Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
People were panicking over the news that Adora the Monster had begun his next attack. The memory of Earth losing twenty-four Sections to him without being able to put up much of a fight was still fresh in their minds. Obviously enough, Adora the Monster wasn’t alone. He was bringing seven million soldiers. That only meant one thing; he was fully intent on destroying Earth and ending this war through this invasion.
Every single Terran was panicking, even the rookie devas who hadn’t cared much about battles before. No one knew how to stop him. As such, it was time to for me to step in and show that I, the man who had yet to lose a single battle, was back on the Judge’s Continent. I couldn’t let Earth go into the coming battle in low spirits. I traveled through all fifty-one remaining Terran Sections like a politician during a campaign tour. There was still time to spare; it would take a while for Adora to move an army that large.
It also wasn’t a pointless decision, at least for me.
“We’ll be relying on you, Lee Jiwon!”
“We’re just…too afraid to…”
“We know we can’t be of much help during the battle, so we want you to have this instead.”
“I know it’s not right to run from the fight behind a few golden rings. You can insult us; we won’t hold it against you… but we’re sorry.”
Many citizens of the other Sections came up to me with their support and patronage. Many couldn’t give too much at a time, but everyone had something to give, which quickly added up to a lot.
——
Two weeks later…
“We’ve gathered a total of 119.5 billion golden rings.”
“Most were from individuals, while a good amount was sent by quite a few guilds.”
“Even the Cheng Long, Chambord, Ponferrada, and the Spencer Guilds, that first encountered Adora, each sent ten billion golden rings.”
“…That’s quite a lot.”
At first, we hadn’t asked for anyone to send in their funds to support us. We didn’t think that far, nor did we want to. But as far as I could tell, our fellow Terrans needed a reason to come out of their moping and to band together, and that reason was me. That was why I had the Empire start campaigning for donations.
In the end, we had received almost 120 billion golden rings. Even I was surprised to receive all that at once. As expected, the Empire’s guild officers pushed all of those golden rings onto me. I at least had a conscience and turned them down at first.
“They donated these golden rings thinking of you, commander.”
“That’s right. Everyone knows… that you’re the only one on Earth capable of defeating that monster.”
“Commander, you’re the Empire’s, no, Earth’s last hope of survival.”
When the nine guilds of the Empire had scraped together the one hundred billion golden rings and gave them to me, I was so ecstatic that I couldn’t sit still. But this time, I couldn’t help but feel a bit worried. No matter how small each donation was, I knew why they were sent in.
“Ha…I understand. Thank you,” I said as I accepted the golden rings. As worried as I was, I still really wanted to accept the golden rings. My greed wasn’t going to go anywhere, obviously. So, that same day, I went straight to the general store and spent all 119.5 billion golden rings on Stat points. I didn’t stop there. I still had Death’s Harrier available. I couldn’t get more than 1,000 Stat points now, but I was going to need as much as I could get.
I recruited the assistance of the Myth Guild again and hunted low-level monsters all day. This time, I was able to kill each horde of monsters faster than before, thanks to my increased arsenal of AoE Skills. After the hunt, I returned to my home and rested until the Empire finished gathering its forces.
——
One month later…
“Jiwon, my son…if it gets too…promise me…” My mother trailed off and couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence. I knew what she wanted to say; if it got too dangerous, she wanted me to run away and not look back. My mother heard more than me about the destruction Adora left in his wake.
“I will. I promise,” I whispered in her ear as I gave her a small hug. That wasn’t something for everyone else, which was also one reason my mother couldn’t finish her sentence.
I said my farewells to my grandfather and my clan members, and turned around. I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing, but not a single person here was strong enough to join the five million soldiers of the Empire’s defense force.
There was a good chance this was going to be the final battle, which was why the Empire had recruited five million of Earth’s strongest devas. We could have recruited more, about five million more to outnumber the enemy’s army, but they would just have ended up becoming cannon fodder, and lowered our soldiers’ will to fight.
That same defense force surrounded Section 35, waiting for me, its commander. As I arrived at Section 35’s southern gate, I saw the endless sea of soldiers. I quickly made my way to the front and faced them. There were more soldiers today then the army that faced Claudia and her soldiers. If this army lost, then Earth was going to be destroyed. I put on a solemn face and spoke to the soldiers in a loud enough voice for all to hear.
“I will kill Adora the Monster. No matter what, I will kill him.” That was all I had to say. I didn’t need to say anymore, since that was what every single Terran expected of me. “Let’s go!” I shouted as I turned around and marched forward.
“Yaaah!”
“Lee Jiwon! Lee Jiwon!”
I heard a huge roar in response and the thundering footsteps as the five million soldiers followed close behind. Our destination was the Plain of Creation, a four days’ march away. We decided on that place on purpose. It was a named place, which was the perfect spot to fight the deciding battle and the wide, open ground was good enough to see the enemy coming.
And so, I and my army quickly marched for the Plain of Creation, to get there before Adora and his army did.
