According to the system, the Third Phase would randomly select participants and send them to one of the many Mirages available. As they arrived, they would be “Soul-bound” with the said Mirages. If the players weren’t satisfied with the accumulated scores and ranking after they finished challenging the Mirage, they were allowed to reset their scores and challenge the Mirage again from scratch.

The system would then pick the highest scores amongst the players’ various attempts. Then, they would be sorted into the leaderboard accordingly…

It was already 1:20pm! Most players had finished their respective battles in the third level of the Mythical Mirage…

The scores of the Top Player and the top two hundred players on the leaderboard were between 80,000 to 100,000 points.

Then, the rest of the ranked players up to the Top ten thousand players had about 60,000 points. And most of them were quite close and only deviated from one another by very minor margins in their scores.

Nonetheless, their achievement was still astounding…

Some players even predicted on the Official Forum that to squeeze into the Top ten thousand, one ought to acquire more than 50,000 points and to become the Top twenty, one should acquire around 180,000 to 200,000 points. Many players believed the predicted stats and used it as a rough guide…

Unexpectedly, this prediction had been squashed right after the Second Phase. Most players and champions had completely overshot the 50,000 points threshold while the players who only had 50,000 points were probably squatting at various corners in the cities, wiping their tears in defeat.

Other than that, the players’ points were increasing at a rapid rate—to the point it was almost impossible for one to become one of the top ten thousands even if they acquired 60,000 points…

That was not all.

The players’ scores on the leaderboard were fluctuating all the time.

The more retries the players attempted in the Mirages they were bound to, the more experienced they become. They had been gradually getting used to the unique attributes and capabilities of the monsters inside the Mirages, making them more effective in taking down the monsters as time passed, and as a result, scoring higher in subsequent retries.

If they could kill one more Tier 5 or Tier 6 Monster, it would be another score of thousands cashing in! And if they became better in time management, they could even defeat a few Mini Bosses or even Bosses, netting them another 60,0000 and 70,000 points respectively.

And there was one player who had been breaking through the Top Three on and off. This one originally had around 107,000 points, when it suddenly it shot up to 126,000 points…

This player’s name was “Genteel Monk”.

Then, he rose up to number one. His score was about 19,000 points apart from the player on the second place on the leaderboard!

In a mere 5 minutes, this new Demon Faction clan the “Shaolin Temple” now had a new Level 53 Titanwraith Berserker rising quickly to fame!

Countless players looked at his achievements in awe. His scores kept rising and rising… then, it finally stopped and hovered around 151,00 points. The player who was in second place needed to earn another 40,000 to keep up to him!

This led to various players, both online and offline, applauding for him. It was quite difficult for one to acquire 150,000 points. In order to score such a bounty, one would need to defeat at least six Bosses, each netting 25,000 points. That or, he would need to kill even more Bosses that were on the lower Tier.

Or, perhaps he would need to defeat several high Tier Bosses…

This feat was surely difficult for any Veteran Champion to outdo.

***

“Haha!”

“Finally! First place!”

“Oh, those Black Witches are now beneath us! Haha!”

“Black Witches? Hmph. Our Boss even had Zeus and Death Cult firmly squashed under his boots!”

“Yeah, our Shaolin Temple is going to be famous now!”

“The Leaderboard is now slowing down in terms of score advancing. The second place is now 40,000 points away from Boss. I think, it should be quite easy for Boss to stay on the top till the end of the Last Man Standing Contest.”

Several players, bearing golden “Shaolin Temple” insignia, sat near the Sin City’s Warp Portal. As they cheered in excitement, several other players around them looked on with envy and jealousy.

Even though the fame was most likely temporary, to be able to compete against billions of players and climb to the top of the Leaderboard was indeed something worth celebrating for.

Genteel Monk, who stood in the middle of his clan members, was smiling with joy. Yet, he didn’t allow this victory got over his head. As his underlings mentioned the likes of Sinistress and Savior, Genteel Monk quickly stopped them…

“No!”

“Those Veteran Champions had not even shown their hands yet. Besides, the final result isn’t even out… when it’s out, things could still turn out…differently.”

Genteel Monk was one of the newly risen Champions in the Demon Faction. He was denied membership of all the Leagues due to him offending one of the Field Commanders in the Black Witch League. In a way, he was one of the oppressed unknown-Champions.

Then, massive disarray and disunity erupted amongst the Demon Faction’s players due to the Fall of Sin City. This, however, was a golden opportunity for Genteel Monk to rise up to power, to establish his own clan, the “Shaolin Temple”…

Being able to gain some spotlight in the third level of the Mythical Mirage was a massive win for him.

Now that he had showed the world what he was capable of, “Shaolin Temple” would soon become a force to be reckoned with.

After Genteel Monk stopped them, his underlings didn’t stop but continued on with the discussion.

“Boss, you’re too humble.”

“Yeah, you’re no weaker than the Veteran Champions. If it’s not due to that damn fool from the Black Witch League… with your fame and achievement, who would dare to oppress you like how they did back then? I think we should expand! We’ll invite more rising Champions into our clan… and we’ll become bigger and more powerful than Death Cult and Satan’s Salvation.”

