2026-07-06 11:09:52The thick cloud of dust from the collapsed buildings slowly parted beneath a cold gust of wind. From within the gray haze came the sound of something massive scraping across the asphalt.
Screeeek... screeeek... screeeek...
The noise echoed in a slow, rhythmic pattern, impossibly heavy, as though a gigantic slab of steel was being dragged across the ground.
Gatot's eyes widened as the creature's silhouette finally emerged from the dust.
It was nothing like the goblins. Nothing like the lycans.
Slithering through the dead city's streets was a colossal serpent, its body as thick as the trunk of an ancient banyan tree.
Its body was covered in jet-black scales that gleamed like polished steel plates. Its vertical pupils glowed with an eerie yellow light, locking onto Gatot with overwhelming murderous intent.
This monster existed on an entirely different level.
It was an apex predator.
Hisssss!
The giant serpent moved with impossible speed for something so enormous.
Before Gatot could even brace himself, its massive tail whipped sideways like a giant steel cable.
Blam!
The impact slammed into his left side.
His body was launched high into the air before crashing onto the hood of a rusted wrecked car, crushing the metal beneath him.
Gatot coughed violently, warm blood spraying from his mouth.
Agonizing pain exploded across his back from the brutal impact.
The serpent lunged again, slithering toward him at frightening speed.
Gatot rolled off the wrecked car and hit the pavement.
Fear no longer existed inside him.
His soul had already been forged in horrors far worse than this.
Every burst of pain only brought back fragments of the insane elves who had sliced his body apart two days earlier.
Those memories were no longer the source of his trauma.
They had become his greatest weapon.
The torture inflicted by the elves had burned away the very limits of fear.
Compared to becoming the plaything of those pointed-eared monsters, dying in battle against a giant serpent felt infinitely more honorable.
"Is that all you've got?!" Gatot roared, his eyes blazing with madness as he rose to his feet, gripping his iron sword tightly.
Bzzzzt!
At the peak of his adrenaline rush, a system notification flashed across his vision.
A violet glow spread from the palm of his hand into the blade of his sword.
[The System has detected a sustained emotional surge.]
[Applying temporary weapon effect: 'Corrosive Poison Touch.']
Thin purple smoke drifted from the blade, filling the air with a scorching, acrid smell.
Gatot charged forward, leaping onto the roadside divider before swinging his sword with all his strength at the serpent's neck.
Clang!
A deafening metallic impact rang through the street, showering sparks into the air.
Gatot froze.
The serpent's scales were unbelievably thick.
His sword couldn't even leave a scratch.
Even with the System's poisonous enhancement, the blade failed to mark the creature's steel-like hide.
The corrosive poison simply evaporated harmlessly against scales as hard as diamonds.
Annoyed at having its sleep disturbed, the giant serpent snapped its head forward.
Its skull slammed directly into Gatot's chest, hurling him backward once more.
He tumbled across broken concrete and jagged rubble.
Ignoring the dizziness clouding his vision, Gatot forced himself back onto his feet.
He raised his sword again and thrust toward the narrow gaps between the serpent's belly scales as it slithered past.
Craaack!
The sickening sound of snapping metal echoed through the street.
The iron sword the System had given him, his only dependable weapon, shattered in half after striking the hardest part of the serpent's body.
The broken tip flew away and embedded itself into the asphalt, leaving only half of the jagged blade in Gatot's hand.
"Damn it!" Gatot cursed, staring helplessly at his ruined weapon.
The situation had become critical.
But surrender was never an option.
The giant serpent opened its jaws wide, revealing two enormous fangs dripping with thick green venom.
It struck straight toward Gatot.
He didn't dodge.
Instead, he used the monster's charge to his advantage.
With every ounce of strength remaining, Gatot leaped sideways, narrowly avoiding the deadly fangs by mere millimeters before throwing himself onto the side of the serpent's head.
He wrapped both legs tightly around its neck, locking himself in place.
His bloodied, dirt-covered face was now inches away from the monster's left eye, an orb the size of a dinner plate.
"Open your eye, you bastard!" Gatot screamed.
Thrust!
He drove the jagged half of his broken sword straight into the serpent's left eye.
The monster released an ear-piercing hiss.
But the battle wasn't over.
Losing one eye sent the ancient iron serpent into an even more terrifying frenzy.
Its massive body writhed violently, smashing its head into nearby buildings in an attempt to throw Gatot off.
Blam! Blam! Blam!
Gatot's body slammed repeatedly against solid concrete until entire walls collapsed around them.
His ribs felt cracked.
His grip weakened under the relentless impacts.
