The Final Desperation

"So why are they attacking you anyways? From what I saw, they seem to be after something of yours," Genji asked after he caught up with the two teens.

"We got lucky when we completed an important mission. But because the NPC was so secretive about the information, those guys thought we obtained some powerful card so they wanted to rob us."

"I see. Do you know who those guys are?"

"Yeah. They are Eon, a guild that recently entered the game under the employment of a rich person. Those guys are hired to beat this game or something like that."

'What a name. It was as if they can't wait to tell EverRealm members that they are here. That being said, they must have joined when those cartridges were sold off a few days ago. I expected no less from them. To reach level 30ish in a few days. As for their Enforcers, they reached their late 30s. I'm afraid if I didn't get a head start and my strong cards at the start, I wouldn't have been able to keep up with them.'

"What a troublesome group. Do you know where their headquarters are?"

"In the game or reality?"

"Either."

"I can show you where they stay in the city."

Genji assumed Marks was talking about the game. If it was in reality, Marks would have told him the location rather than lead him there.

"Lead the way."

"Sure, but what do you want to do with them anyways?"

"Don't worry about it."

Genji had a feeling that if he said he was going to massacre some EonRealm members, he would receive a bigger backlash than the stunt he pulled off. He would be stupid to not remove them. Since he has the advantage, why wouldn't he take the initiative?

If he were to pull this stunt with his real stats, he would be in for a bad time. These people give Genji the feeling of a large team so trying to attack them would be very difficult.

"I wonder if I can convince The Guild to attack. On second thought, that would be tricky. Unless I can give them a reason to do so, chances are Seer will see through my ruse."

"We're here," Marks pointed at a small building in the distance.

"Thanks. You should go now."

"Don't do anything rash. They aren't a force to be messed with."

Marks had an inkling of what Genji had in mind but decided to warn him anyways.

"I won't."

"Well, I won't bother you any longer then. Let's go, Hunter."

Hunter came back from his daydreaming and followed his friend.

"Now that they are gone, let's see how long I need to stalk them before they leave the city."

The city was a safe zone. Trying to attack anyone would result in the guard hunting one down. Genji might consider this option if it wasn't for the fact he wanted to kill everyone here. Luckily, Genji didn't have to wait long.

Once they got news of their team's destruction, they quickly sent out a team to find out what had caused this. Genji waited for the team to come back before he left. Since there's no way to make them leave the city, he will give them a reason to do so.

 

---

 

"Sir Mordred. From what we managed to gather, it was a priest named Assassin who ambushed our group when they were arguing with two psychics."

"A priest? Was he alone?"

Mordred had a hard time believing a support class could have wiped out one of their teams. Wasn't that class the one with the weakest combat strength?

"Yes. It seems he used a variety of boss cards to instantly overwhelmed them. They didn't stand a chance."

IT wasn't surprising these people mistook Genji's class cards for boss cards. Since his class advanced, the power of his cards had a drastic increase. So much so that they rivaled the boss cards in power.

"Something's weird. Why does this person have so many boss cards? And why did he attack us? We shouldn't have any enmity with him."

Hearing the leader's question, the rogue's expression changed.

"Are you saying?"

"Yes. EverRealm."

"Shit! What's going on here? I heard that they had a rough start in this world and many of them are still in custody. How did such a strong team appear?"

As they were stressing over a potentially unforeseen competitor, the rogue got a message from a person. At first, he stared at this message in disbelief, but this soon turned to joy.

"Good news, sir Mordred. The priest has been found. He's grinding alone in the Snake Plains."

"Alone?"

"Yes. No party members were in sight."

"Do you think two teams would be enough to kill him before backup arrives?"

"I don't know sir. From what the spectators saw, the priest was very relaxed when he annihilated our team."

Mordred pondered for a few moments before giving an outrageous order.

"Gather everyone up. We're going to kill that priest. Since he was able to defeat an entire team by himself, he must play an important part in his party. Killing him would result in a huge setback for his team."

At this moment, Mordred fell for an unintended effect of the priest class. He could never have imagined that Genji was alone in his endeavors. To Mordred, being alone as a priest is suicidal. With its limited firepower, there's no way to grind levels unless they are in a party. He assumed the priest was waiting for his party members to meet up with him so they can continue grinding.

That's why Mordred gave such a daring order. He intends to kill this priest before he can meet up with these potentially powerful party members, no matter how wasteful it might seem. It was this decisiveness that allowed Mordred to become a champion of EonRealm.

 

---

 

Genji was using his cards in a very flashy way, trying to get as much attention as possible when he sensed many people approaching the area. Looking around, he realized he was surrounded by around two hundred EonRealm members. 

This was way more than he expected. Initially, Genji had intended to wipe out 2 or 3 teams before going on his way. With such a huge loss to their group, they would have to be careful in their plans. That way, Genji can buy more time for him to complete the mission and net EverRealm the win in the competition.

