The transition from the freezing and sterile atmosphere of the Crypt of Silence back into the industrial runoff sewers of Ironhold was a harsh sensory shock.
The scent of vaporized digital bone was instantly replaced by the oppressive and humid stench of toxic green sludge and rotting refuse.
Splash. Sebastian stepped out of the dissolving portal. The grey wireframe polygons shifted back into the solid and moss covered stone wall of the dead end.
He slipped the newly acquired Ring of Space onto his finger. He felt the immediate and comforting expansion of his digital storage limits.
He tossed the Grimoire of Souls into the void of his inventory to be analyzed later.
Behind him, Grog emerged from the rock face. He coughed violently and swatted at the toxic fumes.
The massive Ogre's rusted iron shield was still radiating a faint and dull heat from the catastrophic nuclear flash of the boss room.
"Grog thought he was going to melt," the mercenary complained, rubbing his soot stained face. "Little boss fights like a crazy demon. Too much fire. Not enough smashing."
"You got paid to carry, man, not to complain," Sebastian replied.
His silver True Sight eyes faded back to their normal dark human hue.
The mana drain of maintaining the conceptual law was negligible. But the visual overload of seeing the world's source code gave him a mild headache.
He adjusted his ragged Drifter cloak and began the trek back down the cavernous sewer tunnel. He intended to find a secure and elevated alcove to plant the City Core.
He didn't make it twenty paces.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The ambient and dripping silence of the sewers was suddenly shattered by the heavy and synchronized clanking of armored boots!
Sebastian stopped. He didn't tense, but his posture shifted into a state of relaxed readiness.
From the shadows of the intersection ahead, a massive blockade of players emerged. There were fifty of them!
They were all wearing the pristine and obnoxiously polished crimson and gold plate armor of the Golden Lion guild.
They formed a tight and impenetrable shield wall across the width of the sewer tunnel. Their polished broadswords and loaded crossbows gleamed in the dim light of the toxic runoff.
Floating above the front line was a player clad in glittering diamond encrusted armor. It offered terrible stats but cost thousands of real world dollars in the cosmetic shop.
[Player Information]
↳ Name: Baron_K
↳ Title: Guild Master of Golden Lions
↳ Level: 18
Baron_K stepped forward. A smug and arrogant grin was plastered across his face.
He rested a hand on the hilt of a glowing and enchanted longsword.
"Did you really think you could hide from me, you broke piece of trash?" Baron_K sneered. His voice echoed off the curved stone walls.
"I own the tracker NPCs in Ironhold. The moment you stepped out of the auction house, I had eyes on you."
Sebastian looked at the guild master. He looked at the fifty heavily armed players blocking his path.
He let out a slow and tired sigh.
'In the real apocalypse, this guy would be one of the first to die!' Sebastian smiled bitterly.
When the safety protocols dropped and pain receptors were fully engaged, kids who bought their power with daddy's credit card usually folded the moment a monster tore off a limb.
But right now, inside the game, they were a loud and obnoxious obstacle taking up his valuable time!
"Man, you're standing in toxic sludge," Sebastian pointed out calmly. "Your gear durability is ticking down right now."
Baron_K laughed loudly. It was a grating and entitled sound. The guild members behind him chuckled in unison.
"I don't care about a minor debuff, Drifter. I care about my pride. You humiliated me in the auction house. You bought a trash shard just to spite me."
"I I bought it because I needed it," Sebastian said, deadpan. "You're just a side effect."
Baron_K's face flushed red with sudden anger!
He drew his glowing sword and pointed it directly at Sebastian's chest.
"Kill the Ogre. Chain the Drifter. We are going to camp his spawn point until his level drops to zero and his inventory spills into the dirt. I want that shard, and I want every piece of copper on his corpse!"
"Grog smash shiny men?" the Ogre asked. He stepped forward and eagerly hoisted his heavy shield.
"No," Sebastian said quietly. He held up a hand to stop the mercenary. "They aren't worth the stamina."
Sebastian didn't draw his Rusty Iron Dagger. He didn't activate his Void Walk.
He simply opened his inventory and pulled out the last of the trash tier skill books he had purchased in the market.
[Basic Slow]
It was a Tier 0 debuff used by beginner mages to slightly reduce the movement speed of fleeing slimes.
He crushed the book in his palm. The grey motes of light sank into his skin, and the system immediately threw a fit!
[System Notification]
↳ Action Registered: Cast Basic Slow.
↳ Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000.
↳ Basic Slow leveled up to 10/10! Max Level Reached!
