Css: Deadshrade: Unique

  Effects: When using a bow, all final base damage is increased by 280%. Additionally, all final oint ahal damage is increased by a further 140%.

  Description: ‘Masterful’ is not suffit to describe the owner of this css. To the pyer incapable of missing: Your as will be watched closely by the powers of this world. Good luck.

  Max stared wordlessly at his css tab.

  “For hundreds of years, the Demon Army has plundered our fields, destroyed our cities and sughtered our people! Their malevolend greed know no bounds – even today, they brazenly expand further into our territory, hell-bent on invading our nds and stealing our resources.”

  Surely this couldn’t be real. Had the devs made a mistake? For the css to be boosted this much... Even before the update, he’d been able to take down other pyers with only a single headshot.

  “But no more! Much like the golden sunrise you descry before you, the arrival of heroes heralds a new era! With your help, we will purge all facets of evil from this world, overthrowing the monsters and reg htful territory!

  No... even if it wasn’t a mistake, it shouldn’t make any difference. With his damage being boosted to such a rge degree, his css was now obsely strong. The developers would likely realise this during the uping battle and scramble to roll back the ges, if not for all archers, then at least for him.

  “The goddess smiles upon those who protect the weak; for the orcs who terrorise Novus Forest, killing our people aroying livelihoods, we shall grant them no quarter! Raise your ons! For today is the day of humanity’s renasce!”

  Regardless, this was a great opportunity. Since his damage was boosted, he would be able to show a better performan battle. If he fought well enough, he might even be able to make a name for himself among the pyers. Currently, he was only known as ‘Lemonade’s archer friend’ – hardly an illustrious title. In order to gain reition, he would o act quickly at the start of battle; it would be a missed opportunity if the orcs were killed off by other pyers before he could showcase his abilities.

  Virtus uhed his sword and raised it in the air. “All heroes, charge!!!

  ‘Wha-?!’ Max was taken off-guard. Although he had been half-listening to Virtus’s speech, he didn’t expect a sudden order to charge at the enemy pound. ‘Ah, thetle is already starting!’

  Proximity Mission: quer the Orpound

  Difficulty: Hard

  Description: An orcish military pound has been discovered atop a mountain near humaory, being used as a staging ground for violent acts in Novus Forest. In order to aid the residents of Novus, Prince Virtus of Eleutheria has requested the heroes’ assistan quering the pound and expelling all hostiles.

  Milestone 1: Break through the enemy defensive perimeter

  Milestone 2: Defeat all enemy leadership within the pound

  Milestone 3: Clear the pound of enemy batants

  Milestone 4: Prevent any substantial harm from befalling Prince Virtus

  Optional Milestone 1: Open or destroy the enemy gate

  Optional Milestone 2: Protect the lives of all Eleutherian soldiers

  Reward (tribution-Split): 200 gold per kill, plus bonuses for individual tribution. Additionally, there is a ce of greatly increasing favour with NPC ‘Virtus’.

  A sea of pyers began rushing eagerly toward the pound, but Max opted to make some preparations before joining them. Opening his mail tab, he collected the EXP boosters he’d received as pensation from the registration lockout bug. Although there tion to cim username and avatar ge tokens, he didn’t really care much for those – they were only vanity items and he would much rather the boosters, which gave him tangible bes by allowing him to level up faster. Also... the ‘Gun’ username had actually grown on him now, despite its actal iion.

  After immediately activating the boosters, Max proceeded onto his sed preparation – the main dish! Unequipping Lemonade’s ste ring, he tossed it into iory and rubbed his hands together.

  ‘Now if this works as expected...’

  Max tried moving all of his arrows into the ring through the iory interface. To his satisfa, the hundreds of arrows disappeared from his iory, indig that the transfer was successful. Pg the ring ba his finger, he tried taking two arrows out to firm. The arrows instantly appeared in his hand, causing his lips to curve up.

  “Virtus,” Lemonade addressed the prince, “should we charge in with them, or stay with you?”

  “For now, I suggest waiting here with me. In siege warfare, the first stage is always the deadliest, since soldiers o assault a well-deferucture while under a relentless bombardment ed attacks. Personally, I pn to enter only after the palisade is breached.”

  “Yoing to joitle?” Lemonade was surprised.

  “Of course. A leader who orders his subordio y down their lives while refusing to risk his own is naught but a coward. Such is not my style.”

