I've already reached the maximum level, and you guys are just starting out?

Chapter 202 Taking the Initiative! A Million-Strong Army! Luring the Enemy Out!

Alpha Star, Northern Continent.

west coast.

The dark seawater crashed against the jagged rocks, sending waves splashing everywhere.

hum-

Above the reef, the void trembled.

The figure of Yu Jin slowly appeared.

The sea breeze that rushed towards him made Yu Jin raise an eyebrow slightly.

[Beep!]

A crisp mechanical beep followed.

As the embers listened, the game notification for Wasteland Online arrived as promised.

You have logged into the intermediate server 'Lost Alpha'.

[Your mission: Stand firm]

【hold fast--】

【…】

The information that Ember obtained was no different from that of Athena.

"Hold on for seven days?"

"Guarding humanity's last territory? A small seaside town?"

Yu Jin murmured to himself, looking up and around.

He was standing on an extremely desolate beach.

Looking out, all that could be seen was the boundless black sea and strangely scattered reefs.

A small town?

Where did this small town come from?
【Di-】

[Your location is detected to be far from human territory...]

[I've shown you the way!]

You can head to the town as soon as possible to participate in the war and defend human territory!

The notification for Wasteland Online arrived late.

A phantom indicator line appeared before Yu Jin's eyes.

just.

Yu Jin didn't rush to leave, but stood there, pondering.

Hold out for seven days?

This mission actually reveals quite a bit of information.

This indicates that the Fallen faction within the Alpha Star server is extremely powerful, perhaps overwhelmingly so compared to humans.

"This……"

"This seems to be good news?"

Ember turned his head and looked in the opposite direction from the illusory indicator line.

It was a pitch-black sea—even though it was daytime.

According to Wasteland Online, the army of the Fallen will attack human territory from the direction of the sea.

"Hold on for seven days..."

"too long."

Yu Jin shook his head; he didn't want to waste too much time here.

Previously, I only stayed on Mars and Venus for a few days each time, but the planetary server took more than a month to arrive.

The time flow rate of the galaxy server and the planet server should be consistent.

and so……

"It must be resolved quickly."

"If you foolishly wait for seven days, by the time you get back to the planetary server, it will be too late."

Yu Jin made up his mind.

There's an old saying on Earth—

The best defense is a good offense!
If the mountain won't come to me, then I'll go to the mountain!
"As long as all the fallen are killed, the territory will naturally be successfully defended, which makes perfect sense."

Yu Jin had a sudden thought.

Swah——

A virtual panel appeared in front of him.

This panel is from Wasteland Online, and it's the interface of the 'Wasteland Origin Shop'.

"Ok?"

"Can't see?"

"what's the situation?"

Yu Jin frowned, silently asking the system.

Previously, when he was on Mars and Venus, he was able to directly check the products in the online store as soon as he landed.

【Searching...】

Search complete!

[Intermediate server rules are quite restrictive...]

[The previously unlocked basic server store access has automatically expired!]

[Creating new permissions for you...]

Estimated time: 24 hours!

The system responded very quickly.

"Ok."

Yu Jin sighed softly.

"Although it will take a day, as long as the online store can be opened, it's not a big problem."

His real goal in logging into Wasteland Online was to acquire the various resources in the in-game store.

"Hopefully they'll have some good stuff!"

"That way, my airdrops to Dawn Fortress will be truly effective!"

"but……"

"Before that, the wasteland source sites also need to catch up!"

[Wasteland Source: 9400 million]

This is the current balance of Ember.

It seems like a lot, but it's actually not enough at all.

Bang——

A crisp sound rang out.

Yu Jin casually ate a seventh-tier limit-breaking stone.

This was obtained by killing Guy Nash in Venus Online.

boom--!
After the Limit-Unlocking Stone was swallowed, the aura of the embers visibly surged once again.

[Limit Result: 8% (7% + 1%)]

In terms of unlocking stats alone, Ember's improvement is not significant, and it doesn't even compare to Venus.

In Venus Online, because Ember owns Venus, the unlock value is also 8% (6%+1%+1%).

but……

It’s different in the past.

At that time, Ember was only at the sixteenth rank, with a value of just over one hundred million.

With an 8% limit, the maximum possible value is approximately 80.

And now?
Yu Jin broke through to the seventeenth rank in the galactic wasteland, and his own value reached 250 million.

