Hail the King

Fei clenched his fists tightly as he thought in excitement, “Looks like I can finally enter Nightmare Mode! So, my hypothesis was correct! After I get through Nightmare Mode, it should be the ultimate Hell Mode, right?”

As he thought about this, he chose Nightmare Mode without hesitation.

Buzz……

The space he was in changed, and he felt like he was traveling through a temporal and spatial portal. Different from how he entered Diablo World for the first time, this trip was much longer and much more significant. He felt like more than ten centuries passed by him, and he realized that he got to [Rogue Encampment] after everything settled.

The sky was dark and gloomy, and Fei appeared in front of a campfire. About 20 meters away from him, there was the familiar [Personal Storage Space]. Everything seemed so familiar!

According to his gaming experience in his previous life, except for the strength of the demons and monsters, everything was the same in the Nightmare Mode compared to the Normal Mode including plots, quests, and maps.

With his current strength, Fei was able to kill the final boss Baal in the Normal Mode easily as long as he dragged on the battle. However, it was different in the Nightmare Mode. The strength of the monsters and demons increased by multiple folds, and even a [Fallen Shaman] outside [Rogue Encampment] was a significant threat to Fei. If multiple monsters charged at him, he couldn’t do anything but to run away! If he got surrounded by them, he would die for sure.

Of course, the benefit of these powerful monsters was that the experience points they gave when they died increased a ton as well. Also, these monsters would drop a lot more gold coins and better items. To Fei who needed to improve his strength rapidly, the Nightmare Mode was like a freshwater lake in the eyes of a person who was dying of thirst in the desert.

The only thing that Fei wasn’t sure about was the identity of the NPCs.

“Would they have intelligence? Would I meet another Elena in [Rogue Encampment]? Would I meet another Akara and another Cain…… Would the NPCs in the Normal Mode appear here, or new NPCs would appear……?”

In reality, Fei didn’t want to meet the same NPCs again; in his mind, all of those NPCs in [Rogue Encampment] were unique. Just like how it was in the real world, it didn’t matter how weak and insignificant a person was, he or she was unique, and he or she couldn’t be cloned.

The people in [Rogue Encampment] in the Normal Mode were beyond the realm of NPCs. Greedy, stringy, and strict Priestess Akara, obscene, timid, yet knowledgeable old man Cain, cold, loyal, and powerful Military Leader Kashya, passionate, hardworking, and busty blacksmith Charsi, and beautiful and valiant Valkyrie Elena…… in Fei’s mind, these NPCs were all real people; he never treated them as NPCs who operated according to codes.

Fei hoped that the friends he made in Diablo World were living beings and not NPCs that could be easily copied and cloned.

As Fei was thinking about all this, a familiar voice sounded by his ears.

“Greetings, stranger. I’m not surprised to see your kind here. Many adventurers have traveled this way since the recent troubles began. No doubt you’ve heard about the tragedy that befell the town of Tristram. Some say that Diablo, the Lord of Terror, walks the world again……”

This man who had a blue Arabic robe on was caravan master, Warriv.

Fei looked at this man nervously as he tried to see if this NPC had intelligence like the Warriv in the Normal Mode.

After a while, Fei let go of the breath he was holding in.

This Warriv wasn’t that Warriv.

He didn’t have the intelligence that Warriv possessed in the Normal Mode. In fact, except for the Warriv in [Rogue Encampment], the other NPCs on the other maps in the Normal Mode all lacked intelligence and were just there to push the plot forward.

“Great! This means that I won’t encounter another Elena,” Fei relaxed after he got to this conclusion. However, to be sure, he walked around [Rogue Encampment] and double checked with all other NPCs. In the end, the same conclusion held; the NPCs were all dull and lifeless like the NPCs in the actual game. As he walked around the camp, he got his first quest in the Nightmare Mode from a new dull Akara, which was [The Den of Evil].

The sky in this world was extra-gloomy, and this world was stained by the power of evil even more compared to the world in the Normal Mode.

As soon as Fei stepped outside the camp, the intense evil energy rushed at him.

Fei quickly encountered the first monster in the Nightmare Mode, a [Spike Fiend].

Compared with the same monster in the Normal Mode, this [Spike Fiend] was twice the size; it looked like a calf. What shocked Fei the most was that this monster which could be counted as the weakest monster in Diablo World had the strength that was equivalent to a peak Nine-Star Warrior. Its strength was 100 times stronger than its counterpart in the Normal Mode!

Tink!

Fei struck this monster with his blade, and the [Spike Fiend] instantly died.

At the moment, Fei could easily take care of Nine-Star Warriors.

In the next second, something magnificent happened. A drop of a type of golden liquid flowed out of this monster’s corpse, and it quickly dashed into Fei’s body.

“This……” As a heated current flowed through his body, it gave Fei an enjoyable and comfortable sensation.

This was very different compared to the Normal Mode. Fei recalled that a vague white fog would appear after he killed a monster and would enter his body, and the pleasant and comfortable sensation he just experienced would only occur when he was leveling up in the Normal Mode.

Fei thought about this as he started to kill monsters to level up.

He soon encountered two more types of monsters, [Fallen Shaman] and [Zombie]. Compared with their counterparts in the Normal Mode, these monsters were 100 times stronger in terms of damage and defense. Even though Fei was very cautious, he was injured and had to use several bottles of [Full Rejuvenation Potion].

When he was finally about to arrive at [The Den of Evil], he already killed about 50 monsters, and about 50 drops of the golden liquid entered his body.

When the 50th drop of the golden liquid entered his body, something magical occurred.

As if time paused in this world, a beam of golden light dashed down from the gloomy sky and enveloped Fei completely. Like a unique catalyst, an explosive ‘chemical change’ took place in Fei’s body; every single cell in his body was collapsing and exploding. After everything returned to the origin state, the energy started to shoot outward and formed numerous new cells.

At this moment, two clouds of golden mist flowed out of Fei’s body and bathed his body in them thoroughly.

The 50 drops of the golden liquid combined with these two clouds of golden mist. Together, they rushed through every single Warrior Energy Channel in Fei’s body and continued to reform and nurture his bones and flesh. Like the sand grains on the beach that were being washed by the waves of the ocean, Fei’s body would change every time this energy flowed through.

Fei clearly sensed that his body was becoming stronger and more powerful by the second.

It was a change in quality.

It was a complete elevation in the lifeform.

After the golden energy went through Fei’s body for the 99th time, an unprecedented energy appeared in the deepest part of Fei’s soul.