The six-legged monster glided through the air, its shadow swallowing Rian’s body as he leaned against the concrete wall. The stench of rot, like decaying flesh mixed with sulfur, burned his nose. In front of him, one of Gardo’s men, a heavyset guy who had laughed the loudest earlier, did not even have time to scream."Argh!"The sickening crack of bone echoed through the narrow alley. The creature landed squarely on the thug’s shoulders, its kitchen-knife-length fangs plunging straight into his neck. Fresh blood sprayed across the wall, splattering Rian’s face as he stood frozen just inches away."Run! Gardo, help me!" the other thug shouted, but his voice cut off the moment he saw Gardo already ten meters ahead, sprinting for his life without looking back."You bastard, Gardo!" Rian shouted, his voice still hoarse.The monster’s red eyes shifted. It released its lifeless prey, letting the body slam onto the asphalt. Its forked tongue licked the blood from its snout, then focused enti

"I’m starving. It feels like my stomach’s about to explode," Budi complained, clutching his growling belly.Rian glanced at the law student with a flat expression. "Hold it in. If you can’t handle hunger, you’ll end up as food for whatever’s waiting ahead."Siska, limping beside Rian, pointed toward a wrecked convenience store at the end of the intersection. "There... there’s an Alfamidi over there. But something’s weird. Why are the doors shut tight when all the glass is already shattered?"Pak Kus wiped the sweat from his forehead with a grimy towel. "Maybe someone’s hiding inside?""Not someone," Rian replied coldly. He stopped, narrowing his eyes, which could now see faint lines of energy thanks to his Player status. "Something big is behind the cashier counter. I can smell the stench from here.""Shouldn’t we just find somewhere else?" Dodi asked, his voice trembling. "We just need bread and water.""Every convenience store within a two-kilometer radius already has a ‘keeper,’" R

The roar of the helicopter engine slicing through Jakarta’s quiet morning sounded like a saw grinding against the eardrum. On the rooftop of a three-story shophouse, now converted into a makeshift fortress, Rian Arka stood motionless. The powerful gust from the rotor blades of the military Bell 412 whipped his black T-shirt violently, yet his body remained upright, unmoving.His left leg, once weak and withered, now looked sturdier, wrapped in a crudely stitched guard made from monster hide. Even at rest, he still leaned slightly to one side, but the aura he radiated was no longer that of a bullied teenager. There was a cold sharpness in his eyes, the kind that only came from slaughtering hundreds of monsters over the past two weeks.“Rian! They’re landing!” Siska shouted from the rooftop access door.The girl jogged toward him. In her hand was a short wooden staff with a chunk of glass-like crystal embedded at its tip, her new weapon after reaching Level 18. Behind her, Gardo looked

Cosmic dust still drifted through the dry air, scraping against the remnants of lightning energy that had just torn across the sky. In the middle of the scorched expanse, Rian Arka stood motionless. His crippled leg trembled, not merely from physical exhaustion, but from the weight of millions of lines of code he had just forced into his soul."Boss? You... you’re still alive?" Siska’s voice broke the suffocating silence.Rian did not answer right away. He stared at his palm. Faint blue lines glowed beneath his skin, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. Each beat triggered a transparent system window that flickered at the corner of his vision, displaying an endless stream of data.Synchronization: 88%. Status: Integrated Entity."Rian!" Siska ran toward him, but her steps halted about three meters away. A cold aura radiated from his body, a pressure that made the hairs on the backs of the other Noob Slayer Guild members stand on end."Don’t come any closer yet, Siska," Rian murmured.

The sound of explosions on the horizon still left tremors running through the base floor when the front steel door was forced open. Siska immediately raised her staff, but Rian stopped her arm with a slow motion."Kenzo," Rian murmured. His deep red eyes fixed on the figure stepping inside with heavy strides. The leader of Elite Vanguard looked like the remnants of fading glory, his once gleaming armor now marred by deep scratches and dried bloodstains."You look pathetic, Rian," Kenzo said, his breathing strained. "A lot of people say you’ve become a god. But all I see is a cripple who’s gone half mad from swallowing the wrong code.""And you?" Rian forced himself to stand upright, even as his crippled leg trembled violently. "Where is that glorified elite force of yours? Where is the government you defended so proudly?"Kenzo clenched his fists until his iron gauntlets creaked. "They’re dead, Rian. Erased in seconds when that pillar of light appeared. Now all I have left are people