CH 364

Da Zhuang took a step back in surprise from the sudden, oppressing aura that Ellie was emitting.

“Pin… Pinnacle?”

The sword that slashed his skill was not Half-Pinnacle. It was, without a mistake, a complete and perfect Pinnacle.

Aerod, the God of Abilities and Disasters, had bestowed the earth with eight of the strongest, and most powerful forces. Among them, there was a power that was so strong that it was said that no human could ever achieve its Pinnacle. But right now, Ellie was using that very skill.

Then, Ellie suddenly disappeared from Da Zhuang’s sight. He hastily tried to activate his defensive skills, but Ellie was already standing in front of him before he could even do so.

“Da Zhuang. Make sure to feel the difference between us.”

Ellie’s cold voice pierced through Da Zhuang’s ears.

“Lamenting Sword.”

Wails and cries of lament rang loudly the moment those words ended.

Shwaaaaaaaaaaa—

Shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—

The sounds that flowed through Da Zhuang’s ears were clearly that of a sword swinging, but he could feel the despair and sorrow from within those sounds. And the moment that feeling engulfed him…

Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!

…hundreds of invisible sword blades pierced through Da Zhuang’s body.

“Keuaaaaaaaaaack!” Da Zhuang screamed loudly as he slowly collapsed to the ground.

Ellie turned her head towards Xu Jiaqi, Arcas, and Anox. Then, the notifications rang in their heads.

[You are subjected to the Absolute Supreme NPC’s Killing Intent.]

[All of your skills and abilities have been reduced by 40%.]

[The cooldown for all of your skills and abilities has increased by 40%.]

[Your resistance to abnormal status has decreased and reached below 50%.]

‘Did… did you just say Supreme NPC…?’

Xu Jiaqi, Arcas, and Anox all gulped dryly at the title that they had never encountered before.

***

Special Players Management Team.

Lee Minhwa, with various snacks on hand, was shocked after what she saw during her usual monitoring duties.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep—

This was because the monitor was flashing an ominous red color.

“Team, Team Leader!”

Team Leader Park rushed to her table when he heard her call. He asked, “What is it again this time?”

The moment Team Leader Park reached her table, he saw the words blinking on the monitor screen that was flashing with a red warning.

[Empress Ellie, one of the Absolute Supreme NPCs of the Continent, has awakened.]

Athenae’s executives and management departments immediately convened a meeting the moment the warning appeared. President Kang Taehoon sat solemnly in the center of the conference room, with both of his hands clasped together under his chin.

“The Absolute Supreme NPC that should only appear two years later has awakened…”

Each continent had quite a number of Supreme NPCs among them. There were more than 100 Supreme NPCs if they tallied all of the Supreme NPCs present in all of the continents. However, the Absolute Supreme NPCs were an entirely different classification for NPCs, and they were only scheduled to awaken two years from now. Compared to the Supreme NPCs, the Absolute Supreme NPCs numbered only seven at most.

In fact, they were scheduled to open this classification during a step-by-step process and release of episodes. It was supposed to happen only after the servers had integrated, and Ellie would then start dreaming of integrating the continents. Once Ellie realized that her powers were limited after she had achieved the continent integration, she would try to awaken herself to become the Absolute Supreme NPC. Once she achieved that, she would then be known as ‘Continental Empress Ellie’.

In the first place, Ellie was an NPC with great influence, not only in Korea, but across the entire continent. And the power that she would come to possess later had appeared faster than they expected. Would there be a problem with the balance? No. That was not the problem at all.

“There’s a high chance that Absolute Supreme NPC Ellie may die…”

The Absolute Supreme NPCs were pivotal existences for the direction of the future updates. But Ellie had already opened up and released her power as an Absolute Supreme NPC. This meant that the strength that she had sealed for a long time had awakened. In the first place, she was the woman that was supposed to reach and awaken the highest and strongest Pinnacle.

The problem was that her current body would not be able to handle that much power. There was even a high chance that the power would turn on her and gradually devour her, until she died.

“Anyone have any suggestions or ideas for a way to deal with this?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

All of them went silent. None of them could think of a definite method. They were sure that she would be devoured by that power in the end.

