Chapter 48: [48] : The Physical Overwrite, Blurring the Lines

Declan needed to test the limits of this new physical overwrite. He needed to know exactly what thirty percent meant in the real world before he walked out into the streets.

He walked over to the nearest support pillar holding up the warehouse roof. It was a massive steel I-beam, thick enough to stop a speeding commercial truck dead in its tracks.

He didn’t brace his feet. He didn’t wind up his shoulder for a massive cinematic punch. He just casually lashed out with a quick short jab.

His knuckles hit the solid steel.

BOOM! 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

A shockwave of displaced air kicked the dust up off the floor in a perfect circle around his feet. The massive steel I-beam buckled instantly. The metal didn’t just dent. It folded inward with a loud screech, bending entirely out of shape like a crushed soda can!

The entire warehouse roof groaned as the structural integrity shifted dangerously.

Declan pulled his hand back. He looked at his knuckles. He didn’t have a single scratch on his skin. It didn’t even hurt. The bones in his hand were harder than the industrial steel.

He wasn’t wearing his plus 10 Spiked Striders. He wasn’t wearing his fifty defense Predator’s Coat. This was just his raw naked body operating on the Grid’s physics.

"The game is totally obsolete," Declan laughed. It was a cold arrogant sound that echoed in the empty warehouse. "The megacorps think they are farming us for data. They think they’re building a metaverse. They are just downloading monsters directly into reality."

He turned away from the bent pillar. Raw strength was great, but physical damage wasn’t what made him fundamentally broken in the Grid.

What made him broken was his class skills.

Could the system overwrite reality enough to bring concepts into the physical world? Could he use his abilities without being plugged into the servers?

Declan looked at the heavy steel sliding door at the far end of the warehouse. It was exactly fifteen meters away.

He took a deep breath, focusing his mind exactly the same way he did when staring down the Sovereign Syndicate’s army in the mud. He reached for that cold empty pool of stamina that now existed inside his physical chest.

"Void Blink," Declan commanded out loud.

The real world flickered.

There was no magical light. There was no theatrical smoke or sound effect. The physical space around him simply ripped open for a fraction of a millisecond.

Total suffocating darkness swallowed him.

Instantly, the darkness spat him out. His bare feet slapped against the concrete right in front of the heavy steel sliding door. He hadn’t run. He hadn’t jumped. He had literally bypassed the physical distance.

He had just teleported in the real world!

Declan turned around and looked back at the smoking dive pod fifteen meters away. He didn’t feel tired. The stamina drain on his real body was completely negligible. He could probably cast it twenty times before breaking a sweat.

"Oh, this is going to be incredibly fun," Declan grinned, his dark eyes glowing faintly in the shadows.

Suddenly, a faint glowing blue interface popped up directly in his actual field of vision. He wasn’t wearing a VR headset. He wasn’t plugged into the pod. The Grid’s system UI was literally projecting straight into his physical optic nerves.

[Host physical vessel stabilized.]

[Synchronization Rate: 30%]

[Grid Inventory Access Granted.]

Declan stopped smiling. He stared at the floating text.

Inventory access. In the real world!

He raised his right hand and willed his digital inventory open. The air in the warehouse distorted violently, bending around his fingers like a heat mirage.

He didn’t pull out the massive plus 30 Warden’s Halberd. He didn’t need a siege weapon to walk down the street.

Instead, he focused on a piece of scavenged gear he had picked up earlier. A heavy titanium riot shield he had looted off a dead corporate guard.

The heavy metal shield dropped directly into his physical grip with a loud clank.

Declan looked at the mundane non magical item. It was just a piece of real world tactical gear. But the system recognized it as an item. And if the system recognized it, his SSS-Rank talent could manipulate it.

"System," Declan said, his voice echoing in the empty room. "Apply Boundless Enhancement to the titanium shield. Push it to plus 20."

The system didn’t argue. It didn’t throw up an error message saying he wasn’t in the game.

A blinding white light erupted in the dark warehouse.

[Enhancement Initiated]

↳ +5

↳ +10

[Talent Activated. Cap Removed.]

↳ Shield +15

↳ +20

[Triggering Conceptual Mutation]

The physical shape of the riot shield changed in his hands. The scuffed gray titanium smoothed out, turning into a sleek matte black alloy that seemed to absorb the moonlight.

[Item: Black Aegis +20]

↳ Trait Unlocked: Kinetic Repulsion.

↳ Functionality: The shield absorbs physical momentum and reflects it outward as a concussive shockwave.

Declan strapped the mutated shield to his left forearm. Reality was officially his playground now. He could literally pick up a trash can lid, enhance it to plus 50, and use it to block a missile.

He walked over to the rusted sliding door of the warehouse. He didn’t even bother looking for the manual chain to roll it up.

He just slammed his new plus 20 shield right into the corrugated metal.

The Kinetic Repulsion trait triggered. A massive shockwave of pure force exploded outward, ripping the entire steel door off its tracks and launching it out into the muddy alleyway!

Declan stepped out into the toxic rain of Sector 7.

The smog choked sky above the city was dark, but the streets were not quiet.

He heard the heavy metallic screech of tearing metal a few blocks away, followed instantly by the sound of people screaming in pure unfiltered terror.

It was the exact same screech the Flesh Stalkers made.

The game was bleeding into the slums. The monsters were here.

And he is here.

Declan didn’t run away. He adjusted his grip on his shield, cracked his neck, and started walking toward the screaming.