Inside the invading plane.

An orc shaman was kneeling before a figure clad in dark armor inscribed with enchanted runes.

Most orcs living in the plane would wear worn-out beast skin, which left the armored figure looking mismatched with its surroundings.

“Lord Arek, outside the portal… a lone human had killed more than a hundred soldiers.” The orc shaman was reporting with a panickily to the armored figure.

His head dropped to the ground right after he finished as the armored knight called Arek turned. His armor appeared to be a metal forged from some creature’s bones, with pale-blue flames lit in the slits.

His longsword was dripping with scarlet blood.

“You inferior orcs have less than one-tenth of your ancestor’s strength. I was naïve to hope that you lot could consume this plane.”

Arek kicked away the orc corpse and slowly made his way towards the dimensional rift that was shining palely nearby.

Food Street of River Town was on the other side.

At the moment, the entire lane had been completely destroyed by the legion of orcs. Merchandises in the shops on both ends of the streets had burned down, with two of the orcs engaging in a deadly struggle over a piece of fried chicken.

Nonetheless, they were blown into pieces in the next split second by a shot of Aura Cannon. The fried chicken rolled and reached Arek’s feet, along with the orcs’ heads, their eyes still open.

“I am surprised…” Arek crushed the orc head beneath his foot and looked up.

The pale blue flame beneath the eye-slit of the metal bone helm dance, the fire reflecting Zhao Mingwei’s Aura Bender form.

“To think that a powerful mage such as you exists in a world so weak, all magic and spiritual influence has withered.”

Arek scraped his blade over his brace, and evil runes appeared over his longsword.

“Are you their Boss?” Zhao Mingwei used an inspection spell on Arek, and the monster’s information was instantly revealed to him.

[Arek, Vanguard of the Fallen Legion]

[Boss, Abyssal, Overlord-class]

[Level: 35]

[HP: ???]

Overlord Boss?

Zhao Mingwei no longer underestimated Arek when he saw that he was facing a Level 35 Boss.

In Sacred Souls, the Boss of the highest level he had fought was Level 27, and most of the orcs he destroyed with a single shot of Aura Cannon averaged at Level 20.

There was no doubt that a Level 35 Boss could instantly kill him.

“I can smell your fear,” Arek said as he slowly approached Zhao Mingwei. “But you have nowhere to run.”

Run?

From the perspective of a professional gamer, Zhao Mingwei’s most correct decision at the moment was indeed to run, although fighting monsters of higher levels were a challenge that most hardcore players enjoyed.

But to fight a monster ten levels above himself? Either that hardcore player was an idiot or there was a bug in the game.

That being said, this was the real world and not the game world.

Zhao Mingwei turned to glance at Food Street which was in flames, thinking that he’s not going to be eating at the fried chicken shop anytime soon.

No… if something happened to the boss of the fried chicken shop, wouldn’t there be no fried chicken at all from now on?

His mind was a mess—he was not sure whether he would really die if he died in the real world.

However, what made him resolved himself was the new information his inspection spell provided him.

[Item drop from Abyssal Overlord]

[Spectral Ring, Memory of the Light Elves, Gloves of Salvation, Landbird Reins…]

The rows of items were worked like the devil’s charm, luring Zhao Mingwei to the embrace of death.

Be that as it may, he no longer had time to hesitate—Arek had already reached him, his evil runic sword stabbing towards him.

Zhao Mingwei pivoted his foot and leaned away to evade the strike, while his left hand clenched and released a fighter-class jab!

His strike was accompanied by the Aurabeast’s roar, and the silhouette of the tiger-dragon promptly bit towards Arek’s stomach.

The jab found its target, the sound of fist hitting armor and bursting bolts was extraordinarily clear in Zhao Mingwei’s ears.

[-130]

A good damage number leaped out over Arek’s head, and Zhao Mingwei could clearly feel his violent aura hitting inside the monster’s body.

“You have power!” Arek exclaimed although he remained unscathed, as light burst out from the inscriptions on his sword and it cut quickly towards Zhao Mingwei’s neck.