The serpent twisted wildly, tearing down power poles and flipping abandoned vehicles as it desperately tried to crush the human clinging to its head.
Its attacks became completely unpredictable.
Gatot knew that if he let go now, the monster's immense body would crush him instantly.
Holding back another mouthful of blood, he summoned every last bit of strength in his right arm.
He yanked the broken blade free.
Then he stabbed into the serpent's eye again and again with savage desperation.
Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
Clear ocular fluid mixed with thick crimson blood burst from the ruined eye.
The serpent's scales were nearly indestructible.
Its eyes were not.
As the broken blade plunged deep into the eye socket again and again, the Corrosive Poison Touch coating the jagged metal finally found its opening.
The violet toxin seeped directly into the wound, melting the internal nerves before flowing into the creature's brain.
The giant serpent lashed out one final time with overwhelming force.
At last, Gatot's grip broke.
His body was thrown through the air before crashing onto the middle of the road.
But the serpent no longer chased him.
The System's corrosive poison had done its work.
It burned through the creature's head from the inside.
The monster convulsed violently across the pavement in unbearable agony before its enormous body stiffened.
Then it collapsed onto the asphalt with a thunderous crash, its head reduced to a mangled ruin.
The insane battle was over.
Silence slowly reclaimed the dead dimension.
Then a barrage of digital chimes exploded inside Gatot's mind.
System windows flooded his vision like a tidal wave, radiating brilliant golden light.
[You have eliminated 'Dimensional Rift Ruler: Ancient Iron Serpent.']
[Absolute Achievement: Defeat a Gate Boss alone without an intact weapon!]
[The System is updating your level.]
[Level: 2 → 3]
Gatot dropped to one knee, supporting himself with both hands as he gasped for breath.
A warmth far greater than anything he had experienced before surged into the marrow of his bones.
Every fractured rib repaired itself instantly.
His stamina returned to its absolute peak within seconds.
The System updated his attributes with a far more dynamic calculation based on his brutal combat adaptation.
[Your Attribute Statistics Have Been Updated:]
Strength: 10
Agility: 8
Vitality: 10
Perception: 15
Another emerald-green dialog box appeared beneath his status screen.
[You have obtained permanent Special Attributes through monster blood assimilation:]
1. 'Immunity to All Poisons' (Low Rank)
2. 'Serpent's Sense of Smell' (Allows the Player to detect heat signatures and the presence of living beings within a 50-meter radius through scent.)
Gatot slowly rose to his feet.
Warm energy still pulsed beneath his skin.
He lowered his hands and looked down at his clothes.
They were completely ruined, soaked with black goblin blood, red lycan blood, and the thick slime of the giant serpent.
He inhaled deeply.
Everything felt different now.
Through Serpent's Sense of Smell, the world around him was suddenly filled with faint currents of heat radiating through the air.
Whoosh.
Without warning, a powerful whirlwind erupted around Gatot.
The air distorted violently.
His vision blurred for a single instant before it was replaced by blaring car horns and the constant roar of traffic.
Gatot blinked.
The ruined dead city had vanished without a trace.
The shattered buildings now stood perfectly intact as busy commercial shop houses.
There were no pools of monster blood.
No lycan corpses.
No giant serpent the size of a banyan tree.
He was standing in the middle of a busy public road in his residential district.
Honk! Hoooonk!
"Hey! Are you crazy?! Why are you standing in the middle of the road? You wanna die?!"
A man riding a scooter slammed on his brakes just two meters in front of Gatot, shouted angrily with an irritated glare, then sped away into traffic.
Startled, Gatot instinctively stepped backward onto the sidewalk to avoid the growing stream of vehicles.
His chest rose and fell rapidly as he realized he had fully returned to the human world.
Even the clothes he was wearing had been restored, as though none of it had ever happened.
Was the System truly making him stronger, or had all of it been nothing more than an illusion?
Gatot had to find out.
He took off running.
