Sera uploaded the footage at nine in the morning.

Kai got the notification while making breakfast.

His phone buzzed. Message from Sera. "Sending you the edit first. Eighteen minutes. Watch it before I post."

He downloaded the file. Stood in the kitchen with his phone in his hand for a full minute before pressing play. Eighteen minutes of a graveyard dungeon and a level thirty-seven boss, and the two of them making decisions under conditions that, watching from outside, looked significantly far less survivable than it had felt inside the dungeon.

He sent back a single message.

Good edit.

Sera’s response came in four seconds.

Obviously.

He put the phone down. Then picked it up again and watched the last thirty seconds one more time. The General collapsing, Sera landing, and the silence after.

She posted it twenty minutes later.

The site lagged immediately.

Then it crashed for eleven seconds. The title appeared online in bold letters: "C-rank Clear - Undead General."

The views exploded instantly.

It was not just the original upload spreading.

Within the first ten minutes, six separate clip channels had already cut sections out of the eighteen minutes and posted them individually.

The first Grave Warden kill.

The cross-switch with Sera.

The moment the General walked through its own explosion and the final strike.

Each one was titled differently, and finding a slightly different audience. Yet in the end, it sent them back to the original video.

The clips drove people to the full upload.

The full upload created more clips. The cycle was already running faster than any single platform could measure.

Because everyone was desperate now.

Desperate for information, for strategy, for proof that someone could survive these increasingly impossible dungeons. The comments flooded in immediately, a torrent of reactions and analysis.

...

Sora was eating breakfast when her phone started going off.

Four hundred messages in thirty seconds.

"Okay," she said to her empty apartment. "What happened?"

Then she saw it, a video posted fifteen minutes ago. "C-rank Clear - Undead General."

The view counter was climbing so fast it looked broken.

Two hundred thousand.

Three hundred thousand.

Four hundred thousand.

This was a moment, and then she saw a message from Kai, making her eyes widen as she quickly read what he sent.

"Oh my god," Sora said.

She shoved her plate aside and opened her streaming setup. Her fingers slipped on the keyboard once before she clicked through her equipment checks.

This wasn’t normal attention anymore.

By the time she went live, the footage had hit six hundred thousand views. Her chat was already losing its mind.

Everyone is freaking out!

Sora, you need to watch this video now!

IT’S EIGHTEEN MINUTES OF PURE INSANITY!

The boss is level 37!

"Okay, okay!" Sora laughed, but her voice was higher than normal. "We’re watching this together. All eighteen minutes. I want to see everything."

She pulled up the video and took a breath. "Let’s go."

The first Grave Warden appeared on screen with a flaming sword, ancient armor, and it was Level twenty-five.

Sora paused it immediately.

"Look at that weapon," she said, pointing at the screen. "That is an actual rare weapon! Like the ones some players have! Somehow these monsters are using high-level weapons!"

Her chat exploded.

Wait... Since when could monsters use those types of weapons!?

How do you even fight that?

Has that ever happened before!?

"No other monsters did except for the bosses of the dungeons," Sora said flatly. "But that isn’t the most insane part... watch this."

She let it play.

Kai moved through the first wave without appearing to hurry, which was somehow the most unsettling part of watching it. The Grave Wardens swung their weapons, and he moved between them swiftly.

Sora frowned. She rewound fifteen seconds and watched it again.

"Wait," she said slowly. "Wait! Wait! Wait."

She paused on Kai’s footwork before drawing a circle on the screen around where he was standing. "Look at his feet. Not his sword. His feet!"

Her chat went quiet but some were clipping the moment.

"He’s moving before the Warden attacks," Sora voice was getting louder. "Look. The Warden’s arm is still raising its sword. Kai is already stepping to the side. He’s not reacting. He’s predicting."

Two seconds of silence in chat.

Then:

Wait!? How is that–

He really did move before it started!

Rewind it again!

Sora’s eyes got wider. "He’s reading the attack before it happens," she said quietly. "He’s seeing something we’re not seeing."

For the first time since she became a streamer, Sora felt like she was watching someone fundamentally different from everyone else.

And then the whole chat reacted to Sora’s confirmation, hundreds of people all rewinding at the same moment, all arriving at the same answer independently, the chat became one long version of the same realization.

