Genie glared sharply at the small village in front of her. This was the closest village en route to the Elven Forest from Elvenheim. Perhaps Iris Guild might be able to take over the great city of Allentian in the future, however, she was too focused on what was in front of her.

‘I did not know that there was a demon officer here…!’ 

The demons also had classes and ranks among them. Their officers usually came from high-ranking demons. As it turned out, the higher demon that was hiding in the village was one of the five important demons that came to invade the Elven Forest.

Rufel, the commander that led the invasion, was a superior demon with the title of the Count. His deputy commanders that actively participated in the invasion held the Viscount title. They also had plenty of superior demons that did not have any titles among their ranks. Demons with titles could exert a frightening amount of force compared to those without titles.

As for Genie, it was very surprising to find out that there was a deputy commander hiding in this small village at the front lines, a place that was far off from the great city of Allentian.

‘I’m sure that this village is quite different from other villages.’

Genie was now certain that there was a special reward hidden in this town. Legend Guild was currently still behind most of the latecomers. This place might be the stepping stone that they needed to climb up in one go. In addition, Legend Guild’s force could shine brightly since this was just a small battle.

“Start the operations.”

The members of Legend quickly moved following Genie’s orders.

Stab!

Assassin Abel quickly moved and dealt with the scouting demons all over the place. The Goddess of the Battlefield, Ascar, also moved along with him to hunt the other scouts. Unfortunately, no matter how much they tried to be discreet, and no matter how many scouts they dealt with, they were eventually found out.

“There’s an attack!!”

“The enemies are here! Protect the deputy commander!”

After hearing the shouts, Genie and the rest of Legend Guild saw demons pop out all over the place. They also saw the deputy commander, Regel, another demon with a title himself, lift a staff encrusted with black jewels.

[The Eyes of the Demon King.]

[A pupil that can find the enemies.]

“…!”

Not long after, a giant eye rose above the small village. The pupil of the gruesome and gigantic eye suddenly turned towards Genie.

“…!”

Then, Regel burst out in laughter. He said, “Found you. Keuhahahahaha!”

The members of the Legend Guild heard a string of notifications.

[You have entered the Demon King’s realm.]

[Based on the Demon King’s realm, your physical and magical attacks will be reduced by 30%.]

[Your AGI has decreased by 20%.]

“…?!”

The other demons that were hidden earlier started to appear one by one.

‘No way?’

Earlier, Genie felt that a small number of elites that were selected from the human camp to launch a surprise attack against the high-ranking demons, would be a good way to kill a number of them without making too much noise, giving the humans an easy win.

On the contrary, it seemed that the demons had thought through things carefully. Since there was going to be a small number of elites, then they set up a trap and drove them to despair.

Not long after, a streak of black demonic energy shot out from the Demon King’s Eye. The black demonic energy penetrated the bodies of all the Legend Guild members present at the scene. At the same time, like a beacon of light, all the demons saw their positions.

“There they are!!!”

“Goddamnit!!”

They could assume that the demons’ deputy commander, Regel, was someone that had great control over black magic.

“Death’s Dancing!!!”

Ascar’s sword dance flew towards the incoming horde of demons.

Stab, stab, stab!

Slash, slash, slash!

“Keuhahaha! This wench has such a petty trick!”

“Keuk! It’s much stronger than what I thought?”

“Are they really the elites from the human race?”

More demons appeared all over the place, and their numbers alone appeared to be over 70.

‘What’s worse is that the most powerful demon present in Elvenheim is currently here, right?’

[Fire Whip!]

[Your fire whip will kill the enemies surrounding you.]

Crackle!

Genie’s whip burned with fire, as she whipped and slashed at the incoming demons.

Shwaaa!

Crackle!

“Keup!”

The demons’ bodies caught fire and they hurriedly tried to extinguish and remove it. However, it did not seem like they received much damage, since the humans’ attack was reduced by 30%.

Spurt!

“Kyaak!”

Ascar staggered back after her arm got slashed by one of the demons.

[Giant’s Fist.]

Khan’s fist became as big as a truck as he struck the demon.

“Kekeke! Your fists feel like cotton!!”

A 30% reduction in their attack meant that they could only exert about 2/3 of their usual strength. The demon felt that the fist that struck him was just ridiculously weak.

