The spell of silence shattered. It was replaced by an auditory tsunami of ten thousand screaming voices!
"HE ONE SHOTTED IT! HE JUST ONE SHOTTED A LEVEL 30 BOSS!"
"HACKER! HE'S USING A DEV ACCOUNT!"
"REPORT HIM! EVERYONE MASS REPORT HIM RIGHT NOW!"
Sebastian ignored the frantic, overlapping screeches of the player base. He had zero interest in their pathetic outcries. He was a man on a strict schedule, and the apocalypse waits for no fucking one.
He stepped over the massive puddle of glowing blood and approached the severed neck of the Doom-Howl Wolf. The physics engine was still stuttering, rendering the gore in sickening detail.
SQUELCH.
Sebastian plunged his bare hands directly into the steaming, ruined stump of the beast's neck. He dug through the digital meat and shattered bone. His forearms were coated in thick, hot viscera.
"Fuck, this is disgusting," he muttered to himself. "But necessary."
His fingers brushed against something hard, metallic, and pulsing with a deep vibrating energy. He gripped it and yanked it free.
It was the Heart of the Wolf. It looked like a massive jagged ruby beating with a slow internal fire. It was a legendary crafting material essential for upgrading the core infrastructure of a true Sanctuary.
[Item Acquired: Heart of the Doom-Howl Wolf]
But it wasn't the real prize.
He dug his hand back into the gore. A moment later, he pulled out a small unassuming slab of blackened iron. It bore the etched insignia of a crossed sword and shield.
[Item Acquired: Guild Creation Token]
[Grade: Mythic]
[Description: Grants the bearer the absolute authority to establish a recognized faction and lay claim to server territory.]
Sebastian let out a breathless laugh. A genuine, relieved smile. He had the anchor. He had the token. He had everything he needed to build his fortress.
He shoved both items into his inventory.
The moment the items vanished from his hands, the chaotic screaming of the crowd shifted. The awe and accusations of hacking were instantly overridden by a much more primal gamer instinct. Unadulterated, blinding greed.
"HE LOOTED IT!" Viper shrieked.
The Crimson Skull leader was pointing his broadsword at Sebastian. His face was twisted in a mask of pure avarice.
"HE HAS THE GUILD TOKEN! THE DROP ISN'T BOUND UNTIL HE USES IT!"
Baron_K was covered in the mud and blood from the Wolf's collapse. He snapped out of his stupor, the rich kid's eyes dilating.
"Lions! Forget the boss! Kill the Drifter! If he dies, his inventory drops! Get that token!"
The realization rippled through the valley like a spark hitting a powder keg.
The World Boss was dead, but the loot was standing right there. A Level 10 player in starter cloth. He was completely unarmored. He was surrounded by ten thousand heavily armed, desperate gamers who all wanted the ultimate prize.
It didn't matter that he had just decapitated a monster with his bare hands. Gamer logic dictated that if it bleeds, it can be killed, and if it can be killed, it can be looted.
"CHARGE!"
The entire valley surged forward. It was a terrifying, claustrophobic tidal wave of steel, magic, and bodies. Crimson Skulls, Golden Lions, and thousands of unaligned solo players all charged the center. They were a mindless zombie horde hungry for the ultimate drop.
Sebastian stood amidst the charging army.
Shit. He could use Dimensional Sever. He could carve them into ribbons. He could use Solar Flare and turn the entire valley into a glass crater.
But he wasn't here to grind experience off a bunch of greedy idiots. Mass-murdering ten thousand players would drain his mana, exhaust his stamina, and waste precious time. He had what he came for. It was time to get the hell out of here.
He opened his inventory and pulled out a thin, moldy pamphlet. He had purchased it for a handful of copper back in the village.
[Item: Basic Levitate]
[Tier: 0 Utility Spell]
It was a joke spell. A parlor trick used by roleplayers to look mildly magical in the taverns.
Sebastian crushed the book in his fist. The motes of light absorbed into his skin.
[Skill Registration: Basic Levitate]
[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000]
The beautiful sound of the system violently breaking its own rules chimed in his head.
[Ding! Basic Levitate -> Evolution -> Tier 1: Float]
[Proficiency Overflow -> Evolution -> Tier 3: Sky Walk]
[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached]
[Sky Walk evolves to Conceptual Law: Absolute Flight]
The front line of the Golden Lions was ten feet away. A massive Guardian leaped forward. His heavy mace was swinging down toward Sebastian's skull.
"Die, trash!" the Guardian roared.
Sebastian didn't dodge. He just looked up.
He tapped into his overflowing mana pool. He didn't cast a spell. He simply revoked gravity's permission to affect him.
BOOM!
Sebastian shot into the sky like a surface-to-air missile!
The displacement of air from his sudden, violent ascension created a localized sonic boom. The charging Guardian was thrown face-first into the mud.
CRACK!
His mace shattered against the ground where Sebastian had been standing a millisecond prior.
Sebastian soared upward and broke through the low-hanging corrupted clouds. He stopped perfectly still at an altitude of five hundred feet. He hovered there, his ragged cloak snapping violently in the high-altitude winds. He looked down at the sea of confused, angry players.
"Where the fuck did he go?!" Viper screamed, looking around frantically.
"Up there! Look up!" someone yelled.
Ten thousand heads tilted upward. They saw the tiny, floating silhouette of the Drifter suspended against the grey sky.
"He's flying?! How is he flying?! There are no flight mounts in the game yet!" Baron_K shrieked, his voice cracking with sheer frustration. "Ranged DPS! Shoot him down! Shoot him down right now!"
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Hundreds of arrows and low-tier magical bolts arced into the sky. It was a pathetic display. The projectiles lost their momentum at a hundred feet. They rained harmlessly back down onto the heads of the melee players below.
Sebastian looked down at the chaotic, uncoordinated mess. They were like angry crabs in a bucket.
"Fucking roaches," he muttered. "Let's give them some cover fire to remember me by."
He extended his hands downward. He didn't use Solar Flare. That was too expensive. Instead, he pulled out his basic Fireball. It was the Tier 1 evolution of his very first spell.
Because of his 10,000x multiplier, even his Tier 1 spells were maxed out. They possessed a cast time of absolute zero.
He didn't aim. He just started snapping his fingers in rapid succession.
Fzzt! Fzzt! Fzzt! Fzzt!
A literal rain of fire descended from the heavens!
Dozens of perfectly spherical, super-heated fireballs plummeted toward the valley floor like an artillery barrage. They didn't just burn. They exploded with the concussive force of mortar shells.
The first fireball hit the center of the Crimson Skull formation.
KRA-DOOM!
A dozen heavily armored tanks were instantly vaporized. Their digital bodies were blown apart, leaving behind a crater of scorched earth.
The second fireball hit the Golden Lions. The third hit the clustered solo players.
BOOM! CRUNCH!
"AHHHHH!"
The Valley of Echoes turned into a horrifying, fiery meat grinder. Players were screaming and scattering in absolute panic as the sky rained relentless, indiscriminate death.
The 'hacker' wasn't just escaping. He was carpet-bombing them for having the audacity to try and loot him.
Sebastian didn't stick around to watch his kill count rise. He turned mid-air and left the screaming, burning valley behind him. He engaged his flight speed.
He shot across the sky like a dark comet heading straight for his hideout in the Ironhold sewers. He had a city to build.