Chapter 268

[Intrusion into the territory of the 'Zojin' race during the Pioneer Protection period. The 'Conflict Suppression' debuff is applied. All attributes decrease by 70%.]

[The 'Zojin' race receives the 'Pioneer Protection' buff. They receive a buff that doubles their attributes against invaders.]

[The debuff is lifted when outside the territory of the Zojin race.]

[*Note: You are a leader. If you die here, the entire race will be eliminated from the league competition.]

Thud! Thud!

Seong Jihan indifferently watched the messages pouring in and kept moving forward.

'My body feels quite heavy.'

Only able to use 30% of his usual strength.

Until a moment ago, he could summon up to five Celestial Judgments, but now even two seemed impossible.

Meanwhile,

"Intruders from humanity? That's the fourth-ranked race."

"Coming here alone… He's got some nerve."

"Let's tear him apart and feast on his flesh right away!"

"Don't you remember the last match? He might be as powerful as an elf. Call our kin who were out there!"

"Hey! The buffs and debuffs have already been applied, so why bother against one guy!"

Whiff! Whiff!

Some Zojin flew swiftly towards Seong Jihan.

The recently sped-up Zojin Tribe had been fully reaping the benefits from their doubled stats.

"I'll eat that human's eyes first!"

The golden-winged bird-headed human arrived before the others.

Seong Jihan looked at him and widened his eyes slightly.

'He was the one who ranked first among the Zojin race in the future.'

Although he couldn't recall his name, he was quite a powerful warrior among the Zojin race.

But in the past life of Seong Jihan, he had been defeated several times.

Later on, he always said, "I won't fight you!" and fled into the sky whenever Seong Jihan appeared.

'I should instill fear in him earlier than before.'

Swooooosh…

Eclipse arose from Seong Jihan's left arm,

Fundamental Divine Art, Triad of Martial Mastery -Total Annihilation Horizontal Sweep

"What…!"

The golden Zojin sensed the sword energy approaching and put up his spear for defense, but…

Whoooosh!

The spear shattered, along with his upper body, and fell to the ground.

And then,

"What the… "

"Under debuff… how could…"

The Zojin following behind him were instantly cut down as well, falling to the ground split at the waist.

Doomed to die and log out with their bodies split in two by a single swing of Seong Jihan's sword.

Seong Jihan annihilated five Zojin with one strike.

"What incredible power…!'

"Truly, they belong to the 4th rank race!"

"He's no ordinary adversary. But we have no need to approach him, attack from a distance!"

"Don't get close!"

The Zojin Tribe was shocked at Seong Jihan's single strike and became highly cautious, but

'It's definitely weaker.'

Seong Jihan was not satisfied with his attack; he originally aimed to wipe out all the Zojin in the sky at once.

The reach of the Horizontal Sweep fell short of reaching them.

'But they pose no real threat.'

Even though the enemy was buffed, and he was debuffed, the gap in actual strength was far too wide to be bridged.

"Attack!"

Hsssssst!

The sky unleashed wind-based attack spells and arrows, aiming fiercely at him, but

Sssssss…

As Eclipse turned into a Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods, all the assaults were sucked in.

One swirling wisp of dark energy resisted the entirety of the Zojin's retaliation.

Seong Jihan put strength into his foot,

"Let's end this quickly."

Crackle! Crackle!

Electric current flowed beneath his foot, and instantly, his silhouette vanished from the spot.

"Where's that human…"

"Here! Over here! Argh!"

Swoosh!

For the Zojin, it was the beginning of a nightmare.

* * *

"What, what is this guy…!"

The leader of the Zojin race narrowed his eyes.

Clearly, according to the system message, it was the Pioneer Protection period.

Yet, a member of the 'Humanity' race, currently ranked fourth, was ruthlessly cutting down his kin.

"Ki, Kiik!"

"That guy, he's stronger than the elves…!"

"He definitely received a buff doubling his attributes!"

Swoosh!

Despite being significantly empowered by the system's buff,

Every time the faceless human swung his sword, the Zojin were split in half and tumbled down helplessly.

From 500 summoned, now fewer than 100 of their kin remained in the numbers.

The Zojin First Guild members swiftly flew to their leader in desperation.

"Guild Master, we need to retreat…"

"If the leader gets caught, we're immediately disqualified!"

"We'll try to hold them back!"

"Understood!"

Only one remained.

Despite the humiliation of retreating from just one debuffed human,

When considering the kin in the league crawling in last place, they had to endure the disgrace and survive.

'Humanity… we'll distance ourselves from this monstrous race and reclaim our territory! We must avoid finishing last!'

Flap! Flap!

The golden-winged Zojin hurriedly fled,

Meanwhile, cries of their kin echoed continuously from behind him.

Pretending not to hear, he flew on earnestly until…

Zzzt!

"Ugh…!"

As his golden wings were ripped off, the leader looked back with trembling eyes to see the faceless human race's entity, wrapped in currents of red electricity, standing there.

"So, you're the leader."

"No, not me!"

"Who else could it be? Everyone else is dead."

"…What?"

Confounded by Seong Jihan's words, the Zojin leader questioned,

"Go."

As the point of Eclipse trembled.

Swoosh!

His head fell from the sky to the ground.

[Special achievement, 'Early Elimination of Competitive Pioneers,' achieved.]

[You've acquired 1,000,000 achievement points.]

[Special achievement, 'Early Extinction of Pioneers as a Sole Individual,' achieved.]

[You've acquired 3,000,000 achievement points.]

