Chapter 119: The Death Flame Beast

Amidst the relentless battle, the Death Flame Beast’s condition continued to decline. Meanwhile, players were falling one after another. Though Ichimon could see that, toward the very back, a number of players had begun to arrive. These were players who had already died once, yet they did not retreat.

Ichimon murmured under his breath, "So, that’s their game, is it?"

The first wave of players who had perished were reborn and ran back out from the Aigio Beast small town, effectively becoming the new arrivals at the rear. They were well aware of the Death Flame Beast’s power, but they also knew that the beast could be worn down to death through attrition.

As the saying goes, wealth is sought in danger. They were prepared to risk the deletion of their accounts to gamble on this opportunity. Although the developers had not disclosed the exact nature of the rewards for slaying an open-world boss, this particular boss was of the Perfect level. No matter how poor its loot might be, it would still be useful to the current player base, who mostly possessed Champion-level Digimon. Even if one were to consider the case of Ichimon’s own Cyberdramon, which was a Perfect-level entity, it was certainly not useless.

One had to remember that the previous Andromon boss was also only of the Perfect level, yet the equipment it dropped had left Ichimon quite satisfied.

"I didn't expect to meet the illustrious number one in the server here," a voice suddenly echoed from behind Ichimon. He turned to look and discovered a player accompanied by two Digimon: a Cyberdramon and a Datamon.

Cyberdramon, a Cyborg-type Vaccine Digimon of the Perfect level, whose signature move is [Eraser Claw]. It is a dragon-man type Cyborg Digimon clad in special rubber armor, capable of withstanding any attack. Whenever a Virus-type Digimon emerges within the computer network, Cyberdramon appears to eradicate it. However, it is not a member of the "Virus Busters" righteous collective; instead, it is a solitary warrior, its true nature shrouded in mystery.

Datamon, a Machine-type Virus Digimon of the Perfect level, whose signature move is [Plug Bomb]. It is a micro-sized medical machine Digimon. Originally, it was a Vaccine-type Digimon designed to repair damaged computers, but after being attacked by a powerful Virus-type Digimon (the identity of which need not be detailed), its thinking circuits were corrupted, causing it to malfunction. It wantonly wreaks havoc on the data of functioning computers, causing them to crash, and is adept at the destruction of all forms of data.

Upon seeing these two Perfect-level Digimon, Ichimon’s expression softened, shedding a hint of his previous disdain. This fellow, at the very least, possessed enough qualification to hold a conversation on equal footing.

"Who are you?" Although Ichimon knew exactly who he was by the "Gongteng Wang" tag hovering above his head, the question he posed was not merely about his name.

Gongteng Wang pointed at Ichimon and declared arrogantly, "I am Gongteng Wang, the hundredth-ranked player on the level leaderboard. I want to challenge you to see who is truly the best."

"..." Ichimon suddenly wondered if he had been too benevolent, allowing any stray cat or dog to come knocking on his door.

While it was true that Gongteng Wang’s hundredth-place ranking was partly due to the previous chaos that had caused a large number of high-level accounts to be deleted, those accounts had since been resurrected. Furthermore, after being tempered by the Twelve Deva dungeon, the gap between them and Ichimon was not as wide as one might think.

Ichimon was level twenty-three, while Gongteng Wang was level eighteen. However, it is worth noting that the second-place player was currently level twenty-one. In other words, the players ranked from second to one-hundredth were all clustered within levels eighteen to twenty-one. It wasn't until the one-hundred-and-thirty-seventh rank that the level dropped to seventeen. From this, one could see just how much of an outlier Ichimon’s level twenty-three was.

Moreover, while his rank reached one hundred, it was primarily driven by experience points. Although experience is linked to a Digimon's combat power, the correlation is not strictly linear.

Though he did not know the full extent of the combat power of Gongteng Wang’s two Digimon, it was not impossible for him to rank within the top twenty or even the top ten based on strength alone. Seeing that the number-one-ranked Ichimon only had a configuration of one Perfect and one Champion-level Digimon, he immediately harbored ulterior motives. If it weren't for the fact that the player invincibility status had been enabled here, he likely wouldn't have come up just to talk—he would have launched a sneak attack.

"Yo, isn't this the legendary Ichimon?" Just then, another voice rang out. Ichimon looked over and saw a player mounted on the back of a Parrotmon.

Parrotmon, a Giant Bird-type Vaccine Digimon of the Perfect level, whose signature move is [Mjolnir Thunder]. It is a mysterious giant bird-type Digimon that resembles a parrot, having wandered into other digital worlds from a different digital world via a space-time rift. Its talons possess immense power. It is highly intelligent, calm, and not prone to conflict. However, once enraged, it will never let up.

This guy possessed a Perfect-level Digimon but only had one, which struck Ichimon as quite strange. One had to realize that anyone capable of owning a Perfect-level Digimon would at least be level ten or higher, and at level ten, a player could already carry two Digimon.

While Digimon Eggs were scarce on the market, they were not entirely unavailable. Even if one were too picky to settle for low-potential Digimon, there was no reason to waste a slot. After all, one could always release a previous Digimon if a better one were encountered later.

There must be some special reason for this, but it didn't concern Ichimon much.

Ichimon furrowed his brows and said with a look of displeasure, "Don't tell me you’re here to challenge me as well?"

The player, with the tag "Tachi Mizu" floating above his head, chuckled with a flicker of sharpness in his eyes: "Why not?"

"..." Great, another one. But at least, as the saying goes, one doesn't worry about debt when one has too much of it. Ichimon chose to ignore the rest.

As time passed, more and more players gathered around Ichimon. They were all players who possessed a certain degree of strength and confidence—meaning, essentially, that they all had at least one Perfect-level Digimon. None of them made a move; after all, attacking at such a moment did not seem to be a wise choice.