It happened a week after Daz had gone city collecting in Taiwan.

He had just returned from his first visit back to Fort Home with the primary objective of spending time with Madison and Rose. He yearned to see them far more now with his ownership of an Ember of Love, he found.

It bothered him to not see them in such a long time even if he could contact Rose whenever he wished to.

Right now, Daz was in a field in the middle of Dongshan Township only a little while away from Yilan City. He was practising his Ember of Digging when he felt a sharp sensation from his chest and his instincts immediately began warning him.

Looking down, Daz was surprised to see a long dagger embedded into his gut. "What the hell..."

He immediately went on full alert. He ripped the dagger out, resulting in his Halo getting to work replacing the consumed Lifeforce from the suffered attack.

"Who's there?!" he had no detection abilities but he was in a field so it made little sense that he could get stabbed without first noticing his attacker's approach, doubly so when considering his Survivor's Instincts.

He spun around a few times to check all of his angles and the only response he was met with was another instinctual warning he could do nothing about as he felt something sharp penetrate his shoulder.

He grunted at the pain and reached over his back to rip the new weapon out, once again triggering his halo. "Okay, this is getting annoying."

Daz activated his Soul Vision to see if he could expose the souls of his aggressors. Immediately over a hundred little orbs of white energy entered his vision, all surrounding him in a circle. Not a single hidden person was within range of his Archreaper's Aura were he to active it.

Regardless, it was a toggle skill with no energy cost so activate it he did just in case any of them decided to get close enough to test its effects. "I don't know who sent you people to attack me but I would suggest stopping. You won't win."

He was, once again, met with a long and cold silence.

Another dagger flew his way and struck him, piercing his abdomen this time. Ripping it out without any hesitation, Daz frowned as he said, "Grip of Death."

Holding his hand out he saw one of the many souls surrounding him float a bit higher in the air than the others. 'Lovely, so I can grab them even if they're hidden.'

"I have warned you and I feel you all had sufficient time to retreat so I won't be giving out a second one," he said as he tightened his outstretched fist. A snapping sound rang out in the field as a person's corpse appeared, dangling, suspended in the air.

Daz couldn't make out any of their features from this distance but they were clad head-to-toe in black clothing and they gave Daz the very distinct impression of an assassin.

He waved his hand, summoning Beta. "Use Soul Vision. Kill them all."

"Of cour-" Beta's words were cut off as a tremendously loud gunshot went off. The next second Beta had jumped in front of Daz and his head exploded as he dissolved into millions of particles of Death Energy.

Every fibre of Daz's being was screaming at him to move while he felt Beta return to him in Death Energy form. He was coming to distrust his instincts of late but right now he listened to them like gospel.

He jumped to the side as a second explosive gunshot made itself known. The spot Daz was formerly standing on was now a heap of ruined dirt. 'If you wanted to kill me, why the hell didn't you open up with that?' he thought sarcastically.

"Grave of The Mammals!" With a single scoop of Hamson, a massive hole appeared under Daz's feet. Gravity pulled him into it seeing as how he was now standing atop the air.

With a thud, he landed onto the bottom of his created grave harshly.

'I have no idea where that sniper is and if Beta couldn't survive it then it's either too fast for the halo to trigger and automatically move him to safety or its too powerful for the halo to offset the damage like it managed to do when I created my branching bloodline. Fuck. Who are these guys?' Daz asked himself as he kept his eyes on the souls above the ground.

Daz was nothing if not decisive so he quickly spent another 1,500 Death Energy to resummon Beta. Seeing the clone manifest into reality, Daz ordered it, "Find that sniper and kill him. Return once that's done," and he then passed Hamson to him.

The clone nodded and immediately dug a deeper hole and began tunnelling away, following his Soul Vision to locate the sniper.

Daz could see the nearby attackers closing in on his mammal grave so he cleared his throat and yelled, "Any who get close will die! I can see all 105 of you and I have more than enough energy to spare to annihilate you! Do not test me! State your origin and your purpose if you wish to live!"

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He was, once again, met with no response. 'Y'know, I'm trying to be kind and merciful here but it's like God or whoever else wants me to be a murdering psychopath... Ha-ah... I can return him once this is over via the teleportation gate on Guishan Island... It's time for Fort Home's guardian to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies once more. Leaving this hole of mine is too dangerous when there could be more hidden snipers out there.'

"Grand Summon: Rimmy McShineston!" Daz yelled.

The ground hummed and the sky cried as a massive monstrosity of cyan crystal appeared out of nowhere. It looked around in confusion for a bit, clearly unsure as to why it has been summoned.

"I'm surrounded. They're invisible but they are there, Rimmy. Go wild. Destroy everything. I have given them a chance for peace and they refused tacitly," Daz stated coldly.

The massive golem of blue with a tiny black speck in its core roared powerfully. "RIMMY!"

Power flowed through the enormous golem as what appeared to be veins of purple energy coursed through his massive hulking figure. This was in fact his core body's skill, Proof of Thy Loyalty activating.

He had been tasked with defending Daz and as a result, his stats have been multiplied by a factor of 1.2. Rimmy's stats were already ridiculous high and now that absurdity had only been made even more abundantly clear.

