rich families. They didn''t ask to be born into them; however with sheer luck, they ended up with that fate. While others could envy them, it wasn''t their fault for ending up with their life, as such, Yuki could never truly be med for abusing the power which Zero held. Although some might think otherwise, these facts stand to be true in Yuki''s case.

    Afterying down on his bed for what seemed like hours, Yuki was visited by a group of people. The one who specifically entered the cell first just looked to be some random person who was only there to take notes on what Yuki would say. From the looks of it, it would be an interrogation.

    Yuki had been nervous the first time he was interrogated by Carmi, however, due to that experience, he was prepared to effectively deal with the situation. The only difference was, he couldn''t speak in a rude manner as he wasn''t the strongest in the room. Any form of disrespect would probably end up with him being left in a state of near death.

    "Good evening Yuki Kaito. I presume you already know what you''re here for," the man who had his notebook said as he sat on the stool near Yuki''s bed. Hearing those words, Yuki got up from his sleeping position and sat up straight as he prepared to answer any questions that would be thrown at him. However, if he were to answer them truthfully was his choice.

    "I believe I do. However, I''m not quite sure. Would it be too much for me to ask for you to specifically ask what I am here for?" Yuki asked in a respectful tone.

    "No problem, I''ll briefly exin what you''re here for. You have arrested on the charges of mass murder when you killed 3159 people. There''s another murder charge on you for the murder of 7 people. You are suspected of also killing someone on the first day which we all came to this world due to the fact that you have murderous tendencies and the person who was killed also originated from your kingdom. Lastly, you have been charged with escape from prison," the man who carried the book exined as he wrote something down in his notebook.

    "3159 people? The exp notification said it was only 5156. Elpis said that the guards said that he had killed 3158. They''re all different numbers. The only and most likely exnation would be that in total there were 3160 people present. Tanya died on her own which makes it 3159 people. Adding on the 3156 people I got the notification of, that leaves me with 3 people that have not been ounted for. However, I remember that one of them ran away before I used my final attack which makes the number of people who have not been ounted for 2. That doesn''t make sense though. Where could those 2 people havee from? Could I have allowed them to survive? My attack was boosted by One so it wouldn''t make any sense for there to be any survivors unless they used their ownrades as body shields. Thinking about it now, it wouldn''t be too surprising. People only truly see the value of their own life when they are greeted by death," Yuki said to himself as he finally figured out all the missing pieces.

    "Thank you for informing me of that," Yuki replied so as to not sound rude to his investigator. While Yuki didn''t fear his investigator, he made sure to sound polite as the real monsters were the 3 people who stood near the side of the jail cell wall. Each one of them looked to have a short temper and if Yuki were to do something wrong, they would surely break a couple bones.

    "My question to you is. Did youmit each of those crimes you have been charged with? If so, why?" the investigator asked.

    "The first person I killed which I am currently suspected of is a real alligation. I had created clones of myself to speed up the process of exp gathering and they identally killed him. That was what allowed me to learn of the way to kill people in exchange for exp. Next, the 7 people I killed were part of the first squad that I joined. In truth, I killed them in pure desire for exp. However, they made their own situation worse by using me as their tool. That aggravated me and in the end, killed them," Yuki began to speak truthfully about all his actions. In most cases, Yuki would''ve lied, however, there was almost a guarantee that they already knew everything about Yuki and were only asking him these questions as a test.

 Chapter 150 - Exclusion

    Yuki continued to exin to his interrogator what he had inniciatally done to get him in the position he was in now. While the odds weren''t in his favor, Yuki could probably manage to get out with a less severe punishment if he were to tell the truth now and thenter on tell a lie which cannot be proven to be false.

    "As for the matter of me escaping from prison. That is also true. I had been captured and put in jail before going to my trial where I was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Once I had recieved my life sentence, I decided to escape because I didn''t n on living out my days in a boring prison when there were so many things to explore in this world. I mean, if you were in my position, you would''ve done the same," Yuki said as he tried to justify his actions. Although that was what it seemed like, Yuki knew from the beginning that the investigator didn''t care about the minor details. Yuki only acted in a foolish way to present himself as what a 16 year old would be like.

    In his situation, any 16 year old would plead for mercy and beg for a second chance. They would say that they had so much to live for and would even be willing to serve anyone for arge amount of time to avoid the punishment which awaited Yuki. However, Yuki wasn''t an average 16 year old when it came to his thought process. Death wasn''t something which scared Yuki as Zero would always be there to make sure that fate never encountered Yuki. The only problem was that Yuki needed to apply Zero''s powers without anyone noticing. If they did notice that Yuki was using some extra terrestrial being, everyone on the would merge to defeat him. However, in the end, Zero would just wipe them out without using a single bit of effort. To add on, Yuki wanted to rule humans and lead them in a better direction, not control them to the point where they have to live in fear every single day.

    "Lastly, my battle against the army which had thebined forces of 3 kingdoms. It all started because I escaped from the prison in the kingdom which I had spawned into. I had specifically warned them that if they tried toe after me, they would be greeted by hell. Even though I had warned them, they decided to not only bring their kingdom''s doom but also 2 other kingdoms down with them. That wasn''t even the worst part. Before the battle and during the battle, I had given them multiple warnings and chances to flee for their lives. However, due to them being full of pride, they still attacked me in hopes that they could defeat me with sheer numbers. I cannot honestly be med for what I did. I gave them chances but they didn''t listen. In the end, it was either them or me who had to die. To be frankly honest with you, I don''t feel like dying yet," Yuki finished exining.

    "Thank you for your brief exnation. We''ll be taking into ount everything you''ve said when determining your sentence. Just to rify, you will not be receiving a trial and only judgment will be passed on to you using the information we''re gathered from you as well as information from outside sources," the investigator said as he got up from his stool before standing up and walking out the cell. His henchmen or what seemed to be his henchmen since they followed from also left as they walked behind him and shut the door to the cell.

    Once the investigator along with his team exited the jail cell, Yuki once againid on his back as he tried to absorb what had just taken ce. Even though he thought he was much calmer than thest time he was being interrogated, Yuki noticed himself to be shaking. He didn''t know if it was because of the intense re which the interrogator had or because of the sheer presence of the guards/henchmen which followed him. Either way, it wasn''t good for Yuki since it would only make his mission harder.

    "Let''s see... I think I did pretty good when I answered the questions. I made myself seem logical however I also presented myself as arrogant and foolish. With that along with the story about me saving the 3 kingdoms from a gang which would''ve sold all the citizans to a life of eternal very, I think my punishment shouldn''t be as hard as it would''ve been if I didn''t put up fake filters just to seem a certain type of way for this specific event," Yuki said to himself as he once again went back to sleep.

    Yuki hadn''t realized it but the hit which had knocked him out the first time had taken arger effect on his body than he thought. He had managed to ignore the headache when he was speaking with his interrogator however, now that he didn''t have anything distracting him from it, Yuki was once again overwhelmed by the sheer agony which his head caused him. Even during all of this, Yuki''s main concern was what would happen to him once the discussion about his punishment had been made.

    ...

    A few dayster, Yuki was once again greeted by his interrogator. During those few days, Yuki had spent his time daydreaming and thinking about what would''ve been if he could''ve stayed with Marcell and Elpis. Those were his thoughts half the time. As for the other half, Yuki would think about what his second family would think about him. After all, they would''ve probably found out about who he really was by now. At times, Yuki would just tell himself what he thought to be the obvious truth. No matter how much he wanted to believe that Marcell and Elpis would love him until the very end, it simply wasn''t true. In the end, they would care for their real daughter much more than they would care for some random kid which they brought into their home out of pity. As such, when they found out about Yuki''s true identity, they would hate him because of his previous actions as well as the fact that he was a threat to both them and their daughter.

    Although he had continued to think about that, Yuki knew something else as well. He couldn''t naturally (without the help of Zero) change the oue of both the situation as well as the perception of him in Marcell and Elpis'' eyes. The fact of the matter was that the past had already happened and he couldn''t change it. All he could change was the future.

    "Hello there Yuki. I have some rather good new for you today. Luckily for you, you won''t be killed and you will also not be sentenced to jail. The court deemed that cing you in prison would just put us in more danger due to your random tendances. You have a record of clearing dungeons at an extremely fast rate. If you were to somehow escape and make it to the dungeons. You would exponentially grow and most likely burn down everything and everyone who tormented you. As such, we would like to leave you on a good note. However, this does not mean you will be set free. Instead, you will be ced in a kingdom with a high crime rate where you will live out the rest of your life. That means you will not be robbed of a general decent life but you will not have the opportunity to grow stronger. This was the only fair way to settle this as you are still a potential threat and we cannot allow you to impact the outside world any more than you already have," the investigator exined.

    "Exactly as nned. I couldn''t have asked for something better. They really believe that I''m going to settle down. In reality, I''ll use ''King''s Crown'' and build a whole army of my strongest monsters," Yuki said to himself.

    "That is so kind of you. Thank you so much. I don''t know how to show my gratitude," said Yuki as he faked his personality once again.

    "It''s not an act of kindness. It was just the safest option we had. There was no room for emotions when the decision was made. The judge along with their advisers only picked this option as it was the most logical one. You have no reason to be grateful. We never had your best intentions in mind. We only care for humanity''s safety, not yours," the investigator exined.

    "Well that''s rather harsh. I know some people think of me as a demon or monster but it really doesn''t bug me. That''s just their opinion. I have no reason to be hurt by something which is just backed by the moral thinking process of someone. Morality can be augmented and changed to fit a certain criteria. It is just some dumb way people think to present themselves as better than others," Yuki thought to himself while still keeping up an innocent front.

 Chapter 151 - Travel

    "Well, I don''t know what to say then. It works out for both sides so I''m notining," Yuki replied to his investigator.

    "On our final note, the kingdom that you will be transported into will be guarded at all times and no one is allowed to enter or leave. You will have to wear an invisible ring around your neck which seals all your power and makes you a level 1 yer while you''re wearing it. I believe that is all we have to speak of today," the investigator finished.

    "Wait, when will I be transported to said kingdom?" Yuki asked.

    "Most likely tomorrow. The sooner the better. You are still considered a threat, as such, we don''t have time to test your real hidden strength," the investigator replied.

    "I understand. Thank you for exining," Yuki replied as he watched as the investigator along with his guards exited the jail cell once again.

    "The part about me having to wear a chain or ring which caps my strength at level 1 could be problematic. However, there probably is a loophole around it. Even if there isn''t, I can just ask Zero to remove it for me. On a good note though, I at least get to go to a new kingdom. Wait... he said that the crime rate was high in it. If I''m just a level 1 there, I have no chance of survival. I guess that was their real n. They wanted me to get angry at the kingdom and not them under the unlikely event that I managed to escape. What right do they have to judge me when they''re trying to set others up to receive punishment which should be ced on them?" Yuki thought to himself as he began to understand how the n both worked for him and his jail keepers.

    While in the jail keeper''s perspective, Yuki wouldn''t have gotten any benefits in the n and only they would end up receiving the benefits. They werepletely wrong. Yuki already had a n of his own which he would use to escape the kingdom he would be ced into. He never nned to stay put seeing as how he didn''t have a family to go back to anymore. The only thing that wouldn''t betray him was the dungeons. Even though it was painful and exhausting to clear all those stages on his own, Yuki could at least know that when he was done with the dungeon, he would be able toe out stronger than ever.

    Once the investigator along with his guards'' footsteps couldn''t be heard, Yuki once againid down on his bed as he tried to just rx and go back to sleep until the next day. There wasn''t much for Yuki to do other than eat and sleep. He didn''t want to seem like a rebellious inmate so he even stopped himself from ying with his ability by creating objects which were constructed of mes.

    After rolling around in his small jail cell bed for what seemed like hours, Yuki finally managed to put himself back to sleep. Yuki of course didn''t mind that he slept for no reason. While some people were efficient with their time since it was limited, Yuki didn''t have that ideology. The only time he would rush himself was in dungeons because he needed to gain as many levels as possible. However, due to the situation he was in, Yuki didn''t bother stressing as it was a waste of energy. It was much easier for Yuki to just go to sleep and forget about everything that was happening.

    The next morning, Yuki was greeted by the sound of knocking on his jail cell. Unlike the previous two times, Yuki was sleeping when his guests arrived. Hearing the knocking shocked Yuki and he instantly got up as if he was awake the entire time. As he looked at the people who were in front of him, Yuki noticed that there were a lot more people than before. All of them looked serious but other than that, they didn''t have anything inmon. Some were tall, some were short, some skinny and others chubby. However, none of that mattered as they were all put up against Yuki.

    "We meet once again," said the investigator as he walked up in front of everyone to sit on the stool which he sat on when he wanted to talk to Yuki.

    "If you remember from yesterday, I told you that you will be taken to your new kingdom today. However, before we can do that, we need to have you wear this sort of ne," said the investigator as one of the many people who hade along to Yuki''s cell brought out arge thick circr ne.

    "All you have to do is put it on for safety measures and you''ll be on your merry way to your new kingdom," said the investigator.

    "So do I just put it around my neck? Isn''t it too big?" Yuki asked.

    "It is made by someone''s ability so it has magical properties. Just try it on," the investigator replied.

    "Whatever you say I guess," said Yuki as he took the ne off the hands of one of the henchmen which was holding on to it before cing it around his neck.

    "Nothing is happening. Are you sure this thing is working?" Yuki asked.

    "Great. Now, all that''s left for you is to say ''I ept''," the investigator replied.

    "I ept?" Yuki replied as he was still confused as to how the ne truly worked. However, right as he said those words, the ne instantly shrunk to fit the size of his neck perfectly. However, due to that, it was a bit tight around his neck. Of course, Yuki didn''tin about it since it woulde off very soon. If you were toin about the size of it, he would either be told to shut up or they would spend at least a whole day constructing a new ne for him. That would just be boring and a waste of time since he had the opportunity to go outside and run back to the dungeons now.

    "That''s great. You see how it perfectly fits. Now, just put on this on your eyes," the investigator said as he walked up in front of Yuki, and wrapped a blindfold on his eyes without giving Yuki a chance to answer

    "I guess this is really happening. I won''t ask any questions. My job is to listen and follow instructions," Yuki said to himself as he abided.

    Once the investigator finished covering Yuki''s eyes, he ced hand cuffs on Yuki''s hands and began to pull him in the direction which the cell door was in. While it was hard for Yuki to follow at first, he began to eventually trust the process. He didn''t stop walking for what seemed like hours, always asking himself how much longer it would take for him to finally reach their destination. At some point, Yuki assumed that they would walk on foot from wherever they were to the kingdom which Yuki would live in for the rest of his life.

    That hypothesis would be proven wrong as after walking for so long, Yuki was forced to climb up something before being forced to sit down on what felt like hardwood. Not long after, it felt like he was in a moving vehicle.

    "A caravan? It probably is. That would be the only moving vehicle which fits the description of what I felt. I''m just d I don''t have to walk all the way to a new kingdom. Especially since I''m blind folded," Yuki thought to himself.

    The ride went on for quite a long time. However, Yuki didn''t mind at all since all he had to do was sit down and wait. Yuki could feel the presence of a couple people around him. Although their immense power could be felt, it didn''t insite fear into Yuki as they had hoped. Instead, all Yuki thought of was how funny the situation was. Of course, he didn''tugh at their faces since that would be rude and knowing the strength difference between him and the others, Yuki would probably end up dying. That wasn''t necessarily a bad thing for Yuki either since he would get thestugh by asking Zero to give him back his powers and bring hell to the entire without the slightest bit of effort.

    ...

    "We''re here," someone in the front of the caravan said.

    After waiting for so long, Yuki could finally go inside the kingdom which had been set up for him and rx properly for once. Just thinking about it made Yuki''s heart excited. By that point, Yuki had almostpletely forgotten about Marcell and Elpis along with the rest of the kingdom''s citizens which he had gotten along with. At that moment, the only thing on Yuki''s mind was his new life. He had gotten over people and experiences previously but none as fast as this one. It was as if Yuki didn''t care about all those people even though they had treated him so well for the past whole year.

 Chapter 152 - King

    Once arriving inside the kingdom which Yuki was supposed to live for the rest of his life while being watched and tracked inside, Yuki couldn''t help but feel joy as his captors honestly believed that he would stay inside the kingdom and allow himself to not grow in strength while everyone else did. It was single handedly the most foolish thing a person or a group of people could do. Although, they couldn''t be med as they didn''t know of the existence of One nor Zero. Without those two, Yuki would bepletely powerless. After all, Yuki was just human. The only thing which made him different from others was the fact that he had overpowered tools which he could use to his heart''s content.

    Once the caravan which Yuki was ced in for the journey from the jail/prison all the way to the new kingdom had arrived at the kingdom gates. Someone grabbed the blindfolded Yuki by the wrist and dragged him out of the caravan and headed towards the kingdom gates. While doing this, Yuki could hear the footsteps of many others behind him which he assumed to be the interrogator and the guards which had been there during Yuki''s interrogation sessions.

    "Go inside and open your blindfold after 5 minutes have passed. This is your only warning, whatever you do, don''t look back before those 5 minutes have passed," the interrogator said as he pushed Yuki lightly inside the kingdom.

    Hearing those words, Yukiplied and went inside the kingdom without taking off his blindfold or looking back. While Yuki wasn''t scared of his captures, he didn''t want to waste more time with small matters such as arguments. It meant less for him to state how much more powerful he waspared to others. Pride wasn''t a quality of Yuki which stood out since he barely had any of it.

    Once the 5 minutes had passed, Yuki opened his blindfold to see what the kingdom which he was brought into looked like. Even though he was blindfolded like a lunatic, no one seemed to care. Everyone looked to be absorbed in their own lives. Although it seemed like just another kingdom, there was something off about it. However, no matter how hard Yuki tried, he just couldn''t point it out. It was as if someone was trying to hide it on purpose.

    "This ce is weird. I should probably try to find a ce to stay for a while. It''s not like anyone here would be as nice as Marcell and Elpis and let me leech off of them for a whole year. I miss them. Maybe I should ask Zero to check up on them-'''' Yuki cut himself off as he talked to himself.

    "They''re no longer my family. They were never meant to be. I was just distracted by them because I finally got what I had always wanted. In exchange, I lost the only thing I ever had and needed, my strength. If only I didn''t waste a whole year with them. I would''ve been able topletely bring all my enemies to their knees. What kind of king allows himself to get weak because he was distracted for a whole year?" Yuki thought to himself.

    "King?... That title does suit me. After all, with ''King''s Crown'' and my loyal monster subjects, I do seem like one. Speaking of subjects, I forgot to check up on the new Meurig. He''s been dungeon hunting for a whole year. It wouldn''t be out of line to say that he''s far stronger than I am. Maybe... he can even take care of the people who captured me. I mean, it''s not like he needs to eat, drink, or sleep. All he needs is to regenerate by going back into the crown. If he managed to survive the first few clearing rounds of the dungeon. He should bepletely fine since he could speed blitz the monsters once he leveled up far enough. I should call him back. A year of constant training is enough servitude, he should be allowed to have some fun now," Yuki said to himself as he still looked for a ce to stay. It wasn''t like he was going to pull out a secret item in public.

    After walking for some time, Yuki stopped at a shack which looked familiar. For some reason, Yuki could recognize it from somewhere but he couldn''t remember it exactly. As he stood there and thought for a while, Yuki remembered where he had seen the same shack from.

    "So it was you who survived the battle?" Yuki said to himself as he couldn''t help but get excited to finally bring down the user of "Infinite Hotel".

    "The shack does look better than beforeI guess but this is a little bit disappointing as he had a whole year to get stronger, unless..." Yuki thought of something which was rather surprising.

    "There are two possibilities, either he hasn''t gotten that much stronger throughout the year which I spent cking off, or he has managed to level up quite a lot and he just expands the reach of his ability throughout the world which makes his ability weaker. If that were to be the case, I can''t look down on him anymore. Instead, I should watch my back. Furthermore, I should look for another ce. The innkeeper can probably transmit information to his master. If that were to happen, I would just get hunted here. Seeing as right now, I''m basically a level 1 yer, I don''t want to instantly die," Yuki said to himself as he continued to walk through the kingdom in search of another inn to stay at.

    As the sky continued to grow darker, Yuki was beginning to lose hope of finding a ce to stay. Afterall, what need would be there for hotels and inns to exist if most of the citizens live in houses. Running an inn or a hotel inside a kingdom would just be a way to not gain or lose money quickly.

    After finding an inn to stay at, Yuki entered the brightly lit small shack looking ce. From the looks of it, Yuki assumed that it was also a bar. Once he entered, Yuki would be proven correct as he could see the many groups of people which drank whole jugs of alcohol as if it was air itself. It was extremely noisy which made Yukie to the conclusion that he would not be getting any sleep that night. Nevertheless, Yuki walked up to the counter to speak to the clerk and ask him if the sign outside was true and if they really offered a room to stay in.

    "Hey kid, aren''t you a bit too young to drink? Get out of this ce before you get hurt," the clerk said before Yuki could even ask his question.

    "I could just tell him that I''m a world ss threat that can kill thousands in a mere moment and the only thing holding me back is this damn ne which I can have removed. However, I''ll just act like I didn''t hear that," Yuki said to himself.

    "My apologies. I didn''te here for alcohol. I saw a sign which said that you offered a room to stay at. Would that happen to be true?" Yuki asked.

    "Sure we do. That''ll cost you a small amount. It''ll be 500 silver a night," the clerk said. Hearing those words made a couple people stop for a second before going back to their own conversations. While Yuki did find this to be weird, he didn''t care that much since all he wanted to do wasy down on a bed. Afterall, Yuki''s head still hurt from the attack to the head which he had received when he was captured.

    "Thank you so much," Yuki said as he extracted 500 silver coins and gave them to the clerk.

    While the clerk seemed to be caught off guard by the fact that Yuki gave that much money without a hint of hesitation, he quickly calmed himself down as he took the pouch of silver and gave Yuki a key.

    "It should be the room exactly to the left after you''ve climbed the stairs," the clerk said as he watched Yuki go up the stairs and enter the room which he was assigned. Right as Yuki closed the door to his room, everyone burst outughing.

    "How could he fall for that?"

    "It''s the easiest trick in the book."

    "He must be some rich guy''s son. We should try to rob him."

    Comments such as those were thrown around in the bar as even the clerkughed. However, Yuki knew that he was getting ripped off. The actual price would be only 100 silver a night at a ce such as that. That was a high estimate with obviously ounting for intion.

    "Laugh all you want. In the end I still won. This was the only ce I could stay where I could avoid the use of ''INFINITE HOTEL''. In the end, you were not my prey. A measly 500 silver is a poor man''s cash to me. As long as my n can go on smoothly, I have no qualms with you," Yuki said as heid his back on the door of the room he was staying at as he continued to listen to the people down stairs.

 Chapter 153 - Confrontation

    As Yukiid on the door of the room he was staying at, he couldn''t help but rx all his muscles as he listened to the loud talking of the people who were dining at the bar. It was odd for him to be in such a state. He used to be the strongest in the world. However, in just a year, he has been brought down to the life of the average person. Even if he had his money from dungeon hunting, it didn''t matter. No matter the amount of money he had, Yuki didn''t have the power to defend himself.

    "I should really escape from this ce. I don''t have the energy to deal with other people''s ignorance," Yuki said to himself. While his logic was wed, he was correct in his own right. Not many people would treat a child with respect. On the contrary, they would use them for their own needs. While this type of behaviour is not exhibited by many in the previous world, the new one allowed it to exist. Due to the environment of the world changing, harsher methods or actions and speeches were more tolerable. It much resembles that of people who were at war. While they may have lived a peaceful life up to that point, once they were forced to experience harsh conditions, they themselves needed to change so they could adapt to said harsh conditions.

    "Well... I can do that tomorrow," Yuki said to himself as he went to sleep while sitting at the door of the room in which he was staying. While the headache he had was starting to go away, it was still potent enough to drain Yuki of a lot of his energy. Even if Yuki was a little behind everyone in the race to be the first level 100 yer, he could at least allow himself to rest for a bit.

    ...

    The next morning, Yuki woke up with a gasp as he realized that he had gone to sleep before even getting a chance to go to bed. While he would''ve liked to get more rest, even he knew that he had wasted plenty of time resting already. It was time for him to get going and find out the very basic things about the kingdom.

    "I should try to look out for any hidden guards which might be keeping an eye on me for now. There most likely are a few people who would fit that description as I am considered arge threat... or at least used to be. Even with them knowing that they''re clearly stronger than me, it wouldn''t be too surprising if they hired some people to make sure I don''t escape this ce," Yuki said to himself as he opened the door knob of the room and exited it.

    As Yuki walked down the stairs to check out of the bar, he noticed that there were a lot fewer people than there were the previous night. It wasn''t too surprising either seeing as how most people would beat work in the morning and the nights would be spent at the bar as they rx from their hard and long days. The only people which remained inside were the clerk and a few people who had passed out after drinking so much.

    "I presume you''ll be leaving now," the clerk said to Yuki.

    "That would be correct," Yuki replied.

    "I hope you enjoyed your stay. Come back any time," the clerk told Yuki as Yuki walked out.

    "Will do," Yuki replied right as the door of the bar closed.

    As Yuki left the bar, the clerk let out a final smallugh as he remembered how he scammed Yuki the previous night. However, Yuki didn''t mind at all. It was a win-win for both sides. However, Yuki might have lost in some way. He had attracted quite a lot of attention due to how carelessly he spent his money.

    "Hey there kid," a grown man said as he along with 2 of what seemed to be his friends surrounded Yuki.

    "We saw how much you hate silverst night at the bar. If you despise money that much, we''ll take it off your hands for you," the grown mad told Yuki as he smiled at him.

    "Sorry, I don''t have any left. That was thest of it," Yuki lied, still wondering why no one had questioned therge ne around his neck. Yuki just assumed that it was invisible to others.

    "My apologies for not making this more clear. We weren''t asking. We were telling you. If you haven''t noticed by now, this isn''t the prettiest kingdom. People who have ess to the kind of money that you have deserve to get it stolen from them," the man told Yuki.

    "So I''m really getting robbed by these guys? Come on, why couldn''t it be someone else. They''re all so annoying and their breath stinks," Yuki said to himself as he thought of a quick n.

    Without saying a word, Yuki ced his index finger on the chest of the man who was directly speaking to him and lit his shirt on fire.

    Seeing this, the man backed away scared as he was caught off guard. While one of his two friends looked frightened, thest one didn''t seem the least bit fazed. For a split second, his eyes widened as he moved faster than Yuki could see and faced Yuki as his wide eyes red at Yuki with death filled in them.

    The one who was now confronting Yuki was different, he had a different air about him. In a kingdom where it''s been closed off for a long time, it would be rare to find a level 2 yer. It was unlikely but Yuki wanted to test out something. However, before Yuki could even speak, the man who was now confronting Yuki punched Yuki in the gut which made him almost pass out from the sheer impact of the fist.

    "I can''t deal with this much longer. Another attack from him and it''s over for me," Yuki said to himself.

    "One, switch."

 Chapter 154 - Resentment

    "One, Switch!" Yuki said in desperation as it was the only way he could escape out of that situation. There was most likely no other way for Yuki to win that fight other than to call on Zero or One. Calling on Zero would''ve been too suspicious so Yuki opted for One. While he and One were the same being, One had the ability to amplify Yuki''s emotions in turn increasing the potency of his presence.

    A person''s presence wasn''t that impressive as it corrted with their strength. However, emotions also yed a minor role in it as well. Due to the fact that One could amplify Yuki''s emotions to such an extent where Yuki could over power someone who was a level 2 yer was exactly the thing he needed. If a person''s presence were to be turned into numbers and just for the scenario, Yuki''s presence were to be 1 while his opponents were to be 100 due to Yuki being a level 1 yer and his opponent being a level 2 which ounts for the huge strength gap between them, One would help multiply Yuki''s presence using an emotions. As such, Yuki''s presence was adjustable. In this scenario, a presence of 1000 would be enough. Of course this is all hypothetical and a person''s emotions and presence aren''t quantifiable.

    "<strong>All that I need to do is knock him out right? It shouldn''t take too much effort</strong>," One said as he red back at the level 2 yer which Yuki had been facing earlier. In doing this, One made the level 2 yer fall on his knees out of pure fear. He could sense that there was clearly something evil and menacing about Yuki. He was like a rabbit which was in a death battle against a bloodthirsty tiger. Of course, once his mission wasplete, One switched back with Yuki.

    "What was that? What are you hiding? I know that you''re not that weak, so why did you let me hit you?" the level 2 yer asked.

    To be frank, his attacknded just on the pure fact that at that moment, Yuki was weaker than his opponent and still was. One was a multiplier to Yuki''s presence which was what had caused his opponent to back off. While all this stood to be true, Yuki didn''t say a word as he didn''t want to lose advantage of the battle.

    "I let you hit me to show you that you''re not the strongest one around," Yuki lied.

    "I sound like a douche bag whiches and teaches people a lesson in the name of justice. I''ll have to get through this though so I can''tin," Yuki told himself as he continued his speech.

    "Now that you understand the difference in our strengths, I have a question for you. How long has his kingdom been closed off?" Yuki asked as he wanted to test out his hypothesis.

    "That''s fine. I''ll answer all your questions. Just don''t attack me or my colleagues," the man replied. By this point, the original grown man who had tried to rob Yuki had managed to put out the mes from Yuki''s ability and was now watching the conversation between Yuki and hisrade. That was the same thing which the 3rd of the trio was doing as well. Even though this was going on, no one bothered to stop and watch. That confirmed that these types of urrences had been happening for a while and no one did anything about them.

    "When did this ce close itself out from the rest of the world?" Yuki asked.

    "Around 7 months ago I think," the man answered.

    "So that really does confirm it. They''ve been nning to have me imprisoned here right after my battle with the 3 kingdoms. They had made sure that their n couldn''t be ruined by a single thing. For a whole 7 months, this ce had been prepared and ready for me like a pet being weed to its new home. Whenever I get back to the level of strength I had over everyone once again, I''ll make sure to humiliate them just as they had done so to me," Yuki said to himself.

    "Wait... to make it even worse, could they have chosen this specific kingdom due to its violent tendencies? Out of every other kingdom, they specifically chose this one not because they care for the safety of humanity because these people are human just like all others but because they wanted me to suffer by being surrounded by people who had the intentions to harm me and could do so due to my level being lowered back to 1. This just gives me more of a reason to hunt them down like the rats they are," Yuki said to himself as his face began to fume but was instantly reversed as he realized that he couldn''t allow himself to get distracted any longer.

    "Okay thanks," Yuki said as he extracted 1000 silver and handed it to the people who were trying to rob him.

    "Just take this and leave me alone from now on. I don''t want bad blood to remain between us. I already forgive you for trying to rob me so please take this pouch and forgive me for hurting you," Yuki said as he handed the level 2 yer of the group the money.

    Yuki didn''t care about being friends with the people who had just tried to steal from him. The only reason he gave them that money and asked them to forgive him was in case someone who was stronger than them came after him and were to kill him before he could even call for One let alone Zero. It would be arge hindrance for him, as such, it was worth it for him to pay such a small amount of money for him to not worry about peopleing after him on a daily basis.

    As Yuki walked away from the scene, the people who had attempted to rob Yuki just sat there as they watched him walk away like nothing had happened before they themselves managed to get up and walk away in a different direction as well.

 Chapter 155 - Return

    "What am I supposed to do now? I really don''t have anything to do here. There''s not much a child could could in here. That''s only if there are children living here. I can''t imagine what life would be like for someone who would have to grow up and spend their entire life here. Well that would be the theory at least. That would only ur if I were to remain in this kingdom as a prisoner which won''t happen so that it is at least good. However, under that scenario, if I didn''t have One and Zero at my side, my existence alone would''ve been enough to ruin the lives of hundreds of people. Thinking about it now, it wouldn''t be too harsh to assume that my captures also nned for this. They might have wanted me to resent myself and me myself for the way that the lives of these people have ended and in turn end my life so that these people may be set free. While it would''ve been effective on almost everyone, I really don''t see it working on me," Yuki said to himself.

    "For it to have any effectiveness, I would need to have the ideology that the lives of hundreds of others is better than mine, which most people do have, however, I don''t see it that way. It might be because I know that every human isn''t actually important and is only a fragment of another entity which created humans to entertain itself or because One can change and augment my emotions and beliefs. Either way, I could care less about the lives of these people. Life is a game of luck, from the moment you''re born, you can only me yourself for what happens to you," Yuki continued.

    After walking through the screechy kingdom for what seemed like hours, Yuki found a narrow gap within the array of houses. Seeing that, Yuki quickly went inside in hopes of breaking the ne which made him as weak as a level 1 yer. There were only two way Yuki could break it. However, Yuki would have prefered to only have to resort to the first method.

    "One, switch with me and break this ne thing off of me," said Yuki. Since One had ess to everything which Yuki had, he knew why Yuki asked this of him. While One was Yuki''s emotions if they were personified and pushed to the extreme, he also had control over said emotions which allowed him to have great control over Yuki''s presence. If One were in some way directing Yuki''s presence into the ne and breaking it from the inside out, then Yuki could move on with his day. The only problem was that One was limited due to the capabilities of Yuki''s body. Using presence to a person''s desire took an astronomical amount of stamina. The only reason Yuki was able to manipte him so well was because of how efficiently One worked. Seeing as Yuki''s body was that of a level 1 yer along with the unknown strength of the ne which depended on the creator of if, it would be a very difficult task to break the limiter ne.

    "<strong>Let''s see...</strong>," One said before reaching for the ne with Yuki''s arms and pulled away at it with all his might. For a split second as he did this, he let his presence leak out and allowed everyone around the kingdom to feel it. Due to it being an ident, it onlysted a split second, but during that short moment, everyone felt fear. It wasn''t the type of presence such as Meurig which inflicted the feeling of death itself upon its enemies. Instead, One''s presence was that which poured the feeling of desperation upon others.

    "<strong>Sorry to tell you but I don''t think I can do anything about it. It would drain your body of all your stamina and still might not work</strong>," One said before switching back to Yuki.

    "I guess the level difference between a level 1 version of me and the creator of the ne is just toorge for me to handle. Well, that only leaves me with one option," Yuki said to himself as he realized what he must do to ovee his current obstacle. While he would''ve preferred to not call on <em>him</em> that often so he won''t seem annoying, Yuki had no other choice but to rely on <em>him</em>.

    "Hey, Zero... could you remove this ne thing off of me and teleport me to the 3rd dungeon which this world has to offer?" Yuki asked.

    "With pleasure," Zero replied. Within a blink of an eye, Yuki was somewhere else entirely, it waspletely different from where he was before. Unlike the previous dungeon gates, the one which Yuki was at didn''t have any hills or mountains around it. The dungeon gate was in an open grassy field which went on as far as the eye could see. It was mesmerizing to look at to the point where it was almost scary.

    "Just like that? I''m in a totally different ce than I was a second ago. Zero''s powers are just amazing. The best part is that I can utilize them whenever I want," Yuki said to himself in joy. However, deep down, he hated having to call on Zero. It made him feel cheap and like a cheater. Even if he derived pleasure out of abusing Zero''s powers, it didn''t feel real to him because he didn''t earn it on his own.

    "Wait... Zero, teleport me back and ce the ne on me again. I think that I should only hunt at night," Yuki said in his head as he came to a realization. Of course, without even having to reply back, Zero did as he was told.

    Yuki had realized that his captures probably weren''t that stupid to leave him with just a limiter ne. The ne itself probably had a tracker in it. While having the ne taken off might make it so that they won''t find Yuki, the problem was that they would realize Yuki was gone if the ne didn''t move for a long period of time. As such, they would probably force someone to change their ability and track Yuki down and recapture him.

 Chapter 156 - Scam

    Once Yuki was returned back to the kingdom which he was supposed to be a prisoner at, he rxed himself and exited the narrow hallway he was in before calling out to Zero. Yuki made a wise decision in returning as it avoided him having to deal with his captures, finding out that he escaped. If they had found out about that, Yuki would simply get recaptured but instead be executed as he would be too much of a threat because he was capable of escape under such extreme conditions. As such, Yuki decided that he would only leave the kingdom through the use of Zero''s powers at night. This was due to the fact that his captures would assume he was asleep and wouldn''t suspect a thing if Yuki''s ne didn''t move at all during the night.

    "Where to go now? I guess I''ll have to go back to the bar because that''s the only ce here which would allow me to sleep in unless I could somehow find a house here. I would first have to find an empty one which would only exist if its owner had left the kingdom and no one else had imed it after that. It would be hard but not impossible," Yuki said to himself as he walked through the streets of the kingdom in search of an adviser or just a house in general. With Yuki being new to the ce, he would need some help to navigate the kingdom.

    As he walked past many people, Yuki got a couple stares but no one bothered to approach him and neither did he approach others. Everyone he looked at seemed to have something wrong about them. They all looked to have ill intentions on their face which Yuki didn''t want to deal with at that moment. All Yuki wanted to do was find an easy and quick way to live peacefully in the kingdom he was in without having to attract a lot of attention.

    After walking for quite some time, Yuki found a group of fairly young people. Not to say that they were kids, however they weren''t adults either. One of them looked to be around Yuki''s age but the rest looked a bit older. Yuki assumed them to be about 18 or 19 years old. As such, he decided to approach them. He didn''t want any trouble, all he wanted was some guidance. As such, Yuki approached them.

    "What do you want?" the tallest one of the group asked Yuki in an irritated tone.

    "I''m new here so I was looking to get some information on how I should act in this kingdom. Could you help me with that?" Yuki asked as he expected to get beat up orughed at. However, he didn''t receive anything resembling that, instead he was surprised.

    "Sure I guess. Is there something specific you''re looking for?" the tallest one of the group asked.

    "For starters, I would like to find a ce to live for a while. I know that some one must have left this kingdom by now. So I was looking for an empty house which I could live in. Is there any way you could help me with that?" Yuki asked.

    "We actually do know a ce and he could show it to you. However, it''s gonna cost you some money along with some questions which have to be answered as well," the tallest one of the group replied.

    "That''s fine by me. How much are you looking for in terms of silver and what are your questions?" Yuki asked in relief.

    "Well, you''re going to have to pay 10000 silver and I only have one question. You mentioned that you''re new around here. If you haven''t realized, this ce has been closed off from the rest of the world for a while now and it''s constantly being guarded. Since that stands to be true, how are you new here? How did you manage to get in here?" the tall one asked Yuki.

    Yuki waspletely backed into a corner. He didn''t expect to mess up that barely. His captures didn''t tell him what to do in a situation such as this. However, Yuki''s quick thinking came in handy as he thought of something.

    "I''ll make it 20000 silver if you forget the question you asked and move on for the day," Yuki proposed.

    "Make it 25000 and you''ve got yourself a deal," the tall one tried to negotiate.

    "Hmmm... that does sound like a good offer, but what if I just answer the question and you leave with only 10000 silver?" Yuki asked sarcastically.

    "20000 silver it is!" The tall one quickly changed his mind as he realized that he was pushing his luck.

    Yuki extracted the 20000 silver from his setting and handed the tall one of the group the pouch of silver with a smile on his face.

    "Onest question. What makes you think that we won''t just run away from you and keep the money you gave us?" the tall one asked as he began to grin at Yuki.

    "Oh, that''s an easy question. Where do you think I get my money if I could give you that much silver without a care in the world? I think you know what I''m talking about. So, if you want to keep on living, pleaseply with our agreement. Secondly, you don''t have anything to lose by showing me the house that''s empty. At max, you''ll only lose a couple hours," Yuki exined and watched as the faces of all the members of the group''s faces turn pale from realizing that Yuki was a dungeon raider.

    "Excuse my word choice. I was just trying to be funny. Of course, we were nning on showing you the way to your new home anyway. We would never think about scamming you," the tall one replied as he calmed himself down and began to guide Yuki towards the house which would act as his base of operations and would act as the ce which he would call home. However, as he thought of his new home, he realized something else.

    "Where are these kid''s parents?"

 Chapter 157 - Home

    Even though Yuki was confused as to where the guardians of the kids which were guiding him were, he didn''t ask any questions as he didn''t want to bother. Whatever answer they gave him, it wouldn''t matter because he wouldn''t be able to change it and wouldn''t call on Zero to change it either. Whether he knew the fate of the parents/guardians of those kids or not, it didn''t matter to him in the least. Whatever event took ce had already happened and the past was irreversible. At the end of the day, all that remained were those kids and what they chose to do with their lives. As such, Yuki wouldn''t interfere with them once he received what he had wanted.

    After walking for some time, Yuki noticed that the group of kids which were leading him to his desired destination came to a stop. In front of them was arge house which looked dark and dirty. Yuki instantly assumed it to be the house which he would live in from now on. Even though his hypothesis was correct, there was one perplexing thing about it. Yuki couldn''t believe that a year alone could break a house down like that.

    "Is this it?" Yuki asked, half expecting the group to say no and take him to a cleaner ce.

    "This is it. Your new lovely home which you will live in for the rest of your life," another one of the group replied to Yuki.

    Although Yuki had hoped that he wouldn''t have to be guided to a better ce to stay, his luck wasn''t that good. He would have to ept his fate in his dumpy house. However, it wasn''t as bad as he thought of it at first. It wasn''t like he couldn''t get his monster summoned to clean the house for him when no one was looking. On top of that, he didn''t necessarily need to stay at the house at all. All he needed to do was get inside and teleport to the dungeon at night ande back in the morning then leave the house unattended.

    However, this n also had a down side. With him being at the dungeons at night and in the kingdom in the morning, he would get little to no sleep. There was an easy fix for him though. If there was a potion shop in the kingdom, which if it was a normal kingdom, there would be one. Yuki could just take a trip to the potion store and buy a potion which made him not need sleep. It was just a hypothesis but if the potion store really did have something like that, it would be a relief for Yuki.

    "Thanks for showing me here. You can leave now since I''ve already made my payment," Yuki said to the group.

    Hearing those words, they left without replying to Yuki as they were eager to spend the money they had earned from basically scamming Yuki. Although in truth, Yuki didn''t care all that much about spending that kind of money. He had earned a lot from just dungeon hunting along with the money from killing so many people. As long as Yuki did benifit in some way, he didn''t mind spending money which he thought to be dirt and others thought of as gold.

    "Wait.. I wonder where they are headed off to. I should probably follow them. No, I can''t. If I were to do that, they would instantly notice me since I''m basically an average human once again. My speed and hiding skills have basically reset. I''ll have to resort to using one of my summons. Although I would''ve liked to create a new summon from the 2nd dungeon, it''s too risky since my stamina is so low now. There''s a high chance that a summon from the 2nd dungeon could kill me. Good thing I summoned someone from the 1st dungeon which might be useful," Yuki said to himself as he opened his inventory.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "King''s Crown" for the first time in a while. He hadpletely forgotten about it along with his other treasured des. While most would''ve killed to possess "King''s Crown", "Fallen angel of hell", and Yuki''s other 2 treasured des, Yuki had gotten caught up in his peaceful life and didn''t make use of the few items which made him superior to others.

    "Serve your king," said Yuki as he summoned the king from the 8th stage from the 1st dungeon. There was a very specific reason for doing this. Out of all the summons Yuki had, this one was the one with the most versatile set of skills which Yuki could take advantage of. Although once properly leveled up, the lich would be much more useful since he would have ess to the spells which had been sealed away, right now, he was useless.

    Once summoned, the king from the 8th stage of the 1st dungeon kneeled before Yuki who acted as his king. Seeing this, Yuki quickly made him get up so as not to raise suspicion.

    "What''s the matter my king? I do not mean to insult you in any way shape or form however, you seem a lot weaker than I remember," said the summon.

    "It''s alright. This is only temporary. Right now though, I need your help. I need you to divide your power and create a lot of small flies which can go around the kingdom and gather data on the group of kids which were with me just a moment ago. You should also know what they look like due to the power of the crown.

    "I understand," said the king as he headed inside the house which would be Yuki''s new house. As such, Yuki followed behind him and made sure to close the door behind them.

    Once inside, the king managed to disassemble Ourbanos which was his ultimate creation and turned him into many smaller flies which he directed to go outside and follow the group of people which had led Yuki to his new home. The reasoning for this was that Yuki assumed that they were in some way rted to a gang of sorts. It was only natural as they didn''t have parents and didn''t look to also have jobs. While these facts stood to be true, they didn''t seem to be trouble in any way. As such, their ie would only originate from one ce.

    Money which was earned from dishonest deeds didn''t have a working schedule. Those who wanted to earn a living from being a part of that type of business needed to be ready at any time to make maximum profit. This also meant they didn''t have to work a majority of the time. They just needed to be aware of the risks which they were putting themselves into.

    "Okay. I''ve sent the flies out but I need to be present within this world to make sure they''re active. Is that okay with you my liege?" the summon asked Yuki.

    "Ya ya. I don''t really mind," Yuki replied as if he was zoned out and thinking about somethingpletely different.

    "Sounds great. Would you like me to clean this ce up until the information you''re seeking has been gathered? This ce is filthy," said the summon.

    "Huh.. oh ya sure. That would be great," said Yuki as he came back to reality.

    Hearing that, the king began to get to work as he began to clean the entire house which seemed like it would take ages to clean. However, even though the task looked to be gruesome, the king would dly clean the entire ce without a moment of hesitation. While most people would''ve needed to go out and buy cleaning supplies, the summon didn''t need to do that. He still had a little bit of power left which he used to create a broom to start off with the initial cleaning and dusting before actually going out and buying proper cleaning supplies to finish the job.

    "I want to do a little shopping. I''ll be back soon," said Yuki before leaving the house to go to his next destination. While the summon of Yuki had heard what Yuki had said, he didn''t reply as he thought he didn''t need to say anything back to his king as Yuki had the power to do anything and his subject would follow without questioning him.

    While he was confused as to why he didn''t receive a response from his summoner, Yuki didn''t care all that much and left the house anyway as he had matters to take care of. Yuki needed to restock on potions and get a new variety of potions as well since he would need to prepare for his new adventures at night.

    Right as Yuki exited the door of the house, a key appeared in his hand. Yuki remembered that this feature was also included in the world. Since the previous owner had left the house and Yuki had imed it, he received the key to lock and open it. Seeing this, Yuki opened the house once again and gave the key along with some silver to his summon if he decided to leave so he could go shoppingter on while Yuki was still gone.

 Chapter 158 - Potion Store

    "This might take some time seeing as I don''t know where anything in this kingdom is," Yuki said to himself as he walked through the many rows of buildings and houses in the kingdom in search of a potion shop. He knew that navigating a kingdom from scratch would be a hassle however, Yuki was willing to go on the search to acquire a potion which would cure him of the need for sleep. Obviously, that would only happen under the condition that a potion such as that ever existed. Yuki needed the potion due to the possibility that he might be getting tracked.

    While Yuki had expected the journey to take several hours, he was mistaken. However, his mistaken guess was a lucky one as he found the potion shop in less than an hour. This had brought joy to Yuki as it usually took him a lot longer to find something he was looking for in an area which was asrge as the kingdom he was in now. Once he arrived at the door of the store, he knew right away that it was the ce he was looking for. While the outside shop structure of it made it obvious, it was much more clear that it was a potion shop by therge quantities of potions which could be seen from the outside window.

    "Well, I guess I made this. That''s a relief," said Yuki as he entered the store in hopes that they would have the precise product that he was looking for. That being, a potion which could make it so that he didn''t need any sleep. Once Yuki entered the shop, he was greeted by the same person who had greeted him in the previous kingdom where he had gone to purchase and stock up on potions. While it was weird to look at the same face in a totally different ce, Yuki ignored it as he knew that a shopkeeper was an npc and as such, they didn''t need to adhere to thews of nature.

    "How may I help you today?" the shopkeeper asked right as the front door of the store closed behind Yuki. There wasn''t anyone else at the store which made sense as the economy of the kingdom would be horrible and not many people would be able to afford the products.

    "I''m just looking for a potion which makes it so that I don''t need to sleep. Would you happen to have anything that fits that description?" Yuki asked as he hoped that the shop keeper wouldn''t ask him why he needed something like that.

    "I actually do have something exactly like that. It''ll cost you exactly 10000 silver," the shopkeeper told Yuki.

    "10000 silver? Are you sure that''s the right price? That can''t possibly be. A full status recovery potion costs only 500 silver. If that''s the case, why is a simple potion such as this so expensive?" Yuki asked in confusion. He didn''t mind spending the 10000 silver at all. The problem was that if he nned to buy a lot of those potions, the price would add up and Yuki would end uppletely broke.

    "This must be your first time ever in a potion shop or your first time in a potion shop in a while. Well, to make this simple, once you reach a certain point in level, which happens to be each level ending with a 0 such as level 10 and 20, the cost of a potion gets multiplied by 10 because the portions of the previous tier lose effect. As such, if you were a level 1-9 yer, the cost of the potion would be 100 silver. If you were a level 11-19 yer, the cost would be 1000 silver but since you''re a level 21 yer which is in the level 21-29 sector, the cost of the potion is 10000 silver and the full status recovery potion would cost you 50000 silver," the shopkeeper exined.

    "But the potions I had from before I was a level 10 yer still worked for me," Yuki protested in the belief that he was getting scammed.

    "Did you happen to be in a dungeon when you reached level 10?" the shopkeeper asked.

    "Yes..." Yuki replied.

    "Well, since you reached level 10 in a dungeon, the world/system automatically negates the expiring of the potion until you leave the dungeon. That''s probably why it worked for you then. If you were to try now, it won''t work," the shopkeeper exined.

    "But when I gave the potion to someone else, it worked just fine for them," Yuki replied.

    "Well, did they happen to be lower than level 10? If so, that''s why it did work," the shopkeeper exined.

    While hearing this, Yuki still didn''t believe a word that the shop keeper said. Even though he was an NPC, Yuki didn''t care. He needed to see for himself if what the shopkeeper said was true.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki opened his inventory and took out an attack boost potion. In the moments when he was drinking it, Yuki was fully convinced that it would work. He believed that he would gain the boost that the potion usually gave to him. However, to his disappointment, that didn''t happen. Yuki didn''t feel any stronger than how he felt before drinking it. To put the nail on the coffin, the usual sword symbol which sat under the settings button on the top right corner of Yuki''s view was no longer there, in turn confirming that the potion had no effect on Yuki.

    "Are you satisfied now?" the shopkeeper asked.

    "Yes..." Yuki said with an embarrassed look on his face. He had just humiliated himself in front of an NPC. It was stupid to think about as there was no reason to argue with someone or something that was programmed to do their one job. Yuki should''ve known that better than anyone in the world.

    [Extract: 1 million Silver]

    Yuki extracted 1 million silver and bought 100 potions which would cure him of the need to sleep. Yuki also extracted a lot more of his silver to purchase 50 attack boost, speed boost, defense boost, full status recovery options along with other potions which might be neededter on on his journey in the dungeons.

    "Well.. I might have spent a lot of my money on potions but it will all be worth it soon since I''ll just earn back all of it in the dungeons. My real concern should be if I still remember how to fight in the dungeons. I mean, it''s been a year of me not doing anything," Yuki questioned as he headed back to his home.

    "Wait.. I gained a lot of levels from killing all those people. So that must mean that I should be able to easily clear the next dungeon I go inside with ease," Yuki said to himself as he reassured himself that he would be okay and would defeat all his future enemies without trying just like he used to in no time.

    While walking towards the potion shop was easy, the journey back to his home was what Yuki has trouble with. He didn''t bother learning the path he took to the store, as such, he didn''t know how to return where he started. Due to this, Yuki walked endlessly as he hoped that somehow, he would be able to randomly stumble upon the house which was now his own. Although that was what he was hoping for, Yuki wouldn''t get that lucky as he would only arrive back home once the sky was pitch ck.

    Once at the door, the tired and exhausted Yuki knocked at the door which was quickly answered by the king from the 8th stage of the 1st dungeon whichpletely cleaned the ce and made it look brand new. As a finishing touch, he even bought a small couch since the ce didn''t have any furniture inside it when Yuki arrived in it.

    "I see that you cleaned the ce up pretty well," Yuki said to his summon.

    "You took quite a long time which gave me the chance to make the ce spotless. I hope you like what I did with the ce. There wasn''t any furniture here before so I took the initiative to buy a couch so you could sleep in it for the night. I didn''t get anything else in case you wanted to decorate the ce on your own," the king told Yuki.

    "Yes, that''s fine. I just got lost on my way back so it took me longer than I expected. The important thing is the information about the group of kids who brought me to this ce. Did you manage to gather anything at all which might lead me to find out who they work for and who actually rules this ce?" Yuki asked as he sat down on the couch.

    "I actually did. I think you''ll like what you hear once I tell you what I''ve learned so far," the summon replied.

 Chapter 159 - Learn

    "So what did you learn about those kids?" Yuki asked, now curious due to what his summon had said. He had assumed that there might''ve been something slightly interesting about the group of teens who had brought him to his house, however, he didn''t really care all that much. Yuki just wanted a method which he could entertain himself by in the mornings. While he would be busy at night in the dungeon, Yuki would have nothing to do in the mornings due to him being new and not knowing anyone in the kingdom. It wasn''t like he could meet people there as well. It was very likely that most of the people were scum, though it wasn''t their fault since they had to act as such to survive.

    "Well, I sent my spy files to follow them and I learned a couple of things. For starters, there''s an underground to this ce. A lot of people gather there at night and do everything which a typical gang would do. The important part was what those groups of kids did once they entered the ce where the gang met. When they went inside, they looked rtively calm as if they had just returned back home. They greeted a couple people before walking towards the man who sat in the middle of the room and had everyone''s attention. Without any hesitation, they handed over the money which you gave them and in exchange, they received another pouch of silver. I assume that the pouch that they were given in exchange was less valuable than the one you gave. I think that each member of the gang has to give arge portion of any money they make to the boss and in return, they get a small amount of it," the king from the 8th stage of the 1st dungeon exined.

    Learning this made Yuki nervous yet eager. He wanted to learn how powerful the organization which his summon had just spoken of was. Yuki needed to learn how much influence they had over the entire poption of the kingdom and how it impacted the ordinary civilians. As such, he would know how to properly deal with them when the situation arrived or they confronted him. Although he did want topletely overpower them if the opportunity ever came his way, Yuki knew that due to his ne, he would be powerless. To add on, he couldn''t even call Zero because if he were to do that, the guards outside would get the news and be suspicious of Yuki. As such, Yuki would need to avoid those people for the time being.

    "That''s actually pretty useful. Thanks for going through all the effort to find out that information, and thanks for making this ce clean. You can go back now," Yuki said as he opened his inventory before taking out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and cing it on his head which made Yuki''s summon return to the crown.

    "Now that''s been taken care of. I can go on to do what I initially wanted to do. I need to go back to the dungeon and start clearing it. I can''t go on with being weak anymore," Yuki said to himself.

    "Hey Zero, teleport me back to the dungeon gate where you sent me before. Make sure to remove this ne thing as well," Yuki called out to Zero telepathically while closing his eyes.

    Once Yuki had actually opened his eyes, he was greeted with the empty field which housed the dungeon gate to the next dungeon which he needed to clear. Due to the night sky being so dark, the green glow which emanated from the gate was much more prominent than before. It was actually pretty calming for Yuki to look at the dungeon gate while he became absorbed in the cold breeze of the night. Even knowing how much pain the dungeons caused him, Yuki hadpletely forgotten about that as he walked towards the dungeon gate without the slightest bit of worry in his eyes.

    "Here I go once again," Yuki said as he entered the dungeon.

    [Wee to the dungeon: Goblin King''s Domain]

    [Level rmended: 11-15+]

    "There are 10 stages within this dungeon. After each stage, there is a save point. After you have reached it, you can leave the dungeon ande backter on to continue your quest here. If you choose to leave without reaching the next save point, all the exp you''ve earned after your previous save point will be lost," The robotic exnation voice said.

    "If you agree to these conditions, please step forward to begin your quest," The voice continued.

    [If you would like to move to the 1st stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 1 difficulty: level 11]

    "From the sound of it, this ce is going to be goblin themed. I''m already used to dealing with goblins since I''ve encountered them in the outside world due to them being one of the mostmon outside monsters. I used to be fine if I just bought a de with me. I wanted to try out the bident I got from thest dungeon I cleared but taking one of my proper des should bring me better results," Yuki told himself.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" and headed inside the first stage of the dungeon without the least bit of hesitation since he knew that his battles would be fairly easy.

    ...

    Elsewhere in the world, a man in a dirty cloak continued to walk through the streets in the night. As he walked while minding his business, another man bumped into him on purpose.

    "Watch where you''re going, idiot. You better be ready to clean these shoes with your tongue. These are worth more than your life," the man said as he wanted to start a fight to impress the two women who were at his sides. As expected, while the man instigated the other man who was wearing the cloak, the woman snickered in pity for him.

    "He should''ve apologized right after he had bumped into you," the woman agreed with the instigator.

    "You''re causing a scene," the man in the cloak said. Before letting the instigator reply, the man in the clock activated his ability.

    "Activate ability: Ice Control"

    "Ice Jail"

 Chapter 160 - Stage 1

    "Ice Jail"

    The moment the man in the cloak said those words, the one who wanted to instigate a fight frozepletely solid. Without even paying any attention to his victim, the cloaked man began to move away from the scene as he walked through the streets of an unknown kingdom as he tried to find his way back to something.

    "I''ve gotten a lot stronger than thest time we''ve met face to face. We''ll see who''s going to be running for their life this time... Yuki," said Scar as he walked away from the scene with a grin on his face. As for the 2 women who were with the instigator, they left the scene as well with disappointment in their eyes. The instigator himself was left stranded on the street as no one was willing to help him. As such, he would have to wait until the ice melted naturally, if that were to even happen in the first ce.

    ...

    As for Yuki, he would have to encounter a swarm of goblins which looked to be a whole army on their own. While they didn''t carry any weapons, their sheer numbers made up for it. To add on, they were incredibly fast. Yuki was able to perceive their movements as he was a lot stronger than the level requirement asked for. As such, he was able to counter almost all of their attempts to injure him. While Yuki was able to counter most of their moves, some would slip by andnd a lucky shot from behind him asionally. While it was a few at first, they soon began to get annoying.

    Thendscape of the stage was rather familiar to Yuki as he resembled the forests in which he usually encountered the goblins. There were loads of trees which went on for as long as the eye could see. The air seemed to be heavier than usual and made it a bit difficult for Yuki to breathe. However, it wasn''t too much of a hindrance.

    Right as one of the goblins charged from behind Yuki in hopes ofnding a direct hit, Yuki quickly turned around and grabbed the goblin by the wrist before dragging him off the ground and mming him back down on the other side.

    Seeing this, the goblins began to attack Yuki a lot faster than they did previously. Even though they did this, Yuki could still perceive their movement rtively easily and could counter them as well. Whether it was with his de, hand or feet, it didn''t matter what the army of goblins did. Any attempt was effortlessly blocked by Yuki.

    Knowing that all their efforts had achieved nothing. A small swap of goblins surrounded Yuki and began to surround him and leave him with no room to escape. Instead of attacking simultaneously, the goblins attacked right after one of their members attacked. By taking turns, while they did get countered, they made sure to block Yuki off from noticing what they had been nning.

    Right after Yuki blocked off what seemed to be thest goblin of the swarm, a goblin charged from above and mmed his foot into Yuki''s head. In the mere second in which Yuki noticed this and the time he had before the foot would make contact with his head, Yuki raised his hand above his head as fast as he could and ended up having to absorb the attack with his wrist. He wouldn''t have had enough time to raise his hand which was holding on to his de because the weight of the de would slow down the movement of his hand and as such, it wouldn''t get there in time.

    "That was a creative attack. Perhaps I''ve gotten a bit overconfident," Yuki said as he used the t side of his de to whack away the globs at once. Yuki used the t side of his de as opposed to the sharp side due to the fact that he wanted to gain more experience and relearn his fighting skill which had rusted in his 1 year break. As such, there was no other ce better than the first stage of the dungeon where the monsters are the weakest.

    Feeling tired of being weighed down by his de, Yuki plunged his de into the. ground before charging towards the army of goblins with his bare hands. Yuki grabbed the heads of two goblins and smacked them together before leaping in the air. Once in the air, Yuki made sure he wouldnd on the body of a goblin and so he did exactly as he nned. Once pinning a goblin to the ground with his feet, Yuki began to have a strength match against one of the bigger goblins which had managed to lock hands with Yuki. Unfortunately for him, Yuki simply overpowered him and basically crushed the goblins fingers including his inner bones.

    Due to Yuki being distracted by therge goblin, arge swarm of other goblins began to surround Yuki as they jumped on him and piled up. However, even that wouldn''t be enough as they couldn''t hold Yuki down. Without expecting too much effort, Yuki managed to push all of the goblins who stacked on top of him off his body.

    In excitement, Yuki leaped towards a side of a tree and used to to propel himself into another tree and then another tree. Yuki repeated this process until he had built up his desired amount of momentum. Once he had done so, Yuki created a V-shape with his arm and grabbed onto one of the goblins before mming it into a tree.

    By that time, Yuki had begun to build up a sweat, not because he was having trouble dealing with the goblins but because he went to extra lengths to defeat them. Even using his ability would''ve been enough topletely annihte them, however, Yuki chose to limit himself for the cause of relying on skill and different techniques alone. That was the only way he would survive in the uing dungeons. Even with this dungeon being easy, Yuki would need to be prepared to use everything in his arsenal to get through the next dungeons on his own.

 Chapter 161 - Unknown Move

    When Yuki managed to counter most of the attacks which were getting directed at him by the goblins, he was still left with an army of them which all continued to attempt to kill him even though it was impossible for them to do so due to the power gap between Yuki and them. Even though Yuki knew that he could ughter them all in the matter of seconds, he chose to extend the duration of the battle for the simple reason of him wanting to improve his technique. He knew that pure strength would eventually not be enough to take down his opponents. At some point, he will have to face someone who has equal or more strength than him. At that point, all he would be able to rely on was his skill. Due to him losing most of his fighting techniques during the 1 year break he took from dungeon raiding, Yuki needed to make up for it by making his journey harder on the early stages of the dungeon.

    Still in battle, Yuki could feel himself getting in the zone and his blood began to boil. His heart racing as if he had started exercising for the first time in a century. For a split second, Yuki''s pupils became smaller than a dot made by a pen. At that moment, a goblin began to charge towards Yuki head on. Time began to move slowly as Yuki stopped hearing everything else around him. Within a blink of an eye, Yuki moved his right fist at the speed lighting andnded a direct blow on the goblin''s head. However, that wasn''t it. Once he first made contact with the goblin, Yuki turned his fist downwards as he mmed the goblin''s head into the ground while creating a small crater on the stage ground.

    "What happened?" Yuki asked himself as he came back to reality.

    He began to breathe heavily as he tried to understand what he had just done and how he could do it again. Something had allowed him to ce his body in the perfect condition for him tond a hit whichpletely annihted his enemy without trying. There was no guarantee that Yuki could do it again, however, he still wanted to try as the concept of it intrigued him.

    Yuki once again stood still as he tried to calm himself down. He tried to imagine his blood rushing to his brain and putting his body in a state of hyper focus. Yuki knew it was nearly impossible for him to control his mind to force his other body parts to obey him; however, it was worth a shot as there weren''t a lot of other ces such as this where he could experiment with the potential as he pleased.

    Yuki tried to concentrate as hard as he possibly could and once a goblin came to face him once again, Yuki punched the monster down however it didn''t feel the same. Seeing this, the goblins which had moved away from Yuki in fear due to the possibility that he might''ve been able to duplicate the first concentrated punch began toe back as they had no reason to fear Yuki anymore. They could attack him as many times as they wanted and almost nothing would happen to them, or so they thought.

    To the goblins, it seemed that Yuki was weak because he wasn''t trying to injure them. In doing this, Yuki allowed the goblins to grow arrogant which made them underestimate Yuki. If he had truly used his full power, not a single thing in the stage would''ve been alive which also included the trees.

    "I hope it will work. I guess it was just a lucky shot," Yuki said to himself as he was bothered that he couldn''t replicate the move he had done previously; however, it wasn''t like he was going to beat himself up over it. He knew that he had the time to perfect all his other techniques. He had no reason to stress about a single move which he couldn''t repeat.

    Even though all these facts stood to be true, Yuki chose to go the harder route as he continued to try and replicate the move even though he couldn''t guarantee that he would be able to do it ever again. However, attempting to redo that move came at a cost. That cost being that Yuki would be bombarded with hundreds of attacks per minute as he tried to stand still and concentrate. While he could''ve used his ability to create a me contracted wall which would keep the goblins out of his way for a while, Yuki refused to use his ability as the battle would end too quickly if he did. This was due to the possibility that the goblins would still charge into the mes in the hunt for Yuki in turn dying from the mes.

    As such, Yuki''s only hope was to either take on the attacks of the goblins and still concentrate on his goal or dodge while trying to concentrate which would make his goal impossible as he couldn''t concentrate on two things at once.

    At first, Yuki opted for the choice of taking on all the attacks which the goblins threw at him. While they barely hurt him, it didn''t mean that they weren''t obnoxious. Each attack of theirs felt like an ant bite. While 1 ant bite would''ve been nothing, having to face hundreds of ant bites per minute was unbearable.

    "I''m done with this. I knew that the move would be impossible. I should''ve just continued to train my body like I was doing before," Yuki said as he began to finally dodge the attacks which were getting thrown at him. However, the goblins weren''t going to allow that to happen without a fight.

    The goblins began to swarm Yuki and once he took a few steps back to create a distance between him and his enemies, the goblins began to leap towards him as they attempted air attacks while the other sprinted and attempted ground attacks which would corner Yuki and he would have no choice but to get hit by their attacks. Although that did seem like a fool proof n, they forgot to ount for a small detail. They forgot the possibility that Yuki would strike back.

    Yuki quickly leaped in the air and grabbed a goblin which was headed right for him mid air by the leg and brought him back down before using him as a bat and attacking the ground goblins with his body.

    Even with all his counters, Yuki still wouldn''t have defeated the goblins. After all, his goal wasn''t to kill them, all he sought was to gain experience from them. As such, Yuki wanted to focus on the one aspect of fighting which he had trouble with. That aspect being, dodging attacks. While he could easily dodge a couple attacks from enemies which were weaker than him, Yuki had to deal with constant bombardment of attacks when he was facing stronger opponents. A lot of the time, Yuki had to rely on pure instincts to dodge attacks which was the reason he wanted to train himself in the aspect of battle.

    Once Yuki had reestablished himself as the clear superior of the battle, he began to rx himself as he tried to focus on dodging his enemies'' attacks alone. Since Yuki made sure that the goblins knew that he was the alpha, they were hesitant to attack him at first but would eventually do so since they were programmed to attack and only attack. They didn''t have a choice of just letting Yuki pass through to the next stage. Their only mission was to defeat and kill anyone who stepped onto the stage. That being, either they would die or the challenger or challengers of the stage would die. There was no other option.

    While dodging the attacks of the goblins, Yuki tried to move away from them at thest second as it made it more challenging. In doing so, Yuki''s eyes began to see things faster as his body would only move the moment his enemy was close tonding an attack. Of course there were the usual lucky hits whichnded on Yuki, however, other than that, Yuki was able to move away and evade any attacks from the goblins.

    "Man, this is getting boring. Should I just kill them all here and move on to the next stage to see if there''s a harder challenge?" Yuki asked himself.

    However, right as he thought that, Yuki dodged an attack from the front back moving his head back so the attack would go right past his head. However, as he moved his head back, Yuki was greeted by another goblin which aimed to hit his face while he was open.

    Within those few moments, Yuki leaped in the air before doing a spin and catching the goblin which was attempting to do a sucker punch in a head lock using his legs. Yuki couldn''t tell if what he had just done was a lucky move or if he had it in him to maneuver like that.

 Chapter 162 - Change

    Once cing the goblin which was attempting to attack him in a headlock, Yuki tightened his legs and spun backwards, in turn mming the goblin''s head into the ground. Right after doing that, Yuki realized that he was surrounded once more. No matter how many times he tried to knock down the goblins, there seemed to be more of them remaining. It was as if he was battling an endless army of goblins. Although it seemed that way, Yuki knew that the number of goblins didn''t increase but only decreased when he identally killed them. He knew this to be true because he couldn''t sense the presence of a 3rd party present which kept generating more goblins and Yuki could see the number of goblins decrease even if it was taking a lot of time for it to happen.

    Even though Yuki had to think about a way to stop getting surrounded so he could have his one-on -one fights, he was concerned with something else at that moment. There were 2 times in the battle where he was able to tap into a state where he was at his peak. He didn''t understand why or how it happened but he knew that he needed some way to achieveplete mastery over it as it could help him get the edge on an opponent which either had the same strength as him or more.

    While Yuki was d that he was capable of achieving such feets, he couldn''t help but get irritated over the fact that he couldn''t tap into that state at will and stay in it for more than a few seconds.

    "Wait... what if I change my ability into a mind controlling one and I force my body to tap into that state at will?" Yuki asked himself however he would quickly debunk it himself a few secondster.

    "Never mind, if I were to do that, I would lose my long range advantage that my current ability gives me. On top of that, having an ability just for the purpose of that would be meaningless since it is basically the same thing as an attack boosting ability. If someone also had that type of ability andbined potions with it, I would be easily defeated. Not just that but most long range abilities along with a couple potions would take me down because I would exhaust myself from all the movement that my hypothetical ability would force me to do, in turn, I would be defeated easily. An ability such as that has too many open areas. No wonder people started to either opt for the mostplex ability they could think of or the most basic. The most basic ones are more versatile while the moreplex ones offer much more attack potency. I should just stick with the ability I already have," Yuki told himself as he scratched the idea of changing his ability.

    While Yuki agreed that changing his ability wouldn''t be the best idea, he still wanted to change things up. Having to use the same thing made his ability boring to him. Sure it was cool to be able to create fire out of nothing and its form and strength to its user''s desire however, having ess to it at all times made it boring. Seeing other people''s abilities made Yuki jealous.

    However, this wasn''t because Yuki was ungrateful or spoiled in the new world. In fact, almost anyone who had kept their ability the same for over 3 months would eventually get bored of it and would change it just to have fun. If that were for the better or worse, only the future could tell.

    This phenomenon didn''t only apply to abilities though. It applies to almost anything in life such as when someone eats something too many times, they get bored of it. It could be the best meal they''ve ever eaten, however, if they repeat the process of consuming it constantly, the taste would be nd and they would grow to hate that food. Even technology couldn''t escape this. When someone would buy a new phone, they would treat it as if it was their holy treasure. However in the months toe, they would get bored of it and would think of it as nothing more than a daily tool which wasn''t special and would eventually buy a new phone or device. Almost anything could be ced into this form and the oue would be the same.

    "Something feels off. Even though I''m fighting them and I''m winning, this feels different than how I used to engage in battle. It feels much less fun and more of a chore. What''s the difference between before and now?" Yuki asked himself as he could start to understand that he was missing something. However, even he didn''t know what that something was.

    "What changed between the 1 year where I wasn''t dungeon raiding? What happened to me and allowed me to be so rusty?" Yuki asked himself until a sudden shock went to his brain as he realized what it was. However, due to him thinking for so long, he lost track of what was happening in the battle and was hit in the head, in turn getting knocked down to the ground.

    "Elpis and Marcell. That was what happened. I turned much more kind than I should''ve. Their loving personality rubbed off on me during that year and now, I''m morepassionate whether it be consciously or subconsciously. Whatever it is, I need to get rid of it quickly. I was barely able to keep up with theter stages of the dungeon while I was full of hate and bloodlust. In this weaker state of mind, I''ll definitely die if I don''t change how I think. But how do I do that?" Yuki asked himself.

    "I got it," Yuki said as he remembered the one thing he could rely on.

    "Hey Zero, can you refresh me on all the horrible memories of my past within a single second?" Yuki asked Zero telepathically.

    "Yes I can," Zero replied, and so he did as he was asked.

    A momentter, Yuki''s eyes had an odd sadness to them but even though that was true, his face looked to be that of a happy demon.

 Chapter 163 - Ruthless

    "Thanks for that. I remember why I was so ruthless before," said Yuki as he grabbed the nearest goblin to him by the face and mmed him into another goblin before sending them both to the ground. Once he had done that, Yuki then grabbed both of them by the foot and spun them in different directions around him so that the rest of the goblins would give Yuki some space.

    After creating the space which Yuki had wanted, he sent the two goblins which he held with his palms in the air. However, before they couldnd back down, Yuki leaped in the air and kicked them both at the crowd of goblins.

    "Now I feel alive," said Yuki.

    Yuki charged into the crowd and attacked as many of them at once as possible. He had no technique or nned movement. All he cared about was if his attacksnded or not. Even with his endless stream of attacks, it seemed as if Yuki wasn''t even making a dent in the numbers of goblins which were left. As such, it was time for him to get serious.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Fire Fists"

    Yuki hade up with a new named attack while on his expedition in the 3rd dungeon of the new world. He had wanted a move which allowed him to make direct contact with his opponents but also allowed him tounch long ranged attacks. So, in the end "Fire Fists'' '' was born. Using his ability, Yuki covered his hands with mes and clenched his palms to form fists. With this, he would be able tond more potent attacks on his enemies but would also be able to extend his mes if they were to move away in an attempt to create more distance between them and Yuki. It was the perfect bnced move which Yuki could rely on from here on out.

