Shall I start the hunt?

The recipient of the first combo was of course the weakest one. Let"s start with the level 121.

I quickly flung my body and swung my cutla.s.s toward his thigh.
Drake"s TBSA!

Taaaat!

He became really shocked and lowered his longsword again. However, my cutla.s.s was much faster this time. The first strike hit his thigh before his longsword could come down, and the second strike struck his arm that was now clearly visible.

Papapat-

I managed to get a 8 hit combo in less than 2 seconds. The 8th and final attack accurately slashed his throat.

"……Ugh!"

"Maknae!" [1]

The cries of his peers.

Do criminals still care about camaraderie?

Then you shouldn"t be standing like that. True friends live together and die together.

"Go join your maknae in death."

All of them had already entered into my attack range.

I twisted my body and continued to use Drake"s TBSA.

My combo had already surpa.s.sed 10 hits and causing close to 100 damage, thus they were all dying within 3 hits.

"Ugh!"

Three taken care of.

17th hit, 18th hit ……

……
[395]
[462]
……

I had already raised Drake"s TBSA to intermediate level 5.

The more the skill went up, the faster my attack speed became. If I really wanted to, I could even land 4+ hits in less than 1 second.

Like right now.

Shashat!

They also swung their swords to attack me back, but at least, when it came to agility, I was much much faster.

Of course their attacks skimmed me every so often.

Each time, they would start to shout with joy.

"I caught him!"

But that was just a scratch. Plus, I have reinforced toughness, so I don"t take any damage from a scratch like that.

"……Ugh!"

Five defeated.

Now just one left.

My combo had already reached 27 hits.

Papat!

I quickly spun my body and slashed his thigh.

A scream came out of his mouth instead of the laughter from earlier.

"Ah! Hailey! Help!"

The girl"s name was Hailey.

But what is he hoping for? Does he think Hailey can do something about this current sit……!

"She can!"

Once Hailey started to move her hand, the man"s body started to glow green.

Protection magic.

That would mean she is a support cla.s.s magician.

She can strengthen party member"s attack or defense. Right now, she was strengthening his defense.

There was some effect. The combo level continued to go up, but the damage was going down.

However, it didn"t do much good.

The damage from my combo was already over 1500.

On the other hand, protection magic could only provide a defense of about 70. It was because Hailey"s level was so low.

I swung my cutla.s.s again. This time, toward his chest.

"Ugh!"

I left the corpse of goat beard and flung my body toward the girl.

The girl, who was about to run away, realized my speed and gave up on running away. Instead, she put her two hands together and started to beg.

"Please don"t kill me."

She was now a citizen who had given up all forms of resistance.

If I kill her, I might end up with infamy. Then I would not be able to partic.i.p.ate in the Chaos Battle.

I also don"t have a reason to kill her with my own hands.

In times like this, it is best to hand her over to the authorities. But not before I learn everything I need to learn from her.

"Who sent you."

"I don"t know. I just do as I am told ……"

People really are dumb. She should be able to tell how this will go, but she will pretend not to know until she gets hurt.

I twisted the girl"s arm really hard to the back. Then I pushed her in front of me. Just that alone should cause her a lot of pain.

"Let"s just go to the security force."

"Aaah! Valtana. He is a man of influence in the back alleys of Avanguarde. He sends us jobs here and there. I do not know anything else. Aah! My arm is going to break."

Valtana. It is a name i haven"t heard of. But it"s not like I have polygraph or anything to see if she is lying.

I did not respond. I grabbed the magic bags of the two I defeated and continued out of the forest.

"It"s true. Please believe me. Valtana."

She doesn"t seem like she"s lying. She just keep saying the same name over and over.

But I don"t have any reasons to let her go. Nor did I ever tell her I"d let her go for providing information.

I handed her over to the Paksen Park security force. They will handle the rest.

"Valtana? Let"s at least remember his name for now. Right now, the Chaos Battle is top priority."

I quickly headed toward the Magician"s Tower.

"Welcome to Arlington."

