Savior of the Ordinary

It had taken the Hero King sacrificing himself to produce a single Custom Event Scroll. The Class Hunter Society naturally knew full well how precious this Custom Event Scroll was, yet they had handed it over to Fathe'aim without the slightest hesitation or suspicion. Could it be because they trusted Fathe'aim enough? Of course not. What truly prompted their decision was the Nether Armor King. The Class Hunter Society had never trusted a single class user. After all, an irreconcilable conflict existed between the Class Hunter Society and class users—the kind where one side had to die for the other to live. Handing it to Fathe'aim was partly because only a class user could activate a Custom Event Scroll; monsters had no way of using such an item. And partly because the Nether Armor King had remained dormant on Fathe'aim the entire time, ready to awaken at any moment. Whatever thoughts Fathe'aim harbored, as long as he remained oblivious to the Nether Armor King's presence, his little life would forever rest in the palm of the Class Hunter Society's hand. The moment the Nether Armor King awoke would be the moment of his demise. Fathe'aim had no inkling of the Class Hunter Society's true designs, much less the Nether Armor King's existence. Yet by sheer coincidence, he had crafted the most perfect slaughterhouse imaginable for the Nether Armor King. This labyrinth offered nowhere to hide and no way of retreat. The Nether Armor King was like a man trapping turtles in a jar: discovering a class user meant butchering a class user. It was so effortless that even the monster itself felt surprised. In the past, if so many class users scattered in all directions, it could at most kill a third of them, while the rest would have slipped away long ago. Yet now? They were all trapped inside the labyrinth, scurrying about like little mice, unable to find a single path of survival—left with nothing but endless despair. Yu Xian's summoned beasts suffered the same brutal slaughter. Moreover, the Nether Armor King was the no-nonsense type who never wasted breath on trash talk. The instant it spotted one of Yu Xian's summoned beasts, no matter what sweet words Yu Xian tried to spin, it answered with a single blade strike. Nether Fiend Energy spread relentlessly. Countless class users fled in sheer panic from its shroud; looking back, they could even see companions who ran too slow being cleaved in two within the black mist, their bodies splitting apart. While everyone else was fleeing, Yu Xian's summoned beast noticed a youth. The youth wasn't running away; instead, he was charging upstream against the retreating tide. From his appearance, taking in the situation, to deciding to run against the crowd, barely a few seconds had passed. Yet the moment he sprinted forward, Yu Xian subconsciously shouted, "Run! That's the Nether Armor King, a Level 245 boss monster!" "Thanks! I'll hold it back. You guys hurry and run! Find three treasure chests and get to the next floor right away!" the youth called back with a smile. By the time his voice drifted over, he had already plunged into the Nether Fiend Energy. "Someone like this actually exists?" Yu Xian muttered to himself, staring into the Nether Fiend Energy in astonishment. However, he did not squander the youth's good intentions. He immediately turned and ran. A summoned beast's life was still a life; if it could avoid dying, dying was best avoided. Yet just moments later, he witnessed a miraculous scene: ever since the youth dashed into the Nether Fiend Energy, it had stopped expanding. "Thank goodness our savior showed up, or I would've been a goner." Nearby, a female class user slumped to the ground, gazing at the Nether Fiend Energy to her left as she spoke with deep relief. Yu Xian stepped forward, asking curiously, "You know that youth?" "What 'youth'? He's the savior of us ordinary class users, Mai Zi!" The female class user rolled her eyes at Yu Xian, then earnestly corrected him. She then rambled on about Mai Zi's past deeds: standing up for ordinary class users, forcing an overbearing legion to back down and stop extorting protection fees from class users entering the city; demanding back reward items owed to swindled class users; and carving out a safe haven for bullied class users to level up in peace. There were far too many stories—so many that the female class user spoke faster and faster, afraid she wouldn't be able to finish them all. Simply put, this Mai Zi was the Zhen Realm's supreme do-gooder, a consummate saint. Wherever he walked, holy light shone upon the land. He commanded a massive following throughout the Zhen Realm and was hailed by ordinary class users as the savior of the common folk. *Could such a person really exist?* Listening to the female class user's recounting, Yu Xian was quite surprised. The thing was, that youth genuinely didn't look like he was faking it. His eyes practically sparkled, shining even brighter than him, a Shiny Vampire. Yu Xian thought about it and decided to head inside the Nether Fiend Energy to have a look. What if the guy was actually putting on an act? Or what if he was an accomplice of the Nether Armor King all along? He simply didn't believe such a purely altruistic do-gooder could exist in this world. Inside the Nether Fiend Energy, Mai Zi charged rapidly forward. The Nether Armor King's blade qi descended in a flash, completely inescapable. Yet he had no need to dodge, possessing an ability that could absorb damage. When the blade qi struck his body, he absorbed all of it in an instant. Then, raising his hand toward the direction the blade qi had come from, he slashed down immediately. Only, he had no idea that the Nether Armor King's blade qi could curve. As a result, his counterattacks landed squarely on the labyrinth walls, without leaving so much as a scratch. The Nether Armor King naturally noticed Mai Zi, musing inwardly, *A damage absorption ability?* Typically, such abilities possessed an upper limit on how much damage could be absorbed. As long as one exceeded that ceiling, catastrophic damage could be inflicted, or the target could even be burst apart from overloading. "Then let me see just where your limit lies." Crimson light flared violently in the Nether Armor King's eyes. It slung its blade behind its back, slowly sinking into a hunched, back-sheathed stance. Night Execution Blade Calamity—Nether Night Slash-Slash-Slash-Slash-Slash-Slash! Fiend energy billowed from the Nether Armor King's entire body before suddenly compressing inward. It unleashed a slash, spun and unleashed another, spun again and slashed once more. Its spinning grew faster and faster, its swings accelerating with every rotation, until an endless flurry of blade qi lashed out toward Mai Zi's direction. These blade qi arcs were absurdly powerful. It was only because they were inside the event labyrinth that it gave off the illusion of moderate destructive power. In reality, every single slash from the Nether Armor King was enough to pierce countless worlds; planets, stars, black holes, space itself—everything could be severed in two with a single blow. On the other side, Yu Xian advanced through the Nether Fiend Energy. When he laid eyes on Mai Zi, his eyes went wide, staring in shock at the absurdly extreme spectacle before him. Countless blade qi arcs battered savagely against Mai Zi's body, yet Mai Zi pressed forward step by step against the onslaught. "This guy..." Yu Xian suddenly believed it: this guy really was a saint. Yet for some reason, it was precisely this pure, unadulterated kindness that shook him to his core. "Let me lend a hand too!" Yu Xian stepped forward and began summoning beasts in front of Mai Zi. An ox-shaped summoned beast had barely materialized before being sliced straight in two by the Nether Armor King's blade qi. Then more summoned beasts were conjured forth to absorb damage in Mai Zi's stead. "Stop summoning them. Just run," Mai Zi sighed, speaking up. "Don't tell me you're feeling sorry for summoned beasts?" Yu Xian said, somewhat speechless. Mai Zi endured another arc of blade qi and gritted his teeth. "I just can't bear watching them die in vain like this." "Have you really never killed a monster before?" Yu Xian retorted. Mai Zi replied, "Never. I have never taken a single life." "That can't be right. Your name is on the Sky-Mending Leaderboard. If I recall correctly, you were in fourth place the first time!" Yu Xian countered immediately. Mai Zi desperately wanted to chew Yu Xian out: what kind of life-and-death situation was this, and he actually had the leisure to stand here debating trivia instead of getting the hell out of here?!