"Foolish mortal..." The Tyrant Demon held its weapon, looking at Duanmu Huai with a hint of triumphant mockery. "You don't even understand who you're about to face... I am—"
Who wants to listen to your nonsense?
Duanmu Huai couldn't be bothered with the Tyrant Demon's opening monologue. He usually skipped these pre-boss battle cutscenes, didn't he? Either way, you're going to die, so why waste time?
Thinking this, Duanmu Huai unhesitatingly raised his left hand. With a roar, a burst of flames shot out, striking the Tyrant Demon and cutting off its foolish speech.
"You damned bastard!!" The Tyrant Demon clearly hadn't expected this human to be so bold—daring to interrupt its speech—and it immediately became enraged. "I'll smash your pathetic tin can to pieces! You will understand just how insignificant mortals are before demons—"
Didn't I already say? Who wants to listen to your nonsense?
Duanmu Huai naturally ignored the Tyrant Demon's roar. Having successfully landed a blow, he immediately grabbed his warhammer and charged forward, rushing straight into the Tyrant Demon's face and swinging down hard at its mechanical legs.
"Thump!!" The thunder-charged warhammer struck the metal leg with a deafening crash. Lightning burst forth, causing the Tyrant Demon to stagger momentarily. But it quickly retaliated, swinging its long sword in a powerful arc at Duanmu Huai.
"Bang!!!" The flaming sword broke through the weakened shield and struck the heavy shoulder armor. However, Duanmu Huai didn't dodge. He clearly knew this monster's weakness.
The greatest threat came from the Tyrant Demon's high mobility—granted by its three pairs of mechanical legs. If he couldn't disable them quickly, the fight would become much harder.
With that in mind, Duanmu Huai once again gripped his warhammer, swinging it forcefully at the same leg. This time, the already-damaged mechanical limb couldn't hold up—it shattered violently.
As the demon's body tilted, Duanmu Huai seized the moment, unleashing another heavy blow. Material Displacement! The joint at the base of the leg snapped under the impact. Thick steel bent and deformed before shattering completely.
With the front two pairs of legs destroyed, the Tyrant Demon lost its balance and toppled forward with a scream. Duanmu Huai didn't let the opportunity slip past. He dodged to the side, gripped his warhammer with both hands, spun his entire body, and—
The massive, black warhammer crashed down on the back of the Tyrant Demon's head! Critical hit! For most creatures, the back of the head was the weakest point—and the Tyrant Demon was no exception.
It had relied on mobility to overwhelm opponents. Though demonic toughness granted it above-average defense, that only went so far. The armor-breaking blow sent it crashing to the ground, but it still hadn't given up.
Its remaining legs thrashed wildly, trying to tear apart anything nearby. At the same time, the Tyrant Demon attempted to push itself back up and resume the fight.
But Duanmu Huai wasn't about to give it that chance.
He circled behind it, raised his warhammer, and smashed down at the flailing legs.
"Thump! Thump!! Thump!!!"
In seconds, the Tyrant Demon's mechanical legs were reduced to a heap of scrap metal. Without them, it flopped around like a fish out of water, desperate to flee—but Duanmu Huai didn't let up.
He knocked the long sword from its hand, strode around to its front, and stomped down on both arms. To Duanmu Huai, killing demons like this was nothing new. In Star Sea Online, even though higher-level enemies could resist damage, every monster had a weak point.
As long as you identified and exploited those weaknesses, even a Level 1 player could take down enemies far above their level. Killing above one's level was common in Star Sea Online, especially for solo players like Duanmu Huai.
His proudest achievement was single-handedly defeating a Level 90 Evil God Avatar. That battle had transformed him from a small-time quest grinder into a sought-after high-end player.
Compared to an Evil God Avatar, this Tyrant Demon was nothing but a minor annoyance...
"Foolish mortal! You cannot kill me!" Realizing it couldn't escape, the Tyrant Demon roared. "I will return to my world and await the next summoning! When that day comes, I will—"
Before it could finish, Duanmu Huai's warhammer came down with a deafening crack, smashing its skull like a watermelon. The demon's body burst into flames and disintegrated into black ash, vanishing into the air.
"Hmph. Too much talking." Duanmu Huai glanced at the demon's disintegrating corpse and snorted. He knew the Tyrant Demon wasn't lying.
Demons couldn't be truly killed. Even if destroyed here, they would simply return to their own world. And even if one pursued and killed them there, they would be reborn—reincarnated as low-level demons and rise again.
But what did that matter to Duanmu Huai? No matter how many come, just kill them.
Just as he eliminated the demon, a system prompt appeared before his eyes:
[Quest "Intrusion" completed]
[Quest Evaluation: Quite Good]
[Reward: 1500 experience, additional 1000 experience, level increased to 8, Attribute Point +1, Specialization Point +1, obtained "Maintenance Device – Skull Repair"]
[Subsequent Quest "Guard" triggered]
[Quest Description: You defeated the chaotic cultists and rescued the sacrifice. But this is just the beginning. You can choose to take her away from here and safely escort her back. Or you can leave her behind to fend for herself. Either way, the choice is yours.]
