Ex-level Player With the Greatest Civilization of All Time - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 41

“How about we lend a hand?”
Feronta, brimming with chaos.
The Auction House — the source of it all.
From a corner now reduced to rubble, James answered Jake’s question.
“No, I think it’s still too early.”
The elite of the Ark Guild had withdrawn to a corner the moment the disturbance erupted in the Auction House, observing the unfolding situation from a distance.
The aberrant creature Eclipse had left behind.
Because information about it was scarce, they believed wisdom lay in waiting until more data accumulated.
“Wait longer? Wouldn’t it be enough to intervene now?”
James felt they’d already gathered sufficient intelligence.
Yet he judged the moment for intervention as premature. The reason: there was still room to spare.
Though Naia’s Humanoid Cryle’s direct hit had just landed moments ago, the situation had spiraled toward catastrophe instead.
But urgency had only just begun to bloom on the faces of the players facing it.
“If we allow Naia’s two beloved Humanoids and Baek Jin-sung plus more than a dozen drones to escape from the brink of disaster, they won’t feel they owe us a debt unless we give that impression.”
“But what if all those people die anyway? Then nothing’s been accomplished, right?”
From the drones’ strikes moments ago, the aberrant creature had swollen to a size exceeding that of a multi-story building.
There was no guarantee it wouldn’t grow larger if the battle continued.
By then, even they couldn’t be certain they could manage it.
“They won’t die.”
James’s gaze fixed on one of the Humanoids.
The one that had newly appeared.
From what he’d seen so far, it was a defense-specialized unit.
As long as it existed, showing such presence in critical moments, they wouldn’t perish.
“In any case, our director is hardly normal either.”
Jake saw the smile playing at the corners of James’s mouth and shook his head in dismay.
Was Naia’s growing potential truly something to be so pleased about?
“So we’re just waiting then?”
Jake returned to the position of observer.
He’d grown curious about what their next move would be….

* * *

The massive creature extended its arm again.
Swish—
Yamada slashed through the enlarged limb with dynamic force as he spoke.
“This really seems like the worst matchup possible, Naia.”
……
Baek Jin-sung met the gaze Yamada directed at him.
Then Yamada said,
“Tag team it, Naia. This time you back me up with the drones.”
Baek Jin-sung spoke.
“I’m not Naia….”
“I know. But you’re watching from somewhere, aren’t you?”
Taking Baek Jin-sung’s silence as confirmation, Yamada smiled slightly and said,
“Sorry, Naia, but this time the star of the show is us.”
Yamada turned to Himeji, his guild’s companion.
The buffs that had previously been distributed among the elite of the Amaterasu Guild.
“Pour all the Himeji Buff into me.”
“…Understood.”
Himeji thought for a moment, then assented.
His action was high-handed.
But she judged that concentrating all power into the strongest presence here offered the best chance of success.
She believed that once Yamada received her buffs alone, no matter what penalty existed in Feronta, he could eliminate the creature.
Ding—ding—
As the buffs stacked and Yamada’s presence intensified, the aberrant creature’s hands began to concentrate their assault on him.
The drones Cryle manipulated tore through those arms.
“Hah… well then, let’s do this.”
Yamada charged forward, raising his sword into striking position.
Barriers rose to slow the creature’s terrifying advance, but they crumbled in its path.
He cleaved through the black appendages and became a streak of light, driving onward.
Its body contracted and bristled with spikes, each one sharp as a needle.
“I’ve seen that trick before. It won’t work twice.”
He sliced away the incoming spines and his arm traced an arc as he reached the main body.
Its lower half severed and fell away.
A wretched cry tore from it—
“Shut your mouth, you bastard!”
Yamada’s assault did not end; he wove through the air in every direction, slashing and slashing again, driving his blade through its mass with relentless fury.
With each pass, the creature fell further into pieces.
He drew a sharp breath—
—and held it as the severed chunks tumbled downward, then released a flurry of sword strikes as if possessed by something divine.
Yamada’s blade fell dozens and hundreds of times in the span of a heartbeat.
At last, once he had reduced the thing to nothing but wisps of shadow, Yamada released the breath he’d been holding and gasped for air.
“Haah…”
He staggered.
Bracing his overexerted body, he turned toward Baek Jin-sung with a proud smirk.
“You should be thanking me for—”
“Yamada!”
Something surged up from behind him; Yamada spun and slashed at it with his sword.
“Don’t worry. A desperate flail like that—”
“Look at the ground, you fool!”
The moment Himeji’s voice cut through, a viscous mass erupted from beneath his feet.
Yamada tried to sever it, but having wrung every last ounce of strength from his body only moments before, he couldn’t resist—the mass swallowed him whole.
The creature’s form rippled and undulated—
—and swelled to an even more nightmarish size.
A twisted, anguished shriek echoed forth—
* * *