Then, Team Leader Park expressed his opinion, “Currently, there’s only one person that will try to change the situation at hand.”

All of them turned to look at Team Leader Park.

The truth was that the Athenae operators and administrators did not usually engage in the game, and would only intervene if there was a chance of a huge imbalance happening. It was the case right now. Even though they wanted to save Ellie, they still would not get involved. That was why Team Leader Park thought of only one person.

“This person cares and loves Ellie more than anybody else. He’s none other than Player Minhyuk. I’m sure that he will do anything to save her.”

All of the people present frowned, with the exception of President Kang Taehoon. He was the only one that looked at Team Leader Park in interest.

“Team Leader Park, he might be the Food God, but do you really think that player will be able to come up with a solution to this situation?”

“I can’t say with certainty if he will be able to do it or not. But compared to us, who are helpless and can’t do anything, Player Minhyuk will surely do something, anything, just to save her.”

“That’s right. Player Minhyuk loves Ellie very much. Besides, Ellie also holds him dearly in her heart.”

The two were so close that they even called each other siblings. In fact, the two of them had a strong bond that was far beyond a simple sibling relationship.

President Kang Taehoon smiled at the thought. Seeing him smile, the rest of the people turned to him. Then, he said, “If Player Minhyuk can solve this problem that we don’t have any solution for, he will become Ellie’s benefactor, on top of being her younger brother. The very same Ellie that will become the Continental Empress.”

***

Xu Jiaqi’s body trembled wildly. It only took one move to make Da Zhuang collapse. Even Da Zhuang’s most powerful Pinnacle skill was split in half by Ellie’s light sword strike.

‘What… what the hell is an Absolute Supreme NPC…?!’ Xu Jiaqi thought, as Ellie appeared in front of her.

Claaaaang!

Xu Jiaqi quickly used her Pinnacle Reflection to counter Ellie’s swinging sword. However, even though the hit was a simple and direct one, a shocking notification rang in Xu Jiaqi’s ears.

[You cannot reflect the attacks of an Absolute Supreme NPC.]

Clatter!

The mirror was helpless under the assault of the attack. It easily broke in half, as the sword continued on to cut Xu Jiaqi’s body.

“Keuhaaaaack!”

Xu Jiaqi was horroried at the reality that was in front of her. Just that one hit was enough to reduce her HP by 70%. The scariest part was the fact that Ellie only drew her sword gently, but it had already pierced deep through her chest.

Ellie then turned to look at the rushing Arcas, pulled her sword out from Xu Jiaqi’s chest, before placing it back in the scabbard on her waist and pulling it out again.

“Splitting Moonlight.”

Shwaaaaaaaaa—

Ellie was able to utilize all of the power and skills that she could use the moment she awakened to Pinnacle. Those included the chapters of the skills related to the Pinnacle. Among all of Quick Draw skills, Splitting Moonlight was the best. The skill could ignore 80% of the enemy’s physical defense, and could deal 2,000% damage once she cut them.

“Keheooook!”

Arcas’s defense was very high. There were not many players who could even deal a scratch on Arcas’ body. However, Ellie’s sword was able to cut Arcas’ body. And that was not all, hundreds of sword lights with unbelievable force and slashing power also flew out of her sword towards Anox.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Anox’s body disappeared under the onslaught of the hundreds of sword lights. Then, just like before, the others also disappeared from the ground and turned into jelly.

“I finally found how you can come back to life,” Ellie said, sneering.

Xu Jiaqi, Da Zhuang, Arcas and Anox were all shocked and astonished.

‘She… she already saw through it?’

They knew that they were finished the moment she discovered their secrets. Even Da Zhuang shook in fear when he saw the insurmountable wall that separated him from her. When Ellie took a step forward, Da Zhuang panicked and fell on his buttocks.

Thud—

“This… this can’t be happening…”

The Legendary NPC, Da Zhuang, was so powerful that he could make anyone flinch from fear. However, just one step from the dignified and absolute being, Ellie, and he was already down on the ground.

At that crucial moment, blood suddenly spurted out of Ellie’s mouth.

“Urk…?”

Ellie felt the blood flow from her mouth.