—
Four days later…
Because we kept constant tabs of the enemy’s movements, we were able to arrive at the Plain before the Crootians. If our timeline was correct, we could expect Adora and his soldiers to arrive in three days. We set up camp on the Plain to wait and to bring up our tension.
Just as we had expected, the enemy army arrived after three days. Each enemy soldier exuded confidence. Common sense would have told us to attack them right away, since they had traveled nonstop for two months. But that only made sense against mortals. These enemy soldiers were devas and deities, and wouldn’t be fatigued after a journey like that, especially since they took their time getting here. So, we waited for them to make the first move.
Soon, a single man stepped out of the enemy soldiers’ ranks. It was the same man from the countless videos I had watched. He was none other than Adora the Monster, and he moved as if he was out on a leisurely walk through a park.
I stepped out as well, matching Adora’s leisurely pace. I was, of course, already prepared to kill him in a single strike before he transformed into that monsterish form.
“Activate: Create Critical Weakness. Activate: Ripped Advance.”
==[Create Critical Weakness has been activated.]==
==[Ripped Advance has been activated.
All Stats are now doubled for the next 24 hours.
Once this Skill deactivates, you will lose 0-100 Stat points.
Cooldown: 24 hours.]==
I didn’t stop there. “Mana Conversion – Ice. Warrior’s Brave Spirit. Howl of the Wolf.”
==[Mana Conversion – Ice Level 7 has been activated.]==
==[Warrior’s Brave Spirit Level 3 has been activated.]==
==[Howl of the Wolf has been activated.]==
I still had Judge’s Gavel and Create Weakness to use, but I saved them. Create Weakness only lasted for five seconds and I needed to use it tandem with Judge’s Gavel. Besides, I first needed to use Altered Equality on Adora, which I really looked forwards to. It was clear that Adora’s highest Stats could only be STR and VIT. I assumed his AGI, INT, and WIL had to be much lower in comparison. I wanted to see what sort of expression Adora would make when he notices that his STR and VIT were lowered along with his ATT and HP.
Adora kept walking at the same leisurely pace and I continued to match that pace, to not let it seem that I was impatient. Even though I had completed my preparations, there was still a considerable distance between us.
“Open Stats Menu,” I said quietly. I wanted to see for myself just how much my Stats had gone up, especially after the Stat points I had recently bought and the Stat points I had received from Death’s Harrier.
==[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 1393 Death Count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva, The Keeper of Terra
HP: 180,041,200/180,041,200 MP: 14,659,622 /14,659,622
Strength: 499,304 + 9,039 Agility: 339,402 Vitality: 341,202
Willpower: 145,136 Intelligence: 136,656]==
I grinned. Adora the Monster was still walking towards me and countless soldiers on both sides were watching me. To be honest, I was feeling a tad worried, but all that had disappeared once I laid eyes on my Stats. They had more than doubled since my fight against Claudia. Not to mention, most of my Skills were now maxed out.
Soon, I finally came face to face with Adora the Monster.
“Ho ho. You should have kept hiding in your hole, like the rat that you are.”
“Ho ho. Have you ever seen a rat as big as me?” I taunted right back. I also noticed almost immediately that he really did have the Unrivaled Skill. Once he was in range, the system notified me that my Harrier’s HP absorb didn’t work, as well as the 10% decrease to his combat abilities, even though my HP was well over 180 million points. I strongly doubted he more HP without any buffs. If he did… then this was definitely going to be a hard fight. Still, I would only know for sure once we fought.
“Bwahaha! Good, good. You need to have that much fighting spirit to make this battle between monsters that much more interesting. And that will only make the shock of your loss that much greater.” Adora laughed at my taunt, completely unfazed.
That was why I immediately shouted, “Altered Equality! Create Weakness!”
==[You have activated Altered Equality – Altered Equal Stats on your opponent.
Your opponent’s base Stat points, Stat points increased by skills and items and Stat points granted by specials will all be redistributed.
Calculating all Stat points…]==
==[Your opponent’s Stats have been redistributed.
The effects of Altered Equality will last for the next 24 hours and you must wait that time before using Altered Equality on someone else.
Stat points received for Kiran will be set to 0 as payment for using Altered Equality.]==
==[You have activated Create Weakness on your opponent.
Created Weakness location: center of opponent’s chest.
If you do not successfully attack the Created Weakness, the Created Weakness will disappear.
You must wait 20 minutes before Creating a new Weakness.]==
I charged at Adora immediately. I had already activated Judge’s Gavel right before I came face to face with Adora. I still had both Blinks available, but opted to not use them. My AGI,currently over 340k got me close to Adora faster than using Blink. I thrust my spear right towards the glowing red spot that had formed in the center of his chest.
Cheating? Bad manners? Who cared about that? He was my enemy, who I had to kill as quickly as possible!
I felt my spear strike something, and was rewarded with a deafening crash that was nonetheless far quieter than normal.
