Reborn with Infinite System Points, I Can Directly Change Item's Value-Chapter 26 --John Enters the Battlefield and Locks Onto the True Mastermind
The nearby players’ eyes widened as if they had seen a ghost.
Several monsters clad in medieval armor and towering in stature had somehow mixed themselves into the monster tide. At that moment, they struck without warning, instantly killing a swath of players.
Their damage output was far higher than that of any monster that had appeared before.
The players were terrified to the extreme and hurriedly kept their distance from those armored monsters.
"How are we supposed to fight this?"
...
On the mountaintop, John’s gaze sharpened as he locked Detection onto the information of those special armored monsters.
[Armored Shade] Lv. 25
[HP]: 17,000
[Attack]: 2,700
[Defense]: 2,100
[Skill]: Shadow Sword Art
[Note]: No EXP is dropped after this creature is killed.
...
Other players might have been utterly baffled by that.
But John recognized it at a glance—this thing was a summon of a Lord Class Player!
Only summons would drop no EXP after being killed.
"A summon of such a high level... that unseen Lord Class Player is at least S-rank... no, perhaps even has an SS-rank talent!"
John’s heart turned solemn.
His eyes swept back and forth through the monster tide, trying to locate the trace of that Lord Class Player.
Unfortunately, the opponent’s concealment methods were extremely skillful, and John still had not found him.
...
"Hold the line! Don’t scatter! If we don’t maintain formation now, we’re dead!"
The battlefield outside Novice Village had already descended into total chaos.
The players’ side was being driven back step by step under the assault of the monster tide.
The appearance of those Armored Shades completely shattered the defensive line they had worked so hard to establish.
The entire line was like a leaking sieve, gradually torn apart and devoured by the monster tide.
The horde steadily advanced toward Novice Village.
Seeing this, the female knight’s expression changed.
"This is bad! Fall back and reinforce the village! We absolutely cannot let these monsters enter!"
Under her command, the NPCs rushed back in unison and quickly repelled the monsters trying to break into Novice Village!
[-2187!]
[-2316!]
Skill after skill crashed onto the monsters, dealing heavy damage.
At this moment, the advantage of the NPCs’ higher levels became fully apparent.
Once they returned to reinforce the line, the collapsing situation actually began to reverse little by little.
They forcibly intercepted a huge portion of the monster tide outside the village.
However—
there were more and more Armored Shades appearing within the tide.
They moved with clear purpose, focusing specifically on isolated NPCs.
The slightest carelessness would result in several blades stabbing at once.
As the leader of the NPCs, the female knight became the target of the most assassination attempts.
Even though she had already been extremely cautious, after skewering several monsters in succession, she was still caught off guard by a sneak attack from an Armored Shade.
[-1208!]
Fortunately, the equipment John had given her was still doing its work.
Even after taking a sword strike, she had only lost a tenth of her HP.
"You’re courting death!"
A cold light flashed in the female knight’s eyes.
Her spear thrust out and instantly pierced through the Armored Shade’s shoulder.
[-2189!]
With the boost from her equipment, even the Armored Shade’s extremely high defense could not stop over two thousand damage from being forced through.
Relying on her superior speed, the female knight followed up with several more rapid thrusts and killed it.
She let out a long breath and looked around, her expression stern.
Many NPCs were just like her, suffering sudden attacks from Armored Shades from time to time.
Worse still, not every NPC had equipment protecting them.
Casualties had already begun to appear within the NPC army.
As for the players’ side, the situation had completely collapsed.
There was no relying on them anymore.
The female knight tightened her grip on her spear, and a trace of confusion appeared in her eyes.
"Brave Hero... when will you return?"
...
"It’s time to make my move."
John flicked his wrist and spoke calmly.
After observing for so long, he had finally caught a thread of evidence.
Now, the hunt could begin!
Hummm—
A soft hum rang out.
John activated Godshadow, and his figure instantly vanished.
Then his gaze locked onto a certain point within the monster tide.
Phantom Blink!
Wherever his eyes could reach, he could arrive in an instant.
A distance of several miles was crossed in the blink of an eye.
John slipped silently through the monster tide.
In his stealthed state, the red-eyed monsters paid him no attention at all, allowing him to pass among them freely.
As he moved and dodged through the horde, John continuously cast Detection, tracing a hidden chain amid the chaotic tangle of cause and effect within the monster tide.
"This Armored Shade appeared from the front-left. That one appeared from directly ahead..."
A sharp gleam flashed in John’s eyes.
Guided by Detection, he linked together the traces of those Armored Shades.
In the end, the trail led him all the way toward the area near the spatial rifts.
"So this is the place."
Looking at those spatial cracks, which resembled the eyes of demons, John’s gaze shifted slightly.
At that moment, in his vision, a clear line of causality emerged—
pointing directly behind the rifts!
"So that’s how it is. No wonder I couldn’t find him at first. He was using these rifts as cover to hide himself."
A smile curled at the corner of John’s lips. He flipped his palm, and the blood-red Bloodfang appeared.
"I’d like to see who’s been pulling the strings."
John focused his gaze beyond the rifts and flashed forward.
When he appeared again, he had already landed in the shadowed area behind the rifts.
There stood a figure draped in a long robe, face hidden beneath a hood.
That person’s ID was obscured by strange symbols, while a pair of pale fingers tapped lightly at the air without pause.
Each time a finger pressed down, an Armored Shade would appear within the monster tide ahead!
"How interesting. So this is how a Lord Class Player participates in battle."
Watching the other party’s actions, a playful look appeared in John’s eyes.
This was his first time observing a Lord Class Player from such close range.
In his previous life, whenever he encountered one, he was always blocked by their subordinates and summons. He had never even had a chance to get close.
The person before him was clearly not as alert as the Lord Class Players from his previous life.
Which meant—
his time to die had come!
John’s figure flashed, and Bloodfang shot straight toward the opponent’s back, aiming for a vital point.
Clang—!
The damage number John had expected did not appear.
Instead, he was blasted backward by a golden halo that suddenly erupted from the other party’s body.
His feet dug hard into the ground, carving two deep furrows before he finally managed to stabilize himself.
His gaze trembled as it fell upon the golden halo circulating around that figure.
[Repelling Halo] (SSS-rank)
[Effect]: When subjected to a lethal attack, it triggers automatically, knocking the enemy back beyond attack range and exposing them to sight! Grants immunity to all damage for 30s upon activation. Cooldown: 1 hour.
"There’s actually a skill like this?!"
Rare shock surfaced in John’s heart.
This skill was considered a priceless defensive divine art by countless squishy classes.
At the same time, it was the nightmare of assassin-class players like John.
If not for that thing blocking his strike, that robed figure would already have fallen beneath John’s blade.
This person was absolutely not an ordinary S-rank Lord Class Player!
Now that the ambush had failed, the figure reacted at once.
He turned slightly, and the instant his gaze locked onto John, he did not hesitate in the slightest.
Both of his hands slammed downward.
Boom!
Boom!
Two gigantic armored figures materialized out of thin air and crashed heavily to the ground.
Like twin mountains, they shielded the Lord Class Player behind them.