That swing was too quick!

Zhao Mingwei could not dodge at all, and even before he could direct his aura to parry the runic sword had cut through the air, scraping towards his neck.

He felt the cool touch over his jugular, and promptly leaped backwards to put some distance between himself and Arek.

He touched his neck—there were neither scars nor did his head drop to the ground.

Even so, a major chunk of his HP had dropped rapidly.

[-1632]

As an Aura Bender, Zhao Mingwei’s HP value was quite low—amounting to only 2700 points, and Arek’s strike had shredded more than half of that value.

“You’re not human.” Arek’s twitching soul flame revealed surprise. He simply couldn’t understand what Zhao Mingwei was supposed to be.

On the other hand, Zhao Mingwei had no strategy against the Boss either. Its body was small but it attacked swiftly, not to mention that it couldn’t be stopped halfway through its attacks!

And it’s Level 35! Did the official designer create such a Boss to harvest player EXP?

Hang on…

Official…

“Are you a monster from Sacred Souls?” Zhao Mingwei asked Arek loudly, curious about the orcs’ origins.

“Sacred Souls? What is that?” I am a warrior of the great Fallen Legion in search of new hunting grounds for my master, and this plane is quite ideal. What are you compare to that?” Arek abruptly leaped up again, stabbing towards Zhao Mingwei with his longsword again without waiting for an answer.

After all, he was just a tiny obstacle in the invasion of a new world. There wouldn’t be anyone else to challenge him if Zhao Mingwei falls right here.

Zhao Mingwei tried to leap backwards again when he saw the sword coming but stopped halfway.

He looked down to find his feet caught by a half-transparent hand.

[You have been bound!]

In the instant Zhao Mingwei saw that system notification, he also found Arek’s longsword swinging towards him, and felt a faint fear of death right then.

He closed his eyes… but seconds passed without the death alert ringing beside his ears.

Instead, he heard another new alert.

[Free Milk has cast Sacred Protection on you!]

Zhao Mingwei’s eyes widened the instant he heard that ring—Arek’s longsword had struck a magical barrier, although it was rapidly crumbling.

However, even as Arek tried to break the magical barrier and strike Zhao Mingwei fatally, he was hit with a fireball in the face.

Zhao Mingwei turned to find Jiang Qiao, who had appeared beside him sometime, staff in hand.

“Let me answer you. We…” Jiang Qiao gently swished his staff, glaring at the warrior of the Fallen Legion. “Are gamers!”

His voice echoed throughout the burning Food Street.

“It doesn’t matter how many weaklings—” Arek said, but was promptly interrupted by another fireball in his face. Then, an arrow hit his chest armor after the fireball faded, followed by a missile just beside his feet that forced him to stumble a few steps backwards.

Was there an end to it?

The answer was no.

The missile was just a beginning. Arek would soon be hit continuously by frost arrows, thunderbolts, arcane blasts, laser bursts, ice grenades, dark-light slashes—every sort of attack from the medieval ages to the futuristic, science-fiction eras.

Enraged, Arek drew a magic barrier with his sword to block the focused barrage of attacks.

Behind the barrier, he could see weirdly-dressed figures appearing one after another behind Jiang Qiao.

Above their heads were a bunch of weird names Arek did not understand at all, such as MapleFlame, BeerBucketWilderness, HandsareShakingbeforeFeedback, BundleofDespair and BigTailWolf.

However, what left Arek’s heart beating quickly was the way they were staring at him.

It was as if he was a scrumptious feast.

“Let’s kick off round two.” Jiang Qiao said as he summoned his water spirit and fire spirit.

Now, the number of players in the Abyssal Hunt zone had leaped from three to three hundred and seventy-two.

Zhao Mingwei looked at the other players—some of whom were familiar faces—and smiled bitterly.

Wouldn’t the item dropped by the roaming Boss be snatched away, then?

Even so, he understood something then:

Gamers are never alone!