Overflow Novice: 10,000 Years in Tutorial Hell

Chapter 8: Death by Chopstick

The release wasn’t a throw; it was a physical correction of reality.

The wooden chopstick, a cheap utensil meant for holding noodles, didn't so much fly through the air as it deleted the distance between Ryu’s hand and the Chimera’s core. The moment it left his fingertips, the air in the immediate vicinity didn't just move, it ignited. A localized vacuum formed behind the projectile, dragging a conical wake of shattered glass-asphalt and pulverized concrete behind it.

The sound followed a fraction of a second later, a whip-crack so violent it blew out the remaining windows of every skyscraper within a three-block radius.

The Chimera, encased in its 'Absolute Defense' sphere of swirling, compressed sand, didn't even have time to register a threat. To the beast, it was as if a god had reached down and poked a hole through its world. The chopstick struck the outer layer of the sand shield. Under the sheer kinetic energy of the impact, the sand didn't just scatter; it underwent instantaneous fusion, turning into a ring of jagged, glowing green glass before the projectile even touched the monster's hide.

Thump.

It was a wet, heavy sound. The chopstick pierced the beast’s 'Unbreakable' mana-core with the casual ease of a hot needle through a bubble. For a heartbeat, the world went silent. The Chimera froze, its three heads lolling in different directions, its glowing eyes flickering like a dying lightbulb.

Then, the physics caught up.

The energy transferred from the chopstick expanded outward from the core in a perfect sphere of destruction. The S-Rank Chimera didn't bleed; it simply ceased to be a solid object. It disintegrated into a fine, grey mist, followed by a shockwave that flattened the remaining sandstorm and sent a gale-force wind howling through the district, clearing the dust in an instant.

Ryu didn’t wait to see the loot drop. He didn't even wait for the XP notification, which he knew would just say 'Level 1' anyway.

"Crap," he muttered, looking at the melted asphalt beneath his sneakers. "Too much. I definitely used too much."

He glanced over his shoulder. Pyra Solstice was on her knees, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly agape as she stared at the empty space where a city-level threat had existed five seconds ago. Ravencrest Drake, the other hunter, was shielding his face from the wind, his combat posture completely forgotten.

Time to go.

Ryu activated 'Stealth Level Max.' In the Tutorial, there were ghosts that didn't have eyes; they sensed 'presence' and 'intent.' To hide from them for a thousand years, Ryu had learned to not just become invisible, but to become uninteresting. He didn't disappear in a puff of smoke; he simply became a part of the background, like a fire hydrant or a discarded soda can. He walked with a slight slouch, his face neutral, moving through the settling dust with the practiced ease of a man who had mastered the art of being a 'nobody.'

"Wait!" Pyra’s voice cracked through the air. She scrambled to her feet, her flames flickering out. "Who... who did that? Drake! Did you see?"

"I saw a streak of light," Drake stammered, his hand trembling as he gripped his sword. "It came from... from over there."

He pointed toward the crater where Ryu had been standing. By the time their eyes landed on the spot, the only thing there was the cooling, vitrified glass of the street and a few scattered civilians screaming and running for cover.

Ryu was already fifty yards away, ducking behind an overturned bus. He felt a familiar, annoying itch in the back of his brain, the System was trying to reconcile what had just happened.

[NOTICE: ANOMALOUS COMBAT DATA DETECTED.]

[CALCULATING...]

[ERROR: DAMAGE OUTPUT EXCEEDS SYSTEM LIMITS AT LEVEL 1.]

[RE-EVALUATING SOURCE...]

"Shut up," Ryu whispered to the blue screen. "I’m just a guy. A scared, Level 1 civilian running for his life. Look at me, I’m trembling. See?"

He forced his hands to shake with the practiced precision of a veteran actor. He even let out a small, high-pitched "Eek!" for good measure as a piece of debris fell nearby. The System screen flickered, the red 'ERROR' text struggling against his 'Acting' sub-skill, which he’d maxed out while pretending to be dead to avoid the Tutorial Boar’s morning tantrums.

[SOURCE NOT FOUND. ATTRIBUTING KILL TO: ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE / LUCK.]

"Good bot," Ryu sighed, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

Back at the epicenter of the blast, Pyra Solstice approached the small, smoking hole in the ground where the Chimera had stood. The mana signature of the boss was completely gone, not suppressed, not hidden, but erased.

"It’s impossible," she whispered. Her 'Eye of Truth' was active, her pupils glowing with a faint gold light. "The core was shattered by a physical object. No mana. No skill signature. Just... raw force."

She reached down, her gloved hand brushing away a layer of fine grey ash. There, embedded three feet deep into the solid bedrock of the city, was a splintered fragment of wood. She pulled it out with a delicate touch. It was charred, most of it burnt away by the heat of its own friction, but the shape was unmistakable.

"A... chopstick?" Pyra’s voice was barely a breath.

Drake walked up behind her, coughing into his hand. "Commander, the perimeter is secure. The other hunters are arriving. What happened? Did you use a hidden technique?"

Pyra didn't answer. She stared at the piece of wood. It was the same kind used at the food stall they had just left. The 'Ayam Padang' place. Her mind flashed back to the man she had been with, the Level 1 'newbie' who had complained about his chicken being interrupted.

"Ryu," she whispered, her heart hammering against her ribs. She looked around the chaotic street, searching for a head of messy black hair, but the crowd was a sea of panicked faces. He was gone.

Three miles away, in a darkened room lined with flickering monitors and humming servers, a figure sat in a high-backed chair. The room smelled of ozone and expensive cologne.

Quorath Vale leaned forward, his hooded silhouette cast in blue light as he watched the footage from the city’s high-altitude surveillance drones. Most of the cameras had been fried by the EMP-like shockwave of the impact, but one, a prototype 'System-Link' lens, had captured the event in high-speed thermal.

Quorath dragged the playback slider back. Slow motion. 1/10,000th speed.

The screen showed a blurry figure. A man in a cheap hoodie. The figure moved his arm, and for a single frame, the thermal sensor turned pure white, the temperature spike registering as 'SUN-SURFACE EQUIVALENT.'

"Found you," Quorath murmured, his voice smooth and cold.

He clicked a button, zooming in on the man’s hand. Even blurred by the speed, the shape of the wooden stick was visible. Quorath’s eyes narrowed behind his mask. He tapped his fingers on the armrest, a dark, jagged aura beginning to leak from his shadow.

"A Level 1 that ignores the laws of the simulation," Quorath said, a thin, hungry smile spreading across his face. "You aren't a player. You’re a virus."

He stood up, the monitors behind him shattering as his mana flared.

"And viruses need to be quarantined."