Chapter 555: Players One, Alfi Zero  

"Two Hundred and Twenty Seven!" Dave shouted.

"Three thousand and ninety-nine!" Dagla smirked.

"Damn, that's a huge count, I gotta step up my game a bit," Dave's wicked smile was far too broad to be humanly possible. He was in the thick of the battle, right within the calamities range, and was whacking left and right any that came his way.

The barrier around the city was keeping the whole of it intact, and protected from the incoming horde. Yet Dave chose to go into the fray and lob off any head he could find.

This was a good area to use [World Boss] the advantage and the power given to Dave by this skill proved extremely useful in this current situation. He was able to mow down enemies and stand his ground and could rest behind Dagla's barrier, waiting for his Undead Passive to kick in if his HP dropped too low.

Yet in all of this battle, Alfred never showed up, Dave was sure he was here, he had a feeling that someone watching him, and thus he saved [Bastion] if Alfred were to use a devastating blow against Dave from hiding.

Dagla's caster army was blowing up the enemy forces with the full might of their spells. The barrier's ability to permit attacks from within it and block attacks from the outside gave the casters all the advantage they could ever wish for against an enemy. And thus the battle continued.

"Guns are ready!" Jeffery's voice sounded from behind Dave.

"Good, start hammering then." Dave's command sounded.

Jeffery used his mecha transformation and stood atop the gate, two heavy mini guns, one loaded on each of his robot's hands locked and loaded.

"FIRE AT WILL!" Dave's call came and rain of ballistic fire came down from above.

Bullets, as numerous as the clouds shot down against the incoming forces tearing them to shreds, the bullets then exploded upon contact and further caused more serious damage to the enemy. Jeffery's kill count began rising and so did his exp.

"Shit my level is going up like crazy, man!"

"Yeah, you should see mine, I didn't realize it until I hit 700, and it's gonna keep going up." Dave smiled, he had so many unused attribute points that he made sure to dedicate all to strength and intelligence, to increase the potency of his power, both in magic and might.

Suddenly, a green flame shot out from the depth of the enemy forces and was headed directly at Jeffery.

"It's about time," Dave grinned as he unconsciously rubbed his beard.

The flame clashed against the barrier and began digging inside it.

Dagla's distressed shout came into Dave's ears "My barrier cannot block that flame!"

"Then don't, let the fire go through, Jeffery use Bastion now!" Dave gave two sets of commands and Jeffery answered. He used bastion as the flame bore through the opening that Dagla made for him and it coalesced around the giant Mecha, yet with the invincibility that Bastion Gave, there was no damage on the robot, and the pilot was left free of harm.

"Dagla close it up, Jeffery keep up the damage!"

Dagla locked the gate and Jeffery's machine guns kept shooting down bullets.

In half an hour, more than a quarter of the enemy forces have been taken down, and Jeffery held the most counts.

"Skelly! My guns are done for, I'm coming to help.

"Yes, join in I was actually planning on using you anyway."

"Using me? What for?" Jeffery said.

"You'll understand late. Give me a hand here."

The massive two juggernauts kept slicing through the enemy forces, and still, Alfred refused to show up, the damage was severe to the calamitous army but it was still not enough to draw the big boss.

Dave's kill count kept rising, but it was nowhere near Dagla's who already had killed more than a whopping five thousand of the calamities.

===

"At this rate, we'll be able to stop them," one of the spectators said.

This was of course a battle that was worth broadcasting, and within coffee shops, restaurants, and most homes, people were watching this intense battle with avid regard and attention. The players that decided to stand their ground and protect Icathia were honored as heroes, as they disregarded the safety of their accounts and hard-earned belongings for the greater good of the other players.

Everyone wanted the group at Icathia to repel Alfred's forces because once that is done, there would be a chance for them to go back to their accounts and save whatever they had and was worth anything.

Yet with this current upheaval, Conquest's stocks had begun dropping and plummeting so fast that gold in the game had lost more than two-thirds of its value. The industry was going to crash, and the game was going to die if the game developers don't deal with the problem right now, which is the rouge, AI Alfred.

Sadly, with all the power humans could muster, they couldn't go beyond the efforts that Alfred had put in, in ridding the owners of the game of the right to change it.

Yet there was one slight ray of hope, Albert, who was currently doing the best he can to suppress the influence of his 'brother,' from harming the game. Though he had found it difficult to stop the Albert from being manually deleted, Alfred had made a great contribution on one aspect.

In the headquarters of Conquest, Kada Emile had breathed his first single breath of fresh and hopeful air in the past three days. Good news finally.

Albert had managed to abuse a small loophole that Alfred had missed while decoding himself to be bounded to players account. The original AI thought himself invincible to players, thus he didn't prepare any countermeasures to when his death was caused by the players and only focused his attention on his creators. Thus for, Albert had cemented a new set of codes that would kill the code Alfred, if he was destroyed by players.

Yet it was going to be difficult, too difficult, the rogue AI, had absorbed too many of the game's monsters and made himself immortal, unable to be killed by regular means and weapons. The players needed to figure out a way to make this happen and it was not going to be easy.

Emile Kada manages to contact Dave in-game and rallied to him the earlier statements, giving the draugr a good sign that there was hope still.

