Chapter 488: Continental War: World Championship, Part One (3)
Why had people around the world waited for Continental War: World Championship?
The reason was simple.
The 2020s.
Even back then, countless people had enjoyed the game Rule, and the viewership for Rule game broadcasts had been extremely high.
The reason viewership had been high despite the viewers not playing themselves was because, through game broadcasts, they could see things ordinary “gamers” could never reach.
Just like that.
People around the world knew, based on the fact that only Ares national representatives selected by their countries would participate in Continental War: World Championship.
They might see ultimates ordinary users could never reach.
Absurd artifacts.
Control that surpassed the limits of ordinary users.
And “monsters” they might never see once in their entire lives.
In truth, ordinary users had a chance of encountering Legendary monsters or Named NPCs maybe once in their lifetime, if that.
But high-rankers were given those opportunities several times a year.
And Pureum was clever.
“What users most want to see right now are monsters they have never experienced before.”
That was what the Event Planning Team had said, and it was an accurate insight.
The opening ceremony.
A special episode, and also the event for the first gold medal: the “Mascot Selection Match.”
The whole world applauded.
Japan’s cute and dainty yet powerfully strong ninja, Toasty.
Skyner, the sovereign of America’s skies and king of all flying creatures.
The Azure Dragon a Russian user had crossed over to the Chinese server to obtain.
The Death Knight of Han, Taiwan’s number-one-ranked necromancer and Taiwan’s number-two-ranked user.
The Twin-Headed Ogre, king of ogres, which Canada had successfully captured.
A one-headed Cerberus that had been abandoned in the human world and captured after the Great Archdemon Gremory was annihilated in Portugal.
The Minotaur, a bipedal bull with monstrous strength discovered by the Greek explorer user Barrett.
And even the Basilisk, a giant lizard Italian rankers had succeeded in raiding and capturing, said to turn anyone who merely met its eyes into stone.
Aside from those special and well-known monsters, even the monsters that appeared beyond them were cool and great enough to reach Legend.
Viewers cheered fervently, and the whole world roared over who would take the glory of the gold medal.
With the appearance of one single being, that became almost a confirmed fact.
It was because of the performance of China, the unlucky country that had lost the Azure Dragon.
[Divine beast. Hydra has appeared.]
[Divine beast. Hydra Lv.686.]
The colosseum.
Because the monsters were enormous, the event planner had designed it.
“It has to be a colosseum so massive that we have never seen anything like it before. There are many giant-type monsters among Legendary monsters, after all.”
Because of that, the colosseum itself was truly enormous.
In fact, many of the monsters were huge.
There were some that were not, like the bipedal turtle Toasty or the Death Knight, but that was generally the case.
And in that colosseum, one being towered up as if taking control of the entire place.
A height of a full 14 meters.
The creature with nine vicious snake heads was twice as large as Skyner or the Twin-Headed Ogre.
And the sight of those nine ferocious heads moving without pause, looking at them with yellow, narrow-pupiled eyes, was being broadcast to the entire world.
What was even more shocking—
was the “entrance skill” that occurred when divine beast Hydra appeared.
An entrance skill could mean many things.
In the case of high-level monsters or super-Named NPCs, they caused status ailments the moment they appeared.
One representative example was Gremory’s Demon Advent, and a very small number of users also possessed that power.
Rarely, there were beings who appeared by triggering a massive skill instead of a status ailment.
Hydra was that kind.
Though it was not a status ailment type, it appeared alongside an absurd entrance skill.
[Hydra’s Breath.]
[Causes poisonous rain to fall over a 300-meter radius.]
[Deals damage per second proportional to Hydra’s Attack Power.]
[Ignores all Defense.]
SHAAAAAAAAAAAA—
The green rain that began falling from the sky poured down on nearly one hundred monsters gathered there.
HISSSSSSS—
Smoke rose from the bodies of roughly one hundred monsters, including Toasty, Skyner, the Death Knight, and the Azure Dragon, as if hydrochloric acid had been poured over them.
And the restriction that it ignored all Defense was fatal.
Legendary monsters generally possessed an extremely high level of Defense.
Of course, high-rankers’ damage went through, but ordinary users’ damage did not.
Because their Defense was that high.
However, rain that covered a 300-meter radius while ignoring all Defense defied common sense.
Toasty hurriedly hid inside his shell.
Once Toasty entered his shell, his Defense rose up to fivefold.
Also, once he hid inside, he absolutely could not be dragged out.
However.
Hydra’s poison seeped into the shell and burned Toasty’s bare flesh.
“Toasty, Toooasty!”
Toasty, who had been hiding in his shell, screamed and pulled his arms, legs, and face out of the shell on his own.
Then, with his body burning, he rolled across the ground.
The giant eagle, Skyner.
The lofty sovereign floating in the sky was a being of immense pride.
His noble, beautiful feathers burned, reaching his skin and bringing tremendous pain with them.
“Ghh......”
But Skyner stood to one side, forcibly enduring it as he glared at Hydra, who had appeared.
The Death Knight looked at that Skyner.
HISSSSSSS—
[The Brilliant Radiant Sword is being damaged.]
[The Brilliant Death Knight Armor Set is being damaged.]
The Death Knight.
Having once been a Legendary human, he was now undead, so he could not feel pain.
But the bones between the gaps of his sturdy armor were corroding, and cracks were gradually forming.
“......Divine beast Hydra. This is too much. And it must be the pain of his flesh burning, yet he does not even scream. That eagle is impressive as well.”
There was also a single lofty dragon that had flown up into the sky.
The lightning sparks that had risen all around, displaying the Azure Dragon’s seven-meter-tall body, were going out.
