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Chapter 556 - Come again?
🕑 Added 2025-02-16 09:47:27 +0000 UTCVictoria says something I never thought I would hear from her, and she says it in her usual calm manner.
"Come again?" Sophie asks in disbelief, trying to confirm what she just heard.
Myrra pokes me, “Feral one, what are thermonuclear warheads?”
I ignore Myrra and ask Victoria, “Where the hell did you get them?”
“One of our Hell difficulty groups consists of soldiers from a submarine. They got into the tutorial with some missiles that had warheads on them. Around 120 warheads in total, but lost most of them on the early floors.”
“Holy fuck,” Sophie mutters.
Victoria glances at her before turning back to me, “They used a few to level up, primarily on the 4th floor against the Colony. But during the tournament, when the system made it possible to die, one of them sacrificed himself and tried to kill me with it. So, I took the remaining warheads from them. Currently, there are 9 in my possession.”
“You mean to tell us you surv…”
“Feral one, what are thermonuclear warheads? Tell me!” Myrra interrupts Aaron.
“I will tell you later, Myrra, or ask Min-Jae, he should be able to explain it to you,” I wave her Myrra off and turn to Vic, “Can you use them?”
“I cannot. It took them multiple floors to find a way to use them. Apparently, the warheads become useless when you remove them from the missiles. There is a built-in detonation system in the missile specialized to arm and trigger it, plus a safety system to prevent such use. But they found a way around it with some inscriptions or skills.”
“Nat, do not…” Sophie starts.
I pay her no mind and ask, “Inscriptions, you said? Can you give me one?”
“I will send it to you after I return to my common area,” Victoria confirms.
"As if you needed something like that," Sophie sighs in defeat and turns to my sister. "Victoria, you said they used one against you?"
"Yes. They didn't like how I went about things and found themselves incapable of dealing with me any other way."
“How the hell did you survive that?”
“I apologize, but that is something I see no reason to tell you. I hope you understand.”
“...Got it.”
“Thank you.” With that, Victoria stands up and turns to me, “I will head back to the area of my round. Nathaniel, you can visit me anytime, but I understand that you are currently busy, so I will come by.”
“We will see each other during the second part of the 1st event then, Vic.” I stand up as well and open the door so she can exit; we then head downstairs.
“What kind of Hell difficulty groups did you get in your round?” I ask curiously.
"As I said, those soldiers. Then, a bunch of professional archers taken during their training, some even preparing for the Olympics. A group of millionaires who were spending their weekend on a superyacht. Some of them are still alive. And a few smaller groups that mostly lag behind on lower floors."
“About that warhead…” I start, lowering my voice when we are far enough.
Victoria nods, “Don't worry, I will send two.”
“Love you, Vic.”
She reaches and ruffles my hair and, for a short moment, smiles at me.
As we exit the tree, I see the guy I sensed entering this area. Jean as tall as always and probably even more muscular than before. That little shit called… Spacepup? Something like that. He is here as well.
The last time I saw Jean, he was close to dying after I beat the shit out of him during the Beyond expedition, all to make sure he would go through me if he decided to kill someone from my group. So, I'm curious how he would behave in our meeting, especially knowing he is Pride, the same as me.
“Noname!” he shouts happily, the loss he suffered not evident at all in his voice. He is as overbearing as before.
Immediately, I feel my energy start to drain away.
“Later then, Nathaniel,” Victoria waves at me and passes by Jean, who follows her until she jumps with incredible force, almost turning it into flight, and heads back toward her area.
Jean just shakes his head in the end and turns back to me, “I came to challenge you!”
“Yeah, no.”
“I won't take that as an answer.”
“You will have to,” I say as I start heading toward the workshop. After a moment of confusion, he rushes and starts walking by my side.
“We made a deal, and I promised to keep it and intend to continue. My requirement….”
“I know,” I wave it off. “Trust me, beating the shit out of you could be fun and distract me for a while, but I have much more important things to do now. Why don't you spar with Grumpy?”
“That tiny black-haired girl?”
I nod, “You lost against me, right? And I didn't even go full out, so you have to prove yourself worthy of challenging me. Defeat my underling, and I will fight you.”
I know this maniac won’t miss an opportunity for another fight, so this should distract him enough. And Lily herself said she was curious about how she would handle herself against him.
“Okay!” Jean answers and starts heading toward the tree, calling out “the tiny girl with the huge ax.”
Well, that was easier than expected.
