Chapter 9: [9] : The First Bloodshed, Claiming the Bridge

The rain continued to fall, washing the fresh blood off the rocky ground.

Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.

The line of players waiting to pay the toll stared in sheer, absolute horror at the three piles of dissolving meat.

The twelve remaining members of the Black Vanguard guild were frozen behind their barricade.

Their weapons were shaking in their hands.

Declan stood in the middle of the carnage.

His pitch black +10 Predator’s Coat seemed to absorb the dim light around him. He didn’t even look out of breath. He just lazily rolled his shoulder, the +20 Carnage Cleaver resting easily in his grip.

"Anyone else want to charge me a toll?" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Declan asked. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried perfectly across the quiet cliffside.

Gideon stood on his wooden crate. His face was completely pale. His jaw hung open as he looked at the spot where his three best frontline tanks used to be. It took him a few seconds to process what just happened.

When he finally did, his shock turned into pure, blinding rage.

"You bastard!" Gideon screamed. Spit flew from his mouth. "You hacker! You’re dead! You hear me? You’re dead!"

Gideon jumped off the crate. He gripped his broadsword with both hands. The blade began to glow with a blinding, searing orange light. It looked like a piece of metal pulled straight out of a forge furnace. The heat radiating from it instantly turned the falling rain into steam.

It was a rare Warrior skill. Gideon had likely spent a fortune of Origin Points to buy it.

"Die!" Gideon roared.

He activated a movement skill, launching himself forward like a cannonball.

He crossed the distance between the barricade and Declan in less than a second.

He swung the glowing, super heated broadsword in a massive horizontal arc, aiming right for Declan’s waist. He was trying to cut him entirely in half.

The Vanguard members cheered. The crowd of normal players gasped.

Declan didn’t dodge. He didn’t use his cleaver to parry the strike. He didn’t even try to step back.

He simply stood his ground, squared his shoulders, and let the sword hit him.

CLANG!

The sound was deafening. It sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a solid bank vault door.

Gideon’s glowing broadsword smashed directly into the side of Declan’s black trench coat. The orange heat flared up wildly, trying to burn through the fabric.

But the +10 Predator’s Coat had 50 points of flat defense. It was a statistical brick wall in a Level 5 zone.

The sword didn’t cut. It didn’t burn. It just bounced off violently. The kinetic feedback traveled straight up Gideon’s arms, making his wrists pop and his whole body stagger backward. His eyes widened in absolute disbelief.

"What... what is your defense stat?" Gideon stammered, staring at his vibrating sword.

"Higher than your IQ," Declan said flatly.

Declan didn’t give him a chance to recover.

He didn’t aim for the chest or the head. He aimed for the joint.

Schwing.

The mutated blade sliced cleanly through the gap between Gideon’s iron shoulder pad and his chest plate. It sheared through muscle, bone, and tendon with zero resistance.

Gideon’s entire right arm, still clutching the glowing broadsword, was severed completely. It fell to the rocky dirt with a heavy thud.

For a split second, Gideon just stared at his stump. Then, the pain registered.

"AAAAAAARRRRGH!" Gideon shrieked. He collapsed onto his knees, grabbing his bleeding shoulder with his remaining hand.

"My arm! My arm! Heal me! Somebody heal me!"

He rolled on the ground, kicking his legs in panic.

None of his Vanguard healers moved. They were too terrified of the man in the black coat standing over their boss.

Gideon didn’t need a healer anyway. The Carnage Cleaver’s primary trait had already activated.

[Trait Activated: Hemorrhage]

Dark, corrupted blood began to pour out of Gideon’s severed shoulder like a busted fire hydrant. It didn’t stop. It flowed so fast it formed a massive puddle around his screaming body.

His health bar appeared above his head. It was draining at an insane speed.

[HP: 250 / 300]

[HP: 200 / 300]

[HP: 150 / 300]

Declan just stood there and watched. He didn’t bother snapping his fingers to use Blood Burst. He just let the bleed effect run its course. It was more educational this way.

