Chapter 131: [131] : The Server Wipe Protocol, Bloody Cubes

Declan stood on the edge of the rusted cooling tower, looking down at the ten disguised corporate spies. The toxic green smog of the Corrupted Server Hub swirled around his pitch black Predator’s Coat.

Down in the clearing, the leader of the squad was tapping rapidly on his sleek metallic tracking device. He wore a cheap and dirty burlap sack over his torso, but his movements were sharp and heavily trained.

Declan focused his Abyssal eyes on the leader. The system rendered a golden tag over the guy’s head.

[Target Information]

↳ Name: Hidden

↳ Class: Data Broker

↳ Level: 65

"Level 65," Declan muttered to himself. "Apex Paradigm really loves sending their max leveled employees into the slums."

The megacorps was just a fraction of the Apex Paradigm.

Declan did not want to waste time sneaking around. He did not care about stealth. He was a walking raid boss. He just stepped off the edge of the forty foot cooling tower.

He fell straight down. His plus 10 Spiked Striders hit the metal grating of the floor directly in the center of the squad formation.

BAM!

The Kinetic Dampener trait absorbed the massive fall damage perfectly, but the sheer physical weight of his Ascendant tier body cratered the metal floor. The loud noise echoed violently through the quiet server hub.

The ten spies jumped back in pure shock. They instantly dropped the scavenger act.

They did not pull out their rusty iron swords. They reached into their digital inventories and ripped out their real gear. Sleek and glowing plasma rifles along with heavy energy shields materialized in their hands. The cheap leather and burlap vanished, replaced by pristine matte black tactical armor.

The Data Broker raised his plasma rifle, aiming it directly at the chest of Declan. The blue energy coils on the barrel whined aggressively.

"Player V," the Data Broker said. His voice was muffled behind a heavy black helmet. "You are a hard guy to track down."

Declan slowly stood up straight. He casually shoved his hands into his coat pockets. He looked around at the ten glowing rifles pointed at him. He looked completely bored.

"You guys really suck at dressing up as poor people," Declan said smoothly. "Next time try slouching. Poor people do not stand in perfect military formations."

The Data Broker did not laugh. "We are not here to play games glitch. We are here to establish the beacon. You just made it easy for us by walking right into the kill zone."

"A beacon?" Declan raised an eyebrow. "For what? Another space station? Because I already caught the last one."

"Open fire!" the Broker yelled.

The squad did not hesitate. Ten high caliber plasma rifles fired at the exact same time. A storm of super heated blue energy slugs tore through the air, aimed directly at the head and chest of Declan.

Declan did not dodge. He did not even pull his hands out of his pockets.

The plasma bolts slammed into him. But they did not hit his coat. They hit the invisible and swirling barrier of his Sanguine Engine over heal shield. The plus 300,000 HP barrier provided by his Abyssal Crown did not even ripple. The plasma slugs just flattened against the air and fizzled out into harmless sparks.

The spies stopped firing. Their eyes went wide behind their visors. They stared at him in absolute horror. Their high tier corporate weapons had done exactly zero damage!

’Kaput! We are dead!’ one of the spies probably thought.

"My turn," Declan said coldly.

He did not pull out the massive plus 40 Eclipse Severance halberd. He did not need to cut them. He wanted to test his new crowd control toy.

He tapped into his massive mana pool. He activated the skill he had forcefully fused just a few hours ago.

"Event Horizon Annihilation."

Declan raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

The air in the center of the clearing violently distorted. It did not explode outward. It ripped inward. A massive and localized gravitational singularity tore open right in the middle of the squad. It was a literal and physics breaking black hole!

The sound of the toxic rain and the humming servers completely vanished, sucked into the void. The light around the singularity warped and bent, plunging the clearing into unnatural darkness.

Then the pulling force hit.

"What is this?!" one of the spies screamed. He dug his heavy metal boots into the grating, trying to resist the pull. It was completely useless. The gravitational force ripped the metal right out of the floor.

The ten elite corporate players were yanked off their feet simultaneously. They flew through the air and screamed in absolute terror. They were completely helpless.

They did not just get pulled in. They got crushed.

The singularity dragged all ten players into a single localized point in space. The visual was horrifying. Heavy black tactical armor crumpled like cheap tin foil. High tier energy shields shattered like fragile glass.

CRUNCH!

It sounded like a monster snake swallowing a human! The players were violently compressed into a tight ball of scrap metal, digital blood, and terrified avatars.

The skill did not just deal damage. Because their health was low enough compared to his absurd damage output, the execution mechanic triggered.

The singularity collapsed.

The release of pressure was instantaneous. The compressed ball of players did not explode. They were just instantly deleted. Ten perfectly square and bloody cubes of mashed code and metal dropped onto the floor with a wet thud.

[Combat Results]

↳ Multiple Enemies Defeated!

↳ Origin Points: plus 55,000

Declan walked over to the bloody cubes. He did not feel sick. He just felt annoyed that they had tried to shoot him.

He looked at the loot scattered on the floor. Amidst the dissolving blue pixels and ruined plasma rifles, he spotted the shattered black helmet of the Data Broker. The visor was cracked, but a small data drive was still attached to the side.

Declan crouched down and ripped the drive off the helmet. He used his Abyssal Sovereign interface to bypass the corporate encryption instantly.

A blue holographic screen popped up and projected the stolen files into the air.

Declan read the text. His dark eyes narrowed.

[Operation Details]

↳ Title: Server Wipe Protocol

↳ Target: Sector 7, Iron Bastion

↳ Method: Forced spawn of Level 100 System Purge Entity. Objective is total erasure of the anomaly known as Player V and all associated assets.

Declan swiped through the logs. Apex Paradigm was not just sending hit squads anymore. They were actively manipulating the core spawner of the game. They were going to drop an apocalyptic monster wave directly on top of his city. They wanted to wipe Sector 7 completely off the map.

"A Server Wipe," Declan muttered. He closed the logs. He did not look panicked. He did not rush to warn his city. He just let out a dark and amused chuckle.

"They are sending a Level 100 Entity directly to me?" Declan smiled. "That is going to be a massive amount of experience points. Thanks for the delivery Sterling."

He stood up and checked the rest of the loot drop. Sitting perfectly clean in the middle of the digital dust was a small and glowing gold computer chip. It hummed with a strange and neutral energy.

Declan picked it up. The system identified it immediately.

[Item Information]

↳ Name: Golden Override Chip

↳ Tier: Epic

↳ Description: A highly illegal developer tool. Use this chip to forcefully summon Merchant Gabriel, a rogue AI vendor operating outside the standard economy. Grants access to the uncapped Black Market.

Declan stared at the golden chip. A black market vendor. That meant gear. That meant items the megacorps did not want normal players to have.

He had millions of Origin Points sitting in his treasury. He had the money to buy out the entire shop. And with the Server Wipe Protocol coming to his front door.

"Let us go shopping," Declan said. He gripped the golden chip tightly in his hand.