God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 193: Episode _You Can Come Whenever You Want, But You Can Only Leave When I Say So (1)
1.
[‘Rune: Regeneration’ effect applied for 300 seconds.]
[Health and Mana recovery speed increased by 5,000% during the effect.]
[‘Rune: Transcendence’ effect applied for 300 seconds.]
[All skill cooldowns are reduced by 80% during the effect.]
[The two runes have fused, applying the ‘Special Rune: Absolute Invincibility’ effect.]
Absolute Invincibility nullified one fatal blow every thirty seconds. No matter how much the rabbits had leveled up and re-equipped themselves, this was the optimal rune for a situation where they had to weave through thousands, even tens of thousands, of soldiers trained for years and endure their attacks.
"Agh, this one again?" Of course, Han Simin wasn’t pleased. This wasn’t his style. Boasting about his toughness and taking hits was something he had done enough of as a beginner when toughness was all he had. Now, he wanted to sweep through the battlefield in style with Sudal’s buff, his only area-of-effect skill. "The fact that it’s random is the real problem." It would be great if he could choose. And for a skill with a five-hour cooldown, too.
Flaunting the infinite nature of human greed, he and his rabbits struck the rear of the Marquis’s army. Even with their morale soaring, the Marquis’s forces didn’t see the danger coming. They were too focused on the large number of Rich Territory soldiers emerging from the front to pay much attention to a few dozen rabbits and one man appearing from behind. A small detachment broke off from the rear to deal with them, but it was nowhere near enough.
They were already exhausted and looked down on the rabbits. The spears they thrust were as half-hearted as if they were shooing away a neighborhood mutt. They seemed grateful just to be away from the main battlefield! For Han Simin and his rabbits, who had charged in prepared to face thousands, their opponents were laughably weak.
"Aaargh!"
"Ugh!"
A little hop, and a bite. Lightly. The +15 dentures worn by the lightly biting rabbits easily tore through the tender flesh of humans, snuffing out their lives. Equipment made with the intent to chew through solid rock.
Naturally, the rear was annihilated. At the same time, the clash at the front... never happened. As soon as a certain distance was maintained, the Rich army turned and ran back toward the castle. A tactic that would have been laughable under normal circumstances.
"We can catch their tail before they get back inside the castle!" the Marquis declared.
But the Marquis’s army, chasing with confident jeers, would not be laughing for long. Their judgment was correct, but they had been fighting for too long and were too exhausted to notice what they had overlooked.
Boom. Boom!
The Mana Cannons!
"No!"
It was easy to forget. The only memory they had of being hit by the cannons was at the very beginning of the siege. Since then, the cannons had been nothing more than an alarm clock disturbing their sleep. The monsters that appeared right before their eyes, baring their fangs, were far more terrifying. And now, blinded by the assumption that the entire Rich army had come out to fight, they had made a fatal miscalculation.
And so, two weeks after the siege began, the Mana Cannons were finally able to display their full majesty.
BOOM!
The shells flew and landed with perfect accuracy. Without mercy.
The gap between friend and foe was razor-thin, but the Mana Cannons never hit their own. They were operated by men who had studied for that single purpose. As long as there were no defective parts to throw off the coordinates, there would be no mistakes.
And so, the Marquis’s army had to endure hell from both the front and the rear.
*
In truth, it was a race against time. Even Han Simin didn’t have the power to annihilate tens of thousands of soldiers. The rune wasn’t a permanent invincibility either. It lasted five minutes with a 300-minute cooldown. In the grand scheme of a war, it wasn’t a long time, but he didn’t have the luxury of dragging this out.
Inside the territory, the guests were starting to voice their desire to leave. The NPCs of the continent were somewhat used to such situations, but the players were not. In games, as in reality, people are extremely sensitive to situations where their freedom is restricted by others. Watching for a day or two was fun, but what was the point of paying good money to play a game only to watch a territory war that had nothing to do with them for weeks on end?
He had to end it. While the applause was still ringing. While everyone’s attention was focused.
Therefore, Han Simin made a momentous decision. "That damned Marquis. To think he’d push me this far." The Marquis didn’t even know Simin’s face, but Simin sighed and called for Squeaker. ’Has the time come?’ He had wanted to spend all 2 million of his Gold Points to evolve the dragon into its adult form, but the time had come to reap the fruits of his patience.
"I really didn’t want to do this." He had sworn to seal it away for life. ’I’d rather die than spend money to die.’ He had thought it better to invest in Squeaker’s unrecoverable level than on a one-time-use magic spell. He had even steeled himself with the thought that if he used it, he wouldn’t be a human but Squeaker’s parasite.
But here they were. After earning and earning, the day had come when spending money was the way to earn more. He felt surprisingly calm. "It’s not my money anyway." The 2 million GP wasn’t from his own pocket. It was the points Kardian had charged for him.
"Squeaker, what magic looks good? Give me a recommendation."
Once he let go, he felt at ease. He generously gave the one in question the right to choose from the menu. ’Whatever you want, go ahead and use it once!’
"Ppaeaek!" Squeaker shouted confidently.
