CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42: KILLING THE PLAYER KILLERS, THE CITY VIGILANTE

Stark raised his staff, sparks of mana dancing at the tip.

A single spell and he could wipe out the players who had ambushed him.

"Wait!" one of them shouted. The panic in his voice cut through the tension. "T-This is... Oblivion!"

The others froze. They looked at Stark, then at their leader, then back again.

"Holy shit."

"You’ve gotta be kidding me."

"Just our luck..."

Their fear was written all over their faces.

It didn’t take Stark long to figure out what they were.

They were nothing more than opportunists, player killers.

The ruined city was the perfect place for them, too.

The [Lives Loss Rate] here was higher than the novice towns, which meant every death was worth more.

For vultures like these, that was reason enough to camp the roads and strike anyone unlucky enough to wander by.

But their luck had run out.

They had picked the wrong target.

Stark’s expression turned cold. He didn’t waste his breath on threats.

Storm of Lightning!

The air crackled as bolts of lightning exploded from his staff.

Sparks surged outward, chaining from one player to the next.

In less than a second, the entire area was swallowed in white-blue arcs of destruction.

-35,040! -35,040! -35,040!

The numbers rained down like judgment.

None of them had a chance to react.

Their health bars dropped straight to zero, and in the next instant, their bodies collapsed into blackened corpses.

They didn’t even get to scream.

Stark didn’t stop there. His eyes narrowed, and he moved.

Five seconds, that was how long he had to act.

His agility carried him from corpse to corpse as he cast [Curse Flower].

Ding!

[The "Curse Flower" has been planted on the corpses of the players you killed.]

From the scorched bodies, twisted vines sprouted, curling upward until a bud appeared.

[Curse Flower: 100 HP]

Stark knew the flowers weren’t strong.

Anyone could crush them in a second.

But here, alone in this ruined street, no one would interfere. He stood and waited.

The vines twitched. Slowly, the flowers absorbed the lives lingering in the corpses.

Thirty seconds later, they bloomed fully.

Ding!

[Your "Curse Flower" has taken 300 Lives from other players.]

A grin spread across Stark’s face. Just like that, he had earned 350 lives.

’So being attacked can actually be a blessing,’ Stark thought.

He had no problem letting others strike first.

That was his rule. He never hunted down players for no reason.

He had never been one of those killers who thrived on griefing in his past life, and he wasn’t about to start now.

But if anyone dared to target Oblivion, then they should be prepared to pay the price a hundredfold!

He wondered for a moment how much stronger [Curse Flower] would become in the future.

What would it look like at its max rank? How much could it drain? The thought alone made his grin widen.

Meanwhile, the group he had just killed would be fuming.

Losing a fight was one thing. But losing hundreds of lives? That was the kind of setback players didn’t recover from easily.

For Stark, it was nothing but profit.

With that settled, he pressed deeper into the ruined city.

The outskirts stretched before him, a maze of shattered buildings and streets overrun by monsters.

He had no intention of wasting time on weaklings now.

He wanted the strongest prey this city had to offer.

After half an hour of walking and clearing his way through lesser enemies, Stark stopped.

The air here was heavier. Stronger monsters prowled in the shadows. And sure enough—

---

[Ruined City Giant Rat (Level 21)]

[Rank: Uncommon]

[HP: 100,000]

---

[Exploding Mutant (Level 22)]

[Rank: Rare]

[HP: 115,000]

---

Both of them stood nearby, glaring at him with glowing red eyes.

Their sheer health was comparable to the [Undead Soul Mage] and even the [Man of Steel] he had fought earlier.

But what truly caught his attention was the third enemy.

---

[City Vigilante (Level 22)]

[Rank: Elite (Boss)]

[HP: 150,000]

---

Up until now, every boss he had seen in the ruined city had been epic rank or below.

That wasn’t an accident. The system held back stronger monsters for a reason.

Anything above epic rank at this stage was too much for most players.

Legendary or mythical bosses? Completely out of reach.

But they would come. Stark knew that much.

In fact, during the [First Calamity], the strongest monster to appear in every city was a level 25 mythical-rank monster.

It had taken tens of thousands of lives to put it down, and that wasn’t even counting the endless horde that came with it.

He still remembered the aftermath.

Entire cities burning, the streets filled with corpses, the survivors too shocked to even speak.

The memory lingered for a moment before Stark shook it off.

’That’s what I need to prepare for,’ he told himself. His staff rose, steady in his grip.

The three monsters advanced. Stark didn’t wait.

Sovereign Vines! Plague Crystals! Cataclysmic Fireball! Storm of Lightning!

Fwish! Fwish! Boom! Crack!

Damage numbers erupted.

-36,900! -15,000! -6,000! -6,000! -43,800! -35,040!

The giant rat and the mutant never stood a chance.

They crumbled before the barrage, their massive health pools erased in seconds.

But the [City Vigilante] was different.

It moved like a shadow, slipping through his attacks with unnerving speed.

The vines were slashed apart.

Crystals shattered in midair.

Fireballs missed by inches.

Only the lightning managed to land, but even then, the vigilante resisted the stun.

It recovered in an instant.

Fwish!

The robed figure darted forward, twin daggers flashing.

Powerful Magic Barrier!

A glowing shield wrapped around Stark.

He felt safe, at least for the moment. His barrier had 20,000 HP.

’No monster I have faced so far can break it...’

Flurry Strikes!

Slash! Slash! Slash!

The vigilante’s daggers blurred, striking twenty times in the span of a breath.

Each hit dealt over 1,000 damage.

In less than a second, Stark’s barrier shattered like glass.

’...Never mind.’

He backstepped quickly, dodging the follow-up strikes.

One dagger came down in an overhead dive, and Stark barely blocked with his staff, the impact numbing his arms.

This boss wasn’t playing around. One mistake and he was dead.

’My usual spells won’t work. It dodges everything,’ Stark thought, his mind racing. ’How do you fight something that never stands still?’

That was what made [Eternal Soul] so brutal.

Raw stats weren’t enough. Monsters like this forced players to adapt. You had to think or you’d die.

Stark had spent ten years in this world.

Even so, moments like this pushed him to his limits.

The vigilante slashed again.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Stark weaved between strikes, but one dagger clipped him.

SLASH!

-1,015!

His health dipped, but he didn’t flinch.

[Constitution: 100 (+25)]

The extra bonus from his [Undead Soul Mage Robe] had saved his life.

Without it, that single hit would have been fatal.

Still, he stayed calm. His mind worked furiously.

’I opened with all my spells. It dodged everything except (Storm of Lightning]... but when it was hit by that, it stumbled. Just for a split second.’

His eyes widened. A grin spread across his face.

’That’s it.’

The vigilante lunged again, but Stark stepped back, spinning his staff in his hand.

Storm of Lightning!

Bolts ripped through the area, covering the ground in crackling arcs.

The vigilante’s body jerked. It wasn’t stunned, not fully.

But the impact made it falter, freezing for a single heartbeat.

And that single heartbeat was all Stark needed.

Sovereign Vines! Plague Crystals! Cataclysmic Fireball!

Every spell landed.

-35,040! -36,900! -15,000! -6,000! -6,000! -43,800!

The elite boss staggered, its daggers clattering to the ground before its body followed.

The [City Vigilante] collapsed, dead.

Stark lowered his staff and exhaled slowly.

’Phew. That fight was worth it.’

He had learned something important as a mage: even if enemies resisted stun, [Storm of Lightning] still caused them to falter for a fraction of a second.

That moment could mean the difference between victory and death.

And he would remember it for the future.

Then of course...

Ding!

Notifications filled his vision.