The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Novel

When people referred to castles in online games, they pertained to ones that lacked massive walls, since such huge barriers rarely got depicted for the convenience of players. After all, having only one or two access points would prove cumbersto the overall experience of the players in playing the games.

But that was not the case for Alf Online, making it distinct from other games. With soldiers stationed at the entrance to guard the place, the steep and towering castle walls stood firmly, looking as though they were real. But the existence of such an entrance was not an issue. Because even though soldiers were present, they did not bother to be thorough in inspecting everyone who entered the premises of the castles, as one might expect in reality.

Davey and his companions for that day—Illyna and Perserque—looked around with interest, their wonder at the unique sense of the city's landscape evident in the look on their faces. As long as there were no problems, of course, they would go on with their day as leisurely as they wanted. When Perserque bought a cotton candy and offered it to Davey, he licked a part of it eagerly, making her erupt into cute giggles before proceeding to quickly devour the rest.

"It tastes good," she said.

"You'll get fat if you eat that," Davey teased.

"Pfft. Thanks to you, it's easy forto regulate my calories. And Davey..." Her voice trailed off, and she then playfully took a piece of cotton candy stuck on his nose and popped it into her mouth with a smirk.

Perserque may be alive, but she was still not a typical living being, given her body that was different from the normal bodies of other creatures.

As she stuck out her tongue, Davey sighed briefly and slowly raised his hand.

With a heavy striking sound, the wind blade was cleanly deflected by the powerful energy enveloping his fist, sending the wind blade flying to the sky.

A tense silence fell. Illyna sighed deeply, placing a hand on her forehead, while Perserque just wordlessly observed Davey.

"These damn..."

Davey's expression turned grim as he turned his head toward those who had attacked them. It was clear who had just made the biggest mistake of their lives, and regardless of the situation, a price had to be paid.

* * *

Everyone stopped at Davey's sudden intrusion.

"What's the matter? Not rampaging around like before?"

The men's expressions turned sour after hearing Davey's remarks.

There were about four to five men standing protectively in front of a young man. With them was also a woman, who was being attacked as though she was being targeted and lynched by them. But Davey had no interest in her, and so he had no interest in trying to be a gentleman who would rescue her.

"Ouch," the woman groaned in pain, her face contorted into a deep frown.

With his gaze fixed on her form, Davey lightly kicked her leg and said, "Don't botherand get lost."

The cold remark caused her frown to deepen.

"What did you say?!” she yelled in indignation despite the throbbing pain that lingered. Her eyes burned with fiery ferocity, asking him with a loud voice, “Are you out of your mind?!"

Her angry and affronted protest fell on ears that were unwilling to listen.

"If you want to fight, do it somewhere else. Why cause unnecessary trouble here?"

"What... What did you say?! Hey! Are you really saying that right now?! Ha! I can't believe this!"

The attitude that Davey displayed stunned Perserque, and she went on to whisper seriously into his ears, "That's like the drama stuff from your memories, Davey."

Davey paused for a brief second, wondering what Perserque was talking about.

Drama? What was she trying to say? But he didn’t have to wonder for too long, because she went on to say, “Typically, heroines say that when they meet the male main characters.”

But did Davey care? The answer is a big, fat no. It did not matter to him who this woman was or what she was doing; Davey was not interested. His focus was entirely on how to deal with the ones who had dared to attack his beloved wife.

"You should at least apologize for attacking someone's precious wife," Davey said, although he had no intention of sparing them even if they groveled at his feet. No one could walk away unscathed after such a blunder made against his wife.

"What are you on about? If you don't want to have your gravestone yet, get lost," one of the men threatened with a firm tone meant to sound intimidating. His voice also made it clear how they didn’t care for the fact that they were the attackers who owed an apology.

This solidified Davey’s resolve to get them to pay. They deserve whatever severe punishment Davey was sure to give them.

He reached out his arms toward one of the men, who still stood protectively by the young man, and then…

In a heartbeat, the man’s head was already in Davey’s grip. It was an easy thing to achieve. For one, Davey was not that short, and the man was not particularly large compared to the strong physique that was typical of the people of Tionis.

“Ugh!!”

Davey called forth the Power of Taboo and slammed him mercilessly into the ground, unbothered by the wave of reactions from the bystanders who stayed to watch the ongoing commotion. Well, he couldn’t fault them for whatever they were feeling at that moment after seeing the ruthless display of his power. After all, the impact caused the ground to shatter.