Someone in her chat dropped a link to a frame-by-frame breakdown that had already been posted. Not a full video, just a series of screenshots with red circles drawn around Kai’s feet and arrows showing his movement direction.

It even had timestamps to specific moments in the footage, with the caption: He moves BEFORE the attack starts. Every time. Without exception.

The post had been up for four minutes and already had forty thousand shares. Someone else had done the same thing with the sword angles.

A third person had gone quieter and more specific, posting a spreadsheet tracking exactly how many milliseconds ahead of each attack Kai’s body had already committed to its counter-position. The number was consistent across twelve separate engagements to within a tenth of a second.

Nobody in the comments could explain how that was humanly possible. The spreadsheet person’s username was getting more attention than the spreadsheet.

Sora unpaused the footage.

The Ashen Knights came through in the next section, level twenty-eight, greatswords with burning runes that detonated on impact.

She watched Kai take the angle on the first one and paused the footage. "No, no, no, look at THIS," she said, tapping the screen rapidly. "He just killed that knight, right? But watch where he’s standing. That position doesn’t make sense for the knight he just killed."

She let it play two more seconds. The next knight swung. Kai was already in position to counter.

"THERE!" Sora almost shouted. "He set up the second kill while finishing the first one! He’s playing the fight three moves ahead!"

Her chat lost it.

That’s insane!

How can you even do this!? He has no class!

Could it be because of a rare piece of equipment!?

Who cares, it’s awesome!

I can’t handle this!

Sora was grinning now. "This is why live reactions matter. Because sometimes you get to watch history happen."

The footage continued through the corridor section, Sera’s light swords raining down in columns while Kai moved through the disruption they created with a precision that looked choreographed until you understood it was not because no one had told him where Sera’s strikes were going to land.

"They haven’t run together that many times," Sora said, mostly to herself. "But look at this. She drops the light column, and he’s already in the gap. She doesn’t signal it. He just knows." She leaned toward the screen. "He’s reading her the same way he reads the monsters."

Even Sora looked unsettled after saying it.

They move like they’ve been doing this for years!

Sera is carrying too, let’s be real!

Sera is insane, but KAI is something else entirely.

Then the boss’s room.

The video had been building toward this for twelve minutes, and when the General appeared on screen, her chat went completely silent for three seconds before erupting simultaneously.

Holy crap it’s big!

Four rare weapons!?

Level 37!? Are you kidding me!

Sora, I’m scared!

Sora read the level display, and her face went pale.

"Level thirty-seven," Sora said quietly, reading the display that appeared when the boss registered in the footage. "In a C-rank dungeon. That is seventeen levels above Kai." She sat back. "I have never seen anyone fight ten levels above themselves. Because the results are that you will die! It’s why players who aren’t level twenty can’t tackle C-rank dungeons!"

But the gap for Kai is even bigger than that!

THEY’RE GOING TO DIE!

SORA I CAN’T WATCH!

"They’re not dead," Sora said. "I know they’re not dead because I’m watching the footage they uploaded. But I also understand why you’re scared. Because I’m scared too."

Chat slowed again.

But they were also agreeing with her. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The General’s flaming sword battered the stone into fragments. The ice scythe carved grooves through the walls. Explosions rocked the chamber. Sera’s armor groaned and cracked. Kai staggered as a wind spear tore into his shoulder. Then the General simply strode through its own blast.

Completely unscathed.

Sora made a strangled sound, half scream, half sob of disbelief.

Her chat wasn’t doing any better.

THE EXPLOSION DID NOTHING!

They are so dead! Nothing they are doing seems to be working!

On-screen, Kai halted dead center. The General still advanced and yet something in Kai seemed to have changed as his eyes narrowed.

Chat slowed.

Not because people lost interest but because thousands of people were staring without typing.

Sora froze the footage. "Right here," she said, voice tight. "Zoom in on him." She nudged the image closer. "See that? He seemed to have realized something and is now thinking of a plan."

Chat flew questions:

What did he find!?

Is it the boss’s weakness!?

How did he find it!

"I don’t know," Sora admitted. "But watch."

She hit play, and the next forty seconds played out like a movie: Kai signaling Sera for more time, Sera diving into an incoming strike to stall the General, Thread Caster hurling debris overhead, Pulse Fist shattering the floor, and finally Kai’s blade sliding into a hidden joint.

