Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 433: Vigilante

In the universe outside the Black Hole World, some changes had occurred recently. It had been a month since Jack disappeared—presumed dead. However, before the Animal Kingdom could even finish celebrating, a new menace appeared in their constellation.

A starship floated through the void. Its bridge was occupied by well-dressed, joyful cultivators—its hull was filled with chained-up prisoners, soon to be slaves. They were, without exception, beautiful young women.

“Another success!” a large feshkur shouted, raising a goblet full of wine. “To the captain!”

“To the captain!” Everyone echoed. A sharken with a patch over one eye laughed, raising his goblet and sipping it just a bit.

“Are you not going to drink, Captain?” one of the sharken’s lieutenants inquired. Their crew had been in this business for decades; it was customary to celebrate after every major victory.

The sharken, however, shook his head. “Not yet,” he replied in a harsh voice. “I want to remain sharp. I have…a feeling.”

“A feeling, Captain?”

“Yes.”

The lieutenant was startled—and intimidated. His captain was very experienced, so his intuition couldn’t be ignored. “Should we be afraid? Is the Black Hole Church coming after us?”

In the lieutenant’s eyes, besides the major factions, only such a powerful terrorist organization was worth fearing. After all, their crew was not made up of weaklings; they possessed multiple D-Grade fighters and their captain was even at the early C-Grade. In the Animal Kingdom Constellation, and even in the Milky Way Galaxy, they were a force to be reckoned.

Even the Animal Kingdom Elders were only C-Grades!

However, the captain only laughed. “The Black Hole Church is dead,” he replied. “And even if they aren’t, they wouldn’t bother with people like us. They have bigger problems.”

“Then…” The lieutenant’s eyes widened as he reached a stunning possibility. “Could you be thinking about the Dark Ram, Captain?”

The captain remained silent, tacitly agreeing.

The lieutenant continued. After being together with the captain for so long, he had the right to speak up about certain things. “This is not my place, Captain, but are they really worth fearing? They should only have D-Grades.”

“Their rise to fame has been too quick,” the captain replied, calmly sipping from his goblet. The crew’s rampant celebrations washed over him like the tide over a rock. “I suspect they have more power than they’ve shown. Given their targets so far, it wouldn’t be strange for them to come after us next.”

The lieutenant spoke no more, but his hesitation was evident in his silence.

“Do you think I am mistaken, Galaher?” the captain asked.

“I wouldn’t dare, Captain…but, if you want my opinion, there is no need to worry about them. The most power they’ve shown was at the middle D-Grade. Even if they were holding back, their captain is at most at the peak D-Grade. There is no way such a random group would have the power to stand against you.”

The captain cupped his chin. “Perhaps you’re right. This mission went too smoothly, and my nerves are still taut.” He sighed, then raised his voice. “Men! Run to the hold and bring me the two most beautiful women to enjoy!”

The crew cheered. Three men rushed through the doors, heading to the lower level. The captain reclined back and downed his goblet. Before he could swallow, however, their starship shook. Tables and chairs went flying—cultivators crashed against the walls. Their massive starship was sent wildly spinning.

The captain was startled, but he was too experienced to panic. He smashed a hand onto the armrest of his chair, breaking it, then spread out his Dao and forcefully stabilized the ship. “Who dares!?” he shouted, his voice spreading through the void.

“I do.”

The reply was calm, a statement instead of bravado, yet it carried such resolute darkness that the captain’s heart seized for a moment. Without a second’s hesitation, he teleported outside. He clicked his lips. “The Dark Ram…”

Another starship faced him, having approached within a few miles without being noticed. It was small, yet its walls were made of glass, giving a clear view of the inside. The captain could make out a mace-wielding feshkur, a canine, and a pale human woman. All three looked at him with pity. The captain didn’t spare them a second glance.

His gaze was quickly drawn to the two people standing outside the starship. One was a middle D-Grade, hulking minotaur wielding a massive greataxe. He didn’t need to introduce himself.

“Bomn the Destroyer,” the sharken captain muttered, his voice easily reaching the other’s ears. “I have heard of your exploits, but to dare face me? You are tired of living.”

Bomn did not respond, nor did he draw his greataxe. The captain’s eyes fell to the second figure—a gorilla wearing stretched red shorts and carrying no weapon. He did not emit any aura, causing the captain to have ignored him initially. Yet, as he focused, his heart suddenly tightened. This gorilla was not simple. The universe caved around him, as if bowing, and he felt so heavy that even his mere existence pulled people towards him.

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As the captain scanned this gorilla, he paled.

Brorilla, Level 301 (King)

A gorilla variant from planet Green. Brorillas usually live with Gymonkeys and train them in the ways of working out. It is due to the Brorillas’ unmatched pecks that Gymonkeys use poop to fight—they consider themselves too weak for anything else.

Brorillas are usually calm, measured animals. However, if anyone harms their little cousins or invades their territory, they go bananas.

This particular brorilla is a variant that visually resembles a gymonkey. Through cultivation, it has achieved a degree of power at the C-Grade, far surpassing the par for its species. Extermination is advised.

In the C-Grade, the first three fruits were worth ten levels each, bringing the cultivator to Level 280. That was the early C-Grade realm where the sharken captain was stranded. After that, every fruit was worth twenty levels—from 281 to 340 was the middle C-Grade, and from 341 to 399 was the late C-Grade realm.

