Chapter 278 : Two-faced Tyrant

Author's note

Couldn't find sleep, so here we go!

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Sora appeared behind Karl, who was mid-swing, his back facing the sky and his sword slashing toward Enkidu’s neck.

As the blade sliced through the air, aiming for one of the titan’s weak spots, both Karl and the other fighters—everyone except Sora—were shocked to see the sword obliterate its target.

The blade met no resistance. The World Boss’s body was torn apart in a single strike, its massive body collapsing from the sky like a mountain of flesh, blocking out the light above the battlefield.

But before anyone could celebrate, Sora shouted to his allies:

"IT’S A DECOY! THE REAL ONE IS SOMEWHERE ELSE— PROBABLY UNHARMED!"

Anticipating a counterattack, he instantly activated several 1★ skills. And just as expected, an attack came from the sky—targeting Karl and Sora, who were still back to back.

Sora was surprised to see a colossal fist plummeting toward him at lightning speed but he didn’t panic.

‘A purely physical attack. With [Ignore] I cast earlier, I should be fine… but I have to stop it from hitting the others.’
He assessed the situation immediately, scanning for a way to protect his allies.

'[Interrupt] might help, but it won’t be enough since he relies mostly on raw strength and uses only a few skills.. Whereas [Master of Puppets] could disable him entirely...'

Two viable options, neither ideal—but after a quick glance at his teammates, he chose the worse one for himself.

[Interrupt – Ultimate – 2★]
[Description: Using your vitality, forcefully interrupt your target’s skill usage. You cannot recover this vitality until the target dies or one hour passes. Efficiency increases with mastery.]

‘They can’t die in a simple raid, so now’s the time to push them. If they can’t even handle phase one without me, there’s no point building a team at all.’

Once the skill activated, the descending fist suddenly slowed, and the titan’s bulging muscles slightly deflated.

“His buffs and active skills are gone! Now’s your chance!” He relayed the information instantly, bracing both arms to absorb the bulk of the attack.

The giant’s punch struck Sora, who successfully dissipated most of the energy. But the residual force was still enough to hurt anyone caught in its path.

Karl quickly repositioned to safety, as did most of the team. But Mary—too focused on healing Katarina and buffing Minny, who had wiped out most of Uruk’s soldiers—failed to realize she was directly in harm’s way.

Before disaster struck, Katarina stepped in and took the blow for her. Thanks to her superior defenses, she survived with only minor injuries.

Furious, Samo—the human-sized fairy—shouted, “Mary!! Focus!!”

“S-Sorry!!”

Sora shook his head at the exchange and kept his eyes on Enkidu as the titan repositioned.

‘I had my suspicions after all these fights… but it’s becoming clearer: World Bosses aren’t necessarily experienced fighters. Sure, they may have ridiculous powers but some never were, and still aren’t, true combatants.’

He caught a flash of irritation on Enkidu’s face as the titan muttered,

“You possess strange abilities, human… but I must admit, they are terribly effective.”

Sora remained silent, continuing to apply the effects of [Interrupt] without pause.

Feeling a quarter of his vitality vanish, Sora winced. ‘A quarter of my life force, just to strip him of his active and passive skills… As long as he’s alive, I’ll be stuck at 75% vitality for an hour. And as long as I’m alive, he’ll have to rely solely on brute strength.’

Moments later, Sora noticed that Minny had finished wiping out the remaining soldiers.
The Jinn had been extremely efficient, and Sora could finally reintegrate him into the team’s strategy.

Notified that phase one had ended, he took a few steps back and spoke calmly:

“Your turn. Handle phase two together.”

No one objected, and as the team re-engaged the giant, Sora turned his attention to Gilgamesh, who was gazing at the sky with interest.

Sora frowned, noticing the king’s curiosity and surprise. Despite his army being annihilated and Enkidu neutralized, Gilgamesh had one hand raised toward the sky, slowly waving it—as if testing the temperature or gauging the wind.

A bad feeling crept in.

‘Last time he was in phase one, he focused on buffing his allies and his army. But today, he seems completely detached from the battle. Almost like a child who’s found a new toy that completely absorbed his attention…’

Trying to figure out what was capturing Gilgamesh’s interest, Sora focused all his analytical and simulation abilities tied to [Virtual World].

As his gaze intensified, Gilgamesh immediately noticed and turned toward him with the look of someone having a revelation.