If possible, he would try to put himself in a bad situation to bait more teams to come after him so he can further cull their numbers. What he didn't expect is that someone can order such a large group with the sole goal of hunting him down.

"I guess I don't need to hold back."

Genji decided to go all out today. Since so many people are here, he might as well give EonRealm a big blow and remove them from the competition.

As Genji looked around, a path opened up, splitting the encirclement in half. A man in black armor walked down this path and stood across from Genji.

"As I expected. A member of EverRealm."

"Oh? You're the leader?"

"The one and only. Nothing personal, but you are too dangerous to let go."

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

"Kill him!"

Mordred didn't want to dally any longer and gave the order to end this. A large number of projectiles rained down on Genji and buried him without any room to breathe. A storm of dust clouded everyone's vision, but they continued attacking in order. No one has gotten the notification for the kill or they would have shouted it out. That's how it's always been.

"As I expected. Their teamwork is superb. It's like a military."

Genji admired the methods EonRealm used to achieve this as he blocked everything with multiple barrier cards.

"My barriers aren't going to last long. Let's get out of here."

Genji clicked on Shroud of Terror and appeared outside the area of attack. Mordred sensed the spatial fluctuation and turned to look at him.

"A card similar to the mage's blink? Your party is more capable than I thought."

"Compared to your realm's discipline, my group is nothing."

Genji isn't lying. Since he entered the game, he hasn't heard anything noteworthy about his group. He suspects that they might still be scrambling for a way to enter the game. Yet Mordred interrupted this differently. 

"It must be hard to work with people you don't know. That's the problem with EverRealm. Everyone is a wimp that has no team spirit. No one considers how to complete the mission, but rather spends their brain cells on saving their own lives, sacrificing their teammates if needed. And all of them stem from the lax code EverRealm employs."

"So why are you telling me this?"

"I feel pity for you. A talent that can achieve this much in a short time will perish today. If only you were a member of EonRealm."

Mordred let out a sigh of lament for the wasted potential of this talented member. EverRealm doesn't cherish its talents. It takes a laid-back approach and lets them develop by itself. He's seen plenty of talented people get buried by this. If only EverRealm actively trains people like EonRealm.

"And why do you think I will die?"

"I see that EverRealm didn't develop your thinking either. Open your eyes. You're surrounded with no way out."

Genji smiled crazily as if he heard the funniest joke in the world.

"I think you got something wrong. You're not the ones surrounding me."

Genji activated his Lethal Opportunity for the first time since it got upgraded. A ripple appeared in the air surrounding him. Then daggers flew out of these ripples as if they were traversing through a portal. If anyone takes the time to count, they would get 99 daggers, each coming out of their pocket dimension.

"I'm the one surrounding you. Behold."

Genji waved his hand and sent the daggers into the crowd. Blood splattered as everyone that touched these daggers got their health instantly emptied. Since the damage of the daggers hasn't achieved its standard, they remained in existence and attacked the next person.

"What the hell?"

Mordred finally process what Genji's said, but he doesn't have time to construct a good response. All this attention has been placed on activating his personal cards as fast as possible.

Mordred, Ultimate Guard

All the surviving members started glowing yellow as a large barrier covered them. When the daggers tried to kill someone covered by this glow, the glow deflected the dagger, causing it to dissipate. Then the health bar above the barrier decreased slightly, but the target's health didn't move.

"A group defense with share stats?"

Everyone started using all their health-boosting, defense, and healing skills. With each use, Genji saw the barrier's health fluctuate, sometimes increasing from their skills and other times decreasing from his damage.

"You're very powerful," Mordred finally had time to talk after the situation stabilized, "I don't understand how I never heard of you. Someone of your capabilities would have made a name for yourself in the Spatial Battlefield, yet my database has no records of you. Just who are you?"

"You talk as if everything is under control."

A bad feeling overcame Mordred, but before he can understand where this ominous sensation was coming from, Genji waved his hand again and launched all his daggers at Mordred.

The others can survive, but Mordred must die. There are so many things about this guy that makes him a threat that Genji was willing to give up on the other scarlet cards to kill him. 

"Let me tell you one thing. My daggers don't deal a set amount of damage, but percentage-based."

Mordred's eyes widened at the revelation, but things were too late. The remaining daggers pierced through the glow and shattered the barrier above. Then Mordred's health instantly zeroed out. After everything, about 40 daggers remained floating around Genji. 

While the others were stunned by the death of Mordred, Genji waved his hand again to direct the attacks to finish as many people as possible.

"Scatter!"

The second in command quickly snapped out of his daze and ordered a retreat. Morale was low, but everyone did everything they can to survive. Genji used up his daggers and didn't pursue the situation any longer. Now that they have suffered heavy casualties, they won't be a threat anymore.

