Endless Extraction in a Game-Like World-Chapter 43: An Arrogant Farewell from Lara! Moving at Six Frames Per Second!
Swish!
Caelus moved like a ripple through the ground. Or rather, he looked exactly like a physical glitch in reality as his figure constantly flickered in and out of existence while skipping through the First Area of the Newbie Plains. He was actively moving six times faster than his original base speed.
This was the Projection Frame at work. It was an absolute monster of a talent. He could move faster than ever before. Perhaps not even someone with a Combat Score six points higher than his could accurately match this terrifying speed.
He was now an absolute unit in terms of raw agility, entirely thanks to this legendary talent he had received.
Whrmm!
Blinding light burst into his vision as he seamlessly crossed the border and descended into the Second Area of the Newbie Plains.
This was already the fourth day since the official opening of the Domain. Significant, world-altering changes would inevitably happen on the coming days, meaning right now was the absolute best time to grind levels.
And speaking of levels, a golden server notification abruptly appeared the exact instant he crossed into the new area.
[Announcement: Fortresses have begun appearing all across the new servers.]
[System: Eliminating monsters within Fortresses will grant a significantly increased EXP boost.]
[Note: The EXP yield of fierce beasts and monsters will not degrade inside these zones.]
[One can enter the fortress for two hours.]
[The party that clears it fully will receive a special reward.]
Following the global announcement, the entire server visibly began to shake as brand new geographical zones began to rapidly form.
"Fortresses," Caelus smiled, completely overjoyed.
This came exactly in time!
With this new mechanic, he could level up with immense, grinding speed.
He looked around. By now, a huge, corrupted area had physically appeared on the server map, looking exactly like a downloaded expansion pack.
Without a single shred of hesitation, Caelus shot directly toward that location.
It featured a huge, imposing tower, and a massive red energy barrier completely covered the surrounding place.
His physical figure glitched unnaturally through the world as he arrived right next to the shimmering barrier.
Without hesitation, he jumped right in.
Whrmm!
Warm light enveloped his eyes as he successfully breached the barrier.
And entirely to his surprise, he instantly realized that the laws of physics here had shifted drastically.
"Is it all tilted?" Caelus muttered in pure surprise.
The bizarre place he had just entered was violently tilted downward. The massive central tower was completely upside down, and so were the surrounding buildings, with a strange gate-like fissure floating at the front of the area.
[System: You have successfully entered the Tilted Tower Fortress.]
[System: The Tilted Towers possess altered gravity. The monsters that spawn here can be highly intelligent. Please proceed with extreme caution.]
"Is that you, Player 555?" Just then, a familiar, highly confident voice came directly from behind Caelus.
It was Ren, accompanied by Lara.
"I am quite sure you can clearly see the public player card floating above my head," Caelus calmly turned around and spoke.
Aside from Ren and Lara, there were also two other people present. He recognized them very well. They were the two lackeys who were constantly with Lara back in the beginning. They were called Jerom and Jarob. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
"Yes, I can clearly see that," Ren said as he eyed Player 555 closely.
Absolutely everyone in the server had watched the live broadcast, and so had he. He knew exactly how much significantly more powerful Player 555 was compared to the likes of Kevin, the absolute top student in their elite special class.
"You hid yourself very deeply," Ren said with a highly dignified expression on his face. "To think a supreme expert like you would be hiding right under our noses."
"From the looks of it, you all did not complete the town-building quests," Caelus smiled lightly and spoke. "Can I ask exactly why?"
"We do not need to," Lara suddenly spoke up, her tone haughty. "We are already strong enough. We absolutely do not need the meager support of town-building quests to help us survive. We are the elite special class students of Fortis-01 High."
"And on a side note, we will be permanently leaving this server very soon as well," Lara added proudly.
For any starting server, having multiple powerful players actively working together was vastly better than relying on one single powerful player. If Lara and Ren left with their elite group, they firmly believed that this mass exodus would pave the direct path to Server 513’s ultimate downfall.
"Oh, you guys are actually leaving?" Caelus let out a highly exaggerated sigh of relief. "Thank God. I was genuinely wondering how to quickly get rid of the useless trash that does not contribute a single thing to the server at all."
"You should really watch your arrogant tone, Player 555. There is absolutely no need to blindly call us trash," Ren said with a freezing cold look on his face. "We have our own pride and dignity too."
"By the exact time we leave, it is this pathetic server that will officially become trash," Lara coldly added, clearly deeply hurt by Caelus’s blunt provocation. "Is there anyone with a B-Rank talent other than us three in this entire server? I highly doubt it. There will only be useless trash left behind, like my pathetic former classmate, Caelus Kross, who is a complete good-for-nothing."
"By the time the newbie servers inevitably merge, you will all get completely swallowed and destroyed by the other superior servers," she added with a cruel sneer.
"You might be highly talented, Player 555. But to truly thrive in the Origin Ascension Domain, you need not just one strong person, but an entire dedicated group that actively helps you out. And they critically need to be strong too to even get basic things done."
Caelus immediately got highly annoyed internally. What exactly did the poor, unawakened Caelus with an E-Rank Affinity have to do with this random conversation?
