8: Chapter 8: Excalibur!

"Ding-dong—"

"Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong—!!!"

As PD displayed his friend code (UID) on the live stream's public screen, the system notification sounds in his sci-fi-themed Chaldea hall instantly rang out in unison, sounding as piercing as an air raid siren.

In just a dozen seconds, PD's friend request list was blown wide open, displaying a full [99+].

Upon opening it, he saw they were all F2P players, and every single one of them had 1-3 star Servants in their support slots—the very ones previously looked down upon by the whales.

"Holy smokes, this is even more active than the bullet chat when I'm giving out ten thousand yuan in red envelopes!"

PD wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and began carefully selecting from the list.

Soon, he spotted a viewer with the ID 'Just Playing It Real.' In this brother's support slot, there was a Cu Chulainn that had been fed all the way to max level (Lv. 20).

"I choose you, good brother!"

PD clicked 'Accept Request' without hesitation and waved his hand grandly in the stream. "Mod, give this brother 'Just Playing It Real' a VIP status. Once I finish this stage, a Super Rocket is on the way!"

The stream erupted again. Countless F2P players who weren't chosen were heartbroken, as if they had missed out on a hundred million.

A free-to-play 3-star card could actually be traded for a whale's Super Rocket? This world is crazy!

Having secured the max-level Cu Chulainn support, PD regained his confidence as a pro player.

He re-entered the [Formation] interface.

He had learned his lesson this time. Instead of stubbornly stuffing the team with five-star cards, he obediently placed the borrowed Level 20 Cu Chulainn in the starting Vanguard position.

He followed up with the junior Mash, as well as two very low-cost 2-star units: a Healer and a Defender.

Finally, he solemnly placed his Level 40 Artoria, whom he had poured all his effort into, into the team's final anchor slot.

"Brothers, watch me redeem myself with this play!"

After the familiar sense of vertigo, PD descended once again into [Burning Fuyuki City].

The sea of fire and ruins remained. Ahead, Level 1 Dragon Tooth Soldiers wobbled toward him.

Initial Mana: 10 points.

"Cu-bro, go get 'em!" PD didn't hesitate. He grabbed Cu Chulainn's card and slammed it onto the chokepoint in front of the base.

"It's just a job I picked up along the way, but since I've been summoned, yours truly will see it through to the end!"

Accompanied by his wild deployment line, the max-level Cu Chulainn crashed onto the field.

The Level 20 stat boosts made him completely different from the Level 1 glass cannon from before; he exuded a chilling, murderous aura that warned others to stay away.

Facing three charging skeleton soldiers, Cu Chulainn advanced instead of retreating, the crimson demonic spear in his hand turning into a bolt of red lightning!

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

Without the slightest hesitation, he struck three times in succession, each thrust a one-hit kill!

Three red [Cost+1] symbols jumped cheerfully from above Cu Chulainn's head.

“Holy crap! So fierce!”

PD's eyes widened suddenly.

He watched as his originally empty mana bar, under the dual boost of the system's natural recovery and Cu Chulainn's 'Kill-to-Gain Cost,' shot up like a rocket!

15... 18... 22...

By the time the first wave of mobs was completely cleared, PD's mana had reached a very plentiful 25 points!

This was the pleasure of early-game management!

"Nice! This is so damn satisfying! No wonder that guy White Night played so smoothly!"

PD was flushed with excitement. He finally experienced the core charm of this modified tower defense—it wasn't mindless stat-stomping, but the sense of achievement from building an indestructible defense from nothing through reasonable resource allocation!

Soon, the second wave of the assault arrived.

This time, the enemy spawn point not only poured out a large number of Dragon Tooth Soldiers but also mixed in two massive elite skeleton monsters.

Even though Cu Chulainn was max level, as a Vanguard, his block count was only 1. Facing so many monsters, his health bar began to struggle.

"Mash! Georgios! Get up there!"

With abundant resources, PD was no longer strapped for cash like before.

With a wave of his hand, he immediately spent 20 mana points to deploy the two defensive Servants firmly behind Cu Chulainn.

Two heavy greatshields slammed into the ground like a Wall of Sighs, firmly blocking all the monsters that leaked through!

"Andersen, keep them healed!" He spent another 9 mana to place the Healer on the high ground.

At this point, a near-perfect defensive line was fully formed.

No matter how many monsters surged forward, they were blocked by the Defender and then poked relentlessly by the Vanguard. Under the protection of the Healer, the ground Servants were as steady as Mount Tai, and the base's blue gate remained rock solid.

Under this perfect cycle of pressure-holding, the [Current Mana] bar in the bottom right corner of PD's screen finally jumped to the number he had been dreaming of—

[26] points!

"Hahaha! I've saved enough! Finally saved enough!"

PD was so excited that his fat was trembling. He stared intently at the card in his hand, which radiated a brilliant golden light—the highest rarity card he had poured all his heart into.