“So it was you… the one responsible for this sensation… that this world is fictional? What an interesting power.” Calm as ever, the titan seemed intrigued and impressed.

Sora’s face froze—and in that instant, all the simulations he was running in the [Virtual World] collapsed one after another, leaving him unable to predict what would happen next.

Then, Gilgamesh condensed soul power in his raised hand. And as if he had grabbed hold of something above him, he suddenly pulled down.

Sora’s expression twisted in horror as he felt his [Virtual Bubble] being yanked away like a mere sheet and before he could react, a searing pain exploded in his temple.

As he struggled against the agony tearing through his mind, he heard Gilgamesh’s words, “It was a clever attempt—but it won’t work on me. Come back when you're more seasoned, or try a different method.”

Unable to speak or move due to the pain, Sora didn’t see or dodge the soul-charged beam of light Gilgamesh fired at him.

With his mental strength depleted, his body battered, and his soul weakened he collapsed unconscious in the middle of the battlefield.

--------------------------------------------------------

A few minutes later, the raid ended in failure. While players could be eliminated during a raid, mercenaries were exempt from such a fate—regardless of success or failure, they always came out unscathed.

As for Sora, he was spared by Enkidu and Gilgamesh, who chose not to deliver the finishing blow.

Still groggy, he slowly regained consciousness and realized he was lying on Netsu’s back, en route to Iceland with the rest of the group. Humiliated and defeated, the World Bosses had neither their usual cheer nor the electric atmosphere that typically surrounded their interactions.

Seeing their grim expressions, Sora thought:
‘Why do they look so defeated? Are they ashamed? If they look like that, what should I look like? I was the first one to fall in battle despite leading the group.’

But far from disheartened, he sat up on Netsu’s back and said with a smile:

“It’s fine. We weren’t supposed to beat them at this stage anyway.”

The mercenaries didn’t seem to feel better, so he added:

“First: we weren’t at full strength. Six of my brothers are still missing, and they’ll be fighting by our side soon. Second: you’ve all left your home territories. You haven’t had time to progress yet. You’re still far from your full potential.”

Seeing some of them grimace, he joked: “According to your own words, remember?”

He paused, then continued more seriously:

“I want each of you to tell me what you need in order to improve. We’ll try to find a way to speed things up for everyone.”

“And above all… Enkidu and Gilgamesh aren’t going anywhere. They shouldn’t grow stronger before we return. So get ready because we will come back for them.”

Motivated by their defeat and aware of how little time remained, they made the most of every minute over the next few days.

Daemon helped Sandeep and Ciara reach level 230 quickly, along with a solid level of skill mastery.
Once their abilities were properly deployed, the hundred dragons grew at an astonishing pace, and Tian Long soon reached level 260.

Mary, Katarina, Samo, and Klem all hit level 270 and declared themselves ready to face Gilgamesh and Enkidu once more.

Minny, meanwhile, reached the maximum level—300—purely thanks to the help of Shade and Sora, whose abilities never stopped improving and the huge help Lulu got from both of them.

As the group of mercenaries stood stronger, more determined, and burning with the desire for revenge, Sora delivered news that immediately cooled their fighting spirit.

“We won’t be fighting those two just yet. We took too long to prepare.
In one hour, our kingdom’s protection will end, and it’ll be time to defend our territory. Once we understand what we’re up against, then we’ll counterattack.”

Seeing the surprise on some faces and understanding on others, Sora added:

“Humans are still too weak—mainly because they haven’t had time to fully develop. The virtual world is a great incubator, but it’s not enough to create the kind of miracle we need.
I’m counting on you to help defend our territory while other talented human players catch up to our level… That said, I know each of you can die permanently, and for that—I’m sorry.”

As a few faces softened, he smiled:

“Since I’ve invested too much into each of you to watch you die on the other side of the world, I've prepared a little something for everyone.”

Katarina’s expression suddenly tensed, her smile vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.
Klem, the little blue cube, started to get angry. Samo simply shook his head.

“Now that’s the two-faced tyrant I know!” Minny laughed loudly, pointing at Sora.

Sora looked at him and replied while activating [Master of Puppets] on the young Stellar Jinn, “[If you have nothing useful to say, shut up.]”

Once peace was restored, he continued, “I’ve prepared emergency items for each of you, just in case things go really bad.”

He handed out the items and began assigning positions across the kingdom.

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Author's footnote:

I didn't want to rush into the next major world events without introducing the new squad! I hope you have a better understanding of who they are and what they do!