    Without wasting a moment, Yuki charged once again toward the swamp of goblins which were left standing as he continually mowed them down. No matter how many of them tried to fight back, Yuki would pass through them as if they were a child''s toy. It didn''t matter to Yuki anymore. He didn''t need to perfect his skills and techniques because in truth, he never had that. He had always relied on his rough fighting style which usually involved him thinking on his feet as he tried toe up with anyway he could survive and even defeat his opponents. As such, a strategic attack would most likely not work for him anyway.

    After continuously hunting and killing any goblin which got in his way, Yuki was only left with a couple dozen goblins. He had begun to get a hang of the method which he used to defeat the goblins which just consisted of him quickly sprinting towards the goblins and punching them lightly and they would just die from the sheer impact alone.

    Although this was what Yuki was doing initially, he had begun to get tired of running at such speeds to kill the goblins, as such, he just began to walk towards the goblins instead. To eliminate the possibility that they would run away from him, Yuki focused his presence to make sure that they would be too scared to move away let alone run. Well, it wasn''t technically Yuki since he asked One to switch with him every time he needed to kill a goblin.

    While repeating this process, Yuki continued to walk until he was met with a smaller goblin. The light green skin of the monster along with the fear in its eyes made Yuki feel pity for it.

    "This will be over soon," said Yuki as he slightly leaned his fist on the small goblin''s chest. Within a mere second, the goblin''s heart stopped beating as fire spread behind the monster in a shock effect. The odd part about this urrence was that there was no fire on the goblin itself.

    Yuki had leaned his fist on the monster''s chest so he could infuse the goblin''s body with fire and in turn cut off all the circuitry which was connected to the monster''s heart. The fire which appeared behind the goblin was all the excess fire which escaped from the pores on the goblin''s skin. As such, to observers from the outside, the goblin looked to still be alive; however, in truth, it was most definitely dead.

    "Only a few to go. I think it''s time to finish this job. I''m pretty sure I''ve been here for quite a while and should start heading back to the kingdom now anyway," Yuki said to himself as he looked around at all the goblins which remained standing in front of him.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Fire Wall"

    Yuki used his ability to create a cylindrical wall around all the remaining goblins which continued to shrink as he forced all the remaining goblins into a small area so Yuki could finish everything with one final attack which would conclude his journey in the first stage of the 3rd dungeon.

    "Heaven''s Sun"

    Yuki used his ability to create arge ball which towered over all the goblins which were remaining. They all stared into it with fear in their eyes as they awaited their impending doom. It was inevitable that they were going to all die in a few moments.

    Unlike every other time he had used "Heaven''s Sun", Yuki didn''t make himself fly in the air using his ability so he could see all the remaining opponents burn from a distance. Instead, Yuki allowed the ball of fire to fall on top of him along with the goblins as he was going to stand there and watch as the goblins burned to dust.

    In a final attempt to leave with their lives, all the goblins began to rush towards Yuki as they tried to kill him before the fire constructed ball could get to them. Their theory was that if they managed to kill Yuki in time, the fire ball would die with him. That theory would be correct however there was one big problem. Their theory would only be proven if they managed to kill Yuki. To them, killing "Heaven''s Sun" would''ve been an easier task. As such, they would die before they could even reach Yuki as the fire call fell on top of them before they could reach Yuki.

    "Burn"

 Chapter 164 - Role Reverse

    [+130000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 21: 788500/10 million]

    After killing all the goblins using his most infamous attack, Yuki began to walk towards the gate which would lead him to the next stage of the dungeon. He had be so absorbed in his battle that he thought he could simply stay in the dungeon forever. As he kept walking towards the gate, Yuki was hit in the head by an object which fell to the ground after bouncing off his head.

    [Item drop: Goblin''s Trumpet]

    Yuki double tapped on the smooth wooden Trumpet due to him being curious as to what it was capable of.

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 0]

    [Description: Power: An item capable of summoning 20 ordinary goblins to the user''s rescue so they can either act as decoy or battle for their master. Goblins used to live in the outside world. Well that was way before the human race began to develop. Once humans gained the power to overtake the goblins, humans exiled the goblins due to their different skin and physique. Due to that event, most of the goblins were forced to either live in the dungeons where they would eventually be hunted by the humans or live in the deep forests where they would also be hunted by humans. If only the goblins had a higher level of intellect, maybe they could''ve stood a chance against the humans. Although most goblinsck the brain capacity to process the basic concepts in life, there is rumoured to be one goblin capable of thought. Not just that, but he is said to process more intellect than even most humans.]

    "Why do these objects keep mentioning humans? Humans have only been brought to this world about a year ago. This is justzy plot writing on Zero''s part. Secondly, I want to see if that rumored intelligent goblin is real and what he is capable of," Yuki thought to himself as he continued to walk towards the gate to the next stage of the dungeon. However, right before he passed through the gate, he stopped himself as his heart was almost sent into a shock.

    "I almost forgot, I need to get back to the kingdom. It''s probably almost daytime by now," Yuki said to himself as he walked into the gateway tunnel to set his save point.

    [Stage one: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 2nd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 2 difficulty: level 11-12]

    "A raid party member would like to exit the dungeon!" Yuki said out loud.

    "Which party member would like to exit?" the system asked.

    "yer: Yuki Kaito," Yuki replied.

    "Save point has been reached, exp will not be taken away once the yer exits. Press ''Confirm'' to finish the process," the system said.

    In front of Yuki was arge rectangr blue projection which said "Confirm", beside it was a red projection button which could be pressed to cancel the transitional process.

    Yuki pressed the "Confirm button" and was teleported outside the dungeon with a blink of an eye. Seeing as he was outside the dungeon, Yuki thought he would ask Zero to take him back to the kingdom since the sun was beginning to rise.

    "Hey, Zero. Take me back to the kingdom. I''ve finished my business here for today," said Yuki before letting out a yawn in exhaustion.

    A momentter, Yuki was back in thefort of his new home. Zero had taken the liberty of teleporting Yuki exactly where his couch was so that he could go straight to resting once he had been teleported back to the kingdom. As such, the moment Yuki got teleported, he copsed on the couch from exhaustion.

    "I better take the sleep curing potion before I pass out," said Yuki as he sat up straight so he could open his inventory to take out his desired potion.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out the potion which he was looking for and drank it while his arm shook from the exhausting battle. It would''ve been less work if he had just simply wiped them out from the start. On the other hand, he managed to return to his original mindset which while it was a horrible thought process, it helped him clear dungeons a lot faster than he would''ve if he didn''t have that exact mindset.

    Right after drinking the sleep deprivation potion, looking eyes opened wide awake as he felt like he didn''t need the slightest bit of rest. He looked to bepletely energized. However, he still was slightly tired because of the battle. While his need for sleep was cured, he still needed to get a bit of rest to recover the stamina he had used up during his adventure in the first stage of the 3rd dungeon.

    "I should seriously look for something to do here. This ce is one of the most boring ces I''ve seen yet. I mean, I could go and take a look at the gang which secretly runs this kingdom but that would just cause me more problems. But, what else is there for me to do? It''s not like I can leave this ce and explore the wilderness on my own. The people who sent me here really did want me to die from boredom," Yuki said sarcastically as he left his house so he could explore the kingdom some more. Of course, he remembered to lock the door, especially since he was in a kingdom where almost no one could be trusted.

    As Yuki walked outside his house, arge red screen which was visible across the entire kingdom spread out of nowhere and made an announcement.

    [Uing Event: Goblin King''s Parade]

    [23:59]

    [23:58]

    [23:57]

    [23:56]

    With each second, the timer continued to tic as his decreased in number. It was most definitely a timer which was set until the arrival of whatever "Goblin King''s Parade" meant.

    "From the sound of it, it is going to be a raid on humans. Instead of the monsters being the ones who were hunted and the humans being those who were the hunters, the roles would be reversed. The real question was if the parade would ur outside the kingdom or inside it. Even if it were to start outside which would be more logical, there would still be the remaining possibility that they could break into the kingdom by force. Either way, I should probably stay out of this mess. When I''m in this kingdom, I''m just a humble and weak level 1 yer who is scared for his life," Yuki told himself as he continued to walk around the kingdom in hope that he would at least find 1 person which he could trust.

    As he kept walking, Yuki cam across a poster which caught his attention. It said "work avable for anyone interested". While Yuki couldn''t care less about helping other people or doing manualbour in exchange for money, he wanted to take the job because he had nothing else to do all day.

    "Maybe I should look into this job. How do I contact them though?" Yuki asked himself.

    As he continued to look for some way to contact the person who had ced the poster there, someone tapped on the back of his shoulder which had startled Yuki.

    "Hey kid. Maybe that job isn''t for you. It takes quite a lot of manualbour and would probably cause you to hate yourself at the end of every single day. You should look for another option if you''re seeking to get a job," the man behind Yuki exined.

    "Who is this guy? Do I know him? Whatever or whoever he his, he''s got a lot of nerve. If I didn''t have this stupid ne on my neck right now, I would''ve created. a couple hundred "Heaven''s Sun"s and burned him along with the other people of this kingdom to the ground," Yuki thought to himself before actually confronting the tall man in front of him in full farmer''s gear.

    "Ya, you''re probably right. Although, I would prefer to test it for myself and see if it''s actually as hard as you say it is. By the way, do you happen to be the one who''s offering this job?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes I am. However, I cannot allow such a young child to partake in such tediousbour. It simply wouldn''t sit right with me," the tall man said back to Yuki.

    "Listen here. I know there aren''t many people in this kingdom who are willing to work. Secondly, this world isn''t the same as the previous one. You''re getting hung up on morals which make no sense. So just let me work for you. I can''t believe an employee has to beg an employer who actually needs as many workers as possible," Yuki replied to the man who was trying to push Yuki away from taking the job.

    "You know what. Sure. I''ll let you get the job. However, I better not hear youin a single time while you''re working for me. Any pain you endure is your own fault" the man replied.

 Chapter 165 - Admitting Weakness

    Yuki shook the hand of the man who was offering a job to anyone who would be willing to work as they had managed to strike a deal. Yuki knew the task would be grueling especially since he was back to the level of a level 1 yer during the day since he had to wear the ne which kept him under control. However, in the night, he could do as he pleased since he was far away from the kingdom. While he couldn''t wait to go back to the dungeon and wreak havoc on the next stage, Yuki knew that he would have to wait or else, he would get caught and would be hunted down before eventually getting executed for going against his sentence so he could grow stronger and gain the ability to get revenge on his captors.

    "Thank you. I''ll make sure to repay your kindness by working until my hands stop working. Speaking about that... what exactly do you do?" Yuki asked as he had forgotten to ask what the job he was getting offered even was about.

    "... You seriously didn''t know and you still asked for a job? I''ll just ignore that since the poster doesn''t say exactly what we''re hiring for. To put it simply, the job is asking for a construction worker. Since we can''t leave this ce and expand the size of our kingdom, we''ve decided to just expand our kingdom upwards and make a tower-like structure. The people who''ve locked us in here agreed to supply us with the materials as a way to make up for isting us from the rest of the world. Since we make most of our money from collecting tax from the people who live here, we have no problem when ites to financial problems. Any more questions?" the man asked Yuki.

    "I''m assuming that you''ll be my boss when I start working here. So, I have two questions. What should I address you as and where am I supposed to go when I start work?" Yuki asked.

    "You make a good point. I should''ve mentioned that earlier. You can just call me Garth. As for the ce we''ll meet, how about meeting me here tomorrow at the same time as today?" Garth replied to Yuki.

    "Thank you for your generosity Mr. Garth. I look forward to working with you in the near future. That being, tomorrow," said Yuki before heading back to his house feeling aplished.

    "I really did it! I actually got a job. Well, that was easier than I thought. I didn''t need an interview or resume. Why couldn''t job applications be like this in the previous world? I had wanted to get a summer job at one point but all thatplicated process just scared me from it. Why do some people choose to make life moreplicated than it has to be?" Yuki asked himself as he continued to head back to his home. Fortunately for him, he was getting more familiar with the structural configuration of the kingdom he was supposed to be imprisoned in.

    "Although I had a good day today, I can''t guarantee that for tomorrow. I don''t know what that "Goblin King''s Parade" thing is but all I know is that it''s bad. However, the one good thing is that almost no one seems to be bothered by it. I guess stuff like this happens all the time. I would ask someone to exin this event for me but I really don''t want to stand out from the rest more than I already have," Yuki told himself as he opened the door to his house as time flew by while he talked to himself. As such, he had arrived back home before he realized it.

    "This ce is nd. I should really get this ce looking like a proper home.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki opened his inventory and took out "King''s Crown" from it as he prepared to take care of some stuff which he didn''t have time nor energy to do himself.

    "Serve your king," Yuki said as he summoned the king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon. He needed to rely on this summon of his a lot due to his human appearance. Even though he looked basically dead, he looked more human than every other of Yuki''s other summons. As such, he was the only proper candidate.

    "How may I serve you my king?" the summon asked Yuki as he knelt down.

    "I need you to do some more shopping. This ce feels weird since there''s almost nothing inside it. I''ll give you some money so just buy what you believe would make this ce look more lively," Yuki exined to his summon as he prepared to extract silver so he could give it to the king from the 8th stage of the first dungeon.

    "With all due respect to my liege, I would think it would be best to abstain from doing such activities. Thest time I went outside, I got weird stares when I was bringing the couch by hand from the store. I presume that it was because it would seem that I would have the option to store the couch in my inventory until I got back home then drag it out from there. However, since I''m a summoner, I don''t have that option. In the end, it would just lead to you attracting more attention which I know you wouldn''t like," said the summon as he exined to Yuki the exact reason why his n wasn''t a good one.

    "Ya I guess you''re right. I wasn''t being considerate. Don''t worry though. I''ll just have to abuse the powers of my allies," Yuki said as he had the cure for the problem he was having.

    "Hey, Zero. Can you give my summon an inventory?" Yuki asked.

    Yuki knew that he was taking advantage of Zero. The truth was that he didn''t care. Well, that was the facade he put up. In actual truth, Yuki had given up the path of being honest and ying fair. He had tried that. He honestly tried to not cheat. However, no matter how many times he got up and fought with his own strength, it wasn''t enough. That had been proven to him in one of the stages in the 2nd dungeon. At every moment which Yuki stood back up to fight, he was knocked back down and was set to square one. During one of his battles, Yuki realized that he didn''t care any more. He had Zero on his side and it wasn''t his fault. He just happened to be thest person to die in the game which his superior form had created. If it weren''t for that, someone else would''ve had control over Zero. When he thought about it, Yuki got scared as he could imagine all the possible oues which would''ve taken ce if it were someone else who took his ce. Nevertheless, all that thinking was pointless as he had gotten Zero and no one could take that power away from him.

    "Yes of course, master," Zero said as he applied the human typesetting system to Yuki''s summon.

    "The settings option should be there now. I presume that you want me to remove the system once he gets back from his mission right?" Zero asked.

    "Yes. Thank you," Yuki replied as he said farewell to his summon after giving him some silver in a pouch that would''ve been more than enough to buy furniture for over 10 houses.

    "Hey... Zero. I have a question," Yuki said both telepathically but also said it in a whisper.

    "Yes, master?" Zero replied.

    "I''ve been thinking. Why do you wait for me to tell you something instead of automatically doing it when the thought appears in my head?" Yuki asked.

    "Well, the answer is simple. To put it simply, you''re not the only ''Yuki'' that''s experiencing life. There''s a Yuki for each mili-second that has happened, is happening, or will happen. There isn''t only 1 single version of you. Even with that said, there are other things which you are not able toprehend which would make said task difficult. That said, it wouldn''t be hard for me to aplish. The problem arises with your mindset. If I were to give you everything you needed without you having to ask for it, you''d never learn how to do things on your own. Even though you do rely on me, you have to let yourself know that you can''t aplish something. Since I know everything about you. I know that you feel a severe sense of guilt when you use my powers. Although you''ve started to get less concerned with that, it still subconsciously lingers in your head. Listen Yuki, we both know that I''ll always be just a since call out away. However, you lose a certain sense of glory when he summons me. How about this? You should try to clear the 5th dungeon on your own and without the use of potions. Even being able to clear the first stage of that dungeon under those conditions will make you feel more proud of yourself than all the glory you''ve felt through the past 2.1 dungeons," Zero exined.

 Chapter 166 - Goblin Kings Parade

    "Sure I guess. There would be no harm in me trying out your advice. I doubt anything would change though. However, even though that''s how I think of it, I still trust your judgment," Yuki replied to Zero before ending their conversation since he was done asking questions for now.

    Although what Zero said had a high likelihood of being true, Yuki still doubted it. The main reason for this was because he already had the tools to aplish what he wanted. It didn''t matter what the task was, all Yuki had to decide was how much effort he would put in on his own before passing the task onto either Zero or One. As such, Yuki never had to worry about trying to his maximum capabilities as he never had to. He didn''t have to face fear of death, every obstacle he faced didn''t matter because he could either try to get rid of it on his own or he would call on a being which broke all thews of nature and could do anything which his master sought.

    While Yuki had his doubts, it wasn''t like he could challenge Zero in an argument. When he thought about it, Yuki realized that Zero isn''t confined by time. As such, he already knows what would happen when Yuki eventually enters the 5th dungeon. While that seemed like a long time away, for Zero, it had already happened, and happening at that moment and would happen in the future. Being capable of seeing through each and every timeline was a task Yuki couldn''t evenprehend.

    "Well, there''s no point in getting lost in thought. I should try to prepare for tomorrow''s battle," said Yuki as he opened his inventory to take "King''s Crown ``out of his inventory once again since he had ced it there once his summon had left to go shopping.

    [Open inventory]

    After taking "King''s Crown" out of his inventory, Yuki also took out a few stamina boost potions as he would need them for what he was going to do next.

    "Serve your king" said Yuki as he called out to the crown as he exchanged an enormous amount of stamina to be able to call for the monster from the 9th stage of the 2nd dungeon.

    [Sessful subject #1: Apostol]

    Yuki had summoned the mad demon which he had trouble with. Even though Yuki found that the final boss of the dungeon was stronger, he found the 9th stage mini boss a lot more obnoxious yet more versatile due to his quick speed.

    Even though Yuki had drunk stamina boost potions to help him summon the monster, due to him being at such a low level, the summoning process took a toll on his body. Within the first second of the monster appearing, Yuki copsed as he looked to be a shrivelled up corpse. He looked to be merely seconds away from turning into dust from being in such a weak state. Even so, he knew that there was one thing that could save him.

    Yuki quickly reached for a full status recovery potion. However, as Yuki began to drag the potion out from his inventory and towards his mouth, his frail palms identally lost grip of the capsule, causing it to shatter and spill on the floor. Even so, Yuki knew that he didn''t have the strength to reach out for another potion. As such, he was forced to lick the potion juice on the wooden floor of the house as it was the only way he would be able to recover the strength he had lost.

    After licking the potion off the floor, Yuki was able to fully recover and get back on his feet as if nothing had happened.

    "I guess I really don''t have to drink all of the potion for me to gain the full effects of it. Well, that was good to learn," Yuki said as he looked at his new summon which had been kneeling before his king.

    "Oh right, I almost forgot about you. I don''t need your assistance right now. However, I''m pretty sure that I''ll need you tomorrow morning. I only summoned you now so I can rest and get back to 100% just incase I need to run away from the battle," Yuki exined to his summon which couldn''t talk clearly using his mouth. Although Yuki couldmunicate with his summons telepathically as well, he chose not to because he didn''t feel right to start a conversation with the monster which had broken him. The monster from the 9th stage of the 2nd dungeon was the one that caused Yuki to admit that he couldn''t do anything on his own. He hadpletely shattered what was left of Yuki''s pride without an ounce of mercy. Even if he was now under Yuki''s control, it wasn''t right for them to have a proper conversation yet.

    "You can go back now," said Yuki as he sent his new summon back into "King''s Crown" without saying a single thing to it. While it was cruel of him to do that, Yuki didn''t feel a single drop ofpassion towards that summon, yet, it was the best one he could summon for the asion. The reason Yuki summoned him was because of what would happen tomorrow.

    ...

    The next morning, Yuki woke up early as he didn''t want to miss the event. It was something that he needed to see for himself as it could''ve been potentially dangerous.

    [Uing Event: Goblin King''s Parade]

    [00:03]

    [00:02]

    [00:01]

    [00:00]

    [Event Start: Goblin King''s Parade]

    Right as the event started, the loud sounds of banging could be heard across the kingdom. All while the sounds of tiny growling which resembled that of the goblins which Yuki faced in the 3rd dungeon of the new world. He had skipped going back to the dungeon at night because of the event which was going to take ce.

    After a few minutes of banging at the kingdom wall, the noise stopped before getting followed by the sounds of swords shing and human screaming as they engaged in battle with the goblins. Or at least that was what Yuki imagined from just listening to the sounds which were outside the kingdom.

    "So it was an outside attack after all. That''s nice. Now the guards have to deal with those monsters instead of us having to. Secondly, I guess I was worried for nothing. No one else seems to be concerned which means that this sort of stuff happens here all the time. The only weird thing is that this never urred in any of the kingdoms which I was part of previously," Yuki said to himself as he began to walk out of his house so he could meet with the manager of the job he would be working at.

    Although everything looked to be going well, a sudden stop of all sounds changed everything. It had seemed like the goblins hade to a sudden stop which made everyone, including Yuki assume that the humans had won and all the goblins had been defeated, however, momentster, the loud banging at the kingdom walls began once again.

    This time, everyone in the kingdom looked worried. It seemed as if this had never happened before. To make the situation worse, the blue sign which was disying the event title changed into a deep crimson red which only meant one thing. The situation was getting worse in the form of the goblins either increasing in numbers or growing in strength or even both. All Yuki knew was that whatever was outside the kingdom walls, it wasn''t good.

    "Should I summon him?" Yuki asked himself as he contemted the idea of going back inside his home and taking "King''s Crown" out of his inventory so he could call upon the new summon which he created the previous day.

    "No. This isn''t my responsibility. I should just focus on getting myself to work and heading home when the timees so I can go and train in the dungeons," Yuki told himself, however he would quickly change his mind.

    After trying to break the kingdom wall for so long, the goblins finally made some progress in the form of a crack in the wall. Things would only get worse as the crack began to grow in size with each attack until it eventually broke open and allowed therge red eyes of the goblins to look inside the kingdom at all the terrified humans which would eventually be their lunch.

    "Never mind then. I don''t have time to think about beingzy. if those monsters make it in here, I''ll be dead for sure," Yuki said to himself as he quickly ran back inside his house.

    [Open inventory]

    "Serve your king" said Yuki as he pulled out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and called for the monster from. the 9th stage of the 2nd dungeon. Even though he hadn''t fully epted the creature, he knew that his summon was hisst hope in defeating those monsters.

    "Kill them," Yuki said as the goblins finally managed to break through the wall and enter the kingdom.

 Chapter 167 - Disappointment

    Right after Yuki had given him themand, the mini boss from the 9th stage of the 2nd dungeon leaped in the air as fast as he could as he tried to take down the goblins which wereing inside the kingdom. While the smaller goblins were basically like mindless children to him, Yuki''s summon would face his real challenge in the form of the 3 giant goblins which each hadrge wooden clubs which looked to be the tools they used to break the kingdom walls. That alone should''ve given a hint to Yuki as to how strong the enemies he would have to face were.

    While this was going on, the citizens either ran away from the wall which the goblins wereing out of and tried to make it to the other side of the kingdom in hopes that some hero would rescue them. Others however chose to hide in their homes as running to the other side of the kingdom would only slow down the inevitable. However, deciding to hide in small areas of a house which was already smallpared to the goblins was more of a safe bet as to survival. Although, of course there was the possibility that the goblins would just either step on the houses or destroy them for fun. Either way, it was a game of luck.

    Yuki''s summon went around as he crushed all of the small goblins'' hearts with ease as he forcibly shoved his whole arm across their chest and killed them before they even realized. However, once he was noticed by one of therger goblins, he was instantly smacked into the wall of the kingdom which was surprisingly far away from where he was. For some odd reason, therger goblins could move a lot faster than Yuki expected them to. He had thought that with sheer speed, even if it took many hours, his summon could defeat them. If Yuki had known that speed didn''t matter in the battle, he would''ve called on hades. However, even though he had thought that, he couldn''t do anything about it. It was toote to hold a whole summoning ritual by drinking dozens of stamina boost potions. Yuki''s only hope was to watch as the demon struggled to battle his opponents.

    As such, Yuki''s summon managed to get back up even after receiving such a devastating blow to the head. The monster quickly got up from the ground and sprinted at speeds even Yuki couldn''t see and crashed into the left cheek of the goblin which managed tond the attack on him.

    [Unconscious Breathing]

    Using the ws which stretched out of his hands, Yuki''s summon began to fly around everywhere so the goblins wouldn''t be able to see, let alone stop him mid air. With each second that passed, there were dozens more scratches on the goblins'' skin than there were the previous second. Even could tell from afar that his summon was losing it. His mind was already broken but due to the position he was ced in the fight, he was stopping to think at all. All his movements were controlled by his bloodlust and anger.

    Even so, the goblins which were part of the event were not going to be easy to take down. Although both Yuki and his summon thought that the goblins couldn''t see the demon, they were far from wrong. The goblins could clearly see each and every step that their so-called opponent was making. The only reason they didn''t bother to do anything about him was because he was too insignificant. It wasn''t like he would taste good for them either since he was a monster just like them. All they sought was humans and only humans. However, as time went on, the monster from the 9th stage of the 2nd dungeon had made quite a lot of small scars on all of their bodies. As such, it was time to bring an end to the creature which was just an incest in their eyes.

    Within a blink of an eye, one of the goblins brought down his club on Yuki''s summon at such speeds that Yuki''s summon couldn''t move out of the way and had no choice but to bear the attack and take the consequences of it as well, that being the damage which the club had caused to him. Even with all the damage Yuki''s summon had suffered, he still got up from the ground as he prepared to fight once again. However, this wasn''t because the summon was loyal or caring or even because he had pride. It was nothing even close to that. The reason which Yuki''s summon wanted to keep going was because of the crown. It automatically forced any monster to do anything which Yuki wanted. While it made it seem that the monster''s actions were of its own free volition, it couldn''t be more false. Any and all monsters which Yuki summoned through the powers of "King''s Crown" were nothing more than ves which were forced to fake who they were.

    However, right as Yuki''s summon began to prepare himself to leap into the battle once again, the hope in everyone''s mind arrived.

    With a single blow to the head, one out of the threerge goblins was sent to the ground with a loud bang as the sheer impact of the goblin hitting the ground caused the kingdom''s street to break apart.

    While the goblins were caught off guard, they believed that they still had enough manpower to take down whatever enemy which mighte their way. Unfortunately for them, that wouldn''t be the case as the other 2rger goblins also got knocked down with a smash to the ground. Once the dust settled in, it became clear as to who had managed to take down the big 3 goblins.

    Seeing the person who had defeated the main threats, that being the 3rger goblins with clubs in their hands, Yuki called out to his summon instantaneously as he realized who the man was. It was one of the guards which were present at the jail cell he was in after he got captured. No matter what happend, Yuki needed to make sure that he hid the secrets of "King''s Crown" at all costs. Not only was it one of, if not his most powerful weapon, it was also an item which no one other than him possesed. If his captors were to find out about it, they would get suspicious and Yuki wouldn''t be able to go on with his life in peace.

    "You can go back now," said Yuki as he returned his summon back into his crown and sat on his couch as he hoped that nothing would happen to him. Thest thing he would need was for him to get noticed by his captures once again.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced "King''s Crown" back into his inventory as he didn''t want to leave any clues as to if he was involved in the event at all.

    ...

    After some time, the goblins were forcibly removed by the guards and it looked as if they were going to leave for the day.

    "This goblin thing made me miss out on meeting up with my boss. I hope he''s understanding about it. This was a special urrence," said Yuki as he sighed with relief that the guards had left without giving him any trouble but he also felt disappointed because he just might''ve lost his first job without even starting it.

    "Well, at least I didn''t have to talk to those people," said Yuki to himself as he referred to his captures.

    However, Yuki wouldn''t be that lucky as he heard knocking at the door. While at first he had assumed that it was his captures who had tracked him down so they could speak to him, Yuki quickly scratched that idea as he told himself that he didn''t need to worry about them and it was probably his summon from the 8th stage of the first dungeon who had returned from shopping since he had been gone for a while.

    However, right as Yuki opened the door, he would be disappointed as he came face to face with someone who had arge evil grin on their face. Yuki didn''t want anything more than to annihte the person who was looking him dead in the eyes. However, before the stare down could go on for much longer, the person who was facing Yuki along with hispanions who were behind him, invited themselves in and sat on the couch as they looked arrogantly at Yuki.

    "Can I help you?" Yuki asked in confusion as he genuinely didn''t know what they wanted from him.

    "This ce is seriously boring. All of us here know that when you used to actively raid dungeons on your own, you used to have a lot of silver. So what haven''t you added more to it? I mean, you''ll be living here forever," the woman of the group spoke to Yuki.

    In total there were 3 of them. The first one was the tall man who stared down at Yuki with an arrogant grin. The second one was a woman who had just spoken to Yuki andstly, there was another tiny woman who looked to be no older than a 10 year old child which confused Yuki.

 Chapter 168 - Fake

    While the guards from whichever ce that Yuki was held prisoner at just wanted Yuki to go out of his way and try to attack them so they could simply apprehend him, Yuki wouldn''t make it that easy. Even with all the unreasonable questions they asked and the odd actions they took, it didn''t mean anything to Yuki because as long as they would leave him alone in peace, he was willing to do anything.

    "Well, that was rude. I''ve just recently got this ce so I haven''t got a chance to go looking for furniture," said Yuki as he prayed that his summon which he had sent to buy furniture would onlye once his new interrogatories left. ??

    "I guess that would make sense. What else are you doing in this ce? I mean, it''s got to be boring to sit at home all day," the woman asked another question as she tried to slowly but surely break Yuki down until he was vulnerable.

    "That''s what I was thinking! So, I managed to get a job here. I don''t need the money but it gives me a reason to live in this ce without feeling bored all the time," Yuki joyfully replied. While he wasn''t actually happy to answer them, he needed to make sure that they didn''t suspect him of having a weapon which can control monsters or learn the fact that he was leaving the kingdom at night to go inside the dungeons.

    "Oh really? I''m so happy for you. What does this said job require you to do?" the woman asked as she still sought to find a crack in what Yuki was saying so that she could ask more risky questions and he would be forced to answer.

    "Well, today was supposed to be my first day there but these goblins stopped me. So, I guess I''ll be starting tomorrow," Yuki said with a slight bit of fake disappointment.

    "That''s a shame. However, speaking of the goblin attack, did you have toe across the person or thing which was battling against the goblins before we arrived? Of course, we came to the rescue as soon as we heard the news but still, the gobliins made little to no progress in destroying the kingdom. On top of that, we saw an odd figure but it was gone right after we looked away from it. At first, we suspected that it might''ve been the mini boss from the 9th stage of the 2nd dungeon but we quickly scratched that idea since no dungeon monster can leave the dungeon stage which they are ced in. However, we couldn''t be so sure so we came to ask you about it. So Yuki, did youe in contact with the person or thing that was battling the goblins before we did?" the woman asked.

    "Well, I didn''t but I think I saw something moving when I looked outside my upstairs window. I couldn''t see what it was because my level had been decreased which also meant that my vision is the same as what it was before I gained all my levels," Yuki replied.

    "Never mind then. We wasted our time here," the woman said as she got up from the couch and began to head out the door. Her tworades followed suit as they didn''t have any business with Yuki.

    However, right before leaving, the first one of the three which had stared down at Yuki and grinned at him when they first came inside Yuki''s house turned back for onest face off against Yuki.

    "What was with that look you gave me back there? Perhaps I should teach you who''s in charge here," said the man before bringing is fist towards Yuki''s face as he tried to hit Yuki.

    "One, Switch!" said Yuki as it was his only hope of surviving a direct hit from someone like him since his level was put back to 1.

    "<strong>Sit!</strong>" said One.

    Right before making contact with Yuki''s face, the man who was going to attack Yuki fell to his knees as he was ced in a state of weakness due to the immense presence of One. Even though his presence was decreased due to not being able to use Yuki as he had been able to previously, One was still capable of temperate impoblizing opponents which were a lot stronger than Yuki.

    "Why you!" said the man in anger as he tried to go in for another hit at Yuki. However, before he could do that, a single step on his back by the woman of the group ced him on the ground as he was unable to move. As a precautionary measure, the other man of the group stepped on his arm so he wouldn''t be able to attack Yuki anymore.

    "Please excuse ourrade for his unprofessional behavior. I don''t know why he''s acting like this all of the sudden. You were lucky enough to survive. But don''t fret, this will never happen again and he''ll be suspended from duty forever," the woman said as she forcibly dragged the man out of the house.

    Once they all left, Yuki closed the door behind them and sighed in relief since they had found out nothing about him.

    ...

    "So how did it go?" the woman asked the man who had tried to attack Yuki.

    "It was a sess. There''s definitely something or someone who is at y here. I''vee to two hypotheses. The first is that Yuki ispletely weak and can''t do anything to escape from this ce on his own but he has someone else helping him which would exin why I was stopped at first and it wasn''t by you along with being able to exin why the goblins had been managed to be held back until we arrived. The other theory I have is that both the person or thing who stopped me back then and the one who held back the goblins until we arrived is either Yuki or a part of Yuki. Either way, the best thing to do is to put someone inside the kingdom to monitor him. It''ll also be easier since the wall has been broken. Until it''s repaired, we''ve got to make sure no one leaves and no one enters, except our hidden spy of course," the man who had tried to attack Yuki said.

    "So in conclusion, the mission was a sess. Those fake goblins were worth it. I''m surprised though. I didn''t expect him to agree to help out with the n. Changing your ability is quite risky. Especially considering the position he holds. Though, in the end, it doesn''t really matter now. He can change his ability in about 3 days anyway and everything went ording to n. I would''ve asked him to join us to celebrate but he''s not the type to do that," said the woman as they left the kingdom.

    ...

    Back at Yuki''s house, he was still resting on his couch as he tried to calm himself down. The interaction with his interrogators had taken a lot out of him. Especially thest part of it where he almost died. Not that he was scared of death since he would be able to respawn by asking Zero to help him do so, but he was scared due to the sudden random attack.

    Moments after the people who had interrogated Yuki had left, someone knocked at his door. While this had scared Yuki due to the possibility that the 3 hade back to try to speak to him some more, he ressured himself that it was impossible since they had found out nothing about him and that it was probably his summon who hade with the furniture he was asked to buy.

    This time, Yuki ended up being lucky. Once Yuki opened the door, he was relieved to find that it was indeed his summon who hade back which also meant that all the necessary shopping was done too.

    "Thank god you came after they left. I don''t know what I would''ve done if you came while they were here. My only choice would''ve been to call on Zero and reverse time itself by a few days," Yuki said as he quickly forced his summon to get inside as fast as possible. Without even greeting his summon properly, Yuki gave the king from the 8th stage of the 1st dungeon amand.

    "Okay. Take everything you bought out of your inventory and set up everything as soon as possible. It''s no longer safe for you to be outside the crown for long periods of time. Even though I believe that they didn''t find any hard evidence against me, they''ll still be keeping an eye on me so I should be careful. So, until you''re done setting everything up, try to avoid being seen through any windows. After all, I want to keep living in this kingdom for a bit more until I can get stronger. Once that happens, I''ll crush all of them and you''ll also be able to explore whichever parts of any kingdom without having to fear that you''re putting my life at risk," said Yuki.

 Chapter 169 - Stage 2

    Not long after, the summon which originated the 8th stage of the 1st dungeon finished setting up all the furniture he had bought for Yuki''s new home. While he did go overboard in Yuki''s eyes, to him, it was the bare minimum he could''ve done to please his king. The problem was that Yuki didn''t n on spending much time in his house. In the mornings, he would be at work. As for the night, he would be in the dungeons as he umted enough strength to escape the kingdom and get revenge on the ones who had ced him in that situation in the first ce. In the end, the furniture would just go to waste as no one would use it.

    "Well, sacrifices need to be made anyway. But I should start preparing to go to the dungeon today. It looks like the sun has begun to set. Once it''s dark outside, I''ll call on Zero so he can get me out of this ce so I can continue to stage 2," said Yuki as he waited for his summon to make sure that everything was in order before sending him back to "King''s Crown".??

    [Open inventory]

    After Yuki made sure that there was nothing left for his summon to do, he pulled out "King''s Crown" from his inventory and told his summon to go back to it as they would meet again once Yuki was able to live without having to hide from people who sought to capture him. While there were 4 kings which Yuki had summoned using the crown, he only relied on one of them to help him with small activities which he couldn''t or wouldn''t do on his own.

    By then, it was time to leave the kingdom. As such, he would need to call on Zero.

    "Hey Zero. You know what to do right?" said Yuki telepathically.

    "Yes I do," Zero replied as he teleported Yuki back to the dungeon gate which he had exited due to him needing to be present in the kingdom during the mornings so as to not raise suspicion of the activities he partook in during the night.

    An easy solution would''ve been for Yuki to call on the new Meurig topletely erase everything in Yuki''s path; however, that wouldn''t solve all his problems. Due to Meurig''smand being that he should just clear the first dungeon, he was able to umte strength that surpassed both Yuki and his captures. The only problem was that he had hit a dead end to leveling up. Since he was tasked with clearing only the first dungeon, at first, it helped him gain a lot of levels but now, clearing the entire dungeon didn''t even give him a fraction of the total he needed to get to the next stage. Nevertheless however, he continued to clear the dungeon continuously as that was his job. Of course, the dungeon had begun to attract quite a lot of attention and received the name "The Broken Dungeon" as no one seemed to be able to enter it. This didn''t make sense since something like that would only ur once a participant is already in the dungeon. Seeing as no one had left the dungeon in about a year, it was impossible for there to be a human inside since they would''ve died of starvation long ago. Of course, once the new Meurig cleared the dungeon, he would need to leave and reenter it so he could restart his quest. This meant that he would have to sense the people outside with his presence to see if there was anyone looking before leaving for a split second and going back inside.

    Once Yuki was teleported outside the dungeon gates, he walked through it without the slightest bit of fear or nervousness. More than anything, Yuki just wanted to spend as much time as possible in the dungeon and also be able to make it back to the kingdom in time. While he was a bit tired and wanted to go to sleep, what Yuki wanted even more was to have endless fights with the dungeon;s various monsters. While he enjoyed battle, Yuki sought to also have all the monsters he fought in his arsenal of summons. Along with that, Yuki wanted to collect as many items as possible, especially the treasured des.

    "Thinking about it now, I haven''t gotten a chance to use the de I got from the 2nd dungeon yet even though it''s been over a year since I received it. Well, I can use it here at least," Yuki said to himself as he walked through the empty stage 1 as he tried to make it back to the gateway tunnel which led to stage 2 of the dungeon.

    "Hey, Zero. Before I go, I have a question. Since I left the dungeon but didn''t fullyplete it, what would happen if someone tried to enter it?" Yuki asked out of curiosity while having a sort of urate guess of his own.

    "Well, since you already saved and left, anyone else who tried to enter would be able to do so. Of course, if you were toe back while that person was still in the dungeon, you would be forced to wait until said person left the dungeon," Zero exined just as Yuki had theorized.

    "I guess that''s fair. What about if I was saved in one dungeon and wanted to go to another dungeon toplete it? Of course, it would have to be the same type of dungeon," Yuki asked.

    "If you were to do that, you would have to restart at the new dungeon and your progress from the first dungeon would get erased. Just in case you''re wondering. If you were to have started at the 1st dungeon and stopped at a random stage such as stage 6 then went to the 2nd dungeon and stopped at stage 3, you would be able to continue your quest in the 1st dungeon. As long as they aren''t the same type of dungeon, no progress will be lost. Of course, even if progress is lost, all exp gained up until the save point will be permanently kept," Zero exined to Yuki.

    [If you would like to move to the 2nd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 2 difficulty: level 11-12]

    Once seeing therge text, Yuki passed through the white light which led to the next stage of the dungeon. That said, Yuki was a bit disappointed to be greeted with a swarm of goblins once again. He had hoped that there would at least be something different but to his disappointment, there looked to be the same type of goblins. However, that was only what it looked like from a far. Once Yuki took a closer look at his new opponents, he realized what made them different from the ones in the stage before them.

    [Thief Goblin: Josef]

    [Thief Goblin: Elihu]

    [Thief Goblin: Tyr]

    [Thief Goblin: Comgal]

    Each goblin had a different name but the actual thing which distinguished them from the goblins Yuki fought before them was that they were carrying daggers. While it wouldn''t make arge difference due to how much more powerful Yuki was than them, it was still a sign of improvement. It was like watching a whole species evolve as they tried to survive and defeat their enemy. Their enemy being the yer, in this case, Yuki. While this could''ve been a sign that the goblins would also change in the uing stages, Yuki didn''t care all that much due to the overwhelming power cap between them and Yuki.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure" from his inventory as he had used "Fallen angel of hell" in the previous stage and wanted to get ustomed to using all of his treasured des. That said, he nned on also using the bident which he had earned on thest stage of the 2nd dungeon when he entered the next stage in the dungeon he was in currently.

    "Let''s see..." Yuki said as he concentrated on making his stamina flow from his body to his de. While he thought that it would be harder for him to do so since he hadn''t performed that technique in a while, however, he was surprised to find out that it was easy. It was like a natural instinct for him by this point. All Yuki had to do was imagine water flowing out of his hands then flowing into his de as it tightly gripped on to his de, in turn giving it form. Within an instant "Niflheim''s holy treasure" brought out its spiked ice shards which extended out of the de in all directions.

    "It''s been a while since I''ve done this. I should be able to have some fun now," Yuki said as he grinned forward at the army of goblins which each carried daggers. Even having weapons at their disposal, defeating Yuki was a task which was basically impossible. However, even if they had knowledge of this, they wouldn''t be able to do anything about it since they would be forced to attack him by the system.

 Chapter 170 - Return Of The Monster

    "Niflheim''s holy treasure" in hand, Yuki charged towards the crowd of goblins which each looked to have a murderous intent behind their eyes. This wouldn''t be an oundish assumption either as it was in every monster''s nature to act as such. Wither it was because of how monsters are on their own of because of the system''smands, each of the monsters Yuki faced while he was on his quest to earn exp in the dungeon or in the outside world, the hostile behaviour was the one thing that stayed consistent between all the enemies he faced. Of course, if the world which Yuki resided in had any type of logic ced into it, it would make sense as to why the monsters were so hostile. After all, it didn''t matter if someone was human or a monster, at the end of the day, no one would want to be killed. Especially if their death was just going to be a number for someone so they can win a stupid game a 15 year old made.

    All these theories would never find a true answer as most people didn''t have knowledge of the specific questions they wanted to get answers to in the first ce. All they knew were their goals and how they wanted to achieve them. Mundane questions such as finding the root of emotions had no impact on their lives and as such, they were merely perceived as distractions which were better left ignored. ??

    At that moment, Yuki was only concerned with one thing and one thing alone. To defeat the army of goblins. It felt good for Yuki to be stronger than his enemy once again. It was a nice change after him having to fear the people who had captured him since they could''ve ended his life in a mere moment. Now that he was the one who had to be feared, Yuki could finally repair what little was left of his self esteem as he cut through the many swarms of goblins without having to waste a breath.

    "This is nice. I''m finally starting to get a handle on killing again. Though, I shouldn''t get over confident since I''m still pretty weakpared to my real enemies," said Yuki as he referred to the people who were keeping him imprisoned in the kingdom.

    "I think that''s enough for now. I''ve managed to get the goblins number small enough to where I can actually use it as practice," said Yuki as he looked around at the swarm of goblins which was not only less than half of what it originally was. Of course, there was a mountain of dead goblins'' bodies. While it was a horrific sight to behold for the remaining goblins, to Yuki, it was nothing as he perceived the goblins as nothing more than video game pawns. If they died, it meant that he-as the video game protagonist was leveling up and getting stronger, which would of course trante to him having fun. While deriving pleasure from the deaths of others was borderline insane, it was okay in Yuki''s eyes, along with the other humans eyes because they perceived the world differently as to how the monsters perceived it. To add on, it waspletely unknown to all the humans that monsters could even have perception as they just seemed like simple minded robots.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki ced "Niflheim''s holy treasure" back in his inventory as he didn''t need to carry such a potent de around him anymore. It was safe for Yuki to rely on less effective methods of battle as it would allow him to train his mind and body without killing his training dummies so quickly.

    Yuki turned towards some of the already dead goblins which had been killed by Yuki himself and took their dagger out of their hands. This of course meant that Yuki had decided on a method of fighting. That being, battling with daggers. While it wasn''t still an even ying field due to Yuki''s superior strength, it wasn''t like he could do anything about it. Even if Yuki opted to use his bare hands, it wouldn''t make much of a difference since his fists alone would be ssified as weapons to the goblins which he was facing.

    Now that Yuki was carrying a dagger in both his arms, he charged towards a group of goblins once again. There were about 10 of them in that small group however, it wouldn''t be much of a challenge as Yuki hade prepared to both attack and block with his daggers.

    Yuki quickly shed the dagger in his right arm at one of the goblins which in turn caused a deep cut on the monster. While Yuki hadn''t intended to cause that much damage, he wouldn''t worry about it since a retaliation attack wasing towards him in the form of an angry goblin which wanted revenge for his fallenrades.

    As the goblins reached for Yuki''s face with his own dagger, Yuki quickly ducked back as he dodged the attack. Unfortunately for Yuki, that was exactly what the goblin wanted as the monster twisted its arm and redirected it''s de downwards, directly aimed at Yuki''s face. Within that situation, it would seem that Yuki waspletely cornered and left with no option but to take the attack. That would be correct, however, Yuki miraculously lost his bnce due to the sudden fear of being stabbed in the brain and fell to the ground.

    Realizing that he had managed to avoid the attack, Yuki opted for a low kick which made the goblin lose bnce and fall to the ground as well. However, Yuki wasn''t going to risk being caught off guard once again. Without wasting a moment, Yuki kicked the goblin which almost managed tond an attack far into the woods of the forest until a loud ''bang'' sound could be heard which Yuki assumed to be the body of the goblin making contact with a far off tree.

    Due to his short exchange with the goblin, Yuki was able to reach a point of a sudden adrenaline rush in which he was able to think and move faster. This came at a cost though, being that he would be extremely exhaustedter just as he always had when his body acted like this. However, Yuki didn''t mind as long as he could have fun. As such, he was going to make the most of what little time he had in the current state he was in.

    Realizing that his body was in peak condition, Yuki quickly threw one dagger from where he was standing at another member of the remaining 8 goblins from the group he decided to target. Due to how fast the dagger was moving, the goblin couldn''t step out of the way and could only dodge by ducking back just as Yuki had done so.

    "Just as I wanted," said Yuki as he rushed towards the goblins which threw his dagger at.

    Unlike the goblin which had targeted him in that exact position, Yuki wasn''t relying on a de to do the finishing blow. Instead, Yuki was going to use his fist do the trick. This meant that he wouldn''t have to be limited to the linear form of the dagger.

    Yuki quickly leaped into the air as he grinned down at the goblin which had just dodged the dagger which Yuki threw at him. A sudden fear engulfed his face as he realized that he had fallen into a trap. With nothing left to give, the goblin closed his eyes as he admitted the inevitable defeat.

    With a sudden bang of the ground, Yukinded the perfect direct hit right on the goblin''s chest. Even the sound of his ribs breaking could be heard in slow motion as his body was sent down to the ground with a loud sound of impact. Although he hadn''t expected to do much damage, Yuki managed to create a small crater by the impact the goblin''s body caused when it was sent down to the ground.

    Yuki stared at his bloodied fist then looked down at the goblin which he had just killed. The goblin''s mouth was wide open as blood flowed out of it. Not only that but his eyes no longer had pupils and his chest was clearly broken and still housed the engraving of Yuki''s fist. It was truly both a horrific and marvelous sight. That all depended on who was interpreting the figure.

    "My bad. I went too hard on the punch. I should dial it down a tiny bit. If I don''t I''ll end up finishing this stage too early," said Yuki as he sarcastically joked.

    Even though Yuki seemed to find the situation entertaining and hrious, that wasn''t the case of the goblins. While they were supposed to be the monsters in the dungeon, Yuki was clearly much more evil and sinister than they were. That caused them to move slowly away from Yuki as they wanted to avoid the fate which would await them if they dared to challenge Yuki. Unfortunately for them, there was no escape. That didn''t matter anyway as even if there was an escape, Yuki wouldn''t let them leave alive.

 Chapter 171 - Heavens Hero

    While Yuki had just basically traumatized the goblins which he was facing by killing one of their own as if it was an insect, Yuki didn''t see a problem in anything he did.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"??

    Using his ability, Yuki created multiple me constructed spears which rained on the remaining goblins like arrows which were born in hell itself. They were unable to do anything about it as the speed at which the spears flew at them were too hard to dodge. Even then, the goblins had no choice but to jump back into battle as they weremanded by the system to fight the yer.

    "Man, these guys are boring. All they can do is die. I should just kill all of them right now," said Yuki as he slowly walked towards the crowd of goblins which remained.

    Yuki quickly took a step forward and in doing so, instead took 5 steps. That was what it had looked like to one of the smaller goblins due to not being able to see Yuki''s movement clearly. The goblin just stood there with fear in its eyes as it awaited its gruesome death by the hands of the monster which was in front of it.

    "Come on man. At least put up a fight. You''re just making me look like a bully," said Yuki as he engulfed his fist with his mes and prepared to end the life of the small goblin which stood in front of him.

    Before he could do that, Yuki started to see amand in front of him.

    [Emergency Change: Even ying Field]

    [The yer Has Been Recognized As Too Powerful]

    [All Dungeon Monsters Within This Dungeon Will Receive A Boost To Match The Strength Of The yer]

    [Note: yer will not bepensated with extra exp]

    "Are you serious-" said Yuki before getting interrupted by the fist of the goblins he was about to kill.

    Yuki no longer had his overwhelming strength to show off and abuse against the stage monsters. He would have to face the goblins just as he would have to face anyone who was close to his level of power.

    "Why did you have to do this now? Sure I wasining about them being too weak but it was just a statement. I didn''t actually want them to grow in power. Now I''m going to have to face them like this?" Yuki said as he got up from the ground to face the goblins now that they were a lot stronger than they used to be.

    However, before Yuki could even regain bnce over his own body, another goblin from what remained of the army leaped in the air and knocked Yuki down once again as he sat on Yuki''s chest and began to pummel his face with his bare fists. Even though he was carrying his dagger, the goblin angled his weapon sideways so it wouldn''t cut Yuki. This was done so that he could enjoy humiliating Yuki a lot longer.

    "NO!" said Yuki as he raised his hand forwards and prepared tounch a st right in the goblin''s face. However, before Yuki could do that, the goblin reached towards Yuki''s palm and grabbed hold of it. Even so, Yuki still charged his fist with his mes and concentrated it before letting the concentrated heatbust and in turnpletely blow apart the goblin''s forearm.

    "You got a taste of your own medicine," said Yuki as he smirked at the goblin.

    Seeing this, the goblin let out a roar of anger and grabbed hold of Yuki''s wrist with his remaining hand before squeezing the life out of it. In doing so, Yuki''s eyes filled up with both tears and anger as he couldn''t wait topletely and utterly burn each and every single one of the goblins to a point where they would be unrecognizable.

    Before Yuki could get up though, the goblin which had held over his arm held Yuki up and swung him towards the crowd of goblins which made it so that Yuki couldn''t fight back due to it being extremely difficult to impossible for him to dodge or counter an attack mid air.

    Right before Yuki reached the goblins, one of the monsters stepped forwards and kicked Yuki''s back as he sent him back to where he was thrown from like a volleyball. Even then, the goblins weren''t done taking out their anger on Yuki.

    Yuki, still flying towards the goblin which had originally thrown him, tried to stop himself from heading towards the goblin to no avail. Making his body heavier by straining his body to an extreme extent didn''t work either as he was moving too fast.

    "Okay, this is just one more hit. I''ve just got to brace for impact," said Yuki as he covered his head with his arms so as to not take any damage to his vital areas.

    Just then, Yuki felt an immense pain in his chest as the goblin''s fist made perfect contact with Yuki''s ribs as he nearly shattered each one of them. Due to that, Yuki was momentarily knocked out which made the goblin believe that he was dead and that it was safe to head back to the group of goblins which were basically its family.

    "Where is that goblin even going? I''m clearly not dead yet. Wait, I forgot that these monsters have the same amount of brain cells as a worm. Of course they would corrte someone with not moving for a moment to them being dead. Well, it works in my favour so I might as well be happy about it," said Yuki as he thought to himself.

    "Thinking about it now. This is a lot more enjoyable than actually being too strong for them to handle. It gives me a chance to improve and learn how I match up to those who are of equal strength than me. Though, it''s a shame I won''t bepensated with extra exp for all my troubles. The system tried to make the strengths equal but won''t make the rewards worth it. I think it''s worried about the wrong aspect of fairness when ites to the dungeon because I could go to the 4th or 5th dungeon where my strength would be on average the same as the monsters there and still gain a lot more exp. But I guess that doesn''t matter," Yuki said to himself with an annoyed expression.

    "Although I could just ask Zero to change the rules of this world behind everyone''s back, it wouldn''t be fair if I were to do that. Thinking about it now, if Meurig grew to the point where he was too strong, then the dungeon should''ve matched his strength and in turn, it would''ve taken him the exact same time to clear the dungeon each time he did it and in turn, he wouldn''t be as powerful as I thought he was," Yuki continued to think about the way which the dungeon worked.

    "No. That wouldn''t make sense either. I was still as strong as I am when I entered the dungeon''s first stage. If that rule really applied, the goblins from stage 1 should''ve also matched me in strength. The real question is what specifically caused the emergency change? Let me see... what did I specifically do before it activated?" Yuki asked himself as he was finally getting somewhere with his thoughts.

    "Right! I was walking towards those small goblins before I was caught off guard and then it started to wreak havoc on me. What about it was special?" Yuki asked himself.

    "I remember that he was standing still. It looked like he was extremely scared for some reason. Was I really that frightening to look at? I mean all I did was kill some regr goblins. But.. I guess that would be scary to him as I basically killed hundreds of the only creatures he knew were his friends and family. That''s seriously messed up. Did I just end a whole poption? Wait, could monsters even have emotions? Seeing as this just happened, they probably do. Oh man. This is seriously messed up. I''m like a single alien that went to earth and killed almost every single human except those in a small country and I was torturing them. Bute on, it can''t be that bad. It''s just a game, I can''t be the viin in this situation. The yer is always the hero," Yuki told himself as he tried to erase all bad thoughts from him mind.

    "That''s right. I''m the hero and they''re the viins. I mean seriously, when has a normal human been the viin and the deformed green monster been the hero? This is my world. I rule over it as the king. I won''t be ridiculed in it. I shallpletely overpower the monster and rule over the world with my absolute power. I won''t allow myself to be weak any longer. I am king!" Yuki said to himself as he slowly stood up from the ground.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Hero"

 Chapter 172 - Heavens Guards

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Hero"??

    Using his ability, Yuki engulfed himself with mes as he forced them to take shape and solidify into a full body suit of armour which he would use to battle the now much stronger goblins which he was facing. As it would take too long for him to take back his treasured transparent blue de from the ground, Yuki opted to construct a long sword using his ability. This also allowed him to have more control and freedom over his de as it could be manipted since it was created with his ability.

    Now that Yuki had a set of armour protecting him, he could attack relentlessly, and relentlessly he attacked. Yuki quickly charged towards the goblin which had turned its back on him and stabbed him in the back before the monster could even look back. It was a fatal mistake to turn your back on an enemy which wasn''t dead yet.

    "How does that feel? You think I enjoyed it while you were toying with me? NO! I''m going to saviour this moment!" Yuki yelled out as blood dripped out of his head from being tossed around by the goblins.

    Before Yuki could try to attack the remaining goblins, a brave monster quickly charged at Yuki and grabbed hold of his arms before bringing him down to the ground as he crushed Yuki''s arms.

    "Get off of me!" Yuki yelled out as he enhanced the me potency on his armour which caused the front of the goblin which had held him to burn and eventually let go.

    "You got what you deserved. Now, I''m going to enjoy this," Yuki said as he leaped into the air with his me de. The goblins assumed that he would need tond on the ground before being able to attack them, as such, they spread out of the area which Yuki would eventuallynd at and got into a circr formation so they could ambush him before he could attack them.

    "A good idea, however, you forgot to ount for one tiny thing," said Yuki as he revealed why his me sword was the best de he could''ve carried in that moment.

    Using his ability, Yuki increased the length of his de and used it as a whip instead of a de which allowed him to strike all the goblins at once by spinning it in the air before swinging it in a sideways motion which caused the me whip to wrap around the group of goblins which stood in a circr formation. Once Yukinded on the ground, he raised the whip which still had hold over the goblins and began to whack it on the stage before raising it in the air once more and repeating the endless process.

    Seeing that their people were in danger, the remaining goblins began to charge at Yuki in hopes of at least distracting him for a while so theirrades could escape and attack him together.

    "Oh no you don''t," said Yuki.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Guards"

    Using his ability, Yuki constructed 5 giants all out of his mes and instructed them to hold off the goblins while he had his fun torturing the small group of goblins which he still had wrapped around his me whip.

    Each of the 5 giants looked to be able to hold up for a while but not forever as the goblins quickly learned that the giants'' weakness was their slow speed. Not being able to keep up with them, each of the goblins quickly shed at the giants before moving back to allow other goblins to do the same. Since Yuki was distracted, he couldn''t pump more mes into the giants and as such, they would eventually be defeated.

    In what little time Yuki had to enjoy himself, he continued to whack his whip around as he slowly tortured the goblins which his hand wrapped around his extended de. While he hadn''t realized it himself, his emotions began to extensify. Whether it was on purpose or by ident, there was no denying that something was amplifying Yuki''s emotions in that moment so he could feel more hatred and as such cause more damage. There was only one thing or person capable of doing that, that thing being One. There had been many instances where One had influenced Yuki throughout his days in the new world. All of his sudden changes in mood which allowed him to persevere through hopeless situations or caused him to go ballistic and overkill were caused by the one and only One.

    There was a slight problem with that though. It was unknown if One was influencing Yuki consciously or subconsciously. If it was done on purpose, it would make Yuki question who''s side One was really on. On the other hand, if it was done subconsciously, it would pose the question of if One would be a potential threat to Yuki without even knowing it. Although all these questions remained, Yuki couldn''t help but only fixate on torturing the goblins alone. For some odd reason, Yuki continued to derive pleasure from the pain of others. Whether it was because they had harmed him previously or just out of pure insanity, none of that mattered as long as he felt joy.

    Once Yuki was done whacking the goblins around, he let go of the bloodied and exhausted bodies of the goblins and let them rest for a while. However, the moment they thought they had caught a break from Yuki''s beatdown, they would be surprised.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Using his ability, Yuki created multiple portal looking circles above the heads of the goblins and ced said portals near the cleaning of the stage. Seeing as the goblins were too exhausted to move out of ce, Yuki would take advantage of this by creating spears which came out of the many portals above the goblins and stab them on every single part of their body.

    "Rain," said Yuki as each of the spears fell on the goblins. While the first spear had killed each of the goblins, Yuki allowed plenty more to fall on the goblins'' bodies to allow for the final finishing attack. Once the fire constructed spears had stacked up on the goblins, Yuki snapped his fingers which allowed the spears tobust andpletely erase the dead bodies of his victims.

    "How beautiful was that!" Yuki said with a smile on his face.

    However, Yuki''s joy would be short-lived as he realized that his 5 giant guards had died. Even with armour all over his body, Yuki could help but feel fear in his heart due to the presence behind him. All Yuki could feel was the bloodlust oozing out of the monster behind him. For the first time in a while, Yuki would experience how it felt to be the prey.

    Before anything drastic could take ce, Yuki attempted to end the fight before it happened by quickly pivoting his foot to turn around and slice the head of the goblin behind him with his bare left palm. That unfortunately didn''t work as the moment before Yuki''s palm made contact with the goblin''s neck, Yuki saw in slow motion as the goblin''s red eyes looked down at Yuki before changing to look at his palm and grabbing hold of it. Before Yuki could back away, the goblinnded a clean punch to the top right of Yuki''s skull and sent him flying to a nearby tree.

    After Yukinded on the tree, he quickly got up as he didn''t want to take another hit from the goblin. While he would''ve previously sat down and taken a break to catch his breath, Yuki had learned from all the countless times in the dungeon stages that resting wasn''t an option until the stage was cleared.

    "There''s no way I can defeat him. I didn''t realize how much of a boost bloodlust gave to the goblins. Or it could just be this one because the other goblins still look rtively normal," Yuki said to himself as he thought of a n to help him get out of the situation with a win and also make it back to the kingdom in time as he realized that he had been in the dungeon for a while.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out a speed boost potion and quickly drank it before breaking the capsule and running around in a random pattern. To the goblins, it just looked like he was scared and was nning to run for eternity which made themugh at him. However, after running for a while, Yuki returned to the same tree he had been knocked into and sat down which made the goblins assume that he was tired and ready to die. With an arrogantugh, the bloodlusted goblin approached Yuki and raised his fist to kill Yuki with a single punch.

    "You were too arrogant to realize what had been happening around you. Maybe it really was your fate to die this way," said Yuki as he allowed the many long strings made of concentrated fire he had attached to all of the goblins appear by making them shine.

    "You lost"

 Chapter 173 - Return

    "You lost," said Yuki as he looked up at the goblin which had turned around to see what Yuki was talking about. While to the goblins, It just seemed like Yuki had drank a speed boost potion then began to run around in random circles, he had been putting together his n. Once Yuki had realized that a battle of pure strength would be extremely difficult to win due to the goblins having gained new strength from the dungeon system, however, to make his situation worse, he didn''t have much time to clear the stage. As such, he would either have to somehow clear the dungeon stage very quickly or give up and redo the stage another day which would ce him in an endless cycle of retrying stage 2.

    If Yuki were to give up and return another day, not only would he have to face the remaining goblins at their full strength but also the ones he had killed while they were weaker. It was now or never. Yuki didn''t have the option of turning back. So, Yuki came up with a sneaky n to end the lives of all the remaining goblins all in one shot. ??

    More specifically, Yuki had used his ability to create a concentrated me string which would be as hard as steel but also sticky like gum. In doing so, Yuki was left with a barely visible piece of string which he stuck on all the goblins and the surrounding trees. Since the goblins were so busy mocking andughing at Yuki, they didn''t realize what Yuki had been actually doing. In turn, their arrogance became their downfall. However, who could me a group of mindless creatures which only had a de to think with.

    Right after Yuki snapped his fingers, all the surrounding nearby trees began to get cut as the string which Yuki had created wrapped around the bodies of the goblins like a snake.

    "This is the end. You can give it up now. There''s no way I''ll be letting you escape. Even though I have my moments of arrogance. I would have to be insane to let a single one of you live. Goodbye," said Yuki as he snapped his fingers once more as the mesbusted, in turn incinerating each and every single one of the remaining goblins. However, in the moment before the explosion went off, one of the goblins had broken free of the string''s grasp. Even so, almost all its body was blown into smithereens. All that remained of it was its hand with a dagger which flew in the air due to the pressure of the explosion and fell towards Yuki''s face.

    "I guess this is a fitting conclusion. In the end, no matter how hard you fight, you''ll never reach me," said Yuki as he stepped back, which made it so that the hand with the de wouldn''t have touched him. While it would''ve been heroic and redeeming for Yuki to allow the de to slice his eye lid so that the goblins would feel like they did something even after they died, Yuki didn''t care. Even though he could''ve used a full status recovery potion to heal the wound right after, Yuki chose to purposely ridicule the monsters even though they were dead.

    Of course, no one could judge Yuki because he wasn''t obligated to do anything so as to please others. Yuki neither picked the option of most efficiency or of that which aligned with many people''s moralpass. All that mattered was what he felt at the time and if he would derive joy from doing something.

    "Well, at least that''s over. I should probably save at this stage and head back to the kingdom. It''s probably close to morning by now," said Yuki as he headed towards the stage tunnel so he could save his progress in the 3rd dungeon.

    "That only leaves me with 8 stages to clear right? Well, all I have to do is basically repeat what I''ve done so far in this dungeon 4 more times and it''ll be over," Yuki said as he tried to divide the time he would spend in the dungeon so it would seem less of a gruelling task than it actually was.

    [+140000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 21: 928500/10 million]

    As Yuki continued to walk towards the dungeon tunnel so he could save his progress, he was stopped by a falling item from a stage ceiling. As he expected, it was a regr silver dagger. What else would a stage such as this offer to him. Seeing the de, Yuki double tapped on the weapon as he always enjoyed looking at the stats and description of the items he received from the dungeon stages.

    [Item drop: Goblin''s Dagger]

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 220]

    [Description: Power: A regr de however when the user of the de is 1/10 of theirs. max HP, special skill gets activated. Special skill: Extend. Power: Allows the de to stretch out tond a blow if the initial attack misses its target. The goblin race is by far one of the weakest. However, the one reason the continue to survive is due to their evolutionary pattern. With each obstacle they face, they develop their next generation gically to ovee the things which they couldn''t. As such, they can adapt to any and all environments if given the right amount of time. More than anything, the goblins share many things inmon with humans. Although not modern age humans, they resemble those of the ones from the stone age. If they were more prominent in that type of environment, humans would be considered the monsters while the goblins attain the knowledge they need. Unfortunately for them, they were born much after the humans and are now purposely hunted so they don''t develop.]

    "What a group of losers. Sucks of them I guess," said Yuki as he opened his inventory and ced all the items he had taken out of his inventory and received from the stage back into his inventory.

    Once Yuki reached the stage tunnel, he had managed to save his progress so far in the dungeon.

    [Stage two: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 3rd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 3 difficulty: level 12]

    "A raid party member would like to exit the dungeon!" Yuki said out loud.

    "Which party member would like to exit?" the system asked.

    "yer: Yuki Kaito," Yuki replied.

    "Save point has been reached, exp will not be taken away once the yer exits. Press ''Confirm'' to finish the process," the system said.

    In front of Yuki was arge rectangr blue projection which said "Confirm", beside it was a red projection button which could be pressed to cancel the transitional process.

    Yuki pressed the "Confirm button" and was teleported outside the dungeon with a blink of an eye.

    "Hey Zero. I''m done for the day. Teleport me back to the kingdom," said Yuki.

    "Of course," Zero replied as he teleported Yuki back to the house in the kingdom which he was supposed to be secretly imprisoned in.

    When Yuki had returned home, he was on the floor since that was where his ne was. Even though it was awkward for him to get up, he stood up from the ground and headed upstairs to the room which he imed on his own. While there were 2 other rooms in the house as well, Yuki chose to have them act as guest rooms even though he doubted that he''d ever have guests over.

    "I feel like I''m dead. I can''t keep going on like this," said Yuki in an exhausted voice as he sat on the bed which his summon had bought for him.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion along with a sleep deprivation cure potion and drank them both at once so he could be back to being as good as new. He needed to look normal and not like he had basically fought a war on his own.

    "Never mind, I don''t even feel the least bit tired. I feel like I can clear another stage or two on my own," said Yuki as he took out new clothes from his inventory as the ones he had taken to the dungeon were torn and dirty.

    "At this rate, I''m going to have to buy every piece of clothing that each store in the kingdom has to offer. It would be so much simpler to just clear the whole dungeon in one outfit then worry about new clothes once I finish it. Instead, now I have to waste 10 times as more cloths as I would''ve had to do if I didn''t have to return to the kingdom so often," said Yuki as heined to himself while putting on his in white t-shirt and ck trousers since he was going to go to meet with his new boss for his job.

    "It''s going to be construction work so my clothing shouldn''t really matter," said Yuki as he put his hair in a man bun and headed out of his house ready for work.

 Chapter 174 - Job

    Once Yuki left his house, he headed towards the ce where he along with his boss and other workers were supposedly meeting. Yuki had missed the first meeting due to the goblins attacking. If his boss was any sane person, he would have missed the first meeting with Yuki as well. Since they didn''t have a phone tomunicate with, they both decided to trust their gut and show up again for thest time. Yuki''s new boss was going to the meet up ce because he believed that Yuki wouldn''t show up and that his resolve had broken. Yuki''s boss believed that all that Yuki said was just a bluff and after a good night''s rest, Yuki had realized that he wasn''t ready for a tough job. On the contrary, Yuki was eager to start but nervous in case his boss had actually gone to the meeting during the goblin attack.

    After a while of walking, Yuki arrived at the front of the store where he found the poster for job posting. To no surprise to him, his boss was already there waiting for him. The one who was really surprised was the boss himself as his face lit up with both joy andughter from the unexpected happening.??

    "I didn''t really expect you to show up," Yuki''s boss said as he stoppedughing.

    "Did I do something funny to make youugh?" Yuki asked in utter confusion.

    "No no, I just thought that you had backed out after having gotten over a day to think about what you had agreed to. I mean, I couldn''t me you for it myself as it would bepletely understandable to back out of a crazy deal such as the one you made with me," Yuki''s boss exined.

    Garth, who was Yuki''s boss, was a tall and muscr man with ginger hair and a thick beard. Most of the time, Yuki didn''t know how to perceive him as he sometimes represented himself as someone who should be respected but at others, he just seemed like a child.

    "Well... I''m here now, so where do I go from here?" Yuki asked slowly as he didn''t understand how he should behave around his boss.

    "Oh right. We should probably start heading towards our new site. You actually signed up at a good time. We had recently received a new task which means that we''ll bepensated pretty well. Usually, we make our ie by fixing broken houses and we take the money from the owners then repeat. It''s pretty inconsistent but we do whatever we can to survive," Yuki''s boss said with a smile which looked to have nothing behind it. There was no emotion on Garth''s face for a moment. However, right after saying those words, Garth returned back to where he was.

    "I forgot to ask, what happened to your parents? Aren''t they concerned that you might be working in a dangerous ce?" Garth asked Yuki.

    "Like they''d ever care. I was brought into existence by a deadbeat father and a psycho mother. They''d be happy if I were to die right this moment," Yuki thought to himself but of course he didn''t give that as his actual answer. Instead, he needed to quickly think of a way to answer the question without raising suspicion that he was a mass murderer in prisoned in the kingdom.

    "Well, both my parents decided to go in the dungeons together and left me outside so I wouldn''t be the face of danger. They''d done pretty well for themselves for a while however, one time, after they went in, they never came out. I waited for what seemed like years and after so long, I tried to go into the dungeon myself to see if it would let me in. If it did allow me to pass through, it would mean that they''d either died or finished the dungeon and forgot about me. To my disappointment, the dungeon allowed me to pass through. I try not to think about it too much as I can easily get lost in thought," Yuki lied. He was good at making up lies as he always had to think up a new fake lie to convince his mother why something was the way it was. If he didn''t, he would usually get a beating.

    "I''m so sorry to hear that. It was rude of me to ask about your personal life," Garth apologized.

    "No no, it''s fine. Like I said, I barely think about it. It doesn''t bother me at all. There''s no need for you to fear asking me anything. After all, I am eternally grateful for you providing me with this job," Yuki said as he tried to make sure that Garth wouldn''t create a whole fake personality to make Yukifortable as he seemed to be much of a kind person.

    "Okay then. If you don''t mind, I have another question which I''ve had on my mind since you first introduced me to yourself. Most of the people in this kingdom know each other, as such, I would''ve been able to recognize you. However, I don''t recall ever seeing you here," said Garth.

    "So I really stand out that much?" Yuki said to Garth as he sighed.

    "Well, I know this kingdom is closed off from the rest of the world for some odd reason. I had tried to enter the kingdom after realizing my parents were no longer there. I had run out of food and water on my way to find the closest kingdom from the dungeon gate. There were people outside the entrance so I begged them to let me inside so I could buy food and water. After exining to them what had happened and an extra few hours of begging constantly, they let me inside," Yuki exined to Garth.

    "So you''re the rumoured blind folded kid! You''re pretty famous here. The kingdom gates rarely open, let alone does a person enter the kingdom," Garth said with a smile on his face.

    After a while of walking, Yuki and Garth arrived at a familiar ce. It was the wall which the goblins had broken when they entered the kingdom.

    "Are we going to be working here?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes we are! This is the new task we were assigned. The guards outside are going to be paying us a hefty sum of silver so it''s worth it. Of course you can back out now, that''ll just be more money for the rest of us," said Garth sarcastically as he tried to test Yuki once again.

    "Like hell I would leave this. I doubt any other ce is willing to hire," said Yuki as he looked around to see all the construction tools and other workers which had already started working and were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn''t notice Yuki.

    "That''s what I like to hear! I''ll introduce you to the person you''ll be assisting for now since you don''t really have any real experience. Don''t worry, she''s a nice person and only a little older than you," said Garth as he went towards a girl who was only slightly shorter than Yuki. To almost everyone, they would look to be the same height.

    "Av, this is Yuki," said Garth.

    "Yuki, this is Av," said Garth as he forced the two to shake hands.

    "Av, I want you to take Yuki under your wing and help him learn to do anything he can to help us around here. I''m a bust man so I''ll leave him to you," said Garth.

    "But-" Av tried to speak before getting cut off.

    "Thank you so much!" said Garth with a sinister grin before running off to talk to the other workers.

    "Ugh, I hate that man. Always making me do his job for him," said Av with an annoyed look on her face.

    "What do I even do here? Can she even see me? I wonder if she''ll hate me just as much as Garth if not more. Should I ask Garth to give me a new instructor?" Yuki asked himself as Av mumbled to herself.

    After a while of standing still, Av finally noticed Yuki.

