Chapter 540: Insane JacobChapter 540: Insane Jacob

(Almost an hour later, The West Path)

Nearly an hour after the initial wave of adventurers confronted PinkLotus, the first group of 100 challengers successfully fought their way through the West Path and managed to arrive at Luke’s lair.

In stark contrast to PinkLotus’s relatively simple guardian room—a wide, open field with few obstacles—Luke’s guardian room was a treacherous lava pit dotted with floating stones and deadly traps.

The terrain was perilous, and the first group of adventurers who stormed in were immediately shaken by the sight before them.

“Holy hell, it’s scorching in here, like stepping straight into a sauna!”

“Wait, is that our opponent? The legendary guardian? But… that’s SkyLion, the finalist from the grand tournament!”

“Look at that HP bar floating above his head—it’s massive! He’s got almost a hundred times the health of a normal player. This event must’ve given him some kind of crazy boost.”

The rankers were stunned to discover their foe wasn’t an NPC, but another player as this revelation completely shifted their mindset going into the fight.

“Come on, it’ll be even easier if our opponent’s just another player! You’re all worrying for nothing. No way a single player can win against a hundred of us,” a confident ranker declared, encouraging the group to set aside their fears and charge forward. Yet Jacob felt no such reassurance.

As Jacob entered the guardian room, a burning eagerness to take down the guardian surged within him—until it was extinguished in an instant when he spotted his son standing at the far end of the room.

‘Luke?’ His thoughts raced as he recognized his son, clad in gleaming silver armor, as his paternal instincts went into overdrive.

Now, rather than feeling comforted by the presence of fellow rankers around him, Jacob grew tense, already beginning to see them as potential enemies, as he had no doubt in his heart on what he should do next.

However, drawing on the discipline of a special ops soldier, he held back his anxiety, carefully watching for the perfect moment to strike.

“I’ll go forward first!” Declared a swordsman who began skipping past the first couple of floating rocks towards the platform that Luke was standing on, until he stepped on a platform that looked solid but was not, as at that moment he tripped and fell straight into the magma.

“Aghhh!!” He screamed as his character melted down to death in what had to be one of the more painful ways of losing one’s life within the game.

[ Player ‘Huba’ has been eliminated ]

A message flashed before everyone in the guardian room, as the first amongst them seemed to have fallen.

“Everyone! Memorize the correct path, Huba jumped the stones on the right twice before shifting to the left and then left again where he fell–” seaʀᴄh thё nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“What memorize the path? It’s not like these rocks are steady, they are moving in real time and it’s not like I can jump ten plus meters at will”

“We can’t rush in recklessly or we will all end up inside the lava pit!”

The rankers said, as a slight panic began to set in their voices.

“Well fuck this shit, I’m attacking from range–” said an archer who drew his bow and aimed it directly at Luke, who simply raised his shield in response.

*SPLAT*

As the archer prepared to release the arrow, instead of him being able to test Luke’s defenses, he was betrayed by one of his own team-mates instead, as he felt a sword piercing his heart from his back.

“Huh?” He muttered before dying, as he never even got to see the face of the traitor that killed him.

“Oioioi! Why did you kill him? Have you gone nuts Ghost?”

“Did this guy just commit a murder in between 98 of us?”

“Whose side are you even on Ghost? Have you lost your damn mind?”

“What are you looking at, old man? Explain or else we won’t take your actions too kindly!”

The players around him said rather violently, as Jacob took a deep breath and put on his bravest smile.

“That guardian is mine to beat and mine alone, and I’ll kill anyone here who denies me my PvP battle and a 200 levels jump–” Jacob said, as instead of coming up with a sorry excuse he took the route of being bold and insane instead.

“Get him! The old man has gone senile!”

“Boo! I hate selfish guys like you the most!”

“We should fannum tax this old man for his insolence!”

The young rankers surrounding Jacob turned hostile after his declaration and started attacking him all at once.

Jacob immediately activated his [Death Overlord] form, transforming into a half-litch, as he summoned his undead helpers to Equalize the numerical disadvantage, before pushing back against them all.

*Slash*

*Dodge*

*Shua*

*Boom*

In a shocking turn of events, instead of Luke fighting against the other rankers alone, it was Jacob who did the job for him instead as he fought tooth and nail for the sake of his own child.

“What the fuck is fannum tax you beardless child?” He cursed as he chopped down to young rankers around him, before hurling all sorts of vile insults towards young rankers all around him.

In true solo commando fashion, he killed a total of 31 opponents alone before finally succumbing to his injuries and dying, as although his effort was heroic, he did not have the necessary stats and AOE abilities to take them down all alone.

Nonetheless, his attempt completely rattled the ranker coalition to the core as not only did they lose more than 30% of their total numbers to nothing, but they also began distrusting each other after this incident.

Almost no-one wanted to go on and be the first to challenge Luke, and no-one was willing to provide cover for another either.

It was like the alliance had come undone, and this was undoubtedly the best scenario Luke could have ever hoped for.

——-

/// A/N – A four chapter day today. ///