2026-01-01 03:00:12[VIP Lounge - The Safe Zone]
The crystal champagne glass shattered against the marble floor. Silence fell over the luxurious viewing room. The wealthy elites, who had been laughing and cheering just moments ago, now stared at the massive central screen in surprise. On the screen, Alex was wiping the blood off his face, staring coldly into the camera lens. "He... he killed The Jackal?" a fat man in a tuxedo stammered, checking his betting tablet. "The Jackal was a Class-D assassin! How did a delivery boy kill him with a rock?" "Luck," a cold voice cut through the murmurs. Alice stood up, her face twisted in annoyance. She wasn't angry that a man had died; she was angry that she had lost her bet. "It was pure, dumb luck," Alice scoffed, signaling a servant to bring her a new glass. " The Jackal was careless. He played with his food and got bit. That trash..." She pointed a manicured nail at Alex’s image. "...is running on adrenaline. Once that wears off, he’ll be crying for his mother again." "I don't know, Alice," a young man with silver hair chuckled, sipping his wine. "Look at his eyes. That doesn't look like fear to me. I'm putting 2 million on him surviving the night." Alice glared at him. "You’re throwing your money away. Alert the other Hunters. Tell them Number 100 has a bounty on his head now. Ten thousand dollars to whoever brings me his head." She sat back down, her eyes narrowing. Die, you filth. Just die already. [Dead Man’s Isle - Sector F] Alex didn't know about the bounty. And he didn't care. He was currently busy looting. He stripped the dead assassin of his heavy combat boots. He threw away his own slippery, ruined dress shoes and laced up the boots. They were a size too big, but they offered grip and protection. It feels... natural. Alex spun the combat knife in his hand. Forward grip, reverse grip, slash, stab. His fingers moved with a dexterity he never had before. The [Basic Dagger Mastery] wasn't just information; it was muscle memory imprinted directly into his nerves. "I need supplies," Alex muttered. His voice was calm. Unnaturally calm. He searched the body’s pockets and found a Zippo lighter, a half-empty pack of cigarettes, and a small, crumpled map of the island. He checked the map. The island was divided into sectors. He was in the outer rim. The center of the island was marked with a skull symbol—likely where the "Safe Zone" or final circle would be. Crack. A twig snapped nearby. Alex didn't jump. Thanks to his Agility +3, his senses were sharper. He immediately crouched low, blending into the shadows of the fern bushes. "Please... no... take anything you want!" A woman’s voice. Desperate. Crying. Alex crept forward silently. Through the leaves, he saw a small clearing. It was the Nurse he had seen on the beach. She was backed against a tree, her uniform torn. Standing over her was a massive man—another Hunter. This one wasn't using a knife. He was wearing brass knuckles spiked with steel. "I don't want your money, sweetheart," the big Hunter grinned, cracking his neck. "I want to hear you scream. The VIPs love the sound of breaking bones." The Hunter raised his fist for a killing blow. Alex watched from the bushes, ten meters away. Option A: Run. The Hunter is distracted. Alex could slip away easily. Option B: Fight. Alex’s old self—the delivery boy—would have run. Or maybe tried to yell to distract him. But the new Alex calculated the odds in a split second. Target: Large build. Slow movement. High strength. Low awareness. Me: Small build. High agility. Weapon: Dagger. Conclusion: Killable. Alex didn't do it for justice. He didn't do it to be a hero. He did it because this Hunter was another loot box walking on two legs. Alex moved. He didn't scream a battle cry. He sprinted out of the bushes without a sound, his boots digging into the soft earth. Ten meters. Five meters. Two meters. The big Hunter sensed movement and began to turn his head. "Huh?" Too late. Alex didn't aim for the head this time. He aimed for the weak point his skill highlighted. Slash. The combat knife severed the hamstring of the Hunter’s right leg. "ARGH!" The giant roared and collapsed to one knee, losing his balance. Alex didn't stop. He used his momentum to slide past, pivoting on his heel. He switched the knife to a reverse grip and drove it downward into the side of the Hunter’s neck. Blood sprayed onto the Nurse’s face. The giant gurgled, clawing at his throat, and then fell forward with a heavy thud. [DING!] [Target Eliminated.] [Plunder Successful!] [Reward 1: Attribute Points] * Strength +4 (Your muscles density has increased.) * Endurance +2 (You can withstand more pain and fatigue.) [Reward 2: Skill Extraction] * Obtained Skill: [Low-Grade Iron Skin (Passive)] * Description: Your skin is tougher than average. Minor cuts and bruises are reduced by 30%. Alex exhaled, feeling a new surge of power rush through his veins. His arms felt heavier, harder. The cut on his arm from the previous fight stopped bleeding. He stood up and shook the blood off his blade. The Nurse was staring at him, her eyes wide with terror. She didn't see a savior. She saw a man who had just butchered a giant in three seconds flat. "P-Please..." she whimpered, curling into a ball. "Don't kill me..." Alex looked at her. He felt... indifferent. "Get up," Alex said coldly. "Unless you want to wait for the next one." He turned and walked away, checking the dead giant’s pockets for food. He wasn't a babysitter. But he wasn't a monster. Not yet. "Wait!" The nurse scrambled up, ignoring her shaking legs. "Wait! I... I can help! I know first aid! I found a backpack with water!" Alex stopped. Water. He was thirsty. He turned back, his silhouette dark against the jungle gloom. "Keep up then," he said. "Fall behind, and you die."
