"That long?" he slapped his forehead in surprised after hearing the system's response. If that were the case, then he had been missing for more than two months now.
He knew he had spent a lot of time in that mental space, but he hadn't realized that so much had passed in the physical world too.
'Wait... This might be a good thing. I'm pretty sure they all thought I had already left this region with how long I was gone. I can continue massacring cities, and with my power, I don't even need to be too careful anymore. I can go straight for the kill,' he thought, a hint of optimism creeping in his mind.
After realizing the advantages he could used from this setback, he began to think that this was all a blessing in disguise.
'I'll allocate my points first, then head out,' he decided, refocusing on his status window.
He noticed a plus sign, indicating that all his skills could now be upgraded to level 50.
With plenty of spare skill points, he quickly maxed out everything except for the new skills and turned his attention to their descriptions to understand it better.
<—>
Overlord Authority: This skill grants the host the powerful ability to summon up to 500 additional puppets in addition to Bone Summon, each of which can be upgraded in rank manually, bypassing the need to wait.
This allows the host to command a formidable army of loyal servants, each capable of evolving to higher tiers of power at your command.
Skill Upgrade: +10 slots per level
Available Rank Up Points: +1 per 10 levels
<—>
True Death: This skill negates the ability of organisms to cheat death through life-saving methods. However, its effectiveness depends on the target's power level—if a being is too powerful, True Death may not work against them.
Skill Upgrade: +0.5% chance per level up
Skill Upgrade: +1% Additional bypassing Power
<—>
Death Immunity: This skill grants immunity to all forms of death, including instant death attacks, for a certain period of time.
Skill Upgrade: +0.10 seconds per level up
Skill Upgrade: +0.5% defense against One Shot Attacks.
<—>
"Nice!" Reign was elated after reading the skill descriptions.
With Overlord Authority, he could command a legion of puppets, allowing him to combat an entire army if such a situation arose in the future. He would no longer have to worry about being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
'I wonder what's the population of the next one, I hope it's way more than Crestwood' excitement coursed through him at the thought of entering and killing more humans to level up.
The more he killed, the faster he would grow stronger.
However—
'What happened while I was out?' Reign muttered, pausing his flight as he saw a destroyed city below him.
At first, he thought it was just an old invaded city. However, as he observed the newly constructed buildings, he realized this was very recent.
The whole place looked exactly like what had happened to Summit City, now this place was also overrun by Corrupted.
"RAWWWWR!" The zombie-like Corrupteds sensed his aura and began running towards him.
But since he was flying, they ended up swinging their deteriorating dark hands in the air, flailing wildly as they desperately tried to reach him.
As they continued to growl and move around, other Corrupteds in the vicinity also started converging towards his direction.
It didn't take long for them to begin piling up into a mountain of dead and smelly organism, all trying to reach him.
It was a total nightmare.
As their bodies writhed and convulsed, they looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
But to him, they looked like a bunch of pest, unworthy of his attention.
Nor did he care about what they were currently doing; none of them were capable of even hurting him, so there was no need to hurry in disposing of them for Dark Dust Points, of which he still needed a lot.
Reign was more curious about how could all of this had happened to a city that was well-prepared and heavily equipped .
He could accepted what happened to Summit City because it was a complete surprise attack so it has a high chance of falling to begin with.
But this? This was completely different.
He refused to believe that a horde of zombie-like creatures could have caused all this destruction.
Something else must have happened or been responsible for all of this.
'I needed to find out what it was... and fast.'
Reign flew lower, scanning the area for clues, his mind racing with possibilities.
Suddenly, amidst the growl of the tens of thousands of Corrupteds below him, a thunderous roar echoed through the air.
In the distance, he sensed that a lone figure was watching him with a very strong killing intent.