Chapter 52
Thump-! Blood-red light flashed as space pulsed with a low throb. A sound like a giant's heartbeat swept over the battlefield once.
In that instant, countless players began screaming in agony.
“Argh! Kughaaaah!”
“Aaaack! It hurts! Save me!”
Zhang Hao, the Chinese S-rank player and world-ranked 28th Paladin, broke out in cold sweat as he scanned his surroundings.
“What the hell is going on?”
Some convulsed with spasming limbs, while others clutched their faces like they'd lost everything, vomiting forth screams of torment.
“Hey, snap out of it! Hey!”
Zhang Hao grabbed the shoulder of a comrade screaming right beside him and shook hard. Rip, tear- his comrade's veins tore open with a gruesome sound, bulging vivid and angry.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
His comrade's eyes rolled back in agony as his limbs trembled uncontrollably, repeating the same words over and over.
“Please, heal me. Heals...”
“Heals...?”
Had anything happened to drain his HP? Come to think of it, there was a faint burning sensation in his body. Frowning, Zhang Hao opened his interface to check his HP.
“Hmm...?”
About 500 HP had vanished without a trace. A pittance for an S-rank whose base health exceeded 100,000. But not for low-level players.
When did this...? No way Sertina...?
Zhang Hao looked up at Sertina.
“...?!”
He was so shocked he lost his words. He blinked repeatedly, unable to believe the scene before him.
“Wha...?”
Sertina's wounds were perfectly healed. Her blood-soaked arms and legs, her split skin—they all gleamed transparently as if nothing had happened. She wasn't even dodging attacks anymore. Amid a barrage that would melt even Ketehon, she stood calmly in the explosions, her expression leisurely.
As if to say, kill me if you can.
Zhang Hao's mind went blank.
“No, this... this can't be. Impossible!”
Wound healing meant HP recovery. In other words, Sertina had fully restored her HP somehow. Instantly. For a world boss with over 3 billion HP.
“That's impossible!”
At that moment, another pulse swept through.
Thump-!
His vision flashed blood-red. This time, even more players screamed.
Zhang Hao felt the change in his body more clearly too.
“Damn it, it's getting hotter! What the hell?!”
His body temperature was rising. The source was clear: his veins. The blood circulating through his body was heating up. His heart throbbed violently, as if tearing itself apart.
His HP ticked down slightly.
The third pulse followed immediately.
Thump-!
And this time, Zhang Hao saw it clearly. That blood-red flash with every pulse—it wasn't just a flash.
“Damn...”
Having realized the truth, Zhang Hao muttered lowly.
The blood-red energy escaping players' bodies was being absorbed into Sertina. No matter how you looked at it...
She's draining our HP!
Zhang Hao paled. Cold sweat poured from his palms like a waterfall; his heels went numb. Horrific screams from comrades stabbed his ears like arrows from all sides.
In games, the max for world boss raids was 1,000 players. But now, Sertina's curse stretched to everyone on this battlefield.
We're screwed. Zhang Hao stared in a daze.
Mobilizing 10 million from the Party was a fatal mistake!
He backed away stealthily before collapsing to his knees. Sertina was approaching.
Can't beat that... it's just a monster!
His pupils shook like aspen leaves.
Sertina. Reborn as the true end of all life, the amount she was recovering...
Roughly 5 billion per second.
Thump-!
The wave of death swept the battlefield once more.
Whoosh!
Like a flood slamming his heart, his dwindling health exploded back up.
Death's Stage
Drains a fixed 500 HP per second from all recognized lifeforms in range, recovering that exact amount for the user. An utterly heinous skill.
(Requires target recognition—but after centuries honing mana manifestation on Pandela's battlefields, that's no issue for me.)
To sum it up: the ultimate mob-killer. The more enemies, the greater my advantage.
“I-I wanna go home!”
“Kughaaaah!”
“Fuck, it hurts! It fucking hurts!”
More and more collapsed from the agony of boiling blood. The momentum had completely reversed. Their blind faith in the Party shattered pathetically before the absolute predator of life.
Three ways to break this skill: escape the range. I release it. Or kill me.
The players' reactions fell into three categories too: fleeing. Collapsing from pain. Or gritting their teeth to fight me.
“Pointless.”
All three were doomed, of course. I was moving toward their escape routes.
With HP regenerating fully every second, they couldn't kill me either.
I strolled leisurely through the rainbow barrage of attacks.
The show had begun. Once the actors take the stage, they can't leave until the curtain falls.
This was one vast stage.
When the curtain drops and the lights go out...
Nothing would remain.
“Guh... kkh...”
Screams faded, bodies slumped powerlessly. Players fell like autumn leaves.
Those screaming till their throats tore soon stopped breathing.
With every step I took, life withered in my wake.
Thump-!
Whoosh!
Blood vitality ripped from players flowed into me.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
One scream began.
Another ended.
“D-Die, Sertina!”
Slash-!
Swordsmen charged, slashing my body. Assassins jabbed daggers at my throat. Crusaders wreathed in holy power smashed halberds at my crown.
But I didn't falter.
Thump-!
All their flailing was futile before one heartbeat.
“Th-This is insane!”
“Ahh.”
Despair gripped them amid the helplessness crashing every second.
I simply walked silently through the field of corpses.
Contemplating the dying lives.
Thud-
Someone dropped to their knees.
Clang!
Weapons probing my body fell one by one.
Before the absolute gap they couldn't resist, nothing was left for them.
“Damn it all...”
Resentful gazes lost focus and crumbled.
I gazed at the fallen corpse a moment, then shifted to the horizon where the sunset bled away.
Earth and sky drowned in crimson.
“...Shall I pick up the pace a bit.”
Boom-!
The ground cracked as I kicked off. No mercy even for flight.
Life met its end.
China's command headquarters was in full emergency alert.
“Wh-What the hell happened?!”
State Chairman Wang Chunfeng bellowed in a voice on the verge of snapping, laced with menace.
The commanders were all in panic. The frantic radio chatter was cutting out one by one.
“1st Division! Respond! 1st Division!”
“Is there no one there?!”
No reply came.
The headquarters descended into pandemonium.
We almost had her...?
Wang Chunfeng ground his teeth.
Sertina's unknown skill. Players had suddenly screamed in agony and died.
All they knew so far: she'd become invincible, and an excruciating pain like boiling blood had struck.
In the midst of everyone's despair—
Static-
A familiar voice cut through the noise.
A general rushed to the radio.
“This is Command! Zhang Hao, you alive?!”
Relief flickered across some commanders' faces at the survivor.
But it shattered in an instant.
Hearts plummeted. The generals' faces hardened.
But the commander stayed calm. “Zhang Hao, report the situation. What happened on the battlefield?”
Zhang Hao replied in a pain-choked voice.
Headquarters froze in shock.
“T-Ten million...?”
Even 1 HP each would be 10 million recovery per pulse. No wonder players thought her invincible.
“Zhang Hao?! Zhang Hao! Respond!”
Radio cut out.
Silence blanketed headquarters. Players kept dying even then.
“What should we do, Chairman Wang Chunfeng?”
A commander clasped his hands anxiously.
Wang ground his teeth. Damn it, we had her...
But greed now could doom China itself. In a voice stained with rage, he issued orders.
“Withdraw all forces including surveillance from North Korea. Issue evacuation for all citizens within 100km of the Yalu River. Immediately!”
“Y-Yes, sir! Understood!”
That day, players deployed in North Korea fled pell-mell back to mainland China. Oblivious to the unprecedented threat rising from the Yalu basin.