“DIDN’T YOU HEAR, ITS AN AMBUSH MONSTER!”
“Fuck… lucky us we left, we didn’t stand a chance!”
“Yeah, hopefully the extermination team doesn’t lose either, I really want to keep grinding…”
Stark could hear the words of the classifiers outside even though he was still passing the threshold of the portal.
Many more classifiers, even those above level 90, regrouped to check it out.
An ‘Ambush Monster’ is a type of monster that reveals itself to be of a certain level, but after some times completely switches up and becomes much stronger.
It happens many times, and it mostly ends with the death of the classifier that is facing it.
“Hey, someone’s out!”
Stark passed through the portal and began walking toward the exit, a path forming for him as many people questioned what he was doing.
“Guess he got saved by the extermination team… lucky bastard…”
“Don’t try that shit again kid, you might really die,” one of them shouted, causing some laughs in the crowd.
Stark didn’t even bother to look at any of them, he just left the hallway with a neutral expression, and after a minute found himself in the giant room with the other hallways that led to many rifts.
The dozens of screens that were scattered around each had a red background with the words: [Level 80-90 Rift Area is currently closed because of an event mini-boss, please refrain from entering it!]
Even outside, in the [Rift] section’s room, many people gathered to see what was up, and also to know whether the ‘Extermination Team’ did in fact eliminate the threat.
Stark, still indifferent and expressionless, walked past them without looking at anyone, his eyes never leaving his front.
Frankly, he just was too tired to care about anything else.
‘Is that the side effects of having your stamina completely depleted?’ it was the first time he actually pushed himself enough to feel like that, and just one more attack would probably send him unconscious.
No one seemed to mind him, and after only five minutes of trying to pass through the crowd, he could see the exit of the ‘Rift Storer Association’ building.
The neon-like atmosphere was still very lively, although the content of the chatter mostly revolved around the level 100 beast that appeared.
It would surely make the news at this point…
The reason this was such a big issue wasn’t because a monster came to disturb people for an hour, but because… if that thing wasn’t eliminated after 12 hours, then it would come out of the rift and actually start causing chaos in the real world, resulting in thousands of deaths.
[BIG NEWS!]
[Seems like the ‘Yasugi Extermination Team’ have managed to kill the beast! They are coming out to make a statement…!]
All TVs showcased this message, with the voice of a woman over it.
And then, the screen switched to a view of the four classifiers that tried to stop Stark leaving the purple portal, all cameras pointed at them.
Safe to say, whatever they would say here would end up in broadcasts all over the country.
‘What could they possibly say, though,’ Stark smiled slightly as he exited the building… just to face the same screen outside.
Seems like news of that thing already spread all over.
“What happened inside?” a reporter pointed his microphone at the leader, Naegi.
Most of them looked quite uncomfortable, avoiding the gazes of the others, almost as if they felt… ashamed.
Except for Naegi that is, as he simply took the microphone and shouted: “We are not the ones who eliminated that beast, when we entered, some black-haired kid was already there on top of the monster.”
Naegi was a righteous man, and he didn’t want to claim what wasn’t his.
But that also meant… that Stark’s identity was at risk.
“Taxi!” he hailed for a driver as he left the ‘fighting district’, then ordered him to go to his hotel.
Inside the car, Stark thought about his bad fortune and everything that had happened.
He had expected something like this, but not so soon.
He never thought his identity would be revealed so quickly.
After all, they had seen his face, right? And he left the rift with hundreds of people watching him…
‘Well… it’s fine…’ he sighed, and after a while reached his hotel street, paid the driver, then went up to his room, sitting on his bed while drinking water (you should do that too).
There was no need to expect anything now, and soon these people would come for him.
Maybe even the ‘Domination Association’ would show their face again to try and recruit him?
In the end… it didn’t matter.
‘Show me the panels,’ he swiftly moved his finger upward, and all the panels that he had minimized before appeared around him.
There were only two of them though.
The first was…
[Level 35 Reached: please pick a card].
‘Of course,’ he smiled, it was always a good thing to reach this milestone as it was always a sign that he was going to get stronger.
Three crimson cards appeared out of thin air in front of him.
‘And of course… no way to know what is what-‘ Stark joked, but his eyes widened as he looked at the back of the cards.
For the first time ever… there was something on their backs.
The first had a smiley face :), the second had a neutral one :I, and the last had a sad one :(.
‘The fuck is that…?’ each of the faces emanated a strange power, as if each one was prompting him to pick it as it had the best ability, ‘Oh well…’
For the first time Stark didn’t just close his eyes and pick a random card, but actually thought of the implications of each one.
The smiley would be the optimal choice under normal circumstances, but doesn’t it seem too obvious?
‘Ahhh, fuck, I don’t know… the sad one could also be good…’
In the end, he picked the neutral one because ‘balance is everything I need’ apparently, and also since he had a neutral expression on his face at that moment.
And so once he turned the card, he saw the picture of a figure swiftly dodging what looked like an energy ball, some lines and after images showing that the figure moved at intense speed.
The skill he got was…
[Skill: Dodge Control]
[Type: Legendary]
‘Yeah!’ he was happy he had made the right choice, although he didn’t know if the other two didn’t have better skills as the other cards immediately disappeared when he picked the first one.
But somehow… he felt like this skill was powerful, and that it would become extremely useful in the future, maybe even more so than [Double Assault]?
