The puppet darted back and forth like a flock of frenzied metal crows, dodging, slashing, stabbing, and wrapping threads around the opponent’s fingers to restrict its movement.

The general chat channel erupted once again.

[Goddamn it! What the hell now?!]

[Where the hell did that hand crawl out from?!]

[What the hell am I watching?]

[Spiders, a puppet, and now a giant monster hand on top of it?]

[Who is controlling them all?]

[Stop asking. I feel like this entire apartment complex is about to turn into a Boss battlefield.]

[There was a Mecha earlier too. Did you all forget?]

[Right! That Mecha, although it was torn apart by the ice monsters, clearly wasn’t weak either.]

[So right now, at the very least, we have spiders, a puppet, a giant hand, a Mecha, and heavy-duty defense towers all appearing in one apartment complex?]

[Is this really the third round?]

[Fuck, are they playing the hell difficulty version over there?]

[I just want to know who’s controlling that hand.]

[And the puppet too. That thing looks so disgusting it makes me want to vomit.]

[That wolf-eared bitch is also retreating now.]

[Not retreating, she’s waiting for the result between the two sides.]

[This is truly insane. I don’t dare blink anymore.]

In Amed’s room, he watched the chat scrolling continuously but fundamentally had no mind to care.

Each impact the puppet outside took rebounded into his own body.

Every time the massive hand grasped a part of the puppet’s body and crushed hard, his chest contracted, as if an invisible hand was squeezing his heart and lungs.

Blood was no longer just flowing from his nose.

A streak of dark red also began to spill from the corner of his mouth.

He immediately reached up to wipe it away.

But the more he wiped, the more blood there was.

Cold sweat also gradually beaded across his forehead, temples, and the back of his neck.

The back of his shirt was already soaked.

Even the hand holding the controller trembled slightly.

Seeing this scene, Ryu didn’t dare speak loudly anymore.

He only dared to stand huddled behind, his back hunched, his face filled with both worry and fear.

"Master... or perhaps... or perhaps recall the puppet?"

Amed turned his head, his ice-cold gaze sweeping across him.

Ryu immediately shut his mouth.

He knew he had just stupidly said something he shouldn’t have.

Amed gritted his teeth, his voice almost forced out from between his teeth.

"Shut up."

"If I recall it now..."

"Then all my efforts will become a joke."

He stared intently at the screen.

His gaze was no longer just greedy.

It had also taken on the madness, stubbornness, and viciousness of someone who couldn’t accept walking away empty-handed.

Outside, the massive hand suddenly changed its rhythm of attack.

It no longer continued trying to crush the puppet to death by squeezing.

Instead, it twisted its wrist and swept horizontally like a mountain sweeping across the sky.

BOOM!!!

The puppet was knocked flying.

The black threads stretched out like a dense black spider web in mid-air.

The entire bundle of blades wrapped around it shook violently, emitting a chaotic chain of sounds, like hundreds of teeth biting against each other.

The puppet, having just been knocked flying, used those threads to hook into the layer of ice on the wall, reluctantly pulling its body back.

But that hand didn’t give it a chance to stabilize.

It struck down again.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three consecutive blows.

Each one shattered a large patch of ice, forcing the puppet to retreat gradually.

In the end, the puppet was struck by an extremely powerful blow that knocked it completely to one side. Its body twisted, its detached parts trembling violently as if the threads connecting them were about to snap entirely.

In Amed’s room, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Pwah!

Ryu was so alarmed he stepped back two paces.

"Master!"

But Amed had no time to pay attention to him.

Because on the screen, after knocking away the puppet, that massive hand... did not continue pursuing it.

It turned around.

Its five fingers slowly spread open.

The palm faced downward.

Its target this time... was the formation of ice monsters that the Ice Wolf General was reorganizing.

The air seemed to freeze.

The ice Goblins lifted their heads, screaming in panic.

The ice Wolves roared, but their footsteps slowed as well.

Even the massive ice Golems lifted their heads to look up, as if facing a mountain crashing down from the sky.

The Ice Wolf General gripped her sword tightly, her azure blue eyes contracting.

She no longer retreated.

But clearly, she had also sensed the terrifying pressure.

That massive hand gradually descended.

Lowering.

And looking more and more like a living mountain about to crush the entire battlefield.

That massive hand descended from above.

The five fingers spread open like a grayish-black mountain about to clamp down on the battlefield.