"What’d it say?" he asked, turning to Kardian, who clicked her tongue and translated.
"It says it wants to use Meteor."
"Meteor? Ooh." Fortunately, it was a spell Simin liked. He had even seen a demonstration once before. "You mean the one you used? When you came out of the forest and made a scene."
He fell silent.
A meteor falling from the sky. A castle destroyed. The casualties had been enormous, but the effect was undeniable.
"But it won’t hit our castle, right?"
"It depends on how the coordinates are calculated, but it’s not impossible."
"Then it’s on hold."
"Ppaeaek!"
"Tsk. No. Something else. If you put a single scratch on our walls, I’ll roast you on the spot."
"Ppaeaek!"
The suggestion was rejected due to safety concerns. Squeaker, whose first and last chance was given to a dragon with 1 mana, struggled but soon found another option.
"...Is that really it?" Kardian asked.
"Ppaeaek!"
"What? What is it?"
"It’s called Lightning Hellgate," Kardian said.
"Lightning Hellgate?"
And so, the second option appeared. Sensing a strange reliability in Kardian’s reluctant tone, Simin immediately opened the Gold Support window to check. A spell that even Kardian was hesitant about had to be powerful.
"Hah!"
But Simin was more shocked by the price than the power. "30,000 gold? For one cast? Are you serious?"
It wasn’t hard to find. When sorted by price, it was at the very top. Its power was proven, but the cost was simply absurd. ’What kind of spell costs $3 million for a single use?’
Seeing Simin in a state of shock, Kardian clicked her tongue again. "Lightning Hellgate is the ultimate lightning magic of a Gold Dragon. Naturally, it requires a lot of gold. 30,000 gold is likely the minimum price to achieve maximum efficiency."
He fell silent.
’Is that so?’ Simin fell into thought for a moment. He had plenty of GP. Since it already cost 8,000 gold to raise one level, using a skill once wasn’t that much of a burden. In this war, using a skill once seemed far more effective than raising three levels. And if he really dragged this out, the Rich Territory’s image could suffer.
"Hmm."
Thinking along those lines, his hesitation vanished. "Let’s give it a try."
The big-spender decision of a man who had made it! A miracle born from the future profits of the Rich Territory! He struck while the iron was hot and immediately made the payment.
Vwooom.
A golden aura seeped into Squeaker.
"SCREEEE!"
Feeling the power surge through it, Squeaker let out a roar. A brilliant light flashed.
"Everyone, get close!" Kardian’s urgent shout came at the same time.
Instinctively, Han Simin and the rabbits dove into her arms. That was the last thing they knew. After that, a golden light consumed the world.
2.
With the flash, the screen turned completely gold.
—What was that?
—Did he cast a spell?
The viewers, munching on popcorn, could only take to the chat. It was a shame that the mood was broken at the climax of the movie, but they were more curious about the golden screen that didn’t return to normal even after several minutes.
—What happened?
—Is anyone there?
—Even if they were, it would just be a golden screen.
Of course, no one knew the answer. Han Simin’s voice couldn’t be heard, and he never answered in chat anyway, so they didn’t expect a reply. All they could do was wait. While waiting, the conversation shifted.
—So how does the war end?
—Simin’s here, so they won, right?
—Nah, it won’t end that easily. It’s a war. And they’re NPCs. From what I saw, even the rabbits couldn’t just slaughter them.
—If they drag it out, the Marquis’s army has the advantage. Even if they retreat now, if they regroup and come back, can they really be stopped? A Marquis must have accomplished a lot to get to his position. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
—True. This is the golden opportunity for the Rich Territory.
—If that spell killed even half of them, wouldn’t it be doable?
—This isn’t a 2D game. How can one spell kill tens of thousands of people?
—It would be amazing if it killed even a thousand.
—It’s a third-person view, so maybe the camera just got blinded.
After chattering for a while, the screen slowly began to brighten. The chat momentarily paused in curiosity.
—Oh.
—Hmm.
—???
But even after time passed and the screen returned to a clear view of the previous scene, the once-lively chat room showed no signs of reviving. It was a stark contrast to just a few minutes ago when the chat was scrolling too fast to even read. It was enough to make one suspect that everyone had left the broadcast. Only the occasional question marks proved otherwise.
—...This is the same broadcast, right?
—...Probably?
And slowly, the viewers began to grasp the situation.
—That’s insane.
—Wow.
—That was from a single spell?
Proper exclamations of awe finally started to appear after five minutes had passed. An admiration that couldn’t be expressed through the chat window alone.
—It’s a tragedy that I can’t record this.
—I’m definitely watching the VOD.
—I’m buying the permanent copy. This is a movie.
A single scene. A single spell that lasted less than ten minutes, and everyone felt a sense of post-excitement emptiness. It was inevitable. The battlefield displayed on the screen was no longer filled with people. Instead, there was an empty, still-smoldering land, with Han Simin’s party sprawled in the middle.
No fool asked where the rest of the people had gone. The movie had ended abruptly, before the final act. With Squeaker’s 20,000-gold spell.
*
