NOVEL NEXT Chapter 200: Roland
"So you're Richard?" the man said.
And Richard simply shrugged in response.
For an arrogant and aggressive man like this, he was too lazy to talk.
Seeing that Richard didn't answer and only shrugged, Roland's expression darkened.
To him, this was the same as being ignored—and he had never been ignored in his entire life.
But he didn't rush to speak again.
He examined the people around Richard.
When his gaze landed on Gray, he immediately dismissed him as if he were just a fly.
When he looked at Elise, he seemed to recognize someone familiar, yet his reaction remained rather flat.
However, Grace—whose beauty was one level above Elise—made his eyes sharpen as he examined her face and slender figure, openly showing his admiration.
Unfortunately, his gaze only made Grace knit her brows in irritation.
She usually didn't care about admiring gazes, but this time, being stared at by a man who resembled a wild gorilla… of course she was uncomfortable.
Richard was displeased by the way Roland looked at her.
In response, he raised his middle finger, placing it right in front of Grace's face so Roland would see it clearly.
He even wiggled the finger mockingly.
"Never seen a beautiful woman before?" Richard said when the man looked back at him.
"It's hard to find a woman this beautiful. Why? Is she your lover? So what if she is—if you're weak, I can take her from you, even sleep with her right in front of your eyes," Roland replied with a sinister expression.
Richard struggled to think of what to say after hearing such immoral words.
Should he respond equally—like threatening to sleep with the man's mother?
But Richard was worried Roland's mother was probably a huge woman with bulging muscles.
If things went that way, he might be the one getting assaulted instead.
(Richard, Roland is always like this. He's arrogant and cruel. Ignore him and deal with him later.) Elise suddenly sent him a message, noticing he was too lazy to reply.
However, Grace clearly wasn't pleased.
Anger flashed in her eyes.
Richard took her hand and held it, trying to calm her down.
It seemed Elise also sent Grace a message.
Fortunately, the woman chose to remain silent.
Richard could feel Roland's displeased gaze the moment he held Grace's hand, yet he still couldn't be bothered to speak, so he raised his middle finger again at Roland—almost as if telling him that he was the winner when it came to beautiful women.
"You brat, you're really arrogant." One of the men beside Roland wanted to step forward, but Roland stopped him.
Not because he wanted to, but because a group of people from the Limitless Temple had arrived.
Richard even saw John and his wife among them.
But they were merely walking behind.
Leading the group was an old man with a thick beard and a straight back—giving the impression of someone very old yet still full of vitality.
From his aura, Richard felt he was no weaker than even the Fire Spirit Queen.
"Ahem…" The old man cleared his throat.
Richard and the others were shocked. Immediately after he cleared his throat, the sky turned gray.
Those who were not in the World Realm vanished.
Richard realized they had been transported elsewhere, though visually, the place looked exactly like the Limitless City.
Only now, it was empty.
"Aooooo!"
"ROAR!"
"Ssssttt!"
Various beastly roars echoed from within the city.
Richard saw many massive beasts emerging simultaneously across the city.
Some even burst out from beneath the ground.
"It has begun," someone said.
"You all—kill as many beasts as you can in this city. Every beast grants a different number of points. Whoever gathers the highest score is the winner. Don't worry about danger—you cannot die in this world."
The old man's voice echoed, though his figure had already vanished.
"So it really begins!"
The others hurriedly flew toward the city.
But things were not as easy as they imagined.
A nine-headed serpent spewed massive black flames, engulfing many participants and reducing them to ash.
"What?!"
The sight terrified many.
"Idiots, this contest is for Peak World Realm. All the beasts here are basically Tier 50 and above."
"Hmph!" Roland suddenly grunted.
He transformed into a massive bolt of lightning, shooting forward at incredible speed, piercing through the black flames before appearing in front of the serpent.
RUMBLE!
Violent lightning exploded, swallowing the serpent and obliterating it instantly.
"So fast…" Even people as strong as Gray were shocked by the man's speed and power.
He was so fast that their eyes could barely track his movement.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Other members of the Thundervale Clan followed.
They weren't as fast as Roland, but still incredibly fast.
