Started with a 10,000x Multiplier in a Game World

The forty-eight-hour lockdown on the Sakura Nation had officially expired.

The impenetrable dimensional barrier surrounding Outpost 808 dissolved.

It allowed millions of furious and heavily delayed players to finally flood into the open world.

The sheer volume of the exodus crashed the localized transit networks and forced entire guilds to march on foot across the map.

Ryujin, Guild Master of the Black Dragon Syndicate, did not march with his army.

He was absolutely seething.

The systemic humiliation of the automated fact-check and the two-day quarantine had completely shattered his reputation.

He had lost his corporate sponsorships, and his elite lieutenants had abandoned him.

He needed to vent his frustration.

He needed to find an isolated target, murder them, and post the footage to the forums to prove he was still a top-tier player.

Ryujin was currently stalking the jagged rocky perimeter of a mid-game canyon in the neutral wildlands far away from the major cities.

He wore his premium crimson samurai armor, and the Gold-tier katana rested heavily on his shoulder.

He spotted a single player walking down the narrow dirt path below.

The player wasn’t heavily armored.

She wore a simple bright red combat tunic and baggy trousers. Her dark hair was tied up in twin buns.

She wasn’t carrying a sword or a magical staff.

She was carrying a massive incredibly heavy-looking cast-iron frying pan.

[ID: Mei (Hua Nation)]

[Level: 42]

"A Level 42 Brawler," Ryujin muttered. A cruel smile spread across his face.

She was completely alone. No party members, no backup. Just a girl with a joke weapon.

Ryujin didn’t know that Mei was part of the anomaly squad of Dante.

He hadn’t seen her in the Wyrmrest Caverns or the Sky Demon Forest because he had been locked inside the beginner zone during both events.

He just saw a squishy unarmored target.

"Perfect," Ryujin whispered.

He didn’t announce his presence.

He activated a high-tier stealth skill, and his crimson armor blurred into the shadows of the canyon wall.

He dropped silently from the ridge and landed directly behind her.

He raised his Gold-tier katana and fully intended to execute a lethal backstab.

He swung the blade.

Mei didn’t turn around. She didn’t dodge.

She simply swung the massive cast-iron frying pan backward. She was entirely blind and anticipated the strike purely through the shift in air pressure.

CLANG!

The Gold-tier katana slammed into the indestructible surface of the [God-Slaying Skillet].

The [Perfect Block] passive triggered instantly. The kinetic force of the stealth attack of Ryujin was completely absorbed.

Ryujin staggered backward. His arms vibrated violently from the recoil.

The stealth skill broke and completely exposed his position.

Mei turned around slowly.

"Rude," Mei stated cheerfully and rested the massive pan on her shoulder.

"You got lucky, glitch," Ryujin snarled and gripped his katana with both hands.

"Do you know who I am? I am the God-King of the Sakura Nation! I am going to chop you into pieces and mount your head on a spike!"

"God-King?" Pip the miniature dragon popped his head out of the tunic of Mei.

The tiny familiar looked at the samurai armor, then burst into a high-pitched screeching laugh.

"Mei! It is the guy who got locked in the closet by the system! It is the clown!"

The face of Ryujin flushed an ugly violent shade of purple. "I will kill your pet first!"

He charged and activated his fastest most devastating sword art.

The katana blurred into a flurry of lethal strikes aiming to overwhelm her blocking arc.

Mei didn’t step back. She stepped into the flurry.

She swung the [God-Slaying Skillet].

She wasn’t just blocking. She was actively parrying.

Every time the katana came near her, the pan intercepted it.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

"You are swinging too wide," Mei critiqued. She was completely unbothered by the assault.

"You are relying entirely on the base stats of the weapon. Your footwork is terrible."

Ryujin roared in frustration and brought the katana down in a massive overhead chop.

Mei didn’t block it. She sidestepped smoothly to let the blade crash into the dirt.

Before Ryujin could pull the sword free, Mei brought the massive frying pan down directly onto the top of his custom premium samurai helmet.

BONK.

The sound wasn’t a metallic crash. It was a hollow cartoonish thud.

The system interface above the head of Mei flashed brightly.

[Hidden Multiplier Triggered: Knock on the Head.]