"Please!" Gideon begged, coughing up digital blood. He reached his left hand out toward Declan. "I’ll give you everything! My coins! My guild! Please stop it!"

"The game says the weak get deleted," Declan said coldly, looking down at him.

"You charged poor people for walking. Seems to me you’re the weakest guy here."

[HP: 50 / 300]

[HP: 0 / 300]

Gideon’s eyes rolled back into his head. His screaming finally stopped. His body went limp in the mud, right next to his severed arm. A second later, the corpse shattered into a million blue pixels, floating up into the rainy sky.

[Player Gideon Killed.]

[Note: PvP kills grant no standard EXP, but drop items held in active inventory.]

Where Gideon’s body had been, two items lay in the dirt.

Declan knelt down. He picked them up. The system immediately identified them.

The first item was a pair of boots. They were made of dark, hardened leather with sharp steel spikes protruding from the toes and heels.

[Item: Spiked Striders]

↳ Tier: Forged

↳ Defense: 10

↳ Agility: +3

"Nice," Declan muttered. A solid upgrade from his useless burlap pants. He opened his inventory and equipped them instantly.

The second item was much better. It was a small, glowing blue book.

[Skill Book: Dash]

↳ Type: Active Skill

↳ Description: Consume 10 Stamina to rapidly dash 5 meters in any direction.

Cooldown: 5 seconds.

Skill books were incredibly rare drops this early in the Grid. This was probably what Gideon was saving his extortion money to fully upgrade.

Declan dismissed his cleaver and stood up.

He felt completely different. He had real boots, a broken coat, a god tier weapon, and now a movement skill. He was finally starting to feel like a real player.

He slowly turned his head to look at the barricade.

The twelve remaining members of the Black Vanguard were pressed up against the wooden spikes. They looked like terrified cattle cornered by a wolf. Their leader, a guy who claimed to run Sector 4, had just been chopped up like a cheap piece of meat without landing a single scratch.

Declan took one step toward them.

That was all it took.

"Run!" one of the guards screamed. He dropped his crossbow and bolted across the suspension bridge.

The rest of the guild followed instantly. They threw down their shields, dropped their weapons, and scrambled over each other in a desperate panic to run across the bridge and get into the Ashlands.

Within ten seconds, the barricade was completely abandoned.

Declan let out a breath. He turned around and looked at the long line of normal players.

They were all staring at him with a mix of awe and sheer terror.

Declan waved his hand dismissively. "Toll booth is closed. Bridge is free. Go."

The crowd hesitated for exactly two seconds before breaking into a massive, chaotic cheer. They swarmed forward, bypassing the spiked logs and rushing onto the bridge, eager to get out of the Weeping Thicket.

Declan stepped to the side, letting the stampede pass him by.

From behind a large boulder near the cliff edge, Sloane and Kendra slowly walked out.

They looked just as shocked as the rest of the crowd.

Sloane walked up to Declan. She looked at the bloody puddle where Gideon had died, and then looked at Declan’s perfectly clean coat.

"You’re a psycho," Sloane said. "You know that, right? You’re a certified, walking horror movie."

"I told you," Declan said, adjusting the collar of his duster. "I don’t pay tolls."

Kendra swallowed hard, gripping her bow.

"You didn’t even flinch when he hit you. What is your plan here, Declan? Are you just going to murder every guild leader in the game?"

"Only the ones standing in my way," Declan replied easily.

He turned his back to them and looked out over the massive gorge. The thick fog was starting to clear, revealing the jagged, fiery mountains of Sector 5 in the distance.

He pulled up his system menu and looked at his Origin Point balance. He still had plenty left. And now he had a brand new skill called Dash. His SSS talent applied to skills too. He wondered what a basic Dash would look like if he forced it to +10.

A dangerous, excited smile crept onto his face.

"Come on," Declan said, stepping onto the wooden planks of the suspension bridge.

"We have a lot of points to farm. Keep up."