Chapter 127: [127] : Cybernetic Expansion, Breaking the Slots

The massive cavern of the ninth floor was completely silent.

The heavy and oppressive humming of the Level 80 Abyssal Boss was entirely gone. It was replaced only by the soft rhythmic pulsing of the red organic walls and the faint dripping of corrupted fluid from the ceiling.

Declan stood exactly where the Corrupted Core Guardian had been just a minute ago. He did not even look at the massive chunk of raw experience points that had just hit his account.

At Level 75, a cool million EXP barely moved his progression bar. He needed tens of millions just to level up once now.

He crouched down next to a glowing pile of dropped items sitting on the meaty floor.

He reached out with his free hand and tapped the first item sitting in the digital dust.

It was a pair of heavy and bulky gauntlets. They were massive. They were made of a dull dark gray titanium and covered in jagged brutal-looking spikes along the knuckles and forearms. Just looking at them made your jaw hurt.

A bright golden system prompt immediately popped up in his vision.

[Item Recognized: Titanium Rage Gauntlets]

↳ Tier: Sovereign (Melee Weapon)

↳ Base Stats: +800 Strength, +400 Defense

↳ Trait: Kinetic Overload. Every consecutive punch landed on a target increases the user’s base physical damage by 10 percent, stacking indefinitely until combat ends.

Declan read the text twice. He let out a low and impressed whistle that echoed in the quiet server room.

"Stacking infinite damage on punches," Declan muttered to himself. "That is a completely broken tank weapon."

It was a brawler’s dream. You just stand in front of a boss, soak up the damage with that massive defense boost, and keep punching. The first hit does normal damage. The tenth hit does double damage. By the fiftieth hit, you are basically punching with the force of a speeding freight train!

But he did not need it.

His own combat style relied on raw heavy cleaves and physics-breaking halberd swings that deleted coordinate planes. Punching things one by one was way too slow for his taste.

But he knew exactly who could use a pair of Sovereign-tier brass knuckles.

Declan opened his system interface with a quick mental command. He pulled up the Iron Bastion guild roster. The holographic screen floated in the air right next to the glowing loot.

He scrolled down the long list of names until he found his top scavenger captain.

"Those were for Jax," Declan muttered to himself with a satisfied nod.

Declan closed the chat window with a dry smirk. Keeping your employees heavily armed and aggressively loyal was just good business management. You take care of the workers, and the workers take care of the city.

He turned his attention back to the fleshy floor.

The second item was sitting right where the gauntlets used to be. It was much smaller. In fact, it did not look like a weapon or a piece of armor at all.

It was a tiny sleek piece of polished black metal. It was curved gracefully and covered in microscopic glowing blue runes that pulsed with an intense humming digital energy.

It looked exactly like a high-tech ear-cuff. The kind of expensive cybernetic accessory the corporate elites wore in the upper districts of Sector 1.

Declan reached down and picked it up. It weighed absolutely nothing in his palm.

A new golden prompt flooded his vision.

[Item Recognized: Sovereign Neural Interface]

↳ Tier: Sovereign (Set Piece: Logic Set 1/3)

↳ Base Stats: +1,500 Intelligence, +800 Agility

↳ Passive Trait: Quantum Processing. The user’s neural link is completely detached from the standard server rendering engine. Skill cast times are reduced to zero.

Declan stared at the prompt. His dark purple-swirling eyes went wide.

"Zero cast time," Declan breathed out.

He actually had to stop and process that. Most high-tier magic spells required a massive casting sequence. A player had to stand completely still, wave a staff around, and chant for several seconds while the game engine calculated the mana cost and the elemental physics.

The Sovereign Neural Interface just deleted that rule entirely!

It meant he could drop a massive sun-sized Starfall spell instantly. He did not need to stop walking. He did not need to chant. He could just think about the spell, and the system would instantly render a miniature star directly over his target’s head.

But as amazing as that was, the real prize was the text sitting right there in the parentheses at the top.

"Logic Set," Declan whispered as he ran his thumb over the glowing blue runes.

He knew all about Set pieces. They were the absolute holy grail of MMO gear. Equipping multiple pieces of the same specific set granted exponential hidden stat multipliers. They stacked on top of each other, creating bonuses that broke the game’s balance entirely.

