141: Chapter 141 Demon King vs. Hero

Seeing Philip openly display hostility, Fu Hao actually breathed a sigh of relief—after all, from an outsider's perspective, this scene could easily be misinterpreted as him suddenly coming to the otherworld to make things difficult for the "self-reliant" Philip.

Fu Hao and the veteran viewers who knew that Philip had once incited other players to engage in malicious gameplay to complete tasks were well aware that this guy would never turn over a new leaf. However, not all current livestream viewers understood the backstory, so the more hostility Philip showed, the more beneficial it was for Fu Hao.

It was just that Philip's excessive confidence made him feel slightly concerned.

"Hmm... It seems your stats have increased quite a bit during this time?"

"Isn't it a bit too late to be fishing for information now?"

Philip thought Fu Hao was probing him and snorted disdainfully, "You don't really think you can easily beat me just by relying on your legendary title and your record of defeating a Demon King, do you? Then I'll let you see for yourself just what kind of power a Demon King of the otherworld possesses."

"...I am indeed curious about that."

Unexpectedly, Fu Hao had almost no reaction. Philip wanted to blurt out "I am immune to Holy Power," but ultimately held back—after all, revealing his trump card before the duel officially began was by no means a wise move.

Once the challenge process was established, if the challenger Fu Hao gave up halfway, he would be judged to have lost and would suffer a penalty. Therefore, even if revealing his weakness in advance would dampen Fu Hao's momentum, there was no need to worry about him running away, but Philip wanted to display his majesty at the critical moment—just as Fu Hao had always done.

"Now it's your turn to tell me, Fu Hao," Philip pressed, "How did you enter the otherworld in your human form?"

["NewNew" tipped 50 yuan. (I also want to know how he got in)]

["Pablo" tipped 50 yuan. (I also want to go see the otherworld)]

The viewers were full of anticipation for Fu Hao's answer. This unannounced livestream had many highlights:

The never-before-seen Demon King Castle lobby, the first player to become a Demon King, Philip, and even the peculiar appearance of Narusha, one of the Four Heavenly Kings; but what made the audience most curious was still why Fu Hao appeared in the otherworld and how he entered as a human.

After all, even if Philip had monopolized the hidden items, and the 500 people from the Five Great Guilds had subsequently poured in, they might not have scavenged all the resources; the otherworld was still a land of opportunity.

But Fu Hao's answer greatly disappointed the audience.

"Just watch the livestream screen."

<First Hero>

* Obtain access rights to the otherworld.

* All stats +20% when defeating a Demon King.

Fu Hao displayed the title he obtained after defeating the Envy Demon King, Pablo, on the screen: "This is the title obtained after defeating a Demon King."

Seeing the title that could only be obtained by defeating a Demon King (and it had to be the first defeat), the audience's longing for the otherworld instantly shattered—

- "This is the importance of connections!"

- "Guide to entering the otherworld: First defeat of a Demon King..."

- "Now it's a duel between a Hero and a Demon King!"

- "The 20% stat bonus when defeating a Demon King is too overpowered!"

The First Hero title, based solely on its name and effect, explained why Fu Hao was able to appear in the otherworld and why he came to the otherworld so desperately.

Although his main goal was to collect materials for divine artifacts, Philip believed that Fu Hao had come to find a Demon King just to farm stats, and even mistakenly thought that he had happened to discover him along the way.

"I roughly understand how you got in," Philip pressed, "but how on earth did you collect experience potions?"

"...You'll have to imagine that for yourself," Fu Hao said vaguely, "Just assume I discovered a new hunting ground."

Although the answer was unsatisfactory, Philip decided to end the conversation and prepare to welcome the defensive battle.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" He had always hidden his identity solely for revenge, and now that Fu Hao had walked right into his trap, he could finally act openly as a Demon King, no longer having to endure the Five Great Guilds lording over the otherworld.

What's more, he could implement a more ruthless revenge than originally planned. It wasn't realistic to immediately raze the Endel Kingdom established by Fu Hao or eliminate the NPCs with high favorability towards him, but after the God-Demon War broke out, anything was possible, and the "Demon King Challenge" was the only way to deal a heavy blow to Fu Hao at the moment.

Just as a Demon King would suffer a huge penalty for refusing or losing a challenge, the same applied to a challenger who failed.

"Then let's begin the challenge process."

As soon as Philip finished speaking, a challenge prompt popped up in front of Fu Hao:

[Do you wish to initiate a Demon King Challenge against the "Growth Demon King"? The challenge will be conducted through the duel system. If you refuse or fail, you will be stripped of your Four Heavenly Kings status and be in a state of inability to act in the Demon King Castle prison for 30 days. This penalty can be adjusted at the Demon King's discretion.]

