"Stay behind," Leon said as he glanced at Emilia. "I’ll be back in a few minutes. At most."
Emilia followed his gaze toward the valley ahead and quickly spotted the group of players standing there.
The mont she realized who they were, a wide grin spread across her face.
"So you finally found them," she muttered, "Deal with them," she said out loud, lifting her scepter without hesitation.
A soft glow wrapped around Leon’s body as she cast her spell.
Speed Buff! Fwoosh!
The instant the buff took effect, Leon vanished from her side, rushing forward at full speed toward the group of players who had fired the explosive arrow.
The first ti it happened, he had wanted to kill them.
He had looked around the area for a few seconds, but they had hidden themselves well and disappeared almost imdiately.
Back then, he had decided to let it go. Neither he nor Emilia had been injured, and wasting ti hunting cowards wasn’t worth it.
But now was different. They had attacked again.
And this ti, they had done so near [Hub City].
If these people kept acting freely, Eleonore, David, Aaron, Alice and anyone leaving or entering the city could be targeted next.
That was sothing Leon couldn’t allow. Especially not now that he knew exactly where they were hiding.
Up on the valley, panic began to spread through the group.
"What do we do, boss?" one of the players asked, his voice shaky. "That guy... he seed weird."
"It doesn’t matter," the leader replied coldly.
He was the sa man as before, the one with gray skin and antlers growing from his head.
His eyes were sharp, and his expression remained confident despite the situation.
"No one is defeating us here," he continued. "Even if he’s level twenty-four, his combat power won’t be high enough to matter."
"There are fifteen of us," another mber added, trying to reassure himself.
They all believed the sa thing. Leon surviving their earlier attack ant only one of two things in their minds.
Either he had used a defensive skill at the perfect mont, or he had gotten lucky.
Luck ran out eventually. There was no way a single player could defeat all of them at once.
"L-Leader, he’s—"
SLASH!
The warning never finished. Leon appeared in front of them in an instant.
His sword flashed. One of the silver-skinned players didn’t even have ti to scream.
The blade passed through him cleanly, as if cutting through air instead of flesh. His body collapsed to the ground a mont later, lifeless.
Leon stood there silently, his sword still lowered.
He looked at the fallen body for a brief mont, his expression dark and unreadable.
This wasn’t the first ti he had killed another player.
In his past life, he had done it many tis. Back then, killing had been unavoidable. It was either him or them.
But this was different. This was the first ti he had taken a player’s life in this life.
’The first of many,’ Leon thought as he shook his head slightly. ’I just need to stay focused.’
More importantly, he had to keep his [Slaughter ter] under control.
Every ti a player killed another player, that invisible value increased by one.
At the beginning, no one even knew it existed. There was no warning, no explanation.
Only once a player reached one hundred kills did a panel finally appear, explaining what it was and what it ant.
At one hundred kills, a player earned the [Slayer I] title. After that, the tiers continued to rise.
Each tier granted benefits. Stronger bonuses. More advantages in combat. But there was a cost.
Anyone who ever reached ten thousand kills, or tier ten, never lived long enough to talk about it.
There were rumors. Whispers shared by those who had witnessed it from afar.
Once a player crossed that line, the [Heavenly One] itself deed them a threat that had gone too far.
And then it sent sothing to deal with them.
Leon had seen it once in his past life. Only once: [The Judgnt Knight].
That na alone was enough to chill even veteran players to the bone.
Anyone who encountered it died almost instantly. There was no fight. No struggle. No escape.
Leon didn’t know if he would ever reach ten thousand kills. But he had no intention of finding out what happened if he did.
Angering the [Heavenly One] wasn’t sothing even gods, or beings close to them, wanted to risk.
"Seems like you’re confident."
The leader’s voice snapped Leon out of his thoughts.
The gray-skinned man raised his bow and aid it directly at Leon. Mana gathered around the weapon, forming an explosive arrow out of thin air.
Without hesitation, he released it.
BOOM!
The arrow detonated the mont it struck Leon. At point-blank range.
The explosion swallowed him completely, flas and shockwaves tearing through the air.
The ground beneath cracked, and debris flew in all directions.
"That’s it," one of the players said, letting out a breath. "There’s no way he survived that."
Even they believed it. No one could take an attack like that head-on and live.
And then—
"Weak."
That single word echoed from within the smoke.
The group froze. Their blood ran cold.
As the dust cleared, Leon stepped forward calmly, completely unhard. His armor was intact. His posture relaxed. Not a single sign of injury could be seen.
At that mont, they realized the truth. They weren’t facing a normal player. They were facing a monster.
Storm of Lightning!
Leon didn’t even bother using [Appraisal]. He didn’t care about their levels. He didn’t care about their nas.
They were player killers. That was enough. He raised his staff high into the air.
Lightning gathered instantly, crackling and roaring as it surged through the sky above him.
The pressure alone made the remaining players feel like they couldn’t breathe.
And then the lightning descended.
Zap! Zap! Zap!
Bolts of pure destruction rained down on the valley, striking every single player in the group.
The sound was deafening. The ground shook violently under the onslaught.
Because of Leon’s overwhelming [Spirit], the damage was terrifying.
Most of them didn’t even have ti to scream. Their bodies were torn apart instantly, reduced to nothing under the storm.
When the lightning finally faded, only one person remained standing: the leader.
He coughed violently, blood dripping from his mouth as his body trembled. His legs barely supported him, and his eyes were filled with disbelief.
"W-What the h-hell are you...?" he muttered.
Leon walked toward him slowly.
"I don’t like player killers," Leon said calmly. "Not like you would’ve gone far anyway."
Slash!
His sword moved once. The leader’s head fell to the ground before he even realized what had happened.
Just like that, the player killers who had been terrorizing [Hub City] were gone.
With them dead, traveling in and out of the city would be far safer.
And since none of them possessed a [Resurrection Stone], their deaths were permanent. True death.
[Eternal Ascension] had tens of billions of players across countless worlds. A dozen disappearing ant nothing in the grand sche of things.
Anyone sent here needed to understand one simple truth: monsters weren’t the only threat. People were just as dangerous.
Ding!
Several panels appeared in front of Leon.
[You have killed several players and taken one item from each from their "Storage Space".]
Leon let out a quiet sigh.
"My talent doesn’t work on players," he muttered. "As expected."
It wasn’t tied to true drop rate. It belonged to a completely different system.
The higher a player’s [Slaughter ter], the more "benefits" they gained from killing other players. Those benefits were tied directly to the titles earned through kills.
The first real bonus only appeared at one hundred kills. There was always a balance.
Reaching [Slayer IX] on the other hand granted incredible power, but it also ant standing dangerously close to attracting the attention of the [Judgnt Knight].
Leon had no interest in walking that path. Players didn’t gain experience from killing other players anyway.
With that thought, Leon opened his [Storage Space], curiosity finally getting the better of him as he looked to see what items he had taken.
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