Rex's eyebrow lifted slightly, caught off guard by the unexpected question.
"How did you know?" Rex asked, his mind already piecing things together. That man in the so-called white armor—on closer inspection, it was platinum. And the loli beside him… it all lined up. If the weakest member among them was truly a player, then there was only one conclusion to draw. He was standing before the Thirteen Heroes.
"You said 'loli'… that term doesn't exist in this world," the young man replied. Rex stared at him, momentarily speechless. Then, slowly, he nodded in understanding.
"Weird… how can someone so weak be a player? Were you new to YGGDRASIL?" Rex asked, his tone more curious than mocking.
The boy gave a simple nod. "I'm Riku. I only started playing YGGDRASIL a day before it shut down," he said seriously, his eyes steady.
The twelve others exchanged uncertain glances, their expressions clouded with confusion. They clearly didn't understand the terms being thrown around.
"That's cool… so what do you want with me?" Rex asked, a curious look in his eyes.
Riku stepped forward slightly. "We heard news of a powerful, strange, godly-looking man going around slaughtering all the monsters in the forest… and attacking humans. We thought you might be one of the Demon Gods," he said.
His tone was calm, but there was a flicker of something else beneath it—jealousy. For all his composure, Riku couldn't help but feel a pang of envy at just how effortlessly godlike Rex appeared.
"I just arrived in this world. I have no interest in fighting anyone's battle before I've even had the time to find a place to call home," Rex said with a light smile.
"Then why did you kill all the monsters in the nearby forest?" Riku asked.
Rex's eyebrow lifted—not at the question itself, but at the unexpected feeling that stirred within him… Annoyance.
It crept up suddenly, sharp and out of place. He didn't like being questioned—not like this. But he quickly caught himself. That wasn't like him. He prided himself on being reasonable, someone who took a step back, examined every angle, and thought before reacting.
Rex's eyebrow lifted slightly, caught off guard by the unexpected question.
"How did you know?" Rex asked, his mind already piecing things together. That man in the so-called white armor—on closer inspection, it was platinum. And the loli beside him… it all lined up. If the weakest member among them was truly a player, then there was only one conclusion to draw. He was standing before the Thirteen Heroes.
"You said 'loli'… that term doesn't exist in this world," the young man replied. Rex stared at him, momentarily speechless. Then, slowly, he nodded in understanding.
"Weird… how can someone so weak be a player? Were you new to YGGDRASIL?" Rex asked, his tone more curious than mocking.
The boy gave a simple nod. "I'm Riku. I only started playing YGGDRASIL a day before it shut down," he said seriously, his eyes steady.
The twelve others exchanged uncertain glances, their expressions clouded with confusion. They clearly didn't understand the terms being thrown around.
"That's cool… so what do you want with me?" Rex asked, a curious look in his eyes.
Riku stepped forward slightly. "We heard news of a powerful, strange, godly-looking man going around slaughtering all the monsters in the forest… and attacking humans. We thought you might be one of the Demon Gods," he said.
His tone was calm, but there was a flicker of something else beneath it—jealousy. For all his composure, Riku couldn't help but feel a pang of envy at just how effortlessly godlike Rex appeared.
"I just arrived in this world. I have no interest in fighting anyone's battle before I've even had the time to find a place to call home," Rex said with a light smile.
"Then why did you kill all the monsters in the nearby forest?" Riku asked.
Rex's eyebrow lifted—not at the question itself, but at the unexpected feeling that stirred within him… Annoyance.
It crept up suddenly, sharp and out of place. He didn't like being questioned—not like this. But he quickly caught himself. That wasn't like him. He prided himself on being reasonable, someone who took a step back, examined every angle, and thought before reacting.
"When I arrived in this world, my level was reset to level 1. So, I had to start grinding to level up," Rex said lightly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Reset?" Riku echoed, his voice quiet with confusion. He didn't know what to make of that. After all, he had only ever been level 1 when he arrived in this world.
"If you want to level up, then join us. The Evil Gods seem to be NPCs from YGGDRASIL," Riku said.
Rex scratched his head, genuinely unsure. Should he join them? He wasn't against the idea, but something about it gave him pause. On that note, didn't new players only appear every hundred years in this world?
That thought stuck with him. "When did you arrive in this new world?" Rex asked, his curiosity now fully piqued.
"Last week," Riku said.
Rex stood there, speechless for a moment. A week? It had only been a week, and this guy was already out here playing the hero?
"I'll have to refuse," Rex said calmly as he rose to his feet.
The moment he moved, tension flooded the air. Every member of the group stiffened, their bodies subtly shifting into combat stances, hands drifting toward weapons. They were ready to fight.
"Why? These Evil Gods have done nothing but bring suffering to the people of this world!" Riku shouted, his voice filled with urgency.
"I figured as much—just by their title," Rex replied, his tone calm but edged with sarcasm. "I just don't trust you or your allies. From the moment they learned I was a player, they were already thinking about killing me."
His expression shifted into a mocking smile. "Tell me… aren't you the Evil Gods, just playing hero?"