  “I see... Then I will stay here for now.”

  “I will join the assault.” Max suddenly decred, prompting both Virtus and Lemoard him with surprise. “Siege warfare is an area of fidene. With your permission, I will take down the enemy archers.”

  “Hoh? You seem quite assured of yourself.” Virtus smiled. “Alright then, show me what you’re capable of, Gun. I will observe your bow skills from here.”

  Max tipped his hat in respect, before taking off at full sprint to joiher pyers.

  Zzzooooomm.

  ‘?!’ Virtus’s lips parted in surprise.

  ‘W-what?!’ Lemoched Max’s departure with shock. ‘Why’s he so fast?! Isn’t he level 9?’

  ...

  Thanks to his titles, which, when bined, gave a 70% boost to core stats such as agility, Max easily caught up to the other pyers. Although he could overtake them if he wao, he refrained from doing so, instead eleg to hang slightly behind the leading pyers and sharply monitor the orpound while running.

  —Damn he’s fast

  —POV: her parents aren’t home

  —I like how as soon as the prince emphasizes how dangerous it is, he charges in lol

  —‘Of course it will be deadly – I’m here, after all’

  —Why isn’t he overtaking ppl if he run this fast?

  When the pyers came within a half kilometre of the pound, Max’s eyes fshed and he pulled back, putting distaween himself and the front line of pyers. Tearing his gaze from the pound, he looked up into the clouds, which had been tinged a pleasant gold by the rising sun.

  —Seriously what is he doing lol

  —Bro literally has his head in the clouds

  A few seds ter, a broad se of sky became speckled with bck dots, which rapidly transformed into lines as a deorm of arrows rained down on the pyers.

  Shik-shik-shik-shik-shik.

  “Ahhh! Arrows!!”

  “Whh?!!”

  “An arrow barrage! We’re utack!”

  “F-from that far away??”

  “Ah, no, I’m too young to die! I still o marry Princess Sophia!”

  A few dozen pyers were impaled and became particle dust.

  “OH F*CK IT’S A 1-SHOT!!!”

  “WTFF??”

  Although several dozen pyers had died, about half of the arrows had fallen harmlessly in front of the vanguard. This was because orcs typically aimed their attacks at the closest enemies. Of course, the other pyers were not aware of this, and Max had no iion of divulging, sinobody would be willing to lead the charge after knowing. Instead, he gave alternate advice: “Everybody spread out! Move to the fnks!”

  “RAHHH!!”

  “Onwards, mehe easte our violence!”

  Although some pyers had perished, there were still thousands more, so the momentum of the rush was not curtailed.

  Shik-shik-shik-shik-shik-shik-shik.

  Announg itself with a loud chorus of whistles, a sed barrage came five seds after the first and shredded another wave of pyers.

  —Woah, this is brutal

  —Did the devs buff enemy archers as well?

  Max did a quick calcution. By the orc’s current rate of fire and the movement speed of the pyers, there would be about five more arrow barrages before the pyers reached the palisade. With this casualty rate, about 15% of pyers would be struck down in that time.

  Aorrent of arrows rained down on the pyers, this time killing over a hundred.

  ‘...Huh? That’s strange.’

  Something struck Max as odd. Although the pyers were now fully aware that the arrows were ing, even more died this time.

  ‘They’re n to dodge?’

  If it were only a case of some people having poor rea speed, he would be able to uand, but that wasn’t the case. Almost nobody was evading the arrows, despite being able to see them falling right down at them.

  ‘Is it because it’s a game, they ’t evehered?’ Max briefly sidered this possibility. ‘...No, that’s ridiculous, they wouldn’t just let themselves be killed for no reason.’

  A thin dot entered Max’s vision. Immediately, he twisted his shoulder, causing the stray arrow to nd in the grass behind him.

  Thunk.

  ‘Thehey just really slow?’ Max tinued p. ‘But this is so basic; you couldn’t even make it into HoL’s mid-game without being able to do this much.’

  Not uanding, he decided to shelf this question for ter; the middle of battle was not a good time for ption.

  —How did he dodge that?! :O

  —Neo? Is that you? Neo? Is that you?

  —THAT WAS AWESOME!!!

  After gauging the distao the palisade with a quice, Max sed the clouds through one more arrow barrage before kig to a halt and raising his bow. “Alright, this should be close enough.”