The battle unfolding across Feronta’s stage.
I had thought Yamada’s efforts would bring it to an end, but the words caught in my throat.
“This isn’t good…”
The creature that had consumed Yamada had grown so enormous it no longer fit on the screen.
Worse still, it attacked the remaining fighters with strikes that were proportionally larger and more devastating.
To all appearances, the battle remained balanced—precariously so.
The remaining defenders were still inflicting damage, cutting away the pressing limbs and wounding the core.
“The attacks aren’t entirely ineffective.”
In truth, whenever the mysterious black creature took a direct hit from magic or a blade, it cried out and thrashed.
But the problem was that the moment it absorbed something, all its wounds reversed.
Yamada’s devastating strike had nearly reduced it to nothing, yet it had resurrected itself regardless.
Given such a regenerative nature, Feronta represented the absolute worst battleground.
There was far too much for it to consume—plants, animals, buildings—all of it potential food.
The creature’s form rippled and swelled—

– Is this thing seriously not a cheat ability?
– This is basically infinite regeneration at this point…
– And the base specs are broken too. If Sermin wasn’t covering every gap, a fair fight would be impossible from the start.

Sermin’s barrier.
It shone like a ray of light in this dark hour, but only just barely.
Even such outstanding defense offered no real solution.
What was needed was not defense, but a single killing blow—firepower enough to incinerate the creature entirely.
The black mass had grown to a diameter of several dozen meters.
“I wish we had Ar here right now.”
A single shot from the Ultra-Wide Photon Cannon would have obliterated it without a trace.
And after Ar’s recent Advancement, his specs had only grown stronger still.
That was why I regretted not deploying him—regretted it bitterly.
But the city itself required defensive coverage as well.
A Gate could open at any moment and cause havoc.
Above all, I never imagined a moment would come inside the Neutral Zone that required this kind of firepower, so I’d repositioned it for this operation.
Now I couldn’t regret that choice more.
‘There’s still half a day left until midnight?’
So retreat wasn’t an option.
If I pulled back even for a moment here, the creature would grow larger than it already was.
Eventually, it would engulf all of Feronta.
But could I hold out for twelve hours?
I asked myself, but—
there was no way.
Drones run on electricity.
Especially if this intense battle kept up, the city’s power supply would be depleted in no time.

– Wait, didn’t the player count drop a bit?
– For real?
– There were more than twenty of us before, weren’t there?

Beyond Japan, Britain, and Korea, players from a few other nations had been cooperating.
But now most of those people had vanished.
Did they give it a shot and bail when it seemed hopeless?

– What can you do? Some people are like that.
– Strategic retreat is a valid option too.
– I mean, it’s totally hopeless, but right now…

Actually, if I’m being honest, I want to run away right now too.
I couldn’t bring myself to blame them.
Lucky them. Some of us can’t escape even if we wanted to.
Crunch… Slurp—
Again.
Spines jutting out at regular intervals.
Absorbing massive quantities of debris around it, growing larger still.
Nearly fifty meters now.
As its size expanded, so did its absorption radius.
And Sermin’s burden grew with it.
Naturally, I checked on her.
Her expression was definitely strained.
‘Is she reaching her limit?’
So I tried to think of a solution before things fell apart.
But there wasn’t one!
I was debating whether to just wait for the inevitable collapse when—
Sermin, who’d been silent all this time, spoke.

“This is absolutely infuriating.”

* * *

“Everyone, step aside. From here on, I’ll handle this myself. I can’t stand this anymore.”

Baek Jin-sung grabbed Sermin’s arm as she stepped forward.
Sermin turned to him and said,
“I won’t say it twice. Let go. Monkey.”
Baek Jin-sung knew he should stop her, but fear made him reflexively release her arm.
So much for renegotiating the contract.
I found myself lamenting my own fate.
“For someone with such a loose mouth, she sure doesn’t mince words!”
One of Japan’s top rankers, already on edge from Yamada’s death, snapped.
“Has the shield carrier finally lost it?”
The chat was leaning toward similar sentiment.

– Satoshi’s right about this.
— Rude, yes, but show some respect. Shield Shuttle.
— I know she’s skilled, but she’s getting way too cocky!

Chat messages from viewers who appeared to be Japanese scrolled up rapidly.
They weren’t wrong, to be fair.
He could leave right now if he wanted to. No problem there.
There was nothing to gain from needlessly provoking him in this situation.
Yet Sermin had somehow managed to make an enemy of him instead.

『Listen well, you fools aren’t even worth my shield.』

Just then, a black mass of densely packed thorned needles came stabbing through.
Sermin took the impact head-on.
And then.
Boom—
A shockwave erupted outward. The needles vanished without a trace, and worse for him, his contracted form staggered violently backward.
He tried to seize Sermin with his limbs as she strode toward him, but it was no use.
The shockwave sent him reeling once more.
The second strike hit harder than anticipated—hard enough that he actually vomited up everything he’d absorbed.
Splurt—
Plants and animals, buildings and furniture he’d consumed came spilling out everywhere.
His size shrank accordingly.

『Watch closely. This is how you land an attack—pouring lethal intent into one decisive blow…』

Sermin’s fist clenched against his core body with a sharp crack.

『And swing through.』

Crash—
A shockwave rippled outward from the tip of Sermin’s fist.
The sound of thunder tore through the air, and the rain in the vicinity stopped dead in an instant.
— Huh?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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