The holographic leaderboard shimmered in the air, a definitive list of the new gods ascending within the Ember Republic. Ten names sat at the pinnacle, each marked with the terrifying golden luster of an SSS-Tier designation.
1. Noctis Vane, the Blade Transcendent (SSS)
2. Evander, the Oculus (SSS)
3. Scarlett Lorne, the Sacred Flame Rose (SSS)
...
10. Tara Morrow, the Botanist (SSS)
These were the titans of the Banner War, the monsters who had already conquered ten SSS-Tier Unclaimed Wastes during The Convergence. Calder scanned the names with a cold, practiced eye. In the later stages of his past life—during the absolute meat-grinder that was the Eternal War—these were the "one-in-a-million" survivors who had dictated the fate of the world. Their territories would eventually be whispered about in awe as the Ten Sacred Dominions, the only true sanctuaries left in a dying world.
But this time, the list had an anomaly. A black sheep forced into the golden circle.
[11. Calder, Class: Unknown. Power Rating: SS to SSS-Tier.]
The reasoning was pragmatic. Sector 911 had secured ten SSS-Tier Resource sites, a feat matched only by the top ten. However, because Calder’s confirmed kill count and the average rank of his opponents in Warground 95—mostly fodder like Edward—were lower than the blood-soaked battlefields of the top 50 sectors, the analysts had hedged their bets. He was ranked eleventh, a footnote to the "True" SSS players.
Calder scoffed at the screen. Let them speculate.
To the System, his [God Hunter] class was technically a C-Tier joke. In the rigid logic of the Eternal Dominion, power was measured by stat growth. An F-Tier loser gained 1 point per level. An SSS-Tier monster gained a staggering 20 points per level—a 40-point gap in a single attribute over just ten levels. By that metric, Calder’s measly 4-point growth was a death sentence.
But the System couldn’t quantify [Blight]. It couldn't calculate the value of Endless Evolution or the terrifying synergy of Devour. While the "prodigies" relied on the System’s handouts, Calder would hunt. He would eat. He would take the stats the world refused to give him.
He pulled up his status window, the numbers pulsing with dark energy.
[Calder]
[Level: 20 (Ascended)]
[Class: God Hunter (Tier 1)]
[Title: The Blasphemer (Hidden)]
[Chrono: 1536]
[Strength: 155 + 130]
[Agility: 145 + 120]
[Constitution: 150 + 119]
[Intelligence: 160 + 108]
Even his lowest stat had shattered the 100-point threshold.
He flexed his right hand. The skin rippled and tore as an Aberrant Shift took hold. Instead of his entire arm morphing into a blade as before, a jagged Ossein Sword burst through the flesh of his palm. Sinews and veins coiled around the hilt like living wires, anchoring the bone-blade directly to his skeletal structure. He wasn't just carrying a weapon; he was the weapon.
"Only a hundred points," he muttered, feeling the thrum of the Blight Index in his veins. "Not nearly enough."
He turned his attention to the global forums, which were currently in a state of collective hysteria. Beyond the Ember Republic, other monsters were emerging. Aoi from the Sakura Federation had deleted three thousand players with a single Phantom Flash Slash. The Irontalon Kingdom’s Radiant Paladin had stood motionless for an hour under a barrage of spells, his health bar never even dipping into the yellow.
The comments were a chaotic mess of fanboying and nationalistic pride.
"Scarlett Lorne is a goddess! She looks like a literal rose of fire on the battlefield!"
"Noctis Vane is the peak. His blade poetry is unstoppable."
"Did you see that Demonhunter Nun from the Frankish Sovereignty? That cross-greatsword is terrifying."
They were arguing about who was the strongest, oblivious to the fact that the walls between them were about to crumble. The Convergence was relentless.
A sharp chime echoed in Calder's mind, followed by a system-wide broadcast to all of Sector 911.
[City Convergence Complete. Capital City has been restored.]
[Warning: Immediate Beast Surge imminent upon arrival. Prepare for siege.]
