"Wow, it’s a good thing that they don’t resurrect.”

The God of War Ares had once competed with Grid for the position of First King. He was one of the few players who had made Grid feel tense, one of the bigshots who had made Grid reach out to him first. Ares had been outclassed and hadn’t become the first king, but everyone respected him still. He was the first player after Grid to found a kingdom.

Ares had founded Valhalla, which became very powerful through a deal he had struck with Grid. In the kingdom’s early days, Ares used to bow to Grid to gain a supply of blacksmiths. But since then, the two factions had formed an equal alliance because Grid relied on Ares’ skills to train powerful soldiers.

Interacting with Grid on an equal footing? This was rare for players, even rarer for NPCs. As Grid kept achieving great things, so did Ares.

"Grid and the Overgeared Guild have already destroyed over a hundred Full Moon Fortresses guarded by these monsters, right?”

Ares roughly wiped a cultivator’s brain matter off his clothes and took a refreshing sip of coke. Since Valhalla’s industry had been steadily developing, it was now producing canned drinks. Thanks to this, Ares could happily and conveniently drink cold coke. As Valhalla’s civilization progressed, his satisfaction from playing Satisfy also increased.

Well, until the S.A. Group launched this ridiculous update.

Ares was angrier than anyone else when he heard that cultivators were showing up in the world after the update. He even sold a number of his S.A. Group stocks. He had played all types of games over the past few decades. Therefore, he was very insightful. He had witnessed many games decline over time. Ares came to the realization that Satisfy was approaching ruin.

The price of the S.A Group’s stocks had been at the bottom for a while anyway. Why did the company suddenly drop such a strange update? Ares couldn’t understand what Lim Cheolho’s was thinking at all. Did the chairman not take care of himself despite having so much money? Did he become senile already?

Fortunately, the cultivators were NPCS. Once they died, there was no coming back for them. The cultivators who had spread like cancer cells in Satisfy were on the verge of extinction, their numbers finally dwindling. This was all thanks to Grid and the Overgeared Guild, who always played well.

"Let’s wrap this up quickly. If we deal with the rest of the cultivators, maybe this update will have a positive outcome after all.”

The core of this update was the expansion of the game’s worldview. New items and new skills had appeared in the game, as well as all sorts of resources and pets that had never existed before. The fact that most of them came from the cultivation world had made the cultivators stronger, but this problem could be easily solved if all cultivators disappeared.

People had high expectations for the future of Satisfy now that the cultivators’ items and skills were left behind in the game world. In fact, the S.A Group’s stock price was on the rise again.

Valhalla’s generals were displeased. “We want to wrap this up, but...”

They were all very strong and intelligent. They led tens of thousands of elite troops. Yet, surprisingly, they didn’t perform that well. The Absolute-level cultivators were a problem. There were also a small number of late-stage great ascension cultivators in the East Continent who persistently tormented the elites of Valhalla, especially the generals. This was enough to make Luck, who was hailed as Kraugel’s rival, click his tongue.

"Numerical superiority is meaningless. Even if we want to attack, we can’t keep up with their speed.”

"What are the Four Auspicious Beasts doing?”

"The immortals are keeping them busy...”

"Immortals... Can’t the daoist immortals from the Chivalrous Robbers deal with them?”

"Yeo Yulan? She is an immortal in name, but there is a significant difference in skills between her and the immortal cultivators.”

The front line was gradually getting pushed back. The elite forces, who didn’t know fear thanks to the AOE buffs of God of War Ares and the generals, were slowly retreating. They realized that no matter how strong they became, they were powerless against the Absolutes. Every time the Absolute-level cultivators used their Treasures or performed mystical arts, hundreds of troops would die. Morale naturally dropped.

"Um.”

Ares became a bit more serious as he observed the battlefield. He was rolling around a bead made by crushing a can of Coke.

“......”

The vast battlefield suddenly became silent, reflecting the generals’ willingness not to disturb their king’s thoughts. Their neat orders silenced the soldiers. The soldiers who had been seriously wounded by the enemy and screamed, the ones who finally spotted a window of opportunity to turn the tables and shouted, the ones who sobbed in fear, and so on... All of them fell silent as if they were possessed. This wasn’t something that could be achieved through just any type of training. The soldiers seemed more like fanatics than anything.

[...Is this the result of a mystical art?]

The sudden silence took even the Absolute-level cultivators by surprise. They were somewhat stunned and cocked their heads.

"Let’s stop them from flying first,” Ares slowly said.

Just then—

Thump!!

"I have no choice but to consume them and kill them.”

A ceiling appeared on the battlefield. The sky was gone. Walls rose all over the battlefield.

The open skies and wide fields were now gone. The stage where the battle was taking place, which had been dyed red with the blood of the soldiers, suddenly changed from an open space to an enclosed space.