    "What are you still doing here? I thought you left," said Av.

    "Umm... why would I leave? I''m still waiting for you to give me instructions," Yuki replied.

    "Don''t you get smart with me. I''m your instructor here. I can choose what I do and what I don''t do," Av replied.

    "Got it, she''s one of the snobby prideful idiots who think they rule the world," Yuki thought to himself.

    "For your information, I''m a level 3 yer. Before this ce was put on a lockdown, I used to hunt in the dungeons. I even made it to the halfway point of the first dungeon. If this ce didn''t lock down, I would''ve been one of the most powerful in the whole world," Av said with a prideful look on her face.

    "Well, I''ve got to give her props for actually making it to that point of the dungeon. She might''ve actually gained a lot of levels if she wasn''t in this kingdom. Once a person has the courage to even clear a couple stages of the first dungeon, they''re able to take on the higher stages and all they would need to worry about would be strength.

 Chapter 175 - Check Up

    "I see, that''s an impressive achievement. You''re so much better than everyone else. The only problem I see is that I still don''t understand what you being a level 3 yer has to do with this job. Please just give me a task instead of going on about irrelevant stuff," said Yuki which made Av more angry.

    "How dare you-" said Av as she almost pped Yuki. Seeing as she was a level 3 yer while Yuki had the strength of a level 1 yer, Yuki was prepared to call on One the moment before shended her attack. ??

    "Sorry, I almost lost control. For your first task, go and organize those cement blocks over there," said Av as he pointed towardsrge quantities of cement blocks which were all in stacks but in different areas which made Yuki assume that she wanted them all stacked in one single area.

    "Got it. Thanks," said Yuki as began to walk towards the first stack of blocks and take a single cement block at a time and began to create arge stack of them on his own.

    While he was doing that, Av began to leap off and on the ruble from the kingdom wall which was broken off as she headed towards a table where Garth and a couple others were discussing something together. While Yuki found it odd that they were having a meeting of sorts, he didn''t get bothered by it as all he cared about was finding a way to make the day go faster so he wouldn''t die of boredom until it was night time. Once night came, he could go back to the dungeon which was paradise for him as he enjoyed the thrill of winning.

    Once Yuki finished disassembling the first stack of cement blocks, he moved on to the next stack and began to bring each of the cement blocks from there to therge stack he had made where he could put together all of the blocks from the other stacks.

    There were a lot of construction machines all around the area which the group was working such as a concrete mixer, an excavator, a backhoe loader, a bulldozer and many other machines.

    Even though there were only a small number of workerspared to the task which needed to be done, it looked like they were used to working in tough conditions. Although the task looked to be grueling and seemed like it would take at the bare minimum a whole year toplete, Yuki didn''t mind at all. Of course, this wasn''t because he enjoyed the feelings of havingpanions. It didn''t matter if he worked alone for the whole year. The longer he could create the facade that he was getting integrated into the kingdom''s society, the better. In case there was someone who was keeping a watch on him, Yuki wanted to make sure that not a single person found out that he was sneaking outside the kingdom at night to gain power.

    The reason for this was that even if by some miracle, Yuki managed to permanently escape as he was now, he would just get caught once again. However, even then, if another miracle were to happen and he were allowed to escape without getting caught, his captures would start to raid dungeons at a faster rate as well because they wouldn''t want Yuki to be more powerful than them.

    As long as the people who had captured Yuki stayed arrogant, it would allow Yuki to eventually surpass them in strength. Once that happened, Yuki could leave the kingdom and raid dungeons full time and no matter how many people are sent to raid dungeons after that, Yuki will always be stronger than them. Unlike most people in the world, Yuki didn''t have anything other than dungeon raiding. What he thought he had was family in the form of Marcell and Elpis but due to what he had done in the past, that was all gone now. All that was left for Yuki was to go inside the dungeons and gain strength so he could rule the world. Yuki didn''t even know what he specifically wanted to do after he reached level 100. All he knew was that he needed to be the first person to reach level 100.

    ...

    Elsewhere in the world, a slim but muscr man with his shirt off while wearing blue jeans exited a dungeon along with a couple others behind him.

    "How is everyone doing?" the tall man asked.

    "Fine"

    "Not bad"

    "Could be worse"

    While the answers weren''t bad, they weren''t good either. From the looks of it, it seemed like they were forced to leave the dungeon which meant that they couldn''t clear the dungeon.

    "Okay, let''s rest for 3 days then we can retry it. Apparently, this is where most people have stopped leveling up. However, there''s a rumour that you gain a special type of power when you clear either this dungeon or the ones with closely following it. That''s why we can''t give up now. We have to continue going," the tall man said.

    "Well said captain Jing," one of the tall man''s allies said behind him.

    "We''ll stick together until we be the strongest force this world has seen!" the others replied.

    "It won''t be long before I''ll be confident enough to face you, Scar. I''ll make sure to repay you for all you''ve done for me with my fists. However, I won''t be as arrogant as I was previously. I''ll make sure I''m a higher level than you before I attack you. Just to make sure though, I''ll bring my friends along with me. Together, we''ll crush you to the point where you can''t get up any more," Jing thought to himself as he along with hisrades began to head towards a nearby kingdom to rest for a few days.

    "It''s been about a year. Looking back at it now, I''ve changed from what I used to be. I don''t need to run away anymore. I can face all my challenges head on. All I have to thank for this new found power and resolve is you, Yuki. You indirectly help me find peace with myself. I''m genuinely happy for the first time and I can even reject the requests of others without feeling guilty. I will no longer be used like an object!" Jing thought to himself.

    ...

    Somewhere else in the world, a man in a cloak continued to walk through a dark forest with an emptiness in his eyes. He looked to be searching for something but couldn''t find it for some reason.

    From the shadows, a group of goblins surrounded the cloaked man as he looked at him with eyes of hunger and bloodlust.

    "Hello there, can I help you?" the cloaked man asked.

    The goblins couldn''t help but make sounds which no human could understand as they didn''t have the ability tomunicate with humans. Seeing as the human didn''t understand them, all of the goblins leaped at the cloaked man with their fangs facing forward as they attempted to eat him without mercy.

    "That''s unfortunate," the cloaked man said as he raised his palm forward.

    "Activate ability: Ice Control"

    "Recreate"

    The moment a single goblin made contact with the cloaked man''s finger, everything within the forwards became engulfed in ice. The ice had taken control over each object and living thing as it turned them into a sculpture.

    "I hate using my ability for such small matters. Good thing I managed to not kill them. They''ll continue to live but won''t be let out of the ice cages until it melts which should be in about 2 weeks. They only have themselves to me for this. They should''ve sensed my power but they decided to ignore that and attack. Well, I better get going," the cloaked man said as he walked through the now changed ice forest.

    "Where is that dungeon gate?! I''ve found so many other gates except the one I''m looking for. Does the number of dungeon gates decrease as the dungeon''s power increases?" the man asked himself as he continued to walk.

    "Well, it doesn''t matter. I''m a bit disappointed at the news though. I can''t believe that Yuki Kaito was captured. Well, it''s not like it''s going to change anything. That kid has been captured before. What makes them think he won''t escape just like he did previously," the cloaked man continued to speak to himself.

    "Surprise me Yuki. I want to be the one to take you don''t. I won''t be allowing you to simply rot away in the stupid kingdom jail thing. I''lle and rescue you myself if you can''t escape on your own with the next year. I doubt I''ll need to though. I wouldn''t be stupid enough to believe the man who was going to be thergest threat in the entire world was captured by a group of dogs which <strong>they</strong> control. If you''re going to escape from that ce, do the entire world a favour and burn all of <strong>them</strong>," said Scar as he continued on his journey to find the next dungeon he would enter.

 Chapter 176 - Coffee

    After spending what seemed like a few hours gathering the cement blocks together and making onerge stack of them, Yuki was finally done. He had finished his first task at his new job. While it was a lot more exhausting than he thought, it brought out a sense of aplishment in him.

    "I wonder if this was what Zero meant when he told me that I should rely on only myself if I want to feel the greatest sense of satisfaction when I finish something. Well if that''s the case, he wasn''t wrong," said Yuki as he began to head back to talk to Av. ??

    Yuki climbed on all the rubble so he could speak to Av, who was now standing at a table while working on something which looked to be a blueprint for something.

    "Umm.. excuse me," Yuki said in a nervous tone.

    "Oh it''s you," said Av as she turned around to face Yuki with a smug look on her face.

    "What do you want?" Av asked.

    "I finished organizing the cement blocks like you asked. What should I do now?" Yuki asked her. Yuki wanted to get his next task and go away from her as fast as possible. All she would do was annoy him and Yuki didn''t know how much more of it he could take before he would call on One or Zero.

    "Well, There''s not much you can do. How about getting all of us some coffee from the coffee shop nearby?" Av asked rhetorically.

    "Am I actually supposed to do that?" Yuki asked with a confused face. After all, he didn''t realize that he was going to just be an errand boy.

    "Does it look like I''m joking here? Matter of fact, let me call Garth so you believe me," said Av as she ran off to talk to Garth who himself was busy exining something to one of the other workers.

    After Av reached him, she said something to him which caused him to turn his head towards Yuki and nod which indicated that he had Garth''s permission to buy everyone a coffee.

    Once Av realized that Garth had agreed to her request, she quickly marched towards Yuki with thergest grin on her face. It looked like all she could think of was killing Yuki by simply yelling at him.

    "Please leave me alone. Please leave me alone. Please leave me alone," Yuki said in his head as he didn''t want to have a violent altercation with Av.

    "You see that!" said Av with her head held up high as she looked down at Yuki.

    "Yes, you were right. I''ll get everyone coffee. So who do I get the money to buy the coffee from?" Yuki asked.

    "Usually Garth would give it to you but he seems busy, so I''ll pay for everyone''s drinks. Get 17 hot cups of coffee for everyone here," said Av.

    "Ummm, not to be rude but in total there are 18 people," Yuki replied.

    "Hmmm, not really. Including you there would be 18 but you don''t get the privilege of using my money for your own good. I won''t let you have it easy here," said Av.

    "I swear I''m going to kill this girl. She''ll be the motivation which will allow me to clear all the dungeons. Once I get to level 60, I''ll summon all of my treasured des and use their power to torment her and make her go through hell itself," said Yuki in his head as he began to prepare how he''s going to make Av pay for the way she was treating her.

    "Sure, so give me the money," said Yuki.

    After extracting silver from her settings'' options, Av gave Yuki a pouch which held 170 silver.

    "I guess the cost of things has begun to rise. Justst year, the cost at "INFINITE HOTEL '''' was 50 silver per night. With this money, I could''ve spent 3 nights there and still had money to spare. Even in a different world, the concepts from the previous world such as intion still exist. It does make sense though, seeing as how much silver people can make from dungeons and killing monsters, it would only be natural that the prices of things increase. I wonder though, does that stand to be true for NPCs as well?" Yuki asked himself as he began to look for a nearby coffee shop.

    Luckily for Yuki, he was able to find one only 3 minutes away from the construction site. If he didn''t find it by them he would''ve surely gotten lost.

    Once he entered the coffee shop, Yuki was surprised to find that there were a couple people who were actually inside the shop. When Yuki had firste to the kingdom, he was under the assumption that the kingdom was rather gloomy and dead but from the looks of it now, it was much more lively. However it did raise the question of where the people which Yuki''s summon told him about were. From what he had heard, they were a group of bad people which he should stay away from. As such, from the information he had gathered, it was easy to deduce that they would onlye out at night where there would be less people to see them and it would be easier to gang up on their victims. While Yuki had all those questions and concerns, there was only one thing he was supposed to do, that being to get coffee.

    Yuki lined up behind the people who were waiting to order. The line wasn''t that long, especiallypared to the ones at the store which Marcell ran but it was at least a bit popr. After a while, it was Yuki''s turn to order.

    "How may I help you today?" asked the woman behind the counter.

    "Ummm, can I have 17 coffees?" Yuki asked nervously. While Yuki knew it was arge order to make, he didn''t realize how badly the other people around him would react. There were scowls and insults thrown at him which even made Yuki question if he hadmitted a crime or something simr to that.

    "Sorry, it''s not all for me. It''s for my co-workers," Yuki said to thedy.

    "Will that be all?" the woman behind the counter asked Yuki.

    "Wait why am I nervous? I''ve killed so many people. I literally sneak out at night to torment monsters instead of getting tormented by them. I used to be referred to as a demon and have 2 extremely powerful beings at my side. Not to mention my treasured des. Why do I care what these people think. They''re literally pawns in a game which I created the concept for. I can do anything I want," Yuki told himself as he snapped out of the nervous kid facade.

    "No it won''t be me all. I would like to make a separate order. I would like one coffee and a breakfast sandwich," said Yuki as he looked at the menu which was ced on a board above the cashier stand.

    Just saying that made the people who were waiting in line go ballistic. Even though Yuki heard all theints, he didn''t care. However, there was one person who made Yuki more angry than everyone else.

    "Hey there kid, you''re being inconsiderate," said a man behind Yuki as he put his palm on Yuki''s shoulder while holding his other hand in a fist like motion right above Yuki''s head. In doing this, everyone around him gave the man a round of apuse which made him more arrogant. In turn, he threw Yuki on the ground by pushing him too hard.

    "I forgot, I''m no longer a level 21 yer. Even so, I need to fix this right now. Even if there''s someone watching me from the group of people who captured me, I need to show some sign of fight or it''ll look like I''m hiding something," Yuki said to himself.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Fire Sword"

    Yuki stood up with his me constructed de in hand which put everyone in shock but the man who had pushed Yuki to the ground remained calm as he was still in a state of arrogance.

    "Activate ability-" the man started to speak before he was interrupted by Yuki''s de extending then forming around his body, in turn covering him in mes.

    "Don''t worry, my mes won''t hurt you," said Yuki. Hearing that, the man began to try to activate his ability once again.

    "One, switch with me and shock him only. Don''t let anyone else feel even the slightest bit of presence from you," Yuki said.

    "<strong>My pleasure</strong>," said One as he sent a powerful shock of directed presence right at the arrogant man''s heart which made him fall to his knees. Seeing that, One switched back with Yuki whichter took off the surrounding mes.

    All that remained was a man on his knees who looked to have died and came back to life without his soul.

    "Next time, be more patient so this does not happen to you," said Yuki as he looked down at the man and then the people in the shop.

 Chapter 177 - Altercation

    After Yuki made the entire stop go quiet after what he had done to the man who tried to assault him, he turned his head back to the cashier which was frozen in ce herself. However, once Yuki turned around to face her, she snapped back into reality and began to make the order Yuki had requested. While Yuki was just defending himself, he had gone overboard and made it look like he would kill anyone else who got on his bad side.

    "Well, there goes my reputation," Yuki said to himself as he sighed. It hadn''t even been a whole month and he had made himself an outcast. ??

    "H-here you go," said the woman as she began to stack all of the coffee cups for Yuki along with the separate order he made for himself. Seeing that his order wasplete, Yuki opened his inventory to ce all the drinks and food he ordered.

    [Open inventory]

    As Yuki ced all the objects into his inventory, he couldn''t help but think how handy the inventory system was. Not only did it carry as many objects he needed but it also epted objects which weren''t received from monsters or dungeons but it also epted any random object. Even a stick could be ced in it. It acted like a backpack with infinite storage.

    Once Yuki finished cing all of his things in his inventory, he began to walk out of the store. As he did so, the people inside which were blocking his way towards the door moved away as if they were getting parted like the sea.

    "I just hope that I don''t have to deal with this type of exclusion next time. I already know this thing isn''t going to blow over. I guess I''ll just have to live my life as an outcast again. Not that this is new or upsetting. I already have a job and at night, I can go dungeon raiding so I don''t care what these people think of me," Yuki said to himself as he walked towards the construction site.

    As Yuki approached the construction site with a frown on his face, Av seemed to beughing for some reason. Yuki was too tired to deal with her nonsense as well but he needed to act like he did so that his coworkers wouldn''t think that there was something wrong with him. Once he approached Av, who was in a huddle with the other workers including Garth, he asked her the question which she had hoped he would ask.

    "What''s so funny?" Yuki said with an exhausted voice.

    "H-how did your coffee shopping go?" said Av as everyone including herself broke intoughter.

    "Did all the customers jump on you as they beat you up?" Av said as heughed even harder and louder.

    "So you knew what would happen and still sent me there?" Yuki said in an irritated tone.

    "I almost-" Yuki said before stopping himself from saying "I almost killed someone".

    "You almost what? You almost cried?" Av continued to mock Yuki.

    "I don''t have the energy to deal with you," said Yuki as he opened his inventory and handed everyone their cups of coffee. Of course, Yuki red at Av with eyes of death as he handed her her coffee.

    Lastly, Yuki sat on the rubble as he took a cup of coffee out of his inventory for himself.

    "What do you think you''re doing?" said Av as she pped the cup of coffee Yuki was holding onto the ground.

    "Didn''t I tell you that the coffee was only for the rest of us. How dare you use my money for something which I didn''t ask you for?" said Av as she yelled at Yuki.

    Everyone just watched as this took ce. Av seemed to be very angry while not realizing the simple fact that Yuki had used his own money for his own meal. If she had even taken the slightest bit of time to do some basic math, she would''ve realized that Yuki had spent her money just as she had intended since all of the coffee she wanted was ounted for and there was no extra for Yuki to do anything. That would lead to the simple conclusion that Yuki had spent his money instead of hers.

    All while Av yelled at him, Yuki couldn''t help but fill up in rage as he grew tired of her annoying attitude.

    "Zero, make me have the strength and speed of a level 10 yer," said Yuki telepathically.

    "Got it," Zero replied.

    "One, take over for a second and add presence to my right fist," said Yuki under his breath.

    "<strong>Sure</strong>," One replied.

    Before Av could even realize what happened, a fist was right in front of her face as Yuki quicklynded a direct punch to the face which was both equipped with the strength of a level 10 yer plus One''s presence. However, Yuki wasn''t done there. Before Av could hit the ground, he once again punched her but this time, Yuki''s firstnded on her chest on the exact point where her heart was located which caused One''s presence to make contact with her heart, in turn shocking it and making Av have a miniature heart attack.

    As Avy on the ground paralyzed from the shock, Yuki looked down on her as he gave her a look of disappointment.

    "Learn your ce," said Yuki.

    Seeing what had just happened, Garth along with some of the other workers began to run as fast as they could to Av''s rescue.

    "What happened? Why did you do that?" Garth asked in a worried tone.

    "Look, I tried my best to deal with her. I really did. No matter how she talked to me, I always did as she told me. Even when she told me to buy everyone except myself coffee, I listened and paid for my meal with MY money. But even so, she knocked away my drink for no reason. I didn''t even do anything wrong," said Yuki in frustration.

    "I understand that but violence is never the answer. You can''t go around hitting people," Garth said with resentment in his eyes.

    "But if she was the one to hit me, it would''ve been okay though. Why do you treat her so well even though she acts horribly? It''s clear that she doesn''t know how to cooperate with people and has a superiorityplex. So why, why do you treat her better than everyone else," Yuki asked with anger in his voice.

    "That''s enough," said one of the other workers in a gentle voice as he held his palm on Yuki''s shoulder as he began to lead Yuki elsewhere.

    Even though Yuki was still angry, he listened and began to follow the worker as he knew he needed to take a deep breath and calm himself down.

    "So what did you bring me over here?" said Yuki as he and the worker sat down on a pile of rubble far from Garth and Av.

    "You see, there''s a reason why Av gets special treatment. Of course, all of us think that she''s a bit too much to handle which is why we don''t get in her way and agree with her all the time. The boss hired her because she''s his niece. You might believe it to be tant nepotism but you have no choice but to ept it. It''s just the way things are around here. The truth is, he''s the boss and we have to ept whatever he wants. There are nows controlling favoritism so if you want to get a paycheck, just keep your mouth shut and just do your job. That''s what we do and we manage to stay alive here. How about this, you go and apologize, even if it''s fake and I''ll show you something cool when our shift is done," the worker said.

    "Sounds like a n," said Yuki.

    "By the way, what''s your name?" Yuki asked,

    "I''m Elmer, what about you?" Elmer asked.

    "I go by Yuki. I look forward to what you have instored for me," said Yuki as he began to walk back towards Av and Garth.

    Av had managed to get back up and looked both embarrassed and angry. Just as she saw Yuki walk towards her, she rushed to him and punched him to get revenge. Once the attacknded, Yuki looked to be even more enraged but once he looked at Elmer, he managed to calm himself down.

    "I''m sorry for attacking you. It was out of line and I should''ve exined that I had bought the coffee with my own money. I hope you can forgive me," said Yuki and he tried to make it look like it was a sincere apology.

    "Ya whatever. I forgive you. I''m sorry too," Av replied, which caught everyone off guard. It was the first time she had apologized for anything.

    Even as far-fetched as it sounded, most of the workers thought that Yuki might''ve hit Av hard enough to give her manners.

    As Av walked off, Yuki was left standing confused wondering if he won or lost the altercation.

 Chapter 178 - Night Life

    Once Av walked off far enough, Yuki looked down at Garth which still sat on the ground due to him being there tofort Av when she had gotten beat up by Yuki. Even though Av might''ve forgiven Yuki for what he had done, Garth didn''t show any sign of having respect for Yuki. In that situation, a simple sorry wouldn''t do. After all, Yuki had just assaulted Garth''s own rtive. There was no way he could be forgiven so easily. Even if Yuki was still younger than everyone else, having him do that to someone who had blood connections wasn''t something that would be easily forgotten. As such, there was only one thing Yuki could do.

    "Please instruct me on my next task," said Yuki as he bowed to show respect for his boss. In doing this, he showed both a strong resolve but a stronger sense of responsibility and respect which he upheld towards his boss. It was clear that he was sorry for what he had done but didn''t express it in a manner which made him look weak which would just ruin his status and reputation. ??

    Caught off guard, Garth had to think of a quick reply so as not to seem ipetent.

    "Since we''re just starting you off today plus we''re finishing up soon, why don''t you bring those bags of concrete over there and bring them closer to the wall so we can get a head start tomorrow," said Garth as he points to the many both half opened and unopened bags to cement powder which sat all around the construction area. It was just bing clear how unorganized the workers were. Of course what else could''ve been expected of a group of people that were gathered at thest minute. It wasn''t like they were professional engineers. They were just a makeshift construction team.

    "Okay," said Yuki as he began to start the task he was given. Even though there was a weird tension between him and his boss, Yuki did as he was told. He didn''t understand how someone could be so easily blinded by the fact that a person in their workce was creating unnecessary problems for everyone just because they were blood rted. Though, thinking about it only annoyed Yuki more than he already was. So, Yuki decided to bury his thoughts and only think aboutpleting his task so he could leave for the day.

    Once the sun began to set and Yuki finished cing thest bag of cement on the stack which he had created right beside the stack of cement blocks, it was finally time to leave for the day. Yuki looked more exhausted than everyone else. Though it was most likely because he was new to the work and his original level 1 body wasn''t impressive. Yuki''s base stats was that of a less than average teen. Comparing that to his level 21 body which was basically demonic was unfair. However, even though Yuki looked like all he wanted to do was sleep for all of eternity, there was one thing left which he needed to do.

    "Nicely done with your apology," said Elmer as both he, Yuki along with some other workers began to leave the site as they waved goodbye to Garth letting him know that they were leaving for the day.

    "I just did what I should''ve done. Anyway, what was the thing you wanted to show me once we finished work?" Yuki asked out of curiosity.

    "Ah, don''t worry, we''ll get to that soon enough. But before we go there, I need to make sure that you understand that what we''ll do would be considered illegal," Elmer told Yuki.

    "Oh no! Something illegal? I can''t possibly participate in such vile actions. It''s not like I haven''tmitted crimes that would make all of these guys disgusted by just looking at me if they learned about them," Yuki sarcastically said to himself before giving Elmer a proper reply.

    "Sure. I don''t really mind," Yuki replied to Elmer in a calm tone. If he had replied with arrogance, it would make him look foolish and make him seem like he did not understand what he was getting into. However, if he had replied with excitement, it would make it clear that Yuki frequently partook in shady activities.

    In the group which were headed towards whatever ce Elmer was guiding Yuki to, consisted of 4 people. That included Yuki, Elmer and 2 other guys who were just following them. After a couple dozen turns and twists, Yuki was greeted by a lot of bright lights and people.

    "What is this ce?" Yuki asked Elmer in pure amazement. It was like looking at a festival which was hidden from the rest of the world.

    "Isn''t it spectacr? This is the ce where people like use to rx. But be on your best behaviour. If you see a man with bodyguards, show him your utmost respect," Elmer told Yuki as they headed towards one of the small open shops which had about 5 stools and looked to be empty.

    "Can I get the usual and the same for my 2 pals?" Elmer told the store owner which instantly got to work at making their drinks.

    "What about you? What would you like Yuki?" Elmer asked.

    "Can I just get what you''re getting?" Yuki asked as his voice drifted off once he realized what the store served. It was a bar where people would by alcoholic drinks. Just as Elmer and his two friends broke intoughter along with the store owner, Yuki quickly corrected his answer.

    "Sorry, I didn''t realize what type of store this was. Is it okay for me to get something non alcoholic?" Yuki asked the bartender.

    "Well kid, all I have that fits that description is just water," the bartender replied to Yuki.

    "That''ll be fine. I''ll take the water," said Yuki as he began to extract silver so he could pay for his drink but he''d be interrupted.

    "Hey there. Don''t worry about it. I''ll be covering all your expenses for the night. After all you did manage to show that stuck up annoying thing a lesson" Elmer said as he referred to Av.

    "Wait, you guys don''t like her either?" Yuki asked.

    "Like hell we don''t! She''s the most hideous thing to ever exist. We just pretend to like her so we keep our jobs. Especially since we got this new project ahead of us. We''re gonna be filthy rich off of it. By the way Yuki, do all of us a favour and slow down at work and try to distract the boss when you can," one of the other workers who hade along replied to Yuki.

    "I don''t get it though. Wouldn''t it make more sense for you to work faster so you can finish earlier?" Yuki asked the man who had replied to him.

    "You see Yuki. You''ve got a lot to learn about a job. In our industry, we get paid by the hour. So the more hours we ''work'', the more we get paid. There''s almost not a single way to benefit from working harder. The chance of you getting promoted is so slim that you better ept the fact that you''ll be working in the same position for the rest of your life. So, what I''m trying to say is that if we finish this project fast or slowly, our pay rate will still be the same. So it would be better to get the same rate of pay for a longer period of time than a shorter period. It may not make sense to you that people don''t benefit from working harder but you''ll have to ept it," the man exined to Yuki.

    It was like Yuki''s eyes had been opened. Everything the man said made sense. While it was dirty and unfair for the people who were paying for the project of fixing the wall, they did what they had to do so they could make a living.

    "I guess that makes sense. I''ll be sure to not do things as fast as I can next time," Yuki replied.

    After a while of drinking and talking, the conversation reached a point where Yuki had to make a decision which would be difficult.

    "You seem like a smart kid, Yuki. I have a proposition to make for you," Elmer began to speak.

    "Sure, I''ll hear you out," Yuki replied with a trusting tone.

    "Well, you probably know about a group of people who go around doing stuff which might seem a bit confusing to say the least. However, they get judged harshly. The people I''m talking about act as a government and collect taxes from people for their own good. So, I''m asking you, would you like to join that group?" Elmer offered.

    Right as Yuki heard the proposition that was made, he knew exactly the group Elmer was referring to. It was the people that his summon told him about when he first moved into his new house. While he knew gang members spread out all across the kingdom, he didn''t expect his coworkers to be involved in it.

 Chapter 179 - Steam

    "There''s no need to sugar coat things, you can be upfront about things. It''ll be for the better since I''ll end up finding out anyway. Just tell me the full details now," Yuki told Elmer.

    "Okay then. Have it your way. What I''m asking of you is to join the gang we''re part of. It pays well and you can do whatever you want once you''re in the higher ranks there. Of course, when we bring in valuable members such as yourself, we getpensated very well," Elmer exined. ??

    "But why would you want me to join? I''m just an average kid," Yuki replied to Elmer.

    "Come on, stop it with the lies. We saw what you did Av. There''s no way the average person would have done what you did. You see, this kingdom was closed off from the rest of the world shortly after we all came to this world. We didn''t have a say in this matter and were forced to ept our news lives here. Even though we weren''t told why we were getting closed off, it still happened without any consultation. Anyone who tried to fight back was sentenced to death. Of course, after a couple public executions, we stopped fighting back and epted our fate. As such, we weren''t allowed to hunt monsters. You see where I''m going with this?" Elmer asked Yuki which was replied back to with a nod from Yuki.

    "That''s great. But to make sure you understand, I''ll exin everything in detail. And so, since we weren''t able to hunt monsters or go into dungeons, we aren''t able to increase our strength and level up. Which means, whatever level we had before the kingdom closed is what we''re stuck with. Since most people either temporarily or permanently quit hunting monsters in the beginning, this kingdom only consists of mostly level 1 and 2 yers with the rare 3 or 4 yers. That said, Av is part of the rare group. Which is why it''s all the more impressive that you managed to knock her to the ground. Even if she wasn''t ready for a fight, if you were a level 2 let alone a level 1 yer, you wouldn''t have even made her move, which is why it''s all the more impressive that you have that much strength. If you were to join our gang, you would quickly rise through the ranks and of course, you would bepensated pretty well," Elmer exined.

    "Would it be okay if I have some time to think your offer over?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes of course. It''s not like any of us will be able to leave this kingdom. You can have all the time you need" Elmer replied to Yuki.

    While Yuki didn''t care if he joined or didn''t join the gang which secretly controlled the kingdom, there was something that was bugging him. If Yuki was just a regr person who hadmitted the same crimes that Yuki had previously done and was in turn sent to the kingdom, that version of Yuki would be stuck in there for the rest of his life. There was no escape for him. Of course, he could try to escape using his ability but the ne which was limiting his strength probably had a tracker which would mean that he would either get sent back to the kingdom with tighter security or he would face a more severe sentence. It was frightening to think about because if Yuki didn''t have Zero and One by his side, he would have been doomed a long time ago.

    After having their serious conversation, Yuki and Elmer along with the other 2 workers returned to their casual conversation as they tried to drift from the serious mood. Once they finished drinking, they went to many of the other stores and activity stands as they explored the hidden sector of the kingdom.

    Of course, in doing so, Yuki arrived back at his housete into the night. He doubted that he would get any sleep so he thought of doing something productive as he waited for the sun to rise once more before he had to leave for work.

    The most obvious choice would''ve been for Yuki to go back to the dungeon and get some dungeon clearing done before he would go for another day at work. However, there was a slight problem with that. Seeing that he needed most of the night to clear even 1 stage of a dungeon, it would be impossible for him to do it in less than half the time he usually had. So, Yuki opted to take a rest day from dungeons and instead do something else.

    "Hey Zero, can you do me a favour and teleport me to a forest with some weak goblins and when you do, take this ne off me but make it so that I''m still a level 1 yer while I''m in that forest," Yuki told Zero telepathically.

    As expected, Zero did as he was told by his master.

    "I have done as you asked. If you wish for anything else, please ask," Zero replied before going quiet once again.

    Now in the night, Yuki stood in a dark forest as he prepared to battle with goblins which had simr strength to him. Of course, he had done battle like this previously, more specifically when he first started hunting monsters but due to the way he leveled up, Yuki was always either too weak or too strong for his enemies. However, that no longer existed since this was the point where his matchups were the fairest.

    Standing in front of Yuki were regr looking goblins, much simr to the ones he battled in the first stage of the 3rd dungeon and the goblins he massacred to reach level 2. They weren''t carrying any weapons which made it seem more fair. Nevertheless, if they had weapons or not, Yuki would still enjoy his time letting off some steam.

    With each punch he threw at the goblins, he remembered Av and how much he wanted to beat her up. Due to her having Garth as her shield, Yuki would never be able to get to her. So, Yuki decided to settle for imagining her as the goblins then beating them until they were unconscious. Unlike many of his other fights, Yuki wasn''t battling to kill, all he wanted was to let all he pent up anger out, there was no need for bloodshed in that moment.

    With his turn, dodge and hit Yukinded, he felt himself getting happier. However, the goblins weren''t going to allow Yuki to walk all over them like they were just simply trash. While Yuki was busy dealing with just one of the goblins, the other one devised a n to hinder Yuki.

    Right as Yuki knocked away the goblin he was fighting and turned his attention towards the second one, the remaining goblin quickly leaped in front of Yuki and mmed a pile of dirt right in Yuki''s face. In doing so, Yuki could no longer see what was happening around him as he panicked while trying to get the dirt out of his eyes.

    As Yuki was distracted, one of the goblins put Yuki in a head lock while the other one continuously pummeled Yuki''s chest with a barrage of endless punches. Due to their strength being nearly equal, Yuki found himself in a tight situation. It was just like fighting one of the monsters in the dungeon. Although this did go on for some time, the goblins'' perfect n came to a stop when Yuki grew tired of holding back.

    "Hey Zero, make it so that these two goblins can''t die," said Yuki as he threw the goblin which was holding him in. head lock to the side.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Using his ability, Yuki engulfed the other goblin which was still busy punching his chest of fire. Seeing as the goblins were no longer annoying him, Yuki cleared the dirt off of his eyes and began to retaliate.

    Yuki quickly charged towards the goblin which was set aze and began to punch him directly in the face. After only a couple hits, the goblin fell to the ground however, Yuki wouldn''t stop there as he beat the immobilized goblin without a second wasted in between punches.

    While was doing this, the other goblin which had been knocked to the side quickly came in as he tried to save his friend from the merciless beating which Yuki was giving him. However, just as Yuki had done before, he knocked the goblin away once more.

    After continuously doing this until the sun rose and his arms grew exhausted, Yuki finally stood up as he looked at the sun with a smile on his face.

    "I''m done for the day. Zero, teleport me back to my house in the kingdom now," said Yuki as his face looked exhausted.

    Within a blink of an eye, Yuki was inside thefort of his home. However, he would''ve got the luxury of rxing as he had to go to work very soon. So, just as he had done the previous night, Yuki opened his inventory and drank 1 sleep deprivation cure potion and 1 full status recovery potion.

 Chapter 180 - Cards

    "I''m back to being good as new. Although, I wonder if not sleeping or resting for this long will have any consequences. I manage to keep my potion consumption to a minimum so I doubt the system will punish me with the 10 potion rule. However, I don''t know if there are any other hidden rules which I don''t know about," said Yuki as he locked the door to his house from the outside as he began to head out for work.

    "Well, that''s not as important as what Elmer talked to me about yesterday. I can''t believe that there are so many people involved with the group. However, it would be for the best that I join them. It''s not like I had a choice. If I were to refuse their offer, they would most likely target me until I give in. The only problem is that they operate during the night, which is when I''m gone to clear the dungeon stages," Yuki said to himself as he began to head for the construction site.??

    When he began to lose hope that he wouldn''t be able to do both things at the same time and would have to instead either never grow stronger or be targeted by a gang like group for a long time, an idea came to Yuki''s head.

    "How could I forget! It''s been in my face the entire time," said Yuki with a smile on his face as he finally figured out what he would do.

    "All I have to do is change my ability to a clone type ability, I mean I''ve done it before. This time however, I''ll need it to have moreplex thought and understanding of the world so it would probably be best if I were to create only one clone which will stay in this kingdom while I go off and hunt monsters. To add on, I can ask Zero to move my ne on my clone so that I don''t have to worry about a scenario where both me and my clone have the limiting ne," Yuki said to himself as he finally made it to the construction site.

    Yuki ended up arriving earlier than most of the other workers due to him over estimating how much time had passed after he came back from the forest. Eventually, all of the workers did start showing up and got to doing what they were doing the previous day. However, Yuki found himself lost since he didn''t have a specific job to do. As such, he would go off doing small tasks and errands which he received from either Garth himself or the other workers. While Garth still looked to be still quite upset with Yuki due to what had taken ce the previous day, his mood eventually changed to be more epting of Yuki.

    Of course, Yuki made sure that he wasn''t working as hard the previous day as he was taking the advice he had received from Elmer and the other two workers when he had gone out to get drinks the previous night. All while he was working, Yuki noticed Elmer look at him a couple times which was weird, yet it was understandable. It was clear that he was expecting an answer for the proposition he had made the previous night. Although he had said Yuki could have as long as he wanted to think about it, he clearly looked like he wanted an answer as soon as possible.

    While Yuki would''ve said he needed more time if he was asked a few hours ago, that had changed. He had the perfect n which would allow him to escape from the kingdom while not being suspected of doing so by anyone. It was unfair how Yuki could abuse Zero''s power so much while others had to do everything themselves. However, that was just because Yuki had gotten lucky. If anyone had died right before Yuki, they would''ve gotten to use Zero instead of Yuki. Out of everyone, Yuki ended up the person toplete the counter and in turn be the final person who needed to die for that era which was just considered a round of a game by Zero.

    ...

    Once the day hade to a close and everyone began to head out for the day, Elmer along with his 2 friends from the previous day began to walk behind Yuki. Once they had gotten far enough, Elmer spoke.

    "I like what you did today. You actually listened to what we told you and began to work slower," said Elmer with a fake smile.

    "Just get to it. I know that you''re not here to talk about simple matters," Yuki replied.

    "Well, you''re as impatient as ever. What we''re here for is our answer for the proposal we had offered you," Elmer said, which confirmed Yuki''s thoughts.

    "If that''s the case, I already have my answer for you. But just out of curiosity, what would happen if I were to refuse?" Yuki asked, which shocked Elmer and his friends a bit.

    "Our group has a 0 tolerance policy on disrespect so what would most likely happen is that your house would be raided and destroyed. Next, you would be kidnapped and tortured until you gave in and joined us. Of course, you already knew that. There was only one correct answer from the beginning," said Elmer.

    "Well, I guess I have no choice. I''ll be joining you after all. However, I''ll need about a day to get myself prepared. And just to make sure you understand, I wouldn''t think about changing my mind since there''s nowhere I could possibly run to. I''ve already agreed and don''t n to change my mind any time soon," said Yuki as he shook hands with Elmer before parting ways and heading for his house.

    As Elmer and his friends left, a quietugh andments could be heard. However, they weren''tughing orughing. They were just happy.

    "We actually did it!"

    "The boss will be so happy that he''ll have no choice but to give us an increased pay and we might even jump up a tier for bringing him in."

    "It''s rare to find people with his strength but it''s even rarer to find those who would be willing to join us on their terms. I mean, all of the others had to be forced after all," the three of them said as he continued to walk towards a ce so they could celebrate.

    On the other hand, Yuki was also happy. He would no longer need to spend his days in that horrible boring kingdom full of people who would amount to nothing. He could finally have his freedom. More than anything, he could hunt monsters in the dungeon as much as he wanted and grow in strength exponentially. That would mean that he could finally bring hell upon his captures and the world itself. There was no way he would allow himself to be a failure.

    "Just wait for me. It won''t be long until your king returns," said Yuki with an evil grin on his face.

    ...

    Elsewhere in the world, a group of people gasp as they read the newspaper in a bar. Seeing what they had read in the newspaper, they quickly rushed to show their leader.

    "Captain Jing, isn''t this the man which you sought to defeat?" one of them asked as they passed the paper to Jing.

    Surprised at what he heard, Jing took the paper and began to read it for himself and it stated exactly what he had feared.

    "Mass murderer Yuki Kaito has been captured and is currently being held prisoner in the most secure ce in the world."

    However, instead of feeling angry or sad, Jing broke intoughter.

    "What''s so funny? Haven''t you been working so hard so that you can surpass him?" another one of hisrades asked Jing.

    "Did you read the wording properly? It doesn''t say executed or killed. It just says captured. People will never learn," said Jing.

    "Can you be more specific?" asked the man who had passed Jing the newspaper.

    "I should''ve told you this earlier but before I met you guys, I used to be just a representative for a kingdom. While I was doing my job, his name came up as he was sentenced to life in prison for killing a couple people which was what started the massacre of over 3000 people. Even though he was captured and he thought that he would no longer be a threat since we surrounded him with people who should''ve been as strong as him, we fell into his trap. He always has cards up his sleeve which he doesn''t reveal until the veryst minute. If he had been killed then my journey would''vee to a close but seeing as he was simply captured, it means that my journey to surpass him has just started. We better get moving, it''s only a matter of time before that demon descends upon our world," said Jing as he stood up and left the bar to return to the dungeon.

 Chapter 181 - I No Longer Have Fear

    [Set ability: Clone]

    [Specifications: A single clone will be constructed to replicate the behaviours of the user]

    [Draw back: Only a single clone can be constructed]

    "Hey, Zero. Can you make it so that when I make my clone, the ne transfers on to it from me?" Yuki asked.

    "Yes, that is possible for me to do," Zero replied.

    "Great! Now all that''s left is to go with the n," said Yuki before activating his ability.

    "Activate ability: Clone," said Yuki before summoning the perfect clone. It really was another version of him which looked the exact same way. Of course, just as Zero promised, the moment the clone was summoned, the ne was transferred onto the clone from Yuki.

    "Umm hello?" Yuki said as he looked at the clone which was standing still.

    "Yes I know that you want to test if I''m real. I am, so get going. I have all your memories so I''ll be fine here," said the clone.

    "Well, it''s a bit weird to be talked to by myself. Nevertheless, I''ll leave right now, I''ve already wasted enough time in this ce," said Yuki before speaking to Zero once more.

    "I''ve finished what I wanted now. Zero, teleport me back to the dungeon gate now, I need to start getting stronger as soon as possible," said Yuki.

    Without having to reply, Zero instantly teleported Yuki back to the dungeon which he walked straight into without a moment of hesitation.

    As for Yuki''s clone, he had his own adventures to go on back in the kingdom. The first of which was to deal with which would take ce the next day after work. Until then, he would simply wait it out until it was time for him to make his move.

    While Yuki was heading towards the save point which he left off at, he quickly remembered onest thing he needed to finish off beforepletely shutting himself in the dungeon where he would be in constant battle.

    "Last thing, Zero, I need you to give my clone the stats of a level 2 yer with slightly increased strength. If he''s going to join them, he needs to also make up for the strength he''s rumoured to have. I can''t let him be too strong for them either so level 2 is perfect for him," said Yuki.

    "Got it," said Zero before forcibly increasing the clone''s stats. In doing so, even the clone felt himself getting stronger.

    [If you would like to move to the 3rd stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 3 difficulty: level 12]

    This was obviously a lie since the stage was optimized for Yuki so the monster would have simr strength to him. As such, the fight would be much more difficult than if he were fighting an actual group of level 12 monsters.

    Just as he walked through the white light, indicating that he was going to challenge the stage, Yuki saw who his opponents would be. It was a group of about 50-70 goblins who were each holding a wooden bat. Some of them were even in a gangster-like position which was them squatting with their baseball bat looking weapon held over their shoulders.

    While it was funny to look at first, Yuki realized that he would have to face those goblins which is when the fear started to set in. While it wouldn''t cut him, the baseball bats looked to be able to break at least a bone or two with a single hit. Seeing that there were anywhere from 50 to 70 goblins, it would be inevitable that Yuki would get hit.

    Even so, Yuki charged straight into battle as he was going to wage war as a one man army. He quickly leaped into the air as he gained the height advantage beforending on the shoulders of one of the goblins. Yuki quickly kicked the goblin to the ground before taking his bat and beginning to fight the real battle at hand.

    Without even blinking, Yuki swung the bat in his hand as hard as he possibly could at another goblin which was attempting to attack Yuki. Just as the two shed, Yuki''s bat ended up breaking off. Even so, Yuki wouldn''t give up as he let go of what was left of his bat and reached out to the bat of the goblin which he was facing. Once Yuki grabbed hold of the head of the bat, he pulled it closer to him which forced the goblin to be pulled as well. Just then, Yuki brought his foot to the chest of the goblin before kicking him away which forced the monster to let go of his weapon. Once again, Yuki had another bat to defend himself with.

    Right as he turned around, Yuki realized that behind him were 5 goblins each about tond a devastating blow to Yuki''s head. In that moment, Yuki''s instincts kicked in which made him leap backwards, in turn avoiding the attack.

    Yuki quickly flipped the bat in his hand so he could hold it properly using the hilt instead of the head before charging once again to face the goblins. With a devastating swing, Yuki managed to make a direct hit at the heads of 4 of the 5 goblins which attempted to simultaneously attack him. However, as the bat reached the 4th head, it broke off afternding a hit at it''s head. Even so, Yuki let go of his second bat and reached for the weapons of the first 2 goblins he had hit which had taken the most amount of damage. Since they were barely conscious, this task was easy.

    Now that Yuki was dual wielding baseball bats. He no longer needed to watch out for attack as he would be the only one doing the attacking. It would no longer be a war, instead, it would turn into a massacre.

    With a grin on his face, Yuki charged towards all the goblins with both bats in hand as he quickly cleaned through the swarms of goblins which each looked to be formidable monsters on their own. After making so many attacks and making contact with his enemies, Yuki''s bats finally broke and it was time for him to find a new pair. That would be a deadly mistake as he had already let down his guard but now that he was distracted as well, he was asking to get murdered.

    As Yuki looked around in search of a good pair of baseball bats to clear up what was left of the goblins, one of the remaining bravely sprinted towards Yuki before hitting a critical direct hit on Yuki''s head.

    Without even realizing what had happened, Yuki fell to his knees as he bled from his head. Just the headache which came in a few momentster was enough for Yuki to wish for death right in that moment.

    "Damn it, I can''t be reckless here. That''s what even caused me to fall so behind everyone who''s striving for the title of the first level 100 yer. I can''t continue to live like this. I need to get more serious," said Yuki as his eyes changed along with expression.

    While Yuki was still on the ground, a couple baseball bat hits managed to make contact which hurt like hell. What Yuki felt wasn''t exaggerated. All he wanted to do was die at that moment. Even though Yuki thought about using a potion for a moment, he remembered what Zero had told him. The more he works for his goal, the more he''ll enjoy his reward.

    "Why can''t I move?" Yuki asked himself as he began to lose consciousness. At that moment, he noticed that his legs along with the rest of his body were shaking.

    "No... Am I scared?" Yuki asked himself in disbelief.

    Even though he had believed that he would never fear death due to having Zero by his side. There was no reason for him to be scared of death since there was a being which was above all logic which protected him. However, as heid on the ground while getting beaten, Yuki recognized his true feelings.

    "I don''t want to die," said Yuki with tears in his eyes as he looked around for a miracle to help him stay alive. Just a little bit of hope would''ve been enough. However, as he looked around, Yuki realized the cold truth. He didn''t have anyone to help him. He was all alone.

    "I get it now. So this is why people choose to haverades. I''m happy for them," Yuki said as he wiped away his tears from his eyes. He acknowledged that no one would care if he cried or died, he was all alone.

    Yuki stood up even while getting constantly attacked by bats which had the strength of trucks.

    With determination in his eyes, Yuki looked directly in the eyes of one of the goblins which was attacking him. Without turning his eyes away from the goblin. Yuki smashed the bat and the goblins were carried into pieces with his bare fist.

 Chapter 182 - Battle

    Without turning his eyes away from the goblin. Yuki smashed the bat and the goblins were carried into pieces with his bare fist.

    "I''m alone, so what? I''ll make up for not havingrades by pure strength. I don''t care if you have weapons. I''ll break those weapons then I''ll break you!" Yuki yelled out as he used his bare fists to battle against what remained of the goblins which carried bats as their weapons.

    Even though Yuki was getting hit in the arms and legs with the bats, he didn''t feel pain any longer. All he did was turn his attention towards his prey and attack with unrelenting force. Once Yuki had set his sights on his target, their chance of survival was non-existent.

    After fighting for so long, there was only a single goblin left. Even so, it looked more confident than all the others. After witnessing its kind being wiped out one by one, that goblin still believed that it stood a chance at winning against the demon called Yuki Kaito.

    [Hoodlum Goblin: Gunnar]

    "I guess you''re all that''s left of this stage," said Yuki as he grabbed hold of a baseball bat whichid on the ground. Yuki didn''t look for the quality of it as he would only need one hit to finish things off.

    As both the goblin and Yuki walked to each other while they both carried their bats and stood in a stand still, only one thought remained in both their heads.

    "Kill"

    The first to attack was the goblin which swung it''s bat as hard as it could in hopes of knocking off Yuki''s head out of his body with that single attack. Unfortunately for him, Yuki didn''t even move an inch. While he bled from his nose and head, Yuki acted as if he wasn''t even scratched. That was when things became clear.

    "It doesn''t matter if the system gives you the same strength which I hold. At the end of the day, I''ll always be the victor!" Yuki said before swinging his own bat with all his might. This time, Yuki was the one to knock off his opponent''s head with a single strike.

    Yuki spit on the ground to clear his mouth before heading towards the stage gate to set its save point and move on to the next stage right away. Yuki had no intention of using potions anymore. At least for the duration of his stay in the 3rd dungeon.

    [+150000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 21: 1078500/10 million]

    While walking towards the stage tunnel, an item fell from the stage ceiling just as it had done so in every previous stage.

    [Item drop: Goblin''s Bat]

    [Rank: C]

    [Attack: 200-500]

    [Description: Power: A bat which is capable of changing the amount of damage it does depending on who the user is. Just as human society houses those who are unable to be enveloped into societal standards of life, goblins also have those kinds amongst them. Those who don''t do as they are told and choose the life of crime are looked down upon by all as they cannot understand why someone would opt for such a life. Freedom? Money? Fame? It is none of that. Those who choose a life of crime are never given a choice. They''re instead forced into it by either physical force or being manipted into it. A sane creature would never pick a life of danger over that of a stable one as all a creature naturally seeks is peace within oneself.]

    "Cool! I got a bat. I like using you so you''re not going into my inventory. I''m going to use you as my main weapon for this dungeon then we''ll see about it once I leave this ce," said Yuki as he headed for the stage tunnel so he could move on to the next stage,

    [Stage three: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 4th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage 4 difficulty: level 12-13]

    Yuki stepped forwards without hesitation as he prepared to bring hell itself to the monsters which awaited him in the 4th stage of the 3rd dungeon.

    ...

    Back at the kingdom which he was supposed to be held prisoner in, Yuki''s clone began to head towards the construction site for another day of hard work. Once he arrived at the construction site, he began to take orders from Garth along with the other workers as he tried to help around. Since he was still basically a newbiepared to all of the others, all he could do was help out with mundane tasks. He wasn''t allowed to deal with any of therge or even small equipment. Yuki, or more specifically, Yuki''s clone was just a choir boy.

    However, his status would change when the night came in.

    Once the day at work was finished and the sun began to set, everyone began to grab their things and head out to either their homes or other activities which they decided on their own free will.

    Just as he expected, Yuki''s clone began to get followed by Elmer and his two friends as they began to head for the meeting ce where Yuki would officially join the gang. Everything would work out in the end.

    "Are you finally ready to join us Yuki?" Elmer asked in an excited voice.

    "Yes I am. I can''t wait to be part of a criminal organization which gues the people of this poor kingdom," said Yuki in a sarcastic tone.

    "I''m just kidding. I don''t have a sense of justice so as long as I get some money, I''m fine with doing anything you want," said Yuki as they finally walked into a shady bar in which almost everyone was quiet.

    Right as they entered, Elmer along with his two friends bowed to the man who was sitting in the centre of the room. Of course, Yuki didn''t follow suit as he didn''t see a need to bow to someone.

    "You imbecile! Bow down to the king!" Elmer told Yuki''s clone.

    "It''s fine. Let him be. I''ll make him respect me so much that he''ll have to bow down to me," said the bearded man as he stood up from his chair. Once he did that, everyone moved away in fear as they realized what was about to go down.

    "How about me and you have a little sparring match?'''' The person who looked to be the leader of the gang told Yuki''s clone.

    "He probably knows that I''m around a level 3-4 yer and just wants to humiliate me. I don''t have ess to One or Zero so it''ll be tough but I think there''s a way for me toe out on top," Yuki''s clone said to himself.

    "That''s fine by me but I want to set a couple rules," Yuki''s clone said.

    "Sure, go on. Do whatever you need to do to ensure that you won''t die here," the leader mocked Yuki. While he was attempting to make Yuki''s clone loseposure, that wouldn''t work since Yuki had already faced an opponent that was already good at that. That opponent being hades from thest stage of the 2nd dungeon.

    "Thank you for your generosity. I assume you''ll be using a weapon?" Yuki''s clone asked the leader of the gang.

    "Of course. I''ll be using these brass knuckles. You can use whatever weapon you would like as well. Or if you''re too scared, we can just use our fists," the leader offered.

    "Thank you for the information. I would prefer to use a weapon. I don''t have the weapon I would like to use though. Could some allow me to borrow their dagger if they have one?" Yuki''s clone asked.

    While at first people hesitated, once their leader gave them a re of confidence, one of them happily gave their dagger to Yuki''s clone as they assumed that he would die. Some people even looked as if they were trying to hold back augh as they were so sure that Yuki''s clone would be humiliated in a few moments.

    "So how do we decide the winner of the battle?" Yuki''s clone asked.

    "Whoever says that they give up first loses," the leader said before quickly rushing towards Yuki''s clone.

    The leader went in with a strong right hook which looked to be strong enough to kill a lion. However, his own weakness would be his downfall. Right before the leader''s punchnded, Yuki''s clone lightly kicked the man''s feet which forced him to fall over. However before the leader''s head could even touch the ground, Yuki''s clone lightly cut the skin under the leader''s eye before pointing his dagger at his eye.

    No one could believe what they had just seen. If a person had blinked within the moment, they had basically missed the entire fight.

    The one weakness the leader had was that hecked experience. Even though Yuki didn''t have a lot of it himself, he had at least managed to attain over double the amount the leader of the gang had.

    "I.. give.. up," the leader said as he breathed heavily.

 Chapter 183 - Boss

    "I.. give.. up," the leader said as he breathed heavily.

    Everyone in the room went silent from seeing what had just happened. Of course there were all types of reactions from excited to angry. However, no one dared to move an inch from where they stood, not that they could in the first ce. Everyone had been caught off guard that they forgot how to move.

    Once hearing the leader admit his defeat, Yuki''s clone helped the man get back up on his feet so that they could get started with proper introductions. Just as the man turned around to go to his seat so that he may resume the introductory process, he quickly turned back around to face Yuki''s clone as he aimed to go for a surprise attack with his brass knuckles.

    Seeing this, Yuki''s clone quickly ducked as he avoided the attack then went in for a quick leg spin which once again made the leader lose his bnce and fall to the ground once more. However, this time, Yuki''s clone looked more serious as if anyone had moved, he would kill them all.

    As the bossid on the ground with his face looking up at the bar ceiling, Yuki''s clone quickly got on one knee as he grabbed the leader with his cor.

    "Those brass knuckles.. take them off," said Yuki''s clone, which was ignored by the leader.

    "NOW!" said Yuki''s clone as he pointed his de at the leader''s neck.

    Seeing as how his opponent had changed, the boss did as he was told and took off the brass knuckles so that he could no longer fight.

    "Next, admit that you lost," Yuki''s clone said as he tightened his grip on the boss''s cor.

    "Ok ok, please stop that. You''re killing me. Fine, I lost. Are you happy now?" the leader asked Yuki''s clone.

    "No, not yet. Finally, get your things and get out of here right now," Yuki''s clone demanded, which set off everyone in the room. Hearing the clone''s words, everyone in the room began to circle Yuki''s clone as they attempted to attack him all at once.

    "I wouldn''t make any stupid decisions if I were you," said Yuki''s clone with a grin and he brought the dagger closer to the boss''s neck.

    "I''ll leave just please don''t kill me. All of you, back down as well," said the boss. Hearing his words, everyone moved back to where they were as they tried to hold back their tears as they watched their boss walk out as he forcibly retired.

    "I''m sorry you had to watch that. Anyway, I''ll be taking over from now on," said Yuki''s clone, which clearly angered a lot of people.

    "In most cases I would tell you to leave if you didn''t like me but this time, things are different. You''ll serve me and you won''t have a say in this matter. I won''t settle forzy work so prepare yourselves to be worked to death," said Yuki''s clone. Even though many of them wanted to follow their old boss and start a new gang with him once again, they knew that they would rather keep on living instead. Especially seeing how ruthless and skillful Yuki''s clone was.

    "From now on you shall call me boss and nothing else... Hey, who keeps track of the statistics around here?" Yuki asked.

    "I-I do," a young woman appeared from the shadows. She had silky blonde hair and wore a tight ck skirt with a ck coat and white undershirt. While many of the other guys seemed interested in her, Yuki''s clone paid no attention to her since he had a job to do.

    "Good. Now, tell me, how many members do we have within each level?" Yuki''s clone asked her. To answer her new boss''s question, the woman pulled out a book which she had been carrying with her hands behind her back.

    "Our gang consists of 124 level 1 yers, 15 level 2 yers, 3 level 3 yers with thest target not being acquired yet so we almost have 4. Lastly we have 1 level 7 yer but he doesn''t do much around here," thedy exined.

    "Where is he currently?" Yuki''s clone asked.

    "I''m right here boss," said a skinny man who had a cup of beer in his hand as he drank it while talking to the bartender.

    "Oh great. I could use someone like you in situations such as these. Can you change your ability so it bes one where it teleports you to a specific ce?'''' Yuki''s clone carelessly asked. In his mind, he was still level 21 so someone who was 3 times weaker than him would be of no consequence.

    "Boss... do not talk to him so casually, he gets irritated easily," thedy tried to warn Yuki''s clone but it was toote.

    The skinny man began to slowly walk towards the sitting clone until he was able to look down at him.

    "And why should I listen to you?" the man asked in a smug manner.

    "I have 2 reasons. One, I am your boss now. I don''t care what level you are, you''re still my employee. Secondly, I think I might be able to get you all out of this closed off kingdom. But, if you want any chance of this n working, you''ll have to do as I ask," Yuki''s clone stated.

    "Wait seriously? How do you even n on doing it?" the level 7 yer asked.

    "Well first, we get everyone in the kingdom on our side. By doing that, we can ensure that the constructionpany will slow down their production so that the wall won''t be repaired any time soon so that''ll give us an opening to escape," Yuki''s clone began to exin his n.

    "We already knew that. If we tried to escape from here, they woulde after us," said the level 7 yer.

    "That''s just half the n. The reason I asked if you can change your ability to be one where it allows you to teleport to a specific ce is because I would like you to go to the biggest news provider you can find and inform them of your imprisonment. They won''t believe you but they''ll be intrigued so they''ll send a team to investigate the situation just in case it''s real," Yuki''s clone continued to exin which had gotten the attention of everyone in the bar.

    "Once they arrive on the scene, we all get out of the kingdom and they''ll have no choice but to watch us escape. If they were to try to kill us or even try to ce us back in the kingdom, their secret would be let out. It''s the perfect set up so we can all escape our days of being prisoners in this kingdom," Yuki''s clone finished speaking.

    Hearing his magnificent n, everyone began to cheer. They would finally be able to live normal lives once again after an eternity of imprisonment.

    "But wait, you said that the world doesn''t know of our situation right? How do you know that?" the blonde statistics keeper asked.

    "I have a simple answer to that. Do you remember when the doors of this kingdom were opened for a bit a couple days ago? That was because I was allowed entry into his kingdom because of reasons I do not wish to delve into right now. But basically, the world has never heard of what you''re going through. If I remember correctly, this ce is referred to as the most secure prison in the world. They said that the people who used to live here got moved out into other kingdoms and they were evenpensated for all their troubles with some silver a while ago in the newspaper. A lot of people even thought of <em>them</em> as heroes for going far and beyond to keep the world a safer ce," Yuki''s clone exined.

    "But why call it a prison. It''s not like they brought in any prisoners," the blondedy replied. Realizing what she said and how Yuki was brought in a few days ago, he would quickly be found out for what he really was if he didn''t cover up his tracks quickly.

    "W-Well that''s just their cover up story. I hear they wanted to do illegal human experiments in the human mind to see what caused yers to level up. This entire ce was just a human researchb," Yuki''s clone said. While it didn''t make sense at first, the people quickly began to believe it. As long as any bad was directed at them, humans would buy any lie within an instant.

    "Anyway, it''s not like we have all the time in the world, we need to start preparing for our escape day starting now! And make sure you only inform the n to someone who you have known for more than a week. If you have only met that person a few days ago, don''t tell them. Don''t ask any more questions, just get started already!" Yuki''s clonemanded.

 Chapter 184 - Progress

    In the following days which turned into weeks, Yuki''s clone continued to gather as many people as possible for the uing escape. Of course during the day he worked at the construction site, however, when it came to night he was referred to as "Boss".

    As for the original Yuki, he continuously challenged each of the stages of the 3rd dungeon in which he battled the evolving goblins. No matter how much it hurt him to battle without any potions or the use of Zero or One, Yuki battled his heart out. The only time in which he used potions was once he lost a limb in battle. That was too much of apromise for him and as such justified the use of a full status recovery potion.

    [Stage nine: Complete]

    [Save point reached]

    [If you would like to move to the 10th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

    [Stage ten difficulty: level 15+]

    [Warning: You cannot retreat from this stage]

    [The Goblin King Final Boss: Atli]

    "So you''re my final opponent," said Yuki as he walked towards the 10 metre tall giant which had a wooden club in his hand.

    Atli was a rtively heavy goblin withrge dulled vampire-like teeth. He wore only a pelt which was made of deer skin around his crotch but other than that, he wore minimal clothes. As would be expected of such a disgusting monster.

    "Fallen angel of hell" in hand, Yuki quickly rushed to y the monster. Even though it was a difficult match up, Yuki relentlessly attacked his opponent no matter the many times he himself was struck.

    Back at the kingdom, arrangements were being made to send the level 7 yer off to the biggest news station which had established itself in the new world. Thatpany was "GNE" or better known as "Greatest News Ever". Although a childish name, thepany did its job. well.

    "Are you sure you have everything with you Tarie?l" Yuki''s clone asked the level 7 yer.

    "Yes I''m sure. I already set my ability to teleport me exactly where GNE''s news station is. Once I''m there, I''ll proceed as the n intructs," said Tariel as he waved goodbye to everyone who hade to see him off in the dead of night.

    "Good luck, we''re all counting on you," said Yuki''s clone as he watched his underling activate his ability.

    "Activate ability: Specific Teleportation"

    In the blink of an eye Tariel hadpletely disappeared from the kingdom in which all of the people had been kept as prisoners and appeared in front of arge building inside a kingdom which had many people inside it. The news station itself was right beside the kingdom''s castle. The only thing which had caught Tariel off guard was the change in the day. When he was in the kingdom in which he was imprisoned for so long it was night but in the kingdom which he had just teleported inside, it was bright as day due to the fact that the kingdoms were so far apart from each other.

    "I''ve finally made it. I guess it''s time for all that preparation to pay off," said Tariel as he entered the building with hisrge backpack. He hadn''t noticed it when he first appeared inside the kingdom but Tariel had caused quite a scene when he suddenly teleported out of nowhere. Of course these types of urrences would happen every once in a while but it was enjoyable for the people to watch as this happened much like how kids feel when they see an airne in the sky the first couple of times.

    "Hey, who are you? Do you have an appointment here?" asked the woman at the register of the building.

    "No I do not. Would it be possible for me to schedule one for right now?" Tariel asked her with an insincere smile.

    "We''re currently booked. If you want I can put you in for a day within 2 weeks?" she replied. Even though Tariel had treated her coldly, she didn''t seem to care all that much which indicated that she received that type of treatment more than she should have and in turn gotten used to it.

    "I''m sorry but I can''t do that. I think I have a lead to something which my boss would very much like to know. It only benefits you. I''m not looking to gain money from you. I just want to give you some information then I''ll go along with my day," said Tariel which caught the attention of the woman.

    "Please wait here, I''ll grab my boss," the woman said before going to the back door for a while beforeing back out with an old man behind her.

    "So what''s this I hear about you having a lead on the news about?" the old man asked.

    "Perhaps it would be better to speak of this in a private room sir," Tariel suggested which the old man nodded in agreement to.

    "Please follow me," said the oldman as he walked up the stairs which were hidden by the wall in front of the register. While it looked like there was only a single wall, there in fact were 2 of them. One which connected from the right wall to the half wall which acted as a backboard for the register and then a full wall behind that for the room which the boss was in. The gab which was created from the half wall and full wall was where the staircase was ced.

    There were 4 floors in total in which the first floor acted as the greetings centre and the 2 floors above were where the employees worked. Lastly, the 4th floor was the V.I.P room. Once inside, the old man took a seat in the fancy royal blue couch and began his conversation once again with Tariel.

    "So what have youe to tell me about today?" the old man asked Tariel.

    "I have a lead on something which if it ends up being true could make your news station skyrocket in terms of newspaper buyers. This could be a great opportunity for you to expand your business and earn arge sum of money. All that I ask is that you listen and if you''re interested, send someone from your team to investigate it. Or if you can''t do that yourself, inform another branch of GNE to do so. Of course, I know you won''t give this information to anyone else since thepany you work for as a manager pays based on the amount of good news articles you produce. So think of this very carefully before you make a move," said Tariel, which caught the attention of the old man.

    "Go on already. You keep making me wait to hear what your lead is but you''re not actually telling me," demanded the old man in excitement.

    "You''re right, I''ll just get on with it. I have reason to believe that the prison in which the global governors call "the most secure prison in the world" is just a kingdom in which they took over the kingdom and forcibly imprisoned all the people inside," said Tariel, which shocked the old man.

    "But why would they do that? The area wouldn''t matter, as long as they had the guards, the ce which they called prison wouldn''t matter," the old man retaliated.

    "That''s exactly the reason. By making you believe that they were using the kingdom as a literal prison, they blinded you into thinking that all they wanted was therge area and that the guards would actually act as the real prison. Nevertheless, you would end up believing that the kingdom''s use was to create a prison which they seeded in doing," Tariel further exined.

    "Why go through the trouble of doing that just to keep innocent people inside the kingdom?" the old man began to get suspicious.

    "There''s only one reason for it. They''re using the citizens of the kingdom asb rats for their experiments. I have reason to believe that they n on doing research on the brains of the people and their behaviors to research what caused abilities to exist and how they can be augmented..." Tariel continued to speak.

    "... And that can only mean one thing! They n on learning how to augment abilities so that they can change how many abilities they can have at the same time in turn being able to create an unstoppable force to rule the world with an iron first!" the old man said before getting up from the couch in excitement.

    "Hurry up and leave! I''m going to need to prepare my investigation team. I can''t have you watching out strategies in case you''re a spy. Leave right now or I''ll have someone escort you out of here!" the old man yelled at Tariel.

    "Ok ok, no need to yell, old man. I''ll make my way out of this ce," said Tariel as he ran out like a scared child. Once he made it out of the building, he noticed that a couple people had gathered around the area but he didn''t know why. Nevertheless, he used his ability and teleported back to his kingdom.

 Chapter 185 - Hopeless

    Back at the 10th stage of the 3rd dungeon, Yuki was in a heated battle with The Goblin King Final Boss: Atli. After getting hit with the final boss''s club, Yuki jumped back before deciding to take his battle seriously.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki pulled out "The underworld''s holy weapon" which was the bident he had earned after clearing thest stage of the 2nd dungeon. Yuki hadn''t gotten a treasured de from the dungeon so far so it meant that he would get it from the final stage. That of course was only if his hypothesis on how the treasured weapons worked was correct.

    In a final attack as Yuki stood which blood pouring all out of his body, he jabbed the bident into the stage floor and began to pour all of his stamina into it without a care in the word if he would drain his body of all the stamina he had which would most likely cause him to pass out and in the condition he was in, most likely die.

    After jabbing his de into the ground, Yuki twisted the bident which caused the stage itself to crack open where Yuki stood before spreading all around the stage and causing it to fall apart. Unfortunately for Atli, he ended up falling into therge crack in the ground and in turn died.

    Seeing as the final boss was defeated the system decided to repair the stage to its original form. All that remained was the Yuki who breathed heavily as he awaited to be rewarded with the stage''s grace and be allowed his treasured weapon.

    3 items dropped from the stage ceiling, those being a small club which looked to be made exactly for Yuki due to its size and how easy it was for him to carry. The second item was some type of cloth which looked to be the same as the one which the final boss wore around his crotch. Lastly, there was a pouch which clearly stored silver in it and would allow Yuki to cash it in afterwards.

    However, instead of looking at the information charts for each item, Yuki ced all of the items in his inventory and began to head for the exit.

    [+220000 exp]

    [yer: Yuki Kaito]

    [Level 21: 2408500/10 million]

    "I guess I''m done here," said Yuki before getting out of the dungeon.

    ...

    However, right outside the dungeon gate was another yer waiting to check what dungeon it was.

    "Hey, whoever is getting out of there, can you tell me which dungeon it is," Scar requested.

    As Yuki was beginning to leave he heard Scar''s words and answered peacefully as he didn''t remember Scar since he didn''t have a heavy influence in the war which took ce a year ago. The only name which Yuki would recognize would be "The user of INFINITE HOTEL".

    "Oh, it''s just one person. that went inside a dungeon? A solo yer? You don''t see those that often. Even for me, I could never go inside dungeons alone. That''s why I look for the gates then call on my team to take them on together," scar thought to himself.

    ...

    "I''m pretty sure this one is the 3rd dungeon, why are you asking," said Yuki.

    Hearing his voice, Scar instantly knew who it was. It was the man, more specifically the kid with a superiorityplex who he swore to take out his anger on.

    "So it''s you Yuki Kaito! I''ve been waiting for this day for a very long time," said scar as he got into a fighting stance.

    "Activate ability-" said Scar before cutting himself off.

    "What happened? Why did you stop?" Yuki asked in confusion.

    "How are you out of prison?" said Scar as a question mark appeared above his head.

    "So you know who I am, I guess I have no choice but to kill you right here and now," said Yuki as his eyes got darker and his facial expression changed to that of a great warrior.

    Just as Scar heard Yuki''s words he broke intoughter which Yuki found pretty insulting.

    "You think this is funny? Just wait until your head is on the ground, detached from your body," said Yuki.

    "No no, I''m notughing at you. I''m justughing at the fact that everyone thinks that you''re currently imprisoned while you''re off clearing dungeons once again. It''s only a matter of time before you gain enough strength to take back your glory and instate fear into others right?" Scar asked.

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. I just want to reach level 100 first. I have no intention of instating fear or whatever delusions you''ve created in your head," said Yuki with a perplexed face.

    "What?! I guess you really have changed over the past year. You used to be a merciless murderer who enjoyed killing people just for fun but now, you''ve be more humane," Scar said to Yuki in disappointment.

    "Once again, I don''t know what you''re talking about. I''ve never wanted to kill people nor do I enjoy doing it. Wait... are you one of the 2 people who survived the war between me against thebined forces of the 3 kingdoms?" Yuki asked.

    "In fact I am. I''ve been waiting for the time where I get to avenge my fallenrades. You''ll pay for everything you''ve done. But first, I must ask though, what level are you?" Scar asked out of curiosity.

    "You want to know what level I am so you can pick which battles you''ll win or run away from right? Nevertheless, I''ll tell you since it won''t make a difference. I''m level 21," said Yuki with a casual face which made Scar''s face light up in joy.

    "I''ve finally won! You''re going to die here today. I''m so happy right now. Just so you know, I''m level 27 which means that no matter how hard you try, you''ll end up dead here. I even have extra potions in case you think that they''ll save you," Scar stated proudly.

    ...

    "Okay then, that''s fine by me. However, I''ll warn you. You''ll lose this battle," said Yuki as he was exhausted from dealing with humans. The dungeons actually had monsters which were only a bit stronger or the same strength as Yuki however, some humans were vastly stronger than him which he found annoying.

    "Hey Zero, give me the stats I would have if I was a level 30 yer for the time being, just until I beat this guy and teach him a lesson," said Yuki.

    "Got it," Zero replied and then instantly gave Yuki what he asked for. Due to it being a request to Zero, the system didn''t give Yuki the feeling that he leveled up to a level which ended with a 0.

    "Don''t worry, even if no one else attends your funeral, I''ll stille to visit the person which I killed without even trying," said Scar before hastily jumping in to get in a punch on Yuki''s face. Unfortunately for him, Yuki was able to see the movieing and easily deflected it with his left hand before going in for a punch himself.

    Yuki''s punch actually managed to connect to Scar''s face which surprised Scar as he didn''t know why it hurt so much and why he was bleeding from his nose even though the hit was on his cheek.

    "Why is this happening?! Why are you still stronger than me? I''m a higher level than you so you should lose. You should be the one bleeding. I should be the one with no scratches!" Scar yelled out in anger.

    "I''ll exin it to you simply. What would you do if your opponent was a level 1 yer and you were a level 1 million yer and yet, the level 1 yer still wins? You see, no matter who you are or how powerful you may be, you''ll never beat me because I have something backing me which no one can defeat. Actually I have two-," said Yuki before cutting himself off.

    "One, switch with me and dump as much presence on to him as possible. Make it so that he won''t be able to move even a single muscle for at least an hour," Yuki yelled out which made Scar question if Yuki was insane.

    "<strong>I got you!</strong>" One replied before switching with Yuki''s consciousness. Wasting no time, he quickly sent a concentrated shock of presence towards Scar. Right as he was hit with that attack, Scar fell on his knees as his brain shut down from the sheer potency of the attack.

    Due to Yuki being a level 30 yer, One was able to draw out much more of the hidden presence potential which was within Yuki.

    "No... how were you able to do this? You shouldn''t be this powerful. It''s been a whole year. While you were off rxing, I trained day in and day out in hopes that I could defeat you one day. But even now, you continue to defeat all whoe in your way... I''m tired of chasing you. I give up. Just let me go and I''ll go to another continent to start a new life. You''re a monster which no amount of training could defeat," said Scar as he began to cry.