Lucien watches his group member head there, sighs, and then shudders. As he leaves, I see him shudder again and hear him mutter while looking around, “Fuck, why do I feel like I'm being watched?”
Having solved things, I send a message to Miwa to join me if she wants to, and then I shut myself inside the workshop. For a moment, I sit down on the bench nearby and relax a bit. Doing so, I look at my hands. Both of them are shaking, and the tips of my fingers are twitching. My breathing also becomes rougher, and I feel like vomiting. That sense of fear, the thought of another death caused by my training, rises up inside me again.
I feel so tired, not physically but mentally.
Not even three days have passed, and I have already died more times than during the entire duration of the seven day long 1st tournament.
The heart, black mana, Mana Circulation testing, orb training testing, splitting my mind into so many parts. Sometimes, even that kills me. Then there are the movements of kinetic energy I'm testing, so dangerous and volatile they trash my insides. Testing my abilities after deactivating my mid-arcane passive, storing too-large mana structures in my mind, and more.
I test the limits of my body and mind over and over again. Outside, it would be dangerous, but here, I can do it while only dying.
And damn, some of my limits reach much further than I thought. I knew I had built an amazing base and that some of my abilities synchronize very well, but even I am surprised at how far I can push myself before dying.
And that line is pushed further and further with each hour.
I know I handle dying here better than most of the others. Someone from Easy difficulty wouldn’t even think of it. People from Normal might die once and stop, needing days to calm down. Someone from Hard might push themselves multiple times during the entire duration of the tournament, and Hell difficulty might accumulate a dozen or so deaths.
But for me? A dozen deaths is something I sometimes go through in just an hour or two.
Sensing Miwa moving closer, I take a deep breath in. A slow exhale follows.
My hands stop shaking, and I stand up and fix my clothes. Then I slide a bit into [Focus] and call for her to enter.
***
After hours of working on the item for Channeler and creating more mid-epic items to sell, I'm taking a short break.
Closer to the end, Miwa started helping more actively, often giving me advice based on her experience as a smith on Earth and what she has learned on the 2nd floor.
She is polite and puts effort into everything she does. She is also talented and hardworking. From what she told me, she had no problem finding teachers as she climbed the floors with her Hard difficulty group, often even using her metallic right arm to strike up a conversation with the blacksmiths she met.
There's also something more interesting she's telling me.
“I can't believe you haven't heard of it. It's already been two years since the tutorial started!” As she talks, I feel like a student being cussed by their teacher. “And no, I'm not making fun of you or lying to you. As I said, if you create an item and sell it, or give it to someone and that someone kills a monster with that item, you get a tiny share of experience from the kill.”
“Look, I'm too tired to try to excuse myself. How tiny a part of experience?”
“Very tiny. But imagine you make thousands of items, and they are used in combat. Over decades, it can gain you a nice amount of levels and might even level up your skills or give you passives or traits.”
“Okay,” I stop her, “imagine you live for 200 years. You make tens of thousands of items that are used. Wouldn't that make it possible for you to level up quite a bit?”
“Possibly, but at a certain level, it slows down a lot. It's hard to imagine someone becoming a Champion this way. But you have to agree with me that it makes a lot of sense. Sure, a lot of crafters level up by buying live monsters from hunters and killing them themselves or hunting on their own as well, but it's nice that the other option exists, too.”
“Nothing for armor?”
“Nothing, as far as I have found out. Maybe it influences your passive offers, traits, or skills, but I don't think there is any leveling.”
While thinking about it, I move toward the table and start heating up the metals I had pre-prepared there. “So, as always, it's all about killing.”
The molten metal moves through the air, manipulated by my mana radiating and the arms I form from it. “Unsurprisingly, the way of leveling you just mentioned probably doesn't work that well inside the tutorial. You can make a lot of weapons on one floor and sell them for use. But the moment you enter a different floor, that floor will vanish along with your weapons, taking your chance at leveling with them.”
“The alloy you are making isn't connecting together that well; try to cool that darker metal a bit more. When it's colder, it connects better with the endurium. And I agree with you, that's why I made a lot of weapons and brought them here.”
Miwa smiles and moves closer to observe the process, “They might not be as sought after as the ones the great Tent Creep made, but I will sell all of them, and our dear colleagues will help me level up.”
After Miwa leaves, I continue for a bit longer before I call it a day and put seven more items into the system shop. Who would have thought that being able to push myself literally to death to make items could shorten the required time so much?