[You have received Scarlet Card - Explorer x 53, Enforcer x 6, Champion x 1]

[You have received 16 privilege tokens]

[Scarlet Card - Champion]

Reward options:

1. Gain 50% of the coins in their card
2. Randomly draw an item from their storage (Legacy items cannot be plundered)
3. Turn this over to EverRealm for 10 privilege tokens
4. Turn this over to EverRealm for an upgrade on your legacy equipment (Upgrade only works for 1 equipment)

Genji was met with a big surprise when he reviewed the battle summary. A whole 10 tokens from killing Mordred and two reward options that involve turning this card over to EverRealm. It seems like EverRealm desires to obtain this card since it's offering rewards that outstrip the first two options.

10 privilege tokens is a lot. Genji only obtained 7 when he contributed Flashstep, yet the items he purchased had a huge impact on his world progress. As tempting as the third option is, the main attraction is in the fourth one. Especially when he has 18 tokens in total right now.

A free upgrade in one of his equipment. It's very tempting for Genji. And he has the perfect choice for it. One of his legacies hasn't experienced much growth recently so this might change something.

For now, it's back to leveling. Genji tracked deep into the unexplored wilderness and killed anything that comes across his path. He walked past the cemetery he was grinding at prior and continued. Soon he settled upon a volcanic region with monsters around level 75.

A large flame salamander blocked his way, but Genji teleported around it. There's no point in using his main skill when there's only one of them. If he has to point out one problem with his daggers, it would have to be that it doesn't teleport with him when he uses Shroud of Terror.

This normally wouldn't be a problem except his cooldown does move until all the daggers are gone. On top of that, the daggers don't last long. Only 5 minutes. After that, Genji's wide open for the remainder of the time. This small detail made it so that Genji prefers to hold onto the skill until he needs to use it.

Genji avoided the stragglers and looked for an area with a high concentration of monsters. Soon, he found his target and unleashed a rain of daggers. Genji has to admit, it's satisfying to steamroll everything after struggling for 3 world progresses. It might be temporary and meaningless, but he's going to enjoy it while it lasts.

As Genji was taking a stroll in the area, he heard fighting sounds from the distance. Curious at the commotion, Genji approached the area. It's not often you find someone grinding at such a high-level area.

Pulling himself over a hill, Genji saw a group of 5 fighting off a few salamanders. At the front of the group, a shield-wielding tank blocked the tail swings of these giant lizards. At the side, a warrior was swinging a broadsword and leaving small cuts on the red leathery skin of the salamanders.

Behind the two melee fighters, a priest and two mages supported the tank. A classic combination in an RPG. A few minutes later, the group dispatched the salamanders and a rogue came into view with another small group of salamanders behind it. The tank got into position and blocked the flaming reptiles as the rogue ran past.

"Seems like there's 6 in the group. Their levels are pretty high as well."

Genji turned to the number next to their names. All around 70. The only person with a slightly lower level was the priest at level 67. Genji opened up the leaderboard and found their position. In the hundreds. Seems like the competition is tough in this game.

"Who's there!"

After this wave of monsters were killed, the rogue discovered Genji's traces. Hearing their comrade's call, the party got into formation with the tank at the front, facing Genji's hiding location.

"The rogue must have used a detection skill. So unpredictable after the second advancement."

Genji stepped out into the open and put his hands up, showing he meant no harm.

"Level 52? What is someone of your level doing around here?"

"Grinding. The lower levels are too slow for me."

"You're suicidal. Where's your party?"

"I don't have one."

These members were taken aback by his response. This guy is so bold. Does a priest dare to enter an area 20 levels higher than him to grind? Although priests get more combat skills after the second advancement, it shouldn't be to this extent. You have to know, you only get one life in this game. Die and you're dead for real.

"Something's not right with this guy," the rogue whispered to the tank.

"I know. Let's stay away from him," the tank whispered back.

"Come on. We just met and you're talking about me?"

Genji made a small joke to ease the atmosphere, but his relaxed posture made the party warier. Could this be a trap? It would make sense. The guy's story doesn't line up with what they know so this should be correct. When all options are eliminated, what remains must be the answer, no matter how unbelievable. That's not to mention the explanation is believable. 

"Stay back. I don't know what you want with us, but let's go our separate ways. We don't want to fight right now, but that doesn't mean we won't."

Genji shrugged and walked around them. Seems like they misunderstood something, but he wasn't going to correct them. Why does he care about what others think of him?

The group relaxed when they saw Genji avoid them and do his own thing. This improved their impression of him, but that doesn't mean they will help him. He came here alone and he should be responsible for his own life, whether he lied or not.

"Hey!"

Genji turned around when the tank called out to him again. Genji frowned and turned around. His eyes were cold. If they want to find trouble with him, he doesn't mind adding some more cards to his collection.

"There's a party held in Sunbright Hotel in 3 days. All the top players will gather there. If you're still alive by then, feel free to join."

The tank sent out the invitation. Since this priest dares to come here, he must have a good backing so he might as well spread the word in case he hasn't heard about this event. Plus the priest must be strong if he can survive in this area until then.

Genji's eyes warmed up when he realized the group had no bad intentions. He brought his arm up and waved to the group.

"Sure. I'll consider it."