Just then, a brand new competitive quest was triggered by the system.
[Quest: Eliminate the fierce beasts within the fortress within six hours.]
[Condition: Three distinct parties have entered the zone.]
[Condition: The player or party that clears the boss in the fortress is the ultimate winner.]
[Reward: Reputation Point, Treasure Chest, a random item.]
"Ha... Just look at that, Player 555." Lara was completely overjoyed upon seeing this timely system message. "The prize distribution for clearing this fortress is strictly based on how you personally perform. You are just one single man. What can you realistically do against our group?"
"Let us go, Ren." Lara confidently turned to Ren, and then to his two teammates, who both nodded eagerly.
Without another second of hesitation, they walked directly into one of the surrounding upside-down building’s glowing fissures and vanished from sight.
"Hm. Should I summon my Knight?" Caelus pondered quietly.
If he summoned it, he could easily recall it at the mere cost of ten mana.
Recall was a function all players that had a retainer possessed.
But on the other hand, was his own raw power not already more than enough?
His Talent, Projection Frame, was incredibly, terrifyingly powerful. He did not even need to consume any sort of mana or energy to keep it activated.
He was extremely fast and he could deliver attacks at six times his initial speed with it as well.
As long as his physical stamina did not completely run out, he would move exactly like a digital ghost constantly glitching out of base reality.
Without a single shred of hesitation, he shot directly into one of the many tilted buildings.
Whrmm!
His vision violently flickered, and the very next moment, he was standing inside a highly narrow, stone-walled space with flickering torches lighting up the dark path.
He immediately heard strange, guttural monster noises echoing from deep inside. Just then, a highly agile monster lunged viciously at him from the shadows.
It was a hideous green monster wearing a thin, dirty layer of primitive clothing.
[Monster: Common Green Goblin - Level 7]
[Combat Score: 14.0]
"Wataza" the feral goblin screeched loudly as it lunged directly at Caelus’s throat.
His physical figure immediately began glitching as the Projection Frame fully activated. To his enhanced perception, the leaping goblin turned incredibly slow in his vision. The Tempest Dagger flawlessly materialized in his hands, and he thrust it forward with immense, blinding speed.
Boom!
A gaping, bloody hole formed perfectly in the goblin’s head, and its lifeless body fell down to the floor with a heavy thud.
[System: You have eliminated a Common Green Goblin.]
[System: You have received +29 Iron EXP and +10 Origin Credits.]
Just as quickly, another goblin shot out from the dark corridor directly toward him. Immediately following closely behind it was an entire enraged hoard of goblins that seemed to have been violently alerted by him eliminating their scout just now.
Caelus smiled coldly seeing this massive incoming wave.
His figure glitched unnaturally as he exponentially sped up his momentum.
Whoosh!
A violent gust of air swept past the narrow stone path. The very next second, Caelus was standing calmly on the complete opposite side of the corridor, his hands softly gripping his bloodied dagger.
The entire hoard of goblins that had lunged at him were now lying completely dissected on the cold floor.
[System: You have eliminated a Common Green Goblin.]
[System: You have received +29 Iron EXP and +10 Origin Credits.]
[System: You have eliminated a Common Green Goblin.]
[System: You have received +29 Iron EXP and +10 Origin Credits.]
[System: You have eliminated a Common Green Goblin.]
[System: You have received +29 Iron EXP and +10 Origin Credits.]
System notifications rang out continuously in his vision as he casually crouched down and began seamlessly extracting the physical essence from absolutely all the dead goblins at once.
[System: Combat Score: 41.15 -> 41.75]
This time, he had successfully managed to mass-extract from all of them at once.
He felt absolutely amazing. Every single time his raw Combat Score went up, it flooded his body with a highly addictive, rejuvenating effect.
He physically felt his body growing significantly lighter and his dense muscles rapidly tightening, all whilst his cognitive mind sharpened even further.
And that was precisely what was happening to his biology.
These small increments when put into statistics of his old world was no joke.
He was now physically as strong as forty-one average, completely healthy human adults who hit the gym combined.
As he was right now, he could easily pick up a massive SUV with his bare hands and violently toss it across a street, exactly like he was a huge, enraged green monster heavily mutated by gamma radiation.
This world was a very scary. Even though he had rapidly reached such a terrifying level, this sheer strength was actually just the norm for high-level players. And likewise, the physical world had magically evolved in a way that could perfectly accommodate the devastating power of the players.
While he could effortlessly lift the heavy SUVs of his previous world and cause massive-scale destruction back on Earth, here on the Azure Origin Planet, even a random stone wall was heavily reinforced with ambient mana and blacksmiths. Destroying the environment here would naturally take significantly more effort.
Of course, it was not like he actively wanted to start randomly punching away at reinforced walls or innocent houses anyway.
Screech! Just then, an incredibly deafening, ear-piercing screech once again rang out from the darkness, and the narrow stone path violently trembled under heavy footsteps.
Stepping into the torchlight was a vastly bigger, heavily muscled, and incredibly burly green goblin.
