Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World

Multi-colored light erupted in Caelus’s vision as he arrived in the Space League.

He had actually arrived in a rich, thick, luscious forest.

[Ding!]

[Space League: Battle Royale.]

[You are in Map #53]

[Objective: Eliminate players and be the last one standing. There is a safe zone across the map which shrinks every 5 minutes.]

[Note: You can either choose to eliminate your own world’s members or choose to keep them alive.]

[The condition is to be the last world standing.]

[If more than three people from your side win across all the maps, then you will be the victor.]

[Hence, move before it is too late.]

Whoosh!

As soon as the notification rang, someone appeared before Caelus.

"It’s you, Caelus." The one who spoke was Kevin; it turned out he was on the same map as Caelus.

"Yo." Caelus glanced at Kevin and spoke.

"You... What is your relationship with Sylvia?" Kevin stared deeply at Caelus with wide eyes. "How do you know her?"

"How does that concern you?" Caelus blinked. "She is my party member."

"I like her," Kevin said without an ounce of hesitation. "She has a very good personality. I like that about her."

Caelus raised an eyebrow hearing this.

"Do you think she likes you back? I will tell you the answer myself. It is no." Caelus looked at Kevin with a shrug.

"I am pretty sure Sylvia made it clear when she hesitated to reply to you during the time you went to fight Baal in the world quest, and also in the global chat back in our merged region."

Caelus sighed and spoke. "She likes me. I can tell that much. Unless you want to turn into a corpse, it is in your best interest to keep your distance from her. She might have a good personality, but she is pretty crazy."

He didn’t know what the previous Caelus did when they were young to pull a girl like Sylvia. Perhaps being stupid and a plain idiot had its perks?

He knew Sylvia liked him, but he wanted to make things right. He had to make it clear to her that the old memories would never come back, and then it would be her turn to choose.

Kevin’s body trembled lightly when he heard Caelus’s reply.

"Did I... never have a chance?" Kevin smiled bitterly. "She never treated me as anything more than a friend. I put in a lot of effort, but she never bothered to give me another glance."

"Such is life." Caelus patted the guy’s shoulder. "You got a pretty good talent. I am sure you will get other girls. There are plenty of fish in the sea."

[Name: Kevin Keith]

[Level: 19]

[Combat Score: 130]

[Talent: Star King (S-Rank)]

Caelus grinned internally seeing this.

An S-Rank talent.

He must get this before he left the Space League!

"Thank you, Caelus. I didn’t know you would say such nice things," Kevin said with a soft sigh. "I had already given up on Sylvia. I just wanted to ask you about her."

"Please take good care of her." Kevin gave him a small, determined thumbs-up. "Starting now, you are my friend."

"Can we be friends, Caelus?" Kevin asked while stretching his hand out.

Caelus looked at this scene with a blink.

This guy was pretty enthusiastic, wasn’t he? Now he kind of felt bad for planning to stab this guy in the back before the Space League ended.

"Sure. We are friends." Caelus returned the handshake. "I don’t usually become friends with hypocrites and those who have an exaggerated sense of justice. But you are a rare exception."

All for the S-Rank talent!

"..." Kevin smiled wryly hearing this.

This was not the first time he had heard those words in his life.

"I am trying to change myself," Kevin said with a bitter smile. "I have been hitting the gym these days, focusing on improving myself."

"..." Caelus clicked his tongue hearing this.

It was true; people that get dumped do hit the gym, huh?

But he had to hand it to Kevin. This man got humiliated in the global server, yet he was still going strong. Now he really felt bad for the guy.

"By the way, Caelus, how did you know about the matters of the world quest... were you there?"

However, just as Kevin finished his words, the forest shifted, and a huge figure lunged towards them with immense speed.

"Watch out, Caelus." Kevin went pale as he activated his appraisal skill.

[Error! The other party is at Iron II. Your rank is too low to check.]

"Two humans at the same time, what a steal! Hahaha!" It was an orc with pale greenish skin and spiky hair. A giant axe was in its hands as it swung down at Caelus.

Clank!

However, what Kevin expected to happen didn’t happen. Instead, the giant axe was stopped dead in its tracks as Caelus held onto it with a lazy look.

"Wha..." Kevin’s mind went blank seeing this.

Caelus stopped the axe of an Iron II?

"What were you saying?" Caelus turned to Kevin and asked as lightning slightly crackled around him.

"Y-You..." The orc widened its eyes in disbelief.

However, the next moment, its entire body froze solid as frost rapidly generated around it. It then buzzed with lightning, shuddered, and fell to the ground with its body turning completely into powder.

Caelus crouched down and began the extraction process.

[Extraction successful...]

[You’ve obtained the skill: Cleanse (Common, 1-star)]

"Tch." Caelus clicked his tongue as he stood up. He didn’t expect to get a Cleanse skill from an ugly orc.

"..." Kevin, observing this, was flabbergasted.

He seemed to have realized something.

"In the global chat, Sylvia called Player 555 her boyfriend... Caelus, are you Player 555?" Kevin asked with his jaw dropping slightly.

"Bingo," Caelus replied as he stretched lazily.

"Unbelievable," Kevin mumbled under his breath. "No... I should have foreseen this when you beat up everyone in school..."

"Okay. Do you have a speaker?" Caelus asked, changing the subject.

"A speaker?" Kevin tilted his head in confusion, recovering from his initial shock.

"Yes, a speaker," Caelus said with a smile. "Let’s get this battle royale done with and go back home."

"I don’t have a speaker, unfortunately."

"Hm." Caelus wore a thoughtful expression.

Maybe he could use his aura?

It had an amplifying effect.

He checked the map. They were currently in the safe zone, and there were several player icons.

They showed the races that were present on the map: Humans: 32, Orcs: 12, Dwarves: 19, Gnomes: 18, Beastkin: 19.

There was actually a further option to click down on humans: 21 from other worlds and 11 from his own.

"Wtf? Gnomes?" Caelus was dumbfounded.

What the hell was a gnome going to do?

Speak of the devil, a small creature suddenly appeared in front of Caelus.

"Humans, get ready to die!" the gnome shouted as it suddenly thrust its arm forward.

A tiny flame blew towards Caelus, who blinked at it and extinguished it.

"Y-You human! Face my wrath!" the little thing with a red hat shouted as it shot an icicle at him.

Caelus looked at the creature with a sigh. It looked cute; unfortunately, it was his enemy.

He pointed his finger at the gnome, who wasn’t even Iron II, and an icicle shot out from his fingertip, piercing it cleanly.

Sighing, he began the extraction.

[Extraction Successful]

[You’ve obtained the Class: Inferno Controller]

[You’ve obtained the class skill: Inferno Tornado (Epic, 1-star)]

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A/N: If you are enjoying the book so far, support it with a power stone or two. Thank you.