The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei stayed silent on the living room’s sofa, quietly pondering about the events that had just transpired. Something was wrong and he could not put a finger on it.

“0543, what happened to me? Shouldn’t I be immune to any psychic attacks? I did fuse with the Core of Will, no?” Jiang Fei asked suspiciously.

“Captain, it is but a theoretical conclusion. However, it seems that there has been a problem during the fusing process, leading to a subpar fusing result. Although your mental powers were stronger than any Level 5 Metahumans, it is still a far cry from what the estimated true numbers are,” 0543 explained.

“That aside, why did you stop the attackers from mind-controlling me?” Jiang Fei asked again, this time, his tone was full of contempt. Take Ariel as the standard benchmark—she possessed powerful psychic ability yet she would never be able to break through the AI support system’s defenses. If that was the case, how strong were the attackers? How did they manage to break through 0543’s defenses?

“Captain, I sense that you have not fully understood the concept of psychic attacks. The attackers might not be a single entity but a large group of specialized psychic attackers that joined forces to attack you. By working together and focusing all their mental power onto a single target, their power output would be much stronger than a single Level 5 Metahuman. It is technically possible to penetrate your mental barrier even though you have achieved optimum mental power through the Core of Will.”

“Could that mean… I’m in danger?” Jiang Fei barked.

“Not exactly. Joining forces with other psychic users is a complicated feat. The attackers must have anticipated your move, striking with coordinated timing and cooperation. In fact, to attack someone such as you, a target with powerful mental defense would require them to time their attacks. In which, when you are most vulnerable.”

“The f*ck is that explanation? You’re saying they had been planning this?” Jiang Fei roared. To be honest, Jiang Fei had gotten overly confident about himself after fusing with the Core of Will. He had genuinely thought that he was completely immune to any psychic attacks. That was why he had never bothered to be wary about any mental assault.

Jiang Fei thought about the attack and realized that the psychic attack, in the form of illusion, started as soon as he entered the Shadow Faction map, when everything went dark. The Miluya he met there was nothing but a fictitious character. The attackers planted the mental image in his mind, tricking him into following Miluya. Even after he was forcefully logged out, the illusion remained, tricking Jiang Fei into thinking that he was kicked out of the game instead of logging out on his own.

After that, the attack persisted. He was tricked to follow Isabella to the mountains, leaving the base bare-handed. If Ariel was not on the alert, Jiang Fei would have been, figuratively, stripped naked, or perhaps, literally, killed.

“Bunch of rapscallions! I’ll have their heads!”

Being on the receiving end of a psychic attack was not a prank that Jiang Fei could swallow and forget. First, the ambush on the Winter Islands, second, was the illusion trickery that cost Jiang Fei the Bio-Lab and the main Bio-Pod. The thought of actually being vulnerable to psychic attacks, creating the possibility of him losing everything he has rendered Jiang Fei fuming with rage.

When night came, Jiang Fei refused to log into Dawn Break. This unorthodox habit lasted for more than a week. During this period, night was as boring and dull.

Sometime later, Jiang Fei received a call from Bennette Straz.

“Ah Fei, we have prepared everything for the attack,” said Straz.

“Mhm. Took you guys long enough. Here I am ready for my grandchild to get married,” Jiang Fei sarcastically replied.

During this time, Jiang Fei had created more than 150 sets of armors and weapons. Even so, their performance highly depended on its user and hope seemed bleak at best. Bella and Ariel had managed to train over a hundred lower-tier martial artists. Due to the lack of training period, these fighters were still weak, to be honest. Even so, armed with Namekian’s armor and weapons, Jiang Fei had the confidence that his army would triumph. Their combat ability would surely surpass the Unknowns as the martial artists possessed a keen sense of their surroundings, not to mention an agile body.

“Interesting metaphor…” Straz failed to understand Jiang Fei’s sarcastic comment about his tardiness as he laughed it off. Even though he was the Dragon God, he was still a machine with a computer for a brain. Thinking out of the box, or rather, thinking like humans was still a far-fetched feat.

“We’re done here. We’ll attack tomorrow,” said Jiang Fei, ending the call as he did. It had been a week since he was able to do anything to “waste” his time. Being on edge for so long, Jiang Fei could not wait for the next day to come. The urge to break metal bones and crush metal skulls was itching in his hands.

“Keep the rest of the armor and weapons as backups. Bella, please start the final training session with all the martial artists. Tomorrow is the big day,” Jiang Fei ordered enthusiastically. Jiang Fei had been waiting for a long time to attack. Everything was already prepared and he was only waiting for Z0-11’s side to get ready. To think that they would delay for such a long time got Jiang Fei slightly on edge.

“Will do,” Bella replied while Ariel simply nodded in acknowledgment. The two left quickly to start the last training session, the last preparation for war, the prelude to chaos.

The day went by just as quickly as it came. When night came, Jiang Fei felt discouraged as he did for the past week. He dared not enter the game. He went to bed but since he was not used to sleeping naturally for some time, he rolled around the large king-sized bed for a good hour before he could truly doze off.

The next day, Jiang Fei woke up the earliest. He had everyone ready for war and rallied everyone to the courtyard of his house. He was taking charge of the attack and naturally, those who stood beside him, were the four strongest ladies, Nina, Isabella, Ariel, and Sylphy.

“Darling, when would “they” arrive?” Sylphy nudged, emphasizing the word which was referring to the Unknowns.

Although Jiang Fei felt that the friendly Unknowns were trustworthy, the girls thought differently. Everyone was ready to jump and attack of any of Z0-11’s machines had any hostile intent on Jiang Fei.

“Should be anytime now,” said Jiang Fei even though he was not sure. He thought since they were all machines, chances of them being tardy on the day of the attack was low.

As soon as Jiang Fei finished his sentence, pillars of light came down from the sky and Z0-11’s men stepped out.

“Sorry for being late,” Z0-11 was the first to greet. Contrary to what it said, they were not late but precisely on time, down to the second.

“Let’s not waste any more time. How shall we proceed from here?” Jiang Fei cut to the chase. Teleporting would generate a powerful impulse of power that could be easily detected. If they were to teleport to the enemy’s base, they would have to choose a location far away from the target location.

“We fly,” said Z0-11. For this event, Z0-11 had brought in many facilities, one of which was a large transport shuttle.