↳ Evolution Requirement Met.
↳ Basic Slow evolves to Tier 1: Weight of the Earth!
↳ Proficiency Overflow Detected! Weight of the Earth leveled up to 10/10!
↳ Evolution Requirement Met.
↳ Weight of the Earth evolves to Tier 3: Crushing Field!
↳ Proficiency Overflow Detected! Crushing Field leveled up to 10/10!
↳ WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Gravitational Law Unlocked.
↳ Crushing Field evolves to Conceptual Law: Gravity Well.
Sebastian didn't feel a surge of elemental energy. He didn't feel the heat of fire or the crackle of lightning.
He felt the terrifying and cold certainty of mass!
He understood on a fundamental level how to grab the invisible fabric of gravity and pull it straight down.
"Alright, boys! Rush him!" Baron_K screamed. He charged forward with his sword raised high.
RAAAAH!" The fifty Golden Lions let out a battle cry, splashing through the sludge as they rushed the lone Drifter.
Sebastian extended his right hand, palm facing the ground. He smoothly pushed his hand down.
He activated the Gravity Well!
VROOOOM.
He didn't target an individual. He targeted the fifty meter radius of the sewer tunnel directly in front of him.
He altered the localized gravitational constant of the server to exactly one hundred times normal Earth gravity!
The effect was instantaneous and absolute.
The battle cry of the Golden Lions turned into a collective and horrific shriek of agony that was violently cut short!
It was as if an invisible million ton anvil had been dropped directly onto their shoulders.
The fifty players didn't stumble. They didn't fall. They were violently and brutally slammed into the stone floor of the sewer!
CRACK! SNAP! THUD!
The sound was nauseating. It was a loud noise of screeching and twisting metal and wet and concussive impacts.
The pristine crimson and gold plate armor didn't protect them. It became a death trap!
Under 100 Gs of force, the steel breastplates instantly buckled inward. It crushed their digital ribcages into splinters.
Knees snapped backward with loud popping cracks as legs simply ceased to support the impossible weight.
Skulls slammed into the cobblestones with enough force to shatter the stone!
Baron_K had been leading the charge. He hit the ground so hard his diamond encrusted helmet flattened into a disc.
The physics engine of The Ethereal Plane screamed in protest!
It tried to calculate the extreme deformation of fifty character models simultaneously.
Blood didn't spray. It was forcefully squeezed out of their mouths, noses, and eyes. It pooled heavily on the floor, unable to splash upward.
They couldn't move! They couldn't breathe!
The sheer atmospheric pressure compressing their chests made expanding their lungs a physical impossibility.
They lay there in the toxic sludge, pinned like crushed insects under a boot. Their health bars rapidly hemorrhaged into the red!
Grog stood behind Sebastian. His jaw hung open and his piggy eyes were wide with pure terror.
He looked at his own massive hands. Then he looked at the squashed and twitching pile of armored players. He realized he was standing just inches outside the area of effect!
"Little boss..." Grog whispered. His voice trembled. "What did you do?"
"I introduced them to physics," Sebastian replied calmly.
He took a step forward and crossed the threshold into the Gravity Well.
The conceptual law recognized him as the caster. It granted him absolute immunity to the crushing force. To him, gravity was perfectly normal.
He walked casually through the field of groaning and dying players.
The air in the tunnel felt heavy and dense with the localized distortion of space.
He stopped next to Baron_K.
The guild master was lying on his back. His eyes bulged out of his skull, and blood leaked freely from his lips.
He was suffocating. His HP bar hovered at a mere two percent!
Sebastian crouched down. He didn't offer a villainous monologue. He didn't gloat.
He simply reached out and grabbed the glowing and enchanted longsword that had slipped from Baron_K's crushed hand.
He deposited it into his inventory.
Then he noticed a high tier agility ring on the guild master's trembling finger.
Sebastian placed his standard leather boot directly onto Baron_K's armored wrist.
He applied a tiny fraction of his weight, pinning the arm down. He calmly slid the ring off the struggling player's finger.
"Gurgk..." Baron_K gurgled. His eyes filled with a terror that transcended the digital game.
He was feeling the phantom pressure. He was feeling the absolute helplessness of being utterly dominated!
"Thanks for the delivery," Sebastian murmured. He pocketed the ring.
He stood up and continued walking through the sea of mangled bodies.
He systematically looted every dropped weapon, potion, and coin purse that had popped out of the players whose HP had finally hit zero.
He didn't look back.
He had a City Core to plant, and the apocalypse was ticking closer by the second!