While the workshop cools down from all the heat I generated, I close my eyes and enter within my mind space.
This time, I find myself on top of the tallest of the Giza pyramids. Both Whitey and I are dressed like British adventurers from over a century ago. Light-colored trousers, sturdy boots, and loose shirts tucked into belts weighed down by pouches. A vest and a wide-brimmed hat complete the look, the kind once worn by those who looted artifacts for their museums or collections.
“I don't have that much time, so any fancy trick you could teach me?” I ask as I plop down next to Whitey.
“A few, but you will need to improve your mastery before I can even show them to you,” he replies, his reaction as usual. “Your output is good; you are a brute and can handle huge amounts of kinetic energy. Fine control is still lacking, and your movements aren't natural and instinctual yet.”
“I’m just a human, after all,” I sigh.
“A thief, a cheater, and a maniacal little shit,” Whitey confirms.
“Sounds just like me,” I reply and stand up.
To prove my point, I redirect most of my mana toward generating kinetic energy.
The first heartbeat shakes the top of the pyramid we stand on.
The second one sends vibrations through the air, and sand collected on the stones rises up.
The third heartbeat makes the air close to us vibrate, and Whitey stands up as well.
On the fourth, I actively channel more of my body mana and reservoir through my heart, damaging it in the process, but it’s not like I should worry about it here. This mind space and all the training with Whitey, all the deaths, might be one of the reasons why I can push myself so far during the tournament.
A few more heartbeats, and I feel like I cannot handle any more of it. The vast amount of kinetic energy flowing, bouncing inside of me, held at bay by all my effort.
“Fucking brute,” Whitey sighs and jumps back. He doesn't even bother trying to counter it. He cannot handle that much kinetic energy.
I stomp, and the pyramid doesn't just collapse. It detonates.
Each stone fractures and shatters midair flung outward like shrapnel from a bomb. The shockwave ripples through the desert, sending dunes rolling in waves, carving trenches into the sand as if an unseen hand is slashing across the landscape.
The sky itself seems to ripple, dust and debris hanging suspended in the air. What remains of the pyramid is nothing but a chaotic storm of stone and dust floating in the air, held in place by me.
Then I charge Whitey.
Just a short clash before I return to the reality of the tournament.
***
Comments
Glenjam0
It did say that they lost most of them on the early floors so that probably was mainly the 1st floor where they lost them all.
P K
When he said he felt someone starring at him, it was most definitely lissandra 😭 I can't wait to see his reaction when he finds out she's around
Scraser
Are you sure you were in the military?
Ren Ryder
the show is better than the LN unfortunately
Ren Ryder
it does not make sense. you can argue the whole tutorial is a simulation, but whether his deaths are simulated or not is irrelevant. the results he gets from pushing his skills/abilities to death is training without limits, thereby strengthening/improving all his skills, without worry of a true death. the only cost is the mental effects of essentially killing yourself over and over again.
P K
Hey that's an odd swallow, 50kish pounds, while my imagination is also stretching thinking about what skill it would take, only the first floor would have been a problem? Maybe the entire sub was transported in it's entirety? I'm assuming the entire sub was taken or one of the soldiers had a skill that was able to portal with the item. If they somehow got them through the portal on the first floor, I'm sure from that point see how long one could stay on the 2nd floor, moving them from floor to floor may not be hard. Also I recall nat was portal to and fro the beyond in the metal ball he had crafted, I wonder if a similar method was used maybe contacting one of their people with the sub via a skill or something, that let it 'portal' with them. That's what ive come up with when I read that
P K
Its probs one of the most well done "mc is "openly" op" shows I've seen, really liked him as a character.
P K
$1 is 100¢, even if the value of knowledge nat gains from these deaths is just pocket change, the sheer number of times he's doing it, is adding up to a very valuable sum of knowledge
Daniel Golding
Yeah, I suspect the author didn't do sufficient research hear. Just the weight wouldn't be possible.
Daniel Golding
I was a sailor. And you are abusive.
jax rammus
If youre in the military, youre a soldier. Youre sub divided, but youre all soldiers. Stop being a bitch about it.
Zaim İpek
I wonder if he can get the system to recognize it as a skill.
