Death

Lucy was fast herself; combined with the unpreparedness of the bodyguards, her punch reached the Kampaku!

Kampaku, with amazing reaction speed, barely dodged enough so that the punch hit his left shoulder instead of his heart.

He was thrown far away as a result of the punch but didn't suffer any critical injury.

"Peak human!" Lucy thought, shaken. It was difficult, but possible to kill the Kampaku if he were an ordinary person, but killing a peak human while defending against eight other peak human bodyguards, all armed with deadly weapons, and not having any of her weapons was too much even for Lucy.

Even though ninjas, along with Jack, Mike, etc., all investigated Kampaku, nowhere was it indicated that he was skilled in martial arts to this degree. It was public knowledge that he was once a military general, and thus his skill in martial arts was expected; but back then, he was not even close to being a peak human.

The bodyguards reacted quickly, four attacking Lucy, while the other four escorted the Kampaku to leave the room.

Lucy tried to stop them from leaving, but she was defending against four peak humans attacking her, so Kampaku successfully fled.

If Kampaku were an ordinary person, she might have ignored all defense to kill him, but with him being a peak human, even her most powerful poisons could not easily kill him, let alone the fact that she didn't have any of those in hand now. It can be said that her mission failed completely.

With a grave face, she dodged all the peak human bodyguards' attacks with amazing skill and ran out of the room through the window.

Kampaku's bodyguards had time and time again insisted on removing the windows entirely, but fortunately for Lucy, Kampaku was a fan of windows and sunlight in the morning, so he kept the windows intact. Otherwise, Lucy would have had no way to run away.

After breaking the glass and jumping down, after hearing a loud bang, Lucy felt severe pain in her chest.

"Guns!" she thought, trying to back away.

Even peak humans cannot dodge guns. Looking around, Lucy lost all hope; she was surrounded by over 100 musketeers.

Bang, bang, bang…!

Musketeers shot hundreds of times, basically reducing her to meat paste.

Lucy's last thought was her regret over failing to fulfill Jack-sama's mission.

...

"Who did it!? I will personally rip their guts out of them!" shouted Kampaku, completely different from his usual calm state.

The chief of palace security, who ran here when he heard of what happened, bowed and didn't dare talk; one wrong word may cause his death, so he didn't dare.

"Lord, only ninjas are powerful enough to do this; it must be the 13 Ninjas Village!" said Inazuma, one of his peak human bodyguards with blue hair. Inazuma was both a peak human and a peak skill; he was so powerful that even hundreds of swordsmen would lose to him. 

"Send my orders: the 1st Army of the capital is directed to march to the 13 Ninja Village and destroy them immediately; warn everyone that if they help them in any way, they will be targeted as well; in addition, send orders to relevant commanders to start the attack on Jack; I want his head in a week!" ordered Kampaku.

He was usually calm, but at the moment, he was so angry that only a few brave, like Inazuma, dared to speak.

Inazuma bowed and left to deliver the orders.

...

Jack sighed.

He expected Lucy to succeed by now; not hearing any news from her for three days was a bad sign.

As the one who designed everything in this Rank 9 Dream World, he, of course, knew Lucy's chances were low; after all, it was he who wrote in Kampaku's character sheet that he was a peak human.

But Jack cannot reveal any of these details.

The best way to preserve the Dao collection of a dream world is to only use information from the world itself. If Jack uses info he knows from outside sources to kill the Kampaku, the dao collection would be severely damaged. Anything that affects outcomes must be sourced from inside the world.

For example, Jack can snap his fingers to kill all chickens in the world; if it doesn't affect the outcomes of his fight with Kampaku, the dao reserves would be safe. However, if he snaps his fingers and kills Kampaku's bodyguards, thus making it easier for Lucy to kill him, that would severely damage the Dao collection.

"Hero-sama! Terrible news! Kampaku's army has started its attack!" shouted the village chief.

"It's over!" Jack sighed; he lost this round too. Even if Lucy succeeded, it would probably be useless, as it would most likely not help them anymore.

Jack and his crew already delayed things for as long as possible and have no way to retreat. As for fighting over 100,000 soldiers with a few thousand villagers, that's impossible.

...

Mike, with 3,000 of the best citizen soldiers under his command, shouted "Charge!"

The enemy has musketeers, so if they just wait, the enemy can kill them all using guns. Fortunately, guns now have a very slow reload time of over 2 minutes, so once Jack and his troops get close, the enemy can no longer use guns.

The issue is that besides the 400 musketeers, there are also over 12,000 enemy swordsmen, all of whom are veterans, battle-seasoned soldiers, far more skilled than even elite citizen soldiers.

The citizen-soldiers, all extremely loyal, driven by their desire to protect Hero-sama, charged.

The enemy swordsmen, with better quality weapons and good armor, also charged.

The encounter was disastrous for villagers; Kampaku's soldiers basically destroyed the citizen soldiers' front line; it was like a group of farmers cutting down grass; the two sides were so different that it was comical. Still, villagers didn't run away; they bravely remained and fought, died, and began taking the enemy's lives, using everything they had.

