Chapter 84: Boast and Bolt!

Beep-beep-beep.

After setting aside Gale Shadow, a string of friend-message alerts rang out.

“Brother Orange, free right now? Want a match?”

Socrates looked at the player who had sent the message. It was Kaze Yaha, whom he had run into in the arena some time ago.

Only when he saw the name Kaze Yaha did he remember that he had added the fellow as a friend before. Yet Socrates’s login times were irregular, and he had barely exchanged a few words with Kaze Yaha, so they could only be considered nodding acquaintances.

Kaze Yaha was not trying to avenge his earlier loss in the arena. He simply wanted a fair rematch under conditions that were equal to both sides.

Unfortunately, Socrates had not been online for quite some time. Now that he had finally caught the living, breathing Socrates, he naturally would not let this rare chance slip away.

Socrates raised an eyebrow. Coincidentally, he had also wanted to see just how strong he had become after these recent dungeon trials, so he accepted Kaze Yaha’s challenge.

“Wait a moment. I’ll open a room.”

When Socrates received that reply, the corner of his mouth twitched. Something about it sounded oddly off.

“Ding. Your friend Kaze Yaha has issued you a challenge. Accept?”

Socrates chose a set of Black Warrior attire from the game shop, disguised himself a little, and accepted the challenge.

The next second, the world around him changed, and Socrates appeared in a vast circular arena resembling an ancient Roman colosseum.

He looked up at the sky. A blood-red moon of devilish cast hung overhead, casting a crimson inversion of light across him.

Under the influence of the crimson demon moon, Socrates’s mood grew restless and uneasy, and an aura of bloodthirsty slaughter surged out from him.

By now, dozens of people were already seated in the stands around the arena. All of them were players of the horror game, having heard in the player channels that Kaze Yaha was challenging Socrates and come specifically to watch the live broadcast.

“Huh? Why do I feel like this guy has gotten even stronger? I can feel his killing intent from so far away.” The Great Eagle Loli, who had fought Socrates in the arena before, shuddered all over. Instinct told him the man before him was not someone to provoke.

“Lord Yaha has just cleared a high-difficulty story dungeon. His strength is no longer what it used to be. This masked guy is doomed this time,” Kaze Yaha’s fangirl said with complete confidence, patting her flat chest and sounding utterly certain.

“But that masked guy is no pushover either. Looks like his power has improved a lot too. This battle is going to be worth watching!”

Amano Sho adjusted the black-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose. His job was assistant editor for the Horror Game Player Daily, where he was responsible for gathering intelligence on professional players.

The widely circulated player strength rankings and level rankings on the forum were both his handiwork.

Across from Socrates, a figure emerged beneath the crimson moonlight.

Kaze Yaha was dressed in a white summoner’s robe, and the summoner’s ring on his hand gleamed with a ghostly light. Feeling the aura emanating from Socrates, his expression immediately turned grave.

The light screen enveloping the two of them vanished, signaling the start of the battle.

Yet to everyone’s surprise, Socrates simply stood where he was, making no move to seize the initiative.

In most cases, a melee class facing a summoner would strike first and never give the other side a chance to call forth a creature. But Socrates remained unmoved, as if he were waiting for Kaze Yaha to summon.

Wasn’t that a little too arrogant?

A ripple of spiritual power spread through the silent air. The space before Kaze Yaha seemed to be torn open by some terrifying force, and a dark knight in medieval armor stepped out.

Socrates’s lips curved slightly. The strength of summoned creatures depended on the summoner’s spiritual power, and the dark knight Kaze Yaha had summoned this time was clearly far stronger than last time.

“Dark Knight, defensive stance!”

Unexpectedly, Kaze Yaha did not order the dark knight to attack. Instead, he took a defensive posture.

The players in the stands were baffled. This style of play was far too timid for Kaze Yaha; it did not quite suit him at all.

Socrates looked momentarily taken aback, then drew his longsword. “If you won’t come to me, then I’ll come to you.”

The next second, a surge of powerful spiritual energy burst from beneath his feet. His figure became a straight line, instantly closing in on the dark knight in its defensive stance.

The viewers watching the live broadcast had thought Socrates would take a circuitous approach, but to their surprise, he intended to meet the dark knight head-on from the very start.

A dark blade flashed with spiritual light. Socrates swung Gale Shadow and brought it down upon the metal shield before the dark knight.

“Shield wall!”

Blinding blade light filled Kaze Yaha’s vision. Sensing the terror of that strike, his pupils shrank to pinpricks. The instant that slash fell, a dreadful storm of spiritual power erupted before him.

Crack.

Gale Shadow’s defense-ignoring effect triggered.

The terrifying force of the slash shattered the shield in front of the dark knight, a barrier as solid as bronze and iron, and violent currents of air swept outward in all directions.

The dark knight had seen countless battles before his death. The moment his shield was destroyed, he immediately raised the heavy knight’s sword and brought it down viciously upon Socrates.

That strike was so powerful that even a tank class specializing in strength might not have been able to withstand it.

Veins bulged on Socrates’s arm as he met the dark knight’s blow and swung upward with all his force.

Rippling blade light flashed in rapid succession. A fierce slash burst through from behind the dark knight, and the armor on his body shattered to pieces at once.

It was as if time had frozen in that instant.

The dark knight’s killing motion came to an abrupt halt.

Then the massive body crashed to the ground, raising a ring of dust.

The crimson moonlight was cast across Socrates’s face. In that moment the arena fell utterly silent, and the players in the stands were collectively struck dumb, staring at that lone back in stunned silence, too shocked to speak.

In the entire battle, Socrates had drawn only two cuts.

One to break the shield, one to kill.

What kind of maneuver was that?

Kaze Yaha recovered his senses, a bitter smile appearing on his face. If Socrates had wanted to kill him at that moment, he would likely have died a hundred times over already.

There was no doubt that he had lost this fight.

Just as Kaze Yaha was about to admit defeat, Socrates’s figure had already vanished before his eyes.

Seeing Socrates leave the arena, Kaze Yaha’s fangirls in the stands ground their teeth in fury.

That bastard actually showed off and then ran away!

……

“Has the list for tonight’s Blood Feast been prepared?”

Inside a luxurious European-style villa in the outskirts of Tokyo, a tall woman held a glass of human blood to her lips and took a sip. A thoroughly pleased expression spread across her pale face.

Her skin was unnaturally fair, but her lips were as red as blood, and between her brows there was a cold, dazzling beauty.

“My Queen, the list has been prepared. There are a total of 126 people for this Blood Feast,” said a young man in the manner of a butler, standing beside her with respectful deference.

The moment he lowered his head, a bloodthirsty gleam flashed in the young butler’s eyes.

Tonight would be a grand banquet indeed.

“Add one more person. You will go and invite this one personally,” said the queen, draining the blood in her goblet and curling her lips into a cold, hard smile.

The young butler took the dossier placed before the queen. From the file, the other party appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary international student. Someone so insignificant hardly seemed worthy of the queen’s personal invitation.

“My Queen, forgive my presumption. Who is this man?”

“A professional player. Someone wants to use my hand to make him disappear from this world.”

The confusion in the young butler’s eyes deepened. As far as he knew, the queen was proud by nature, not the sort of foolish person who would willingly let herself be used as someone else’s weapon.

“This is only a transaction. Besides, the other side is generous.”

As she spoke, the queen opened the box beside her. Inside lay a crimson blood diamond, as though condensed from blood itself.