With an 8% cap reduction, the potential value of Ember on the Alpha Star server jumped to 200 million!
Rounded up, this is equivalent to 20% of the unlock value for players like Athena!
"Tsk..."

"She looks a bit like a supermodel?"

I don't know, I was taken aback.

Even Yu Jin himself was taken aback after arriving at this result.

What is the maximum limit for unlocking restrictions on intermediate servers?

Despite feeling invincible, Ember inquired with the system just to be on the safe side.

【Searching...】

Search complete!

[Current server limit for unrestricted access: 10%]

"very good!"

Having received an answer, Yu Jin's last remaining concerns completely vanished.

"Then..."

"Take the initiative!"

The words fell.

Whoosh-!
The embers vanished into the sky.

Instead of heading to the seaside town indicated by Wasteland Online, he went straight into the depths of the sea, which was the direction where the army of the Fallen were located!

……

……

Black Sea.

This is the name of the ocean on Alpha Star.

It had this name long before the Fallen Ones came, but it wasn't black then.

But now?
The pervasive pollution on the planet makes this name incredibly vivid.

now.

Deep in the Black Sea, a continent surrounded by the sea sits in the center.

Black mist rises from the mainland.

From a distance, one can see countless figures.

Every single one of them is a fallen person.

However, unlike the scenarios in Mars Online and Venus Online, these fallen ones are not in a camp, but in a small town with a retro feel.

Within the town, the fallen people lived and worked in peace and contentment, just like ordinary human beings, and the town was full of life.

now.

Within the largest city.

The middle-aged man with a powerful aura was staring at the illusory panel that suddenly popped up in front of him.

He frowned, looking rather dissatisfied.

"Another group of annoying intruders?"

In his words, humans became invaders.

He, along with countless other fallen brethren, has been on this planet for nearly a century.

"Father!"

Beside the middle-aged man, a handsome yet sinister-looking young man spoke up.

"I am willing to lead my troops to wipe out the invaders!"

The young man patted his chest, full of confidence.

The middle-aged man remained silent, staring at the young man for a while.

His son's unlock value has already reached 9%, making him an unparalleled genius among the younger generation on this planet.

Even compared to himself as a lord, he was only 1% short of unlocking the limit.

"Father!"

"Don't you believe in my abilities?"

The young man spoke again.

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded in agreement. "Okay."

"I'll give you a million-strong army."

"Your goal this time is to completely occupy that desolate land."

"These human-based crawlers keep popping up every now and then, which is really annoying."

"If it weren't for the restrictions of Wasteland Online..."

“In previous wars, we razed the entire northern continent to the ground long ago.”

The man finished speaking.

A bright smile appeared on the young man's face.

"Don't worry, father!"

"I will immediately prepare the army, and we will set off as early as tomorrow!"

……

……

The outer edge of the Black Sea.

In the ocean, islands of all sizes are scattered like stars.

On each island, you can see towns or cities of varying sizes.

The town was filled with the figures of the fallen.

Swah——

The figure of Yu Jin appeared above a small island.

He looked down at the island below, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Only 30,000 troops?"

"The remaining hundreds of thousands are all ordinary people?"

Before this.

The embers have already descended upon several islands, and the situations they encountered are basically the same.

On the island, the fallen live in peace and prosperity, with only a small number of troops stationed there.

What Ember cared about was certainly not the 'peaceful and prosperous' fallen populace.

He was just disappointed that the tens of thousands of troops brought him far too little.

"never mind."

Even a small amount of food is still food.

Yu Jin shook his head and sighed softly. Then, he reached out and pointed at the island below.

boom--

Boom——!
The entire island suddenly trembled.

Inspired by Nangong Linglong's ability to fuse attributes, Yu Jin has now begun to experiment with combination skills of different attribute abilities.

Just like now—

He activated both the 'Dark Tremor' and 'Earth Surge' attributes simultaneously.

The result was—

Rumble——!
The island was rocked by the violent earthquake, and the earth cracked inch by inch.

then……

The scorching magma from the seabed, guided by the 'earthquake' ability, bursts forth from the earth and soars into the sky!
The entire island was instantly swallowed by lava.

"what--!"

Screams echoed across the island.

The tens of thousands of fallen soldiers didn't even have time to see who their enemy was before they were completely transformed into sculptures in the lava.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of other fallen people on the island were also turned into sculptures.

[You descended with divine might...]