Mike was also active, shooting 1 arrow per second, specifically targeting the musketeers.

...

Even with all the bravery villagers showed, they still died in 10 minutes. Over 3,000 citizen soldiers, all cut down in 5 minutes! There was so much blood that the ground, which was black soil, became muddy, slowing down the enemy's advancement.

In only 10 minutes, Mike killed over 250 enemy soldiers, mostly musketeers, by himself. He was so far away that nobody could shoot him, but Mike, the best archer in the world, could shoot and kill them without much issue.

After shooting hundreds of times, however, even Mike felt his hands were numb. Even peak humans have limits; Mike's bow was very special, specifically given to him by Jack-sama, and was suitable for shooting at far distances; ordinary people may fail to shoot even once using it.

Seeing his troops die, Mike sighed; they fought bravely, but still, they managed to kill less than 1,000 enemy soldiers. In total, the enemy lost around 1,000 troops.

...

With his fast speed, Mike returned to headquarters, where Jack-sama was.

"Jack-sama, we should run away!" Mike shouted.

Jack shook his head and said, "There is no way to run from this one!"

"But we should at least try!" Mike shouted.

Seeing Mike so passionate, Jack nodded and said, "Let's go."

...

The Kampaku's army quickly killed off all of Jack's soldiers and started searching. Weirdly, even though they killed everyone, they still failed to find Jack.

The commander of the invading army, who heard about Kampaku's rage, was scared; if he missed Jack, his life would be in danger.

"Dig the ground, cut down and burn everything, just find them! If you fail to find him, I will kill you all!" shouted Shikaku, the commander. If he fails to find Jack, he won't die alone; he would kill his incompetent subordinates first.

Everyone bowed and went out, starting to search.

...

In this situation, the best way to hide is where nobody expects.

Jack and Mike managed to kill a few soldiers and wear their uniforms. This disguise, however, would be blown soon, as enemy capitans would check everyone's identity every night. Therefore, Jack and Mike had only a few hours to escape.

Unfortunately for them, Shikaku kept everyone in position, ordering them to dig the ground, giving them no opportunity to run.

"You!" someone shouted. A man in a captain's uniform came forward and looked at Mike.

"From what division are you? Have you lost your way?" he asked.

Jack and Mike randomly chose a group of soldiers, and it seemed that the commander of this group knew his soldiers's faces. Seeing unfamiliar faces, he was suspected.

Mike remained silent, doubting what to say; as someone with terribly low EQ, he has severe issues talking to others.

Jack smiled and said, "We are from the 10th division of Commander Gokakukei, we have been lost during the battle." Mike made up random names. He knows the names of commanders here, as he created them himself, but using those names to save himself would ruin the Dao collection. Even if he dies now, he will at least get some liquid dream, with some Dao collection, but if he ruins the Dao collection, he will really get nothing.

"Commander who?" Shikaku took out his sword and ordered the surrounding soldiers, "Arrest them."

Sighing, Jack took out his sword and with one move, killed Shikaku. This move, however, attracted attention, and hundreds of surrounding soldiers stopped digging and ran toward them.

"Mike, this time, we really can't run!" Jack said, shaking his head. The difficulty is still too high, even with Mike and Lucy.

Mike and Jack killed over 100 soldiers, but after all, even peak humans have limits. After getting tired, they started to get injured and eventually died from bleeding to death.

...

Jack's rank 11 incarnation, sitting cross-legged in the endless space, opened his eyes.

"Another failure!" he shook his head.

If he further lowers the difficulty, the dao collection of killing Kampaku would not be enough to propel this world to rank 10. Therefore, he changed some things but kept the difficulty the same overall.

He achieved this by nerfing some things while buffing others.

First off, he gave himself two more subordinates, named Gabriel and Raphael.

Gabriel was very talented in delivering messages, setting up communication lines, and creating organizations from the ground up.

Raphael was talented in finding treasure, making money, and safekeeping money; Jack should be able to earn lots of money with him.

Even though Kampaku is powerful, if Jack can become rich, he can buy outside help, maybe bribing the North Kingdom for assistance.

Jack didn't want to ruin the Dao collection, so he buffed Kampaku's side.

First, he increased the personal power of Kampaku, making him both a peak human and a peak skill.

Second, he made 20 of Kampaku's bodyguards peak skill in addition to being peak humans.

Third, he increased Kampaku's royal army from 30,000 to 100,000.

Fourth, he increased the lifespan of Akarui by 10 years. In his default setting, Akarui dies; his death weakens Kampaku, who is allied with him. But if Akarui hadn't died, Kampaku's relationship with the samurais would not have deteriorated as it was supposed to.

Fifth, he delayed the border incursion by the North Kingdom. The border incursion and subsequent response by Kampaku was supposed to lead to a war; unfortunately, Jack didn't survive for that to happen.

With this many buffs to Kampaku, Jack maintained balance.

Smiling, he waved his hand, collecting dream liquid, and creating another rank 9 dream world. Then he closed his eyes and started another round.