Not bad. Duanmu Huai wasn't surprised by the quest completion. Every quest had similar mechanics—completing objectives was just the beginning. The way you acted, the people involved, and your decisions during the quest would affect your evaluation and final rewards.
This was one of Star Sea Online's most appealing features. Many players even studied each quest in detail just to maximize their rewards.
Clearly, saving the young girl was the reason for his high quest evaluation. If Duanmu Huai had ignored her, the quest rating probably wouldn't have been nearly as high. As for the specialization points he received, Duanmu Huai invested them into (Attack Weakness) to increase critical damage.
This had also been part of his upgrade plan before transmigrating. Although he'd made a cute girl character at the time, the playstyle was pure berserker melee—well, it was obvious enough from his in-game ID.
As for the new attribute point, Duanmu Huai added it to Strength, raising it to 11, and also upgraded his Space Marine Combat Training to LV4. Since Charisma was locked and couldn't be increased, this was the only viable route.
With that done, Duanmu Huai turned around. He saw the ragged young girl peeking anxiously toward him. When their eyes met, she instinctively shrank back, unsure of what to do. Duanmu Huai didn't care.
He simply strode past her, sparing a glance as he spoke. "Follow me if you want."
With that, he left this foul, corrupted place. The girl hesitated for a moment, then bravely followed behind—there was no way she was staying here with those scorched corpses of cultists.
Of course, these evil god cultists wouldn't choose a busy city to summon demons. This place was a remote wilderness, desolate and rarely visited. Duanmu Huai had no idea where he was exactly, but that didn't matter.
After all, he had a local with him.
The girl, following close behind, introduced herself. Her name was Alisa, daughter of the lord of this territory. Though it was a barren borderland, it was still their home.
Not long ago, they had attended a merchant's banquet in the city and were returning to the castle by carriage when they were ambushed by cultists. Her father and all the guards were slaughtered by those brutal madmen—only she had been left alive as a sacrifice...
Clearly, if Duanmu Huai hadn't shown up, she would've become one of their offerings.
Alisa tearfully recounted her story, but Duanmu Huai stayed quiet. Any seasoned player had completed similar rescue quests at least a thousand times.
Although he sympathized with her, what was done was done. Besides offering condolences, what else could he do?
He couldn't raise the dead, could he?
"Do you know where we are?"
"Y-yes!" Alisa nodded vigorously. "This is the wilderness outside the Empire's border..."
"Do you know the way?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go."
Duanmu Huai decisively chose to complete the follow-up quest first. After all, retrieving holy artifacts was a complicated affair. Each planet had its own main storyline surrounding its artifact. Some were buried deep in ruins and required extensive investigation, clue gathering, and ruin exploration just to locate and retrieve them.
And that was the easier kind. Some holy artifacts were openly worshipped as divine relics by entire civilizations. In those cases, the player either had to risk ruining their reputation to steal them—or patiently follow the story to find a peaceful resolution.
Of course, that all depended on the planet's level of civilization. For a "beginner planet" like this, things were still in the medieval era. Later-stage interstellar civilizations would be an entirely different matter—which was why players needed to build fleets.
No one could solo an entire cosmic fleet.
Well... not unless they reached endgame levels.
Although Alisa was eager to leave quickly, she was clearly exhausted, and night was falling. After escaping the cultists' lair and getting out of immediate danger, they had no choice but to stop and rest before continuing the next day.
Duanmu Huai didn't mind. His power armor had also taken some damage in the battle with the Tyrant Demon and needed repairs. As he activated his repair device and sat near the fire, Alisa huddled close by, cautiously watching the tall, armored figure from the corner of her eye.
All this time, she hadn't seen the mysterious knight remove his helmet to reveal his face.
"Please..." Just as she finally gathered her courage to speak, the metal box on the knight's back suddenly opened.
A white skull flew out, hovering around the black knight. From time to time, eerie light glowed from its empty eye sockets, illuminating the plates of his armor.
"Eek——————!" Alisa screamed in fright.
W-what was that? Was it an actual skull? Was he one of those legendary Death Knights? Come to think of it, his shoulders and belt both had skulls... weren't those necromancer symbols?
He saved me—could it be because he wanted to turn me into an undead? Was that floating skull the soul of another victim?
Alisa stared nervously at Duanmu Huai, unsure of what to do. She desperately wanted to flee, but if she ran into the wilderness alone, she'd probably end up as food for wolves.
But staying here... is that really safe?
"What's wrong?" Noticing her gaze, Duanmu Huai turned to look at her. He had just finished activating the maintenance device to repair his power armor. As a family heirloom, the armor didn't just grow stronger with the player's level—it could also unlock special abilities with plugin upgrades.
This one set of armor could easily carry Duanmu Huai all the way to level cap.
After all, it was built to help alt accounts rush through story content...
"U-um... excuse me..." Alisa hesitated, then timidly asked, "Sir Knight... are you... human?"
"Of course. Is there a problem?"
"If possible... I'd like to see your face."
"..."
That's just... ridiculous.
Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes under the helmet. But he still opened it and looked directly at her. "Is this enough?"
"..."
Alisa didn't say anything. She just stared at him blankly.
Then—she fainted on the spot.
Seeing this, Duanmu Huai shrugged and calmly put his helmet back on.
Yeah, he figured this would happen.
(End of this chapter)