Zone 5 had only just entered the Zone-wide Dungeon.

Meanwhile, on the other side—

Zone 1.

Inside the Zone-wide Dungeon.

The strongest five-man team of Zone 1 had already pushed the dungeon all the way to its final stage.

Edward, as the guild leader of Glory Guild, had already reached an absurd Level 51.

As for the four Glory Guild members he led, including Natsu, none of them were below Level 45.

Their strategy was the same as Zone 4’s.

They drained the blood of the entire zone to feed five people.

Their party composition was also extremely reasonable: one assassin, one mage, one archer, one priest, and one warrior.

Edward, as a Paladin, personally stood at the front.

Wave after wave, he endured the pressure from the BOSS.

"Everyone, once we kill this BOSS, the first-clear reward will be ours."

"The most threatening one right now, Zone 5, seems to have gone mad for some reason. They still haven’t even started pushing."

"Looking across every zone, only Zone 1 is the fastest."

"So from this moment on, no mistakes are allowed!"

The moment Edward finished speaking, the four people behind him immediately shouted in unison.

"Understood!"

"We will make sure Zone 1 claims the first-clear reward!"

"This reward will only belong to Zone 1!"

Edward took a deep breath.

"Now! Chain your crowd control and damage! Hurry!"

...

Zone 5.

At the entrance of the Zone-wide Dungeon.

John had already formed a party with Alan and the others under his command.

In truth, their team composition was extremely abnormal.

There was no archer at all.

Their damage output could only rely on mages and assassins.

However, with John as their assassin, he was more than enough to replace a hundred archers!

The entrance to the Zone-wide Dungeon was a ghostly green vortex of light.

Beside him, Alan looked at the progress leaderboard and said, "Based on Zone 1’s current progress, they may already be fighting the final BOSS.

"Boss John, can we really catch up?"

John glanced at him.

"Are you questioning me?"

Alan gave an awkward smile.

"This isn’t really about whether I’m questioning you or not.

"Trying to speedrun the dungeon and claim the reward before they defeat the BOSS...

"That’s basically harder than ascending to the heavens, right?"

John waved his hand.

"Enough. Stop wasting words. Follow me in."

As he spoke, he directly led everyone into the dungeon.

As the vortex spun, the five of them felt a moment of dizziness.

The next instant, they appeared inside the dungeon.

[Welcome to the platinum-grade Level 50 Zone-wide Dungeon: Mist Forest.]

The moment John entered, he discovered that he had actually been separated from his other four teammates.

"Interesting. Looks like this Zone-wide Dungeon requires players to find each other first."

If this were a normal game flow, what John should be doing right now was naturally thinking about how to contact his subordinates.

But he obviously would not take the ordinary path.

"That works too. I can steamroll this place by myself anyway."

John was filled with absolute confidence.

He looked around and discovered that there were actually quite a few human camps inside this Mist Forest.

There were also many NPC soldiers within them.

When his gaze landed on them, the information displayed above their heads read: [Expeditionary Legion Soldier].

These soldiers constantly patrolled the camps.

At the same time, they had specifically set up crude watchtowers.

The sentries on the watchtowers stared warily at the mist within the forest.

John followed their line of sight and looked over.

The mist in the forest writhed continuously like a living creature.

It was indescribably eerie.

Faintly, he could hear waves of battle cries coming from within the mist.

"The glory of humanity shall shine upon this land!"

"With my blood, I defend our borders!"

"I’ll let these monsters taste the edge of my greatsword!"

After hearing this, John seemed to fall into thought.

"So it’s a counteroffensive."

If his guess was correct, the monsters inside Mist Forest probably wanted to break out of the forest and enter human territory.

As a result, the human legion swiftly countered them and began a counteroffensive.

It seemed the human race inside this dungeon was not weak.

However, since players like them were needed to enter...

Something unexpected would probably happen very soon.

Just as John thought this, a tremendous burst of fire and an explosion suddenly erupted inside Mist Forest.

The mist was blasted apart slightly.

John finally saw the scene within.

Everywhere inside was blood and severed limbs.

Many heavily wounded human warriors were wailing on the ground.

Clearly, a large-scale damage skill had just erupted and happened to strike the inside of the legion’s formation!

Only then did the dungeon introduction ring beside John’s ears.

[Welcome to the Mist Forest dungeon. The main storyline of this dungeon is a defensive counteroffensive.

In order to resist the monsters of Mist Forest, the human race dispatched the Conqueror Legion to hold the line.

Afterward, they began a further counteroffensive, preparing to cut down Mist Forest completely.

However, the number and variety of monsters within Mist Forest far exceeded the human race’s imagination.

After achieving a small victory in the early stage, the human race paid the price for their arrogance.

The battle situation began to collapse step by step.

The human race had no choice but to request reinforcements from the gods.

And you are one of their hopes. Please immediately gather the other warriors.

Enter Mist Forest together and help the human race launch their counteroffensive!]

So the main storyline was a counteroffensive?

John rolled his neck and directly flashed into Mist Forest.

The moment he entered, the scene before his eyes shifted into the human battlefield that had just been struck by the explosion.

A warrior who seemed to have only one breath left struggled to raise the human race’s banner.

Little by little, the warrior planted the banner into the hard soil beneath him.

The human banner swayed faintly within Mist Forest.

Using the last breath left in his chest, the warrior roared, "Humanity shall prevail!"

After shouting those words, his right hand remained braced against the banner as his life force slowly faded away.

That cry awakened many of the wounded soldiers on the battlefield.

They staggered to their feet and shouted at the same time, "Humanity shall prevail!"

John silently watched this scene.

In his heart, he also murmured those words.

Humanity shall prevail.

The mission requirements rang out.

[Hope of Humanity]

[Mission Requirement]: Kill the four great BOSSes located in the core of Mist Forest.

[Mission Description]: The four BOSSes in the core of Mist Forest possess terrifying team-wiping abilities. Please immediately help the human coalition eliminate these four BOSSes, allowing them to successfully counterattack Mist Forest.

As the hope of humanity, you must shoulder this responsibility.

Carve open a path of survival for the human race!

[Mission Time Limit]: Ten hours.

[Mission Rewards]: EXP, gold coins, Fame, equipment, special blueprints.

[Note]: Upon completing the first clear, all players in your Zone will receive additional first-clear rewards.

...

After accepting the mission, John was just about to move.

Then he heard four pleasantly surprised voices from behind him.

"Boss John, is that you?"

"Guild leader, I thought you had disappeared along with us."

"Thank goodness. This dungeon isn’t that insane after all. Before the actual start, it still brought us back together."

John turned around and immediately saw Alan and the others.

It seemed that the moment they first entered, they had merely been going through the opening cutscene.

Now that the cutscene was over, his subordinates had returned as well.

"Don’t drag your feet. Follow me!"

John calmly gave the order.

With that, he took the lead and walked toward the depths of Mist Forest.

Alan and the other three immediately followed.

Behind the five of them, the heavily wounded soldiers silently watched their backs.

They used this silent send-off to express their respect toward the five of them.