Chapter 122 – The Sight Beyond Sight "Tell me something, Angy," Max’s voice cut through the silence like a knife. "You really think anyone wants a companion who might get them killed?" "I... I..." she stammered, shoulders shrinking as shame crept into her tone. Of course not. She knew that. But hearing it from him made the truth hit harder. "If you can’t change," he continued coldly, "then people will die because of you. You won’t save a damn thing." --- Max returned to his room in the dead hush of midnight, the echo of their conversation still burning behind his eyes. What he’d told her was cruel, maybe. But necessary. He didn’t regret a word. There was no room for softness in what lay ahead. The battlefield wasn’t a fucking therapy session. He sat on the edge of his bed and pulled open the Xeon System interface. He’d just cleared th

Chapter 124 - First Encounter Within the BoundaryMax stepped through the shimmering breach just as it closed behind him, sealing off the world he came from. What greeted him on the other side was a vast expanse of dense, towering forest. The trees stretched impossibly high, their thick canopies dimming the morning light. It was deathly quiet, save for the occasional whisper of wind through leaves, a stillness that held tension like a coiled spring.The forest here was simply an extension of the one Max patrolled nightly, yet everything felt sharper, colder. It wasn’t just the literal chill in the air—it was the feeling of being watched. The hairs on Max’s neck stood on edge, though he kept his expression composed.He glanced at his wrist, where a faintly glowing green bracelet rested. With a single tap—Trrooiinn!—a holographic map flickered into the air, aligning itself to his face.Zing!It dissolved into a stream of

Chapter 126 – Without the System’s HandMax Vale darted through the mist-choked forest, a living blur of motion—more phantom than flesh. His form carved the dusk, slashing and weaving with a precision that defied the chaos of the battlefield.Each time his claw arced through the air, it wasn’t just brute force—it was atomic disintegration layered over the Bloodwolf’s blade-sharp limbs. Threads of solar worm flesh split open like silk under a scalpel, hissing as they unraveled from their centers.The eleventh kill marked the end of the ambush in that quadrant. Max didn’t pause.He bolted east, lungs burning with the strange gas that had soaked the air. Each breath clawed at his insides like acid, but he didn’t falter. His nerve endings screamed numbness, then slowly, as the toxins thinned, sensation bled back into his limbs.Behind him, the enemy regrouped.The worms—massive and grotesque—dragged themselves up tree trunks and thro

Chapter 128 – The Hand That Shapes the FutureWithin the burning borderlands, the swarm of solar worms coiled restlessly before the sparse woodland fringe. The glowing, writhing monstrosities radiated unrelenting waves of heat as they scanned the treeline with sensory tendrils flaring and twitching. Their numbers had thinned—felled by a lone predator—and now they searched for the ghost who had dared touch their kind. But Max Vale was already long gone.Inside the borderlands, Max had spent nearly two hours weaving through superheated terrain and hiding from monstrous heat-signatures. The adrenaline had faded by now, replaced by an aching fatigue and the creeping tension of unfinished duty.“I should be out patrolling,” he muttered, brushing soot from his singed sleeve, “in case any rogue Xeon Users wander too close tonight... even though the chances are low.”His thoughts circled bitterly. The last few hours had reminded him just how crucial the X

Chapter 130 – The Crystal of Salitre FlameThe cavern’s winding maw stretched endlessly before Max, its mouth so wide it could swallow a building whole. Even in his Solar Shell form, he moved with care, weaving through the glowing stalactites that dripped luminous blue essence from the ceiling.The Xeon System hummed softly within him, its reactivation a constant whisper at the back of his mind. Though his vision was warped into a curved, 270-degree panorama, Max remained alert, inspecting every inch of the cave with militant scrutiny.The goal was simple: explore, scan for anomalies, and when the opportunity arose—harvest EXP.What he hadn’t expected was the sight of Solar Worms mating.The process was grotesque. Thick, glowing mucus was exchanged as the worms coiled into knots, writhing in strange rhythmic spasms. It made Max's stomach churn with nausea.“Fucking hell,” he muttered internally. “I’d rather kill myself than be re