Chapter 213 – WARNING (1)
Hoyt remembered when he first met Crockta.
At the time, Crockta was an immature apprentice warrior. But he had the most necessary qualification for a warrior. Crockta heard about the circumstances between Hoyt and Thompson and raised his fist without any hesitation.
‘So young orc, will you help me?’
‘Yes. I will do my best to help.’
Hoyt had a hunch that night. So he told Crockta the most important knowledge he knew. Endless repetition would cause one to be the best in battle. Wielding a perfect strike that couldn’t be reached with dazzling attacks.
A strike that only a warrior who struggled could achieve. A miracle created by tens of thousands, tens of millions of repetition.
‘Go towards the pinnacle. And beyond me.’
Today, Crockta responded to that question. Beyond the Pinnacle, beyond the Hero, to a realm that nobody reached, Crockta’s greatsword swept towards the war god in a beautiful curve. It was a dazzling trajectory.
“Beautiful.”
The fire of the war god was raging, but Hoyt smiled. Everyone died in the end. In the end, everything born would sink into death. That was why warriors risked their lives and jumped into death. Great warriors would never be erased.
“Imperishable.”
Hoyt could see it. On Crockta’s back, he could see the great warriors that he knew.
That wasn’t all. The images of many warriors were superimposed on Crockta. Crockta’s weapon was a greatsword, an axe, and a halberd. Their willpower, which had never disappeared, was now manifested through Crockta’s hands.
The trajectory broke through the flames. The flames of the war god were destroyed, and the things he constructed with his power diminished. The call of war, which never went out, was separated.
Crockta’s blow continued without stopping. The gigantic body of the war god fell to the ground. It was split in two. The war god sank down.
“Ah…!”
“Oh my god…!”
“No way!”
The gods cried out. The expedition members dropped their weapons. They watched carefully. The war god’s upper and lower bodies separated, falling to the ground. The massive body slumped to the ground. The power of the Colosseum disappeared. The power of the war god, which could burn the world, faded away.
The body gradually shrank and became the same size as a human.
“Kuwaaah…” The war god returned to the shape of Aklan with serious damage. He tried to repair the wound, but the divine power in God Slayer was biting him. “Keheok…this is ridiculous…”
Even the war god didn’t know what had happened. He had pulled the power he used to support the world and tried to destroy Crockta. It was a blow to the heart. However, he was defeated by Crockta’s blow. The wounds on his chest would affect the body that lived in Olympus. His divinity was cracked.
“Hah, heok…”
The war god raised his upper body. He sat up and stared at Crockta. Crockta was looking down at the war god from the position of a winner. The war god, who controlled war and struggle, was defeated by a mortal. It was a humiliation that wouldn’t be forgotten until the world was destroyed.
“Congratulations, Crockta.”
However, he spoke graciously. He was the war god and knew the honor involved in a duel. The loser needed to maintain his honor.
“Kill me now.” The war god threw away his weapon. He held out his neck. “I have lost the duel, so finish me.”
He had never once experienced defeat. He had worked to stop the grey god, but now he lost the duel. Therefore, it was much more painful. He strained his eyes to remember his opponent’s face.
“War God.” Crockta opened his mouth. Crockta also wasn’t in a perfect condition. His whole body was in tatters due to injuries. He staggered over to the war god. “War God. Admit your defeat.”
“I admit it.”
“I see.”
Crockta slowly lifted God Slayer. If Crockta dealt the final blow with God Slayer, the war god would take a long time to restore the divinity. Some might even be lost forever. The war god closed his eyes.
“……”
However.
Nothing happened. The war god soon opened his eyes again. God Slayer was placed on Crockta’s shoulder.
The war god asked, “What are you doing?”
“Let me tell you one thing.” Crockta replied with a smile. His voice rang out through the battlefield. “A warrior doesn’t attack unarmed people.”
An unprecedented, massive war was triggered by the divine message. It was a racial war where the expedition and the gods aimed to destroy the orcs.
Now.
It was stopped by Crockta.
***
Elder Lord’s community user, with the nickname ‘Evening Game.’ He previously made a post claiming that Crockta was a user.
“Definitely suspicious…”
He was still trying to prove his theory. It was a type of sixth sense. Crockta was obviously a user. So he watched closely when Crockta’s steel helmet was damaged during the battle. However, it was only half broken and his forehead wasn’t revealed.
“Ah…that…how?”
The war god’s final blow. He appeared as a giant and his flaming sword descended towards Crockta, like a great king about to destroy the world. Evening Game believed that Crockta would die and that his body would scatter into white particles, revealing himself as a user to the world.
By the way, Crockta won. The war god was blown apart.
“……!”
It was such a dazzling scene that he couldn’t open his mouth for a while. It was a simple swing towards the flames, but the sequence of movements was more beautiful than anything he had seen before.
In these simple movements, Crockta showed everything that a warrior needed. Looking at the scene, even a person who knew nothing about Elder Lord would know what type of warrior Crockta was. It was a great blow.
He muttered, “Nothing…he is the real thing…”
He grabbed his head. He might be a persistent conspiracy theorist but even he couldn’t claim that Crockta was a user after seeing this scene. No human could do it.
In the video, Crockta declared to the fallen god.
[A warrior doesn’t attack unarmed people.]
A real hero. It was the figure of a warrior who showed mercy to the one who wanted to exterminate him. Who was the god and who was the mortal?