“This shit!”

“….If I wasn’t caught in the Devil King’s Realm.”

Usually in these kinds of traps, those that exerted more power would gain the upper hand. In fact, AOE debuffs like this were quite hard to find, so everything was just dependent on the strength of the individuals.

Aside from Regel, there was another strong demon that appeared. It was none other than Kona, who was not a deputy commander, but one of the demon’s attack leaders. She was a female-like demon that wielded a powerful mace.

Baaang—

Locke flew back after being hit directly by the mace.

“Ugh!”

He fell to the ground and stumbled.

[You have received a huge impact from an iron mace.]

[You have fallen into a temporary stunned state.]

Locke shook his head as hard as he could, and tried to stand up, but it did not work.

‘If it wasn’t for that damn 30%!’

In other words, their strengths were only at the level of someone at Level 320.

‘If we had our Kaistra with us, we could ignore this with his AOE aggro but…’

Kaistra was currently in his village and could not participate in the war. Just then…

[Guild Chat | Ace: Our captain is here!!!]

Kiyeeeeeeeeee!!

A chilling cry of a dragon resounded in the area. Then, Genie saw a dark air current flutter into existence in front of her. The black air current slowly turned into a figure of a man wearing black armor with a black sword on his waist. There was even an ice dragon sticking out of the man’s arm.

Crack!

The ice dragon immediately let out an ice breath that covered a huge area.

“Keu, keuaaaack!”

“Ugh, aaaaaack!”

The entire Legend Guild was caught in surprise.

‘What the hell? That’s very strong, right?’

Then, the man looked up at the sky and said, “Britney.”

Kiyeeeeeeeee!

At his call, Britney bellowed loudly.

[Britney’s Roar.]

[Negate all abnormal status.]

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

Legend Guild was once again astonished. Then, magic suddenly started to rain down from the back of the gigantic black dragon flying in the air.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Along with those loud explosions, several players, which included Ace, jumped down.

“Tonight, I'm the star!!![1]”

“…?”

“…?”

“…?”

“That crazy little punk…” Crow muttered under his breath, as the man that was clad in all black wielded his sword and dashed forward.

Ching, ching, chaeng, chaeng, chaeng, ching—

The demons’ bodies sprayed out fountains of blood with every strike of the man’s sword.

‘S…strong…’

‘Wow… Isn’t he crazy strong?’

He was on par with, or perhaps stronger than the members of Legend Guild. The same was also true for the other mysterious masked men that jumped off of the black dragon a while ago.

Then, Ace said, “Let’s shout our team’s slogan!!!”

“We!!!”

“Are one!!!”

“With the deprived elves!!!”

“Give us your heart!!!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Among them was one blushing guy. It was none other than General. General thought, ‘Sob… Why am I doing something like this here?’ 

The fact that he was playing Athenae came to the Chairman’s ears so he accompanied the latter. Anyway, because of their sudden appearance, they were able to clear out the demons, obtaining an item called ‘Deputy Commander’s Totem’. Genie then heard notifications.

[You have succeeded in recapturing Philip Village.]

[Philip Village has special and extraordinary strength hidden within.]

[The time to defend Philip Village has been greatly reduced.]

[If you defend Philip Village for 36 hours, you will completely recapture the village.]

[If you invest 250,000 Contribution Points in Philip Village, it will turn into a bunker-type village.]

[You have acquired 200,000 Contribution Points.]

Then, the man clad in all black approached Genie and said, “How have you been, Ms. Jihye? Ah. Jisoo and Seoktae are here too.”

“Un...Uncle?” Genie asked in surprise. The voice of the hero that saved them was very, very familiar.

‘Who in the world are these father and son?’ 

Then, the two decided to form an alliance. The notifications then rang following their decisions.

[The guild ‘Black Dragon and the Boys’ has formed an alliance with Legend Guild.]

“…Un...Uncle”

“What’s wrong?”

“No…nothing…”

The rest of Legend Guild were all shocked.

‘Bl…Black Dragon and the Boys…’ 

‘A parody of Neotaiji and the Boys [2]…?’ 

‘Their guild name is weird…’ 

Then, the users that were wearing their masks started to take them off one by one.

“The president of Nottogi…?”

“Gasp… The president of Ilhwa Construction…”

“Keok… That’s the president of Ilhwa Distribution…!”