Tee
I see your point, but I don’t think you get what I’m saying. Just because I read a lot of books doesn’t make me a writer. If I don’t read, write, and put myself in the real world to face tangible consequences, then everything becomes meaningless. Simply put, everything he’s doing is just a simulation. And by definition, a simulation is limited by its variables—so no matter what he does, it won’t actually matter much in reality. The results he gets from his fake deaths almost meaningless. It’s not true death. I hope that makes sense 🧐
Sambor P
Ah yes, the classic! Spawning as a Level 1 noob with nothing but your clothes and... "120 nuclear warheads" in your backpack. Because who doesn’t casually stroll through the first floor of a tutorial with the combined firepower of 10 U.S. Navy submarines? For reference, standard U.S submarine is equipped with Trident II D5 missile weighs 59,000 kg, and its warheads: W76-1, W76-2, and W88 which range from 164kg to 360kg and are 1.2 to 1.8 meters long. So, let’s do some “totally normal” math: 120x W76 warheads: 19,680 kg and ~30 m³ 120x W88 warheads: 43,200 kg and ~50 m³ That's lots of tons of nuclear destruction, roughly the size of big apartment in NYC! Confirmed Author got insane with this plot device. This is the type of mistake that kills any logic in the story.
Daniel Golding
Its "sailor" not soldier for the Navy.
Josh
This man stayed as long as physically possible to stare at lisses reality destroying black hole. I'm not saying you're not 100% right, I'm saying he doesn't care
Mr.Sir
I’m pretty sure even with all his bodily enhancements staring directly at a nuke would basically dissolve his eyes
Johnny
Can we get a Lucien jealousy POV when he sees Cockroachssandra is Nat’s personal trainer?
Vinnie
so shoooort, thanks for the chapter!
Jonathan Nading
I think A) is probably the most crucial question here. Of rather, ‘how is he going to use the nuke to take full advantage of his new heart?’ I’m definitely curious
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
New sense?
Poutine Au Syrop d'érable
Champion. Def not absolute
Kirin
Thank you for the chappie! Dying so much is finally catching up to Nat.
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
Honestly more likely.
Josh
I think there is a lot for Nat to learn from the fundamental forces unleashed in a thermonuclear warhead. So yeah I'm saying time to stare at a nuke with mana wavelength iris
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
It’s kind of the point of the character. There is talent, there is hardwork, and then there is Nat. Every little trick, every minute advantage that other people might just denounce or refuse to partake in, he will use to win and get stronger. His only constraints are probably loved ones, innocent people, and his pride that would prolly not allow him to do certain things but yea. If abusing the fact that he is seemingly immortal helps him push himself further, he’ll do just that. In my opinion, this just goes to show what is at stake in this situation. Plus it’s not like he’s completely unaffected by the deaths. This is definitely taking a toll on him
Mark Bullock
Thx 4 those tips
Josh
Looking forward to Vics face when she meets nats cute little mini-me
Daniel is ŁØNE
Disagree, death during the tournament wait times has always been meaningless, the second they realized it had no effect other than the mental factor it became so, despite that the actions that lead up to death still have meaning, everyone subconsciously limits themselves so don't break and get injured, being able to push yourself even further from that threshold and build on the knowledge and experience gained from what would normally be a near death or final sturggle scenario has a lot of meaning. It's all the best way to test your true limits and possibly expand those limits based on the understanding you gain from repeated failure, there is no better way to learn than constant failure but often the effects of a failure are so grand that it isn't worth pushing to that level, with the limiter gone the sky is the limit for those who can overcome the sensation of death.
Tee
The excessive deaths that nat goes through is becoming increasingly meaningless. The concept of death and loss are losing their meaning. What the heck am reading?
arnumart
Now we have Chekhov’s nuclear weapon that will be used to kill a absolute later.
David McCreight
This is unsolicited, totally understand if you aren’t looking for the feedback, but when you say ‘"Come again?" Sophie asks in disbelief, trying to confirm what she just heard.’ I think the ‘…trying to confirm what she just heard.’ Is unnecessary. The character dynamics are already well indicated by the dialogue, explaining it further is redundant and kind of breaks the fourth wall for me because from Nat’s POV we shouldn’t know what Sophie’s intentions are here, only what her actions are.
Riley Smith
Vic and minion meeting is gonna be so hype!
JTP
I am ATOMIC!
Ansordia
I wonder how far away a nuke is from Nat going absolutely HAM... like he has done crazy stuff but most of the time those crazy actions were "focused" so I'd doubt that if he went for area he wouldn't atleast be close ... considering SUPPOSEDLY WMD develpoment has slowed significantly over the years so I doubt we would have a TSAR-2.0 or something... anyway love to see Nat being told to stand down by the military... he would be like... "You and what army?"