Below, the ice Goblins lifted their heads, emitting ear-piercing screams. The ice Wolves on the two flanks also halted, baring their teeth as they looked up at the sky. Even the massive ice Golems, which had just finished reorganizing their formation, stopped in their tracks. In their icy eye sockets, the massive black shadow looming closer was reflected.

The Ice Wolf General stood on the back of the ice Wolf, her hand gripping the sword hilt tightly.

Her ice-cold azure blue eyes contracted noticeably.

Clearly, even she could sense the terrifying pressure from that grotesque hand.

But right at that moment...

Krittttt!!!

A sharp cry suddenly rang out near the door of Rover’s room.

That sound wasn’t loud, but it was like an electric needle piercing through the entire chaotic battlefield, causing every person and every monster to unconsciously tremble.

Thunder Dragon raised its head.

Its entire body was engulfed in blue-white electric light.

Dense lines of thunder electricity crawled chaotically across its scales, horns, wings, and even its short little tail, emitting ear-piercing crackling sounds. The magic circle beneath its feet lit up brightly once again, the light so strong that even the surveillance cameras began to flicker frantically.

Sunako, bound in an X-shape in front of the door, opened her mouth wide upon seeing that scene.

"Agh..."

But this time, before she could even scream out loud, Thunder Dragon had already opened its mouth wide.

BOOM!!!!

A bolt of lightning shot out.

Not just a bolt of lightning.

But a true torrent of destruction.

It no longer flew along a simple straight line, but was like a spear of thunder electricity compressed to its extreme limit. After being launched, it pierced through the air, dragging behind it countless wildly branching electric currents, tearing apart both the curtain of snow and the darkness.

It swept across the battlefield at a speed the human eye couldn’t follow.

Amed’s puppet had just been knocked flying and hadn’t yet stabilized in mid-air.

That massive hand had just descended halfway down.

Then in that very moment...

BZZZZT!!!

The lightning swallowed everything.

There was no struggle.

No prolonged collision.

No contest of strength whatsoever.

The moment that ugly puppet was touched by the thunder light, its entire body immediately lit up like the sun had been crammed inside it. The black threads connecting its limbs simultaneously convulsed wildly. Countless blades wrapped on them had only just trembled slightly when they were heated red, then exploded.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The arm joints, leg joints, the torso, the misshapen head, the mouth full of tentacles... all of it disintegrated into ash and blue-white electric sparks, scattered across the air like a pile of trash thrown into a furnace.

But that massive hand fared even more miserably.

The thunder electricity pierced through the center of its palm, tearing apart layer after layer of grayish-black skin, piercing through purple veins, crushing each distorted bone joint, then exploding outward from within.

BOOM!!!

The first finger exploded.

The second finger was torn apart.

The third, fourth, and fifth fingers had just barely curled in before simultaneously crumbling into hot ash.

The wrist section still stuck within the magic array was also completely swallowed by the flash of light, as if the creature on the other side of that gate had just had a part of its body severed.

The magic array distorted, shaking violently, then exploded into countless dark purple fragments of light before vanishing.

That entire massive hand... turned to ash and dust.

In just one blow.

Everything happened too fast.

So fast that when the thunder electricity dissipated, most people were still looking up, their faces still holding the shocked expressions from before, completely unable to react to what had just happened.

On the battlefield, all that remained was an area of air distorted from the extreme heat, along with countless particles of grayish-white ash falling like dead snow.

Silence.

The entire area in front of the apartment complex sank into a strange, eerie quiet.

The ice monsters were silent.

The Survivors watching through the cameras were also silent.

Even Sunako was silent.

She opened her mouth wide, her eyes wide open, tears still hanging on her cheeks, forgetting to even continue flowing.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds later...

The general chat channel erupted.

[Goddamn it!!!]

[What the hell just happened?!] 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

[I’m not seeing things, am I?]

[That puppet... has it disappeared?]

[Not disappeared, it’s been wiped out!]

[Even that hand was struck into ash!]

[Is this a joke? That thing just had me sweating cold sweat moments ago.]

[That attack was too terrifying!]

[What kind of monster is that defense tower?!]

[That can’t be an ordinary rank S!]

[It must be at least Epic rank!]

[Yes! Power like this can’t be lower than Epic!]

[Goddamn, just one shot to wipe out two such terrifying things at once...]

[That apartment really is playing the hell difficulty version.]

[Earlier there was a Mecha and spiders. Now there’s also a defense tower that can wipe out a giant hand and a puppet in a single blow?]