[Wasteland Origin Point +100 million!]

[Resource Acquired: Tier 5 Unlock Stone *1]

【…】

The system kept prompting me.

Lines of text information are dazzling.

Yu Jin simply glanced at it and chose to check his balance directly.

[Wasteland Source: 280 Million]

The harvest from the few small islands approached 200 million source points.

"Not enough, far from enough."

Yu Jin shook his head, not giving the small island swallowed by lava another glance. With a flash, he darted towards the islands deeper in the Black Sea.

……

……

A remote town on the northern continent.

Time passes slowly.

In the blink of an eye, a day has passed.

Athena stood on the shore, gazing into the distance.

Behind her, Don Fleck and Aaron stood with their heads bowed.

Further away was a line of ten thousand unlocked beings.

"Has the Fallen Ones' attack not yet begun?"

Athena frowned slightly and murmured softly.

Based on information from those previously injured veteran players—

Their troops were attacked by the Fallen army just half a day after landing.

But now?
A whole day has passed.

Forget about a massive army pressing in; we haven't even seen a single Fallen One...

"Miss Athena."

"You say……"

"Could it be that the Fallen Ones are preparing their army, hoping to achieve a decisive victory in one battle?"

Donflake boldly put forward a conjecture.

Athena nodded; she had the same guess.

"Then wait."

"in addition……"

"While we wait for the Fallen to attack, send out more small teams to search along the coastline..."

"Let's see if we can find any information related to the embers."

Compared to this "Wasteland Online" game, what Athena cares about more is still that man.

……

……

Black Sea.

Central island.

Damian stood suspended in mid-air.

His aura was released without reservation.

With a limit-breaking value as high as 9%, he became the second strongest person on this planet.

The strongest person was his father, the captain of the team.

"grown ups!"

"A million troops are in position!"

"Just give the order, and we will be your vanguard!"

On the earth, an army of a million fallen ones, stretching as far as the eye could see, stood silently.

At the front of the army, a man in uniform, dressed as an officer, respectfully reported.

"Hahaha."

Damian laughed heartily twice in the sky.

"good very good!"

He had been looking forward to this day for a very, very long time!
Compared to sparring with weaker peers on the central island, what he really wanted to do was toy with those human invaders!
According to the generals who led troops on previous expeditions...

They almost always deliberately set a seven-day deadline, giving the humans the illusion that they had a chance to hold out, only to extinguish their hopes with lightning speed at the last moment.

This kind of game sounds really interesting.

"Let's go!"

Damian gave a soft shout, and then transformed into a streak of black light, flying towards the distant sea.

Whizzing--

above the earth.

A million-strong army took to the air, following Damian's footsteps, and marched into the distance.

To ensure he could have a good time, Damian deliberately refrained from using the troops stationed on the islands surrounding the Black Sea, instead drawing a million-strong army solely from the central island.

……

……

The Black Sea, its outer perimeter.

Ember looked down at the island below, stained red by flames and with countless ashes flying everywhere, and stroked his chin.

"The tenth one."

he muttered.

This is the tenth Fallen Island he has destroyed.

Can……

To date, no army of fallen ones has come to cause him any trouble.

"It's strange."

"Could it be that these degenerates don't even have a way to communicate?"

"Or is it that these Fallen armies stationed on the outer islands have truly been left to fend for themselves all along?"

"But this shouldn't be happening..."

"Human players have already logged in; the Wasteland Online rules must have given a notification."

Yu Jin looked troubled.

This vast Black Sea is extremely expansive.

Even with his two million, it would be difficult to travel all over the place in a very short time.

The reason he so blatantly destroyed island after island was to lure out the snakes from their holes, preferably the main force of the fallen ones.

This way, it will be easier to catch all the embers in one fell swoop, thus maximizing the harvest.

"Hey--"

"Keep going deeper."

Yu Jin shook his head and sighed softly.

whoosh-

His figure vanished from the spot, heading deeper into the sea.

And at this time.

Deeper into the sea, Damian is leading an army of a million fallen ones, roaring in.

Further out in the sea, in a small border town, Athena and her team looked at the calm, undisturbed Black Sea before them, feeling increasingly puzzled and confused.

"no……"

Another day has almost passed!

"And the fallen?"

"They promised to hold out for seven days, but we haven't even seen a shadow of the Fallen Ones attacking?"

(End of this chapter)