[Is this the Earth Escape Arts? Or is it an illusion?]

The Absolute-level cultivators had a bad feeling about this. They realized that they were isolated. They were confined to a small room with a low ceiling. Hundreds of thousands of troops formed an endless line in the only passage in front of them.

What a stupid trick.

[Bah!]

The Absolute-level cultivators sneered and made a decision. Mystical characters spilled out of their mouths, filling the room with a brilliant light. It didn’t matter if this was the Earth Escape Arts or an illusion. Their mystical scripts had the effect of turning this attack into nothingness as long as it was classified as a mystical art.

However...

[It’s not a mystical art?]

The room didn’t undergo any changes.

Ares’ voice echoed all around them.

"This is my mental world. I strengthen my allies and create the battlefield I want.”

What was the mental world of the God of War? He activated it by using the insight he had of the battlefield and communicating with the soldiers. It was an incredibly powerful ability.

The cultivators had to admit that there was only one way out of this place. They had to get rid of all the enemies who were blocking the only way out. It would take a lot of time if the number of enemies was in the hundreds of thousands, but no more than an hour. This trick wouldn’t affect the outcome of the battle.

[If you wish to die, I will make your wish come true.]

There were a total of three Absolute-level cultivators trapped in the room. Just one of them could slaughter tens of millions of mortals.

Step, step, step...

A lone cultivator approached the enemy without hesitation. His expression didn’t change even when he fired flames from his hands.

"Aghhhhh!”

The soldiers engulfed in flames screamed and melted away. They died without having time to swing their swords or spears. But this didn’t disturb the soldiers’ ranks. The soldiers of Valhalla remained unfazed by the untimely death of their comrades. They stood their ground and attacked the approaching cultivator.

The rest of the cultivators were perplexed.

[Are you guys under the influence of drugs? Your king is a terrible man.]

The Absolute-level cultivator hurling fireballs clicked his tongue while continuing to move forward. He burned all the soldiers who blocked the road, tearing them apart, melting them, and stepping on them until they died.

How many minutes had passed? Ares’ voice echoed in the passage that was filled with the blood and internal organs of tens of thousands of dead soldiers. His voice trembled slightly as if he was frightened. Of course, Ares himself tried not to show his emotions. The energy detection of an Absolute-level cultivator was outstanding.

"Like I heard, you don’t see people as people.”

[A mortal isn’t a person. A person is a term used for a higher-grade animal with the most advanced intelligence.]

The cultivator snorted. His moves became more vicious. He didn’t just kill the enemy soldiers who stood in his way. He gouged out their eyes or ripped their tongues out and tortured them as much as possible.

The mental world was a strange concept to the cultivators, but perhaps it was one’s mental power. The cultivators believed that if the user’s will was broken, the mental world would collapse.

They thought wrong. Ares’ heart didn’t break even as a hundred thousand soldiers were annihilated.

[You don’t see your people as people. You deserve to be a king.]

The cultivator who clicked his tongue made it to the end of the room. The passage he had passed through was dyed red. A brilliant light streamed in from the exit he was facing.

He had killed the one hundred thousand troops that filled the passage. This all took less than twenty minutes.

[Enough tricks.]

Step.

The cultivators stepped out of the exit.

They believed that the mental world would be shattered and that the landscape of reality would unfold before his eyes.

However...

"That’s far enough. You can’t leave unless you kill me.”

What the cultivators faced wasn’t reality. They were in a new, smaller room. Ares was waiting for them on his throne. He was munching on rainbow-colored potato chips.

[...Are you no longer afraid?]

"If we drive the soldiers to the extremes and the king is the only one unharmed, that’s horrible. You will have them rebelling in the streets right away.”

"The soldiers aren’t really dead, right?”

"Why would you say that?”

Step, step, step...

From behind the throne, dozens of generals, including Scott and Luck, showed up. They were the elites of Valhalla. Most of them were Transcendents. No matter how powerless they were against Absolutes, this was still Ares’ mental world.

The low-ceiling room was just over ten pyeong wide. The large throne in the center took a lot of space, so the room was incredibly narrow. It was impossible for everyone to have enough room to swing their weapons and attack. This structure put the cultivators at a disadvantage because they could now longer rely on their speed, which was the main reason an Absolute overwhelmed a Transcendent.

Now the cultivators were forced to fight in this narrow, enclosed space.

"Now

Ares finished the remaining potato chips and equipped himself with items. The dragon weapon and armor were a gift from Grid himself.

[Uhm...]

The cultivators also recognized the value of the dragon weapon and armor. They even knew whose work it was. Grid’s infamy was very high.

"Let’s see who dies first.”

Slash!

Ares and the generals moved. A fight began in the narrow room.