MMORPG: The Almighty Ring

With the Core of Time out of the picture, Jiang Fei's original plan had to be discarded. Now, he had two options. The first was to fight the Valsalrians with everything he had, even if it meant death. Second, he could take a small portion of humans on board and leave Earth to its demise.

Although the will to live was strong, the will to protect Earth and all of its occupants was stronger. Even so, he could not deny that he was disgruntled fighting for Earth as it was obviously a lost cause.

While he was troubled about this, a Spectre named Velon had crossed his path, offering guidance. Even though Jiang Fei could not believe the formless being, it was his only option.

Velon had not earned Jiang Fei's trust but 0541 was behaving as if Spectres were beings that were meant to be worshiped. To be fair, these beings were perhaps the only kind that had no wishes, no greed, no wants or needs. Perhaps their sole purpose was to roam the entire cosmic, to observe and to remember everything that happened and will happen in the future, never to be seen, heard, or disturbed.

"Could you help me defend Earth from the Valsalrians?" Jiang Fei jumped the gun and asked.

"No. Neither can you. There are only a handful of species in the entire cosmic that can fend the Valsalrians off. Earthlings are not one of those species."

Velon shared the same assumption as 0541. Even with Jiang Fei's power of the 10th Dimension, he was sure that Jiang Fei could never truly defend Earth from all Valsalrians.

"What sort of guidance do you offer?" Jiang Fei asked.

"Truth be told, you could never stop the Valsalrian fleet. But… if you could stop the second wave, there is… perhaps a chance for Earth to continue spinning," said Velon.

"A chance…"

"You must first stop the second wave. Alexis is already on his way. He is not someone like Balsris here," Velon added before Jiang Fei could probe further.

"Alexis… Who is he?" Jiang Fei asked. Before Velon could answer, his eyes glowed faintly with a ghastly green light. After that, his presence vanished and Han Tianyu was back.

"Ah Fei… I…"

Han Tianyu was aware the entire time. Velon possessing his body was like him taking over the driver's seat of a car. Han Tianyu experienced everything but was unable to control his own body.

"Don't force yourself. Rest," said Jiang Fei as he helped Han Tianyu to stand. Velon was already gone and there was nothing Jiang Fei could do to call him back.

Spectres were undetectable. No one in the entire universe could find them unless they allowed themselves to be found. The Watchers, or so Velon described himself as, could never be detected, found, or sensed, even with the greatest technology or the strongest sensory-type being.

"Bah. Nothing I could do," said Jiang Fei to himself. He was helpless but he had no reason to fear the Watchers. As 0541 explained, they had never harmed anyone and some had even received the blessings of the Watchers. From the looks of things, Velon might not have any malicious intent toward Jiang Fei. He had only revealed himself merely because he was interested in Jiang Fei and did not want his journey too soon.

"Bella, come with me. I want to talk to Balsris for a bit," said Jiang Fei. He needed to know more about Alexis and he needed to hear it from Balsris. Judging from how Velon described Alexis albeit extremely vague, Jiang Fei knew that he would be someone fearsome.

Outside the prison room, Balsris was seen cuffed to the wall with his hands and feet restrained. 0541 would periodically inject weakening poison with Valium to consistently maintain his weakened state.

"Why, if it isn't the barbaric Terran of Earth! What pleasure do I deserve to be in your presence?" Balsris taunted. He was completely fearless even though Jiang Fei could literally end his life there and then.

"Shut your trap. I'm going to ask some questions and you will answer them. Who is Alexis?" Jiang Fei snapped.

"Lord Alexis?! He's coming?! Hah! You're doomed! Your fate is sealed now, Terran! Earth is doomed! Hahaha!" Balsris eyes lit up when Jiang Fei mentioned the name.

"Dammit! Who is Alexis and how strong is he?!" Jiang Fei roared.

"Might as well… Since you are going to die! Lord Alexis is the Commander of the 13th Division under the 7th Fleet! If he's coming, your precious planetary system will be destroyed!" Balsris explained as he laughed tauntingly.

"What of his strength?" Jiang Fei asked, frowning madly. If Balsris was already hard to deal with and he was just a Squad Captain, how bad was it going to be with the commander of the fleet?

"Commander Alexis's combat power is around 4,500,000," said Balsris with a nonchalant shrug.

"Combat power?" Jiang Fei turned away.

"Captain, combat power is a measurement of standard of strength. The Valsalrians use them to measure the power level of fighters," 0541 explained.

"What about you? What is your combat level?" Jiang Fei turned back to Balsris and asked. He had no idea what was combat power and what four million meant. He was sincerely hoping that Balsris' combat power would be only slightly lower than Alexis'.

"Me? I'm just a Squad Captain. I'm nobody. My combat power is only around 100,000," said Balsris, shrugging away again.

"F*CKING HELL!" Jiang Fei snapped. Balsris was already nearly impossible to defeat and he was only 100,000! Four million was forty times the strength of Balsris! What kind of monster was Alexis?

"Captain, I found this disc on Balsris. This can be used to measure a fighter's combat level," said 0541 as he handed the disc via a robotic arm. When Jiang Fei took it, he saw that it was but a small disc-shaped object, roughly the size of a wristwatch.

"How do you use this?"

"Tsk. That's a primitive being for you," Balsris scorned. Jiang Fei did not listen to what Balsris said as he was busy learning the method to use the disc from 0541.

"Bella, come," said Jiang Fei. When Isabella was close, he placed the disc closer to her and started measuring her combat power. The disc started to whirl and a number came up. 35,000—that was Isabella's combat power.

"So low…" Jiang Fei sulked.

"Try again," said Isabella before she activated her domain ability. Energy particles condensed around her, forming claws and dragon scales.

The disc whirled again, proccing a number of 120,000.

Jiang Fei left the prison room for a while and started to measure everyone's combat power. Ariel had the lowest at only 10,000. Sylphy and Nina had over 30,000 while Hua Mulan had over 76,000.

"F*cking hell. We can't even reach Alexis' combat power with all numbers combined…"

Jiang Fei was losing it. Even though combat level didn't necessarily relate to one's fighting capability, having such a large gap just showed how easily they would lose in a fight against Alexis!