Chapter 55 -55-Wanted Across the Entire Zone, Tallying the Gains
[You plundered A-rank talent "Healing," 10 gold coins.]
[You plundered B-rank talent "Purification," 932 silver coins.]
[You plundered A-rank talent "Meditation," 100 gold coins.]
[...]
As the players of Zone 4 fell one after another,
the number of talents John was plundering kept rising.
At the same time, because the number of players he had killed was simply too high,
his points on the Wanted List were climbing nonstop as well.
[You killed Zone 4 player "Lecoe." Wanted List points +10!]
[You killed Zone 4 player "Bailomen." Wanted List points +10!]
[You killed Zone 4 player "Hareta." Wanted List points +10!]
John’s vision was almost completely filled with these crimson notifications.
With a slight wave of his hand, he chose to block them out.
But soon enough,
another enormous, blinding notification lit up before him.
[Attention! Your current player kill count has reached 1,000, and your Wanted List points have exceeded 10,000!]
[Your reputation in this zone has reached "Infamous"!]
[Attention! Your current player kill count has reached 10,000, and your Wanted List points have exceeded 100,000!]
[Your reputation in this zone has reached "Notorious"!]
[Attention! Your current player kill count has reached 50,000, and your Wanted List points have exceeded 1,000,000!]
[Your reputation in this zone has reached "Universally Hated"!]
...
On the Wanted List,
John’s name had already begun to glow with a flame-like crimson light.
And the number 1,000,000 displayed after his name was enough to make uninformed players in other zones tremble in fear.
What exactly had this John done?
How had he suddenly killed so many players?
Beneath the Weathered Mountains,
the names above the heads of 999 Johns were a terrifying scarlet, as if blood might drip from them at any moment.
He watched coldly as players fell in waves like stalks of wheat being harvested,
completely indifferent to his red-name status.
Because the number of players he had killed was simply too great,
Zone 4 had already issued a bounty announcement against him.
[Zone-Wide Bounty Announcement: At Weathered Mountains coordinates (1343, 369), a red-named player is committing slaughter!
All players in this zone are requested to proceed to the coordinates and kill the red-named player.
Upon killing them, you will receive 20% of the player’s total EXP, and the drop rate of the player’s equipment will be increased by 50%!]
John ignored the bounty announcement ringing in his ears.
To him, that announcement meant less than nothing.
Looking across all of Zone 4,
who could possibly withstand even one of his basic attacks?
Not to mention that standing here right now
were 999 of him.
With Zone 4’s current warped state of progression,
there was not a single person who could truly injure him.
Even so, in the face of such immense profit,
many Zone 4 players still rushed over through the teleportation arrays despite how terrifying John’s red-name status already was.
The moment they arrived,
they locked onto the group of white-robed Johns.
No one stopped to think about how John could have killed so many players all at once.
There was only one thought in their minds:
Kill John, and seize his EXP and equipment!
The number of players participating in this siege likely accounted for 5% of all Zone 4 players!
Zone 4 had far more players than Zone 5.
Five percent was already an utterly terrifying number.
At a glance, the mountains were covered with Zone 4 players as far as the eye could see.
By rough estimation,
there were close to 50,000 of them.
They surrounded John from every side.
At this point, John could not even be bothered to act personally. He simply let tens of thousands of skills and enchanted arrows crash down like a tidal wave.
The entire sky was almost covered by the skill barrage and arrow rain of Zone 4’s players.
John sat calmly in the midst of his many clones,
allowing those attacks to bombard them.
[-1] (Forced Damage)
[-1] (Forced Damage)
[-1] (Forced Damage)
White damage numbers immediately popped up above the clones.
Even with tens of thousands of skills and arrows raining down,
the HP his clones lost did not even amount to one-millionth of their total.
Before those clueless Zone 4 players could react,
they were struck by terrifying reflected damage.
The dozens-fold amplified reflection let them taste the full power of the very skills and arrow rain they had strengthened.
In an instant,
the 30,000 Zone 4 players who had just launched that barrage at John’s clones exploded on the spot.
[Attention! Your player kill count has reached 60,000. Wanted points +100,000!]
[Your reputation in this zone has reached "Public Enemy"!]
Ignoring the Wanted List points that continued piling up,
John’s main body began reviewing the gains from this battle while standing amidst the crowd of clones.
First and foremost, the most noteworthy gain was undoubtedly the talent [Dominion Lord],
which he had plundered after killing that Lord-class player, PlayerLink.
[Dominion Lord] (SSS-rank)
[Effect]: After establishing a nation or city, all players located within that nation or city can be blessed,
granting them a 30% bonus to all attributes!
[Note]: This talent only takes effect after the player establishes a guild or city, and each week there is a chance to obtain one Acceleration Token from the shop.
......
"Finally got it."
Looking at this lord-type talent,
John felt deeply satisfied.
This was something he had long coveted and looked forward to obtaining.
With this lord-type talent,
why would there be any worry about making Zone 5 the strongest zone?
The assessment dungeon and Overlord Authority he had arranged before could only strengthen Zone 5 players indirectly.
But with this lord-type talent,
he could now directly enhance all players in Zone 5!
After finishing with the Lord-class player’s talent,
he turned to the talent he had acquired earlier from the Alliance Leader player he had hunted down.
[Heart of Thorns] (S-rank)
[Effect]: When taking damage from another player, retaliates based on 50% of the user’s current damage value!
...
This was precisely why those ranged mages and archers had suffered massive reflected damage after attacking John.
Heart of Thorns calculated its damage based on John’s current damage output,
not on the damage he had actually received.
As a result, those players simply could not withstand the counterattack.
John, however, felt that 50% was still too low.
He directly used the modification system to adjust the 50% to 100% reflection.
Now, no matter who attacked him,
they would suffer a full-force strike in return.
Next came the rewards from when he had snatched the Abyssal Wolf earlier.
[Congratulations, player, for killing the gold-grade BOSS "Abyssal Wolf." You have received 30,000 gold coins, 10,000 Fame, and 100,000 EXP!]
A gold-grade BOSS no longer held much attraction for John.
The only reason he had made a move this time
was to make the players of Zone 4 suffer.
After all, Zone 4 had treated Zone 5 that way earlier.
Now, John had merely stolen one gold-grade BOSS from them.
That was already merciful enough.
Besides that, the Abyssal Wolf had also dropped a piece of equipment and an A-rank random treasure chest.
[Abyssal Bracers]
[Quality]: S
[Attributes]: Agility +5000, Defense +3000
[Effect]: Attack Speed +50% after equipping