As the captain read Brock’s level, he shivered. Middle C-Grade… How could this be?

It had to be known that a middle C-Grade cultivator at the Milky Way could easily become an Elder of a major faction. How could he just show up at random?

No, wait!

The captain suddenly recalled something. The recently deceased Jack Rust had forged a legend in this galaxy. His stories were told in every bar and village. The captain had naturally heard them as well, and vaguely, he seemed to remember that an animal companion was often mentioned alongside Jack. A brorilla.

Could it be…

Dark snakes wrapped around the captain’s heart. He struggled to breathe. All those past targets of the Dark Ram, all the Animal Kingdom bases and starships… It had made no sense. Why target such high-profile individuals and taunt a superpower? But now, he understood.

“Wait!” he cried out. “I am not part of the Animal Kingdom! We can talk about this!”

“There is nothing to talk about,” the brorilla said. A golden aura radiated from its body, tinged with a hint of black. “We know who you are: Beirut Agretone, former Enforcer of the Animal Kingdom, tasked with supplying them with high-quality slaves. Prepare to die.”

The moment the captain heard his real name, he had already started running. He couldn’t match a middle C-Grade in combat, but he specialized in speed; perhaps he could escape.

He hadn’t taken three steps when the void locked around him. He was immobile. The force pushing down on him was beyond anything he could hope to combat. He looked back, and the brorilla was already approaching, a palm poised to strike.

In that final moment, the captain went crazy. “Die!” he shouted, pulling out an axe and slashing it at the brorilla. As their gazes met, the captain only saw darkness—and then his mind was in a different space, inside an enormous ancient temple shaped as a dome. The captain sat in the middle, his knees stuck to the ground, and ninety-nine brorillas stood on balconies around the dome, surrounding him in all directions and piercing him with their stares.

Words constantly left their mouths. A combined chant, a hymn of vengeance, a promise of darkness. Hatred substantialized into a dark-golden plaque which fell from above onto the captain’s head. The pressure was impossible to bear. His body shook—his mind crumbled like a tower of cards.

All the while, the captain was in disbelief. He was a veteran cultivator. He’d lived for three thousand years and experienced hundreds of battles. He thought his heart was hardened and iron-clad, one of his most exceptional features. Yet, facing this brorilla’s heart attack, he was completely powerless to resist. The difference between them was incalculable—as if his entire life so far had been a joke.

“How…” he managed to mutter, already resigned to his fate. He gritted his teeth to beg for mercy. “I can…offer…”

But his words were lost. The chanting of the brorillas was thunderous, seeping into his very soul and disassembling it, making him feel like a mortal in a landslide. At the same time, Brock’s palm slammed into the captain’s defenseless body in the real world. That tempered body blew up, smashed into smithereens. He didn’t even know how he died.

This felt like it had taken a long time, but only an instant had passed. To the eyes of everyone watching, Brock had just casually reached out with his palm and annihilated the sharken captain.

It had to be known that this wasn’t some weakling. It was an early C-Grade cultivator. Even in the Animal Kingdom, these were major characters able to awe the world wherever they appeared. Moreover, every single C-Grade cultivator had a massive amount of resources invested into them. The loss of a single one was a major blow to the Animal Kingdom.

Throughout the battle, Brock’s expression hadn’t changed once. The slavers watching from the ship were panic-stricken. The three D-Grades scattered in different directions and ran away, but it was useless. A canine, a pale-skinned woman, and a hulking minotaur flashed before them, eliminating them after a swift and fierce battle. Meanwhile, Brock had used his powers to cut away half the slavers’ starship, rescuing the slaves and pulling them into the Trampling Ram.

“Thank you!” they shouted, but he ignored them. His eyes remained on the starship.

“Please wait!” a panicked voice cried out. This was one the slaver crew’s E-Grades, using a device which could project his voice through the void. “We can offer you anything you want! We can serve you for our entire lives! Show mercy, please—we are nothing but ants to someone as powerful as you.”

Brock did not humor them. His words were not directed at them, but at himself.

“I will not show mercy,” he replied, “because your Kingdom also didn’t when they killed my brother. I failed to assist him; all I can do is take revenge. That is my duty.

“Even if you are weak, you are still guilty. I will pull out every weed that supports the Animal Kingdom, break the fingers they stretch into the galaxy and crush their limbs. I will make sure they are nothing but a flailing mass of power unable to influence others. Then, when I am strong enough, I will storm their gates and kill everyone who deserves it. Because of me, the Animal Kingdom will cease to exist.”

The slavers didn’t even have time to cry. A golden palm smashed into their starship, breaking it apart and killing them instantly. Only iron beams and panels were left hovering through the void. Brock spared the destroyed starship a final glance, whispered something, then flew back into the Trampling Ram, which broke through space and disappeared.

In the endless dark void, only the echo of Brock’s voice remained, carved eternally into the Dao of the universe.

“Brohood is not kindness, but righteousness! Indomitable will and honest freedom, dreams can never die. Killing my brother was the greatest mistake the Animal Kingdom ever made—I, Brock, will carry on his will and liberate this constellation!”