GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 64: []The Syndicate’s Retaliation, Buried Alive

Chapter 64: [64]The Syndicate’s Retaliation, Buried Alive

The transition from the sterile and hyper-advanced environment of the Alien AI’s Hidden Laboratory back to the ash-choked ruins of Sovereign City was a jarring shift in reality.

Vahn Ryker stepped out from beneath the ruined university archives. The heavy biometric blast doors sealed shut behind him.

The sky above was still a turbulent ocean of corrupted red data. It was the bleeding edge of the Convergence pressing down on their world.

"We need to return to the White City." Vahn said.

His deep purple eyes scanned the hazy and ruined skyline.

The cold and mechanical detachment he had relied on during the initial stages of the apocalypse was gone. It was replaced by a fierce and profoundly human urgency.

"If the Syndicate knows about the Origin Crystals, they know their monopoly is failing. Pierce Valerius will not sit quietly in his fortress while we dictate the new baseline."

"Commander, I am receiving an encrypted transmission from the Hana." Sia Vance reported.

The silver-haired Vanguard stood rigidly at attention.

Her fingers pressed against the comms earpiece integrated into her helmet. Her silver-grey eyes widened.

A flash of genuine alarm broke her usually stoic demeanor.

"Hana is broadcasting a Code Red. The perimeter of the White City is under heavy siege."

Vahn did not ask for details. He did not waste time calculating the exact trajectory of their return trip.

He reached out and wrapped his hand around Aria’s wrist.

The Priestess gasped. A brilliant flush of crimson dusted her cheeks at the sudden and firm contact.

"Vahn? What are you doing?" Aria asked.

Her heart hammered against her ribs, entirely ignoring the falling ash around them.

"We are taking a shortcut," Vahn stated softly.

He offered her a faint and reassuring smile that made her breath catch.

"Hold on. This is going to be slightly disorienting."

He engaged the [Void-Weaver’s Vault] on his finger.

He tapped into the massive reservoir of millions of experience points he had hoarded.

He did not just walk through the localized physics engine. He tore a hole straight through it!

A blinding flash of blue light enveloped the team.

The ruined university vanished.

It was replaced by a violent sensation of being dragged through a vacuum of shattered glass and raw data.

A fraction of a second later, they materialized on the grand balcony of the Sovereign Bank right in the heart of the White City.

"Brother!" Hana cried out.

She sprinted across the marble floor of the penthouse. Her Sun-Silk Aegis fluttered behind her like liquid obsidian.

She threw her arms around Vahn’s waist.

"They just showed up! A massive army. They bypassed the outer city ruins and marched right up to the Hourglass barrier!"

Vahn gently patted his sister’s head.

His eyes hardened as he looked out through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Gathered just outside the shimmering hexagonal dome of the White City was a massive sea of corporate mercenaries.

There were at least a thousand of them!

They were draped in uniform high-tier stealth armor that absorbed the ambient light.

These were not the disorganized elites Vahn had humiliated in the plaza days ago.

These were the Syndicate’s black-ops executioners. They were the private death squads Pierce Valerius used to silence his political rivals.

At the forefront of the mercenary army stood a colossal and heavily armored siege vehicle.

It was not a tank.

It was a massive runic battering ram powered by a captured Abyssal core.

It actively pulsed with destructive anti-magic energy. They were preparing to shatter the protective dome!

"They want their pride back." Aria observed.

She stepped up beside Vahn. The sweet scent of cherry blossoms radiated from her Crimson-Lotus Vestments.

It actively pushed back the tension in the room.

"Pierce is bleeding money and influence. If he destroys our sanctuary, he proves to the survivors that the Syndicate is still the ultimate authority."

"He sent a thousand men to throw rocks at a fortress." Vahn sighed.

It was a sound of profound and weary amusement. He genuinely could not understand the sheer stubbornness of human arrogance.

"Sia. Kora. With me. "Aria, stay here and watch over Hana."

"Absolutely not." Aria snapped.

Her emerald eyes flashed with fierce defiance. She gripped her wooden staff and stepped directly into his personal space.

"You are not leaving me here with Hana while you go fight a thousand soldiers alone," Aria said. "I am going with you."

Vahn looked down at her.

The old system-bound version of himself would have argued the mathematical inefficiency.

But looking at the fierce and unwavering devotion in her eyes, he found himself entirely unable to say no.

"You are incredibly stubborn, Priestess." He murmured affectionately.

"Stay close."

They bypassed the elevators.

Vahn used a localized gravity tether to drop them smoothly from the penthouse directly to the plaza below.

The refugees were huddled in the bank lobby.

They watched in absolute terror as the mercenary army outside powered up their siege ram.

The heavy rhythmic thumping of the machine made the runic marble beneath their boots vibrate.

Vahn walked right through the terrified crowd.