And lastly, Black Dragon took his mask off.

“…”

“…”

“…”

They were not idols, but old men.

***

Argon heard a clamor outside.

“Catch that!!”

“Catch that pig!!”

“Huh, Huuuuuuh? What’s that posture that it did just now?!”

“He looks like he’s going to poop?!!!”

“I, I, I, I’m coming to get you!!!”

“Catch thaaaaaat!!!”

There was a lot of noise outside. Then…

“Hello?”

“…?!”

Argon was shocked when he suddenly heard a voice out of thin air. Then, the blindfold was peeled off of his eyes. Argon could not help but squint when the harsh glare of light entered his sight. He finally caught sight of the world again after not being able to see for quite a long time. However, there was nothing around him. Not long after, a man’s face popped out of thin air.

“…!”

“Shhh! I’m here to save you.”

Then, the man looked around as he hurriedly reached out for the nails that bound his arms to the cross…

“You can’t take it out… It’s an ore with tremendous power. You can’t take it out. You need to bring the key that Baran has.”

…the worst handshake in the world happened. Then…

“As expected, you’ve also infiltrated.”

…the man wearing the cape took it off of his body. Argon quickly said, “Baran is currently a middle-class demon, but he was once a superior demon. He was stripped of his title because of a mistake that he made in the past. However, he’s still recognized for his skills. He’s a very strong foe.”

“…Is that so?”

Baran’s lips curled up in a weird smile. He said, “That’s right. I can tear a man to death with just one hand.”

“Ho.”

The man, Minhyuk, looked mildly interested. Then, a thick strand of demonic energy came out of Baran’s body.

“I’ll teach you about the fearsome demons. You, weak humans, are no match for someone like me.”

Baran was a very talkative man. He was also a staunch believer of his strength, since he was once a nobility with the title of a viscount, proclaimed by other demons as the ‘God of Great Battle Energy’. He was also good in 1:1 fights. This was what Joy Co. Ltd. was aiming for. The commander of the Argon Rescue mission, who came to this place alone, had to deal with the demon that was dubbed the God of Great Battle Energy.

Baran continued to speak arrogantly, “I’ll give you the chance to go first, weak human.”

Minhyuk nodded and said, “Then, thank you!!!”

Argon’s eyes widened in shock.

‘You should not attack first. His armor is special. As soon as your sword stabs him, his demonic energy will snatch it and throw it away.’

“N…no…!”

However, before Argon could even stop him, Minhyuk had already closed the distance between them.

Baran’s mouth was twisted into a devilish smirk. He thought, ‘First, I will defend myself with Baroque’s Armor…’

In the event of an attack, Baroque’s Armor could ignore the attack aimed at Baran. What was worse was that as soon as the sword struck the armor, the armor would immediately recognize it and fling it away from the enemy. In other words, the armor had the ability to keep the enemy from using their weapons.

Then…

Stab!

Just like what Baran expected, Minhyuk’s sword was embedded in his abdomen.

Then, a notification rang in Minhyuk’s head.

[Intangible Sword.]

[Your sword strike has ignored all of the enemy’s defenses.]

[Lightning]

[3 strikes!]

Bang, bang, bang!!!

“Keuaaaaaack?!” Baran shrieked, stunned by the huge damage that was suddenly inflicted on him. However, before he could even straighten his thoughts, another notification rang in Minhyuk’s head.

[Lightning]

[3 strikes!]

[Intangible Sword.]

[Your sword strike has ignored all of the enemy’s defenses.]

Bang, bang, bang!

Once again, three thunderbolts accurately struck Baran’s body.

Lightning, a skill that could only be triggered with a low probability, was triggered twice in a row for a total of six strikes. The Intangible Sword skill had even triggered twice in a row.

Burnt, Baran crumpled to the ground.

“Eh, isn’t he too weak?” Minhyuk asked, tilting his head in confusion after seeing how different the situation was from expected.

“…”

Argon was left speechless.

1. 오늘 밤 주인공은 나야 나 This is a line in Wanna One’s Pick Me ☜

2. This is actually a parody of Seo Taiji and the Boys. A band formed by Seo Taiji, Yang Hyunsuk, and Lee Juno. They were active back in 1992-1996. ☜