 Chapter 186 - Clone

    "Come on man. I even warned you. There''s no reason for you to be surprised. It doesn''t matter who or what you are, you''ll always be weaker than me," said Yuki as he helped Scar get back on his feet.

    "But I don''t get it. How?" Scar asked as he tried to find a reasonable exnation as to why Yuki was so much stronger than him.

    "There really is no answer. It''s just a fact. It can''t be argued or changed as it surpasses all logic," said Yuki.

    "But isn''t that cheating? It''s not fair. The only way for you to have such an overwhelming advantage is for you to either be favored by the creator/creators of this new world or for you, yourself to be the creator of this world," Scar replied as he heard himself state his unreasonable statement and began tough.

    "You''ve finally figured it out I see," said Yuki as he had a genuine smile on his face.

    "But why would you reveal this to me? Aren''t you afraid that I''ll tell others and in turn they''ll hunt you down for creating this horrible world? Scar asked.

    "To be perfectly honest, it wouldn''t matter if you told others as I could have all their memories wiped out along with yours so that all your efforts will be to no avail. For all you know, this could be the 10th time we''re having this conversation and I just keep retelling it to you just to show myself how much better I am than you," said Yuki as he continued to smile with no anger or hatred in his eyes.

    "So what''s your goal now?" Scar asked as he didn''t understand why Yuki even bothered in creating a game if he was just going to abuse his powers. Hearing Scar''s question caused Yuki to sigh.

    "To be honest, I don''t know. I''m sick of dungeon raiding. I feel so alone while I''m there. It''s just massacre after massacre. There''s no sense of mercy in there. I feel like I''m breaking apart. The only time I ever feel good is when I''m outside of them but I know that I must continue to raid dungeons if I ever want to end up where I want to be," said Yuki as he sat on the ground from exhaustion.

    "So let me get this right... You have god-like powers and yet you choose to struggle against simple humans?" Scar asked as heughed from just hearing what wasing out of Yuki''s mouth.

    "Ya?.. I mean isn''t it everyone''s dream to live in a video game-like world and just kill monsters all day, every day while earning riches?" Yuki asked.

    "Well I guess that would be true but this isn''t a video game. In video games, you don''t lose lives. You don''t have to face real life problems such as raising a family and having financial problems. You''ve just ced everyone in a medieval era without removing our previous problems and topensate us, you''ve given us some superpowers which barely do anything unless you''re a high level yer. I used to think that you were an evil mastermind which had the entire world under his control but now I realize that you''re just n stupid," Scar said as he finally regained his self esteem.

    "Ya I guess you''re right, I should probably call this entire thing off. Goodbye then," said Yuki as he prepared himself to call on Zero.

    "WAIT NO! I thought you were joking. You can''t actually be the one who made this world, can you?" Scar asked as fear began to set in.

    "No I''m not joking. I was dead serious, plus you gave me a pretty good idea. It was a mistake to create this world. I''ll just erase everything and live a joyful life in the spatial dimension with everything I could ever ask for," said Yuki with pure pity in his eyes for the world which he thought would be a dreame true for most but ended up being a in which only hell exists.

    "Sure you might''ve messed things up pretty badly and now this world is on a fast track to being doomed but there might be a way for you to turn around. With my help of course," said Scar as he finally epted defeat.

    "What are you saying? Are you implying that you''d be myrade?" Yuki asked in confusion.

    "Yes I am. In fact, I would even allow myself to be a subordinate," Scar replied.

    "Even so, how are we going to fix this world? It''s already doomed. The track at which crime rates have continued to increase is astonishing. They''re mostlymitted by those who had retired from the life of dungeon raiding so the victims can''t do much to defend themselves," said Yuki as he began to break down.

    "Well... so what? Why do you care if someone gets robbed or kidnapped. You''re supposedly a being on another ne of existence. To you, humans are only entertainment tools at best, so why would you care if you lost a couple thousand toys if you have billions of others?" Scar asked which made Yuki realize what had allowed him to be so harsh on the world previously.

    "I finally remember. Humans... are insects to me," said Yuki as he smiled with pity in his eyes which looked to be evil.

    "NO! This isn''t the goal which we''re trying to achieve. If you want to go back to your ways of pointless murder, you can do so since I can''t stop you but at the end of the day, you''lle back to be the person you were just a moment ago... if you don''t do something about this world soon, it''ll end badly for everyone," Scar exined.

    "I guess you''re right. You can tell me more about your nter, for now, I need to take care of a couple things," said Yuki before trying to reach out to Zero.

    "Hey Zero, can you teleport me and this guy to the kingdom at which I left my clone... matter of fact, teleport us to the exact ce which he''s at," said Yuki.

    "At once master. Although, I do not know if it is the wisest of decisions for you to inform others of your abilities," said Zero.

    "It''s not like it matters. You have maniption over reality itself, you can just undo any mistake I make in the future," Yuki replied.

    "I guess you do make a good point," said Zero before sighing and teleporting both Scar and Yuki directly to the bar at which Yuki''s clone was operating. In fact, Yuki''s clone was in the precise location at which he had kicked out the previous owner of the gang which he was now the boss of.

    ...

    "Why are there two bosses?" the blonde woman who kept the statistics of the gang and also acted as Yuki''s clone''s secretary.

    ...

    "What have you been doing for the duration of time in which I let you act of your own free will?" said the real Yuki with a perplexed face.

    "Just a small revolution and we''ve set up a way for all the prisoners to escape from this ce. There''s no way they''ll be able to capture us, especially with all the reporters present around the area," Yuki''s clone replied.

    "I''ll just keep my nose out of this. It seems like this is something personal," said Scar.

    "I leave you alone for like 2-3 weeks and you start a whole revolution? What is wrong with you?! The whole point of this was so you wouldn''t attract attention for as long as possible," said the real Yuki.

    "Hey don''t me me, you would''ve done the exact same thing if you were here instead of me. After all, you''re the one who decided to make me a perfect clone of you," said Yuki''s clone as he debunked the real Yuki''s point.

    "... Fair enough, so what is the n for now?" the real Yuki asked.

    "Well, seeing as you''re here, I guess the n is going to change just a bit. I thought about escaping this ce with the others to make the story more believable but that''s just dumb. I just didn''t want to experience death. Even though I''m your clone, I fear death. Unlike you, I don''t have Zero and One by my side to protect me whenever I get into trouble," Yuki''s clone began to rant as he needed to get some things off his chest.

    "I understand... thank you for being so kind," said the real Yuki before going to give his clone a hug. As he embraced his clone, the real Yuki didn''t feel weird, instead, all he felt waspassion as there was a version of himself right there which couldn''t call upon the two people which he himself had grown to abuse the powers of.

    Yuki understood that no matter how many dungeons he would go into, he''d always be sure that Zero and One would be on his side. That was why... Yuki''s clone was much braver than the real Yuki would ever be.

 Chapter 187 - Goodbye

    "So when is the day of the escape?" the real Yuki asked his clone.

    "To be perfectly honest... It''s today. I''m actually surprised you made it back on the final day," said Yuki''s clone as he got himself up from his seat.

    "... Is there anything we can do to help you out?" Yuki asked his clone to try to be there for his clone in his final moments.

    "Well, you can try going outside and blending with the people. On my signal, everyone is going to walk out of the whole which the goblins made when they attacked us. Do to news reporters people present, the guards won''t do anything to the people and if you two manage to blend in with them, you''ll be able to escape with little to no problems," said Yuki''s clone.

    "What about you?" Scar asked Yuki''s clone.

    "As for me, I''ll be staying here. The people who captured the real me will be here soon. Even if they can''t arrest the people, they''ll be after the person called Yuki Kaito. Once they arrive, I''ll just inform them that I was the one who started the escape n. Hearing that, they''ll be forced to kill me. Since they''ll believe that they killed the real Yuki, you two will be able to live the rest of your lives without worry. Well, unless you manage to get yourselves caught again," said Yuki''s clone as he let out a nervousugh.

    "But can''t Yuki-" Scar began to say to Yuki''s clone before getting stopped by the real one.

    "Thank you so much for all you''ve done. You''ve served me well, go out with a bang," said the real Yuki before walking out of the bar while dragging Scar along with him.

    ...

    Now outside, Scar wanted to ask if the real Yuki did that. He didn''t understand why he wouldn''t just call on the super natural powers he had and help him along with his clone escape.

    "What was that for you, jerk?" Scar asked Yuki.

    "You''re an idiot. He doesn''t have a real existence. If I were to change my ability, he would die. This is the best way for him to go out. At least he''ll be able to keep his dignity," said the real Yuki before finding an area with arge number of people and starting a conversation with them. While some people thought of the real Yuki as the clone which to them was "boss", the real Yuki ended up being nice to them so that he along with Scar could blend in with them.

    "So, are you guys ready for the n?" Yuki asked as he tried to lighten up the mood. However, hearing his words, the group of 5 which he was talking to''s hearts sank in fear and confusion.

    "Are you okay boss?! No one is supposed to talk about the n, we just have to wait for the signal," one of them whispered angrily at Yuki.

    "Oh, my apologies. I think I hit my head this morning," said Yuki as he watched Scarugh at him as he embarrassed himself.

    "No no, it''s okay boss. We were just confused," the one who whispered to Yuki said.

    Just then, the sound of multiple guns firing could be heard from all throughout the kingdom. Seeing as it was the signal, everyone began to run as fast as they could towards the hole which the goblins had made.

    Some guards tried to create a wall with their bodies so that the people couldn''t escape but a momentter, they realized that they were getting watched by thergest news reporting station in the world so they backed off and watched with disgust as all of their prisoners escaped as if nothing was wrong with the situation.

    Even Yuki and Scar managed to escape and continued to run along with all the people of the kingdom even after they left the kingdom. While everyone was celebrating, Scar and Yuki alone looked sad as they knew what was about to happen.

    As expected the people who had captured Yuki came rushing into the kingdom. They didn''t even nce at the people who escaped, which meant only one thing. The ne which Yuki had on him had a tracker.

    ...

    Once the people who had originally managed to capture Yuki made it into the bar at which Yuki''s clone was sitting at, they smirked at him before starting up a conversation with him.

    "Were you the one who led the rebellion?" one of the people who came into the bar asked Yuki''s clone.

    "Yes I was. Is there a problem with that?" Yuki''s clone asked them as he stared dead into their eyes.

    "You much be either extremely brave or just stupid to do something so reckless. You know what''s going to happen to you now right?" another one of the group, which was a short girl with a witch''s hat, asked Yuki''s clone.

    "Of course I do! That''s the main reason why I even nned the whole thing," Yuki''s clone replied.

    "But why? What do you gain out of this? It''s not like you care for human life. All this leads up to is you dying," the one who first started the interrogation said to him.

    "I don''t really know how I ended up like this... I guess I just got tired of living here. It''s so boring with nothing to do. I hope you''re happy because you were the ones who caused my sanity to shatter," Yuki''s clone continued to spout lies.

    "If you were tired of living, why didn''t you just try to escape from here? Our guards would''ve dly killed you. Even if that were to fail, we would''ve been notified and we woulde to grant your death wish," the small witch with the witch''s hat said to Yuki''s clone.

    "Come on now, you didn''t think that I would make it easy for you, did you?" Yuki''s clone asked as he began tough.

    "No.. of course not," said another one from the group before looking down at the insane monster in front of them.

    ...

    Momentster, the capturing team got off of the building which crumbled as they walked out of the bar. All the supports had beenpletely broken down and the roof copsed on itself. As they continued to walk, the capturing team noticed that it had begun to rail. Truely a fitting end.

    ...

    "Let''s get going, we can''t allow all his efforts to go to waste," said the team Yuki as he followed the crowd of people which were going off to a nearby kingdom which they were able to see from a distance.

    ...

    As for the people who came in from GNE, they would leave with a confusing story which they went to tell their boss. Everything that they heard from their lead was correct but the only odd thing was that the guards didn''t try to stop the people who were trying to escape.

    However, when they got back to their base of operations and began to tell what they saw to their boss, he just smiled and told them to forget everything they saw before handing them a thick pouch which when they looked at the information screen for it, they couldn''t believe the number it had. Of course, they had been paid by the government of the world to keep quiet about what they saw and they listened without questioning a single thing.

    ...

    Back at the group of people which had escaped the kingdom, as they continued to walk, Scar still wanted to ask Yuki a couple questions.

    "So... why did you stop dungeon hunting or even monster hunting for a whole year?" Scar asked Yuki which caught him off guard.

    ....

    Yuki sighed before he answered Scar''s question as it was going to be a long answer.

    "To be honest, after the battle between me and thebined power of the 3 kings had ended, I teleported myself to a new kingdom so that I could dungeon raid without getting interrupted," Yuki began to speak.

    "That sounds pretty normal but it doesn''t exin why you stopped," said Scar.

    "That''s because you didn''t let me finish... anyway, once I got there, I found a lovely family which took me in as one of their own. They fed me, gave me a roof over my head and also showed me love along with affection. However, after a year, I was found out as there were scouts looking for me in the kingdom which I had started a new life at and when I tried to escape from there, I was captured," said Yuki which brought Scar toughter.

    "So it only took a little bit of someone giving you attention for you to stop killing hundreds of people?" Scar asked as he continued tough.

    "Wow, good job, you''re so funny," Yuki said to Scar in a sarcastic tone.

    "So you''re just going to forget about the people who at one time you called your family? I mean, it would make sense if they never wanted to see you again since you''re a mass murderer but I don''t think they''re like that," said Scar as he tried to advise Yuki.

 Chapter 188 - Return Home

    "You know what, you''re right. I''ve been feeling bad about just leaving them without giving them an exnation. I''m tired of staying up at night thinking what they think of me now. I''m just going to end all my worries by just talking to them," said Yuki, which brought a smile to Scar.

    "But I need to go alone so you can just follow these people and I''ll teleport back to you when I''m done talking to my previous host family," Yuki said which Scar replied to with a nod to show that he was in agreement with the n that Yuki had set.

    ...

    "Zero, teleport me to the kingdom where Marcell and Elpis are. Actually, just teleport me to their front door," said Yuki.

    "Understood," Zero replied before doing as he was told. Within the blink of an eye, Yuki was teleported to the front door of the kingdom at which he had lived with Elpis and Marcell for a whole year. Before he knocked, Yuki took a deep breath as he would need to face reality.

    "Here it goes. Remember Yuki, if they hate you, you can''t be upset. It''s understandable that they wouldn''t ept a mass murderer," Yuki told himself before finally knocking on the door.

    Due to time zone differences, it was night time at the kingdom where Marcell and Elpis lived. Yuki didn''t know howte into the night he had arrived at the kingdom so there was a chance that they might not open the door but nevertheless, Yuki knocked once at the dirt before going quiet.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    Yuki''s heart began to beat very fast as he feared what the reactions of his previous host family would be when they saw him. That was only if he got to see them since they were probably asleep.

    ...

    "I guess they''re already sleeping. That''s a shame, I guess I''ll have toe back another time," said Yuki to himself as he began to walk away from the door with a sigh of relief since he subconsciously didn''t want to see his host family from fear of what they would think of him.

    However, just as he began to walk away, Yuki heard a sound which resembled that of a door opening and when he turned around, it was Elpis. Yuki just stood where he was, frozen in ce as he looked at her. After a moment of just staring at each other, Elpis quickly walked up to Yuki with anger in her eyes and grabbed him by the wrist before forcing him to go inside with her.

    "Who was at the door?-" Marcell asked as he stopped mid sentence when he saw who Elpis had brought into their home.

    ...

    "I''m sorry, it was a bad decision toe here. Sorry for causing you trouble," said Yuki as he prepared to get out of the door. However, just as he had opened the door, Elpis mmed it shut once again. Before Yuki could say another word, Elpis just embraced him which brought Yuki to tears.

    "I''m sorry," said Yuki as he continued to cry. He wasn''t even sure what he was sorry for but those were the only words which he managed to get out of his mouth.

    "You should probably go to the attic. I mean after all, you''re a prison escapee," said Marcell as he made a bad joke. However, Elpis took his words very seriously and forcibly dragged Yuki up the stairs and into the attic so that he wouldn''t get captured again. As would be expected, Marcell followed behind the two as he also wanted to speak to Yuki.

    ...

    Once in the attic, the 3 of them resumed their conversation at which Yuki couldn''t tell if they were mad at him or happy or a mix of both. There was no clear indication of a single emotion but instead a multitude of emotions were present. Nevertheless, it was clear why each of those emotions were present as there were many reasons for their existence.

    "So...." Yuki said to figure out how Marcell and Elpis felt about him. However, hearing him start to speak, even they were confused as to how to feel. It was morally wrong for them to care in the least for Yuki, after all, he''d killed so many people and it was only a matter of time before he turned against them. On the other hand, Yuki had spent a year with them and didn''t even make the slightest hint of hostility present during all those days.

    "I''ll just get the ball rolling since no one else is willing to do so. Jack or should I say, Yuki, why did you kill so many people? And more specifically, why did you kill all those people but decided to spare us from that fate?" said Marcell so that the silence in the room would finally end.

    "I know you won''t believe me but I never killed anyone just for the fun of it. I would never kill someone unless I was forced to do so," Yuki tried to exin.

    "Then how, how were you forced to kill 3000 people?!" Marcell demanded to know as tears came out of his eyes like a father who had been terribly disappointed at his child.

    "If you must know, all of it started on the first day at which this world began. I wanted to get a head start on leveling up so I changed my ability to be that of a cloning one so that I could gain exp quicker. However, I had made a fatal w. I hadn''t specified if my ability was supposed to kill people or not so at the end of the first day, I had found out that my clones had killed an actual person. Feeling sick of myself, I turned off my ability until I could change it," Yuki began to tell the story of how everything got as bad as it was now.

    "Okay but that doesn''t exin why 3000 people got killed," Marcell replied to Yuki.

    "Yes I know, I haven''t gotten to that part yet. After I killed that person, I went to join a squad so that I wouldn''t be alone when I was going to dungeons or forests and I would have others backing me up. There was a huge line up for people to join a squad with really high base stats. I lined up for it and managed to get in by showing off the exp which I earned from my clones going and killing monsters and that one person," Yuki continued to tell the story.

    "Wait, you knew about killing people for exp that long ago? The world had just recently started to learn of this," said Marcell in shock.

    "Yes I did. I found out identally so I didn''t tell people because I would''ve gotten arrested for killing someone. Nevertheless, after I joined the group of people with really high base stats, we started gaining experience together. However one of them had found out what I did or almost did so I tried to kill her before she could tell the rest of the squad. Unfortunately for me, the others arrived right as I killed her and turned all on me," said Yuki.

    "So how did you manage to win a fight where you had to battle highlypetent fighters all on your own?" Elpis asked as she began to get suspicious of his story.

    "I''m still not done with the story. Anyway, when I killed the first of the squad, she gave me enough exp to level up to level 2 and during that time, I was one of the first if not the first yer to reach level 2. That meant that I could easily take on at least a couple dozen level 1 yers all on my own, even if they had amazing base stats," Yuki exined.

    "Okok, get to the battle between you and those 3000 people already," Marcell said as he felt that Yuki was dying that part a lot.

    "Okay fine, basically some stuff happened after that and I made friends. However, I went to explore the first dungeon on my own but when I finished clearing it, my so-called friends had betrayed me for some quick cash and I ended up getting arrested. It didn''t take me a lot to escape from there and I even warned the people there to note after me if they wanted to keep their lives but..." Yuki continued.

    "They didn''t listen to me. Instead of forgetting about me, they brought an army of over 3000 people from 3 kingdoms just to defeat me. Even with all of that, due to me having just cleared the second dungeon, not a single one of them was a match for me. I even demonstrated my power to them so that they could escape with their lives but they didn''t listen and would have never listened. When my life was ced in danger, I had no choice but to annihte all of them," said Yuki as he finished the tale of how things got to how they were now.

 Chapter 189 - Accepting Reality

    Now having heard why Yukimitted the actions he did, Marcell and Elpis stood dumbfounded in the attic as they simply stared at the child which they had taken in as their own for a whole year.

    There were 2 ways which they could have handled the situation. The first one being that they would ept him once more as all his actions were either idental or as a form of self defence. On the other hand, they could hand him over to the authorities since he was still a criminal no matter what since murder should never be justified wether it was idental or even as a form of self defence. They had to choose which type of judgment to invoke upon Yuki.

    "Look, I know how you must feel. I''ll just make my way out. Sorry for bothering you," said Yuki as he began to walk away towards thedder which would lead him down to the second floor of the house which he would take the stairs from and leave the house before teleporting away.

    "Wait!" Marcell yelled before letting out a loud sigh.

    "What you did was wrong. Killing even one person is a huge sin let alone over 3000 people. You couldn''t even remember their names if you tried. However it wouldn''t be possible for us to cast you out of our family. We just can''t. Since the day we found out about who you really are, we''ve been worried sick about you. Basically, what I''m trying to say is that we would be willing to forget about all your previous sins but that''s under one condition. That one conduction being that you can no longer kill a single person from now on. No matter the circumstances, you are forbidden to kill another person," Marcell started with a serious face.

    "Of course I''ll agree to those conditions," said Yuki as he got to his knees in happiness.

    As he turned around he saw the face of Elpis who was crying behind him. At first Yuki assumed that her tears were that of joy, however as the seconds passed, they became more clear as they were tears of sadness.

    "No... you didn''t... did you?" Marcell asked as his fingers began to shake in fear.

    "I''m sorry... I really am sorry," said Elpis to Yuki as she continued to cry.

    "Why would you be sorry?" Yuki asked in a confused tone as he continued to smile, trying to make himself believe that everything was alright.

    Just then the attic window shattered as the entire room began to get swarmed by a couple of people who looked to be dressed in full armour. That was when Yuki realized that Elpis was saying sorry for calling the people who were sent to capture him.

    "I understand... sorry Marcell but I don''t think I''ll be able to keep that promise I just made to you," said Yuki as he got up from the floor with his fist balled up. Yuki quickly changed his ability to the one which he has before he changed it to be that which allowed him to clone himself.

    ...

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Yuku covered his fist in mes as he punched the ground which let loose a fury of mes which spread out in all directions as they burned both Marcell along with Elpis and the other people who were called in to recapture Yuki.

    Yuki walked out the house a momentter as it continued to burn while others gathered around it in confusion as they wondered what had caused the mes since they couldn''t see Yuki clearly in the dark.

    "Hey Zero, turn back time to the point where I had begun to walk away from the house and Elpis was about to open it," said Yuki.

    "Your wish is mymand," Zero replied as he did what he was told. Once realizing that Zero had turned time to the exact moment, Yuki prepared to give out his nextmand.

    ...

    "Hey Zero, teleport me back to where Scar is waiting for me," Yuki said and Zero did exactly that.

    Right before Yuki teleported, Elpis opened the door as she looked out to see a figure quickly disappear from her sight which made her wonder if she was seeing things.

    ...

    "I seriously need to sleep more. I''ve started to hear and see things," said Elpis as she once again closed the door of her house to return to her husband and daughter.

    ...

    Once he had been teleported back, Yuki looked at Scar with a face which seemed to be saddened yet also disappointed.

    "What happened? Why do you look so sad?... unless, did you magically get teleported to the house at which your host family lived and when you went there, they treated you with love and affection until the final moment where you realized that they had set you up to get captured once again however before you could get captured, you managed to kill everyone then turned time once again to the point right before you greeted them just in case the people who went sent to capture you had already informed the higher ups about your existence and by simply turning back time, you managed to stop getting yourself captured? " said Scar at a very fast speaking rate which causes him to gasp for air when he finished his sentence.

    Hearing Scar''s words justpletely confused Yuki. There was no possible way for Scar to know all which had taken ce on a whole other side of the world. Even if he had ced a listing device on Yuki, due to time being turned back, Scar wouldn''t still have known about what had happened.

    For a second Yuki thought that it was aedic act done by some random author who had been writing the life of

    Yuki Kaito. Just the thought of it alone scared him as that would mean that Yuki didn''t actually have the choice to do anything. That would mean that he had no freedom.

    Yuki quickly punched himself in the face with his right hand then his left. Even after that, he punched his stomach and chest just to make sure that he had control over his body. Seeing that he was able to do all of that on his own, he confirmed that he wasn''t in some random story where nothing he experienced or did mattered as to the higher being reading it, it was just a piece of paper.

    "Of course I''m real, what was I thinking? There could never be a being which surpassed Zero in power as what kind of monster would be more powerful than someone which transcends all logic," Yuki told himself as he finally calmed down.

    "Are you okay? Why did you suddenly start beating yourself up, unless... my first guess waspletely right and you thought that it was some sick joke that was made of by a random author which was writing a story to tell the tale of you and you were currently in that story which was why I was able to urately guess that so you came to the conclusion that if that were true, you wouldn''t have control over your body and everything you did was just what you were told to do which was the reason which you began to beat yourself up to see if you were a real person. Once you managed to make yourself believe that you were a real person, you finally calmed down," Scar exined to Yuki who just continued to grow worried that maybe he was just in a story. Seeing as his face began to get covered in fear as he was about to have an existential crisis, Scar began tough at Yuki.

    "No way, don''t tell me I actually managed to get this to work! This is the first time it''s even worked let alone work twice in a row. I wish more people were around to see this," said Scar as he continued tough hysterically at Yuki.

    ...

    Seeing as Yuki wasn''t even smiling let aloneughing along with Scar, he calmed himself before telling something to Yuki.

    "Come on now Yuki, I was just joking. I didn''t actually mean to make you think that your life was meaningless and that every action you will ever do was nned for you before you even thought to do it let alone start on it. I would never mean to make you think that your past life and new life were all meaningless and all your suffering was part of just some silly plot which some came up with on a random day.

    You who had believed that you were at the peak of everything and that not a single creature could challenge you to realize that your life is just a meaningless joke," said Scar as he kept a serious face.

    "Stop that! I''m actually wondering if you can read my mind now... wait a minute, you wouldn''t have..." Yuki said as his face grew to be more angry while Scar began tough.

    "3 times in a row of mind reading?" Scar asked as he continued tough at Yuki who had finally figured out what had allowed Scar to make such urate statements.

 Chapter 190 - Members

    As Scar continued tough at Yuki, a smaller girl and a tall man began to approach the 2 of them.

    "Sorry for treating you harshly in the past boss. I wanted to apologize before but couldn''t in case it wouldpromise the escape n. I havee here now to apologize but also say my thank you as you have granted us freedom," said Garth as he bowed to Yuki.

    Beside Garth was Av who looked nervous in front of Yuki as she understood that treating him harshly in the past was one of if not the worst decision she could have ever made.

    "Hold in there mister, is that your daughter? She looks pretty strong," said Scar as he broke the tension.

    "You''re saying that as if you''re not level 27," said Yuki, which hearing those words made Garth and Av jump back in fear.

    "L-level 27?" Av asked as she began to tremble.

    "Please forgive me for all I''ve done to you which may have caused you harm. Please do not harm me, you can even have my niece, she''s been nothing but trouble for me my entire life," said Garth as he ran away.

    ...

    "Let''s just leave. Sorry for speaking about your level without your permission," said Yuki as he began to walk so that they wouldn''t lose track of the crowd of people which were heading for the nearest kingdom.

    "Come on now Yuki, you''re seriously not going to leave a helpless girl all on her own?" Scar as Yuki as he helped Av get up from the ground which she herself didn''t realize that she was on the ground due to her being frightened.

    "Plus, she could be a helpful ally to us," Scar tried to convince Yuki.

    "A useful ally?! She''s nothing but a level 3 yer. She''ll be dead weight. On the other hand, I myself have a monster which I should probably call upon right about now," said Yuki as he remembered Meurig, who was still training.

    ...

    "If you don''t let her join us, I''ll tell everyone about your big secret," said Scar as he made a sinister smile.

    "Okay fine! She cane with us," said Yuki as he continued to walk.

    "Just so you know, you could have refused and if I actually told people, you could''ve used your secret thing to stop me and undo my actions," Scar told Yuki as he giggled a bit from making it so that Yuki couldn''t see a loop whole to the idea.

    "And you can''t take it back, the girl ising with us no matter what you say," said Scar as he began to follow Yuki with his hand on Av''s wrist.

    "I never agreed to go with you so what makes you think that I''ll just happily go along where you tell me," said Av as she pulled her wrist out of Scar''s grasp by force.

    "If I was you, I would listen carefully. Listen, your uncle just left you. You''repletely alone here. Would you rather go alone in this unknown world or apany two strong people? To put it in perspective for you, I myself could probably protect you from most people but Yuki has something by his side which can protect you from anything and anyone which may not have the best intentions for you in mind," Scar exined to Av in a whisper.

    "So it''s your choice, do whatever you want since it''s your life," said Scar in a slightly louder tone. Hearing his words Av finally changed her attitude and began to follow Yuki and Scar as they themselves continued to follow the crowd of people which were making their way to the nearest kingdom.

    ...

    As night began to roll around, the crowd had finally made their way into the kingdom where another crowd had begun to form to greet all the people who wereing in.

    While at first, the people of the kingdom were reluctant, they didn''t want to start a fight in the middle of the night so they allowed the crowd in which Yuki, Scar and Av we''re in to go into their kingdom.

    "So what do you guys want to do now that we''ve finally made it into the kingdom?" Scar asked the two people who were with him since he was the most enthusiastic of the group.

    "We should probably find a ce to stay for the night then head out to the 4th dungeon tomorrow. I''ll probably just go on my own for about a week or two ande back since I don''t want to be sharing my exp with you two. Scar, since you decided to bring her along, go to each of the dungeons with her and clear them after letting her touch a monster from each stage so the exp goes to her as well," Yuki ordered.

    "Come on, so I seriously have to take her with me? I wanted to do some training on my own," Scarined.

    "I told you to leave her there but no, you didn''t want to listen to what I had to say. So you''re going to pay for your actions by taking responsibility over her," said Yuki in an angry tone as he balled up his fist.

    "Ok ok, I''ll take responsibility. Just calm down. Anyway, let''s look for a ce to stay, maybe a hotel of some kind," said Scar as he looked around for anyrge buildings.

    "That won''t work, we''re going to have to look for a bar which also offers an inn. Most of the hotels, if not all of them, have probably been booked by the people who hade from the other kingdom. Since we were one of thest people to make it here, we probably won''t be able to find a single room to stay at in any of the hotels this kingdom has to offer," said Yuki as he began walking around the kingdom in search of a single bar which might offer a ce to stay at for the night.

    ...

    "What''s with him? He used to be much more childlike than this. When did he be so... cold?" Av asked Scar as she walked behind Yuki.

    "Oh, so you''ve just noticed? Well, this is how he used to be about a year ago then something happened which allowed him to be soft but now, the king has returned," said Scar slightly louder than he meant it to be.

    "Will you stop telling her useless information and instead help me look for a ce which we can stay at or would you rather sleep in the street for a couple days?" Yuki asked.

    "My apologies boss, I didn''t mean to offend you," said Scar in a sarcastic tone to mock the people who thought that the real Yuki was the clone which they respected so much.

    "Never mind, I guess I didn''t need your help after all," said Yuki as he set his sights on a bar which had a sign outside of it which said "1 night = 5000 silver".

    "I guess they really are going to take advantage of the sudden increase of people to earn as much money as possible. Scar, you can pay right?" Yuki asked him.

    "Sure, it''s not like it''s a lot of silver but if you try to continue to use me as your personal bank, I won''t stand for it!" Scar replied.

    Hearing how Yuki and Scar talked about money that size like it was nothing perplexed Av who just stood there as the 2 people in front of her talked.

    Once inside, Scar went up to the bartender to pay for the room while Yuki and Av waited a few metres behind him. As they stood there, one of the drunk guys came near Av.

    "Hey there-" before the man who approached her got a chance to even say a single sentence, Yuki jumped into action.

    "One switch with me and make this man pass out from your presence," said Yuki.

    "<strong>Got it!</strong>" One replied before doing as he was told. Seeing what had just happened, two of the man''srades stepped in as they red down at Yuki, which they assumed to have done something to their friend.

    "Were you the one that did this?" one of the man''srades asked while the other one picked him up.

    "Yes, and what of it?" Yuki said as he tried to anger the man in front of him on purpose.

    "You''ve got a lot of nerve," said the man before he pulled out a 20 inch short de from his back before attempting to cut Yuki in half.

    However, before he could do that, Yuki caught the de with the fingertips of his index finger and thumb.

    Next, Yuki twisted the de until it shattered into pieces. Frozen in ce after seeing what Yuki had done, the man did nothing as Yuki put his palm on the man''s shoulder and forcibly made him get on his knees.

    "Know your ce," said Yuki as he walked towards Scar with Av following behind him.

 Chapter 191 - Understanding

    Av just watched as all of this took ce. She didn''t realize how much Yuki had faked his personality while he was inside the kingdom as now that she was seeing the real version of him, she was almost frightened of him.

    "So, how did the payment process go?" Yuki asked Scar as he didn''t want to deal with the stares of the other customers at the bar. Hearing Yuki''s question, Scar just smiled as he put up a peace sign.

    "We''ve got ourselves a room," said Scar as he went in for a high five with Yuki. While at first Yuki was reluctant, he eventually sumbed to it and put his palm up to high five Scar.

    ...

    While Yuki and Scar continued to talk, a tall man came up behind Scar and grabbed him in a headlock. Due to him being invisible until the very point where he touched Scar, no one could have suspected a thing.

    "I''ve got your weak friend now. Get on the ground and beg for mercy or he''ll die. I know that he''s weak because the strong aren''t so childish," the man who had Scar in a headlock said arrogantly.

    Seeing the attitude which the man had, Yuki assumed that he was from the group who he had just humiliated and he was here to restore their honour.

    "I''m sorry to break it to you but... he''s actually 6 levels higher than me," said Yuki with a straight face. As fear engulfed the man with the ability which allowed him to turn invisible, Yuki just stood there and watched as he awaited the events which would shortly follow with anticipation.

    "Who are you talking to?" Scar asked with a confused face which Yuki answered by pointing his index finger as the hand which had Scar in a headlock.

    "We''re being attacked?! Why didn''t you tell me? Although I should''ve felt him when he touched me, I guess he really must be very weak," said Scar as forcibly removed the hands which were grasping at his neck. As he did this, Scar unknowingly broke a couple of the invisible man''s fingers.

    "Now that has been taken care of, how about we head into the room which we''ll stay in for the night," said Scar as he began to walk towards the stairs which were near the back of the bar. Behind him were Yuki and Av who followed him up the stairs into the room which they would be staying in.

    Once inside, Av just stood there frozen in ce as she nervously prepared to ask Scar something.

    "Umm, why aren''t there any other rooms in here?" Av asked as she wondered why such an expensive room didn''t have more than a single room.

    "Don''t worry missy, me and Yuki will sleep on the floor while you sleep on the bed," said Scar as he pointed towards a dirty looking single bed.

    "You don''t mind sleeping on the floor do you, Yuki? After all, you''re quite known throughout the deepermunity of dungeon raiders as the yer who camps in the dungeon," Scar said as he expected the obvious answer from Yuki.

    "No I don''t mind, she can take the bed," Yuki replied which led Scar to smile and give a thumbs up to Av who just had a disappointment and disgusted face as she walked over to the dirty tiny bed beforeying on it only too see a cockroache out of the side of the bed as it climbs the wall in front of her.

    "What has my lifee to," said Av as she tried to stop herself from crying.

    As Yukiid on the ground on his own, Scar got up to turn off the light before returning to sleep on the other side of the room, opposite to where Yuki was sleeping.

    "Goodnight everyone,"

    said Scar to which only Av replied to by saying "Goodnight" herself.

    ...

    After a while, Scar called out to Yuki in the middle of the night to see if he was awake.

    "Hey, Yuki, are you still awake too?" Scar asked.

    ...

    "Yes... what do you need from me?" Yuki asked in an annoyed voice.

    "Now that I don''t need to continue acting anymore. You should know that I''m afraid of you, or more specifically the power you have. That''s the only reason why I am acting so friendly with you. If it was not for that, I would''ve killed you already," said Scar as his tone changed to be more serious.

    "Yes I know, I don''t really care. As long as you don''t get in my way then we won''t have a problem. However, I do believe that what you said also had some missing information in it. You''re also only acting friendly towards me because you know that wherever I am, it''s going to be the safest ce in the world, no... the entire multiverse and whatever is beyond that," said Yuki which Scar replied back to with an agreeing "ah-huh".

    "However, I should ask this of you at least, why did you insist on bringing this girl along with us? She''s just a set back and you, more than anyone should know that," said Yuki as he didn''t understand what benefit Av brought to their group.

    "Yes, of course I know that she''s basically useless. I only brought her along so that a romance between you and her could build up and then you could finally let go of your stupid ideology," said Scar.

    "You really are stupid," Yuki replied.

    "What do you mean?! You and her are about the same age so I did the best I could do... but seriously, why do you want to get stronger? You do realize that you can get anything you want before you even think of it, or at least that''s what my ability says you think about. But if that''s true, why don''t you just create a perfect world where you personally oversee every part of its development. That''s what you want right? And don''t even talk about satisfaction or all those lies because you know damn well that you could ask Zero to give those feelings because he''s able to do that," said Scar as his voice grew more irritated after each word he said.

    "To be perfectly honest, I didn''t understand why I was doing all of this myself until a few days ago. The real reason which I created this world is because I don''t want to let go of the one thing which seems real to me. Creating this world was the final way for me to feel human once again," Yuki said.

    "Then why create this world instead of staying in the previous world...." Scar asked before his voice trailed off as his ability allowed him to read Yuki''s thoughts showed him what led Yuki to get control over Zero.

    "...You took your own life?" Scar asked in a weird tone which had both a frightened sound along with a disgusted and pitying sound to it as well.

    "Yup. If I just sent myself back into that world without any of my powers, I would just face the same torment and humiliation daily. However, if I took my powers there with me, I would quickly get hunted by the government so they could research me and overall just cause me more harm than good. Either way, it would end up in me losing," Yuki replied.

    "How did it end up that bad?" Scar asked as he wondered what could cause someone so young to take their own life.

    "I used to think that everything which took ce in the past was because the world was cruel to me but having lived in this world, I realize that many of the things which took ce and caused me to take my own life could''ve been avoided if I had just been smarter in those situations. I used to be so self absorbed and pathetic, just a little personality change would have allowed me to live a better life as a normal teenager.

    "So why not turn back time and return the world to how it used to be before you change it into this. With that, you could have the perfect like your wish to attain now," said Scar.

    "You''ve got it all wrong, this is my perfect life. Even though it''s hell every single day, I still enjoy living it since I could stop doing everything I do now and retire whenever I want. I don''t have to worry about getting a job or having to deal with people who are older than me who like to abuse the power they hold over me. In this world, I can truly be free," said Yuki as he smiled while looking at the wall in front of him.

    As for Scar, he noticed the wording which Yuki had used, that being that he said "free" instead of "happy". While it was a tiny difference, it was enough to cause a change in thought depending on which context it was used in. For the current one, it did make a difference however it would only be that way if Yuki was being careful with his wording.

 Chapter 192 - WD

    "Good morning," said Av as she yawned while waking up from her slumber to see both Scar and Yuki sitting down with their backs against each of the walls as they just stared at each other.

    "Are you two having a staring contest or something," Av asked.

    "In fact we are. I''ve managed to win a tremendous 17 times," said Scar as he replied to Av without taking his eyes off of Yuki.

    "That''s wonderful. So how many times did he win?" Av asked as she referred to Yuki.

    "Well... Yuki has won 43,'''' said Scar as he turned towards Av while unknowingly blinking himself.

    ...

    "44?" Av asked which Scar replied to with a face that looked to be fuming with anger before suddenly calming down. and letting out a littleugh.

    "I can''t believe that you would be so engrossed in a kids game. I expected more from the person who wishes to reach level 100 first," said Scar as he mocked Yuki.

    "Weren''t you the one who suggested we y this until Av woke up? Don''t be a sore loser," said Yuki as he stood up from the ground.

    "Wow, you two should seriously consider switching ages," said Av with a disappointed face towards Scar.

    "I''ve been meaning to ask you though, why did you change your ability? Weren''t you making a lot of silver from using it?" Yuki asked Scar.

    "Well, I guess that''s true but as time went on I realized that I couldn''t defeat the dungeon monsters without my ability. So I had no choice but to change it into one which can be used in dungeons. Right after I changed it, dungeon clearing became surprisingly easy," said Scar.

    "Surprisingly easy? An ability shouldn''t have that much of an effect on your strength," said Yuki.

    "Wait, don''t tell me that you''ve actually been using your me powers in every dungeon so far," said Scar as he thought that Yuki was joking.

    "Yes I have. Is there something wrong with that?" Yuki asked.

    "Of course there is! An ability can determine if you live or die. In dungeons, it''s much more forgiving since you can change your ability to be that which defeats your enemy. With every dungeon having a specific trait through all its monsters, if you pick the right ability, you could be out of a dungeon in less than a week," said Scar as he was both angry and surprised.

    "How could you not know that?! You used to be one of the strongest if not the strongest yer in this world while also being a solo yer. How could someone of that ss fall to realize the most basic of information," Scar continued.

    "There''s no need to yell, I''ll keep your advice in mind for the future," said Yuki as he tried to make Scar stop yelling.

    "Keep it in mind for the future?! You better start taking things more seriously. Bing the first level 100 yer won''t be easy, and it would be impossible if you don''t start looking for the most efficient ways of doing things. You said that you had a dream so start working as hard as possible to make that dream a reality," Scar finished scolding Yuki.

    "Forget what I said about switching ages, you two can be mature and immature within a blink of an eye," said Av who had just watched as this took ce.

    "Okay then. I know you said you wanted to start training as soon as possible but I have a better offer. There''s a group which is more of a whole n that does by the name of ''WD'' or the real name being simply ''World Domination''. They''re currently the group who has the lead in having their leader be the world''s first level 100 yer. What I''m suggesting is that we go and investigate their n. If possible, we can disassemble it and also take care of their leader," Scar exined.

    ...

    "What are you? A strategist?" Yuki asked in a confused tone while also being grateful that he was someone who could gather information quickly and formte ns to help him.

    "Av, the reason why I respect Yuki so much is because I am quite jealous of him. He had a secret which I''ll tell you about since we''re teammates now... when we all came into this world, we were given the option of only having one ability at a time however instead, Yuki was given 1 ability which he could change and another ability which he couldn''t change that gave him the ability to teleport," Scar lied as he needed to exin why Yuki had so many odd powers which all came directly from Zero without telling Av about the existence of a being such as Zero.

    "2 abilities?! That''s so cool!" Av eximed as she was beyond excited to have such a powerful person on her side.

    "Yes, I have 2 abilities but Scar wasn''t supposed to tell anyone since I don''t want to get hunted down by others who want my powers. However, I do believe that I can trust you," Yuki lied along Scar to Av.

    "Yes you can trust me. I''ll keep this secret forever," said Av still with excitement.

    "Okay then, Scar, just ce your palm on my shoulder so I can read your mind and take us to the ce where WD is. Av, ce your hand on my shoulder too so we can teleport together," said Yuki as he lied. The reason he had lied about having them ce their palms on his shoulder was to make the story more believable as if Yuki was able to both read people''s minds so he would know where WD''s location was while also being able to teleport to any location along with having another ability seemed to powerful for a single person to have which was why Yuki made up the extra fake steps.

    "S-Sure," they both said simultaneously as they ced their palms on each of Yuki''s shoulders.

    "Hey, Zero, can you read Scar''s mind and teleport us to where WD''s main force operates?" Yuki asked.

    "Of course," said Zero as he teleported all 3 of them to a far away kingdom which WD operated. At the same time however, some had knocked on the door of the room which the 3 of them had been staying at before finally opening the door to see arge sh of light which looked like 3 human figures disappear in front of their eyes.

    "Man, I hope they have sses in this world because I think it''s about time that I get my eyes checked," said the bartender as he left the room after noticing that there was no sign of the people who hade in the previous night.

    ...

    Back at the kingdom which Scar, Yuki and Av had been teleported to, the 3 of them began to get a few stares from people before the people turned their attention away like they had seen nothing.

    "Oh, I think we startled them, this could get bad," said Yuki worried that he might''ve made himself stand out.

    "Don''t worry about it. This ce is like a metropolis for yers who like to level up a lot and one of the strongest ns had their base of operations here. People probably see others teleporting in and out of this kingdom frequently. So in short, we don''t stand out a lot," said Scar as he helped Yuki calm down which had a tendency to analyze every situation he was in to the max of his abilities which had helped him stay alive in dungeons but wouldn''t be much help in the outside world.

    "I''ll be right back," said Scar as he walked away from the group to speak to a man who was reading a newspaper while sitting on a nearby bench to where the 3 of them had teleported.

    "Excuse me sir, would you happen to know where people can apply to join the WD n?" Scar asked.

    "They take applications in the castle but I should warn you, they only ept the strong. Anyone who''s not even at level 5 should give up all hope of ever joining the guild," the man on the bench said.

    "T-Thank you for the warning," said Scar before walking back to where Yuki and Av were waiting for him.

    "So how did it go?" Yuki asked.

    "Well, they take applications in the castle. You and I can get in fine but Av here can''t. She''s too weak to join the n," said Scar with a face of disappointment.

    "There''s no need to get sad over it. You said you were going to train her yourself. It should only take her a week at max and she''ll be ready to join the n," said Yuki as he began to walk towards the castle-like building in the kingdom.

    "It seems like you''re opening up to the idea of Av tagging along with us," Scar said joyfully.

    "I am not!" Yuki retaliated as Avughed while walking behind both of them.

 Chapter 193 - Adam

    Once at the castle structure of the kingdom, Yuki walked in as the doors were wide open. Av and Scar were following right behind him. Even though Av wasn''t going to be able to register at that moment, she still tagged along as she had nowhere else to be.

    The inside of the castle had been turned into a registration area with multiple stands that had people working behind ss as they helped people register into the n or dealt with other formalities.

    Even though Yuki didn''t know where he should go, he found a line of people who were standing as they waited to speak to one of the workers behind the ss. Seeing as he didn''t want to waste any time, Yuki walked up to the person furthest back in the line to ask him a question.

    "Sorry for asking but is this the line to register into the WD n?" Yuki asked the man.

    "No, this is the line to deal with payment details at the n. If you wish to register, line up in that line," said the man as he pointed Yuki towards a much longer line which had people anxiously waiting to join. Some of them were fully armoured and looked to have highly graded weapons while others just wore casual clothes.

    "This looks like it''s going to take a while," said Yuki as he reluctantly went where the man had told him while Av and Scar followed behind him.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    After waiting for what seemed like years, it was finally Yuki''s turn to register at the n. The woman who had been working behind the ss was wearing a professional business suit which went along with her thin sses which had a ck outline.

    "Good evening-" said Yuki before he was interrupted by the woman.

    "Level?" The woman simply asked, which was quite a rude way of asking someone what level they were but nevertheless, Yuki answered withoutining.

    "I''m level 21," Yuki replied.

    "21? Well you don''t see that everyday. So I can offer you the level 20+ entrance deal which will grant you the ability to call upon the top 10 strongest members of the n whenever you wish to do so if you happen to get offended by someone''s actions or if those actions offend the n however you should be careful as if you were to abuse this power, this privilege could get revoked from you. Please just sit down and fill out this form while I take care of the next person," the woman said as she offered Yuki a seat on the only chair on the other side of the ss wall as she handed Yuki arge pile of papers he needed to fill out in front of her.

    "Next," the woman said as she expected nothing impressive from the next person in line.

    "Level?" the woman asked Scar in a slightly rude way as he didn''t look very presentable in his dirty cloak.

    "27," Scar replied in the same short way of talking that the woman spoke to non valued applicants. Hearing Scar''s words, the woman instantly became flustered from embarrassment as she stood up from her chair to bow down and ask Scar for forgiveness.

    "Please forgive my insolence. It would be an honour for you to join our n. Please, if you''re to be so kind as to forgive me, I will lead you to the V. I.P room where you''ll be offered the V.I.P package deal once you join," the woman said as she opened the small wooden door which separated her from the rest of the people who wanted to register. Once Scar agreed to continue his registration process, the woman walked towards a door which was behind her before opening it then staying there for a couple minutes beforeing out again.

    ...

    "Excuse me but why is there such a difference in treatment when the level difference between me and him is only 6 levels?" Yuki asked as he wondered why hisrade was treated like a king.

    "Unless you''re a solo dungeon raider that never reads the news, you should know why people like him get the V.I.P treatment," the woman said as he gave Yuki a smug look after she had just been so nice to him a few minutes ago.

    "Ah. Well, the reason why people above the level 25 get treated so well is because of the gift they receive from this world once they make it to that level. Once someone reaches level 25, they are gifted a phoenix which is so powerful that itself alone counts as a level 25 yer. There are even rumours that once someone reaches level 50, they receive another magical beast for themselves but we still don''t know because that level has yet to be reached," said the woman as she exined everything to Yuki before turning her attention towards the girl who was waiting there.

    "What is your level youngdy? You must be around level 20 or so right since you are surrounded by these two power houses?" the woman asked Av. Hearing those words, Av stayed quiet as she didn''t know how to break the news to thedy which looked to be expected a lot from her. So instead, Yuki took care of the problem.

    "Sorry miss but she''s not actually here to register. We heard that someone has to be level 5 or higher to join so she''ll return once she''s at least level 5," Yuki apologized for Av.

    "Okay then, that''s fine. A little disappointing but I can''t do anything about it," said the woman as Av walked toward to stand beside Yuki who was still signing his registration papers.

    ...

    "Hey now, there''s no need to be strict," said a voice at which when the woman in register heard the voice, she instantly bowed along with all the other workers in the main floor of the castle. Seeing as the workers were doing it, everyone else including Av did the same. As for Yuki, he didn''t bother to even pay attention as he continued to sign the papers in front of him.

    "My apologies sir, I was just enforcing the rules which I was told," the woman said as she began to sweat in fear while answering his question.

    "You boy! Why aren''t you bowing?" said the voice as he came up to Yuki who was still busy signing his papers. The man who was speaking all these words finally revealed himself as he was wearing a full white suit with a golden chain around his neck.

    "Sorry but who are you and why should I bow to you?" Yuki asked as if he was missing something.

    "Do you not know who I am? I am the 17th strongest member of this n, the level 26 Adam Andre!" the man scolded Yuki.

    "However, how would you know that, you''re just a weak poor boy who probably identally entered this ce like a rat who managed to sneak into a king''s castle," Adamn insulted Yuki.

    "Now bow!" Adam demanded.

    "No, I don''t really see the need to bow to someone who''s only 5 levels higher than me. Plus, why would you want to start a fight with a fellow n member?" Yuki asked casually.

    "Stop lying to yourself, you''re probably just a level 5 yer trying to act cocky. So just get up and bow before this gets ugly," Adam asked onest time.

    "I still don''t see a need for me to bow to you. You must be pretty self centred-" Yuki said and as he finished speaking, Adam quickly punched Yuki in the face which caused him to bleed from his nose.

    ...

    "Yuki! Look, I just finished signing my papers. Apparently I get my own room in the castle because I am part of the 20 strongest in the n!" said Scar joyfully as he came out of the room with a smile on his face only to see what Adam had done.

    ...

    "And you might be? It doesn''t matter, just bow before I do to you what I did to this boy," said Adam as he began tough as Yuki. All the while, Scar silently walked towards the small door which Adam was on the other side of before jumping over the small door which made Adam hold up a fighting stance.

    "Please Yuki, let me take care of this," said Scar as smoke came out of his mouth while his hands began to freeze.

    "So you dare disrespect me as well? I guess I''ll just have to teach you newbies a lesson," said Adam before grinning at Scar, who had a serious expression on his face as if he was prepared to kill.

    "Summoning Skill: Phoenix" Adam allowed his bright orange phoenix toe out of his hand as if it was water before forming into therge bird. While everyone was scared for their lives as they didn''t want to get in the crossfire of the phoenix, Scar and Yuki just stood and sat there as if they didn''t fear Adamn in the least.

    ...

    "Summoning Skill: Phoenix"

    "Activate ability: Mind Read"

 Chapter 194 - Arthur

    "Summoning Skill: Phoenix"

    "Activate ability: Mind Read"

    Seeing as Adam had activated his phoenix, Scar followed suit right after to match Adam in strength.

    "So you can summon a phoenix too? You must be ate joiner. You''re probably level 25 and got cocky so you came as soon as you leveled up. Well too bad! I''m the number 17 strongest person in this entire n. You being level 25 could probably get you to rank 20 or 19 if you''re lucky. But still! I stand above you!" Adam yelled as he forced his phoenix to fly closer to Scar as he made his palm face Scar, which the phoenix took the order and began to attack; however, it was stopped quickly by Scar''s own summon.

    "Sir Adam, I do not mean to be rude but you made a wrong statement. You''re no longer the 17th strongest. As of today, you''re the 18th strongest with Scar joining the top 20 in the number 15 spot as he surpassed a few others who also happen to be level 26. So technically speaking, he has more authority than you do from now on," thedy as the registration told Adam, which shocked the self absorbed man in the white suit.

    "Are you seriously telling me this homeless man is stronger than me? Even so, why is he defending this weaker one over here," Adam asked while referring to Yuki.

    "That''s because you hit my boss idiot!" Scar yelled out as he delivered a devastating punch to Adam''s face.

    "Your boss? Why would you work for someone weaker than you? Is it because he has money, fame, political influence?! Answer me, why do you serve him," Adam asked as he went in to punch Scar in the face so he could get revenge but Scar easily caught Adam''s first.

    "Because unlike you, he doesn''t reveal all his cards right away," said Scar as he was about to go in for a punch but stopped when someone behind him grabbed a hold of his shoulder lightly yet it felt as if there was a whole truck on his shoulder.

    "Please let go of him. Fights between n members are prohibited," the voice behind Scar said.

    "He was the one who started it!" Scar argued as he snapped out of his fear.

    "I understand. He will be punished for his actions obviously however please try to not fight anyone else from now on," the voice behind Scar said. Hearing those words, Scar immediately let go of Scar''s hand as he began to breathe heavily for some odd reason.

    "Once getting a proper look at who was behind Scar, all of the people who worked at the registers to help the n members and potential new members began to bow even lower. Even so, Scar and Yuki didn''t bow in the least as they saw no reason to. As for Av, she of course bowed down as she didn''t want to start any trouble for herself.

    "That''s fine. You don''t need to bow. You''re in the top 15 of my n," the man began to speak.

    "''My n''? Wait, are you sir Arthur, the actual leader of WD?" Scar asked with a look of excitement as he looked at the man in full royal looking armour with arge red and golden sword in his hand. It looked like Arthur had just returned from a dungeon.

    "I''m so honoured that you bothered to do research on me," said Arthur as he scratched the back of his hair as he smiled.

    "No no, it''s an honour to meet you. It''s not like I had to do research about you. You''re currently the highest level yer in the world. There isn''t anyone in this word that doesn''t know about you," said Scar as he himself smiled.

    "Well I''m just d that someone as powerful as you is on our side. So feel free not to bow to me, we''re basically friends from now on, as for you..." said Arthur as his voice began to get deeper while he turned his attention towards Yuki who was still signing his registration papers.

    "Why aren''t you bowing? You''re not in the top 20 let alone in the top 15," said Arthur as he gave Yuki a disgusted look as if he was looking at a dirty pig. Hearing those words, Yuki didn''t care all that much but Scar did. Seeing as he was being ignored Arthur kicked Yuki off his chair and into the distance.

    "Scar, I know you used to call him your boss but from this day on, I''m your only boss and my firstmand unto you is to not interfere with this," said Arthur as he continued to walk towards Yuki who was beginning to stand up.

    "No Arthur, please don''t do it!" Scar asked. What Arthur didn''t realize was that Scar was telling him this for his own safety, not for Yuki.

    "So tell me, why do you not bow to me? I''m a level 44 yer who is the leader of the most powerful n in the world and I am now going to be your new boss. So why do you not bow before me," said Arthur as he once again kicked Yuki''s chin.

    "So I really can''t get out of this by staying silent. Well, I guess I better make a little effort," said Yuki as he got up once again.

    "One, switch with me and continuously stop his heart before allowing it to pump blood at thest second," Yukimanded One telepathically.

    "<strong>Sounds a bit evil but sure. I''ll help you out</strong>," said one before doing as he was told. Even with such arge level gap, One was able to push out so much presence that he could force Arthur''s heart to stop working. Just as Yuki had told him, One allowed Arthur''s heart to start to beat once more right before Arthur died before repeating this process.

    "What is happening to me?" said Arthur as he got to his knees from being tortured by One. Even being the strongest person in the world, he was found hopeless in the face of One''s presence shocks.

    "Is there anyone who might be a healer?! I think sir Arthur is having a heart attack," Yuki yelled out to the crowd, trying to make it seem like he wasn''t the one making Arthur''s heart stop.

    "I am a healer! I can try to help him," one of the people in the crowd said as they began to rush onto the scene to help Arthur and in turn also gain some fame and money from saving the strongest person in the world.

    "<strong>Should I stop her heart too just as I''m doing to him</strong>?" One asked Yuki.

    "Sure," Yuki replied to One telepathically and the moment he gave the word, the healer which wasing to help Arthur copsed before he could reach Arthur as he began to reach out for air.

    "Pl-Please help me," said Arthur as he continued to gasp for air as he felt himself dying with every second that passed.

    "Please is there anyone else who''s a healer which can help him?" Yuki continued to beg whileughing on the inside from fooling everyone. Even the healers there stayed away from Arthur as they assumed that the heart disease came from him and anyone who tried to help him would get it as well.

    "H-How can something in this world harm me! I-I''m the strongest person in this world!" Arthur said as he began to grasp for his heart on the ground in hopes that the pain would go away.

    "Wait, I remember you. I saw you in a newspaper which was only published in a couple ces but someone from the n brought it to me. You''re supposed to die. So why are you right in front of me, Yuki Kaito," Arthur asked Yuki in a whisper which caused Yuki to realize what he must do. He needed to show Arthur that he could never defeat him so that he wouldn''t start revealing that Yuki Kaito was still alive.

    "One, make him pass out now," said Yuki telepathically.

    "<strong>Got it</strong>," said One before sending arge presence of shock to Arthur''s head which caused him to lose consciousness. However right before he closed his eyes he looked up to see Yuki who was kneeling before him as he tried to help Arthur however for a split second, Arthur thought he saw Yuki grinding.

    "So it was you. I finally see why Scar follows you. You''re a demon which hides in the shadows," Arthur thought to himself before losing consciousness. Right after this took ce, 5 figures emerged out of nowhere andnded right in front of Arthur before picking him up from the ground and leaping into the air before finally disappearing again.

    ...

    "Our luck may be terrible. You''re going to be on bad terms with the boss who runs this entire n," said Scar as he reached down to the ground to Yuki who was still on his knees from executing his fake n to torment Arthur.

 Chapter 195 - Shopping

    As Scar, Av and Yuki walked out of the castle''s first floor, they couldn''t help but feel as if everyone''s eyes were on them because that was what was happening. Those 3 were the ones who caused all the ruckus and caused not only Adam Andre to show up but also Arthur who was the leader of WD. Whoever those 3 were, people made sure to take a note to stay away from them as they didn''t want to get involved in the trouble which they were going to cause. It wouldn''t have been surprising if they were to get kicked out of the n right after their first day. Nevertheless, they went on with their day as if nothing happened.

    After the 3 exited the castle, Scar went in for a high five which Yuki reluctantly epted. The only one who was left confused was Av who didn''t understand what in the world could possibly make them happy.

    "Why are you two happy?! Yuki, especially you who''s going to die soon because you disrespected Arthur, what could be so magnificent that it had you smiling," Av scolded Yuki.

    "It''s okay, don''t worry about it Av, Yuki isn''t going to die any time soon," Scar said as he tried to calm her down.

    "''Don''t worry''?! You saw what was happening there. If it wasn''t for Arthur''s unexpected heart attack, he would''ve been killed. And what''s even worse is that once Arthur recovers, he''s going toe after him!" Av yelled at both of them.

    "Just trust me on this, nothing is going to happen to either of us," said Scar, to which Yuki just nodded in agreement.

    "You know, I don''t understand the two of you. You''re so strong and smart when ites to dungeons but the moment you have to interact with another human being, you turn into idiots. I mean how hard would it have been to bow to someone. Even if you didn''t mean it, as long as you bow, you can get away without having to cause any harm to your body," Av exined.

    "Okay fine, we''ll keep that in mind next time. Right now though, we need to find a ce which we can rent since we''ll be living in this kingdom for a while," said Scar as he began to already n his peaceful life in the kingdom where all the strong gather.

    ...

    After looking around for nearly an hour, the 3 of them simultaneously saw a sign which said "for rent". Without a second wasted, the 3 of them rushed towards the house which was offering rentable houses. Unlike the prison kingdom which Yuki had spent some time in, there weren''t any houses which he could take over for free in this kingdom.

    Once they reached the house which had the "for rent" sign ced at the window, they saw an olddy sitting behind a table as she looked to be awaiting something. Scar wanted to get the house as quickly as possible so he went to talk to the olddy in hopes that she would know where the owner of the house was so that they could speak to them about the rent. As expected, Yuki and Av followed behind Scar

    "Excuse me ma''am but do you know who owns this house? Me and my friends were hoping to be able to rent the ce out," Scar asked the old woman.

    "Well, you''re looking at her. I''m the owner of the house. And are you serious about wanting to rent this ce or are you some kids looking to start trouble?" the old woman asked as he inspected the 3 of them.

    "Yes, but I''ll be taking care of the financial part. How much are you looking for?" Scar asked the woman.

    "Well, I want to rent the ce out for a hundred thousand silver a month but it seems like almost no one is willing to pay that much so since you look like such a lovely bunch, I''ll rent the entire house to you for only eighty thousand silver a month," the olddy said as she made a gentle face which made Av totally trust her. As for Yuki, he was neutral but Scar had other thoughts.

    "Make it eight thousand a month or no deal," Scar said as he looked at the woman with a smirk.

    "What?! You''ve got to be insane if I would divide the money I''m asking for by 10!" the womanined and Av agreed with her.

    "Give it up old hag. You know that the real value of your home is at best four thousand silver a month. Giving you eight thousand is a bit generous on my part since it''s double what you were hoping for. You know that no one else who''s a high level yer would even bother to look at your home which was why you aimed too high when you saw us in hopes that we would ask to divide the prince in half and pay forty thousand a month meaning that you would make 10 times what you would usually make. Someone as old as you shouldn''t be so greedy," said Scar as he deconstructed the old woman''s n which shocked both Av and the old woman. As for Yuki, he wasn''t even listening to the conversation but was instead looking at other things happening around him.

    "But how did you know?!" the old womanined.

    "It was unfortunate that I had changed my ability to be that which can read minds, unfortunately for you, you had toe across me. Anyway, I assume you''ll be taking the deal?" Scar asked the old woman, who just nodded in agreement and shame.

    Once Scar finished signing some papers and gave an upfront payment, the old woman handed him the house keys and ced the table in her inventory before going off into the distance.

    "Wow, your ability came in really handy," said Av who had been a sucker for the false lie which the old woman had presented.

    "I mean what can I say, I''m just too amazing," said Scar as he smiled from thepliment as he opened the house doors and began to explore the ce. After picking a room each, Aliva headed off to the bathroom to take a shower while Scar and Yuki took care of some other things.

    After looking around some more, Yuki and Scar went inside one of the rooms which was empty and sat on the ground as they awaited for Av to finish so that they could go shopping for furniture. However, getting bored of waiting for her, the two began to talk.

    "So what was that all about?" Scar asked.

    "What do you mean by that?" Yuki replied.

    "What happened to not having any pride and doing whatever it took to get you to your goal? Was that just some lie you made up?" Scar asked calmly.

    "I guess it was," Yuki replied.

    "Of course not. It''s good that I can read your mind. You only pretended to have pride because if you didn''t, Arthur would''ve died there. I mean, you had the ability to stop his heart so you could''ve killed him at any time. You only pretended to have pride so that he would continue to live. The only question which remains is why?" Scar asked.

    "I don''t know myself, it just felt wrong to kill him. I guess it would just cause more harm to me than good so I chose not to kill him. I mean if this entire ce crumbles, we would have to find another ce to stay at," Yuki said to Scar.

    "But it''s not like we''re not used to sleeping on the solid grounds of dungeons. Me and you both have done that. The only exception is Av. Were you thinking about how she would be affected by the actions you took?" Scar asked which brought Yuki to sigh.

    "I might not have the ability which you have right now but I can still tell why you''re asking all these questions. You''re trying to get to me and convince me to be a good person. Look Scar, I''m neither good nor evil. I''m just who I am. I''m Yuki. You can judge my actions to be good or bad but it doesn''t mean that I see them that way. All the actions I take are done because I either need to or want to. It doesn''t have to do anything with morality," said Yuki with a wise expression on his face.

    "Well, that was a cool way of dodging a question. Anyway, it''s nice to see that you no longer hate Av. She seems like a pretty nice person," said Scar as he gave up on breaking Yuki''s thought process for the time being.

    "''Nice''?! She gave me hell for no reason when I was in the kingdom but after my clone was over, it seems like she''s changed. So I guess she''s not bad to have around but you better make sure you train her so that others don''t use her to manipte us," Yuki ordered.

    The entire time, Av was on the other side of the wall listening to their conversation.

 Chapter 196 - First Mission

    After spending their first day in their new home which Scar was paying for, the 3 of them were finally ready to truly begin living their life in the new kingdom which they had arrived in.

    "Hey, Yuki. Are you ready for the daily check in at the n?" Scar asked as he stood at the door waiting for Yuki who had to go to get in for the day as it was part of his contract when he signed up at the n.

    "Yes, I''m just wearing my socks, said Yuki as he came running down the stairs to leave with hisrade.

    "Av, we''ll be leaving now. Make sure you buy the furniture sometime today," Scar yelled out to Aliva who was upstairs doing something of her own. Once Yuki had finished putting on his shoes, the two of them took their leave as they made their way through the crowds of people so that they could reach the n base of operations.

    "Are you scared?" Scar asked.

    "Why would I be scared?" Yuki asked back with a puzzled expression.

    "I''m talking about what happened yesterday. Most people didn''t notice but I''m pretty sure that Arthur knew that you were the one causing his heart attacks," said Scar.

    "I mean that''s the reason I shouldn''t be scared. If he knows that I can kill him at any moment, he''ll make sure to stay out of my way.

    "Well, I guess that''s fair, just try not to put too much attention on yourself. Things can start getting bad very quickly if people were to find out about your real powers," Scar said to Yuki as they finally made it to the castle-like structure in the kingdom.

    Once inside, the both of them lined up in the daily check in section which was decreasing at an extremely fast rate until it was finally Scar''s turn since he was standing in front of Yuki.

    "Sir Scar, it''s a pleasure to see you," said thedy at the front as he opened the book in front of her at the table which she sat on before checking off something and sending him off and allowing Yuki toe forward.

    "Who might you be?" thedy at the register said to Yuki with a rather boring tone.

    "Yuki Kaito," Yuki told thedy as she looked down at her book and checked something off before sending him off without even looking at him.

    "What''s her deal?" Yuki asked Scar.

    "I guess that''s the way people who aren''t in the top 20 get treated. It finally feels good to be treated better than you. I''ve been waiting for this day for so long. More importantly, we should pick a daily quest toplete," said Scar as he pointed Yuki to arge board which had several papers on it.

    "Do you want to pick one?" Scar asked as he would be willing to go along with anything that Yuki had picked.

    "Hmm, how about this one," said Yuki as he picked up a poster from the board and showed it to Scar.

    "Ice golem hunting in the wild? It seems good I guess. The level requirement is 20 and 1-4 people can go so I guess we can both take this mission," said Scar as he nodded in agreement.

    "Once taking the poster, the two of them walked out of the n''s base of operations before heading towards the entrance gates of the kingdom so that they could aplish their mission.

    "How are we even supposed to get there? It seems like it''s going to be pretty far away from here," said Scar as the two of them just made it out of the kingdom to be greeted with a couple dozen people who were just standing outside the kingdom for no reason. Quite curious to learn who the people were, Scar went up to talk to one of them.

    "Excuse me, why are there so many people standing out here? Is there something special going in here?" Scar asked.

    "Huh? Everyone here is a teleporter. We charge yers silver and in exchange, we teleport them from here to wherever their quest is sending them. Of course we stay with them until their mission isplete. We charge about 300 silver per day of service, however since you''re new I''ll make only 200," the man exined as he got a smile on his face.

    "Oh thank you for the offer but you are clearly lying about the price. The average price is only about 100 silver per day and on some days you earn tips. However, seeing as you noticed us for being new around here, you tried to offer us an absurd deal but quickly changed it to a lower absurd dealpared to the average price so it would seem fair," Scar exined.

    "Mind reading ability?" the teleporter asked Scar which nodded back with a smile on his face.

    "Fine, I''ll teleport you to your destination," said the teleporter as he ced his hand forward at Yuki so that he could take a look at the poster.

    "Okay, I''ll take you there. It looks like it''ll take you several days toplete this quest so you can make the payment afterwards. Are you sure that you have everything with you for the mission because teleporting back will cost you extra," said the teleporter.

    "Yes, we have everything," Scar agreed.

    "Okay then, just ce your hands on my shoulder and we''ll be there in no time," the man said while hearing his words, Scar and Yuki did as they were told.

    "Activate ability: Teleport"

    Within a blink of an eye, the 3 of them had been teleported to a snowy region which were only mountains which were covered in thick snow and ice. The teleporter just sat on the ground as he nned on doing so for the following few days.

    "I guess we should start going," said Scar as he led the way towards the mountain where there were said to be ice golems.

    "Sure, I''ll just ce the quest paper in my inventory so it doesn''t get lost," said Yuki as he opened his inventory and ced the paper in there before taking onest look at his 4 treasured weapons which were nothing but small icons in the moment.

    After a while of walking the two of them stumbled across arge crater in the mountain top in which there looked to be 5 snow golems. The snow golems looked to be doing nothing in particr except walk around the creator or fight amongst each other.

    "The quest only asks to kill 10 golems so once we kill them, we''ll be halfway done with the mission," said Scar in a pleased tone.

    "Wait, how would the n know that we actually killed 10 ice golems and didn''t lie about it?" Yuki asked.

    "Didn''t you read the quest paper? It said to bring their heads back to the n," Scar replied.

    "But don''t monster''s disintegrate once they''re killed?" Yuki asked with a perplexed face.

    "They actually don''t. You''re lucky I managed to study so much about the n before we came here. I''m pretty sure that it''s one of the lower level yer''s abilities to make sure that the heads of the monsters stay in this world as long as the person who killed them had the corresponding question paper. It''s just a way to create a system where the members can get paid fairly," Scar replied.

    "Well, I guess that exins it. Let''s get to work already," said Yuki as he opened his inventory and pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" while Scar also opened his inventory and pulled out a silver long de.

    "What''s with your sword? It looks pretty heavy but cool in some ways," said Scar.

    "Oh, you still haven''t seen the best part of it," said Yuki as he began to infuse his de with his stamina which brought out the red aura shield which Yuki had used on his de multiple times before.

    "Where did you even get that?! I want one!" Scarined as hepared Yuki''s "Fallen angel of hell" to his own normal silver de.

    "Sorry but the store I bought it from disappeared. I don''t think that you''ll be able to buy another de such as this one," Yuki told Scar.

    "What do you mean disappeared? Can''t you just use your magical powers to find out where it went?" Scar asked in a confused tone.

    "I guess I can but it''s not as simple as that. I believe that it has more connections to this world that I think so I want to keep it a mystery for now and find outter. It sounds pretty fun to me," Yuki replied while Scar just looked back at him with an "are you serious" face.

    "I seriously don''t understand you. Up to this point you seemed like such a closed off person who hates everything close to fun but the one thing which might be a potential threat to this world you choose to think of as fun," said Scar as he sighed before reluctantly charging into battle with the golems.

 Chapter 197 - Berserker Blade

    Once inside the crater where all the snow golems were in, Scar began to engage all of them in battle and he was able to do pretty well on his own as he was vastly more powerful than every single one of them. The only problem was Yuki who was just over the level requirement which meant that he would struggle a lot since the quest was a group quest. Nevertheless, Yuki leaped into battle with "Fallen angel of hell" in hand as he prepared to do battle with the monsters.

    After he, himself had made it into the crater and took one of the 5 golems for himself, Yuki realized that he was vastly outmatched. Even with him being a single level higher the the requirement, Yuki was in the desired tform for the ice golems who could take advantage of the terrain. Yuki''s only hope was his ability, however if it wasn''t hot enough, it would bepletely useless.

    "Only one way to find out," said Yuki as he leaped backwards andnded on his feet before preparing to do battle with the ice golem.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "I don''t know if this is going to work but even if it does, it''s going to drain me of nearly all my stamina," Yuki said to himself as he began to think of a n in his head.

    "I call this... Berserker de!" said Yuki as he covered his "Fallen angel of hell" in his fire before also pumping some of his stamina into his de which created a red standparent cover around the de with the fire still inside it. With no other idea on how to win the battle, Yuki threw his de right at the ice golem''s chest and watched as it stuck to the monster but the ice golem was still alive and doing well as it continued to run towards Yuki at top speeds.

