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As the war between the Righteous and Evil Factions continued, more and more people started to make their appearance. Those who were relatively unknown before the event started to get some fame one after another.
Rising stars after rising stars appeared on different battlefields, making themselves known to the world.
Some of them defeated a powerful unit by themselves, others defeated some famous groups or experts that made themselves famous overnight, while the rest were able to climb in the ranks within the army of their respective factions.
Most of these players were just unknown up until now, but they started to gather fame after they had gotten in the spotlight. Most of them instantly became a Maverick Ranker in just a couple of battles.
The ones who had gathered more attention were those who were able to fight against top Rankers or Titled Rankers. Some of them were even able to fight some Godlike Players, making them a celebrity after just a single battle, especially those who managed to emerge victorious.
As the flames of the war started burning brighter, more and more famous players started to join as well.
Most of these groups and individuals possessed big names within the virtual world. The majority of them were from the famous adventurer teams or powerful guilds while the independent individuals were famous solo players who possessed decent reputations under their belts.
All these players and groups were taking this opportunity to showcase their powers as the United Cup was drawing near. The groups wanted to at least grab a spot in the tournament as a seeded team while the individuals wanted to get noticed by powerful guilds or teams to get an invitation to join them.
Due to all of this, the competition among these people became more intense, showcasing their battle prowess and slaughtering those who dared to block their path.
But all these people were nothing compared to a certain person who started to gather more attention on different battlefields while roaming the war zones.
This individual did not only kill the players or fight against powerful NPCs or Demonic Monsters but also did something so absurd that the people who had witnessed it trembled in fear.
He was annihilating an army after army of the opposing faction all by himself.
Wherever he went, the demonic army of the Dark Cloud Kingdom was annihilated, not leaving even a single soul to survive.
His appearances on the battlefield would always spell doom for those from the Demonic Army, making them tremble. Even those Demonic Generals leading their respective armies could not stand a chance against him.
Of course, the people who had heard about the news from the official forums did not believe it, telling those who posted the articles or discussions that it was just an exaggerated lie to get attention.
They were saying that it was only hype to bring some people to light since the United Cup was right around the corner.
But all these people could not help but shut themselves up when a series of battle videos started to appear one after another as proof of their claims.
Not long after, the entire community went crazy due to what they had witnessed.
"What the F? Is that guy even human?"
"A monster! That dude is a humanoid monster! Definitely!"
"My God! Look how he slaughters an entire army by himself!"
"The heck!? Why has no one discovered such a monster of a player yet? Look! He is toying with the Demon Generals as if they were grade-schoolers."
"Just who is the real demon here? He is more of a demon compared to those from the Evil Faction! That guy is a real demon!"
After some time, skilled scouts eventually got a closer shot of this person and posted the photos that they had gotten online, gathering more attention.
"Wow! What a sleek armor and mask! Damn, that is so cool!"
"He looks like a demon indeed."
"More like a Demon Lord."
"Kya~! So cool~! I want to have his child!"
The Atlas World had a long history, and those players who loved studying the background stories of every game that they played discovered quite a lot by staying in the libraries.
Setting aside the Ancient Era and beyond, which records were still unclear, the world was said to have experienced more eras.
One of them was the Warring Era, where different Races fought against either, while the other was the Repelling Era, where all Races bonded together to fight against the invading Demons.
The current timeline of the game was called the New Age Era, where people from another world were summoned to help the world from the remnants that the Demons had left during the previous era.
This was the basic lore of the game, which most people knew as it was presented to everyone in trailers and such before its launch.
But they were not discussed more deeply and left everyone for the players to be discovered.
The so-called 'scholar players' loved to read such lores and they were the ones to prove that the portal that Aesir had discovered was a Demon Portal as it greatly resembled the ones that appeared during the Repelling Era.
Learning about this, the players became even more excited as this could also mean that another huge expansion was right around the corner.
Those players lagging behind the leading players ground even crazier as they all knew that they could not afford to be too low-leveled when the Demons invaded the Atlas World once again.
The apex experts and top guilds, on the other hand, focused more on investigating how to reach the Awakened Continent as they all knew that they could only survive the upcoming expansion after strengthening themselves in that place.
As all of these were happening, Uno was currently sitting on top of a mountain-like corpse of a Demonic Monster that he just hunted while browsing the online forums. He was also reading the post that Aesir had posted and frowned.
"I guess this is the portal that Shin is looking for, huh?" he was considering whether to head there and do something about it or just ignore everything.
He was just playing the game to relieve his boredom from the outside world after all. Moreover, he also did not want to steal the contents of the games that Shin wanted to explore. He wanted to leave those for Shin when he woke up later.
What interested Uno was fighting those powerful individuals and challenging himself against the Demonic Generals or Godlike Players out there.
While he was considering what do to, he suddenly sensed a presence coming toward his direction.
Closing the virtual screen in front of him, he turned toward the entrance of the forest and saw a man donned in black and golden armor walking out from it.
Seeing the appearance of that person, he could not help but grin and ask. "Have you guessed who I am and come to me to seek for answers?"
The other person looked like a knight given his equipment. There was also a round shield on his left hand while holding a spear on the other.
The helmet that he was wearing was designed to look like a dragon head, giving him a cool and majestic appearance.
The crimson cape behind him fluttered along with the wind as he continued forward.
Stopping a few distance away from Uno, this induvial raised his head and said. "I'll save it until Shin wakes up. For now, I want to test something."
Uno grinned even wider as observed the other party a little closer and found something that piqued his interest. "You are much different from before."
"I guess it will be more interesting to give it a try here instead of the outside world as you have yet to harness those new powers properly without bringing harm to your body."
He then stood up and patted himself before saying. "Alright, I will be your training partner to test it. But in exchange, do not hold back as I am also curious what a true descendant of an ancient dragon looks like."
From his tone, he seemed to not put the other party in the same category as his family in the outside world.
"Different, huh?" mumbled Arthur as found those words strange yet also agreeable at the same time.
His great-grandfather had also said a similar thing after his Bloodline Ceremony, and it became even more distinct after he had seen that 'flame' during his father's burial.
He then raised his head to look at Uno once again and nodded. "Let's go."
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