Chapter 16: Don’t you have anything you must protect!?

In the wake of the new Demon Emperor’s rise and the apocalyptic vision it brought, many people had fallen into despair.

“Are you really willing to do nothing and just die without even knowing why!?”

Boyang roared.

He was furious—furious at their cowardice.

“Of course we’re not!” someone shouted back.

Boyang locked eyes with him.

“Then join us and change this damned fate together! If we resist, there’s still a sliver of hope. But if we sit here waiting to die—what good will that do? Don’t you have something to protect? Family? Friends?”

His words struck deep, shaking the hearts of the players around him.

Some thought of their parents.

Some thought of their siblings.

Some thought of their lovers.

Some thought of close friends.

One thought of his hard drive filled with 10TB of adult videos.

Another thought of his display case filled with anime figures…

“Damn it, I’m in!”

“Let’s fight them!”

“I have to protect my precious Alice-chan!”

“We’re with you!”

As he watched the once-defeated crowd come back to life, Boyang finally felt a bit of relief.

If it were just the Black Gold Guild alone, they wouldn’t last long in this game.

Cannon fodder—there always had to be cannon fodder.

‘All that talk?’ He hadn’t said it out of kindness.

“Alright! We’re on high ground, and they’re down below. Use the terrain to our advantage—we can win this!”

Boyang’s fighting spirit blazed.

The others, seemingly inspired by him, grew just as fired up.

They began picking up large stones from the ground nearby.

They were ready to face off against the approaching lizard monsters!

***

In the blink of an eye, three massive lizards—each easily twice the size of the normal ones and covered in fiery red scales—started charging up the slope.

The battle had begun.

“Crush them!” Boyang shouted.

Players clutching rocks hurled them downward with all their might.

Screams of the monsters echoed through the area.

After a short while, two of the lizards—both nearly at the top—had their skulls smashed and lay motionless, dead beyond any doubt.

The last one, bloodied and broken, seemed just as lifeless.

One bold player started walking down to confirm the kill.

Boyang opened his mouth to stop him—

But suddenly, a sharp twist in the scene—

The seemingly dead lizard surged back to life.

Its mouth flew open and a torrent of searing flames erupted forward.

The player had no time to dodge.

His body was instantly engulfed in fire, burning fiercely.

This wasn’t any normal flame.

“Aaaargh! It hurts! Help me!”

Hearing his anguished screams, someone tried to rush in and help—

But Boyang grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t go! That fire is strange!”

“But he—”

“Do you want to die for nothing too?” Boyang snapped.

“…” The player fell silent, finally thinking more clearly.

At this point, charging in would be no different from a moth to a flame.

Thud!

The burning player barely took a few steps before collapsing to the ground, completely lifeless.

Everyone watched in horror as his body gradually melted into the flames.

“Urgh!” Someone vomited on the spot.

“From now on, no one moves without my command,” Boyang said coldly.

“Otherwise, you’ll end up just like him.”

To Boyang, the player who acted on his own was as good as dead anyway—his death served as a perfect warning.

“Y-Yes…” one player responded, still shaken.

He had also been about to approach the giant lizard’s corpse.

If that guy hadn’t moved first, it could’ve been him lying dead right now.

More voices echoed with reluctant agreement.

Boyang was satisfied with the result.

Then, he personally finished off the dying giant lizard.

He believed that after this incident, no one in the group would dare act on their own again.

After waiting a while to confirm the three giant lizards were completely dead, Boyang led a few brave players to carefully dissect the corpses, extracting anything they thought might be useful.

Once that was done, they continued on their journey.

***

Meanwhile, Ye Lian had no idea what was happening outside—and had no interest in knowing either.

She had reached a dead end.

To move forward, she would either have to break through a stone wall or cross the river to the other side.

“Don’t tell me those monsters ran away just because they were scared of me?”

The fact that she’d encountered nothing along the way left her rather disappointed.

The Demon Emperor’s aura was indeed terrifying for low-level Nightmare creatures.

It wouldn’t be surprising if they’d fled from the area entirely.

“That path looks like it continues.”

She looked toward the far side of the river, hesitated briefly, then stepped into the water.

“Brrr, that’s cold~” Even though she was covered in white armor, her body still felt everything as usual.

Quite the mystery, really.

“Huh? What’s down there…”

Suddenly, she felt something wrapping around her legs.

Looking down, she saw a swarm of razor-toothed mutant fish gnawing at her divine gear.

The sensation was ticklish—oddly comfortable.

“Just when I was complaining about the lack of monsters, you guys come rushing in. Crossing the river was clearly the right move.”

With spear in hand, she launched a flurry of thrusts.

The spear pierced through several fish, blood spilling everywhere.

When the blood hit the water, the fish only got more frenzied, more aggressive.

Some even leapt from the water to bite at the spear—or at Ye Lian herself.

“Ugh, gross. The stench is unbearable.”

With a disgusted look, she slapped away a fish that had latched onto her.

Then she activated the wind power in her spear, unleashing a storm of blade-like gusts that shredded the surrounding fish.

In the end, she crossed the river with ease.

[Level Up: 5]

“Level 5 already,” she noted, glancing at her status screen.

“Still feels kind of slow.”

If the players outside, currently fighting for their lives against Nightmare beasts, heard her say that—they’d probably cough up blood in rage.