"I've been suppressed for so long; it's time to show you what a real dimensional strike looks like!"

At that moment, the enemy's final total assault broke out.

Dozens of skeleton soldiers surrounded a giant black-flame skeleton leader nearly three meters tall, pressing toward the defense line like a tide.

Mash and Georgios's health bars were flashing red frantically, looking as if they were about to collapse.

PD grabbed Artoria's card and dragged it directly onto the high-pressure grid at the core of the defense line, facing the sea of monsters.

"My max-level five-star big daddy that I've been holding back for forty seconds! Carve them all into pieces for me! Deploy!!!"

Following PD's extremely voice-cracking roar, a divine sword chime that echoed through the clouds suddenly erupted above the entire tactical sandbox!

Countless golden light particles fell from the sky like a rainstorm, converging in the center of the battlefield.

Wearing silver and blue armor with a golden ahoge atop her head, the stunningly beautiful King of Knights descended onto the battlefield in an incredibly gorgeous manner.

[Saber (Guard) Trait: Block Count 2, possesses extremely high melee physical output.]

The absolute stat suppression of Level 40 was displayed to the fullest the moment she landed.

With just a casual swing of her sword, an invisible blade of air sliced the three skeleton soldiers at the very front in half!

"Holy crap, her normal attacks are AOE?! Is this the value of a five-star?!" The bullet chat was completely stunned.

But the even more shocking part was yet to come.

Because Artoria's normal attacks were powerful area-of-effect damage, every swing that shattered multiple skeletons simultaneously brought a multiplied recovery of Skill Points (SP)!

After landing, she only swung three times before the [SP] bar above Artoria's portrait instantly filled up, glowing with an extremely dazzling golden light!

"Noble Phantasm charged!"

"Brothers, the ultimate is here! Clear the screen for me!"

PD pressed the Noble Phantasm release button without hesitation.

Wom—!

The familiar tactical time-stop descended, and the noisy, fiery battlefield instantly fell into absolute stillness.

Immediately following that, the VR perspective seamlessly transitioned into a cinematic 3D close-up!

But this time, it wasn't the blue tones of Mash that focused on defense and protection; it was an extremely domineering and blazing pure gold!

Black cinematic letterboxing appeared at the top and bottom of the screen, and the orchestral music—so stirring it made the heart race—suddenly swelled.

In the close-up, Artoria slowly raised the invisible sword in her hand.

The wind howled, instantly tearing away the 'Invisible Air' wrapped around the blade.

A golden holy sword, radiating a brilliance as dazzling as the sun, was completely exposed to everyone's sight!

The golden mana flowing on the blade even made the surrounding sea of fire in the ruins pale in comparison.

Supreme majesty flickered in the King of Knights' emerald eyes. She took a deep breath, gripped the hilt with both hands, and aimed the raised golden sword at the time-stopped sea of monsters ahead.

A clear, majestic incantation that seemed capable of piercing the stars rang through the sky:

"The breath of the stars, gathering..."

"The surge of life, shining..."

The golden light on the blade grew brighter and brighter, finally turning into a massive pillar of light reaching straight to the heavens!

"Take this!!!"

Artoria swung the holy sword down with force!

With her shout, a blazing golden light cannon, more exaggerated than a nuclear explosion, erupted from the blade!

"Excalibur!!!"

The moment the time-stop ended...

That incredibly thick golden light cannon, carrying the momentum of world-ending destruction, completely covered the entire tactical grid ahead like a flood!

The giant black-flame skeleton, the sea of skeleton soldiers—before this light that symbolized the sword forged by the human planet, they couldn't even last a second. They were instantly melted into basic spiritron light particles, leaving not even a speck of ash behind!

Shocking.

An unparalleled visual shock.

PD stared blankly at the battlefield in front of him, which had been completely cleared, leaving only a scorched black sword mark radiating high heat. His mind was a complete blank.

After a dead silence of a full ten seconds, the bullet chat in the stream exploded at a speed invisible to the naked eye:

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! These ultimate effects! This destructive power!"

"Waiting forty seconds for this one swing was worth it! It was so damn worth it!"

"This is a five-star! This is the prestige an SSR should have! Sorry Cu Chulainn, you're a good guy, but I'll always love the King of Knights!"

"Quick, quick, quick! Top up! I want to pull Saber! I want to fire the Excalibur!"

[Mission Clear!]

Looking at the victory screen popping up, PD slowly took off his VR headset.

This top-tier whale, who had dominated the gaming world for years and spent countless amounts of money, actually had slightly red eyes at this moment.

It was the emotion forced out by the sheer pleasure of the extreme combat performance and the strategic counter-kill.

"Brothers..."

PD took a deep breath and said into the microphone in an extremely serious tone: "I take back what I said last night about 'this game is trash.'"

"The underlying mechanics of this game, these insane art and performance effects..."

"Fate/Grand Order, I'm willing to call it the greatest masterpiece in the history of the Blue Planet. Bar none!"