Chapter 49: [49] : The Global Broadcast, Panic in the Streets

Declan walked down the dark and rain soaked alleyway of Sector 7.

The heavy titanium riot shield felt perfectly light strapped to his left forearm. It was the plus 20 Black Aegis.

The metallic screeching sounded again. It was much louder this time. The noise bounced off the rusted fire escapes and the crumbling brick walls.

Declan turned the corner and stepped onto a wider street.

The streetlights here were completely busted. The only light came from a flickering neon noodle sign a block away.

However, with his synced Agility and Intelligence stats, his eyes pierced the darkness easily.

Three Flesh Stalkers were cornering a group of terrified civilians against a chain link fence.

These were not players. They were just regular people. Two guys in cheap factory overalls and a woman holding a metal pipe stood there. They were screaming and swinging wildly to keep the monsters back.

The Flesh Stalkers hissed loudly. Their pale gray skin stretched tightly over their bones. Their scythe like arms scraped against the wet asphalt and kicked up sparks.

One of the monsters lunged right at the guy in the overalls.

Declan didn’t yell. He didn’t even announce himself.

He just tapped into his stamina pool and activated his skill.

Void Blink.

The world went pitch black for a millisecond.

He materialized directly between the civilian and the leaping Flesh Stalker.

The monster was already mid air. It was bringing its heavy bone scythe down for a killing blow.

Declan didn’t even bother dodging. He just raised his left arm.

The scythe slammed heavily into the matte black surface of the mutated riot shield.

Clang!

The impact was incredibly heavy. But Declan’s feet stayed firmly planted on the pavement.

The shield did exactly what the system said it would do. It ate the momentum entirely.

Then the Kinetic Repulsion trait triggered.

A massive shockwave of pure concussive force exploded outward from the surface of the shield.

The Flesh Stalker took the blast at point blank range.

The shockwave hit the monster like a speeding bullet train. Its ribs shattered instantly. The creature was launched backward and flew twenty feet through the air before slamming into a brick wall.

It crumpled to the ground. Its health bar instantly zeroed out.

A second later the physical body dissolved into a shower of bright blue digital pixels. It left behind a single glowing Reality Shard on the concrete.

The other two Flesh Stalkers turned their eyeless heads toward Declan. They shrieked and charged him at the exact same time.

"You guys are really annoying outside the game too," Declan muttered.

He stepped forward confidently. He didn’t have a weapon so he just used the shield.

He swung his left arm out in a brutal backhand bash. The edge of the Black Aegis clipped the first monster right in the jaw.

Crunch!

The Kinetic Repulsion fired again. The head of the monster practically spun all the way around before its body was blasted sideways into a rusted dumpster.

The third monster actually managed to swipe at Declan’s chest. The bone blade tore through his orange prison jumpsuit. But the moment it hit his skin it stopped.

His thirty percent synchronization rate meant his physical density was absurd.

The blade left a shallow red scratch but it didn’t even draw a single drop of blood.

Declan grabbed the scythe arm of the monster with his bare right hand. He gripped it tight and twisted his waist. He literally threw the seven foot tall creature right over his shoulder.

He slammed it face first into the pavement. The concrete cracked immediately.

Before the monster could try to stand up Declan brought his heavy boot down on the back of its neck.

Snap!

The third Flesh Stalker dissolved into blue light.

Declan let out a breath and brushed some dirt off his shoulder. He looked down at the three Reality Shards glowing in the puddles. He picked them up and tossed them straight into his digital inventory.

He looked at the three civilians backed up against the fence.

Their jaws dropped as they stared at him with their mouths hanging wide open!

They looked at the floating blue pixels fading into the rain and then at the guy in the orange jumpsuit holding a high tech black shield. They stared at Declan as though he had run mad.

"You should probably go inside," Declan told them casually. "Lock your doors."

Before they could even say thank you it happened.

Bong!

A massive and deafening bell chimed.

Declan flinched and grabbed his head. The sound didn’t come from the sky. It didn’t come from a speaker on a building either.

It rang directly inside his skull.

