59. Hell (Patreon)

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Halfway through the third stage, Shen had only a little over two  hundred twenty thousand AP. Things had gone well enough in the  beginning, but the gains started slowing down after the obvious issue  popped in: his opponents weren't endless sources of AP.

The number of people in the Arena, which had reached almost a hundred  thousand in the middle of the second day, quickly decreased later.  People tested themselves, found their adversaries too strong, then left.  There were also new things to buy in the third stage, especially  classes, but the new equipment had clearly made many people sink AP on  the store. Moreover, whatever people might have wanted to buy in the  second stage but never managed to was still on their minds.

The AP Arena wasn't a gambling house. It was possible to get lucky  and win, but gains at the outer regions, 10 AP, weren't enough to make  the investment worthwhile. The Arena was no lottery. Even the 100 AP one  could gain per battle in the inner circle wasn't much, and fighters  might lose that much again in the next bout.

So on the third day, only a few dozen thousand remained. By the  middle of it, Shen guessed less than ten thousand were still fighting.

Things became even worse when Shen couldn't get 100 AP per fight  anymore. He had won against every prince, so he could only bet 20 AP on  the following fights, and even that only until he had taken 200 AP from  each. Then they became ineligible to challenge.

So in the middle of the third day, Shen was considering actually leaving the Arena to network.

The alternative was taking AP from non-princes, but it wouldn't work.  Shen had seen some princes do just that, which scared even more people  away. He didn't think he could get his 500,000 AP before the end of the  week if people ran away from him on sight, and it would bring him a  terrible reputation.

While he didn't know what people could do with their exclude list, he could still be killed if enough people attacked him. It would be suicide, as  attackers got double damage back, but it was still a feasible way of  getting rid of unwanted people.

So he killed his current opponent, an archer with a terrible aim, and  prepared to teleport to Alicia to check her perspective on things.

| Duel won. Reward: 200 AP

| Total AP: 221,224

That's when he was suddenly teleported away.

= - = - =

Shen materialized in the middle of vast grasslands, much like the  final battle of the second stage. He was amid thousands of people.

=

Tutorial - 3rd Stage - Middle Boss

Quoting this tutorial's welcome message:

"Each stage has a middle boss and a final boss. You'll get more  information on each of them when the time to fight them arrives."

The third stage's middle boss will be divided into elites and regulars.

The 10% of trainees who gained the most AP throughout the tutorial will be the elites. Everyone else will be a regular.

217,988 people remain in the tutorial.

There are 21,798 elites.

There are 196,190 regulars.

Elites and regulars will fight each other. Dying will not cause expulsion from the tutorial.

Killing opponents will give as much AP as if they were Alliance's  enemies. However, the points will be deferred until the end of the fight and will be given only to those who are in the winning team. The participants on the losers team won't receive any AP.

All participants will have infinite energy pools this battle.

Regulars will regenerate 10 HP/s.

Regulars' attacks will not hurt other regulars.

Elites will regenerate 1 HP/s.

Elites' attacks might hurt their allies. There will be no penalty for friendly fire.

You're an elite.

=

Quick math revealed that if every regular was an F-rank, a reasonable  expectation, they would give a little less than 2 million AP total.  Shen needed three hundred thousand more than he had to upgrade his  learning ability. It would look like an impossible number if it wasn't  for the energy and HP regeneration boon. It made the fight considerably  easier for the regulars.

They had the numbers to make the fight one of attrition rather than  technique. If the elites failed to deliver a killing strike at once, the  regulars could pull back, surround themselves with their allies, and  recover. The elites could attempt the same, but they would take much  longer to heal, which would be better for the regulars.

Moreover, there were nine regulars with unlimited energy for each elite. How many elites could deal with an unceasing stream of attacks from nine opponents? Magic and physical attacks would keep coming, and the regulars didn't need to worry about hurting each other. From Shen's experience in the Arena, maybe half could adequately protect themselves from that much. How many would overcome it and fight back remained to be seen.

Both things were good for Shen. He could kill faster than anyone he had faced and had a lot of training in dodging enemy attacks—the Techmages' dome had been really useful for that. The more the regulars resisted and killed elites, the better for him.

A lot more strategy could be used by both sides, but the system made  it impossible to collaborate from the beginning. Everyone wanted AP.  Shen himself could use the Concept of War to be a relatively good  general among mortals, but he would rather gain AP.

Well, he could also use the strategy of killing his allies for less  competition, but that would be both dishonorable and stupid. He couldn't  kill almost two hundred thousand people alone. He needed his allies as  much as they needed him.

Well, there was no time to waste.

He jumped high and saw he was at the very center of his group of  elites. Regulars surrounded them from all sides. He filled his body with  Boundless Qi for extra speed and rushed straight toward the regulars,  not caring about bumping into them. He caused some damage, but they  would heal quickly enough.

He was soon outside the packed group and fast approaching his enemies. Many other elites were running with him on all sides.

Shen filled his mind with War Qi and smiled.

It had been a while since he faced any challenge, and this might also be great to hone his skills. 

= - = - =

Alicia wasn't surprised to see herself with the teams of regulars. She was surprised when the very earth below her started rising. Soon, all  regulars, except the ones closest to the elites, stood in elevated rows,  one higher than the other, like an auditorium. It reminded her of a  classroom, except there were no tables or seats.

She understood at once what that meant. The system was giving the regulars a clear view of the enemy.

Alicia didn't want to kill Shen, but she didn't worry for even a  moment that it might happen. The elites would win, for they had Shen.  She would be lucky to even land a single fireball at his body if she  faced him. Not that she would even try, of course. That would be a  betrayal.