He stepped past the shimmering boundary of the Hourglass dome and out into the ash-choked wasteland.

Sia flanked him on his right with her massive obsidian shield raised.

Aria stayed perfectly in his shadow. Her staff glowed with primed healing magic.

Kora, the tiny dragon-girl, skipped along on his left. Her gold slit-pupils were completely dilated.

"Ooh, crunchy snacks." Kora hissed telepathically.

She licked her lips as she stared at the heavily armored mercenaries.

"Master, can I eat the shiny ones?"

"Not today, Kora. I am cleaning house." Vahn replied.

The mercenary commander stepped forward.

He was a towering brute wielding a pair of serrated energy axes.

He sneered at Vahn. His voice was amplified by a helmet comms unit.

"Vahn Ryker! The Alpha sends his regards."

"You crashed our market, you stole our artifact, and you humiliated our Guild Leaders."

"The Syndicate hereby sentences you and your entire faction to permanent deletion."

"Drop the barrier, hand over the women, and we will make your execution quick!"

Sia Vance aggressively thumped her armored fist against her shield.

"Commander. Requesting permission to turn his vocal cords into a modern art installation."

"Denied, Sia." Vahn chuckled and shook his head.

He did not draw the Soul-Bound Shadow Blade. He did not drop into a combat stance.

He simply stuffed his hands into the pockets of his cheap academy jacket.

He looked at the thousand-man army with an expression of deep and overwhelming pity.

"You know." Vahn said.

His voice carried effortlessly over the howling wind.

"I am getting really tired of repeating myself. You people keep bringing metal clubs and numbers to a server that I actively edit."

"Kill him!" The commander roared and raised his axes.

"Fire the siege ram! Break the dome!"

The massive machine groaned.

The Abyssal core glowed with blinding and destructive violet light.

The thousand mercenaries raised their weapons. They prepared to flood the breach with suppressive fire.

Vahn’s deep purple eyes flared with a terrifying and absolute blue light.

His [Verdant Chronos-Sight] snapped online.

It broke the entire battlefield down into a flowing river of geometric wireframes and binary code.

He did not see a thousand soldiers.

He saw a thousand poorly optimized data files standing on a highly malleable surface.

’System.’ Vahn commanded internally.

’Target: Geological infrastructure beneath the Syndicate forces.’

’Radius: Two hundred meters.’

’Override density parameters. Liquidate the physical state.’

[Architect Permission Granted]

↳ 5,000,000 EXP Consumed

↳ Altering localized physics engine

Vahn casually snapped his fingers.

The sound was soft, but the resulting shockwave felt like a tectonic plate snapping in half!

The solid and ash-covered asphalt beneath the mercenary army simply ceased to be solid.

In a fraction of a millisecond, the rigid atomic structure of the ground was completely rewritten.

The earth turned into a sprawling and churning ocean of hyper-dense liquid concrete.

The battle cries of the Syndicate’s executioners instantly turned into shrieks of absolute and unadulterated terror!

They were wearing high-tier and incredibly heavy stealth armor.

Without the surface tension of the ground to support them, physics took over.

The entire thousand-man army plummeted into the liquefied earth as if they had just stepped off a cliff into the ocean.

The massive siege ram immediately sank.

The heavy machinery bubbled and short-circuited as the concrete swallowed it whole.

"Help! I am sinking! Pull me up!" The commander screamed.

He dropped his axes as he desperately clawed at the churning gray muck.

The liquid concrete was already up to his chest. The immense gravitational pressure of his own armor dragged him down.

Vahn walked to the edge of the newly formed sinkhole.

He looked down at the thrashing and drowning army.

He did not feel a shred of remorse. They had come to slaughter civilians. They had threatened his sister.

"Your armor is dragging you down." Vahn observed conversationally.

He crouched slightly to meet the terrified eyes of the commander.

"You built an army based on weight and intimidation. But weight is a distinct disadvantage when the ground refuses to hold you."

"Tell Pierce Valerius that if he sends another army to my door, I will not bury them. I will bury him."

Vahn stood up.

’System. Restore geological density. Solidify.’

The churning liquid concrete instantly froze.

It returned to its solid and impenetrable state.

The screams were cut off in a terrifyingly abrupt silence.

A thousand elite mercenaries, the pride of the Syndicate’s private military, were flawlessly encased in solid stone up to their necks.

They were trapped like insects in amber. They were entirely unable to move, cast spells, or log out.

Sia Vance lowered her shield.

Her silver-grey eyes were wide with absolute and terrified respect.

Aria stood frozen. Her hands covered her mouth as she stared at the sea of heads poking out of the pavement.

"Well." Vahn sighed.

He turned his back on the buried army and offered Aria a warm and genuinely human smile.

"That takes care of the trash. Shall we go back inside? I believe Hana was making synthetic pancakes."