The burning sensation spread rapidly. The Nanite Black-Code Swarm was aggressively trying to un-render Declan’s physical vessel.

He did not pull out the +40 Eclipse Severance halberd. He couldn’t swing a sword at a million microscopic bugs. He couldn’t punch them. He needed massive overwhelming area-of-effect destruction.

Declan did not panic. He just accessed his system interface using his mind. He opened the Global Auction House.

He had millions of Origin Points sitting in his Warlord treasury. He could buy whatever he wanted.

He quickly filtered the search tab.

[Keywords: AoE, Fire, Plasma, Overdrive. Tier: Scavenged.]

He sorted by lowest price. He found exactly what he needed at the very bottom of the list.

[Skill Book: Thermal Overdrive Protocol]

↳ Type: Active Buff

↳ Description: Consume 50 Mana to slightly raise the user’s core body temperature. Deals 5 points of minor fire damage to enemies within a one-meter radius. Mostly used to stay warm in snow biomes.

↳ Buyout Price: 20 Origin Points.

It was a pathetic and completely useless low-level utility spell.

"Perfect." Declan smiled coldly. He tapped the buyout button.

[Item Purchased. Origin Points -20.]

The cheap gray-colored skill book materialized directly into his digital storage. He did not even bother pulling it out to hold it. He just linked it directly to his Boundless Enhancement talent.

"System." Declan commanded with his voice perfectly calm despite the agonizing pain of the malware chewing on his code. "Learn the skill. Then apply Boundless Enhancement. Push it to plus twenty. Ignore the safety protocols."

[System Enhancement Initiated. Calculating cost...]

[Warning: Skill parameters exceeding maximum safety thresholds.] 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

[Immediate skill shatter imminent! Severe neural corruption guaranteed!]

"Take the points and force it." Declan growled.

His SSS-Rank talent surged forward like a runaway freight train. It completely crushed the game’s core safety logic and shattered the red warning boxes into useless digital dust.

[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]

[Thermal Overdrive Protocol +10... +15... +20.]

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]

A blinding intense white light erupted directly from Declan’s chest. It was so bright it completely pierced through the thick black cloud of nanites swarming him.

The system text in his vision flashed with a brilliant glaring gold.

[Skill Mutated: Abyssal Supernova]

↳ Type: Active Skill (Sovereign Tier)

↳ Description: The user completely overrides their own thermal regulations. Generates a catastrophic shockwave of pure physics-defying plasma. Instantly incinerates all hostile entities, projectiles, and corrupted code within a fifty-meter radius.

"Activate." Declan whispered.

BOOM!

The resulting explosion did not sound like fire. It sounded like a massive EMP detonating inside a metal vault.

A perfectly spherical wave of blinding white plasma erupted outward from Declan’s body. The sheer heat of the shockwave was absolute. It did not just burn the nanites. It completely eradicated their code from the server.

The massive black cloud of microscopic bugs was instantly vaporized. They turned into harmless white ash that rained down onto the melted floor.

The shockwave hit the walls of the server room and completely melted the heavy iron doors. It turned the remaining server racks into bubbling puddles of liquid metal.

Cipher shrieked in terror. He threw his arms up to protect his face. The green safe-zone bubble generated by the malware completely shattered under the intense thermal pressure.

The heat blasted Cipher backward and slammed him against the far wall.

The blinding light faded.

Declan stood entirely untouched in the center of the ruined room. His black Predator’s Coat was perfectly intact. The burning pain was completely gone.

He had wiped out the swarm. But the game wasn’t finished.

Hovering in the air exactly where the center of the swarm used to be was a tiny glowing green data packet. It was the root code of the malware. Without its protective nanites, the naked virus was totally exposed.

The green code buzzed frantically. It realized it was outmatched. It immediately zipped through the air and tried to fly back into Cipher’s system interface to hide.

Declan did not let it run.

His physical body suddenly reacted on its own. The Abyssal Leviathan Physiology he had gained from consuming the Level 55 boss core aggressively flared to life.

To the mutated Leviathan DNA, raw digital code was nothing but food!

Declan did not even reach his hand out. His physical body simply acted like a localized black hole.

The fleeing green data packet froze in mid-air. It was violently yanked backward and entirely ignored its own movement commands. It flew straight into Declan’s chest and was instantly absorbed into his flesh.

Declan gasped as a rush of cold raw data flooded his nervous system.

[Passive Trait Triggered: Leviathan’s Gluttony]

[Foreign Malware Code Consumed and Assimilated.]

[Biological State Update: Physical Density Trait Upgraded.]

[Reward: Permanent 20x multiplier applied to base physical damage.]

Declan let out a long heavy breath. He flexed his hands. His muscles felt insanely dense. His bones popped with the sound of snapping steel cables.

A twenty times multiplier to his physical damage sitting right on top of his already absurd Abyssal Sovereign stats.

He was beyond broken now. He was mathematically impossible!

Declan slowly turned his head. His dark purple-swirling eyes locked onto Cipher.

The corporate celebrity was backed flat against the melted wall. He was hyperventilating. His eyes were wide with pure unfiltered horror.

He had just watched a guy tank a highly illegal server-wiping virus, explode like a supernova, and then literally eat the remaining malware code for a stat buff.

Cipher finally realized exactly what he was dealing with. He wasn’t looking at a player. He was looking at a walking system glitch that could not be killed.

"No, no, no." Cipher stammered.

He frantically swiped his hand through the air to pull up his system interface. His fingers were shaking so badly he could barely hit the buttons.

He slammed his hand onto the Log Out icon. He just wanted to wake up in his comfortable dive pod in Sector 1. He wanted to get away from the monster in the black coat.

A harsh red warning box popped up in front of Cipher’s face.

[System Alert: Combat State Active.]

[Action Denied. You cannot log out while in combat with a Sovereign-Tier Entity.]

Cipher let out a pathetic broken sob. He was trapped!

Declan slowly started walking toward him. His heavy boots crunched loudly against the melted glass of the floor. He did not pull out a weapon. He did not need one.

"You know." Declan’s voice echoed with terrifying authority in the quiet ruined vault. "Your viewers are going to love this next part."