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41
The cool evening breeze swept across the deserted rooftop garden of the municipal hospital, rustling the leaves of the small potted palms. Below them, the city lights buzzed softly, but up here, under the quiet expanse of the night sky, it felt like an isolated sanctuary.Gatot leaned against the waist-high concrete balustrade, looking out over the skyline. Silvia stood beside him, her hands tucked deep into the pockets of her trench coat, her gaze fixed on his side profile."Yasmin is down there making sure your mother eats her dinner," Silvia said softly, breaking the silence. "She kept looking at me like I was a ghost."Gatot let out a short, quiet chuckle. "Can you blame her? The most famous Rank-S hunter in the country was kissing her brother in a public ward."A faint blush touched Silvia’s cheeks, but she didn't look away. Her expression grew serious as she stepped closer. "Gatot... down in that room, when you stepped out of that black rift... the aura coming off you wasn't
40
Seven days had felt like seven grueling years on Earth.Inside Room 304 of the municipal hospital, the afternoon light was weak, filtered through drawn plastic blinds. Silvia sat in the stiff wooden chair beside Ibu Rahmi’s bed. She looked exhausted. The polished, untouchable mask of the Ice Queen was cracked around the edges; dark shadows bruised the skin beneath her pale blue eyes, and her tailored executive suit looked slightly worn.Over the past week, she had barely slept. Between fending off the Hunter Association’s relentless inquiries about Jean’s disappearance and personally shielding Gatot’s family from rogue remnants of Jean’s underground syndicate, Silvia had been fighting a silent war on multiple fronts."Nona Silvia," Ibu Rahmi spoke softly, her fragile voice breaking the quiet hum of the heart monitor. "You look so tired, child. Please... go home and rest. Gatot will be back soon. I know my boy."Silvia swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing a small, reassuring s
39
The air inside the Dimensional Prison Tower didn't smell of earth or sulfur; it reeked of ancient copper, ozone, and stagnant time. The sky above Floor 1 was a swirling vortex of pitch-black clouds and bruised purple light, illuminated only by towering obsidian monoliths that stretched endlessly into the void.Gatot hit the cold stone floor, his boots skidding across the polished dark marble. His hand instinctively flew to his chest, his breathing heavy as the disorienting spatial energy faded.Tring![Welcome to the Dimensional Prison Tower - Floor 1][Environment: The Astral Dungeon][Objective: Survive and Ascent.][Warning: Entities within this tower are convicts erased from historical records by the System.]"Erased from history..." Gatot muttered, flexing his hands covered by Asura's Vow.His Perception of 33 flared instantly. He didn't hear a monster's growl or the heavy thud of an approaching beast. Instead, he felt a calm, suffocating aura stepping out from behind one of
38
The private executive lounge on the top floor of the Ksatria Garuda skyscraper was quiet, bathed in the soft gold of the late afternoon sun filtering through the floor-to-ceiling glass. Down below, the media circus surrounding Jean’s sudden disappearance was still in full swing, but inside, the heavy double doors kept the chaos at bay.Silvia poured two glasses of iced water, her hands steady, though her eyes showed the strain of the day's political maneuverings. She walked across the plush carpet and handed one glass to Gatot, who was standing near the edge of the window, looking out over the city skyline."The board voted unanimously," Silvia said softy, standing beside him. The faint scent of frost magic and wild orchids lingered around her. "Jean’s assets are frozen. The official statement releases in an hour, framing his exit as a quiet retirement due to health concerns. No panic, no suspicion."Gatot took the glass, his fingers briefly brushing against hers. "And my family?"
37
The private executive lounge on the top floor of the Ksatria Garuda skyscraper was quiet, bathed in the soft gold of the late afternoon sun filtering through the floor-to-ceiling glass. Down below, the media circus surrounding Jean’s sudden disappearance was still in full swing, but inside, the heavy double doors kept the chaos at bay.Silvia poured two glasses of iced water, her hands steady, though her eyes showed the strain of the day's political maneuverings. She walked across the plush carpet and handed one glass to Gatot, who was standing near the edge of the window, looking out over the city skyline."The board voted unanimously," Silvia said softy, standing beside him. The faint scent of frost magic and wild orchids lingered around her. "Jean’s assets are frozen. The official statement releases in an hour, framing his exit as a quiet retirement due to health concerns. No panic, no suspicion."Gatot took the glass, his fingers briefly brushing against hers. "And my family?""Al
35
The ambient glow of a streetlamp flickered against the damp brick wall of a deserted alleyway as Gatot leaned back into the shadows. He pulled a black burner phone from his jacket pocket—one of the untraceable devices Gery had procured for him—and dialed a memorized number.It rang twice before a familiar, cool voice answered."Speaking," Silvia said, her tone cautious, backdrop noise hinting she was inside a private vehicle."The trash in the industrial district has been cleared," Gatot said flatly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Marcus and his three enforcers won't be returning to headquarters."There was a sharp, distinct intake of breath on the other end of the line. Even for someone as composed as Silvia, hearing that Jean’s top executioner—a feared Rank-S assassin—and three Rank-A veterans had been wiped out in a single evening was a massive pill to swallow."Marcus... is dead?" Silvia asked quietly, her fingers tightening around her phone. "All four of them?""They tried to
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