Infinite Survival: My 10,000x Return System

The Vanguard Bastion was no longer an elite military academy. It was a graveyard of shattered marble and broken pride.

The fires from the Cult of the Ascendant’s invasion had barely been put out when the sky tore open once again.

This time it wasn’t a jagged chaotic portal. It was a perfectly smooth golden tear in the fabric of reality.

From the golden rift, a suffocating unbearable pressure descended upon the academy. It bypassed the physical senses and crushed the very souls of the surviving students and instructors.

Men and women who had trained their entire lives dropped to their knees. They vomited blood as their magical cores violently compressed under the sheer weight of the aura.

Floating down from the heavens was Kaelen. He was an Apex Overseer. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

He wore immaculate glowing golden armor that seemed to reject the very dirt and smog of the mortal world. In his right hand, he held the World-Suppressing Halberd. It was a weapon that hummed with the absolute Laws of the World.

"Disgusting," Kaelen sneered. His voice echoed like thunder across the ruined courtyard. "A world of livestock wallowing in their own filth. Sylvia Thorne! Bring out the anomaly or I will wipe this entire miserable stain from the cosmos!"

Across the courtyard, Caden Cross stood on trembling legs.

The sixteen-year-old protagonist was covered in deep gashes. His wooden training sword was splintered and soaked in the blood of Cult hounds. He was exhausted and running on nothing but pure grit and willpower.

"I won’t let you hurt anyone else!" Caden roared. His naive sense of justice overrode his survival instincts.

Caden forced his battered body forward. He tapped into the hidden inheritance of the Fallen Wind Sage he had miraculously absorbed hours prior.

A massive tornado of razor-sharp wind enveloped the boy as he swung his broken sword at the floating deity.

"Haaaaa!"

In the depths of the Abyssal Rift miles away and rocketing upward at supersonic speeds, Arthur’s system chimed wildly.

[Ding!]

[System Notification]

↳ Employee Target Caden Cross is breaking through mortal limits!

↳ Target has reached the Grandmaster Tier!

↳ 10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated! Host is receiving massive passive foundation reinforcement!

Arthur laughed as he flew. He felt his muscles gorge on the sudden massive influx of refined combat experience and energy.

"Keep swinging kid. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes."

Back in the courtyard, Caden’s Grandmaster-tier wind blade struck Kaelen’s invisible barrier.

"CRACK!"

The wind blade shattered into a gentle breeze. Kaelen didn’t even blink. He looked at Caden with the absolute apathy of a man looking at a cockroach.

"A mortal insect mimicking a bite," Kaelen sighed. He flicked his wrist.

A wave of kinetic force slammed into Caden. It shattered his ribs and sent the boy flying backward through two stone pillars.

Caden crumpled into the rubble and coughed up a massive pool of blood. He was entirely incapacitated.

"Anyone else?" Kaelen mocked.

"I am the Headmistress of this academy," a cold commanding voice echoed across the square.

Sylvia Thorne stepped out from the ruined administration building. Her silver combat uniform was pristine. Her glacial blue eyes locked onto the Overseer with absolute defiance.

She didn’t kneel. She didn’t tremble.

"Sylvia," Kaelen smirked. He floated down until his boots hovered inches above the marble. "The runaway cauldron. I see your curse is broken. No matter. You will submit and you will tell me where the anomaly who shattered Tristan Blackwood’s projection is hiding."

"I submit to no one from your parasitic realm," Sylvia stated coldly. "And my Commander does not hide."

Deep beneath the earth, Arthur’s system flared again.

[Ding!]

[Host Information]

↳ Host is approaching Vanguard Bastion.

↳ Does Host wish to purchase Omni-Broadcast Node from the System Shop?

↳ Cost: 100,000 System Points. Effect: Broadcasts visual and audio feeds to the consciousness of every living being in the planetary domain.

"Buy it. Turn it on," Arthur commanded in his mind as he ripped through the crust of the earth. "If we’re taking over, I want the whole market to watch the hostile takeover."

Instantly across the entire Mortal Domain, every king emperor peasant and cultivator gasped. A crystal-clear holographic projection of the Vanguard Bastion appeared in their minds.

They saw the golden God. They saw the ruined academy.

"Insolent whore," Kaelen spat as he raised his free hand. "I will break your legs and drag you back to Tristan by your silver hair!"

"Whoosh!"

Kaelen fired a condensed bolt of golden divine energy directly at Sylvia’s knees. It was a casual strike meant to cripple but it carried enough force to level a mountain.

Sylvia didn’t flinch. She raised her hand and tapped into the passive 10 percent feedback loop she received from Arthur’s monstrous Pseudo-Ascended core.

"Absolute Zero," she whispered.

A wall of pure hyper-dense ice erupted from the marble. The golden bolt slammed into the ice.

"BOOM!"

The shockwave tore the remaining tiles from the courtyard but the ice wall held. It didn’t even crack.

Kaelen’s smug expression vanished. It was replaced by sheer unfiltered shock.

A mortal even an Arch-Mage blocking a divine strike with raw mana was mathematically impossible. The entire world watching through Arthur’s broadcast held its collective breath.

"You. What kind of heretical power is that?!" Kaelen roared.

His grip tightened on the World-Suppressing Halberd. The weapon began to hum and warp the gravity around him.

"Fine! If this planet breeds such anomalies, then Tristan’s orders are void. I declare a Cleansing! I will wipe this entire miserable sphere from the cosmos!"

Kaelen raised the Halberd high above his head. He drew in the ambient mana of the entire continent. The sky turned pitch black as a swirling vortex of destructive energy gathered at the tip of his blade.

Sylvia gritted her teeth. She felt the sheer weight of a planetary-wipe attack. Even with Arthur’s feedback, she couldn’t stop an attack meant to shatter the crust of the world.

"Die with your livestock!" Kaelen screamed and swung the Halberd down.

"Shhhhhhck!"

A piercing shrieking sound of displaced air tore through the atmosphere at Mach 50.

Before Kaelen’s Halberd could complete its downward arc, a streak of pitch-black metal slammed down from the heavens.

"CLANG!"

The Ebonheart Sword struck the World-Suppressing Halberd with such absurd kinetic force that it ripped the weapon directly out of Kaelen’s hands. The black sword drove the divine halberd deep into the bedrock pinning it firmly to the earth.

Kaelen stumbled back. His hands were stinging and his eyes were wide with disbelief.

The dark clouds parted. Floating down from the sky with his hands tucked casually into his pockets was Arthur Sterling.