Revealing the weakness.

"Sera!" Kai’s voice rang through the speakers.

Sera rose as a colossal golden sword materialized in her grasp. Light poured outward, engulfing everything, and then the General shattered.

Silence.

Sora sat motionless, eyes glued to the screen. Ten seconds ticked by. Then chat flooded with tears and cheers:

I almost broke my phone in shock!

They really did it... unbelievable...

A LEVEL 20 PLAYER JUST BEAT A LEVEL 37 BOSS!

THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!

Sora’s eyes glistened. "I need a minute," she whispered. "Give me one second." She brushed away tears, then laughed, breathless. "That was the most insane thing I’ve ever watched."

A comment pinned itself at the top of the chat: "That’s not luck. He moves like he already knows where danger will be before it happens."

Sora read it aloud, slowly. Then she queued up every clip of Kai’s past runs—every dungeon people swore was impossible. "Oh my god," she murmured.

She faced the camera. "He’s been doing this the entire time. It was never luck, and it was never the weapons."

The class debate had reignited harder than it ever had before and this time it was not people dismissing the Null designation.

Okay! Seriously, what the hell is the Null Class!? Is it really no class, or is it something the system can’t define?

Maybe it could be above Epic Class!? Maybe the system can’t define classes like that! Think about it! Only Kai has Null Class, and no one else in the city, or from what I research, the world!

At this point, the null class isn’t a limitation but an unknown. The question becomes... Is it the Class doing the work, or is it just Kai’s godlike talent?

Maybe the system marked him Null because it couldn’t classify him safely.

Sora’s smile grew at these comments before pausing and saying. "No wonder Ironpact collapsed," Sora said.

Her chat flooded instantly.

Ironpact! Wait, don’t tell me it really was him!?

No way!

Sora laughed immediately. "I don’t really know!" But her grin widened as she looked back at the footage. "But if this is how he fights? Then honestly? I’d believe it."

...

By lunch, the footage had three million views.

Every major streamer had already reacted and the forums were still going. But in the forums, the tone shifted completely. The thread from weeks ago, the one with eleven thousand likes and hundreds of replies about Kai.

It now had thousands of new replies.

All saying the same thing.

"I was wrong."

"This is real."

"How is this possible?"

"He actually did it."

The poll that got deleted before was quickly recreated by someone else. The question this time asked whether Kai Rosefield could reach Victor Hale’s level of strength.

Before, no one had said yes.

But now?

Over forty percent believed.

Kai was at home when his phone started going off. He blinked before he saw it was messages from strangers. Then it was guild invitations, and even interview requests. His lips twitched at these before he turned off notifications and set it face down on the table, but it kept buzzing against the wood.

Mina looked up from her book. "What’s happening?"

"Sera posted the footage."

"And?"

He slid the phone across the table. The numbers climbed too quickly to process cleanly and her expression changed.

"Three million people watched you fight?"

"Yeah."

She looked up at him. "Kai. That’s the whole city."

Leo came running from his room, phone in hand, and his eyes shining.

"Hana just texted me," he said breathlessly. "She said sorry for not believing me. She said you’re trending. She said you’re ACTUALLY trending."

He showed his phone, and it displayed the trending searches page.

[Mythal city Trending Searchers:]

B-Rank Advancement

Mythical C-Rank Locations

Raze

Kai Rosefield

He sat with his phone in his hands and read the number again. Back when the video of him leaving the dungeon unscathed while Daniel’s own team was damaged had failed. Many had dismissed what they were seeing and even believed he had cheated to clear a gate. But now, the story was different; they all saw the truth.

Kai set the phone down slowly.

Fourth in the city.

Kai stared at the number longer than he meant to. And then felt a warmth in his chest before the sounds of the chain cracking echoed out.

[External Attention: Increasing.]

[True Fans Gained: 3.]

Three more.

Kai blinked before looking at Mina and Leo, who were grinning at the video of him clearing the Undead General playing.

Mina and Leo had just watched eighteen minutes of him fighting something that should have killed him.

That was the threshold.

Not trust on its own, but seeing the work. If he had kept it all hidden, he might never have unlocked this at all. Kai suddenly understood that hiding himself completely might have been impossible from the beginning.