Chapter 384 - Chapter 384 (1/2)

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KA-BOOM—!

A loud commotion could be heard coming from a distance. It was the noise of thick “flesh” being blown apart combined with the surface of the World Tree’s branch being broken and stripped apart.

In other words, it was the sound of Sun Wukong fighting hard while wielding his Ruyi Jingu Bang.

“He still prefers to fight raucously, doesn’t he?” Su-hyeun softly tutted away.

No matter how many times he had witnessed Sun Wukong’s fights, Su-hyeun always found them rather raucous.

Su-hyeun began wondering if Sun Wukong really had changed his fighting style after checking out his battle against some other participants several hours ago, but as it turned out, that assumption missed the mark by a wide margin.

Indeed, Sun Wukong simply fought like that earlier because he figured that would be the most effective way to go about it.

Kiii-reeek, kiii-reeeek—

Su-hyeun observed the fights unbothered as parasites began showing up near his position—this was his goal, after all. That was why he had been riding around on the Somersault cloud for a while now to attract the parasites from far away and bring them to a single location.

These parasites weren’t the same as other monsters in that they weren’t really “outside,” as they were. They used the venom in their bodies to melt down the branches of the false World Tree and dug deep under the surface to suck up the tree’s nutrients.

Therefore, there was no point in simply swinging around his sword indiscriminately. Unless these creatures showed themselves out of their holes, he couldn’t hunt them down with the storm winds roused up by the Palm Leaf. It was just as well since this type of wide-scale game hunt was his specialty, after all.

“Well, I guess this much is enough,” he said before raising his hand.

Shu-wuwuwu—

When he did, the huge gloomy clouds that had gathered overhead began showing some reaction.

“Slam down…”

FLASH—!

“Somersault cloud.”

KA-RUUUUMBLE—!

The lightning bolt shooting down from the clouds rammed into the parasites below.

The bodies of these caterpillar-type parasites were mostly made up of venomous substances and moisture. Maybe that was the reason why they received a nastier battering from being struck by lightning rather than getting burnt or sliced up by a sword.

Simply put, Su-hyeun had found a way to deal far greater damage at a lower cost to his magical energy reserve.

[You acquired 545 points.]

[You acquired 479 points.]

[You acquired 334…]

Right afterward, messages announcing his acquisition of points floated up one after the other.

Su-hyeun watched the parasites fall to the ground one by one and nodded in satisfaction. “Well, that’s quick and simple.”

Accumulating a lot of points was what the trio—Su-hyeun, Sun Wukong, and Luslec—decided to accomplish first and foremost.

[Accumulated points: 9,456,770.]

[Remaining time: 04:01:13.]

Su-hyeun had already amassed quite a lot of points, thereby shooting past the necessary point minimum of one million a long time ago. As for the 8.4 million extra points in his possession, they would probably be linked to the additional rewards awarded after the mission itself.

Also…

[Current ranking…]

[1st: Sun Wukong]

[2nd: Kim Su-hyeun]

[3rd: Luslec]

[4th: Reoric Dusa]

[5th: Grang Lou]

…

The names of Sun Wukong, Su-hyeun, and Luslec were recorded one after the other on the official ranking list, and all those listed in the rankings had their names displayed right above their heads in crimson letters.

After the 12th-hour mark arrived, the names of the participants had appeared in red letters above their heads.

“It’s so obvious, isn’t it?”

This display seemed to openly tell them to fight.

Just as Su-hyeun suspected, the first half was about hunting the parasites down, while in the latter half, the mission’s topic had switched more toward the participants battling each other to steal away accumulated points.

The ranking was compiled according to how many points one currently possessed, but that wasn’t the end of the story. The names were even displayed openly to indicate who possessed how many points.

In other words, the mission was designed in such a way to encourage everyone to aim for an instant reversal of fortune by attacking the participants with lots of points.

“Well, thanks to that…”

Giii-iiiing…

Su-hyeun turned around after sensing this heavy pressure bearing down on his shoulders.

“I get to fish out guys like that one, so there’s that.”

Pa-bababak—!

BOOM—!

Dozens of arrows flew in and stabbed into the very spot where Su-hyeun had been standing, and right at that same moment, his figure pounced and flew in a direction.

“What the fu—?!”

“What kind of reaction is…?!”

His opponents this time were two individuals. One of them was a magician capable of casting gravity-type magic, while the other one was an archer-type fighter that dealt with bows and arrows.

These two seemed to have formed a team.

“They aren’t what I’m looking for.”

Whoooosh—

Smack—!

Pow—!

Su-hyeun’s scabbard flew out and landed one blow each to the heads of the two. The impact force caused their eyes to roll over, and they limply crumbled where they stood.

Plop…

Thud…

[You acquired 493,882 points.]

[You acquired 402,122 points.]

“They were small fries.”

It seemed that this duo was thinking of defeating him and snatching away a ton of points in one go. They probably planned to flee if their sneak attack didn’t work because their skills weren’t all that great for a pair of people daring to brazenly attack him.

“Did something happen on your end?”

That voice belonged to Luslec.

“Did a fight break out over there?”