As his voice fell, The World Envies This King held the wooden sword in a reverse two-handed grip, took a deep breath, and his eyes suddenly grew razor-sharp!
He leaped!
Like an eagle diving for its prey, he plummeted straight down from a treetop over ten meters high!
He targeted an ogre below that was currently chasing down a newbie player!
“Pfft—”
The wooden sword plunged into flesh.
It entered from above the ogre's nape, piercing through its entire neck, the sharp tip bursting out from the front of its throat as dark red blood trickled down along the wood's grain.
The ogre's movements froze instantly.
It opened its mouth wide, wanting to utter a sound, but only surges of bloody froth sputtered from its throat.
Its massive body shivered violently twice before its skin began to wither and crack like dried tree bark, ultimately turning into a pile of ashes.
An instant kill in one strike!
The World Envies This King landed firmly on one knee, holding the classic pose of an assassin who had just completed a kill.
He slowly stood up, elegantly drawing the wooden sword from the ashes, and brushed off non-existent dust from his shoulder with a hand.
Then he turned his head, looking serene, and spoke in a tone that practically said this is just my daily routine:
“…Just a speck of dust on my clothes.”
The whole sequence was smooth as silk and dripping with swagger.
“???”
“Wait, what???”
“We're all fresh newbies with starter wooden swords! How the hell can you one-shot an ogre?!”
“We're both newbies, why are you so absurdly OP?!”
“Is this guy hacking?!”
“He's flexing so hard! But damn, I actually can't refute it…”
The newbie players nearby who witnessed this scene were all stunned.
We're all newbies, so why are you posing like such a badass?
Not far away, Bruce and Knight King's Sword, who were just about to start bickering, naturally saw this as well. The two exchanged a glance, both seeing utter bewilderment in each other's eyes.
The corner of Bruce's mouth twitched. “…Where did this guy pop out from? Why is he flexing so hard?”
Knight King's Sword rubbed his chin while staring at the red-haired figure's back, lost in thought. “No idea, but this guy… actually has some skill.”
...
On the northern side of Starfall Forest.
A short, dark-green figure moved at high speed through the dense woods. Nimble and agile, it darted closely along the tree roots—it was Boka, the God-Favored secretly sent by Mosator.
A goblin.
“Humans capable of resurrection…”
While darting through the forest, it repeatedly replayed the scenes it had secretly observed earlier.
As a true scout lurking in the shadows, Boka had not revealed itself at all, watching the entire battle between Bladefang and the players with cold detachment from the dense forest.
It had keenly captured the most bizarre detail:
Several humans who had clearly been torn to shreds by Bladefang on the spot walked back out to the edge of the battlefield in less than half an hour, sauntering nonchalantly.
Although their fine gear was gone and replaced with crude cloth robes, that face and that tone of voice were unmistakably the exact same person.
Returning from the dead, and more than once.
“Which True God's handiwork is this?”
Boka muttered to itself, its tone laced with confusion and perplexity.
In the continent of Aenoria, throughout all of history, no divine spell had ever been heard of that could allow mortals to resurrect repeatedly in bulk.
Even thousands or tens of thousands of years ago during the era when True Gods actively walked the world, such a feat was impossible.
After all, a mortal's soul rapidly dissipates upon death. Unless they were Devout Believers of a True God, who could indeed be guided into the Divine Kingdom, they would absolutely never return to the mortal world as mortals again.
Those believers who entered the Divine Kingdom after death would exist eternally as Petitioners within the Divine Kingdom, remaining in an energy state of pure soul.
It shook its head, pushing down its internal speculation and shock.
“Whatever the truth is, it's not something a mere God-Favored like me should meddle in.”
“The urgent matter at hand is to return to the Corrupted Mountain Range immediately and report all the anomalies here to His Excellency.”
Thinking of this, Boka picked up its pace even further, its thin, small body almost merging into the shadows.
Just then, an intensely cold sense of fatal danger originating from the depths of its soul suddenly gripped it in a vise-like hold!
Danger! Extremely lethal!
Every hair on Boka's body stood on end. Instinct drove its body to leap sideways in a frantic dodge without a second thought!
Boom—
The next second, a razor-sharp beam of white sword light grazed the spot where it had just stood, striking the ground with precision. Earth exploded, gravel flew, leaving a scorched trench two meters long and half a meter deep.
“Oh? Your reactions are quite fast to actually dodge that.”
A crisp, clear female voice laced with amusement drifted leisurely from the shadows of the forest, carrying a perfectly measured touch of surprise.
Boka stabilized its stance and looked toward the voice, its pupils shrinking violently.
A black-robed figure stood beside a tree trunk not far away, completely enveloped in loose robes that obscured her face. Only a pair of golden eyes pierced through the dark, bright and profound, quietly locked onto it.
And her aura… was divine power.
An aura of divine power that belonged to none of the known True Gods of the Aenoria continent.
It was an unfamiliar divine power—orderly, stern, and filled with judgment over all creation!
As Mosator's God-Favored, it was well-acquainted with the divine power fluctuations of all orthodox gods across the continent, yet it had never felt the aura before it.
What was even more terrifying was that the opponent's aura was entirely unhidden, yet no matter how hard it tried to sense her, it couldn't fathom her level or the depth of her strength at all.
There was only one possibility for this—
Her rank was vastly superior to its own!
A top-tier God-Favored of a True God!
Boka's Adam's apple bobbed up and down as its heart pounded wildly. Suppressing the horror in its heart, it tried hard to make its voice sound calm:
“…Which True God's God-Favored are you? Is there… some kind of misunderstanding between us?”
Hearing this, the black-robed girl tilted her head slightly, her golden eyes carrying a playful “take a guess” glint.
Then, she spoke in a nonchalant tone:
“Didn't Your Excellency send you to investigate Starfall Forest?”
Boka's face instantly paled, its entire body freezing solid.
It suddenly realized something, its voice dropping several pitches: “So… those humans—”
“Bingo!” The black-robed girl snapped her fingers, her tone light and cheerful. “Congratulations, you got it right! Unfortunately—there's no prize.”
Boka's heart sank to the bottom.
It quickly adjusted its breathing and invoked the rules of the gods in an attempt to stabilize the situation:
“Wait—as a God-Favored of a True God, recklessly hunting down the God-Favored of another True God… is an act that provokes war between True Gods! Is the Excellency behind you not afraid of inciting public wrath?!”
“Oh?”
The black-robed girl's golden eyes narrowed slightly, her voice laced with mockery:
“So by that logic—sending people to our domain without permission isn't an attempt to incite war?”
“Besides—” She paused for two seconds, looking the short goblin in front of her up and down with a meaningful gaze. “—you even secretly sent a God-Favored to investigate.”
“Your… domain?”
Boka was instantly stunned.
“How have I never heard that this was any True God's sphere of influence?”
“Now it is,” the black-robed girl said plainly.
Rate on N.U.
