The master and his three disciples headed north all the way and finally arrived at the frontline… the Tacet Discord Field in between.
"Hello, this humble monk has come from Huanglong Jinzhou and is heading north. May I ask, benefactor, could you do us a favor, step aside, and let us pass through?"
At the center of the Tacet Discord Field, Thundering Mephis scratched its head, looked left and right, and only then confirmed that the white-haired guy in front of it was talking to it.
It's hard to imagine how a Tacet Discord with a ferocious face could possibly show a confused expression.
But right now, Thundering Mephis was indeed confused, and it even wanted to submit an online request to have Zane's words translated again.
Seeing that Thundering Mephis didn't react at all, Zane curled his lips and revealed a cold, domineering CEO-style smile.
"Since you cannot understand what I'm saying, I knows a bit of martial arts!"
Zane waved his hand and pointed at Thundering Mephis, shouting loudly, "Go, beat it!"
———
"?"
Zane waited for quite a while, but the imagined scene of his three team members rushing forward, tying up Thundering Mephis, tearing it apart, and forcing it to submit never appeared.
Confused, he turned his head back, only to see two pairs of eyes looking at him like they were caring for an idiot.
"Hey! What's with that look?!"
Zane's fair little face immediately scrunched up. It was one thing if they treated him like a fool, but now they weren't even making a move to get rid of the demon.
So the act he just put on just fell flat like that?
'As expected, my Yangyang is still the best…'
"Hey, yes, I want to make an appointment with a neurologist tomorrow morning… What? You're asking about the symptoms? Hmm… let me think. Does talking nonsense while seeming overly energetic count?"
"Ah? You're saying just hitting the head with a stick will fix it? Got it, Doctor, I understand."
Zane, "…"
'I take that back. Yangyang has been led astray by them too.'
He wanted to give Rover and the Doctor an internationally friendly gesture, but after thinking about it, if he really did that, the one getting tied up, torn apart, and forced to submit would probably change from Thundering Mephis to himself.
As for giving Yangyang the middle finger…
'Go ahead and try it. Believe it or not, I, Zane, will twist your head off and then shove that raised middle finger straight into your temple!'
With no other choice, Zane had to do it himself.
On the other side, perhaps because it felt that fighting this white-haired guy would lower its IQ, Thundering Mephis's face, covered in gray-white armor-like shell, once again showed a strangely human… look of disdain?
It hesitated for a moment, waved its massive claw at Zane, then stepped aside neatly, giving way to the road leading to Northfall Wilds.
Zane, who had been full of momentum just moments ago, froze for a second. No matter how he thought about it, he never expected that one day he would actually be disliked by a Tacet Discord.
This was absolutely intolerable.
Zane was furious. In his fury, he got furious.
"Hey, monster, I can tell at a glance that you're not human!"
Thundering Mephis, 'I was never human to begin with.'
"Die!"
Thundering Mephis, 'You just want to fight me, right! Right!!'
'I'm a dignified Uncrowned Vanguard, don't I have any pride!'
'I clearly already stepped aside, and yet that human still wants to fight me. Do you really think I, Thundering Mephis, am not a cadre anymore?'
Demonic bone wings spread out instantly along with the chaotic electric currents filling the Tacet Discord Field.
An irregularly shaped bone sword appeared in Thundering Mephis's claw. Its massive body turned into a streak of lightning and lunged at Zane.
But Zane had already expected this. With an invincible roll, he dodged out of Thundering Mephis's attack range.
Yangyang and the Doctor, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately stepped in from the left and right, raising their longswords to block the incoming bone blade.
Meanwhile, Rover, who had been standing beside them, had already flashed behind Thundering Mephis.
The swift blade in her hand gleamed with a chilling light as she slashed fiercely at its wings.
But Thundering Mephis was, after all, a Overlord-type Tacet Discord. Its reaction speed in the face of danger far surpassed that of ordinary Tacet Discords. Not to mention that all of its skill points were invested in speed.
The three only saw a flash of violet lightning before their eyes, and the massive figure disappeared in an instant.
"Be careful!"
As Thundering Mephis vanished from her sight, Rover's golden pupils suddenly shrank, and a strong sense of danger surged from deep within her.
Enemies of this speed type were the most troublesome.
A dark purple figure flickered past, and the lightning element in the air grew denser as Thundering Mephis rapidly approached.