It was more than enough to leave the man's body limp and lifeless; his health points were depleted to zero.

A chat window then appeared.

[What kind of damage is this...]

The gathered onlookers' expressions changed. Sseemed to realize who Davey was, but sadly, those currently involved in the fight with him failed to reach the srealization.

"Please step back, young master. It looks like our opponent is a high-level user."

"Can we win?"

"It'll be difficult to peacefully resolve this now that a PK has been initiated... Shall we negotiate?"

The young man nodded quietly at the suggestion. At this, one of the men took out a large sack from what seemed to be an inventory space.

"We regret being unintentionally involved in this conflict. Please accept this as a token of our apology."

Davey accepted the golden pouch and opened it to take a peek at its contents. As expected from the hefty weight, sparkling gold coins filled the sack. But accepting such a token of apology did not guarantee forgiveness. It didn’t mean he would spare them.

"Is this all?" Davey asked.

"What? More?"

The men were shocked by Davey's question, and their expressions worsened.

"Greed ruins life, you know," the young man said coldly as he dared to approach Davey. "Look, I'm in a very bad mood right now, so leave while I'm still asking nicely."

Davey grinned in response. Then he quickly drew the last bit of distance between them. He was so swift that when Davey got close, the young man and his company were startled, and they realized too late what was going on.

With a swift kick, Davey sent the young man flying into the wall.

"Young master!" The men called out in panic, rushing forward for their poor little master.

Without any training, these people gained strength not from fighting experience and combat sense but from boosting levels and stats. It was simply pointless to expect them to be capable fighters.

A massive explosion of sound resounded as another man was sent flying. It was only then that the rest finally seemed to realize that Davey was not an ordinary opponent.

"Is that all? Nothing more?" Davey haughtily asked with a cold tone, paying not a single bit of attention to the men as he walked with leisurely steps toward their young master.

He then forcefully grabbed the staggering, nearly unconscious young man by the shoulders.

"Look at me," Davey commanded in a low and imperious voice, staring straight at him with a vicious smile.

“…” The young man's eyes widened in shock as soon as their gazes met.

"I don't care who you are, what you do, or why you started the attack."

Seventh Circle, Dark Magic.

[Fear]

A great area crowd suppression magic focused on one person.

If Perserque had been weak, if Davey hadn't been able to deflect the attack, if it had hit her, Perserque could have been seriously hurt. While getting injured would have been perfectly normal in this system, this place was still very much a semi-reality, even though others merely saw it as a playground.

"Ugh!!"

The horror of an unfamiliar chill and fear seized his body, and the young man could do nothing else other than have his face show the fear and discomfort he was enduring in that moment. The Fear magic flooded every part of him that was connected to his psyche in reality. It was like a virus invading his information network.

Having connected their minds to their avatars by abandoning their physical bodies, the users of Alf Online were notably vulnerable to mental magic. This raised the possibility of obliterating the opponent's psyche.

The young man's psyche then began to distort and crumble, and the nearby panicked men launched an attack on Davey but ended up frozen in mid-air.

"Ugh! What… What kind of skill is this..."

A different, direct attack was then unleashed on the men. Rough-surfaced black spears materialized out of thin air and pierced their hearts precisely. The spears continued to proliferate, impaling the men and instantly killing them, turning them into meat chunks lanced in a thorny hell.

In the blink of an eye, the Power of Taboo, mixed with the privileges granted by Neltarid, began deleting their character information. With a smashing sound, cracks then progressively appeared on the young master’s and his men's bodies as if they were logging out. But the process took a lot longer than a typical logout, which was why they ended up looking so grotesquely horrifying.

Davey, who had simply watched the young master in silence, leaned closer and whispered something in his ear. Eventually, the young man’s avatar vanished completely, and Davey could only sigh as he looked at the remnants of those who had been forcibly logged out.

"Protect mechanism is quite innovative," Davey commented.

The gsystem had expelled the young man out of the gbefore his mind could be totally collapsed by Fear's influence.

"It's done."

