Fact proved: When Zhang Yue held nothing back and went full firepower mode, his monster-killing speed was like a rocket launcher blasting an ant nest.
Just like when he was previously clearing the Nightmare Abyss.
At first, he was intentionally not summoning pets and only using single-target skills instead of AOE skills, just to farm passive EXP for the Ghost Eye, resulting in an average of five minutes to clear one floor.
But after learning that Athena's teammates encountered danger on the 42nd floor, Zhang Yue took only one hour to go from floor 35 to 42.
After all, the Armageddon Black Dragon, the Apex Predator, and Cherry's offensive power were insanely terrifying.
And the Ice-Sealed War God, with one group taunt + two waves of reflect damage, could also easily wipe out a group of giants.
At such efficiency, in less than an hour, Zhang Yue had already accumulated over 4000 giant kills.
From them, he easily collected 1000 city defense points.
This scene stunned the nearby passerby players who were in teams of three to five, struggling to kill even one giant.
["Ding~ Congratulations, you have completed the Fourth Advancement Quest. Please submit the quest to your instructor to complete the fourth advancement!"]
["Ding~ Congratulations on completing the World Quest [Collect 1000 City Defense Points]. You have gained the qualification to enter the Death Territory of the World 21!"]
Two quests completed simultaneously.
However, just as Athena had previously mentioned, within national territories, giants taller than 30 meters were indeed hard to find.
The over 4000 giants Zhang Yue just killed were all within 20 meters tall.
The other World Quest [Accumulate 100 Kills of Giants Over 30 Meters] still had 0 progress.
Only by reaching the Death Territory and slaying that 100-meter Giant King could he directly complete the quest with that one kill.
At this moment, Athena's quest was still incomplete.
Because the city defense point collection quest could not be shared.
Only the killer had a chance of obtaining city defense points from giants.
So far, Athena had collected 0 points.
Zhang Yue intended to help Athena complete the quest.
But he heard Athena say, "You probably have urgent matters, right?"
"No problem, go do your thing, don't worry about me, I can handle it myself."
Athena was indeed a clever person.
Last night she saw Zhang Yue talking with Wolong.
And just now, he executed the world quests at such rapid speed, even skipping on improving the Ghost Eye's passive skill. So even without Zhang Yue saying a word, Athena could see that he was anxious to quickly clear the World 21.
Athena hadn't forgotten: her reason for staying in Dragon Country was to protect and help Zhang Yue, not to drag him down.
So she chose to step back.
Zhang Yue was indeed in a hurry to go to the Death Territory to kill the Giant King, and then proceed to the Gate of Immortality in the World 22.
So, he didn't exchange pleasantries with Athena, "Alright, I'll go on ahead."
With that, he crushed the Return Scroll on the spot.
Returned to Dawn Fortress, found the instructor, and submitted the quest.
["Ding~ Congratulations on completing your Fourth Advancement. The fifth pet battle slot has been unlocked. All skills' maximum quality increased to SSS rank!"]
Finally, the moment arrived.
Zhang Yue immediately opened his skill list.
Aside from some unique skills that were already SSS rank when acquired, all other normal and rare skills were uniformly SS rank.
Zhang Yue immediately began upgrading.
["Ding~ Consumed 28 billion energy. Congratulations, your skill [Thunder Wrath] has been upgraded to SSS rank!"]
["Ding~ Consumed 56 billion energy. Congratulations, your rare skill [Hell Judgment] has been upgraded to SSS rank!"]
["Ding~ Consumed 112 billion energy. Congratulations, your unique skill [Death: Eye of the Thunder God] has been upgraded to SSS rank!"]
["Ding…"]
All 12 SS rank skills were upgraded to SSS rank, consuming roughly 4000 billion energy in total.
For Zhang Yue, that was just a drop in the bucket.
But the overall boost in Zhang Yue's strength was immense.
Skills like Flameburning Sky, Thunder Wrath, Divine Fire Tribulation, these normal single-target skills, had damage coefficients of around 550% at SS rank.
Now at SSS rank, the skill damage coefficient jumped straight to 700%.
Based on the skill damage formula: Attack Power x Skill Damage Coefficient x Damage Bonus.
With a 150% skill damage bonus, the actual amplification effect had to be multiplied by that bonus.
So Zhang Yue's damage output definitely saw a tremendous increase.
As the saying goes: enjoy fortune together, let the Skeleton King suffer hardship.
Zhang Yue naturally wouldn't just focus on upgrading himself.
After unlocking the fifth pet battle slot, he chose to send out the Purgatory Skeleton King.
Then, he allocated all the accumulated experience from the Demon Contract to the five pets, and after reaching level 120 himself, used the extra experience to top them off.
In an instant, the Thirty-six Winged Armageddon Black Dragon, Ice-Sealed War God, Apex Predator, Cherry, and Purgatory Skeleton King were all leveled to 120.
Total consumption of around 2 trillion energy upgraded all five pets' skills to SSS rank.
After completing the fourth advancement and full upgrades, Zhang Yue immediately rode the Armageddon Black Dragon to the entrance of the Death Territory.
Through the entrance, he entered the Death Territory of the World 21.
During this process, Zhang Yue had already gathered enough intel to pinpoint the exact location of the 100-meter Giant King.
So after entering the Death Territory, Zhang Yue went straight to the Giant King's location.
———
[Death Territory]
In an endless mountain wilderness.
A super giant over 100 meters tall, wearing golden armor, was being besieged by a large group of players.
That giant was the [Golden Giant King].
As a level 120 divine-grade boss, the Giant King's immense power was not something regular players below level 120 could handle.
At this moment, the ones fighting the Giant King were players from the small nation [Mumba].
A group of about five to six hundred.
They thought: if they could take down this divine-grade Giant King boss, they'd reap a huge reward and strengthen themselves.
Though they had numbers on their side, the players from Mumba were not gaining any advantage.
With a single swing of his sword, the Giant King unleashed a golden shockwave that easily wiped out dozens of Mumba players in a wide area.
Fighting this boss was already difficult enough.
And just when Mumba's players were giving their all to battle the Giant King, suddenly, a massive force of players surrounded them from all sides.
And without a word, they launched a direct attack on the Mumba players.
"It's the Seven Great Nations!"
"Retreat! Fall back!"
The Mumba players realized what was happening and started retreating.
But the armies of the Seven Great Nations had no intention of letting them go, swallowing them up and quickly taking control of the battlefield.
Among the crowd, the Eastern Nation's representative, level 116 Shadow Mage Higashino Shinjo, said excitedly: "Once we take down this Giant King, we'll be able to break through the World 21 and advance into the 52nd."
Beside him, the Sun Nation's Glory Knight, Clumbia, said, "Clearing a world this quickly, this is something I never dared imagine!"
At that moment, a voice echoed from the sky, "I told you, working with me means you'll never suffer loss."
"All of you, quickly land an assist on it, then I'll strike and finish it off to help you complete the kill quest."
Next moment, the armies of the Seven Great Nations launched a full-on assault on the Giant King.
At this moment, hidden in the void, the Lord of Wrath, Jie'e, suddenly sensed something.
"He's here!"
"Good, very good. If I could kill you outright with my current strength, there'd be no need to rush finding the Fatal Lock!"
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