Ansordia
"Those are rookie numbers in this bracket you gotta pump those up!"
Ansordia
Why are you denying our magnomious leaders word? :D he is the most normal he sees he needs it so he does it! :D
Ansordia
Also you forget that the dagger isn't an official item so probably an expemtion to this "tie"
Val the mysterious Jedi
Or he juices it with his inscription skills and one shots a group
jj
This is some brutal character building you're doing here Cerim. I love it but I feel bad for Nat for the first time in WMD history. Dude said no limits and went balls to the wall. Great stuff!!
hachetnif
You know how nat made a vortex core to store Elemental energies. It was in a Recent chapter that he said he wanted to upgrade it. What better than making it a nuclear reactor core. What is explosion then Therma and kinetic energies.
ZaA
She doesn't kill with it.. just hold onto it for mana storage
Andrew
Thank you!
Tanean
Or she didn't and simply had a finger hidden somewhere very far away. Regen from it and act like she tanked it well. Who knows 🤷♂️
zoarian
Fobbing off Jean to Lilly was hilarious. Nat definitely pushes against his limits most out of all the attendees. Crafting, his body and mind and his skills... The big benefit of the tournament isn't the points or seeing other people and their skills, but the ability to precisely examine your limits and attempt to push past them risk free. I'm also hoping he and Vic compare thoughts on skills. As another winner, she must be on the same level and they trust each other. That information must be very difficult to come by normally.
Dan
Didn't he overload his crown last tournament and effectively make a nuke out of it?
blaw
And enough of his attacks already are to first compress mana and than have it explode. Even if this is more an explosion of the not so well compressed mana. And not achain reaction created by implosion just yet.
vEnviouz
TFTC!
Woojoe
My favorite part is Jean yelling across the mountain, “the tiny girl with the huge ax.” It felt like something Pax from Red Rising would do.
XPDev
Tftc, I'm shaking, every chapter better than the last. Love where it's going.
Krzychu0304
Remember that Nat created that black dagger that Liss uses? I think Nat should get a huge bonus to blacksmithing because of the champions who died/absolutes who will die on his black blade?
Hydrabogen
I don't think he's quite there yet, at least not for modern WMDs. He may be approaching the level of the old WW2 nukes though. Remember that WMDs could already cause earthquakes of scale 8.5 over 60 years ago. (The strongest quake ever recorded was 9.5) When people talk about WW3 being the end of the world, they don't mean that figuratively
Val the mysterious Jedi
Glad we see nat straining under all his extreme training, but most importantly vic is great, she took a nuke and then pocketed some from the weaklings. Minion would idolize vic. Only gripe is we don't see lilly go first to fist against jean, gorilla vs cute petite girl
Borbino the great
Yeah he definitely low diffs a nuke by this point
Funny guy
Danks fur da chappie!
Zaim İpek
Lissandra sense is tingling. Getting traumatized so bad that it gives him a new sixth sense is crazy. Also, poor Jean got scammed. He is going to have quite the surprise. It should honestly be a great fight for the both of them and help them develop their abilities.
Edmund Dillon
Nukes can't stop theses weapons of mass destruction, tftc!!!
Oaktree
So much from this chapter where to start. A) what do you need a nuke for you have a nuclear heart? B) poor lucien about to have a heart attack when he sees liss. C) didn’t know I needed art of Whitey dresses as Indiana jones. D) qoute that sums up nats attitude with the tutorial “ only dying” only dying he says…. I was going to count the deaths he had during training but clearly its going to be in the hundreds if not thousands…. Most normal out of group 4 he says….
Rentaro Black
No wonder the military was scared of Victoria. If they thought she was the standard, then there's nothing they can do when the tutorial concludes and everyone returns.
Venno
I bet Nat ends up disappointed at the power of the nukes
Kaku John
Good chap
frankie doerr
What can Nat do with nuclear power it doesn’t have mana but maybe he’ll get a skill something to mix his kinetic and thermal energy
Nerø
Victoria casually tanking and surviving a thermonuclear warhead is insaaanee!
Belmont Igneul
Bombs?
KooZnack
Ah yes, our favorite sane mana man, just casually killing himself a few hundred times in a couple of days
Niclas Elmers
Tftc
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Nerø
First!