But even if he ended up getting shielded by the game’s protect mechanism, the young man would not have been completely free from the effect of the Fear magic. If lucky, he would suffer from extrstress. If unlucky, his mind would break down, leading to hallucinations and delusions. Eventually, the excessive stress would catch up to him, and it might cause complications that could lead to death, which was something even modern medicine could not cure. So what the young man got was probably a fate even worse than death. Of course, that was not all that Davey had experimented with.

"You… You did not do that thing again, did you?" Illyna asked since she had quickly noticed something in Davey's demeanor. She then approached him with a concerned expression, saying, "Don’t do that. It’s too cruel."

"Cruel? What do you mean?"

"..."

Life, in a way, was greatly influenced by the mind. So, as they say, a healthy mind is a healthy body. The opposite could just as well be true. And since the target of Davey’s direct Fear magic exposure was the man’s head. That means...

"Those who are under too much stress tend to suffer from hair loss."

Davey had ensured that the stress would be permanent enough to prevent a cure, since from the very start, he had no intention of letting the young man off lightly.

Since the cause of the trouble had already disappeared, Davey silently approached the woman who had been embroiled in the commotion. She was still sitting down on the ground, looking up at him with a dazed face. She surely would have been lynched and gotten her HP to be depleted completely if Davey had not intervened.

So he stretched out his hand toward her with his palm facing up, and he then demanded his rightful due.

"What... What do you want?" she asked in alarmed as she met his gaze.

To answer her question, Davey promptly stated his demand, saying, "Since I saved you, you owe me."

She stared at him dumbfoundedly, but then a split second later, her expression turned to one of sheer panic. "What?! A compulsory quest?! Asking for a reward?! Are you insane?! Hey! What are you talking about!"

"Strangers experience great loss upon death, were you hoping I'd just let it pass?"

Davey’s remark left her looking utterly astounded.

"Ah... What... Ha! What kind of person does this?!"

It was later discovered that she was the Matter Transmuter, Maga, whom he had been seeking.

* * *

"Ugh!!"

A young man in his twenties threw off the connection device and gasped for breath.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and sof them even found their way down his cheeks as he staggered to his bed, only to fall off it and vomit. It was an absolutely horrendous experience.

Unbelievable events had occurred within the game, but one thing was certain: the moment he made eye contact with Davey, he was engulfed in an intense fear, devoid of any rational thought. While he was a man who had faced scorn from many and dismissed the disdainful stares from women he had toyed with and discarded, facing the smiling young man with cold, red eyes was an experience that was unlike any other. He felt as though he was standing in front of a massive predator that was ready to kill pitilessly. His body was simply reduced to a state of uncontrollable trembling, and his fear of Davey grew deeper with each second that ticked by.

How could mere eye contact drive someone to madness?

After vomiting and writhing in agony, his hands went up to his hair, his fingers combing through the strands. But then he ended up screaming at the top of his lungs as a handful of hair fell from his head, strands tangling with his fingers. On top of that, half of his hair had turned white due to extrstress and fear, signaling that this was just the beginning of his impending hair loss.

"Ah... Aaaa..."

His hands trembled as he stared at the strands on his palms.

Despite using money to spend lavishly on women, he still typically relied on his looks to win them over. So this transformation was unbearable.

"Ah... Aaaaa!!! Ahhhhh!!!!"

His extrstress surged, and his head felt like it was on fire.

Sobbing, he tore out the rest of his hair in a desperate attempt to escape reality. More hair was then pulled from the scalp without any resistance.

Finally, he understood the words the red-eyed youth had whispered just before he got logged out.

He was now fully aware of his circumstances. He was then filled with absolute rage for Han Yu-Na, who had rejected him, and for the detestable intruder.

So as he seethed in anger that was beyond measure, he crawled toward the phone without pausing to clean himself. Then, he quickly dialed a number and screamed as soon as the other person picked up the call, "Find him!!!!! Find that guy!!!!!"

It was a desperate cry.

As if on cue, several men rushed in.

"Young master!"

His father's men, who were supposed to prevent him from causing trouble or quietly cover it up if he did, had been with him in the game. But they ended up being useless, so they better do this one thing he was demanding from them at that moment.

"Find him... Bring him to me..." he slurred as he staggered on the floor.

The men’s faces were filled with immeasurable shock as their gazes landed on their young master..

"Yo... Young master! Your hair!"

"Shut up!! Just shut up and bring those bastards here! I'll kill them myself!!!"