‘It seems like my body can’t stand this much force…?’

Perhaps, this was the reason why her father had sealed this power with a sealing stone before. But, she knew could not fall down here. She tried to use her remaining strength to swing her sword again, as her body fell down.

Collapse—

“Ha… hahahahaha!”

“Ho… hohohoho. Won, we won…!”

Xu Jiaqi, Da Zhuang and the Black Dragon Order felt lucky that they survived.

“Hurry up and kill her!” Xu Jiaqi said.

Everyone agreed with her. Da Zhuang also thought of the same thing. When he saw how powerful Ellie was, he decided that it was better to kill her off than chase other ‘Pinnacle’ skills.

Just when they were approaching here with all of their attacking skills…

Vwooooong—

A man covered with fluttering black currents of energy appeared in front of Ellie. The man that appeared definitely used Blink. Xu Jiaqi and the rest of the Black Dragon Order were very familiar with this man.

“Black… Black Mage Ali?”

Black Mage Ali glared coldly at the members of the Black Dragon Order. He said, “My friend will come to collect this debt soon.”

When the last word fell from his mouth, bright lights covered Ellie and the rest of the citizens of Eivelis Empire, including the knights, the mages, and the players.

“Sh… shit…!”

He used a Mass Teleport that covered more than 1,500 players, and even included Ellie and the other NPCs! This act alone showed the world that Ali truly was the best mage in the world.

At the same time, the Black Dragon Order failed to obtain anything. They failed to kill Ellie, and harvest the proof of their overwhelming force. Instead of receiving praises, they even garnered curses after they tried to kill the fainted Ellie that they had pushed to this point. Just like that, the chatroom in BJ Luo’s broadcast was filled with curses.

[Ellie won.]

[No matter how much you look at it, Ellie is the one that won… The Black Dragon Order just tried to kill a person that already collapsed. Tsk. Tsk.]

[Even though we’re players from the same country, I feel so embarrassed with what they did.]

[The Black Dragon Order… No, they should be called the Moron Order, right? How can they fail to kill her? She already collapsed in front of them.]

[They’re a group of f*cking bastards. Hehehehehehehehehe. They said that they were strong, but in the end they couldn’t kill her. Sigh.]

The Black Dragon Order received constant criticisms from the viewers. And China would most likely continue to write articles about this. In the end, what the Black Dragon Order achieved was no different from a defeat against Ellie. They did not gain anything, and would only suffer blames, curses, and criticisms.

Meanwhile, the members of the Black Dragon Order were in doubt.

‘His friend will come to collect this debt?’

‘Who the hell is his friend?’

The same doubt ran through everyone’s heads: ‘Who is his friend?’

***

Minhyuk received a whisper.

[Ali: Fortunately, Her Majesty, Ellie, is safe. But, it looks like she’s in a bad shape right now. According to her aide, her body can’t withstand the force and power that she has awakened.]

[Minhyuk: I’m always grateful to you, Ali.]

Minhyuk wanted so desperately to run to where Ellie was when she was forced into a corner in that situation. Unfortunately, the distance between them was not something that he could traverse in an instant.

However, Minhyuk was aware of what he needed to do. He needed to climb further and awaken the Pinnacle. But before he did so, he asked the members of the Let’s Eat Sect for help. Among the members, Ali was the only one that was closest to the village.

Then, Conir suddenly said, “You have only learned the first chapter.”

There were still three chapters left for Minhyuk to learn. That was when another whisper from Ali came.

[Ali: Her Majesty, Ellie, woke up for a moment. She told me to deliver a message to you, Minhyuk.]

Minhyuk was currently taking a break after learning the first chapter. This was because the Pinnacle was very hard and strenuous to learn. Not long after, Ali sent the words that Ellie wanted to tell Minhyuk.

[Ali: Minhyuk, I’m alright. Don’t worry about me.]

“…”

Minhyuk went silent.

Even though Ellie only gained consciousness for a moment, she still knew that Minhyuk would be worried about her, so she said those words.

Minhyuk quickly rose to his feet and said, “Let’s continue with the next chapter.”

His goals had been set. He would hunt the Black Dragon Order, and save Ellie from the force that was eating away at her body.