There was no one around, just a voice. It must be a greeting created with the macro magic.

It makes sense. The Ameri Kingdom is the strongest kingdom in the continent, so Arlington can be considered the capital of the continent. Over 10,000,000 people live in Arlington.

Because of that, they get a lot of visitors on a daily basis.

Although that number should have increased quite a bit lately. Many people were heading here for the Chaos Battle from all over the continent.

Maybe that was the reason it was so loud everywhere. I couldn"t tell whether this was the Magician"s Tower or the chaotic market.

The streets were the same. All sorts of warriors wearing different types of armor filled the streets.

I grabbed one of them and asked for directions.

"Do you know where the Gracia Statue is located?"

I had asked about the Chaos Battle every time I came here. How to join, how the compet.i.tion works, things to watch out for.

The dude looked at me with a rough gaze. He then responded with a just as rough voice.

"Let"s go together. I am also heading to go register for the battle."

"Thank you."

"The name"s Gardner."

"Hwi Ram."

"Did you come alone?"

"Yep."

Short and sweet chat.

That was it. I thought he was someone who talked a lot, but he was just the opposite. After the first few statements, he did not say anything until we arrived at the Gracia Statue.

"So this is Gracia Statue."

It was about 30 meters tall.

It"s face, neck and body were all really long. Almost like someone had taken and stretched the human body.

Gracia, history"s Greatest Grand Magician of the magical Shapir race. Her statue was created in many locations across the continent to revere her.

In Arlington, the kingdom"s capital, there were over 100 tall and short statues of Gracia. You were able to register at any of these  statues.

It was easy to register. Just place your palm on any part of the statue and say, "Register for Chaos Battle," in your mind.

The Chaos Battle in the game had no rules. It didn"t matter how you did it, as long as you were the last person standing.

Equipment was the same. If you registered high quality equipment, that also gave you some advantage. That was why the majority of the winners relied on the strength of their equipment rather than their own strengths or strategies.

This Royal Roader seemed to be the same.

If there was a difference, it would be that you could only register one weapon and one armor. Potion and other items could not be registered.

It shouldn"t matter since everybody should have the same restrictions.

The Chaos Battle will start in 21 hours.>

"Huuuu, there is only 21 hours left."

I left with about two days to spare to be safe, but time seemed to have moved quickly. There were so many people that every time I used a Magician"s Tower, I needed to take a number and wait.

It"s a good thing I already set the registration fee to be delivered once I registered. I if didn"t, I would have had to take another number and wait.

But 3,000,000 won. It was pretty expensive for a registration fee.

Although that makes me like it even more. The more expensive it is, the more I can earn from the Chaos Battle.

Let"s not get greedy and hunt exactly 1,000 people.

Then I should be able to earn 1,000,000,000 won. Although other rewards won"t matter aside from being the winner.

Gardner registered the same way. Almost all applicants used this method.

"You are in the first level."

Gardner was in the third level. Which meant that his level was between 200 and 300.

The holographic spear floating on top of his head proved that to be the case. Once you finish registering for the Chaos Battle, a different colored hologram pops up over your head. Mine was red and Gardner"s was green.

"I wish you luck."

Gardner left after saying that. He talked so little that he let quite an impression on people.

Now I just needed to wait.

It was pretty loud all around me.

"Looking for a party member!"

"If you came alone, let"s help each other out."

"Hey you, don"t die a dog"s death and stick with us!"

It was impossible to create a party because of the rules of the Chaos Battle. It was somewhere that everyone became your enemy once you entered the arena.

But that is up to your decision.

If you agree to not attack each other and work together, isn"t that pretty much being in a party?

Even in the game, there were people who went in with four other people they knew to work together and have an advantage over the other compet.i.tors.

But it seemed to be even worse in this Royal Roader. Rather than 5 or 6 people, I saw quite a few parties with over 100 people. The largest ones even had a couple hundred people working together.

Because of that, the majority of the people moved together with their parties, and the people who had yet to find a party moved around to try to join a strong looking party.

But there was even a party that looked really unique. It looked like slaves or servants were part of his party.

