MY SYSTEM LOADS 10 SECONDS LATE

Chapter 5 : The Chaos Factor

The crimson glow radiating from the Crypt Weaver's chest pulsed like a dying star. The air distorted around it from sheer heat, turning the colosseum into an oven.

"Vance, get back!" Lana screamed, shielding her face from the blinding light. "It's a localized mana supernova! You'll be vaporized!"

Jaxen didn't listen. He kept sprinting, his eyes locked onto the cracks spreading across the monster's frozen carapace. He needed to find the core's structural weak point before it detonated.

*Five seconds.* The heat blistered his skin.

*Three seconds.* The crimson light blinded him.

*One second.*

*BOOM!*

The mana core ruptured. A tidal wave of pure, destructive crimson energy erupted from the beast, expanding outward in a perfect sphere. The moment the energy touched Jaxen, his flesh melted from his bones, and his consciousness disintegrated into absolute nothingness.

```

[ALERT: Detonation damage exceeded maximum threshold.]

[Status: Dead.]

[ACTIVATING TALENT: 'Hindsight Bias'...]

```

*Whoosh!*

Jaxen blinked. He was back at the edge of the altar, ten seconds before the explosion. The Crypt Weaver was just beginning to glow crimson.

"Lana!" Jaxen roared, already sprinting forward. "Don't cast defensive magic! Focus every ounce of your remaining mana into a single piercing wind spell! Aim for the glowing crack right beneath its sternum!"

"What?!" Lana stammered, but the sheer, unyielding authority in Jaxen's voice left her no room to argue. She slammed her staff into the ground. "Rank 3 Spell: **[Gale Piercer]**!"

A swirling, hyper-compressed lance of wind manifested at the tip of her staff.

Jaxen didn't stop running. He leaped onto a shattered pillar, throwing himself into the air toward the monster's chest. As he flew, he grabbed a discarded, heavy iron broadsword from one of the dead vanguard knights on the floor.

He didn't have the strength stat to pierce the chest manually. But he knew exactly when Lana's spell would hit.

*Three... Two... One...*

Lana's *[Gale Piercer]* slammed into the monster's sternum crack, drilling into the hardened carapace and creating a microscopic fracture in the core's containment field.

A millisecond later, Jaxen descended from above. He aligned the point of the heavy broadsword perfectly with the fracture, using his entire body weight as a hammer.

*CRACK.*

The blade sank three inches into the core.

The unstable crimson mana didn't explode outward this time. Instead, the sudden introduction of a grounding metal element into the fracture caused the magic to implode. The blinding light violently inverted, sucking back into the monster's body.

The Crypt Weaver stiffened. Its remaining seven eyes went completely dark.

With a final, hollow groan, the Level 120 Abyssal Boss collapsed forward, crashing onto the stone floor with a deafening thud. It was dead.

Silence descended upon the colosseum. The remaining vanguard knights stared in utter, paralyzing disbelief. An E-Rank scout had just orchestrated the downfall of a Calamity Beast.

Suddenly, a massive, golden chime echoed exclusively inside Jaxen's mind, followed by a cascade of system windows that completely blocked his vision.

```

[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: UNPRECEDENTED ACCOMPLISHMENT DETECTED.]

- You have slain an entity 115 levels above your current rank.

- Calculation of experience points... Adjusted for Solo-Contribution Phase.

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

...

[Your Level has increased from Level 5 to Level 42!]

[Fate Deviation Rate has reached 5.0%]

[Hidden Milestone Achieved: 'The One Who Defied Death']

[Unique Reward Unlocked: EX-Rank Chrono-Store access granted.]

```

Jaxen gasped as a torrential wave of raw, golden energy flooded his veins. The exhaustion vanished. His dull muscles tightened, expanding with newfound power as 37 levels of raw stat points dumped into his soul all at once. He could feel his perception slowing down, his strength multiplying exponentially.

Beside him, Lana staggered forward, using her staff to keep from falling. She stared at Jaxen as if he were an alien creature dropped from the sky.

"Vance..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "What... *what are you?*"

Before Jaxen could answer, the heavy stone exit doors of the colosseum didn't just unlock—they were violently blown inward by an external force.

A squad of high-ranking hunters clad in immaculate, glowing gold-and-white armor rushed into the chamber. At their front was a man wielding a burning sun-blade, his presence so oppressive it made the air hard to breathe. It was the main guild squad of the Iron Vanguard, led by an actual A-Rank Elite.

The A-Rank leader stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes scanning the room. He saw the dead knights, the crippled Garret, the exhausted Lana, and finally, the gargantuan, frozen corpse of the Level 120 Crypt Weaver.

"What happened here?!" the Leader demanded, his eyes flashing with authority. "We sensed an Abyssal mutation from the surface! Who cleared this room?!"

Garret, dragging his poisoned leg forward, immediately pointed a trembling finger straight at Jaxen. "He did! Captain! It was Jaxen Vance! The kid has been hiding his strength—he's a monster! He predicted every single attack!"

The A-Rank leader's eyes locked onto Jaxen, heavy pressure washing over the room.

Jaxen stood calmly among the debris, his hand resting on the hilt of the broadsword buried in the monster's chest. He looked at the elite hunters, then down at his glitching, golden Chrono-System interface.

The tutorial was over. His new life had just begun.