MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

(Live Stream Commentary)

"Ladies and Gentleman, in just a few minutes, the dawn of the Sixth day will grace the Mythical Beast Continent, and with it, the end of the third stage will be fast approaching," Zero said as the screen transitioned.

The screen revealed a solitary figure silhouetted against the expanse of the clear sky, gazing out at the sunrise emerging from the boundless ocean.

Its rays gradually dispersed the lingering shadows, heralding the arrival of a new day, and as moments passed and the light grew brighter, the figure of the unknown entity was revealed.

The humanoid creature towered above three meters, draped in a tattered, dark cloak that hung loosely on its skeletal frame. Its face was a bare skull crowned with darkness-piercing eyes that appeared to consume any light that dared to touch them, with his right hand firmly grasped around a giant dark scythe, completing his grim reaper appearance.

"The figure everyone can see on the screen is named Duke, a creature that wields strength equal to peak stage Elemental Ruler, Ninth Rank for those not familiar with the Ancient World strength ranking,"

"Duke will begin its terror when the sun fully rises, raising armies of the undead and destroying one kingdom after another, and there is absolutely 0% chance of players or even the NPCs kingdoms stopping him, with conventional means."

"There is only one way that players can stop Duke from going on a rampage, and that is by committing all their event points, which they have earned till now and will earn in the following two days,"

"All hundred teams need to agree for the method to work, and if they do agree, then every team will exit the third Stage with zero points," Zero said, and the viewers couldn't help but go silent as they wondered what was the point of this sudden surprise.

The players among the viewers knew that all hundred teams would not agree to the given solution because it placed those at the bottom in a much more favorable position than those at the top, and even the regular viewers reached a similar conclusion.

The only logical conclusion players could reach was that Zero was doing it to either balance the playing field or purely for entertainment.

At the rate things were developing, no kingdom seemed to be in danger of destruction, meaning the penalty of 10 million would not be applied to any set of teams.

In turn, the event will continue at the pace it was already going, with little hope for any of the top ten teams to snatch a victory against the current leader, as the Shadow Oblivion team had a 57 million point lead, and their performance in the third stage was also the best, going neck in neck with other top-ranking teams.

While they were aware that the last stage of the event would present an opportunity for every team to earn a massive sum of points to keep the competition alive, having seen the Shadow Oblivion team's performance, they knew that their chances would remain the highest.

"Let's see what our beloved teams will decide," Zero said before splitting the screen into one hundred small boxes, each showing the team's captain.

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Alex stood atop the fortress walls, his gaze fixed on the distant mountain chains bathed in the rising sun's soft glow and the night's receding darkness.

Suddenly, a system notification flashed before him, alerting him and all players across the continent of the incoming disaster and the sole solution to confront it.

[The Player has a hundred seconds to think before he needs to make the decision.]

[Countdown: 97 seconds]

Alex read the details, looked at the status of Undead Duke and the given choice, and after seeing that everything was as he expected, he closed the system window.

The hundred seconds passed swiftly, and Alex made the decision to agree to give up his points, knowing his decision didn't matter and he was proven right, as 29 teams voted against it, not playing the hero and risking a possible complete agreement.

Venedikt was the first to contact him, followed by the rest of the team, knowing that if this Duke came for their kingdom, survival was not a possibility.

"I think we should desert our kingdom when it is attacked, go to the nearest kingdom, and begin hunting their high-star individuals to gather a small yet steady stream of points so we would not be left behind," Venedikt said, knowing this was the only way to keep earning event points.

"Our kingdom has the vast ocean to our east, one of the strongest kingdoms to the north direction, three kingdoms to the west side, and one to the south side,"

"So, we could be pretty certain that we will not be the first in the line of fire, and if luck is on our side, we will survive the Sixth day, and if not, then we will die in the first or last half of the day,"

"In this scenario, I think it best that we take the time we have as a break instead of rushing to gather points and mentally prepare ourselves for the final event, which will decide the victor," Alex said, knowing the last stage of the event would be the worst matchup for his team.

"This also works," Venedikt said, and then he began discussing the other few details before taking his leave.

Alex and the rest returned to their daily activity while awaiting the news of the undead invasion, and it didn't take long as just an hour after the sunrise, he received the info of a massive undead army led by a terrifying creature tearing through the defenseless cities of Vrumore kingdom.

The kingdom was located on the west side, and it would take at least twenty or so hours before the Undead army reached their boundaries after destroying four kingdoms and finishing their day by destroying his kingdom.

As hours passed and the news of the Vrumore kingdom's dire situation came, the panic began to settle, and the news of the unification war event being put on hold and every army regiment told to return home came.

The kings of various kingdoms swiftly scouted the undead army that was growing by the minute, as the fallen only added to their numbers, but even with all their efforts, they failed to find the one controlling the army, and while they did confirmation from the player on the Undead Duke, they wanted to confirm the threat with their own means.

But seeing the army turning one of the stronger kingdoms to dust with hundreds of thousands killed, the Asotevell Kingdom, the strongest on the island, decided to gather the strong figures of every kingdom and sent their collective forces to put an end to the growing threat.

Every strong individual that each kingdom could spare was sent to the Tresairis kingdom, the one nearest to the Vrumore kingdom, currently on the verge of collapse.

In less than an hour, Alex was standing in the gathered crowd of more than three hundred individuals, with there also close to thirty Elemental Rulers present, showing how the kingdoms, even though having gained the info about Duke from unverified sources, were not taking any unnecessary risk.

The news of the fall of the Vrumore kingdom came six hours after dawn and less than an hour after the gathered forces began gathering.

The number of gathered individuals reached a thousand, and while only two-tenth of them were Sixth Rank individuals, the rest were by no means weaklings.

The gathered army teleported to the nearest city in line to be targeted by the approaching horde of undead before being their line of defense and awaiting the incoming battle.

Alex knew the ending of this resistance and was just here to gain the points from the quest, and once he received them, he planned to log out shortly after that.

After a small wait, the gathered forces were greeted with the sight of vast stretching lines upon lines of undead, moving at a moderate pace toward them, with their number reaching hundreds of thousands.

The sight made every individual present suck in a breath of air as their heart palpated under the growing anxiousness and dread, but everyone calmed their raging emotions, knowing with the presence of the Elemental Ruler, they would be victorious.

The thinking was shattered by the ominous aura that twisted the guts of many, causing uncontrollable retching and even rendering many unconscious from the sheer cold and overpowering presence.

Duke made his appearance known, and after letting fear settle among his foes, he introduced himself and his goal to unite the entire island under his new Undead Dukedom.

The Elemental Ruler all rushed toward the creature, planning toward overwhelm him with its greater number of Elemental Domains, yet the battle began as they wanted but ended minutes later with twenty-eight corpses from the sky like flies.

Alex didn't wait any longer additionally logged out following receiving this warning of its disqualification from the third stage in case he logged out, and together with that, the third stage ended.