[Blunt Force Trauma increased by 500%.]

[Guaranteed Concussion Applied.]

Ryujin froze completely.

The massive multiplying blunt force trauma completely bypassed his physical mitigation.

His health bar plummeted.

His avatar began to sway unsteadily, and a ring of spinning digital stars actually appeared above his helmet.

"Timber," Pip giggled.

Ryujin collapsed face-first into the dirt, and his health bar completely zeroed out from a single hit to the head.

[-35,000! OVERKILL!]

The Guild Master of the Black Dragon Syndicate exploded into a cloud of blue pixels and suffered his second humiliating defeat in less than a week.

Because Ryujin had initiated the unprovoked attack, the PvP penalty system of the game triggered aggressively.

He didn’t just drop a few silver coins. He dropped a massive glowing black artifact.

Pip immediately swooped down and snatched the item before it could hit the dirt.

"Mei! Look!" Pip cheered and hauled the heavy item back to her.

[Item Appraised: Heart of the Black Dragon]

[Tier: Dark Demon]

[Type: Core Material]

"A Dark Demon core," Mei smiled and tossed the massive frying pan back onto her shoulder.

"The Boss is going to love this. We can definitely afford a premium hotpot tonight."

She turned and continued her walk down the canyon path.

She completely ignored the fact that she had just casually executed the leader of a rival nation.

***

Back in the pristine high-security corporate penthouse in Aethelgardia, Dante was currently staring at his system interface.

He wasn’t looking at his new [Asura Vanguard] stats or reviewing the massive pile of loot he had gathered in the Path of Gods and Demons.

He was reading a frantic highly encrypted direct message from Casanova.

[Casanova: BOSS! We have a massive problem! Silas is not sitting in his guildhall licking his wounds. He is actively hunting us!]

[Dan: I know he issued a bounty. I told you guys to stay in the safe zones.]

[Casanova: We did! But the independent players who joined Aegis Vanguard did not!]

[Casanova: We have fifty thousand members out in the open world trying to level up, and Vanguard’s Legacy is slaughtering them!]

Dante frowned and leaned closer to the interface.

[Dan: Clarify.]

[Casanova: Silas formed specialized high-mobility death squads. They are entirely composed of his top-tier lieutenants and Enforcers.]

[Casanova: They are bypassing the standard grinding zones and explicitly targeting anyone wearing our guild tag.]

[Casanova: They are not just killing them, Boss. They are camping their respawns. They are completely locking our members out of the game.]

The red eyes of Dante narrowed.

The Asura class passive, [Aura of Despair], flared slightly and reacted to his rising anger. The temperature in the private suite dropped.

Silas knew he couldn’t beat Dante in a direct confrontation.

He knew he couldn’t breach the localized defenses of the [Astral Emporium].

So, he was targeting the weakest links.

He was using his remaining loyalists to aggressively bully and execute the independent players who had trusted Dante enough to join the First Guild.

He was trying to force Dante to disband the guild to save his members, or force Dante to come out and fight on his terms.

It was exactly the same tactic the Orthodox guilds had used against Kaelar during the First Cycle. They targeted the innocent to isolate the threat.

"He really does not learn," Dante whispered, and his voice was incredibly cold.

Dante opened the guild management interface.

He didn’t issue a retreat order. He didn’t tell his members to log off and hide.

[Guild Broadcast - Sender: Dan (Guild Master)]

[Message: All Aegis Vanguard members currently engaged in open-world combat, hold your positions. Do not drop your tags. Do not log off. Ping your exact coordinates to the guild channel.]

The response was immediate.

Dozens of frantic pings flooded the guild map and lit up localized skirmishes across the Veridian Alliance territory.

Dante didn’t ask Sera or Lila to join him. This wasn’t a dungeon run. This wasn’t a boss fight.

This was pest control.

He walked out onto the balcony of his penthouse, and the heavy tattered crimson fabric of his newly modified cape blew in the high-altitude wind.

He activated the flight passive.

Dante launched himself into the sky above the Capital and shot toward the closest ping on his map.

He wasn’t going to let Vanguard’s Legacy dictate the flow of the war.

If Silas wanted to send death squads to hunt his guild, Dante was going to personally hunt the hunters.