......

    As the chaotic battle continued, everyone suddenly sensed that something was not right. They felt that it was strange that the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster never made a move despite all the commotion happening outside.

    If this monster was following its usual routine before it turned into a Plagued Monster, then it was supposed to defend its territory. After all, such powerful monsters were territorial, especially when it was lone monsters refusing to lead a pack.

    Given that everyone here was a top expert in the game, they should have already experienced almost everything. With all of this, it was indeed strange that this monster was making any move up despite how chaotic the battle was going on right inside its territory.

    These players could not help but slow down their pace. They purposely lessen the intensity of their attacks while cautiously observing the cave. They were also paying extra attention to the members of the Death Knell, trying to see if these guys had already plotted something.

    Since these people from Death Knell were the ones who had found the monster first, these powerhouses felt that they had already done something while they were distracted.

    But after closely observing the group for quite a while, the top guilds and large organizations concluded that it was not the case after seeing that the ones leading the Death Knell were also showing a confused look on their faces.

    Seeing this, Shin, who was watching everything from the distance, smirked. "It looks like they have finally realized it."

    Not long after he said those words, he raised his head and turned toward a certain direction. From his position, he could see a cloud of tide-like dust growing larger from a distance, indicating that something or a lot of ’things’ were rushing toward this place.

    Shin licked his lips after seeing this as he felt that this was going to be even more interesting.

    He then turned toward the cliff across from him and observed the hooded group for another time before looking at the cluster of plague energy coming from those hiding in the distance. "Let’s see what these guys are planning."

    Under the camouflage skill attached to his cape, he would remain in the invisible state so long as he remained stationary or separated himself from any trees or bushes once it was activated.

    He then turned his attention back to the chaotic battlefield and fell into deep thought. After a while, he sent a message to Exheart, Bryan, and HellBan, informing them about the incoming horde of monsters.

    It was up to them whether they would retreat, inform the others, or anything else.

    ...

    Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

    Not long after, the players fighting on the chaotic battlefield sensed the trembling ground and heard the rumbling sounds from the distance.

    They were forced to stop what they were doing and distance themselves from their respective opponents. Then they turned toward the direction where the rumbling sounds were coming from.

    These experts did not need to guess what was coming as they could already tell what it was.

    "A monster horde!"

    "What the heck!? Why-...!?"

    "The heck!? Look at their numbers!"

    "Tsk! We have fallen into a trap!"

    "There is someone orchestrating everything of the events!?"

    The commanders of the adventurer teams and captains of the mercenary groups were not that slow either as they also came up with the same conclusion after seeing the situation that they were in.

    "Tsk! What devious plan."

    "Such a devious scheme."

    "I will slaughter whoever they were once I saw them!"

    Regardless of their thoughts and anger, they still moved and adjusted their formation accordingly.

    To prevent any conflict, these top forces tacitly ’agreed’ to send an elite group to face the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster. They each picked a representative of their group and sent them to deal with it.

    Of course, there were also some solo and independent players, who ’volunteered’ to ’lend’ a hand in dealing with this threat. But only those with the strongest powers and who were not afraid of the top forces dared to do that.

    Most of these lone wolves were widely known names with a solid gaming community reputation. They were either very famous Maverick Gods or renowned Godlike Players who loved to play the game by themselves.

    The leaders and commanders of these top forces only glanced at these lone wolves and did not bother any of them.

    This was a fair competition. Whoever killed the plagued monster, the event points would be theirs.

    This might be the best situation that anyone could think of. After all, they could prevent a huge conflict between everyone and avoid weakening their forces in a huge battle.

    It was not much of a concern whether they would play tricks or try to harm anyone during the battle.

    This was not the first time that such a thing happened. It was a somewhat common occurrence even in the previous games.

    As these top elites, representing each group, alongside the lone wolves walked toward the cave to form a ’team’, the monster that was supposed to be their ’prize’ finally revealed itself.

    Its size alone was intimidating enough to make the players wary of it. But the main problem that these elites felt from it was the dense plague energy that its body was emitting.

    It was so dense that a black miasma was forming a veil to shroud the monster’s body behind it.

    These elites felt that even if this monster did not attack them, just getting near it would be threatening enough for them.

    With such a thick plague energy, getting infected wouldn’t be impossible. They would most likely suffer severe debuffs at the very least just by standing near it.

    Shin did not make any move as he watched everything from the same spot. An evil grin appeared behind his mask as he thought of something. "Let’s see how much fish I can get from this troubled water."

    ...