In that instant, a flash of light split the air. A sword burst forward, tearing through the space between them and striking Rex with devastating force… Or so it seemed.
The moment the blade should have connected, it slammed into an invisible barrier. All the force behind the strike was reflected outward, and the sword was flung backward like a toy—its power completely neutralized.
Rex turned his gaze toward the figure in platinum armor. The armor was nothing more than a puppet, remotely controlled. The one pulling the strings was than the Platinum Dragon Lord, operating from a distance.
"H-how?" the voice stammered through the armor, laced with disbelief.
"With that attack," Rex said flatly, "I'd place you at around level 70. As for how… I have a passive skill that renders me completely immune to all attacks, skills, spells, and abilities that fall below a certain quality threshold."
He paused, then added mockingly, "In other words—your gear isn't even good enough to scratch me." It was clear he wasn't amused by being attacked. Not at all.
"But you said your level just reset…" the Dragon Lord's voice echoed in disbelief through the hollow suit of armor.
Even though levels didn't formally exist in this world, they were still used as a rough measure of someone's strength by those who knew of levels. If Rex claimed his level had reset, that meant he should have been significantly weakened upon arriving.
"Yeah," Rex said with a calm shrug, "but I wasn't known as the Strongest Player for nothing."
The moment those words left his mouth, something shifted. Everyone's attention flicked to Riku, whose expression had suddenly changed. There was something off, subtle, but clear enough to make the others uneasy.
"I knew I'd seen you before… you're Rex Tempus?" Riku asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
Rex smirked. "That I am." In the very next instant, he vanished. Before anyone could react—before a single spell could be cast or weapon raised, Rex reappeared right in front of the platinum armor… And then he kicked.
The force behind it was staggering—a blow that revealed the overwhelming stat difference, the kind of strength only someone with a stat of 100 could display.
With unmatched force, the armor was sent crashing into the ground. The impact was so immense that it triggered a shockwave powerful enough to blast everyone else off their feet, scattering them like leaves in a storm.
A deep crater tore through the earth where the armor once stood, and at its center lay the platinum armor, half-buried in the debris, motionless.
"S-such power…" the loli, a true vampire, whispered in horror, her voice trembling as she stared at the devastation caused by a single attack. The entire hero party had been thrown back—not by the strike itself, but by the aftershock of a blow meant for only one of them. And even that, they couldn't withstand.
She had reacted fast—fast enough to raise a barrier just in time. It absorbed most of the impact, shielding her from the worst of the force. But even so, the shockwave still hit her hard. Her legs trembled slightly, proof that even with her quick response, she hadn't escaped unscathed.
"You thought that was something?" Rex said, his voice calm but laced with threat. "Wait until I actually use a spell."
With a casual wave of his hand, a powerful gust of wind swept through the battlefield, clearing the thick cloud of dust that had settled from the impact.
As the air cleared, the scene became terrifyingly clear. Rex stood at the bottom of the crater, one foot planted firmly atop the Dragon Lord's armor, now dented and partially crushed beneath him. His gaze locked onto the vampire loli, who instinctively took a step back, eyes wide with fear.
She blanked. Her mind froze, and her legs gave slightly beneath her. She nearly fell back, only barely catching herself, when Rex appeared right in front of her without warning.
As an undead, fear should have been a distant memory, something her kind no longer felt. Yet the aura radiating from Rex clawed at her instincts, forcing fear into her undead body like a pulse she couldn't ignore.
"I have no interest in killing you or anyone else," Rex said, his voice low but firm. "You leave me alone, and I'll do the same. I didn't start this—you did."
He towered over her, standing at 7'7, while she barely reached 4'3. The difference in presence alone was suffocating.
Yes, Rex was stupidly tall—and that was by design. He had chosen this height for a simple, tactical reason: in 1v1 combat, height mattered. Especially in the early game, when players were still figuring things out, his size often gave him the upper hand. Reach, angle, presence—it all played a role.
Sure, there was a trade-off in speed, but Rex had handled that easily with the right stat distribution and class synergy. For him, the benefits far outweighed the cost.
"Y-yes…" the vampire muttered. She was known as Landfall, and her voice was barely more than a whisper.
Her eyes, however, couldn't help but wonder, not on Rex's face, but on something swinging casually at eye level. He didn't seem to care or notice, standing with the same relaxed posture as before.
"Good," Rex said—and then he vanished.
Landfall's eyes widened, frantically scanning the area, trying to track where he had gone. She knew he hadn't teleported—there was no surge of mana, no spatial distortion. And yet, he was simply gone.
She couldn't comprehend it. How could someone move that far, that fast, without using mana-enhanced movement? But there was no time to dwell on it.
She rushed back to her allies, quickly kneeling beside the nearest one. With practiced focus, she began casting healing spells, her magic spreading through the team, stabilizing each of them one by one.
A moment later, the Platinum Dragon Lord rejoined her. His once-damaged armor was now shockingly restored, pristine and unmarred, as if the devastating impact had never happened.