Chapter 23: Bubu Wang and the Overlord-Level Creature
The sun blazed high overhead. Bubu Wang passed smoothly through the main gate of the royal palace and entered a straight, paved path. At least twenty meters wide, the path was lined on both sides with black-armored soldiers. Though they were living men, they stood as rigid as machines, motionless except for the occasional blink that betrayed their vitality.
With Bubu Wang’s method of infiltration, it naturally wouldn’t skulk around. Instead, it walked openly down the path. Its ability wasn’t invisibility—it was environment integration, a rank several tiers higher than mere stealth.
Before Bubu Wang infiltrated the palace, Su Xiao had already prepared with it: the palace’s layout, possible locations of the Black Throne, and so on. As for asking the old divine stick, he clearly wanted someone to legitimately claim the Black Throne, so Su Xiao kept this matter from him.
Bubu Wang opened a virtual map. Most areas on it were marked as unknown.
Su Xiao had used the Apostle’s Eye to observe the palace from high altitude. The palace could be divided into three major sections. The frontmost area consisted of many connected halls, each linked to the next.
The middle section was the former residence of the Black King. The rearmost area was a vast hunting ground, complete with mountain ranges.
This was, without a doubt, the largest palace Su Xiao had ever seen. Its layout suggested the Black King had simply chosen a spot and established his palace there, with the entire Holy City built around it as the center.
The rear half of the palace was ignored outright. The Black Throne was more likely to be in the interconnected halls of the front section.
These halls were all over a hundred meters tall. Though they appeared as separate buildings, they were tightly connected. When Su Xiao viewed them from above, he felt they resembled a fortress that had been partially dismantled and then remodeled into these closely linked halls.
Even with lush trees and several gardens built around them, the halls’ oppressive, murderous aura remained unmistakable.
Bubu Wang stood before a majestic hall. For some reason, it felt inexplicably panicked.
‘Go for it, you got this!’
Beini typed in the team channel. At that moment, Bubu Wang wore a sensor on its head, allowing Su Xiao, Amu, and Beini to see the feed it transmitted.
‘Master, give me some encouragement. I’m a bit nervous.’
Bubu Wang also typed its reply.
Su Xiao: ‘You got this.’
Amu: ‘Moo.’
...
Armed with Su Xiao and Amu’s utterly insincere encouragement, Bubu Wang puffed out its chest and strode toward the hall with measured steps.
Three rows of black-armored guards surrounded the hall, standing shoulder to shoulder with about three meters between each row, sealing off the front hall airtight.
Left with no choice, Bubu Wang simply hopped over each row, one by one. The process was uneventful.
The front hall’s main door was sealed shut, black patterns locking both the door and all windows. Bubu Wang stood before a wall, activated [Sacred Traveler], and tentatively pressed its front paw into the stone. It passed through without resistance—no surprises.
Golden particles flickered before Bubu Wang’s eyes, and the scene before it darkened. Outside, it was around three in the afternoon, bright and clear. Under normal circumstances, the front hall shouldn’t be this dim.
The hall was not only dark but also chilly, with a faint smell of dust. Though Bubu Wang stepped on a wool carpet, it couldn’t help shivering.
The front hall’s furnishings were sparse—pillars stood tall, the space relatively empty. Clearly, after the Black King’s death, everything had been removed. Spiderwebs in the corners showed that no one had tended to this place for a long time.
A few small gray-white spiders crawled past Bubu Wang, immediately catching its attention. The five tiny spiders were marching in a single file, their steps perfectly synchronized.
As Bubu Wang advanced deeper into the front hall, spiderwebs on the walls and pillars grew thicker. Eventually, dozens of large silk sacs hung from the ceiling.
“Help... help...”
A low, hoarse plea for help came from one of the sacs. Bubu Wang stopped, trying to move toward the source.
Finally, Bubu Wang stopped beneath a half-damaged silk sac. Inside was a stark white skeleton. The skeleton’s hand bones clutched a metal rod, and the sound came from there.
Bubu Wang studied the skeleton carefully. Preliminary judgment: this was a contractor who had died at least a few years ago, evident from the damaged equipment inside the sac.
After confirming no anomalies nearby, Bubu Wang lightly touched a piece of equipment with its claw tip, then quickly retreated.
‘Master, this is a contractor from Death Paradise. The equipment is locked, and its rank isn’t displayed.’
In the Empire Council Hall, Su Xiao was somewhat surprised. Not because a Death Paradise contractor had entered the Black King World, but because he wondered why there were so many spiders in the front hall.
‘Explore as needed. If things go wrong, pull out immediately.’
‘Leave it to me.’
After replying to Su Xiao, Bubu Wang chose to continue forward. Clearly, sharing information in the team channel was a wise move, bolstering Bubu Wang’s courage significantly.
Bubu Wang had a major weakness: it was afraid of ghosts. What kind of ghosts? Even it couldn’t say for sure. This likely stemmed from watching horror movies during its newborn phase, leaving an indelible memory.
With a string of garlic around its neck, three crosses, five small peachwood swords, and half a bag of salt, Bubu Wang pressed on. It felt immense pressure—understandable, given all the junk hanging from its neck.
Before entering the deepest inner corridor of the front hall, Bubu Wang stopped a second time. A massive spider blocked the way. At least five meters tall, its oval abdomen was the size of a house. Its eight colorful legs gleamed with metallic luster at the tips.
Even more terrifying, half a woman grew from the giant spider’s abdomen.
[Queen Meredith (Overlord-Level Creature)]
This was the only information Bubu Wang could detect. Everything else was question marks.
At that moment, Meredith was resting on the ground, countless strands of silk attached to her legs, sensing her surroundings.
Meredith completely blocked the inner corridor. The wall behind her was thick with webs. To go deeper into the hall, she had to be dealt with.
If it came to a fight with this overlord-level creature, not even Su Xiao might survive—let alone Bubu Wang. This thing was far beyond what a fifth-rank contractor could handle.
Bubu Wang had no intention of going head-to-head. It pulled a large megaphone from its storage space and aimed it at the woman protruding from the spider’s abdomen.
After taking a step back, Bubu Wang pressed the switch in its paw.
“Sleeping your ass off! Get up and party!!”
The roar of the Second Brother of the National Football Team blasted from the megaphone. Meredith, who had been sleeping, jolted upright, her eight legs stabbing into the ceiling. Even as an overlord-level boss, she was genuinely startled.
The woman on the spider’s abdomen opened her eyes wide, as if she hadn’t been so shocked in a long time. Her purple hair hung down as she let out a silent scream.
Boom...
The entire front hall shook. Everywhere Bubu Wang looked, colorful spiders swarmed. Its tail nearly froze in terror as it bolted into the inner corridor.
Having successfully entered the inner corridor, Bubu Wang hadn’t even caught its breath when a massive figure in black armor blocked the way. The corridor was five meters wide, but this giant-like guard nearly filled it entirely.
Bubu Wang flattened itself to the ground and slowly crawled past the black-armored giant’s feet. Voldemort-mode Bubu Wang had reached its limit.
After passing through the inner corridor, Bubu Wang saw dozens of black-armored giants standing in the central hall. At the deepest end, on a high platform, a pitch-black throne stood. Without a doubt, that was the Black Throne. Bubu Wang could even see the World Core embedded in the throne’s armrest.
But a figure was sitting on the throne. Through the dim light, Bubu Wang made out the figure’s appearance, and its pupils rapidly contracted.
Sitting on the throne seemed to be Ken Lahan—the old divine stick!