On the screen, the orcs raised their weapons and roared. The orc army, who appeared in the latter half of the battle, bent to one knee and bowed to Crockta. Even the gods and expedition members saluted him.
Evening Game stopped watching for a while and shook his head, “Now I need to stop…”
The moment that he thought so.
His phone screen shook.
“Uh…?”
In order to confirm the information of the ranker ‘Mystery’, who he presumed to be Crockta, he turned on the Elder Saga information window provided by the company. After the fall of the Heaven and Earth Clan, Choi Hansung’s momentum fell and Mystery became ranked number one.
At one point, Mystery’s level was marked as ‘MAX’ and didn’t rise any more, with only the incredible amount of achievement points being renewed.
The moment that Crockta’s victory over the war god was confirmed, the achievement points of ‘Mystery’ rose at an incredible rate. Eventually, it rose to an amount larger than that of the achievements points he accumulated so far.
Double, triple, several times the number, until the achievement points reached MAX.
A private user. Level: MAX. Achievement Points: Max.
“Uh…uhhh…”
It was a phenomenon he had never seen before. He formed a fist.
“Indeed…Crockta…!” Crockta defeated the war god. This compensation was natural if Crockta really was Mystery. “Crockta is clearly Mystery. Soon, people will…”
He wondered what he should do. Should he post it on the community boards or sell it to Undergames Channel? He was thrilled by the scene he witnessed and his anxieties about the future. The sum total of achievement points displayed at the top of the ranker information window also became MAX.
This was the sum total of achievement points that the users gained since the launch of Elder Lord. There were users who questioned why this was displayed, but no one knew the answer. Right now, it was at its highest.
“Oh my god. This…!” The moment he tried to take a screenshot, the ranker information window was turned off. “Uh…what is going on?”
He manipulated the phone. The phone connection wasn’t a problem. Everything else was fine. Only the ranker information window was messed up. Then he discovered that the homepage of the Elder Lord statistics provided by Elder Saga Corporation was down. He tried a few times but the site didn’t refresh.
He burst out, “What is happening all of a sudden? Shit!”
However, the result was the same when he tried again. Despite the huge number of users, the server management ability of Elder Saga Corporation had never been limited. He stared at it for a while before looking at the Elder Lord connection capsule installed in the corner of the room.
“Crockta…”
Then he looked at the screen showing the broadcast again. Crockta, who brought an end to the war, was talking about something in front of the war god.
“I should connect.”
His character was near Orcrox. He placed his character there because he thought that he would find evidence that Crockta was a user. HIs character wasn’t strong so he would be in danger if he entered the war. However, now would be fine.
“I’ll go and ask directly.”
He couldn’t be killed.
His body entered the Elder Lord capsule. So, he made a decision he would end up regretting.
***
After the battle of the war god and Crockta ended, the war was concluded. There were others who watched the ensuing post-war relay, but the users impressed by the battle hastily entered their capsules.
From the Orc Users Brotherhood to the He’s an Orc, yet still Praiseworthy members, those who participated in the battle and those who didn’t, the users connected to Elder Lord to celebrate this victory.
Those who disconnected to watch the war entered Elder Lord again to continue their quests. Those who weren’t interested in the war from the beginning also continued to play Elder Lord. All those who connected to Elder Lord in different circumstances suddenly faced a system message.
[Everyone has suffered a lot.]
A free city in the center of the continent, Appalachia. There was a place where users gathered to exchange information and trade goods, called the user market. Many users enjoyed Elder Lord for its variety of possible gameplay, whether it was selling equipment, partying together to hunt monsters, or simply relaxing.
And all of them faced the same system message.
“We suffered? Am I the only one seeing it?”
“I see it as well. What is this?”
“Is this a user-wide notice? Like the previous achievement points cataclysm?”
The previous achievement points event was popularly called the ‘Cataclysm.’ It was over now, but the benefits they got at that time was huge. The users were filled with expectations for the next messages.
[The total sum of achievement points has exceeded the final goal.]
[This is all thanks to the participation of all the users. Everything in Elder Lord is abundant thanks to you. I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who have loved Elder Lord so far.]
Up to here, it was similar to the old ‘Cataclysm’ message. The users started to feel curious. Then their expressions changed at the ensuing messages.
[Now, the adventure in Elder Lord will end here.]
[Virtual reality game Elder Lord’s service is shutting down.]
[Once again, thank you for loving Elder Lord.]
[Please close all connections.]
[I’ll say it once again.]
[Please close all connections.]
[I am warning you.]
[Please close all connections.]
[That is all.]
It was a prompt to shut down their access to Elder Lord. It was an unexpectedly bizarre system message. Elder Lord was currently the best entertainment on the planet. The revenue that Elder Saga Corporation earned was enormous. The popularity of Elder Lord continued to rise and it was enjoying the greatest boom.
Now the game was suddenly ending. There wasn’t even advance notice.
The users’ face distorted as they complained, “What, did Elsaco go crazy?”
“What is this nonsense? Who will stop the game?”
“Hey, I think I’m going crazy.”
“Don’t make me laugh!” the confused users yelled out.
However, the system messages no longer responded. Instead, something else appeared in their field of view.
[01:00]
It was a timer.
[00:59]
[00:58]
[00:57]
The timer was counting down towards ‘0.’