"Hey. Stick with me. I have support magicians and defensive warriors and archers. If you stick with me, you"ll make it pretty far easily."

People approaching me to talk were the same. The party members referred to him using t.i.tles such as, "young master," or, "little lord."

The young man was wearing a very shiny armor. It was probably made of mithril.

They seemed to have around 200 party members. Looking at the people behind him, he really did have magicians, archers, etc. like he said.

Of course I shook my head.

"I fight alone."

"Crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

It wasn"t just a few people who replied like that.

"Hey. Stick with us over here."

It"s so annoying. Isn"t there anywhere quiet?

I pushed away all requests and turned my head to find a quiet area. I managed to find a spot with only a few people.

I quickly moved over there.

"Huuuuu, I finally feel like I can breathe."

But who is that guy over there?

He was already here before I got here. The young man had fiery red hair and a just as fiery gaze.

The young man looked at me with that fiery gaze of his.

But his expression is quite odd. It"s not like he"s trying to pick a fight, but it wasn"t very friendly either.

Almost like he was saying, "I"m watching you."

Seeing the red mark on his head, he is in the same first level battle with me.

Is he trying to suppress me with his aura or something?

I don"t care. I am confident that I am the strongest among those under level 100. I"ll just start slashing away at the people standing near me first.

I paid no more attention to him. Instead, I took out two Jewels of Creation from my bag.

Since I rested for a while, there was nothing better to fill up time.

I started to focus and started practicing my jewel alchemy. Since I had a lot of time, I went as slowly as possible to give it the utmost concentration.

<30 minutes="" left="" until="" the="" beginning="" of="" the="" chaos="" battle.="" all="" partic.i.p.ants="" must="" be="" within="" 500m="" of="" the="" gracia="" statue.="">

It"s finally starting.

I checked my skill information.

[Jewel Alchemy: Intermediate Level 3, 17%]

Jewel Alchemy was already at intermediate level 3. I should be able to go look for the Dwarf Chief as soon as the Chaos Battle is over.

After that, I just need to raise my level up to a decent level and head toward that Magman Continent. That is where Chubach"s Solar Blade is located. But I need to finish the Chaos Battle first.

I brushed my b.u.t.t and stood up as I headed closer to the statue.

Once I arrived again at an area full of people, it became loud once more. I had to hear all the chatter even though I didn"t want too.

There were quite a few interesting information amog it though.

"What? They are putting in five Valkyries?"

"You didn"t know? It was three until last year, but it is five starting this year."

"Those d.a.m.n Shapir punks. They are blinded by greed."

Valkyrie. I heard about them on my way here as well. They are not real players but partic.i.p.ants made from magic.

But their abilities are at a different level.

The reason for that is because they were created with magic based on the strongest partic.i.p.ants of all past winners. So it was no wonder that they were the strongest presence.

To the partic.i.p.ants, they were pretty much just like the grim reaper.

Because of that, there was a winner every year, but it was not easy for it to have a champion. If you cannot defeat the Valkyrie, you cannot become the champion.

I was starting to get nervous as well.

"What level would the strongest partic.i.p.ants in history be at? Will it be difficult for me to handle them as well?"

But it was a good nervousness. It was only a virtual death in the Chaos Battle.

But there was a voice that brought me out of my trance.

"He"s that punk from earlier."

I turned my head.

It was the young man that asked me to be a a part of his party earlier. The one that had over two hundred party members of either slaves or servants.

As soon as he made eye contact with me, the young man started to smile.

"I"m glad I found you. I told you that you will regret it for rejecting my offer. Hoho, I will make sure you are sent back out as soon as we head in."

Once the young man signaled, some big dudes surrounded me.

What is he trying to do?

Ah, I think I figured it out. If we enter in close proximity to each other, we must start in a similar location in the arena as well.
So he plans on keeping me near him and killing me as soon as we start the battle?

"Tsk tsk, you poor fools!"

______________________________________
[1] Korean term for youngest. I thought it"d be weird to say youngest! So I put maknae.

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