    "Here goes nothing," said Yuki as he sped his hands together which caused his "Fallen angel of hell" to explore for some reason. The actual reason why this happened was because first Yuki had infused his de with his ability then he pumped his de with his stamina which caused it to act as an instor for the fire. After throwing the de into the monster''s chest, Yuki made sure that his makeshift bomb would be able to explode right at the target. Once the de had been pinned into the target, Yuki continued to increase the mes inside the aura shield which eventually caused it tobust, in turn killing the ice golem instantly but also draining Yuki of nearly all his stamina.

    "I did it!" Yuki yelled out in happiness as his n had worked better than he had expected and once he finished with his battle, he went to pick up his de which was hotter than magma and had smokeing out of it.

    "Hey Scar! Leave the rest of them to me. I want to take them down," said Yuki as he looked at Scar, who was still in battle with the 4 ice golems since they weren''t giving him a chance to strike back. Even though they were basically giantspared to him, they still managed to have an astonishing movement speed.

    "Are you sure Yuki? They''re a bit difficult. If you want, you can just tap them so that the exp would be shared and you''ll be able to gain exp too," Scar offered as he continued his battle.

    "No, it''s not only about the exp. I need to get fighting experience as well so just leave things to me," said Yuki as he began to slowly walk towards the ice golems while his smoking sword dragged across the ice constructed ground.

    "Fine, suit yourself. However, if it looks like you''re going to die, I''m going toe in and save you," said Scar as he backed off, leaving Yuki to deal with the remaining ice golems which now had their attention turned on Yuki which to them looked like a tasty snack.

    "Here it goes. I won''t rely on One, or Zero nor will I rely on some stupid potions. This battle is between me and these ice golems," Yuki said to himself as he brought his de forward.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Yuki made sure that the mes he used were muchrger than the ones he used against the single ice golem since Yuki wanted to dispose of all the other 4 ice golems at the same time. Once the mes had been ced on "Fallen angel of hell" Yuki began to pump all of his remaining stamina into his de so that arge red aura would appear on the de.

    Just as Yuki had hoped, an enormous red transparent shield-like object appeared around "Fallen angel of hell". However at the cost of having such a devastating weapon, Yuki was brought to his knees after extending way more stamina than he should have ever done. And yet, he wasn''t done as Yuki forced himself to stand up on his two feet as he grabbed hold on his de''s hilt with both his palms.

    "I don''t care how many of you there are, I''ll make sure to eradicate you!" Yuki yelled out as he swung his de from the sky towards the ground making sure that it didn''t hit a single one of the ice golems which made the monsterugh as Yuki as if he had failed his mission.

    "Berserker de!" Yuki yelled out and in that precise moment, Yuki managed to put whatever he had left in him into causing the mes that were inside "Fallen angel of hell" to expand beyond their capability. The ice golems just watched as the strong transparent shield around Yuki''s de continued to expand as it began to lose its shape and form until eventually... it popped.

    A massive explosion took ce on top of the crater of the mountain. It was evenrge enough for the teleporter to see it take ce and watch in awe as he wondered what kind of havoc the two people who he had teleported were causing.

    At the end of the explosion, all the remains of the ice golems were their heads which were forced to stay there due to the ability of whoever was responsible for making the quest papers.

    "No way! He actually did it! Even though he had less levels than me, he managed to kill all of them with a single attack... although it looks like it took a lot more out of him than he expected," said Scar as he began to walk towards hisrade so that he could pick Yuki up and take him to a safer location. But before that, Scar picked up all the ice golem heads and ced them in his inventory before finally holding Yuki by the shoulder and bringing him down towards the mountain.

    However as the two of them began to descend down the mountain, Scar heard a loud noise behind him which when he looked back, he realized what it was. He had realized why the sound was familiar. It was because there was a group of snow golems behind him. However instead of there being 1 or 2 or even 5, there were at least 20 of them that were chasing after Yuki and Scar.

    "They probably heard the explosion and rushed to the aid of their friends. We''re going to die if we don''t get away from here," said Scar as he continued to run faster but away from where the teleporter was as if the worst were to happen, they would have a way to return home withoutpleting the mission.

    So instead, Scar made a sharp turn and began to run towards the other side of the mountain where he was lucky enough to find a small entrance which looked to be a cave. Seeing his opportunity, Scar quickly ced Yuki inside of it then got in himself before covering the entrance with snow so that the snow golems wouldn''t find them. Luckily for Scar, that n worked as the ice golems headed off in another direction while he could stay and take a break to catch his breath.

    "I actually did it. You should be grateful to Yuki, I really just saved your life," said Scar in a whisper. Although he wanted Yuki to wake up as soon as possible, he realized that it would be quite a while before he would be able to speak to hisrade once again.

    "Oh that''s right, he had spent most of his time in the dungeon without sleep then we had to escape into another kingdom from the one where he was being held prisoner. Even after that, he went to have that horrible experience with his host family. Right after that, he had to battle the world''s strongest man and now he used all his stamina to fight off 5 ice golems and managed to kill them with a single attack. I guess he really does deserve a little rest," said Scar as heid his head back on the cave wall.

 Chapter 198 - Knock Knock

    "W-What happened?" Yuki asked as he woke up from his slumber.

    "I see you''re finally awake" said Scar who was still trying to survive the cold temperatures.

    "Did I kill those golems?" Yuki asked his team mate.

    "Yes you did. However, the explosion you caused made it so that the other snow golems which were in the area gathered around and started chasing us. I miraculously found his small cave thing inside of the mountain and managed to get us inside of here. So basically we''re hiding out until you manage to recover the rest of your strength?" Scar exined to Yuki.

    "Well, I''m all better now so we can start heading out. Wait, where''s my sword," said Yuki as he looked down at his hand and realized that even after he passed out, he managed to hold on to his treasured de.

    "Are you sure though? If all of them begin to attack you all at once, you''ll have no choice but to run away again. Let me take it from here. My strength should be more than enough to kill all of them with little to no difficulty. Even if I somehow were to get in trouble, I could drink A potion and-" Scar began to exin his n before Yuki stopped him.

    "No! This is my battle, I will defeat every single one of them. I wanted to deal with them without having to rely on any potions because it looks like I will have to go against my first n," said Yuki as he opened his inventory.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out a full status recovery potion as well as a 5 strength boost potions andstly, 2 speed boost potions before drinking all of them at once and bursting out of the cave which Scar managed to create so they could hide from the golems.

    "Sure, I''ll cover you from the back," said Scar as he followed Yuki out of the cave so that they could fight against the golems which wereposed of both ice and snow together. Luckily for the two of them, there were 3 ice golems waiting for them outside. However, seeing as they had found their targets, the ice golems cried out and managed to call the remaining 17 golems from the surrounding area.

    "Scar, can you distract all of them for a second," Yuki asked his teammate, who agreed without hesitation. Scar quickly leaped towards one of the ice golems before kicking it in the face, in turn gaining the attention of the other ice golems as well. While he continued to dodge all of their attacks without a w, Yuki began to set up an extrarge explosion which would blow even most of the mountain to smithereens.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Using his ability Yuki covered "Fallen angel of hell" with his fire before next pumping his treasured de with his stamina, in turn causing a red transparent aura shield to form around "Fallen angel of hell" which was already covered in mes. Once that was prepared, Yuki once again covered "Fallen angel of hell" in his mes even though the red shield was already on it. Once he had done so, Yuki pumped more of his stamina into the de to cause a second shield to form around the de. Yuki continued to do this until 10 shields had been formed around "Fallen angel of hell" and Yuki was once again on the brink of passing out.

    "Scar! Get out of the way!" Yukimanded which the Scar who managed to get beat up pretty hard did as he was told so that Yuki could raise his de in the air before mming it down on the ground. Seeing his opportunity, Scar grabbed Yuki before leaping far away from where "Fallen angel of hell" was.

    Now that everything had been set up, Yuki continued to use everyst bit of his stamina to increase the amount of mes inside the firstyer of the transparent shield until it began to expand. Even though it was clearly dangerous, the ice golems just looked at the de as if it was an odd toy. Seeing as the ice golems had huddled around the de just as Yuki wanted, Yuki snapped his fingers at the precise moment that the shields began to burst like a big explosion.

    All that was left of the area which Yuki had caused to explore was just smoke. Once it had cleared up though, Yuki could see the heads of 19 ice golemsying on the ground. Except for one ice golem which was still remaining.

    "Dammit, drop me down back there, I''ll take care of it-" said Yuki but passed out before he could finish his sentence.

    "Why do you always bear the burden which both of us can do together? Just let me do something to help you out for once," said Scar as heid Yuki on the snow on the side of the mountain before he got in a runner''s pose. In thest moment, right before the golem focused its eyes on them, Scar kicked himself off the mountain and gave himself the push he needed to send himself down towards the ice golem like a missile.

    "Die," said Scar as he ced his fist forward and punched a whole right in the middle of the ice golem''s chest.

    Once Scar had killed the final ice golem, he ced all the heads of the ice golems which were on the ground into his inventory before picking up "Fallen angel of hell" and trying to ce it in his inventory as well so he could hold on to it until Yuki woke up. However, the item refused to shrink, let alone get ced inside Scar''s inventory.

    "I guess it has to do something with his powers," said Scar as he decided to carry "Fallen angel of hell" in his left hand before going back to where he had left Yuki and carrying him with his right hand and taking him back to the teleporter.

    ...

    "I assume that he was too weak for the mission?" the teleporter asked Scar.

    "Actually it''s the opposite. He ended up overdoing it and passed out. We managed to get 15 more ice golem heads than we were supposed to thanks to him," said Scar.

    "Wait, you''re not here to retreat but instead managed to clear the quest along with get double more that you were required to?" the teleporter asked Scar with his facepletely baffled as he couldn''t believe what he had heard.

    "Ya, I mean why would that be weird?" Scar asked.

    "Missions like these take several days at minimum. I can tell you''re a couple levels above the requirement but I still thought it would take you at least 4 days to finish this. That''s not all but you weren''t even the one who did most of the work but it was instead your weaker team member!" the teleporter began to yell which got the attention of several more ice golems in the area and caused them to start rushing towards the teleporter.

    "Oh oh. Quick! Grab onto my shoulder and I''ll teleport us out of here," said the teleporter which Scar listened to and also ced Yuki''s unconscious palm on top of the teleporter just in case.

    Right before the ice golems should bite off Scar''s, Yuki''s and the teleporter''s heads, the three of them managed to teleport away just in time so that they could survive.

    Once they teleported back to the kingdom, all 3 of them fell on the ground from barely surviving in the nick of time which got the attention of everyone who was there.

    The teleporter quickly got up so that his reputation wouldn''t be ruined and began to tell Scar the cost of the trip which Scar agreed to and paid him the money before dragging Yuki back towards the home which he, Yuki and Av were staying at. Even though it was the middle of the night, Scar continued to walk towards his home as someone was waiting for him and Yuki so he couldn''t afford to take a break.

    ...

    "I guess those two must have gotten a mission. They''ll probably be out for a couple of days. Not that it matters. I''ve had a wonderful day of my own filled with hard work. I managed to get all the furniture we needed and even set it up. I stocked up the fridge and even cleaned the whole house. Who says I need their help for anything," Aliva thought to herself as she continued to eat her dinner in the dining room.

    ...

    "I hope she''s not mad at us for not telling her that we would be gone for so long," said Scar as he knocked on the door of the house which was now where he lived.

    *Knock* *Knock*

    Not even two secondster, the door opened as Av had rushed to open the door to see if her new teammates and roommates had returned.

    "Hi there," said Scar as he smiled before passing out himself and falling down inside the house with Yuki who himself was still unconscious.

 Chapter 199 - Set Up

    "Where am I?" Yuki asked as he quickly stood up out of a bed in an unfamiliar ce.

    "Just go to sleep, you still need to recover your strength," said Av who was sitting beside him.

    "Already home? How long was I asleep for? I still need to take care of my daily check in at the n," Yukiined as he tried to clear his head so that he could go on with his day like usual.

    "No! I said to rest," said Av in an angry tone which even Yuki listened to for one.

    "As for your daily check in at the n, Scar has been checking in for you for the past 2 days. The n said that if you overdid it, they''ll allow you to rest for a couple days. They also paid you guys more than you were expecting," Av exined to Yuki.

    "So you''re saying that I''ve been out ofmision for a whole 2 day? I seriously need to work on making this body a lot stronger-" said Yuki before passing out on his own which brought relief to Av even though it shouldn''t have.

    ...

    As for Scar, he had gone to the n so that he could pick out another quest to go on by himself while Yuki was recovering. However as he was picking out the right quest for himself, a group of people approached him. They wereposed of fairly geared out people. The group in itself had 6 people in it which all surrounded Scar like a flock of birds.

    "Are you the number 15 known as Scar?" one of them asked.

    "... I am. What is it that you want of me?" Scar asked them in belief that they wanted to attack him.

    "We heard that you managed to over do a quest by more than double the requirement, is that actually true?" another one of them asked with a face full of excitement.

    "Well not really. I wasn''t the one who actually did most of the work. The one who actually killed nearly all of the ice golems was myrade who''s resting now because he overdid it," Scar replied to them.

    "That just sounds like a lie to make it so that yourrade doesn''t like a weakling. That''s so kind of you," the one who had started the conversation said to Scar.

    "But I''m not lying, he was the one who actually did most of the work," Scar argued.

    "Oh how humble of you. You''re so strong yet so kind as to cover for the weak," one of them said with their eyes of admiration.

    "I seriously hate this ce. It''s like it''s full of deaf people who just want to speak over you," Scar thought to himself before answering.

    "You know what, since you don''t believe me, how about you try to fight against myrade who you call weak. Instead of only one of you fighting him, how about if all of you do it at the same time," Scar offered.

    "Sure! But if we win, you have to join us and help us during our quests whenever we ask," said the one who even started the conversation.

    "Deal!" Scar agreed to their conditions.

    "Okay, we''ve managed to secure a deal. All that''s left is to eliminate Yuki Kaito. He''s currently level 21. ording to my sources, thest he was seen here was 3 days ago which was also when Scar went to take on the mission. Most likely, he went along with Scar as a sidekick but ended up surprising Scar when he alone defeated nearly all the ice golems on his own which is why he''s resting right now," one of them gave a detailed exnation of what had happened to Yuki.

    "So you knew that Yuki was the one who did all of the work but still acted like I was the one that did it? But why?" Scar asked in a confused tone.

    "It''s simple, we wanted you to agree to our conditions and after we defeat Yuki, you''ll have to help us whenever we want your assistance," the one in sses which had read out the events which took ce said before maniacallyughing.

    "That doesn''t make a difference, you realize that you''ll all still lose right?" Scar asked them.

    "Well not technically. We know that he''s level 21. Our strongest member is level 20 with the remaining being from level 15 to level 17. If we y our cards right, we might not even have to use all of our power to kill your teammate. You set yourself up," one of them exined to Scar.

    "Just to make sure that you guys understand, I can just refuse the offer and you''ll have no choice but to listen. Even by some weird miracle that it is a n rule to not back out of an agreement, I''m pretty sure I can bend the rules due to the rank I hold over you. However, I will still agree to the battle which you proposed just to show you as well as everyone else that may still doubt myrade''s strength," said Scar.

    "So when do you want the battle to take ce?" Scar asked.

    "How about in a week? Unless you would like more time than that, that''s fine by us," the group to taounted Scar.

    "That''s fine by me as well," said Scar before shaking one of their hands and going back to where his home was.

    ˇ­

    "WHAT?! Why would you sign me up for something like that without my permission?" Yuki asked, stillying in his bed.

    "There are still a few people who don''t believe in your strength. To make sure that no one thinks of you as weak ever again, we need to have to demonstrate your overwhelming power," Scar exined

    "That''s the problem, I don''t really don''t care what others think. I just need to keep gaining exp and leveling up, as long as I have that, I won''t beining," Yuki replied.

    "B-But if you don''t fight them, it''ll be their win by forfeit and I''ll have to join their team instead of yours," Scar exined.

    "I sometimes don''t understand why I tolerate your behaviour," said Yuki with an annoyed face.

    "Hey! Don''t forget that I saved your life 2 times," Scar stated proudly.

    "No you didn''t ''save'' me, I would''ve been saved by Zero. It wouldn''t have made a difference either way," said Yuki.

    "''Zero''? What is that?" Scar asked.

    "Oh right, I never told you, did I? Zero is the entity which basically gives me all my supernatural powers. Well it''s not his name, I just gave it to himˇ­ I think or maybe he gave himself that. Either way, that''s what I call him," Yuki exined.

    "That''s a weird name but anyway, you should focus on developing a strategy to defeat the people who you''re going to battle. It''s going to be the 4 of them against only you. Without the help of Zero, there''s no way you''ll be able to win," Scar said to Yuki.

    "That''s where you''re wrong. I don''t need Zero for everything in my life. I can at least take care of myself when ites to these situations. However, I will need a little extra time. Just tell them that the situation I got myself into is much worse than you thought so the battle will have to be extended by 1 more week meaning that our battle will take ce in 2 week from now," Yuki said to Scar.

    "But what difference will an extra week make? It is not like you can simply grain the levels needed to get yourself to such a high level where they would be nothing but ants to you in just a matter of a few weeks," Scar argued as Yuki opened his inventory.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki took out a full status recovery position from his inventory before drinking it so that he would be back at full strength. Once he had recovered his lost might, Yuki got out of his bed with an enthusiastic leap.

    "Where''s my de?" Yuki asked Scar which he replied to by walking in another room of the house and bringing back "Fallen angel of hell".

    "I guess that it might have the special properties needed to defeat them. So why would you need an extra week?" Scar asked hisrade.

    "What do you think I''m going to do in 2 weeks? My record time for clearing a dungeon is in a single week. I still haven''t cleared the 4th dungeon yet so once it has been cleared, I''ll be able to start gaining a lot of exp so that I can level up quickly once again. Of course I n on spending one week in the 4th dungeon and one week in the 5th dungeon. That way, I''ll be more than ready to take on the enemies you''ve made for me," Yuki exined.

    "Are you sure though? One week just seems unrealistic, if it makes you feel better, I can ask them to make the battle 3 weeks from now," Scar offered.

    "Don''t worry, 2 weeks is plenty of time," Yuki replied with a smirk.

 Chapter 200 - Purchase

    "Don''t worry, 2 weeks is plenty of time," Yuki replied with a smirk.

    After his speech, Yuki got out of the room before asking Zero to teleport him to the 4th dungeon so that he could get started on his training for the following 2 weeks so that he could demolish the enemies which Scar had created for him.

    "Hey Zero, do you mind teleporting me to the 4th dungeon of this world. What is the theme of it?" Yuki asked Zero in a confused tone.

    "Of course, master. The name of the dungeon is ''Elven Garden''. From the name alone, you should know that all of the creatures in there should be elves which you will have to battle in exchange for exp. I assume that you''ll be relying on your own strength instead of calling out to me, One or absorbing potions?" Zero questions Yuki as he teleports him to the dungeon gate of the 4th dungeon.

    "Ya ya, I know. I''ll only use what I have. This shouldn''t take too long as long as I kill each of the elves quickly so that the system doesn''t bnce their strength to mine," said Yuki as he entered the dungeon with the doors closing behind him after he passed through.

    "Let''s get this started," said Yuki as he pulled out "Fallen angel of hell'''' from his inventory.

    ...

    "I guess he really did teleport out of here. I wonder if he''ll be okay though. I mean is it ever possible to clear a dungeon in a single week? I haven''t even heard of raid squads which have managed to aplish that," Av said to Scar.

    "Don''t worry, he''ll be back alive. The only question is if he''ll make it back in time. I''m pretty sure he wasn''t lying about clearing a dungeon in 1 week but although that is impressive, it was done in one of the first dungeons if not the first dungeon a yer has to go in. As the dungeon''s number increases, the tougher it is not only strength wise but with how versatile the monsters in it are as well, in turn making the process take much longer than possible. Anyway, I should leave and tell the squad which challenged Yuki that their battle will have to take ce in 2 weeks'' time," said Scar before he left as well, leaving Av all alone once again.

    After a while of walking, Scar finally made it back to the castle-like structure in the kingdom where the group of people which had offered to challenge Yuki were. Although a bit odd, they hadn''t left the ce.

    "Oh look who''s back. Are you here to cancel the fight after you get scared?" one of them asked in a taunting tone so that Scar wouldn''t back out even though he hadn''t.

    "I''m not here to back out of the deal. However I would like to make a change," said Scar.

    "What? So are you going to add some rule that only one of you can fight him and the person who fights him has to be the weakest person here, huh?`` They continued to try to provoke him.

    "You guys seriously have a problem with talking over people before they can finish. Anyway, I only came here to tell you that the fight will have to take ce in 2 weeks instead of one since it looks like Yuki is in worse condition than I thought. Would that be a problem for you?" Scar asked them.

    "Oh that''s it? I thought you wanted to back out or something. Never mind then, if you only need an extension by 1 more week, be our guest. It''ll be more fun to beat Yuki when he''s at full strength anyway," One of them replied, which allowed Scar to let out a sigh of relief.

    "Why are you so relieved? It''s not like you''re safe. Whether it be 1 week from now or 2 weeks, you''ll eventually have to join us and there''s no way to escape that fate of yours," they said before going back to their conversation.

    "Good, it''s best that they don''t know about what Yuki is doing. The more that they believe that they''re safe from him, the better. His new found power will shock them straight to hell," Scar thought to himself before leaving the castle-like building and heading back home.

    ...

    "I''m home," said Scar as he opened the door before closing the door behind him once he had entered the house.

    "Hey, didn''t you say that you were going to train me so that I wouldn''t be a setback to you guys? Well I''m waiting because I''m getting tired of staying here all day," Av finally said to Scar.

    "Oh right. My bad, I shouldn''t have forgotten. The longer you stay weak, the more Yuki will resent epting you into our group. If you want to be seen as an asset, you''ll have to prove that you''re useful to him," said Scar as he put on his shoes once again.

    "What are you waiting for? Let''s get going," said Scar as he opened the door for her.

    "But wait, I need to get ready first. I can''t leave in these clothes," said Av as he began to turn back towards her room which was upstairs.

    "You''re going to risk your life in a dungeon where you''ll be facing dozens of undead beasts. I don''t think a single one of them cares what their prey looks like as long as it''s human," said Scar to which Av nodded and went to wear her sneakers.

    "Good, now that we can start heading out, do you have any equipment on you?" Scar asked Av.

    "I actually do. Is a single dagger enough?" Av asked with an air head''s face which made Scar sigh.

    "I guess we better go to an equipment shop first so that we can get you something which you can use in the fight. I assume that you usually use daggers so I''ll buy you a dagger. Don''t worry, it''ll be on me," said Scar as he began to walk towards where he believed the shops were run by the NPCs.

    "Now that I think about it, I never really go to many shops here. The only store which I ever go to is the potion shop to restock. Most of my weaponry is gained from the dungeons," said Scar as he continued to walk with Av.

    "Actually, I hear that''s the case for most of the advanced yers. They choose to opt for the weapons they earned in dungeons because they feel some sort of connection with any de or weapon they fought for,"Av replied as the two finally made it to the shopping district of the kingdom.

    After a few minutes of walking around, Scar noticed a store which had a lot of different weapons inside of it from varying sizes and shapes. As such, Scar went inside of it with Av following behind him. Scar instantly headed off to an area which had a lot of daggers so that he could pick one for Av which he believed to be of the best quality.

    "Uh, Scar, daggers aren''t actually my specialty. It was whatever I could afford at the time and I used it until I could get more money. Actually, I was hoping that I could get a gun instead if that would be okay with you of course," Av requested.

    "Of course. You can get any weapon you like and I''ll pay for it. Although you should know that there''s a reason why not many people use bullet-based weapons. Most guns and things of that sort are actually basically useless in this world since their base is limited unlike the weapons which you gain from dungeons. In the dungeons, the power which a weapon holds is entirely dependent on what stage and which dungeon you''re in as opposed to the guns which always stay the same," Scar exined which made Av rather sad.

    "However, if you insist on getting the guns, you can still get it but to make the guns useful, you''ll have to change your ability to be that which enhances the gun''s capability so that it is more viable in dungeons," Scar offered, to which Av quickly nodded in agreement.

    "Okay then pick out the guns you would like to get from this store," said Scar, to which Av quickly pulled out a dual machine gun pair that spooked Scar at first before he took the guns out of her hands and ced them on the counter.

    "That''ll be 2000 silver young men," said the old NPC who was the owner of the store. Scar instantly knew that the old man was an NPC as no one except for them would have ess to such weapons.

    Scar quickly paid the old man and had Av store the guns in her inventory.

    "Oh wait, don''t I need ammo for this?" Av asked.

    "Don''t worry about that, you can just make your ability create augmented bullets which when created drain stamina from you," said Scar which Av nodded in agreement.

 Chapter 201 - Forfeit

    After buying Av the dual machine guns from the market which was run mainly by the NPCs, Scar along with an ambitious femalerade at his side decided to head back home for the time being.

    "So when do we get started with my training? I know I''ve just gotten my weapons now but I don''t want to stay a burden to the both of you any longer. I want to an asset from now on!" Av asked Scar.

    "How about you start setting up your ability first then we can focus on entering the dungeon. Remember, the more focused the ability is, the stronger it is, so try to limit the areas at which it can provide versatility. As long as it can only aplish one single task, you''ll have an unbeatable weapon," Scar exined to Av.

    "Alright then, I''ll make sure to keep that in mind when I reset my ability," Av replied and waited with anticipation until the two got home.

    ˇ­

    After getting home, Av set her ability just as Scar asked, meaning that it had a lot of drawbacks and could only be used in a few, if not only one scenario. Once that had beenpleted, Scar entered the dungeons with Av as he instructed her in how to do every part of the dungeon.

    While this went on, Yuki continued to go ballistic on the dungeon monsters of the 4th and 5th dungeons as he tore them apart.

    "I''ve been meaning to ask you One. Are you the one responsible for making me feel angry whenever I''m in dungeons so that I could defeat the monsters since I lose sight of my limits?" Yuki asked.

    "So you know about it? I guess there''s no point hiding it from you any longer. What you said is true, I do in fact tamper with your emotions so that you can go above and beyond in dungeons. Specifically now since you have to get this done in such a short amount of time. I can already tell that you''re disappointed since that didn''te from your own power but that''s not true. All the emotions you feel are real and they''re yours. I only make them more prominent so that they can help you in these battles," One replied to Yuki.

    "Thank you, it''s fine as long as you yourself aren''t getting involved directly," said Yuki before returning to his animalistic nature while he brutally killed the elves.

    ˇ­

    ˇ­

    ˇ­

    After 2 long weeks of nothing but training, Scar and Av exited the first dungeon as Av had finallypleted the first dungeon of the new world.

    "You did it! Congrattions Av!" Scar said as he high fived the youngdy after they hadpleted their 2 week quest.

    "I couldn''t have done it without you, thank you big brother Scar," Av replied.

    "Big brother?ˇ­ Big brother! I like the sound of that," Scar said proudly as the two headed back towards their house with their tattered clothes.

    ˇ­

    Once the two of them arrived at their house, they entered through the door and began to rest as they could finally breathe with a feeling of relief.

    "WAIT! How long has it been since we''ve gone to the dungeon?" Scat asked in a panicked voice.

    "I think it''s been 2 weeks, so what ? You seem pretty worried for some reasonˇ­ oh," said Av as she realized what the 2 weeks meant. It was time for Yuki''s battle with the group that challenged him.

    Realizing howte he was, Scar rushed towards the castle-like building in the kingdom as he needed to exin to the group which challenged Yuki that he still needed some more time to recover.

    ˇ­

    "No way! Today is exactly the day in which we agreed on the battle to take ce. He''s still not here and if he doesn''t show, you''ll have no choice but to join us. It doesn''t matter how much we negotiate, it''s been set in stone that you''ll have to help us out once the dayes to an end," one of the members of the group which challenged Yuki to a battle told Scar.

    "Okay then, let''s wait until midnight. If he doesn''t show, I''ll join you and I won''t make any excuses nor will Iin," Scar said to them even though he doubted that Yuki would make it back in time.

    "Come on now Yuki, for once I want to believe in you. I told you that 2 weeks was much too short for you to gain the strength you needed. Why did you have to be stubborn? Well even if you fail to show up, I guess you can just call on Zero to turn back time and save us from this hell," Scar thought to himself as he sat down at one of the benches in the first floor of the castle while awaiting for the unluckily return of Yuki.

    "3 hours left"

    "2 hours left"

    "1 hour left"

    "30 minutes left"

    "15 minutes left"

    "10 minutes left"

    "5 minutes left"

    "There are only 5 minutes left, let''s start the introduction ceremony already. We''ve just gained a powerful ally on our side," of them said as they stood up from boredom yet excitement.

    ˇ­

    "I guess it''s over for me," Scar thought to himself.

    "Sit back down, you''re not allowed to be on the same level as me," said a voice as the figure pushed the one of the group which suggested that they begin the introduction.

    "Yuki! You made it!" Scar yelled out in pure joy and relief.

    "I never go back on my word," said Yuki as he smiled while pushing the member of the group down.

    "There''s no point, Scar is already hours, there are only 5 minutes left anyway. If you can''t defeat all of us in that amount of time, Scar belongs to us," said one of the members of the group who was wearing the sses. That same member was the one who told the group every detail about Yuki.

    "I never agreed to that but sure. I''ll y along with your dumb fight rules," said Yuki before activating his ability.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Heaven''s Bomb"

    "It doesn''t matter whatever fancy move you decide to use. We can just run away until the timer is met and since Scar decided to make the fight all of us against you, you''ll never catch us in time," one of the group said as heughed.

    ˇ­

    "It doesn''t matter if you ran, there is already a bomb attached to all of you. The moment you run, they''ll explode and turn you to dust. Even if you choose to attack instead, they''ll explode. If you haven''t realized by now, I haven''t been sick until now, instead I''ve been in dungeons. Right now, you''re facing a level 27 yer with killer intentions," said Yuki as he stared deep into all of their eyes.

    "We give up," said the one in sses as he raised his hand up before walking away.

    "Hey! We didn''t agree on that! Just give us a second," said another one of the group as he approached the man in sses.

    "What was that for?!" the man who excused himself for a moment asked the one in sses.

    "He''s not bluffingˇ­ if we were to fight him, we would die before we realized it," said the one in sses with a trembling voice.

    "Are you serious? Wait, how though? I thought he was just a level 21 yer, what happened to him? Why do you believe that he''s such a threat nowpared to just a few minutes ago?" the one who had excused himself asked the man in sses.

    "We should''ve been checking up on him every day instead of just the first then getting arrogant. I believe that this was all set up on purpose back 2 weeks ago. This is what most likely happened. After Scar agreed to the battle conditions, he told Yuki that the battle would take ce 1 week from that day. Hearing that he had to battle us, Yuki devised a n topletely destroy us. As such, he sent Scar back to tell us that Yuki was in worse shape than he thought at first," the man in sses began to exin.

    "After he had told us that, 2 things were assured. The first being that we would grow in confidence since Yuki would still probably not recover in time even after 2 weeks which in turn allowed him to. train in secret. For the past 2 weeks, Yuki had been training until he gained 6 whole levels. While a monstrous aplishment on its own, the way he managed to do it is even scarier," the man in sses finished exining.

    "So Scar stays with me right?" Yuki asked them just to make sure which made the man in sses around to respond.

    "Yes, he will still continue to be a part of your team. Please forgive us for challenging you in the first ce," the man in sses replied before all of them left the guild''s base of operations.

    "Wait a second Scar, now that I''m a level 27 yer, does that mean I''m in the top 20 in this guild?" Yuki asked with a sinister grin.

 Chapter 202 - Quest Planning

    "Wait a second Scar, now that I''m a level 27 yer, does that mean I''m in the top 20 in this guild?" Yuki asked with a sinister grin.

    "I guess so, I''m pretty sure that since you''re in the top 20 plus you having ess to the phoenix summon means that you''ll have to sign new papers to indicate what your level is so that you can receive the same perks which I have been able to enjoy," said Scar.

    "What are even the perks of being in the top 20?" Yuki asked with a curious face.

    "Well for starters, everyone will have to start treating you like a king. You''ll also be able to call upon the top 10 who have an insane amount of power to your aid whenever you want. You''ll be invited to the top 20 meetings although you''ll be excluded from the top 10 or the top 5 meetings. Of course you''ll be provided with your own room here at the castle and you''ll bepensated for your hard work with free room service and food," Scar exined.

    "How do you even remember all of this stuff?" Yuki asked.

    "I guess I just have a pretty good memory. Plus you would also know if you simply read the contract you signed instead of just signing all the parts where it is asked for a signature," said Scar, which caught Yuki off guard as he had tried to keep the fact that he didn''t read his contract properly a secret which he would take to the grave.

    "H-How did you know about that?" asked Yuki in a worried voice.

    "Never mind, I forgot you can read my mind. Anyway, how have you been these past 2 weeks?" Yuki asked Scar as the two of them began to leave the castle-like building which was currently the base of operations for the n known as WD in the dead of night.

    "Well you should know that I started the task you gave me being that I needed to help Av grow as fast as possible so that she wouldn''t be a burden on us," said Scar.

    "Wait, are you saying that you took her to a dungeon? That''s great!" Yuki announced.

    "Guess what level I got her to be?" Scar replied with a proud expression.

    "Level 10? No, did you somehow manage to get her into even the 3rd dungeon and clear it as well so that she would be a level 15 yer?! Wow, that''s wonderful, I knew I could believe in you," Yuki said to Scar with Joy.

    ...

    "NO! I got her to level 5! But because of your crazyrge guess, it doesn''t sound as impressive!" Scar yelled at Yuki.

    "Sorry... I just thought that since you had so much experience in dungeons, you would be able to catch up to us quickly," Yuki said in a quiet yet happy tone.

    "Anyway, what''s with the sudden change in attitude? It sounds too fake," said Scar.

    "It doesn''t suit me right?" Yuki asked as he returned to his usual bored demeanor.

    "Not really. Although it would be good for you not to be so gloomy all the time, being happy all the time instead is just worse. It''s okay for you to be who you truly are, if that means that you have to be an edge lord all day, so be it," Scar replied.

    "Calling me an edge lord doesn''t make you very convincing. Anyway, when did you and Av get back from the first dungeon I''m assuming since she''s at level 5?" Yuki asked.

    "To be honest, we just got back today. We got quite lucky since we didn''t know if you would show up. Just in case you didn''t, I was nning oning up with some sort of excuse on the spot so that they wouldn''t take me away," said Scar.

    "I guess that''s good. Sorry for worrying about you like that. Anyway, since you''ve been busy training Av for the past 2 weeks, do you want to take a break from that and go on a quest with me since I still want to gain exp?" Yuki asked.

    "Sure, since we''re both on the same level now anyway, we can take on higher leveled quests as well," Scar agreed as the both of them headed home together.

    ...

    *Ding* *Dong*

    "Coming!" said Av''s voice as Yuki and Scar could hear running footsteps.

    "Wee home!" said Av as she greeted the both of them.

    "How did it go with the n?" Av asked.

    "Yuki managed to scare them off so I''ll be able to stay free and do whatever I like," said Scar.

    "That''s wonderful news! Speaking of the n, since I''m already at level 5, I was thinking that I could register at the n and even go on my first quest with you tomorrow, big brother Scar," said Av.

    "Sorry Av, I was already nning-" Scar began to speak before getting cut off by Yuki.

    "He''ll be happy to go with you to the guild and register you there. You won''t even have to wait in life because of his rank. After that, he''ll take you on your first quest so you won''t get lost," said Yuki with a joyful expression which brought a smile to Av as she rushed off to the dining room.

    ...

    "Why did you do that? I thought we were supposed to take a day off so that we could go on a quest?" Scar asked.

    "It seems like the girl had taken quite a liking to you. Take care of her. Plus, we can just go another time," said Yuki as he headed off upstairs to take a nap as he was exhausted from his 2 week trip which he spent in dungeons.

    ...

    "Hey Yuki, if you don''te and eat, your food will get cold," Av said.

    "Don''t worry about me, I already ate out before I met up with Scar. Go ahead and eat without me for the day, I''m exhausted," Yuki lied as he pretended to rest until he eventually went to sleep.

    ...

    "What are quests like? Are they scary, boring, exciting, fun? I just can''t stop thinking about tomorrow," said Av as she ate in the dining room of the house with Scar.

    "I didn''t know you knew how to cook, and you can do it to an impressive extent as well," said Scar.

    "Well, my parents were never really around so I was forced to live with my uncle. I had to cook on my own since all he had was a sandwich which was sold at his construction site in our previous world. They would always go soggy by the time he brought them back so I learned to cook for myself and him as well. Well I guess in the end he abandoned me but that led me to find you guys so I guess it''s not that big of a deal," said Av.

    "You know Av, Yuki said something about you treating him harshly but you seem like such a nice girl," said Scar.

    "I can''t really me him. Up until a few weeks ago, I was just a spoiled brat. Even though there wasn''t much in my previous life, in this one, my uncle made sure to constantly give me everything I could ever want. I guess over time, the power got to my head and turned out that way," Av began to exin.

    "No one even tried to stand up to me as my uncle was always protecting me from the back. The moment he said a single thing about me or to me and he was around to hear it, they would get fired instantly. To me, it was nice since for the first time in my life, I wasn''t just some random kid with no parents and a guardian who was gone most of the day. It felt amazing so I abused the power until one day a random kid came to start working for my uncle because he needed a job," Av continued.

    "Just as I did to most of the others at the job site, I annoyed him but due to his attitude and him being a newbie, I decided to mess with him until I took it too far. Even so I didn''t expect him to do anything and if he did, I thought it would be mild yelling but he hit me as hard as he could. That was when I realized how arrogant and stupid I was. My uncle even offered to fire him but I told him no. We needed someone like him there to keep me in check. However after a short while, the escape n took ce and here we are now," Av finished.

    "Wow, I had no idea that you''ve known Yuki for this long. Sometimes he can be a jerk but he only does what benefits him and maybe those he cares about so just please bear with him," Scar requested.

    "I still have mixed feelings about him but I''ll try my best, for both you and I!" Av replied.

 Chapter 203 - Falling Into Place

    "Good morning guys," said Yuki as he woke up in the middle of the afternoon with a yawn as he greeted both Av and Scar who seemed to be in an intense game of chess.

    "Look who''s finally awake!"

    "Good morning sleepy head!"

    "We''re d you managed to get some sleep after all that training."

    Those were the types ofments Yuki expected to receive. However, instead he was given the exact opposite of what he had asked.

    "Be quiet Yuki! Can''t you see we''re doing something!" Scar yelled at him.

    "Ya, have some manners at least," Av added.

    "Sometimes I forget that they''re older than me because they choose to act this way instead of behaving like the grown adults they are. Seriously, how am I so much younger than them?" Yuki asked himself as he began to walk towards the door of the house which the 3 of them were renting.

    "I''m heading out," said Yuki before locking the door of the house as he had received a key for it once Scar had paid for the first month that the 3 would live in it. The olddy had actually returned the same day that Scar had taken the ce and dropped off copies of the home keys for Av and Yuki to use as only thendy and Scar originally had the keys to the house.

    "Where should I go now... maybe I''ll get some food. It''s been a while since I ate food which wasn''t stored in my inventory," said Yuki to himself before heading out to the shopping district of the kingdom.

    "Speaking of buying something, how is there already a toy makingpany in this world? It''s only been a bit over a single year since the creation of it yet there are so many things in this world which took humanity in the previous world so long to aplish. I guess It''s easier to do something once you''ve already done it once plus you''re also allowed to use abilities which are just renamed magic. Although it''s impressive, it''s not surprising," Yuki thought to himself as he continued walking.

    Once inside the shopping district, Yuki went inside a store which served brunch. Although Yuki had expected the ce to look more modern and sophisticated, that was far from what the ce was. The store was much like a bar with it having a front serving desk along with a couple stools at which the customers sat and enjoyed their meal before leaving.

    "I guess everything except the food industry has evolved. That would only make sense seeing as most people aren''t concerned with how fancy their food is due to the fact that they want to show off to their friends," Yuki said to himself before ordering his food and paying for it. Once seated, Yuki awaited his meal toe and as that was happening, Yuki felt a tap on his shoulders before he heard a call as well.

    "Come outside," said the voice. Wanting to see who would dare to disturb his peaceful meal, Yuki turned around to see that there was no one. Now even more curious than before, Yuki stood up from his chair before leaving the store to see that there was someone in a cloak which was walking away from the scene. Believing that the person in the cloak was his target, Yuki began to follow that person.

    "Hey, you there, stop!" said Yuki as he grabbed the cloak man by his shoulder. At that exact moment, the person in the cloak revealed themself.

    ...

    "Arthur?" Yuki asked as he saw the familiar face of the strongest yer in the world.

    "That''s right. Now Yuki Kaito, would you happen to have an idea of why I am here?" Arthur asked.

    "I actually don''t. I''m surprised that you actually bothered to leave the dungeons toe see me. It''s quite an honour," said Yuki in a sarcastic tone.

    "Ha. Ha. You''re very funny. Anyway, I''m here because I know about you. I know about how you were arrested 2 times and killed over 3000 people in a war between you and 3 whole kingdoms. So how do you feel now? Pretty scary right? You''re now under my control. You''ll never be able to disobey me," said Arthur in a sinister cliche tone.

    "I really don''t know how it took you so long. What I''m not surprised about is that only you know of this. I mean this is a whole other continent bute on, 3000 people dead should''ve made the headlines. I thought I would be ced in children''s horror books by now, yet not a single person other than you had recognized me," said Yuki.

    "Wow, now that you mention it, that''s pretty sad. Anyway, why aren''t you scared? I can literally expose your deepest and darkest secrets," Arthur exined.

    "Arthur, remember our first encounter?" Yuki asked and in that same moment Yuki switched with One who sent a shock to Arthur''s heart.

    "I see. I still doubted myself back then since I had no hard evidence but now, I know it''s you who''s doing it. So tell me, how are you able to use such power? We both know that the greater the level of a yerpared to their opponent, the more resistant they are to an enemy''s attacks. Yet, your heart attacking ability seems to work pretty well even though you''re so many levels below me. So tell me Yuki how are you doing it?" Arthur asked.

    "I have no reason to tell you. All I have to say is that you should''ve minded your business before and now, it''s your final chance. If you wish to continue living your life, just pretend like you don''t know me and I''m just a new member of the top 20. You should already know about that since you basically stalk me all day, every day," said Yuki.

    "It just continues to make me look like more of a fool since that actually is true. However it''s not because I stalk you. It''s because a group of people around the middle ss of the guild began to say that you''ve managed to level up 6 times in the past 2 weeks which is a great achievement seeing as how high of a level you already are," said Arthur.

    "I''ve been meaning to ask as well Arthur, how did you manage to level up so quickly? It''s quite odd but the truth is that you only started leveling up seriously and taking on dungeons a few months ago as opposed to everyone else who started way before you is still stuck at around the mid to high 30s. So what do you have to say?" Yuki asked as he wanted some answers.

    "Where did you learn about that? I tried to keep that a secret from everyone!" Arthur yelled out.

    "Well I didn''t. It was just a guess but your reaction confirms it. So juste out with it already," said Yuki.

    "Damn it, I fell for the oldest trick in the book. Fine, there''s no point in hiding it. Although you should consider yourself very lucky that you managed to get such a lucky guess," said Arthur.

    "It wasn''t just luck you know, I actually put some thought into what I saw. Anyway, I only guessed that because first of all, I asked around for the date which your n was formed. Next, I asked the researcher of my team to find out what the average of the high level yers in this world were. I came to find that number to be from level 35-39. Now, you''re around level 44 which would make you 6 levels higher than the second strongest person in the world. You see, that''s such a huge gap but everyone assumes that it makes sense since you''re usually gone on your dungeon trips yet in truth, you''re not since your clothes are usually intact to a certain extent when you get back from your trips as presented by your statutes. That was when I knew something was off and took my guess," Yuki exined,

    "Wow, you really put a lot of thought into this. I mean most people choose to ignore those subtle details because everyone believes that I''m some kind of higher being which can''t get hurt. Good for you that you managed to figure out that there is something off but you''ll never learn how I managed to do it!" Arthur said in an arrogant tone.

    "No don''t worry, I already figured it out. Your ability makes it so that whoever holds the quest papers and kills a monster, they have to bring back the monster''s head which is also included in your ability. You use the fact that you need the heads as proof so you can pay the people who bring them in which seems normal but where do you get the money? That kind of money can onlye from one ce, that ce being the dungeons. You see with everything I''ve said so far, everything''s just falling into ce..." Yuki said.

 Chapter 204 - Top 5

    You see with everything I''ve said so far, everything''s just falling into ce. You use the heads of the monsters andbine them with your ability which uses the monster heads to give you a certain percentage of exp. Using that exp, you go inside the dungeons and kill monsters to get a lot of silver and pay all the people who bring the monster heads, in turn creating an infinite cycle."

    "The only question now is how you started all of this which I also figured out. You see, your first ability was most likely one which would make you change the thoughts of others. Using it, you influencedrge media corporations like ''GNE'' to give you front page headlines about how you were an up anding big shot. With that fake news established, you knew that you would have some recognition which leads into the next step. After having gained some poprity, you used the media outlets once again to spread word that you were starting a n. In doing so, many people wanted to start working for you which is why you waited exactly 2 weeks before you started handing out quests due to you needing to change your ability. Once you were able to start the quest system though, you were well on your way to bing a leach which presents itself like some kind of strong hero," Yuki exined.

    "Wow. Completely read like a book. So tell me now, how were you able to find all of this out?" Arthur asked as he let out a sigh of defeat.

    "Well, I had a general suspicion from the beginning and even thought about asking around about some of this information but another idea came to my head, that being that maybe you''re not acting on your own. I suspected that I wouldn''t have been the first person to think that there was something off. Which wouldn''t make sense since you would''ve been exposed by now. That was when I yed it safe and changed my ability to be that which could tell me exactly what took ce during the creation of your n. With something that specific being my ability, I was able to get an exact and detailed piece of knowledge. Through that, I managed to learn that you have an ability cast on everyone in the guild which when they get too close to finding out the truth, they forget everything," Yuki replied.

    "If you knew that, why are you the only one who didn''t forget?" Arthur asked.

    "Well, there''s a loophole just like with many abilities. The ability cast makes people forget when they get too close to finding out the truth. My ability is one which is alway active which means that as long as I don''t change my ability a cycle will ur. That cycle being that every time I forget about what took ce during the creation of this guild, I will automatically remember it because of my ability, in turn making your protective system useless," said Yuki.

    "So is this the end of the road for me? Are you going to turn me in? I mean it''s not like I can kill you and if I resist, you can just kill me at any time. Tell me Yuki Kaito, what is your next move?" Arthur asked.

    "You know, it''s a bit difficult for me right now because I don''t have something specific in mind. There isn''t a single thing which I want to work for. I have no end goal other than bing the first level 100 yer. At the rate I''m going at, I will still be able to keep up with thepetition and still have time to spare. I''m just not sure what I should do with the free time that I have," Yuki replied to Arthur.

    "Why don''t you just go inside dungeons constantly? It seems like you''re not scared to die so just go inside the dungeons and level up faster than anyone. I mean, that way, you would reach your one and only goal faster than everyone else. That would theoretically be true but you know it yourself. There is still something which is holding you back. There is a reason why you choose to stay behind, all you have to do is search for what that is," Arthur said.

    "Are you some kind of therapist?" Yuki asked in a confused voice which made Arthurugh.

    "No but that is a close guess. In the previous world, I used to be a psychologist. It may even be the reason which I''ve learned to n out for almost everyone. It used to be everything until you showed up which is why I said almost everything," Arthur replied.

    "I''ll tell you what, if you want, how about working in the top 5 of my n? I no longer have a reason to try topete against you. I now understand why you''ve yet to die even though you''ve done some pretty messed up stuff. If you work for me, you''ll have something to do when you''re bored and I can continue with what I''m doing," said Arthur.

    "What makes you think I would work for you? Plus, why would I allow you to grow in power?" Yuki asked as if Arthur was some kind of crazy person.

    "Well the answer is simple. You don''t have anything else to do which is why you woke upte as shown by the dark circles under your eyes and the way your eyes are slowly blinking as if you just woke up. I mean there isn''t a single person in this world who would wake up in the middle of the afternoon if they had anything to take care of, no matter how insignificant the task may be. I''m basically saying that you don''t have a life," said Arthur.

    "As for your second question, you can just take missions which don''t require you to go to high level dungeons so I''ll only gain a small bit of exp. To add on, the rate which you and I level up is vastly different. I''m still at level 44 while you''ve managed to go from level 21 to level 27 in only 2 weeks. You should already know that you''ll be able to surpass me soon enough since I don''t actually go inside dungeons myself," Arthur finished.

    "I guess that''s fair. You''re honestly right, I actually don''t have much to do so I guess I''ll spend my days hanging around with you. However, don''t be mistaken as I will take trips towards the dungeons so that I can level up as well. You have a passive exp ie system while I have to manually grind so it''s only right," Yuki exined.

    "That''s fine by me. Since you''ve already agreed to join me, how about we go to the castle and I show you some of the cool stuff I have?" Arthur offered.

    "Sure," Yuki replied as the two began to walk towards the castle-like building in the middle of the kingdom.

    ...

    "Hey, where did Yuki run off to?" Scar asked.

    "Oh did he actually leave? I thought he was just kidding. Now I kinda feel bad for ignoring," Av replied.

    "Don''t worry, he won''t be in any danger. He can take care of himself," Scar told Av as he tried to reassure her.

    "No, that''s not what I meant. Don''t you think he''s a little quiet sometimes? The only time he talks is when things get serious or he''s putting up a fake front to aplish a task," Av replied.

    "Now that you mention it, he seems a bit odd. A bit more unusual than most kids his age. I mean he learned to kill literally in his first week in this world and he continued to do so. He even killed a whole army on his own and was unfazed by his actions," Scar replied to Av.

    "Wait really?! I didn''t know he started off that early! It even took me quite a while to murder monsters even though they''re not human," Av replied.

    "No way! I actually forgot that most people don''t know about the crimes that Yuki hasmited! I almost exposed him as if it was nothing but a usual subject to talk about. I got so lucky this time. I should watch my mouth since this type of luck doesn''t happen twice," Scar said to himself as he was scared to death.

    "Yes, same with me. As for Yuki, he was always different. It''s like there''s something which allows him to shut off all sense of morality he has and do whatever he likes without a fear of consequences. At times it feels like arrogance but in other cases, it just seems like confidence," Scar replied as he tried to hide his tracks.

    "Well, whatever it is, I''m d that Yuki is on our side and isn''t a bloodthirsty serial killer. Imagine humanity had to deal with a devil like that?" Av asked with a smile.

    "I''m d too..." Scar replied with a fake smile of his own.

 Chapter 205 - Clan War

    "Yuki, these are the top 5 members of the guild," Arthur introduced Yuki to the top 5 strongest members of his n in a room which was quiterge. The room had 2 long couches which faced each other. The top 5 members were sitting on the couches as they talked before Arthur and Yuki had walked in but as soon as they did, all of the members of the top 5 stood up and bowed to Arthur and looked at Yuki with a confused expression as if they were seeing a ghost.

    "My apologies for asking sir but were you not going to kill him?" one of the members of the top 5 asked Arthur. The one who asked wore a ck suit with a white shirt under his coat. His tie was also ck but had red dots on it. He was a tall bald man who wore shades as if he was a secret service member.

    "Steve, I decided to go against killing him," Arthur simply replied.

    "But why have you changed your mind? He''s clearly a threat to us, we should dispose of him right now," said Steve in a concerned tone.

    "It''s not that I don''t think he''s a threat, it''s that I can''t kill him," Arthur replied.

    "But sire, you''re clearly much stronger than him. Even I could kill him as if he was a fly," said Steve.

    "I''m afraid you don''t understand... Yuki as my right hand man from this day forward, your first mission will be to show your power to these 5," Arthur ordered. Hearing those words, Yuki hid his lips under the cor of his zip up sweater which he wore before letting out a sigh.

    "One, switch," Julius told One, which the second entity that lingered inside Yuki listened as did exactly as his master wished.

    "Consider it done," said One before stopping the hearts of the top 5 strongest members of the WD n for about 15 seconds. Arthur just watched as his strongest members were hopeless against the one who was now his right hand man.

    "You can let them go now," said Arthur and One did so before switching back to Yuki as it was what his master would have wanted.

    "What the hell was that?! Is he using some kind of devil magic?" Steve asked as he got up from the ground, gasping for air as he looked at Yuki then Arthur.

    "Rx, Steve, he''s not here to take a position in the top 5, you won''t be demoted to number 6, I can assure you that. Yuki isn''t some regr person who would go in the top 5, no. He''s a whole tier above all of you," said Arthur as he had begun to go mad with power until Yuki tapped him on his shoulder.

    "Don''t forget that you don''t control me," said Yuki nonchntly.

    "If we don''t have to fear losing our positions, there is something you should know of," said Steve as he walked towards Arthur.

    "Adam Andre seems to have started a battle with one of ourpetitors. It seems like he got mad at the fact that he had been outranked by Yuki since word got out fast so he decided to go inside the ''Sword Central'' n and pick a fight with some of their members. After causing havoc for a while, the top 5 of their guild came in and out a stop to his actions. Now he''s held prisoner there until we apologize for his actions," said Steve.

    "What?! Do they not know who they are?! Do they seek to have a war between our two ns? If they want a war, we''ll give them a war!" Arthur yelled out as he was furious until Yuki tapped on his shoulder.

    "Don''t worry, I''ll take care of it on my own," said Yuki.

    "No! It''s far too risky. You''re my trump card! I can''t allow anything to happen to you!" Arthur yelled at Yuki at which Yuki once again switched with One before shocking Arthur with his presence.

    "Remember what I said, you don''t control me. Now, follow me and I''ll show you what I meant by taking care of it. Plus, I''ll need a cloak to hide my identity," said Yuki.

    "Okay but why do you need a cloak?" Arthur asked in a confused tone.

    "What would be the point of having a trump card if people knew what it was," said Yuki which brought a smile to Arthur which was indescribable.

    ...

    After getting the cloak for Yuki, the two headed out of the castle-like building with Arthur walking forward and Yuki in the cloak waking behind him as he didn''t want to be seen. Of course everyone in the room bowed. Everyone except for a single person which even Arthur greeted with a kind smile.

    "Hello there Scar. Are you looking for a quest today?" Arthur asked.

    "I actually am, I''m going to go on one with my teammate since it''ll be her very first time," Scar replied to which Arthur nodded and left.

    "Who was that guy?" Av asked Scar once Arthur and the cloaked man left the building and everyone didn''t have to bow anymore.

    "You don''t know? That was Arthur, the leader of this n," Scar replied as if Av was a moron.

    "Of course I know who that man is. I''m talking about the guy behind him, he seemed a bit familiar," said Av to which Scar looked at her like she had gone insane.

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about. Anyway, stop distracting me and focus on picking out a quest to go on already," said Scar as he scolded Av to which she nodded quickly and continued to look around for a quest she liked.

    ...

    "Judging by how the two of them are looking for a quest to go on, I take it that you haven''t told them yet about my ability?" Arthur asked Yuki who just replied back to him with a nod.

    "That''s that''s good then, we don''t have to worry about any other people finding out since the root hasn''t spread out yet," said Arthur.

    After walking for some time, the two had arrived at a teleporter who agreed to take the two to their destination for free as long as he could have a signature from Arthur to promote his service which Arthur agreed to.

    Once arriving at the kingdom where the n known as ''Sword Central'' was stationed at, Yuki and Arthur headed towards the castle-like building which was heavily guarded.

    ...

    "You must be Arthur, the leader of the guild known as WD. Our leader has been awaiting your visit, please make your way in," said the guards at the door of the castle-like building as they led both Arthur and the cloaked man behind him towards a room where it was said that the leader of sword central was in.

    "Sorry but the cloaked guy can''te with you," said one of the guards as he held Yuki by the shoulder so he wouldn''t go into the room.

    "Sorry to tell you but he''sing whether you like it or not," said Arthur to which the guards reluctantly agreed.

    "It''s not like it matters anymore," said one of the guards under their breath before opening the doors of the room where the leader of the n was supposed to be in. Instead, there was only one man in the room which looked familiar.

    "Hello there Arthur," said the figure as his back faced Arthur and Julius.

    "Oh it''s just you Adam, I''m d to see you''re doing well," said Arthur as he walked into the room only to be greeted by a whole army.

    "I''m d to see you''re doing well too," said Adam as dozens of people came out from the shadows as they were hiding beside the doors of the room so they wouldn''t be seen. Once Arthur had walked in, all of them surrounded him and ced their des at his neck.

    "A trap?! How dare you!" Arthur yelled out.

    "Come on, it was going to happen sooner orter. You''re currently the one closest to reaching level 100 in the entire world and we can''t allow that to happen," said a voice which from the sound of it alone made it clear that it was an important figure speaking.

    "Is that you Alex?! You, who is the leader of this n who prides itself in honour, dared to ambush me?" Arthur yelled out as he recognized the voice.

    "Now now, Arthur, it wouldn''t be fair if it was only him against you," another voice said and by Arthur''s reaction, it was another important figure.

    "Not that 2 ns would be enough."

    "Hell, 3 wouldn''t be enough either," said 2 more voices and by the reactions which Arthur was having, it was clear that the situation was just getting worse as more important figure heads began to show up one after another.

    "So it''s all these guys against me? That''s fine. I already said this once and I''ll say it again, leave this to me!" said Yuki as he opened his inventory and pulled out "King''s Crown".

 Chapter 206 - Christopher

    "So it''s all these guys against me? That''s fine. I already said this once and I''ll say it again, leave this to me!" said Yuki as he opened his inventory and pulled out "King''s Crown".

    "Who''s this runt behind Arthur?!" Alex asked in an angry tone.

    "Well, it''s not like it matters now, we''ll kill the both of you!" Alex announced.

    "But why would you do such a thing Adam?! Why would you betray me like this?!" Arthur asked as he looked at the former top 20 member of the n known as WD.

    "Why do you ask? You didn''t defend me back there, instead you greeted the one who assaulted me with weing arms. You never cared about me Arthur, all you cared was about the power I hold. That goes the same for Scar. You only care for the power we have. We''re just some ranked page to you. You don''t see us as humans, we''re just tools to you right Arthur?" Adam asked as both Arthur and Yuki began to get surrounded.

    "Of course I care about you. You''re a precious member of my n. I don''t know what I would do if you weren''t in it. Please, let''s just go home now," said Arthur.

    "Stop lying damn it! You always pretend like you''re some kind of hero and everyone eats that garbage up because you''ve made yourself look like a hero! But I''m done dealing with your lies. This is the end of the line for you Arthur!" Adam announced as everyone began to charge at Arthur and Yuki.

    "I''ll take care of this," said Yuki as he ced "King''s Crown" on his head.

    "Hey Yuki, stand back for just a bit," said the tall figure known as Arthur as he walked forward towards Adam even though he waspletely surrounded.

    "You know Adam, you were right. I only see the members of WD as simply tools. Not a single thing you said was a lie. I''m just a scumbag who''s the worst of the worst. But you know what? I''m the strongest person on the and there''s nothing you can do about it," said Arthur with a confident smile on his face.

    "Yuki, let me show you why people see me as a hero," said Arthur as he leapt forward andnded a direct punch at Adam who was sent back several meters until he made contact with the rooms wall, even so, Arthur had hit him hard enough for Adam''s body to break the wall and fall out of the castle.

    "He should be out ofmission for quite a while now. As for the rest of you, give me all you''ve got!" Arthur yelled out as everyone began to charge at him at their top speeds from all directions as they wanted to be the ones to defeat Arthur first.

    Unfortunately for them, the Arthur who had no ess to a proper ability would stille out on top of the battle as he showed them exactly why he was number 1 in the whole world. In just 16 seconds, everyone wasying on their back on the ground as Arthur had knocked out everyone in the room in that short amount of time.

    "So how was that?! Pretty impressive right? You should probably be thanking me right now for being so strong!" Arthur announced with pride.

    "No Arthur, this battle is far from over, I''ll make sure that you die today. I won''t allow you to live another day!" said Alex as he still wasn''t touched as he somehow managed to hide in the shadows as he sat on a fancy chair.

    "What do you mean Alex? Can''t you see that all your men are on the ground begging for their lives. There''s no point in dragging this battle on any longer, just admit you lost and I''ll even let you live," said Arthur.

    "No no, that won''t worry. Sorry Arthur, this has to happen. It was funpeting with you," said Alex before activating his ability.

    "Activate ability: Rewind Time"

    "What? No you, are you a moron or something?! An ability like that has crazy drawbacks!" That''s why no one bothers to make their ability something so powerful! It drains too much stamina and won''tst for long. Why would you go to all these lengths?" Arthur asked in a confused tone.

    "Because he wills for it," Alex replied before finally activating his ability.

    "Who are you talking about-" before Arthur could ask his question, time had turned back by 16 seconds which was the moment that Arthur had begun his battle with everyone in the room.

    "What happened to us?"

    "Weren''t we lying down on the ground?"

    "Was that real or just a shared illusion?"

    The people in the room began to ask each other pointless questions as they clearly should''ve known that time was turned back so that they could get another chance to battle against Arthur.

    "But why would you do this Alex? Don''t you know that it''s all pointless in the end. I''ll just end up beating these guys once again and you''ll be back where you started," Arthur argued and just at that precise moment, another figure came into the scene as it smashed a durable metal bat into the head of Arthur causing the one known as the strongest man in the world to pass out instantly as blood gushed out of his skull.

    "It was me who ordered this. Christopher, the second strongest man in the world!" Christopher announced as he entered the room bying up behind Arthur.

    ...

    "Are you happy now?! You''ve managed to get rid of him so let my n members go! I did as you told me to do!" said Alex as he spoke to Christopher who seemed to have some sort of connection with Alex.

    "Sorry Alex but I''ve already taken care of all of them. They''ve kicked the bucket," said Christopher with a nk stare.

    "You monster! I''ll kill you!" Alex yelled out as he got off his chair and began to charge towards Christopher with every intention to kill him. However right before Alex could reach Christopher, someone else appeared with a gun in his hand as he pointed it at Alex.

    "I''ve already prepared for something like this to happen, I''m not foolish enough toe here without any backup. Plus, it gives me a reason to kill you as well. Goodbye Alex," said Christopher, hearing those words made the man holding the gun pull the trigger.

    However, in the moment right before the gun could go off, Yuki leaped off the ground and mmed his foot into the skull of the one holding the gun before getting back up on his feet and looking dead into Alex''s eyes.

    "Turn back time once again!" Yuki yelled at him. Without asking anymore questions Alex did as he was told since Yuki had just saved his life.

    "Activate ability: Rewind Time"

    Within a blink of an eye, time had been reminded once again by 17 seconds. This time, Alex had passed out from overusing his ability.

    "Who was the one who attack me from the back?!" Arthur asked as he still didn''t know who had attacked him and caused him to pass out.

    "You''ve done enough already Arthur, let me take things from now on," said Yuki in a voice filled with determination.

    "Come on Yuki, you know when ites to physical battle, this is way above your league, just show me who attacked me and we''ll be able to go home in one piece," said Arthur.

    "No Arthur, there''s something you don''t know of-" said Yuki as he turned around to face Christopher who had a metal bat in his hand and looked pissed as if he was going to kill anyone who would dare to stand in his way which was what Yuki was doing.

    Without even asking a question, Christopher swung his bat with all his strength at Yuki so that he would get out of the way so that Christopher could kill both Arthur and Alex while making sure to torture Alex well for almost runing his perfect n.

    Once the bat was swung, Yuki had managed to block the hit with his right forearm but at the cost of that, it waspletely broken, even so, Yuki didn''t move an inch.

    "Huh? You dare to still stand in my way?! I guess I aimed my bat at the wrong area. The next one will be at your neck! Try to get in my way after that!" said Christopher with his blood thirsty eyes.

    "So it was you all along! I wondered why there wasn''t any news of you over the past few weeks even though you were in the top 10 in the whole world! I''ll make sure to end your worthless life right here, Christopher!" said Arthur as he turned to look at the beast in front of him with no fear in his eyes. Even if Arthur was fearless, he wouldn''t be able to save Yuki from getting his neck broken by Christopher. It was a necessary sacrifice.

    ...

    "Serve your king!"

    "Meurig!"

 Chapter 207 - For Fun

    "Serve your king!"

    "Meurig!"

    "Huh? What are you talking about? Have you gone insane from fear before I have even gotten the chance to hit you? Well, that''s too bad, you are going to die in this ce and no one wille to save you," said Christopher in an arrogant tone as he showed off his sharp K-9 teeth.

    ...

    In a whole other continent, Meurig who was continuing with the task he was given over a year ago being that he needed to continuously clear the first dungeon over and over again, once he had heard Yuki''s words, he instantly defeat the dungeon onest time as he was still in the middle of it when Yuki had called. However, now that it was time for action, Meurig wouldn''t disappoint his king.

    Within moments of just getting out of the dungeon, Meurig seemed to merge with the shadows on the ground as he travelled between the continents in the matter of seconds.

    ...

    "This is the end for you! Don''t worry though, Arthur will see you in hell very soon!" said Christopher as he swung his bat at Yuki''s head. However, in that moment, a shadow emerged from the ground and began to rebuild itself.

    "What the hell is that thing?!" Arthur asked as he watched a disfigured monster appear right in front of Yuki to catch the bat which Christopher had swung in hopes of killing Yuki.

    "Master, you called?" Meurig asked as he stared at Christopher with his white nk eyes as the bat disintegrated in Meurig''s hands.

    "Oh I see, so is your ability to control dungeon monsters? No wonder I remembered that name, Meurig. Although I don''t understand how you activated your ability without announcing it. Isnead you said something weird. I guess maybe you can still activate your ability without saying it. Not that it matters now, You''ll be dead soon enough!" said Christopher as he let go of his disentergatring bat and allowed the hilt of it to turn into ashes as well. Once Christopher had let go of what was remaining of his weapon, he brought his fists together as he prepared to battle Meurig.

    "Hey Arthur, what do you know about this Christopher guy? Do you have some sort of connection with him or something? What is the reason for all these guys wanting to kill you?'' Yuki asked as he turned to face Arthur.

    "Christopher and I went way back. However, that has nothing to do with why all these guys are trying to kill me. The real reason why I''m being hunted by them is because the gap in our levels is too great. As such, they must illuminate me so that the race bes more equal. I mean it''s only right since things aren''t fair for them because no matter how many times they go inside a dungeon and risk their lives, they''ll neverpare to me because I''ll earn exp faster than them and you should know why that is. But as for these knuckleheads, they''ll never find out a single thing," said Arthur with a smile.

    "My king, shall I erase this insect from existence?! He seems to have the intention to kill you!" said Meurig as he turned towards Yuki to get advice on his next move.

    "It''s fine, kill him. He deserves to die here anyway," said Yuki in a cold tone.

    "HOLD IT!" Arthur yelled as he interrupted Meurig from finishing the job.

    "My king, shall I kill him too? He seems to be a bother?" Meurig asked Yuki.

    "No, leave him be. I want to hear him out. So Arthur, what do you have to say that would have interrupted my serve from killing ourmon enemy?" Yuki asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

    "Please don''t kill him, I know it seems selfish of me but I don''t want him to die. I want him to continue living. I know that he attacked me but that was because of jealousy. If I were to show him kindness, maybe he would change," said Arthur, which really struck a chord with Christopher.

    "Don''t worry Arthur, I won''t lose this battle but I''ll still kill you! I don''t know who told you that I would be dying here but they''re lying! I''ll be the only one to walk out of this room alive!" Christopher yelled before a secondter, he found himself on the ground with Meurig''s palm right at his face. Christopher could sense the evil death that lingered in Meurig''s palm which made him swallow his spit in fear as he really believed that he had underestimated his enemy.

    "Who allowed you to talk?!" Meurig yelled as he was close to ending everything if Yuki just gave the word for it.

    "No please! He didn''t mean any of that, you see, Christopher is my brother," said Arthur, which caught Yuki by surprise.

    "To be more honest, he''s my foster brother. We both grew up in the same orphanage. We were raised together, ate together, and yed together! There wasn''t a single person I was closer to than him. Even when we both got adopted, we requested that we would get adopted together and our foster parents agreed and took us in. They were genuinely good people," Arthur began to speak.

    "They had taken us in while everyone else looked at us like monsters. We were just kids, being alienated like that really affected us so when we were finally taken in, we were grateful for it. Even in this world, me and Christopher stayed together," said Arthur.

    "What happened to your foster parents? They seem like good people so where did they go in this world?" Julius asked as he wanted to know where such kind people could be.

    "What do you mean? We killed them," said Arthur in a nonchnt tone.

    "The man reason me and Christopher were sent to that orphanage was because we had killed our own parents. We found each other at the orphanage where I was already there a year before Christopher. Once we got adopted, we faked being good kids that were just misunderstood and killed our parents. Of course they were just trying to examine our brain activities for theirtest report at their jobs. Whether they really cared about us or not, we would never know. Since the day before this world hade into existence, we had killed both our parents in cold blood. We were actually lucky though, if it wasn''t for this world being created, we would''ve been imprisoned. Worse yet, those who were imprisoned in our previous world would also be imprisoned in the world. We managed to escape right before we were caught. It was truly a miracle," said Arthur as he walked up to Christopher.

    "isn''t that right... brother?" Arthur asked as he punched a whole into the heart of Christopher who just stared back with a nk and helpless stare.

    "Let''s go, I''m done with my business here. I have no reason to stay here any longer," said Arthur as he left the room with the blood of his brother on his face as if it was nothing.

    "Hey, what was that? Was that story you told me actually true?" Yuki asked in a confused tone.

    "Of course it is. I wouldn''t lie to my right hand man. I mean not just because of that. After you''ve killed many more than me. Plus my actions were justified," said Arthur as the two walked out of the castle-like building from the far off kingdom as they were ready to go home.

    "Wow, I didn''t expect the so-called hero to be a psycho who secretly enjoys killing," said Yuki.

    "What can I say, I guess I''m just full of surprises," Arthur replied in a casual tone.

    "So why don''t you go inside dungeons? That''s usually why I go to dungeons all on my own. When I''m alone, I can let loose and kill as many monsters as possible without feeling the least bit bad because they were going to die in the first ce. I think you would enjoy it as well," said Yuki as he tried to help out Arthur who he saw many simrities with an deven rted to him on a certain level. However upon hearing Yuki''s words, Arthur sighed before replying.

    "The reason why I refuse to battle against the monsters in the dungeons is because it''s like killing mindless zombies. There''s no fun in it. They just be punching bags which eventually fall down and it is at that point that they are considered dead. Those monsters can''t speak properly nor do they have any feelings in their hearts. There''s no fun in killing them," said Arthur.

    "Fun?" Yuki asked in a confused voice.

    "Yes Yuki, I kill for fun. I don''t kill because it is necessary. That would be too boring. I only kill humans because they have life to them. They fear death and struggle to stay alive. I enjoy seeing them suffer, sometimes Iugh while they cry like a helpless insect. That''s the fun of killing," said Arthur as he saw nothing wrong with what he said.

 Chapter 208 - Reminisce

    "Wow, you''re more far gone than I thought. I thought even as a killer you would be pretty tame but you''re a in psycho. There''s no way around it," said Yuki as he replied to Arthur.

    "And you''re not what I expected. I expected more wild behaviour for the one who has openly executed a whole army in public. You know, people used to talk a lot about you about a year ago. You were big news. So much so that the battle with you and the 3 kingdoms had spread world wide in a little over 2 months. Considering how underdeveloped we are right now, you''ve got to be pretty proud of yourself for causing all of that mess," said Arthur as the two began to look for their teleporter which had brought them to the kingdom they were in at that moment.

    "Do I say thank you? Anyway, now that I found out about your secret, what are you going to do?" Yuki asked casually.

    "I''m going to kill you obviously. What else would I do with you?" Arthur replied in the same casual tone.

    "I see you still don''t understand what it truly means to kill another human being. You''ve yet to learn what you''re actually doing when you kill a human being. Of course you would have no way of knowing that since you were always the attacker and ever the victim," said Yuki as he stared coldly into the eyes of Arthur.

    "Zero, give me the power I would have at level 60," Yuki requested.

    "It would be my pleasure," Zero replied as he did as he was told, giving Yuki the strength which he wished for.

    ...

    Within just a single second, Arthur was on the ground with Yuki''s index finger at his throat as Yuki''s nails would be more than brought to get the job done.

    "Do you truly know what it means to die? You lose everything you ever had and worked for. All of your efforts be meaningless as you arepletely erased from all existence. Your money, fame, glory, none of that will apany you once you''re dead. When you kill someone, you''re not simply ending someone''s life. You''re erasing something out of existence. It''ll be like they were never there," Yuki exined as he pulled his finger away from Artbur''s neck and helped the strongest yer in the world get back on his feet.

    "You truly won''t know how valuable a human life is until you''re about to lose your own. By then, it''ll probably be toote," said Yuki as the two got up from the ground and began to walk away, though their short argument made it so that everyone had their attention on them.

    ...

    "So what is going to happen to Adam?" Yuki asked.

    "If he''s still alive, the top 5 will hunt him down and kill him. It''s not needless murder. It''s a disciplinary measure that is necessary if I wish to continue ruling over my n," said Arthur while the two finally found the teleporter which had brought them to the kingdom where they were ambushed and too them back to their original kingdom as night began back at the kingdom where the WD n was located in.

    "Since you''re a high ranking individual now, would you like me to

    provide you with your own room in the castle?" Arthur asked Yuki.