The civilians dropped to their knees immediately. They were screaming and holding their ears desperately.

It wasn’t just them.

All across Sector 7 people stumbled out of alleyways and collapsed on the sidewalks. The sound was global. Eight billion humans on Earth were hearing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

A cold mechanical voice echoed in Declan’s brain.

[Global Server Announcement!]

[The First Spire has fallen. The Dimensional Integration has accelerated.]

[Phase Two Initiated.]

Declan stood perfectly still. The voice faded and left behind a ringing silence in his ears.

"Phase Two," Declan whispered softly.

He looked up at the massive towering skyscrapers of the upper city districts in the distance.

Massive digital billboards usually played endless loops of corporate advertisements. They pushed energy drinks and new cybernetic implants all day.

Right now every single screen was glitching.

The neon ads shattered into static. They were replaced by emergency news broadcasts.

Declan walked out of the alley and stood on the main street. He watched a massive screen mounted on the side of a commercial building.

A news anchor in a sharp suit was sitting at a desk. He looked absolutely terrified. The pristine newsroom behind him was in total chaos. People were running around and dropping papers and shouting loudly.

"We are getting reports from all over the globe," the news anchor stammered. His voice was trembling. "Mass hallucinations. Everyone is reporting hearing a voice in their heads just moments ago."

The screen split. It showed live footage from different cities.

In Tokyo massive jagged cracks were appearing in the sky. They revealed a swirling purple cosmos behind the clouds.

In London cars were piled up in massive intersections. The drivers had passed out from the system chime.

"It is not a hallucination," the anchor continued. He wiped sweat from his forehead. "We have confirmed footage. Creatures are appearing in major population centers. The military is being deployed in Sectors 1 through 5."

The broadcast cut to amateur phone footage. It showed a massive Level 10 Gore Hulk flipping a police cruiser like it was a toy car. The local cops were firing handguns at it. The bullets were just bouncing right off its thick bloody hide.

Society was fracturing in real time.

The megacorps had told everyone the Primordial Grid was just a game. They said it was a virtual reality simulation designed for entertainment and data harvesting.

They lied completely.

The game was real. The monsters were pouring through the cracks.

Declan watched the screen intently. The broadcast switched again.

This time it showed the pristine and sterile press room of Apex Paradigm Headquarters.

Director Sterling stood at a podium. He wore a perfectly tailored gray suit. He looked calm and collected and utterly fake.

"Do not panic," Sterling said smoothly to the cameras. "The anomalies you are experiencing are the result of a coordinated cyber terrorist attack on our central servers. A rogue hacker group has breached our augmented reality network and is projecting unauthorized holograms into the real world."

Declan snorted in contempt. "Holograms. Right. Tell that to the guy who just got his car flipped."

Sterling continued his lie with a straight face. "Apex Paradigm is handling the situation. We have dispatched our private security forces to eliminate the hackers. Stay in your homes. Trust the corporation. We will restore order."

The broadcast cut back to the panicked news anchor.

Declan shook his head. Apex Paradigm was trying to cover up the end of the world just to protect their stock prices.

"They really think they can put the lid back on this box," Declan laughed softly.

He knew exactly what Sterling meant by private security forces. The megacorp was going to try and wipe out the players who were hoarding the power of the Grid.

They were going to come for him.

Declan looked at his system interface. His synchronization rate was at thirty percent. He had the Black Aegis. He had his Void Blink.

But he was still walking around in a bright orange prison jumpsuit. His massive halberd was locked behind a higher sync threshold.

If Apex Paradigm was sending real world hit squads he needed to be ready.

He didn’t have time to hang around the streets fighting low level fodder. He needed to get back to his off grid warehouse and secure his dive pod. He had to figure out how to pull more of his game inventory into reality.

Declan turned his back on the glowing billboards and the screaming sirens in the distance.

He pulled his orange collar up against the toxic rain and started jogging back toward the abandoned industrial district.

The world was ending and the corporate elites wanted to play dirty.

"Fine," Declan smiled. His eyes flashed with dark energy.