Even though Genteel Monk agreed with what they said, he was not too arrogant to the point where he would clash with someone like Savior.

Indeed, it was quite difficult for him to believe that Savior and Sinistress could defeat a Tier 6 Megaboss or a Tier 4 Ultimate Boss in a short half an hour. Nonetheless, these two were dominatingly strong. Their strengths and combat prowess were so impregnable that it was almost terrifying to even test the water. Even though he was a Veteran Champion, if he lacked only a little experience, he would be instantly crushed by these two behemoths.

Genteel Monk didn’t feel that he was strong enough to compete to be one of the Top Three players in the Demon Faction…

Even though these Veteran Champions hadn’t acquired more than 6000 points or reached the Top Hundred yet, genteel Monk knew that these people were still researching for the quickest and best ways to deal with the third level of Mythical Mirage.

And when they finally acted…

There would be a storm brewing up in the Leaderboard!

And… it wouldn’t be long before they took action too.

It had been an hour since the third level started.

Two sessions had passed.

They should have completed their scouting and recon at the areas near them. As for the areas that were far away, it would have taken up too much time to research. It wouldn’t be worth it.

Genteel Monk had a hunch.

It wouldn’t take long for the impending “storm on the Leaderboard” to brew up!

And then, everyone would get to see soon enough if these Veteran Champions could kill Tier 6 Megabosses or Tier 5 Ultimate Bosses in half an hour.

***

After stepping out of the Mythical Mirage, Qin Ruo had already finished researching all the Bosses within 1.5 kilometers. Information like their attributes, tiers and yielding points were now all quite clear to him.

This time.

Qin Ruo didn’t step into Mythical Mirage right away. He quickly summoned up the Leaderboard and checked. He wanted to know how everyone’s progress especially the Veteran Champions like Sinistress, Savior, Majestic Hero and Netherclaw.

And it was as he expected.

Up to this point, these Veteran Champions’ scores were quite underwhelming… some of them, like Sinistress, was still stagnant at zero points, which meant they had not even slain one monster yet.

Among the Veteran Champions, the one with the highest score was, unexpectedly, himself. These scores were the result of him fighting a Tempest Eagle earlier…

He didn’t really want to kill the Tempest Eagle. All he wanted to do was to just test the water. He wanted to see just how strong and fast the Tier 6 Megaboss “Tempest Eagle” was, to see if this Boss would present a threat… consequently killing two Tempest Eagles along the way. He didn’t think this would put him in the Leaderboard’s spotlight at all.

“Heh.”

What irony.

Qin Ruo smiled wryly to himself; then, stood at the same place for quite some time recalling everything that he had learned about the Mythical Mirage. Soon after, he made the decision to kill the first and also the hardest Tier 5 Overlord that he had encountered earlier, “Jebel Pangolin”!

Of course, there were also other Bosses that also fit in Qin Ruo’s targets. However, the difficulties were too overwhelming for him as there were too many monsters guarding in the area. It would be difficult for him to take down the Boss alone. Any monster in the area would become an obstacle leading to more wasted time and potential oversight. The battles in the Mythical Mirage were very dangerous, and thus, there was no room for error.

Jebel Pangolin had two hordes of powerful Pangolin monsters defending him to their last breaths. Surely enough, they could also be a dangerous mob to take on… Still, after attacking twice, Qin Ruo noticed that he had one great advantage that he could exploit.

The beach.

Yes, these Pangolin’s burrows were very near to the ocean. If he were to avoid battles on the ground or in the sky, the ocean would provide him with a really great geographical advantage and also in decreasing the threat of the Pangolin horde.

After deciding his target, all he needed to do next was to carry out some battle preparations. His target was under the protection of hundreds of Tier 6 Pangolin monsters all protecting their “king”, the Tier 5 Overlord “Jebel Pangolin”. Qin Ruo was no fool. He wouldn’t have so arrogantly charge into their turf alone.

“Dino.”

Qin Ruo sent a private message to Dinosaurcerer.

“Oh, a private message at this hour… what do you want from me?”

“Heh, you’re a smart cookie indeed.”

“Can it and just spill it out, will ya? If you’re not private-messaging me at this dire hour for some favor, then you must be trying to flirt with me, right?”

Dinosaurcerer was always sharp as ever. “Just say it. What do you need?”

“Heh, I just want you to know… don’t rush into the Mirage just yet… I need you to help seal a monster for me…”

“Seal a monster? At this hour? Is this related to your target?” Dinosaurcer’s guess was still spot on as usual. “You can count on me. What monster?”

“You know where to find a Soldier Ant, right?”

“Yeah, of course. But why do you need that? Sure, the shell of the Soldier Ant is quite sturdy. It has one of the highest defenses amongst the monsters. But haven’t I sealed some Tier 5 Minibosses for you before? Aren’t those better?”

“Just tell me if you can seal it?”

“Yes, you can count on me. Just give me some time.”

“You have at least half a day.”

“Fuck, are you trying to say I’m incompetent? Just you wait. I’ll have it right away!”

Dinosaurcerer angrily barked at Qin Ruo.