But what were the odds they would meet?

For now, she only had to kill as much as she could. Her enemies were  already coming. She might be worried about random elites in other  situations, but for once, she had unlimited energy.

She smiled as seven fireballs materialized at once, a little above her head.

This would be fun.

= - = - =

Bob was very, very annoyed. He was an elite, but at least eighty percent of his people would be regulars.

That sucked.

Yet, only one side could win. He might just leave the tutorial if  winning meant eliminating them instead, but this was just a "middle  boss."

So he pulled his bowstring and fired at the masses of regulars far ahead.

= - = - =

Mark was not an elite, and it was marvelous. The gave was  heavily unbalanced for the regulars. More importantly, with some luck,  he could be the one to kill Shen and show the boy the errors of his  ways.

He grabbed the random person beside him by the shoulders and looked him in the eye.

"I have a plan. Do you want to win?"

There wasn't much more that needed to be said as twenty thousand elites rushed against them like locusts.

The boy nodded his head enthusiastically, and Mark smiled.

He would show them all.

= - = - =

Like a few hundred others, Evelyn had elected to remain behind as  most elites rushed ahead. She looked around, and as expected, found her  friends walking to meet each other.

She did likewise, and all three met at around the center-most point of the battle.

"Plan?" Elam asked.

Evelyn sighed when she saw he was still wearing the dark hooded robe  they had taken from a middle boss in the second stage. It hid everything  about him, even made it impossible to see into his hood, but had no  other purpose.

She found it a waste of an equipment slot. Even if the system had no such concept, wearing too many things affected flexibility.

Elam was actively forgoing better equipment to look brooding and mysterious.

At least it fit his fighting style.

"I vote for following that," Sandra said, pointing in one direction.

Her best friend was Evelyn's opposite. She was tall, worked out to  grow big rather than well-toned, had black eyes and hair, brown skin,  and wore plate armor.

Evelyn knew what Sandra was pointing at even before turning her head.  Sure enough, an elite boy in a martial arts robe, wielding a spear, had  already reached the regulars. Instead of facing the front line, he had  jumped over them and now eradicated the back lines like a mower going  through overgrown grass.

"I vote against that," Evelyn said. "He took the King of the Hill  position from me like it was nothing. If he thinks we're sealing his AP,  he might kill us instead. I can't do anything to stop him."

"Oh, so that's the one?" Sandra asked. She had been making a lot of connections in the third stage instead of fighting. It looked like she wanted to go say hi, but shook her head  and sighed. "I agree, not a good idea to approach him; not here, not now. We want him on  our side."

"Opposite direction?" Elam suggested.

Evelyn and Sandra looked at each other and nodded.

"Let's go," Evelyn said, and they started running toward the regulars.

= - = - =

Bruno had seen a lot of war movies in his life. He enjoyed it a lot.  He had also seen a lot of movies about people getting mutilated in  horrible ways. It was fun.

Bruno had never expected to see it happening right in front of him.

He had been in the topmost of the ten or so rows the system had  created, so he saw when a boy with a spear ran straight in his  direction. He hadn't worried. The system had placed people with good  armor or shields in the first row. They would stop him.

That's if the boy even reached them. Bruno used some willpower and  threw a fireball against the guy. He smiled when he saw dozens of other  spells—mostly fireballs, the easiest spell, it seemed—fly beside his.

He frowned when he realized his aim had been very shitty. The boy ran much faster than Bruno had expected.

Well, no matter. He relaxed and threw a new fireball.

The boy flowed. Somehow, he dodged all spells aimed at him  like they hadn't even tried. The openings were evident in hindsight, but  how could a human move like that?

Bruno didn't relax as much when the boy reached the front line. This  time, he would do the smart thing. He would wait until the boy was  locked in battle with the tanks and attack—

The boy jumped over the front line like it was nothing. One of them,  in plate armor, was more experienced than Bruno because he jumped to  meet the boy midair.

Bruno's jaw dropped when the boy hit the plate-armored guy like a  cannonball. The defender was thrown at the eighth row, where he hit  someone else. None died, but that must have hurt.

Bruno couldn't understand how that was possible. The tank had been  wearing heavy armor! The boy had to be moving very fast for something  like that to happen!

Well, thinking about it, most other elites were not even halfway to the regulars—

His thoughts froze when the world turned into hell.

The boy— No, the demon swung his spear like a reaper, taking lives left and right with ease. Heads were cut in instants. Casters'  arms—those that pointed at the boy to cast—were removed a split second before the spear  found their hearts. People screamed in pain as their legs were detached  from their bodies just so the boy's rotating movement would cause  maximum damage.

There were no blood splashes, the system made sure of that, but soon, everyone was panicking and running.

The demon followed.

Bruno stood frozen in place. The demon acted so fast that Bruno could only barely remember a spear beheading the person standing to his right. The one on the left had run  away. The demon had pursued and now killed other people in that  direction.

Bruno guessed he had survived only because killing him would waste time better spent killing more people elsewhere.

He didn't move until a boy shook him awake from his stupor. "I have a plan," the boy said. "Do you want to win?" the guy asked.

Bruno had absolutely no hope for that happening, not against the demon. But he reckoned it would be better to join the few hundred people with the boy then stay in place like an idiot.

He shrugged, and the boy smiled.

"Good, follow me."

Bruno followed.

[A/N: Who recalled the contents of the first tutorial message ever? xD

And it looks like we'll finally get a showdown between Mark and Shen!]

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