Rimmy knew not where its best friend's enemies were only that they had him surrounded. Thus, Rimmy made it its goal- no, its pledge that nothing, not even a fly, would enter the hole it was standing over.

"RIMMY!" With another powerful roar, Rimmy separated its core body from its main body.

The former floated over the hole Daz was in with his crystalline arms crossed over its torso while the latter used Great Roll and started viciously circling the field they were in while also using its Spiked Body Transformation.

Within seconds corpses began appearing attached to Rimmy's main body's spiked form, blood dripping from each spike and screams echoed out from those who were impaled just enough to not have died yet from such a horrendously powerful attack.

Suddenly, Rimmy's core body moved like a flash and then seemed to hold something in its arm. Flickering into existence, a man struggled wildly to free himself from the strange man-sized golem's grasp.

Rimmy's core reeled back one if its fist then powerfully punched its captive. With an explosion of jewels triggered by the 10% chance effect of Crystal Fist, the man stopped struggling. He was dead.

Rimmy's core flung him far away and resumed to passively watch the area intently.

The core had caught that man by simply keeping a very close and very keen eye on the grass and earth around them, searching for any and all unnatural disturbances not caused by Rimmy's main body.

While Rimmy's core seemed to have a normal head with what looked likes eye sockets, it could, in fact, see within a 360-degree radius. With this, Rimmy was free of a tricky human weakness like blindspots.

Daz marvelled in awe as his companion and dear friend went on a massacre for what felt like an eternity but was only actually 5-minutes or so. "It's fine now, Rimmy. You got most of them... Some of them fled."

Rimmy's main body stopped rolling upon hearing that and it retracted the spikes littering its body, resulting in many corpses slipping off of him and impacting the now ruined soil beneath.

At that exact same moment, a rush of Death Energy returned to Daz. Immediately, he resummoned beta. "Dead?"

"Of course, Original," Beta answered.

"Good. Follow those that fled. I want to know who the fuck has the balls to attack me so brazenly in the middle of the afternoon and where they are so I can crush them," Daz ordered.

"Of course, Original," Beta answered before jumping out of the hole and sprinting off.

Daz cracked his neck as he, too, jumped out of his mammal grave. He glanced up at Rimmy and said, "I need to retrieve Hamson, inspect these corpses and return you to Fort Home... Ha-ah... Just when I thought taking control of Taiwan would be a peaceful endeavour..."

"Jesus-H-Christ," the voice of Crusher said with a loud accompanying whistle. "I got a sense somethin' fishy was goin' on here with my Ember of Clarity but fuckin' hell..."

"Crusher?" Looking at the tall Titan, Daz smiled faintly. "Lovely afternoon, isn't it?"

"I forgot how deadly Rimmy is," the woman admitted. "Haha, it's been a minute since I last saw him actually do any fightin'... No wonder ya don't use him when we spar on occasion, scary fucker that he is."

"Rimmy," the massive golem answered as his core body returned to the main body.

"Rimmy says he isn't scary," Daz claimed. "He was only protecting me."

Daz held his hand out with his palm straight almost as if he was trying to give Crusher a handshake despite being dozens of feet apart from one another. This confused her until a loud whooshing noise passed her ear. With an audible thud, Hamson had returned to its owner.

"Right... So, these cunts," Crusher asked as she gestured to the corpses with her chin, "who're they?"

Daz shrugged. "I don't rightly know. System? Can you tell me anything about them? Like their country of origin? Purpose in attacking me? Their leader? That kind of stuff, please."

Confirmed. Utilising the host's [The Crystal Digger's Master Identification], the system has identified these deceased hosts as members of [Imperial Dragon] - a secret group of soldiers under the direct command of [Emperor Bei]. They originate from the empire of [China] and their purpose was to end the life of [King Daz] to ensure the safe return of [Taiwan] to the empire of [China].

Daz sighed deeply. "Of course... Mu, why you want to make up with such a corrupt man is beyond my understanding... They are from China, Crusher."

"Ah, gotcha," the woman nodded as she swung her warhammer about mindlessly. "So? Plans? We invadin' China next? Surely we can't just let them get away with tryin' to, what, assassinate you?"

Daz shook his head. "Not now. I need to become Taiwan's sole ruler then I have to squash the threat that is the Truthians. When that's done and this system semester is over? I plan to gain control of all America - north and south - and Eastern Asia before the next semester ends."

"Assuming it'll be a semester again," Crusher said.

"Right. Well, we can only assume since the system doesn't answer questions about the current test, now can't we?" Daz replied.

"Right. Well, what's the direct plan right now then?" Crusher asked. "My muscles are itchin'."

Daz nodded slowly and wore a grim smile. "Well, I'm in a bad mood. Today, Taiwan becomes mine. If I have to kill enough people to fail the quest for that to happen, so be it. As soon as Beta has found where those other attackers go to hide and lick their wounds, care to come with me and show them some New Earthian hospitality?"

Crusher smiled and bared her teeth like a hungry predator. "I like it when you're in a bad mood."