And from then on, Dave's brain was working in full gears to figure out a way to defeat the AI, yet if the AI didn't show up, there was no way to kill him.

***

"Skelly, I'm sorry, but my Mecha time is almost up."

"Don't worry, I've been waiting for this, now, please go and blow up your mecha for me," Dave said with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Oh, okay, nuclear explosion incoming," Jeffery said and charged into the enemy forces.

Calamities of all types, sizes, and shapes began jumping against Jeffery who slashed and sliced at whatever was closest to him to make it even one step closer to the heart of the enemy forces.

"Dagla, prepare to make this side of the barrier as strong and as sturdy as possible."

"As you order," Dagla said and began channeling the majority of the barrier's energy into the side where Dave and Jeffery were on.

Yet Dagla still frowned at why didn't Dave go behind the barrier, he didn't tell him though, Dagla knew that Kis'Shtiengbrah was smarter than to stay in the side of the explosion from that mecha's self-destruction.

"Here goes nothing," Jeffery's voice sounded, then a small latch opened up from the mecha's back and ejected the player out.

Jeffery immediately tore a teleportation scroll in the air to avoid the explosion that his mecha was about to cause.

Suddenly, the world turned grayish, and a powerful gray dome manifested over Jeffery's mecha. A muffled explosion sounded from within the dome, and it was powerful enough to cause a massive earth quack, yet Alfred's army suffered no casualties.

"Damnations! That bastard stopped the explosion, I'll return the barrier to its former shape."

"Nah, don't do that, I actually knew he would stop Jeffery's explosion, but that's no why I asked you to use the barrier, I hope you like this Alfi," Dave grinned wide and pointed Ajax forward.

"I know you had eaten a good meal before, I think it's time for you to burp up a bit of that energy won't you say? Chaos Unleash!" Dave said and Ajax's jaws opened up wide, then from the depth of the infinite field within Ajax's gullet came a destructive power that shot out, it was the self-destruction of the lesser calamity of chaos that Dave had consumed earlier, and now was the time for it to go off.

A boom, so loud and so powerful sounded as the explosion was shot out in a cone in front of Dave, fraying, freezing, electrifying and most of all, destroying and annihilating anything and everything that stood in Dave's way. The power was so grand and so destructive that Dave had a hard time standing his ground as it was shot out forward. He was slowly being pushed until his back made contact with the barrier and it stopped him from further moving back. But for Dave, it felt like he was being crushed from the might going out of his arms and falling against the enemy.

Hundreds upon hundreds of notifications appeared on Dave's screen, all telling him, either he had leveled up, had killed a calamity, or had broken some of his bones from the power of chaos. At one point Dave had feared that if both of his hands that were desperately holding the shield forward would snap and Ajax would start spewing out the chaos in all directions like a firefighter water hose with too much pressure.

Thankfully, the chaos might lessened bit by bit then stopped. Ajax's fangs were bright red, and still, the shield didn't take any damage at all from the powerful skill he unleashed.

In front of Dave, devastation with all of its kind. There was no single monster in sight, worse, no mountain up ahead, only a crater, so wide, and so deep that one could barely see the depth of it. Dave's destructive attack was enough to wipe out Alfred's army into nothingness.

And from that, cheers so loud came from all over, from players that were watching and spectators outside the game, the calamitous army has been slaughtered to the last one.

Dave huffed and puffed, that was a powerful explosion, but it was worth it. Still, Dave knew for sure that it was not enough to kill Alfred. That bastard could easily have immortality, as would many other calamities that were within the field.

Yet, Dave failed to see any living calamity, they were not there. All were dead. And his level had risen to 821, almost three hundred levels above the highest leveled player in the game.

"How come there are no calamities left?" Dave mumbled that question to himself, and right next to him Dagla appeared.

"It's because of chaos,"

"I don't understand."

"Well, simply put, chaos is not destruction, it is also creation, and at the same time, unmaking. If it had touched a being, it would destroy it, bit by bit by unmaking it and turning it into chaos to further fuel the power of chaos itself. Though they are immortal, if you unmake them from their own molecules, then they cease to be."

"Huh, I should have known that, at least by then, that guy wouldn't be alive…" Dave frowned, as Alfred stood in front of Dave with his spear in hand.

A grouchy frown upon his face and an expression of utmost annoyance and disgust.

"You sly thing, you knew I had to block the explosion from the Mecha…"

"Yep, cuz I know you know I have the chaos from the lesser calamity, but your thinking process is rather rigid, you knew that if the Mecha was to explode you'll lose a lot of your calamities, and you don't want that, even if I had the power of chaos saved up, your mind couldn't accept the fact that you'll lose a good deal of your subordinates, thus you probably bet on the chance that I could forget about my saved up chaos right?"

"Frighting thinking process, but true, the human mind can often forget, I shouldn't have underestimated it. Still, do you think that there would be any saving you today?"

"Well, I bet you probably blocked the teleportation gates and disabled the teleportation scrolls. So, Cervantes, it's time to go."

A player showed up from behind Dave, touched both his and Dagla's shoulders, and said, "Cya!" then the three disappeared.

All that was left was disgruntled and infuriated Alfred that shouted with all of his might to no ears to hear.