Calder didn't hesitate. "Go."
The world blurred. When the light returned, the air was thick with the copper tang of blood and the gritty taste of yellow sand. Calder stood atop a massive, monolithic stone wall that stretched into the horizon. Inside the walls lay the skeletal remains of the Ashwaste Ruins; outside, an endless desert of churning silt.
He stood alone at the precipice, his cloak snapping in the gale. When the other players of Sector 911 began to materialize behind him, they didn't see a hero. They saw a silhouette wreathed in a suffocating slaughter aura.
"Holy shit," Ray muttered, shivering as he stepped onto the battlements. "Who pissed him off now?"
The system windows began to cascade:
[Main Quest: Beast Surge Defense Initiated!]
[Sub-Quests Available:]
1. [Duty of the Chieftain (Unique)]
2. [Warrior of the Battlefield]
3. [Bane of the Boss]
...
Ray’s eyes lit up when he saw the first quest. Duty of the Chieftain. The requirements were simple: keep 50% of the players alive. The reward? The Village Overseer position and a Gold Cache.
This is a cakewalk, Ray thought. With Calder here, I just need to hide in the back and—
"I got it! The Chieftain quest is mine!" a player screamed, jumping for joy a few yards away. "I’m going to be the Overseer!"
He didn't finish his celebration.
A black blur—the Chain Scourge—whistled through the air, piercing the man's chest with a sickening crunch. A massive red "CRITICAL" hovered over his head as his body went limp, sliding off the chain like a piece of meat.
The silence that followed was deafening. Calder retracted the chain, his expression one of bored frustration.
"Vance, that girl from before, and now you," Calder said, his voice carrying over the wind. "Is there something wrong with your brains? Or did you honestly think I was joking about the consequences of getting in my way?"
He swept his gaze across the terrified crowd. The "death warning" he’d issued in the novice zone finally sank in. This wasn't a game to Calder. It was a harvest.
[Sub-Quest (1): Duty of the Chieftain has been released.]
Nobody moved. Not even Ray. Calder casually tapped the screen, claiming the Overseer quest for himself.
"Calder..." Ray squeaked out, his hand half-raised. "Can we... take the other quests?"
Calder didn't look back. "Every player who kills fewer than a hundred monsters during this surge will be purged from Sector 911. I have no use for dead weight."
A hundred? Ray and Caden exchanged looks of pure panic. If the monsters were anything like the ones in the novice trials, a hundred kills was a tall order for anyone who wasn't a top-tier combatant.
The countdown hit zero.
A low, guttural roar shook the foundations of the wall. Out of the swirling dust storms, a sea of yellow cloaks appeared.
[Shifting Jackal]
[Level: 11-20]
[Tier 1, 1-Star]
They were humanoid horrors that could twist their limbs into lupine shapes, moving with a jarring, unnatural speed. There were thousands of them—a tide of yellow fur and rusted blades.
Before the players could even draw their weapons, Calder stepped off the ledge.
He plummeted a hundred meters, his arm sprouting barbed hooks that bit into the stone as he slid down the vertical surface in a spray of sparks. He hit the sand with a dull thud and immediately vanished into the fray.
The Chain Scourge became a rotating halo of death. Heads popped like overripe melons. The "CRITICAL" notifications flashed so fast they blurred into a solid red line.
Up on the wall, the players were still arguing about how to get down.
"Where's the stairs? We need to get down there!"
"Forget the stairs, I'll just use fireballs from here—dammit, the wind is too strong, I can't aim!"
By the time Ray and the others finally scrambled down the internal stairwell and threw open the gates, the desert was already a graveyard. Over a thousand Jackals lay dead, their blood soaking into the thirsty sand.
Calder was a whirlwind in the center of the carnage, his movements so fluid and violent it looked like a dance. It was then that the realization hit Ray like a physical blow.
The 100-kill quota wasn't hard because of the monsters. It was hard because Calder wasn't leaving enough for anyone else to kill.