Despite being in the Pioneer Protection period and single-handedly annihilating the enemy, an enormous amount of achievement points flowed in.

[You've acquired 3941 planet points.]

[You've accumulated 100,000 planet points. No longer able to store more.]

[To collect more planet points, you must build a base camp.]

Now having reached the cap on Planet Points,

'It's time to build that Base Camp.'

As Seong Jihan finished his scouting in the north and was returning,

-After watching today's broadcast, I'm convinced. The Zojin Tribe is indeed the foundation for humanity's worst rankings.

-They got sliced like nothing by Seong Jihan who couldn't even use 30 percent of his strength. LOL

The viewers were assessing the newly encountered race, the Zojin Tribe.

-But don't underestimate their flight abilities. They're not a weak race.

-Imagine fighting them without Seong Jihan in the air, we'd be hopelessly played.

-Well, they're weaker than dragons or elves anyway, right?

-?? If you look, it's not humanity that won lol.

-It's not humanity that won, it's Seong Jihan who won. Those two races…

The Zojin Tribe, larger than humans and with wings enabling high-speed flight, seemed to be a stronger entity in BattleNet based on specs alone.

However, due to their encounter with Seong Jihan, gathering objective data about them had become difficult.

-Being too strong is also a problem lol. Can't analyze the enemy.

-But I hope he stays strong.

-For real… No need to analyze. I just want Sir Seong Jihan to keep getting stronger until the end of the BattleNet.

-That's it! Since he let our lowest race fly high… he has to take responsibility to the end, right??

As the conclusion to rely on Seong Jihan formed amidst the ongoing analysis of the Zojin Tribe,

"Oh. Uncle's back!"

Seong Jihan arrived in the human territory.

Earlier on, people had scattered for reconnaissance, but soon they had all regrouped, sorted by their respective guilds.

"Why are you all gathered here? Weren't you scouting?"

"Oh! We were also collecting points by fighting giant bugs… then, suddenly, we hit the 100,000 cap. We returned for now."

"Ah!"

While exterminating the Zojin Tribe, the max Planet Points he acquired had likely applied to the entire race.

"But I saw a message earlier. Didn't the Zojin Tribe get wiped out?"

"That's right. Uncle, didn't you just set out to scout the north?"

"That's true. But then I saw the rival race. Took care of them along the way."

"We had trouble with just a few giant bugs, but uncle went and eradicated a whole race…"

"Ah! They seemed a bit weak. Likely to linger at the bottom."

Seong Jihan nonchalantly rated the Zojin Tribe and walked towards the center of the human territory,

where another message began to appear.

[Will you construct the Base Camp?]

[10,000 Planet Points are required.]

[The race 'humanity' has disqualified the rival race, 'Zojin Tribe.']

[Investing another 10,000 Planet Points in the Base Camp will allow you to utilize the Zojin Tribe's colonization feature 'Skyborne'.]

[Would you like to invest more Planet Points?]

'Skyborne? Does it have something to do with flight ability?' Since the Planet Points were at the max anyway,

Seong Jihan decided to use them in humanity's Base Camp.

As he confirmed his choice,

Rumble!

The ground split, and soon a contemporary high-rise building emerged.

"Oh. Here I thought we'd get something for the Base Camp…"

"Wow!! A building has been built!"

And at the same time,

The split ground transformed into a concrete surface.

Between the desert planet, the hub of the urban area alone looked as if cut out from Earth's downtown.

[The Skyborne attribute is activated.]

However, the buildings embedded in the ground soon,

Whooom…

floated up, converting into a floating base camp.

[Humanity's territory expands even further.]

[Detecting native life forms and rival races becomes faster.]

[It also becomes easier for rival races to locate the Base Camp.]

Clearly advantageous and disadvantageous traits of the Zojin Tribe's Skyborne attribute.

'In any case, expanding our territory is what matters.'

Seong Jihan saw more benefit than detriment.

'Now, what to build next?'

80,000 Planet Points remained.

As he pondered where to invest,

-Customer~! The packaging of the bio-robots is complete! Shall I open the trading window?

He received a message from Artemus.

-Really? It'll cost 100 billion GP, right?

-That's right! The bio-robots will greatly reduce the points needed for your race's base camp construction. Collecting planet points is quite a headache… but they will significantly lessen the initial expenditure.

-It was accumulating quickly though?

-Even so, it's only been an hour since the game started… You wouldn't have been able to gather enough for a base camp yet.

-No. I wiped out a race and hit the 100,000 MAX.

-Ridiculous… Is that even possible during the Pioneer Protection period?

Artemus didn't believe Seong Jihan's message.

-If they just reduce initial expenditures, I don't need them, the bio-robots.

-Wa-wait a moment! Wait!

As Seong Jihan attempted to withdraw his intent to purchase, Artemus hastily intervened.

-The usefulness of the bio-robots isn't just limited to that! If the base camp really gets constructed as you say… Resource extraction! Automatic resource extraction is possible!

-Resource extraction?

-Yes! The value of the resources obtained from the planet colonization map! That's where we greatly evolved our dwarves!

-Alright. Open the trading window.

Although he was hesitant to buy if it was only for a discount on planet points, since there was utility in resource extraction, Seong Jihan decided to make the purchase.

And so, the summoned bio-robot dwarves scattered around.

[Resource obtained: 'Seven Hearts of the Indigenous Species'.]

[The vitality of the Human race is slightly enhanced.]

"What?"

He received an entirely unexpected reward.