    "I appreciate the offer but no thanks, I''m fine with where I''m living. Speaking of that, I wonder how Av and Scar are doing," Yuki said thest part out loud by ident.

    "I guess you should start going home. I''ll do the same too. It was fun working with you even if it was for a little amount of time," said Arthur as he waved goodbye and began to head towards the castle-like building in the middle of the kingdom.

    As for Yuki, he went his separate way and headed back to the house which Scar was renting out.

    To Yuki''s surprise, the lights were already on which meant that Av and Scar either went on their quest and came back early or they failed and returned back home in shame. Nevertheless, Yuki knew that the two people who he called his roommates or more specifically his house mates were already home.

    Yuki slowly walked toward the door of the house which he lived at with Scar and Av before finally knocking.

    ...

    "Look who finally decided to show up," said Av as she opened the door and gave Yuki a look of disapproval.

    "Hello?" Yuki replied in an ufortable tone before walking inside the house and taking off his shoes before heading towards the stairs so that he could head towards his room.

    "Where do you think you''re going? You still haven''t eaten anything for almost a day," said Scar as he stopped Yuki from getting on the stairs.

    "What do you mean? I went outside in the morning and got arge meal," said Yuki as he lied so that he could just go to sleep due to him being extremely exhausted.

    "Stop lying, I know that you went to buy food but something happened and you weren''t able to get anything to eat," Scar replied.

    "Are you reading my mind again!?" Yuki asked in an exhausted tone.

    "Not actually, all it looked for me to figure out was that you liked being hungry," said Scar and at that exact moment, Yuki''s stomach began to growl from hunger.

    "My bad," said Yuki as he had been caught red handed.

    "Why do you even look so tired?" Av asked as she led Yuki to the dining room so that he could eat something before he died of starvation.

    "Do I really? I guess that short quest I took was more tiring than I expected," Yuki lied.

    "Big brother Scar, fact check that for me," said Av as she turned towards Scar who replied by giving her a thumbs up.

    "You don''t have to do that-" Yuki began to speak before Scar cut him off.

    "He''s lying!" Scar replied with a shout.

    "Keep it down or you''ll wake the neighbors," Yuki scolded Scar.

    "Maybe this wouldn''t happen if you would stop lying to us all the time and instead start telling us the truth. It would make things much simpler for everyone involved," said Scar.

    "Ya, he''s right you know. You should start to believe in us. We''ll always be there for each other," Av added in expecting Yuki to be happy and agree with them but instead, Yuki simply sighed before replying to them.

    "Do you really want to know why I keep lying to you even when it''s pointless?" Yuki asked the both of them which left Av in a confused state while Scar turned serious.

    "I do. I''m the reason for all of his trust issues. Well to be honest I think he already had them but I''m pretty I made them worse," said Scar in a serious tone.

    "Sorry but I''m not following. How long have you two even known each other?" Av asked.

    "We''ve known each other for quite some time. We spawned into the same kingdom and began topete. While I was trying to just be a rich man, I stumbled upon Yuki who thought that I was some super genius toe up with a magnificent n to have the world under my grasp," Scar began to exin.

    "Once he found out about what I was trying to aplish, he began to hunt me down and try to eliminate me because I was a threat to him. Even though I didn''t want to fight anyone, I was forced to retaliate against him. As such, I sent a group of people

    who should''ve been strong enough topletely kill Yuki and put him in his ce. Even so, they ended up failing. I had been defeated. Of course that was just a single battle out of our long war," Scar continued to exin.

    "I really didn''t stand a chance against Yuki and there weren''t many assassins who would be able to take him out as well. So I only had one option. That being to emotionally defeat him and break him. Doing that was actually easier than I expected since Yuki had actually started to make some friends. All I had to do was wait for him to leave for a while, which happened quickly as he had left for a week or so to clear the first dungeon in this world. I believe that he might have actually been the first person to clear a dungeon," Scar continued to tell the tale of him and Yuki and what ended up creating the closure of Yuki.

    "Anyway, once he had left, I paid his so-called friends to betray him and help me capture him. Of course I didn''t have any strength to capture him on my own so I gave some money to our original kingdom to gain its support and in turn manipte all of them to help me defeat Yuki. Everything had gone so well, I wonder where it all went wrong," said Scar as he began to think about all the times he had thought that he would win but it would turn out to be inurate.

 Chapter 209 - Emblem

    "So you were the reason for Yuki bing like this?!" Av asked in an angry voice.

    "Come on, I wasn''t the one who started the feud. I was just doing my best to end it as quickly as possible. Plus, it''s not like he''s the only victim here. I almost died in the final battle. I would''ve died if it wasn''t for Jing. Oh my, I forgot about Jing," said Scar in a concerned voice.

    "Who''s Jing? Is he someone important to Scar?" Av asked Scar.

    "I guess you''re done with praising me. I''ll have to get used to just being Scar instead of being big brother Scar. Anyway, he shouldn''t be that problematic. I''ve actually made sure to watch over him for quite a while. I told him to not escape from the kingdom which I ced him in but he didn''t listen. It would''ve been too much work to hunt him down and kill him let alone ce him back in the kingdom so I just made someone incharge of monitoring his movements every once in a while," Scar replied.

    "Oh is that so? How is he doing then? He must be an old friend of yours," said Av.

    "Well, I wouldn''t call it friendship. It''s more of an acquaintance. We met while I was manipting the kingdom to capture Yuki. He was a representative from a neighboring kingdom. Even though he had that task, more than anything, he was sad and moppy all the time. It was honestly depressing to look at. However, after the battle with Yuki. After we both survived, he seemed a lot more resilient. Although I didn''t understand what brought on the sudden change, I wasn''t about toin," said Scar.

    "Then why did you trap him in a kingdom? If you were so happy for him, why not let him do as he pleases?" Av asked.

    "That''s simple. He wasn''t half bad as a person. He was pretty smart and now that he had the will to never back down, he would be a formidable foe. It was much like when Yuki learned about my existence. He wanted to kill me because I would be a threat to his future ns. Just like that, I assumed that Jing would also be a threat. However, unlike Yuki, I couldn''t eliminate him on the spot so instead I decided to let him live. Don''t get me wrong though, if Jing grows to be too much of a threat, he''ll be instantly eliminated," Scar replied to Av.

    "Can I go now? I''m tired, I want to get some sleep before I go on my next quest," said Yuki as he tried to pass through Av and tried to head for his room.

    "Oh no you don''t! You''re going to eat everything on your te before you can go to sleep," Av harshly replied.

    "Wow, you sound like a mother taking care of her child," said Scar as he saw Av''s interaction with Yuki.

    "Don''t make this weirder than it has to be," Yuki said as he continued to eat what was on his te. Once eating though, Yuki left the dining wonder and headed straight for his bedroom so he could sleep while holding on to his stomach as he had eaten too much food for his own good.

    ...

    "I guess you fed him well," Scar made a sarcastic remark at Av.

    "Will you stop that?! Anyway, what are your ns from now on? I mean from the looks of it, you don''t seem to have a dream. All you do is follow Yuki from the back, not that there''s anything wrong with that but isn''t there anything you would rather do than be a simple follower?" Av asked.

    "If you''re wondering what my future goals are, I don''t have any right now. You know, at the beginning of this world, I always dreamed that I would be some rich guy who would rx in hisrge mansion and have wealth to spread out to many generations in his family line. When that dream had toe to an end, I was pretty sad but I was more excited about hunting down Yuki. I mean I managed to stay focused on that one goal for a whole year. However, now that I''m on his side instead, it feels better because I don''t have to worry about a single thing," said Scar.

    "What do you mean that you don''t have to worry about a single thing?! We still have to look out for each other and ourselves as well. You can''t say that you don''t have anything to worry about when you have us to take care of!" Av yelled at Scar.

    "Of course, that''s not what I meant at all. I was referring to not having goals of my own to worry about. I''m more free than before. Seriously Av, you should try to live a free life. Stop stressing about everything for a single day and just let go of everything. Whatever is holding you back,pletely erase it from your memory and you''ll find yourself much happier than you ever felt," Scar told Av.

    "Well, I guess that would make sense but I''m not ready to take a break. Especially in the state I''m in now. If I don''t continue training every single day, I''ll just hold you and Yuki back. There''s nothing in this world I would rather not do than that. I don''t want to ever be a burden, especially to the people who have taken me in after everyone else abandoned me," Av replied.

    "Then it''s settled. I''ll continue to help you to grow so that you stop feeling like a set back to our team. Instead, you''ll. be a valuable asset," said Scar with a genuine smile on his face.

    ...

    The next morning, Yuki got up early as he had slept the first out of the 3 of them. He didn''t bother to wake them up as he had no reason to. To Yuki, it seemed like the two of them had decided to team up and wouldn''t need him for quite some time.

    "I hope they can get a lot of training done as well," said Yuki as he put on his shoes before leaving the house and headed towards the castle-like building which was located right in the middle of the kingdom. For some reason, even though it was pretty early, there seemed to be more attention on the building than usual.

    ...

    "What''s going on here? Can you move out of the way? What happened?" Yuki asked only to be ignored by the crowd as they seemed to be mesmerized by something which they all seemed to be getting the attention of everyone there.

    After sliding through the many people who were gathered outside the castle-like building, Yuki finally arrived at the front of the entrance at which almost nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. However after closer inspection, Yuki found a small emblem of a fist in red paint as it was surrounded with a white circle outerior.

    The emblem itself looked pretty small yet it was enough to capture the attention of everyone who was present there.

    "Oh, is that you Yuki? I''m d you''re here. I was going toe searching for you if you didn''t show up," said Arthur as he greeted Yuki with a smile and a wave.

    "What?! That kid had connections with the n leader?! We better move out of his way. If we end up disrespecting him, we might end up getting killed," said the crowd of people as they allowed Yuki to finally have some space for himself which he could breathe in.

    Seeing as he could move as he wanted, Yuki decided to walk up to Arthur as he needed to ask the n leader some questions.

    "Hey Arthur, what''s the deal with all these people? And what''s with that emblem?" Yuki asked the n leader as he was confused.

    "The two of them are actually rted. Why don''t you follow me inside and we can talk about it," said Arthur as he led Yuki towards the room where the n leader along with the top 5 of the n spent the majority of their time.

    "So do you want to exin to me why all those people were standing outside like a flock of birds? Additionally what''s with the fist emblem?" Yuki asked once more with a confused and curious face.

    "What we have on our hands is a n war. The emblem is the symbol of a n. Having it stuck on another n''s entrance is a deration of war. They must be pretty brave if they think that we''ll be easy to take on," said Arthur.

    "But aren''t you the leader of the strongest n in the world? Why would anyone pick a fight with you? They must be prettu stupid if they think they can take you down," Yuki remarked.

    "No Yuki, they know full well about my strength. They challenged me with that knowledge. Judging from their emblem, there''s only 1 n who would do something like this," said Arthur as he got serious.

 Chapter 210 - Solidified Goals

    "No Yuki, they know full well about my strength. They challenged me with that knowledge. Judging from their emblem, there''s only 1 n who would do something like this," said Arthur as he got serious.

    "Who is it that did this? I would like to learn the identity of the person who would be so stupid as to challenge your power," Yuki requested.

    "It''s a n named FFF. Their real name is Failing F-tier Feathers. They have one of the weirdest n names in this entire world yet they''re not to be messed with. Even though their poprity is much smaller than some of the rest of the n, they''ve got the power to back themselves. Out of all the ns, they have the best yer level average. Of course my n would be pretty low since I ept anyone above level 5 for the purpose of leveling up quicker, most of the top tier ns actually make their requirement level 10 or some even level 15," said Arthur.

    "Wow, I guess that would exin why there are so many yers inside your n now aspared to any other ns. Of course that''s just a hunch since I''ve never been to any other n," said Yuki.

    "Yes you''re right to assume that. In the end, I still benefit so I won''tin about it. The problem is with FFF, the reason why they''re not popr is because of their entry level requirement. That being level 25 to enter. Right now, they have almost 50 members. You must understand how insane that is right? Even their lowest members would be able to keep up with someone with your power," said Arthur as he began to make things clear for Yuki.

    "However, it doesn''t just stop there. The worst part is that their top 10 members are all currently level 37 to level 38. There''s a rumour that says that the top 10 members of FFF all dungeon raid together. That said, that would mean that they''re all dungeon addicts like you. The only reason there''s even a one level gap between some of the top 10 is because someone would get sick every so often which would force them to take a break. Even so, the rest of the top 10 go on into the dungeon and clear as many stages or dungeons as possible. ``No Yuki, they know full well about my strength. They challenged me with that knowledge. Judging from their emblem, there''s only 1 n who would do something like this," said Arthur as he got serious. possible while their member is sick. They''re a ruthless group of people," said Arthur as he spoke to Yuki in the room which the top 5 members of his own guild were in.

    "So what have you done to prepare for this battle?" Yuki asked his n leader.

    "Of course the obvious answer is to agree to the n war and prepare for arge-scale battle. However I would like to avoid losing so many people in the battle, that could greatly reduce the number of exp I gain per week which would also make me valuable for someone to gain more levels than me," Arthur exined to Yuki.

    "So this is all so that you can be greedy?! Anyway, you should actuallye up with a n for this. They seem to be pretty capable yers, losing even once could mean that you have to give up on all your goals," Yuki replied which forced Arthur to make a confused face.

    "What do you mean? There''s only one right way to deal with this type of insult! We don''t allow our pride to be wounded even once. Well deal

    with the one way we know how! With battle!" Arthur yelled out which made all of the top 5 yers stand up from the couch and line up before standing up straighter than a ruler.

    "Yes sir!" they replied with a strong shout.

    "Oh right. Sometimes I forget that he''s a n leader for the most infamous n in the world. I''ve got to give him credit where it''s deserved. I can''t believe that someone like him managed to be born with such charisma. I want to have that...'''' Yuki began to think to himself.

    "I want charisma. I want to have the power to get people to join behind me. I want people to follow me. No, I don''t just want it. I need it! I need to be a leader!" Yuki thought to himself as he was transported into his own world of thoughts.

    "Yuki? Are you even listening to me?" Arthur asked Yuki as he noticed that his right hand man was spacing out.

    "Huh? Sorry I was distracted for a moment, what were you saying again?" Yuki replied which made Arthur get an irritated look on his face.

    "I was talking about how I could probably buy you a couple weeks. About 8 weeks to be exact. Would it be possible for you to go and do your magical endless training sessions in the dungeons ande back to us once you have the power topletely overwhelm all our enemies? Do it just like when you did to defend Scar from being stolen from your group!" Arthur told Yuki with an overjoyed expression.

    "So you just think of me as a machine that doesn''t have a life so you could use me whenever you want to fight your battles?! That''s very bold of you to request that I should fight your battles instead of you doing it on your own. After all they''re after you, not me," Yuki harshly replied which made Arthur quickly apologize.

    "No, no, that''s not what I meant at all. I didn''t mean to offend you, good sir. I would never dream of doing something so animalistic," Arthur replied as he bowed down to Yuki.

    "Please forgive my insolence, it shall never happen again sire. However I would like to ask once again for your help. I know I''m stepping out of line right now but without you, many people will be lost on our side. Neither side would truly win as they would have too many casualties. As such, another n will juste in and clean up the winner as such, both ns will bepletely erased. That''s why there aren''t many n wars in this world. It''s basically a suicide mission," said Arthur.

    "Should I really help this guy? I mean after all, he treated me like trash when I arrived here. I had to work so hard to find out what was taking ce behind the backs of everyone and he had betrayed me many times. I have no reason to help him. I should just let him die," Yuki thought to himself as he prepared to reject the request of Arthur and even leave the n since it would be destroyed soon anyway.

    "Wait!" Yuki yelled out loud by ident.

    "But no one has even said anything yet?" Arthur asked as he was confused by the sudden yell which Yuki had made.

    "Arthur, I would be willing to help you defeat the FFF n. In fact I would be so d to help you out that I will not even take a single break," Yuki began to speak.

    "I''m happy with you agreeing but what caused the sudden change in attitude, just a moment ago you looked like you were going to coldly reject my proposal but now you look very excited to take the challenge on," Arthur said with a confused tone.

    "Of course nothing is free. Just like everything in this world, there''s a catch to everything. Under the condition that I go and train endlessly for the next 8 weeks thene back to defeat the FFF n all on my own, I would like you to hand over the ownership over this n along with all its members and money to me," Yuki proposed his insane idea and began to watch as the events which he predicted took ce.

    "Are you insane?! Are you seriously demanding to take over my n? The thing that I''ve worked so hard to create. Are you really telling me to give up all the endless hours of nning and strategizing that took ce to form this magnificent ce? You must think I''m some sort of idiot!" Arthur began to yell at Yuki who just stood there and took all of it with a smile.

    "Because if you thought that, you''re absolutely right. You can take the n if you manage to defeat FFF all on your own in 8 weeks time," said Arthur, who had actually caught Yuki by surprise as he didn''t expect that to be so easy.

    "What? Why, though? I thought you would put up more of a challenge?" Yuki asked as he wanted to know what made the decision so easy for Arthur.

    "Yuki, do you remember what I told you when we wereing back from our little visit to Adam?" Arthur said as he winked at Yuki which made him remember that Arthur was a pure psychopath.

 Chapter 211 - Dreams Come True

    "So you''ve agreed to allow me to take over as the leader as long as I defeat FFF on my own right?" Yuki asked one more time to make sure that he wasn''t just imagining it.

    "Yes, I''ve agreed to those conditions. Of course if you can''t aplish the goal, the deal will be off as would be expected," Arthur replied.

    "Huh?! Why would you do something as absurd as that n leader?! Giving up the n would mean giving up all of us to that child!" the top 5 members of the guildined.

    "Seeing as how you''re speaking about Yuki, you think that he''s not capable of leading a n. Seeing as that is what you believe, you should have no problems with the deal I made since in your eyes, he''s nothing but trash, right?" Arthur asked them to which they kept quite a few seconds before one of them spoke up.

    "While we might think that he''s worthless, if he''s truly as talented as you say he is, he may actually be able to aplish the goal. Even so, we don''t want him as our leader. He might be strong but I doubt he has the brain power to lead a whole n on his own, especially one as well powerful as WD," one of the top 5 membersined to Arthur.

    "All of you believe in my superior brain power right?" Arthur asked them first to which all of them replied at the same time with a strong "Yes!".

    "Then you must know that I have a reason why I would pass on the duties of being the leader to Yuki. To be honest it''s not something heroic. I''m just tired of all the work that goes into being a n leader. Under the condition that Yuki is allowed to continue to do as I please with my ability, I don''t care what he chooses to do with the n. To be honest I would have passed it down to anyone who offered but no one ever did," Arthur said to the top 5 members of the n.

    "Wait what?! It would have been that easy?! Why didn''t you say that earlier? Any one of us would have rushed to get the position. It''s not every day that you get to be the leader of the most powerful n in the world," another member of the top 5 members in the WD n spoke.

    "Well that''s too bad. I didn''t know you would have wanted the position. Anyway it''s toote for that, now that Yuki is here, he''s the only one I can rely on to defeat the FFF n so that this n does not suffer at all. Of course even if he fails, they''ll be extremely weakened," Arthur exined back to them as they looked at Yuki with eyes of death.

    "Anyway Yuki, how many weeks are you looking to get before the war starts? I can somehow get you some pretty good time but you better not waste any of it. FFF is never to be taken lightly as before you know it, you might be already dead," Arthur exined to Yuki.

    "Let''s see. I''m level 27 right now. I would like to be around level 45 to level 50 at least and even level 55 just in case. I need about 6 weeks but I''ll take 8 just in case," Yuki replied as he quickly calcted how many weeks he would need to be off on his training trip.

    "Consider it done. Now, is there anything that I can provide you with for your trip?" Arthur asked in a kind yet manipting voice.

    "Don''t worry about that, I''ll take care of the rest of the stuff," Yuki replied as he took a deep sigh of disappointment as he needed to take care of a lot of things very soon.

    "First, I need to restock on food and that should be it. I should avoid relying on potions. Even if it makes things a lot more difficult than they have to be, it''ll be worth it when I clear a dungeon on my own," said Yuki to himself as he headed out of the castle-like building and began to look around for a small store which sold food or served customers.

    After walking around for what seemed like years, Yuki finally stumbled across the perfect ce for him. It was arge shop, much simr to a grocery store without all the fancy electronic objects.

    Once entering the ce, Yuki who was expected just to find a couple fruits to snack on was surprised to find a whole area with food that was already packed as if it was taken out.

    "Is this someone''s ability?" Yuki asked himself as there would be no way a simple NPC''s store would be so puzzling. However it wasn''t like Yuki was about toin as he picked up quite arge amount of packaged food that he had almost forgotten to grab the fruits. In the end, right before he checked out, he ran back to get some fruit.

    "Will that be all for you today sir?" a skinny tall man asked Yuki at the front register where the cashier would work. Of course it wouldn''t be that futuristic since the era which Yuki was in wouldn''t allow for such technological inventions just yet. Instead all that was there was a long table with a single man cing the customer''s off to the side as he calcted the price in his head and told them to the customer once he was done with his task.

    ...

    After restalking on his supplies of food for the mission he was about to go on, Yuki began to head home as he would leave pretty soon and wanted to tell Scar and Av about how he would be gone for a while.

    ...

    "I guess no one is home. Maybe this was for the best. I hope the n can tell them I have gone on a quest and won''t be back for a while. It would suck for them to worry for no reason," said Yuki to himself as he began to walk towards the castle-like building in the middle of the kingdom as he needed to take care of something.

    After arriving at the castle-like building in the kingdom which was the base of operations for the WD n, Yuki spoke to Arthur onest time as he needed to make sure that his n leader knew that Yuki was going to actually head out for real.

    "Good luck Yuki. Hope you can make it back in one piece," said Arthur as he waved goodbye to Yuki who continued to walk towards the end of the kingdom in the middle of the night as a whole day had passed while he had been preparing.

    "Zero, take me to the 6th dungeon in this world," said Yuki with a confident voice.

    "As you wish sire," said Zero who teleported Yuki exactly where he needed to be. This was somewhat of an advantage as instead of having to check multiple dungeons just to learn that they''re the wrong one since the rarity of a dungeon increases by 2 times at every step until the 20th dungeon which is basically impossible to find.

    However, with the help of Zero, Yuki could avoid all that trouble as the extra terrestrial being could just locate every single dungeon of the dungeon number which Yuki was looking for and teleport him to whichever one of his choosing.

    After Zero had teleported Yuki to the next dungeon which he needed to go inside, Yuki thanked Zero for all his help before beginning to walk towards the dungeon entrance gate.

    "So Yuki, do you really believe that you''re capable of defeating every single monster here without relying on any potions? Do you truly believe that something like this could ever be possible?" Zero asked his master.

    "Zero, what are the probabilities of me cleaning this dungeon along with the rest of them?" Yuki asked Zero even though he knew what the answer would be.

    "The chances of someone with the exact same body and level as you would have a 0.642% chance of clearing this dungeon on their own.

    "However, you''re not like the average human. You have several assets at your side whenever things get too desperate. The only drawback to this is that you will never make any true meaningful progress as the real version of you is much stronger than this form you have on. As such, it would be able to do anything you can and even do it a million times better than this version of you, as such, the chances of you clearing this dungeon along with every other one is 100%," Zero exined to Yuki which seemed to be quite hurt by Zero''s harsh words.

    "You know what, you can go ahead and think that. Right now, I know for a fact that I''ll make meaningful progress. I don''t care if someone else can do the things which I can and even do them better.. All that matters to me is that I can aplish my dreams.

 Chapter 212 - Unveil

    After having his conversation with Zero, Yuki headed inside the dungeon even though he had a lingering feeling telling him to turn back and enjoy some with his two new friends.

    "Wait what am I thinking? Did I seriously believe that those two would ever consider me to be their friend? Even if they did, I would never call them friends of mine. I''ve dealt with this type of friendship in the past and it only led me to a whole lot of trouble. Even when things seemed to clear up and I had gained a family, it all came back to haunt me. I''m incapable of making friends," Yuki thought to himself as he walked through the entrance of the dungeon.

    "I should start distancing myself from those two. It''ll always only end with me getting in trouble. I don''t want to go through the hell that I''ve already gone through ever again. I want to change. That change will start with me taking over the WD n. Of course that would start with me getting a whole lot stronger and taking on the FFF n first!" Yuki yelled out in confidence as he began his hellish 8 weeks which would only greet him with an endless amount of pain and suffering.

    ...

    During those 8 weeks Yuki fought all sorts of monsters ranging in shape, size, colour, personality and many other factors. The only thing they had inmon was that they were all greeted by a single human being which would bring their lives to an end, that human being Yuki.

    ...

    "So you think you can take us down?! You must be pretty stupid if you genuinely believe that someone as weak as you could defeat a whole army of us. Now die!" an armoured man yelled out as he shed at Yuki with all his might. Even when Yuki was able to dodge it, he would still be hit by someone else from his side or back.

    "I told you that you can''t win this. So just die already," said the same armoured man who looked to be part of an army in the medieval era as he carried a long double sided silver de that tried to bring an end to Yuki''s life multiple times over the course of their fight.

    As the man went in for a sh, all of hisrades joked along with him as they also tried to kill Yuki once and for all. Unfortunately for them, Yuki wouldn''t make things that easy for them.

    "Activate ability: Fire control"

    Yuki began to let out arge tornado of fire everywhere around him. It didn''t matter if an enemy was in that area, Yuki just simply allowed all of his stamina to flow out of his body in the form of his mes which were hot enough to melt the metal which created the weapons and armour for his enemies.

    "B-But how? You should beying on the ground from exhaustion by now! Why are you still alive let alone managed to turn the tides of this battle?!" the medieval warrior asked Yuki who had many cuts all over his body as he walked out of the mes to face the warriors who were covered in melted armour.

    "I don''t care what you wish to do. I don''t even care in any way shape or form as to what you believe you''re capable of or why you want to kill me. This is a battleground, if you lose, you''re simply weaker!" Yuki replied to the warrior who had asked him a question before grabbing the warrior by the head which was also covered in melted metal from his metal constructed helmet and then punching him right in the face.

    However, instead of giving up and dying like Yuki had expected, the warrior stood there with his melted helmet and bloodied face as he pulled his head back and smashed it into Yuki''s face, causing Yuki to bleed from his nose as well.

    "You''re right about what you said earlier. Whoever loses this battle is clearly the weaker one. Unfortunately for you, I haven''t lost yet either!" the warrior yelled out as he began to constantly beat Yuki up with his bare hands which were even covered in melted metal which made it harder for the warrior tond those hits.

    After a while of Yuki being on the losing side of the battle, things took a worse turn for Yuki as the warrior''s melted parts began to harden and instead of getting simply hit by bare hands, Yuki was now receiving punches that were backed up with solidified metal.

    "I can already see it, I can see your dead bodyying in the ground as I step over it like you''re trash. I''m going to kill you!" the warrior yelled out as he continued to bombard Yuki with an endless amount of deadly punches.

    "My head feels so heavy, all I want to do is sleep," Yuki said to himself as he began to close his eyes to get some rest.

    "NO! Sleeping on the battlefield means death! I refuse to die here! I can''t die! I want to rule WD, I want to be happy for once, I''ll win this battle!" Yuki yelled out randomly as he began to regain focus.

    At that precise moment, Yuki''s luck would reach its peak as the metal which had begun to solidify on the body of the medieval warriorpletely froze. While this would have seem bad at the start as the punches would be stronger, now that the metal hadpletely frozen and it had took a different shape which was less the desirable for the user of the armour, the medieval warrior which Yuki was battling against wolf face his greatest challenge as hepletely froze in ce due to him not being about to move in the now frozen metal. It was like he was turned into a half sculpture.

    "No! Not now! Why now of all times?! I was so close to finishing him off-" the warrior began to speak before getting cut off as the Yuki who had yet to fall on the ground moved towards the warrior and pped him across the face with all the power he had.

    With just that single attack, it seemed like Yuki had caused the medieval warrior to go unconscious as Yuki''s enemy was no longer giving back a reaction when Yuki began to get his own revenge by kicking the warrior who was now on the ground, still in that sculpture state.

    "Now what was that about you killing me? I would like to see you try!" Yuki announced. That would be the same moment where Yuki''s amazing luck would turn out and take a turn for the worse as he was hit across the head unexpectedly by a metal bat.

    "Hehe, don''t forget about us now," said one of the other medieval warriors who had also been affected by the heat wave that Yuki had allowed to burst. The surprising thing about him was that he barely had any metal around his body. Along with that, he had a bat instead of a sword. The bat looked very heavy andrger than the sword that each warrior was originally equipped with. Lastly, unlike a regr bat, the one which this specific warrior had in his hand was that which looked to be dismorphed and unproportionate.

    "I see now, so you wiped off the metal which I had melted and reconstructed it into this new weapon," said Yuki as he stared at the burned hands of the warrior which had attacked him, meaning that Yuki''s theory was correct.

    "Yes it is. However don''t start thinking that just because you have this knowledge that you''ll by some miracle be able to defeat me-" the warrior began to speak as Yuki who was bleeding from his head rushed to grab the bat out of the hands of the warrior before mming it onto the head of the of the same warrior which had created it.

    "I''m d that you monsters can start speaking now but unfortunately for you, that same talking will be your downfall," said Yuki as he began to hunt all of the remaining warriors and started to instantly kill each and every one he managed to spot. Not an ounce of mercy was shown during the final stages of the battle as Yuki had begun to break from losing for arge majority of the battle then also being on the brink of passing out.

    It was even a miracle that Yuki was able to go that long as he should have probably passed out king before he finished killing all of the warriors with the bat he had stolen.

    In the end, Yuki was forced to once again break out of his small shell that he insists on putting up so he could make himself feel like a regr person. However the dungeons always have a way of forcing him to reveal his true nature.. That one being of a blood thirsty sadistic murderer.

 Chapter 213 - Home Intruder

    ...

    "Why is my blood so warm? Even though I can''t feel any other parts of my own body, my blood feels so warm. It''s like a warm nket that keeps swallowing me no matter how much I try to take it off," said Yuki as he exited out of the veryst dungeon he needed to go to while bleeding from mainly a cut in his forehead and also many other small cuts all across his body.

    "Every single part of my body hurts like hell. I''m not even sure if I''m still alive. I wish I could go back to before I entered this dungeon," Yukiined as he felt his head getting heavier.

    [Open inventory]

    After opening his inventory, Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion from his inventory before quickly drinking it as if it was hisst hope of survival.

    After drinking the potion, Yuki began to take a few steps outside of the dungeon gate which was in the middle of a foggy mountain range. Once having admired the area which he was in, Yuki called upon Zero to teleport him back to the kingdom so that he could deal with FFF.

    "Oh, I wonder how Av and Scar are doing. I hope they also managed to get some training done," said Yuki to himself as he turned off his bloodthirsty personality so that he could go on living inside a regr society. After some time had passed, Yuki finally contacted Zero as it was time for him to head back to the kingdom and take care of the task he had trained for the past 8 weeks to aplish.

    "Hey Zero, can you teleport me back to the kingdom? Actually never mind, just teleport me inside the house that I used to live in, inside the kingdom itself," Yuki requested.

    "Of course, sire. I shall do that at once," Zero replied before teleporting Yuki back into his own room inside the house which Scar was paying a rent for.

    Once having teleported back into the house, instead of looking for Av and Scar, Yuki decided to take a short since he was beyond any level of just being sleepy since even if he rested in the slightest while on his mission, he would have passed out. Now that he was back home though, Yuki could pass out whenever he wanted and for however long he chose.

    ...

    "Hey Scar, you might want to take a look at this," said Av as she looked inside the open room of Yuki in which a person was sleeping inside of it.

    "Woah, is there seriously a home intruder in our house? That''s not even the worst part, he managed to fall asleep without even realizing it. That''s got to be one dumb robber," Scar mocked the person sleeping in Yuki''s bed without realizing that it was Yuki himself who was just trying to take a nap.

    "What do you think we should do? Should we call on the n?" Av asked Scar as even though she was being protected by Scar himself, she could help but feel scared of the human that was asleep on Yuki''s bed. There was just something off about his aura which made him seem unapproachable.

    "No it''s okay. Just leave this to me. I''ll take care of the robber," said Scar as he walked towards Yuki even though he didn''t know who the person in Yuki''s bed really was. Scar had changed his ability back to being one which would allow him to control ice. As such he wouldn''t have a mind reading ability, in turn meaning that he would have no way of figuring out who the person in the bed was without looking at them.

    After debating the decision for some time, Scar decided to just go and have a quick peek to see who the person in Yuki''s bed really was and after doing so, Scar was left speechless.

    ...

    After only a few seconds of standing still from the utter surprise of the face he had seen, Scar came up with a genius idea to trick Av with.

    Once having snapped back into reality, Scar took a gasp of shock and fear before quickly sprinting away from the room and making his way past Av and going outside the house. Seeing this, Av quickly panicked herself as began to run away, however Scar had already made it outside the house. After forgetting about her shoes and trying to go outside barefooted, Av realized that she was trapped inside. No matter how many times she tugged at the door, it wouldn''t budge and inch as Scar was holding it shut so that Av couldn''te outside.

    "Stop it Scar! This isn''t funny! Let me out of here already! I don''t want to die, just let me out of here!" Av pleaded in a desperate tone while trying to open the door so that she could escape as well. All while she begged, Scar thought that his n was pretty amazing and he deserved more credit for it.

    "What''s all this yelling about?" Yuki asked as he walked down the stairs of the house only to see Av struggling to open the door.

    "Are you okay? You seem pretty desperate to open the door," Yuki said to Av who turned to face him at that same moment. Just looking at Yuki, Av rushed to hug him while crying.

    "What''s wrong? You''ve never been this close with me, what''s going on?" Yuki asked as he wanted to know what was making her cry so much.

    After a few moments, Scar couldn''t feel Av struggling against the door, so he decided to walk back inside to check up on her.

    Seeing as the person who had trapped her inside the house hade back, Av pointed at Scarc indicating that it was all his fault.

    "Come on Scar. I haven''t even been back for a single day and you manage to be starting trouble already. Anyway, do you want to exin what''s going on?" Yuki asked Scar to which his oldrade gave a confident smirk.

    "Sure, I would love that," said Scar as he began to speak.

    "So this all started once Av and I returned from a short quest we had taken. After a long day, we were both exhausted and wanted to head to our separate rooms so that we could call it a day. She had gone up the stairs before me because she was more tired and that''s when she saw that the door to your room was wide open. Of course it had been like that since you left but there was just something different about it today that she checked on it by taking a look from afar," said Scar.

    "After inspecting your room for a bit, she realized that there was someone in your bed. Of course since you have never bothered to tell us when you were going to leave ande back, we assumed that you were a home intruder," Scar continued to exin.

    "Our options were to either call on the n members so that they would permanently dispose of you or to deal with it ourselves. I picked the second option as I didn''t want to wait for them to show up and by then, the robber would have worked up from his slumber. So instead, I decided to take things into my own hands. This is where things start to get fun," said Scar with a sinister yet goofy smile.

    "After walking up to see what the robber looked like, I quickly realized that the robber wasn''t actually a robber but was instead you who had decided to take a nap without greeting his holdrades after getting back from an 8 week training session," said Scar as he directed some harsh sentences at Yuki.

    "Wait so there really is no robbery? I was about to get Yuki to take care of it since you''re just a scared overgrown child that wanted to run away from the robber,"said Av as she tried to taunt Scar.

    "You can say whatever you want about me. I''m still not the one who was scared to a point of no return. I mean you should have seriously seen your own face, you looked pathetic-" Scar began to speak before Av got fed up with him and leaped off of the stairs onto where Scar was standing before kicking in the chest.

    ...

    Well it looks like the two of you can settle this argument on your own. As for me, I''ll be going back to sleep now. Try not to make too much noise, still very tired," said Yuki as he began to walk back towards his room so that he could go back to his blissful dreams while Av and Scar continued to argue and fight.

    "Hey hold on. Scar, did he ever mention to you why he left for 8 weeks without telling us anything?" Av asked.

    "When I think about it, he never did. I''ll ask him once he wakes up from his nap. After all, he deserves all the rest he can get," Scar replied.

    ...

    "It''s time," said a single figure in a room full of many other figures who were all enveloped by the shadows.

 Chapter 214 - Behind You

    After Yuki woke up from his slumber in the middle of the day with a big yawn, he prepared to head towards the n headquarters which was also the castle-like building in the middle of the kingdom.

    Once properly waking up, Yuki headed directly down stairs as he didn''t believe that he had anything else to take care of. As such he could be on his way to deal with the FFF n.

    ...

    "And where do you think you''re going?" Av asked in an irritated motherly tone.

    "Uh, towards the n headquarters? Is there something you need from me before I leave?" Yuki asked her with a simple face.

    "What I need is for you to tell me when you''re going to be leaving and where you''re going as well as how long you''re going to be there for! You can''t just keep disappearing thening back as if everything is alright! It just doesn''t work like that!" Av yelled at Yuki.

    "What''s with the sudden change in attitude? Anyway, I''m not going to go out of my way to give my location so that you could betray me. If it makes you happy, I''ll just tell you how long it''s going to be before Ie back," said Yuki.

    "Okay I guess that''s a good starting point. So, tell me how long it''s going to be before you get back," Av requested as she was willing to take anything she could get out of Yuki.

    "I''m not quite sure exactly how long I''m going to be gone. If I decide to stay in this kingdom, it''ll only take me a single day toe back here. On the other hand though, if I have to go to another kingdom, it''s going to take me around a week or so to get back," Yuki replied to Av.

    "Wow, so you must really be into taking quests. Is that why you went missing for 2 whole months without saying anything? Did you take a difficult quest and refuse to turn away until youpleted it?" Av asked. Even though she waspletely wrong, Yuki just agreed with her so that she would let him leave in peace.

    "Yes I did. I''m sorry for not telling you guys, I thought it was going to get finished very soon but I was mistaken. It took me a lot longer than I ever expected. Even so, I couldn''t bring a loser back into this home so I decided to battle my heart out every single day. I''m lucky that I even stayed alive," Yuki lied so that Av would leave him alone but he clearly over did it as she was trying not to sob.

    "D-Don''t worry about us. Please just go and continue going on your quests, we''ll always support you," Av told Yuki to which he nodded with fake ambition in his eyes before putting on his shoes and taking his leave.

    "Well, that was much easier than expected," Yuki said with relief.

    ...

    "Does he take me to be an idiot? I''ll show you Yuki, I''ll figure out why you were going for these past 8 months if it''s thest thing I do!" Av said to herself as she didn''t buy even a single word of the lie Yuki had told her.

    "Hey Scar, you''re still here right?" Av asked as she turned towards the dinning room to speak with him.

    "Ya, and I heard your conversation with him. It''s clear that he''s lying to you," Scar told Av.

    "So what do you think we should do if he''s not willing to tell us the truth?" Av was with a confused face as she tried to think of any helpful ideas.

    "Why don''t we just follow him? It would be simple but effective, don''t you think?" Scar asked her.

    "Now that you mention it, it does sound like a simple but good idea," Av replied.

    "Then let''s get going before we lose him!" Scar yelled at her before the two put on their own shoes and began to tail Yuki towards the kingdom''s castle.

    ...

    "Oh so I guess she really was going to go to the n. Maybe he really was going to get a quest. I''m surprised that he actually told the truth to us. I guess he''s a changed man," Av said with a sense of relief.

    "No, it''s not that simple. I don''t know why but I feel like this isn''t the end of his secret mission. Given the current conflict between WD and FFF, most of the members are on edge and some of them even stopped showing up to the guild so that they wouldn''t have to battle against the members of FFF even though it is their duty," said Scar.

    "So what are you getting at?" Av asked.

    "Let''s just follow him for now. This isn''t the end of his journey. I can just feel it," Scar replied to Av with a smile so that she would trust him and so she did as two of them hid in corners and other ufortable areas to avoid getting seen by Yuki who knew that they were following him due to the increased presence sensing he had after leveling up so much.

    "Seriously, what am I going to do with those two? I really believed that they would let me go but it looks like they''re just treating this like some sort of child''s game. I just want to run at a speed which they can''t follow me at but I need to make them think that I''m trustable. But how do I do that?" Yuki asked himself as he finally reached the castle-like building.

    "Looks like he really did go here. Now for the moment of truth. Will he pick up a quest from the quest board?" Av asked herself while staring at Yuki from a safe distance.

    ...

    "Seeing as I told them that I would get a quest from here and leave. I should just follow through with that. After getting a quest, I''ll just go outside so they can go home and I''ll have all the time to-" Yuki began to speak to himself before right as he pulled the quest paper from the board, the most horrible oue took ce.

    "Hey there Yuki!" Arthur yelled out in a joyful tone while waving towards Yuki.

    ...

    "Damn you, you idiot! Do you know what you just did? You ruined everything for me! I was so close to tricking them and now I''ll have more exining to do!" Yuki yelled in his own head as he grew furious.

    "Are you okay Yuki? Do you have a fever?" Arthur asked as he noticed Yuki getting red from his anger but didn''t know that Yuki was angry in the first ce.

    "Wow, I didn''t know Yuki was close with the n master. That''s actually pretty surprising," Av said to Scar.

    "I know right? Especially considering how bad their first interaction went, you would expect them to be trying to kill each other by now," Scar replied to her as he watched Yuki and Arthur speak for a few seconds before heading towards the stairs of the castle which were guarded and only permitted highly ranked yers from entering.

    "Look where they''re going! What do you think they''re about to do? Are they nning some secret n to take over the world? I mean after all, the name of this n is literally ''World Domination'',"

    Av asked Scar.

    "I don''t know what they''re nning but I know it can''t be good. I can go up the stairs since I have my own room in the castle being that I''m part of the top 20 yers here but you can''te," Scar said to Av.

    "That''s fine, just go in without me. I''ll be fine here. Just try to learn as much about him as possible," Av told

    him with an encouraging face to which Scar nodded and headed towards the stairs but was quickly turned away for no reason even knowing his rank.

    ...

    "What happened? Why aren''t you following Yuki?" Av asked in a panicking voice.

    "Apparently there''s something shady going on after all. The guards of the stairs told me that I can''t go by and no one expects the top 5 yers in this n," Scar replied to her.

    "But Yuki isn''t part of the top 5? Could it be that his friendship with the n leader is so strong that he doesn''t have to go by the rules? He''s so lucky!" said Av as she began to envy Yuki.

    "That''s most likely the case but what I fail to understand is when those two decided to be such good friends. The bigger mystery here is why Yuki and the n leader as well are deciding to hide information from even the top 20 yers in this n except the top 5 obviously," Scar replied as he tried to think about it. There were not that many things he could think of that could be kept secret. Even to his knowledge, it couldn''t be the conflict with FFF because those news were made public long ago.

    ...

    "So how did your training go?" Arthur asked with a serious face in the room with the top 5 yers in the n to which Yuki just gave a thumbs up.

 Chapter 215 - Batol

    "So what do you think? Are you sure you''re okay with taking on FFF all on your own? I mean they''re a pretty tough bunch. Even if you were to join up with us and we were to defeat them, that would count as something impressive," said Arthur as he was getting worried for the safety of Yuki.

    "Of course I''m okay with taking them on. After all, you can''t forget who I am," said Yuki with a confident smirk as he prepared to leave the room and head for FFF.

    "Oh that''s right. I never got a chance to ask you where they are," Yuki said to Arthur who just made a straight face as he didn''t know if Yuki was joking or serious.

    Just then a loud sound could be heard all throughout the castle as 10

    figures jumped on top of the castle from such a height where they could crash right through the floors above and make it down to the floor where Arthur, Yuki along with the top 5 members of the WD were having their meeting.

    "Well, I guess they decided toe for us instead," said Yuki as he tried to look around for anyone that could be potentially dangerous but couldn''t spot anyone who would be even the least bit of a challenge for him.

    "Arthur, take your top 5 members and leave. I''ll take care of them," Yuki told his n leader who replied with a simple single nod before heading towards the exit door of the room.

    "Oh no you don''t! You''re not leaving this ce! You''ll all be dying here!" said one of the 10 people who crashed into the room as he practically teleported right in front of Arthur as he prepared to kick the n leader of WD to the ground.

    "With that type of speed, he should be at least level 40. That would mean that the FFF n had figured out that the WD n was doing some training during the past 8 weeks. Well more specifically just me but with their hypothesis, I guess they also did some training as well. Maybe they really were serious about this," Yuki thought to himself.

    "Unfortunately for them, they had the bad luck of running into me. Now that I''ve managed to regain the overpowered advantage I used to have over the world, I''ll no longer have to fear anyone and I won''t have to hide my

    power nor myself from the world any longer. I''m finally free," said Yuki with a smile on his face as he ran faster than the member of the FFF n could move his foot to kick Arthur down.

    Once reaching close enough, Yuki brought his own foot up to block that of the kick from the FFF n.

    "You should never let your guard down, no matter who''s protecting you. Now, get out of here before I have to protect you again," said Yuki as he sent Arthur and the top 5 members of the WD n away from the scene.

    "Who the hell do you think you are huh? I''m going to kill you!" the man who Yuki had kicked towards the side said as he got up from the ground after being humiliated.

    "Hey I have a couple questions for you guys," Yuki said as he began to walk towards one of the other 9 members of the n known as FFF so that he could speak to them about some things which he still didn''t understand.

    "Don''t ignore me dammit!" The first one of the ten who had his conflict with Yuki said as he rushed towards Yuki so that he could get his revenge.

    "Got you," said the man who was rushing towards Yuki as he ced his m around Yuki''s neck.

    "Activate ability: Chain Explosion"

    Right as the angered man activated his ability, Yuki began to get bombarded by an endless amount of explosions which went on all parts of Yuki''s body as they blew away any piece of clothing which Yuki had on him except his undergarment.

    After a while of going off with no end in sight as Yuki continued to take all of the hits, the explosions came to an end.

    "That''s what you deserve for thinking that you could defeat me. I guess you''ve learned your lesson although it''s toote now. You''ve already died while

    you''re still standing. It''s truly a brave yet sad sight. People like you should just mind their business, especially those who are as young as you," said the man as he began to walk

    away from Yuki with a cool

    expression on his face.

    "Huh? What do you mean? This battle is far from over," said Yuki as he practically teleported right in front of the man who had used the chain explosion ability on him and kicked him in the chest to the point where the man

    could barely breathe.

    "Let''s see. You seem to be pretty smooth with your tongue so I''ll just make you answer my questions," Yuki said to the man in front of him.

    "H-Help," the man pleaded as he turned to his teammates which just sighed in disappointment.

    "I don''t really understand why he chose to start all on his own instead of as a ground. I guess he was just too excited to use the potion enhanced body as quickly as possible. Although now look at him, he''s begging us for him. We might as well just show him how amazing team work is," said one of the 9 remaining members as they all walked towards Yuki with the intent to kill him.

    "Get out of our way kid. We''re not here to battle you. If you don''t, we''ll be forced to kill you as well," said one of the 9 remaining members as he tried to whack Yuki away with the back of his hand.

    "Hun? Didn''t you ever learn to never judge a book by its cover?" Yuki asked as he grabbed the hand of the man who tried to backhand p him.

    "Let go right now if you value your life even a little bit-" the man who''s backhand p didn''t make contact earned Yuki. However, before he could finish his threatening monologue, Yuki simply punched the man on the face and turned his fist so that the head of the man wouldnd on the ground instead of a far away wall.

    "Woah, did you see what that kid just did? That''s got to be some kind of magic involved with this. There''s no way that someone is this much stronger than versions of us that arepletely normal let alone those who are boosted by potions and are seeking revenge," another of the remaining 8 said as he just watched 2 out of the 10 of them fall to defeat in just a few minutes.

    "So is this the best that FFF has to offer? I mean I kinda expected the n with the highest average level in the world to be much more impressive than this," said Yuki as he began to rx as there was no reason for him to fear his matchup anymore.

    "Yes, this is pretty much it," said one of the remaining 8 as he began to walk towards Yuki without any worry in his eyes.

    "What''s your name? You seem different-" Yuki began to speak before he was forced to stop as the figure who walked up to him punched his jaw.

    "My name is Batol. It''s nice to meet you," the guy who just punched Yuki right in the face with enough force to make him dizzy apologized in the most polite tone possible.

    "Well that was weird. Anyway Batol, would it be okay for me to ask you some questions?" Yuki asked as he walked back to Batol and punched him back in the face so that he could get revenge for Batol punching him a few seconds ago.

    "Sure go ahead, I don''t really mind getting asked anything" Batol replied before punching Yuki once again.

    "Okay then. I appreciate your cooperation. My first question is if you''re the strongest person inside the n or if there are any others stronger than you. If so, what are their names and what do they look like?" Yuki asked after which he punched Batol once again as this interaction would go on for every question answered and asked.

    "Well I''m currently the 2nd strongest person there. Our n leader surprisingly Isn''t the strongest person in the n though. Instead the strongest member of our n decided to say that he was going to show up at his own time. Of course no one could argue with him because he was the strongest and in this world, whoever is strongest wins everything. It doesn''t matter what they do with the power they have. As long as they have it, they can do whatever they choose," Batol replied to Yuki which just brought an irritating feeling to him.

    "This is going to be quite troublesome," said Yuki as he continued to go back and forth with Batol with their exchanging punches.

 Chapter 216 - Ability Exposed

    "Activate ability: Freeze Shock"

    After exchanging punches for a while, Batol grew tired of having to do the same thing over and over again. In the end, he resorted to using his ability which caused Yuki to stop in ce for just a moment at which Batol could get in a couple sneaky punches while Yuki couldn''t even move a single centimetre.

    "Now you''re just ying dirty!" Yuki yelled out as he was finally allowed to move freely once again at which he used the time he had to go in for a punch at Batol.

    However an unexpected turn of events took ce as one of the 8 remaining fighters changed into the battle and grabbed Yuki by the neck before mming him down to the ground. Due to Yuki being distracted by Batol, he couldn''t move away from the uing attack in time.

    "Man! This is seriously giving me one heck of a headache! I can''t keep up with these guys even though I''ve trained so that I would be much higher of a level than them. Could potions really make a single person this strong? What''s worse is that it''s not just a single person which I''m fighting against but a whole group of them. I better end this quickly," said Yuki from the ground and kicked the man who had interfered with the battle between him and Batol before finally getting back up on his feet so that he could continue his match.

    "Go! Formation C!" another one of the remaining fighters of the group yelled out as two people slid to grab hold up Yuki''s legs so that he couldn''t move out of ce while two others grabbed him by the wrists so that he couldn''t fight back. Lastly, a final member of the formation grabbed Yuki by the neck as he ced him in a headlock and began to choke Yuki to the point where he was starting to lose consciousness.

    "Dammit! All that training and I have nothing to show for it! I really am pathetic. I thought that I could run a whole n on my own but can''t take down some nobodies from another n. Who am I to ever think that I could hold the title of the n leader for the strongest n in the world?" Yuki began to doubt himself.

    "I see you''ve finally decided to stop fighting. It''s good though. At least you realized that you won''t be getting out of this alive. It''s not your fault though. Who would me you for trying to be heroic and save your n leader. Anyway, you''re going to die here. Although don''t be sad about it. We''ll make sure to find who your friends are and we''ll send them off with you. That way you won''t be lonely," said Batol and he clenched his fists and began to bombard Yuki with an endless amount of punches so that he would get exhausted quicker.

    "M-My friends?" Yuki asked as he was confused as to what Batol meant by friends because as far as he was concerned, he didn''t have any friends. Yet at the mention of that word, Yuki remembered two figures.

    "Man, I should actually stop drowning in myself. The reason why I hate myself so much is because I tell myself that I''m a horrible person when in fact I''m better than most. I choose to do what I want to do and live how I want. I''m not the least bit pathetic," Yuki said out loud as he allowed smoke to escape from his mouth before clenching it hard once again.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Incinerate!"

    After yelling out the name of his attack, Yuki''s mouth began to glow red as arge beam of fire began to shoot out of Yuki''s mouth as if it was a light beam. The best part about the attack being that it attacked each and every single one of the fighters who had decided to grab hold of Yuki so he wouldn''t be able to move freely.

    First we''re the two which were grabbing onto Yuki''s legs. After getting the two of them off his legs once he sted them with his fire beam, Yuki directed some of the fire to hit their heads and hair just for a little extra punishment.

    After allowing his legs to roam free, Yuki focused on the main problem being the one who had ced him in a headlock. That was the one which was draining most of his energy, as such Yuki decided to y dirty as he bit the arm of the one who had grabbed Yuki by the neck and held him in a headlock. Due to Yuki''s sharp teethbined with the fire from his ability, the one which had been determined to make sure that Yuki would be knocked out had no choice but to give in as Yuki was much too powerful to tank and attack from him.

    "Now that you''re out of the way, I can finally take care of the rest of you," said Yuki as he could finally breathe properly. Seeing as he was basically free except for his hands, Yuki quickly pulled his wide arms back before swinging them back forward which forced the two fighters which were hanging on to them to get pulled forward and m into each other.

    "How did you like that? I bet it wasn''t so pleasant when you had to experience all of that pain," said Yuki with a gentle smirk.

    "I''veined and figured all of you out. Right now you''re only boosted with attack boost potions. So that would mean that you''re all nothing but ss cannons! As long as I get even a single hit in, you''re going to die!" Yuki yelled out as he clenched his fist before pointing it at Batol and preparing to punch him straight into oblivion.

    ...

    Even though the punch had managed to make contact with Batol''s body, it didn''t look that Batol needed any assistance at all as he managed to move pretty well even after taking in that devastating punch.

    "Huh? But how?" Yuki asked as he began to get worried that he might actually be dealing with the real deal when it came to Batol.

    "You''re probably wondering why I''m still alive or why I lookpletely fine. I''m sorry to break it to you but I''m just too strong for you to handle! Give up now and we''ll even ept you into our n," Batol offered Yuki as he ced his hand forward.

    "Although it would seem like a pretty good deal for anyone who would be in stress in a moment like this. I feel that there''s something missing. I should just test him just in case he''s trying to hide something from me," said Yuki as he prepared to use his ability one again.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    "Incinerate!"

    Yuki began to sh fire from his mouth all around the room at which Battle seemed to dodge all of the attacks with ease. However even so, Yuki didn''t give in one bit as he continued to push with his ability until Batol finally spoke as he tried to hide the fact that he was clearly exhausted.

    "Y-You see! I''m clearly stronger than you so juste and join our side of you value your own life along with that of your friends. After all, when ites to speed, defense or attack, I''ll always be superior to you," said Batol in an arrogant voice.

    "Oh is that so? I guess you must be finding it pretty easy to dodge all of my attacks then. So good luck," Yuki said with a smile as he prepared to shoot more fire beams at Batol before stopping as he saw that Batol was willing to go on with the game even though Yuki had figured out all of his tricks.

    "Come on, just give it up already. I already know what you''re doing. You''re just activating your ability at the right time so that my entire body freezes while you move out of the way so that you don''t get hit by the attack. Although at first it really did seem like you were faster and stronger than me while also being more durable, I knew that there had to be something off with what was going on," said Yuki as he began to exin.

    "So to test you, I kept using my ability to see if you could actually dodge my attacks. While at first it looked natural. As time went in, it began more and more clear that you were just using your ability to make it seem like you were invincible. After all, there''s no way you could dodge a moving attack while making it seem natural when it clearly wasn''t.. Although I do have to give you credit before I finish you off," said Yuki with arge smirk on his face as he prepared to get revenge for the punches that Batol got in while hisrades had made it so that Yuki couldn''t move out of ce.

 Chapter 217 - Fate

    "So you were just toying with me so that you could exhaust me? You''re actually sick in the head. You could have just defeated me long ago then!" Batol argued as it became more clear how much he had actually fatigued his body from overusing his ability.

    "Huh? It wasn''t my fault that you failed to notice what I was doing. You were simply outyed so stop crying about it like a little girl and try to find a way for yourself so that you could survive," Yuki encouraged Batol as he didn''t want to see him give up for the sole reason that Yuki wanted to fight him some more.

    Hearing Yuki''s words, Batol instantly gave up as he knew that Yuki was nning.

    "I''m done. You can kill me if you want right here," said Batol as he sat on the ground with a somewhat satisfied look.

    "You''re staying, you''re fine with just leaving me to do what I want? What happened to your n''s goals to defeat our n? Is the second strongest member of the FFF n really going to give in that easily? If that''s how weak willed the 2nd strongest member of the FFF n truly is, that must mean that the rest of the members are also nothing but spineless cowards which sit behind a fake facade which is created to mask their weakness," Yuki said as he poked around to find even the slightest bit of emotions that he could manipte in Batol. Luckily for him, having insulted Batol''s n was just the right trigger to get Batol back into his fighting spirit.

    "Listen here you arrogant child! I don''t care who you are. I don''t care if you''re stronger, richer or more famous than me. You can insult me, but never my n!" Batol yelled out as he began to charge towards Yuki as fast as he possibly could.

    "I can''t believe a grown man just said those words. I''m even embarrassed for him right now. He sounds like a generic character in a kids cartoon show," Yuki thought to himself as he allowed himself to lose concentration for a moment as Batol used his ability to stop Yuki''s movements for just a second. As such, when Yuki tried to block Batol''s punches, he would fail as Batol would stop Yuki the the exact time he would want so that his punches would go through andnd on Yuki.

    Seeing as he was getting pummeled by an endless amount of punches, Yuki finally decided to fight back to no avail as the second he threw a punch at Batol, Batol himself would stop Yuki''s movements only to punch the 16 year old hard enough to knock him back a little. That way, Batol would not only block an attack from Yuki but also hit him again.

    "Maybe it wasn''t just a good idea to provoke him. Now I can''t find a single way to defeat him," Yuki said to himself as he spat out some blood before focusing so that he could find the perfect moment to actuallynd his first attack in a while.

    ...

    "Got it!" said Yuki as his eyes opened wide after seeing the opportunity in front of him. Right after Batol would attack, there seemed to be a split second where Batol would need to catch his breath as he had just stopped Yuki''s movements using his ability. Due to that, Yuki could attack without having to fear that he would be stopped by Batol since he still needed to recharge.

    "There''s no way you''ll be able tond an attack while we''re still alive!" said two of the group of the ten which had initiallye to assassinate Arthur and the top 5 yers of the n as they kicked Yuki''s face so that he would be forcibly moved away from Batol.

    "Can''t I at least get a single break?!" Yuki yelled out as he grabbed the two men who had knocked him back by their heads and mmed them to each other so hard that they both passed out instantly.

    "Anyone else want to fight me?!" Yuki asked to which not a single person moved or spoke.

    "If you don''t have anything to say, stop attacking me! The next person who attacks me while I''m in the fight with Batol, they''re going to die by my hands," said Yuki with a serious expression to which everyone could feel that Yuki wasn''t joking around anymore. He really did n to kill the next person who got in his way.

    "Seeing as yourrades have finally stopped getting in my way, I can finally finish this battle," said Yuki with a smirk as he cracked his fingers in preparation for what he was nning to do to Batol.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Yuki began to activate his ability which allows his fists to get covered in mes as he looked at Batol with bloodthirsty eyes.

    "Say your final words Batol! You''re going to die here!" Yuki said with a sinister tone as he began to slowly march towards Batol who had stopped moving due to the fear which Yuki had ced inside of his heart.

    Knowing what was about to go own, a brave member of the 10 people who hade to excecute the assassination n swallowed his spit as he prepared to go into the final battle of his life.

    Without even the slightest bit of hesitation, the man leaped off the ground and kicked the marching Yuki in the face with both his feet.

    Once recovering from the kick, Yuki got up from the ground as he grit his teeth as he had so much pent up anger that he wanted to release all at the same time.

    "So you attacked me even though I fully warned you what would happen if a single one of you even tried to stop me during this battle right?" Yuki asked to which the man who had kicked him stood tall as he nodded in agreement.

    "Then I guess you have already epted your fate to be killed here. It was a pretty dumb decison though. Either way, Batol is going to die here. By jumping in, all you did was give him a few extra seconds but that would alsoe at the cost of your own life. I admire your ignorance although it''s a little sad. You''re going to die here without actually achieving anything. You won''t be remembered by anyone. Instead your copse will just either rot in this room or you''ll be buried in the ground without it any respect as you''re the enemy to us," Yuki exined as he now began to march towards the man who had kicked him instead of Batol as he needed to take care of things in that order.

    "I will not be allowing you to say your final words. Just close your eyes and ept your fate," said Yuki to which the man who had attacked him did as he fully epted the punishment for his actions.

    Yuki reached his hand forward as he grabbed onto the man''s head as he began to squeeze it so that it would soon explode and in turn kill the man who had tried to stop the inevitable death of Batol.

    "Nooo!" Batol yelled out as he activated his ability over and over again. Even though it drained quite a lot out of him when she kept repeating the same ability over and over again, he was willing to make the sacrifice to save the man who had tried to save him from Yuki''s cruelty.

    "Bane! I won''t let you die! That''s an order from me! I order you not to die!" Batol yelled out as he had managed to repeat his ability so many times as Yuki was practically frozen as Batol rushed in to push Yuki away from Bane.

    After rescuing Bane, Batol fell to his knees as he couldn''t go any longer. He had pushed himself way past his limit. Batol was struggling to breathe let alone be able to use his ability to battle against the monster known as Yuki.

    "I guess you never learn. It doesn''t matter how many times you save each other. In the end, you''ll both die by my hands. There is no way to escape your fate as it has already been sealed," Yuki said as he walked towards the exhausted Bane and Batol who didn''t look like they could go on for even another second.

    "Please let Batol live. Just take my life instead, I''ll be happy to be killed right now," Bane pleaded for the life of Batol.

    "I''m afraid you''ve got the wrong idea. Why would I let one of you live when I can kill the both of you? I already said this once and I''ll say it again! Your fate had been sealed," Yuki said to them as he prepared to punch the both of them straight to oblivion.

    Just then a crackling sound began to get louder until a lightning bolt stabbed Yuki in the back.

    "Who are you to decide the fate of others?!"

 Chapter 218 - Mark

    "How the hell did I get hit by that?" Yuki asked as he began to bleed out from his chest and mouth due to him being struck down by a spear covered with lightning as a man approached him.

    It made absolutely no sense to Yuki as to how someone who hadn''t even revealed who they truly were managed tond a sneak attack on Yuki. Let alonend a devastating attack such as the one thatnded on Yuki.

    "Did I somehow lose all my focus for a single moment in which he was able to attack me? Does he have an ability to hide his presence alone?" Yuki asked himself as he began to get ready to fight his newest enemy.

    "You''re probably thinking that I have some sort of ability which allows me to make it so that I''m invisible. However you''re unlucky as that''s far from the truth. The fact of the matter is, I''m simply stronger than you right now," said the voice which had spoken after striking Yuki down with a lightning spear once again.

    "Right now you say? So in normal cases, I would be stronger than you. I guess that exins why I was caught off guard. Although you shouldn''t get too condiant, I''ve only just begun my battle with you," said Yuki as he opened his inventory while still having the spear locked into his chest.

    After opening his inventory, Yuki quickly pulled out a full status recovery potion which he drank so fast that the naked eye wouldn''t have been able to perceive the speed at which this event was taking ce.

    Seeing as he was already healing his body, Yuki began to pull the lightning spear out from his chest so that he could fully recover as he didn''t want the spear to be stuck with him for the rest of his life.

    After finally taking the spear out of his chest, Yuki began to turn around to face the man he would be battling.

    The figure standing in front of him was a man slightly shorter than Yuki with blonde hair. Seeing as Yuki had finished holding on to the spear, the blonde haired man somehow telepathicallymanded his spear to fly out of Yuki''s hands and back into the grasp of his palms.

    "Oh I see. It''s rather a useless ability but rather amusing. So you picked an ability which allows you to change the way your spear moves? Even I have to say that''s strange," said Yuki with a confused face as he saw the spear turn sideways and began to go down towards the ground before allowing the blonde haired man to ride on top of it as if it was a skateboard.

    "Oh so you can even do tricks with your spear? How intriguing. I wonder what you''ll do next. Maybe even a flip-" Yuki began to speak before the blonde haired man forced his spear to fly towards Yuki before delivering a devastating kick right to Yuki''s chin without paying any attention to Yuki''s remarks.

    "Please stay focused on the fight and stop trying to talk while you''re getting beat up," the blonde haired man asked in a somewhat disappointed tone as if he had already won his battle already.

    "Hey, it looks like you dropped something," said Yuki as he pointed towards the ground at which the blonde man was hovering over using his spear.

    "I don''t think I did-" the blonde man began to talk as he looked down at the ground to see if Yuki was in fact telling the truth. This would not be the case as Yuki vanished before reappearing in front of the blonder man before finally kicking the man in his chest and causing him to get knocked off his spear and sent back several metres.

    "It''s just like I thought. It''s only his attacks that are boosted by potions. His defensive capabilities were as good as non-existent seeing how much damage he sustained just from a single attack. Of course that would only be natural seeing as the way his n likes to fight," Yuki said to himself before slowly walking towards the blonde man to finish the match before it could go any further.

    "You''re just like the monster everyone thinks you are! You use dirty and cheap tricks to win your battles! Just because the rest of these people don''t know who you are doesn''t mean that I don''t, Yuki Kaito!" the blonde said with a confident tone which sent a shock of surprise and wordness to Yuki''s bones.

    "So then you must be the n leader of FFF since you know about me. I suppose that illuminating you would only benefit me. If you were to go down, the remaining members have no one to turn to and will be killed at the hands of me or the top 20 members of our n as well. After all, what do you think our members have been doing for this long as we awaited the day to which you would attack us. Even though I hadn''t noticed at first, I began to slowly notice that the members of the n were slowly but surely getting stronger. It doesn''t matter how strong your n thinks they are, the winners of this battle was decided long ago, you''ll the ones going home with defeat. To be quite honest, some of you won''t even be alive after today," Yuki exined as the rest of the members began to take his words seriously and they began to back up in fear that they would die from the shockwaves of the attacks that Yuki and the blonde man were throwing at each other.

    "To be quite honest with you, I''m not the leader of the n. The actual leader is Batol. However due to my superior power, he''ll be stepping down so I can take over. However, as of now, Batol is the current n leader of FFF," the blonde haired man exined.

    "I guess I''ll just have to prove to you all how cool the FFF n is!" said the blonde man as he prepared to start taking the fight seriously.

    "Before I end this all with my final attacks, I''ve wanted to know your name. I would like to remember it even after you''re dead," said the blonde man.

    "Huh? Did I hit your head too hard or something? You literally called me by my real name after you noticed who I truly was. While we''re on the subject though, what''s your name? I would like to remember your name as well before I kill you, right here and right now," Yuki replied with a smirk as he repeated what the blonde haired man said to him.

    "My name is Mark. Remember it well as it''ll be thest thing you hear," said Mark as he pulled his spear back to himself as he held his weapon in his palm before pointing it at Yuki''s neck only to find out that Yuki wasn''t the least bit scared of the fate that would befall him even if he moved half an inch.

    "You''re quite the cocky one, ain''t ya? How about I just end this right now," said Mark as he prepared to jab his spear right into Yuki''s neck.

    "That''s too close to the neck," said Yuki with a smirk as he almost managed to get a spear jabbed into his neck.

    Seeing as Mark wasn''t willing to y for the long run and was just nning to kill Yuki in that moment made things clear for him so that he would know what his next move would be.

    Without stopping for even a moment, Yuki reached out and ced his hand on top of the spear''srge hilt area which Mark assumed was what was going on in Yuki''s n to steal the spear and use his own weapon against him. Seeing as he totally believed that to be the n which Yuki was plotting, Mark didn''t want to let go of his weapon for even a second and he hanged on to it for his dear life.

    "Let! Go!" Yuki said as he had enough of Mark''s attitude as he continued to hold on to the spear before cing his foot on Mark''s chest before finally pushing him away with his foot while still pulling on the spear. That way, Yuki was able to grab hold of the spear and also get some distance between him and Mark.

    "I''ve finally got it away from you! Now look at you! You''re just a pathetic human being who''s being boosted by simple potions. I''ll show you the end of your life right now. So behold the day which you''ll meet your maker!" Yuki yelled out as he brought the spear which belonged to Mark up to his shoulder before preparing to stab Mark in the heart so that he could kill him with his very own weapon.

    "Like hell I would make it a walk in the park for you to kill me! Now say hello to my true ability!" Mark yelled out as he began to get dizzy but still had the energy to put his all into the following few attacks.

 Chapter 219 - True Colours

    "Activate ability: Spear Control"

    "Ultimatebo, spear valley!"

    With a loud yell, Mark activated his ability which allowed him to gainplete mind control over his spear before spinning it in circles multiple times.

    After spinning for a while, the spear began to somehow multiply as it also decreased in size as it created many smaller versions of itself. At the end of it, there looked to be at least a hundred tiny specks which were all pointed at Yuki.

    "Is this supposed to scare me or something?" Yuki asked in a sarcastic tone as he didn''t understand what Mark gained by just multiplying the number of spears there were. The logical conclusion would have been that the spear would also lose some of its original strength. As such, to Yuki, it would feel like he was getting hit by just simple toothpicks but he would be proven wrong soon.

    "You''re probably thinking that because I made the size of my spears smaller, they''re going to be weaker. Well I''ve got some news for you. My spear doesn''t have strength that gets augmented with my level. As such, it would only make sense that my spear would be just a regr spear. While to you it may be a bitcklustre, there''s a reason why I specifically wanted it to be exactly like this," Mark began to speak which seemed to catch Yuki''s attention as he was clearly perplexed by the words that came out of Mark''s mouth but he also wanted to learn more.

    After Mark had uttered his words, he took his ability showing off session a bit further as he engulfed each to his hundred spears in orange mes. However that wouldn''t be the end of it either as he had an extra step to look forward to. That being his capability to also add royal blue lightning to the de of the spears as well in turn creating a devastatingbination.

    "So what if your weapons are colourful now? It doesn''t make them any stronger than they used to be! They''re still the same useless toys you had from before!" Yuki told Mark as he didn''t believe that there would be a world in which someone could create such weapons without any repercussions.

    "Just watch," said Mark with a grin as he pointed his index finger towards Yuki which forced all of his tiny spears to go flying off at the speed of lighting to make contact with Yuki''s body.

    "What the hell?-" Yuki began to ask himself as he barely managed to dodge a single tiny spear right before it hit him. Unfortunately for him, Mark still had plenty of left over which all managed to make cuts on Yuki''s body even though he tried to dodge them all. However they weren''t normal cuts as they didn''t bleed. Instead, the cuts instantly closed as the heat from Mark''s spears forced them to do so.

    "It seems you''re starting to finally get it. My strength instead derived from my physical strength. In actuality, ites from my speed which works together with my ability," said Mark with a smirk as he brought his spears back to him so that he could prepare another attack barrage tounch at Yuki.

    "I see. That''s a bit problematic. Assuming that he''s telling the truth. It not only means that he has already extraordinary speed due to his ability but also is boosted by his portions. Hence with this, he would be able to make his spear stronger and faster as well if he set it to apply like that when he created his ability. Although just like everyone in this world, he has weakened," said Yuki to himself as he prepared to use the ability of his own.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Using his ability, Yuki began to shroud the room in mes which had 2 purposes.

    "So you''re trying to burn me with these mes? You''re underestimating me quite a lot if you think something without any real substance like this would be able to actually injure me," said Mark as he arrogantly made his spears spread out through the whole room as they attacked anything. They didn''t even show mercy to Mark''srades as they attacked them just as they would have done to Yuki.

    Seeing as they were also in danger, they grabbed whatever was in the room to protect themselves against the des such as grabbing the couches and tables and turning them so that they would turn into shields.

    "He''s absolutely brutal to even his own men. How senseless," said Yuki without realizing that his ideology had changed. He had just admitted to the fact that he believed that group leaders should be responsible for protecting their subordinates. What this meant for Scar and Av, only time would tell.

    "Where are you?! Show yourself already!" Mark demanded as he was growing tired of attacking in random ces.

    "Try to calm yourself. There''s no need to yell," said Yuki as he appeared right in front of Mark while pointing his index finger on his enemy''s forehead as if it were in a gun''s motion.

    "Where the hell did youe from?" Mark asked with fear and confusion in his eyes as he thought that he must''ve struck Yuki at least once during his barrage of small spears, however there didn''t look to be even a single extra scratch on Yuki''s body other than the ones he had first received when Mark first revealed his ability.

    "Bang," said Yuki quite literally as he moved his hand in a motion which signified that he had fired a gun just like a child would motion as if they were ying with a real gun while only using their imagination. However the attack that Yuki used wasn''t an imaginary one as it had quite the real consequences on Mark''s body.

    After the attack which Yukinded, Mark instantly passed out andnded to the floor at which all his small spears also fell to the ground before going back towards a single spear and changing back to onerge spear instead of a lot of small ones.

    "I didn''t actually think that would work. I had wanted to try that for quite a long time but never really got the chance as if it would have failed, I would have died in the dungeons. Who would''ve known that after activating my me control ability, I could actually turn myself into mes itself and merge with the environment I created. That''s actually pretty cool," Yuki thought to himself with a smirk as the rest of the FFF members started toe out of hiding as the spears had stopped moving and Yuki''s mes had finally gone out.

    "Oh you guys are still here? I guess I better take care of you as well. Wait, where''s Batol? I still need to get my revenge on him," Yuki asked as he looked around to try to find Batol, who lookedpletely physically and mentally exhausted.

    "Found you! Now let me beat you up before you leave," Yuki requested with an innocent smile on his face.