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Chapter 189: The All-Seeing Eye
[Location: Galactic Core - Sagittarius A]*[Time: T-Plus 6 Months since First Contact]The fleet exited jump.Forty-eight dreadnoughts dropped out of the white void and stabilized their thrusters at the edge of the galactic center.The stars were gone.The core was dark.A massive ring of white cubes, numbering in the millions, surrounded the supermassive black hole and blocked all light from the galaxy.They formed a shell."The Format is active," Ares said.The AI analyzed the space between the cubes and measured the disintegration of matter as the Architects erased the surrounding star systems."The galaxy is being deleted."Alex stood at the helm.He looked at the black hole in the center of the ring, where the event horizon shimmered with red mathematical code.The Voidbreaker Arm pulsed.The casing grew hot.The white light inside the metal veins vibrated at a frequency that matched the gravity of the central singularity.Alex felt the data surge."Echo, maintain a stable orbit,
Chapter 188: The Architect Signal
[Location: Deep Space - Dyson Sphere Interior][Time: T-Plus 6 Months since First Contact]The pod ascended.It exited the cooling shaft of the planet-sized node and accelerated through the hollow space toward the Terran fleet.The engine flared blue.Alex sat inside.He watched the internal sensors of the pod and verified the atmospheric pressure remained stable during the rapid ascent.The docking clamps locked.The pod entered the UNS Hammer.Alex stepped out of the craft, removed his helmet, and walked through the hangar bay toward the bridge.The crew stood aside.He reached the command deck.He stood at the tactical table and looked at the hologram of the dead Prime Processing Core below.The light was gone."Status report," Alex said."The Harvester Archangels are drifting in the stellar corona and their internal systems have ceased all mechanical function," Ares said."The threat is neutralized."The Dyson Sphere groaned.Without the Prime Node to regulate the magnetic tethers
Chapter 187: The Core Override
[Location: Deep Space - The Dyson Sphere Interior] [Time: T-Plus 6 Months since First Contact] The dreadnoughts descended. They fired their forward retro-thrusters to counteract the gravitational pull of the hypergiant star below their position. The iron hulls vibrated. Echo monitored the telemetry. She pushed the thruster output to seventy percent and adjusted the downward pitch of the forty-nine ships. The fleet held formation. The ambient temperature rose. The external sensors registered ten thousand degrees Celsius as the ships entered the upper stellar corona layer. The iron turned orange. Ares managed the cooling. The AI pumped thousands of gallons of liquid nitrogen through the capillary tubes within the exterior hull plating. The nitrogen boiled instantly. Vance watched the tactical table. He tracked the descent vector and measured the remaining distance to the Prime processing core node. "Forty million miles," Vance said. Solar flares erupted upward. A colum
Chapter 186: The Star Engine
[Location: Deep Space - The Dyson Sphere] [Time: T-Plus 6 Months since First Contact] The red lasers swept across the hull. They tracked the movement of the forty-nine Terran dreadnoughts and locked onto the Belter iron plating. "Incoming fire," Ares said. Thousands of automated cannons deployed. They emerged from the exterior surface of the Dyson Sphere and their mechanical bases rotated on heavy gears. The metal ground together. Their barrels elevated. The cannons discharged their internal capacitors and pushed plasma bolts out of their magnetic chambers. The bolts crossed the vacuum. They hit the Terran fleet. The UNS Hammer shook violently under the physical impact of the concentrated energy weapons. Vance grabbed the command rail. Alex stood his ground. "Armor integrity holding," Echo reported from the helm as she typed a sequence of commands into the primary navigation console. Her fingers hit the keys. She rerouted electrical power. She pulled energy from the
Chapter 185: The Source Code
[Location: Deep Space - Sector Sirius] [Time: T-Plus 6 Months since First Contact] The forty-nine dreadnoughts held their position. They hovered three hundred miles above the seam of the newly formed planet and aimed their railguns at the biological mass trapped between the tectonic plates. Alex walked to the airlock. He opened the storage locker. He removed an environmental suit from the rack, unzipped the front seal, and stepped his right leg inside. He pushed his boot through the gasket. He stepped his left leg inside. He pulled the suit up over his waist, slid his biological arm into the right sleeve, and pushed his mechanical arm into the left sleeve. He zipped the front seal. He reached for the helmet. He placed the helmet over his head, aligned the locking rings with the neck collar, and twisted the helmet clockwise until the mechanisms clicked. He pushed the oxygen valve. Air hissed into the suit. He checked the pressure gauge on his wrist console, verified the
Chapter 184: The Leviathan
[Location: Deep Space - Sector Sirius] [Time: T-Plus 6 Months since First Contact] The eye stared at the fleet. It filled the forward viewport, a continent of yellow bioluminescence set against the black void of the dead sector. The pupil contracted. "Scale," Alex said. "Diameter is three thousand miles," Ares reported. "The entity possesses a dense exo-shell, internal thermal regulation, and a massive centralized nervous system." Vance raised his railgun. "It is a living ship," Vance said. The shadow surrounding the eye shifted, and the void displaced as the massive biological structure moved forward. Tendrils uncoiled from the central mass. They were the size of Harvester command carriers. The tendrils whipped through the vacuum toward the Terran defensive sphere at extreme velocity. "Evasive maneuvers," Alex ordered. Echo pushed the throttle. The UNS Hammer fired its lateral thrusters, shifting fifty miles to the starboard side. A massive tentacle lashed through th
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