  —???

  —Close enough? For what?

  —LOL he’s too scared to go any closer

  In one smooth motion, Max summoned an arrow from his ring, nocked, drew, aimed and released, with all these processes adding up to no more than a sed. Due to the overwhelming effects of his [Successive Speed] skill, the arrow seemed to disappear into the air upon leaving his bow.

  Almost at the same time, an orc archer that had been preparing to shoot suddenly staggered bad dropped out of view.

  —Woah, he shot so fast

  —Haha an orc fell off the wall

  Max shot another arrow with aical motion, and a sed orc fell from the battlements.

  —Wait...

  And a third.

  —Why isn’t he losing his speed boost...?

  It wasn’t until the fourth instance, where an orc was killed while leaning over the palisade, that the viewers started to cat.

  —????

  —No way

  —All hits??

  Max stood in one pd tio shoot the enemy archers, only moving to avoid pyers who rushed by. Due to the fact that orcs prioritised attag the closest enemies, he ractically invisible to them at this distance.

  —This is insane

  —Is... Is this real? He’s like a hundred yards away

  —He’s not actually killing the orcs with one shht?

  —Mom, I’m scared

  The pyers began to reach the foot of the palisade, but it was several metres high and did not offer any solid gripholds, so they were uo climb it. Almost unanimously, they decided to pull bad assist the pyers who were carrying siege dders.

  Max noticed a wagon roll past to his side, carrying a rge wooden log suspended by rope.

  “Good, they’ll ram the gate soon.”

  Shifting his aim, Max started pig off the archers close to the pound’s front gate to alleviate the pressure on the ramming team. The viewers, however, did not choose this as their focus.

  —WTF

  —One shot, one sed, one kill... he’s actually a Gun?

  —WHY HASNT HE MISSED ONCE

  —HE’S LIKE A F*G SENTRY TURRET??

  —???????????

  Notig an orc target a pyer who was climbing a siege dder, Max flicked his aim over and swiftly elimi. The pyer reached the top of the dder, only to have his head cleaved off by a war axe.

  “Seems like they have melee troops on the wall, too.” Max watched the severed head as it dropped into the crowd of pyers below. “Regardless, this is really painful to watch.”

  Pyers were fighting each other over who got to climb the dders first, knog each other off and even going so far as PK. Virtus would definitely be grimag from wherever he was watg.

  “Well, there’s still hope.” Max directed his gaze to the battering ram, which was nearing the pound’s mairance. “Even if we ’t take the wall, we just pour in through the-”

  Suddenly, the main gate flew open, and a horde of orc warriors rushed out, brandishing long swords, axes and spears.

  A pyer scoffed. “Ha! The idiots came out! Everyone, let’s get eu- AAHHH!”

  The vocal pyer had his arm chopped off by ahe waraxe theuro strike under his , dividing his head into two vertical halves. Pyers with gore settings enabled fli the gruesome sight.

  Like a natural disaster, the orc warriors blitzed through the yers. It was clear to ag that there was not only a huge level difference, but also an incredible skill disparity betweewo forces.

  “What the heck... those pyers are getting steamrolled.”

  Max watched the ongoing age with amazement. While he didn’t expect that the average pyer would be capable of beating an or single bat, losing in this sort of group situation was inexcusable. The orcs here were surrounded and outnumbered; there were less than a hundred ord more than a thousand pyers; defeating them here should be a ch.

  “Damn, I ’t get a clear shot!”

  Too many pyers were blog Max’s line of sight, preventing him from support. Every time a small gap preseself, he would have no time to aim, only managing to witness brief ss of pyer sughter. He pushed through the crowd to get closer while grasping the situation. The orcs seemed to be moving with purpose, following a tall leader with a bck metal mask. Their objective...

  “Sh*t.” Max swore. “Everyone! DEFEND THE BATTERING RAM!!”

  Although he called out, Max k was too te – the cart carrying the ram was too close to the gate to have any ce of salvation. These fears were firmed moments ter as orcs swarmed around it, sshing the ropes that kept the ram suspended. Receiving a powerful kick from their leader, the cart was sent hurtling back down the mountain slope.

  “Good work boys! Now, back to the gate!”

  Having aplished their goal, the orc warriors immediately began withdrawing, cutting down the pyers in their path. Rag bato the pound, they hurled the gate shut behind them.

  Sm!