    "Sorry, I''mpletely done for. I refuse to go on with this battle. I''ll be heading back to my n. However just before I leave though I must ask. Did you kill Mark?" Batol asked while taking a few breaks in between his breaths as his chest felt heavier than it usually did as he still hadn''t recovered from pushing himself so far to keep up with Yuki.

    "Kill him?! Do you want me to be some kind of monster?! There''s no way I would kill him. All I did was infuse his brain with so much head that it wouldn''t have any other option but topletely crash and knock him out. Don''t worry though, he''ll be back to normal in a day or two," said Yuki as he watched Batol sigh as if he was disappointed that Mark was still alive.

    It made sense though as Mark was stealing all the spotlight in FFF from Batol.

    "Okay men, grab him as well and let us head out from here. We don''t have any business remaining here anymore," said Batol as he watched two of the 10 members which hade to attack Arthur went up to the unconscious body of Mark and picked him up before he prepared to leave the room.

    "Huh? You really think you''ll be able to get out of here without a fight?!" Yuki asked as he began tough hysterically which sounded even a bit evil.

    "I''m not your nonchnt guy who''ll let you assassins juste and attack my n leader and just walk away so that you can attempt it another day. I really have duties here. I have a job to do and that job is to make sure none of you walk out of this room. Got it?!" Yuki asked in a rather immature tone as he cracked his knuckles in preparation to start killing all of the assassins.

    "Janitor Yuki, reporting for clean up duty!" Yuki yelled out.

 Chapter 220 - Too Strong

    "Just kidding!" Yuki said with a smile. Of course this was the most oundish thing he could''ve said in his situation. After all, he was required to do his duty being that he was meant to kill Mark, Batol and the rest of them on the spot. After all, they had just spent the previous minutes trying to kill Yuki along with Arthur who was the n leader of the WD n and his top 5 strongest members of his guild.

    After finally arriving at a point where Yuki would be on top, it made absolutely no sense for him to let his enemy just leave without any consequences. It raised several questions about if Yuki was stupid or oundishly confident.

    "Huh? Why would you do that? You do realize that if your n leader were to hear of this, you would most likely get kicked out of your n but you''ll also get killed for betraying your own people," said Batol to Yuki.

    "Oh that''s right. I almost forgot about the conditions I had set for this battle. I guess everything really does work out in the end for me," said Yuki as he had alreadyid something out which was why he chose to let Batol and the others live.

    "Give me a second, I''ll be back," said Yuki to Batol before shutting his eyes so he could speak to Zero for a moment.

    "Hey Zero, could you teleport just Arthur here," Yuki requested to which Zero instantly replied.

    "It would be my pleasure," said Zero before forcing Arthur alone to get teleported back into the room who looked to be crouching while in a hiding position which was the least bit leader-like.

    ...

    "Uh, Arthur?" Yuki said as he tried to notify Arthur who had his eyes closed as if he feared getting attacked to open his eyes as he had been teleported into a ce which he didn''t intend to be in.

    "How did I get back here?..." Arthur asked himself in a whisper before quickly getting up and trying to cover up what he was doing.

    "I was just stretching. It''s a secret technique which I do to keep me as the strongest yer in this world," said Arthur in a proud tone.

    "Wow, I even thought it was impossible to stoop this low to cover up a shameful act but you just broke that. Anyway, I have a question," said Yuki as he needed to ask Arthur a question.

    "Oh I can see that you''re on the verge of killing them. I see, so you wanted me to witness your victory didn''t you?" Arthur asked in a proud tone.

    "No, not really. That''s not why I called you here. I just want you to fulfil your part of our deal," said Yuki to which Arthur tried to think for a moment before finally remembering.

    "Oh that''s right! I remember now. Yes, I still intend to fulfill our deal. As long as you defeat them, the n is all yours," said Arthur in a nonchnt voice which shocked the members of FFF so much that their hearts nearly stopped.

    "So what are you waiting for? Kill them already. After that, I need you to go down stairs and stop the rest of their members," said Arthur in a demanding tone.

    "Great then!" Yuki replied with a smile before turning to face Batol.

    "So I see, you really were going to kill us. I guess we have no choice but to ept our fate with honour," said Batol and he closed his eyes in preparation for his death.

    "Batol, I want you to hand over ownership of the FFF n. I want to own the n. Hence I want to take over as the n leader," said Yuki as if he had just asked for something simple like asking for a pencil.

    "Like hell I would give you the n! Do you think I''m an idiot to let someone like you take the n?! I''ll die in cold blood before I give you the privilege of running the n! As soon as I die, it''ll get disbanded since there won''t be a leader!" said Batol as if he had just won even though he was at Yuki''s mercy.

    "Let me make things a bit more clear then. I''ll let you all live as long as you hand over the leader position to me. Do you really think a simple title is worth your life? And keep in mind, it''s not just your life which will be impacted if you refuse my offer. Mark''s life along with the rest of your n will be ughtered by my hands. Do not be so selfish and try to think about the lives of others for once," said Yuki as he pushed Batol to a corner.

    "Dammit! Why did I have to challenge this n! I knew I could take on Arthur and the rest of them! So why is this unknown kid getting in my way now?! No one had even heard of him and yet he brought our entire oppression to a halt all by himself! Do I really have no option other than to let him take the n? Wait..." Batol said to himself as he thought of something.

    "Arthur! Would you really be okay with letting this kid take over your n and ours as well? I mean after all, if we hand over the n, he won''t kill us. To add on, he would have too much power on his hands," said Batol in a voice which tried to convince Arthur to join him and take on Yuki.

    "I guess that would put me at quite the disadvantage," said Arthur as he began to weigh his odds.

    "Arthur, don''t forget that our deal was to defeat FFF not necessarily kill them. As such, as long as they admit defeat, our deal will have met its conditions. Of course if they don''t agree to let me have control over their n, I''ll just kill them all," said Yuki as he stated clearly as if he was already guaranteed to win the battle of minds.

    "I can see that but still. You having control over one n, let alone two is just too much for someone like you. I fear I''m going to have to recall the deal-" Arthur began to speak at which Yuki stared back at him with eyes filled with death only and nothing else which caused Arthur himself to get startled a bit.

    "Oh so it''s a fight you want? It''s a fight you''ll get," said Arthur after seeing the scars which were already on Yuki''s body which were caused by FFF. In Arthur''s head, he assumed that he could easily defeat Yuki since he was already worn out from his battle with FFF.

    "Might I remind you. I was able to defeat the high ranking members of FFF along with two of them being n leader material all by myself. And don''t go on forgetting our very first interaction," said Yuki as he indirectly warned Arthur about what he was going up against.

    "Our very first interaction?..." Arthur asked himself as he tried to remember but Yuki would help him out in just a moment.

    "It seems that you''ve already forgotten. Let me help you remember," said Yuki before closing his eyes to speak to another entity which wasn''t one.

    "Hey One, send arge shock of presence to Arthur''s heart," said Yuki to One with a rather sinister grin.

    "<strong>You got it boss</strong>," One replied before doing as he was told. Unfortunately for Arthur, that meant that he would have to bear the torture of his heart literally getting focibly stoped along with it getting shocked by what felt like lightning itself at the same time.

    After only just a second, Arthur fell to his knees from being unable to bear the torture he was being put through. He grasped his chest as he tried to bring the pain to a stop but that didn''t help in the least.

    Seeing as he had learned his lesson, Yuki ordered One to stop the heart torture and allow Arthur to live normally once more.

    "Do you remember now? I hope that jogged your memory unless you would like that to happen once again," said Yuki with a fake gentle smile.

    "What just happened? Why did Arthur fall down suddenly as if Yuki nned it? Why does Arthur look scared of Yuki? Is he really about to win?! I can''t allow this," said Batol to himself as he watched Yuki smile at Arthur.

    "Arthur, don''t do it! We cannot allow him to defeat us! Be strong, together we can defeat him!" Batol pleased to which the scared Arthur''s expression turned stone cold as he stared at Batol with a sharp gaze which stopped him from even moving.

    "Do not dare to ever interrupt my conversation. Yuki can''t be defeated. That''s a hard fact," said Arthur to Batol before turning to face Yuki once again.

    "Yuki, for here on out I appoint you to be the new leader of the WD n," said Arthur with a cold expression as if his soul had just been sucked out.

 Chapter 221 - The One Who Laughs Last

    "What the hell just happened here? Did he just gain control over WD as if it was a mundane and easy task? Why does he look like he nned all of this out and nothing could ever go wrong?" Batol began to ask himself with worry in his eyes as he tried to process what he was looking at. There was just no possible way that Yuki could have such overwhelming power or and influence on Arthur that he would have no choice but to give Yukiplete control over his beloved n without a moment of hesitation. That just made Yuki all the more frightening as he still had yet to reveal all his cards if he was able to cause this much fear with just a few words.

    ...

    "Now Batol," Yuki began to speak with a grin on his face, which already had been enough to inform Batol what Yuki was going to say. It was basically going to be a briefing session in which Yuki would tell Batol exactly what he would need to do and Batol would have no room to argue or negotiate with Yuki as he simply did notmand enough power to rival Yuki''s authority.

    "Y-Yes?" Batol replied with a gulp as he didn''t know how to feel about the sudden change in Yuki''s expression to that of an angry kid who was fighting a battle all by himself to now an overconfident yet intellectually gifted strategist.

    "Why do you look so tense? You should already know what I''m about to tell you. I mean you would have to be stupid to not understand the type of situation you''re in. After all of you were to refuse my offer to you, everyone you care for along with yourself will be immediately eliminated. So Batol I will once again advise you. What do you say to allow me to be the new n leader of FFF?" Yuki asked with a simple smile to which pity red into Batol''s soul as if there was no escape for him. Seeing this, Batol''s eyes began to tear up as all hope began to disappear. There was just no possible way for him to run away from his fate. It was sealed tightly and all he could do was make a choice between letting Yuki kill everyone in FFF or let them join him.

    While at first nce that would seem like a simple question. The world which they lived inside would not allow for such a question to be answered with ease. If Yuki were to get control of WD which was already the guild with the strongest members in the world along with FFF which was known throughout the world to be the n with the highest level average from all the ns in the world, he would truly be a terrifying monster.

    "I give up. I Batol assigned you, Yuki, as the new leader of FFF," said Batol in a regretful tone as he would have done anything to stop this from bing a reality. With Yuki now having control over both FFF and WD, he would be the central figure in the world which would control everything. Even the new world''s governments which Yuki still had to learn about would have extreme difficulty with Yuki if the managed to even stay alive to see him after they would have to fight against all the members of the dual ns he owned which would also beposed of people such as Arthur, Batol and Mark.

    With such terrifying powerhouses on his side, Yuki would even start receiving fan mail which would mostly be asking for his protection or for him to leave people behind and to note near them as he was truly the biggest threat to everyone''s safety.

    "Great! I guess now all of this cane to an end," said Yuki before leaving the room without a care in the world as he left Arthur and Batol along with the rest of the FFF assassins to do whatever they wished.

    ...

    "Uh- are you not worried that we might break our promise and kill Arthur while you''re gone? Even if we''re weakened, our potions still have their effects on so we should still be enough to take down Arthur whole you''re gone," said Batol in a concerned tone as he couldn''t believe that such a reckless person would be the new n leader of the glorious n known as FFF.

    Although this was what Batol believed in that moment, Yuki would soon disprove him and shock his entire world as he presented a single sentence which would bring chills to Batol''s bones.

    "I know you''re smart enough to know what would happen to you if you were to do that," said Yuki before going on his Mary way towards the stairs so he could stop all the ruckus which was taking ce down the stairs of the base of operations for the WD n which was just the castle building in the kingdom where the n was in.

    ...

    "Hey there everyone," said Yuki with a yell which brought a stop to everyone who was fighting in the room and brought all the attention to Yuki which startled him a bit as it wasn''t that often that he got so much attention at once. Nevertheless, Yuki managed to keep his cool while sweating profusely.

    "Good, Scar and Av aren''t here. I was worried what mighte to them if they ended up facing someone too strong. Especially Av knowing that FFF isposed of yers which are level 25 or higher," Yuki thought to himself still not realizing what he was just saying to himself as he was allowing the cold attitude of his to start cracking.

    "Huh? Who are you? Get down here so we can beat you to a pulp as well!" said one of the people who was holding one of the WD n members which Yuki recognized by the cor. The one which was getting held by the cor was one of the members of WD. More specifically, he was part of the group which tried to steal Scar and make him join their group.

    "P-Please. Help me," said the man as he reached his arm out in Yuki''s direction while dramatically begging for help.

    "Wow, I guess karma really is real. Now look who''s at my mercy once again. I should really leave you here to die all on your own," Yuki said with a satisfied smile as he had already gotten revenge on said group which tried to take Scar.

    "Unfortunately though, I can''t allow my new n members to die from now on," said Yuki with a sigh as if he was disappointed that he couldn''t let the man get killed by the FFF member.

    "Huh?"

    "What is he talking about?"

    "Did someone hit him too hard on the head or something? I guess that''s what happens when you join a n at such a young age. Kids of his age have no ce in ns and dungeons."

    The people from the WD n and the FFF n said as they all mocked Yuki since they didn''t know which n he was from due to his little effort which he puts in to get to know the people of his n. Due to this, Yuki would be unrecognizable.

    Since Yuki hadn''t realized how "irrelevant" he was within his n, he would say something that would cause everyone tough at him. However this would also backfire on them.

    "Anyway overe to inform you to stop your fighting. The battle between FFF and WD hase to a close with neither side winning. In addition, the FFF n along with the WD n has been given to Yuki to rule over both of them under the authority of Arthur and Batol.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    Before Yuki even finished speaking,ughter had begun and when he finished, it had be a whole festival ofughter as they all mocked Yuki due to how ridiculous the things he was saying were.

    Of course Yuki forgot to ount for the fact that no one would believe a 16 year old kid managed to not only defeat the leaders of WD and FFF but also managed to ce them in a position where they would give up the title of being the leader.

    "Oh wow, I mean I expected a reaction but this is outright bullying. I guess I should do something about this," said Yuki before turning around as the shadows covered his eyes while he walked back to the room where Arthur and Batol were so that he could bring them back down stairs with him.

    "Look at him go, he''s gonna go back to his mommy."

    "Did he really believe we would believ something as dumb as that speciallying from a kid?"

    "Who does he take us for? Do we look like morons or something to him?"

    The people there began to mock Yuki. Them not believing Yuki didn''t make them morons.. What made them truly morons was what they were saying about Yuki as it would backfire horribly in just a few minutes.

 Chapter 222 - Dragon Dance

    "No way, why are the two n leaders here?"

    "There''s no way that the kid was telling the truth, right?"

    "Absolutely no way that some random kid like him managed to get both n leaders to join him. They''re probably just there to eliminate him. After all, what kind of kid would have so much power that he wouldmand the respect of these two figure head?"

    The crowd of people, which wasposed nearly entirely of WD and FFF n members, began to speak amongst themselves as they couldn''t believe what was in front of their eyes.

    There stood Yuki who was walking down the stairs behind Batol and Arthur who walked towards the crowd with a face filled with shame.

    "Come on n leaders, why do you look so bummed out? I mean you''re both here so if you team up, you should be able to take him on right?"

    "No you moron, they''re probably ying a prank on us and they''ve already taken care of him. They''re probably just testing how loyal we truly are to them."

    The people in the crowd continued to speak with disbelief and pure ignorance in their voice as they didn''t want to assume the worst.

    Unfortunately for them, Batol not Arthur spoke a single word as they stood there to look their troops in their eyes with nothing but shame as they didn''t have a single way to apologize to the people who were there.

    "I-I''m sorry," both Batol and Arthur said as they bowed down to their n members which they had let down.

    Of course Arthur''s apology was fake and all he hoped to gain was the trust of his people so that they would think that he was doing the best he possibly could and was still losing to Yuki which was far from the truth as Arthur never cared for the result as long as he got to keep his ability to which he relied on so that he could level up more frequently.

    "NO WAY!'''' Everyone in the room yelled out in pure shock as they didn''t know what they were going to do with themselves. A literal child was about to take control of two of the most powerful ns in the world. The leaders weren''t even giving it up on their own volition but were instead basically forced due to the power which Yuki had at his disposal.

    "S-Sorry sir. We didn''t mean to offend you earlier. We had no intention of getting in your way. We just had no idea of knowing that you would actually be the new n leader, not that it justifies us being so ignorant," one of the people in the crowd began to speak elegantly as they wanted to save themselves from the fate which awaited theirrades.

    ...

    "Ya, I promise that I didn''t mean any of the words I said to you beforehand. It was just a misunderstanding and I can''t guarantee with my own life and soul that something as horrible as that will never happen under my watch from this day forward. I hope we can just move on from this predicament and start off fresh on your new n leader," said another one of them with a nervousugh which indicated how badly the person who spoke wanted to leave his ss and run away for his life.

    "Oh no but you see, life just isn''t that simple. When you make a mistake I need to punish you and set an example. As such, I''ll just have to kill you so I can show all of the people here what happens to those dare to

    doubt me,"said Yuki in a sinister voice as he began to walk towards the second man who tried to apologize, who was so scared out of his mind that instead of running away, he just stood in ce as if his feet had been frozen.

    After walking slowly and menacingly for a while, Yuki finally made it in front of the 2nd man who tried to apologize before cing his hand on the man''s shoulder.

    "I''m just kidding. Lighten up a bit, will ya? I''m not here to be a killer. I''m just here to introduce myself to you guys since now I own both of the ns which either of you have joined. Since they''re suddenly merged now, there are going to be a few changes which some of you will of course not enjoy," Yuki began to speak like a real mature n leader as he forgot about his nervousness and began his speech

    "My apologies for thete introduction but anyway, I shall run a quick intro which will hopefully get all of you ustomed to what is to be expected of you. First of all, I''m Yuki, your new n leader. Since I''m the leader of not only WD but also FFF, I feel like it would be only necessary that there is a new hybrid name created to make everyone feel included?" Yuki asked to which everyone stayed silent as they still had trouble processing the fact that their world was going to get turned upside down just because of some random kid.

    "Since no one seems to have any ideas, we can just go for the obvious answer. ''FFF''s WD''. If anyone has any objections or anything to ask or say please do it now," Yuki requested yk which everyone still stayed silent as they needed another few more minutes topletely process all the new information that was getting sent to their brains.

    "I guess I can pick whatever I want then. Too bad for you guys, since you guys didn''t bother to put in any work into the name of our n, I decided to do it on my own," said Yuki as he looked at all the people who just stared at all the wide eyed people which looked like they were just little kids which wanted to get attention on themselves. Or more specifically, they looked like children which were hopelessly lost within arge grocery store.

    "So what exactly are we supposed to do now? Which n building are we supposed to live in? Which kingdom should we live in?" a person from the crowd began to ask Yuki reasonable questions after realizing what Yuki was nning to do. After all, with getting a whole n to merge with WD, it would cause a lot of problems (space wise) as adding an extra couple dozen people would cost a lot of space for the n, especially one such as WD where there is barely any rent avable.

    The reason for the shortage of ces to live in the kingdom which Yuki along with Scar and Av resides in was because of one very concept which wasmonly referred to as superstition.

    Due to the mysterious nature of the world which Yuki had decided to create, many people constantly lived in fear of what would happen to them if a monster were to suddenly spawn while they were sleeping.

    Most people dismissed the thought so that they could sleep better since they simply would forget about the negative thoughts due to them not being able to do anything about them however those who were willing to make a change in their lives and more specifically could afford to do so, did. They would simply move to the kingdom which ns such as WD or like WD were so that they could seek protection from monsters with their help. After all, if anyone could take those monsters on such as the goblins from ''goblin king''s parade'' could only be taken down by the likes of the higher echelons of ns with members around level 25 or higher.

    However that''s not where their fear stopped since human imagination was quite a wild concept. People thought of all strange things and one of them was a monster group which would be able to go outside and do as it wished while being stronger than even the goblin king''s parade. That was truly something that not even some of the higher echelon members feared. The only people who would be able to be a real challenge let alone defeat those imaginary problems would be n leaders such as Arthur and Batol or current leader of both the ns they used to run, Yuki.

    "I guess you do make a good point. For now the FFF''s WD n will have a base of operations. For now, all members of FFF, you guys can go back to your kingdom for now. I''lle up with something soon so that you guys cane live in this kingdom as well," said Yuki with a nervous but promising smile.

    After hearing this, Batol stopped bowing and began to walk upstairs before bringing Mark with him and taking his n back to the kingdom they came from so that they could wait for the time where they would be called back.

    However as the members from the FFF branch of the new n known as FFF''s WD n were leaving, a white light came down from the sky before presenting a screen.

    "Uing Event: Dragon Dance"

    "72:00:00"

    ...

    "71:59:59"

 Chapter 223 - Event

    "Huh? What is that?"

    "What the hell is dragon dance supposed to mean?"

    "Is that a kind of circus show?"

    The members of the n known as "FFF''s WD" began to ask themselves as they stared at therge screen before them that presented never heard of information. It just didn''t make any sense to anyone who was there as to why such a confusing screen was appearing in front of them as if it had some kind of purpose.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    After a moment of silence as everyone just stared at the screen with wide eyes from being unable toprehend the words which were presented in front of them.

    "Oh no..." said Arthur with a concerned tone which seemed to grab everyone''s attention who was near him.

    "What is it Arthur?! Do you know something about this that we don''t?" Yuki asked with an interested tone as he wanted to learn what this sudden off screen was which lingered right in front of his eyes.

    "Yes I do have an idea what it might be and if I happen to be right, it could mean the end for all of us," said Arthur as fear began to settle into his eyes.

    "Come on, spit it out already. Don''t leave all of us in suspense!" The people in the crowd protested as they also wanted to know what could be so terrifying that it had even someone as powerful as Arthur in shiveres. Although it was a bit odd as the one who wasbeled t king of the entire world, the Arthur which everyone looked up to and wanted to because had not once, but twice been clearly outmatched by his opponent. First being Yuki and now therge screen in front of everyone.

    "I fear that it is a monster gathering event. One like the goblin king''s parade," said Arthur as he grew with fear as the seconds passed. Each time he took a breath, his heart began to beat a lot faster than the previous time.

    "What are you so scared of?! I see that the great Arthur was nothing but a fake. You had us all fooled but you''re nothing but a weak liar!" someone from the crowd called out to Arthur which seemed to catch his attention.

    "All of you can see who the previous leader of WD is. Maybe that''s why a literal child was able to take over these ns. We can just defeat these fools and take over the n for ourselves-" the same man began to speak before suddenly stopping as something stopped his mouth from moving.

    ...

    "Uh- L-Let go of me!'''' The man who was bringing Arthur down pleaded for Arthur to let go of his mouth. After getting insulted for far too long, Arthur travelled at the speed of lightning before grabbing the man who was insulting him by the mouth and holding him in the air before finally speaking.

    "I''m weaker right? You can defeat me right?! Do it then! Just because others are more powerful than me doesn''t mean you insects can even stand a sliver of a chance against me!" Arthur yelled back at which the man who insulted him began to tear up from the fear that was being invoked into him.

    "That''s what I thought! Next time don''t pick a fight which you can''t hold yourself to participate in," Arthur said in a cold tone before pushing the man who insulted him down to the ground.

    "Anyway like I was saying, it''s not just like a regr goblin king''s parade. That event takes only 24 hours to load in. This one takes 72 hours instead. The magnitude of this raid by the monsters will be one on a scale unheard before!" Arthur announced as he tried to warn everyone.

    "If that''s true, why is this the first time we''ve seen this event?! Don''t you think the newspanies like GNE would''ve covered this one already if it was a real event?! You know what, I think that you''re the man behind this! You''re nning to kill us with your ability right?! You changed it to one which allowed you to kill all of us without exposing that you were the one behind it!" one of the people said from the crowd as they doubted the reasoning why Arthur knew so much and assumed that he was just a in and simple murderer which he was intact but this wasn''t a part of his n.

    "That makes sense! That''s why he would know so much in the a short amount of time that this event had been avable," another one replied which started to give the people

    more ideas.

    "Come on everyone, there''s no need to start getting ahead of ourselves. I think we''ve started to lose focus here," said Arthur as he tried to get the people who were there to pay attention to him so that he could inform them of the dangers that were fast approaching.

    "If you really are on our side, show us your ability!" Another person from the crowd said those words which hit Arthur like a ton of bricks. He had been caughtpletely off guard and didn''t know how to answer the people due to one reason and one reason alone which would cause his downfall if it was ever discovered.

    The singr fact which would destroy WD''s reputation along with Arthur''s life was Arthur''s ability in the first ce.

    Arthur''s ability was one which would allow him to create missions for his guild. While this would seem normal at first, that is far from the truth. The reason which Arthur managed to level up so much in such a short period of time was due to his ability which more specifically allowed him to create missions which would bring him back with a percentage of the exp which was gotten during said missions.

    "Uh- I can''t show you that right now," said Arthur as that was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

    "That''s what i thought! Everyone who''s listening to this, Arthur is a fraud! He''s the one who''s nned all of this and now, with the new leader of the joined ns under his control, Arthur will destroy the entire!" the person who had asked Arthur to show his ability said, which was starting to get Arthur a bit irritated.

    "Yea! So he really is a killer! I knew something was off about him; he leveled up so quickly. I guess he probably killed people for exp and ns to kill more of us!" said another man in the crowd with a slightly fearful giggle before going back quiet.

    "Just trust me! I''m not nning to hurt anyone here! In fact I want to help you all escape!" Arthur continued to yell back and forth with the crowd which was when Yuki finally stepped up.

    "First of all Arthur, how about taking a deep breath," said Yuki at which Arthur did as he was told as if he was just a toy which could only follow very basic instructions. Of course Arthur took a deep breath just like Yuki told him to before beginning to exin the origins of his hypothesis.

    "Sure. I just hope these people can calm down while I exin why I believe this as it could be actually pretty backing to it," Arthur began to speak, first to Yuki then the rest of the crowd.

    "I believe that events ur when either one of these two requirements are fulfilled. The first one being that there has to be a sudden change in the power of the overall kingdom. This would mean that monster events would only appear as a super powerful figure appearing in a rtively weaker kingdom. On the other hand, we can say that these events only ur when a lot of people with a lot of powers gather at the same ce. Due to that factor we can assume that our case belongs to the second requirement. After all, there are so many people here who are genuinely members of the FFF''s WD n. Since all of these powerful figures ate already here, the event had decided to give the test in the form of the event as quickly as possible," Arthur began to exin, at which everyone began to go quiet again. Even the crowd which were shaming Arthur were starting to mock Arthur and began to respect him in their own special way.

    "Anyway like I was saying. This event is going to unleash a monster which we have never heard or seen in our entire lives. Even though we''ve been in this world for only a little over a year, we''vee to learn many things about it.. However we still don''t know many of the secrets which we have yet to uncover! Let us be the ancestors which our future generations can look up to by taking down which monster or monsters dare toe near this kingdom! After all, this will be "FFF''s WD"''s first real battle so let''s give it our all!" Arthur yelled out as the crowd began to cheer for him as if they hadpletely forgotten all the doubt they had about him.

 Chapter 224 - Worst Outcome

    After exining the uing event which was named dragon dance, Arthur along with Batol, Yuki as well as even Mark began to n what they would do to counter the uing monster which woulde to attack them all at one. Of course there was still some doubt in the air as they didn''t know who they could trust. Even though the ns had merged, there was still tension between its members. It wasn''t just the lower tier of the yers from each guild but even the higher ups Mark and Batol had a look of hatred on their face. As if they were being forced to work for Yuki they were but Yuki didn''t think much of it.

    "How are we even supposed to n so we can fight a monster which we know nothing about?! We''ve never seen or heard of it. Why the hell would it even think abouting near this ce?!" Batol began to speak as he challenged Arthur''s theory as he had no reason to believe the words of the man which he considered to be his enemy for such a long period of time.

    "Well I see that you''recking in a bit of intelligence so I''ll do you a favour and begin my exnation-" Arthur began to speak at which Batol stood off from his seat to try to p Arthur in anger from having been disrespected so much in front of such a high ranking individual.

    "Come on, let''s try to be civil here," said Yuki as he stopped Batol''s movements before they could reach Arthur and p him. Seeing this, Batol simply gritted his teeth before sitting down on his chair once more as he was clearly angry at Yuki as well but couldn''t do anything about it.

    "I thought that we were supposed to equals with him?" Batol asked Yuki with a heather harsh tone as if he was judging the way which Yuki ran things which was exactly what Battle was doing. Since he made it so obvious that Batol was starting to hate Yuki, Yuki began to take action so that a Rebellion wouldn''t ur.

    "Yes I know. I''m trying my best to make things fair for everyone," Yuki replied as he tried to reason with Batol.

    "That''s not fair at all! Why do you keep defending Arthur and shaming us? Does that really seem to be the thing which you want to convey to the members of your new n which came from the original ''FFF'' n? I doubt that they would like to know something as unfair as this. Of course you won''t have to worry about that problem if you just call Arthur out on a mistake he makes," said Batol as he made an ultimatum so that Yuki would have no choice but to agree to the conditions to which Battle had set.

    Although too would have worked previously, this version of Yuki had a clear understanding of all the power which he held over others.

    "Calm yourself Batol, know your ce here. I am the judge of how I treat people," said Yuki in a cold tone as he warned Batol before going back to his calm and collected self.

    "Anyway Arthur, why do you think that we''re the first people to see this event? What makes uspared to everyone else in the world so special?" Yuki asked as his interest had also peaked.

    "I believe that the exnation for this is quite simple. The reason which makes us different is the people we have here. I mean think about it, there had never been this many people who were so powerful which were gathered for the sole purpose of being the n which was previously known as FFF to glory. The problem came when they stepped into our kingdom and the war had begun. Most battles would have been one sided but due to the nature of both these ns, they were found at a stalemate. Well until our hero showed up," said Arthur before giving Yuki a nod.

    "I think that the events are only summoned depending on who specifically resides inside a kingdom. The more and stronger the people in the kingdom are, the more powerful the event will be. Hence the fact that the load time for this event is 72 hours instead of the regr 24. However that isn''t the end of it as things wouldn''t be that simple. We still don''t have any information about our opponents. If we don''t even have that, how the hell are we expected to defeat something that powerful?" Arthur asked as panic began to settle in.

    "Don''t worry about that, just leave it to me," said Yuki with a confident smirk as hepletely believed that he could take on whatever monster that the event known as dragon dance would throw at him and not even flinch at it.

    "Whatever you say boss. We''ll always be behind you to give you our full support, Arthur, Batol and Mark all nodded from agreeing to those conditions. Even though Mark was injured quite a lot,

    More than everyone else, he was starting to make a recovery but not one which would allow him to fight at full capacity in the battle which would take ce in just a few more days.

    ...

    One the day of the battle, all of the members of FFF''s WD were present right in front of where the screen stood with Yuki standing right infront of everyone.

    [00:00:01]

    ...

    [00:00:00]

    Once the timer finally had hit the end of its countdown, the screen which was disying those numbers simply began to crack as if it was a piece of ss before finally cracking and revealing a dark blue portal of some kind in the sky.

    "Uh- What is that?" Yuki asked in a confused tone as he had expected to fight against war heros and legendary monsters. Instead all there is just a circle in the sky?! This has to be some kind of joke," said Yuki in an irritated tone. Even though it would have been optimal for him to stay as far away from needless fights as possible, it had be so integrated into his life to fight that Yuki felt the need to let out some steam. As such, he wanted to fight a big and strong monster, not some magical fairy circle in the sky that was made by a magician for some kid''s show.

    "What happened to all those things you told us about Arthur? Where are all the unbeatable monsters which even our entire army can''t stand up to?" Batol asked as he mocked Arthur for spouting all that nonsense just for him to be clearly lying.

    Of course Arthur himself was at a loss for words as he couldn''t believe that he had been wrong in making a prediction. As someone who studied the human brain and what decisions they''re supposed to make along with the fact that the creator of the world which he lived in was human (to Arthur''s knowledge), that human being Yuki, it would only make sense for Arthur''s prediction to be true. Unless Yuki was lying to him.

    ...

    After only a few minutes of gettingughed at, Arthur would get thestugh as a majestic flying beast which could only be described as a dragon pierced through the sky portal and flew into the world which Yuki along with his n members resided in.

    ...

    "I TOLD YOU ALL! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE STUPID?!" Arthur yelled at everyone whoughed at him as in the end, he was the person who was correct.

    "Oh I guess there was one thing you were right about. A monster came out of the portal however that doesn''t mean that it''s invincible. It looks so weak that even I could take it on without the use of potions and still

    However that wouldn''t be where Arthur''s lucky day or to be more realistic, his unlucky day would end as a second dragon which was identical to the first came out of the portal. However those wouldn''t be the worst of their worries as a 3rd and 4th the 5th dragon came one after another from the portal as they all came out of it at the speed of lightning before taking a quick spin and facing towards where the people form FFF''s WD where looking at as the dragons clearly knew who their enemies were.

    As for humans, it didn''t look too good since the dragons which came out of the portal seemed endless until finally a dragon which was multiple the size of the regr dragons came out of the portal as it barely quickly went through and began to literally crack the portal from being unable to fit into the hole. However in the end, therger dragon was able to aplish its goal but it would also mean the worst possible oue for the humans.

 Chapter 225 - Red Dragon

    "Howrge is that thing?!" one of the people in the crowd which belonged to the n known as FFF''s WD asked in a worried tone as he stared at therge glowing red dragon which was escaping from therge hole

    in the sky while struggling to get out. With every second that passed, the dragon pushed itself a little bit more which caused the hole in the sky to get wider even if it was by a couple centimetres per second, the dragon continued to make an effort to escape from the hole in the sky. Why did it want to do such a thing? No one knew. All the people who were around it knew that the second the dragon managed topletely enter the world in which Yuki and the others lived, all hell would break loose as even Yuki and his height subordinates didn''t know if they could take down a beast of that size.

    Even Arthur''s bragging about how he was right while everyone else was wrong hade to a sudden stop as the fear which was umting in his heart was just too much for him to handle. At one point, hepletely stopped caring about who was wrong and who was right. All that mattered to him was that he stayed alive as if he died, nothing would matter.

    "Hey Yuki, do you know if we''ll be able to defeat that thing?" Arthur asked clearly with a fearful look on his eyes. However Arthur asked a little too loudly which made it so that everyone who was surrounded him heard what he had said.

    If Arthur was just some regr member of the n which Yuki currently ruled over, it wouldn''t matter what he said as everyone who was present there was equally scared as everyone else. However when it''s the man who was known as the strongest person in the world until just a few days ago who seems to be worried about a fight, it was clear that it wouldn''t end well for FFF''s WD..

    Arthur asking the question which he had proposed to Yuki would be like the smartest kid starting to cry once an exam had begun. Everyone who would be taking the exam as well would just give up on all their hopes and dreams and simply ept their fate of being a failure.

    That was the exact same reaction which the people who were around Arthur had when they heard his words. They had lost all hope of survival and began to count their days as there was no way that they would survive the battle they were about to enter. Some of them began to even close their eyes as they began to fully ept their doom.

    Seeing this, all Yuki wanted to do was to punch Arthur as hard as possible to make everyone in the n known as FFF''s WD''s motivation go away with just a couple words.

    "I can''t allow it to be like this. I should do something before this goes too far," said Yuki to himself with worry in his inner voice.

    "Of course we can! Don''t tell me you forgot how powerful you were just because I defeated you once," said Yuki in a joyful tone while trying to be a bit louder but not make it obvious that he was exaggerating.

    "Huh? But they''re clearly stronger than us-" Arthur began to speak before Yuki quickly turned around to give him a look which indicated pure death. If Arthur said one extra thing which would cause the motivation of the n to drastically drop, Arthur''s head would also drop 6 feet under the ground.

    "Anyway, he should be easy to defeat. I''ve dealt wother much more difficult opponents already. If y''all are so scared though, I can take care of therger red scaly dragon while the rest of you back me up by taking care of the smaller dragons around the area," said Yuki as he took a gulp in preparation for what he was getting himself into. Even though he would appreciate someone by his side to assist him or distract the dragon when necessary, Yuki understood that thest thing anyone in his n would want to do is to fight arge monster which looked capable of wiping out the entire kingdom.

    As for the rest of the civilians though, they had already gone into hiding. Even at the sight of the first small dragon, nearly everyone had begun to go back into their houses as they sought out selter for the time being. They could not possibly understand why the n members chose to stay outside in the first ce. After all it was clear that therge red dragon would easily wipe them all out.

    After struggling for a few more minutes, the event which would describe the course in which the n known as FFF''s WD would go in. More specifically, all the members would all die or if they would live happily ever after. There was very little in between oues which could take ce.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    Therge red dragon finally managed to escape from the space hole and managed to fully enter into the kingdom where Yuki''s n was located.

    "I guess my only option here is to fight. I might as well just end things here. There''s no point in me being frightened. Even if I am, I cannot allow my weakness to show. The second where I lose myposure, that''s when the entire n loses the battle. I don''t have a choice but to charge inside my head strongly," Yuki said to himself as he strengthened his facial expression.

    "Let the event begin!" Yuki yelled out before quickly receiving the support of his n members as they yelled out to him who he charged towards the red dragon. As for therge red dragon itself, it saw Yuki make its move and it decided to do the same as it approached Yuki as well.

    As for the smaller dragons and other members of the n unde Yuki''s control, they also began to make their move as they charged towards each other with bloodlust.

    By far out of everyone there, Batol was the one who was having the easiest time during the battle or at least that was what it looked like to anyone who was watching him as he seemed tond every punch he threw due to his time based ability. Of course just like with anything powerful, the ability had arge drawback of its own being that it consumed too much of Batol''s stamina that he wouldn''t be able tost in the current battle which was almost guaranteed to be a long and drawn out battle. Even so, Batol was determined to give it his all.

    On the other side of the spectrum was Arthur who was having less than the best time of his life due to one reason alone. He couldn''t use his ability. Due to it being one which controlled the missions which were presented in the WD n or better yet, now known as FFF''s WD n. As such, if he changed his ability his big secret would be out and help wouldn''t be able to level up like he used to be able before.

    Hence why Arthur was having a rather difficult time since he was left to fight with his bare fists alone.

    Although that would be what it seemed like, Arthur wasn''t some type of brute when he fought monsters. Instead he was much more sivilized and his way of disposing of the monster was much more cleaner than all of the other yers who were there as Arthur chose to use a small surgical de as his weapon of choice.

    When a single monster approached him, Arthur used his surgical de to quickly snap off some of the important veins of the dragons before allowing them to die peacefully. This was due to Arthur not having much interest in killing monsters since they didn''t haveplex thoughts. Even the very best of them could only yell out in agony. As such Arthur could never derive pleasure from killing monsters but instead enjoyed doing it to humans as he was a true nut job.

    "I guess n leader Yuki was right after all. Arthur really had it in him from the beginning to take on these dragons with ease. I can see that we were wrong from the start," some of the members of Yuki''s n said as they watched this go down, also making sure to pay attention to their own battles as well.

    ...

    As for the leader of the n and the main person during the entire battle, Yuki was barely able to keep up with the red dragon which was in front of him. Even though the dragon was sorge, it was weirdly too fast and too strong as well. Even the wind pressure it produced by travelling so fast seemed to be enough to knock Yuki off his feet and send him into the air.

    "Let the battle begin!" Yuki announced to the red dragon.

 Chapter 226 - The Return Of The Kings Blade

    Seeing as he was on the losing side of the battle with the redrge dragon in front of him, Yuki quickly leaped in the air beforending on top of the red dragon.

    Without wasting another moment, Yuki quickly lifted his leg up in the air before bringing it back down right at the top of the red dragon''s head. Just the shockwave caused by the move that Yuki had presented, he managed to cause the red dragon to go on a state in which he was barely staying awake as if he was struggling to stop itself from getting knocked out.

    However the red dragon wasn''t going to allow Yuki to do as he freely wished as the dragon forcibly knocked Yuki off of its back with such a force that Yuki had no choice but to be sent down to the ground and crashnd as he had lost control over his body.

    "Dammit, this thing is really starting to get annoying. I can''t let the rest of these guys start to lose hope by seeing me in this state," said Yuki to himself as he got up from the ground to look around him only to see that some of the members of FFF''s WD members were looking at him with hopeless eyes as if they could tell that Yuki was about to lose the battle in just a few minutes.

    In their eyes, Yuki had already lost and was just fighting a battle which he could never win. It was utterly useless and the only reason which he even bothered to go along with it was because his pride wouldn''t allow him to. Or at least that was their thought process. In truth, Yuki had lost all the pride he had ever had and fought by using cheap tricks whenever he needed to. However there was a sudden change in his life not long ago which allowed him to gain the tiniest piece of human decency.. As such, it allowed him to bear the burden of being a leader for the first time in his life.

    "Damn, I wish I was just a little stronger. I can''t keep going on like this!" Yuki said to himself before looking around to make sure that no one else was watching him in his pathetic state. However as the seconds passed, the amount of people who had their eyes on Yuki increased as they began to lose faith in him.

    However in the distance, Yuki saw something which brought sudden hope for him. In the distance, Yuki spotted someone drinking some sort of potion which gave him the idea of doing the same.

    "Why didn''t I think of this before?! With potions, I should be able to win this fight with ease!" Yuki said to himself before quickly opening his inventory to take out a couple potions so that he could drink them all and gain an astronomical strength advantage.

    [Open inventory]

    ...

    ...

    ...

    "Where the hell is it?!" Yuki said as he quickly looked around in his inventory. However after quite a bit of searching, he found the things he was looking for. Potions.

    After a closed inspection though, Yuki made a horrible revtion. The potions he was looking at were only tier two potions. That''s when he remembered the tier system which was in ce for potions. If the potion tier wasn''t matching with the level that the yer was in, it would have no effect on the yer. As such, it was basically like Yuki didn''t even have any potions on him.

    "Why?! Why now of all times! Why don''t I have the potions!" Yukiined to himself as he grit his teeth in both anger and agony as he knew that he wouldn''t be able to win the battle against the red dragon without any potions. It wasn''t like he could borrow a potion for his n members either since they were all several levels below him. Hence, they wouldn''t have the potion tier that Yuki was looking for.

    After standing still like a stone for several minutes, the red dragon got tired of waiting to make a move and instead just rushed towards Yuki at full speed before crashing right into Yuki and sending him flying several metres away from the area which he was standing at. Yuki was sent crashing into a nearby house roof to which Yuki justid there for a minute.

    "What have I done with my life? I find out that I can do anything that I want with Zero''s powers and I choose to create a world and go back into it so I can interact with the same people who caused me to take my own life? Now I''m getting beat by one of the creations which I wanted to exist," said Yuki to himself with a disappointed giggle.

    "I should just bring this world to a close and just head back to the spatial realm and just create a new world again or maybe do something else I like. This was all a horrible idea. I''ll just turn things back to how they used to be," Yuki said to himself.

    "Hey, Zero-'''' Yuki began to speak while he stared at the inventory screen in front of him. A single miniature icon caught Yuki''s eye as a single de caused him to stop talking.

    ...

    "Fallen angel of hell?" Yuki asked himself as he stared at the de which made him harbour so many questions about the world which Zero had created.

    "I wish I unlocked your true potential. Maybe this fight would have been easier. Nevertheless though, it''s pointless, I still need to reach level 60 to unlock that power and I''m only-" Yuki began to talk to himself before remembering something. Yuki instantly got up from the house roof which wasying down on as he remembered what level he was.

    "I''m over level 60! I might actually be able to do it!" Yuki yelled out while talking to himself which seemed to get the attention of both the members of his n and also the dragons as he had yelled so loudly.

    Without wasting another second since he was full of anticipation and excitement now, Yuki once again pulled out "Fallen angel of hell" from his inventory before clenching onto the hilt of it just as he had done so when he first identally used the de at its maximum potential by ident.

    Seeing as he was about to do something which would result in the red dragon taking damage, the red dragon began to rush towards Yuki so it could stop him since he could sense something which wasn''t good for it.

    As for Yuki, he simply closed his eyes as he tried to concentrate and put all of his stamina into his de which caused a red aura to start emanating from his de. As this continued to happen, the red dragon began to fly faster and faster as it desperately tried to stop Yuki from doing what was about to happen. The red dragon knocked down many people which were in its way before finally making it right in front of Yuki''s face only to be just a secondter.

    *Boom*

    ...

    ...

    ...

    After arge explosion sounds, the red aura which was emanating from "Fallen angel of hell" began to deep into the air with a more potent colour as it began to cover the sky in a red colour.

    Although it was a beautiful sight to behold, it wasn''t looking good for the dragons which hade out of the event.

    The red dragon clearly sensed death itself approaching him as he stared at the glowing red sword however something else would happen that would take its attention away from the actual red sword that was in Yuki''s hands.

    All around the area of the kingdom, multiplerge spatial gates began to open as they made way for many enormous transparent red des which all had ancient text on them. Each de looked strong enough to kill the red dragon on its own; however , just to make it worse, there were at least a couple dozen of them, all pointed at the red dragon.

    "Let''s see, if I remember correctly, this thing takes quite a lot of stamina away from me so I should probably finish this battle quickly," Yuki began to think to himself however before he could finish that thought, the red dragon which clearly had a look of worry on its face rushed towards Yuki with the full intent to kill but to also end its life as it knew that a battle with Yuki would also end in its life being taken away as well.

    "Oh so you also want to end this battle quickly right? I''m d we can finally agree," said Yuki with a fake smile before removing his right hand off "Fallen angel of hell" while holding on to it with his left hand.

    Using his right hand, Yuki pointed his middle and index finger in the air before bringing them to point at the red dragon which was trying to kill him.

    While it was a strange move, something was caused by Yuki''s strange movements. One of the spatial des had begun to move.

 Chapter 227 - Struggle

    The spatial de which Yuki had forced to move instantlynded right in front of the dragon, in turn creating a type of protective shield for Yuki so that he couldn''t be attacked from the front.

    Seeing this, the dragon noticed the obvious w in Yuki''s strategy and took advantage of his other open spots. Those being attacked from the sides or the back.

    However Yuki wasn''t going to act stupid on a situation like this and instantly forced 3 more des to surround him. Each one covering his right side, left side or back. As such, enclosing him in a box-like structure which was entirely constructed from a spatial de.

    Now having nowhere to attack from except one area, the red dragon grit its teeth before flying high in the sky so it could go in for a final attack which was the only way he could reach Yuki from.

    "I see, so that''s what you''ve opted for. It''s a bit too risky. Even if you''re an animal, you should still be smart enough to know that it wouldn''t work," Yuki said in a disappointed tone as he expected the red dragon to fly towards the sky before turning back down and attacking Yuki from the top since it wasn''t enclosed.

    From the looks of it, it really did seem like the red dragon was going to go on with the n which Yuki hypothesized to be the one it would use. However a sudden change of pace urred which would cause Yuki some harm.

    "I guess I''ll just counter its movements," said Yuki as he watched the red dragon begin to descend back towards the ground as he headed seamlessly towards where Yuki was. Seeing as his hypothesis was starting toe true, Yuki began to direct one of the spatial des to start going down to where he was standing as it would just stab the red dragon.

    However that n would backfire as the red dragon made a sharp turn towards the side which made Yuki gasp in shock and confusion as he couldn''t understand what the red dragon was nning.

    That wouldn''t matter for Yuki though as he had more important things to worry about like how he would stop the spatial de as it was already moving at a speed where directing it back wouldn''t work and it would still attack Yuki.

    With ast second thought, Yuki quickly moved over to a corner of the box-like structure he was in, in turn barely avoiding the spatial de which was close to cutting him in half.

    "That was close. Maybe I should stop underestimating this beast," said Yuki as he caught his breath and prepared to counter attack.

    However it wouldn''t be that simple as while Yuki was busy recovering from his mistake, the red dragon was already spinning in circles around the box-like structure Yuki was in so it could gain some momentum. After a while of doing this, which was exactly when Yuki prepared to counter attack, the red dragon used its body to m into one of the sides of the des which were creating the box in which Yuki was enclosed inside.

    In doing this, the red dragon caused all of the des which were near Yuki to slide down towards the other direction, opposite to the one where the force of the dragon hade from. One of the des which were near Yuki almost even cut Yuki which caused him to stay extra alert while trying to avoid being injured as it would be bad news for him.

    "Damn it! Did I really get outsmarted by an overgrown lizard? I''ll make him pay,!" said Yuki as he lifted all of the 5 des which were near him by simply pointing his fingers towards the sky. When the des were lifted, all that remained was a simple child which had a bloodthirsty look that only sought revenge.

    Without a single second wasted, Yuki forced all of his des to point at the red dragon beforemanding them to all chase the dragon until it was dead. Somehow knowing what Yuki''smands were, all of the des extended from the spatial gates which they came from and began to chase the red dragon which a chain still hung from the back of their hilt which forced them to stay close to their respective spatial gates.

    Nevertheless, the red dragon continued to dodge all of the attacks which were iing towards it. For a while, now even a single sh made contact with its body as it slipped past off of the des like a slimy snake which was running away for its life. All the while, all of the members of FFF''s WD along with the smaller dragons which came out of the event stood there and watched the magnificent battle take ce right in front of their eyes.

    "Let me hit you already!" Yukiined as he continued to throw as many des as possible at the red dragon while making them turn and twist to the point where it didn''t even make sense as to how the red dragon was still alive. However all of Yuki''s efforts would finally pay off as he manages tond a single scratch on the red dragon''s face. Just seeing that little cut as blood began to flow out made Yuki gasp and smile as he was finally making progress.

    Although that little cut would also backfire at Yuki as the red dragon got a sudden look of anger on its face before charging towards Yuki even while

    dodging the ongoing attacks of the spatial des. It got so bad that within just a few seconds, the red dragon hade face to face with Yuki who''s smile of happiness was nowpletely wiped out as he stared at the dragon which wanted revenge for getting attacked.

    "Oh no-" Yuki said right before the red dragon brought its w forward and smacked Yuki''s whole body and sent him flying into a nearby building before also going straight in that direction so it could deliver more devastating attacks.

    Just that single attack alone would have been enough to kill nearly every single member of FFF''s WD n with ease.

    "I seriously hate relying on them but I guess they''re my only hope. Wait no!" said Yuki as he remembered something else. "Fallen angel of hell" wasn''t his only treasured de. In at moment, he remembered another familiar de which woulde in handy at a time like this. As such, he wouldn''t have to call upon One or Zero.

    [Open inventory]

    Yuki looked through his inventory as quickly as possible before the red dragon coulde near him and finally found the object he was looking for. Using his right hand which was open while his left hand carried "Fallen angel of hell", Yuki pulled out "Niflheim''s holy treasure" from his inventory as he prepared to give everything he had into his battle.

    Right before the red dragon came in contact with his body, Yuki used the new de in his hand by cing as much stamina as it needed for it to start activating its special properties. However unlike "Fallen angel of hell", this weapon didn''t cause the colour of the sky to change, nor did it create spatial gates which allowed other des toe out of it. Instead, all it did was create a single tiny snowke right in front of the injured Yuki.

    Even the dragon which saw this happen as it charged towards Yuki wanted tough at how pathetic his weapon was.

    However it''s real powers would only get revealed once the red dragon got close enough as it came only a few centimetres away from Yuki.

    At that moment, Yuki closed his eyes as he braced for impact but nothing happened.

    While Yuki had his eyes closed, the single spec of a snowke which was there began to grow in size as it became double the size of the dragon''s head and acted as some sort of weak shield around Yuki.

    Seeing as it looked to be just a simple overgrown snowke which would still be weaker than a sheet of paper, the red dragon dived into it with no hesitation which instantly made it regret its decision.

    The grain snowke, instead of breaking or melting wrapped itself around the body of the red dragon as it somehow became stronger than steel while making it lose control over its own body.

    Just a few secondster, the snowke began to grow once more as it swallowed the entire red dragon while making it look like a helpless fish that was caught in a. However the red dragon continued to struggle as it believed that it could escape and still manage to kill Yuki.

    In that precise moment, Yuki opened his eyes to see the red dragon helplessly struggling. That moment was also when the dragon''s fate was sealed as the snowke began to fix the patches which were empty and turned intoplete ice. The red dragon was left frozen in arge block of ice as it couldn''t even make a single move, let alone struggle for escape.

 Chapter 228 - Event Complete

    "Did I do this?" Yuki asked himself while staring at the red dragon which was frozen in ce due to the real effects of the second de which Yuki chose to hold in his hand during his battle.

    "Is this really the end? There''s no way it''s this easy right?" Yuki asked himself with a nervous and confused face as he couldn''t believe that he had frozen the beast which had done so much damage to him with just a simple attack.

    *Crack*

    *Crack* *Crack*

    *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack*

    ...

    "No! Dammit why can''t you just stay in ce for one you damn lizard!" Yuki yelled out in anger as he saw the ice block in which the red dragon was enclosed in crack many times until it looked like ss that was constantly beaten by arge hammer for many years.

    ....

    After only a few seconds, the red dragon broke out of the ice which had enclosed it with a giant roar.

    Everyone else who was still watching the fight between Yuki and the red dragon kept their mouths open wide with suspense.

    After breaking out of its cage, the red dragon flew towards the sky while shaking its body as it tried to get rid of any remaining ice shards or pieces which remained on its body.

    As for Yuki, he just remained there as he stared at the sight in front of his eyes with one single thought in his mind.

    "I''m going to have to rely on you once again," said Yuki while looking down at his transparent blue de which contained the power of ice.

    Without wasting another second, Yuki closed his eyes once more before cing a little more stamina into his de than he had done the first time.

    In doing so, multiple other small snowkes appeared in front of the red dragon as well as its sides and back and nearly every other direction.

    The red dragon stood still for a moment as it wasn''t sure what to do since the snowkes had almost caused it to die thest time it was used. However, remaining still could have also been the trigger for the activation of the de''s powers.

    As such, the red dragon took a risk and began to turn around and try to fly down towards Yuki as it had finally knocked away any remaining ice pieces which lingered on its body. Seeing as there was no better time to attack Yuki, the red dragon took the opportunity to turn around and start its journey back down to hopefully kill Yuki in a single attack.

    Unfortunately for the flying majestic beast, that wouldn''t be how the fight would take ce as right as it tried to make even the slighting turn, the snowkes which were around its body began to grow inside as they all curved to match the body of the red dragon as they swallowed it. After struggling for a bit, there was clearly no hope for the red dragon as with a sudden shock, the snowkes began to solidify and turned into arge dragon shaped ice cube which looked to have many separateyers to it. To add on, it looked much more sturdy and cleaner than the previous ice shell.

    "Please stay in ce this time," Yuki prayed as he wasn''t sure how much more stamina he could exert before he would fully pass out from depletion of his stamina or from being beaten by the red dragon. Either way, he needed to make sure that the red dragon was enclosed inside the ice shell.

    "Actually, I can''t go around risking this much. I should end it while I have the chance," said Yuki as he took a deep breath and picked up both of his des before cing this side by side.

    After doing so, Yuki closed his eyes as he allowed stamina to flow separately into each of his des. However after trying multiple times, Yuki finally managed to create a connection of stamina flow between his two des as his stamina flowed out of his body then into one of his des before going into the other one instead of the stamina flow being separate. In turn creating something simr to a simple electrical circuit.

    Although it would seem like Yuki hadn''t done anything special, the true beauty of his achievement would show itself as it caused the red sky to have hints of blue on it. There were blue swirls and lines all around the sky.

    The spatial des as well began to pick up this pattern as their colour scheme changed as well to match that of the new sky due to the merging of the two des.

    "I didn''t think it would work this well. I guess you get surprised every day," said Yuki before changing his expression to be much more serious as he roared and forced a dozen merge des to all fall off the frozen red dragon as if it was raining as they all cut it into pieces.

    Although it didn''t seem real, it was really over. Yuki had finally defeated the seemingly unbreakable wall which stood in his path.

    ...

    A few momentster, each of the other smaller dragons which were battling against the members of FFF''s WD began to turn to dust as they began to disappear. The clear reasoning for this was that the red dragon, which was their leader figure, had disappeared. As such, they had no reason to exist anymore which caused them to die out along with it.

    As for the red dragon itself, after being chopped up as if it was a meal, it disintegrated meaning that the event had beenpleted. To further support the victory of Yuki and the members of his n, arge screen popped up to confirm their victory.

    [Event: Dragon Dance: Complete]

    Right after that screen appeared, piles upon piles of treasure ranging from gold to weapons began to rain from the sky as they allnded right where the red dragon died.

    Seeing the sight in front of him, Yuki simply fell to his knees as he had over exhausted himself which also caused theyer of red and blue sky to fade away into nothingness.

    "Y-You actually did it! You single handedly defeated that dragon!" said Arthur in a voice of disbelief as he couldn''t believe what he was seeing and what he saw during the actual battle between Yuki and the red dragon.

    Even Batol was left dumbfounded at the concept of Yuki defeating a monster on a scale of the red dragon. Due to those two along with some of the members of the n which belonged to Yuki being of such a high level, they were able to gain an understanding that Yuki had barely a sliver of a chance at defeating the red dragon. However, now that they had seen it happen, they were left speechless as he had aplished something that could only be described as a miracle.

    Even though he was getting praised for his actions, Yuki didn''t care all that much as he was too exhausted to think about anything except simply passing out where he was standing.

    As such his head began to move back and forth before it eventually gave into the temptation and finally allowed Yuki''s head to fall on the ground.

    However, right before Yuki could close his eyes and sleep for the rest of time, someone came in as they stared at him while standing over him.

    "You couldn''t even bother to catch my head?" Yuki asked with a confused face as he stared at the figure which looked at him with a sinister yet friendly smile.

    "Try not to talk too much. You deserve some rest," said Scar, at which Yuki allowed himself to rx and fall asleep.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    "Where am I?" Yuki asked as he woke up in a particrly fancy looking room which was muchrger than the room at the house which Scar was renting out.

    "So you finally decided to wake up? Well, it took you long enough," said Scar in a casual tone.

    "Do not speak to your n leader so casually!" Batol scolded Scar, who was being a little too friendly to Yuki.

    "Did you manage to sleep well? After all, I mean you performed that magnificent show for all of us. That must''ve taken a lot of you," said Arthur in a rather casual tone but not as rude as Scar. Even though Batol didn''t like it, he stayed quiet as it seemed that Yuki didn''t mind the way in which Arthur spoke to him.

    "Uh- so I really did defeat that dragon right? It wasn''t just a dream right?!" Yuki asked as he thought of the worst. That being that his battle with the red dragon was all in his dream and the real one was just about to start.

    "Don''t worry, your battle with the red dragon from the event was real and you really did win. We''ve even taken all the treasure you earned and ced it inside the n safe," Batol replied.

 Chapter 229 - Aggravated Interrogation

    "Good. It seemed like I would never be able to defeat that beast. I''m just d that I had that de with me," said Yuki with a sigh of relief as he was d that his battle against the red dragon from the event was finally defeated.

    "Speaking of that de. Where did youe across such a weapon?" Batol asked as if he was intorigating Yuki. Of course this question caught Yuki off guard as he had used the des without thinking twice about what others would think. It only made sense that he would be asked about them though. After all, there wasn''t a single other human except Yuki who had possession over weapons on that scale.

    "I''ve been wondering the same thing. Where did you get them and would they happen to be on sale because I also want des which are capable of doing all those things. I mean did you see what happened to the sky then the red dragon as it was caught in the ice webs?!" Arthur asked as his excitement grew while imagining himself in Yuki''s shoes as he imagined himself being the spotlight during that battle.

    "Uh-" Yuki said as he tried to quicklye up with a lie which everyone in that room would buy and leave him alone for a while.

    "Come on Yuki! Think of something! If you stay quiet for much longer, they''re gonna get suspicious!" Yuki told himself as he needed even the smallest lie which would have allowed him to get away from the situation which he ced himself in.

    "Let''s see... If I were to say that I got them when I reached level 60, that would ce me in a limitation since once they reach level 60 as well, they''ll know I was lying and start to question my reliability. What''s even worse is that they would start leveling up faster so that they could get the des which would just seal my fate," Yuki began to think to himself.

    "Damn, there''s even a high likelihood that they''ve seen these des before. Well my ice sword more specifically since it was used in the 8th stage of the first dungeon. Even if they''ve forgotten about it, they''re bound to figure it out eventually. To add on, they''ll start to ask me to use the des more often which would vastly increase the chance of me getting found out. Man! This sucks! How can I get out of this?!" Yuki yelled at himself while trying to figure out a perfect lie. However it was showing that there was something he was hiding and it seemed like he was trying toe up with a lie. As the seconds passed, it became more obvious that Yuki was going to lie to Batol, Arthur and the rest of the people in the room which were Scar and the top 5 members of the WD n along with some high ranking members of FFF such as Mark.

    "Wait. I''m not even obligated to tell any of them where I got this from. I don''t know why I''m stressing so much about this. I can just refuse," Yuki told himself before his face changed to be of one which was very confident which made everyone who was around him assume that he had finallye across the perfect lie to tell.

    "Look Yuki, we already know you''re going to try to lie to us. Just tell us the truth about where you got those des. We''re not going to judge you even if you stole them from an old grandma," said Scar as he stopped Yuki before he could even say his first sentence to which Yuki simply smirked.

    "It''s awfully brave of you to assume that I would tell you where I got my des from just because you asked me," said Yuki with a grin.

    "Huh?" Everyone in the room said with a confused look as they didn''t understand where Yuki was getting his speech.

    "What I mean is that I''m not going to tell you guys where I got these des. Don''t worry about it. It''s better if there is only a single person who owns something like this," said Yuki with a proud smile.

    "So you''re really going to gatekeeper weapons from your own n members because you want to look cooler? You do understand that if more people had ess to weapons such as the one you own, our n would grow in strength by an unimaginable degree?" Scar asked Yuki as if Yuki was spouting nonsense.

    Although Scar did make a great point which was further solidified by the fact that everyone except Yuki was nodding in agreement to his statement, Yuki still couldn''t back down since admitting defeat meant the end of his life. He didn''t even know where to begin to exin where he got his des from. It just seemed impossible to exin.

    "Oh I see. So you''re trying to back me into a corner huh? Well then watch this Scar!" Yuki announced in his head before speaking once again.

    "Although it would help out to increase the overall power of my n, it also has some problems which must be addressed. One of them being that a rebellion might ur for one reason or another in which the same n members would use the weapons which I showed them to attack me. You see, it''s much too risky for me to give another person the same trump card which I have. Then it would no longer be a trump card and instead just be a regr card which everyone else has at their disposal," said Yuki in a calm and collected voice while replying to Scar.

    "I guess you do make a fair point. It''s never bad to keep precautions but if you won''t even trust your own n members, how are you expected to lead them? After all, if you second guess yourself all the time, are you truly fit to lead a whole n?" Scar asked as if he was turning a regr conversation to a court hearing.

    "Although I do consider that a fair counter argument to what I have said. I can almost guarantee you that my performance on leading the n will

    not be affected by me not trusting the n members. I mean it''s not even that I don''t entirely trust them. It''s that I have a small thought in my head which always makes me watch out for myself. I mean, can you really call that bad leadership?" Yuki replied as he had thoughts of instantly killing Scar right then and there as for some reason, he was trying to ruin Yuki''s reputation. However that still wouldn''t be the end of Scar''s tries as he finally sealed the deal with his next few words.

    "Is that really true though? I mean actions speak louder than words. After all, look at the battle of the dragon dance event. Although your battle with the red dragon was spectacr and you managed to defeat your opponent wlessly, you didn''t contribute anything to the n members so that they could win their battles as well. All you did was simply tell them to fight and left them stranded so that they could go into a battle with literal dragons which they knew nothing about. You didn''t bother to create a battle formation nor did you bother to instruct them in their battle," Scar argued to at this point Yuki was already fuming. Seeing this be increasingly more obvious, Arthur finally stepped in as he didn''t want to see Yuki snap and then snap Scar''s head off like a twig.

    "But don''t you think that''s a bit too biased? There would be no way for Yuki to know the type of battle which was going to be fought on that day. As such, it would be basically impossible for him toe up with a strategy to defeat an unknown opponent and in our case, opponents. To add on, you im that he should have assisted the weaker members of the n in their own separate battles. Do you really believe that Yuki should have just left therge red dragon to roam free while he went to save other people? What do you think would happen if while Yuki went to save some weak guy, the red dragon attacked 50 of our strongest members all at once? Even you must know that each and every single one of those 50 members would either be dead or close to death right now. You should be thanking Yuki for what he did during the battle," said Arthur as he backed Yuki up which seemed to make Yuki a bit calmer but Scar would go in for onest attack.

    "I can see how that would be a good argument. However it would have been better if he had assigned one of the stronger members to be a battle leader by making them change their ability to be able to cater to that title," Scar finally suggested, which seemed to have been the final straw as Yuki seemed to want to kill him right there. However a sudden knock brought him to a stop as a nervous looking man came inside as if he was scared of all the figures that were there.

    "n leader Yuki, GNE would like to interview you,"

 Chapter 230 - Mindless

    "GNE?! How could they know about the events which took ce so soon? I mean even with abilities, it''s nearly impossible to gather information so quickly and also manage to gather the tools needed to project that information to others in the form of an interview," Yuki thought to himself as he was caught off guard by the message which was brought forward by a member of his n.

    "Just refuse their offer then. Nothing good everes out of news stations. They''ll always twist the story to get more viewers. As long as they aplish their main goal, they don''t care if you''re presented to be the good or bad guy in any situation. To people like them, profit is all that matters," said Batol with a disgusted look on his face as he couldn''t believe how desperate GNE was.

    "In my opinion, I believe you should go and talk to them," Arthur added without exining much further as to what he meant by the words that hade out of his mouth. Right after hearing those words though, Batol began to give up on Arthur as he was now convinced that Arthur had lost his mind after he was forced to give up his n.

    "Why would you say that?! Are you trying to purposely worsen our n leader''s life? You better than anyone in this room should know the consequences of cooperating with corrupt news stations like GNE," said Batol with clear anger and frustration in his voice.

    "It''s because of that very reason that I''m telling Yuki to go and talk to them. I know better than anyone here the lengths they''ll go to so that they can secure a good story for their viewers.. The moment someone refuses their offer of an interview, they start to panic and begin to resort to any possible strategies which might make their target corporate. It doesn''t matter if it''s hical or inhumane. As long as it gets the job done for them, they''re perfectly fine with using any strategy. If Yuki were to refuse an interview with them, it would be the end of his reputation and also the end of this n as well," Arthur exined as he had dealt with GNE on several asions. Due to that fact, he was more or less familiar with the tactics they would use to persuade their targets.

    Although Batol was also a n leader, he never got the same type of spotlight which Arthur had received as there was always arge gap in their strengths and status.

    However the one time they had offered him a chance to get on an interview with them, GNE went to expose some of FFF''srgest secrets which had to do with their training regimens along with things such as that.

    Although things like that were usually supposed to be kept private, GNE didn''t care even one single bit about how Batol felt and did as they pleased. Due to that, Batol grew to resent their organization.

    "At the end of it all, it''s all Yuki''s choice. If he chooses to allow the interview, then he will go through with it. However, if he chooses not to, that''s also his choice. As members of his n and as his subordinates, it would be our duty either way to make sure that he doesn''t get a bad reputation because of how GNE might try to present him to the entire world," Mark added.

    "So what do you say Yuki? You think you''re up for the job?" Scar finally asked with a grin to which Yuki stopped poundering to himself and finally came to a solid answer. That one being that he would go through with the interview.

    Even if the members of his n didn''t agree with his choice, not a single of one them showed a face of disdain nor resentment as they didn''t want to experience the same torture that the red dragon endured while in its fight with Yuki.

    Even if Yuki was on their side. It was still a scary being due to the unstoppable power which he wielded which would make anyone who stepped too close to it, submit in defeat as they epted Yuki was their new ruler.

    ...

    After walking down the stairs of the castle-like building in the kingdom which was where Yuki was resting after his battle with the red dragon. Yuki finally met eye to eye with the representative of GNE who supposedly had an interview with him.

    The two people who were helping Yuki walk , Arthur and Batol, allowed Yuki to sit down on one of the couches in the waiting area of the first floor which was also where the representative of GNE was sitting while hoping to interview Yuki.

    "Since you''re already here, I assume that you have agreed to have an interview with us, Yuki Kaito?" the representative asked Yuki which was a bit odd since he had used Yuki''s full name which many people didn''t do but nevertheless, Yuki stayed quiet as he wanted to finish his interview with the representative of GNE as quickly as possible due to the reputation they already had with Yuki''s top fighting force. Unfortunately for Yuki, that wouldn''t be the path in which their conversation would head in as Yuki was in for a surprise.

    What was odd about the representative of GNE was that he didn''t bring any sort of special equipment. There weren''t cameras with him nor were there any special mics which would be used to pick up sound when the interviewee was speaking. Instead all the representative of GNE had in his hands was arge notebook and a pencil.

    ...

    "Does he take me to be some sort of idiot or something?! For things like this, you''re supposed to bring a whole camera crew yet all this guy brought us some basic looks like he''s about to draw like a mindless child," Yuki said to himself in a rather irritated tone as he couldn''t believe the nerve the representative had to be so confident that he could ess Yuki and all his words along with his actions with just a simple notebook.

    "Anyway Yuki Kaito, I believe that you should know what the first thing I''m about to ask you is," said the representative in a nonchnt tone as if he was expecting everything to be handed to him and he didn''t have to work a single day in his life.

    "To be perfectly honest, I don''t actually know what the first question you''re going to ask me is," Yuki replied in a confused tone as he didn''t know if he should have felt guilty for not knowing what question that would first be asked of him was or if he should have just felt normal and okay with himself since there would be no way that Yuki could randomly read other people''s minds. It was just physically impossible.

    "Don''t worry about that. That''spletely fine. I''ll just ask it anyways,

    how do you feel about your full name being called out?" the representative asked as he seemed to get slightly more evil by the second.

    "Oh I see. I underestimated the research department quite a bit. That''s my mistake and my mistake alone. Although it would be better for me to still try to keep all of this information about me hidden for a while longer. Although I don''t doubt my capabilities which would most likely allow me to defeat the people who had captured me the first time. It is still better to over prepare then underprepared and get defeated easily," Yuki told himself as he prepared a counter argument for the person who was interviewing him.

    "I see. Would you like to borate on what you mean by your previous question? Now, before you answer, please try to remember where you are and who you''re speaking to," said Yuki with an insincere smile which seemed to be a clear threat to the person who was interviewing him.

    Although the person who was interviewing Yuki as the representative of GNE looked frightened at first, he quickly calmed down as if he just had his soul sucked right out of him and he had just turned into a mindless drone.

    "Of course. I am of course referring to the capture of Yuki Kaito, who was a mass murderer just over a year ago. A while back he had been captured before finally getting executed for his crimes. You both share the exact same name along with having the same facial features and other traits such as that," the representative exined to Yuki as if he had no fear inside his body any longer.

    "Is he okay?! There''s no way that a sane person would go through with such a reckless n just to get a single job!" Yuki said to himself as he didn''t understand where the representative got the sudden confidence from.

    ...

    "Oh I see. So that''s what''s going on," said Yuki as he made a realization.

 Chapter 231 - Puppets

    "Oh I see. So that''s what''s going on," said Yuki as he made a realization. "I didn''t think that something like this could exist but I guess that''s my fault for under estimating the versatile andplex ns that GNE can put into action in just a couple hours. To think that they would be able to send a human doll to conduct the interview. I mean I guess it would be the safest option for them since they could ask whatever questions they want and would have no reason to fear any consequences since I wouldn''t be able to send any real threats to them," Yuki said to himself.

    Even if he could go after them once the interview hade to a close, it wouldn''t matter since his reputation would already be in ruins. Not to mention that further attacks on GNE, that being the organization to "expose" him would only add salt to the injury as his reputation would further suffer more than it would have originally. As such, it wouldn''t matter if Yuki gave little hints to the interviewer that he should stop asking such questions as it wouldn''t help his case.

    "Wait. What if I tryˇ­" Yuki said to himself as he thought of something that might just get him out of that situation."I understand your concern as to who I am but I can assure you that I am not the same man as that mass murderer who kills for no reason. We just happen to have the same name. There''s nothing inmon other than that between the two of us," said Yuki with a fake smile as he replied to the human doll which was responsible for interviewing Yuki..

    "There''s no way that it could respond to my reply and turn the response against me! That''s just far tooplex of amand for it to follow. Even if GNE does have incredible connections, there is absolutely no way that they could secure someone who would be able to gather intel on this level," Yuki told himself proudly as his worries began to disappear

    .ˇ­

    "That''s quite a troubling statement Yuki Kaito. After all, the facial features of you and the so-called second human which has the same name as you have quite a lot of simr features. Might there be a reason for this coincidence, unless of course you im that the criminal known as Yuki Kaito is your evil twin or clone," said the man that was interviewing Yuki in a rather sarcastic tone while still taking down notes at speeds which were unheard of.

    "Huh, but how?! If he''s just a simple ability constructed doll, there should be no reason for him to be able to think of a reply asplex as that! It is simply illogical for an ability to create a second figure withplex thoughts and movements. This is quite a troubling matter. Only time will tell how bad things will get if I don''t put this to a stop as quickly as possible," Yuki said to himself as he tried to understand what had just happened.

    "Let''s see. If I just think of this situation as a process of elimination, I can probablye to a reasonable exnation. First of all, it''s probably not a real human or at least fully human since it doesn''t care what threats I throw at it. Secondly, it''s not a doll which is alive on its own since it would be far tooplex to manage and control. Not to mention the fact that it cane up with fairlyplicated answers to my questions. The drawback to something as powerful as that would be too great. Even if someone''s actual body was being controlled like a puppet, there would be some dy or inconsistencies in the movements of the human. Waitˇ­" Yuki said as hisst thought had given him a slight clue which might lead him to the answer he was looking for.