Suddenly, a sharp tearing sound came from above. Rover's eyes sharpened, and she instantly raised her swift blade upward.
With a piercing explosion, her slender body collided head-on with Thundering Mephis's two-meter-tall frame.
And she didn't fall behind.
The power of the Rover was truly terrifying.
At that moment, a gunshot cut through the air. The whistling bullet instantly left a hole at the base of Thundering Mephis's wing.
Although it wasn't an anti-materiel sniper rifle, fortunately Thundering Mephis wasn't a defense-focused Tacet Discord. One could tell just from its lean body.
'So the AWM was enough to leave a wound the size of a bowl on it.'
In pain, Thundering Mephis immediately abandoned Rover and charged straight toward Zane.
Compared to that black-haired girl, the white-haired guy in the distance holding something like a fire poker didn't seem threatening at all.
But no one could tolerate a mosquito buzzing endlessly in their ear while they were focused on fighting.
Especially when that mosquito was a patterned one.
Zane seemed to have anticipated this as well. The sniper rifle in his hand disappeared instantly. With a flip of his hand, a shield taller than a person appeared, and he slammed directly into Thundering Mephis.
After that collision, Thundering Mephis was completely stunned.
'Wait, what?'
'Have humans evolved to this level now?'
'A human body actually resisting a Overlord-type Tacet Discord head-on?'
'Did evolution just leave me behind?'
While Thundering Mephis was shaken into questioning its existence after the series of blows, Zane on the other side wasn't feeling great either.
After all, he was just an ordinary person. Although his physical condition was strong, unlike Rover, he had never stepped outside the category of "human."
His throat moved as he swallowed the taste of blood in his mouth. Zane raised his head and looked at Thundering Mephis.
He definitely wouldn't miss this chance to beat a downed opponent. He immediately took out two magnetic bombs and threw them onto Thundering Mephis's head.
Two explosions went off in succession on its face. The poor Thundering Mephis was instantly disfigured…
Though it wasn't that good-looking to begin with.
Maybe those two magnetic bombs counted as cosmetic surgery?
Seeing that Thundering Mephis had been stunned, Rover tapped lightly with her toes. Her black boots made a crisp sound in the Tacet Discord Field as she appeared above its head in the blink of an eye.
"I... am the storm."
Watching his "client" get cut across the neck by Rover's blade and collapse to the ground, peacefully falling asleep, Zane gave up the idea of asking Thundering Mephis for cosmetic fees.
After all, it was sleeping so soundly now. It wouldn't be appropriate to wake it up.
Besides, whether it could even be woken up was another matter.
"Zane, are you alright?"
Rover, the Doctor, and Yangyang hurried over. Seeing Zane still standing there full of vitality, they all let out a sigh of relief.
Though his face was still as pale as before.
"Just as expected of you, always managing to win in such strange and unusual ways."
A young voice with a hint of teasing sounded from not far away. The group looked north and saw a young man in a dark green battle robe walking toward them while clapping.
"Tch, I'm not a Resonator. I don't have the kind of power you guys do. If I want to win, I can only rely on tricks."
Zane shrugged as a greeting.
The person who came was the Midnight Rangers General... Jiyan.
"But speaking of which, General Jiyan, why were you just watching from the side? Weren't you afraid I couldn't beat that Tacet Discord?"
"You? Couldn't beat it?" Jiyan walked up to Zane, let out a scoff, and punched him lightly in the chest.
"As if I don't know you. You're like a cockroach that's hard to kill. As long as you don't want to die, there's nothing in this world that can kill you."
Although Zane joked and laughed with Jiyan, his heart grew heavier.
After the battle with Thundering Mephis, Zane clearly realized that humans ultimately had limits.
Against humanoid enemies, he could still rely on movement techniques to maneuver, slowly wearing them down to death.
But once he encountered a Overlord-type Tacet Discord whose recovery speed far exceeded his damage output, then without relying on system items, with his body that wasn't that of a Resonator, unable to use powerful resonance skills, he couldn't even break the opponent's defense.
To put it bluntly, his armor-breaking threshold was too low.
He could handle weak mobs without armor, but once he faced a high-defense boss, he was completely helpless.
'Seems like I should improve my own strength first…'
'If I remember correctly, isn't the system's gacha pity about to trigger?'
'I'll just invest it all into my own special pool.'