Fu Hao was shocked by the severity of the penalty; game system imprisonment meant he couldn't escape using a teleportation gem like he did in Mei's territory.

Fu Hao clicked confirm without hesitation.

[Both the Demon King and the challenger have confirmed the challenge; the challenge process has started.]

[4 minutes and 59 seconds until the duel begins...]

During the 5-minute duel countdown, Philip replayed the duel between Fu Hao and Leonhardt in his mind, frantically adjusting his skills, titles, and equipment effects to target Fu Hao; meanwhile, Fu Hao remained motionless, having already begun to think about his post-duel plans: "After dealing with Philip, which Demon King should I challenge next? I have to become a Demon King first before investigating."

Seeing Fu Hao looking so relaxed, Philip felt a tightening in his chest, but quickly suppressed his emotions and focused on his equipment setup—since Fu Hao had anticipated there would be a Demon King Challenge, he must have prepared in advance, so why panic now?

Of course, Fu Hao wasn't actually spacing out.

[Livestream title has been changed to 'Demon King vs Hero'.]

Fu Hao's channel, which had just started streaming, quickly surged to the top of the livestream list, and the new title caused the viewer count to grow exponentially—the title "otherworld" was attractive, but recently, members of the Five Great Guilds had been crowding the livestreaming space with otherworld content, so the topicality had long since declined;

While "Demon King vs Hero" was a gimmick never seen before in the otherworld, and coupled with the fact that the title belonged to Fu Hao's channel, a large number of wandering viewers flooded into the livestream, with the online audience count soaring from 1 million and 1.5 million to 2 million.

Looking at the skyrocketing viewer count, Fu Hao felt a long-lost sense of satisfaction—even during his duel with Leonhardt, or even when preventing the World Tree's rampage, he hadn't reached this record, which allowed him to regain the streamer confidence that had fallen to rock bottom.

Although the audience had high hopes for him, Fu Hao had a premonition that this duel would end very quickly—anyway, after becoming a Demon King, he could livestream a tour of the Demon King Castle and the exclusive system, and if the content wasn't enough, he could even have Xiao Jin, who had evolved into an adult dragon, do a review.

Just as Fu Hao was conceptualizing the livestream content, the countdown to the start of the duel approached:

[5 seconds until the duel begins... 4 seconds... 3 seconds...]

At this point, Philip had finished his equipment setup and was staring at Fu Hao with a look of certainty, an expression that perfectly complemented his identity as a Demon King: "Fu Hao, you will regret coming to the otherworld."

["Candy" tipped 50 yuan. (Died from talking too much!)]

Philip dropped this nearly arrogant declaration, and the duel officially began.

He immediately unleashed his strongest skill— "Spear of the Demon God," a targeted skill that was completely immune to defensive magic. Although the casting time was as long as 30 seconds (comparable to a mage's ultimate magic), its power was hundreds or thousands of times that of ordinary magic.

Philip was convinced that even if Fu Hao used all his defensive means, he wouldn't be able to stop it, not to mention that his "First Demon King" title came with an attribute that ignored all invincibility effects, so there was no need to consider Fu Hao's invincibility skills at all.

Even if Fu Hao sensed the danger and attacked first, it didn't matter—Philip, who had converted all experience points after level 400 into stats, had higher defense than the recognized "defense ceiling" Fu Hao, and even if his defense was broken, he had various instant recovery methods to fall back on.

Of course, defense alone could not withstand Holy Power, but Philip had already activated the "Eliminate Holy Power Weakness" effect, and the duration was enough to last until the "Spear of the Demon God" finished casting.

"Die in despair under the Spear of the Demon God!"

Seeing Fu Hao show no reaction to his casting, Philip felt victory was within his grasp. However, just at this moment, Fu Hao finally acted:

[Summon "Golden Dragon".]

"Hahaha, is that it? Summoning a young dragon..." Philip's mockery stopped abruptly, because the giant dragon that appeared beside Fu Hao was so massive that it only needed to lift its head to crash through the lobby ceiling—this was definitely not the Xiao Jin in his memory. But what shocked him even more was yet to come:

"Dragon's Roar."

["Golden Dragon" uses skill "Dragon's Roar".]

[Enemy enters a 210-second inability to act state.]

Philip's casting was forcibly interrupted, and he looked at the prompt before him in disbelief. But Fu Hao didn't give him time to react:

"Golden Breath."

Following Fu Hao's command, the dragon breath spewed by Xiao Jin instantly engulfed Philip. At the same time, the battle of strength between the "First Demon King" and the "First Hero" came to an end with the following data:

["Golden Dragon" uses skill "Golden Breath".]

[Dealt 10,815,480 damage to the enemy.]

[Enemy defeated.]