Naoko's smile instantly froze, and she doubted whether she was hearing things. She suddenly turned around, only to see Orson looking at her with a calm smile.
"You... how are you here?" Naoko stammered, her mind in chaos. The man in front of her exceeded anything she could have imagined. Even in a world filled with magic and bloodshed like this, this situation was too absurd.
Orson had on a strange device strapped to his back. It looked like scrap metal, but the tail end was capable of releasing powerful wind-based magic gusts. Naoko held back her shock, inspecting the item's attributes.
[Goblin Tech – Type 1 Jetpack]
[Crafted by Player Nightshade]
Quality: Heroic
Magic Energy Reserve: 7/20 uses
Effect: Each use propels movement by 100 meters, can be detached for charging, and enters a 10-hour cooldown after detachment.
Comes with 10,000 HP; will disappear if destroyed.
"A rocket jump pack?" Naoko's mind went blank. This was exactly the kind of special forces single-person flight gear used in the real world... But how could something like this appear in a game?
The device Orson wore was one of Nightshade's latest creations. Despite its rusty appearance, it was worth a whopping 3000 gold. The first batch of jetpacks was extremely expensive, so only sixty players in the UJ region had access to them. It was clear that this investment paid off well. With this item, quick retreats or surprise attacks were a breeze. It was precisely because of this jetpack that Orson was able to swiftly move from the east of Sakura District and fly straight to Yamata no Orochi's head.
"You guessed it," Orson raised an eyebrow, his staff glowing with destructive power.
Naoko's eyes turned cold, her lips curling into a sneer. "Even if you manage to kill me, do you think you'll win? Don't forget, this is my turf!"
Naoko's gaze turned icy. "Even if you kill me once, even if you destroy a few pieces of my legendary equipment, your fate is already sealed."
"Pay the Tithe, or be conquered, crushed, and slaughtered," Orson said indifferently.
"Kill him!!" Naoko bellowed, as Yamata no Orochi's two snake heads lunged at Orson, intending to swallow the tiny figure whole.
"Stubborn," Orson sneered, unleashing an explosive fireball directly into Naoko's face. The force was devastating.
Critical Hit - 80,000!
The fireball instantly obliterated Naoko.
Orson looked up at the giant, gaping maw of Yamata no Orochi, unfazed. "Get lost."
The enormous serpent's body flickered and vanished entirely. This was why Naoko, despite being an SS-level summoner, ranked low on the leaderboard—once her body was killed, her summoned creature would be forced into a cooldown, leaving her defenseless.
A golden glow appeared as Orson picked up a set of legendary shoulder armor (level 30) from Naoko's dropped items, along with over a thousand gold coins.
"All part of the Tithe prepayment," Orson murmured as he activated his jetpack, performing a smooth descent onto the ground.
Naoko, who had been revived at her spawn point, remained confident, sending Orson a private message:
"It's useless to kill me. Even without Yamata no Orochi, my guild's elite players are more than enough to take you down. You'll still be struggling for your life."
"Is that so?" Orson chuckled.
Naoko felt a strange unease in her chest. Something felt off, as if she had missed something important. Hastily, she opened her guild channel to check for messages.
"How did we end up in the Soul-Eater Swamp? This place is twenty kilometers from Sakura District!"
"Shit, I can't move… The poison has a paralysis effect!"
"The mutated Crimson Lizard King is coming again, everyone, save yourselves!"
Hundreds of panicked messages flooded her screen, and Naoko's face turned pale. The Soul-Eater Swamp was a place even monsters avoided. Any player who fell into it would be subjected to debilitating debuffs like paralysis, poison, and movement speed reduction. Even with healers or cleansing skills, navigating the swamp was slow and hazardous—it could take hours to escape.
SirLagsALot: "Yo! I'm here! My godly mount is gonna burn these fools alive!"
SirLagsALot: "Come at me! I love it when you all can't stand me, but still can't kill me!"
The massive group of over a thousand players from Thousand Hands found themselves sinking into the swamp, immobilized, unable to even see Orson's figure, and caught in a devastating bombardment from above.
The Crimson Lizard King was roaring as it unleashed devastating attacks, with sharp claws cleaving through large groups of players, reducing them to streaks of white light.
"Shit! Naoko's been ambushed! Yamata no Orochi's in forced cooldown!" someone shouted.
Kitagawa: "Suicide, everyone, suicide now! Don't leave any loot behind! Quickly teleport back to the main city!"
Panic spread through Thousand Hands guild as over a thousand players scrambled to "ascend" and reset.
SirLagsALot: "Ha! The bait-and-switch plan worked! US Sorcerer, damn you're something else!"
SirLagsALot couldn't hold back his laughter. He stood on the back of the Crimson Lizard King and snapped a picture. He titled it "The Birth of Despair", capturing the moment in all its tragic glory.
The intelligence of Thousand Hands guild had been thoroughly outplayed. They believed rushing into the spatial pathway was their key to victory, not realizing they were walking straight into a trap.
The UJ region had been well-researched by countless US trial players, and Orson was more familiar with the terrain than they were. From the beginning, Thousand Hands had been like meat on a chopping block, ready for slaughter.
He had let them make the first move—let the assassins surround him—then used his divine earrings to set up the Mirror of Folding in the Soul-Eater Swamp.
It was all part of his plan, step by step, from start to finish.
"I'm not going to lose," Naoko's heart raced as she tried to reassure herself. "I just need to wait an hour for my summoner to come back. I'll turn this around."
She still believed that it was just a misstep—she had fallen for someone's trick. In her eyes, Orson was merely a momentary threat.
"Even the undefeated guild master has fallen. My god, how are we supposed to win now?"
"I've spent millions of yen, only to be crushed by a single hit from an Orgod… What a joke."
"His mount alone is invincible. I don't even know where the hope of victory lies…"
Kitagawa, upon respawning, sensed the shift in atmosphere and spoke up, "Don't panic. This is normal. If it were that easy to win, a single SSR guild would suffice."
Naoko nodded, as if finding an excuse for their failure. "I know the enemy's power is suffocating, but after all, this is just a game. It's normal for bugs to appear."
"Is our guild master cheating? If so, then I can relax."
"Uncultured foreign trash! Why isn't the official intervening and banning him?!"
Naoko's attempt to shift the blame onto Orson was quickly noted. She, the proud and arrogant woman, now blushed with shame as she realized how far she had fallen.
She had accused Orson of cheating, even though she herself had used similar monstrous abilities with her summoner to climb to the top of Thousand Hands.
As panic set in, Naoko quickly regained her composure. Some of her guild members had managed to survive, not having entered the spatial pathway in time. However, as a precaution, she ordered them to suicide to avoid being ambushed outside.
With a deep breath, Naoko steeled herself. Even if they all had to die once, they would regroup at the main city, and she would turn the tide once her summoner's cooldown ended. She refused to believe Orson could come into the city and kill them.
"If he dares enter the city," Naoko muttered to herself, "he'll be trapped by the city's protective barriers. With the flying mounts restricted, he won't be able to escape."
The city walls were her last line of defense, and Naoko was certain that Orson would be trapped in Sakura District and eventually overwhelmed by the UJ players' anger.
But as she waited for her summoner's cooldown, a voice from behind caught her attention.
"Still here waiting for your summon's cooldown? You've got some nerve. I thought an SS-level summoner like you would be different this time."
Just outside the resurrection point, an imperial mage NPC, resting his chin on his hand, was curiously observing the players.