"The Thundervale Clan excels in speed and physical strength, and they can unleash massive amounts of lightning. That's why they are terrifying among noble clans of the Central Region," Elise explained.
But suddenly, Grace responded, "Such advantages aren't that hard to counter. There are many ways to make them helpless. If they were unstoppable, wouldn't they already be tyrants?"
Grace wore an expression of disdain.
Richard smiled at her words, knowing the reason for her confidence.
Her Domain.
If she used it, she could definitely suppress Roland.
"Grace, should we go together or separately?" Richard asked.
Working together was possible, but their points would be split in half.
A glowing energy screen appeared before Richard, showing his current points.
"Let's go separately. If we work together, I think it will only slow us down," Grace replied.
She was right—their attack power was already high enough to easily kill most beasts.
Combining attacks was pointless.
Richard smiled and nodded.
"I'll go east, you go west," Grace added.
After that, both immediately flew toward opposite directions.
Gray might team up with Elise, but that wasn't their concern, so none of them discussed it.
Flying west, Richard chose to fly high above, bypassing the beasts near the temple.
He didn't feel the need to fight them.
What he wanted were the beasts far away—the strong ones worth many points.
While flying high, it didn't take long before a massive eagle with wings sharp enough to split the air swooped toward him at high speed, looking at him as if he were a small fish to be devoured.
Richard knew that this eagle was even faster than he was. It wouldn't be difficult for it to chase him.
Richard's eyes locked sharply onto the eagle's eyes, sending a Mind Attack.
Shua!
The eagle suddenly seemed to lose all energy, like a car whose engine had abruptly died.
It jerked violently, even diving downward.
And Richard casually swung his blade, cutting the eagle cleanly into two.
(Point: 17!) +17
He watched his points instantly rise to 17 from the previous 0.
This made him smile, thinking it would be easy for him as long as the wild beasts were only around Tier 50 to 60. Even Tier 70 wouldn't be a problem for him.
Once he was far enough from the Temple of No Boundaries, he began descending.
He saw a nine-headed serpent exactly like the one Roland had killed.
As he approached, the serpent immediately spewed black flames toward him from its nine mouths.
Richard could feel the heat. It wasn't just hot enough to boil water—it could evaporate it.
However, if he couldn't handle this easily, he would practically be weaker than Roland.
Richard opened his mouth and breathed fire as well.
His flame was red but of higher quality, with a bright golden sheen—so hot that the black flames appeared to boil under its heat.
Most importantly, Richard's flame formed a fireball three times larger than the black flames of the serpent.
The serpent's eyes widened as Richard's fire effortlessly devoured its black flames and swallowed it whole without giving it a chance to dodge.
Buzz!
A burning sound erupted, and the serpent's entire body turned into ash.
(Point: 35!) +18
Richard gained more points—apparently one point higher than the eagle had given.
After incinerating the serpent, Richard saw three more of the same kind approaching.
The wild beasts here seemed to have no concept of fear. As long as a human was present, they would come and attack.
They all spewed black flames at Richard simultaneously, the combined power making the flames much larger.
Richard felt bored using only fire.
He was interested in using a different trick.
Two discs appeared in his hands.
Teleportation Discs, which allowed him to teleport to whichever disc he threw.
Whoosh!
He threw one of the discs with full strength, piercing through the wall of black fire.
The disc moved as fast as lightning when thrown forcefully.
In the next instant, Richard had already teleported, appearing behind the three serpents that were still spewing flames, unaware he was already behind them.
Richard casually sliced his blade across their backs. With one swing, all three bodies were cut cleanly in half.
(Point: 89!) +54
"I need to hurry. If it's only like this, someone else strong enough and fast-moving might gather even more," Richard said.
With that thought, he released a massive number of shadows, shaping them into various gigantic monsters.
They roared, and their roars shook the land.
Attack!
Richard commanded, and each one leaped in different directions.
Although in terms of killing efficiency they weren't as fast as he was, their sheer numbers would help him gather points much more quickly.
Of course, he himself would not stay still.
His eyes locked onto a gigantic tiger in the distance.
It was extremely ferocious. Each step it took crushed several buildings at once.
It kept roaring nonstop, as if announcing to everyone that it was the boss.
Compared to the serpents, Richard knew this tiger could give him far more points.