The Azure Dragon, the noblest dragon that had lived for more than a thousand years in Ares’s history.
He too had lived arrogantly, called one of the gods who guarded one of the four directions, but before a true “divine beast,” he seemed to realize just how frail he was.
Also, the decline in their HP was greater than expected.
The owners who had summoned them were directly receiving those notifications.
[Toasty’s HP has fallen below 71%.]
[Skyner’s HP has fallen below 83%.]
[Death Knight’s HP has fallen below 76%.]
[Azure Dragon’s HP has fallen below 87%.]
[Basilisk’s HP has fallen below 80%.]
“It hasn’t even been twenty seconds since it descended, and it already inflicted this much damage?”
“It’s a divine beast, after all. A divine beast, one whole rank higher than a Transcendent species. Judging by the level, it doesn’t look like an actual divine beast’s level is being applied. They say an actual divine beast reaches the 700s.”
“......How can a mere user summon a divine beast? Could it be......?”
The users who had entered mascots were people with extremely high understanding of monsters and matters related to them.
They knew that, within common sense, this was impossible.
And also, the “coaches” of nations around the world.
The coaches selected from each branch were composed of highly capable Pureum employees, and they had gathered together to watch the colosseum arena.
China’s coach.
Li Ming was part of the Special User Management Team, like Team Lead Park.
All of them had a duty not to reveal what users had prepared before the tournament began.
Even if the person asking was a national branch director, or even CEO Lee Sejin.
But now that it had appeared, it no longer mattered, and America’s coach Jason asked Li Ming,
“How on earth did he summon it?”
China’s coach Li Ming’s answer was simple.
“Because Poison King Liu decided to accept the penalty.”
“What exactly is the penalty......?”
“A 20-level drop and all skill levels -1.”
“......!”
“......!”
“......!”
“It would be fair to say he essentially sold his soul to summon Hydra.”
The coaches could not hide their shock.
A 20-level drop for a high-ranker meant vanishing completely from the rankings.
Of course, being able to obtain a summoning method that inflicted a penalty capable of dropping him by 20 levels was only possible because it was Hydra.
And the coaches were impressed.
“By making Hydra their mascot, China will raise national glory, and Poison King Liu will be recorded within China as a hero who brought them a gold medal even at the cost of sacrificing himself......”
Jason was stunned.
Like that, China was prepared to go all in on Continental War: World Championship, even while losing something.
Is the gold medal for the Mascot Selection Match confirmed for China?
Jason could not think of anyone else.
Because he thought a “divine beast” was a realm users could hardly reach.
And then.
Hydra began attacking every being that had been summoned.
*****
CRUUUUNCH!
One of Hydra’s nine heads bit into the four-meter-tall Minotaur holding a giant axe.
CRUNCH!
“Mooooo!”
The Minotaur struck Hydra’s neck with the giant axe.
CRUUUUNCH!
No matter how much of a divine beast it was, its head was split open, and damage went through.
But the problem was that it had nine heads.
CRUNCH, CRRRRUNCH!
The attacked Hydra threw the Minotaur into the sky.
At that moment.
Five heads bit into the Minotaur from every direction.
CRUNCH, CRUUUNCH, CRRRRRUNCH!
FWOOOOOOOSH—
As the Minotaur, bitten by five heads, scattered away, the entire world was horrified.
On top of that, Hydra did not stop. From its nine heads, it sprayed all kinds of poison.
KWAAAAAAAH!
KWAAAAAAAAAAH!
Because of the sprayed poisons, flying monsters crashed to the ground, and the HP of the creatures on the ground dropped sharply.
“KIEEEEEEEEK!”
“KYA-HAAAAAAK!”
A poisonous fog spewing green poison filled the entire colosseum.
Most of the monsters were having nearly half their bodies melted by poison.
“KYA-HAAK!”
The creature called Medusa ran in the opposite direction from Hydra to survive.
But Hydra’s giant mouth bit into Medusa.
CRUUUUUNCH!
“KYAAAAAAAA!”
The fleeing Medusa scattered into a handful of ash.
Watching the monsters being swept away, the whole world spoke.
-The moment divine beast Hydra appeared, China’s gold medal was confirmed.
-It looks like Hydra will become the mascot of Continental War: World Championship!
There was no one offering a dissenting opinion.
The dying monsters simply could not hide their frustration.
Are we going to end so emptily, unable to do anything at all!?
Skyner.
He, who had been called the sovereign of the sky, could no longer even fly because his wings had burned away.
The Azure Dragon.
Unable to endure the force any longer, his body was about to slump down to the ground.
That being, called one of the four directional gods who had lived for hundreds of years or more, could do nothing.
“Toasty......”
Toasty simply hid inside his shell and hoped this hell would end soon.
Then.
Step.
One being appeared along the colosseum’s long path.
THUUUUD!
Every monster there looked at him without realizing it.
A six-meter-tall body.
A single wolf with white fur.
And that wolf, with ominous eyes that held no fear, looked at them with a noble and great gaze.
As Lucky Lump looked at them, he finally came to know his own identity.
[You are the King of Divine Beasts.]
The King of Divine Beasts.
And he learned one fact.
The various powers he had possessed until now.
Those powers were connected to the strength he would hold when he found his complete form.
A representative example was the power called “Lucky Lump Is Cute.”
What kind of power was Lucky Lump Is Cute?
It was the power to make others “allies.”
Lucky Lump Is Cute had originally been a hint toward the power he possessed, and when it became complete, it exerted an even more special power.
Lucky Lump, in the form of a wolf with white fur, exerted that power.
[Assemble.]
The activation targets were everyone except Hydra.