199: Chapter 199, are you kidding me, bro?!

In an instant, light flared brilliantly!

The yuhuang sword hovering before Chen You vibrated violently, emitting bursts of clear, melodious sword cries.

Chaotic air currents surged wildly, and the condensed sword light almost solidified into substance.

Chen You's gaze was more focused than ever before.

He could clearly feel the law structure within the yuhuang sword undergoing a profound reorganization and division.

The sensation was like witnessing the division of a cell or the birth of a world with his own eyes.

“Buzz—!”

With one final vibration, all the abnormal phenomena retracted completely.

The brilliance faded away.

“Is it over?”

With a thought from Chen You, the yuhuang sword instantly split into three.

The three yuhuang swords traced three distinct yet mutually echoing profound arcs in the air.

Under his control, the three swords could cooperate with each other or fight independently.

“Nice.”

Chen You couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile.

This was no longer as simple as one plus one equals two.

It meant that when he performed the Heaven-Breaking Sword Technique, whether it was the single-point burst of 'Startled Swan' or the area-of-effect strangulation of 'Chaotic Stars'...

His attack density and coverage would increase significantly based on the original foundation!

He nodded in satisfaction and waved his hand to put the three yuhuang swords away.

After the joy of his skyrocketing strength subsided, Chen You turned his attention back to the main business—looting the corpse.

The loot dropped by Warlord Augus flickered with an enticing light in the center of the courtyard.

He stepped forward, waved his hand, and swept all the items into his backpack.

Three pieces of legendary equipment had dropped, along with a pile of rare materials.

Chen You's gaze immediately locked onto a piece of dark gold breastplate with an extremely overbearing design.

【Monarch · Breastplate of Glory】

【Quality: Legendary】

【Level: 21】

【Physical Defense: 180】

【Magic Resistance: 120】

【Strength +30, Constitution +50】

【Special Effect: Unyielding Will. When Health is below 30%, all damage taken is reduced by 20%.】

【Class Restriction: Temple Knights, Guardian Knight】

“...”

Chen You's expression froze for a moment.

The attributes were top-tier, the special effect was powerful, and the design was flashy.

The only flaw was that he couldn't wear it.

“Damn it!”

He couldn't help but curse under his breath.

He patiently looked through the other two pieces of equipment; without exception, they were all for other classes.

“Fine, you win.”

Chen You took a deep breath and began to take stock of the materials.

【Augus's Resentment Crystal】: Contains the millennium-long lingering resentment of Warlord Augus; it seems to be a core forging material for some kind of powerful equipment.

【Broken Battle Flag Stone Carving】: A relic carrying the glorious history of the Warlord; it looks very hard.

Summary: Useless.

Chen You's face turned completely dark.

He suddenly remembered the most crucial matter and immediately opened the quest panel.

【The New Monarch】

【Quest Objective: Retrace The Path of the Monarch and collect the seven scattered Monarch Relics. (0/7)】

The quest progress was still a glaring "0".

“No way, right?”

Chen You was stunned.

He looked around the empty courtyard, scanning every inch of the ground, making sure he hadn't missed any items.

“Wasn't this dungeon updated specifically for my quest?”

“I got the first kill on the first BOSS, and there's not even a hair of a quest item?”

He was completely baffled.

“Or... is the drop rate for this quest item just incredibly pathetic?”

Chen You thought of a possibility, and his face immediately darkened.

If it was really the kind of setting that required grinding hundreds or thousands of times for a single drop, that would be too disgusting.

“Let's keep going and see.”

Since he couldn't figure it out, he stopped thinking about it.

Chen You cast his gaze toward the center of the courtyard.

There, following Augus's death, a portal emitting a soft white light had quietly opened.

Without hesitation, he stepped into it.

...

After a slight sensation of spatial distortion, Chen You found himself in a completely different scene.

【You have entered the Kings Arena!】

This place looked like a magnificent coliseum.

The arena was massive and empty, the ground paved with heavy grey-white stone bricks covered in ancient scars from blades and axes.

Surrounding it were towering circular stands, rows of stone seats extending upward as if they could hold tens of thousands of spectators.

However, at this moment, all the stands were empty, with only the sound of whistling wind echoing in the arena.

In the entire coliseum, he was the only person.

At the same time, a notification message appeared at the top of his vision.

【Current number of teams in the scene: 1】

“Number of teams?”

Chen You was momentarily stunned; what did that mean?

He looked around, trying to find the figure of the next BOSS.

But he found that in the center of the entire field, besides himself, there was only a solitary figure.

It was a flag bearer npc wearing silver heavy armor and holding a massive battle flag.

He stood there like a statue, motionless.

Chen You walked over.

“Hello, excuse me, where is the next BOSS?” he asked.

The flag bearer npc seemed to be activated only then, slowly turning his head.

His head was completely encased in a helmet, even his eyes hidden in darkness.

“Warrior, welcome to the Monarch's Coliseum.”

“Here, only the strongest team is qualified to continue forward.”

“The rules are simple: defeat all the enemies before you.”

Listening to these formulaic lines, Chen You raised an eyebrow: “And my enemies? Where are they?”

The flag bearer npc extended a hand clad in a metal gauntlet and pointed... across from Chen You, at the empty field.

“Your enemy is the other team that enters this place.”

Chen You looked in the direction he pointed; it was still empty over there, without even a ghost in sight.

He seemed to understand something, yet found it somewhat hard to believe.

“You mean... the BOSS for this stage is players?”

“Yes.” The flag bearer npc's answer was short and clear.

“...”

Chen You fell silent.

He felt his train of thought couldn't quite keep up with the Source Realm designers' eccentric logic.

This was a PVE dungeon!

A serious, 25-man team PVE dungeon for killing monsters, leveling up, and getting loot!

Now you're telling me the BOSS of the second stage is PVP?

Players fighting each other?

“No,” Chen You couldn't help but complain, “Bro, are you kidding me?”

“This is a dungeon; is it reasonable to throw a PVP segment in here?”

The expression under the flag bearer npc's helmet seemed to smile slightly.

“The Path of the Monarch is inherently a bloody road littered with bones.”

“Only by stepping over the corpses of countless competitors can one ascend the final throne.”

“Betrayal, slaughter, conspiracy... these are all part of a Monarch's growth.”

“Therefore, it is very reasonable.”

Reasonable my foot!

The corner of Chen You's eye twitched.

Fine, you're the designer, you're amazing.

But now there was a very realistic problem.

“Then what happens now when there's only one team, which is me?” Chen You pointed at himself.

“You can't expect me to fight myself, can you?”

The flag bearer npc spoke in a tone that said 'you finally asked the right question':

“It cannot be started. The minimum requirement for the trial is that there must be two teams present at the same time.”

“So, Warrior, please wait.”

“Wait for another team, or several more, to arrive here.”

After saying that, the flag bearer npc stopped speaking and resumed his statue-like posture, as if he wasn't the one who had just spoken.

Chen You stood there, completely speechless.

What could he do now? Go out and find a team to come in?

The only person he could think of was Moon Gods Radiance's Arrow of the Moon.

But call her people over?

Leaving aside whether Moon Gods Radiance was still doing first clears, even if they were, they were definitely still stuck at Augus.

Go help them with the chess game?

Even if he provided off-field support and helped them pass the first boss, once they got here, he'd have to beat them out again?

That would probably piss Arrow of the Moon off to death.

Just as Chen You was weighing his options.

【Ding! Detected a new team entering the "Kings Arena"!】

【Current number of teams in the scene: 2】