He did not waste a single second. He opened his enhancement menu and targeted the ear-cuff.

"System," Declan said calmly. "Enhance the Sovereign Neural Interface. Push it to plus twenty. Burn the points."

He did not care about the cost. Millions of Origin Points were completely irrelevant to him now.

[System Enhancement Initiated. Calculating cost...]

[Warning: Item parameters exceeding maximum safety thresholds.]

[Immediate item shatter imminent!]

Declan ignored the red warning boxes. His SSS-Rank talent crushed them into digital dust instantly.

[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]

[Sovereign Neural Interface +15... +18... +20.]

[Item has reached +20.]

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

The blinding white light shifted. It turned into a deep vibrating purple energy that completely swallowed the tiny piece of black metal. The physical shape of the ear-cuff did not change much, but the glowing blue runes carved into its surface turned a violent blood-red color.

A new system text popped up in his vision.

[Item Mutated: Abyssal Neural Interface +20]

↳ Tier: Divine Anomaly

↳ Stats: +42,000 Attack, +1,500 Intelligence, +800 Agility

↳ Trait Unlocked: Sovereign Logic

↳ Functionality: The user’s neural processing speed completely overwrites the server engine. Skill cast times are reduced to zero. Grants a permanent 100% true-damage multiplier to all offensive skills.

Declan let out a low whistle. A flat double damage multiplier to everything he did! It was completely absurd.

He raised his right hand and tried to clip the mutated black metal cuff onto his ear.

A harsh red error box popped up right in the middle of his screen.

[System Error: Equipment Slot Limit Reached.]

[Cannot activate Abyssal Neural Interface. You must unequip an active accessory to equip this item.]

Declan frowned. The game engine had a hard limit on how much magical gear a player could wear at one time. He already had his +20 Ring of the Void-Hoarder equipped. He did not want to take it off.

"I really hate inventory management," Declan grunted.

He kept the ear-cuff in his hand and opened the Global Auction House. The glowing yellow screen popped up in front of him.

He typed ’Slot Expansion’ into the search bar and filtered by the absolute highest tier available. He did not care about the price. He just needed to bend the rules again.

Right at the top of the list, a single item caught his eye.

[Item: Cybernetic Port Expansion]

↳ Tier: Epic

↳ Description: A highly invasive surgical implant. Grants the user one additional active accessory slot. Warning: Causes severe pain upon installation.

↳ Buyout Price: 150,000 Origin Points.

"A hundred and fifty grand for a single slot," Declan muttered. "These corporate players really overprice their garbage."

He tapped the buyout button.

[Item Purchased. Origin Points: 150,000 Deducted.]

A heavy metallic spinal implant materialized in his hand. It looked like a sleek silver centipede with sharp surgical needles along its belly.

"System," Declan commanded instantly. "Enhance the Cybernetic Port Expansion to plus twenty."

Another massive chunk of Origin Points vanished from his bank. The blinding white light swallowed the silver implant. The chimes hammered in his head, followed immediately by the red warning boxes.

Declan crushed the warnings with his talent. The light turned deep purple.

[Cybernetic Port Expansion has reached +20.]

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

The silver metal melted and turned pitch-black, matching the rest of his Abyssal gear.

[Item Mutated: Abyssal Port Expansion +20]

↳ Functionality: Bypasses the game’s physical hardware limits. Grants the user two extra active item slots. Passively boosts base Strength by +5,000.

Declan smiled. He grabbed the heavy black implant and slammed it directly into the back of his neck.

The sharp needles bit deep into his flesh, locking directly onto his spinal column. It did not hurt at all. His mutated Sanguine Engine heart pumped raw vitality through his veins, instantly healing the surgical wounds.

The red error box in his vision vanished. He had the slots.

He brought the Abyssal Neural Interface up to his right ear and clipped it onto the cartilage.

The red runes instantly flared to life. They sank directly into his skin, syncing perfectly with his nervous system.

The reaction was immediate. A violent rush of cold clarity washed over his entire mind. His Abyssal Sovereign stats spiked aggressively.

The air around his head literally distorted. A terrifying data-warping aura radiated off him. It looked like the physical space around his face was lagging, breaking into tiny squares of static before stitching itself back together.

He felt untouchable.

He had the stats. He had the gear. He was ready to go back to the surface.