The Screams of Humans and Other Races

Humans and the other races screamed, their voices raw with anguish.

Blood lay splattered across every stretch of the battlefield. The Demon God Worshippers had taken heavy losses of their own, but those losses were nothing beside the ruin visited upon the humans and the other races.

They want me to beat the Demon God Worshippers in this situation? Does that even make sense?

And yet the account he had seen before the tutorial began had stated, quite clearly, that the humans and the other races won.

So the humans and the other races are supposed to win this war. Looking at the field in front of him, that future seemed utterly impossible.

"M-Master. Hmm……? The equipment……. Ah, that is hardly the matter at hand. Master. What would you have me do?"

His expression darkened all at once. The empty hollows of his eyes looked even more vacant than usual, and the terror on Paranet was impossible to miss. The Demon God Worshippers' presence seemed to have crushed him utterly.

"We hold out. Watch for stray arrows. Survival comes first."

"Of that, I am confident."

In truth, Paranet was a summon. He could be revived. It did not matter if the fellow died—though summoning him again would take a considerable length of time. Yujun, on the other hand, was finished the moment he died. The one who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠needed to be careful here was himself.

Recognizing that, he pressed his body even lower against the ground. Playing dead and waiting it out did not seem like such a bad plan. The worshippers appearing in this place were not opponents a player under level 100 could handle. Among them were ancient elves, orcs, and humans. There were even Poritam, a race of craftsmen akin to dwarves. In short, every sort of being imaginable had gathered in one place.

At least telling friend from foe is easy.

Every Demon God Worshipper had something like a bizarre hood wrapped around their head. To Yujun, a man of the modern world, the design looked painfully tacky. Even so, the hooded worshippers cut an imposing figure, and the alliance of humans and other races was being driven back without the slightest resistance.

"Paranet. Run."

"Yes? Yes!"

There was nothing he could do on the front line right now. Survival came ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠first. Yujun turned his back, moved toward the rear, and opened his status window as he went.

First I'll dump every unassigned stat into—

The moment the window opened, Yujun's eyes shook.

Did I see that wrong?

Something that should not have been there was staring back at him. He closed the status window and opened it again.

"……."

Primordial Player?

Shock washed over Yujun's face. He had only just thought his status window had changed completely, and already he had become the Primordial Player.

This only applies for now, right? They called it a virtual battlefield, so the odds are high.

That changed the entire conversation.

Figures. It never made sense. There was no angle where I could handle this alone.

The problem was something else.

The stats are this high, so why is the gear this trash?

The equipment the Primordial Player had on was miserably low in quality—bad enough to draw a sigh on its own. And no wonder. He was wearing a full set of mere Heroic-grade gear. Not a single piece of ordinary Legendary equipment.

Back then, high-grade gear barely existed?

If that was the case, it made sense.

Hmm…… then.

What he had to do was obvious: borrow the Primordial Player's body and drag this war to victory.

There's something to do before that.

Equip items. The Primordial Player's level was 501. Yujun, who had believed 500 was the ceiling, found it astonishing—but he could accept that such a thing was possible.

If the server had never shut down, the level cap would have been lifted again someday.

In any case, he was in a position to make proper use of the items in his inventory.

The inventory hasn't changed on me too, has it?

The worry proved groundless. When he opened the inventory, No-Pay Casual Gamer's inventory appeared exactly as it was.

Mythic-grade equipment, locked behind a level 500 requirement.

He drew out a full set of Mythic-grade gear, incomparably finer than Legendary. The level requirement of 500 meant even the attack power transcended common sense. Weapons, armor, accessories—he equipped them all. Pitch-black plate covered him from head to toe, a cleanly forged sword rested in his hand, and accessories of every color settled into place. Simply wearing the full set amplified his stats dozens of times over.

A max-level body…… how far does it go?

Yujun seized the shoulder of Paranet, who was fleeing in a blind scramble, and yanked him to a halt.

"Ghk?!"

Paranet cracked the back of his skull against the ground.

"W-why would you do that?"

"How did you recognize me?"

"Pardon? What manner of nonsense is that?"

"My body changed."

"It is exactly the same."

"……What?"

There was no mirror, so he could not check. Yujun pulled a piece of equipment with a mirror-like sheen from his inventory and looked at his face.

Huh? It's me.

He had the Primordial Player's status window, and yet his face and body were unchanged? By common sense, that was impossible. But this was also a place where common sense was not to be trusted. He decided to let it be.

Still…… this is no joke. This body.

Strength overflowed from him. Without a shred of exaggeration, he felt that even if a Demon King appeared before him now, he could win.

Will the day come when I can kill the Demon King?

If he used his inventory, it did not even look difficult. A matter of time, he thought.

I might even take him before level 400…….

There was no need to climb all the way to max level. His items carried options that broken.

Clang!

Yujun opened the status window again and ran his eyes down the skills and traits the Primordial Player possessed. Most of them were skills he knew—the second- and third-highest grades in the world of War of the Gods. Even the Primordial Player, it seemed, did not possess a single EX-tier skill.

The No-Pay Casual Gamer character had an absurd number of EX-tier skills. Looking at this, I can't help feeling disappointed. Tch.

"Why are we going forward again?"

