Child of Destiny

Atlas World, Awakened Continent, Divine Empire.

Divinity City Regional Territory, Plagued Lands.

The tension was gradually growing as more and more players gathered at the cave where the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster was ‘resting’, especially when powerful figures and famous groups appeared one after another.

Friction was about to happen when old rivals appeared before each other, so the situation was getting more serious as time went by.

The tension filling the air was already so high that it became suffocating, making the players to be wary.

Such a gathering was quite surprising, especially when there was only a single monster they were competing for. It was somewhat unimaginable for regular occasions, but the top forces gathered here knew the significance of this single monster for this event.

Even though, they all knew that another one could appear in the later stages of the event, they could not give up the chance of getting ahead of their competitors, especially after knowing that the leading figures of this event could build a decent status in the Divinity City.

They did not care about the equipment that they could get once the event ended, but the potential social status that they could get in the end would without a doubt be their greatest advantage over the others.

Just looked at the Empyrean Talons who managed to settle in the Divinity City much earlier than the rest. They not only gained a lot of benefits from being the pioneers of the Awakened Continent, but they also built a lot of relationships with the NPCs of Divinity City due to their special statuses.

Even though one of the reasons for that was their pioneering rights, possessing a high social status or even a military status within the city could give them a lot of benefits.

The higher-ups of the top guilds were very clear about this, especially when this was one of the regular strategies used by top experts whenever they explored a new map or region.

…

As the tension between different groups grew higher, the spark that initiated the chaos finally appeared.

Boom!

“I don’t care about the event points or anything anymore. Just like I have said, I will kill you every time I see you!” said a Lionkin after sending a Blood Elf flying.

The surrounding players were caught off-guard by the sudden commotion and started distancing themselves from the center of the explosions.

Then they saw those two started clashing against each other.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Crap! Isn’t that Reylen from the Bloodthirsty Kings? I heard that their mercenary group has been taken over by the Seven Seas Group.”

“Eh!? That Blood Elf, that’s the Wondering Noman Exheart! I heard that they have had multiple conflicts with the forces under the Seven Seas Group recently. And the latter repeatedly suffered some losses before he ran away.”

“He heard to appear in front of them!? He sure has balls of steel!”

“Damn! They are starting! Look! Those are forces from the Seven Seas Group!”

“Eh!? Saber Demon Bryan and Hand of the Dead HellBan are also helping now! This is going to be a big fight.”

“Fight? With that number of enemies, I doubt those three will survive!”

“What do you know!? Those three also have quite a lot of friends in the circle. Look! It seems like the Supreme Contenders Adventurer Team and White Star Mercenary Group are rushing to help!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With this ‘spark’, a chain reaction quickly erupted and caused those who were holding back to finally explode as well.

Bang! Bang!

The ones that started the largest battle were the long-time rivals, the Dragon Pavilion and Hydra Guild. They had been itching to clash against each other, so they quickly took this opportunity to fight as well.

The Blood Carnival was originally thinking about how they would cause a conflict that would start the chaos. But since someone had beaten them into it, they welcomed it with open arms as they no longer had to sacrifice their people.

But before they could even start fishing in troubled waters, the Titan Guild also made their move and started attacking the dark guilds. Their main target was the Blood Carnival as they were the most troublesome in the bunch.

Liya, who was leading the people of Death Knell, was originally having a hard time thinking how they would deal with their situation. After all, they should be the main target of everyone as they were the ones who found the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster, especially when they formed a blockade that blocked the rest of the forces from reaching the cave.

But who would have thought that something like this would happen?

“This is good too. We can just let them fight among themselves while we deal with the Plagued Monster!” mumbled Liya as she prepared to give an order to her people.

But before she could even issue her commands, he saw someone walk toward them. It was Lambert, who just arrived because he was delayed fighting some assassins sent by the Assassin Union to deal with him.

Liya frowned when she saw that Lambert was alone. “What happened to the others? Why are you alone? Is it the Assassin Union?”

Lambert was silent for a moment before sighing. “I indeed encounter some assassins from those guys, but the ones who sweep my group are someone else.”

Liya further deepened her frown after hearing that. She was familiar with the power of Lambert and his group, particularly this guy, who was purposely hiding his real strength due to the orders of their Guild Leader.

Even if the strength of their group was quite average when compared to the standards of top-notch teams, Lambert shouldn’t have been that powerless to not be able to protect his teammates to the point where he was the only one who survived.

Given her understanding of them, Liya could tell that this ‘someone’, who annihilated the team right in front of Lambert was not simple.

“Who-…!?” she tried to ask who it was, but Lambert already answered her before she could complete her words. “Battle God Sickarius.”

Liya and the rest of the Death Knell could not help but pause after hearing the name before a sudden shiver ran down their spine. They could only imagine how powerful this Godlike Player, who was rapidly gaining a lot of fame since the time he made his first appearance.

“I do hear that he has some relationship with the Guild Leader of Hand of Midas, which happens to be quite close with the Assassin Union,” said Liya, seemingly trying to connect things.

After all, they shouldn’t have any conflict with Shin or the Empyrean Talons, so she was quite confused as to why he would suddenly attack them without any reason.

Hearing her trying to deduce Shin’s purpose, Lambert could not help but grit his teeth. He knew better than anyone that Shin had only done it for ‘fun’. Or if he tried making it a little ‘pleasing’ to the ears, Shin had used them as a grinding stone to polish his style and further improve himself.

As if it was not enough, Shin even killed his members one after another, purposely provoking Lambert. “I’ll kill that bastard every time I see him.”

Sensing the sudden change of mood from Lambert, Liya immediately realized there was something more to it than she thought.

She helped him calm down before turning her attention to the current chaos before them.

Due to them being a little further away from the gathering of the top forces of the Divinity City and independent and scattered players, they were not swept by the chaotic battle that was currently taking place.

But that did not mean that they would be safe to head to the cave and start attacking the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster.

Even if these people were busy fighting, that did not mean that they would let the members of the Death Knell take advantage of the situation.

The individual players were also swept in the chaos, making the situation even more chaotic. Some troublemakers even joined the ‘fun’ and started attacking random people just for the sake of it.

Shin, who was seeing all of this from his spot, could not help but click his tongue. “Tsk! Look at this liveliness. What a good place to relieve some stress.”

But despite watching for quite a while, he did not make his move as he was quite wary of those people hiding in the distance and observing everything.

One of these groups was hiding on the cliff directly opposite Shin. He could not see them figure that well due to the distance. Adding that they were also wearing black cloaks to hide their bodies, trying to identify them was impossible.

But given the auras Shin was getting from them, he was sure that their group was filled with top-notch experts who were not weaker than the apex experts of the game’s powerhouses.

The other group hid in a faraway place, but Shin could sense the foul aura they were emitting even from such a great distance. The dense ‘plague’ that their bodies were emitting was something that Shin could ‘see’ through his True Sight after it was enhanced by his strengthened elemental powers, especially when they were together.

With his current understanding of this higher form of mana, he became more sensitive to sensing the elements.

After training his breathing techniques in the region, he could sense the density of the plague in the environment.

Based on the plague aura coming from the direction where those people were hiding, he could tell that someone was hiding there even if he could not see them, especially when the imbalance of the energy they were emitting was much denser from their surroundings.

“Hmm… it seems like those guys are observing us. Are they the main perpetrators?”

……