    "Even a puppet master like ability was possible. It would be far too draining on the user. Not to mention the slight ws it would have when the human body was being temporarily used. However there is a slight loophole to this issue. That being that a sacrifice is being used to create this creature. Or more specifically, these creatures. The only way to create basically real life moving people which did as they were told would be through creating zombies. Of course necromancy to the level of just summoning basic mindless zombies would be quite easy. It only gets difficult when trying to summon the dead and make them followplexmands. As such, ruling the idea out would be the obvious answer but there''s a hidden detail," Yuki continued to talk to himself while staying silent for a while.

    In the outside world, the interviewer looked at Yuki with a confused and worried expression as if Yuki had gone insane.

    "Every ability has a consequence which matches how overpowered an ability is. As such if someone really wanted to create an ability which carried the same properties as this one, the consequences would be extreme. Something like a human life might be an equivalent to using the ability of a single person to turn them into a puppet. By killing that person yourself, if you were to gain control of their body, that would make the ability more bnced as the user can''t make anyone who''s stronger than them, their puppet. However in exchange for that drawback, the user would be able to turn whoever they killed into puppets which did exactly as they were told. That would be the perfect intel gathering machine as it''s disposable and almost no resources except a worthless life would be lost in the process of using it," Yuki thought to himself as he finally decided to speak back to the member of GNE that was trying to speak to him.

    "Although you do bring that up, it has been quite a while since thest time I''ve seen that man. Just to clear things up since you clearly like to jump to conclusions, I do not know that man on a personal level. What I do and what he does arepletely different. He does what he wants with his life and I do the same. Just because we have the same name and look alike doesn''t mean we''re the same person," Yuki tried to exin to which the person who was interviewing him simply nodded calmly before replying back to Yuki.

    "Well you clearly seem to be a bit aggravated. Maybe it would be best for me to take my leave and allow you to take a little break. After all, it seems that I may have struck a nerve on you," said the interviewer before he got up from his seat as he stopped writing.

    "Please hold on-" Yuki said as he tried to stop the interviewer who seemed to not care what Yuki was saying as he just wanted to leave as if he didn''t care whatever happened. All that mattered was that he had finished his job and now he could return to his base of operations to distribute the information he had just gathered.

    "Please calm yourself Yuki Kaito. Our conversation has already met its end. There is no need for us to converse any longer. I will see myself out now. Goodbye for now," said the interviewer as he left Yuki speechless before simply exiting out of the building just as he had said. After seeing the man leave, Yuki just stood there in silence as if he waspletely defeated. No matter how many physical fights he got into and was close to losing, not one did Yuki back down. However, for the first time in the world which he had created himself, Yuki looked utterly and hopelessly defeated as if there was noing back for him.

    At that moment, all the tension began to let go and Yuki noticed some of the people who were around him that were watching the interview take ce. Batol and Mark clearly looked angry that they had allowed themselves to be fooled by Arthur and allowed their n leader to humiliate himself.

    As for Arthur himself, he seemed to be trying to stop himself from dying ofughter as he couldn''t believe how much Yuki had messed up.

    "D-Did you see that?! He was barely able to even get out a single sentence, let alone a whole argument! I thought I was bad at interviews but he just set a new record!" Arthur said whileughing his heart out. Seeing this, Batol began to roll up his sleeves as he was tired of dealing with Arthur''s childish behaviour and it was time for him to teach Arthur a lesson.

    "Rx there Batol. I didn''t mean it as an insult. Even if he did horribly on the interview, it was better than him skipping out on ur entirely," Arthur replied before Batol started a fight.

 Chapter 232 - Strike Back

    "I can never tell what you''re thinking Arthur. Do you mind borating as to why you''reughing and believe that our n leader made the best decision by deciding to go along with the interview instead of listening to the rest of us and actually just ignoring GNE?" Batol requested, still with a lot on his mind.

    "Of course. I have no reason toin since it''ll be a favour to you less intellectually capable humans as to what my big n is," said Arthur with an arrogant smirk.

    "Anyway, I''ll try to take this a bit seriously. Batol, have you ever actually had an instance with GNE where you ignored their request to do an interview with you?" Arthur asked a simple question as he tried to break down what he was getting at to Batol.

    "N-Not really. I''ve only ever had a single interview with them and it ended just like this one! That''s why I wanted our n leader to stay back and just turn GNE away. That way, our n leader along with our n itself wouldn''t have to suffer any bacsh or negative feedback just because of some random news station that likes to twist the words of other!" Batol replied with a firm and confident tone as he had believed that he had presented his case well. In fact he believed that he had presented his argument so well that Arthur would have no choice but to back down and admit that he was wrong.

    "That''s the problem there.. You see, you''ve only had one encounter with them. That being the one where you epted their proposal to have an interview with you. Since you''ve only had one type encounter out of the two with them, you would have no idea as to what would happen when you refuse their interview request. To them, it''s like an outright murder. They resort to so many shardy techniques to make sure that they never receive a rejection ever again. Throughout all the time I''ve spent as the n leader, there has only been a single time where I''ve rejected an interview from them and they made me regret it. You wouldn''t believe the influence they have on this world," said Arthur with a concerned voice as if GNE had traumatized him.

    "Come on, it can''t be that bad. Let alone it be worse than what happened today. I mean what would they be able to do? Make some lies up about you?" Batol asked in a sarcastic tone while Arthur kept his serious face.

    "Yes, you''d be surprised at how many people believe such lies so easily. They eat up that information like it''s air itself. They don''t bother to question any information which they gain from a news outlet. As long as the official GNE was the one who published it, they believed it to be the truth and nothing but the truth. It''s a bit embarrassing to think about it since many people along with myself never questioned the information which was given to the public from news outlets until I was a victim of it myself," said Arthur with a disappointed face.

    "In just a couple of days, they had managed to bring my name to shame. The WD n which was on a massive streak of good luck with new members joining each day and older memberspleting more quests, it looked like in just a couple of months, we would be able to take over another kingdom and use it for a second base of operations. That was all until GNE wrote a fake article about WD which instantly forced our n''s numbers to tank as almost no new members showed up. Instead there was an influx of members of WD leaving the n instead. No matter how many times we tried to reach out to them so that they could take down the article or just call it a mistake, they never listened. Their reasoning being that if they admitted to making a mistake, it would tremendously decrease their trustability to their readers. Due to that fact, they would rather allow my n''s reputation to go down instead of admitting to a clear lie that they told," Arthur continued to exin.

    "However, after some time, they agreed to make another interview with me in which my n would be presented as a good ce to be. Of course due to how popr GNE is, our numbers once again shot up which meant that our funds and new members have increased drastically," said Arthur.

    "Although it might have gotten rid of the short term problem, GNE is still a very big issue to us. If they were to team up with other ns which sought out our defeat for the sake of money, they could instantly betray us and bring down our numbers as well. Even considering this, there is only one solution to dealing with GNE. We simply have to kill everyone who works there. That way, we''ll never have to hear from them ever again and we won''t have to live in fear either. However that nes with a slight problem of it''s own. That being that you can''t kill anyone, especially someone as influential as GNE, it would be basically impossible to get a sessful asssinatoon done against them," Arthur exined to Batol.

    "Why can''t we just send some regr guy there to either poison or simply just kill him right away. That way we wouldn''t be med for the murder and we could still get the job done," Batol argued to Arthur as he proposed a simple idea to take care of their enemy.

    "That''s where you''re wrong though. I''ve already tried something like that before. WD sent an assassin which was part of someone''s ability. That way, just incase he was caught, they wouldn''t be able to torture him and get information out of him. During that experiment, we learned quite a few things about GNE. The first thing being that their security system is very tight. It''s basically impossible to get in if you''re not already a worker there. Each person there has to go through a proper background check along with a full registration if they want to even work there. That was when we were almost caught for the first time," Arthur began to exin.

    "However luckily for us, another one of the members of the top 5 members of my n had just gotten their ability to reset which meant that I could force him to change his ability to specifically just allow the spy we sent in to get through the screening process with little to no trouble. Even so, the following few days of just looking for the top executives without getting caught was a living hell. After all that work, just when we thought we had finally gotten close enough to find them and take care of them, we were found ambushed. For some reason an organization such as theirs which mainly focuses on media coverage had a really strong person on their side which was able to dispose of our spy as if he was nothing. We actually got lucky that the spy was someone''s ability. If it was a real person, we would have been found out and been exposed for our plotting. Not to mention the extra lies that GNE would spread about us. They''re truly a terrifying bunch," Arthur exined.

    "Basically what I''m getting at is if you wish to defeat GNE, it can''t be through an assassination. It would have to bepletely around another method. Most likely one which would involve the newly created FFF''s WD going into an all out war against GNE and personally killing every single one of them there. Of course you would need to prepare for the bacsh you would face from everyone. Not to mention that a new news organization would juste to power in a short while," Arthur exined to which finally Yuki made a confused expression.

    "What''s wrong with that? If all it''s going to take is a simple battle to take them down, let''s just go ahead with it. I don''t mind facing any bacsh. Do you?" Yuki asked with a simple face as he asked a rhetorical question which was directed at everyone who was with him in the room that he originally resting in after he had battled the red dragon and was ced in an unconscious state due to the level of exhaustion that he suffered.

    Everyone shook their heads which meant that not a single one of them minded heading into a war with GNE, especially after what they had done to Yuki.

    "I don''t have any problems with going into arge-scale battle with GNE but I must ask though, what are we going to do if apetitor steps up to take over as the main media reporter? Wouldn''t that make all our efforts mean less?" Arthur questioned.

    "No it wouldn''t because we''ll be the main news outlet after we defeat GNE!" Yuki announced with a proud smile.

 Chapter 233 - Attack On GNE

    After creating a n to attack GNE which was the biggest news broadcasting station in the world, Yuki along with his new n began to prepare their things to leave the kingdom and go towards the base of operations which belonged to GNE and take them down once and for all.

    "Are you ready n leader Yuki?" Batol asked Yuki as he entered the room which Yuki was in. That room was his own room which was located inside the castle-like building since he was the n leader of FFF''s WD.

    "I am. I''ve checked to make sure that I have everything I need," said Yuki as he closed his inventory and turned towards Batol.

    "Anyway, I assume that most of the members of the previous FFF have been sent back to their original kingdom since we don''t have space here for them and they won''t be needed in this battle?" Yuki asked just to make sure all of the extra stuff which he usually needed to worry about was taken care of.

    Hearing his question, Batol nodded in agreement. Indicating that the members which were now part of FFF''s WD but were previously part of FFF n had been sent back to their original kingdom where they would need to stay out and wait for further instructions on how to proceed since it would be hard for Yuki to manage such arge n.

    "I see. What about Mark, Arthur and the top 5 members of both the WD sector and the FFF sector? Are they prepared as well?" Yuki asked since he needed to make sure that the people who would be going to ONE''s home base were ready.. Due to how the people who offer the teleporting service work, it wouldn''t be possible to transport a whole army to where GNE was located. As such, only a small group of people could be taken there. A small attack force which would have enough power to wipe the floor with the news organization which dared to humiliate the n leader of the greatest n in the world.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    After going outside of the castle, the 14 people who were part of the attack force all walked through the kingdom while everyone stopped what they were doing and watched them with both fear and respect in their eyes for the members of FFF''s WD who were part of the greater echelon of the n. In the civillian''s eyes, just even a wrong world could cause one of the 14''s blood to boil to the point where they would kill.

    This wasn''t because the members of Yuki''s n were seen as evil or thought to have anger problems. This was because whenever people found someone who was vastly superior to them, they always chose to assume the worst oue and I became enveloped in fear. As such, every single civilian who was in their path moved away without asking so much as a single question.

    After walking out of the kingdom, the 14 members of FFF''s WD n''s attack force all got a teleporter of their own andmanded them to take them to the home base of GNE. GNE, being a news broadcasting station did not hide their location as it would just be counterintuitive due to the fact that they imed to provide everything to their viewers or readers. As such, it would only make sense that they wouldn''t hide some of the more basic stuff like their location even if it did put them at risk of an attack.

    "So this is the ce?" Yuki asked while staring at arge cylindrical building which seemed to have an endless amount of floors as it reached towards the clouds. The building itself was in the middle of nowhere as it was surrounded by endless amounts of green grass which seemed to go on forever in all directions meaning that the building was man made and not part of the world which Zero originally constructed.

    "Yup, this is it. So do we just charge inside like this n?" Batol asked before making his move just in case Yuki had anotherst minute n which he wanted to test out. Luckily for Batol it was a good thing he had asked that question since Yuki did in fact have ast minute change of n.

    "Activate ability: Fire Control"

    Without even saying a single word to the other members of his n which were there, Yuki activated his ability before sending a fireball which came out of his mouth right at the building. The rest of the members just stood and watched as they watched Yuki do this which wentpletely against the n which they had set out.

    "So I guess he''s just going to try to burn the building down himself. I guess that''s a simpler idea," said Batol with a confused look as he thought that Yuki could probably take off the mission on his own. His made Batol let down his guard.

    However just as Batol made his im that Yuki would be able to take care of the situation on his own, he was shocked to see as the fire ball began to disappear with it not even reaching the GNE building which meant only one thing. There was a barrier set to make sure that the building couldn''t be attacked. What didn''t make sense was how a barrier could stop an attack that was sent by Yuki himself.

    "I see, this is going to be a bit problematic," Yuki said to himself as he tried to think of something which would allow him to get past the barrier. Even before a counter could be thought of, people in ck suits began to rush out of the GNE building as if they were some sort of guards that were sent to stop Yuki''s attack force from going any further which in fact was exactly what they were trying to do.

    "Damn, I have to think fast!" Yuki said to himself before finally getting an idea as to how to breach through the barrier which was blocking them.

    "Mark, you should be pretty strong and your ability isn''t that important so do you mind changing it so that it destroys this barrier? Make sure it''s specified that it''s only usable on this barrier so that it can guarantee its destruction," said Yuki as hemanded Mark to make it quick since their enemies were fast approaching.

    Mark, who was fully recovered from his battle with Yuki when the showdown between FFF and WD took ce, listened to Yuki''s orders as he changed his ability as quickly as possible. A few momentster, Mark activated his ability which caused some sparks of lightning to sh before the invisible barrier began to be more visible as it gleamed before disappearing.

    "It''s down now, we go on with that n," Mark quickly announced as he looked at Yuki with a sharp nod.

    "Where do you think you''re going? Do you think it''ll be that easy to get inside GENE''s base? You''ve got to be hallucinating or something," said one of the guards as the guards in ck suits had finally made it where Yuki and his attack force were standing.

    "Leave this to me," said Batol as he stepped up in front of Yuki as he slowly walked towards the guards, who seemed to be more confident than ever. Maybe it was because they hadn''t gotten a chance to notice that Arthur, who was known throughout the world to be the strongest person alive until just a while ago, was there. To add on, he wasn''t the leader of the group which just that alone should have set off a couple rms.

    "What do you think you can take us all by yourself? I know who you are, you''re the current leader of FFF right? Like that''s going to matter here! All you n leaders are just bluffing about your strength-" the man who seemed to be the leader of the guards began to talk, however Batol quickly grew bored of having to listen to him. As such, he threw the first punch but the leader of the guards seemed to notice it and began to try to move away from it.

    In that moment, Batol let out a smirk before activating his ability andnding a direct punch to the chin of the guard.

    "Huh? How did that make contact? I swear I dodged it," the guard said as he tried to process what had just happened.

    "Maybe I let myself get too rxed since he''s so weak. Nevertheless, only a slight increase in my focus should be enough to defeat-" the guard began to speak once again before Batol got too tired of listening to his monologue and began to throw a second punch which the guard caught on to once again.

    "Okay, I can see his fist moving, if I just move my head to the side, I should be able to dodge it easily," said the guard as he moved his head away from where Batol''s fist was heading.

    "Active ability!"

 Chapter 234 - Quick

    Right before the leader of the guards which were responsible for protecting GNE''s base could move away from his punch, Batol quickly activated his ability which caused a slight change in time where Batol alone would be able to move for just a moment and I turn change the course of his punch to where the leader of the guards was moving. As such, it didn''t matter how well the guard''s movements were, Batol''s punch would be guaranteed tond every single time it was thrown as his ability directly influenced the course of which the battle would go.

    "Now I know I''m not seeing things. There''s no way that he was able to hit me. I clearly remember dodging the punch yet I still feel it''s effects on my face. How is this even possible?" the guard asked himself while feeling the right cheek of his face which was where Batol''s punch hadnded. In doing so, he could feel the warmth of his skin which confirmed that he had indeed been punched. All that didn''t make sense was how.

    The reason for the guard''s confusion was because he didn''t see any special effects going by that would indicate a use of an ability. For example, if the user''s ability was fire control like Yuki, mes would be spread out in all directions. On the other hand if it was ice control it would cover the battlefield in ice. It could even range in many different varieties such as an ability which would turn the user''s skin into steel. All of them would have an indication of their use and what they specifically did..

    However, for Batol, it was much different as even after he announced that he would activate his ability, it didn''t specifically show what he was doing.

    "Let''s see. If he''s not messing with me and is actually using his ability, it could be quite troublesome. As of now, my current theories include him being able to teleport his punch in thest second so that it makes contact. Another theory could be that his body is always shown to others to be moving as an after image. He might even be able to go invisible. All of these theories sound good but they don''t fit him. There''s no point in just thinking about it, I should just test these theories out while I think of other possible solutions," the guard said to himself before quickly backing away from Batol before changing straight in to try tond a punch on his own using his left arm.

    "So he''s left-handed? That''s pretty cool, although that won''t help him in this fight," Batol said to himself before bringing out both of his arms to block the guard''s punch with ease.

    "How foolish of you! You fell directly for my trap!" the guard announced before quickly bringing in his right arm to punch Batol while holding a sinister grin on his face.

    "Damn, I shouldn''t have let my guard down. Now I look like an embarrassment in front of the n leader. I''ve got to make this right," Batol said to himself before once again activating his ability.

    Using his ability, Batol was able to easily dodge an attack which the guard was nning to do with his right arm.

    ...

    "I see, so it''s some sort of teleporting attack. If it was the afterimage ability I theorized before, my punch would have simply passed through his body. But now that I know that his ability is one which allows him to teleport, all I have to do is simply make him overuse it. Soon, he''ll be out of stamina which is when I''ll be able to attack him with all my power. This is just a game to see who''s going tost the longest," the guard said to himself now that he believed that his battle with Batol would be a walk in the part for him.

    Without asking another question, the guard began to punch Batol an endless amount of times so that Batol would be forced to use his ability again and again so that he wouldn''t get hit by the guard.

    Unfortunately for Batol, he wasn''t given a chance to rest as the guard''s n was working. With every other punch, Batol was forced to use his ability as it was impossible to block both of the guard''s punches. The reason being that if Batol didn''t use both his forearms to block, one of the hands or even two of them could slip from Batol''s block and still him. To avoid an event such as that, Batol used both his forearms to block the first punch and then his ability to dodge the second one. As such he would sustain no damage but would still exhaust himself.

    "It''s only a matter of time before your body gives out on you, just give up now and ept defeat and maybe your punishment might be less severe," the guard offered as he began to observe the glory.

    "Give up?!" Batol asked as he got extremely furious. He wasn''t going to allow himself to be made as the weaker person in the battle. To Batol, he had assumed that it was clear that he was nning for something. However if the guard thought that Batol was the weaker one, that must have meant that was what Yuki and the others thought as well. Worst of all, Arthur, who for some reason always liked to pick the option which Batol didn''t want. Batol couldn''t allow himself to be made out to be weak infront of his n leader and his worst enemy. That was simply impossible for him toprehend.

    "The battle is over," Batol stated in a calm voice while the guard continued to smile. Feeling that Batol had decided to give up but still wanting to teach Batol a lesson, the guard continued to punch. Unlike before Batol didn''t dodge or block the guard''s punches, instead, he simply allowed all of them tond without making so much as a single reaction.

    "Hey... did you hit your head or something?" the guard asked, wondering why Batol stopped blocking only to be ignored by Batol.

    "If you want to die that badly, I guess I''ll grant your wish, say your final words!" the guard announced as he ced all of his remaining strength into his right fist before aiming it at Batol''s head.

    Right before the punch could be handled, Batol whacked it away as if it was a fly.

    "Huh? You think you can get out of this without a fight?! I''ll show you a whole new world of pain!" the guard yelled out as he prepared to ball his hand so he could create a fist so that he could punch Batol once again. However for some reason, it just didn''t seem to be working.

    "Hun? Why can''t I make my hand turn into a fist?" the guard asked himself in a confused and frustrated tone.

    When the leader of the guards which were responsible for guarding their the building which GNE operated in looked down at his hand, he quickly gasped which turned into a yell of agony as he looked down at his disfigured hand which had all of its fingers twisted and broken as the simple whack which Battle had done to deflect the punch of the guard caused all of the guard''s fingers to be utterly useless.

    Seeing this, the guard began to yell in fear as he couldn''t look at the sight in front of his eyes. To worsen the situation for him, the pain finally kicked in which caused him to feel a pain unlike any he had ever felt before.

    "Do you get it now? This battle was never going to be won by you. Just because I wanted to set up a spectacr show for my n leader doesn''t mean that you''re stronger than me. There wasn''t a single chance for you to defeat me. You believing that you were going to win just solidifies my point," said Batol in a cold tone.

    Everyone around him simply stared at the odd turn of events since they had all believed that Batol was going to lose the battle.

    However a single person broke the silence as they started pping for Batol in a sarcastic way. Even so, no one else followed as they were simply too shocked to move.

    "Nice one Batol, you really had us worried. We thought that we would have to kick you out of this team if you were going to be so weak that you couldn''t even defeat a single guard on your own," said Arthur as he mocked Batol, who just stared at Arthur with bloodthirsty eyes.

    "Activate ability: Instant Regenerate"

    Using his ability, the guard''s hand began to turn and twist as if time was going back as it healed itself from the injuries it had suffered.

    "Round 2?" the leader of the guards asked while looking at Batol with a confidant look.

    "Your fight is over, just die already," said Arthur in a nonchnt tone before kicking the guard''s head so hard that he had decapitated him.

 Chapter 235 - I DonéĄćŞ› Care

    "Don''t you think you took it too far by killing him?" Batol asked Arthur with a worried and concerned look.

    "No, I think you meant to ask yourself if you weren''t taking it far enough by not killing him? You realize we aren''t here to y around, this is aplete murder mission. Anyone who''s our enemy will be instantly killed. Not a single person shall be allowed mercy. This is a battle ground and the first person to show hesitation will be the one to draw theirst breath," Arthur announced before turning his attention towards the rest of the guards which were left standing in fear after they just saw what had happened to their leader.

    "P-Please-" one of them began to plead only to be ignored by Arthur as he killed each and everyone of them without wasting so much as a moment or effort. His movements were so smooth that it was simr to a literal liquid. There was no w nor hesitation. All that were in Arthur''s movements were quick and calcted attacks which did their job of killing without wasting time.

    "We can''t afford to waste time here. If any of you see an enemy, kill them instantly, mercy isn''t an option," Arthur told the rest of the attack force before turning to Batol as if he was the main target of that speech. Even if Batol didn''t like the speech he knew it was right.. He spent far too much fighting with the leader of the guards instead of using his strongest attack and killing him off instantly. No matter how many times Batol was stronger than his enemy, it wouldn''t matter since if he couldn''t finish the job quickly, he was as useless as someone who was a lot weaker than him but still took the same amount of the time to kill the guard even if they were trying their hardest. It wouldn''t matter how much effort each of them put in or how strong they are. As long as they both finished the job at the same time, they would both be considered equally useful or in this case, useless.

    After hearing Arthur''s speech, Batol gave a single nod while holding on to what little pride he had left in his body. After how he had humiliated himself, it would only be reasonable for him to be quite disappointed in himself.

    "Should we move in now?" Yuki asked his attack force as he was getting tired of getting left to the side while everyone else showed off. Hearing his question, everyone in the special attack force nodded in agreement as they were going to move in towards the building which GNE operated in so that they could kill all of their members. As such, GNE wouldn''t be able to terrorize all of the smaller and noodle ns and even some of the greatest ns in the world just for a little extra attention.

    After walking towards the actual wall of the building which GNE operated in, Mark stepped up to the front before making a bold im.

    "Leave this to me!" Mark announced before spinning his arm and then punching arge whole through the walls of the building which would allow everyone in the attack force to enter without a problem.

    With a grin on his face, Mark walked inside through therge hole which he had created while waiting for the rest of the members of the attack force topliment him. Unfortunately for him, that wouldn''t happen as everyone just looked at him with a confused and worried face before sighing and walking a couple more metres only to find arge double door which led inside the GNE building.

    ...

    "Why did you have to be so extra? There was literally a door nearby, now you''re going to attract more attention," Arthurined to Mark.

    "B-But I thought it didn''t matter if he got attention since we''re going to kill all of them anyway," Mark replied while making a solid point which in most cases would have won him the argument. That would be in most cases but not this one.

    "Even so, it bes much harder to kill them all if they surround us, it''ll slow us down by a lot since we can''t quickly just kill a couple of them at a time and get this over with," Arthur replied with a sigh.

    "It already happened so there''s no point inining, let''s just finish what we can here to do," Yuki said as he tried to stop their argument from going any further.

    As the group continued to walk on the first floor of the GNE building, an old man suddenly came to interrupt them.

    "Can I help you?" Yuki asked in a mildly rude tone, after all, he was in enemy territory. It didn''t matter who the person was, if they got in Yuki''s way, they would face the consequences for their actions. If they were a baby or an old man, they were all seen the same. In Yuki''s eyes, there was no discrimination, if they were his enemy, he would simply defeat them.

    "Hey there young man, I assume that you''re the leader of the newly formed FFF''s WD n?" the only man asked, which seemed to make Yuki realize that he wasn''t messing with some ordinary old man. Instead, Yuki was face to face with either a highly influential figure that was part of GNE or the leader of GNE himself since the creation of FFF''s WD was fairly secret information. Anyone who has heard about it was a person which Yuki wouldn''t hesitate to kill if given the opportunity.

    "So what of it?" Yuki asked as he scanned the room he was in while looking for any potential traps which the old man might have set to go off when Yuki either tried to attack or defend or even both.

    "Rx boy, I''m not here to fight you. This trial old body can''t even dream ofpeting with you young folk," the old man said while making a few jokes about his age.

    "Just get to the point, old man. I know you''re not a good person to hang around with," said Yuki in a frustrated tone while also seeming to be checking his surroundings more often since he was worried that the old man was trying to buy time for something. That something was probably a bomb which would go off any kill Yuki or at least that would be what they would hope since it is pretty unlikely that Yuki would actually die from such a weak thing such as an explosive in the state he was in currently.

    "You youngsters are always in a rush. Anyway, if you want to know that badly, I''m here to negotiate with you," the old man replied with a sigh as he clearly didn''t like Yuki''s attitude and Yuki didn''t like the old man very much either but he was willing to hear him out.

    "What is it that you hope to negotiate?" Yuki asked in a bored tone as he was tired of waiting and simply wanted to know what the old man wanted from him.

    "I want you to leave ME alone," the old man said without a hint of shame nor doubt on his face as if he had already won the negotiation.

    "Huh?" Yuki asked beforeughing at how ridiculous the old man sounded. There would seriously be no way that the old man believed that Yuki went through all that trouble just to head home without getting anything worth even a fraction of the satisfaction which Yuki would get from burning down the building he was currently in.

    "You seem quite surprised, is there a reason why you''reughing?" the old man asked with a fake smile on his face which had a tiny murderous intent behind it.

    "Come on old man, even if you''ve aged this much, you still must have the brain capacity to process that there won''t be a GNE when I''ve left this ce," Yuki said as he brought hisughter to a stop.

    "Are you sure about that? Maybe you would like to exin what you''re about to do to everyone in this room," the old man said as he revealed 20 people who were just writing down stuff just like the interviewee who hade to Yuki''s n to interview him.

    "So this is getting recorded?" Yuki asked without much care in his voice.

    "Yes it is! Now I''ll give you a chance to shut your mouth and get away from here or you can choose to kill us and you''ll have to face the bacsh for your decision since whatever is being recorded will be automatically published towards the world. It''s a lose-lose situation for you. However I''m willing to cut you some ck. Since this was your first time trying to attack us, I''ll be willing to forget about all of this if you just simply apologize and walk away from here. As a bonus, the recording of this won''t be released as well," the old man offered with a grin.

    "I don''t care!"

 Chapter 236 - Loneliness

    "I don''t care!" Yuki replied to the old man inside the GNE building in a stern tone as he wasn''t willing to give up for even a second. Hearing Yuki''s words, the old man was left speechless as only someone with less than half a brain cell would refuse such an offer. Especially when the stakes are stacked against them like they were for Yuki. In this situation, only a madman would refuse the proposal that was set by the old man.

    "Huh? I''m afraid you didn''t hear me-" the old man began to speak once again before Yuki stopped him as he didn''t have time to deal with little inconveniences such as an annoying old man. Instead, Yuki had bigger and better ns like burning down the entire GNE building and instead bing the number 1 news producing outlet in the world.

    Of course if Yuki would be willing tomit to that n, it wouldn''t allow for a leader who was merciful to his enemies. The world of media was a world unlike any seen before. Just a single statement could make or break a person. No matter how powerful, intelligent or wealthy a person was, they would always be influenced or affected by the media in some form. Due to that, having control over that wholerge sector would mean that Yuki would not only have the title of the n leader for the n that is unquestionably known as the strongest n in the world along with being the one who controls the biggest Jews producingwork.

    Without even realizing it, Yuki was bing one of the most influential people in the world as word began to quickly spread across the world that Yuki was already making his moves and wasn''t showing any signs of slowing down any time soon..

    "Come on Yuki, please consider this. You wouldn''t want your n''s reputation to be ruined just for killing us, right? I mean you''ve got so much more to live for. Even if you kill us, another news organization will just step up to the job and start to manipte the world just like we are," the old man tried to exin to Yuki which didn''t seem to be working but just raised some questions which Yuki wanted to have answered.

    "Wait, didn''t you say that this conversation is being recorded? If that''s the case, you''ve just admitted to your sins and ns to have someone else dominate the news era and manipte the rest of the world. That''s basically an easy concession. Through you admitting to that, you will either ruin both our reputation or maybe even yours alone as once your recording is released, not only will they see what I said but also what you said. That way, they''ll realize that you''re the viin and not me. In the end, I''ll be seen as a hero while you''ll be looked at as nothing but dirty scum who manipted others for their money.

    "Actually, that would be where you''re wrong, you might have thought that we can only use the original copies of our recordings as you would need to have a little limitation set in your ability. Of course that would be correct in most cases but we''ve already made enough sacrifices for these recorders to work just fine," the old man smiled with an odd grin which left Yuki confused.

    "What are you talking about? Can you just get to the point already?" Yuki asked in an inpatient voice.

    "Sure, I guess there''s no point in building suspense while I''m around you," the only man said as he gave a disappointed sigh at Yuki since he wasn''t willing to y along with whatever game the weird old man had nned to y with Yuki''s head.

    "To make things brief, the recorders not only have the ability to record what you say but also are capable of editing these recordings so that only the wanted parts would be published for the public eye. In other words, I can say whatever I want and no one can say anything to me since I have proof against them but they don''t have proof against me", the only man exined.

    "Oh see, that''s quite troublesome. I guess I''ll just have to face the consequences of my actions," said Yuki with a grin equal to the sinister levels of the smile which the old man had on his face as he believed that he had still won. After finding out what was truly going on, the old man full heartedly believed that Yuki would back off. After all, all he would gain from attacking the old man would be to an immeasurable amount of bacsh.

    "Like I said before, old man. I just don''t care. You can have all the world''s news against me. It won''t matter as at the end of the day, all of you are going to die here today so just give up already and ept your fate," said Yuki in an evil tone.

    "Please Yuki don''t do this! There''s no need for you to go this far," the old man pleaded while walking backwards while Yuki continued to walk forward. After a few seconds of the exchange going back and forth, the old man finally hit a wall behind him as he fell down in despair while Yuki just continued to walk forward until there was only a few centimetres of a gap between them.

    "No what happened to all that confidence? What happened to you threatening me? Where did all of that go?" Yuki asked as he continued to grin while despair continued to shroud the old man as he looked at the devil himself who was standing in front of him.

    "Please sure, I didn''t mean to offend you. It was truly a misunderstanding. This recording will be deleted instantly along with any remaining videos which you do not approve of. To add on, we''ll wipe out anything bad we said about you," the old man continued to try to strike a deal as the fear of death continued to approach him while Yuki''s gaze grew sharper which seemed to pierce directly through the old man''s soul and frighten him to the point where his legs were shaking.

    "Nope, I''m pretty sure you were clear on what you wanted to imply. You thought that you could defeat me by just some threats. You know what will happen to you right? There is no ce for mercy in this mission. Anyone and everyone who is considered an enemy of mine shall be killed without question," said Yuki with his dark eyes which seemed to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. That was when the old man began to finally understand how helpless his situation was. No matter how much he begged or cried, no one woulde to his rescue. No employees or coworkers which were in the higher echelon of GNE. The old man was truly alone.

    "I see. I guess there''s no way for me to escape from this. It was my mistake for getting overconfident anyway. I deserved this fate from the start," the old man said with a sigh as he was clearly disappointed in himself for being so foolish and ending up in a situation such as this.

    Just as Yuki prepares to use his ability and kill the old man in a single instant, a giant meteor-like object came from nowhere as it came crashing down andnding right in the gap between Yuki and the old man. Of course their origin gap would be too small and the gap which was now created was because Yuki moved away in thest second so that he couldn''t get hit. As such, the gap between him and the old man was bigger and there was something standing in his way as well which looked like trouble.

    "Huh? What the hell was that?" Yuki asked in a confused tone while the smoke that was created by thending of the meteor-like object began to clear as it revealed something.

    Under the smoke was a group of 5 people which 3 of the 5 people looked extremely familiar to him.

    "Good evening Yuki Kaito. It''s always a pleasure to see you," a woman''s voice as she walked towards Yuki.

    "Come on, he already knows us. There''s no need to be so polite with him anyway. After all, what kind of criminal deserves even an ounce of respect?" the second man which Yuki seemed to recognize out of the 5 people said to the woman.

    "Both of you are getting off track. We came here to aplish our mission. We aren''t here to have some meaningless conversation, let''s get the job done and let''s leave as quickly as possible. The less trouble we get ourselves in, the better," the 3rd man, who was a tall buff, exined to the other 2, which Yuki seemed to recognize.

    As for the other 2 members, Yuki had slightly remembered them but not fully as the 3 which he already recognized already left asting impression on him.

 Chapter 237 - Fantasies ArenéĄćŞ› Real

    "Hey Yuki... do you know these guys or what?" Arthur asked as he turned towards Yuki with a confused tone while returning to his child-like attitude.

    However, before Yuki could give Arthur a proper answer, the woman from the group quickly leapt in the air before preparing to kick Arthur in the head.

    "I guess she''s going to start thinking without giving a signal," the man who had tried to reason with the woman and the first man of the group said with a sigh. That man was also the tallest one from the 5 people who hade to stop Yuki from killing the old man.

    Those 5 people were all part of the organization which had tried to imprison Yuki forever. That being the global government.

    "Huh? Do you not know who I am?" Arthur asked whole nonchntly, turning back around to face the woman from the group of 5 which was nning to attack him..

    Seeing Arthur''s eyes directly following her movements, the woman instantly knew that Arthur was no ordinary man as he was analyzing all of her movements like it was second nature for him. It was like it was integrated into his muscle memory.

    "Oh no," the woman finally said before Arthur clenched his fist and punched her straight to a wall of the GNE building which they were all inside. Right before Arthur''s punchnded though, the woman put up both of her forearms so that the damage she could take would be decreased. Unfortunately for her, that wasn''t the case as she madly even fractured her bones.

    After getting knocked to a wall, the woman quickly got on her feet as if she was a robot that was made for fighting. Seeing as she was still ready to continue her fight, everyone else from the group of 5 which hade to stop Yuki moved away from her as they wanted to give her the space she needed to go all out.

    The woman cracked her neck as she got closer to Arthur without even moving her hands. Instead she just simply moved her head side to side which worked as a cracking sound could be heard in the silent room.

    After cracking her neck, the woman activated her ability as she knew she would need it to defeat someone who was as powerful as Arthur since he caused so much damage to her without even trying. To add insult to injury, his attack was a counter attack and not even a proper attack.

    "Activate ability: Feather Feet"

    After activating her ability, the women''s movements began to get faster as her feet became less and less visible.

    It was like her legs were only visible for barely a moment like they were moving at a speed which the naked eye couldn''t even imagine perceiving.

    "How odd. So it''s a speeding up type of ability? That''s not very useful and from the looks of it, it only seems to affect the feet. Like I thought, this will be an easy match for me-" Arthur began to speak before the woman disappeared from his line of vision. Before he knew it, Arthur was kicked at the force of a thousand trucks if they had hit a regr human being.

    Arthur was instantly sent flying far off in the distance as he mmed into a wall before getting out of it only to cough for a couple moments while catching his breath.

    "What the hell was that?" Arthur questioned what had just happened to him as he thought that a single attack would have been enough to finish off the woman which had tried to attack him first but from what had just happened, he would need to scratch that idea ande up with a proper n of action to deal with the woman as she was quite troublesome.

    When Arthur looked forward, he could see that everyone from the attack force which was with Yuki looked just as surprised as him since Arthur was their second best fighter. Due to that fact, it made absolutely no sense as to how he was able to get swept off his feet and sent flying with ease.

    "Damn, I''m starting to look exactly like Batol now. If this keeps up, I''ll have nothing to annoy Batol about and prove to Yuki that I have the better judgment. I have to finish this quickly," said Arthur while gritting his teeth from getting annoyed at the fact that he was losing.

    "I need to turn the tables quickly," Arthur told himself as he began to open his inventory while looking for something which might have been useful for him.

    However, just as Arthur''s inventory opened, something strange urred, that being that the woman looked very angry as he quickly flew towards Arthur and kicked him in the face, I turned sending him down to the ground with his facending face first into the stone floor.

    "What the hell was that for? Don''t you have even the slightest bit of manners when ites to battle etiquette? How rude do you have to be to attack someone who''s clearly willing to fight you while they are at their strongest?" Arthur asked with a confused yet angry face.

    "Oh, I get it now. So that''s what happening," Arthur said to himself as he might have just figured out the reasoning as to why the previous strongest person in the world just got mmed into a wall with the force of a truck by a single random woman which came out of nowhere.

    "Battle etiquette?! There is no such thing as that as if there were, I would have learned about it! I have taken multiple lessons on every single type of etiquette that must be followed in the world. I can guarantee you that there is no such thing as battle etiquette. In fact if battle etiquette were to exist in this world, I would have been the one to invent it. That''s how polite I am. However, ording to you, you think that there is something that exists by the name of battle etiquette. Hence my frustration since a dirty pig such as yourself would have no idea the first thing about manners let alone something which I, the great Stephanie, don''t know about. To state something so preposterous should be considered a sin on its own," Stephanie who was the woman which was apart of the group which hade to bring a stop to Yuki''s n to a stop began to ramble on and on about etiquette all while Arthur''s n was a sess as he had managed to distract her. In doing so, Arthur was able to take out several potions from his inventory and drink all except one of them while Stephanie was talking.

    Just as Stephanie stopped speaking, she noticed that Arthur was trying to consume a potion which she quickly came in and stopped him.

    "What are you doing?! Stop at once!" Stephanie yelled out while running towards Arthur as fast as possible but she just wasn''t fast enough as the moment she had arrived, Arthur had already finished thest potion in his hand which he just dropped on the ground.

    ...

    "Uh- Um-" Stephanie began to stutter in fear as worry began to take over. Even though she had pretended not to recognize Arthur, she knew exactly who he was. The question was never who knew about Arthur but instead who didn''t know about Arthur. Him being the strongest person in the world along with the person with the greatest chance of bing the first level 100 yer for a while, it was nearly impossible not to know who Arthur was, no matter where or when he was seen.

    "What happened Stephanie? O great one, will you have the mercy to forgive me for my sins," Arthur said as he mocked her. It was clear that Stephanie was overrun with fear as she tried to back away from Arthur. However every step she took back, Arthur took a step forward while continuing to scare her more and more with every passing second.

    For Stephanie, it was like she was trapped in a nightmare in which she would have nearly all her physical powers taken away and she would be left to fight arge scary monster with the physical powers of a child. That was how bad it was for her just toe near Arthur.

    As for everyone else from her group, they simply stood back as they knew that it was over for her.

    "H-Help me," Stephanie pleaded as a single year began to flow out of her left eye as she began to shiver in fear. All while Arthur stared at her while grinning in an evil way which made him out to be the viin in the situation he was in.

    "I''ll save you!" a random man in a wrinkled suit said as he leaped in the air in hopes of kicking Arthur''s face. From the way he looked, it seemed that he was the average GNE employee but he was the only one to step up to save Stephanie.

    Although it would have been nice for the hero to win. Real life is much different from fantasy.

 Chapter 238 - ArthuréĄćŞš Anger

    Right after the man who seemed like just the average GNE employee leaped in the air in hopes of knocking down Arthur with a single hit, Arthur turned towards the man with a confused look as if the GNE employee was an insane man.

    "Are you sure this is a battle you want to fight?" Arthur asked the man before easily holding back the GNE employee''s kick with his left palm and forcing him to back off.

    After getting slightly knocked down to the ground, the GNE employee got up from the group and began to breathe heavily with conviction in his eyes.

    "I don''t care who you are, I''ll defeat you!" the man said as he began to charge towards Arthur at his top speed. Unfortunately for him, to Arthur, the GNE employee just looked like a regr human walking in slow motion. Seeing this fixed Arthur to sigh in disappointment as he couldn''t bear to watch as the employee humiliated himself for no reason.

    "Hey man, what''s your name?" Arthur asked out of nowhere.

    "Huh? My name is Tim! You better not forget the name of the one who''ll defeat you!" Tim yelled out as he charged at Arthur with a clenched fist aimed at Arthur''s head.

    "I wasn''t asking for your name because I respected you.. No, that''s far from the truth. In fact, all I needed was your name for what to write on your gravestone!" Arthur replied with a grin as the man''s punch came close to his face only for it to be knocked away by Arthur as he didn''t even have to use a small fraction of his strength as he effortlessly knocked away Tim as if he was nothing but a mere insect.

    Even though Arthur hadn''t put any power into his counter, Tim looked to be gravely injured due to therge power gap between the two of them.

    All while this was happening, Stephanie watched from the back while he continued to tremble in fear due to the fact that she couldn''t get over the power difference between her and Arthur.

    "Are you done fighting now?" Arthur asked Tim still with a grin on his face.

    "No! I won''t stop fighting until I defeat you or someone elsees and does it!" Tim replied back with a scowl.

    "You don''t seem to get it, do you? There is no one in this room who can defeat me," Arthur replied to Tim. Although Yuki would have been technically stronger than Arthur, it wouldn''t have made the statement he made as cool as when he didn''t mention Yuki.

    "You''re wrong! It doesn''t matter if I can''t defeat you! What matters is that you get defeated as well. There is someone who is stronger than you, I know there!" Tim yelled back with a hopeful yet arrogant tone.

    "Oh I see. You probably believe in the saying that there is someone always stronger than you, right?" Arthur asked with the most evil grin he could make.

    "That''s unfortunate for you because after each and every person has been defeated in the world, only I stand alone as the sole strongest creature! You see, there simply isn''t anyone who is stronger than me. I''m just at the top of the food chain," Arthur replied which for some reason resonated with Tim as he began to back away like a helpless animal.

    "You''re wrong. A hero wille to save me. Just like I saved her, a hero wille to save me as well," Tim replied as he tried to stop himself from crying in fear as he brought up that he thought that just because he had saved someone and instead put himself in a helpless situation, someone else would do the same which was simply stupid.

    "Oh Tim, how foolish of you. You really thought that a hero woulde to save you? You sound just like a kid who''s watched too many superhero movies. Maybe it''s for the best if I just kill you right here," Arthur began to speak.

    "You see Tim, there are no such heroes. There are only things known as idiots who are full of themselves and have allowed themselves to be absorbed by their heroplex. If there were truly something called heroes, there wouldn''t be a single thing that would be deemed bad in this world as they simply wouldn''t exist. Unless you''re a moron, you can clearly see that our world is far from perfect. Hence I must ask, where did you get an idea as stupid as that?" Arthur asked Tim, mocking Tim.

    Hearing those words, Tim was left speechless as he wasn''t able to even get a single word out. All he could do was stare into Arthur''s cold eyes while allowing tears to flow out of his eyes as the helplessness of his situation became evident to even him.

    "Although I have to ask Tim, why don''t you use your ability? I mean it would make things a lot more fun for me and although it''s almost guaranteed that it won''t, it might even help you get out of the predicament you''ve ced yourself in," Arthur told Tim to which Tim simply wiped away his tears as he prepared to activate his ability.

    However instead of a look of determination or conviction in his eyes, Tim''s eyes only presented one single emotion. eptance.

    "Activate ability: Form Change"

    After activating his ability, Tim''s body began to change as it morphed and began to turn smaller until all that was left was nothing but a child.

    "Uh-..."

    "So this supposed to be your real form where you''re able to cut mountains in half and bring endless destruction to the world or something?" Arthur asked Tim in a confused tone as he didn''t understand why anyone would choose to use their ability to turn them into a kid.

    Hearing those words, Tim simply shook his head in disagreement as that wasn''t the true purpose of his ability.

    "Huh? So why in the world would you choose to turn yourself into a kid?!" Arthur asked if he couldn''t believe that his opponent was stupider than he had originally thought.

    "No. I didn''t turn myself into a kid! My ability allows me to turn myself into an adult. My original body is that of a child," Tim shamefully admitted.

    "So you''re telling me that I''ve been fighting a kid this entire time?!" Arthur asked with a face of concern.

    Just as he said that, Arthur turned to first face the attack force which he hade with to attack GNE which all gave him looks of disapproval which meant that they didn''t agree with what Arthur was doing.

    Next Arthur even turned towards the group which hade from the global government to assist GNE in fighting FFF''s WD''s attack force. Just like Arthur''srades, they all also gave Arthur looks of disapproval.

    "I knew you were an evil person Arthur but I never took you to be a woman and child beater. I mean I was even willing to let go of you beating up the woman since she is our enemy but don''t you think that you took it too far by attacking a helpless child as well? I mean how low of a person do you have to be to attack helpless people?" Batol asked, seeing his opportunity to ruin Arthur''s reputation just as he had done to his.

    "B-But-" Arthur tried to defend himself before the tallest one from the group which asked the global government to stop Yuki began to talk.

    "I see that Arthur is an even bigger threat to society than Yuki himself. I guess we''ll have to start getting serious," said the tall one from the group.

    "Even I have to admit Arthur, I never took you one to be a woman and child beater. It''s a bit sad to see one of my greatest warriors in such a sorry state," Yuki added as he shook his head in disappointment all while everyone else did the same. Even the old man who worked with GENE shook his head in disappointment.

    "What are you going to do next? Hit an old man?" the old man from GNE asked to which Arthur sounded surprised that he would be used of such an act while everyone else just gasped as if Arthur had already done it.

    "First of all, why are you talking to Yuki? You''re literally a mass murderer which is being hunted globally. Didn''t you kill the collective army of 3 whole kingdoms? I have absolutely no idea why you''re talking," Arthur began to speak as he had enough of listening to what everyone had to say about him just doing his job.

    "Even so, there''s no record of Yuki actually killing a woman or child. As such, you''re more of a criminal than him," Batol said just to continue to get on Arthur''s nerves which seemed to be working as Arthur looked infuriated as if he was going to explode any second.

 Chapter 239 - ArthuréĄćŞš Wrath

    "Will everyone just shut up for one second?!" Arthur yelled out as he was getting sick of having to hear everyone''sments about him. They were all clearly supposed to be sarcastic remarks due to the fact that multiple people in the room hadmitted several harsher crimes than hitting a woman or a child.

    It simply didn''t make sense as to why they had chosen to be judgmental about such subjects only when Arthur seemed to do something. Although a simple exnation to that question would have been the fact that Arthur was widely known as the type to start fights and instead watch from afar. Even if he was forced to do battle, he would finish the match quickly and make sure that it wasn''t drawn out for the very simple reason that he didn''t want to prolong the pain which one experienced before they died.

    Although that might have brought many to respect Arthur for having suchpelling moral standards to follow, that was far from the truth as if Arthur allowed his mental health to roam freely around the world with no restrictions, the world would be ced in one truly horrible hell which not a single person would enjoy.

    "Watch out everyone, he''s nning to attack a woman," someone from the group said while mocking Arthur. However that was the final straw as Arthur had enough with dealing with the mockery. He didn''t even bother to look at who had mocked him, instead, Arthur just kept his head down as his eyes opened to reveal a psychotic grin on Arthur''s face.

    Arthur had allowed himself to let go..

    All of the walls which Arthur had built up to make sure that his mental health would be in check so that many wouldn''t die began to crumble. There was no longer anything protecting the rest of the world from Arthur.

    Without looking at any of the faces which were mocking him, Arthur began to slowly walk towards Stephanie, who seemed to be the only one concerned as everyone looked too distracted while theyughed at Arthur. The only other person to notice the stage shift in attitude was Tim who continued to sit on the ground as his feet continued to tremble in fear to the point where they couldn''t move. They had be as hard as rocks as they were impovable for Tim.

    Even though Tim had the chance to warn everyone else about what was about to happen to Stephanie, he chose to stay quiet in fear of what might happen if he told the others would get Arthur mad and instead direct his anger on Tim instead.

    After getting close enough to Stephanie, Arthur silently ripped her head off by pulling her hair upwards which only took less than 2 seconds. Everyone in the room inside the GNE building heard the loud snapping sound that was made as Stephanie''s head was ripped off of her body.

    For a second, it had seemed like her head was still alive as it moved its eyes around for quite some time before finally shutting them and epting death.

    As such, that marked the end of Stephanie''s life as she died because herrades and enemies decided to make the wrong person mad.

    ...

    "No way," one of the members of the group of 5 which was now a group of 4 which was sent by the global government said as they saw Stephanie''s head dangling in the air as Arthur still held her in the air only to drop her head like a trash bag.

    "I didn''t think he would actually go through with it. Even if they''re our enemy, isn''t killing someone using a technique such as that a bit too hard?" Batol asked as he turned towards Yuki for advice since he was confused on how to feel about what he had just seen.

    "To be honest with you Batol, I don''t really see a problem with what Arthur has done. After all, we all agreed that we would do whatever was necessary to aplish our goal, instead of judging him, I believe he should be praised. Although it still remains that i

    do not agree with the way he chose to deal with the situation. Although it''s not like I can talk since I''m not much better than him. It can even be argued that I''m much worse than him. Hence my judgment," Yuki exined to Batol. Although Batol didn''t like the answer he had received from Yuki, Batol could still see where Yuki wasing from. After all, Yuki wasn''t one to bebeled a hero. Especially after what he had done a year ago when he was in his prime ofmitting several crimes at a time.

    "I won''t allow you to get away with this!" one of the members of the group that was sent by the global government said as they began to charge towards Arthur at their top speed with their rage filled eyes as they sought nothing but revenge for Arthur killing one of their own.

    "I''m afraid you''re wrong. You''ll be the one who won''t be getting away," Arthur said before taking a deep breath.

    Right before the enemy got too close, Arthur suddenly opened his eyes as they widened which seemed to catch the attention of the attacker. There was a single millisecond in that interaction in which the enemy faulted which would be their fatal mistake.

    By the time the member of the group which was sent to stop Yuki had realized their mistake, they were already missing arge chunk of their chest as Arthur hand punched arge hole right through it.

    Realizing that they were on the brink of death, the members from the enemy group began to cough up blood before eventually going to rest as their eyes began to lose life, their legs began to lose their strength and they had no choice but to fall on the ground.

    "At least you''ll be able to meet your friend," Arthur said with no remorse in his eyes.

    When Arthur looked forward, he could see that two of the remaining members from the enemy group were gritting their teeth in anger while the final one, which was the tallest one of the group, still looked rtively calm about the situation.

    "Oh it seems like your friends are scared as they should but as for you, you seem not the least bit scared of me. Why is that?" Arthur asked in a calm tone which had the slightest bit of anger in his voice as he couldn''t understand why someone who was clearly weaker than him wasn''t willing to ept that and bow to him by allowing his fear to show just like his team members.

    "Why should I fear someone who''s clearly so much weaker than me. Although you might be physically stronger than me, when ites to our mental fortitude-" the tallest man began to speak at which Arthur knew where the conversation was going to head in. As such, Arthur made sure to take care of the situation before he had go listen to some overyed speech which had no real meaning behind it except for the fact that it was a quote that stupid people listened to so that they could feel better about themselves.

    As such, so that he wouldn''t have to listen to a sappy speech, Arthur allowed himself tobine with the win itself as his movement speed was so fast that no one other than Yuki could perceive it.

    That said, Arthur travelled quickly while also managing to keep control of his body as he shed the heads of the remaining 2 members of the group which hade from the global government. In turn only leaving 1 remaining member from that group, that one being the tallest one from the group which had stated that he didn''t fear Arthur.

    "So tell me, do you still not believe that you should fear me?" Arthur asked in a rather confident tone which also exuded pity towards the tall man as Arthur felt bad that he had to run into Arthur himself. Although they should have expected Arthur to be there. In fact, they were lucky that it was Arthur who they had to fight and not Yuki himself. If it was Yuki who they were forced to battle, he probably wouldn''t even need the potions which Arthur had consumed to be on the even level ying field that the enemy were on since they were the ones to originally consume the potions to have any hope of defeating Yuki. Unfortunately for them, they forgot to ount for the fact that maybe Yuki wouldn''t be alone and would be easy to take down.

    Due to that miscalction in their n, they had mostly been killed and only a single member remained from them.

    "Give it up, you know you can''t win this battle. In all heaven, earth and hell, I''ll always be stronger than the likes of you," Arthur warned the tallest man who remained as Arthur''s final target.

 Chapter 240 - Miscommunication

    "n leader Yuki, may I have your permission to change my ability?" Arthur asked suddenly as his tone continued to stay cold towards anyone he spoke to.

    "Huh?" Yuki asked in a confused tone. Of course Arthur was needed to keep his ability active nearly all the time so that the n''s missions could continue to exist. Without those, the entirety of the FFF''s WD n would crumble to dust. He was the walls of the n which helped it stay up, without Arthur''s ability, many things could go wrong and put Yuki''s n in a huge disadvantage when it came inparison to other ns.

    However, on the other hand, Arthur was one of Yuki''s greatest warriors. As such, it would be in Yuki''s best interest to keep Arthur happy. Although that never seemed to be a problem until now due to Arthur''s epting nature which made it so that he always listened to what Yuki had told him.

    This time was different though. It was a direct request from Arthur in which he referred to Yuki as the n leader meaning that he wasn''t asking his friend but his leader. Due to this fact, Yuki would only have one choice in this matter which was clear..

    "Yea, do as you please," Yuki replied to Arthur who simply turned around to look at Yuki before giving a nod and staring back at thest and final remaining member of the group which was sent to deal with Yuki from the global government.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    After a few moments of Arthur just looking around in his settings and changing his ability, he finally pressed the "x" button to close his settings and finally give his full undivided attention to his enemy.

    Although the final remaining member of the enemy group could have attacked Arthur, he didn''t. What was odd was the fact that he had imed to not fear Arthur nor Yuki or anyone for that matter but still seemed to be shaking.

    Sweat could be seen on his face but nevertheless, he kept a nk face which was clearly an illusion that fooled no one as it was clear who was the superior in that match up.

    However before Arthur began to do anything, he spoke one final time to the attack force which Yuki had brought in to deal with GNE.

    "Yuki, do you mind taking everyone outside and waiting for me there," Arthur asked in a more casual tone which was faked so that Yuki and the others would listen. Even though they had caught on to Arthur''s lie, they still listened as he was the second most dependable man in their group.

    With a single nod, Yuki along with the others went back outside and moved a couple dozen metres away from the GNE building as they waited for Arthur to finish what he needed to do.

    "So what are you nning to do?" the remaining member of the enemy group asked Arthur while still trying to act confident.

    "This is the end. There''s no reason for you to continue talking. The battle had been concluded. There is no chance that you''ll survive nor is there a chance that anyone will rescue you from here. Just slow yourself to die," Arthur said in a calm tone.

    Hearing those words, the remaining member wanted to continue his act but seeing as it was all pointless, he gave up and sat with his legs crossed on the ground before taking in a deep breath.

    ...

    "Activate ability:..."

    As Arthur continued to speak, the room which the two of them were in began to fill with white smoke which seemed very simr to fog. Their vision began to get blurry which didn''t seem to worry both of them. Arthur because he was the one creating it and the enemy member because he had already epted his fate.

    Once the room had beenpletely filled with white gas, Arthur let out a final sigh which seemed to exude both relief and pity before finally locking his middle finger and thumb.

    ":... Gas Combustion"

    With a snap of his fingers, Arthur caused the white smoke to begin burning before it instantly exploded within the span of just a few milliseconds.

    From the outside view, Yuki and the others could see the entirely of the GNE building grow in size as it inted before allowing some of the light from the explosion to show then when it finally couldn''t hold the explosion inside of it, the building itself exploded into hundreds of not thousands of pieces which all flew out in different directions.

    ...

    "My apologies, the job is done, we can head home now," said Arthur as he walked out of the GNE building which was burning while still being in rubble. What Arthur expected was an apuse from the attack force which Yuki had created for his good work inside the GNE. After all, he had done the job which everyone was sent there for all by himself. As such, it would be the bare minimum that they could do to congratte Arthur on his hard work and dedication to the n. However what awaited Arthur was much more difficult.

    "Arthur!" Batol yelled out in a clearly angry tone as he sprinted towards Arthur while carrying a wooden baseball bat which he randomly got from nowhere but was most likely from his inventory.

    Without wasting a single second, Batol leaped high in the air before grabbing hold of his wooden bat with both his hands as he gripped it as right as he possibly could. Using all the power in his body, Batol swung his bat as hard as possible while aiming right for Arthur''s head as he hoped to deliver a lethal blow.

    Seeing this, Arthur barely managed to move his head back and bend his body so that he would dodge the attack with just a second remaining before the bat would make contact with his body.

    "Are you nuts or something?! Why are you trying to kill me out of nowhere?!" Arthur asked in a panicked tone as he didn''t understand what reason Batol would have had to attack someone who basically did all of the work for the entire n all by themselves.

    Although Arthur had asked a reasonable question, Batol simply looked at him with anger filled eyes. Seeing this, Arthur turned towards Yuki for some help as he didn''t understand why he was being targeted as if he was the enemy.

    To make his situation even worse, not only Batol but the other members of the attack force began to surround Arthur as they joined Batol in hopes of taking down Arthur once and for all.

    "You''ll pay for your crimes you scoundrel!" one of them said while yelling at Arthur.

    With every passing second, Arthur''s confusion began to grow as he didn''t understand what was happening. It didn''t make sense why Batol was attacking him but Arthur had a feeling that Batol didn''t like him very much, however with everyone else attacking him except for Yuki, that was too far.

    After Arthur was left standing in the middle of the circle which was created by the attack force for a while, all of them nodded at each other before they all leaped at Arthur so he couldn''t escape.

    "Man this is bad. Could it be that a parasite type of ability has taken over their bodies and is now trying to kill anyone that could be a threat to them?" Arthur asked himself as that was the only possible exnation as to why his previous friends were attacking him. Even the top 5 members of the WD n which were now a part of FFF''s WD n were attacking Arthur.

    "I guess I have no choice. If I allow them to continue to live, it''ll be my fault that they would roam the and be used as weapons by whoever is controlling them. I would rather see them dead by my own hands than to allow them to be puppets. Please forgive me, may you all Rest In Peace," said Arthur with a calm voice as it seemed like time itself began to slow down for him.

    "Activate ability: Gas Combustion-"

    Right before Arthur could use his newly acquired ability, arge menacing aura came up behind him which seemed to stop Arthur right in his tracks as it became difficult for him to even breathe.

    "W-What the hell is that?" Arthur asked in a confused tone as he turned around only to see Yuki who was standing behind him.

    "Have you taken control of it as well?" Arthur asked in a pitying tone but this time, Arthur pitied himself as if Yuki was being used as a puppet, there would be no one who would be strong enough to stop him.

    "I think you''ve taken it too far Batol. It was just a little debris that got on your clothes. It''s not that much of a big deal. As for you Arthur, you overreacted just a little too much. I mean you would really kill everyone here just because you assumed that they were being controlled. Actually never mind that, it was a good idea but it was still wrong," Yuki said to Arthur which only confused Arthur more.

 Chapter 241 - Upcoming Plans

    "What do you mean I''m overreacting?! They''re the ones who''re trying to kill me out of nowhere! I didn''t even do anything to them!" Arthurined to Yuki in a frustrated tone as he didn''t understand why Yuki even bothered to try to justify their actions.

    "What do you mean we''re the ones trying to kill you out of nowhere?! You tried to kill all of us first! This is just revenge!" Batol replied with a yell which was followed by the chanting of everyone else as they agreed with him.

    "How could I possibly try to kill you while I was still inside the building?! I was literally fighting someone else while you were all outside!" Arthurined as he grew with frustration as he couldn''t endure listening to the stupidity that came out of Baby''s mouth.

    The tension between the two sides began to grow as they both wanted to kill each other. However Yuki couldn''t allow that to happen so instead of watching from the side lines, Yuki decided to finally step up and do his job as the n leader.

    "Rx there you two, I''ll exin everything that happened," said Yuki which got both Batol and his group''s attention along with Arthur''s attention as they all turned to listen to what Yuki had to say.

    Although it was a little startling to have so many eyes looking at him, Yuki mustered the courage to do his job as the n leader of FFF''s WD.

    "I think this is what happened. While we were all inside the GNE building, Arthur began to get irritated at thest remaining member of the enemy group which came to stop us since he wasn''t willing to admit defeat.. Of course Arthur could have simply killed him right then and there but that wouldn''t be enough for him to be fully satisfied. As such, Arthur asked me if he could change his ability. Although that woulde at the cost of my n not functioning properly for the next 2 weeks or so, I still allowed it since I trusted his judgment. After I allowed that to take ce, he told us all to go outside. I understood those words to mean that he was going to go all out and if we were to get injured, he would feel bad. After I understood Arthur''smand, I led us all outside," Yuki said as he began to exin.

    "However I believe that you all thought something else. Due to Arthur not having finished his battle, you probably thought that he was struggling. As such, you took his words to be that which were supposed to protect us in the form of Arthur holding back the enemy and us running away," Yuki said while looking at Batol and the others.

    "In the end, you never expected Arthur to change his ability into one which was so dangerous, especially due to how he makes himself look like the most peaceful man in the world who despises fighting. Unfortunately for all

    of you, that mentality was shattered when Arthur caused the entire building to explode which sent debris in all directions, as such, some of them were close to hitting you guys. Although I don''t understand your concern that you could have easily broken them," Yuki finished exining which finally allowed Arthur to realize why everyone from the attack force except Yuki had tried to kill him.

    "Wait so you all thought I was going to lose for a moment?! Even after I killed the woman without a moment of hesitation? Do you all really have that little of an expectation from me?" Arthur asked in a slightly disappointed tone since he was once revered as the strongest man in the world. Now, even his only nmates don''t believe that he''s reliable.

    "I guess it''s my fault for allowing myself to be pushed to the shadows. I see I haven''t been able to show off my full capabilities to the rest of you quite yet. Don''t worry though, there will be a time where you regret ever doubting my strength," Arthur warned Batol and the others.

    "Rx Arthur, it''s not serious, let''s head home for now and then maybe you''ll feel better about yourself," said Yuki with a sigh.

    ...

    ...

    ...

    In another ce in the world, discussions were being made to decide how to move forward after the defeat of the special squadron that was sent out to bring a halt to Yuki''s ns.

    There were a few dozen people, all in ck suits which were in a council-like room while they walked, discussing the most troubling topic of the year, Yuki Kaito.

    "Why the hell isn''t that boy dead yet? I thought we had already killed him! So why is he alive in a whole other continent? What''s worse is that not only is he alive but he''s the leader of his very own n. Our troubles didn''t end there though as he managed to merge WD which was already the number I n in the world with FFF which was a powerhouse on its own and also having the greatest level average in the world. That means that he has the support of Arthur and Batol which rumours say that they''re not working with him but for him!`` One man in the roomined with a clearly frustrated face as he didn''t understand when things got as bad as they currently were.

    "What are we even supposed to do now? It''s more hopeless than it wasst year. During that time, he was still vastly stronger than everyone in the world but he wasn''t like this. He was alone so attacking him would be easy, all we had to worry about was how to win. Now, he literally had an unbreakable wall in the form of his mega n which consists of people which we in general would have a lot of trouble dealing with. With the loss of our special attack force gone, we have no choice but tounch a full scale attack on them!" another one in the room exined to everyone.

    "That''s easier said than done. How are we supposed to take down such a force? Even our generals won''t be enough to stop them," another man added on.

    "Come on, there''s no reason to doubt our 2 generals. After all they''re the strongest weapons we have at our disposal. However I must agree, even they won''t be enough to put a stop to Yuki Kaito," a man with the name tag "Bill" said to everyone in the room.

    "So what should we do then?! If those two can''t win, it''s a lost cause. We have no chance of defeating Yuki Kaito and his n," a man with the name tag "Alex" said in a clearly frustrated tone as Bill was only listing the obvious and not actually putting any ideas on the table as to how to defeat Yuki. However right as Alex asked this question, Bill gave a smirk as if Alex fell for Bill''s trap.

    "I never technically said that we had to fight them on our own, after all, there''s no shame in ying dirty with criminals," said Bill with a sinister smirk.

    "Can you borate?" Alex asked in an intrigued tone.

    "Well since we are the global government and we basically control arge majority of the world''s economy, let''s say that we were to hypothetically pay other ns to join up with us and take down FFF''s WD?" Bill asked as his face grew more evil by the second.

    "It''s not a bad idea when you think about it. We wouldn''t even have to pay the ns that much silver either since they already want to defeat the mega n. With them on our side, we can use them as either body shields or a proper army. If they''re useful enough? They''ll take down arge chunk of FFF''s WD for us. While that''s happening, we can move in with our 2 generals which will be boosted with potions and have them attack Yuki Kaito simultaneously. That way, we can wipe them all out all at once," Bill exined which seemed to surprise everyone as they hadn''t thought of that before.

    "I do have to say, that''s a marvellous idea. However one question still remains, how are we supposed to deal with a situation where Yuki is boosted with potions? I mean think about it, by the time that our two generals reach Yuki, it would be toote as he can just absorb potions until they reach him. It''s not like we can send them to him first since the rest of his members which are in the higher echelon of the n can just keep our generals busy until Yuki is finished drinking his potions, either way, we still won''t be able to

    stop him from drinking potions and vastly out matching our generals," Alex countered to which Bill''s grin grew as he had a n even for a situation simr to what Alex had just exined.

    "Don''t worry about that either, I have a n to deal with that problem as well," said Bill, which seemed to catch everyone''s attention as their eyes widened while looking at him with suspense.

 Chapter 242 - Time Flies

    *Knock* *Knock*

    "Come in," said Yuki who was resting inside his very own room inside the castle-like building which was located where his n, the FFF''s WD n operated.

    After their battle with GNE, the members of FFF''s WD n which apanied Yuki on that mission returned and decided to take a break. After all, they deserved it. Well, more specifically, Arthur and Batol deserved it but at least the others were there just in case things got a bit out of hand.

    "Hello there Yuki," said Scar as he barged through the door in an angry tone while someone followed behind him in a mildly nervous way.

    "Oh hi there Scar," Yuki said in a nonchnt way as he gave just a single nod to both Scar and Av.

    However, Scar wasn''t going to take that type of treatment and stay quiet as he quickly raised his hand before clenching it so it would turn into a fist then punching Yuki in the face as hard as he possibly could.

    Av just stood there with a shocked face as he watched Scar do what he had just done. It was unbelievable to her that Scar would do such a thing.. Not because Yuki was their friend but because Yuki has just recently be the n leader of both FFF and WD and forced the two to merge together and create the strongest n to ever be seen on the face of the.

    "What the hell was that for? Don''t you have some manners?" Yuki asked Scar in a frustrated tone as he turned around to look like his old roommate.

    "Manners?! Well you seem to know a lot about manners but wait?! Aren''t you the same one who leaves after only returning for just a couple of days? You randomly leave ande back and it seems like you don''t care about us! You''re just leaching off of us. You didn''t even bother to tell us that you nned on taking over this n. Why do you keep hiding all these things from us?" Scar began to shout at Yuki which could be heard even outside of the room.

    "Why don''t you just calm down for a bit, Scar," Av said to Scar.

    "Calm down?! How are you not as mad if not more mad than me?! He left us Av! We''re supposed to be a team but time and time again, he keeps treating us like we''re nothing but trash to him," Scar looked back at Av as he hoped that he would take his side.

    "I understand where you''reing from but I don''t think this is the right way to go about things. Maybe he really does have a proper exnation as to why he forgot about us," said Av as she began to question why she was defending Yuki, specially when she heard thest of her wordse

    out of her mouth.

    "Okay then, what do you have to say for yourself Yuki? Do you really have an excuse which can calm me down before I snap your neck right here?" Scar asked in an irritated tone. Although he wanted to listen to what Av had told him, it was simply too hard for Scar which made perfect sense as Yuki had left him to take care of a helpless human who had barely any experience in the dungeons while he trailed his heart out without any handicaps.

    "To be perfectly honest, I don''t have a reasonable exnation as to why I did that. I don''t n on making up a random one either just to satisfy your anger. I have no obligation which forces me to be with you guys for a certain amount of time before I''m allowed to leave again.

    "That''s not the damn point! We''re supposed to be a team that works together! Damn you Yuki! I thought we were supposed to stay friends forever but now, just because you became a n leader, you think that you can look down on us and think of us as trash?!" Scar asked with a yell which finally caused someone to step into the situation and stop Scar before things got too far.

    "Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Mark asked with a shout as he broke into the room where Yuki and Scar were having their argument. Seeing that a new person had decided to join the battle, Scar began to get a bit more serious as he could guarantee that Yuki wouldn''t attack him but he couldn''t guarantee that Mark himself wouldn''t make a move either. Due to that fact, Scar would have no choice but to pay attention to his surroundings. However as Scar began to concentrate on his surroundings, he realized something. Av was still there. Although with their training that took ce nearly every day, he still didn''t know if she would be able to stand up to the likes of Mark and others in the higher echelon of the FFF''s WD n.

    As Scar began to grit his teeth after realizing how hopeless his situation truly was, Yuki finally stepped in to stop Mark from going any further as Yuki wanted to take care of the situation on his own without the help of another soul.

    "Mark, please take your leave. I am in a meeting right now, if I need any assistance, I will call on you as you are one of my trusted men," Yuki exined, which gave Mark some confidence in himself before nodding once and taking his leave.

    "Odd... I guess that''s the power that the n leader of FFF''s WD nmands," said Scar as he mocked Yuki.

    "Anyway Scar, the reason why I kept leaving for long amounts of time was because I needed to constantly take care of something. The second I finished something, another thing came up. As such, I would have to leave as soon as possible so I could train and get strong enough to aplish the tasks which I needed to do," Yuki began to exin.

    "Although I wanted to take a break and spend some time with you guys, I never really got the chance since my schedule was always full. For that, I have no choice but to apologize to

    you. However I also have an exnation for my actions as well. Every action I''ve taken so far up until now was so that I could get one step closer to my overall goal of being the first level 100 yer in the world. Although I thought it would be basically impossible for me to reach that goal since I was already a year behind everyone else, I still managed to climb thedder and now, not only do I have the strongest n in the world under my control but I am also currently the closest yer to level 100," Yuki continued to exin.

    "So tell me Scar, what is more valuable, bing the leader of a n which can very easily now take over the entire on its own if it ys its cards correctly along with having the greatest shot at being the first level 100 yer in the world which would allow limit breaking. With that you must know that I would be capable of eventually having enough power to single handedly rule the entire world with an iron fist. It wouldn''t matter who came to challenge me or how many of them there would be. At the end of the day, if I was the one to reach level 100 first, I would win every single battle I''m ced inside," Yuki exined to Scar.

    "So tell me Scar, what is more valuable, that or some friendly time with my two best friends?" Yuki asked sarcastically.

    "You still don''t get it, do you? Remember what you told me the first time we met? You told me that you had absolute control. I know you don''t want me to reveal too much about your powers so I won''t," said Scar as he referred to the time where Yuki had told him about Zero and One along with the fact that he was the one that created the world which they all lived in. Although it was unbelievable when Scar had heard Yuki''s words for the first time, however after much it made sense as it would be the only way that Yuki could dominate the entire world all on his own so early into the creation of the so-called game everyone was ying.

    The only thing which didn''t make sense to Scar was the one year gap in which Yuki didn''t make any major moves which Yuki himself exined as it was the period of time where he spent his life with Marcell and Elpis.

    Of course that was all before the global government had finally managed to track Yuki down and arrest him. That day was the same day that marked the end of Yuki''s happiness, at least for quite a very long time.

    If Yuki would find happiness in any form during his lifetime in the world which he created, only time could tell.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!