Paranet asked, his voice thick with doubt. Yujun said nothing and dragged him along.

"W-wait, a moment! That place is certain death. If we go, we die!"

"It's fine. We won't die. I'll kill all of them."

"C-could you not simply leave me behind?"

Paranet the undead went the color of a corpse. He was nothing but bone to begin with—pallor itself—but now it was especially severe. He was terrified.

"I'm doing this to power-level you."

"Power-level? What might that be?"

"You'll know when you see it. Right now, I'm the strongest being in this world."

Yujun was borrowing the Primordial Player's stats. In short, killing monsters would change nothing on his original status window. Paranet was different. The fellow was a growth-type summon. Depending on what Yujun hunted, explosive level-ups were there for the taking.

Before he knew it, Yujun had reached the very front of the human lines. Every gaze locked onto him. It could not be helped. On this battlefield, he stood out far too much—full plate forged from well-refined, costly metal. It was painted black, but the nobility of it had nowhere to go. And not only the armor. Helmet, boots, gauntlets, even the sword: light poured from every piece of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠equipment.

"Who is that?"

"Is it him?"

"No…… the equipment is completely different."

"Doesn't seem like an enemy."

Yujun's appearance stirred a commotion through the allied camp of humans and other races. The Demon God Worshippers judged him an enemy and gave the order to attack. Magic of every color shot toward him.

Fwoosh! Boom!

A translucent barrier had already risen in front of him, and against it those spells vanished cleanly.

The SSS-rank skill, Absolute Defense. Whether the attack was physical or magical, if it failed to exceed a certain threshold of power, Absolute Defense could never be pierced. Everyone who witnessed that majesty was stunned.

"W-what?"

"A grand magic circle?"

"Isn't that the Primordial Player's signature skill?"

For the first time, the Demon God Worshippers faltered. The Primordial Player, gone at some point, had appeared in an entirely different form. But it was still too early for them to be surprised.

Yujun cast Over Power (SS), the buff that increased the power of his skills, and immediately followed it with Meteor (S).

Vmmm. Rrrrr—.

The sky dyed itself red. The ground shook violently. A single black speck appeared in the crimson heavens, and it swelled at a terrible speed, like an omen of the moment just before the world ended.

Fwoosh! Groooan.

The pinnacle of meteor magic. Meteor manifested. A vast, jagged meteor fell into the very center of the Demon God Worshippers' formation.

KABOOM! Boom!

Everything near the impact was annihilated. Not even a scream rose from that ground, because everyone inside the meteor's reach had already met death. The scene spread before their eyes was difficult ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to believe even while looking straight at it.

Whoa…….

The one who had cast the skill was the most surprised of all. For an S-rank skill, the scale was considerable. Meteor was not originally a skill of this magnitude. Even so, he had been able to make the sight in front of him because his Magic was extraordinarily high, and because Over Power had amplified Meteor to its limit.

"……."

"……What just happened?"

"That was Meteor, wasn't it? A magic skill he uses often."

"It can't be."

"It's definitely him!"

"Humanity's hero!"

"Ooh—at last, there's hope!"

"Charge! This is our chance!"

The allied camp erupted. A single Meteor had reversed the tide of the war. Paranet, as if struck with awe, clapped and spoke.

"This is a battle worthy of the strongest in the world……."

The allied forces rode that momentum and crashed into the Demon God Worshippers.

I can't fall behind.

Yujun raised his sword and leapt into the heart of the enemy ranks. In the space of a single blink, he was where he meant to be—and he startled himself.

Moving for real, the disconnect is insane.

It was a different dimension from controlling a character with a mouse and keyboard. He moved so fast he could not adapt. He was nearly motion-sick. Yujun swung his sword at a zombie elephant. It was only a basic attack, no skill at all, and the zombie elephant's body split cleanly in two.

"Ooooh!"

Paranet, his level having shot upward, cried out in delight. In truth, the worshippers killed by Meteor were beyond counting. His level had no choice but to climb and climb.

Still…… his experience is rising a bit slower than I thought.

It had to be because this was a virtual battlefield, not the real thing.

A shame.

If this had been real, Paranet's level would already have passed 300. He had killed that many worshippers.

"Ooooh! My level keeps shooting up!"

Paranet seemed plenty satisfied with even that. Standing still and doing nothing while experience poured in, he could not have found a complaint if he tried. Yujun swung without rest.

Shk! Swish! Shk!

More.

Boom! Crash! KABOOM!

He spammed magic skills as well. He had to kill more worshippers if he wanted Paranet to grow, and Paranet's growth was his own. In the end, Paranet belonged to Yujun. Every time Yujun took a single step forward, the worshippers around him collapsed.

So this works…….

It was a new world. He was making a sight that could not even be compared to what he had seen in game graphics. Clad in a full set of Mythic-grade equipment, Yujun was displaying a martial power beyond any comparison to before. The moment he charged in, the war was effectively over.

In the end, the allied army of humans and other races cleaned up most of the Demon God Worshippers before even half a day had passed. Only then did Yujun swiftly strip off the items he had been wearing and return them to his inventory.

I can't leave Mythic-grade items behind here.

A message rose before him as he drew a breath full of satisfaction.