It was a matter of skill….. and of cheating. That was the case every single time. In every game, in every conversation, in every situation. Noah had grown bored at it in time. He won every time. Not to mistake anything – he loved to win, but he was bored from the games being the same, the conversations being the same, the situations being the same.
The clouds in the sky broke down and began disappearing. The stories began fusing, the temple starting to disappear in vain.
This artifact, whatever it was, took a serious amount of effort for Noah to break. Many penalties had appeared during that battle. Now that the effect was deactivated, an enormous aura appeared from Noah's body. Ever since the world changed, Noah knew he could basically create an enraged form of himself by paying with a huge amount of coins. Every time, the amount grew exponentially. From the very start of this battle, he was buying time in order to grow his power at a level, which was more than what the artifact could hold. He knew there were rules in this game and this director couldn't directly intervene….., at least without a pretext.
Noah had a couple of goals from the start: 1) To find if there is a limit to how stronger he can get; 2) To create the pretext for [The Faculty Director] to emerge; 3) To gain control over the intermediate tower islands; 4) To meet [Frostmoon].
"Come down faster, I don't have all day."
A gate was being formed in the sky and it slowly started to open.
[Grade SS Artifact Eye of Law Effect has been obtained.]
[-25 000 000 000 Coins]
[Grade SS Artifact Eye of Law Grade: SS → S]
「Due to the appearance of a higher being whose power is overwhelming for the current tower island, restrictions placed on entities will temporarily be removed. 」
Noah expected this to happen. Everything was going according to his plan.
[Grade SS Artifact Eye of Law Grade: S → SS]
All players, who were enemies a moment ago, were instantly defeated from Noah's Aura. A huge hand, made of aura emerged from Noah and grabbed the being, descending from the gate in the sky. He forcefully dragged this higher existence down and smashed it in the ground.
「Temporary Restrictions have been placed on [The Faculty Director]. 」
5 Lock Icons appeared above the head of an old gentleman in a suit. It was a tall creature which looked just like a human. A countdown was displayed next to them.
[2 minutes]
Noah began punching – punch after punch, explosions appearing. Seemingly, no damage was done to the enemy. He tried to pierce through with a blade and a dagger. At first, it seemed that it did the work, until an aftereffect was triggered and the power of the slashes turned backwards pushing Noah back.
Noah began saving up aura power in his fists and dashed forward again, creating an enormous, indescribable explosion and quickly continued to unleash punch after punch.
[1 minute]
No damage was done. The crackle of all the explosions hung like an irritant in the air. Even though Noah spammed healing potions and power potions and on top of that, penalty after penalty appeared from him buying berserk form constantly, still no damage was done to the enemy in front of him. It was passionately waiting for the restrictions to be removed.
Suddenly, Noah smiled. His plan had just entered the next step. A trap appeared under the enemy which caused yet another explosion, which triggered a chain reaction with many barriers and traps placed on the surrounding area ground. Albert had placed them while Noah was punching the being. An orb of solar high-concentrated magical energy was now slowly flying towards the director. A gaze-piercing ray flew through the air – Leo, the impact from the hit on the enemy was so strong that the ground surrounding them got destroyed in an instant and they went down by a couple of meters. Lily was together with Leo and managed to poison the shield that the being in front of them had.
Hologram shields appeared around each team member and the solar orb splashed on [The Faculty Director]. Noah had begun the transportation which, of course, cost him a couple of million coins.
[The First Lock has been unlocked]
A single gesture from the enemy appeared next to Lily. A brief moment later she crashed a building 500 meters away from the battlefield.
The difference of pure strength was unbelievable. Noah had already entered the game vision and was behind the director. At the next second, the Sixth Sense had activated around 500 times. It seemed impossible to avoid a direct hit no matter which direction was taken, so Noah took the hit with his fist after which the first damage was inflicted on the director.
[-5 000 150 100 Coins]
[-5 000 150 200 Coins]
[-5 000 150 300 Coins]
The ground around Noah began melting and the air shot sparks. He had a cheat and he could use that cheat. He didn't plan to retreat. If he had decided that the enemy is weak, the enemy was weak. Ten striked in the next second were thrown against the higher being, all inflicting damage, although too small to make any difference. Noah used Coins to fuse potions and increase their strength. The single strike from [The Faculty Director] before had cost him five lives.
Using coins, he "borrowed" the skills which his teammates used. He enhanced the solar orb strength around 100 times in order to cause some insignificant damage to the monster in front of him. He used artifacts and swapped between many gears countless times every second. The next hit came from behind, aimed at his back. This cost him 10 lives and additional 5 from the aftereffect. Normally, losing lives would have caused damage to his soul, but the Tranquility set was nullifying the damage to the soul.
The whole problem of the battle was time – he was growing stronger every second, but every 2 minutes, the strength of his opponent grew exponentially. And the raise in his strength in 2 minutes was smaller than his enemy's raise in power.
[The Second Lock has been unlocked]
A crater appeared in the place of the ground where Noah was standing. He lost 20 lives immediately. He almost couldn't see that strike. And there had never been a thing he couldn't see. Even shots from snipers weren't a problem for his vision. A sniper bullet's speed could be 1000 meters/second. This attack was between 1500 and 2000 meters/second.
Four similar attacks emerged in a quick succession, aimed at Noah. He couldn't possibly dodge them. The battle was already decided. At least, from the point of view, of a normal, cliche main character. Noah wasn't worried the slightest from the situation. He had absorbed the power of all these five attacks and returned it to [The Faculty Director], multiplying the strength by 10 times.
[Grade S Artifact Attack Reversal Effect has been activated]
[Grade S Artifact Attack Enhancer Effect has been activated]
[Grade S Artifact Infinite Impact Detonation Effect has been activated]
[Grade S Artifact Totem of The Weak Effect has been activated]
More gear set effects were utilized. A scratch on the enemy's body had appeared after which the impact of the returned attack repeated again and again, each time the strength was multiplied by 11 times, 12 times, it grew.
Noah was bored again. He wanted an actually strong enemy. One that wasn't so easy to deal with, one that could make his blood boil and his mind thinking.
[The Third Lock has been unlocked]
Noah's body disappeared, as if being deleted from existence, the power returning back to [The Faculty Director]. This had cost Noah 100 lives.
Thanks to his coins, he had also "borrowed" the crater skill from his opponent and kept on using it, each time amplifying the strength using a gear set effect, an artifact and coins. More and more scratches appeared on the enemy. The existence deletion skill was constantly being repeated on Noah which meant that it was constantly returned at [The Faculty Director].
The second tower island was shaking. It couldn't hold very long at this pace.
Noah knew from the very start, the direction of this battle. He had predicted what would happen, as well as the skills that the enemy would utilize. He waited until the full strength was released.
[The Forth Lock has been unlocked]
「Are you sure you want to spend 100 000 000 000 to unlock The Fifth Lock of [The Faculty Director]? 」
[Yes]
The space and reality around them became black. All sensations came to a stop. The second tower island began fading away.
「(Oh, how long it's been since I fought a stupid weakling which believed it could possibly win against me! Delicious!)」
For a moment, Noah's gaming vision was removed from him and he could sense the incoming end. A fatal end. One that couldn't be avoided with the power of potions.